Tips for marathon games

[roguepro92]

marathon is fun if your willing to drag wars out and not just do rushes.
just to make it more interesting/competitive

i dont declare war AFTER i already prepared for it

prepare war and build military units during it or rush buy them

marathon just gives a massive advantage to the player that's easily abuse able but whether you want to or not is your choice.

 

[Johan de Witt]

marathon just gives a massive advantage to the player that's easily abuse able but whether you want to or not is your choice.

Can you explain what you mean with that please?

 

[TPQ]

I agree with everything you wrote here in principle, TPQ, but the details not so much...

Marathon is just more fun. Agree about late era fun too. But 1500 turns, whoa! Usually finish the tech tree around 700 with RA's, 850 with house-rule "no RA's after Industrial".

And 300-500 turns a day? I can see that if I ever play an MP game with you guys I'll have to get a partner that's laid back, that's just blazingly fast.

Yeah, I just play into the small hours. I don't really need much more than 6 hours sleep. I've never timed it, but I don't suppose I spend more than a minute on average per turn. I've been playing Civ since the original, so I'm fairly used to how the game works and Civ5 is one of the easier iterations, if not The easiest. I also don't watch TV, which frees up some time.

I hardly ever sign RAs. I just find I don't really need them. I might sign 5-10 per game maybe, if an AI asks for them and I've got the spare cash. But I don't actively seek them unless I find myself with 10s of thousands in gold and nothing particular to do with it, but if I'm at that stage a win is pretty much guaranteed anyway.

Like you said, marathon is about holding back and playing for the later eras. Developing a plan over time and watching your cities and empire take shape and develop over the millennia. I've always enjoyed the developmental process in Civ. I guess I a bit of builder at heart.

I find taking my time much more satisfying than rush, rush, rush, oh I've won with 900 tuns to spare! Woohoo! But of course different people enjoy the game differently. I like the experience to last, others like to play more competitively and look for the quickest win. It's all good.

It's true though, if somebody really wants to, you can hammer the AI into the ground pretty quickly at marathon speed, at emperor anyway. I just don't find doing that particularly enjoyable. I like Civ! I want each game to last!!

 

[tomplum68]

The only thing I dont like about marathon is the end-game. It just seems to take an inordinate amount of time to achieve a victory condition, unless your going for dominance. Like, if your trying for a science victory, you have pretty much established your borders and aren't warmongering, just plugging away at techs or spaceship parts and it really seems to drag out.

 

[Randall Turner]

I don't even try for a victory, and from what I read that's pretty common.

Disable everything except time, set your own goals, play to have fun, no more angst!

(Well, getting nuked 3x in one turn will generate some angst, I guess...)

 

[roguepro92]

Can you explain what you mean with that please?

you can create super units from the minute the game starts with your first warrior.
i find marathon/epic so much easier to win with rushes than quick/standard because epic/marathon gives you plenty of time to create super units meaning lvl8+ easily. 3-4 of those with 1siege can wipe out a continent pretty easily. assuming you dont make dumb mistakes and sacrifice them.

so to make things harder i just dont do any type of rush on marathon/epic as in preparing 10LS before declaring war. no-no.

 

[roguepro92]

I don't even try for a victory, and from what I read that's pretty common.

Disable everything except time, set your own goals, play to have fun, no more angst!

(Well, getting nuked 3x in one turn will generate some angst, I guess...)

turn off nuke. problem solved
endless game and if you dont conquer everyone but rather let 3-4nations live and build beautifully. its actually a fun sims game with occasional war haha

 

[roguepro92]

The only thing I dont like about marathon is the end-game. It just seems to take an inordinate amount of time to achieve a victory condition, unless your going for dominance. Like, if your trying for a science victory, you have pretty much established your borders and aren't warmongering, just plugging away at techs or spaceship parts and it really seems to drag out.

you can warmonger your way to any victory...
puppet economy > buy CSs' peace win
puppet science > spaceship
puppet everything > domination
puppet the world from your capital > cultural win

i think puppeting is too overpowered in all honesty. on immortal the happiness is NOT a huge issue. play india or only build/buy happiness buildings.

 

[pspboy7]

This highest score I ever got in my games was on marathon hehe. I'm tempted to try another one since that game was done before all the patches. I think it was diplomatic victory. Oh, it was Ottomans.