For some reason I can never get myself to finish a game, even if I am winning. Things always seem to get too tedious and chaotic for me whenever I have beyond 10 cities and over 50 units and turns take forever. I can do a turn in the matter of seconds towards the beginning of the game, but later on they can take up to 10 minutes it seems.

Another thing I don't get is how the AI can make so many units and still keep up on tech and production, which also discourages me from finishing a game. They attack me, usually fail miserably and take heavy losses, but it still doesn't slow down their production or research. I don't prioritize unit production, ever, until I have built everything in a city thats important to maximize its production, growth, and research. Only time I make units is if theres nothing else left to build in the city, or if there is a standing army nearby. The only time I build buildings that add to health/happiness is when its about to become unhealthy or unhappy. But I figure by building like this I can have a much greater long term benefit, much sooner, than the computer who is doing nothing but spamming out units and not even making city improvements. One game, I had over twice the amount of cities that one of my neighbors had, but he had not only considerably better technology than me, but also five times the units I did and still had most of cities fully upgraded, all before he declared war on me and began attacking my cities. I also always get stuck dealing with hot head leaders, demanding tribute and being upset for me not doing this and that, and as a result I always have 2 AI's declare war on me and only me over the course of a game.

I hope this wasn't too long or sound too much like a rant, but I am just looking for some encouragement or advice on how to make this game less frustrating. I have alot of fun playing it, but I always seem to lose interest near the end of a game because of how little progress is being made, how slow the turns are, and how difficult it is to deal with the AI.

I can be the same I generally lose interest by late industrial/modern to where I'm just waiting for the game to end. The modern age isn't interesting/fleshed out enough for me to keep playing. By then I'm itching to start a new game. I tend not to play the vanilla games rather i go for RFC because that keeps my interest more.

I can be the same I generally lose interest by late industrial/modern to where I'm just waiting for the game to end. The modern age isn't interesting/fleshed out enough for me to keep playing. By then I'm itching to start a new game. I tend not to play the vanilla games rather i go for RFC because that keeps my interest more.

Thats around the same time I get bored. Whats RFC refer to?

Thats around the same time I get bored. Whats RFC refer to?

Yep I don't like to spend a month on a game half of which is in the industrial/modern eras hitting enter and moving a assload of units around. RFC is Rhyes and Fall of Civilization, a mod made by Rhye, there is a forum for it in Civ4 C&C. Its really realistic and historically accurate without destroying game play. I find it much more rewarding than vanilla games. You should try it if you haven't already.

You know what, I had the same problem. My solution is to wait until I get a better computer (not playing any Civ4 until then). Unfortunately, my situation is kinda crazy, as I haven't played a computer game for a whole week. My mind's been in Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3, plus Super Mario Advance 2 and Super Mario 64 DS.

Looks like I'm not alone!

Generally, when I play, I enjoy the game until micromanagement becomes too much of a problem, or someone discovers Liberalism while I'm still miles back.

The way I figure it, is that as long as you have enjoyed the first part of the game, go ahead and end it! IF the end is too exciting to miss, just hang on a little longer. I have had CivIV since it was released, and I have only finished about 10% of the games that I start. About 70% I end willingly, 20% I get my head handed to me on a platter, and the last 10% I just have to see all te way to the end, cuz it just gets too exciting. So don't feel bad about it! Embrace you inner quitter!

So don't feel bad about it! Embrace you inner quitter!
I agree.
I, too, seldom finish games, because it takes forever, and the result is often quite predictable. When I'm overtaking the AI on the powergraph and have all the necessary resources (iron, coal, oil) I know I'm going to win. I don't find anything fun in crushing the AI.
Sometimes, though, the late game can get really interesting, and BTS has done a lot to improve it (corporations come to mind).

I agree.
I, too, seldom finish games, because it takes forever, and the result is often quite predictable. When I'm overtaking the AI on the powergraph and have all the necessary resources (iron, coal, oil) I know I'm going to win. I don't find anything fun in crushing the AI.
Sometimes, though, the late game can get really interesting, and BTS has done a lot to improve it (corporations come to mind).

I agree that BtS has improved the late game and it can be pretty interesting when theres a tight race for space or a rival for diplomatic victory etc. Its the middle game I have trouble with when wars and empires become vast and unmanageable (at least for impatient me) that I don't like. If I get past that I finish but often I quit in the industrial age especially if victory looks very probable.

