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Average turn count stat could be useful, especially in the games page.
Posted: 24 January 2026, 15:16
by CB Droege
The current filter in the games page that lets you choose 'short', 'medium', or 'long' games works well when playing live, but playing turn-based is very different when it comes to game length. The time a turn-based game takes to play is more about the number of turns than about thinking time, and it would be nice if we could have a filter for that It could be "usual number of turns" instead of speed.
When I'm looking for a new turn-based game, sometimes I'd like to know how many turns it's going to take to decide if it will be days or months of playing. Currently there is no way to even see that stat, much less filter for it.
As an example of the problem: A game like Fairy Trails usually only takes a few minutes when played live because thinking time per move is really low, BUT there are 60 tiles in the stack, and if you play turn based at 1 turn/day, that means a game could potentially take two months. :O
On the other side: a game like Small World could take 30-45min real time, but since a whole game (2-player) is only 20 turns, it could potentially finish a lot faster than a 'short' game of Fairy Trails when played 1 turn/day.
I entered the suggestion in the system here:
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=202929
Re: Average turn count stat could be useful, especially in the games page.
Posted: 24 January 2026, 21:26
by Meeplelowda
CB Droege wrote: ↑24 January 2026, 15:16
The current filter in the games page that lets you choose 'short', 'medium', or 'long' games works well when playing live, but playing turn-based is very different when it comes to game length. The time a turn-based game takes to play is more about the number of turns than about thinking time, and it would be nice if we could have a filter for that It could be "usual number of turns" instead of speed.
When I'm looking for a new turn-based game, sometimes I'd like to know how many turns it's going to take to decide if it will be days or months of playing. Currently there is no way to even see that stat, much less filter for it.
As an example of the problem: A game like Fairy Trails usually only takes a few minutes when played live because thinking time per move is really low, BUT there are 60 tiles in the stack, and if you play turn based at 1 turn/day, that means a game could potentially take two months. :O
On the other side: a game like Small World could take 30-45min real time, but since a whole game (2-player) is only 20 turns, it could potentially finish a lot faster than a 'short' game of Fairy Trails when played 1 turn/day.
I entered the suggestion in the system here:
https://boardgamearena.com/bug?id=202929
Upvoted. If it allowed me to upvote that you not only posted about your suggestion, but entered it in the bugs/suggestions tool and gave a link to it, well I'd give that 10 upvotes.
Re: Average turn count stat could be useful, especially in the games page.
Posted: 25 January 2026, 04:05
by BarnardsStar
And the thing is, the information is there. It’s not easy to get to, though. Let’s consider your example of Fairy Trails…
1. Go to the game’s page. There’s an info block showing you information about the game, like who the publisher is, who the dev is, etc. It also shows the number of games ever played on this site and that number is a link. (And yes, this would be where info about the length of a game should go—number of turns or whatever.)
2. Click on that number and it will show you all of the most recent games played. Doesn’t matter which one, just click on the name of the game (“Fairy Trails”) on any of them.
3. You’ll see the stats for all of the players in that game. At the very bottom is a link to “[user]’s statistics at this game”. Click on any of these links.
4. Finally, you see that user’s all-time stats at the game, compared to the global all-time stats, and the all-time stats for winners.
And it looks to me like Fairy Trails is usually about 21 turns long? At least it says the average is “21.1 cards played”, and I don’t know the game but that seems like the tile placement you alluded to, maybe?
Now, my question is, what is a “time bonus number”? That’s a stat given for every game and I have no idea what that means.
Re: Average turn count stat could be useful, especially in the games page.
Posted: 25 January 2026, 08:47
by Jellby
Game stats are only visible to premium members.
And whether or not there's any meaningful "turn number" stat, is game dependent. Even if there is something called "number of turns", for some games a turn is entirely done by a single player with no interference from the rest, for other games a turn means auctioning (several rounds of going through each player until all pass), reacting (play a card, now others have to decide whether or not they play something to counter it), and potentially any number of BGA "turns" until a game turn is finished.
Re: Average turn count stat could be useful, especially in the games page.
Posted: 27 January 2026, 12:29
by CB Droege
BarnardsStar wrote: ↑25 January 2026, 04:05
And the thing is, the information is there. It’s not easy to get to, though. Let’s consider your example of Fairy Trails…
1. Go to the game’s page. There’s an info block showing you information about the game, like who the publisher is, who the dev is, etc. It also shows the number of games ever played on this site and that number is a link. (And yes, this would be where info about the length of a game should go—number of turns or whatever.)
2. Click on that number and it will show you all of the most recent games played. Doesn’t matter which one, just click on the name of the game (“Fairy Trails”) on any of them.
3. You’ll see the stats for all of the players in that game. At the very bottom is a link to “[user]’s statistics at this game”. Click on any of these links.
4. Finally, you see that user’s all-time stats at the game, compared to the global all-time stats, and the all-time stats for winners.
And it looks to me like Fairy Trails is usually about 21 turns long? At least it says the average is “21.1 cards played”, and I don’t know the game but that seems like the tile placement you alluded to, maybe?
Now, my question is, what is a “time bonus number”? That’s a stat given for every game and I have no idea what that means.
I guess that's something, but it doesn't help when I go to the 'Games' page, and want to find something that I can play Turn-based without a multi-month commitment.
And for Fairy Trails, that's likely the number of tiles per player, which means about 40 turns. The max is 60, since one tile is played per turn, and the game ends if the stack runs out, but players might end the game before the stack runs out if they get enough points, which it seems from the stats, that they usually do. But that still means that a Game of Fairy Trails takes more turns than a game of Small World.
Another good example is 7 Wonders Duel. You actually have to play all cards in every round in that game, and there are 60 total cards across the three tableau. It's listed as a 10min game, one of the shortest on the site, but 60 turns is a lot for turn/day.
Re: Average turn count stat could be useful, especially in the games page.
Posted: 27 January 2026, 12:33
by CB Droege
Jellby wrote: ↑25 January 2026, 08:47
Game stats are only visible to premium members.
And whether or not there's any meaningful "turn number" stat, is game dependent. Even if there is something called "number of turns", for some games a turn is entirely done by a single player with no interference from the rest, for other games a turn means auctioning (several rounds of going through each player until all pass), reacting (play a card, now others have to decide whether or not they play something to counter it), and potentially any number of BGA "turns" until a game turn is finished.
That's a really good point actually. The more important stat is like "player action sessions" or something rather than game-turns. Because those can be wildly different. I'm thinking of Catan for example. The number of game turns is actually fairly low, but when you play turn/day, it can get pretty nuts because every time someone proposes a trade, every other player has to take a "turn" to reject or accept the trade. One player's game turn could result in dozens of sessions, and could take a week of real-time to complete, if they want to offer a bunch of trades. This is why I stopped playing Catan in turn-based. I'm sure there are other games with this issue, and it would be nice to know which ones they are from the get-go.