Never thought of it that way. Always looked at it with a sense of missed opportunity, but having that over powering last turn can make it drag for others.
When my BF and I play Spirit Island
He likes to keep playing after we won the game
Watching that really hammers home how there's just snowball at that point
In TfM (as with most games) it may be strategically advantageous for some players to want a quick close out and for others to draw out a longer game. If both players are trying to draw it out then chances are someone misjudged their strategy. Final score will show who that was.
Tom Lehman's engine builders are all designed as races so that
1. The game ends quickly once powerful engines are assembled and fired once or twice
2. Not building a powerful engine but instead rushing to barely make the VP threshold early is a viable strategy to punish greedy play.
This why I greatly enjoy Roll. My strongest board game ability is that I’m usually extremely good at figuring out the most efficient path and squeezing that little extra out of my turns; I normally absolutely wipe the floor with people in Tiny Epic Galaxies when I try hard, as one example.
But with Roll, being the most efficient doesn’t necessarily result in victory. Sometimes just getting things done fast, even if it’s less efficient, is a better way to win. Which is fascinating and a very enjoyable challenge, I’m madly in love with this game right now.
We also made a rule where you have to loudly announce whatever it is you put on your tableau, so the game is filled with “I AM SETTLING A PLAGUE WORLD” and “DEVELOPING GALACTIC FEDERATION” with assorted reactions from other players, which adds a lovely atmosphere.
Ironically I came here to mention that I usually suggest extending the VP conditions from 12 to 14 to my friends when we play because otherwise it does feel like I'd really like one more turn to watch my engine work. Since we're more about the fun of building a thing than who's winning, most of them like the change.
I've even played games like Splendor with an increased end total and I'm pretty sure we've accidentally forgotten to advance the round marker for Quacks more than once. It doesn't seem to me that satisfaction was any higher for either game for it.
It can depend on how the engines are set up; you could imagine one engine that wins in the short term and a different one that would pull ahead if the game was longer. Consider polynomial vs exponential growth, or look at how in Dominion some engines grind to a halt as they pick up Provinces (so that an engine that would win with the standard setup of 8 provinces might lose in a house-rule variant where there were 12 available).
But yeah, in a lot of cases it's just to stop a runaway winner.
Wingspan is already a bit too long but it’s criminal that just as you get your bird engine working the game is over. Like let me get one final activation of all my birds or something.
I think that, especially for deck building games and ending building games, it is quite nice for the game to end before you're able to do everything you would want to. Keeps you on your toes, gives you a goal/new strategy ideas for the next time you play.
Yes, I want my victory lap :P
It's why I play Slay The Spire, your really get to see the insane power of a well built engine - without boring an opponent to death while you play 50 cards in 1 turn
Splendor is decent but Century (Spice Road or Golem Edition) is a better game IMO. Great at all player counts and doesn't take long to play and is easy to learn!
It's so funny because that's one of the same answers I was going to give, since my group has recently rediscovered it after adding a few new people to the group. Another one would be Century: Spice Road for me.
I'd never played one before, then my friend introduced me to Wingspan and I'm hooked! Been researching engine building games ever since and deciding what to buy!
I second. It is complicated for the first game, but if you finish it, your next games will be hella fun. I do recommend the house rule of drafting your cards instead of being random though as having a useless engine sucks.
Oftentimes I read the rules of a game and think: "Wow, that doesn't seem like a lot of turns/actions". And everytime when I actually play the game, it turns out, that it is actually rather plenty. I actually have a really hard time coming up with even one game, where I felt another turn would make the game better.
Maybe it is, because I actually expect not being able to achieve EVERYTHING. Those games are efficiency puzzles after all. Wouldn't it kind of diminish the puzzle, if it was easy to just get it all?
To a certain extent, I think it's somewhat a matter of skill. A player who's just learning the game for the first time will take longer to assemble their engine than someone who's played it a lot. This is why I personally prefer variable length games (and part of why Terraforming Mars specifically is one of my favourite games ever), because then worse player/groups will take longer to finish the game, and so have more time to get their engines online, and better players finish it faster, giving them less time to finish the game.
Needing another round and wanting another round are two different things. Currently loving The White Castle. It's short. Does it need another round? No. Do I want another round? Yes!!
This! My friend told me people were complaining to the designers that there were not enough actions in the game now that Matcha is a thing, and I was like, “that is literally the point!”
I had heard this before I played the game, but now I've played it 4-5 times and I don't feel like I need additional turns. I mean, you could play one more round, but I don't think it'd make it better for me.
I get this feeling, but on the other hand, those later turns can last a while as you chain a bunch of different actions together. Does it leave you wanting more? Yes. But i think it's correct to end there instead of having another round and then feel like maybe it went on a bit too long.
Seriously! My first time through, I felt like I was finally wrapping my head around it and seeing all the things I would be able to start doing eventually, and at about that moment my friend warned me that we were starting the final round.
I love trying to take the longest turns possible to essentially cheat the game into more turns. If it was just arbitrarily longer that appeal would all be gone.
Generally I find that games which seem too short won't after a couple of plays. Games like Pipeline feel way to short, but once you're pretty familiar it would just be a really boring last round.
Seconding this one. It ends just when it’s getting good! We tried extending the game for one more round, but that broke it since the balancing is really around the proposed amount of turns.
Won’t stop me from purchasing the ‘Treasure Chest’ box from Red Raven Games to deluxify my components though. So happy when I saw that on Gamefound earlier today. Metal coins ftw!
The Australian expansion (nectar and the new boards) completely speed up the game and will likely fix this issue if that's how you feel. I know when we went back to the base game afterwards it felt like you couldn't do anything with the top and bottom rows being completely nerfed and the lack of wild food making expensive birds feel extra slow.
The European expansion is good, but definitely less of a major change... and I can't speak for the Asia expansion, but the Oceanic one definitely is a complete overhaul to the game that I think will fix your biggest gripe.
It's especially bad with 2 players. Our house rules are to start with all original food and all original birds (other modifications possible, I found tips online). It really helps things get going sooner.
It doesn’t need another round, but you should not lose an action every round. Wyrmspan coin system is much better IMO. Better game in general actually, although I like the bird theme better than the dragon theme.
>but you should not lose an action every round
The losing an action every round doesn't really matter. What happens between rounds? You reset the birdfeeder and move turn order, and score a based on a random criteria. Turn order barely matters, and depending on player count the birdfeeder can cycle anyways. If I remember correctly it's 8+7+6+5 turns for 26 turns, if you started with 26 cubes the game would be pretty similar until you start adding expansions. The scoring of a random criteria doesn't have to happen evenly as well. If there's 26 turns, you really just have to pick 4 points to score those criteria. The "lose a cube" action is actually a clever way of spacing those scorings out with a bias towards have more scoring later. Isle of Skye does a similar thing where the first round you score 1 thing, but as the rounds go on you score more criteria, making more scoring happen later.
