I suppose it depends on the size of the map and such, but, playing the setting you like to play, how long does a Civ 4 game take for you (start to finish, not including breaks, time spent writing up the game, etc.)?

I tend to find that the more I play the faster my games become.
They started out at about 25hrs for a full game under standard settings, and are now down to about 20 hours (although ive only played three times)

Hmm . . . nobody's taken the 4th option yet. :)

Too long. I have been on my current PYL for... 3 or 4 days. This is partly due to actually having stuff to do in RL for once, but also partly because im just slow. Its also why i dont like war in this game, it takes too much time.

I tend to find that the more I play the faster my games become.
They started out at about 25hrs for a full game under standard settings, and are now down to about 20 hours (although ive only played three times)

:wow: My games take like four hours. What settings do you play with?

Too long. I have been on my current PYL for... 3 or 4 days. This is partly due to actually having stuff to do in RL for once, but also partly because im just slow. Its also why i dont like war in this game, it takes too much time.

My war games are faster than my nonwar ones due to the earlier finish dates and the fact that I'm very, very used to unit control micro (having extended experience with high-level play in starcraft/warcraft 3 and other RTS probably helps). Space wins take me an extra half hour to an hour over war.

Diplo if I'm really shooting for it is a sub 2 hour affair :lol:. Those games aren't as fun though.

Obviously based on the other thread I voted 3-5 hours...standard map size, epic speed. I oscillate between monarch and emperor (monarch for noble's club and MadScientist's RPC's, otherwise emperor).

I want to master emperor before moving up, especially since jumping monarch to emperor was such hell at first.

I think there are a couple things i could do to speed things up. The game slows down after so many turns, a save and reload fixes it but i always keep putting it off. A full reinstall of the entire system is probably in order (its 2 years overdue actually).

And of course turning combat graphics off. I just like seeing my cannons go boom so much.

I voted the 4th option since 30 hours wasn't available. You should probably have had a 20+ option. :)

It really really depends on your computer hardware. My 12AI Epic Speed Large Map games take 3-4 hours (note: I play with battle animations off, but that's it). I remember on my older computer, the same game would probably take 7-9 hours.

The second factor, of course, would be playstyle, namely the speed or lack thereof one takes during their turns. (I play quite quickly, often pressing end turn [shift+enter] way too soon).

can 7 minutes a option

^^^ :lol: exactly, usually about ten minutes.

^^^ :lol: exactly, usually about ten minutes.

That's slow. I won a duel Terra on Emperor in 3 minutes playing as Inca :rolleyes:.

Seriously. I actually did it quickly last night because I was pissed at my Stalin RPC loss mistakes and wanted to trash something ASAP. It was good for like a 30kish score...one of the few games I've played as Inca.

Depends, space game almost always under 10 hours unless it involved a difficult renaissance war. Domination always takes more than 10 hours and can be well over 20 if there are modern wars to be fought. 5-15 seems reasonable.

And 9 people already voted that their name is Sisitul...

And 9 people already voted that their name is Sisitul...

When you hang out in that thread long enough..........:D

I would turn battle animation off, but it makes the gameplay so much better, its tough thing to quit.

After a game or a 100 though, it gets old.

I find animations necessary for defense, because otherwise it's hard to keep track of where the action is. On offense, since you know exactly which unit is attacking and where, the animations are unnecessary. Yeah, they look kinda cool, but they add up to a ton of time over the course of a full game.

I find animations necessary for defense, because otherwise it's hard to keep track of where the action is. On offense, since you know exactly which unit is attacking and where, the animations are unnecessary. Yeah, they look kinda cool, but they add up to a ton of time over the course of a full game.

You should probably know where enemy stacks are, and what they're composed of, long before an invasion ;). You do have OB, right? Scouts are cheap units...or just use leftover chariots if you have those.

The AI attacks from very predictable locations unless you're talking coastal invasion (think pathing - AI likes its shortest paths and will usually follow a road leading from its civ to yours with its main SoD. How many of these connections do you really have? It can't take nearly as long to check as it does to watch 20 units fight!). It's really not all that hard to tell where the enemy SoD is though. A circle picture with a red arrow appears at war after all. Pre-war, the animations don't help anyway, do they :p?

I'm not sisustil, but it takes me at least 10 hours to get halfway through (liberalism-ish) a game on a small map, so over 20 hours if it's not a pangea conquest/domination.

A normal game takes about 7hours for me. Pangea domination are shorter (about 5), while OCC's are often done in 3-4 hours.

My last game was 16 hours and that was with Darius of HRE Epic/Small so I managed a late 1800 Space on Warlord. If I was better I could probably wrap up an earlier win. I like to micromanage so it doesn't bother me that each game takes so long.

3-5 range. Yay small maps.

shorter than 3 hours

multiplayer dude here

That's slow.
Oh, I can lose much faster than in ten minutes.

My all-time record was 1 year and 5 month for a huge world map domination game.
Several patches came out during the game, effective playing time was over 100 hours. :old:

I just won my fastest game ever, an epic prince game playing as hatty, going for an culture win. Won in 1 hour 47 minutes. : D

A pretty bad game though, I won by 1955...

