When do you quit a game?

Alright, so I'm in a standard game (continents, standard map, prince, standard pace) playing as the Ottomans. I had four nice cities on a continent shared w/ America, the Aztecs, and Rome. I was building up the most culture and tourism but had an admittedly weak military.

For whatever reason, around turn 300, America went after Montezuma. They captured one city, and while Montezuma was trying to defend himself, I sniped another Aztec city and made it a puppet state. Then both America and myself declared peace w/ Montezuma rather than taking his capital and lone remaining city.

Then the World Congress rolled around, and I voted against my friend America AND my friend the Netherlands and they got really upset. America declared war ten turns later, took three of my five cities (including the puppet city). Then Montezuma jumped in and almost reclaimed the puppet city before Washington got it.

Then, tired, everyone declared peace.

Now, I have two cities. I have some nice trade routes, but America has pretty much run the continent (seven cities), and I'm fifth in civ score.

So, do I have any chance? I don't think so. It's just a matter of time before Washington gets bored and takes my two remaining cities (he was attacking my capital when we negotiated peace).

How quickly do you guys give up on a game and start anew?

Once I know I lost I admit it and don't waste my time to try to come back. I don't stay until the end of the game and record a defeat. I also most likely stay when I can stay alive and have ais unable to take my cities.

I have no problem quitting at any point in the game. I enjoy playing a good game, for however long it's fun, more than winning a bad one. If I know I can't come back from a setback, I'm done. I disable timed victory so I can't just try to snag points and wait it out.

I also quit if the game is shaping up to be one I'm not in the mood for. Every game has different approaches available, but I might not be in the mood for the currently viable options. Sometimes you just know it's not working out.

I start some games with no intention of finishing them. The other day I was too sick to think straight so I just wanted to see how many contiguous tiles of farms I could make.

From most often to least often

1. In 4000 BC if I don't like the local starting area (using restart)

2. By 3000 BC if additional discoveries showed a really bad area / too big a barb problem that is killing momentum. (At the difficulty level I play at there is no room for loss of momentum in early game; it's needed to catch up to AI starting handicaps. On a lower level difficulty it could be overcome; but that would make games in which there wasn't that early major barb problem boring.)

3. If it's clear that I've already effectively won via extreme tech lead over closest AI but it's going to take a while to technically win. (That happens when I'm testing my mod and tried something it turned out the AI can't handle at all) Note that this doesn't happen as much in BNW as it did in G&K; there's more to keep interest up and I've gotten better at determining what the AI can't handle.

4. Later If it looks like I made a big oops such as about to lose a (core) city. I play tall four city and so actually losing a city would be really bad for chances of winning even if I retake it later.

I've got that syndrome where about half the games I start I quit within 25 turns or so. Maybe I just need to mentally prepare myself for the long haul that is a Civ game. That or I just hate bad starts. >.>

gregorsamsa said:

Then the World Congress rolled around, and I voted against my friend America AND my friend the Netherlands and they got really upset.

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Washington is never your friend. He's a horrible AI personality who will always drag you into something if you DoF. If he's your neighbor and the least bit strong he should not still be alive at turn 300, next time kill him.

Regarding your question: don't play that game out. Either reload and try to war better this time or start fresh! Losing cities you founded shouldn't be played through, there's no fun to be had in it.

I quit a lot. i quit a lot more lately than ever before. I have about an hour to sit and start a game... and then I have work to do. It's really fun though... just experimenting with starts. I can't win if I don't take Tradition. I think that's the bottom line.

I tried a faith start for fun... got my butt handed to me.

Momentum is the key. That's a good way to put it. If I just feel like things are dragging and I can't get any traction.... restart it is.

I tend to restart on turn 0 a bit (not necessarily for an easier start, but for a more interesting one). I usually play the game out after that, but there are certain circumstances when I quit. Overall, I'll quit if I start feeling like I'm forcing myself to have fun.

I had a game as Askia where I had a pretty nice start in a desert, on a hill, next to a mountain. I managed to get Petra, but for some reason just could not get momentum. On my continent I had Washington, Nebby, Darius, and myself. I was between Washington and Babylon, but couldn't really get to Washington due to a huge mountain range. In his isolation, he built a ton of wonders and gained a massive tech lead. I tried conquering Nebby, but he was completely surrounded by jungle and built the Great Wall. Since I was so far behind in tech, none of my neighbors liked me, and I couldn't compete culturally, I quit. I may have been able to turn it around since it was only halfway through the game, but it would have just been a pain.

