Stalling and turtling are different things. Intentional stalling (remember that some people are just slower taking their turns) should be handled by tournament judge.

How about "each turn is limited to 1 minute for each 100 points of the build total to a max of 8 minutes"

Tempo is a HUGE part of this game. I regularly find myself on the wrong downbeat, and have to pass an entire turn to get back on the advantageous rhythm. Because of that, I think any rule remotely like the suggestion above is a poor band-aid.

Besides, running away is 10x more effective than continually passing.

You set a formal time limit and what you will find is players with complete justification taking the max allotment of time every single turn. :/

If you want to stop turtling, then put a time limit on how long a person gets to make a move per turn like in chess. If you're playing a 60 minute match there's no real reason any turn should take more than what 2 to 4 minutes to complete. (Even 4 minutes may be too long.) I played a few weeks ago in a tourny where during one match I literally only got 4 activation turns in a whole hour worth of play. Was not happy.

I don't understand the difference between Turtling and Stalling because ultimately you're ruining the sprite of competition for your opponent by pretty much not allowing them to compete. If you're dominating the amount of play time by taking forever to complete your turn, how is that fun for anyone but yourself? It's not really competition anymore. Like I said in a previous post, I've played in games that lasted a hour to 55 minute where in that whole span of time I only got 4 to 5 turns the whole game. Which forced me to speed up my turns because I knew that I wouldn't be able to get many more against the opponent. Now you could say, that was his tactic, to make me play faster, thus make mistakes because I know I'm going to get limited chances to do anything, but that frankly is a pretty crappy way to play a game.

Turtling= not using your actions at all, just staying in place. Usually sounds like this:
"Your turn."
"Perplex defense. Pass."

Stalling= not using your actions at a reasonable speed. Usually sounds like this:
"................"
"Seriously dude? He has two tokens! Just Perplex his defense and pass!"
"................"

BUt you can blitz like in chess. timer is not an allotement per turn but a global time for the whole match. each player has a chess timer, and if it reach zero, you loose. Then people will go quick and save time. It's a totally different game, sure... but it's interesting. It would be much easier to do with only PAC powers and no special, or if you perfectly know each figures and their special on boards though.

And what happens if your time runs out? Do you propose the opponent just plays out all their turns? Talk about playing to the tentpole.

No, the trouble with the concept of a clix clock is that not all players have the same number of moves and decisions to make. To a certain extent, one team HAS to to be the slower team and one the faster.

I don't like it either. As mention before passing is a stragdy too or sometimes you do need an extra turn to think. This rule can/will force people to make mistake. Also I have ran into people who will take 5 or more minutes to do anything. This rule will not stop these players.

I dont like the idea of an allotted time over a game. I had a team a while back that used multiples.of the batcycle and the batman that came with it and id play it at as fast a pace as I could but placing 18 plus smoke.clouds a turn takes time combined with the moves attacks moves agains outwits hammer dropping. All those choices for actions each turn even without pausing to think things through (which I would avoid doing by planning turns in my oppos turn) I was still taking alot of time up. Would you say I was in the wrong and or cheating just because I was using an off the wall team that had alot of free powers? As this clock system would penalise teams like that. Bearing mind the proposed purpose of the clock was to stop stallers not poeple whos turns take awhile due to the nature of their teams.

On topic I dont believe there is anything wrong with turtling (its not fun to play against) by trying to stop or penalise a valid strategy you are essentially saying this game with a variaty of mechanics and strategys must be played this way not that. After all if turtling were not a valid strategy wk wouldnt have defensive powers e.g barrier smoke cloud and figs e.g iron pharoh.

not necessarily fair.

The problem with a time limit on a team is that different teams play different. If my team alternates between shooting with a tentpole at the nearest target and clearing, i'll take less time than a guy with 4 outwit and/or perplexes, a bunch o hydra guys or other teams requiring a lot of positioning or critical choices

And if I legitimately am in a position where strategy will prevail over my bleak predicament, it seems unfair to basically force me to make whatever move pops into my head

I don't like the rule, but I think the issue should be addressed. I like the idea of a clock, but maybe something like a chess clock. That way it is fair across the board. Example an hour match, each player has thirty minute and if their time runs out they have no actions/turns. That way you can take as long as you want on your turn and you have the same amount of time as the other player.

I must side with those against this. I am as annoyed with the turtling as the next person not playing that way but that doesn't justify making changes that would alter this tactic.

I see there are already some good points made as to why not so I will only ad that we remember that this request is only up for discussion because we don't like it and not because it is actually hurting the game unless any are suggesting that the turtling tactic has you considering quitting. If this is the case I submit you may be a poor sport.

Back in the day there was a kid at my venue that always played Cosmic Spidey whenever the build allowed. Obviously constantly facing the baddest piece at the time got old for many but rather than say "that's not fair" one day one guy built a team that would specifically handle cosmic Spidey even tho it wasn't too rounded against the field. That guy probably didn't win the tourney but he won the hearts of the other players when he crushed the annoying Spiderman and embarrassed the kid into no longer playing that as his only big piece.

If you are playing at your local venue and have already answered this problem there, than why expound upon this here?


Dollowmite; your above suggestion is the closest thing I have seen to a possibly "fair" answer. Playing a lengthy team is your right but it shouldn't be an excuse for draining the clock and leaving little time for anyone using a more efficient team.

We played a scenario once where the map shrank by one column on each row. We called it the shrinking universe or something like that. All characters caught on a shrinking square took one penetrating damage. Everyone ended up in the middle and it ended up with some great brawls. Lots of fun.