[SG2] Game size

Jaime T was curious about how big the average 
SG2 game is.... 

My biggest to date (Grey Day, for those of you 
who recall it, from which the famous Ted quote 
arose "We stopped playing because the figures 
got tired...."), was on a 19.5 x 8' (at the widest, 
tapering to 2') sort of triangular board and 
probably featured about 100 KV plus 8 or so 
vehicles on the one side plus ortillery versus 
about 140 or so humans plus about 5 or 6 
vehicles on the other. That took 12 hours and 
could have probably run another 4 to finish. 

That's not average though. Our last battle, that 
ran about 6-7 hours with jawing and 
meandering and humming and hawing was two 
platoons of NAC (about 32 each) and two 
sections of auxilliaries (10 NSL Pathfinders and 
7 Ghurkas) attacking a platoon of ESU with 
some mines in a village at a crossroads. 

Most of the Con events I've run have been 
either 8 hour slots with each side consisting of 
about two - three platoons (my platoons tend 
to be 35-40 strong) versus about the same on 
the other side (or if they are in defenses, 
maybe 2 platoons) or 4 hour slots with each 
side having a platoon plus maybe an attached 
vehicle or two and a specialist team 
(sniper/EW). 

One game I recall had an OUDF force (platoon 
in damaged APCs) fleeing from a pursuing PAU 
platoon and a cutoff force (Platoon of FSE with 
two jeeps and a hovertank). It took about 4-5 
hours. 

Another one was an NSL assault on a NAC PDC 
built under a temple ruin. The NAC had about a 
platoon plus some heavy PA (Gears) and a 
couple of jeeps. The attackers had about three 
platoons of infantry. That took about 4-5 hours. 

To get in under the 4 hour barrier, you need to 
keep the force sizes down. We played one 
where one side was two 4 man elite SF units 
with "war criminals" who were trying to escape 
across the board and through the DMZ at the 
far side so the war criminals could be tried for 
"ethnic cleansing" crimes. The pursuers were a 
4 squad platoon of local troops. That only ran 
about 3-4 hours. 

That should give you some idea. I'm fortunate 
in that where we usually play, we usually start 
setup around 10 am Saturday (on a 10x6 
board) and end up cleaning up sometime late 
in the evening or early in the morning after 
we've went out for lunch, went out for dinner 
and some beer, etc. and played through the 
interim periods. I tend to (as someone else on 
the list mentioned) view the game as a key 
social vector and the socializing is as important 
as the game (which means that we don't get 
hung up on rules calls - we do what is the most 
"realistic feeling" to us... have a brief 
conversation and come to consensus - which 
helps string the games out too sometimes...). 

If you're trying to fit a game inside 4 hours, I 
find that avoiding hidden units, EW, artillery, 
snipers, mines, and working on a smaller board 
all tend to help. I also find that if you keep 
booting the players along gently (need to do 
this at conventions... strangely many wargamers 
seem to make indecision a mainstay....), that 
tends to shave about 15%-25% off total game 
time. When rec gaming, we never bother with 
this and sometimes a turn halts for a 30 minute 
discussion of the correct use of a mixed 
minefield (channelizing into kill zones versus 
blocking retreats, etc)..... 

Tomb. 
-----------------------------------------------------------
Thomas Barclay
Instructor, CST 6304 (TCP/IP programming for the Internet)
kaladorn@fox.nstn.ca 
http://fox.nstn.ca/~kaladorn/CST6304
http://stargrunt.ca/tb/CST6304