At what point do you "pull the plug" on a game

[ElephantU]

Some people say after AD1500 civs will not restart. The point may come earlier if you have wiped out particular civ colors more than once already. No one has come up with a formula, though, just some rules of thumb. If they do restart, it is usually right away (at least, a settler is placed somewhere on the map and a new civ pops up on the Foreign Minister screen).

I agree with some others who have commented that Communism is too good - at the very least, there should not have been total elimination of corruption. The extra martial law effects can help a player who has mastered Monarchy but not representative government. Shifting your Luxuries up a bit to get a Celebrating Communism can duplicate the extra trade arrow effect of Democracy, but not the city growth or freedom from bribery.

 

[Chieftess]

Never. I recently decided to play a game a few months ago after years of not playing it.

But, with regards to a game, sometimes I play as long as I want. Once, I was into the 6000-some AD years. (I also had a game once where I played as a pacafist India - claiming their history territory - and fought a cold war against a dominant Viking civ, with my European allies being pushed into the Americas). That was probably my most fun Civ2 game ever, but I stopped after about 200 years of cold war... (it literally was like trench warfare).

 

[Antipodes]

I usually give up when I realize that I'm 'boxed in', meaning there is nowhere for me to go but down.

 

[geofelt]

I usually end the game around 1800. At that time, I have built my civ, located most rival cities, started capturing them(mostly by bribery) and will clearly win the game.
In addition to the other good thoughts here, I have two suggestions:
1) Start nibbling away at the other cities early. Each one you caprure early costs less, and is one less for the AI.
2) Learn how to demand tribute, Use the gold to build camels for wonders, or to bribe cities.

 

[James22]

no complex answer required for this one, as soon as you've built the statue of liberty and have switched to fundamentalism, give it enough turns until you've a reasonably significant lead over the AI, and hang up the gloves.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

Only if the situation looks really, really bad.

If winning is a foregone conclusion I might start a new game and pick up the old one later, but I don't retire or anything.

Last time I pulled the plug on a game was when I had a terrible starting position--I was near the north pole and most of the terrain was tundra, mountains, desert, etc. I kept moving south but the terrain kept sucking, so I started over.

 

[Junuxx]

Only if the situation looks really, really bad.

Last time I pulled the plug on a game was when I had a terrible starting position--I was near the north pole and most of the terrain was tundra, mountains, desert, etc. I kept moving south but the terrain kept sucking, so I started over.

One of my most enjoyable games of Civ ever was one where I started on the pole. It was so cool to devise a new effective strategy and to overcome the handicap. When I finally reached Supreme position, wow, that felt awesome

(see the powergraph.. I was playing the Sioux )

on-topic: I often lose interest in games when turns start to take half an hour or when I lose focus and I don't feel in control. I think I finish about 20% of the games I start

 

[Nick Garai]

I usually play one of two types of game: Earliest landing on AC, or personal highest score at 1500AD (after that it gets a bit boring).

Playing Deity + 7 Civs, I usually get well in front of the pack by 1AD in both tech advances & number of cities. From there on it's just a matter of controlling the other civs while pushing forward for a winning score.

My strategy is:
* rapid early expansion & exploration using Horsemen, Chariots or Diplomats
* kill off any small & weak civs on the same continent, make contact with civs on other continents
* aim for Monarchy ASAP, avoid collecting other techs that do not lead to Monarchy
* build Hanging Gardens to keep the plebs happy in far-flung cities
* build Pyramids for quicker population growth (I might revise this in light of info gained from other forums), use Caravans to build Wonders & expand population in the larger cities
* continue to build new cities until they start to become unmanageable, then use Settlers to add roads, mines, irrigation, etc
* aim for Democracy ASAP, making sure to get Leonardo's Workshop along the way (usually I have Democracy by 500BC)
* avoid getting Feudalism so that the cities can continue to build Warriors & not forced to go to Pikemen
* build Statue of Liberty and switch to Fundamentalism - this allows building lots of units in all cities & also accumulate gold reserves if needed - use Settlers to build lots & lots of cities
* use Diplomats to convert foreign cities rather than attack with troops - defend my cities by bribing foreign troops
* by 1AD I will typically have 80-100 cities & have other civs reduced to a handful of cities each
* avoid getting Gunpowder until after Railroad - gives plenty of time to accumulate lots of Warriors
* build Darwin's Voyage & collect Gunpowder & Explosives with the +2 techs - keep building Warriors in around half of the cities & disband the upgraded Musketeers in some of the other half to quickly build city improvements
* aim for Conscription so that the Warriors (cost 10 shields) will ultimately become Riflemen (disband value 20 shields)
* use Engineers to connect all cities with railroads
* at some point, new cities can build units without having to support them (ie. support = "NON") - at this stage build a scattering of cities & move units to these to become unsupported
* switch to Democracy, crank up Science, & go for broke on tech advances
* build lots of Freight, move them to the NON-support cities & then to other cities to increase population

By this stage, there is little interaction with other civs as they are reduced to a few cities struggling to survive (I try not to wipe them out altogether, unless they are getting in the way). Each turn can take quite a while (15-20 minutes) because of the number of units being built & moved, so unless I am aiming for a personal best score I might abandon the game at this stage. Otherwise, press on with increasing population, tech advances & building Wonders.

I'd like to see how this works against a human opponent. It sounds similar to what I do. I'd love to hook up on multiplayer and see where it goes...

 

[Nick Garai]

Only if the situation looks really, really bad.

If winning is a foregone conclusion I might start a new game and pick up the old one later, but I don't retire or anything.

Last time I pulled the plug on a game was when I had a terrible starting position--I was near the north pole and most of the terrain was tundra, mountains, desert, etc. I kept moving south but the terrain kept sucking, so I started over.

I hate it when that happens. It can be hard to catch up but if you get some diplomats, just steal all the stuff you need. The poles can be a fun place to hide and build an arctic empire!!!

 

[Dong2Long]

At what point do you "pull the plug" on a game

By Automobile, if I have a strong technology lead. By Mobile Warfare, usually, if not Auto.

 

[Magic_gorter]

I only stop a game when I don't build enough wonders for a SSC if I'm playing EL games. Sometimes I'll try to conquer some wonders but my coal to reach the stars before 1500 AD.

 

[Specialist290]

Though it's been a while since I've actually played (aside from on trips and such, since it's the only game I've installed on my mom's laptop), I can honestly say that it has been an even longer time since I've finished a game. Usually I either know that I'm winning and get bored, or I realize that I really screwed myself up somewhere and delete the .sav. There've been a few memorable games that I have actually finished, though. (One of them was actually a loss, but still fun.)

 

[EdwardTking]

I tend to stop playing when it will no longer let me build
new units because there are too many in the game.

 

[Millman]

"Well begun is half done"

Unless it's perfect early on, I won't continue. But I don't know what you mean exactly. It has to be perfect or near-perfect for me.