Playing to the bitter end??

[jackl]

Recently lost in a massive five civs versus me war. Usually when i see i'm losing and i'm never gonna pull it back i just retire and leave my people to the EVIL INVADERS.

But i recently battled on until my last city was taken and..well it felt quite good to be beaten. I think in future i will just play on...and if i die with my people so be it.


How do you folks do it?

[Stuie]

I play until it's not fun anymore.

Sometimes losing is fun.

Sometimes winning is not fun - and then I'll just retire and take the "points" victory.

[spy14]

If its a decent game i'll usually carry it on until ive either beaten the other civs into the floor or been kicked out myself. Some games can be draggy and show no hint of changing, in which case i'll cut them short and start over.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Fighting against so many civ's is damned hard work which can see you despite all efforts getting a good kicking, but it can be fun too. I have played out many tricky situations which most would not bother with, lost some but recovered and came back to win some of them too. Now that is definition of satisfaction, to come back from the brink of impending defeat to win.

[Cookie Monster]

I definately give up when I see that there is no way to win. I would never do this in MP though as then it would be fun to resist until the bitter end. Something about playing a human vs. playing a computer I guess.

[Datajack Franit]

That's fun! Try to create some kind of "Maginot Line" around your civ's vital regions and defend that place only- it always works, if you're a good player of course

[WackenOpenAir]

i usually give up both when im winning too much or when i'm loosing.

If i'm loosing even goes to the point sometimes where i just have regrets about things i have done in the game. I am too much a perfectionist and can't stand it when i made errors. often then, i create a new game.

when i dominate half of the world and have 3 times as much militairy power as my combined opponents, i also quit usually.

That is the bad thing about the whole civ series imo, when winning or losing, there is no way back. the strong always get stronger and the weak get weaker.
And moping up when you are way strong is boring and takes ages.
I have no experience with other TBS, but i played some RTS very much, espescially starcraft. there you can still win even when your opponent has twice as many bases and units

this is also the reason i play deity only. In the first place does deity go well with my perfectionism in that deity requires perfectionism. It is also part of my perfectionism that a victory needs to be on deity, a lower victory for me is not perfect.
And on deity, at least it takes a while before you overpower your opponents and the game will get boring.

[Brundlefly]

I'm trying to play only Deity now that winning on Emperor has becomes routine for me. I can't get used to being so far behind all of the time. Is there a point along the timeline in a Deity game where I should compare my power, culture, demographics to the other civs and determine if I have a chance to win the game?

It would be cool if there was a game feature which showed AI's estimation of it's chance to beat you. If the chance becomes too low, it would offer you a stalemate - just like chess software does.

[jackl]

Now that is definition of satisfaction, to come back from the brink of impending defeat to win.

Yeah...i remember one game a while back...i was playing as Egypt and i'd got to about republic tech...no horses and no iron and a dessert of a country when the Persians invaded and started pouring those damn evil IMORTALS at me. My outlying cities fell quickly but i managed to finally find a colony of horses ....got some WAR chariots going and started my GA with a win. Things turned around after about ten fifteen turns and i pushed the persians back...then moved on to take their iron deposit...build up a good sized army of swordsmen and crush them. It took ages and by the time i'd won i was bankrupt and about ten techs behind every one else and i dont think i ever finished the game. But seeing that last Persian city turn a nice bright yellow..yeah that was satisfying.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

sweet revenge

[G'Kar]

I try to always play on. Especially with the space win enabled there's always a glimmer of hope that if you can hold on to 1/10 of the planet (and a few resources/lux) you can win.

[Decebalus]

Oh I definately play till the end. The best games I've ever had is when I lose, or come close to loosing and rebound. I get such a rush! Knowing that the enemy is pouring in and you're loosing and need to do everything in your power to stop them. That's when my concentration and strategy becomes the best.

I have a recent game where I expanded too fast. Was on a huge map and took out 2 other civs completely. I had a huge bloated empire with my forces streached so thin that I had Cav as defensive units in most of the newly conquered. Some bad decision and breaking some alliances plunged me almost imediately into a war with 3 other civs. The initial shock I got when I noticed city after city after city of mine being overun was incredible. And once I pulled back far enough and managed to stop their advance I then played for 3 hours straight without even realizing the time passion just fending them off. I eventually lost, but it was one hell of a game, and in the heat of everything I envented and experimented with so many different tactics and units that the lessons I learnt there have helped me become a MUCH better player.

Don't get me wrong, I love winning, but it gets stale. Once your on top, everything just becomes routine. Then I usually get a kick out of planning a gigantic offensive in the modern age against a large opponent.

[cptben]

I normally keep playing, but I also experiment. Like the game I am playing now. Huge map, warlord. Is the first game, I was able to build nuclear weapon. My game usually end earlier (diplomacy or culture).

So I just built the Nuke. Saved the game and bombed the Romans, then 4 nations started war against me. So I realized that I am not ready for this king of war

But next time I'll play, If i want to nuke, I'll know the consequence and be ready with nuke and more units defense in my cities

You learn by testing and by losing

[Rasputin]

i always play till the end , regardless of the current position i am in, i find that eventually you will catch the AI in tech race and then watch out !!!!!

i have been to nukes a number of times and found by experimenting that the first one to launch gets attacked by all others.

In current game i am in we are in nuke age with the surviving 3 civs, (myself, the Koreans and the Japanese) out of 10 starters , all with nuke capability. I am at war with the koreans after he refused my ROP agreement to allow me to kick japanese butt. Fortuantly i grabbed a MPP with japanese first and now we have two civs agaisnt 1. Koreans have largest empire in city numbers, i have largest in land area, Japanese and I are similar in number of units and type, over 250 MA each.

I am building ICBM aS fast as i can and so apparently my spys tell me is the koreans and the japanese. No one has l.aunched one yet so wondering if the AI ever launchjes first.