How long does an average game take?

[Marc Grad]

I was wondering approximately how many hours does the average 2 player game take for most of you out there?

I've played 5 times and my games have taken from as little as 1.25 hours all the way to a 6 hour monster.

[andypalmer]

Those are probably good ranges with average being 2-2.5 hours. I've never seen on go beyond 5, but could conceive how one legitimately could.

[Veldrin]

The games with three or four players in general take at least 30 mins more.

Once the players are familiar witht the rules and the strategies available the average game will probably take 2.5 hours, and slightly longer if it is a three or four player game.

[glow=green,2,300]Veldrin[/glow]

[Ingwe]

The first game I played lasted from 20u00 till 4u20 but some pieces were missing and we had to make up rules. But the second game I played lasted 5 hours. I hope the next game can be shorter so we can play twice.

Grtz

[Marc Grad]

My games are still averaging about 3.5 hours, including a 3 player game which took about 4.5. But that was the first multiplayer game we had tried, and for the Shadow players the mechanics took some getting use too.

I'm hoping we can learn to play faster soon, cause my time is limited and I would like to get more games in per session! ;D

[darkman]

On New Year's Eve, I played two games within a 4.5 hour period.

The first was a 3-player game where one of the Shadow opponents was new. It ended up with them bickering over whether to crush the last VP city or let me corrupt myself two steps into Mordor. Not pretty for the good guys.

The second game was a straight two-player contest (the new guy was very impressed with the game and wanted to play again). My FP won with a fairly quick ring-dunk. I guess it all evens out.

Anyway, I concur with the average being 2-2.5 hours.

[deadeyethingy]

After about a gajillion plays the average is... 2.47 hours.

I've had a few end right around 2 hours, and a few that ended around 3.5 (mostly at the beginning). But on average the game lasts around 2.5 - 3 hours.

[dougadamsau]

Hmm, I better speed up - still around the 4-5 hour mark.

[Martinger]

My first game was about 3 1/2 hours.
Now I'm down to about 2 1/2 on average.

[nigel]

It's obviously dependant on the speed/experience of the players, but it also depends on the strategy that the players adopt.

I'm seeing most games taking around 2 hours - which is probably 10-12 turns, but I have seen a few that go longer where the SP puts more resources (dice) into the hunt ...

But yep, 2 fairly quick experienced players should get this finished in a couple of hours.

Nigel

[Jyrki]

With 2 very good and very careful players, and no blitz, the game lasts more than 6 hours every time.

But why aren't they blitzing if they are very good ??

[kwojtasz]

the blitz can be more luck of the dice/hunt draw dependant. So if you are content to win/lose by the dice then blitz. If you want to have more control over the result so that some bad dice/hunt draws aren't your down fall, then a slower game is possible.

So far I've only played 5 times, but didn't get a chance to by the game till February '05 and our games are averaging just over 3 hours with setup. I found the 4 player game lasted about an hour longer.

[wormtongue]

Strange... I don't know how to speed up our gameplay. We met this weekend for a 3-player game marathon and played 5 games in a row (with some time for eating and sleeping ;D).

Our games took 5:45 h, 4:45 h, 6:40 h, 6:10 h and the longest game even 8:30. We even ran out of cards in one game. We were wondering how people could play this game in about 2 hours, but it seems that we have a quite different approach to this game then.

Greetings,

Grima Wormtongue

[Veldrin]

Do you move the Fellowship slow and safe and/or do the Shadow invest much in the Hunt?

If either the Shadow plays a military blitz or the Fellwswhipstries to Rush to Mount Doom (the one trigger the other nno matter who began) the game is generally over in two hours.

Then a three player game is always slower than a two player game.

[glow=green,2,300]Veldrin[/glow]

[Jyrki]

wormtongue said:

but it seems that we have a quite different approach to this game then.

I played with fast players: they lose quickly ;D

All the games I played lasted more than 2 hours, with ONE exception (1 hour).
The most experienced player I met (winner of 6 wargames tournaments) played 2 times more slowly than me and the game lasted NINE hours.

My average 2-players game lasts 4 hours 1/2 now (more with 3 or 4 players). When I discovered the game, we played more than 5 hours every time.