Hi everyone. I recently played at a tournament and one of my opponents was running Chopper and Chewbacca. During the initial turns his dials were quickly down.... until we engaged.

Once we engaged his time to do the dials went from about 1-2 minutes to 5-7 minutes. I would politely ask if he was done and he would be there thumbing his dials trying to figure out his maneuver for a very long time. As the game went on it felt like the more damage he took the longer he took. I didn't know if he was playing slower because of the hard choices on dealing with 4 rebel ships nearly gunning down Chewy then burning the other ship down in short order of if he was authentically trying to stall for time....

What would you guys suggest I had done or how I know if someone is "Slow Playing". I have run a number of local tournaments and a Store Championship and have never run into this before.

As soon as you notice the issue, I'd ask as politely as possible for my opponent to speed up his or her play. If the problem continues through another round or two, I'd excuse myself for a moment, explain things quickly to a judge, and ask for him to come back to the table and keep an eye on the game for a moment.

Thanks Vorpal Sword, I wasn't quite sure how to broach the subject with my opponent.

Vorpal Sword has it although some may cut straight to the "call over a judge" especially if time is tight.

I wouldn't say that the first rounds are always a good gauge of how fast someone will play. I suspect most people go into a game having a good idea how they are going to try moving their ships the first couple rounds. The thing about Plans is that they rarely survive the first contact with the enemy which is where and why things may suddenly slow down. It's at this point that if things start slowing down even more that I would really be concerned especially if dealing with a couple huge point sinks.

I agree with Robert (er, Vorpal Sword, edited because I keep forgetting not everybody knows him), but given that neither he nor I are conflict-averse (which isn't true for everyone), and given that this falls squarely in the bailiwick of the TO, there is absolutely no shame in going straight to the TO.

Speaking for myself, I play fairly deliberately, which is a habit I developed as a poker player. While I try to keep an eye on when my opponent's dials go down, and follow them very soon after at the latest, in a complex move -- or one that it takes a while to figure out comes down to a pure guess -- I may well go too long. I would never hold it against somebody if they asked me to move a bit faster, whether themselves or by means of the TO.

I'm aware of the frustration from playing on VASSAL, where slow-play (not in the intentional sense, since VASSAL games aren't even timed) is both rampant and excruciating. It's one of the reasons I've largely withdrawn from doing leagues or tournies on VASSAL.

For two ships, 5-7 minutes is just too long. Especially when both ships have taken a bit of a beating. Sounds like a stall tactic to me. Call the TO over to observe.

Some folks seem to consider calling on the TO to be the same as accusing an opponent of cheating. It's not. You're just needing a clarification on an aspect of the game, and in this case, it's how long is reasonable to plan for two ships. Don't get into a needless argument when you have a TO that can adjudicate and take the appropriate action when required.

In my experience slow players deliberately choose to play with few ships to speed up their game, this might have been the case. Otoh, depending on level of tournament players are expeted to be able to finish their games within the time frame. Politely asking them to speed up and/or calling the judge is never wrong if you suspect the game won't be finished in time.

I’d offer a counter-point. There is a lot of context missing. Did his planning literally take 5-7 minutes? Did you time it or did it just seem like it took forever? Also the ships your opponent flew may need more time to plan, especially when the going gets tough. What were the maneuvers they took? Your opponent was flying the Ghost with Chopper, was the Phantom docked? Was he just running away the whole time or was he engaging your ships?

The reason this is relevant is that one of Chopper’s tactics is to block, deal stress and keep that ship from attacking. Blocking takes time plan. You have determine where your ship can go and where the opposing ships can go and then be at a spot that they can’t avoid you. And if the Phantom is still docked, now you have to plan for two possible moves. Moving the Ghost and deploying the Phantom. And he flew two Large ships which takes more planning so as to not to run into yourself or rocks, not much room on the board with two Large ships and rocks. If it took more than 5 minutes and all he did was execute a straight one maneuver when no ships were any where near his ships, that would be stalling. If they are making intricate plays with even the slightest chance to win, then its not.

Just my two cents.

Hi everyone. I recently played at a tournament and one of my opponents was running Chopper and Chewbacca. During the initial turns his dials were quickly down.... until we engaged.

Once we engaged his time to do the dials went from about 1-2 minutes to 5-7 minutes. I would politely ask if he was done and he would be there thumbing his dials trying to figure out his maneuver for a very long time. As the game went on it felt like the more damage he took the longer he took. I didn't know if he was playing slower because of the hard choices on dealing with 4 rebel ships nearly gunning down Chewy then burning the other ship down in short order of if he was authentically trying to stall for time....

What would you guys suggest I had done or how I know if someone is "Slow Playing". I have run a number of local tournaments and a Store Championship and have never run into this before.

Just call the judge over. If he gets angry he's either:

1.) Actually slow playing.

Or

2.) Still slow playing, but doing so unintentionally and needs to speed it up. Best to get this kind of player angry and on tilt over nothing, so call the judge over.

If he's a reasonable person he'll just accept what the judge says and try to play faster. If he gets angry his opinion is of no value, so make him squirm.

"Hey, why are you taking so long? It's two ships. Pick a maneuver."