The last game I quit was as Assyria. I was trying to get the achievement for beating it with them and going to an Order Dom VC. I tried the same start twice with Liberty and Honor and just couldn't get into it. I'm just not into early warmongering. I finally did finish one, however. Very tedious.

turn 226 actually, when i found out that i could no longer built Forbidden Palace coz some Psycho already built it in "Far Away Lands"

i tend to quit alot when im not going for domination, and the game can be easily won via science

1. if i found out my coastal city is on an inland sea, quit immediately
2. when i found out that i will lose no matter what
3. If i get bored?
4. if the game crashed in the later eras when i attack a city(got this bug lately...)

I quit whenever I'm bored. Most of the times because of unintreresting games like going science for that first Korea-victory and get no competition from AI what so ever. I know I'll win so why bother?

Or when things go wrong due to lack of concentration. Like going liberty and forget to check the happiness. Then I got tierd of myself and quit.

Sometimes I quit when Rome or Napoleon show up close because I hate them.

The only times I restart is when the random civ is someone I've already used, trying to finish off one win with every civ.

The settings I've come to stick with are small continents, low sea level, random age, random rainfall, random temperature. Now this is only emperor so I play what I get. To me the fun is in overcoming a bad starting position.

I would think that only playing good to great starting locations would be pretty boring.

I usually quit after I have clearly become the runaway non-stoppable civ and there is no side efforts or tasks that interest me anymore. Even the achievements don't really make it worth sticking it out usually. Not as interesting as picking another Civ and starting a new game.

Point being the game has been lacking midgame- late game dynamics.

When do you quit a game?
T300, if I didn't yet win.

Memoryjar said:

When do you quit a game?
T300, if I didn't yet win.

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Really? 300? That strikes me as early. I'd be interested in what others consider to be the turn # by which they should be on the doorstep of victory.

gregorsamsa said:

Really? 300? That strikes me as early. I'd be interested in what others consider to be the turn # by which they should be on the doorstep of victory.

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Depends on map size and pace really. I win very quickly even on hard difficulties if I shrink the map size and increase the pace. Some ppl prefer this due to the personal feel. You can also win culturally pretty quickly if you go small.

I like the small feel because no one is so far away I can't really interact with them. Makes the competition more personal. However, to compensate for this being easier (more control for the player) I usually add 3-4 extra civs than recommended so we're really packed and wars happen.

Also, regardless of the other factors turn 300 is about the time when it is abundantly clear whether or not I'm going to outstrip the AI and win handily or it'll be close. I often quit around this time if I'm sure I'm going to win. Maybe that's what he meant?

I'm really bad at quitting when I'm losing. Part of me thinks its always recoverable, even if things have gone appallingly badly. I always think that if I can just spend long enough getting a half decent military, then I can claw back a city, and then get back into the game. Often I'm wrong, and I lose, especially if I play a Deity or Immortal game, as I'm really a King/Emperor player on most civs and maps.

OTOH, I'm really an over-quitter when it comes to winning. If I can see that the win is in the bag, I tend not to play out the last fifty turns of automatic-thinking, as its just plain dull for me. I can see that there's probably some fun to be had in optimising the endgame, and getting that victory 5 turns sooner by really focusing, but that just doesn't interest me. I probably quit about 2/3 of the games that I'm winning.

I like winning, but its not the purpose of the Civ experience for me. For me, the fun is in the desperate landgrab and uphill climb of the early game, and the meditative immersion in the growth and the wars of the midgame. The actual victory run in the endgame barely keeps my attention.

Not trying to be a tough guy but I try to never quit unless I lose my Capitol and even then only if it's looking like I stand no chance at recovering it.

Found that I only learn from adversity (and from reading these boards!), it's amazing what you can do if you have your back against the wall.

One of the sweetest wins I ever had was after losing 2/3 cities by turn 70 to Attila and yet finding a way to come back and win the game (immortal). There is a big difference between thinking you've lost and actually losing

I quit when I get bored and I figure I'm going to win anyway. I play on epic speed and there are times when I only have one left civ left to ovecome with my ideology, but I refuse to sit there and click next turn for another 50 or 60 turns.

Usually it's out of boredom, though. Since it's epic speed, sometimes a game will take a week to play (I only play two or three hours a night). And naturally, I forgot what I was doing here and there. But mainly boredom.