Which speed do you play?

[MightyTiny]

Marathon, marathon and marathon. And marathon.

It simply feels like the speed the game was made to be played at - the possiblity of having entire wars begin and end within an era, with essentially the same military technology, without your army becoming obsolete half way through makes a HUGE difference.

So marathon is my vote. There is no other speed for me.

[Snotty]

I guess when I play quick I am never not at war, so eras run into each other and having the tech edge can turn the tide very quickly

[Blaupanzer]

Marathon for me. Entirely different game. Nothing like having my army go obsolete between departure at home and arrival at the point of attack (at normal speed) to convince me to play on a speed where that won't happen. Takes a little getting used to, the time in turns that things take to produce or research. However, I find the actual gaming hours spent per game are not a lot longer than on normal (30 versus 20 hours). That time is well worth it.

[Snotty]

Do you marathon guys also play on large or huge maps? that might explain the obsoleting problem, as it is one I have rarely encountered

[dregor]

There is only one game speed: marathon.

[Spiffor]

I play normal speed.

Marathon has unbalancing issues because of the speed of units, especially because exploration goes 3x faster than on normal. This is one of the reasons why early religions spread so quickly and gain so much influence on marathon games.

If exploration was slowed down accordingly, Marathon would be the obvious choice to me.

[TheArsenal]

Always Marathon. Always a Huge map.

[Velociryx]

Marathon, always (except for when I'm writing the strat guide, then I go standard).

Hopefully a Firaxian will see this poll and bear it in mind for Civ V....slower is better, and Marathon has won the vast majority of the votes thus far. Granted, it's still a smallish poll, but the early results are...compelling.

-=Vel=-

[Snotty]

well i should imagine this vote is skewed based on the predilection of residents of this site, that and it has no quick option

I would like a quicker but still balanced mode, so I can get a MP game done in one night rather than 2. Normally I can get to the industrial age in one session, and then struggle to get the players back for the 2nd night to finish it off

[Forwarn45]

Standard speed for me. Although that can make for some dramatic shifts in technology during the course of the war, this is the first Civilization game where I have been able to reach a satisfactory conclusion in most games within a comfortable playing time. I doubt I'll switch.

[MasterDave]

Quick is not on the list. Since I play primarily on Multiplayer, and 95% of the lobby games are on quick, that is what I play the most, although I dislike it. The games I play with poly people (RAH's Saturday games) and the games I play with my RL friends are usually at standard.

When I was playing single player games in the past, I usually chose epic.

One idea I have to slow exploration on Marathon would be a limited supply/morale range of 15 tiles from a civ's nearest city. The rationale would be that scouts or warriors are too afraid of the unknown or are not willing to put more distance between themselves and their families than the 15 tiles. This would mean that exploration would be limited by the growth of a civ's cities, which is of course, slower on marathon mode.

My big problem on marathon is tied to tech trading. The AI is not nearly as active in tech trades as the human, and that advantage gets multiplied many times when each tech takes so much longer than standard to research, but you can still parlay each new tech into four or five AI techs. This is why spaceships get launched in the early 1800's and you have gunpowder units in 1100 AD in marathon games.

[AmericanCitizen]

It really depends. If I'm in a bad mood, I'll play a quick settler game. If I'm in a good mood, I'll usually go for normal or epic. Marathon seems...intimidating.

[Virdrago]

I play Standard, but only because I hadn't thought of trying out anything else yet. My only worry is my computer can't deal with the late game very well. My brother loves Epic, he hasn't tried Marathon.

Listening, to all of you, though, I guess it's time to switch.

[Shr3dZ]

Standard.

For anyone that has a limited amount of time in front of the computer, this speed is just about perfect. Especially when cIV isnt the only thing installed on my system.

[diemex]

Marathon. I hate building units that need to be replaced 10 turns away....