In the unsportsmanlike conduct section of the Xwing FAQ, it specifically points out that you cannot intentionally stall a game for time. But it does not say anything about how long a person gets for their planning phase. I can understand if you are running a Tie swarm, that it will take you longer to plan and execute maneuvers vs someone flying 3x wings.

But when it is the last 15 minutes of the game, & you have two ships vs my one, 3 minutes or more per planning phase is a bit much.

Plus after I mentioned it to the player after he had set dials then picked them back up, he said there were no rules against it & he can take as long as he likes.

Does anyone know of a official time limit, or should I just mention it to the tournament official next time I play?

I will still bring it up to the T.O.

The fact that it's called "Unsportsmanlike Conduct" is that it is to be the TO's moral judgment, rather than something they can actually define.

Best thing to do would have been to called over the TO, and ask them to keep an eye on your opponent for this. At the very worst, it'l alert the judge to that player's behavior in future rounds, and at best, it will rule in your favor in the here-and-now, and get the guy to stop.

I'll definitely do that should it happen again. The T.O. had to leave so another worker took over, they weren't really familiar with everything so I didn't bother. It was the last round. I'll keep an eye out for that player in the future. Plus I'll just be sure to crush them early on in the match, so I won't even have to worry about it going to time. Lol

The problem is, although it's mentioned in the tournament rules under Unsportsmanlike Conduct, it's not actually defined as to how long before it becomes unsportsmanlike conduct. It is very much down to the TO and their judgement, and very likely to vary from one tournament to the next.

With only two ships to plan, and only three in play, theoretically it shouldn't take long. Three minutes or more is stretching it, and the comment your opponent made only strengthens your suspicions that he's stalling. The only point of reference could be how long was his planning taking in the previous few turns, and now that the clock is running down, has he drastically lengthened his planning? Something for the TO to decide.

Still, your Plan B of "crush them early" should fix the issue.

Lol! Yeah plan B sounds the best.

earlier on it took him 54sec, closer to the end it was more like 2.34min then 3.24. Not to mention he would literally lean with both elbows on the table like he was deep in thought, or carry on a random conversation with the player next to him.

(I used the stopwatch on my phone without him knowing)

Had the T.O. not left & the new girl taken over, I would've called him over asap. It won't happen again.

See that's why I liked playing Blood Bowl. You had three minutes for your turn to do all your moves, blocks, and whatever and if you didn't finish before the time ran out, well that was just tough luck - your turn was over. I'm wondering if we'll see a time limit imposed on X-Wing at some stage. It would make the swarm players have to think fast.

I've never seen any "official" time allowances but stalling for time is expressly prohibited so you should call a TO.

Slow play is one of the areas that is hard to enforce because sometimes the situation really may require that much thought while other times it is used solely to slow the speed of play.

As I stated, there's no defined time limit so it makes it hard to enforce. One TO may think 3 minutes is excessive and another may think it's fine. If a TO says a player is taking too long, the player has every right to question "how long is too long?".

Here is my question for the op, if you can end the game sooner why are you dragging it out?

I agree with everyone else...its a total judgement call. I have lost many games I know because I haven't stalled...but I am fine with it because to me its a balance of playing competitive and having fun.

I agree with everyone else...its a total judgement call. I have lost many games I know because I haven't stalled...but I am fine with it because to me its a balance of playing competitive and having fun.

I'd say you should be careful here. You lost because you didn't "stall" or did you lost because you engaged when you should have been playing defense? There are games where it is easy to avoid doing thing that will put you at additional risk yet that is far from "stalling" in a rules sense.

This difference is most obvious when discussing some "fortress" type strategies where a player intentionally blocks his own ships. All too often I've seen people label that type of play as "stalling" when I really suspect it is anything but as it takes all of a moment to keep the status alive. Where problems come in is when the non-fortressing player may actually have the "win" but instead of playing for the timed win decides to risk it all and engage with sometimes disastrous results.

Although it is not in the rules I believe two players should be allowed to voluntarily reduce the allowed playtime if they plan to just "sit there" until right before the end of the game. It seems to me one of the recent championship games could have benefited from a "fast forward" to the end game instead of requiring everyone to wait out the repetitive turns getting there.

Here is my question for the op, if you can end the game sooner why are you dragging it out?

I wasn't, I was playing as hard & strong as I could. I just mean that the next time I play that player, I'll be sure to try to break the backbone of his squad as soon as possible, to keep it from going so long.

In the unsportsmanlike conduct section of the Xwing FAQ, it specifically points out that you cannot intentionally stall a game for time. But it does not say anything about how long a person gets for their planning phase. I can understand if you are running a Tie swarm, that it will take you longer to plan and execute maneuvers vs someone flying 3x wings.

But when it is the last 15 minutes of the game, & you have two ships vs my one, 3 minutes or more per planning phase is a bit much.

