Thanks for the suggestion.  I have tried this very thing and the game still hangs up on turn 865. I think the game may just get tired of my slow play! I found it odd that both long games that I have played have hung up on the exact same turn! hehe Going to try another game and see what happens.

wow. I've yet to get much past turn 500 or so. Out of curiosity--how many cities for you & how many for largest faction?

for me? Down to the last one. Started with all at hard difficulty. Just started war with Tarth. They have 28 & I have 67.

hmm..I had not considered to count until you mentioned it. I killed off 5 factions while Tarth killed off four + a minor faction. I am playing with a created faction--just having some fun waiting for 1.1.

I have 6 level 5 cities & 8 level 4 that will probably hit five before I wipe out Tarth. I have not actually looked because once you have that many cities it's not realistic to micro manage all. I focus on keeping gilder & food on the plus side. Food can be difficult because when you take over mismanaged cities they can drain your resources so I am balancing the capture/raze factor to stay in the black--plus i don't want stray pioneers establishing cities just to be a thorn in my side.

This game crashes about every 10-15 turns--depends. I am looking for the stay auto explore unit that may be causing this. Honestly, I am just trying to finish this off before 1.1 comes out