i played in a tournament last weekend. just a local store one.

We ended the game with the time limit. I know once you start a round you are supposed to finish it. But when is a round considered started for that rule. We just finished a round and started moving dials. but none where locked in when the buzzer rang. Should we of finished that round even though we didn't place our dials down?

me and my friends are new to the game. and only have done 3 local tournaments. which everyone is telling us different rules. and no one there working knows anything about the game it seems.

thanks. any help would be appreciated

I would say you had already started a round. Selecting maneuvers on the dials is done during the Planning phase. Locking them in only signifies the end of the planning phase. Because you were already moving your dials the round started.

PLANNING PHASE (Rules Ref pg. 15)
During the Planning phase, each player secretly
chooses a maneuver for each of his ships. To choose
a maneuver, the player rotates the faceplate of the
ship’s maneuver dial until the window shows only the
desired maneuver. Then he assigns the maneuver by
placing the dial facedown in the play area next to the
matching ship.

The phase ends when each ship has a dial assigned
to it and neither player wishes to change one of his
chosen maneuvers.

ROUND (Rules Ref pg. 16)
A single game round consists of four phases resolved
in the following order: Planning phase, Activation
phase, Combat phase, End phase. The first round
begins after setup is completed.

As soon as you say 'back to dials' you start the next round, basically. If you've picked them up and started setting them, the round has begun and you should finish it.

Although the planning phase really is the start of a new round I'd be wondering how long your rounds have been taking and to an extent what big changes might happen with that additional round.

Maybe it's collusion but if you and your opponent are taking long rounds and the outcome doesn't look like it may change dramatically (and I don't consider extending a MoV to be dramatic) I'd suggest you just pack it in to maximize the time between rounds and make sure things stay running quickly. Just imagine how you'd feel waiting on a pair to finish because they started their planning round and the 15 minutes later not one additional ship on either side of that board lost any more points.

well i won the game cause the person i was playing that game with was a friend of mine. the buzzer rang and he said game over. he would of won the game i think if we played that round.

i had my ywing and a jumpmaster left but my jumpmaster was one point away from half points. he had a jump at one hull and a mist hunter at full shields and hull. he had more points in his mist then i had in my ywing. i could of maybe of killed his jump but we where in long range. he had his mist in 2 range of my jump. if he would of hit me for one and i didnt get a hit on jump he would of won. not sure where we where going to end up flying though after we moved if we would of.

thanks for the help i will remember that for next time.

Although the planning phase really is the start of a new round I'd be wondering how long your rounds have been taking and to an extent what big changes might happen with that additional round.

Maybe it's collusion but if you and your opponent are taking long rounds and the outcome doesn't look like it may change dramatically (and I don't consider extending a MoV to be dramatic) I'd suggest you just pack it in to maximize the time between rounds and make sure things stay running quickly. Just imagine how you'd feel waiting on a pair to finish because they started their planning round and the 15 minutes later not one additional ship on either side of that board lost any more points.

That's a bit of an overly harsh post for the simple question. It reads that you're implying that there was deliberate slow play occurring. Any tournament I've been in, Store or otherwise, there's always a few matches that go to time.

It was an honest, and simple, question from a less experienced player than most of us. Be kind to them.

My intent isn't to be harsh but to be practical. While officially part of the next round I view the planning stage more like a pause between rounds during which time you deciding what you will do during that next round. Once things start happening you're clearly going to want to finish letting things happen but until they do is there more potential harm to come by going forward or by simply stopping?

Maybe it looks like a simple question that should have a simple answer but I do not believe the answer is always so clear cut. I'm aware that some games go to time. A point I'm trying to make is that if the rounds in a game are nearing 10 minutes plus should that game really play out another round? We've seen the discussions on how long it should take to set dials but what about total round time? I'm not making any accusations of slow play but saying that if it is being allowed to happen why hold up an entire tournament so that round can be played out?

In all my experience of playing (inlcuding at worlds) it's been pretty consistent.

If at least 1 player has placed at least 1 dial then the round is considered started and you finish it. If both players are mulling over their first dial and there are none on the board when time is called, thats it.

Only once have I seen a player "manipulate" that ideal. He saw 3 seconds left on the clock and threw 1 dial down. He then worked out his second dial and placed it (2 ships left), before picking up the first dial, telling me "hang on a sec, just checking" and then took the time to do that dial properly too before activating.