Sorry if a noobish question, but the question seems to be too basic for me to have found a simple answer to ingame or in faqs.

As for opinions, I've been playing Quick games because I feel I don't have time, and on small maps with only 5 civs because I'm running on minimum specs (soon I'll have a new compy, though).

Does the length of your game affect the tax on system resources in your experience? If so I can upgrade to longer speeds and just play multiple sessions!

And what's your opinion on the balance of growth in each speed? Quick has seemed to feel natural with culture, tech, money and military growth, but I only played one test Normal speed.

If speed has no affect on system resources and the balance is maintained in all speeds, I might as well try a epic or marathon game. I've always felt the early eras go by too fast... part of me feels Quick is too fast for me in general.

i find the balance to be pretty good at all speeds. the length of the game is not nearly as taxing on your system as the size of the map.

Cool. In a few weeks none of this will matter of course, and I'll probably be running massive maps with the max number of civs, but for now I have to hold back.

What about the turn counts? I simply haven't found this info anywhere.

i think epic is 1.5 x normal and marathon is 3 x normal but i'm not positive. i'm sure there is someone better informed tham me that could answer this.

Check the "Victory Conditions" screen -- it's <f8>, or the "fist" icon in the upper right corner of the main interface.

Among other information, it tells you how many turns remain...so if you check it on the first turn, you'll see the total turn count at whatever speed you're playing.

Oh, thank you, that's perfect. Thanks to everyone who replied.

BTW, even before I check, I think Marathon is x3 as long as Quick, because a first turn Worker takes me 10 turns in quick but takes 30 on the same tiles in Marathon.

I think that in Marathon everything is balanced like the rest but Unit costs :hammers: are only 2X not 3X, so these games tend to emphasize war.