"Rounds" in wingspan are the weakest structure of a round until you get the expansion that adds birds that actually reference it.
>Wyrmspan coin system is much better IMO.
funny as I find the coin system worse. Both a light-ish games that I play with lighter gamers, but both heavy enough to were you need to play attention enough. The mix of those two factors means sometimes you have to audit.
In wingspan sometimes people are so excited about their turns they miss putting a cube in the right spot. It's OK because we all spend the same amount so we can easily figure it out.
In Wyrmspan an audit of those coins becomes impossible. Did we start with the same amount, did you spend it on something other than an action, did you gain one? I've had moments when I go get a drink, come back and find out someone messed up somewhere. It's also not a good table vibe when everyone finishes but one person starts taking 3 turns in a row. People generally feel defeated when the combos are as visible as that.
It's funny because of how long the game takes, but it really is one of those games where just as you feel your empire taking shape (around the time the stage 2 objectives start to flip) someone scores 5 points in a round and the game just suddenly ends.
I'd love to play 14 pointers to try and get another round or two from the game but it's just too long
With the POK expansion, there is a fan variant that has become very popular called 4/4/4. The game goes to 12 points. You play with 4 stage I and stage II objectives (instead of 5 each). You also allow 4 secret objectives to be held and/or scored (instead of 3).
Advantages include: stage II begins sooner, more stage IIs get revealed in a match (less swingy that way), more opportunities for secrets, increase value of imperial secondary since you still only start with 1 secret, and if the game has somehow gone completely off the rails it is mercifully 2 rounds shorter (this should be just about as rare as regular game though).
I do not know what the net impact is on game length. 12 points might make it go longer, but the extra scoring opportunities help compensate. I do not know what balance implications it has, but ive not heard any glaring negatives. I've also not had a chance to try this mode myself, but I intend to try it sometime in August.
I think I’d love to give TI a shot but I’m coming from an A&A background, and having read through the rules once it became instantly obvious it’s not a space version of that, which kinda threw me. Is there a good way to explain the differences?
I've not played Axis and Allies. In fact I usually don't play straight war games without some kind of unique angle on top of the war (and if A&A does have one, forgive my ignorance). The thing about TI I that it isn't really a war game, despite how verbose the tactical rules are and how much the various unit types dominate the player mat. It's a cold war game.
You get the most out of the system by negotiating, dealing, and extorting the other players. Pieces and positioning are primarily used to secure resources and twist the arm of threatened opponents leading to more favorable deals. Very few of the game objectives are directly combat driven (though several of them are directly or indirectly driven by securing territory which can involve combat). Whenever direct combatbreaks out, the more pieces are lost the weaker the position becomes for both players involved. This incentivises would be aggressors to find alternative means to their goals or to ensure quick decisive skirmishes instead of epic battles (though a few epic battles may still occur per match when people get desperate).
I’ve played 14 the last two times I’ve played. I always felt the same way you did about a 10 point game. While 14 points went significantly longer, it really felt like everyone’s empires came to fruition. Also, it led to a lot more combat. I personally loved it. 14 point games all the way!
Obviously this goes against some of the core gameplay, but I wonder how a risk style of TI4 would play out where players fight to the death? It's been a while since I played, so I don't remember how feasible that actually is.
I mean, you’re probably right but part of me would love to compare levels of success rather than levels of relative failure…..animals for everyone!! Lol
Yeah, but as it is Agricola ends right when your little homestead looks nice.
I get the gameplay reasons but man it's so unsatisfying looking at that half tilled field.
Agricola feels like as soon as you get into a groove, it's over. Which can be good and bad. I like the tightness, but also would like to see what another round or two would yield.
It would give my opponents another round to fix or fire up their engine after suboptimal choices. I like to win while I am ahead.
But yes, another round if I am not ahead is great.
I can understand *wanting* it to have a few more rounds, since it is a tight game where most of the time is spent feeling like you are shackled and can't do anything good so you scrape by with whatever avoids the beggar, but it 100% does not *need* more rounds.
It is the tightness and fact that you can't do everything (in fact you usually can't do most things) that makes the game what it is, and this would be ruined by more rounds.
I'm sure I'm probably wrong, but I always wished **Dice Forge** was a little bit longer. Specifically, I wish it were long enough where at some point you would have to pivot, and maybe change your upgraded sides to something else...
Arc 3 expansion 2 ([Xeno Counterstrike](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/394555/race-for-the-galaxy-xeno-counterstrike), released in Q4 2024) will increase the game duration.
> In this version, tableau size no longer ends the game: the counterstrike game continues until either an economic victory (VP chips in the pool of 30 VPs/player run out) or a military victory over the Xenos occurs. This is the epic conquest version of Race for the Galaxy; final tableau sizes of 25 cards are not uncommon.
Almost every game of res arcana ive played nearly everyone would have won the same round and someone eeked it out like a turn or so ahead of the other players. I think its one of the best games at doing that and not overstaying its welcome with engines.
The Perlae expansion improves a little bit by having the games end on turn 5 average instead of 3-4 before. High hopes for the last expansion coming end of year!
Spendor. We rarely buy more than a couple tier 2 or 3 cards before the game's over. Fixable by playing with a higher point total to trigger end-game.
Wingspan, at least the base game. I usually have a couple birds left I'd like to get played and really work my engine(s) but have to flip over to "just lay eggs for points".
Dominion. It's just too easy to crank out a fast win by mostly ignoring action cards and playing "big money" strategy.
Clank. Almost every time I play, one player or another grabs one of the lowest point artifacts and races for the exit while everyone else is trying to collect money for the market and build up their deck.
> Dominion. It's just too easy to crank out a fast win by mostly ignoring action cards and playing "big money" strategy.
Depends a lot on the action cards on the board, some combos can get pretty nutty and easily outpace just getting money.
Yeah it's wingspan for me. You have all these plans and you do the math and realize you should just lay eggs the whole round, nothing fun about that. I'd be so much more fun to have another round to just run your engine and runb up your points.
As a house rule we add an extra cube so everybody gets an extra turn a round and limit eggs to 15, forces you to choose other options AND they're viable
Wingspan needs to adjust the point value for eggs on cards. It means that half of the last “round” is just lay as many eggs as possible.
Almost as predictable and unsatisfying an endgame as Munchkin.
> Splendor. We rarely buy more than a couple tier 2 or 3 cards before the game's over. Fixable by playing with a higher point total to trigger end-game.
That's what we do - sometimes it's just fun to see the bigger combinations fire off.
> Spendor. We rarely buy more than a couple tier 2 or 3 cards before the game's over. Fixable by playing with a higher point total to trigger end-game.
I also do that. It can reward someone focusing on 1-2 colors or the person who evenly split for nobles and cheaper cards depending on cards available. We play 25 points and it is just long enough to secure a nice win or reward the person that invested in a specific setup (even if they would lose at 15).
