I still got the slowdown the next session I played the game. I started a new game (similar type of map and size; same number of civs) and it slowed down at around the 1200ad mark again. I kept playing through it and it occassionally sped back up again. The speed problem was only the unit movement. The unit movement (the actual movement from one tile to another, not the stationary movement) where it would be choppy. There was no harddrive loading during this time. When I finished the game, I shut down and WinXP had a "serious error". The system really doesn't feel stable since I updated to 1.61. I sent the error report to Microsoft and it said it was something to do with Mcafee VirtusScan. I wonder if the two problems are associated? I might try playing with the AV switched off and see.
Watiggi
Watiggi