Plus after I mentioned it to the player after he had set dials then picked them back up, he said there were no rules against it & he can take as long as he likes.

Does anyone know of a official time limit, or should I just mention it to the tournament official next time I play?

I will still bring it up to the T.O.

Welcome to gaming the system.

The slow-play provision in the tournament rules would certainly seem to apply, based on what you're telling us, but good luck trying to prove it. At best, it's there to prevent someone from overtly saying "I'm going to run out this clock and take my win".

This can still be achieved by simply flying away full steam, taking longer to resolve ALL activity, it's really up to the player how they want to go about laming out the match for the win.

Here's the thing though; in a tournament, winning on a time-out can be a valid strategy if you want to secure the victory without risking your ships. It's not the most entertaining way to win, or to play against, but you are in a competitive game format where you should never discount a valid winning plan just because you think it's lame. If it works, and they win, then they beat you.

So what do you do? Remember that people will try this, and make a list that is designed to either drop bodies quickly and consistently, or also be set up to win on a time-out if the opponent goes that route.

This is the advantage of a Fat Han list, in addition to all the upgrade and 3P0 shenanigans. If the game goes to time, and your Han is still on the board, chances are you're going to clear the 12pt margin for a full win. Unless of course they have a Fat Han too. Han wins in the end against non-Han lists because in a matchup against only another small ship or two, he's simply too good at offsetting incoming hits while consistently putting out 3 hits a turn, so the win will come via attrition quickly in the endgame, whereas the list might be slower to start.

If you're worried that your list will not be able to put your opponent away in the endgame, you should seriously take a look at your list and ask yourself what your closer looks like.

What do I mean by that? A good closer is a unit that can handle itself exceptionally well versus one or two soft targets, particularly towards the endgame when a lot of ships are off the table. Fat Han with Falcon/3P0 is an amazing closer because he can guarantee 2 Evades a turn, so against a single ship, Han will probably close out the match quickly with his shooting buffs, 360 degree line of fire, and the ability to shut down incoming damage to 0-1 hits total per turn against most ships.

Dash (HLC/Outrider/Lone Wolf/RecSpec) and Corran (R2D2 and whatever) is a decent list for a tournament because either unit makes for a good closer, so regardless of what your opponent shuts down early on, if you go into the endgame and the points destroyed are fairly close, you have a good shot at winning if you play smart.

Being left with a naked Rookie Pilot against Keyan Farlander might not end as favorably for you.

If you wouldn't mind posting your list and your opponents, maybe we could go more in depth and help you close out your matches easier?

Welcome to gaming the system.

This can still be achieved by simply flying away full steam,

I wouldn't actually call this stalling. This is the "Run" after a "Hit". It isn't my fault your fleet can't keep up, and I'm abusing that fact.

Similarly, I wouldn't call Fortressing stalling either, for the same reason.

If I am abusing the amount of time it takes to perform a turn, then I'm stalling.

If i'm executing a turn quickly with frustrating and game-lengthening tactics, that's not stalling anymore than running a Fat Han is.

I wouldn't actually call this stalling. This is the "Run" after a "Hit". It isn't my fault your fleet can't keep up, and I'm abusing that fact.

Similarly, I wouldn't call Fortressing stalling either, for the same reason.

If I am abusing the amount of time it takes to perform a turn, then I'm stalling.

If i'm executing a turn quickly with frustrating and game-lengthening tactics, that's not stalling anymore than running a Fat Han is.

Running off on it's own isn't stalling at all, I was talking about tying together a series of activities that you resolved very slowly on purpose in an attempt to force the game to time.

I would absolutely support trying to lame it out with a Fat Han/Dash if you were ahead by the full win margin. Especially Dash. Take those slow range 3 shots while they scramble to chase you down. I'm all for this, because that's the game. If you read my entire post, you'll see I talk about the importance of having a closer to prevent your opponent from "downing the ball" to run the clock out.

It comes down to choice, but I would recommend that when designing that tournament list, you make sure you have a plan to deal with fast, squirmy ships when it comes down to the end game or else you'll lose to time.

If they're doing that AND obviously stalling in the planning phase, or fumbling to look for templates all of a sudden during activation, then you know you're playing a jerk, but again, as I mentioned above, good luck trying to prove it.

To bring it all back to the original post, ultimately it's not what you know, it's what you can prove. It's very hard to prove stalling if it's down subtly, so your best bet is to stick to a solid closing strategy so your opponent won't be up on you by so many points in the end game.

If someone's going to go for the stalled win and they come away with a modified win, they're going to probably fall short of a Top 8 cut in a larger group, unless others get modified wins as well. You may want to professionally pull them aside after the match and tell them to cut it out, as well as let the organizers know to watch them in later games, but none of that will help you in the present time of your match, so just try and close it out decisively.

