What is the best way to play? Real time or turn based?

[DemetriusBT]

Topic. Want to start playing but not sure what to choose. How long is the time you can wait for someone in turn based?

[TomKy]

Most here at BGA plays turnbased. As a real time player I love to play real time games since I'm not playing turn based (with exception of TI4 because I really like that board game). If I got time I would play a few real time games with TI4, that's kinda very hard, especially with random people you have to talk to them to understand you have set aside a whole day, perhaps a day at the end of the week is most suited for that like friday, saturday or maybe sundays. If you work part time or have work schedule that allow you to play on other days, you are perhaps more likely to join or create random real-time tables of TI4. You may be lucky getting 3-4p real-time game, but you should start early if you wanna do it in a whole playthrough. 6p game may take about 6-12+ hours minimum (Just a estimate, I haven't played one yet).

Fastest Real time games is probably at best about 1 hour per player with fast players, but it can be as long as 2 hour per player which is maybe more likely to happen with a lot of negotiations, but I've only played 1 time so far in beta which was about 6 hours for a 3p slow realtime game, but several times in alpha with friends playing 3 or 4p games, which varied between 4-6 hours (It was only turnbased in alpha, but played it as real time). Those real-time games can always be converted to turn-based if someone at the table cannot play that long.

I would probably go for turn based first, maybe a few games. Time spent finishing a turnbased game ranges from 1 week in a 3p game if everyone plays fast and often, to 5-10 weeks in a slow 6p game and even several months if everyone plays slowly or if it set at 1 move per 2-5 days. I would say 20-40 days is about average, but it may depend on player count.

But I believe most people are content of playing turn-based, as you don't need to plan a day off for playing TI4 in one go.

[GTSchemer]

If you haven't played Twilight Imperium on BGA before, definitely try a turn based game to become familiar with the interface.

Then if you do really want turn based, be aware like TomKy said it's an hour per player minimum, basically. I finished a 3 player game in under 3 hours but we were all playing fast. If people start negotiating, which is part of Twilight Imperium, it could easily take 6 hours.

Some players are willing to vote to change the game to turn based after a few hours. This lets you finish the game the next day or whenever, but there is always a chance some player does not vote for turn-based, and you might be stuck playing.

Finally, if you try real time you may want to click the options gear and change Log -> Title message speed to "Fastest". You can always look up details of what happened in the History tab if you miss something.