Well, everyone, I've had to come to a fairly painful decision about continuing to play Dominions. It's flat out the second-best game I've ever played, with #1 being Demon's Souls. I love playing it; in fact, I'd say I'm addicted to it... and therein lies the problem.
When I started playing the game, I had a lot of free time. My job is somewhat seasonal... I'm employed full-time, year-round, but the company I work with runs two music venues; from fall to spring, we run a 2,000 seat hall, but in the summer, we run an 18,000 seat outdoor venue. Basically, since I started playing in late summer/early fall, I usually had at least a couple of hours of downtime each day at work to play the game (my boss is cool like that). But for the last two weeks, I've rarely had more than ten or fifteen minutes, and as summer kicks in full-swing, that will go down to zero.
If I weren't a single parent, that probably wouldn't be an issue, but I only have about half an hour of free-time during the week, and sometimes none at all. It's at the point where I've been waking up an hour earlier than normal to try to squeeze in turns, and even then, it's tight. I'm also writing a novel right now, and I realized that, because of Dominions taking up all my free-time, I've only written one page in the last two weeks.
The final straw for me was looking at this turn, and knowing that I still had at least half an hour to an hour's worth of play before I finished it, but had no time before the deadline to do it. For a brief minute, I thought to myself, "You know, maybe I don't really need to go to my daughter's orientation meeting about her upcoming first year in junior high." I realized I was getting ready to put the game before family, and that's when I decided that this game is so time-consuming that it's interfering with my life.
So I'm going to have to bow out of Dominions for the time being. I'll miss it... horribly so. I honestly thought this was a game I'd play for years, but real life isn't allowing it. Maybe I'll be able to come back at the end of the summer.
My position in this game is totally hopeless... I have about 100 gold income per turn, no pretender, and only a handful of troops in my castle. I think it is best to go AI, but if you guys want me to find a sub, let me know.
I'll miss you guys