Finishing Games

[eyrei]

I rarely finish a game if I know I will win. I usually try for a diplomatic victory at the beginning of the modern age, but if this fails, and I am winning by a large margin, I simply retire. Since, in almost all of my games on monarch level I am definately winning by the mid-industrial age, I hardly ever finish a game. I play occasionally on emperor, but the early game is just too stressful. I wish I could switch levels halfway through the game. So how many people finish games they know they will win?

 

[Minuteman]

There should be an option "When I can" listed in your poll. I tend to play games on huge maps w/ 16 civs, so sometimes the slowdown is so extreme late in the game that I simply give up. Other times, I've had CIVILIZATION.EXE errors end my game for me.

Generally though, I tend to finish all games that I start on standard-sized maps, even when I'm losing or hopelessly ahead of the AI.

 

[Ironikinit]

I've been finishing more, but still I only have maybe five victories in my hall of fame. I still need to get a culture, histogram, and domination win before I can pretend I've "done it all".

Really, I dunno if I ever will.

In my early games I played until I had a big fat lead then started a new one. Then I did a couple looking for a high score. I dunno if I'll complete my current game or not... probably not since the patch is coming out Friday.

 

[loki]

I usually don't finish my games either. Though, I switch play between regent and warlord.
The end game is too tedious, 40-50 seconds waiting between turns just to watch my workers move or to wait until my spaceship is finished is not fun. Especially since I know I will win.
I just retire.

loki

 

[Mr Spice]

I have yet to finish my first game. I too usually play at monarch, I too am usually way ahead by mid-industrial era and I too find it boring to keep playing a game that I have effectively already won.

But once in a while I keep at it until I get flight, sell it to my opponents and have an industrial war or two before quitting.

 

[Shaitan]

I just finished my first game in months (UN victory). Generally I've either obviously lost or obviously won by the mid industrial age. Oddly enough, it's the ones that I am losing that I'll tend to keep playing. They're still interesting as I try to scrape something together to stay alive.

Working on my mod doesn't help my completion percentage either. Most of my game time goes to play testing instead of playing lately.

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by Shaitan
Generally I've either obviously lost or obviously won by the mid industrial age. Oddly enough, it's the ones that I am losing that I'll tend to keep playing. They're still interesting as I try to scrape something together to stay alive.

I am pretty much the same. My favorite games are the ones where I am 3rd or 4th place (realistically, not according to score). These I sometimes finish if the wait between turns is not too long. I love to win games like this with a diplomatic victory, so that I can imagine myself taunting the more powerful civs.

 

[Salvor]

I don't think I fit neatly into any of the categories. I certainly finish more often than rarely, and nearly always on standard and smaller maps.

On large and huge, it's not so much the score that keeps me going, it's my mood and the circumstances. If I have a grudge against a particular rival, I might play out to conclusion or near conclusion just to see them wiped off the map. If I'm doing well on the tech-tree, I'll play it out to finish a space victory. Or sometimes I have some side-project going that I want to finish, like taking over a small continent, flooding it with workers and finishing off all improvements while allowing my culture to take over the whole area.

So my answer is really sometimes, more often than not, but not really dependent on game score. I guess I'll vote for the "if I get a good score" just because it's the closest fit, and I could say I've "scored" a good victory even if it's not in terms of game score.

 

[sealman]

I finish them all

In fact, I kind of enjoy the big lag time between turns late in the game, It helps me on the weekends when My wife thinks I should be doing something more constructive with my time.

For example...
play a turn, take out the garbage.
play a turn, fix the garbage disposal.
play a turn, change the oil.
play a trun, stop world hunger.

Of course, when she is not around the lag time sucks!

 

[Bamspeedy]

The only games I have actually finished are the ones that I won by culture. I wasn't really paying attention to how much culture I had, so it takes me by surprise when it finally happens. I used to only play Chieftain, but that got boring. Build all wonders, build all improvements in every city, get to modern age, the AI is still in the middle ages, run them over with my modern armor, blah blah. But since I play on huge maps, since I had played defensive until the modern age, it overwhelms you when you look at all the civs and land you have to take over. Even though I'll win every battle, it will take 3 days to eliminate all my opponents, so I'll quit, rather than just go through the motions just to see that I won (obviously) . I just kept playing that level, each time I ended up having more and more cities (managing 100+ cities gets boring and tedious after awhile).

So finally I got off my butt, and decided to move up some levels. Also experimented with different city placement patterns (I'll get halfway through the middle ages and say "nah, let's try this pattern instead", and I'll start a whole new game). And I also was adjusting my playing style (I started playing more agressive instead of defensively, and now I attack with armies of Knights, instead of waiting for the modern armor). It's quite a bit more exciting on Regent, but I still kick butt, so I'll quit those games, too. I guess I better go to Monarch.

