"Longest game you ever played in." Topic

Expressed in hours. What was the longest miniatures game you ever played in? Either all at once or over several days. Please provide details of the game such as period/genre, number of players, rules, etc.

I presume this does not include campaigns…

Borodino over 3 days. Used Carnage and Glory computer aided rules. Was a bloodfest!

Star Wars miniatures (Wizards of the Coast). Played 14 hour game nonstop on a Saturday with friends. We were all in highschool. A standard game is 150 points per person. Six of us did 2,000 points per person. About 700 individual miniatures and a dozen tanks for a "skirmish" on a 12x3 table.

You are an animal Scott!

I recall a huge two day ACW game played on a weekend at UMass. That was around ‘82 or ‘83. The UMass Strategy Games Club hosted a local club from Springfield. The UMSGC played the Union side, and the Springfield club played Confederate. The game was played on the carpeted floor. I am guessing the size was roughly 30' X 15'. There were about ten to twelve players per side. In the end on Sunday, the Union troops eked out a victory. I have no recollection of what the scenario was. The rules were a home brewed set from a local author

Since solo and can put up a game as long as needed, I think 2 or 3 weekends and few hours a day between.

Two Day recreation of Jutland at 1/1200 for about 16 hours total.

About 24 hours over 3 days of Star Fleet Battles in the mid 80s. Klingon vs Federation. Every mini that I had for those 2 forces. About 30 ships, 4 carriers, and a ton of drones.

Almost came to blows we were so sick of each other when we quit.

Couple of three day weekend Napoleonic games in the 70's at the Last Grenadier. Think we were using Empire ?

The longest figure game would be Waterloo using WRG 16xx to 18xx back in the mid 1980s Set it up Friday evening and played until Sunday afternoon.

When I was younger games at the school Wargames club took weeks, bu that was because we only had 45 minutes to play at lunchtime and we just left them set up.

The longest game I ever played though was a multi player PBM campaign covering the Napoleonic Wars starting in 1798. It ran in real time, with two week turns every two weeks. It finally ended seven years later in "1805". A triumph of stamina over skill, iirc onl btwo of the original players were left by then.

Iran-Iraq game at the school club, lasted 4 days playing 6 hours a day

A three day re-run of Gettysburg over a three day weekend. I forget the exact numbers but it was in excess of 12-15 people and played in a commercial warehouse one of the guys owned.

The fall games of the old Midwest Napoleonic Wargaming Confederation--CLS Napoleonics, each about 20 players, two days, maybe 14 hours about 6,000 30mm Napoleonics on two size humongous tables. Leipzig, Arcis, Austerlitz, Jena-Auerstadt and Friedland.

The good old days.

One board 8ft by 6ft, Cold War effectively a Battalion action but rarely more than about 2 company's in action at any one time, they soon run out of "steam".
120 bounds so about 36hrs over several evenings.
So in action probably fewer than 50 models on the attacking side and somewhat less on the defending side.

2 players

played a board game four to six hours a week for 30 weeks. FITE/SE

Battle of Borodino in 15mm using Empire back around 1986 on Labor Day weekend. A large group of guys came down from Chicago, (8 to 10) against about the same number of locals in Manhattan, KS. Probably close to 20 hours. We played on the floor and the map was rather large (8' x 24').

Not a minis game, but a D&D all-nighter back in high school. Started at 6 PM (thereabouts) on a Friday and ended when we realized the sun was coming up and we all had to do our morning paper routes! So about 12 hours. Crashed for the rest of the day afterwards, but at the time we thought it was "super cool."
Ah, the nerdity.

Two day ACW battle once as part of a campaign – big, big battle

40 hour Risk game. We vowed we would play until we had a winner. Strangely, no players were knocked out until the last 4 hours of the game…

All of my painted WWII USSR collection vs COL jims WWII German collection 1/72nd scale aircraft and figures, Roco Minitanks for vehicles. 7 X 16 foot table with a 3 X 14 foot side table with two bridges across the tables.

Soviets started off board at the short edge of each table on turn one. We played about 10 hours per day for a three day weekend, and then about 10 hours per day for the next year.

About 3,000 infantry, 120 aircraft, 1,000 vehicles and artillery. Soviets won but took heavy losses.

We had between 4 and 9 players on any given week.

Mike Bunkermeister Creek
Bunker Talk blog

Can't match some of the marathons mentioned in previous posts. For board war game, it's a scenario out of ASL set in Stalingrad (Streets of Fire or Red Barricades) where one turn took 1 1/2 – 2 hours. Played one we3ekend and then one evening a week for several weeks. Probably 18 hours or so. For miniatures it's a set of related games set in Normandy WWII using the Battleground WWII rules and hidden units. Played several rounds over weekends. Probably 8-10 hours. Ended when German player conceded once my tanks were given hedgerow cutters by the game moderator.

In college we played several weekend "Strategy I" scenarios-- more than 48 hrs. of continuous play. Only stopped for meals.

I played in a 7-day fall of France Spearhead game with 40+ players at a hotel in Cornwall many years ago. We set up on hundreds of feet of tables laid out in the function room (and took over the bar, most nights). France fell.

30 hours

Three roughly 10 hour days over a three-day weekend in college. Teutoburger Wald. Buckets of Romans, buckets of Teutaons.

18 hours in one day. Red Storm Rising and Wilderness.

Played Fifth Frontier War for 32 hrs straight one weekend. Called a truce after the Zhodani and allies were beaten back to almost the same lines as where the war started.

Pony Wars, fought over two days in February 1983 using card strips for figures and terrain. No wargamers in sight, so that's probably why it was so enjoyable and lasted so long. 😈

In hours? Lots.

Technically, a Gettysburg game that played over three days (funny, innit?), but I only participated for a small part of that. The rules were someone's homebrewed variant of Johnny Reb.

Sticking to ones where I participated for the entire thing, probably some oversize WHFB battle back in the 1990s.

Around 16 hours, total, divided across two days. Played using my own, self-published rules set for Army Men, Plastic Wars: Total Annihilation. Traditional 54mm Army Men figures, on square 50mm bases. Started with five players, and me ref'ing, on Saturday; on Sunday, we were down to two players, and me ref'ing.

It was a Green Army beach landing, up a hill, to capture a city, defended by the Tan Army. Great fun, around 250+ figures, per side, including Tanks, Trucks, DUKS, Jeeps, Humvees, and men -- lots of men… Table size was 12 feet by 30 feet. Biggest Army Men game, biggest miniatures game of any kind, for me, since I started miniatures gaming in 1993. It truly was a convention game, without the convention -- played it in an insulated woodworking shop, owned by one of the players. What a fun game… Cheers!

I am such a slacker. I don't think I've ever played a miniatures game that ran more than 8 hours (including lunch breaks, so maybe 7 hours of actual game).