With our Australian National Championships coming up in around a month's time, I was reminded of an issue I ran into during World Championships 2016, so I thought I'd start a discussion.

Do you guys think it's fair that the round timer starts basically within a minute of the pairings going up?

What I mean is that those putting together the map puzzle actually have notably shorter time in the round, sometimes up to 5 minutes. While this won't always matter, it can mean the difference between playing a new round and not. That can make a HUGE difference in some matchups.

For example, if I were playing something like the 2016 Gencon Wookiees list (which wants to just survive until time), I'd much rather waste some time with the map tile puzzle. However, if I'm playing anything else, I'd much rather have a map set up immediately so I can jump into the battle. The fact that this is actually a choice at the moment is troubling.

The FFG printed maps are ludicrously expensive, and printed maps are *technically* not allowed at official organised play tournaments. Why, then, do people with only the map puzzles get less time to play the game?

Should there be a "Set-Up time" of, say, 10 minutes before each round starts?

Discuss!

I would be support standardized round times after setup: I think 55min was the the standard before they switched to 65 min when including setup.

I understand why large tournaments don't have a start after setup though, because it slows down an already slow process: everyone has to wait for the last person to get set up which could take more than 10 min at someplace like GenCon or Worlds. But something that was 20 people or less should have no problem getting things sorted quicker.

Honestly, I ended up just getting the mats, they aren't that expensive at 45AUD, having to invest in 3 at once might be, but if you get them as they come into rotation, it's been acceptable

All is fine until a piece goes missing. I'll never bring tiles to a premier event again.

We either have Maps for everyone or start the timer after puzzling, so I have no idea. I really hate the puzzling, so I have maps since my very first tournament ...

The mats are frustrating because they don't stay in rotation for long, especially when you factor in how slow the delivery times are for the new mats... I agree though that tiles are painful.

The only fair solution though is to have a fixed time for setup unless everyone has mats...