What level do you play on.

[bc1]

By mid-game (200-300), an average turn takes 5-10 minutes. By end-game (300-400), an average turn takes 15 minutes

...if I diligently spent 10-15 minutes nitpicking out every tiny detail of every turn...

Wow ! And I thought I was slow... Look at the Game of the Month time stats, people don't take that long to play.
Try fast moves & turning off unit animations, it works wonders to speed up your game

 

[Browd]

Those both work, but I suspect adwcta likes his game pace and has little interest in speeding up his game.

I recall another thread where someone said that they were taking up to 50 hours to play games on Quick. I can't imagine having that degree of patience, but to each his own.

 

[black3car]

Great to see all of the responses in this thread. Awesome to see there are people out there who take notes and have long times between turns. I happen to be one who does not take notes or refer to anything other than the mouse overs in the game. I also run out of patience to deal with "everything" in each turn. I don't automate workers but I also don't pick what hexes my citizens work. My wife sometimes thinks I am playing a game called "Oh Crap!" (PG Version) because I tend to say that quite often after finishing a turn when I forgot something. I have space bared through many a great person and hit next turn without doing what I planned to do with him.

I have come to terms with the idea that if I don't pay attention to detail and to what I'm doing it will be harder for me to win no matter what level really. As I stated earlier, that is why I call people and do cartwheels (in my mind anyway) when I do win on prince!

 

[Browd]

Hah! I often use similar expletives--happens with spies all the time. Someone hits Renaissance, and I haven't assigned my spy. As the AI turns are scrolling I'll point at the screen and say to myself "Doh! Next turn -- assign spy". Next turn comes, forget about spy. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

 

[Marklevi]

I play on lower levels cause Im greedy. I want to make sure that I get all the Wonders I want. I know If I step up to high I will not be able to do that. Im not going to play a marathon game for 16 hours and take notes over three days. No way. I wish I had the time to do that really do. There are things I wish this game did a little diffrent but Im totally satisfied with the way it is. I dont use and mods or nothing. I play Prince or warlord if its a civ i havent played. I beleive its possible to win on higher levels on the first try. If you go in with a gameplan and know how to adapt on the fly. Reading what all you guys have to say before I ever played this game definatly made me very knowledgable before i ever got the game. But I just want to throw this in. CIV 3 rules. civ 4 was terrible.

 

[manu-fan]

I think the key to most players' having problems advancing beyond Prince/King is two-fold. 1) They play too fast. By mid-game (200-300), an average turn takes 5-10 minutes. By end-game (300-400), an average turn takes 15 minutes. I keep hearing stories about playing a game in a night or two, and that's way too fast for a standard sized/speed map game. Thinking a strategy game helps. 2) They don't re-act to the AIs. Every turn, I check my detailed diplomacy tabs to see who likes/hates who, who is building an army, wonder-mongering, city-state mongering; who has resources to trade. This lets me adjust who I want to be friends with, who I want to appease, who I want to piss off, and who I need to keep an eye on. If you just friend everyone who tries to friend you, it'll be a tough road ahead, and you won't have many friends. The AI is a giant calculator, so every time you get screwed, you most likely asked for it. Especially on large maps, alliances and diplomacy is probably the most important path to any victory, allowing you safe time periods to build infrastructure, expand, etc. I've read a number of posts that begin with "why did the friendly AI attack my defenseless new settlement near their borders?". Makes me think most people don't quite get how diplomacy works in this game.

Exactly. And exactly why I play on Prince and don't have any interest in playing at higher difficulties. I enjoy my quick turns, thank you very much.

Cheers.

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

I used to win easily on Emperor...since the latest patch/Gods & King expansion I've been forced back down to King and have to struggle to win.

 

[The Pilgrim]

I recall another thread where someone said that they were taking up to 50 hours to play games on Quick. I can't imagine having that degree of patience, but to each his own.

In Civ3 tournaments submissions of over 100 hours were not uncommon. When I saw that for the first time, my brain exploded.

Hah! I often use similar expletives--happens with spies all the time. Someone hits Renaissance, and I haven't assigned my spy. As the AI turns are scrolling I'll point at the screen and say to myself "Doh! Next turn -- assign spy". Next turn comes, forget about spy. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

Happens to me all the time. I also forget to renew deals, assign specialists, make peace, buy missionaries/GP, sign RA's and the list goes on and on. So much for the perfect play.

 

[thegingerninja]

I play Prince, winning all my games. Going to try King. Wish me luck

 

[Trogdor561]

Usually play king, trying to move up toe emperor

 

[Theruss]

I play Prince, winning all my games. Going to try King. Wish me luck

Good luck!

