It took my group of four players about four hours to play and we didn't even finish. We decided to stop playing at 10 power tokens because the game was taking just forever. It was also incredibly difficult keeping up with all the different traits and card effects. My group got pretty frustrated and bored with it. Any tips?

Were you playing with x1 Core only decks or constructed decks?

Usually a melee game lasts 1,5 - 2,5 hours. It really depends a lot on the decks you chose to play and the paticipating players. Since it was your first melee game is it possible that a lot of time was "lost" by explaining and looking up the rules?

Also the Core Set decks are most likely a little bit slower to play against each other. that´s because there are only two reset plots (Valar Morghulis, Wildfire assault) included, that often takes the game to line up your forces and makes it diffcult to challenge.

When you are just starting out, melee games will just take a long time if there's nobody really familiar with the game. My personal recommendation is that you try playing 2 vs. 2 where a team needs to get to a collective power count of 15 to win (rather than the recommended 30 from the rule book) . It speeds up the game a little by eliminating some of the choices that a player has during the course of a game, players have to worry about 1 less opponent, the titles are not part of the game (which are a source of confusion for new players). Once players have become more familiar with the game, you can try the standard melee format again. I would also recommend to find one or maybe two people who really try and sink their teeth into the rules, study the FAQ (link in my signature; always have a copy at hand when you play) and post questions here in the rules forum, if necessary.

90% of my four player games end within a hour. However our first two games took a good 3 hours each and then all the games we had before making our own decks (just using core) took about 1.5 hours...I think you will get the hang of it and really enjoy the game.

Were still on the 3 hr mark if a certain player in our group turns up, as he has to look at every possible outcome and argues everything that comes his way.

But you know what, we still enjoy it even if it takes 5 hrs. The games brilliant and we all love it whether it takes you 1 or 4 hrs.

I'd say a 4-player game between people who have a grasp on the rules and on their decks can be done in a couple of hours. The first two or three games for new players take them at least double the time to read all their cards and comprehend everything that's going on, and 4-way play doesn't help this either. It ends up flowing a lot more nicely after everyone's comfortable with how things work.

Starblayde said:

More like around one hour to an hour and a half (depending on the players and decks). And games can be over faster than this, but you'll probably have less chatting and banter between players during the game then, which to me would be a loss.