1300 Hours... Never finished a full game... Advice?

[Jiggly]

However much I love VoxPopuli, I realized I have never actually finished a full game of Civ5. I pretty much always restart when late game comes around because of the micromanagement nightmare. Yet i spend a ton of time beginning and mid game enjoying the mechanics. Is there any game setup/leaders/maps you would recommend that help with the late game grind?

Note: I really only enjoy Domination Victory setting, which makes games go much longer than normal

 

[Minh Le]

Domination will always be micromanagement nightmare when late game comes. Because you will have many units/cities... My advice could be try something elses, like a science or culture victory. It will be much less micromanagement in the late game while still very interesting.

 

[acidcircus]

Try a Terra map, I find the battle for the new world rejuvenates the mid to late game.

 

[vyyt]

Try a Terra map, I find the battle for the new world rejuvenates the mid to late game.

Do the AIs actively colonize the new continent?

 

[acidcircus]

They do in the games I play.

 

[andersw]

However much I love VoxPopuli, I realized I have never actually finished a full game of Civ5. I pretty much always restart when late game comes around because of the micromanagement nightmare. Yet i spend a ton of time beginning and mid game enjoying the mechanics. Is there any game setup/leaders/maps you would recommend that help with the late game grind?

Note: I really only enjoy Domination Victory setting, which makes games go much longer than normal

I like warmonger dom as well and domination doesnt have to be that insane slow, but some believe that huge maps for some reason are more fun.
No idea if thats your issue as well.

Go with standard size with standard amount of civs on pangea (or communitas pangea).
This makes so much difference and even if you play a really grindy domination it wont take THAT long.
Also with domination you can usually (unless diety) quickly roll the last civ pretty fast, sometimes even the last 2-3 on lower difficulties.
Consider switching after a few games with this and compare.

If it doesn't work you can also try and lower the difficulty a lvl.

 

[Grassland Farm]

I have far less hours than that, but I loathe the lategame too... I was enjoying a carthage game, had a lot of tourism so I thought "hey, I might as well sit and win: Tourism victory requires 100% influence with everyone, surely I can do that anytime!"
... Then I realized I needed to activate tenets. And that takes a damn while even though I was ahead in culture. And all AIs, including my friends, took turns to declare war on me, had to micromanage my defense nonstop, getting my trade ships killed or cancelled, etc...

I still won, but what a drudge. Early/midgame is the most fun to me!

 

[Jiggly]

Are there any maps that have really low resources and food/production tiles so that maybe there will be less units and cities late game? Maybe that might keep the mass scale unit grind down.

 

[Bhawb]

There is a setting to make scarce resources, and certain maps are also pretty desolate, but in my experience that just makes cities garbage and more spaced out. To speed up domination I'd suggest playing with less civs, less space, and less water, as those will delay the game the most. You can try non-domination games but the reality is that late-game tends to drag on no matter what.

 

[glider1]

A few months ago I tested to see if the AI could win by domination on tiny maps. They couldn't back then but maybe this latest version they can. If so, play on tiny maps with an extra civ or two and enjoy a strategic banquet where the AI might even be able to win by domination. The bigger the map the less likely the AI can win by domination so you might as well turn that victory off.

Your other bet is too resign yourself to the horrible interface and play for only a couple of turns a day really slowly on high difficulty on a huge map. Then you get the best strategy game and moving units around one by one aint that bad. Then play another strategy game with your remaining time that is less tedious for moving units.

 

[Stalker0]

Play on a small map. Less overall unit and the turn time speed is faster as there is less to render

 

[Zarggg]

Don't feel too bad. I rarely finish a game myself because a new version of VP that's incompatible with existing saves often comes out before I can get around to finishing.

 

[kkkitten]

Hmm, maybe try enable Time Victory and go to war with the big boys before 2050. I've never played with TV enabled so I don't know what it's like but you could try it

 

[MorphBer]

At some point you can stop micromanaging citizens mid- to lategame. Also you should enable CV/SV. I just finished a Shonghai game where I "integrated" the 2 Neighbors on my Continent and Vassaliied my main competitor. Just clciking through the turns for CV is much faster than trying to invade everybody.

 

[MidnightAfterglow]

I am currently sitting at 2100+ hours in the game and I'm the same, never finished a game to the victory screen xD. And it really has nothing to do with difficulty as opposed to simply how I prefer to play. I just accept the fact that the enjoyment I get from this game doesn't require me to play to game's completion. I really enjoy the "game-of-thrones" aspect of many different factions vying for dominance and how you as a player can influence it. I like that the victory conditions are there, because it means you can potentially lose to the AI in a number of different ways other than directly being conquered/eliminated and therefore must adapt accordingly--and that is the essence of the game for me: formulate a strategy or specific gameplay approach and then try to adapt to what the game throws at you.

To me, I see the "victory conditions" more as things I must prevent the AI in succeeding in as well as templates for certain modes of gameplay / strategies with which to do so (e.g., wide-oriented war-mongering menace with a huge empire or tall-oriented mostly peaceful). Ultimately, the victory itself isn't that important IMO, and doesn't even make that much sense when you think about from a "real-world" perspective: what end-game victory exists when building and running a civilization in reality? Any civilization that still exists today and is prospering, or at least not heading to collapse has "won" so far as they continue to do so. That's the way I look at it.

I do agree with andersw though. Standard size, pangea maps are the least grindy and result in games that progress faster. I also really enjoy the geographies that the Tectonic map script mod creates, except for the fact that they have atrocious balance issues which can easily ruin the fun.

 

[vyyt]

My advise: keep doing what you are doing = play under your favorite settings until you stop enjoying the game. Then it's time to start a new one, there is nothing wrong with not finishing or "winning" the game.

 

[tu_79]

Play on a small map. Less overall unit and the turn time speed is faster as there is less to render

This is the real answer. No matter how scarce your resources are, you'll always be allowed to spam units as long as you have cities to support them. And you get more and more cities the bigger the map, especially true when going domination. So OP really need maps with fewer cities.
You can play on smaller maps, or config the mod for a minimum of 4 spacing between cities.

EDIT. It also helps to not control too many cities. Using vassals and puppets as much as possible, reduce micromanaging a lot.

 

[arthurF]

I never finish games either, and i also prefer domination. The thing is, later in the game, it is apparent that you will never win or that winning is inevitable. Then it just becomes boring.

 

[BiteInTheMark]

I suggest you play small or standard maps. For warmongering, Pangäa or something similar with big connected landmasses are the best cause you can ignore ships and concentrate on fronts on the land.
It isn't also necessary to conquer and annex everything. Go progress an try to play tall with your city placement. Conquer and puppet cities which allow you to reach enemy capitals in the next war and vassalize them, after you reached medieval. This way you decrease the management to a minimum with a maximum of yields. After you've taken them as vasalls, you can go for any VC you wish. Try the huns, they are great for that strategy cause of their superior UU in classical and their strong, very early UI, which is able to give tremendous amounts of science after you've picked autocraty.

 

[DonStill]

I've only finished a game maybe once or twice. It just gets really tedious later one when you have over a hundred military units and the game's lagging like crazy.