Marathon mode is excellent

[Hauptman]

So like last week I started a marathon game, and you know what? IM STILL PLAYING IT!

I was rather anoyed early game, It was simply hitting enter more often. But as the game matured it became alot more playable (and FUN!) I definatly noticed the 200% unit vs 300% building, as i actually HAVE a nice military. I had time to build a nice amphibiouse stack send it off to the other side of the world, take a city (that had 5 seafood tiles!) and continue to defend that city with my trusty old samurai! Standard game, sending troops across the world means they're obsolete before they even get there! pooh...

The little things we as human players do to speed up something in particular, really have an exagerated effect. Moving some tiles to bump up research gets you a 3 turn change! Production quickeners definatly have a more profound effect... wood chops/ rush buys make an 80 turn build worth doing.

Also it changed my tactics when it came to self defense... Previosly, id keep a skeleton defense and just switch to unit construction if attacked, Now that's out the window. So you have to keep a "fast response" force on the ready. Its easier to move units to defense then make new ones.


Oh and those specialized cities... all hammer city with heroic epic cranking a unit out every 2 turns is a HUGE DEAL! I had more than one invasion stack sent across the oceans come from that city alone... 9 turns to produce from any other city or 2 from Osaka.


Only complaint (other than slow game start) is that i clicked the "agressive AI" button and they AREN'T! I started every war previose to the industrial age.

[kseecs16]

Loving Marathon, but I think more work needs to be done in balancing out the tech's after you get to classical. Once you have an empire going you simply accumulate techs too quickly. It's 16xx and I have tanks in my game on monarch. I love the bigger armies you can get, the strategy, and the deeper sense of immersion, but the techs need some work.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I have to concur with Yaga. The term "Dark Ages" was first created by Petrarch to deliniate what he considered a time of stagnation and backwardsness. Other humanists adopted their defintion of the era from the end of the Western Roman Empire to, about, the 1300s. Later historians expanded the term to make the "Dark Ages" refer to what Hengist is claiming, a lack of written history, but originally it was symbolic of backwards.

And the Middle Ages (Medieval Period) began in the 500s. That period of time is refered to as the Early Middle Ages. Up to a bit after the year 1000, when the High Middle Ages were said to have started (roughly when Pope Gregory VII began the Papal Revolution [aka, the Investiture Crisis] and the Normans conquered England).

[Imran Siddiqui]

DP

[CBR1100]

Re: Marathon mode is excellent

[SIZE=1]

I'm sat here at work, not really in the mood for doing any work and I'm constantly thinking about what I'm going to do in my Civ-IV game tonight, when I get back home.


Happy New Year all,

Your faithfully George Bush

You would have thought he would be too bussy

[Mujadaddy]

Originally posted by kseecs16
Loving Marathon, but I think more work needs to be done in balancing out the tech's after you get to classical. Once you have an empire going you simply accumulate techs too quickly. It's 16xx and I have tanks in my game on monarch.

Concur... when I got Infantry in 1610 to go along with my ~20 City Attack Three cannons, I considered ending the game, as I was ~1000 points ahead of my closest rival (only on Prince, tho... first Marathon game )

[Jetmech]

I too started a marathon last week and am still playing....Prince level pangea. My only problem now is deciding HOW to win....I can beat the 3 remaining civs but just don't know if I want to spend the time smashing them or go for the other victory conditions...or start a new terra map to see how that plays out.

Im curious if the aggressive AI setting means that they are just more aggressive to the human or to all players?

[Shaka II]

I started a huge highlands emperor map with 15 civs last night. I meant to select marathon, but forgot, so it defaulted to epic, my usual settings. It's early and lag isn't a problem yet. I have an ATI Radeon 800 Pro/3.6GHz/1G.

It really is incredible. The barbarians are awesome. I've only met 5 other civs, yet I did explore what I think was half of the map, until my scouts died. I selected 15 Civs instead of the default 11, thinking that there would be less land for the barbs to sprout from, but that hasn't been the case. I haven't even seen another Civ's cultural borders yet, as I hurry toward alphabet. I wonder if they're having barb trouble?

I also loaded my custom ancient, classical, and medieval directories with appropriate sound tracks from Civ3 and Civ2, and Rome Total War. Decided that Civ4 classical would sound good in ancient era as well, so duped it. RTW builder music is great and kicks in as I enter classical era. Have to exit to main menu and reassign music path.

I can appreciate that marathon on huge highlands might be unplayable, or at least requiring major changes in strategy. I'm not sure my aggressive/expansionist was such a good idea, since I don't anticipate any early wars, but it's great against the barbs. It's been yielding many promotions for my archers and axemen. I can appreciate what the Roman empire barbarian invasions were like. The Romans built Hadrian's Wall to keep out the Picts in Scotland.

