How long does it take you to play?

[Brain]

I was wondering how long (in real life time ) does it ususally take you to play a game of Civ? How much time do you spend on each turn?

My problem is that I like to take my time to think and on larger maps it takes me forever to get a good game going. And with a busy schedule and a wife that doesn't play civ I can never manage to finish those games. Maybe I should get her addicted too...

 

[HungryMouse]

well, having started playing civ 2 months ago I only finished one game by the moment. Very often game becomes so predictable in industrial age or so that it kills all the interest to play it till the end (lazy me...). And this routine micromanagement is so exhausting in modern ages especially if you have a big empire (and I do have it, by that time).

 

[Pentium]

I voted days, usually 1-2 games per week. I play pretty fast and I quit MM in Industrial.

 

[chunkymonkey]

Voted weeks, since at the moment I can only seem to get through one game a month i.e. COTM. I usually end up spending 30-40 hours on a game, so this isn't surprising.

I have a game I started about a year and a half ago as the Arabs on a large map which I plan to get back to at some point, but I just can't find the time

 

[SJ Frank]

Month. I usually have only a few hours here and there during a week to play, and I usually have a few games going on at the same time.

 

[Drakan]

Emperor level huge maps: 17-23 hours
Deity level huge maps: 34-44 hours
All this mainly for SS victory which is my favourite.

It really depends of the type of game you're playing, the level, the map size, the number of rival civs, your skills, the amount of warmongering, the type of victory sought (milking for high score, conquest, domination, SS, diplo, culture...) ...

 

[mastertyguy]

I take generally 1-2 days to a week for each game (dorrect me if I made a mistake, please, I am pretty sure I made one)

 

[PaperBeetle]

Exactly two weeks per game for me. Yes that's one GOTM and one COTM
Unfortunately, since starting xOTM, I've become addicted to micromanagement, and my games seem to take about 100 hours each! In the late game, each turn can take 20-30 minutes, but I'm going to try using CivAssist to wean myself off checking every city on every turn...

 

[Killa]

Sometimes I finish the game in 1-2 days,but something it proceeds 2-3 weeks.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Usually a week or two, unless I have more pressing things such as school to tend to.

 

[zerksees]

I voted weeks.

I don't know what takes me so long - too much micromanaging I guess?

 

[Tomoyo]

Depends. I usually don't finish my games.

 

[gmaharriet]

I voted days. During the work week, it will take me about 4 to 5 days to finish a game, totaling 30 to 40 hours. I can usually finish a single game over a weekend. Two weeks ago I started one when I got home from work on Friday and played straight through until about noon Sunday without sleep...I have VOWED never to do THAT again...but I won my game. Also, I often abandon a game if I'm not really enjoying it.

Lucky for me to have an understanding husband who often goes off for weekend fishing trips.

 

[Xerol]

I've got time for the GOTM and that's about it.

 

[Tatran]

Depends. I usually don't finish my games.

Doesn't give you that an unsatisfied feeling?

Just finished an Emperor game in 1 day.(No wars.)
So 1-2 days,maybe 3 to finish a game.

 

[Tomoyo]

Doesn't give you that an unsatisfied feeling?

Just finished an Emperor game in 1 day.(No wars.)
So 1-2 days,maybe 3 to finish a game.

Sometimes it's not worth it. Especially if I just played halfway through the Ancient Age and decide that the game has been won.

 

[GorfTheWanderer]

I voted for 2050.... sometimes... I get myself in to deep and take to many risks and wont win.... So I don't play and try a diffferent civ.... I've probably finished maybe 10-15 games total on regent level... most times I agree tahat if I know I've won.... Who cares that I don't play the last 20 turns to finish the space station if I know no one is even close.... why kill off the last 2-3 civs if they only have 15-20 cities and I have 100+.... I play till I stop having fun.... I just hope I can keep playing Civilization until 2050 and keep having fun. Just my .02$

 

[Bartleby]

It depends, viz. my last three games:
Huge map, histographic--250+ h ("weeks")
Large map, diplomatic--15 h ("days[ish]")
Standard map, conquest--2 h ("hours")

 

[Rambuchan]

Voted for weeks. I mean I went for the option weeks.

I almost exclusively play Huge maps, on Monarch level, which I win nearly everytime but always have to perfom well in to win (so that takes time) and I always have crowded worlds with at least 10+ civs for company. So the games are truly epic, with lots of land to conquer / settle / explore and much diplomacy to deal with.

A lot of time is spent thinking on each game for me also and thinking of course goes hand-in-hand with . So I take breaks from the game to go and do other things and then come back to it once a solution has been found. Often this means more herbal . In fact these breaks allow the true planning to happen. Playing is mostly carrying out a plan that has been hatched in a break. I also slyly play at work, cranking it up during lunch and then it stays open for the rest of the day, albeit minimised so I can play a few turns / inspect the map / make trades then get on with a bit of work and vice-versa. Another example, I leave a game open while I go play football for an hour and a half then come back to the waiting game, do a review of the situation, think it over in the shower then come down and BLITZ EM! I also spend time renaming cities to reflect the imagined history, regions, dialects of each empire ie. injecting some narrative.

So you see when I get my victory report through at the end of a game it usually says something like 200+ hours spent playing. Of course I don't spend 100s of hours 'in the hotseat' of each game but I do leave a game open while other windows are doing things or I'm doing other things.

Some other comments in response to people's posts but not the poll:

More often than not I play each game right through to the victory point or until I'm truly beatn. Unless I got a really bad deal (ie. on a tiny island on my own) I generally play each game out to the end - perhaps 1 in 20 games get restarted. I guess this is why I spend a long time on each.

I find if I leave a game to 'come back to', I never come back to it. I've come to terms with that now.

I really take my time. Big time.

 

[Rambuchan]

Oh something else.... the main reason why I still play civ and stopped playing other games I've tried like Age of Empires is that you can take your time over a Civ game and play it at your own pace. Turnbased is so much more chilled than real-time strategy games.