hi i'm a newbie to this game though i'm very exited about it. i've tried to play a couple of times with my mates who also newbies to this sort of board game but we've become bogged down in keeping track of the rules and consequently not got very far in the game (also we havent probably set enough time for it). is there any resources anyone can point me to that wouold make this easier?

Thank you

carrot

http://www.ti3wiki.org/index.php?title=TI3_Links

Under the guides section there is a "newbies" tutorial. The 3 player one is the one you want to look at (as the 4-6 player plays pretty much the same.
If you post some specific questions, it would be easier to answer them.

You need a good 6 hours to play a game with 6 players if you haven't finished one game before.

Six hours strikes me as somewhat on the fast side. Unless everyone runs out guns blazing it usually takes us more like 10-12 hours to finish a 6 player game. (We don't finish very many games at all =P)

10 hours is much longer than we normally play. But that said, my 6 hours does not include eating/drinking breaks and other 'breaks' in the game.
All things in, we play probably 8 hours.

Just plan on playing it over multiple sessions. Make sure to play the game somewhere you can leave it up.