Does Anyone Else Suffer From Early-Mid-Game Lull Syndrome?

[Jon Shafer]

Seems to me that once I get to the late ancient and early middle age eras, the game slows down so much for me I get bored and restart. Once the early-game expansion is over, you descend into the part of the game where there's very little to do beyond building temples and filling up your cities with 2 Spearmen each. Once I get beyond that to really getting your cities going with Knights and beyond, the game speeds up and I get a lot more interested in it again.

[Alex]

I know what you mean. I don't feel bored, though, because that is the moment when I assess my situation in the world till then and I proceed to my deeper strategic planning. So, there is always something to think about, and the dull moments rarely dominate the scene.

[werdhertz]

What the? lol

Actually, i fidn the Ancient era and Middle ages the best out of the entire game. There seems to be always something going on, and your usually discovering new Civs and theres a form of diplomacy unlike the later ages where it seems to develop into one big constant war with every civ annoyed at you.

[Jon Shafer]

There's a point between when you're done with REX and when you get into a 'stable' position with a mighty infrastructure that I just find to be... blah. Usually to spice this time up I fight a few wars to build myself a little empire, and take some good land, resources and luxuries.

[alva]

I actually don't like the start of the game (to daunting )

That's why I like to take over games that are posted, and see what happens.

You do have a point though. (I guess that's an AI for you )

[Inverse Icarus]

i have my favorite wars then.

the horsemen/swordsmen and then the pikemen/knights wars determine who gets what in terms of land.

and imagine in MULTIPLAYER, when everyone isnt hard pressed to REX (assuming all humans). you may see many small, well developed civs early on as opposed to the sprawling size 3 empires you see for most of the early game now.

for me, the game really slows down after the beginning of the infantry / calvary wars. it's about then where it's "build build build, move move move, attack attack attack, starve starve starve, repeat".

i love the modern age weapons, and i LOVE nuclear wars, but i get SO bored then.

[Inverse Icarus]

just look at the civ3 demogame (you do remember that, dontcha trip? )

we carved out a HUGE chunk of Abananaba for ourselves with our archers / swordsmen / knights.

(and those DIA would have us build temples and libararies)

[Jethro83]

There's no early to mid game lull for me, or my style of play.

I go straight from warring with swordsmen and horsemen to warring with knights and pikemen without rest. I figure that when I hold the largest empire, then I can start building. At the point when I do start building, is when it actually slows down. Perhaps to the extent that not even the introduction of tanks and Mech. Infantry can help it recover (except as Germany where I'm actively trying to get that far for the Panzers).

[CiverDan]

If your getting bored, your are probably playing at too easy of a level. If you don't like too much expansion, try playing smaller maps.

[Kingof the Apes]

I used to get bored during mid-middle age, where I am usually trying as hard as I can to get wonders.

And then early Industrial can be annoying too.

[Bambul]

I usually liven up my game by adding artificial spice to it. I like to imagine national borders that remain after wars. So I rename cities with (Civ Name) after the city name after I capture them (I think I saw someone else do this in one of their screenshots). So then in the lategame it becomes like my Civ is full of "states (Russia, Greece, China, Rome, etc). It does dmake it awkward with some cities though, like Rome (Rome) or Babylon (Babylon).

I find the most exciting part of the game as the build up to railroads. At that point you really need good logistics, particularely if you have a far flung empire. If another Civ declares war you really need to get your units where you need them ASAP, and whereas after RR all you need to to hold out for one turn, in the middle ages it can up to 3-4 turns with nothing more than a couple of pikemen and a longbowman/knight defending a key city while your army comes to the defence. I particularely enjoy the defensive build-up in preparation for surprise attacks, which is the part of the game I enjoy most (except when you can clearly see it coming, ie. they move 10 units through your territory towards your capital - THEN declare war).

[Pyrodrew]

for me, the game really slows down after the beginning of the infantry / calvary wars.

I agree with the calvary part, once calvary come into play you can form rapid volcanic tidal waves of armies. All enemy cities are much easier prey to put surprise attacks on.

[miccofl]

Try reducing the minimum number of turns required to research techs, that might speed things along for you without being as drastic as accelerated production.