Here are the solutions I've tried to counter this problem.

1. Play other games. When I first bought Civ4, I was bogged down by how slow a game can take. Unfortunately, I only got lonely because of this and was reinsterested with Civ4 via Warlords.

2. Force myself to the end. But this really wasn't fun, although something exciting surfaced in the end of the two games I've managed to actually finish with a real victory. But if I just quit when things start slowing down, I don't get the sense that I've accomplished something, as I haven't won.

3. Play on smaller maps. But this was boring. I play Civ4 to build an empire to stand against 5 or more other empires, not 4 or less.

But if I just quit when things start slowing down, I don't get the sense that I've accomplished something, as I haven't won.
Not to mention that, when you retire, the game taunts you by saying "you have been defeated!!!". I always find this infuriating, esp. when the very reason I retire is that there no longer is any chance for me to be defeated... :mad:

I think everybody sooner or later meets these problems. Here's my solution. If you don't enjoy playing you are probably pushing it too hard and playing too much/often... If you eat 50 piece of candy you probably need to throw up, you simply can not enjoy it :lol: ... About turns taking too long ... i always play with quick combat/moves options. At the beginning it was fun to watch fighting but now , because i fight a lot it's to much to watch. About your chaos when you have a lot of cities and don't know what to do and feel a little lost ... That's when micromanagement comes in. Milk the maximum of those nice coins and improve your empire with most care. When i try that i often get 'caught up in the strategy'... and finally here's a tip that gives you a 100% clue if you are going to win the game. Check out the gold . If you are ahead a lot , you're killing, if you're close to rivals, well, we are human and we can out smart AI and before you know it have gold lead and research lead... it's all about the gold unless you run SE...

Not to mention that, when you retire, the game taunts you by saying "you have been defeated!!!". I always find this infuriating, esp. when the very reason I retire is that there no longer is any chance for me to be defeated... :mad:

I don't retire; I just exit without ever coming back.

I got BTS after Christmas, so I've had it for about a month.
I hate it. I think the game got much worse. What does this have to do with finishing games, I've only finished one so far. I have quit many. Sunday for example; I was the Celts, my immediate neighbors were Rome and Japan. Japan shared my religion, so did Rome until they discovered CoL. Anyway, things are going great. But Japan and Rome get mad at each other. Good news for me, or so I think.
They each ask me to help kill the other one. I turn down a few requests becuase I'm not in a position to go to war. I built up come galic warriors and agreed finally, with Japan to kill Rome. Three turns later, Japan, who was "friendly" with me, declares war on ME! What the heck? I was completely out numbered now, and the Romans quickly started coming through my teritory. I quit. I didn't have the time to watch them pick me apart and eliminate me from the game.
Similar situation with pretty much every game I've played so far with BTS. I was playing on Noble in vanilla, now I'm back to warlord and not finding it easy. I can't imagine that I lost that much skill at this game just because the AI got a little better with the newer verisons.
I am quickly finding this game to not be enjoyable any more, especially past the rennisance age.

I don't retire; I just exit without ever coming back.
You don't want to have a look at the replay, or the full PowerGraph?

I got BTS after Christmas, so I've had it for about a month.
I hate it. I think the game got much worse. What does this have to do with finishing games, I've only finished one so far. I have quit many. Sunday for example; I was the Celts, my immediate neighbors were Rome and Japan. Japan shared my religion, so did Rome until they discovered CoL. Anyway, things are going great. But Japan and Rome get mad at each other. Good news for me, or so I think.
They each ask me to help kill the other one. I turn down a few requests becuase I'm not in a position to go to war. I built up come galic warriors and agreed finally, with Japan to kill Rome. Three turns later, Japan, who was "friendly" with me, declares war on ME! What the heck? I was completely out numbered now, and the Romans quickly started coming through my teritory. I quit. I didn't have the time to watch them pick me apart and eliminate me from the game.
Similar situation with pretty much every game I've played so far with BTS. I was playing on Noble in vanilla, now I'm back to warlord and not finding it easy. I can't imagine that I lost that much skill at this game just because the AI got a little better with the newer verisons.
I am quickly finding this game to not be enjoyable any more, especially past the rennisance age.

Yikes! So much for the game that earned IGN's "best expansion pack of 2007" award.

I personally think Warlords was a better expansion pack, but BtS is fine. IMO GameStats rated Warlords higher than Civ3.

