by Anduin
True to the other two comments.Studioworks, your post definitely sounds like a first-play-comment. This is pretty common. The game can last forever in the beginning. Did you read the rules beforehand, or did you start right out of the box? Playing time however goes down with repeated plays.
For your comments regarding combat: No game can really shine if it allows turtling as a viable strategy. Therefore combat has to give the attacker an advantage. However, as said before, the Waiqar units arent that strong as it seems first. Overall, the consensus in the community is that the game is strongly balanced! Every faction has its strengths and weaknesses but they all have a shot at victory.
Map setup can be an issue with newcommers. There are pros and cons of prebuilt maps. Maybe you should look into that! Just try to build a balanced map for your group and then let the others choose starting position (and you choose last) .. Just a suggestion :)
The heroes is the same. Many players who are new to Runewars perceive the heroes to be sort of separated from the rest of the game. Actually this was even worse in the base game (before it was revised) because there the heroes couldn't even support battles. But they are very viable for the game and you definitely need them in order to win. I, personally, would not like to play without them.
And when it comes to dice vs. cards... Well... it's true, its a matter of taste, but I can see the advantages of both. In the end, it was a design choice. I think when Runewars was released, designers wanted to move away from those typical dice-driven wargames and present something new. Afterall, there is not a big difference and there is even a very simple variant here in the forum how you can replace the card mechanic with a dice mechanic!
Lastly, this game can take a long time, and the revised edition seems to have added a lot of extra time with the mandatory road to victory end game condition. You can think about varying those numbers (years and needed dragon runes). There have been some discussions about this topic already.
So: I think Runewars is a really great game and it pays of if you stick to it. It really starts to shine after some plays when the mechanics click and you realize all the strategic potential and the great balance that is in the units and factions.
I hope you stick with this game and we can discuss a lot more with you about Runewars :)