Conquests too short?

[Starhemberg]

Ok, I know that one idea behind creating scenarios is to shorten the length of a single game. However, my opinion is that Firaxis has gone too far in this matter.

From my impression, most of the scenarios only last between 2-4 hours, which is way too short in my eyes. Why put months in the design of a scenario only to spoil the players' fun by creating stupid time limits that force them to play a fast civ-style?

As for me, I think it is not satisfactory to play three hours of, say, the Rise of Rome only to be interrupted by a victory screen which calculates percentages and civ points I don't care about. I wan't to conquer the world without winning, or even worse, losing the game before even being able to reach the true goal (absolute domination) in year x.

What do you guys think? Isn't it a pity to have nine damn fine scenarios when you have very tight time limits that restrict you,
or in other words, even spoil your fun by kicking you out of the game through a victory status screen at the same time?

[Dis]

2 to 4 hours?

Rise of Rome took me over 14 hours.

That's almost too long.

I play scenarios because I get sick of the epic game lasting too long. But I don't like small maps.

Scenarios are the right length for me.

[WarpStorm]

The Sengoku one takes just as long as a normal game. The Middle Ages is also a fairly long scenario.

[Starhemberg]

I hear that you can complete Mesoamerica in one hour.
Same for Age of Discovery.

And I saw screenshots of the WWII in Pacific and Rise of Rome
conquests taking only about 4 hours .

Dissident: 14 hours seems fine to me. Any idea how much time there was left before the scenario would have ended?

[Snotty]

I hear you can finish Napoleon in one turn

[WarpStorm]

Originally posted by Starhemberg
I hear that you can complete Mesoamerica in one hour.
Same for Age of Discovery.

Oh, you haven't actually played them. They both took me longer than that (a few hours each). Heck, just checking out what the new rules that were in effect for each Conquest took me about 15 minutes.

There's a mixture of lengths from short ones suitable for MP matchups to mammoth games that take nearly as long as the random game.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Snotty
I hear you can finish Napoleon in one turn

True. My first sid "victory"

[statusperfect]

[Dis]

Originally posted by Starhemberg
I hear that you can complete Mesoamerica in one hour.
Same for Age of Discovery.

And I saw screenshots of the WWII in Pacific and Rise of Rome
conquests taking only about 4 hours .

Dissident: 14 hours seems fine to me. Any idea how much time there was left before the scenario would have ended?

yes I won by 20% domination. There were still about 24 turns left I believe.

I admit I did have an urge to paint the map red just like I saw in my history books in school. I tried to get the map to look like the actual roman empire. But the damn celts proved too tough (even though I had superior units). And I was getting too tired moving around almost 100 legionary units, and 100 garrison units (though most were fortified), fire catupults, and many galleys.

[Dis]

Is there something about Napolean I don't know? I haven't loaded it up yet.

The first scenario is fairly short. But it is sweet as well. That one is called mesopotamia. It took me a little over 3 hours I believe. But it was a fun scenario. It captures the intial land grab ( a very fun part of the game for me) very well, and then a real quick city build up followed by building wonders. Actually there really isn't much time to build up cities- you better put those city sites in good production zones or you won't get the wonders.

[Master Marcus]

Rise of Rome took me 15 hours. Of course some others are a bit short, but very addictive. For these kind of scenarios, I find the various lenghts OK. Perhaps another one or two with a 540-turns limit like the Sengoku would have been welcomed, but overall I like the formula.

[GhengisFarbâ„¢]

Yes they are fairly short. The Middle Ages one took me 17 hours but that's because I hunted down all four relics and returned them all to Jerusalem in one crusade.

[Fried-Psitalon]

There is a bug with Napolean that allows someone - if they really want to cheat and win that way - to win on turn 1.

Not trying to speak high-and-mighty, but the fastest win on AoD or Mesopotamia that I've heard of and seen proof of were my own: AoD on Demigod at 1:35 and Mesopotamia at roughly the same.

This was probably the 10th or 11th time I had played them, I had all the animations turned off, was moving only and exactly what I needed for the particular strategy I was attempting to illustrate as broken in the beta-test, and ignoring everything else. So yes, it IS possible to complete AoD or Mesopotamia that fast, but it's not easy, and you do lose a lot of the fun by playing it that way. I think it'd be a lot more fun to research piracy and snag other people's boats, personally. (But hey, I got what I was after and that problem was fixed in the beta. Wee!)

Some are shorter than others, but some can be quite long:

Mesopotamia: Fairly short, unless you go heavily warmonger. It's a builder scenario.

Rise of Rome: Long. It's a big map, and the vic conditions aren't easy to fulfill, particularly as difficulty goes up.

Fall of Rome: Fastest I ever did this was 3.5 hours using my "playfast" method. This sucker can be pretty long if you leave all the animations on and don't have the other civs do your dirty work for you.

Mesoamerica: This one's about medium. If you "harvest" your neighbors, it can go quicker; if you wipe them out altogether, it can take longer.

Age of Discovery: Extremely variant, depending on your strategy and civ choice - American civs will take less time, European imperialists only slightly more, European scallywags the most.

Sengoku: Unless you take the "quick early out" with a prebuild of the War Council, this scenario can be LOOOOONG. Longest of all, in fact. You CAN finish it if you're trying to do it fast in an hour and change by prebuilding the War Council and being a contact fiend, but you'd miss 2/3 of the units in the game that way.

Napoleanic: Personally I hate this scenario, so I can't judge it, but it seemed pretty long the one time I forced myself to slog through it.

WWII: This one is long simply through the sheer number of units you move around, and I don't care if it's only 50 turns long. Hehe.


Just a few thoughts.

[Stuie]

Originally posted by Fried-Psitalon
Sengoku: Unless you take the "quick early out" with a prebuild of the War Council, this scenario can be LOOOOONG. Longest of all, in fact. You CAN finish it if you're trying to do it fast in an hour and change by prebuilding the War Council and being a contact fiend, but you'd miss 2/3 of the units in the game that way.

I finished a domination win of Sengoku in about five hours on Monarch. What dissapointed me was that the tech tree ran out long before I finished the game. Either research is too fast, or techs need to be added.

As for the topic, I like the idea that I can play a quick conquest, or dive into the epic game for hours and hours and hours of gameplay. The shorter conquests are a nice alternative.

[asleepathewheel]

I finished a wonder victory in Mesopotamia on Emperor in 1 hour and 2 minutes. Unfortunately my score was actually lower than my monarch victory (I think 5 wonders verses 4) and it doesn't show up! Macedonia is pretty easy to play as if you wall off the bosporus and pump up 2 cities to size twelve with workers.