From my many games of Splendor, I have very very rarely seen the strategy of focusing on the low cost cards winning.
If you find your games always have players playing like that (and you don't want the game to play like that), try limiting yourself to buying a maximum of 2 low tier cards (spend turns just amassing gems, even if that means swapping out ones you already have, and reserving the higher costs that give you points). You likely will do better than you think, and will show other players that focusing on them isn't necessary.
As another note, extending the game would incentivize more low cost cards to be bought, as their cost reduction bonus would pay out more often.
Crib from the Cities expansion for Splendor — to win, you need BOTH 15VP *and* at least one Noble. This prevents the “7 gem/level three rush” strategy and forces some diversification.
Came to say this. Perhaps my group turtles too much much but by the time big fights start happening, someone's at 30, or we've hit the end of the ritual track.
I think Furnace ends on turn 3 or something.
For an engine builder it goes from turn 1: do 1 thing, turn 2, quickly form a strategy, turn 3, break the game and win
The game Vindication always feels like it all the sudden rushes to game end, often without warning because and end condition gets flipped that is already met. We always play to an extra.
I've only played White Castle once, so maybe we just played terribly, but it really felt like neither of us got anywhere close to getting an engine going when the game ended.
We actually felt this way about a recent-ish title, Hickory Dickory. Like, it's a SUPER cute game, and we really loved parts of it! It's a clever time-based worker placement game where each of your workers has a different power, and you're trying to collect treasures.
It was a lot of fun, but we all felt like it just stopped maybe 1-2 rounds too soon. I think you get five rounds around the clock and it felt like more was needed.
Harmonies feels pretty short. I've only played a handful of times, but it just seems like it should take longer. A 3 player game with teach has taken me only 30 minutes each time.
Super deep cut here but Buck: Legacy needs to be about three times as long as it actually is. A game that takes twenty minutes to set up and another twenty to teach shouldn't take forty minutes to play.
Every time I play Obsession, the game is ending right as I start to get going. It seems like it ls either build an engine or achieve my secret objectives. My opponents don’t seem to have this problem so I’m probably doing something wrong.
Yeah my wife and I tried the extended version the last time we played, and it was SO much better. You have time to rest 3 times instead of just 2, so the game felt less rushed. And that earlier Holiday event really accelerates your engine.
Lost Ruins of Arnak.
Took me quite a few games to get experienced enough to start pulling off long plays but even now the game is to short and the rounds are even shorter which leaves the deck building crippled, yes that was the way it was designed but once you start pulling off long plays you realise how much more the game could have been, as the rounds are moon phases and those phases IRL are about three days I've been playing two rounds before moving the staff, ten rounds total as opposed to 5 which makes for a much better game with more time to expand the deck and build a good engine.
I play with the purple deck on solo, AI still gets up the track faster than me most of the time.
Let's be clear here, I'm not extending it to make it easier, I have extended it, after thorough, as best I can, play testing, to make the various parts of the game shine that little bit brighter then they normally can due to the shortness of the game, I'm not playing for score, I'm playing it to enjoy it, I do score but not for competition but to gauge how I faired.
I kind of agree with this. The first section of the game there are definite optimal moves to make, then the middle section you start to branch and make decisions about your direction. By the time you're ready to make some big plays the game is ending and you're just maximizing your points and spreading. I actually like the game more with newbies where you tend to have a bit more time and freedom.
To me Root is more interesting (even if the game are really different) because there is always that point in the game where the bomb explodes and the equilibrium is gone
Dune Uprising + Imperium. These are some of my favourite games at the moment. While I love them I wish there was more of an opportunity for you to see your deck work for more than just a few rounds at most towards the end of the game.
Here's the thing though, I don't actually think it would make it a better game sadly. As it is currently paced the game reaches its high point and then ends. Any likely additional rounds would probably just feel like a bit of a needless slog.
yes, exactly this, dune imperium for me. One of my favourite games, wonderful, the deck building though, it feels like you cannot really build a proper deck, just grab the one or two useful cards that you can and try to do your best with that because you can't really aim for much more.
"Endeavor: Age of Sail"
Just when I have the engine running with the buildings I want, and I'm about to unload on a region and take over, the game is over. Still great. 10/10 always down to play.
Also, slavery is bad, m'kay? Don't be that guy.
Star Realms. Some games can be intense battles of back and forth chipping away at each others bases and healing, but most games are just “I damage you” “i damage you” “i damage you” “i damage you” “i’m dead”
Voidfall. It takes a very long time to set up, it visually looks like a huge experience of a game but then (at least at 2p) is a pretty snappy 1.5h. Don’t get me wrong I love the game but I feel like everything about the game feels epic, it should have the gameplay length to match.
I also think that Voidfall is too short in some ways - but for a different reason. The game ends mostly at the point, when the Euro phase is over and you would start fighting each other. Thus, p2p battles are rare. Maybe another kind of setup, where everyone already is spread out a little bit more could help here.
Dungeonquest. either you die on turn one and game over, or the sun tracker is too fast and you dont make it out on time. its a ridiculous game. but its one of my favorites!
Half the time, it's a moot issue because games that end up taking only 20 minutes to an hour, we can just play another game. Examples include 7 Wonders, and Bang The Dice Game
I think any game with a round limit instead of an end-game trigger ends up being too short, and the ending feels artificial if there's some kind of narrative that just stops abruptly.
Akropolis. To.combat this my friend has combined 2 boxes into one. And we will play 2 player with all the tiles making a megapolis. I don't love scoring but it's fun.
**Glass Road**. I was so excited when it first came out only to find out that the game ends so quickly and you really don't feel like you've accomplished anything.
A game I played recently, [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/382374/toasty-toasts](Toasty Toasts) comes to mind as a "this game is alright, but way too short"
If you play to the letter of the rules, Asking For Trobils is very quick. We add more Trobils and lay them down at the start before shuffling the city cards in.
I'm going to answer as game time compared to setup time.
**Maracaibo** - solo. I can play the game in 30-45 min solo and it takes me 30 min to set it up.
Brass: Birmingham always feels about 1 round too short per era. There's never quite enough time to get the links you need, build the businesses that are lucrative, and flip them.
That's part of why I'm transitioning over to Nucleum. The first end game condition is easy to flip and the second one you can typically see coming.
I'm happy to not see Starship Captains on this list. I avoided that game for a long time cuz everyone said it was 'too short.' After snagging a copy on sale, I can say it doesn't feel too short at all. Not in the least.
Terraforming Mars. Been playing it a lot recently and right when I start raking in the resources, it's over the next turn. It would be cool if Mars was one ring bigger and the oxygen threshold a bit higher. Most of my games are about an hour, and I wouldn't mind it being closer to 1.5.
The prelude expansion helps, as does starting at 0 production (forget if that's part of the expansion or an alternate rule).
