Riverstarts.

[KillingMeSoftly]

I'm playing an Immortal game right now as Ottomans. My four cities don't have rivers at all and surrounded by Plains, not Grasslands. The issue here is Science due to my cities growing slow (even with Granaries, Tradition policies, some Fish/Whales).

River starts really do make a difference. If some rivers ran through my territory it would be a huge boost to not only my Gold output but my Food as well. Making my cities larger, stronger, and me not being 6th place in Literacy. Fertilizer comes so late compared to Civil Services.

It's fun anyway, just trying to survive. I'm right next to Byzantium (haha) and they are very strong, but thankfully also my friends.

[Callonia]

i have no river start in one of my games and I survive just fine. in fact, i got the biggest army in that game, with 2nd biggest is behind me by just 2 points. sure, my capital have four truffles, but still xD well, maybe 4 truffles is stronger than a river start.. cuz that's like 12 gold a turn from four truffles >_> but far more susceptible to pillaging early in the game. meaning, even if one of the truffles got pillaged, i take a decent hit to my gpt compared to a single riverside hex.

[thadian]

every person has the right to play how they want to - and i am on the camp of coastal rivers.

Coast
River
Mountain NEXT to city spot

-

Sometimes i will accept less IF there is a city similar to this as a city 2 spot but rivers are non-negotiable.

Simply put, i play to play and winning means nothing when playing chess against a pigeon. No amount of handicaps will make me feel more achieved in beating the pigeon, so instead of asking if my start "looks like a winner" i ask if it looks like a fun game to play for a while.

In the later ages, i get bored and unable to focus because the pigeon just gets more power and eventually i have to bother myself to prevent the pigeon from winning.


Now, i hate playing against humans because i do not like grunt rush and the only difference between playing AI and human is humans have brains - unfortunately, it doesn't matter if you have a competent opponent when your game is spent warding off grunt rush. So, in order to have a fun game, something else is needed.

Im not sure what that is, but playing against humans and playing against AI seems too similar in what i "have to do". I wish there were an advanced start button for "Fun Game" but i digress.

Instead i just re-start 5-6 games in a row and save the startmaps i like for later use. Then when i want to play, i load up those maps and try different things.

[gozpel]

I agree thadian, sometimes you roll playable maps without much income and they can be fun to play...later.

But as I said in the first post, coming home and wanting a nice quiet game, I'm NOT interested in a grinding game. A river is a river and the longer it is the more I get, in time.

And a start without a river and 2 silvers and 1 incense wont you get very far in trading. Oh, I forgot about the 2 horses, that makes a huge difference. While Arabia has 4 cotton and 1 wine and double rivers flowing through his cap.

Not unfair at all...

[Kwami]

Three luxury resources (2 of one kind, 1 of another) is standard. If you get more than that, then you got lucky. You'll probably have fewer bonus or strategic resources, though.

The only maps that I don't play are the ones that don't give me the standard 3 luxury resources for my capital. I don't mind a poor start (e.g. no river), but the early game is painfully boring to play without luxury resources.

[Glassmage]

Play with Standard resources can be sleepy because the map is so barren most of the time so that is pretty boring. Abundant is good!

People who play on Sparse are masochists.

Some people even take joy in playing Sparse resource on Ice Age map at marathon speed. Crazy people!