Board games that take forever to play.

[droog]

Hmmmm.....

Our catch-cry was 'How about a quick game of Axis & Allies?' Mind you, we played a fair bit of it, as well as Shogun.

We played a few games of Civilization; excellent game as nearly everybody else has said.

I spent about five weeks on a game of Empires of the Middle Ages once.

Who's played Outreach? Now there's a long game....

[Mr. Analytical]

Diplomacy.

I've never once finished a face-to-face game.

[Settembrini]

Diplomacy.

I've never once finished a face-to-face game.

In my view, Dippy is a fast-playing game...

[Gabriel]

Longest games I've played...
 
Axis & Allies is a Long Ass Game! LAG!
 

A&A is a pretty quick game in my book.

[Balbinus]

Has anyone tried the PC version of Diplomacy?  What is that like?

Diplomacy is mostly played online nowadays I think.

[Nicephorus]

Has anyone tried the PC version of Diplomacy?  What is that like?

I picked up from a bargain bin.  As you would expect from any game where the AI doesn't massively cheat, the AI sucks.  The computer players rarely  cooperate with each other or with humans, despite what their love/hate ratings say.  They are so stupid that they some times self bounce in the first year land grab.  

I mechanics are well implemented though,  I think there was 1 tiny rules error but I forget what it was.  And the map is good.

It's ok if you want to use it to run a game with other players but don't expect hours of fun on your own.

[Balbinus]

Ah, thanks.  

There are already good options for Diplomacy online I understand so it probably isn't needed for that.  Shame, it seems a natural for the company that gave us EUII and Victoria.

[Mr. Analytical]

In my view, Dippy is a fast-playing game...

  If you impose strict time limits on negotations.  We once played for four hours and got through 2 years.  It was ridiculous, people started demanding to see each others' orders and wanting public pledgings of allegiance.

[Ned the Lonely Donkey]

We've made a few assaults in Sid Meir's Civ and have yet to even make it to the industrial age. Also, there seems to be a problem with people being trashed early and then spending eight hours sitting on one city with no resources, drinking lots of beer and either dozing off or getting ratty.

Advanced Civ is a great, great game, although you do have to put away a whole day to play it.

The problem with Kingmaker is a messy endgame - very hard for one player to win decisively if the group is bloody minded enough (and have you ever found a board games group that lacked sufficient competitive spirit - "Quick, Dave's going to win, everybody attack Dave!").

Ned

[Blackleaf]

I used to play a lot of Warhammer 40K (1st Edition -- Rogue Trader) when I was in highschool.  My friend and I would use all sorts of lego men, plastic soldiers, and other toys mixed in with the Games Workshop miniatures.  This let us have fairly large armies.  Those games always lasted *at least* 4-5 hours, and rarely played through to completion.  We'd just run out of time, figure out who was winning, and call it a night.

Risk, Axis & Allies, and Talisman were also games you'd only start if you had a loooong time set aside to play them.

[Nicephorus]

4-5 Hours?!? I used to play old school wargames, that would be considered a quick set up time.  Some of the games mentioned here, such as EIA and F&E, take well over 100 hours to play to completion. When someone gets more than halfway through one of these games, it's semi-legendary.  It's not a game, it's a lifestyle choice, one that I've decide that I'm no longer cut out for.

[arminius]

It might be of interest to ask what it is that slows games down, and what can be done about it. E.g. with Diplomacy and a number of other games, the rules are really pretty simple, it's just the wrangling and strategizing that makes for slow play. Whereas other games have so many phases and rules obscurities requiring consultation that they'll be slow even if you play without thinking.

I think a lot of games could be enormously improved if people would worry less about winning and get on with it. Practice will provide insight and then after a while you can play fast and well. But this does make certain games unsuitable for players of divergent skill. E.g. in many operational-level wargames, if you simply blunder in, an opponent with greater skill will cut off all your supply and that's the end.

[Nicephorus]

It might be of interest to ask what it is that slows games down, and what can be done about it.

I think the monster games just try to model too much and stick on too much chrome that slows things down.  To really be playable, they need simplified rules with quicker turns and an order of magnitude fewer pieces.  

With games like diplomacy, you need to set rules on time and be serious about following them - take too long and you miss your turn.

[Ned the Lonely Donkey]

Risk, Axis & Allies, and Talisman were also games you'd only start if you had a loooong time set aside to play them.

Talisman is another game where I think the poor endgame ends up ruining the fun. By the time you're slugging it out for the win, all the fun is been and gone, and yet the slog to win takes up most of the time. I played a lot of Tal in my time, but I'd sooner just play the fun bit and then toss a coin for winner when things get boring.

Ned

[Gabriel]

Talisman is another game where I think the poor endgame ends up ruining the fun. By the time you're slugging it out for the win, all the fun is been and gone, and yet the slog to win takes up most of the time. I played a lot of Tal in my time, but I'd sooner just play the fun bit and then toss a coin for winner when things get boring.

Ned

Every time I've played Talisman, the first player to go for the Crown always loses.  The game is always won by someone who slogs around wasting time on the board, healing themselves as the player with the crown rolls to wound them.

Whenever my friends and I played, I'd always ask if we could house rule it so that the game ended as soon as someone claimed the crown, or that the crown allowed the player holding it to choose another player for immediate elimination instead of a simple wounding.  I'd always get overruled because everyone seemed to prefer games that were 1 hour of gameplay and 5 hours of one guy sitting on the crown while 2 other guys ran along the middle and outer tracks getting more and more uber.