10 years into the gane ..I can't win !!!!

Short answer - yes in my earlier GalCiv days. Now, no - rarely longer than five years.

Longer answer - Personal View - nothing is absolute
Ignoring the artificial tactics of prolonging games for metaverse points, an easy thing to do, I believe it can be the result of GalCiv being a "Balanced" game. It will tick along and react to what you are doing - sit still and build up irresistable huge force levels, and by the time your ready to rumble, the bad guy is sitting there drumming his fingers on his Armagedeon Fleets muttering 'bring it on'.

Flippancy aside, I felt I was hitting a similar kind of stalemate once, and decided to change totally the way I played, not being totally concerned about overwhelming victory yaddie yadda, or worrying too much about how they could easily zap me. Ouch, did I hit some big Crash & Burns, but I learnt a lot. Eventually it settled, and I realised that I needed to be be 'bolder' and strike early. To do that, I needed to think more deeply about what I had, and more important what the other guy really had - the AI is very good at throwing up a smoke screen, a venier of strength and activity, when in fact there was squat behind it. Kind of like todays Politicians or wannabe well known celebrity number one, all brash and bluster, but no lasting substance.

I enjoy the game much more now, as it represents a better challenge - think my way out of trouble, not blow my way out of trouble five years later. If I havent taken out at least one - sometimes two Civs in the first 18 months, I am scratching my head wondering what I missed, what clues/indicators did I miss this time. An early strike by two fighters and ten transports will take out a civ in the early months (hit his planets, ignore his fleets) - by year two you'll need 20 times that. I forced myself to build fleets ahead of perceived need, knowing it would soon come. I get predatory, lurking on the edges of others wars with constructors prepositioned, patrolling, waiting for resource stations to be zapped, next turn the resources are mine etc.

As always with a Balanced game there is no "solution" or "best strategy", one is as good as another, which is best for you all hangs on play style. However, there is little doubt much of the longevity of a game will depend on how boldly you tackle it. Think about how you can win (and do it, dont wait, be bold, opportunities surface only for short periods), push out of the mind the many ways you can lose, would be a loose phrase I would use.

An opinion, not an absolute...

Regards
Zy

As far as how long the game goes, I've seen someone not long ago who had turned in a 55 year game. Can't remember who off-hand.

hello my game has been playing now for 37 years. I have had 22 wars and no Alliances one war has been going on for 8 years now. when the game is done i will post it so you can see what i have done. I don't know if i will win the 8 year war but we will see.

We are the borg. lower your shield and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. your culture will adapt to service ours. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

The first game I won was about a 46 year game. I went for an alliance victory. One of the races would simply not ally with me so my alliance had to wipe them out.

I will be there soon But im hoping to wipe them all out. unless the 8 year war go's bad for me.    

I don't think I've had a game beyond four real years...But then, I am dangerously ballistic by most peoples standards. I have found that even when the AI does have the resources to crush me, it's very slow in organizing them. This is especially true in the early phase of the game where it's very important to make the best use out of your ships. By the time the AI organizes, I've taken at least half it's planets and it's simply too late. Because of this, I often will tackle an over sized objective that I wouldn't attempt against a human. I've also become very good at organizing the next war, while the current one is still going...I think this is something that few do.

The longest game I ever had was about eleven years, at least. The reason was because the Acreans ended up digging in real good within their turf and went to war with me, and the Iconians suddenly attacked me due to the leader assasination event.

My games usually last around 8-10 years. Like almost everyone stated, I think the length definitely has a lot to do with your ability to preplan. As Zy mentioned, being bold with your expansion is a big key. While the attack early strategy is not one that I am very good at (I tend to be more of a diplo player, lol), I will agree that it is a very effective strategy. Not only do you knock a potentially deadly player down very early, but you also drastically imporve your empire in terms of size and planet quality.

yes yes yes i have won my 12 year war with the Acreans. only 6 more civ to go for i love this game.  

My longest game was 30 years got a tech victory.

