At what point do you throw in the towel?

[baileyc800]

I'm currently playing a game where i have an overwhelming feeling that there's no way that i'm gonna pull it out. i'm new to civ5 and i was just curious as to when you guys realize you aren't gonna win and just throw in the towel?

 

[exul]

when I get that overwhelming feeling that there is no way to win ;p

But yeah seriously, sometimes a failed experiment in tactics isn't worth sticking it out for a slow painful death or sometimes you get the shaft for a spawn spot. Depends how many turns I'm in, if I feel I committed a lot of time then I'll ride it out.

In the beginning I think I had more aborted games then completions, either due to 2 min turn time frustration or ridiculous ai cheating I just didn't think was kosher.

 

[Skwink]

Never. Mexico knows they can't win, but they're still a nation.

 

[baileyc800]

Yeah, i'm actually proud of myself for making it to the classical era lol i know that sounds bad but with the starting point i was dealt i think i did alright to get this far.

 

[Gilkan]

In those situations I just troll the nation that's been the biggest jerk to me. So, I declare war on them (permanent, no peace) and set all my cities to unit production and throw everything I've got against them until one of us is dead.

This has actually salvaged games before.

 

[Rupe]

Never. Mexico knows they can't win, but they're still a nation.

Funniest thing I have heard all day. Thank you.

 

[Aspon]

it happens sometimes to everyone who is playing an appropriate difficulty level for themselves. ive crawled some civilisations out from the mud before and it made it only the more rewarding brought one game back to huge dominance from a situation which almost everyone here would say was hopeless. at war with 6 six civilisations technologically behind and unhappiness grinding the growth to a halt.

towards the end of the game i was making more then 1000 gold per turn ok it was golden age but even still. and actually had the tecnoligcal advantage later.


It really does depend because better players can recover from harder spots.

I have looked at my advisor before and seen they threaten our very existence i urge you to seek peace immediately or whatever mumbo jumbo and they will only accept all my gold and my whole empire.

so i fight it out and win.

there are some spots which no one no matter how good they are can get out of.

 

[baileyc800]

it happens sometimes to everyone who is playing an appropriate difficulty level for themselves. ive crawled some civilisations out from the mud before and it made it only the more rewarding brought one game back to huge dominance from a situation which almost everyone here would say was hopeless. at war with 6 six civilisations technologically behind and unhappiness grinding the growth to a halt.

towards the end of the game i was making more then 1000 gold per turn ok it was golden age but even still. and actually had the tecnoligcal advantage later.


It really does depend because better players can recover from harder spots.

I have looked at my advisor before and seen they threaten our very existence i urge you to seek peace immediately or whatever mumbo jumbo and they will only accept all my gold and my whole empire.

so i fight it out and win.

there are some spots which no one no matter how good they are can get out of.

Yeah i'm very much a novice lol i'm kinda in the same situation you described. happiness is low, losing gold every turn, absolutely no luxery or strategic rescources and the other sims are America, Aztecs, Russia, England and Mongolia. I can't remember a time in this game when i wasn't at war with someone.

 

[Truthy]

If I'm still having fun in the file I may continue playing until I lose. Usually this is the case where someone as a much higher score and I cant go for any other victory.

 

[Valbuena]

when it crashes more than once in one game pretty much

 

[FlowKey]

Apart from an obvious no-win situation, I sometimes find a game simply too boring to continue for instance in a 'failed experiment situation' like exul describes. Even if it didn't blow up in my face, but just seems to yield too little

BTW: i had only one crash so far, and that was because I accidently covered the outlet of the CPU-cooler and it almost melted my lappie...

 

[BranjoHello]

I haven't been in a no-win situation before but I've been in a situation where I had to change my victory goal (from cultural to tehnological). So I think the beauty of Civilization games is in managing the best you can in situation you're in.

 

[spider1]

Sometimes going out in a flash of glory can be fun, even if I know I'm going to lose. It's interesting sometimes to see just how far I can go before getting wiped out. But, if I find I'm losing in an uninteresting way, and I've let myself slip militarily, I'll just start another game.

 

[MajorPOOP]

I lost my first game the other day due to a couple of major mistakes....

