Maybe one of these guys to total the time used up, each player is given an allocated time to play the entire game, how they use this time management is up to them. Time runs out there finished. How long ??? 35min or 40min per side. Idea???

The biggest problem with the chess clock idea is that in the turns there are many parts of the phase which both players participate such as planing and modifying opponents dice. In games like chess or other table top games like warhammer a player completes all their action in a single unbroken turn in which the chess clock will work. X-wing turn doesn't play out like those so the chess clock won't be effective.

I defy you to play 6 minute turns each with 16 ships on the table, when both players have been playing the game for less than six months.

On the other hand, playing 6 minute turns when there are only 4 ships on the table is laughably easy.

Having a game rule that punishes what type of squad you build is absolutely godawful design, and has no place being implemented.

There is nothing at all wrong with the current system, which is "If you suspect slow play, call over the TO".

It is more for competitive play with players who understand their lists. I also offered a 6 turn option which gives 10 minuets a turn for those that can play a little slower. Sure those with more models take longer to move their models but the model count spread of 2-8 is way less than some other games which could be 4-30 or 8-100.

Don't get me wrong playing only 5 or 9 turns by the end of the round doesn't mean that the TO must penalize someone. It is just gets the TOs attention, likewise that if the TO is called to a table that has gone on for 15 turns due to a slow play complaint and then the TO can tell the player to play it out.

I'd just suggest that the time of matches be something like XX minutes + Y rounds. So if you had time for 75 minute rounds, you would do 60 minutes + some # of rounds (whatever best approximates 75 minutes at normal speed). If you only had time for 60 minute rounds, you'd do 45 minutes + some # of rounds instead. It eliminates slow play as a factor at the time when slow play would be the most valuable, but keeps matches approximately the right time.

2 minutes for a combat phase is really tight.

Deciding who you shoot at, what defenses they have, quick expected damage calculation, retaliation fire possibility, determining range (oh no, it's really close, lets get the opponent to check it too, consensus?) through asteroids, roll the dice, defender modifiers attack roll, attacker modifiers attack roll, defender rolls, determine damage (do you have gunner? well I won't spend my evade this time, oh you were shooting at Soontir with an ion cannon? well I might have to take the second attack), now I have tactician and FCS, so extra tokens.

There's a lot of crap that can happen per attack, and some ships make more than one attack roll per turn.

As a guideline for a TO it's okay, but that's all it is.

2 minutes for a combat phase is really tight.

Deciding who you shoot at, what defenses they have, quick expected damage calculation, retaliation fire possibility, determining range (oh no, it's really close, lets get the opponent to check it too, consensus?) through asteroids, roll the dice, defender modifiers attack roll, attacker modifiers attack roll, defender rolls, determine damage (do you have gunner? well I won't spend my evade this time, oh you were shooting at Soontir with an ion cannon? well I might have to take the second attack), now I have tactician and FCS, so extra tokens.

There's a lot of crap that can happen per attack, and some ships make more than one attack roll per turn.

As a guideline for a TO it's okay, but that's all it is.

So maybe the 6 turns in 60 minuets would be better?

No.

2 minutes for a combat phase is really tight.

Deciding who you shoot at, what defenses they have, quick expected damage calculation, retaliation fire possibility, determining range (oh no, it's really close, lets get the opponent to check it too, consensus?) through asteroids, roll the dice, defender modifiers attack roll, attacker modifiers attack roll, defender rolls, determine damage (do you have gunner? well I won't spend my evade this time, oh you were shooting at Soontir with an ion cannon? well I might have to take the second attack), now I have tactician and FCS, so extra tokens.

There's a lot of crap that can happen per attack, and some ships make more than one attack roll per turn.

As a guideline for a TO it's okay, but that's all it is.

So maybe the 6 turns in 60 minuets would be better?

Just to many variables, and situation arises that have time limit on each phase will ruin this game.

Really it doesnt matter how much time you put on a round or phase.

Ffg has the tournament rules and they have them the way they are for a reason.

Most people are courteous to one another so there is no need for most to worry about this tactic.

Here is how you nip it in the butt if it does become a problem.

Call to over.

Inform him of your opponent stalling

Dq him if he keeps doing it

If he does it when to not around, talk to other local players.

If the majority don't like the players behavior, then don't allow him to play

Now your only punishing the culprit, not everyone

I just had my first game go to time in the year I have been playing X-wing, most of the tournaments were 60 minute rounds but I would win or lose in a timely manner. But my Soontir can't deal damage fast enough to Kill chewi and chewi can't hit Soontir.

In my opinion, slow rolling - like many forms of cheating - has to be something that a judge or organizer ultimately makes a ruling on rather than something that a set of rules tries to restrict, because the act of cheating is a subversion of rules in the first place. Implementing a timer is only going to prompt the cheater to abuse that timer rather than encourage them to play differently.

For example, there are rules in the game prohibiting pre-measurement, just as there as rules that prohibit slow rolling. Someone who wants to pre-measure is unlikely to be dissuaded by rules that try to rigidly catalog exactly what does or doesn't count as cheating in that arena (and said rules may in fact protect some cheaters behind text that they can rules lawyer from behind), and only an on site judge is going to have the full context and subjective judgement necessary to distinguish between play that's malicious or not.

I do like chess timers, which turn the match length into a resource that a player must manage for themselves, but they have their own trade-offs, they are not immune to abuse, cheating or malfunction (you will certainly hear a lot of timer-specific complaints when you play high level chess, many of which are completely legitimate) and I don't think they are a good fit for X-Wing because of the complexity involved in X-Wing's turn sequence. When do I stop or start my timer? Do I get any extra time compensation when flying more ships (which seems reasonable, given that any proposed stop/start interval is going to bleed a significant amount of time for a player with more ships)? If so, how much extra time?

Note how complex you would probably have to make any timer-driven tournament rules, and how many extra opportunities for abuse of those rules would be introduced. I think such a system would be interesting, personally, but it would deepen the problem of slow rolling rather than solve it.