Are "quick" games worth playing?

[Pojman]

So - 99% of all of the games I have playing in civ (and I have played a countless number of games) have all been on marathon setting. I just like how I can plan and prepare military strategies on this speed.

Recently I have considered playing a "quick" game in order to satisfy my wife's angry desire for me to quit playing so much Civ.

Are quick games any good?

 

[MilesBeyond]

That depends, how much time have you got?

Really the issue with quick games is that tech advances so much faster than armies can move. It's not uncommon for your opponent to have jumped up a tier while your army was en route to his territory. In other words, it gives the defender a huge advantage.

It can be nice for multiplayer games, though, as you can get a game out of the way in a couple of hours at the most.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Quick speed tends to be kinda crappy against the AI because units can obsolete super fast; in general, the faster the speed, the less effective war is.

Unfortunately, your wife most likely doesn't care about game balance, so I recommend you just play shorter sessions, but normal speed is a compromise too since games will be a lot shorter as well.

 

[CocoIsKing28]

That's why I play shorter games with more civs: my enemies are right there beside me, so it doesn't take 500 years to march to war.

 

[Iranon]

Quick games tend to be tactically shallow. Time windows for an advantageous war are so short that it's rarely worth bothering with decoys, pillaging etc... sort out your economy, throw superior material around.
On the economic side, it's going to save you time only if you played fairly quickly already. If you needed time to deliberate, you'll need roughly the same and things just become less forgiving.

In my opinion, the game plays best at normal and epic speeds. I prefer normal because of the greater sense of urgency.

 

[Kid R]

Since you're playing on marathon now, changing down to normal instead of all the way to quick might be enough to maintain family harmony? Normal speed is OK.

I found the default 'small' maps (5 civs) were a shorter game without messing up the balance too much. Also as Coco said any map with more civs than normal should be quicker.

I never tried it but maybe you could play quick speed for a while till the fighting started, then WB save and continue at marathon speed till it was time to tech again. It would mean text-editing the WB save file in between but might be possible.

 

[K.Murx]

I would suggest smaller maps as well. I'm playing "small" maps on "normal" speed, and an emperor game takes me usually about 4-6 hours. Albeit I usually quit when a modern war becomes necessary. Those are just too tedious for me.

 

[rah]

Game speed really shouldn't matter to the wife. You're going to spend "x" amount of time playing civ. Does it matter if you get two games or five games done in that time? She is not going to know. (unless you do the happy dance every time you win)

 

[s.bernbaum]

You can always just decide in advance how many minutes (I suspect how many hours would not go over well) you will play on each occasion and then save the game until the next time. Of course you will have to control the "one more turn" urge.

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Maybe he isn't putting in a "marathon" session with his wife, he is only doing a "quick" one?

 

[LeHam]

Maybe he isn't putting in a "marathon" session with his wife, he is only doing a "quick" one?

 

[PreLynMax]

Maybe he isn't putting in a "marathon" session with his wife, he is only doing a "quick" one?

ParadimShifter has won the best post of 2012!

 

[SyntaxError]

Maybe he isn't putting in a "marathon" session with his wife, he is only doing a "quick" one?

Like!

 

[PreLynMax]

All joking aside, I think quick games are for people like me: those with a very low attention span. My nephew plays quick games, and with my guidance, are able to keep up in tech and upgrade correctly. The key is building less units on quick than you would on Normal or faster speeds. I tend to lean more towards quick games lately (and I used to roll on Marathon!), and I found them to be more suitable for me than ever.

 

[reddishrecue]

Most of the time especially in the multiplayer lobby.

 

[Antilogic]

I don't think so, largely for reasons already posted. The turnover rate for units, techs, and build rates is just too high in quick games.

I tend to play Epic, because I get too bored in Marathon openings but I still get a better time scale for warfare and tech improvement.