On 10/18/2018 at 8:18 AM, jftanner said:

On the subject of play mats: I've found good luck with half a yoga mat. You can get them roughly 3'x6' for pretty cheap and cut them in half to have two. A buddy and I split one and that's what we've used for years now. Works great.

Every time i've looked at yoga mats, as other's have suggested. I find they are usually 18-24 inches wide. Not yet seen any 3ft wide.

On 10/18/2018 at 11:05 AM, shaunmerritt said:

Hey,

I play at a local store and this is more common than you'd think. You are NOT doing anything wrong at all. Most players who et games in under 75 mins usually are veterans or played in tournaments so they have that mind set. If you haven't, then you don't rush, take your time and are way more cautious about engaging. Once you get more table time, you will get better at your combos and the game get quicker. If you want to speed it up, agree on a match time and set a timer. But in the end, if you are having fun... who cares?! Pew Pew away.

I know in the games i've ran with myself vs an AI oppnent, 2 rebel ships, sometimes upward of 5 enemy ships on the board (because no one's died yet), i've had games last 90-110 minutes.. BUT that's with me doing everything.

7 hours ago, LTuser said:

Every time i've looked at yoga mats, as other's have suggested. I find they are usually 18-24 inches wide. Not yet seen any 3ft wide.

Split this one with a friend. Cut it in half. $13 per mat.
https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Direct-Extra-Wide-Black/dp/B007MTWI48/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1540093880&sr=8-3&keywords=36+yoga+mat

Or make 34 X-Wing compatible mats for just over $6 each.
https://www.amazon.com/YogaAccessories-Extra-Wide-Yoga-Roll/dp/B000EIBE1C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540094012&sr=8-1&keywords=36%2Byoga%2Bmat%2Bbulk&th=1

Even prior to 2.0 I felt like games were taking longer for most players for some reason. At my one and only SC this summer, I think I was the only player (out of 10) to finish all 4 of my games before time. Everyone else had at least 1 or 2 games go to time, some all 4.

Heck, at my LGS this past week I was watching 2.0 games for the first time (still haven't played any yet myself), and all the games I watched went to time, and weren't even close to finishing.

In 1.0 games went to time because of the crazy defense that some ships had. In 2.0 I think it's partly because people are running more ships again, and partly because double mods on offense are rare so it takes longer to kill ships.

2 hours ago, Lifer4700 said:

Split this one with a friend. Cut it in half. $13 per mat.
https://www.amazon.com/Yoga-Direct-Extra-Wide-Black/dp/B007MTWI48/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1540093880&sr=8-3&keywords=36+yoga+mat

Or make 34 X-Wing compatible mats for just over $6 each.
https://www.amazon.com/YogaAccessories-Extra-Wide-Yoga-Roll/dp/B000EIBE1C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1540094012&sr=8-1&keywords=36%2Byoga%2Bmat%2Bbulk&th=1

I was talking more about 'looking in stores'. Not online.

But thanks for giving those links.

On 10/20/2018 at 1:43 PM, jftanner said:

I feel like I should point out that @CDP 2000 hasn't been back to the forums since the day they posted this. So, this is all good advice, but I think we might all just be talking to ourselves.

Some other new player with a similar issue may find this thread.

And some supposedly experienced poster could forget the foibles of the commenting system and double post.

On 10/17/2018 at 1:26 PM, xwingMinty said:

I did this when I first played too, so you're not alone.

Tournament rules are that a single game is 75 minutes long, and I think it's best to play with that time limit. 1- it means you don't go on forever, and 2 - it makes you focus on how you're playing, and what you need to do in order to kill your opponent.

If you find you need longer in order to check rules and the like, just extend it to accommodate that time.

Also making a game area that is 1:1 the size it's meant to be will help, that way there is less room for either player to run away.

So at the end of 75 minutes, if both players still have ships in play, how do you calculate a winner? Hits?

On 10/20/2018 at 1:43 PM, jftanner said:

I feel like I should point out that @CDP 2000 hasn't been back to the forums since the day they posted this. So, this is all good advice, but I think we might all just be talking to ourselves.

I was wrong, guys! He's back. Welcome back, @CDP 2000 . You starting to get shorter games?

1 minute ago, CDP 2000 said:

So at the end of 75 minutes, if both players still have ships in play, how do you calculate a winner? Hits?

Points, based on the number of ships destroyed. Full points for ships off the board, half points for ships with less than 1/2 hull+shields remaining. (Points, here, being the ship's cost.)

14 minutes ago, jftanner said:

Points, based on the number of ships destroyed. Full points for ships off the board, half points for ships with less than 1/2 hull+shields remaining. (Points, here, being the ship's cost.)

@jftanner Thanks so much! So we play here in the east SF Bay Area every Tuesday -- looking forward to playing tonight -- Ill let you know if we get any quicker.

1 minute ago, CDP 2000 said:

@jftanner Thanks so much! So we play here in the east SF Bay Area every Tuesday -- looking forward to playing tonight -- Ill let you know if we get any quicker.

Good luck!

I'd say that out of everything here, the best advice is probably to build an aggressive, all-out list. Go for something with lots of firepower, not a lot of hull, and fly to do as much damage per turn as you can. It's not a great strategy all the time, but it'll help pick up the pace a bit and get your more practice, faster.

38 minutes ago, CDP 2000 said:

So at the end of 75 minutes, if both players still have ships in play, how do you calculate a winner? Hits?

Yeah like @jftanner said ?

As long as you're enjoying the game that's what really counts

On 10/21/2018 at 1:00 AM, markcsoul said:

Even prior to 2.0 I felt like games were taking longer for most players for some reason. At my one and only SC this summer, I think I was the only player (out of 10) to finish all 4 of my games before time. Everyone else had at least 1 or 2 games go to time, some all 4.

Heck, at my LGS this past week I was watching 2.0 games for the first time (still haven't played any yet myself), and all the games I watched went to time, and weren't even close to finishing.

In 1.0 games went to time because of the crazy defense that some ships had. In 2.0 I think it's partly because people are running more ships again, and partly because double mods on offense are rare so it takes longer to kill ships.

Our game last evening went quite long so maybe CDP 2000 isn't as far off as I thought. I chock it up to two things in agreement with markcsoul. More ships. We each had four. And ending up light on mods. It was more fun in that my ships didn't just melt but the game did drag on.

I certainly feel a need to re-think my approach to making lists and particularly to flying and also to deployment against Tobias Beckett.

On 10/17/2018 at 4:16 PM, CDP 2000 said:

We are playing with 200 point squads per player, 2 players. The only thing we seem to do differently than is suggested is that we haven't purchased a game mat yet and play on a table (which is probably 1.5x the area of the 3x3 mat). 

If I'm reading this right and you were playing on a 13.5 sq ft area instead of a 9 sq ft game area, that'd make a huge difference in being able to run away way too easily. The official mat size makes it difficult to run and hide.

On 10/24/2018 at 6:33 AM, Frimmel said:

Our game last evening went quite long so maybe CDP 2000 isn't as far off as I thought. I chock it up to two things in agreement with markcsoul. More ships. We each had four. And ending up light on mods. It was more fun in that my ships didn't just melt but the game did drag on.

I certainly feel a need to re-think my approach to making lists and particularly to flying and also to deployment against Tobias Beckett.

Have played 4 games in the last 2 days, none of them went over 1h, 3 were under 45min.

I was running a 4x ship list againts people running 3 or 4 ship lists.