Timeouts in Finals: Do they happen too often?

If you can successfully defend against not losing a single blood or pool a whole turn you can exit the game with 0.5 VP.

I sse at least 2(3) cards that can prevent a withdrawal under such conditions:

1. 419 Operation (corner case)
2. Army of rats (often played)
3. Fame (often played)

It seems to me that this favors the player who wishes to prevent vp's from leaving(fleeing) the table...

I think two hour time limit is to simple.One solution could be some sort of extra time could be added for each VP left in the game, so say it's 10 more minutes for each VP, this discourages walling up to time out. But on the other hand this could add to much pressure on event organizers as it could add almost an hour to a tournament and could hurt a play style that may or may not be toxic. I haven't seen a solution that I really like but I do think that the game it's self has become longer with all the pool gain options and the flat two hour rule is far to simple for such a complex game.

2 hour limit - but instead of closing the game, the game go on, and the organizer start playing Britney Spears album on a sound system. Increase the volume and/or choose even worse singer every 10 minutes.

nc-italy wrote:

Izaak wrote: People just play too slow in general, not just in the finals.

Each cycle of ashur tablets can eat away as much as 5 mins of cards
selection-put in hand-reshuffle deck...

I've never seen anyone take more than maybe 90 seconds to Ashur-cycle, and if I did, I'd call a judge and ask for time to be added to the clock. 5 minutes to decide on 13 cards is total and complete stalling. Or they are just inexperienced, I suppose, but in either case, the table shouldn't be penalized for their slowness.

This is the EXACT same thing as someone taking 5 minutes to decide if they are going to Govern down or forward, and you'd call a judge for that, wouldn't you?

Chaitan wrote: Why not just reward offensive play by multiplying survival bonus with victory points.

Offensive play is already rewarded via the definition of a Game Win.

Ohlmann wrote: 2 hour limit - but instead of closing the game, the game go on, and the organizer start playing Britney Spears album on a sound system. Increase the volume and/or choose even worse singer every 10 minutes.

I might be more tempted to play the back catalogue of Toto or possibly Willow Smith... but you know... each to their own.