What does everyone think about chess clocks for tournament play?

Sure, let's unfairly punish swarms or those that have tricky maneuvers to make due to high density of ships.

Not needed. Never been an issue. If someone is slow-playing, call in your T.O.

What does everyone think about chess clocks for tournament play?

I think you need to stop playing against people who intentionally slow play.

I'm a big "No" to chess clocks. Way too complicated and I would rather people felt they won/lost based on making intelligent/bad decisions than "because my time ran out".

Not suitable for a game with asymmetric squads.

wouldn't this just encourage MORE Falcon flyers??

Chess clocks only work in games with discrete "I-go/You-go" turns, which doesn't really translate to X-Wing with combined turns and periods of simultaneous activity (selecting maneuvers).

Chess clocks only work in games with discrete "I-go/You-go" turns, which doesn't really translate to X-Wing with combined turns and periods of simultaneous activity (selecting maneuvers).

You're right, but also this:

Not suitable for a game with asymmetric squads.

There are situations where I have priority, but my active period is longer and more complex than my opponent's. If Han Solo + Marksmanship + Gunner attacks with Cluster Missiles, that's going to take a while to resolve due to dice-rolling and bookkeeping issues regardless of how experienced my opponent and I are.

I wouldn't be opposed to a chess clock but only during the planning phase. In the other phases it wouldn't do much good.

Not suitable for a game with asymmetric squads.

This is not a problem at all. In a chess clock game you know how much time you have and how long it takes to make your plays. It's then up to you to decide how much complexity you're able to deal with in that amount of time. The fact that you might not be able to play a TIE swarm fast enough is not an issue.

And really, think about it this way: if you can't play a TIE swarm within your fair half of the match time what you're essentially saying is that if your opponent brings a list that requires their entire half of the available time then you will not be able to finish the match.

Chess clocks only work in games with discrete "I-go/You-go" turns, which doesn't really translate to X-Wing with combined turns and periods of simultaneous activity (selecting maneuvers).

This is the actual problem. Even within an individual ship's activation both player spend time. The attacker rolls dice, the defender rolls dice, each player decides what upgrades/tokens to use, etc. And then there are questions like whose clock should run if I ask to verify range/arc for one of your ships. If your clock runs then I can stall and waste your time by asking for pointless range checks/rule questions/etc, but if my clock runs then it's easy to get into a situation where I'm short on time and you can abuse it by claiming a shot is in range/arc just because I don't have time to check it and prove you wrong.

Not needed and too complex to really implement.

I disagree, I think ONLY people who can maneuver TIE swarms that fast should be allowed to play them.

This is not a problem at all. In a chess clock game you know how much time you have and how long it takes to make your plays. It's then up to you to decide how much complexity you're able to deal with in that amount of time. The fact that you might not be able to play a TIE swarm fast enough is not an issue.

And really, think about it this way: if you can't play a TIE swarm within your fair half of the match time what you're essentially saying is that if your opponent brings a list that requires their entire half of the available time then you will not be able to finish the match.

That seems like the friend that everyone has that goes out to lunch with a group that they know splits the check evenly and then ******* that all they had was grilled cheese and water. If you brought a 2 ship squad that only takes 30 seconds to set dials for you can't claim that you have a right to 50% of the game time.

Match time is already something that influences the squads that people bring. Adding additional time constraints further lessens the variety of viable squads.

Not suitable for a game with asymmetric squads.

This is not a problem at all. In a chess clock game you know how much time you have and how long it takes to make your plays. It's then up to you to decide how much complexity you're able to deal with in that amount of time. The fact that you might not be able to play a TIE swarm fast enough is not an issue.And really, think about it this way: if you can't play a TIE swarm within your fair half of the match time what you're essentially saying is that if your opponent brings a list that requires their entire half of the available time then you will not be able to finish the match.

Chess clocks only work in games with discrete "I-go/You-go" turns, which doesn't really translate to X-Wing with combined turns and periods of simultaneous activity (selecting maneuvers).

This is the actual problem. Even within an individual ship's activation both player spend time. The attacker rolls dice, the defender rolls dice, each player decides what upgrades/tokens to use, etc. And then there are questions like whose clock should run if I ask to verify range/arc for one of your ships. If your clock runs then I can stall and waste your time by asking for pointless range checks/rule questions/etc, but if my clock runs then it's easy to get into a situation where I'm short on time and you can abuse it by claiming a shot is in range/arc just because I don't have time to check it and prove you wrong.

What I'm hearing from you is 'I'm fine with unfairly punishing players.' I don't think that's what you mean, but your point comes down 'if you can't grasp the learning curve from day one, you can play Duplos while the rest of us enjoy Legos.'

Not the kind of invitation that brings new players to the game.

...And really, think about it this way: if you can't play a TIE swarm within your fair half of the match time what you're essentially saying is that if your opponent brings a list that requires their entire half of the available time then you will not be able to finish the match.

... Match time is already something that influences the squads that people bring. Adding additional time constraints further lessens the variety of viable squads.

It's an interesting concept to think about.

In a game that is governed by, and runs to its, time limit the asymmetric use of planning, activation, and attack phase time by single player reduces the potential number of turns in the game and inhibits the total distance that the opposing players ships can cover, and reduces the total damage they could inflict.

For low maneuverability ships this can mean they never return to the fight after a single pass, for squads with fewer ships this reduces the potential damage output of the squad.

Anyway just randomly thinking...

The problem is, that a chess clock is always counting time against one player or the other, it can't be set to neutral time (and most can't be stopped easily).

How would you run the clock during the planning phase while BOTH players are setting dials?

Whose timer would be running after I roll red dice, while I'm waiting for you to decide if you want to use Target Lock and R7?

If the answer is you, as the clock passes across, this would actually slow the game down, as instead of me waiting a second, you not saying anything and moving on, we now have, I roll, hit the timer, you say "not doing anything" and hit the timer back.

How would you run the clock if the non active player calls the TO over to check arc of fire as he's saying it's out and I'm saying its in? What about during the end phase for those valuable seconds when we are BOTH cleaning up tokens?

I'm not necessarily opposed to some form of timing (though feel it's not needed..... even against swarms with a 1hr time limit, I think I've only had 1 or 2 games go to time without a clear victor), but feel a chess clock is woefully inappropriate/inadequate for X-Wing.

I would be in favor of a chess clock. I don't feel its unfair to a swarm because for the most part they are all flying the same. X-Wing doesn't even have a rule about how long it should take to pick your moves. I think that would be a good first step in speeding up people who stall. Because how can you really judge if they are stalling when there is nothing saying how long it should take to pick your moves.

Gonna go with No, Nope, and Never. This game isn't designed well for a chess clock and it'll just waste time as players argue over when the button should be pressed, who was using what time, and a million other things. Fact is, you have an hour. Make of that what you will. It already alters what's effective significantly. Moving towards an even more time centric method of play only further deviates the game from its casual variant, which is what most of us enjoy. Clocks suck.

No.

Another answer provided from the ongoing franchise courtesy of Short Answers to Long Questions.