[arcady]

Originally posted by Tattila the Hun
Isn't that kinda a-historical? Should think the Dark Ages should have longer research time.

They didn't call them the Dark Ages because there wasn't enough light...

All the 'Dark Ages' is only a period where one civ went slow.

The rest of the world was moving along at a good heathly pace, and that same period in time was a golden age in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. All of which were then far ahead of Europe in tech and science coming into the 11-1300s.

Europe then got its golden age, and used trade to aquire the techs of the other three, while Africa fell to invasions from the Middle East, which then fell behind from invasions from Europe, and Asia stalled for illogical reasons (literally - a few key figures seem to have engineered by intent a stall in development).

All the while, the Americas where undergoing a golden age in architectural and astronomical sciences, but lacked certain key items that would have preparred them for the coming invasion.


The 'Dark Ages' should only be an external concept in a game limited to the European theater. Otherwise it is nothing more than an example of a civ -not- in a golden age and spending too much production on religion and war without building any libraries or civics development, and only marginal workers.

[Shaka II]

Wow!

[narmox]

That. was. beautiful.

Also reminds me of Soren's notes in the manual saying that instead of implementing Dark Ages they implemented Golden Ages.

Originally posted by arcady
All the 'Dark Ages' is only a period where one civ went slow.

.......

The 'Dark Ages' should only be an external concept in a game limited to the European theater. Otherwise it is nothing more than an example of a civ -not- in a golden age and spending too much production on religion and war without building any libraries or civics development, and only marginal workers.

[Leifmk]

Originally posted by arcady
All the while, the Americas where undergoing a golden age in architectural and astronomical sciences, but lacked certain key items that would have preparred them for the coming invasion.

Indeed, such as Animal Husbandry, Bronze Working, and The Wheel. Civs on large islands or continents by themselves who stay isolated for most of the game tend to lag behind the rest.

The 'Dark Ages' should only be an external concept in a game limited to the European theater. Otherwise it is nothing more than an example of a civ -not- in a golden age and spending too much production on religion and war without building any libraries or civics development, and only marginal workers.

Getting way deep in the hole due to overexpansion will do that. A very heavy barb invasion might work also, suddenly you have to spend all your resources on trying to defend yourself while the barbs are tearing up your infrastructure and taking a few cities.

Hmm, one might wonder if it would be wortwhile to mod in the ability to choose to surrender a few cities to the barbarians. This might be an emergency measure taken when you realize your overexpansion has got you in a hole you might not recover from.

[Jetmech]

Finished my marathon game....Augustus Caesar with domination victory finished around 1800 I think.

Already starting again as Washington...and have both Colosus and Great Lighthouse in same city....almost too easy

[Imran Siddiqui]

That's a good way to put it "one civ went slow". Too many think that Europe went to pre-Roman tech or something. There was progress in Europe. The Renaissance was a greater boom, but the Middle Ages wasn't a backwards move.

[devincutler]

I started a Noble Marathonm game on a Huge Continents map with 14 civs.

It seems like the ideal setting for hardcore SP civers. I do agree that it seems that techs are happening a bit faster timeline-wise.

There are some interesting effects:

1. If you get into a financial hole it is more profound. After all, losing 4 income per turn in Marathon means 3 times as much income lost over the same timeline period.

2. You have to have your armed forces in place. You cannot afford to run on full tech or culture with a delaying force and expect to crank out an army before the enemy is in your heartland. You need standing forces and they need to be upgraded.

3. You can more efficiently fine tune your specialists and city management because each timeline period is comprised of more turns.

4. Essentially, your units move three times as far and attack 3 times per turn when compared with non-marathon speed, since in a given timeline period 3 marathon turns will have elapsed. This means there is much less chance of launching a war against an enemy and then having that enemy progress in military tech enough during your war to cause you problems.

5. Any advantage is exaggerated because you will hold it longer. If you have a culture advantage, it will be applied three times as long turn wise. If you are ahead in military tech you will be able to exploit that advantage for three times as many turns. Similarly, marathon mode is less forgiving of mistakes. A mistake on the tech tree could see you at a disadvantage for three times as long as normal. Similarly, you HAVE to ward against barbarians in marathon mode. With techs taking 3 times as long to discover and then twice as long to build units, you cannot suddenly note the barbs spawning axemen and expect to quickly research bronze working and build axemen to defend your cities. Your anti-barb techs and forces need to be in place when the barbarians come.

Devin