Question about Marathon

[Chemical Toilet]

So I usually play on quick speed, because I don't like to sit around and click, waiting for extra turns to go by. But recently this has felt like it's going to fast, and I was wondering if the slower speeds, marathon in particular, actually allow you more time to build things. For example, on marathon, will I ever eventually get the production to build a unit in 5 turns or less? Or is it simply a dragged out, slower game speed? I have read many people in older threads say that your units are on the field for longer periods of time, and therefor do not become obsolete as quickly, but how long does it actually take you to build them once you have your infrastructure set up?

 

[Fluffball]

As for a a general rule for how ling they take to build. Start of the game will be around 30 turns, once you get your city going then 15 turns is reasonable. Only in your biggest cities will you ever see units being built in 5 turns or less and not until at least the last half of the game generally.

For marathon though you predominantly want to be buying your units though and hard building your buildings as the conversion rate is best for units.

For marathon i usually hard build my scout(s) and first settler, maybe my first archer depending on how things are looking then generally all other units are bought.

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

Going from quick to marathon might make you want pull your hair out. Or worse :suicide:
Don't you think you should step down slowly?

Anyway, units produce relatively the same pace as tech so you won't generally produce more in one era than on other speeds. The thing is those units move, attack and gain exp at the same rate so you can do a lot with them before they go obsolete. Classical and medieval UUs are by far the best units on marathon because civs with later UUs can get wiped before they ever get their UUs.

Want to play a horribly unbalanced game even on the highest difficulties? Play as Attila on marathon on Pangaea. Rush the wheel and bronzeworking. You can pretty much ignore science after that. You'll mop the continent clean before it matters.

 

[TractorBoy]

I quite often forget to build a forge/stable on quick speed but I never forget on marathon.

Like Vic says you can get some really early victories even on more difficult levels, just because your army has a couple of hundred turns before becoming out of date!

 

[Chemical Toilet]

Going from quick to marathon might make you want pull your hair out. Or worse :suicide:
Don't you think you should step down slowly?

Maybe so. I don't necessarily want to drag the whole game out if I'm not able to slow the rate at which units become obsolete if the rate at which I can turn out said units is so slow that it doesn't make a difference. Know what I mean? I don't feel like there's really any other benefit or change from using slower game speeds other then it makes the game slower. Am I wrong?

I've sort of looked for mods that do this too, but haven't been able to find a good one. That's why I was inquiring about the game speeds.

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

One I like makes it so units always produce at quick speed on any setting but buildings stay the same. You can get some really good early wars but it doesn't feel weirdly unbalanced with everything producing too fast. I think it's just called quick speed unit production. One of my favorite pacing mods. The game just gets weird when you can build buildings too fast.

 

[TractorBoy]

Maybe so. I don't necessarily want to drag the whole game out if I'm not able to slow the rate at which units become obsolete if the rate at which I can turn out said units is so slow that it doesn't make a difference. Know what I mean? I don't feel like there's really any other benefit or change from using slower game speeds other then it makes the game slower. Am I wrong?

Never mind an Atilla quick victory playing marathon, I am pretty sure that good players used to be able to obtain a standard size, pangea, marathon, deity victory in BC (350 turns) playing vanilla. I would have thought that with Petra you could probably get one even faster! Hell you could even play OCC and never have to send your troops back to your Capital for tech upgrades.

 

[reddishrecue]

I guess that playing on the marathon speed will make you more patient in this forum when asking questions. I usually use the quick speed and now that I ask a question online, I ended up waiting for others who played at slower speeds.

 

[TractorBoy]

I guess that playing on the marathon speed will make you more patient in this forum when asking questions. I usually use the quick speed and now that I ask a question online, I ended up waiting for others who played at slower speeds.

Very patient it seems, so why would that be?

1- No quick hit of adrenalin rush playing marathon, (Schumacker probably wishes he could play it now)!!

2 - The masters of the game preach to us mere mortals just how week we are for playing marathon games.

3 - Videos, playthroughs, and a tactics forum, so what are we? Perhaps we are just a load of clones!!

I say, choose what you want to play and enjoy what you are playing.

Enormous pleasure can be gained from playing MARATHON games, I hope the OP enjoys his adjustment without resorting to mods!

One other thing to mention, I would imagine that if you change to a MOD that speeds up the building of an army then it will probably do the same for the AI.