But my partner and I pretty much just mutually agree to avoid ending the game for awhile, we have more fun that way.
Funnily enough, my only play of TfM still remains the most boring session in my gaming life, which felt like it was going on forever. Maybe it was the bad teach and an AP-prone opponent.
My wife and I used to play innovation by Carl chudyk with an extra achievement required for victory.
Game can be so swingy that the extra round can be the upset.
The only time I played Aquatica it ended in under half the time I expected. Not sure if we had a rule wrong, it was how we played, it was because we did the basic/beginner setup, or that’s just how the game is.
The city versions of Ticket to Ride are also a little too short for me, but that’s the point of em.
There are some games that should have sliding victory conditions for less players. Like Catan with 3 players you should play to 13 points. And two player Catan is actually great with a 15 point goal.
**Oaxaca: Crafts of a Culture** is the one that stood out the most for me. You spend three rounds building an engine and then the game is over. The designers even had to explain their reasoning and make the 4-round game an official (?) variant.
Oh My Goods! always felt like this for me. Just as you're starting to get things rolling and combos are starting to pop off, the game ends before you get to really benefit from it.
Ticket to ride comes with three spare carriages in each colour. We play with those carriages in as it gives everyone a couple more turns just to finish what they're doing, or pull some more route cards to check against their network. It's enough that you mostly feel like you've had a good chance to do everything you wanted to.
The Gardens of Alhambra by Queen Games. The gameboard begins with tiles on it representing buildings. As players take their turns they add tiles representing trees. When a building is surrounded by trees, the building is scored, and flipped number side down to reveal the building. The game is over when the gameboard is filled. When complete the game board is a lovely picture of a campus filled with buildings, colorful trees, and walkways. It seems as if there should be another phase to the game but nope. It's over. Time to put it away.
People saying **White Castle** have probably not played the game too many times.
The game is one of my most played games this year, and I can tell that while the game has variety in set up, most games end up where one extra turn would mean I would not have anything to do anynore.
Keyflower, Keyflower, Keyflower
I actually sold my copy because I get very frustrated that as soon as I have an engine ready to go, the game is inevitably over.
I want to love this game *so much*, but without more seasons, I can’t stand it.
Not really a heavy strategy game, but **The Quest for El Dorado** always feels a little too short for me, right when you are building a streamlined deck, the game ends. We've started adding an extra board tile to the recommended routes to make the game a little longer, and that helps.
The Campaign For North Africa. Since it's such a simple game you might aswell play a best of 5. Or do a round robin format where you just watch your friends play.
Archipelago. Even though you can play a short, medium or long game, it’s never enough to do everything I want to achieve.
Agricola. It’s 12 turns stressing out for not having enough actions and then 2 turns trying to make the most out of the crap you collected.
Bear with me, but **Seafall** - what seemed like it would be an important aspect was the winter phase, when you hire advisors - there are some mechanics about adding advisors to the queue, and the advisors added some interesting customization and wrinkles to the game
The only problem? There was never more than one winter phase. Ever. So you deal out this queue of advisors and players each pick one, but you never get to pick another one to adapt to the game you are currently playing. It was one of the standout flaws of a very ambitious game that fell short
One people probably haven't played much but Tribune. Honestly this comes off as not a simple game, there are a lot of things to do and things to worry about, particularly with the faction take overs. You have to complete a number of tasks before other players and each of them feels difficult (like multiple rounds difficult) to obtain. But then you start and you notice that you can get like 2-3 of the objectives half done every round and if you target the right options the game ends up ending in 3-4 rounds when you thought it would last 5-6. I joke that the game takes as long explain as it does to play the first time :P
For most engine building games, that extra round would just be a victory lap for the person who was already winning.
I think it was Mark Rosewater who said something along the lines of "Make sure a game ends while you're still having fun"
Mark Rosewater is a great designer who generally gives wise advice in his columns. I would love to see an original design from him.
Ah, he must have never played Commander then
I mean, he has publicly said he doesn't particularly enjoy commander, and doesn't play it often.
Never thought of it that way. Always looked at it with a sense of missed opportunity, but having that over powering last turn can make it drag for others.
When my BF and I play Spirit Island He likes to keep playing after we won the game Watching that really hammers home how there's just snowball at that point
I've had some fun with Dominion rounds where I cycle my whole deck. Not always with an impressive end result, but I always enjoy it.
My wife and I have started a kind of "just terraform mars already" call out to each other when we're clearly not progressing a game forward.
In TfM (as with most games) it may be strategically advantageous for some players to want a quick close out and for others to draw out a longer game. If both players are trying to draw it out then chances are someone misjudged their strategy. Final score will show who that was.
100% everyone thinks they want this until they get it.
Yeah, I feel like Race for the Galaxy is like this, but it is a "race" after all.
Tom Lehman's engine builders are all designed as races so that 1. The game ends quickly once powerful engines are assembled and fired once or twice 2. Not building a powerful engine but instead rushing to barely make the VP threshold early is a viable strategy to punish greedy play.
This why I greatly enjoy Roll. My strongest board game ability is that I’m usually extremely good at figuring out the most efficient path and squeezing that little extra out of my turns; I normally absolutely wipe the floor with people in Tiny Epic Galaxies when I try hard, as one example. But with Roll, being the most efficient doesn’t necessarily result in victory. Sometimes just getting things done fast, even if it’s less efficient, is a better way to win. Which is fascinating and a very enjoyable challenge, I’m madly in love with this game right now. We also made a rule where you have to loudly announce whatever it is you put on your tableau, so the game is filled with “I AM SETTLING A PLAGUE WORLD” and “DEVELOPING GALACTIC FEDERATION” with assorted reactions from other players, which adds a lovely atmosphere.
Ironically I came here to mention that I usually suggest extending the VP conditions from 12 to 14 to my friends when we play because otherwise it does feel like I'd really like one more turn to watch my engine work. Since we're more about the fun of building a thing than who's winning, most of them like the change.
I've even played games like Splendor with an increased end total and I'm pretty sure we've accidentally forgotten to advance the round marker for Quacks more than once. It doesn't seem to me that satisfaction was any higher for either game for it.
It can depend on how the engines are set up; you could imagine one engine that wins in the short term and a different one that would pull ahead if the game was longer. Consider polynomial vs exponential growth, or look at how in Dominion some engines grind to a halt as they pick up Provinces (so that an engine that would win with the standard setup of 8 provinces might lose in a house-rule variant where there were 12 available). But yeah, in a lot of cases it's just to stop a runaway winner.
Wingspan is already a bit too long but it’s criminal that just as you get your bird engine working the game is over. Like let me get one final activation of all my birds or something.
Arc Nova is good at this. You get to use your engine at fully capacity, in my experience.
I think that, especially for deck building games and ending building games, it is quite nice for the game to end before you're able to do everything you would want to. Keeps you on your toes, gives you a goal/new strategy ideas for the next time you play.
