I figure I’d bump this thread instead of making a new one.

Our group recently finished a Hoth campaign and as I mentioned previously in this thread, rebel turns are taking forever.

Our Rebel players are hooked on using group chat for strategy discussion and it’s come with noticeable advantages and disadvantages.

Pros: Keeping Imperial player out of Rebel discussion is optimal for long term planning, anticipating the Imperial player’s activations aloud allows the Imperial player to pick up on strategies that might have been overlooked so Rebel players don’t “help” Imperial player when using text chat.

Example:

Rebel player: Well if I move X here, this figure can just trigger that figure which could trigger that class card which could easily wound my hero so we can’t do that…

Imperial Player: Yes…… Exactly…… thanks

Cons: Missions are taking too long, meticulous planning only to be thwarted by a bad dice roll, Imperial Player feeling left out, everyone staring at their phones instead of interacting with each other

So we all agreed to slap on a time limit for our next campaign and want to hear some opinions on a good time. Any personal experiences with a time limit out there?

Any opinions on why group chat should be encouraged/abolished?

This is one of my heartaches with Imperial Assault. Its lack of casual gaming. As I said in this and other threads, I am glad the extreme edition exists for those that want it, but most people just want to get around and have fun with friends. In my personal opinion, you the Imperial Player have to enter into a sacred pact, like-a Miyagi say. "I promise not try to murder you with extreme prejudice. That my part. You promise not take so long. That you part." I think an egg timer is in order. That goes for the imperial player as well. If the friends are inexperience players, then offer to use the least punitive actions. I've not used my class cards, and limited the units I've brought to bear. I'm not suggesting you throw the game, but fun, to me, is more important in most cases than trying to wipe out the Rebel heroes. I personally would discourage the use of chat in that way.

Play with a timer and offer a replay for the next mission if they lose.

Cons: Missions are taking too long, meticulous planning only to be thwarted by a bad dice roll, Imperial Player feeling left out, everyone staring at their phones instead of interacting with each other

If the rebels plan too much ahead and depend on their plan staying secret, it is not a very good plan anyway. A good imperial player is already thinking one or two activations ahead. Due to die rolls the rebels cannot plan too much ahead anyway, and, while there sometimes are rebel actions that the imperial player has missed, there are many more responses the imperial player has already thought about depending on which hero goes next and what the hero does.

There already are more rebel 'brains' in the game, so it is less probable they miss something obvious. So, rebels should make less mistakes compared to the imperial player.

With private communication the imperial player also cannot catch any mistakes the rebels have regarding mission rules (or even general rules).

In face-to-face play communication should be open, both for the entertainment, learning, balance, convenience, and speedy game. Say that it's no fun for you to play the other way.

Even in play-by-forum games I advocate open discussion (but allow secrecy if it happens only occasionally when it really, REALLY matters). Like you said, otherwise most of the fun of being the imperial player is sucked out and it will be a very lonely couple of hours.

(The rules have a section that says that if the rebels cannot decide, the imperial player chooses one rebel player to make the decision.)

I'll second a1bert here. As a long term Descent Overlord, much of my enjoyment is in listening to the heroes fanatically trying to improve their current situation.

I figure I’d bump this thread instead of making a new one.

Our group recently finished a Hoth campaign and as I mentioned previously in this thread, rebel turns are taking forever.

Our Rebel players are hooked on using group chat for strategy discussion and it’s come with noticeable advantages and disadvantages.

Pros: Keeping Imperial player out of Rebel discussion is optimal for long term planning, anticipating the Imperial player’s activations aloud allows the Imperial player to pick up on strategies that might have been overlooked so Rebel players don’t “help” Imperial player when using text chat.

Example:

Rebel player: Well if I move X here, this figure can just trigger that figure which could trigger that class card which could easily wound my hero so we can’t do that…

Imperial Player: Yes…… Exactly…… thanks

Cons: Missions are taking too long, meticulous planning only to be thwarted by a bad dice roll, Imperial Player feeling left out, everyone staring at their phones instead of interacting with each other

So we all agreed to slap on a time limit for our next campaign and want to hear some opinions on a good time. Any personal experiences with a time limit out there?

Any opinions on why group chat should be encouraged/abolished?

We use a private Rebel slack channel, but we tend to discuss 95% of things openly, and resort to the chat only when:

1) We're approaching the end of a round, we don't want the Imps to know what our first move next round is going to be, so they can counter it

2) We're approaching the end of a mission, and we don't want to lose because the Imps know what our endgame strategy is going to be

I'd say we spend maybe 5 minutes per mission (not round) in the chat, and the rest is discussed openly. We play to win, of course, but we're also just trying to have a good time and don't want the game to become a total slog.

You can use a timer and give them 3 minutes to discuss at the start of a round and 90 seconds to do a turn. That should be plenty. With 4 players there is no reason for a player to not be ready to do their activation when it comes up unless they're screwing (everyone) around.

Thanks for all the responses guys, we will try 3 minutes and see what happens