My 8 player Twilight Imperium night died at turn 2, and honestly the game wasn't the problem
Last Saturday we set up Twilight Imperium 4th edition at my place in Cincinnati, 8 hours blocked off, snacks bought, and we quit before turn 3. One guy had played 6 times and spent 45 minutes on his first turn while three new players just sat there checking their phones. I used to blame slow players, but now I think the real issue is that our group treats a 6 hour game like a casual game night. I told everyone we should only play TI with people who have read the rules ahead of time, and half the group got mad at me. Has anyone else had a big game night fall apart like this, and did you fix it by cutting players or just switching to shorter games?