Marathon Speed

[EustaceMonk]

Greetings!

I've been playing Civ for quite a while (Civ + Warlords + BTS), and I've managed to work my way up to Noble (big deal, right?). I usually play on Epic speed and, after looking through the forum here, I noticed that many people play on Marathon. I gave it shot, but for some reason I fail at it.

On Epic, I can now safely out tech the AI and almost always pull off a win. However, when I move the speed to Marathon, my thinking goes out the window! I LOSE! I can never seem to get enough production in my cities and the AI, usually, beats me out of the gate to settle a new city. By the time I'm looking for COL, I'm way behind in tech and it's taking me nearly 40+ turns to research ANYTHING.

I've built libraries, run some specialists, but it does seem to help. What is it about Marathon speed that's getting me? I can post a save later, if that would be more helpful.

 

[Ignorant Teacher]

Marathon plays very different than the other speeds. It takes a lot longer to tech and it's harder to recover from a crashed economy. OTOH, it's easier to wage war. For example, I had this game where I stopped teching before Industrialism and that was enough to win. If it were on Normal, I'd have run into Modern Armors and Gunships and wouldn't have been able to win.

There's no rule that you have to be able to play on all speeds. Just play the one that makes you feel better. A lot of people play on Marathon, but I have reasons to think that Epic is the most liked speed here.

 

[PJyang]

use slavery.

 

[EustaceMonk]

I do use slavery and chopping. But it seems of little use to accrue over 90 turns of unhappiness!

 

[TheDS]

Marathon has a lot of extra turns, so things just go slower. If you're thinking you're going to have a Settler out the door in only 20 turns, think again! Just do what you normally do and have a little more patience for everything taking so long. The AI gets to slow down just as much as you do, so don't kill yourself if they do something a few turns before you do.

Just play it and learn. Don't freak out. It's only a game, your reproductive organs are not at risk here.

 

[Shafi]

Marathon is easy if you are a warmonger, if not dont bother, just play on epic or even normal speed. In fact i would say if you are a warmonger, marathonwould be almost like going a level down, anyways like IT said just play whichever speed you are comfortable with.
I usually play normal, although if i am looking to do some heavy warr-ing then i pick epic.

BTW - Welcome to the forum!!!

 

[Rooftrellen]

I play on marathon. I always liked the huge time periods things took on it. And I really needed to do something to break some old bad habits, and those bad things were exagerated on marathon (not building enough military, for instance).

I've just never gone back.

With things like whipping, remember that unhappiness time is all proportional. If you watch the years, it will last no longer than normal or quick. You just have more turns to use the whip again.

The same can be said for buildings (allowing for rounding, since that 67 turn wonder won't be cut down to even turns on epic, normal, or quick). But a unit can make more of a difference in the spare turns, since unit actions are not changed at all.

Speaking of which, you might have problems with settling for the simple reason that you can see more of the map. When you can see more, you will have more spots you want to settle, and you will be less likely to get the spots you want.

Every speed is a totally different beast. If you want to play marathon, just work on it a little, and you will learn how the different speed affects everything. If you find it less fun, just go to a faster speed!

Marathon is full of extreme advantages due to the slow movement of the game, but its easy to do things like not building up as much military, not attacking as much, running your economy into the ground too far, etc., if you are used to a faster game.

If you are playing peacefully, try moving down a level for marathon to start and move back up when you have a grasp on how it affects how you play.

 

[banson]

marathon is lovely, sure things are alot slower and theres like 1500 turns in the game.. but get soem good citys made and wach how many axemen, chariot,warriors and archer fights u can have.. one time i was inca and i was really just exploring the civs uu ability a week ago. when my scout warrior saw the russian city with no def.(we were close for some reason really close.)
i just couldnt resist it and killed them. then i played a few more games with them and just practicly had some good warrior fights that made me laugh.

on the flip side the russian archers in my last game kept killing my axemen and sword men like they were nothing. so i had to make peace but her lands were raveged.

oh one more thing i even tryed making a super swordmen with every upgrade it could have.. her archers still killed it easy enough. i mean like 1 archer. it was a blast though

 

[CouNterOrdeR]

I love marathon too. All it is on normal is a silly tech race nothing much to it.Its boring getting everything in 1-3 turns, cant use anything at that pace. Marathon you can do it all. Feels more like a game and less like a race.

 

[Scoottr]

I tried switching from Marathon to Epic and just couldn't play it. I was teching so fast I couldn't keep up with a plan. Buildings were flinging up left and right and it was just a mess.

I'll stick with marathon now, less stress!

 

[madscientist]

I am an epic player, former exclusive Marathoner. Epic get's me faster games, particularly the slower parts such as buildup, teching etc... I see no reason to say marathon is easier or harder than epic (or standard) although it is different. It greatly depends on taste.

