Can you get an Epic game finished under 2 hrs?

Or is it a half day affair?

A really good rule of thumb is for every hundred points on your team, add an hour.

A really good rule of thumb is for every hundred points on your team, add an hour.

This is absolutely my experience. I'd add that if it's your first time playing you'll need to add 45-60 min in additional rules and learning time.

To speed up the process, develop your list and pull all your ships and cards BEFORE the game. Setup can really drag things out.

Your first time can take a while. It gets easier once everyone knows what's going on. If everyone knows how epic works, it is a lot easier.

Setup is probably the worst. Anything you can do ahead of time to have things work is great. Even if you just print out lists in groupings so that each player can just use the print out instead of pulling out the cards would work. That could save you from pulling out all the upgrade cards and pilot cards. Just put the shield tokens on the print out. Or just pull them out ahead of time.

Depending on your list selection, you can have it play shorter. If you take less fighter escorts, it could work. Don't take 12 Tie Fighters, but use some of the larger based ships instead. If you do have smaller ships, fly them in formation. Maybe pick one dial for all of them. Or at least just know they will fly together and and pick similar dials. Also, avoid lots of ships with the same PS. Don't take all Academy Pilots, even if it's the most efficient use of points. Just having different PS levels will prevent it from one side taking 20 minutes to move and shoot 12 Academy Pilots.

Have someone with a loud voice be the turn keeper. Have them shout out "IMPERIAL PS 1"....and for each segment to keep things moving along.

Break the force up into different groups. People can be quicker in the planning phase if they aren't setting and thinking for 12+ ships. If you get too many, though, you might lose some focus. Depends on your gaming group.

You know....you can also play the game on a 3x3 instead of 3x6. This will get the action going a lot faster. It might hurt the CR-90 as it won't have room to maneuver, but....it sure will speed things up!

It really helps if you list build with ease of play in mind too - if you keep special abilities to a minimum and either keep to a low ship count or use identical generic builds, it can have a dramatic impact on the length of your games.

You know....you can also play the game on a 3x3 instead of 3x6. This will get the action going a lot faster. It might hurt the CR-90 as it won't have room to maneuver, but....it sure will speed things up!

In my experience, the action is mostly contained to a 3x3 area anyway and attempting to make full use of the 3x6 just leads to ships being out of the fight for long periods of time. I agree that Transports, Gozantis and Raiders don't really care about a more confined board, but CR-90s prefer long range broadsides so the confined space does put them at more of a disadvantage.

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Setup is probably the worst. Anything you can do ahead of time to have things work is great. Even if you just print out lists in groupings so that each player can just use the print out instead of pulling out the cards would work. That could save you from pulling out all the upgrade cards and pilot cards. Just put the shield tokens on the print out. Or just pull them out ahead of time.

(...)

This.

Print out your list or have all of your cards ready in advance. You can also preset your bases / cardboards and such. If done well, you can limit setup time to 5 minutes. If one of you thinks of "oh, I'll buid my list when I get there"... then you're looking at a 45 min prep time.

Against evenly matched armies (usually after both people have earned some experience) then most games can last the full 3 hours that they are meant to. A player with experience playing against someone who is playing their first game... that can end in an hour (which can be frustrating if you had that 45 min prep time).

A mistake in a 100 point game will hamper a player, but a repeated mistake in a 300 point game... the outcome can be decided before the first move.

Set a Timer for 3 hours. Do not play to the death. After 3 hours you'll be ready to stop anyway.

You can also play a 200 pt game. Not as big, but still fun.

All great replies. Thanks! I'm going to give it a try with my usual X-wing buddy.

Check out my list in the Lists thread and let me know what you think!

Depends how organised you are, and how many people are involved.

A 300 point-per-side, 1 versus 1 game will probably go somewhere between 2-3 hours if you everything to hand and ready, and STAY ON TARGET.

It's when you start adding more players (and beers) into the mix that it can take longer.

first couple of times, play a bunch of no-names. Cause you're going to forget all their rules and interactions anyways, due to focusing on the rules of the big ship

Depends how organised you are, and how many people are involved.

A 300 point-per-side, 1 versus 1 game will probably go somewhere between 2-3 hours if you everything to hand and ready, and STAY ON TARGET.

It's when you start adding more players (and beers) into the mix that it can take longer.

Alternatively, I like adding enough beers I no longer care about the time it takes to finish

For me. About 15 mins. "I crush my enemies -- See them driven before me, and hear the lamentation of their women!"

Depends how organised you are, and how many people are involved.

A 300 point-per-side, 1 versus 1 game will probably go somewhere between 2-3 hours if you everything to hand and ready, and STAY ON TARGET.

It's when you start adding more players (and beers) into the mix that it can take longer.

