Hello All

Our play group has a disagreement over how players take actions during the timed phase of the game. By this I mean actions that are not directly related to the current phase, so for example using the skyranger, elerium, officer training etc.

Here are the two views.

ENEMY TURNS (place UFO's, enemy in the base etc)

VIEW 1 (My interpretation)

No one can do anything during enemy timed phase turns, other then the central officer using forecasts.

VIEW 2

All players can do everything.

PLAYER TURNS (Allocate research, deploy soldiers etc)

VIEW 1 (My interpretation)

Only the player who's turn it is may take other actions (outside of thinking, viewing cards etc), so if it was "deploy soldiers to a mission", the SL could use the SKYRANGER but the CO could not use OFFICER TRAINING.

VIEW 2

All players can do all things at all times

Other : All players can take turns during the extra time phase.

I figure if it is not as I have stipulated above then there is little use in actually finishing actions early, as only a percentage of the time left goes over to the "team time" at the end of the timed-phase. So why not just let it run down (but not end), you get much more time that way.

With my interpretation the CSO gets effectively 4 action phases (RH, T1, T2, T3).

The squad leader gets 3 (Choose-Mission, Deploy-Mission, Deploy-Base).

The Commander gets 3+ (Deploy Interceptors, Allocate EF, Crisis Choices)

The Central Officer gets 1 (Deploy Satellites).

They all then get a shared phase at the end.

What is everyone else's take on this ?

Thanks

All players can take timed-phase actions at any time during the timed phase. Pretty sure that's in the rules but I can't check it right now.

I believe all players can do anything all the time, just as in the extra time at the turn's end.

As long as the job of spawning new Aliens etc. is done too, as the app requests, of course.

EDIT:

+1 for CommissarFeesh for being faster with this one .

I've got a question about Skyranger though.

Can the Squad Leader choose which card to discard (digging through it at the end of the round, without changing the order of that which remained)

or

got to discard the top card of the current active Crisis Pool (immidately after the unwanted Crisis has shown)?

If a card ability says "timed phase" that player can use that ability at any time during the timed phase. Same with "resolution phase" cards like Firestorm. Those can be used at any time during the resolution phase - assuming it's conditions are met.

I've got a question about Skyranger though.

Can the Squad Leader choose which card to discard (digging through it at the end of the round, without changing the order of that which remained)

or

got to discard the top card of the current active Crisis Pool (immidately after the unwanted Crisis has shown)?

Pretty sure it's any of the crisis cards in the pool regardless of order drawn.

All players can take timed-phase actions at any time during the timed phase. Pretty sure that's in the rules but I can't check it right now.

I believe all players can do anything all the time, just as in the extra time at the turn's end.

As long as the job of spawning new Aliens etc. is done too, as the app requests, of course.

EDIT:

+1 for CommissarFeesh for being faster with this one .

I've got a question about Skyranger though.

Can the Squad Leader choose which card to discard (digging through it at the end of the round, without changing the order of that which remained)

or

got to discard the top card of the current active Crisis Pool (immidately after the unwanted Crisis has shown)?

If a card ability says "timed phase" that player can use that ability at any time during the timed phase. Same with "resolution phase" cards like Firestorm. Those can be used at any time during the resolution phase - assuming it's conditions are met.

Yes thanks guys, I found it in the rules not long after posting.

Still don't really understand the value of pause time, especially since you get the full amount so long as there is approximately 5 seconds left on the clock (2 seconds on expert per xcom phase, can't remember for the others).

So OK you get some time at the end, and yes time at the end is more valuable, but really there is no reason not milk every second down to the last 5.

Anyway question answered, thanks again. Happy xcomm'n

I believe all players can do anything all the time, just as in the extra time at the turn's end.

As long as the job of spawning new Aliens etc. is done too, as the app requests, of course.

EDIT:

+1 for CommissarFeesh for being faster with this one .

I've got a question about Skyranger though.

Can the Squad Leader choose which card to discard (digging through it at the end of the round, without changing the order of that which remained)

or

got to discard the top card of the current active Crisis Pool (immidately after the unwanted Crisis has shown)?

I believe so yes, certainly can't see anything in the rules to prevent it. The card does not explicitly refer to the crisis card on the top of the deck, so I would say you are golden.

Just to clarify players are allowed to do timed phase card actions at any time, not place/remove things from the board unless it is part of a card ability.

Lets say the game goes:

Enemy in base -> deploy to base (player deploys 1 unit to base) -> enemy in base -> enemy in base. How do players sort this? the commander will need to use his ability to add more units. At most times he's busy controlling the app, pause time gives him a chance to handle curve balls or fix mistakes, the problem is there might be more than one problem, which needs time to decide and act.

It depends on the difficulty and what exactly is going on in the game, sometimes it is best to run the clock low, sometimes its best to bag the pause time, just remember you can only gain 2 seconds of pause at a time.

- You can only gain extra pause time on early player actions.

- The pause time gained is 50% of the remaining time up to 2 seconds, So pushing it before 4 is pointless (besides player reaction time, and the app registering the button press).

Just to clarify players are allowed to do timed phase card actions at any time, not place/remove things from the board unless it is part of a card ability.

Lets say the game goes:

Enemy in base -> deploy to base (player deploys 1 unit to base) -> enemy in base -> enemy in base. How do players sort this? the commander will need to use his ability to add more units. At most times he's busy controlling the app, pause time gives him a chance to handle curve balls or fix mistakes, the problem is there might be more than one problem, which needs time to decide and act.

It depends on the difficulty and what exactly is going on in the game, sometimes it is best to run the clock low, sometimes its best to bag the pause time, just remember you can only gain 2 seconds of pause at a time.

- You can only gain extra pause time on early player actions.

- The pause time gained is 50% of the remaining time up to 2 seconds, So pushing it before 4 is pointless (besides player reaction time, and the app registering the button press).

Yes thankyou for the clarification. It is what I was doing, but I do agree it bears enumerating.

I figured out the pause time limit the other night and mentioned it in another post. I kinda think they should have made it more percentage based of the total time remaining (then multiplied by 2 seconds). I personally think the current system does not add much as saving the last few seconds is not hard. Then again this may be skewed by the difficulty and number-of-players I have in my games (generally 2,1 or 3 players). Perhaps it is more salient, as the time allocated diminishes.

I think the app changes colour and beeps at 5 seconds anyway IIRC, giving the player a nice heads up. Perhaps I am misremembering this IDK.