Game Speed and Turns - Scaled Evenly?

[Teedman]

Hey, all. Just started playing Civ5, and loving it. Have a question though about game speed and the amount of turns each speed alots.

Will playing at a longer game speed (say, Epic or Marathon) really result in progressing further along in the game than if I were to play on Standard? I played the game through to the end on Standard, and I felt like I ran out of time to really complete all that I wanted. The reason I ask is because, at least initially, it takes longer to produce units/buildings on Epic and Marathon than on Standard. While you may have more turns, will you really progress further in the long run?

Thanks!

 

[Catbot]

You'll obviously have more turns, but the amount of things you get to accomplish by the end should be the same. That is, if your strategy is the same you should end up getting techs and wonders around the same years on different speeds. For example, I think epic speed is 1.5 times as long as standard speed so all techs require 1.5 times as many bulbs, but you have 1.5 times as many turns total.

The main difference is how long it takes units to move across the map. If you play on a small map on marathon speed you can get a unit across the world in about 1 year of game time as opposed to 2 years on standard. If you play on a huge map with a quick speed you will be hard pressed to get your units to the other side of the map within 10 years. I find that playing longer games (epic and marathon) helps me out when I'm focusing on my military because you have more years to use your units. Likewise, faster games help with peaceful strategies because you can usually advance pretty far in tech by the time an AI invasion force actually reaches your lands. Hope that clarifies!

 

[chazzycat]

You'll probably find that things get a bit easier if you slow down the game. Not because things aren't scaled correctly, it just tends to magnify the advantages of a human player over the AI. More decisions for the AI to make means more BAD decisions, especially when it comes to warfare.

 

[bryanw1995]

Yeah, though after playing for too long on standard speed I've found that I often struggle a bit when I go up to Epic now. At least that's the case for Immortal/Deity, I haven't played more than a game or two at Emperor since the first month.

 

[OverWind]

I like to play on Marathon. The "downside" (or upside) is that even on Deity, the AI rarely makes wonders, which means you can build almost all of them yourself, which makes the game a lot easier. I normally have a very hard time playing Deity on Quick, but on Marathon I can do it

 

[vexing]

not everything is scaled evenly. the main things that aren't scaled are combat and movement, which a human player can leverage for a strong advantage.

the standard scaling is 3x for marathon, 1.5x for epic, and 0.67x for quick. some things that don't follow this specifically are gold amounts for open borders, the 100 gold per era RA penalty, city state gold influence amounts, rush buying costs, golden age turn amounts, and deal duration on quick.

 

[Hustapha Thool]

The scale is generally pretty good. I can expect to win a cultural game in standard at about the same year in marathon.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Th only thing that does NOT scale with game speed is unit movement. So war and exploration don't scale. (so you get more 'Classical Era war' on Marathon than on Quick... the techs+units take the same scale to get but you get more chances to move the units on Marathon)

 

[CYZ]

The main difference is that your choices stick with you. Chose the wrong tech on quick? Just wait a few turns. Marathon is a different story.

This also means tech advantages last much longer. Since techadvantage is especially important for warfare this really benefits any warring civ (human or ai). Upgrading still only costs one turn. But your swordsmen will be oppossing warriors for four times as long! That's a huge difference!

So if you are going peacefull, be wary. If you find an advanced invasionforce on your doorstep you will not have time to prepare. Producing units or defensive buildings will only benefit if you manage to last a long time. Changing your tech path is useless since it will take very long to reach that one tech you need to upgrade your units and make it a fair fight.

In this sense, Marathon is much more strategic whereas quick is much more tactical.