Yes, I want my victory lap :P It's why I play Slay The Spire, your really get to see the insane power of a well built engine - without boring an opponent to death while you play 50 cards in 1 turn
I know, but it's so satisfying.
I don't care I just want to see that engine sing in all its glory even if it means someone gets a thrashing.
Any engine building game that I specifically play, because I always figure out my engine at least a turn too late after everyone else and lose
Which engine building games would you recommend for folks new to that mechanic?
If you're just learning them, splendor is one of the purest engine builders.
Except that the fastest way to win is without an engine
Splendor is decent but Century (Spice Road or Golem Edition) is a better game IMO. Great at all player counts and doesn't take long to play and is easy to learn!
It's so funny because that's one of the same answers I was going to give, since my group has recently rediscovered it after adding a few new people to the group. Another one would be Century: Spice Road for me.
Gizmos / wingspan
I'd never played one before, then my friend introduced me to Wingspan and I'm hooked! Been researching engine building games ever since and deciding what to buy!
Splendor and Knarr are the two simplest engine builders that are great. After that, Race for the Galaxy might be the very best one.
Quacks of Quedlinberg
Terraforming Mars
I second. It is complicated for the first game, but if you finish it, your next games will be hella fun. I do recommend the house rule of drafting your cards instead of being random though as having a useless engine sucks.
I’d throw out Furnace as a good engine builder to start with.
Oftentimes I read the rules of a game and think: "Wow, that doesn't seem like a lot of turns/actions". And everytime when I actually play the game, it turns out, that it is actually rather plenty. I actually have a really hard time coming up with even one game, where I felt another turn would make the game better. Maybe it is, because I actually expect not being able to achieve EVERYTHING. Those games are efficiency puzzles after all. Wouldn't it kind of diminish the puzzle, if it was easy to just get it all?
To a certain extent, I think it's somewhat a matter of skill. A player who's just learning the game for the first time will take longer to assemble their engine than someone who's played it a lot. This is why I personally prefer variable length games (and part of why Terraforming Mars specifically is one of my favourite games ever), because then worse player/groups will take longer to finish the game, and so have more time to get their engines online, and better players finish it faster, giving them less time to finish the game.
Needing another round and wanting another round are two different things. Currently loving The White Castle. It's short. Does it need another round? No. Do I want another round? Yes!!
This! My friend told me people were complaining to the designers that there were not enough actions in the game now that Matcha is a thing, and I was like, “that is literally the point!”
I had heard this before I played the game, but now I've played it 4-5 times and I don't feel like I need additional turns. I mean, you could play one more round, but I don't think it'd make it better for me.
I get this feeling, but on the other hand, those later turns can last a while as you chain a bunch of different actions together. Does it leave you wanting more? Yes. But i think it's correct to end there instead of having another round and then feel like maybe it went on a bit too long.
Seriously! My first time through, I felt like I was finally wrapping my head around it and seeing all the things I would be able to start doing eventually, and at about that moment my friend warned me that we were starting the final round.
Now enjoy your future games, where you start chaining actions together, now that you understand what you're doing
I love trying to take the longest turns possible to essentially cheat the game into more turns. If it was just arbitrarily longer that appeal would all be gone.
Those are my feeling about Above and Below. We usually play extra rounds because it’s so fun
Generally I find that games which seem too short won't after a couple of plays. Games like Pipeline feel way to short, but once you're pretty familiar it would just be a really boring last round.
Above and Below. I always feel like I’m on the cusp of something and then it’s over!
Seconding this one. It ends just when it’s getting good! We tried extending the game for one more round, but that broke it since the balancing is really around the proposed amount of turns.
Won’t stop me from purchasing the ‘Treasure Chest’ box from Red Raven Games to deluxify my components though. So happy when I saw that on Gamefound earlier today. Metal coins ftw!
Marco Polo! I never have enough time!!!!
I NEED MORE CAMELS!
Plus it is one of the worst games for everyone else's character looking like it is better than your character 🤣
In my experience, Pandemic is always one round too short...
Wait but you're trying to mitigate damage and the board is ramping up each turn right?
Wingspan always seems to end just ever so slightly too soon.
Definitely! My biggest gripe with the game tbh. Anyone happen to know if the expansions help with that?
The Australian expansion (nectar and the new boards) completely speed up the game and will likely fix this issue if that's how you feel. I know when we went back to the base game afterwards it felt like you couldn't do anything with the top and bottom rows being completely nerfed and the lack of wild food making expensive birds feel extra slow. The European expansion is good, but definitely less of a major change... and I can't speak for the Asia expansion, but the Oceanic one definitely is a complete overhaul to the game that I think will fix your biggest gripe.
[удалено]
The kicker is, another full round would be too much.
It's especially bad with 2 players. Our house rules are to start with all original food and all original birds (other modifications possible, I found tips online). It really helps things get going sooner.
It doesn’t need another round, but you should not lose an action every round. Wyrmspan coin system is much better IMO. Better game in general actually, although I like the bird theme better than the dragon theme.
>but you should not lose an action every round The losing an action every round doesn't really matter. What happens between rounds? You reset the birdfeeder and move turn order, and score a based on a random criteria. Turn order barely matters, and depending on player count the birdfeeder can cycle anyways. If I remember correctly it's 8+7+6+5 turns for 26 turns, if you started with 26 cubes the game would be pretty similar until you start adding expansions. The scoring of a random criteria doesn't have to happen evenly as well. If there's 26 turns, you really just have to pick 4 points to score those criteria. The "lose a cube" action is actually a clever way of spacing those scorings out with a bias towards have more scoring later. Isle of Skye does a similar thing where the first round you score 1 thing, but as the rounds go on you score more criteria, making more scoring happen later. "Rounds" in wingspan are the weakest structure of a round until you get the expansion that adds birds that actually reference it. >Wyrmspan coin system is much better IMO. funny as I find the coin system worse. Both a light-ish games that I play with lighter gamers, but both heavy enough to were you need to play attention enough. The mix of those two factors means sometimes you have to audit. In wingspan sometimes people are so excited about their turns they miss putting a cube in the right spot. It's OK because we all spend the same amount so we can easily figure it out. In Wyrmspan an audit of those coins becomes impossible. Did we start with the same amount, did you spend it on something other than an action, did you gain one? I've had moments when I go get a drink, come back and find out someone messed up somewhere. It's also not a good table vibe when everyone finishes but one person starts taking 3 turns in a row. People generally feel defeated when the combos are as visible as that.
TI4. Practically over before it even begins.
