What's the Appeal with Marathon/Epic?

What???

You make a unit, then put hammers in your wonder for 1 turn, go back to unit, next turn put it on the wonder again, etc, etc. Cycle till wonder is done.

What's the problem?
Hadnt thought of that actually. Still, we shouldnt have to pull stupid tricks like that just to get around a broken mechanic.
 
Emperor games are fairly easy on anything slower than normal speed if you know somewhat what you are doing. Basically on slow speeds, just build huge stacks of anything and go crush your neighbor. Maybe it only took me a month to get good because ive played every other civ (1,2,3,etc). Take, for instance, sistuil annihilation using ragnar right now. The game is pretty much wrapped up and he started not anywhere near another civ. If you are playing islands, maybe tough, but any map with a neighbor close by is pretty easy to own on those slower speeds.

That giant-stack-of-doom method of victory might be a sure win on slow speed emperor, but it's boring as hell and no mentally healthy person would bother doing it. Therefore, that strategy's existence shouldn't be acknowledged in a discussion like this.
 
epic/marathon makes the game easier for the human player. admittedly, it can be more enjoyable to get more out of each age, but then it also makes each game longer and even on normal speed my domination games take around 9 hours and i like to finish my games in max 2 sittings or else i get bored and start a new game.
 
epic/marathon makes the game easier for the human player. admittedly, it can be more enjoyable to get more out of each age, but then it also makes each game longer and even on normal speed my domination games take around 9 hours and i like to finish my games in max 2 sittings or else i get bored and start a new game.

My epic dominations take around 20 hours... :eek:

This has put me in quite a pickle. I want to enjoy each age, but I don't want to feel like I'm cheating the AI.
 
I play Epic since I like to play each age.
Marathon is too slow for my taste
I use Normal for trying new things, like new leaders/features of BtS.
I never tried Quick since Normal is plenty fast for my taste
 
I don't know how many of you combines Agg. AI and marathon, but even with "my cheesy advantage" it's a huge pain fighting good AI's. (The AI gets insane amounts of troops) I don't feel that i have an advantage when Shaka knocks on my door with a bunch of Impis and Axes around 2000 BC ;) (extreme example but.... :p )

Epic is the best speed, you can fight and still play builder without hitting end turn too much :) (it should be the default "normal" in my opinion)

And if you want to compare difficulties/speeds, map size and type is much more important for the difficulty of your game. (The AI plays better on bigger maps)
 
Okay simple question: Does playing marathon/epic give a (comperable) increase in the number of turns or does it just make everything slower?

Forgive my ignorance, the fact that this was never mentioned in the manual or game description detered me... I never had the inclination to test it out.
 
Okay simple question: Does playing marathon/epic give a (comperable) increase in the number of turns or does it just make everything slower?

Forgive my ignorance, the fact that this was never mentioned in the manual or game description detered me... I never had the inclination to test it out.

More number of turns, but everything cost more. Which means that you can move farther with your units in the same amount of years, and have units not go obsolete for longer.
 
Hadnt thought of that actually. Still, we shouldnt have to pull stupid tricks like that just to get around a broken mechanic.

It is not a stupid trick, and it is not a broken mechanic. What the hell is going on in this thread?
The fact is you can't build more than 1 item per turn, no matter how hard you try.
exception : you can draft and build a unit in the same turn.

Actually, you can create more than one item in a single turn even without draft. I routinely whip multiple items in a city when I'm in a pinch.

An average city can whip a marine & Sam and also pop out a third item in the same turn.
 
The AI plays better on bigger maps
I think it would be more accurate to say that humans are bad at massive amounts of micromanagement.

Personally, i cant play without the BUG mod. The message whenever a city crows alone is a huge help for me, and its just plain handy to not have to go digging for the power graph.
 
I play marathon and epic speeds at monarch level. It is a bit easier than the slower speeds on standard maps, but on large or huge maps normal speed and faster is just silly. You sail your army across the ocean with a tech lead....and when they get there they are yesterday's news.
 
What happens to the hammer overflow from whipping the end of a wonder? I noticed this the other day, Oracle was 2 turns from completion, and I had a barb axeman on the way, so I put an archer in the queue after the Oracle, whipped, which gave me some hammer overflow, but when the Archer was up, he didnt have any hammers in his build.
 
There is a penalty for whipping wonders so you don't get your 30 per pop.
 
Actually, you can create more than one item in a single turn even without draft. I routinely whip multiple items in a city when I'm in a pinch.

An average city can whip a marine & Sam and also pop out a third item in the same turn.

No it can't. You're talking about putting the hammers into building something, which yes, you can do for multiple items in a single turn. But only one of those items can actually be produced per turn.

Bh
 
I think the whole problem is very situation-, mainly victory type dependent.

Best speeds by vic types as i think:

Cultural: quick (because GAs give you relatively more CP-s)
SS victories: epic or normal (marathon would need dangerously much time)
Conquest: marathon by all means
Domination: marathon but also epic can be good especially in huge maps (longer games)
Diplomacy: it is very much map size dependent. All speeds can be good except quick
Religious: marathon or epic (it is also map size dependent, but since it needs less time as diplo, you don't have to wait too much).
Time: quick, but I'm thinking on an espionage based victory to prevent the AIs finish SS, combinated with some conquering for having better score than all AIs.
 
both diplomacy and space are better on quick unless you are playing incans.
 
That giant-stack-of-doom method of victory might be a sure win on slow speed emperor, but it's boring as hell and no mentally healthy person would bother doing it. Therefore, that strategy's existence shouldn't be acknowledged in a discussion like this.

Thats exactly my point. Emperor is far to easy for any speed other than normal and quick... (and a few much rarer situations)
 
I have tried all speeds and all maps and most of the difficulties through Immortal, and I find I get the best "Civ feel" on Epic speed. Normal churns out the game far to fast, and marathon is sooooo slow, but Epic feels the best.

But there is a definite difficulty factor in faster speeds, just as there is a definite difficulty factor in type of map. I certainly wouldnt push it to the point of "emperor is far too easy on slower speeds" though. You can make this game as easy or as difficult as you wish in many ways. Look at madscientist's games, he plays Marathon/Monarch but adds his own special set of "rules" which make it truly challenging.
 
I find Epic and Marathon waaaaaaaaaaaay...
tooooo...
slooooooooow...
I get asleep researching agriculture, the more advanced Epic game I've ever made reached Feudalism, then gave on...it's really frustrating the longness of building even the smaller thing...mine 0.01 :commerce: , obviously.
 
I love Marathon. I'm also a terrible player with no real chances of playing beyond Nobel (maybe Prince.....), but I enjoy seeing and taking advantage of each age as best I can.

On top of that I play large/huge maps and throw extra civs in for fun.

I don't know anything about slower speeds making the AI dumberer (hee hee new word!) than everyone thinks it is, because it's always challenging for me.

Admittedly, it's really slow in the beginning, but as things get rolling it becomes really exciting for me. I like long games that take awhile. My current game is going on over two weeks playing at least an hour every night and morning and I'm only in the Industrial Era :D

That's why I like it anyhow.

I would think though, that for all the reasons I like it, others like Normal speed for the same thing. Fun. Different strokes for different folks and all that jazz.
 
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