When do you pack it in and declare Victory?

[smbakeresq]

Double closest other civ score? 1500 points ahead? 2000?

[Willem]

Not until the game tells me I've won, anything else is considered a defeat. Now as to when I pack it in and declare defeat is a different story.

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by Willem
Not until the game tells me I've won, anything else is considered a defeat. Now as to when I pack it in and declare defeat is a different story.

Ditto. In fact, I now force myself to RESIGN when I decide to pack it in so I have a record of my loss (unless something outstanding occurs, such as a new patch)

Considering my level of play (Noble/Prince), it's no big deal. Though marathon games that go beyond 1,000 turns DOES get to be a bit of a chore.

[Blaupanzer]

Like Jaybe, I force myself to resign, otherwise I will be tempted to go on and on and on -- you get the picture.

[Jaybe]

NO Blaupanzer, the object is to win the game, regardless of the length (in hours played)!

[Blaupanzer]

Right! Keep up the positive energy for hours on end.

[Garth Vader]

Depends on the game. Basically as long as it's interesting. Sometimes I quit as soon as my victory is assured even if it's in the middle ages. Sometimes I'll finish it all the way if I am going for a different victory condition, or if there is an interesting AI war.

[guermantes]

When? Not as often as I should. I still hope in vain for some of the AI underdogs to declare war and try to ruin my march to victory. Yet only Shaka would do that and he is not in my games too often, and usually when he is I take him out quickly when I see him since I correctly percieve him as a threat.

It would be great to see some kind of mechanism that a losing civ could resort to in order to mess up a victory for someone in the lead, so as to force a draw. It could also convince the human to remain playing while victory is no longer attainable but to be able to keep Brennus from winning and get a little 'victory' movie for the effort could be nice.

[MyOlde]

I'm with Willem et al. Quit before the game says you've won and you haven't. You've just quit.

[ybrevo]

Unless I have messed up my strategy badly due to Alzheimer Light, I always play to the end, no matter if it looks like an obvious victory or not. Even if you are in a superior position, there are still a lot of challenges down the line. That happened on Noble where a space race with Catherine got a lot closer than I had imagined.

I am not spending tons of hours on CIV just to be satisfied with a decisive lead in late game and quit. I want to see the end confirmation

ybrevo

[Slade Wilson]

I quit whenever victory is achieved. If i have grenadiers and cannons or cavalry versus longbows, its over. Period.

Only accepting ingame victory as victory possibly indicates lack of confidence or someone easily manipulated by the words ''so your not man enough?''

[wodan11]

I'm with Slade. OTOH I don't always play to "win". What's "win" mean, anyway?

Often I am playing to experiment with a strategy, or to improve my skills. Thus, "winning" is not necessarily my prime motivation.

In addition, I often purposefully refrain from indulging in exploiting the AI. e.g., no rushing. This makes my games longer and more interesting.

Based on comments, I sometimes think that a lot of players don't even get to experience the modern era because all their games are over by then. (Excepting those out there who play to the game tells them they can quit; however, that isn't really experiencing a competitive modern era, it's simply going through the motions.)

Wodan

[Willem]

Originally posted by wodan11
(Excepting those out there who play to the game tells them they can quit; however, that isn't really experiencing a competitive modern era, it's simply going through the motions.)

Not necessarily. In one game, I discovered that one of my vassals was poised to win a cultural victory about two turns before my spaceship landed. So it ended up being something of a nail-biter of a finish while I tried to find ways to slow down his cultural accumulation long enough to win. The thing about playing through to the end is that there can be a number of surprises. In another game, Washington and I were running neck and neck to be the first to build our spaceships. I had finally gained a small lead on him and thought I had the game when all of a sudden it was announced that Egypt had won a cultural victory.

[Supr49er]

Originally posted by Willem
Not until the game tells me I've won, anything else is considered a defeat. Now as to when I pack it in and declare defeat is a different story.

Exactly.

[wodan11]

Originally posted by Willem


Not necessarily. In one game, I discovered that one of my vassals was poised to win a cultural victory about two turns before my spaceship landed. So it ended up being something of a nail-biter of a finish while I tried to find ways to slow down his cultural accumulation long enough to win. The thing about playing through to the end is that there can be a number of surprises. In another game, Washington and I were running neck and neck to be the first to build our spaceships. I had finally gained a small lead on him and thought I had the game when all of a sudden it was announced that Egypt had won a cultural victory.

In both of those examples, I would say you weren't keeping tabs on your opponents.

Simply having a tech lead to me doesn't mean you can declare the game over. It's necessary to look at the power graph, etc. It's quite possible to have a tech lead but an AI could have an almost insurmountable lead on units. I've had games where yeah I had better units, but for whatever reason one of the warmonger AIs didn't get into any wars and just kept building and building units.

"Quantity has a quality of all its own."

Wodan