I played with everything set to random and didn’t expect to be on a small island map with only one other civ.......discovering this only on the brink of a second war with my southern Ireland neighbour...no chance to trade for luxuries left my economy in tatters....

Not exploring and failing to take a central choke point city early on essentially ended my chances of winning....No resources, no land, and serious low happiness due to necessary expansion led to me being embarrassingly steamrollered in less than 5 turns.....

My last resort was to send out a wandering settler and luckily I managed to settle on a small Island before Suleiman conquered my small empire....

I settled and managed to grow my city trading with a new CS..... but it was just a matter of time....

Soon enough Suleiman had allied the CS and demanded that they join in the fight against me.... why won’t Siam just leave me in peace.... I would have showed him mercy hmmmmmmm...

I managed to repel weak attacks from the CS with my broken, demoralised army of two infantry soldiers... but then, across the waters, came the might of the now mobilised Ottoman Navy...

My single city struggled with several bombing raids but still I refused to give up... I’m determined to get my revenge.... until the vile warmongering, vomit stained, plague that was Suleiman nuked my one and only single city..... Twice.....

I think it’s now time to give up..... its gut wrenching to think I have to quit though.... It really shouldn’t be so hard....

 

[fmlizard2]

The situation is never as bleak as it seems. Anyone who has ever watched the AI sit on Apollo for 500 years or fail to take your capital with 15 units (to your 2) knows this.

Unless you lose your capital, play it out.

 

[Rpger29]

Even a runaway civ can be held in check and then pushed back.

Produce at least 12 military units; 3-4 melee, 3-6 ranged, 3-5 siege. Form them into diamond shaped defensive formations facing away from the center of your civ. Pick good defensive ground, and let the AI feed its units into the meat grinder.

This should buy you enough time to right your faltering economy and start going on the offensive. Make sure to rushbuy as little as possible during these hard times. If necessary, sell any buildings you don't feel that you're taking advantage of.

Don't accept any peace settlement with a neighbor that isn't in your favor (not even neutral peace). It might be advantageous to accept blank peace with a distant AI who might become a temporary and useful ally.

I just used this strategy to hold off and then roll back a very aggressive Hiawatha. He had puppeted half of Egypt and all but one city of Denmark, for a total of 14 cities. According to the trade screen, he was making almost 500GPT non-GA.

The first time he declared war, I stayed on the defensive for about 80 turns. He fed almost 100 units into my 16 before I started my offensive push. I now own all four of his original cities.

Edit: Nukes are the exception for me. If you get nuked more than once, or if your capitol gets nuked, I think it's time to suicide rush or quit.

 

[DavidCAD]

This is one area that I really like Civ5 over Civ4. In Civ4, particularly when trying out peacemonger strategies, you could go from just fine to doomed in a single turn. All it took is some civ you've been friendly with suddenly declaring war and walking in with a stack of doom against which your peace time militia of one warrior per city has no chance. Even as a warmonger it sometimes became apparent that it would just take too many turns to slog through every city on some expansive multi-continent map.

In Civ5 there is always hope, or at least the ability to try (and have fun trying) to salvage a bad situation.

 

[Steelyglint]

I start a new game when they old one is booren 'cause nothing his happening. If I'm losing but having fun then that's cool.

 

[Ellye]

I surrendered a game today.

I was playing on a Large Map but with only a few civilizations, I was curious to see the results.

Well, the results were quickly apparent: barbarians were winning the game. Too much fog of war, a bazillion of barbarians everywhere.

(So, yes, I basically lost a game to barbarians. Lots of barbarians.)

 

[PreLynMax]

I have yet to win a Prince game (giving up by 100 turns).
I do have a stubborn streak (very stubborn according to the peons in this forum), where I fight it out most of the time, but I do give up due to the following:

1) 5 or more. (89% chance);
2) Last in score for 100 turns (96% chance) or second last in score for 200 turns (92% chance);
3) Getting DOWed by an enemy (AI or human) that is one era or more higher than (98% chance);
4) Be last in science (100% chance) or be deficient in the budget enough to lose half the original science (75% chance).
5) Start with 0 resources, or a total of 0 luxury resources. (100% chance).

I'm sure there's more, but you can obviously tell I have almost no tolerance to a losing game and will quit instantly.