my games last too long

[Arabian Archer]

srsly,even when I play Warlord difficulty(I started going noble for the first time a week ago), Small map size, Marathon game speed, all my games lasted like 15+ hours , is that normal?

Well I'm not talking about games where I try an ultra-early rush(yes.. warrior-rush, lol) cuz then it's over soon, but once I start to actually develop my empire, the game just lasts tediously long for such a small map size.

 

[vanatteveldt]

Marathon game speed

Marathons are supposed to last long... I think the game is way more fun at quick or epic speeds. A game on a small map lasting between 5 and 10 hours is quite normal in my experience, but 15+ can be avoided unless you have long wars in the modern ages, which often involve moving 40+ units around.

Even so, I often quit halfway into a game if it's obvious that I'm winning anyway, as the time it takes to play out a game from the renaissance era can just be really long...

 

[slobberinbear]

... Even so, I often quit halfway into a game if it's obvious that I'm winning anyway, as the time it takes to play out a game from the renaissance era can just be really long...

I hear you, and I do this too, but it's clear to me that doing this has really hurt my late-game skills. I'm not nearly as familiar with late-game gameplay as I should be as a result.

Must .. press on ... to victory.

 

[vanatteveldt]

I hear you, and I do this too, but it's clear to me that doing this has really hurt my late-game skills. I'm not nearly as familiar with late-game gameplay as I should be as a result.

I know what you mean. However, I don't think it really gives me many late game skills if I use my armor and infantry to mop up their rifleman, or modern armor versus infrantry. it becomes a tedious build-move-kill game, or a boring press enter until space race...

But the result is the same, I've never really used bombers, missile cruisers, or nukes, and they sound so cool I've upped my difficulty level, and am now trying to get to the modern era without getting killed...

 

[futurehermit]

if you want games to go faster play normal speed and pursue space races/cultural instead of domination.

my domination games take 9+ hrs whereas my spacerace only take 3-5 hrs.

 

[absimiliard]

3-5 hrs? Gods that's fast FH.

I play standard maps, normal speed, with the typical number of AIs.

My games take 10-15 hours.

I gotta be doing something wrong.

-abs

 

[Gliese 581]

My games last to long, or is it that I don't have enough time?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

If I'm playing pangaea on epic/standard map, I can win domination or conquest(the latter via capitulations obviously) in roughly 4 hours on Monarch (I have yet to win at all on emperor, though I'm going to be putting a serious effort into that shortly).

It's all about making fast decisions, doing the micro quickly, setting up queues, and waypointing units when warring. I really should get the HOF mod though, because while I can keep track of where my citizens are working when I have 10 cities or less, beyond that I start forgetting what I'm doing where, ultimately just focusing on my core cities and letting the others run the much less efficient governor.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

My games last to long, or is it that I don't have enough time?

Probably both.

The Noble's Club V map on Monarch/Epic took me just around 17 hours to finish!

Granted, it was a water-heavy map which included lots of Privateer action as well as Industrial and Modern Era warfare ending in a Domination victory ... but that's still pretty normal for me ...

FH has it right on the money ... 10 - 15 for my warmonger games & 5 - 7 for my builder games.

 

[Gliese 581]

I think I'm pushing 30 on the Immortal Monty challenge, an hour here an hour there. But I've yet to finish an immortal game although I've had one in the bag (usually quit then, these public challenges are a great incentive to finish).
I'm meticulous about the micro even lategame, I can't shake it even if I'm in a position gamewise to let it go. Just old habit I guess.

 

[Arabian Archer]

damn.. u guys are fast.

One of my other problems is executing a certain kind of economy(CE) and specializing cities into production powerhouses or concetrating on food-production.
It's just that I always end up with all my cities being weak hybrids, not able to get the production I want or not able to get the surplus food I want for specialists.
This essentially makes my whole economy kinda crappy

Another thing: I've seen screenshots of the guy that scored more than 500,000 points
damn, that guy had A LOT of cities, how the heck does he manage to have THAT much cities?

 

[Arabian Archer]

anyone have some tips on these last two problems?

 

[SenhorDaGuerra]

hmm.

recently ive been doing marathon/standard map/10civs domination wins in like 8 hours.

i think a game only become boring when there is nothing to do but press enter. id much rather command my army than wait for a cultural victory or for space parts to be finished. but thats just me.

 

[wannabewarlord]

I tend to run approx. 5hrs per game, but this is on warlord/noble on small maps with normal speed. I do find enough time to properly micromanage and usually move all my units or stacks individually.

I must admit though that I tend to slack occasionally, not going through all my city screens or checking if I have fortified units that I could/should now move due to the changed situation. also, on quick wars (say I just want the one broder city and then return to peace asap, I also tend to slack by not preserving my forces or not fighting in a "clean" way. i.e. if my stack is stronger anyhow, I just throw it at the city until it's over. I know I could do much better by deciding individually which unit is gonna attack when (for focused promotions or force preservation).

I guess certain situations make me lazy, which on lower difficulty levels is excusable. But I assume I will learn my lesson to be careful in due time, when I move up the ladder

 

[Arabian Archer]

I just finished a noble game

It was on a TINY continents map with 7 civs
Strangely enough ALL 7 civs were crammed into ONE continent

now, I could've gone for an early conquest victory, but I just sorta waited it out and see what wud happen.
I made almost all the continent muslim, so I cud have gone for an AP victory, but I was dumb enough to turn off Diplomatic Victory, because it annoyed me in other games. So after some useless turns I thought: Why not be the one to colonize the New World to get domination? Used some Great Artists for some quick land-grabbing there.

In the end, after more than 9 Hours of gameplay Muslim Rome won a domination victory just when I was nearing the Industrial Era(at arouund 1500AD)

I got around 79000 points, is that bad/OK/good for a noble game?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Score doesn't matter unless it's your specific goal, and the highest scores come from a combination of high difficulty, population, and victory date (that's how they get 500k).

As for city specialization, it seems hard at first, but it really isn't (just remember, focus, don't forget what you're doing). If you're running mostly cottages and the slider is over 50%, just but science multipliers in your commerce cities and be done with it. Production cities obviously get food to work hammer tiles, then work only hammer tiles. The GP farm tends to be the most food-intensive city you can possibly get your hands on, and will see tons of farms to run specialists in it.

To recap:

1. Cities have improvements that emphasize either food, commerce, or hammers
2. If going heavy food, run specialists
3. Build the appropriate buildings that multiply your specialization (forges for production, libraries for science, etc).

Final note: I recommend a wealth city (tons of merchants and market/grocer/bank/wall street) for civs that use the commerce slider for research otherwise, and super science cities (libraries/observatories/universities/great library/oxford) if you want to get your research independently of the slider (which then would be used for gold or other commerce uses such as espionage or culture if that's your thing).

 

[y2jaus]

I have a domination map, earth 18 civs, marathon speed, that i have been nursing along for a few weeks now . Each turn can take up to 15-20 minutes rofl.

 

[siggboy]

I really should get the HOF mod though

You should get BUG Mod! (Sorry for the off-topic remark, but BUG Mod can't be advertised enough ;-).

 

[Arabian Archer]

what's BUG mod? lol


anyways.. thankx everyone for the replies.
I will try to look in to some of the more boring Stategy Articles too to get some extra advice.

 

[Yeosol]

I generally play Huge map/Epic speed. Which gives you a long game without the doldrums of marathon. But yea a Victory screen would take around 10-15, which is a lot, though as others I often quite before the end.