Introduction by Congress of Vienna Assistant Designer/Editor, Fred Schachter – To reduce the amount of time it takes to play CoV, a prior InsideGMT article by Tyler Brooks suggested starting a turn with its Government Phase (that is, pre-designing results through award of Resources and Issues won): Using “Congress of Vienna” in the Classroom and Reducing Time to Play a CoV “Clash of Armies” Scenario Turn Through a “Warm Start” – InsideGMT
With this article, designer Frank Esparrago proposes a different alternative to accelerate the game’s playing time. Hopefully, this will assist newbie players learning the game, provide a shortened time to play for experienced CoV gamers, and encourage folks who may be hesitating to order a copy of Congress of Vienna’s 2nd Edition out of concern about its playing time. Furthermore, David Schoellhamer, designer of Congress of Vienna’s Bots for Solitaire games, contributed some simplifying edits to Frank’s creation!
To learn more about Congress of Vienna via a wealth of material, see: GMT Games – Congress of Vienna, 2nd Printing With that, it’s on to Frank’s presentation!
Strengths and Opportunities for the Congress of Vienna Design
Since Congress of Vienna‘s 2025 release, there have been a multitude of different opinions about it. Most have in glowing terms praised the game. Either comparing it to other titles of GMT’s Great Statesmen Series, GMT Games – Great Statesmen Series or highlighting the depth, sophistication and detailed fun in executing CoV’s War Phase (compared to Churchill’s).
Others pointed out that CoV’s diplomatic negotiations are more intense, nuanced, and with more Issues than Churchill from whom CoV is inspired. But above all, players expressed being pleased that we introduced a human player, Napoleon’s French Empire, as a “potential enemy” to all the “Allied” players. This successfully, and gratifyingly to the CoV Team, responded to one of the main criticisms of Churchill, that the WW2 Axis of Evil: Europe’s Nazi Germany and Asia’s Empire of the Rising Sun were portrayed by a Bot, a Bot that could be quite predictable.
This predictability is not within the Congress of Vienna full four player game. The Napoleonic Wars’ 1813-1814 period allowed use of historic forces to our advantage in creating a fun and challenging game. WW2’s all-out war historically did not allow for diplomacy between the parties once all the Great Powers entered the fray. Negotiations between Hitler, Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt in 1943, 1944, or 1945 were simply inconceivable… particularly once the Allies proclaimed their “Unconditional Surrender” approach. However, during the Napoleonic Wars negotiations between the Major Powers were possible, expected, and did in fact frequently occur throughout the period.
However, the biggest criticism of CoV, that we justifiably received, is the excessive duration of the gameb[1]. Although experienced players (such as our dedicated play testers who spent years testing the game) usually took an average of 1 hour per Vassal Turn (which involved fine-tuning connections, Discord settings, absent-mindedness handling the Vassal Module, etc…) or an average of a half hour in face-to-face play. Of course, those who are now enjoying the published Congress of Vienna game may have differing experiences.
New players, not experienced with CoV’s cards (and their many modifiers), usually think a lot about their decisions (negotiating, debating, trading cards). This could mean turns could require between 1 hour to as much as 2 hours each (yikes!). So, a Full Campaign game may involve between 12 and 20 hours of play (including beverages [adult or otherwise], chips, popcorn, and discussion of rules…). This is too much for many players as it involves multiple sessions sitting at the table or before a computer for Vassal. Yes, it can be difficult to get 4 players to continue playing the same game over more than one session.
In response, many new CoV players dedicate a day of a weekend, or convention, to a game. For example, spend the morning playing a few learning turns and, then in the afternoon and perhaps beyond, fast advancing to serious competition with a fun, exciting, and enthusiastic full-blooded conclusion to a game.
This length of play concern is the biggest criticism, fully justified, that we received of the game. Telling players to be patient, to wade through 5 or 6 games to gain the experience enabling them to speed things up isn’t sufficient consolation. Consequently, we considered different ways to significantly shorten the game’s playing time. Through this article I propose a variant to seek significantly reducing the duration of a Congress of Vienna game.
The Phases of the Game and their Duration
First, understanding how players, on average, experience the amount of time a game turn takes is foundational to address this challenge. The Phases of a Congress of Vienna turn consists, in overview terms, of:
- Initial Phase. This is when the Initial Situation Card and the Initial Environment Table are executed, each player may be given some specific cards (for each turn) and a hand of cards is dealt to each player. Depending on the players, this involves between 5-10% of a turn’s playing time.
- Diplomacy Phase. The Wager is performed, the nine issues selected, and then 6 Diplomacy Rounds are played by each player (during which cards can be traded, or an Issue negotiated by the active player with the possibility of it being debated by another player). For me, it’s a slow part of the game (except for experienced players), since card hands are large, there are multiple modifiers to the value of most cards for each player to ponder regarding certain Issues, with many bonuses or penalties that need to be considered. Perhaps 40-60% of a turn’s playing time is spent in this Phase.