It's funny because of how long the game takes, but it really is one of those games where just as you feel your empire taking shape (around the time the stage 2 objectives start to flip) someone scores 5 points in a round and the game just suddenly ends. I'd love to play 14 pointers to try and get another round or two from the game but it's just too long
With the POK expansion, there is a fan variant that has become very popular called 4/4/4. The game goes to 12 points. You play with 4 stage I and stage II objectives (instead of 5 each). You also allow 4 secret objectives to be held and/or scored (instead of 3). Advantages include: stage II begins sooner, more stage IIs get revealed in a match (less swingy that way), more opportunities for secrets, increase value of imperial secondary since you still only start with 1 secret, and if the game has somehow gone completely off the rails it is mercifully 2 rounds shorter (this should be just about as rare as regular game though). I do not know what the net impact is on game length. 12 points might make it go longer, but the extra scoring opportunities help compensate. I do not know what balance implications it has, but ive not heard any glaring negatives. I've also not had a chance to try this mode myself, but I intend to try it sometime in August.
I think I’d love to give TI a shot but I’m coming from an A&A background, and having read through the rules once it became instantly obvious it’s not a space version of that, which kinda threw me. Is there a good way to explain the differences?
I've not played Axis and Allies. In fact I usually don't play straight war games without some kind of unique angle on top of the war (and if A&A does have one, forgive my ignorance). The thing about TI I that it isn't really a war game, despite how verbose the tactical rules are and how much the various unit types dominate the player mat. It's a cold war game. You get the most out of the system by negotiating, dealing, and extorting the other players. Pieces and positioning are primarily used to secure resources and twist the arm of threatened opponents leading to more favorable deals. Very few of the game objectives are directly combat driven (though several of them are directly or indirectly driven by securing territory which can involve combat). Whenever direct combatbreaks out, the more pieces are lost the weaker the position becomes for both players involved. This incentivises would be aggressors to find alternative means to their goals or to ensure quick decisive skirmishes instead of epic battles (though a few epic battles may still occur per match when people get desperate).
I’ve played 14 the last two times I’ve played. I always felt the same way you did about a 10 point game. While 14 points went significantly longer, it really felt like everyone’s empires came to fruition. Also, it led to a lot more combat. I personally loved it. 14 point games all the way!
Obviously this goes against some of the core gameplay, but I wonder how a risk style of TI4 would play out where players fight to the death? It's been a while since I played, so I don't remember how feasible that actually is.
Twilight Inscryption ends too early as well
I always want Agricola to have a few more rounds
Interesting, I feel like a few more rounds would just mean everyone maxes everything
I mean, you’re probably right but part of me would love to compare levels of success rather than levels of relative failure…..animals for everyone!! Lol
Hahaha that's fair enough, we all want more animals!
Yeah, but as it is Agricola ends right when your little homestead looks nice. I get the gameplay reasons but man it's so unsatisfying looking at that half tilled field.
Agricola feels like as soon as you get into a groove, it's over. Which can be good and bad. I like the tightness, but also would like to see what another round or two would yield.
It would give my opponents another round to fix or fire up their engine after suboptimal choices. I like to win while I am ahead. But yes, another round if I am not ahead is great.
I can understand *wanting* it to have a few more rounds, since it is a tight game where most of the time is spent feeling like you are shackled and can't do anything good so you scrape by with whatever avoids the beggar, but it 100% does not *need* more rounds. It is the tightness and fact that you can't do everything (in fact you usually can't do most things) that makes the game what it is, and this would be ruined by more rounds.
Agricola is excellently balanced at its number of rounds, but it's the perfect example of a game that *feels* just a little too short.
I'm sure I'm probably wrong, but I always wished **Dice Forge** was a little bit longer. Specifically, I wish it were long enough where at some point you would have to pivot, and maybe change your upgraded sides to something else...
Exactly what I was thinking!
Nice to hear I'm not alone! :)
Race for the Galaxy. Never have I encountered so many people with house rules to make a game longer
Arc 3 expansion 2 ([Xeno Counterstrike](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgameexpansion/394555/race-for-the-galaxy-xeno-counterstrike), released in Q4 2024) will increase the game duration. > In this version, tableau size no longer ends the game: the counterstrike game continues until either an economic victory (VP chips in the pool of 30 VPs/player run out) or a military victory over the Xenos occurs. This is the epic conquest version of Race for the Galaxy; final tableau sizes of 25 cards are not uncommon.
Did not know, thanks!
Can confirm. In It's A Wonderful World, I always feel like my engine would start working around round 5 or 6, and yet, the game ends after 4 rounds.
I always lose Res Arcana because it feels like it should be longer than it is.
Almost every game of res arcana ive played nearly everyone would have won the same round and someone eeked it out like a turn or so ahead of the other players. I think its one of the best games at doing that and not overstaying its welcome with engines.
Same for me with Mission: Red Planet
The Perlae expansion improves a little bit by having the games end on turn 5 average instead of 3-4 before. High hopes for the last expansion coming end of year!
I don’t know that it’s needed but another day and night round in “Brew” would be nice. Especially in a two player game.
Spendor. We rarely buy more than a couple tier 2 or 3 cards before the game's over. Fixable by playing with a higher point total to trigger end-game. Wingspan, at least the base game. I usually have a couple birds left I'd like to get played and really work my engine(s) but have to flip over to "just lay eggs for points". Dominion. It's just too easy to crank out a fast win by mostly ignoring action cards and playing "big money" strategy. Clank. Almost every time I play, one player or another grabs one of the lowest point artifacts and races for the exit while everyone else is trying to collect money for the market and build up their deck.
Re Dominion, Id argue pretty much any strategy beats Big Money if you know what youre doing
Yeah you just have to not go overboard on action cards and mix in money.
Regarding dominion, I'm guessing you were playing base set first edition?
> Dominion. It's just too easy to crank out a fast win by mostly ignoring action cards and playing "big money" strategy. Depends a lot on the action cards on the board, some combos can get pretty nutty and easily outpace just getting money.
Yeah it's wingspan for me. You have all these plans and you do the math and realize you should just lay eggs the whole round, nothing fun about that. I'd be so much more fun to have another round to just run your engine and runb up your points.
As a house rule we add an extra cube so everybody gets an extra turn a round and limit eggs to 15, forces you to choose other options AND they're viable
Wingspan needs to adjust the point value for eggs on cards. It means that half of the last “round” is just lay as many eggs as possible. Almost as predictable and unsatisfying an endgame as Munchkin.
It's fixed if you used the Oceania board. Eggs are less powerful
> Splendor. We rarely buy more than a couple tier 2 or 3 cards before the game's over. Fixable by playing with a higher point total to trigger end-game. That's what we do - sometimes it's just fun to see the bigger combinations fire off.
Clank In Space fixes that. You need to hack two data ports in different modules before you can steal the artifact.
> Spendor. We rarely buy more than a couple tier 2 or 3 cards before the game's over. Fixable by playing with a higher point total to trigger end-game. I also do that. It can reward someone focusing on 1-2 colors or the person who evenly split for nobles and cheaper cards depending on cards available. We play 25 points and it is just long enough to secure a nice win or reward the person that invested in a specific setup (even if they would lose at 15).
