How quickly can you finish a spaceship game?

[Brundlefly]

How many hours does it take you to finish a game with a spaceship victory/defeat?

I have finished maybe one game of Civ3. None of PTW or C3C. Most of my games are Emperor, large map, 16 civs. I get so bogged down with micromanagement in late medieval/early industrial that I complete maybe 2 or 3 turns per hour. Eventually I leave the game alone for awhile and then come back and start another from scratch.

Any tips for having an enjoyable, challenging, and quick spaceship victory/defeat?

[vmxa1]

Use std maps and 8 civs. The more civs in the game and the larger the map the slower turns will be later.

Otherwise you will have to try to eliminate a few civs sooner.

[lethe]

I'll go even further than vxma1: Tiny map, how I love thee!
Small is about as large as I will go these days. And I used to be hooked on Huge. Less is more!

[Fatwreck]

I´m a huge map fetischist myself, I just love the early game when there are lots of civs around but when it´s only me and two other AIs left and I know´I´m gonna win eventually the game starts beeing a pain... but I try to finish the games anyway, don´t really know why

I think I´m gonna start playing more standard size maps though

[joncnunn]

Took me aprox 30 hours. Small map, standard rules.

That is aprox the same time it took me to win Fall of Rome.

I lauched the ship in the 1760s. Could have done it somewhat sooner if I hadn't needed to declare a war just to take over a source of Uranium and then needed to cut down science rate to rush cultural improvements in the new section of my empire.

[DrSpike]

Standard settings 20 hours tops.

[Brundlefly]

Thanks for your input everyone, but you're not really answering my question.

What is your advice for making the game go quickly and yet still make it a challenge? What sequence of mouse / keyboard actions do you take to make the game faster? What Funtion-key screen information is important to check on every turn and what is not? What shortcuts do you use?

[joncnunn]

I use the keyboard for moving when it's short distances.

For long journeys, I use the mouse for moving.
For a stack of the same type, I click that option.
Sometimes if the unit is by itself and I've been looking around for a place to put it I'll turn on that option to save having to recenter.

Every single turn: Check all cities and verify that they aren't about to go into disorder. 3 turns to go in a tech, 2 turns to go in a tech, 1 turn to go in a tech: Science Slider

At least every 5 turns : Check to see if anyone has any new techs.

Also keep track of deals using the details.

[Brundlefly]

Originally posted by joncnunn
I use the keyboard for moving when it's short distances.

For long journeys, I use the mouse for moving.
For a stack of the same type, I click that option.
Sometimes if the unit is by itself and I've been looking around for a place to put it I'll turn on that option to save having to recenter.

Every single turn: Check all cities and verify that they aren't about to go into disorder. 3 turns to go in a tech, 2 turns to go in a tech, 1 turn to go in a tech: Science Slider

At least every 5 turns : Check to see if anyone has any new techs.

Also keep track of deals using the details.

Thanks. That will help some. I check every city every turn for disorder and to make sure shields/food are optimized. I check every turn to see if anyone has new techs. Your way is faster.