I didn’t use any tutorial, it’s honestly fairly simple and I had no issues with the rules at all. The cards use keywords and I didn’t find any mistakes so far. The 2P duel game takes us about 70 minutes on average, not counting teaching the rules. The 3P took 90+ minutes because we had a new player who slowed things down. The 4P takes about 90 minutes, sometimes less depending upon what happens. The pace is really snappy, it’s one action or pass, and keep doing it until everyone is done, resolve the resulting combat, next round, new path and battleground, draw, do actions again. Can easily go again after playing.
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Thanks, very informative 
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Capsule reviews of my latest in-person games from the past two months:
Brass Birmingham: I see why it’s a cult favorite but it’s too much of a muchness for me. Just too arcane, too…Lacerda, if you will. 
Wayfarers of the South Tigris: A departure for the Garphill folks and an interesting one, but my family had mixed reactions. I’d like to try it again, but I wasn’t totally sold. And now the inevitable expansion–Scholars of the South Tigris–is on its way. Not sure how I feel about that, though I will probably back it.
Nemesis: I’m just not a dungeon-crawler gamer and this was SEVEN HOURS with five of us. Three of us survived, but I don’t know that we won.
Almoravid: My second attempt to grok the popular Levy & Campaign series, and my estimation of the basic game structure rose after I was confused by Nevsky. Still, the rulebook reads like it was written by an AI, so I’ve been using some neat tutorial videos to learn the system. Next, revisiting Russia and then Italy.
Obsession: I completely missed this until it turned up on BGA, so I just got to play it in person last week. I see what the fuss is about, but by mistake we played the Extended version which went too long. From what I can tell, there are gameplay reasons for playing Extended, but I’m not sure I want to do that live. Will kick the tires a bit more on BGA.
Sekigahara and Granada: Sekigahara is by now a classic, but it’s tough for me to remember how it all fits together when I play it. I followed that up by playing Granada, by a different designer, published by a different company, using the Sekigahara design as a chassis. We had a very positive experience and even liked Granada a bit better than Sekigahara.
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Agreed on Nemesis. We called a game with two players dead, one player won, two players still running around. That was after 5 hours.
Obsession is a banger, deserves to be a big hit, but the small numbers produced limited its presence.
L&C is a bit too overwrought for me; love the idea behind it but I find them convoluted. Maybe I’ll have better luck with another crack at Nevsky (and if I ignore the cover).
Not tried Granada yet. Love Seki though. Gladly play it any time.
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I’d not heard of Granada! That said, I love about Sekigahara that it has pretty simple rules, is of manageable duration, and the Japanese theme lends it an aesthetic I adore. It sounds like Granada steps away from these virtues somewhat. However, it still looks gorgeous, and I wonder whether it might compensate for its greater complexity and duration with a broader array of options.
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Has anyone played Wings of Glory or Sails of Glory at the table? Do either of them rely less on buying additional ships than X-Wing, or is it a similar business model?
I’m a related but separate question, are there any other historical themed games with fun minis and/or art? Playable with 3 would be preferred, so not the Memoir games. I’d also prefer med. weight at most so as to be able to teach and play a little quicker.
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WoG is literally (or was) the game model X-Wing was based on, and relies on the same business model.
Playable with 3 would be preferred
3 factions?
3 people. I frequently meet with 2 friends from college. They’d love a historical game, it can’t be overly rule-heavy, and I’d like to show up with something with great table presence. Painted minis come to mind, which is why I asked about Wings/Sails.
Wings of Glory is probably your best bet, squire. There are others like Blue Max, but WoG is easy to play and the models are nice.
There’s Tanks if you prefer, but there’s a fair bit of assembly.
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I have Sails of Glory, and I adore it. Most people say it’s best with no more than two ships per player; for myself, one frigate aside feels ideal. The only expansions I’ve bought are one Spanish frigate (in case I want to try a three-way game at some point) and the shore batteries (which allow solo play, which was neat, but slightly disappointing, because so much of what I enjoy is the yomi of sailing). I may at sound point but the U.S.S. Constitution to have an overpowered frigate for uneven matchups and for the crew cards which give a bit of variability. I’ve bought a bunch of X-wing stuff, and it’s neat to have all that variety available, but ship variety and strategic list building isn’t what attracts me to SoG, it’s the complicated choices involved in sailing and fighting a single ship. The base set is expensive, but I’ve little interest in more despite loving the game.
You might also consider the Battlestar Galactica game. By the time it came out, I was full up on this style of game, but it had a reputation for more interesting movement options, and has many fewer expansions.
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BSG: Starship Battles is excellent, especially if you play with the full rules for momentum, manoeuvre, etc. It’s no longer being expanded either, seeing as the geniuses with the license pulled it from Ares, so you don’t need to fear an ever-growing list of ships to buy. Killed X-Wing for me.
Undaunted: Stalingrad. Still a rapid-fire tactical game, swingy, punchy, very fun. No problems managing the set up and breakdown, that only takes a few minutes, but juggling decks at the end can get a little messy. Excellent to see your force get stronger (and weaker) as you get upgrades, new units, and take casualties. The tile system is good even if the colours are a little too uniformly drab. Never had a battle yet that I’ve lost and thought “Couldn’t do anything about that.” Every time we’ve finished, either my opponent or I have immediately said “I should have done x!” The campaign isn’t going to take us long at this rate, we’ve played 3-4 battles each session.
Air, Land & Sea. My win rate has improved tremendously, but I still lost this battle. FML.
I had a minor brainwave that turned out not to be an aneurysm. War of the Ring (card game) comes in a box that is far too big. I could buy or make a smaller, nicer box, but while I think about doing that, it turns out the entire game fits nicely in the War of the Ring (board game) card tin. That’s very convenient (a little too convenient!) and will do nicely for the foreseeable. So much easier to transport now it takes up about a sixth of the space.
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So, I have a TCG itch… a cardboard one.
I looked at Grand Archive TCG, which seems to have super rare chase collector cards and stuff, but thought it would be gambling.
Then I found Lorcana! Which is a Disney TCG and releases in August.
Might have to start saving for a case
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Wow, did not know about this Lorcana thing–that is a stupid name, but it will surely become a thing with Disney behind it. Are you over Pokemon?
And aren’t all trading cards at this point like gambling?
I don’t know that the Disney names carries as much weight these days. Or maybe not across every genre. I don’t know that Villainous was hugely popular; on the video game from Dreamlight Valley isn’t hugely popular. We will see…
Personally, while I like opening packs and discovering new games, I have a hard time buying packs of cards for games that aren’t my main TCG. I tend to stick with Magic and Pokémon and when I want new card games I look at the LCG models.
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Until Dreamlight Valley goes FTP, it is hard to gauge its potential popularity. I got EA on the Switch for my daughter and she put a solid 50 hours or so into it at first, but has burned out on it.
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I had the impression Villainous did amazing; spawned a bunch of expansions and got a lot of press. But there’s just so many Disney games, and they all have this narcissistic quality to them, as though the primary product of Disney as a corporation is nostalgia for their own work. It’s exhausting, and it makes it hard to see a game they put out with massive development and marketing effort as very different from the stuff I expect to see at Ollie’s in a year.
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We still play Pokémon online every now and then 
Oh! Reminds me, I have something to send you….
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I’ve got more code cards for you and the kids anytime you want them : )
Edit: and anyone else who wants some!
Has anyone tried Rise of Tribes?