I have gotten about halfway through the rules and have a group of friends coming over this evening (in about 7 hours) for us to try our first game. I think that there will be 4 or 5 of us. Can anyone give me some pointers about what pitfalls to expect or how I can better prepair to host this game that none of us have ever played and only I have read the rules for? Also how long should I expect a first game like this to take? Might we have time to play two games? Any good player aids out there that anyone cares to recommend?

For me, the key mistake that I made was forgetting that Gauis Baltar recieves an extra loyality card during the loyality step (even though I prepared the loyality deck correctly) . So I'd always recommend looking over character cards and such at the start of the game, even if you think you remember perfectly, it never hurts to check again. Also I got slightly confused with the FTL early jumps, it's 7 or higher to get away with no population loss, which is sadly tucked away in the rulebook but a very important rule to remember. A good reference sheet would help out there, I haven't found any myself, but if you haven't already try checking the Battlestar Galactica page at www.boardgamegeek.com.

Regarding play time it's hard to say as my first game was with three people (one very distracted) and we didn't finish after over 3 hours. Turns tend to flow quite quickly, but everyone needs to be paying attention most of the time,so if you have anyway to minimise distractions I'd try that, otherwise there'll be a lot of hanging around as the other person gets up to speed.

My final tip is to encourage talking and banter, the game really comes alive with a group of people accusing and advising each other about new threats and it's a great way to keep everyone's eyes locked to the board.

I hope all that was at least slightly helpful, and that you have a great game. Just don't worry if you slip up, everyone else will be learning too, and might not even notice .