Alternatively, I like adding enough beers I no longer care about the time it takes to finish

We did that during a game of Imperial Assault a couple of weeks back. One player turn ended up lasting almost an hour as we went off on various drunken tangents...

It depends on a few factors:

(1) End Point : if you play as if it were tournament rules, you simply play until a time-limit is reached (e.g. 2 Hours from the first dials revealed). If, however, you are playing until one squad is wiped out, expect the game to be much longer, with many rounds near the end game being very uneventful (especially if either side is playing very defensive or regen-ships). Take a lone gozanti versus a lone PtL Interceptor: the gozanti will not be able to hit and kill the interceptor, but it can also recover 4 Shields every turn rendering the interceptor's attack moot.

IF you make the ill-advised decision to play until "Total Death" instead of until a time-limit is reached, then it will still vary largely on two factors:

(2) Squads : the more ships, the longer the game will take. Thirty small imperial ships take an incredibly long time to dial in, move, and attack with when compared to a Raider, a Gozanti, and eight fighters.

(3) Experience Level : the more experienced and timely the players involved, the faster the game will go.


My sense is that if you're worried at all about time, just set a time-limit for the game. If it feels too abstract, then just say that's how long the forces have until reinforcements hyperspace in or out or something.

200pt games tend to last closer to 2hrs, 300pts are around 2.5 typically (for me).

First i did was 500pts. Big mistake lol. We never finished that game lol

Depends. Honestly it can take a couple of hours but if adding a team you can expect to add another hour before in prep time.

Shortcut tip for setting up. I put the cardboard on the plastic bases and put the number identifiers on them the night before and packed them in an extra ziplock. Enabled very fast deployment of eleven starfighters at GenCon. Dont try to build your list at the table... Adds a lot of setup time.

as said above get you list and everything you need for the game before you show up to where ever it is you are playing and only take that stuff if you are taking longer then 20 mins to set up you are doing something wrong

if you both have epic ships it can cut down on time as there are a lot of points invested in that 1 ship (Raider/Corvette)

read the rules for Epic ships thoroughly make sure you know all the timing window and what all you upgrade cards on the Epic ships do. this is where most players lose a lot of time playing Epic

I would also recommend set a time limit if you are worried about time. I cant remember what the official tournament rounds are but I would stick to that

Long enough that you drink all the beer and the idea of mixing White Russian's or Sambuca and Jaeger become a good idea. Long enough that you order two sets of take out. Long enough that your wife even considers joining in because she underestimated just how long the Star Wars sound track is and can't hear what Kim Kardashian is complaining about now.

Long enough, for friends to be made, laughs to be had and nothing to be taken seriously.

(More serious answer: 300 points roughly takes an hour and half with two people that know how to play epic. Maybe even less if the dice are fickle, and they are).

I setup a 2nd table for the mods and cards and stuff, like a dashboard. Helps keep everything efficient and organized. Typically an Epic 400vs400 game runs about 4 hours, longer if you want to do something nuts like play it to the last ship. Generally we just play until a team is below 100 pts remaining.

Shortcut tip for setting up. I put the cardboard on the plastic bases and put the number identifiers on them the night before and packed them in an extra ziplock. Enabled very fast deployment of eleven starfighters at GenCon. Dont try to build your list at the table... Adds a lot of setup time.

On of the reasons I love my storage foam. I store all my models that way and usually just have to grab my usual suspects ready to deploy out of my bag. Vader, Soontir, Inquisitor, OL, Echo, Whisper, BSPs, etc all ready to grab and deploy right out of the bag. 50 lists or so printed out already and in that bag too.

For Epic naturally the list of pilots is not ideal, but the idea stays the same, even when the pilots change.

Shortcut tip for setting up. I put the cardboard on the plastic bases and put the number identifiers on them the night before and packed them in an extra ziplock. Enabled very fast deployment of eleven starfighters at GenCon. Dont try to build your list at the table... Adds a lot of setup time.

On of the reasons I love my storage foam. I store all my models that way and usually just have to grab my usual suspects ready to deploy out of my bag. Vader, Soontir, Inquisitor, OL, Echo, Whisper, BSPs, etc all ready to grab and deploy right out of the bag. 50 lists or so printed out already and in that bag too.

That's one of the reasons why I love my Plano tray. I can store them all ready to go.....at a fraction of the cost for foam.

For me. About 15 mins. "I crush my enemies -- See them driven before me, and hear the lamentation of their women!"

My friend and I tried a 600 point game once with the idea that each of our sons would control a big ship which us grown ups would quietly not shoot. After 3 hours we put everything away despite being nowhere near finished.

I agree with all the points above about preparation and selecting fleets to minimise overhead. I would also add not involving kids in long games, no matter how much they game. They will get bored and wander off in spite of your best efforts to keep them engaged.