Lol! Yeah plan B sounds the best.

earlier on it took him 54sec, closer to the end it was more like 2.34min then 3.24. Not to mention he would literally lean with both elbows on the table like he was deep in thought, or carry on a random conversation with the player next to him.

(I used the stopwatch on my phone without him knowing)

Had the T.O. not left & the new girl taken over, I would've called him over asap. It won't happen again.

If someone is carrying on a non-match related conversation instead of actually doing their planning & placement during a planning phase, that's annoying to start with. If it's in the closing minutes of a match that's on a narrow margin, that's beyond annoying and would be (in my personal view) grounds to call someone out on it.

Hit and Run is a valid tactic to me.

Fortressing is a valid tactic to me.

Yapping away when you should be playing is not a valid tactic to me.

YMMV

Hit and Run is a valid tactic to me.

Fortressing is a valid tactic to me.

Yapping away when you should be playing is not a valid tactic to me.

Agree 100%

I think they go to the special hell with people that talk in movie theatres.

running off is great if you got R2D2 and your trying to regen shields!!! I mean who DOESN'T do that??

so along those same line what would be an acceptable time limit per turn? 3 minutes tops?

so along those same line what would be an acceptable time limit per turn? 3 minutes tops?

It's hard to impose a hard time limit on the game at this point in its life. As mentioned before, a TIE Swarm list has a lot more to think about than your Fat Han list. Especially late game. If all you have left is Fat Han and the opponent has a couple of ships still, they need to make some smart plans to maximize their chances of getting some damage on you, whereas you as Han probably already know what you're going to do in terms of running away and taking pot shots.

It just comes down to the spirit of the game, and your opponent doing obvious things to waste time, such as having conversations with other players/spectators, playing around on their phone, etc. You can't accuse someone of playing slow on purpose in the planning phase, because they might be taking longer than you like for the following reasons;

• analysis paralysis on too many variables
• trying to visualize the spacing of a particular move
• scared to commit because of the pressure
• they're just not as intelligent as you are
• you're too fast and you're acting in haste (to later repent in leisure)

I like to think I play at a decent pace. But I suffered form "analysis paralysis" last game. Having a B-wing stressed by Mara Jade and trying to figure your move to fly over the VT-49 and not hit the asteroid on the other side messed with me the whole game.

I tend to, personally, think that about 30 seconds per ship should be a decent average time for myself to plan. Yes, some moments are no-brainers, some are "OMG what am I going to do?!?", so overall it should balance out around there.

If someone is known to suffer from analysis paralysis, maybe X-Wing isn't the best choice of a competitive game perhaps.

I refer everyone to the very first paragraph of the rule book.

Welcome to X-Wing, an exciting, fast-paced dogfighting game set in the Star Wars universe.

The game is supposed to be played relatively quickly. Dogfighting isn't something that gives you plenty of time to think about every option before committing to a course of action, and I think this game encapsulates the concept well. But, taking a long time planning over each ship can be frustrating for the other player.

A time limit per ship would be one possible solution. This would allow the Swarm player and the Fat Han players to sort their maneuvers out relatively quickly. If you make a mistake, so be it. It's how we are all programmed to learn. It's also part of the fun of the game.

I agree with a lot of this. Some people act like they are winning a million dollars or something. It's a game and when someone is abusing the provision for time in order to win a game of xwing then they have bigger issues to worry about imo. Also as far as fortressing goes 99 percent of the time the person fortressing loses. The person fortressing is losing all their actions due to bumping meanwhile you get all your actions to attack with. If someone's fortressing it could only last 2-3 rounds since that's about how long it would take to get across the board. Then they will be forced to engage. Also of note is one of the main tactics is focus firing and when fortressing you lose your ability to focus fire since all your ships are usually facing each other.

so along those same line what would be an acceptable time limit per turn? 3 minutes tops?

It's hard to impose a hard time limit on the game at this point in its life. As mentioned before, a TIE Swarm list has a lot more to think about than your Fat Han list. Especially late game. If all you have left is Fat Han and the opponent has a couple of ships still, they need to make some smart plans to maximize their chances of getting some damage on you, whereas you as Han probably already know what you're going to do in terms of running away and taking pot shots.

It just comes down to the spirit of the game, and your opponent doing obvious things to waste time, such as having conversations with other players/spectators, playing around on their phone, etc. You can't accuse someone of playing slow on purpose in the planning phase, because they might be taking longer than you like for the following reasons;

• analysis paralysis on too many variables
• trying to visualize the spacing of a particular move
• scared to commit because of the pressure
• they're just not as intelligent as you are
• you're too fast and you're acting in haste (to later repent in leisure)

I LOVE the last 5 power points you made. Not only have I done them before, but ive seen them also. That's spot on.