I also always get stuck dealing with hot head leaders, demanding tribute and being upset for me not doing this and that, and as a result I always have 2 AI's declare war on me and only me over the course of a game.


That's probably because you don't emphasis unit production enough. Keep a strong army on hand at all times and you'll get less declarations of war. Though that won't necessarily solve your problem since wars at least make things interesting. It can get quite boring sometimes if you're always at peace.

I didn't fully understand the space race and wound up waiting so long to get more casings that I wound up losing with 3 turns left (exactly the amount of time I waited to build casings).

Sometimes the game is so tight I know I need to finish it. Othertimes I don't even get past liberalism because I just enjoy the first 100 turns so much. I never feel bad about hot headed leaders. I understand that I need to have some military coming out rather than pushing myself to get more beakers. But while pretty much every stinkin feature of BTS has its ups and downs I enjoy it for what it is.

NOTE TO VANILLA PLAYERS: If you haven't yet bought BTS just go ahead and get Sevomod. You'll be very happy with it and not have to pay a dime.

You know what, I had the same problem. My solution is to wait until I get a better computer (not playing any Civ4 until then). Unfortunately, my situation is kinda crazy, as I haven't played a computer game for a whole week. My mind's been in Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3, plus Super Mario Advance 2 and Super Mario 64 DS.

Wow civ4 runs awesome for me. No offence but you must have a dino bot. Civ4 runs great on anything made this Millenium.

Say. does that mean your gunna take down all those threads you posted in civ3 forums saying how dumb they are for sticking with a game that actually runs real sized maps lag free? :cool:

But then you were sayin Civ4 plays so awesome and the graphics were so cool! . What happend,? Did you finnaly feel like playing a "standard" map size? :lol:

No but for real, I agree. Civ4 will get better when MOST of us get new computers. To bad civ5 will be in play by then and it'll be time for your "why are you still playing Civ4?" thread!

How amusing, I had a thread like this written out the other day, and never bothered posting it.

I play all the time, but rarely actually "finish". I will generally play until I am dominating enough to be certain its a given, but I have a lot more fun playing up through about Flight or so. Then I just stop, start a new game, and do it again. I also like to practice some of the cool gambits and slingshots and such, so I play a LOT of games though liberalism, and then restart with a different civ to see how he handles that same "style".

Recently I have decided I will keep some of those "last saves" though, and go back and finish them. One drawback of my method is that I suck at late-middle and end game. Yeah, if I am killing in tech and have a pile of big production cities, I could just button mash it out, but that gets boring fast. I like doing . . . stuff.

Another tip to try on those old saves is the "massive filler city REX" technique that has a thread in the Strategy forum. I had a blast reloading old saves, and plopping as many new cities as I could in those "in-between" spots. Total fun, especially when I noticed how many I could get in on conquered land, some AI civs seem to spread their cites out a lot (mine are now usually packed in fairly tightly out of the gate).

To give you some idea of how often I "actually" win, I recently had to re-install the game on GameTap, and it wiped out my old Hall of Fame (which only had 3 or 4 wins on it, one each on Warlord, Noble, and Prince, and the tutorial, LOL) and now, almost 10 days later, I have no games in it, heh. Havent finished even one. I have 5 or 6 saves that are totally dominating positions though, a couple Monarch and even one Emperor, but I didnt finish. I might go back and do it later, cant decide.

sometimes the threashold to declare the win is just annoyingly high. You can secure supremicy with much less than the domination threashold, and a proper tech lead will often secure a win even if you are very far from spaceships. Its a game, if its not fun and youve won then quit. Thats what I do.

In my hundreds of hours of playing civ4 (and expansions), I've probably only finished a maximum of 10... 1 of which was GOTM, and some of which were early losses.

The way I figure it, is that as long as you have enjoyed the first part of the game, go ahead and end it! IF the end is too exciting to miss, just hang on a little longer. I have had CivIV since it was released, and I have only finished about 10% of the games that I start. About 70% I end willingly, 20% I get my head handed to me on a platter, and the last 10% I just have to see all te way to the end, cuz it just gets too exciting. So don't feel bad about it! Embrace you inner quitter!

I have to quite my mom makes me.:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: but i get over it

I have to quite my mom makes me.:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: but i get over it


Moms are mean. Still I wish I had a kid I had to chuck off Civ. My kids its all things I don't understand which makes the decisions hard.