Since I started this thing, I'll chime in again. I have played hotseat and online games in the past. In particular, I've played hotseat games of Heroes of Might and Magic that took a day to complete and were fantastic. But this is another matter. Later in the game, my civ turns take ten to fifteen minutes per turn, and that's playing against the idiotic computer A.I. Additionally, Hereos games ended after maybe one-fifth as many turns as it takes to finish a regular Civ III map.
I think a group of four skilled players would takes weeks of playing for three to four hours every night to finish a game. Just think about the war of attrition and stalemate centuries that would pass between human players, all slowly improving their lands on every turn with scrambling workers. Or think about the number of casualties that would be incurred to take a single city, when an intelligent human has put almost all their defensive resources on the vulnerable front lines. It would take a hell of a lot of swordsman to overwhelm a city with walls, ten spearman and five offensive units to initiate attacks when it was advantageous.
I look forward to hearing how this goes for the rest of you, but I'd be surprised if a group bigger than three completes any game on a regular map in anything approaching a sane amount of time.
