Each game turn (Germany start to France finish) usually takes the group about an hour after the first couple of rounds. In a day of playing A&A (8-10 hours), we might get 2 games in, or one long game if the Axis is rolling pretty good. People space, there are interruptions, and if you're serious and this stuff bothers you, don't even try playing the game, cause life happens. We enjoy the strategy of the game and don't care if it takes a few hours to play through some turns. Now I will say that there are some things that could be done better in my group, but it all comes down to the players. If my group sees its a wash for one side, we just call it and quick setup for another game. Game decided before its over - this happens quite a bit, and helps make for quicker games. Then you get on a cold streak and don't want to roll anymore. You can have a one hour game or a 12+ hour game.just like other strategy games. Use an infantry + country marker for your army marker & BAM, no longer trying to cram 100 troops into a small country. You can also have country 'fleet' markers for the stacking of multiple troops into small territories. This allows better stacking of pieces, with keeping a decent count on what you have vs what they have. China is a quick play and so is ANZAC.Ĭluttered board - if you use miniature poker chips (different colors), the board will not be cluttered at all. Again though, some countries won't take that long at all. Get an hourglass and start it after the country currently playing does their buy.
If you really wanted to speed it up, you could implement a time limit per turn. Long down-time - turns seem to take a while? You should expect that for the first few rounds, they are the most important for the Axis. If you're going to bitch about 10 minutes, I doubt this is your type of game anyway. Overall, you can set up the whole game-board in less than 10 minutes. That just leaves Germany & Japan - Japan only takes a bit because of the spread fleet & planes. ANZAC, China, Russia, Italy, France & US don't really have that many pieces at the beginning of the game in the Alpha 3 rules. UK takes the longest due to having pieces everywhere. If you have 4 people playing - give each person the country they are going to play and have them set it up. Long Setup Time - The setup time isn't really that long. I am seeing that people are complaining about some things that can easily be fixed with some house rules. My buddies and I get together just about every Saturday and play A&A GLOBAL - Alpha 3 rule set.