I attended an 1850 tournament recntly with only 2 hour rounds, but also allowed the players 30 minutes for both of them to deploy ... this seems like a really long time to deploy and a really short game, right? Well, not really. Let's take a look at how it went:
Oddly enough, I played one game through turn 5, in which the other player conceded, then played two games to turn 7 ... in two hour rounds!
Additionally, most of us could could get our stuff deployed well within 30 minutes, so we actually got to have a good introduction and get to know a little about each other. This made the games even smoother as we didn't have that little rushed handshake. it was just nice to have that time.
I didn't have any players with grevious issues playing slowly, but I do think to a degree, it cuts down on the slow deployment players - those people who take way too much time to deploy, but it obviously won't really combat slow play itself. I have had some games where the other player takes 45 minutes to deploy (in a two and a half hour round), which, in that case, the game didn't even reach the end of turn three. In fact, any time I believe that I have been slow played, I can look back and see that it all started in deployment. So what is to stop them from doing the same in the timed deployment? Well, the judges walked around check how things were going and also went to check with the players eye-to-eye that they were deployed and if there was a problem then, it could be managed there.
I'm not saying this is possible at the GT level where you have 2-4 guys running a 64+ person show, but I do think this is do-able down to the local level and certainly even the 30+ player crowds. I also just wanted to share it because it was different and really just a nice touch at a tourney that had high stakes ($250 for first place)
What do you think? Have you tried timed deployment? Do you think it could work in small tourneys? Let us know where you stand.