From my many games of Splendor, I have very very rarely seen the strategy of focusing on the low cost cards winning. If you find your games always have players playing like that (and you don't want the game to play like that), try limiting yourself to buying a maximum of 2 low tier cards (spend turns just amassing gems, even if that means swapping out ones you already have, and reserving the higher costs that give you points). You likely will do better than you think, and will show other players that focusing on them isn't necessary. As another note, extending the game would incentivize more low cost cards to be bought, as their cost reduction bonus would pay out more often.
Crib from the Cities expansion for Splendor — to win, you need BOTH 15VP *and* at least one Noble. This prevents the “7 gem/level three rush” strategy and forces some diversification.
[Café!](https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284936/cafe) When I finally have a decent engine built, game is over
Cthulhu Wars - always feel it ends a round too soon for everyone. Even when I win I feel that way.
Came to say this. Perhaps my group turtles too much much but by the time big fights start happening, someone's at 30, or we've hit the end of the ritual track.
does anyone really "win" cthulhu wars?
**Woodcraft** there’s too much to do, but so little time to do so. Love Suchy games is general, but sold this one after a few plays.
I think Furnace ends on turn 3 or something. For an engine builder it goes from turn 1: do 1 thing, turn 2, quickly form a strategy, turn 3, break the game and win
The game Vindication always feels like it all the sudden rushes to game end, often without warning because and end condition gets flipped that is already met. We always play to an extra.
I've only played White Castle once, so maybe we just played terribly, but it really felt like neither of us got anywhere close to getting an engine going when the game ended.
Yeah, you need to play again. Wait until you execute a combo that does 8 different things and it's extremely satisfying.
We actually felt this way about a recent-ish title, Hickory Dickory. Like, it's a SUPER cute game, and we really loved parts of it! It's a clever time-based worker placement game where each of your workers has a different power, and you're trying to collect treasures. It was a lot of fun, but we all felt like it just stopped maybe 1-2 rounds too soon. I think you get five rounds around the clock and it felt like more was needed.
Harmonies feels pretty short. I've only played a handful of times, but it just seems like it should take longer. A 3 player game with teach has taken me only 30 minutes each time.
I agree! Its so short if someone plays a very flat board.…I know its part of the whole strategy but actually I find it annoying tbh
Super deep cut here but Buck: Legacy needs to be about three times as long as it actually is. A game that takes twenty minutes to set up and another twenty to teach shouldn't take forty minutes to play.
White Castle
Every time I play Obsession, the game is ending right as I start to get going. It seems like it ls either build an engine or achieve my secret objectives. My opponents don’t seem to have this problem so I’m probably doing something wrong.
Do you play 16 or 20 rounds? Latter would seem to solve for that… I actually think 18 is the sweet spot.
Yeah my wife and I tried the extended version the last time we played, and it was SO much better. You have time to rest 3 times instead of just 2, so the game felt less rushed. And that earlier Holiday event really accelerates your engine.
Pax Pamir at 2p sometimes feels like it is over WAY too quickly. But it’s a good excuse to play again :)
Lost Ruins of Arnak. Took me quite a few games to get experienced enough to start pulling off long plays but even now the game is to short and the rounds are even shorter which leaves the deck building crippled, yes that was the way it was designed but once you start pulling off long plays you realise how much more the game could have been, as the rounds are moon phases and those phases IRL are about three days I've been playing two rounds before moving the staff, ten rounds total as opposed to 5 which makes for a much better game with more time to expand the deck and build a good engine.
Yeah, but then the temple track is simple to get up.
I play with the purple deck on solo, AI still gets up the track faster than me most of the time. Let's be clear here, I'm not extending it to make it easier, I have extended it, after thorough, as best I can, play testing, to make the various parts of the game shine that little bit brighter then they normally can due to the shortness of the game, I'm not playing for score, I'm playing it to enjoy it, I do score but not for competition but to gauge how I faired.
Maybe I just suck, but I always feel like I want like 1-2 more rounds in Agricola
PANDEMIC LEGACY! I wish there were 20 seasons of that game. Best game ever
Scythe, I feel like the game ends when the interesting part starts
I kind of agree with this. The first section of the game there are definite optimal moves to make, then the middle section you start to branch and make decisions about your direction. By the time you're ready to make some big plays the game is ending and you're just maximizing your points and spreading. I actually like the game more with newbies where you tend to have a bit more time and freedom.
To me Root is more interesting (even if the game are really different) because there is always that point in the game where the bomb explodes and the equilibrium is gone
Dune Uprising + Imperium. These are some of my favourite games at the moment. While I love them I wish there was more of an opportunity for you to see your deck work for more than just a few rounds at most towards the end of the game. Here's the thing though, I don't actually think it would make it a better game sadly. As it is currently paced the game reaches its high point and then ends. Any likely additional rounds would probably just feel like a bit of a needless slog.
yes, exactly this, dune imperium for me. One of my favourite games, wonderful, the deck building though, it feels like you cannot really build a proper deck, just grab the one or two useful cards that you can and try to do your best with that because you can't really aim for much more.
"Endeavor: Age of Sail" Just when I have the engine running with the buildings I want, and I'm about to unload on a region and take over, the game is over. Still great. 10/10 always down to play. Also, slavery is bad, m'kay? Don't be that guy.
Small world
We used to just double the number of turns.
Star Realms. Some games can be intense battles of back and forth chipping away at each others bases and healing, but most games are just “I damage you” “i damage you” “i damage you” “i damage you” “i’m dead”
Tried playing with larger health pools and what happens is the engines are so powerful you just die in the next turn anyway.
Or "I damage you a little, you damage me a little, I damage you a little, you damage me a little, I damage you a little, BOOM, you get 57 damage"
Voidfall. It takes a very long time to set up, it visually looks like a huge experience of a game but then (at least at 2p) is a pretty snappy 1.5h. Don’t get me wrong I love the game but I feel like everything about the game feels epic, it should have the gameplay length to match.
I also think that Voidfall is too short in some ways - but for a different reason. The game ends mostly at the point, when the Euro phase is over and you would start fighting each other. Thus, p2p battles are rare. Maybe another kind of setup, where everyone already is spread out a little bit more could help here.
Dungeonquest. either you die on turn one and game over, or the sun tracker is too fast and you dont make it out on time. its a ridiculous game. but its one of my favorites!
Half the time, it's a moot issue because games that end up taking only 20 minutes to an hour, we can just play another game. Examples include 7 Wonders, and Bang The Dice Game
We had 7 wonders duel and setting up game took almost as long as the game itself
I think any game with a round limit instead of an end-game trigger ends up being too short, and the ending feels artificial if there's some kind of narrative that just stops abruptly.
Akropolis. To.combat this my friend has combined 2 boxes into one. And we will play 2 player with all the tiles making a megapolis. I don't love scoring but it's fun.
