Help! I am addicted to marathon/large.

[Hustapha Thool]

Can we have an intervention here, can you talk me down out of this addiction? I know I should play standard speed to have a "real" game of ciV but it is just not satisfying for this junkie. I gotta have my emperor/imm/marathon/large or huge, else I feel I am just playing with the gateway drugs.

WTH national College by turn 30? I have just got a warrior out by that time and maybe my first tech. Where is the suspense? How can I get that feel of "OMG, I am getting rushed by 5 warriors and 2 archers and all I have is 2 warriors and one of them is 30 turns away." On standard , I can just start pumping out the defense, no worries it just not feel real to me. Please, Help....

 

[Jon the Bastard]

You do need help. The issue with junkies, like yourself, is that this sort of behavior happens for so long that it becomes learned... there are no other alternatives in your mind. The challenge will be in breaking the cycle... getting you to realize that you have the power of choice. Open yourself up to the possibilities of the world and of positive change/emperor/standard/small.

 

[thadian]

once i made myself try it (smaller maps), there is indeed dignity and respect on "tiny" and "small" size maps. I began to play better and emperor became funner than it was on large/huge maps. you almost never have turn lag and ai auto-cheat has less civ's to buff each other and hate you.

I used to think anything but large size maps was for twinks trying to nacho-cheese out an easy win without dignity and playing on standard instead of epic meant you were trying to rush the challenging part of the game to blitz out a 21st century army in the stone age.

now when i win or lose i finish most games because i don't have 40-80 turns of marching to the inevetible which stops me from being de-stimulated from chasing a known obvious conclusion for such a long period of time.

on smaller sizes i have had more REAL game time, decision making and time to play different civ's, test map types etc. No longer do i hate tiny size maps, sometimes i have to push myself to play small, and i couldn't even think of a standard map on emperor size. in the end, the smaller maps "became bigger" once i played them.

 

[Tabarnak]

At the opposite, i don't know how people can play large maps and slow speeds. Wayyy toooo looonnnggg! I only play quick/standard speed on tiny/small/standard maps, excepted some HoF domination games at epic.

I usually finish my game in 1 session. Maybe it's my multiplayer style.

Many strategies are related to maps and speeds. If you begin to play at other opening settings, you will need to adjust. This can be a source of misunderstanding between opinions about strats.

 

[gozpel]

Just start a new game on Fractal (or continents), Standard pace and Standard mapsize.

Play Immortal and see the fancy of a different maptype.

You will love it!

 

[spfun]

I only play standard map standard speed myself, i have tried other variants but anything slower than standard i find i have to play more than 1 day. I like to finish a game in one sitting i when if all possible.

I change up the map type sometimes but generally stick to Pangaea. Because i find the AI suck to much at water maps. Heres to hoping next patch fixes some of those AI issues.

 

[sav]

I only ever play tiny on Civ5. To be honest, Tiny is large enough - I actually up the civs to 6, otherwise even on Tiny you end up with massive empty areas. Six civs, eight city states, seems to work well.

Any larger and it just becomes far too much of a hassle to wage war anywhere but your own back yard. And the extra turn times, etc. Unbearable.

 

[szcott]

I too only play Huge/large Marathon, worse yet I used to only play on Highlands map to get rid of all the wasted play room taken up by the ocean. Now Ive moved on to Fractal and Pangea trying to beat Diety.

I still start to have video problems starting in the 1800's. The game remains somewhat playable, I just start losing icons and other graphics like borders and the diplo window.

Anyone else still having these problems on Huge/Large?

 

[Evilsooty]

I love Huge/Marathon/Max Civs. Most of my games last over 1000 turns :0

 

[Emstinson]

I just played my first marathon huge game, on prince though, and loved it. Alas my computer does not find it as fun as I do. It was all I played in Civ4, so having a computer not up to the challenge for 5 has led me to enjoy the smaller faster games quite a bit. The hundreds of hours I have logged in the game are a testament to the joys of all shapes, speeds, and sizes. Now if I could play it on a higher difficulty and have my computer handle the sheer volume of units.... or drop 3 grand on a computer wooooo....

 

[AfterShafter]

Man, you're not crazy... You're sane in a crazy world. Fight them - they have the problem, not you!

 

[Fabiano79]

I love Huge/Epic/Max Civs. Most of my games last over 1000 turns :0 (2*)

 

[Randall Turner]

Anyone else still having these problems on Huge/Large?

Yep, Huge, modern era with a lot of units and stuff, just like the other guys said. Barely playable, had to drop down to Large for the beer-sippin' games.