Usually my turns takes somewhere between 10-45 min.. My name isn't Sisiutil however. 2 of the games i have played have lasted several months already(contious) while another just started like 1-2 weeks ago. Fastest game i have finished was like 26 days(and that was fast...). At least the way i play recently.

My all-time record was 1 year and 5 month for a huge world map domination game.
Several patches came out during the game, effective playing time was over 100 hours. :old:

:eek: I haven't even had this game for a year and five months. :eek:

Mine are 10-15 hours playing Noble, large map, and epic speed. Last Couple wins were cultural victories.

15 hours. Normal map, normal speed.

20-30hrs, spread across 2-3 months :D I usually leave a save alone and only continue later. I should add that I don't play that much (as some of you) solo games but play lots SGs.

Usually a month to play a full game... an hour or two spent playing here and there.

I usually play large random maps (full course of history).

A. Huge marathon wins take about 10-15 hours.
B. barbarian uprising losses take about as long as it takes for me to utter every profane word i know in any language...which is about 2 minutes...i was in the USMC...I know lots of cuss words.
C. Average game lasts 6-7 hours then i get bored and start over if i know either I am a winner at that point( I have tanks and the enemy has just foolishly upgraded all their spearmen) or if it seems truly hopeless. (Ghandi completes Apollo Program about the time I am finishing off Drama)

I have tanks and the enemy has just foolishly upgraded all their spearmen
You meant to say that you give up because the AI was smart enought to upgrade their warriors to spearmen :lol:

2 hours. I played once 5 hours, and I think it was due to my alt+tabbing. And we are talking Standard world, normal speed. And I'd like too much to play longer. Because, well, I start getting baaaaaaad results... :(

my computer is SO SLOW that it takes 5 hours to have a real game 2 hour elapsed time.

:wow: My games take like four hours. What settings do you play with?

Like I said before, I play a standard map (standard size temperate etc etc)under Shuffle and Monarch. But I do tend to forego the automated workers and the automated builder/citizen options.

However recently I played a forest game with toriod that only took 18 hours. Then a maze game that took 15. One thing I tend to do is play with combat animations off (offense and defense) once my combat stacks are >5 units big. I must admit, however that I played those maps with the BUG MOD. That saved a lot of time as micromanaging growth and trades is much faster with the alerts. I've even started using the automated citizen option in combination with the CDA.

I play Epic speed on Prince. It depends, most maps I'd say 6-12 hours depending on how much war went on. War is what really takes time, since I don't micromanage my cities too much, I trust the governor (but I do use the "focus on food, focus on hammers, etc." buttons, not always the best choices, but whatever, I got other things to do, I guess I'll just plateau at Prince or something, I don't care, hehe.

My longest game was with Charlemagne on a large map, it took 20 hours. After 8 hours I was heading for an easy victory within the 10 hours range, then Shaka started invading the world and suddenly I was at war with half the world (him and his vassals). It took 10 hours of micromanagement to first, defend myself, and second, invade everybody, I was on a pangea-like fractal map and I was in the dead center, I had three fronts at once with Britain, Mongolia and Zululand. It was an insane war that took forever to resolve. I'm not sure I enjoyed it that much, in the end! It was a domination victory... But because I had no choice. Well, for me war is fun once in a while, but I find Space Race to be the most realistic victory condition. I mean, I like to have friends and develop a country that's the best place in the world, not necessarily to dominate it, hehe. Maybe if I play as Rome I'll have dreams of world domination, otherwise... meh.

Four hours? Wow.

I just started playing Civ 4. My first game is like 15+ hours old now.

I have a normal map with 8 civilizations (- Japanese, Greeks and Russians now :)).

I blame the Greeks for about 4 of those hours. :sad:

It would be fun to do a large map and see how many months that would take.

Of the games I have actualy FINISHED (by win or loss); most seem to fall in the 5-10 range. I mostly play epic speed, ocassionaly normal. I have never tried marathon. My biggest problem, however; is that I tend to abandon about 97% of my games. :(
I figure I have started about 400 games or so over the years, but my hall of fame has 13 games in it. This is something I am trying to remedy (yet here I am posting on the forum and not playing . . .)
Any game that I don't finish in one sitting tends never to get finished . . .

Lately, its been about 35 minutes (Monarch, Tiny, Conquest, Marathon)

Here are a few of my fastest games with a conquest victory at different difficulty levels, all under 30 minutes.

Diety (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?dsply=&entryID=12204)
Immortal (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?dsply=&entryID=12205)
Emperor (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?dsply=&entryID=12206)
Monarch (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?dsply=&entryID=12207)

Here are some with other victory conditions with times less than 3 hours.

AP Diplomatic (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?dsply=&entryID=12386)
Cultural (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?dsply=&entryID=12128)
Time (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?dsply=&entryID=12288)
Domination (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?dsply=&entryID=12583)
Space Colony (BTS) (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?dsply=&entryID=12155)

These took me over three hours because they are late game VC.

UN Diplomatic (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?dsply=&entryID=12225)
Space Race (Vanila) (http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ4/game_info.php?dsply=&entryID=12283)