TIL the day our group turned a 2-hour game into a 6-hour slogfest

Last Saturday my usual game group decided to finally bust out Twilight Imperium 4th edition. Everyone online always says it's the BEST game night experience ever but I COMPLETELY disagree after that day. We had 6 people and the first round alone took almost 2 hours because two guys kept arguing over trade agreements and who could ally with whom. By hour 4 we were all cranky and someone nearly flipped the table over a rules dispute about fighter tokens. We never even finished the game, just packed it up at 11 PM. Has anyone else had a hyped up game day totally crash and burn like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

kimmurphy12d ago

Our group had a similar disaster with a board game last year where one guy spent 20 minutes explaining house rules nobody agreed on. It made me think about how trusting what you hear online without checking the details first is a recipe for frustration in so many things, like buying a car or planning a trip. Your mileage may vary a lot with stuff like TI4 because the group dynamic matters way more than the hype.

davis.noah12d ago

Round one in a 6 player game of TI4 is always going to be a beast, that's just the nature of the beast when everyone's figuring out strategy cards and politics. My group had a similar 5 hour first round once because a guy tried to negotiate a three way trade route that fell apart, but by round two the pace picked up and we had a blast. Your group crashed because nobody had a clear plan going in, not because the game itself is a slog.

the_ruby12d ago

My buddy tried to run a game of Diplomacy once and that thing went from a 4 hour game to a total friend group meltdown by hour 6. The guy who got backstabbed first spent the whole rest of the night just trying to ruin everyone else's fun out of spite.