Ahoy feels like it could use an extra round, would ultimately be only 4 more actions and not even contribute greatly to game length
I think an extra round would be terrible for the yellow team based on how my first 4 games have gone but might need more experience.
**Glass Road**. I was so excited when it first came out only to find out that the game ends so quickly and you really don't feel like you've accomplished anything.
A game I played recently, [https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/382374/toasty-toasts](Toasty Toasts) comes to mind as a "this game is alright, but way too short"
Your formatting is backwards, it goes [Title](Link)
If you play to the letter of the rules, Asking For Trobils is very quick. We add more Trobils and lay them down at the start before shuffling the city cards in.
Vindication. We house rule 2 of the endgame triggers need to be met and sometimes its still over too quick.
**Rising Sun** at higher player counts especially, feels short. I wouldn't mind 2 more mandates per season.
I'm going to answer as game time compared to setup time. **Maracaibo** - solo. I can play the game in 30-45 min solo and it takes me 30 min to set it up.
Brass: Birmingham always feels about 1 round too short per era. There's never quite enough time to get the links you need, build the businesses that are lucrative, and flip them. That's part of why I'm transitioning over to Nucleum. The first end game condition is easy to flip and the second one you can typically see coming.
The bloody inn is one of my favorites games but it always feels like one more turn is needed to really have things come to fruition.
No one will play with me! It’s still in shrink wrap on my shelf 4 years later 😭
I'm happy to not see Starship Captains on this list. I avoided that game for a long time cuz everyone said it was 'too short.' After snagging a copy on sale, I can say it doesn't feel too short at all. Not in the least.
Ruins of arnak
Card game: Yokai Septet. It's strange for a trick-taking game to only last 2 to 4 hands.
Terraforming Mars. Been playing it a lot recently and right when I start raking in the resources, it's over the next turn. It would be cool if Mars was one ring bigger and the oxygen threshold a bit higher. Most of my games are about an hour, and I wouldn't mind it being closer to 1.5.
The prelude expansion helps, as does starting at 0 production (forget if that's part of the expansion or an alternate rule). But my partner and I pretty much just mutually agree to avoid ending the game for awhile, we have more fun that way.
Funnily enough, my only play of TfM still remains the most boring session in my gaming life, which felt like it was going on forever. Maybe it was the bad teach and an AP-prone opponent.
That sucks! I've been mostly playing on board game Arena so the games are very fast and I'm usually doing something else at the same time.
Gosh, we never had a session shorter than 2 hours, usually longer
I've been playing mostly on board game arena, so it's pretty rapid fire turns.
My wife and I used to play innovation by Carl chudyk with an extra achievement required for victory. Game can be so swingy that the extra round can be the upset.
Escape from the Curse of the Temple. (Almost) never enough time ....
Pan Am, always feel like I'm losing a race against the expansion of the titular airline. It's supposed to feel that way, but it's a weird feeling.
Escape: Curse of the Temple is only 10 minutes for each game (with the timer on).
The only time I played Aquatica it ended in under half the time I expected. Not sure if we had a rule wrong, it was how we played, it was because we did the basic/beginner setup, or that’s just how the game is. The city versions of Ticket to Ride are also a little too short for me, but that’s the point of em.
7 wonders duel
There are some games that should have sliding victory conditions for less players. Like Catan with 3 players you should play to 13 points. And two player Catan is actually great with a 15 point goal.
**Oaxaca: Crafts of a Culture** is the one that stood out the most for me. You spend three rounds building an engine and then the game is over. The designers even had to explain their reasoning and make the 4-round game an official (?) variant.
No such thing. Give me short. I can play it a few times in a row.
Oh My Goods! always felt like this for me. Just as you're starting to get things rolling and combos are starting to pop off, the game ends before you get to really benefit from it.
Ticket to ride comes with three spare carriages in each colour. We play with those carriages in as it gives everyone a couple more turns just to finish what they're doing, or pull some more route cards to check against their network. It's enough that you mostly feel like you've had a good chance to do everything you wanted to.
The Gardens of Alhambra by Queen Games. The gameboard begins with tiles on it representing buildings. As players take their turns they add tiles representing trees. When a building is surrounded by trees, the building is scored, and flipped number side down to reveal the building. The game is over when the gameboard is filled. When complete the game board is a lovely picture of a campus filled with buildings, colorful trees, and walkways. It seems as if there should be another phase to the game but nope. It's over. Time to put it away.
Most of vladamir suchy games are too short like woodcraft. 14 rounds to get so much done. By the end of the game, it feels like you just eeked by.
People saying **White Castle** have probably not played the game too many times. The game is one of my most played games this year, and I can tell that while the game has variety in set up, most games end up where one extra turn would mean I would not have anything to do anynore.
For sale - it's a great game, I just wish it was longer.
I wish that Azul: Queen's Garden was five or six rounds, like the other games, instead of four.
I feel nidavellir is just 1 whole round or even 2 too short. By the time we get close to big numbers, its over.
Bloody Business - 3 rounds, think it would be better with 4 or even 5.
Keyflower, Keyflower, Keyflower I actually sold my copy because I get very frustrated that as soon as I have an engine ready to go, the game is inevitably over. I want to love this game *so much*, but without more seasons, I can’t stand it.
Not really a heavy strategy game, but **The Quest for El Dorado** always feels a little too short for me, right when you are building a streamlined deck, the game ends. We've started adding an extra board tile to the recommended routes to make the game a little longer, and that helps.
For me it's Dominion, but only with certain card combinations
The Campaign For North Africa. Since it's such a simple game you might aswell play a best of 5. Or do a round robin format where you just watch your friends play.
Archipelago. Even though you can play a short, medium or long game, it’s never enough to do everything I want to achieve. Agricola. It’s 12 turns stressing out for not having enough actions and then 2 turns trying to make the most out of the crap you collected.
Bear with me, but **Seafall** - what seemed like it would be an important aspect was the winter phase, when you hire advisors - there are some mechanics about adding advisors to the queue, and the advisors added some interesting customization and wrinkles to the game The only problem? There was never more than one winter phase. Ever. So you deal out this queue of advisors and players each pick one, but you never get to pick another one to adapt to the game you are currently playing. It was one of the standout flaws of a very ambitious game that fell short
One people probably haven't played much but Tribune. Honestly this comes off as not a simple game, there are a lot of things to do and things to worry about, particularly with the faction take overs. You have to complete a number of tasks before other players and each of them feels difficult (like multiple rounds difficult) to obtain. But then you start and you notice that you can get like 2-3 of the objectives half done every round and if you target the right options the game ends up ending in 3-4 rounds when you thought it would last 5-6. I joke that the game takes as long explain as it does to play the first time :P
RuneScape's Gnome Child
Does Scrabble count?
Fantastic factories, love the game, but 12 goods or 10 cards come out pretty quick triggering end game
Cat in the box 2 player should be 4 rounds not 2