I have made these points before, but here it is again

1) Marathon is easier to war-monger on because units (2X) are cheaper relative to buildings (3X), movement does not scale with speed change, the AI does not often upgrade units on you mid-war, and you can take better advantage of an AI that is not that smart at warring.

2) Gold from capturing cities does NOT scale with speed. Thus 150 gold for a standard speed barb city can get you several techs at 100% science while your lucky to get 1 at marathon. This makes economic recovery easier also as your treasury lasts long enough to get a key tech such as currency, code of Laws, etc...

3) Faster speeds make peaceful victory goals easier as buildings are cheaper relative to units and you can adapt to the enemy war-machine faster.

4) In the early game at standard/epic speed you can research a worker tech before you build a worker. Something you cannot do at marathon and makes a difference.

 

[Calouste]

I am an epic player, former exclusive Marathoner. Epic get's me faster games, particularly the slower parts such as buildup, teching etc... I see no reason to say marathon is easier or harder than epic (or standard) although it is different. It greatly depends on taste.

I have made these points before, but here it is again

1) Marathon is easier to war-monger on because units (2X) are cheaper relative to buildings (3X), movement does not scale with speed change, the AI does not often upgrade units on you mid-war, and you can take better advantage of an AI that is not that smart at warring.

2) Gold from capturing cities does NOT scale with speed. Thus 150 gold for a standard speed barb city can get you several techs at 100% science while your lucky to get 1 at marathon. This makes economic recovery easier also as your treasury lasts long enough to get a key tech such as currency, code of Laws, etc...

3) Faster speeds make peaceful victory goals easier as buildings are cheaper relative to units and you can adapt to the enemy war-machine faster.

4) In the early game at standard/epic speed you can research a worker tech before you build a worker. Something you cannot do at marathon and makes a difference.

Your last point depends on the level you're playing at. It only becomes an issue possibly at Emperor, and more certainly at Immortal. On the other hand, you're more likely on Marathon to meet other civs that have the tech you are researching which will bring the requirements down slightly. I think in general you can research Agriculture or Mining before you complete a Worker (unless you have bonus hammers from settling on Plains Hill or resource, and/or are Expansive with a 3 hammer tile in the BFC), but not more expensive techs like Animal Husbandry or Bronze Working.

 

[KeloGBites]

I think I'm kind of on the flip-side here. All my Domination/Conquest wins are on Normal speed, while my Space/Diplomatic are on Epic or Marathon, but I very rarely play Marathon. It's just..so so..long.

 

[dirtyparrot]

I went in the opposite direction. I went from an exclusively huge map marathon player to a standard size normal speed player. You can still wage war fairly effectively on normal and the game doesn't nearly take as long. The thing that messes me up on slow speed is that I usually know by heart the number of turns for workers to build improvements for only a particular speed.

 

[The Dark One]

I just tried my first marathon game, following TMIT's advice on the effective use of Keshiks. Length of the game not a problem, as I won domination in 50AD. It must be said that, even compared with epic that I normally use, marathon is way easier for a warmongering strategy. I did only just manage to avoid strike though. Twice.

 

[Woodreaux]

I'm a fan of Marathon. The advantage I perceive is units have longer windows of usefulness. There were countless Normal speed games where I would discover gunpowder then rifling and start upgrading my LBows to Riflemen, before I finished the massive upgrade I had finished teching Assembly Line. This was followed by marching my Infantry, Artillery army into battle and having Mech Inf & Mobile Arty become available before I took down the 3rd enemy city.

The accelerated tech rates combined with relatively slower movement rates of Normal speed caused me to delay warfare until I had Modern Armor and Stealth Bombers. Marathon fixes my problem in this area.

 

[Poppis]

There was a great thread about Marathon games(on huge maps) last year, which might have some advices:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=297206

 

[Calouste]

I'm a fan of Marathon. The advantage I perceive is units have longer windows of usefulness. There were countless Normal speed games where I would discover gunpowder then rifling and start upgrading my LBows to Riflemen, before I finished the massive upgrade I had finished teching Assembly Line. This was followed by marching my Infantry, Artillery army into battle and having Mech Inf & Mobile Arty become available before I took down the 3rd enemy city.

The accelerated tech rates combined with relatively slower movement rates of Normal speed caused me to delay warfare until I had Modern Armor and Stealth Bombers. Marathon fixes my problem in this area.

Yeah, it gives a somewhat more realistic feel if your army is not technically obsolete before it has even left your borders.

Another difference between Marathon and Normal IIRC is that the chance of a city culture flipping is independent of game speed and that strategy is thus three times as effective on Marathon.