Holy shyte ! The longest game before this has been at most 6 years because I usually just kill everyone ! I made alliences this time and the game I thought was really long but man a 46 year game and 55 year game ..ohh hell no ! I am going to break my alliences one by one and kill them all wish me luck ...lol

go for it pogonip and i wish you good luck. kill them all. What civ are on you game. I am now up to 62 years now. A long game is a good game for me.  

god I'd hate that - a 62 year game would drive me insane. But thats the beauty of GalCiv, as another remarked on another thread, its a testiment to the depth and quality of design that it can react to player's individual style preferences and needs, without falling pray to a "magic solution". The latter, fortunately doesnt exist, allowing players to try different play styles and still enjoy it.

Regards
Zy

A long game is a good game for me.

a game for me will last as long as it is challenging, once i break the back of the AI i get bored and start a new game. as a result i don't think i have ever completed a game? except those times i forgot to disable victory conditions and would suddenly loose unexpectidly mid game!!! lol

Like Purge I play an aggressive fast paced game. Once I start building troop transports for my first war, I never stop because once I have conquered an AI player I'm already mobilizing my forces for the next.
Shortest Gigantic, Everything Abundant, 9 Incredible AI, Military Conquest?

Interesting....in a current game I'm going on 17 years, been fighting with Drengin for close to 9 years as Terrans....haven't even got my decent ships built yet. I usually steal a bunch of planets with influence during the first half or so of the game before I start researching the weapons, etc very much. Maybe this is why all my games drag on so long. But this is why I think this is a great game, the variables are incredible and a completely different game everytime.

What difficulty and research rate does it take to have a game take that long? OK i can see a 10 or even 15 year game with many plantes to invade on the larger sized maps.

Military victories on gigantic maps with several hundred planets don't take more turns than a medium but each turn (sometimes over an hour if you need to do a lot of micromanagement on hundreds of planets!) takes much longer to play! The more planets/population you have the more troops transports you can build and fill quickly. So you can blitz an AI player with several dozen planets in a half dozen turns or less! Setting the research rate to very quick does reduce the number of turns.

The game I'm currently on has lasted over 50 years now. I have been playing it for 3 weeks (real time) I am the United Federation of Planets and I have already defeated the Klingons, Scro (based on the D&D Spelljamer race) and Romulans. I'm allied with the Borg (go figure , the Korth (sp?) and Ichtorins (sp?.) Now all that stand in my way is the High Elven Command (also based on D&D Spelljammer) and the Krynn guys(sp?)
Oh and I'm about to wipe out the damn Dread lords once and for all (they have really ben a pain in my back region since the 3rd turn. Oh and my Government is the Star Federation. It has really been a fun game.

Wait a minute are you guys talking about real time or game time?

I've been playing since Dec. 2005 (I was part of the beta), mostly on gigantic maps. Other than when I was first learning the game, my longest war was in my last DA 1.6 suicide medium map game. The Thalan Empire with only 7 planets declared war on me on 2229-01-08. That same turn I took 2 planets and 1 more on each of the next 2 turns. However, their last 3 planets had Orbital Fleet Managers, so I needed to defeat fleets with much higher firepower and HP, plus moderate defenses, thanks to the AIs suicide/ultimate bonuses. Thus I needed fleets with much more firepower, that meant larger hulls (small -> large), plus more miniturization and logistics. I took the last 3 on 2229-03-08, 2229-04-01, and 2229-04-08 for a total of 3 months.

Setting the research rate to very quick does reduce the number of turns. These people that play games over 10 years most have research set to very slow and must not be very aggressive. I suspect they also are not playing on suicide because I don't think an ultimate AI would let them sit on their hats. At this level you need to strike hard and fast; always looking to your next victim.

My longest game real-time was 5 months! I don't get much playing time and this was an epic suicide gigantic map game. Each time I came back to the game after a week or more larpse, it would take me a 1/2 hour to study the map and my vast empire to decide were I left off.

I'm playing on a HUGE map btw. Many games are much quicker, but this particular one is really going on and on....research rate is normal. Habitable planets uncommon, man require research to colonize.