Hey everyone!

I just picked up this game last week and have really enjoyed playing so far. I've gotten a bunch of my friends to start playing using only the core set, and I'm looking forward to picking up the KoTS and PotS expansions to add the other two houses. I have a question for the community about how long your games tend to last; we usually do a 4 player game that ends up taking a few hours. Granted, we've been teaching new players each time, but it seems like our games may be lasting too long and I'm concerned that this might alienate some of my newer players. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Multiplayer games will always last longer than 1-on-1 games. But the biggest factor is really inexperience. If you have to keep explaining things or looking things up, the game will just need that much longer. Expect your game time to go down below two hours as you become more experienced. If you feel like the games are going on longer than is fun, think about capping the game at 90 minutes or so and then just see who's ahead and declare a winner.

You can also start using a timer to force people to get their turns done with and forgo all the over thinking and only pause the timer for rules questions until all the rules are understood by everyone.

Jayce said:

I think this would be more frustrating than helpful for new players. The situations can be quite complex, particularly in multiplayer. Why not give players time to learn how to read the board properly.

Thanks for the input folks! I think all of the people we've played with really enjoyed making their own decisions and getting the hang of the game, but definitely felt like the game was dragging. I'm hopeful that experience will make the games go quicker.

The multi-action phases in our games always take a really long time for each player because there's a lot to think about. Should you attack with what challenge, and with who? Will I be left too defenseless? Which plot is best for right now? Which cards should I marshall? Who should I defend with in this attack? Should I go unopposed?

Multiplayer that times X where X is the number of players. Then add a variable of additional strategy against more than 1 player.

Our games have taken 3 - 5 hours because of this amount of time on players turns. Each move you make could really hurt you if you are not smart.

I don't offer any solution because I think turns take awhile because of uncertainty on which is the best course of action for each and every move you make. Some plots extend turns because of additional challenge options as well.

I think that it is correct to think that games reduce in time as rules are learned. We always have uncertainty in certain situations where we just need to agree on how the game will be played until we obtain clarity.

Another thing, I'd avoid having more than 4 players. The game gets really out of hand with 5 or more players.

If you have 4 players total, you might want to try the 2 vs. 2 variant (and perhaps lowering the needed power per team from 30 to 20 or whatever reduces the game to a reasonable time) . It eliminates all the lengthy title considerations and some of the "who-to-attack" guess work.