A buddy of mine in Austin runs a monthly board game night and he read somewhere that trade timers cut game length by more than half. He tried it and yeah, same thing happened. Game went from dragging all night to done before 9. His group fussed for the first two weeks because they missed the back and forth talking, but then they started doing all that stuff between turns instead. The timer didn't kill the table talk, it just moved it. Dave is right that the fun part matters, but four people fighting over one sheep card is not the fun part. Try the timer for a few more weeks before anyone decides.

Heard a tile guy on a podcast swear by that.

Ha, took me 12 years to figure out oil wasn't just for the wrench!