 

[Nazran]

I am glad there are others like me...

I only play Large or Huge with Marathon. I also always turn off diplomatic victory because it always ends the game too early!

 

[Haig]

Yep, Huge, modern era with a lot of units and stuff, just like the other guys said. Barely playable, had to drop down to Large for the beer-sippin' games.

Does beer enchance civ-playing abilities?
My dad says that Chuchill was a bit drunk most of the time so he was able to do ballsy decicions..
So far my favorite Civ drink has been coffee, but yeah maybe dropping a diff level and having a couple beers could work.

***

And on to the topic, I've played only standard speed on Civ 5 (not counting some experiments with epic or marathon) but now I've really started to dig epic speed, it's the right for me at the moment, not too timeconsuming but the battles are real cool.
Guess I should try Marathon too!

***

Another cool trick is when starting a game is having a Turn Limit from the Setup Game.
That way you can make a limit to a game, like 200 turns for example, for a game that ends during medieval crusading..

 

[bronzeager]

Always play Quick here, so don't know what to tell you.

BUT, I did try Epic once, and had a thrilling moment of being warrior rushed by Songhai. Luckily, I was Darius, and I completely annihilated his 6-7 warriors with my golden age Immortals. That was one of my favorite civ moments. Too bad the rest of the game was long, laggy, and a bit tedious.

 

[Randall Turner]

Does beer enchance civ-playing abilities?

Beer enhances everything.

 

[Hustapha Thool]

once i made myself try it (smaller maps), there is indeed dignity and respect on "tiny" and "small" size maps. I began to play better and emperor became funner than it was on large/huge maps. you almost never have turn lag and ai auto-cheat has less civ's to buff each other and hate you.

I used to think anything but large size maps was for twinks trying to nacho-cheese out an easy win without dignity and playing on standard instead of epic meant you were trying to rush the challenging part of the game to blitz out a 21st century army in the stone age.

now when i win or lose i finish most games because i don't have 40-80 turns of marching to the inevetible which stops me from being de-stimulated from chasing a known obvious conclusion for such a long period of time.

on smaller sizes i have had more REAL game time, decision making and time to play different civ's, test map types etc. No longer do i hate tiny size maps, sometimes i have to push myself to play small, and i couldn't even think of a standard map on emperor size. in the end, the smaller maps "became bigger" once i played them.

You have come closest to helping me change my ways, I may even give it a try. What has hit home the most is the fact that I rarely finish a game. I usually quit when I know Iam going to win or lose. I think I am good at judging that because the games I have continued to the end I almost always win.

I really do not know what battle is like in the modern era...

 

[EasyBee]

It's true, playing on faster speed increases the likelihood of a "come from behind" win, if only by virtue of the reduced time investment to take the chance. That said, I think the end-game has improved greatly from IV. So much less tedious.

Myself, I prefer marathon games on bigger maps. I enjoy the feel of moving from age to age slowly enough that each new tech has a genuine impact. A single new unit type greatly changes the power dynamics as it will be on the field for much longer before being bested by the next upgrade. I LOVE the eras that happen -- alliances form, epic battles take place with unit positioning being key, peace is achieved, then your civ refocuses on internal development, defended are bolstered, new alliances are formed and it's only one era later! By the time you are finished, you civ has a real history to it. My last game went over 1000 turns, and less than half of the map was settled.

I recently played an earth map for the first time ever and really enjoyed it.

Also, to those having issues with the computer's ability to cope: I am using a Phenom II quad core with 4 GB ram running windows 7 64 bit. We had an NVIDIA 9600 GT and that could run the game smoothly, but some setting were medium and the AA was low. We swapped that for the ATI 5830 (I think, low 5k series for sure), and it runs smooth on all high and 4xAA. The whole computer cost about $700, built by us, bought from newegg. No problems with turn lag at all. Ever.

 

[TPQ]

Have always played marathon large, or huge in the Civ series.

I recently tried a few standard everything games on Immortal and actually quite like it. I does seem like you have less time to take action, so things seem more urgent. If you wait too long to take a decision, the AIs will crush you with their massive bonuses.

I'm not used to Immortal, so, maybe it's just the difficulty, but I certainly feel the pressure on standard everything Immortal, way more than with the marathon/emperor/large games I'm used to. Become complacent at all and say goodbye to a win. You always have to be on the proverbial ball.

Once you get accustomed to the change of pace, you may well enjoy a standard everything game once in a while. Map size doesn't seem to matter as much as pace.