Best Balanced Time/Production/Research Speeds?

[Bleser]

Hello all!

So I completed my first game yesterday (domination victory, standard map, Prince), and feel the setup was unbalanced with respect to research speed and production rates. So much so that I would usually out-research my units before they rolled off the assembly line.

So what have we discovered is the most balanced game speed? Epic? Marathon? At standard speed I was researching every tech in 3-8 turns; way too fast.

I also felt I won fairly easily (never really felt threatened - only lost one city the whole game when the entire continent was at war with me). I was an Emperor Civ IV player and usually won at that level. Should I jump straight to Emperor or maybe try King next?

 

[homegrown]

You should increase the difficulty level you are playing on. See how awesome you are?

And yes, I'm completely stoned and didn't realize that's what you're asking.
Try King first.

 

[Becephalus]

I found even on Epic the tech goes a little too fast for my taste, particularly in the late game. I have been playing Emporer/Epic and I like the pacing up unit around Gunpowder, when things seem to get a bit rushed (I have gone from a longswordmen army to a mech inf army seemingly very quickly (despite having had a spear/horsemen army for a hundred turns).

I think the tech costs should ramp up a bit faster at the end and some key points early on.