Have you noticed the drastic differences in gameplay between Normal and Marathon

[Horizons]

I used to always play on Marathon, but became dissatisfied by the lack of production and the slow pace of research.

So today I started up a game at NOrmal speed. The differences were vast:

I actually managed to build some wonders, including the Statue of Zeus, which is near impossible at Marathon, as you would get stomped by the civs that produce 8 warriors and rush you

The ancient era was filled with many wars and dozens of units all over the landscape. It was actually exciting seeing absolutely massive armies meet each other in the battlefield - usually me repelling the others

THe technological pace was much faster, and I seemed to produce a lot more.

This is clearly superior to marathon speed ... it feels so different, as if the developers haven't properly balanced Marathon in comparison with Normal. I guess that's maybe because most players don't use Marathon.

Has anybody else noticed this?

 

[CultureManiac]

Yes, the gameplay is very different. I use different speeds for different reasons.
If I'm going for a cultural win, I play on Quick, since in those types of games there's a lot of repetitive empty turns. If I want to play around with a civ that I don't use much, or test out a new kind of rush, I use normal speed, so I can get through several games on a weekend. But I still love marathon because each era lasts a long time, each new unit becomes a big powerful advance, each is valuable, and keeping them alive and getting higly promoted is fun. Plus, when you arrive at your neighbour's civ with your new army, their musketmen have not suddenly become mechanized infantry.

 

[danieladler]

I have always liked marathon for the same reasons that culturemaniac mentions. But lately i have started to prefer epic speed because this seem to make the AI a bit more difficult (more units produced) than with marathon.

 

[Johan de Witt]

There is one big problem with Marathon:
The AI doesn't value units enough, so it loses units at the same pace as on normal, but it replaces them much slower.

This makes wars much easier and by the time you have super-improved units, it is almost impossible to lose.

 

[z220580]

I played standard, was too quick for me. I like my games to last.

Went epic, good enough but not enough to really enjoy the unique units.


Marathon is quite daunting for building i agree but you have the time to enjoy the units and really immerse yourself into making roads, micromanaging your tiles and planning.

 

[Tabarnak]

For emperor or below, playing standard speed doesn't obsolete units too fast. But at higher level, for a better immersion of the game, it's preferable to play at epic speed. There is also marathon, but personnally i don't like this pace. Way too long. Epic is ok, but i prefer standard pace. MP games are well suited for quick speed, no AI bonuses to interfere the progressive and regular pace of a ''normal'' game.