"How do you handle multi player games in TSATF?" Topic

How do you handle multiplayer games of TSATF? I am building my Sudan collection up and i would like take it to club in future and have multi player games

FM

Badly…
🙄
I would regularly do games with 600+ British figures and 800+ Dervish.
It went on for hours.
One strict rule I made was that the CinC was only allowed to tell a player that he got the card. BUT he was NOT allowed to tell him what to do. This required the "up" player to be ready. I also gave him a minute.

Later, Larry came out with 800 Fighting Englishmen, which is TSATF designed for Big Games. That helped a lot. Good luck with getting a copy, though. 🙄

Agree with John, as gamemaster, you have to give a very brief time limit (1-2 minutes) to each side to activate a unit when it gets a card. We have normally had games with four to five players per side and have been able to finish within four hours.

Just remember that Larry always said that his rules weren't locked in stone so if you feel it necessary to make changes to speed up the game, do so.

Jim

@ OFM i have those rules luckily! I will have a look, maybe use some of its ideas.
@ Col We normally have a game across one day so 4 hours is fine for us and 5-6 hours even .

FM

Would just add consider – Larry Broms Fast Play Convention rules – similar to the TSATF – By Battalion Volley Fire – they work nicely with larger groups and lots of miniatures

I have only played in multi-player TSATF games at conventions

We have a tradition, but it really doesn't speed the game up much.
The Nee Guy™️ is usually the British CinC. His mother is a Lady and he purchased his commission.

Rudy – Lori mentioned his Convention Rules for Big Battles in this TMP post TMP link – a list of all of his rules

Note – I only played it once at a convention – Sometimes use it – other times 800 English Fighting men for large Sudan battles

TSTAF is meant for multiplayer games. We play large games without any special speed up rules. If you're managing the game then keep it moving. We play big Sudanese, NWF and others. I do French North Africa. I am not saying I would do a big game at a convention but at home for my club absolutely.

link

On the turn of a card, every player for that card ype activates one unit.

card *type*

That might speed things up a bit, but it takes away from the tension.
When there are two or more dangerous areas, the GM has to prioritize. And as I said above, he cannot tell him which unit to move or shoot.
That player should be paying attention anyway, and make his move.

It depends on how many players the OP means by multi-player. When the game is of such size that you sit on your hands for 45 minutes to an hour waiting for you 5 minutes to come around again, I'll opt for playability and speeding up the game. TSATF is one of those sets that gamers love to break.

Another vote for 800FE making large battles practical.

And another "shortcut" to consider: Allow both armies on turn one to form up into large formations of as many 20 figure units as desired. When a card is drawn for that side, all units may move/fire at once BUT must remain in their current formation, move exactly the same distance, and fire at the same (legal) target. When, voluntarily or otherwise, one or more units split off, they require their own card to move/fire. Units that are "Pinned" require separate draws for the remainder of the game.

This can save an enormous amount of time from the start and, much like actual combat, reflects increased disorder/"friction" as fighting becomes more general.

Just another idea for gracious living….

TVAG

So, I guess I game with extraordinary gamers who can stay interested in the game while other players move. They formulate a plan work together as a team. They watch other players moves with interest. You guys need to get a GM who knows what he's doing or get some players that have an attention span longer than 30 seconds.

I always let a player have a "brigade" of at least 4 units.
And I impose a time limit of one minute.
No staring at the table when they are given A move.
They had plenty of time to see what needed to be done.
And if they don't? Sucks to be you.

Our GM always looked at the next card after handing over the first, and if it was the same side he'd pass over that one too, to go to a different player. That way two players were acting at the same time half the time.

I'm with 79th PA. I got caught in one of those at a convention once. I will NOT name the perpetrators: everyone involved should have known better, and usually did. I will observe that they blamed the poor victimized players for the debacle rather than assume any responsibility for poor choices.

Come to think of it, I never attended that convention again. Not directly because of that, but it didn't help. Not Larry Brom's fault though. Perfectly good 2-4 player game loaded up with a dozen would-be players sitting around not doing anything.

Basically, the bigger the game, the bigger the responsibility of the GM to keep things running smoothly.

I think megalomaniac TSATF games can be directly blamed on the 10 figure packs sold by Ral Partha for ~$5.00.
It was far too easy and cheap to assemble HUGE armies of very well sculpted figures.

At today's prices, that would be far too expensive. But the RP figures … gave you permission.
Anyway, that's my excuse. 😄

Ditto to all those positive comments about Larry and his many excellent contribution to the hobby. I did quite a few multiplayer games back in the late 70s and 80s; my biggest was a Boxer Rebellion game with 12 players. The most time-consuming part of the game is turning the cards and having one player at a time move. I wrote a number of articles for the "heliograph" dealing with ways to speed up the play. We had unit moves, the player has to move the unit that's turned over on the card, we had side moves where each player on a side would move. There were player moves where the cards had names of players. If you turned them over that player had to move take an action.Are any of those old heliograph articles archive somewhere?