- Government Phase. Here Resources are spent for Issues won, including possible VPs, Military Support acquisition, with units received and placed on the board. It’s quite mechanical and fast to execute. If players feel comfortable, they can do these expenditures simultaneously. This Phase may represent 5-10% of a turn’s duration.
- War Phase. Military Operations and Military Support markers are placed, usually two units are moved on the Military Map by each player via Strategic Movement and then battles are resolved in Front sequence. The playing time of this Phase can be quite variable, depending on the number of battles each turn. This Phase’s time can range from 30-50% of a turn’s duration.
- End of Turn/VP Phase. Final VP adjustments are made, and Issues and other markers are returned to their initial positions. It represents less than 5% of a turn.
Note the preceding overview lacks a number of specific details. These may be obtained through consulting Congress of Vienna’s rules:
A Variant to Accelerate Congress of Vienna Play
It’s very simple:
- Reduce the basic hand to EIGHT cards (instead of the Standard Game’s TEN). Of course, add the cards received through controlled spaces on the map, the end of the War of 1812, and Austria before it enters the War.
2. Reduce each player’s Diplomatic Rounds to FOUR for each turn (from the current 6). Therefore, we go from a turn’s 24 Rounds to 16!
3. Initial Phase: the player who gets bonus card randomly DRAWS one from deck. Picking one takes time for new players (see Figure 1).
4. The Additional French Military Operation when Napoleon is saved for the War Phase is now a French player’s OPTIONAL decision.
What do we Achieve with This Variant?
First, and most importantly, we have fewer Diplomacy Phase Rounds (1/3 less), which significantly reduces playing time. However, I believe a turn’s card trades will be more limited due to the lack of diplomatic Rounds that players will have available to get all the Issues they desire!
Second, players have a slightly smaller hand of cards (two cards less). This should ease handling, as well as reduce, although not fully eliminate, doubts about which card to play at any given time.
Third, discussions (card trading, Issue negotiation and debate) between players are accelerated. Albeit some of the more elaborate skilled players’ strategies are unfortunately curtailed.
Fourth, the selected player doesn’t need to search for and choose a card from the deck in the Initial Phase using the Environment Table. This player now randomly draws a card, which also reduces playing time a little more, since the player doesn’t need to decide upon and seek a specific card in the deck.
Finally, the additional free French Military Operation, which can increase the number of a turn’s War Phase battles, may be voided by the French player. In addition to simplifying the decisions the French player must make (e.g. Where does he place that Military Op.? Reinforce it with a Military Support marker? What Military card[s] does he keep for that “battle”?), this implies a significant potential saving of game time.
Frequently, this apparent French advantage is in actuality a curse! It could be another Allied opportunity to obtain Major Battle VP as well as further inflict attrition upon a badly pressed French military. Now this free French Military Operation is optional, and many times it is not placed in Paris by a “harried and busy” French player.
I believe these changes can reduce Congress of Vienna’s playtime by approximately 20-25%. Players, particularly “newbies”, can thereby be closer to achieving the hour per turn average by the 2nd game they play. In a short time, perhaps after another “accelerated play” game, they will achieve the between 30 to 45 minutes per turn goal: an average standard enjoyed by many of CoV’s experienced players.
I think the Diplomacy Phase, with its card trading, negotiations and debates is just as intense as the Standard Game (with the caveats set out above), but the Allied players have less time to get a preponderance of won Issues to hurt France all the more!
Conclusions
It is very important for us to receive feedback on your games played with this variant in order to officially include them in the game’s Optional Rules. I personally believe this variant favors France slightly because their National Advantage of Preventive Debate is now stronger: 2 times in 4 Rounds, instead of 2 times during 6 Standard Game Rounds. Furthermore, the reduced number of Diplomacy Rounds with the French National Track’s “stickiness” are to France’s advantage!
Playing France can be a tough, yet fun and challenging experience… although during in the first turns of a Full Campaign Game she will now be more powerful with an Early French Victory a greater possibility!
Readers should keep in mind this Congress of Vienna variant is not intended as a permanent way to play all CoV games, but as a “bridge” to accelerate learning and appreciating the game in its full, originally designed, form.
We hope you’ll accept this variant as a learning tool or a way to play the game when pressed for time. Again, feedback would be appreciated.
Enjoy Congress of Vienna.
[1] From 234 Game Ratings on the BGG CoV page (at this article’s writing), 10 manifested the excessive duration of the full 10 turn campaign game and 5 the complexity of the rules. We know many players do not express negative opinions in these forums! However, we are gratified that, currently, Congress of Vienna has a cumulative 8.3 BGG Rating.
Author: Frank Esparrago
