Game Speed and difficulty

krozman · Aug 26, 2006

Hi. I've been generally playing standard custom games vs. the AI on normal speed, and i've enjoyed Monarch skill level.

However, today, I decided to go Epic speed to see how much of an advantage, if any, it will be (other than the warmongering advantages already mentioned in these forums). Man, it is remarkably easier to play with the slower speed. I was able to basically keep up on all the tech/wonders/religion, while waging wars i've never been able to achieve on normal speed. My basic strategy hasn't changed and I can do far more. No doubt that Monarch is far too easy on Epic.

Any others notice a huge difference?

Yushal · Aug 26, 2006

I play M/E games almost exclusively. I find them quite hard, lol.

It seems to me that faster speeds are actually much easier, for a couple of reasons.

You can easily spam fog-busters while also getting GOOD fogbusters/barb-killers almost immediately. Hence barbs are little trouble.

Over-expansion is not too much trouble as income is more easily improved due to faster work times and tech rate. Running -10 gold for ten turns instead of 30 turns...

The sole thing I find easier in epic is that your army doesn't become obsolete as soon as you declare war. Of course, that may be the biggest factor...

yavoon · Aug 27, 2006

yes there is a big difference. most of the difference is in war, though I find that I also run a better economy on epic(and marathon if I played it) because forgetting something for a turn is not as painful.

Iscaran · Aug 27, 2006

"The sole thing I find easier in epic is that your army doesn't become obsolete as soon as you declare war. Of course, that may be the biggest factor..."

THAT is the biggest PRO in running marathon

.

Iscaran

AriochIV · Aug 27, 2006

I recently started playing Epic games and I find them very enjoyable. At the normal speed, at Monarch level I can't fight more than one major offensive war without falling way behind in tech. The slower game speed gives you much more time to move troops around and kick some butt. I also like that you have more of a chance to get settled into one tech period and build some troops before you're already into another one and your troops are obsolete.

mice · Aug 27, 2006

Correct me if i'm wrong but i think slow speeds make shrine gold more powerful, because it is still 1/turn for each city, which is twice as much relative to production/commerce at marathon as it is at normal speed. Same applies to beakers/turn for Sankore University.

krozman · Aug 28, 2006

actually with shrine gold i've found that on normal speed i'm usually between +5 to +15 per turn, and with my current game i'm -25 per turn with two holy cities completely missionaried out. -25 however isn't that bad considering you can sell a tech for 4000 gold, as everything on the slower game speeds scale up. I ran a game where I captured and didn't raze cities, had a minus 200 gold per turn economy, but was ahead in tech enough to never worry about money selling stuff.

Of course, I had a policy of selling techs to the next AI i planned on conquering so they really didnt take too much advantage.

AriochIV · Aug 28, 2006

The lower per-turn revenue is probably due to having more cities on Epic.

[Oops, I meant on Large maps. Somehow I associate playing Epic with Large maps.]

Martinus · Aug 28, 2006

mice said:
Correct me if i'm wrong but i think slow speeds make shrine gold more powerful, because it is still 1/turn for each city, which is twice as much relative to production/commerce at marathon as it is at normal speed. Same applies to beakers/turn for Sankore University.

Not really, no. Regardless of game speed, the base production and income (from tiles, specialists etc.) stays the same - only the cost of buildings, upgrades etc. increases. So at least in theory it should not be affected.

Martinus · Aug 28, 2006

Iscaran said:
"The sole thing I find easier in epic is that your army doesn't become obsolete as soon as you declare war. Of course, that may be the biggest factor..."

THAT is the biggest PRO in running marathon .

Iscaran

Micromanagement (in city placement, buildings and landtile improvements) also becomes more important since for example the time it takes for a settler or a worker to move to a desired spot is negligible compared to benefits of having a well placed city or constructing a land improvement.

Koelle · Aug 28, 2006

I have played alot of Monarch/Epic with 18 Civs games and it has been quite enjoyable. Not for noobs or semi-noobs, but still playable and you still have time to conquer the world to strengthen yourself without having fear of lagging behind in tech or losing on the Space Race. My first Warlords game was a Prince/Normal but due to its difficulty, i always thought it was Monarch/Epic. Dont know how it is on Marathon but i gave up on the only Marathon game i started. Just too slow. Emperor is unplayable unless you play a powerful Civ with less AIs and have a very good start (under limited conditions)

Game Speed and difficulty

krozman

Chieftain

Yushal

Chieftain

yavoon

King

Iscaran

Chieftain

AriochIV

Georgius Pater Patriae

mice

Moose

krozman

Chieftain

AriochIV

Georgius Pater Patriae

Martinus

Emperor

Martinus

Emperor

Koelle

King of Kings

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