What do y'all think? I think Advanced starts make the game move along faster and remove a bit of the tedium. But I can imagine all those micro-management/math freaks out there might not agree.

But I do wish the AI would use them a bit more wisely, but thats why I up the difficulty to monarch for adv start games.

I can't stand the Advanced Starts because I don't know what to spend my points on. The Ancient Era advanced starts kind of seemed weird to me, in a way: "It's an advanced start...from 4,000 BCE, where you would normally start anyway!"

If anyone could post some general guidelines, like how many cities you place for an advanced start, the number of workers/units, and stuff like that...I'd appreciate some guidance.

History goes by quickly enough with a normal start.

My biggest gripe with it is that the AI doesn't seem to spend its points very well. I can get a good 3 citeis or so all ocnnected and get key improvements down, get all the techs I want, reveal even more resources, get them connected to my cities and have enough for more fog busting, defensive untis and a few workers. The AI seems ot build 1 big mega city and has nothing to show for it.

I found the interface to be somewhat confusing. Like Antilogic, I didn't know what to spend my points on. One city? Two cities? Workers? I kind of stumbled around until I ran out of points, then started the game. In the end, I felt like I had cheated, and started over, anyways.

It's just too weird.

I've been messing with advanced starts for quite some time (get bored by all the early tedium) and have found a couple of things...

AI isn't very good at it
Decreases the overall difficulty by @ 2 levels

If you want an interesting game, increase the money by quite a lot (for example I accidentally upped the money from 2,160 to 112,160-ment to only increase it to 12,160). The AI did very well spending that much cash...first tech I we were all fighting for was Liberalism. Started fighting wars with maces/knights. It was a Terra map so we were all bunched at the start, but everyone had Astronomy within 100 turns so there was a massive land grab overseas as well. I disabled space ships, but left all others. Everyone started with @ 5-6 cities all well improved. Was fun (kind of like a Medevel start but with all those old Wonders still being able to be built).

I usually turn down the advance start points pretty low (300 tops), but I think its a great way to get the game going faster. Those early turns can be really tedious, with a lot of simply clicking through to end them faster.

I find the beginning is the best, to look after the unknown terrain and the deciding the best techs to research. In 1000 AD i often finish, because there is often clear, if i win or loose. in the first i must build troops and troops. That is boring.

I always use advanced starts. It allows specialization right away.

I found the interface to be somewhat confusing. Like Antilogic, I didn't know what to spend my points on. One city? Two cities? Workers? I kind of stumbled around until I ran out of points, then started the game. In the end, I felt like I had cheated, and started over, anyways.

It's just too weird.

That's the main issue I run into. What should I do with the points? I figured that it would be a good idea to start with a couple cities, lay down one or two improvements on resources, and start with at least one worker to get going on the other terrain. But beyond that, I'm clueless as to how to spend those points.

I might take Tridus' suggestion above and tone down the initial points. Then, I might start liking this. However, I usually quit any Advanced Start game I begin within 10 turns because I don't care for it.

I'll typically start with 2-3 cities.

In each city goes a worker and a scout.

I research all basic techs (Mysticism, hunting, fishing, agriculture, mining) and if I have points left over either go for Animal Husbandry (if cows in fat cross), Archery (if archer type of unit is a unique unit), or Masonry (if stone/marble in fat cross).

Advanced starts are boring. I've tried them and I always quit. It feels like cheating because I know the AI is not very smart with it.

It removes some of the most important decisions of the game, which makes the game much more boring.

I'm the opposite; I find it rather boring to sit around and keep hitting end turn while I wait for my worker/workboat/warrior to be built (especially on Marathon). Starting with 2-3 cities means I'm immediately more immersed in the game.

I tried it once just to see what it was like. I can see both sides of the coin. For me, the tedious early turns where I click the end button go by so fast anyway that I really don't see the need for the advanced start. I admit that I have not experimented enough with it to say whether it is a good or bad feature.

Advanced starts are interesting. Sometimes I use them, sometimes I don't. I find it interesting that you are allowed to put so many points in that you just break the game (Woo! 6 cities maxed out culture, railroads and improvements on every tile, 2 Mech Inf in every city, working on Apollo program and future tech and cultural victory in 10 turns!).