I found the jump from Prince to King to be quite hard, personally. Went through a phase where I'd lose at King and then go back to playing a game on Prince and finding it way too easy, then going back to King to lose again,

Now, I am a constant King player who wins more than loses. I plan on making the jump to Emperor soon. Wonder if I will go through the same kind of jump and phase that it was like with Prince to King?

 

[Bex]

Prince. I've won on King but have to pay very strict attention, and by nature I'm another of those quick and careless players. Due to 'mouse-oops' alone, I've sent workers sliding into barbarians and accidentally instructed missionaries to 'go to' remote ice blocks, where 26 turns later they blink for new orders. My caravels are always reversing in confusion. I force my troops to fight in swamps unnecessarily. I distractedly replace perfectly good improvements. It's all good. If I wasn't saying 'oh crap' at least every second turn it just wouldn't feel like Civ.

 

[dashwinner]

do people tend to find that epic/maratheon is easier than standard? im currently an emperor player, like many others said, its the level i feel most comfortable at. i'm able to build the necessary wonders if i focus on what i want, and i believe its a decent mix of paying attention to long-term game plan without yet having to micro-manage every single thing. ill drop down to king if i want to try something new, or just want to not worry too much. also, i recommend the 4-city tradition opening that is posted on these forums, its incredible how much better your game will get just by settling/building NC early. combine that with an early enemy capital capture and you're set for the first half of the game. its later on that i start to flounder. i spend too much time building unecessary stuff (i have an obsession with culture buildings) and the AI catches up to me by late game, which, some would say, adds to the fun.

But to recap what many people seem to be saying, CiV is great because it caters to different types of people, both of which can be seen on this very thread. there's those that seem to think deity is a breeze (one day, maybe,ill be there) and those that struggle at king, but the point is, in the end we each find our niche and a level where we ENJOY the game ...

also, one thousand times this.

Hah! I often use similar expletives--happens with spies all the time. Someone hits Renaissance, and I haven't assigned my spy. As the AI turns are scrolling I'll point at the screen and say to myself "Doh! Next turn -- assign spy". Next turn comes, forget about spy. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

 

[tnick777]

I usually play Prince, but refuse to continue my game if I'm in the jungle.

I love playing Settler after getting my ass handed to me though...

I have beaten the game on every difficulty though. The top 3 difficulties was through an exploit I found.

 

[killmeplease]

play quick emperor
immortal sometimes

 

[glider1]

do people tend to find that epic/maratheon is easier than standard?

I'm playing a giant modified perfect world map one size above huge at marathon pace at the moment with maxed out numbers of civs and cs and more flat terrain with less chokes to confuse the AI on emperor. I love the way that you have to think more in marathon about your strategy and love the way that wonders get built in the correct eras! The problem is that tactics are easier on marathon because the AI blunders many units and then cannot replace them quick enough. So once the initial AI attack is done and you have killed the first wave, the rest is mop up. Marathon is extremely punishing on any mistakes where units are lost by blunder.

That said, you can set up marathon games in such a way that means that even if you do capture another civ or two, there will probably be a runaway which will still be a fun challenge to try and peg back and that is what I've done. With 22 civs there are also a lot if issues if multiple AI's DOW you at once.

By the way, I actually managed to get the Great Library with England in front of 21 other civs. I wanted to see if it is possible. On immortal it is pointless.

Cheers

 

[Shakira42]

All amps play on 10.

 

[SouljahAtWar]

I was joking earlier when I said I ragequit on Prince... and I do ragequit starting with Prince, and I can't say I am the best player out there, but I do pretty decently on Emperor, sometimes play on Immortal if I'm in that rare mood.

 

[Hpuk]

Hah! I often use similar expletives--happens with spies all the time. Someone hits Renaissance, and I haven't assigned my spy. As the AI turns are scrolling I'll point at the screen and say to myself "Doh! Next turn -- assign spy". Next turn comes, forget about spy. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

You don't have to wait for next turn, you can move spies, do trades, denounce, declare war, assign citizens, change city build orders while the AI is doing their turns.
No reason to be idle between turns.

 

[SouljahAtWar]

I usually play Prince, but refuse to continue my game if I'm in the jungle.

I love playing Settler after getting my ass handed to me though...

I have beaten the game on every difficulty though. The top 3 difficulties was through an exploit I found.

Says what? Playing in the jungle is awesome! You can chop that crap and build farms under there (it's always fertile land)!