 

[Talar]

I guess I'm much like you eyrei and Shaitan. As soon as I know the win is secured I loose interest in the game.

I think the best moments of civ is when my struggling little civilization manage to survive against all odds and rise to become one of major world powers (but mostly I'm just totally crused).

Thats just what happened in my current civ game. I took 4000 years of beating by my much larger neighbour, the Romans. But finally I managed to tip the scales and start attacking. It was truly amazing to see the small and technological backwards Japaneese empire conquer the 5x larger Romans. It was just about waiting for the right moment, and to have some luck of course...

Now as we enter the modern age I'm second in power after the chinese and I'm definitely going to finish this game.

 

[Greadius]

40-50 seconds between turns? Average turn takes me 40-50 minutes +

Of course, I make good use of the time... doing my classwork and checking message boards (turn in progress as I'm typing).

I'd like to finish more games, but so far I've started 3 games since mid december. I finished one in mid January, the second one I quit because it wasn't on Marla's Map, and then this one I probably won't finish for another 3 or 4 weeks.

I set the game to conquest or domination victory only, and dominating a huge+ sized map is very, very difficult. Granted, at the time nobody is even close to my power level, but that is because I played right and manipulated them into exhaustive wars. Now, I slowly take over the world, one continent at a time

 

[siredgar]

I probably quit and restart my game before 3000 BC about 60% of the time and before 1 AD about 30% of the time. That means I only play a real game about 10% of the time. I generally play on a real map, so if the other civs are not shaping up right or I'm not getting the right territory, I quit and restart.

At the beginning, Emperor level is tough and I start out at the bottom and move my way up. In my current game, I've noticed it's easier if you are playing an industrious civ like France and have luxury resources nearby. Because I'm playing on Paul Saunder's realistic starting nations map, I get quick access to wine which helps A LOT.

Anyhow, the key for my strategy is to venture out as soon as possible, trade techs like mad, and try to bankrupt other civs by selling them techs you just bought from their neighbors. Even if it's just 10 gold, try to take it from them especially if it's the only money they have. I enjoy teaming up with other European civs and bringing down China and India, who always get really big and powerful because they have more land to settle. I generally like to slowly drag down my allies in this process having them do most of the fighting.

Regardless, I think the beginning of the game is the most exciting as it gets to be a chore progressively, especially towards the end with all that pollution-cleaning and the space race.

 

[muppet]

Originally posted by siredgar
I probably quit and restart my game before 3000 BC about 60% of the time and before 1 AD about 30% of the time. That means I only play a real game about 10% of the time. I generally play on a real map, so if the other civs are not shaping up right or I'm not getting the right territory, I quit and restart.

Regardless, I think the beginning of the game is the most exciting as it gets to be a chore progressively, especially towards the end with all that pollution-cleaning and the space race.

Same here. Yup. The beginning of the game is the most fun, when decisions are critical.

I have 'never' finished a game. Peaceful games are already decided by the industrial age. I don't see much point in continuing. Warring games are already decided by the middle ages or earlier.

The lack of group movement was too cumbersome, but with it fixed, i'll probably play more modern age games. But the 'no movie clips' and 'no pat on back' thing is a bit of a downer to finishing a game. For me, entertainmnt per hour is higher when starting new games.

I think i'll start handicapping myself. Like maybe play peacefully, but never buid Sistine or Bach, and only build universities in 1/2 of my cities.

No. I can't beat Emporer. But I don't enjoy massive warmongering through the entire game either. I wish too there was something between Monarch and Emporer. Maybe I'll check out the editor some more and start with adjusting the agression levels and bonus AI units.

 

[Matrix]

I actually only play GOTM's. So ofcourse I finish them.

 

[Mapache]

Like in Chess or Go I don't like to outplay a victory. Considering the pollution handling(sending workers and workers) in Civ3 I anyways like to finish.

 

[Selous]

just had a thought .... if firaxis added a way to put your civ on auto ... get the computer to take over so u could see the end of your game ... rather than retiring .... or not .... but the games i play to the end are where im getting hammered but resisting like hell .... like the afganies against the ruskies ... that sort of thing ... but large empires with huge armys of workers and units bore the hell out of me, and especially when the end game degenerates to the tanks, mech inf and bombers ..... always the same ... ... LWC is much better .... but still

 

[Talar]

Originally posted by Matrix
I actually only play GOTM's. So ofcourse I finish them.

What? That's only 1-2 games per month!
Get a life - play more civ

 

[ACM]

Even if I'm way ahead, I finish the game and try to get a large score. Even though I disagree with the scoring system (I'm not the only one), I like to use it to rate my games.

 

[Stilgar]

I find that I restart alot in the early days if I get a really crappy position or start getting into early garbage with Zulu/German/Aztec etc.. But once I get a game going where it looks like I have a reasonable chance at survival I like to play it through.