[werdhertz]

the game is 10x more enjoyable, in my opinion, if you role play it a little instead of playing it as a purely statistical combat model.

[Akka]

Originally posted by werdhertz
the game is 10x more enjoyable, in my opinion, if you role play it a little instead of playing it as a purely statistical combat model.

Amen, amen, amen, and ten times more "amen".

[Pyrodrew]

the game is 10x more enjoyable, in my opinion, if you role play it a little instead of playing it as a purely statistical combat model.

It's best when you can have both....

[Theseus]

Different games have different rhythms... there are periods of high intensity, and for various reasons there can be lulls.

I roleplay some, but I more use the lulls to think about and prep for overall game strategy. For instance, with certain exceptions, there often comes a point where continued attacks with Cavs against Infantry becomes too painful. The race then becomes to get Factories built in all of my key cities, ready to vomit forth Tanks as soon as I have Mot Trans. Not much going on, but a form of excitement nonetheless.

[punkbass2000]

I always find the game to get boring around the industrial age. I'm not sure why.

[zorbop]

it seems to get boring around mid industrial age... the game starts to turn into just watching a dozens of tanks and bombers break through infantry stacks.... over and over again....
to make the game more interesting and tactical i like to try to wage wars without using certain units... like tanks. it is much mre challenging to win a war with marines, artillery, paras and transports... it becomes more about strategy that:
select tank-click city-select next tank- click city.... over and over again....

[HazieDaVampire]

Originally posted by werdhertz
What the? lol

Actually, i fidn the Ancient era and Middle ages the best out of the entire game. There seems to be always something going on, and your usually discovering new Civs and theres a form of diplomacy unlike the later ages where it seems to develop into one big constant war with every civ annoyed at you.

for some reason, all of my maps have all the land masses joined with some sea, so one civ always manages to discover the other groups of civs and trades the contacts till it and everybody else knows everybody else!

hehe, i actualy ended up buying one, then selling it to every other civ till i have loads of money and all the contacts.

[ruby_maser]

the lull is what always has killed it for me. I just recently started playing emperor all the time to make it more challenging. I don't get so board or mired down in micromanagement issues if I feel I am not on parity with my neighbors... in that situation there is always a war to fight.

Once I start to feel I am out in front or the game is basically won is when I usually end up restarting. I think PTW is gonna prove much more effective at making me keep my guard up and, thus, keeping me interested

[Gunter]

In this time you take decisions that will lead you to a winning game or a lossing one.

You have to manage your expansion,and to do this you,soon or late , will have to fight in order to put on the right place your enemies and to conquer them also.

You also will deploy diplomatic bases.

Gunter

[gsmoove23]

Ancient and Medieval are the best parts of the game. I love the exploration and finding new civs. Usually I make a b-line for the Lighthouse, contact everyone and hold out on selling contacts til the last possible moment, at which point I make a killing on selling contacts and my world map.

It definately slows down in industrial so I like to manufacture a crisis. I'm a builder, so I spend all my time improving my cities and completely neglecting my armies. I can usually stay out of wars in the early game by giving civs what they want but later on there is almost always a sneak attack and I'll spend 10 to 20 turns desperately trying to defend while I quickly build my army.

Last game I was in, the G*D D**N F*****G Aztecs attacked me after 5000 years of peace and friendship took 3 cities in 2 turns with a horde of... of... Jaguar Warriors. I'm so embarrassed. The next few turns were spent clinging on to a major city, with 8 turns to go on the Hoover Dam, from an army of knights with one pikemen.

Spent the next 100 years wiping them off the face of the planet and of course they had MPPs with 3 other civs on another continent who picked away at my improvements with their naval bombardments for about 50 years before I could create a substantial navy to protect my coasts. All in all good fun.

Afterwards it slowed down into the modern age and I restarted.

[Arrian]

The only lull I really experience is the post-infantry, pre-tanks era. By then I've typically done most of my damage, acquiring a large empire and colonial possessions (luxury depots).

The ancient age is a blast, as is the medieval period (lots of wonders... knights... cavalry... sea and ocean-going ships). The early industrial age is fun, because of the explosion in production (rr/factories/hospitals/police stations) and the 2 extremely key wonders (ToE, Hoover). The Modern Age... I rarely spend much time in the modern age.

-Arrian