Don’t Like ‘Dice Down’? Try ‘Finish the Phase’

We’ve all been there. You’re at a tournament. It’s the last turn of the game. Either your clock or your opponent’s clock is about to run out, and there’s a mad dash to get enough done to secure a win before the clock runs out. Intentions are stated quickly, units are moved less than carefully, and dice are rolled so hastily it’s entirely possible that something was miscounted. While it can make for an exciting finish to a game, it’s also more frantic and error prone than we really like in our clean and balanced game of clearly stated intentions and careful movement.

As a Tournament Organizer, I really like chess clocks. It helps keep the event on schedule and also makes for a more fair event. Everyone has the same amount of time to make their decisions and moves, so ‘slow playing’ to deny your opponent enough opportunities to win isn’t a problem we have to worry about. We also don’t have to worry about slow tables holding up the whole event, or players getting annoyed because they feel like their game result would have been different if they’d had as much time as a slower table is taking. So getting rid of the clock isn’t really an option, but making a little change to how we use it might help.

Tournaments typically use a rule called ‘Dice Down‘ when the clock runs out. That means the player who has run out of time has to immediately stop, and can no longer move or issue orders to units, roll dice, or take other actions like picking up loot tokens. (You can still do things like roll to see if there’s a turn 7 though, or anything else that you would normally pause the clock for, at least in my opinion.) That’s why players tend to try to cram as much into their last few seconds as possible. Once their clock is out, they just have to stand there and watch their opponent take their remaining turns with however much time they have left.

I recommend that you allow the player to ‘Finish the Phase‘ instead of going immediately to ‘Dice Down‘ when the clock runs out. Just finish the current turn phase they are in when the clock runs out, and then go to ‘Dice Down‘. We’ve been trying this at Mid-Atlantic events for the past few months. It seems to work well, and it’s not a big risk to try since players don’t clock out all that often.

The time pressure still stays on the important part, decision making, and the abuse potential is low. Players still have to play on the clock, and still have to make their movement decisions quickly enough to get to the ranged and melee phases. If the clock runs out in the movement phase, players still can’t go on to the ranged and melee phases when they are done, so they can’t capitalize on movement decisions like charges. If they can get to the ranged or melee phase before their clock completely runs out, then they can take their time and make sure the dice rolls are all counted clearly and correctly. The most important and time consuming decisions are made in the movement phase, so rolling out the last few shots or combats at a normal pace isn’t going add much time to the game.

Giving credit where it’s due, this idea originally came out of an episode of Drunk and Disordered. It’s a fun podcast put out by the Nerdhammer club, you should check it out.