Whats your favorite Starting Area?

Mine would be Grassland or maybe Coastel if there are a few hammer resources.
Also Coastel is nice if you have a few Fish and a luxury.

Mountain, River, Coast Grassland hill. Gotten that once as Byzantium.

Mountain, River, Coast Grassland hill, where you somehow have an awesome lake on one side, the coast on the other. gives for another defensive spot(battleship), also if it has surrounding hills to hook you up with some early game defense and a tougher to capture capital, that is my ideal start.

I actually got that once, then went to look for a 2nd, and found an amazing desert/mountain/hill location that had a wonder, then found a 3rd spot that had yet another wonder to go with 7 wine tiles within city reach. both also had marble and stone. it was the most ridiculous "Standard" resource game I have ever seen.

that was a fast game. I should post the picture I have of the wine, it was hard to fit all the wine in one shot.

to me, coast wins. especially in BNW with cargo ships, I mean, I used to basically go mostly sea anyway, now I basically have only 1 non sea base most of the time.

A source of fresh water, coast, some hills...

...and 9 salt, of course.

Right now I'm just curious who voted for desert...

Anyways, I usually like to have a start in the plains or grasslands, with mountains shielding one side of me. Its great for defense.

JimBobV said:

Right now I'm just curious who voted for desert...

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A desert start on a flood plains river with some workable hills, maybe an oasis or two and a couple of luxes is actually pretty good.

Desert flood plains, no doubt, with a mountain and desert hills on the side. A little grassland on the side would help as well.

There's going to be a good amount of luxes on the plains, but most importantly, desert folklore. If you pick that pantheon up on flood plains, you've got yourself a strong religion already. You'll be doing 6 fpt really early, and reek the benefits of religion really early. Plus, if you pick up Petra, your desert hills on the river with a farm will go a ridiculous 3 food 3 production 1 faith.

Plus, as mentioned above, it's likely oasis' will pop around your start as well, and the 3 food 1 gold is really nice to start with.

@ Jimbob, a good floodplain desert start is widely considered one of the, if not the best start you can find.

Desert flood plains, with some wheat on them? Hellz yes! Just throw in a few hills, and a mountain either within two tiles or right next to the city, and BAM! Extra points for coastal.

inland tundra isolated start, with only 2 luxury and 1 CS. hardest king i've ever played.

Jungle start as Aztec, Iroquois, Brazil. Get 'sacred path' and go liberty.

JimBobV said:

Right now I'm just curious who voted for desert...

Anyways, I usually like to have a start in the plains or grasslands, with mountains shielding one side of me. Its great for defense.

Click to expand...

desert folklore is pretty OP when you have a double river flood plains start.

Mountain,river,coast....would be nice.

Why is there so little Desert & Plain love?

I once got a dessert hill, next to a mountain, next to a river, as Inca. Ends up as 4food/4hammer/1faith tile. GG

Desert, with Floodplains and Oases of course (also Salt.)

A Coastal Desert Hill with a river, at least 6 floodplain tiles around them. Have a mountain for ideal starting. No wheat on the flood plain tiles, I want my polders there. Get Desert Folklore and win.

River/Hill/Plains with wheat/deer and salt. It's strong for food and strongest for production, especially in the early game. It also doesn't require any luck to get as good as I want it to be, all you need for the start to be truly powerful is a Granary, anything else is just gravy.

My ignorance, why the specific focus on salt?

For me, it varies a lot, but whoever starts near salt has an increased chance of winning the game. If there ever is an incoming patch, I would not be surprised if salt is nerfed or tweeked (-1 food, maybe +1 gold). Next best luxury resource is citrus combined with bananas for a jungle start, giving you +3 food immediately. So I am stuck with my choice. Also the location is highly dependent on type of map and civ. If you are Venice, Netherlands or Indonesia, coastal starts are a must.

So I may as well do process of elimination: tundra is literally the worst starting spot, then plains, then jungle, then coast, then desert, then grassland. So by default, I guess I will vote grassland. The poll also fails to mention hills, rivers and mountains. Hills offer improved defences and production, rivers improve trade revenue and mountains unlock the mountain wonders and observatories, which are basically NC's.

EDIT: To David, welcome to CFC. Salt is mentioned a lot because it is an insanely OP luxury resource. Unworked, it gives 3 food on grasslands (2 food on plains), along with +1 production and +1 gold. When salt is improved, it offers 4 food, 2 production and 2 gold (with some variation depending on terrain).

Thanks great insight, didn't realize the salt impact.