New game: Stuck on an Island?

Hey everyone, I started a new game but on my very first few moves, discovered I was on an Island. Can't move warrior or scout off the tiny island because I don't have embark yet. Is this an AI error? Should I just start a new game, or am I missing something??

Thanks

Perhaps you should research the tech that allow you to disembark (Optics I think it is called).

Edit: Also, as soon as you have researched that tech, all new units will automatically have the ability to disembark/embark. "Old" units learn the ability if they are in any home territory.

your not missing anything thats just how the map was generated you just didnt spawn next to AI and you have to wait till astronomy or sailing to find other civs on other islands

if your on coast then research sailing and build a trireme

it happens quite often when you dont spawn next to anyone

It's no big deal, the postives out way the negatives by far. Both Large Islands & Tiny Islands are this way by design (standard map size).
Archipelago more often than not gives you 1 other AI on your landmass, but not uncommon to be by yourself either)

#1 No AI near you means you don't need many military units early, just enough to defeat barbs that pop up.

#2 With the increased distance, few if any AIs will acquire land envy over you, so you have more peaceful relations when you do discover them.

Basically what you do is build some Triremes and use them as scouts. Optics may be higher priority as well if you see some territory in a nearby island that you also want to colonize. In addition, if you find that your blocked off by ocean, you'll want to make Astronomy a much higher priority than normal to allow upgrading those Triemes to Caravels. This level of isolation though almost never happens on Tiny Islands and is uncommon on Large Islands. It is however frequent on Archipelago & Small Continents.

A couple of things I forgot, that may have caused this. I bumped up my difficulty from settler to warlord, I chose Europe as my map because I'm playing as France. I thought the Europe map would be fun......

So right off Paris is settled on the coast and the island is maybe 4 tiles long and 3 tiles wide. So my warrior could only move back and forth and I made a worker and same for him because I didn't have the tech to work any tiles. So I should just wait? Until I go up the tech tree for boat stuff, or do I just keep taking turns while I build buildings? hmm

Thanks everyone for your help.

Focus on early Embarkation via bee-lining Optics. Build a Trireme or two to Scout if you see enough Coastal Water. Then proceed as quickly as possible to Compass to build Galleas which are useful for Naval Coastal Warfare (defensive or offensive). Your next Technology to bee-line for (if you have Iron mind you) is Navigation where you can upgrade your Galleas to Frigates and build a couple of Privateers. An early Navy consisting of 4 Frigates (Promote:Targeting and +1 Range!) and 2 Privateers (Promote:Coastal Raider!) could easily rule the seas on Warlord.

DarkestOnion said:

Focus on early Embarkation via bee-lining Optics. Build a Trireme or two to Scout if you see enough Coastal Water. Then proceed as quickly as possible to Compass to build Galleas which are useful for Naval Coastal Warfare (defensive or offensive). Your next Technology to bee-line for (if you have Iron mind you) is Navigation where you can upgrade your Galleas to Frigates and build a couple of Privateers. An early Navy consisting of 4 Frigates (Promote:Targeting and +1 Range!) and 2 Privateers (Promote:Coastal Raider!) could easily rule the seas on Warlord.

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Thanks for your post! And that last sentence was epic!

Just one quirk to remember: units built before Optics can still get the Embarkation promotion simply by moving them back into your territory, if they are currently outside it.

Or any friendly territory -- CS friends or allies and any civ with open borders (although open borders is not likely if you research optics early, since no one will have civil service yet). Basically, stepping into any territory where your units can get the "friendly territory" healing bonus will apply the embarkation promotion.

You can choose maps that are island only, but continents is also somewhat random, and sometimes you'll get a situation where you're on an island by yourself or only one other Civ. It usually has to do with sea level. You'll find on continents that you're on what actually should be one huge landmass with four Civilizations, but the sea level is so high that shallow water separates you. So you'll still be able to access them after you gain embark.

FYI, I almost consider starting on an island intentionally as a cheat, because it insulates you, and you can focus on building your city and not worry about defense for most of the game (especially considering how awful the AI is at naval attacks).

Trackmaster said:

how awful the AI is at naval attacks

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Tell that to the zulus that unloaded 5 longswordsmen on my island in one single turn.

Spikespiegel said:

Tell that to the zulus that unloaded 5 longswordsmen on my island in one single turn.

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AI Longswords are dead meat to the combo of city bombardment & crossbows.

I'd note also that France isn't the most navally oriented of nations, in Civ 5 or historically. Try England out for a warmonger naval game, and marvel at the Ship of the Line blasting chunks out of enemy cities. Then for a totally different feel, try Denmark and play at viking raiding. Ignore the info here saying Denmark is the worst civ, as civ tiering isn't really important at anything less than Emperor difficulty: everyone is worth a try. Then switch to Venice for a totally different game again, and build a merchant empire that sends masses of food cargo ships back to Venice, and marvel at the medieval megalopolis that results.

The key promotion for your frigates/ships of the line is +1 Range. To get there, build Galleass early, hunt barbarians and if you want, find a city state that you're happy to XP farm. Personally I hold off the full naval war till I'm at frigates.
Frigates with +1 range are amazing, as you can hang out of city attack range, and bombard them to nothing, then take the city with a naval melee unit of the lowest quality.

Number one problem with Frigates: they need Iron. Make sure you reveal iron on the map early, and build a city near iron. (on is faster for instant iron, but near is better, as you only need the iron when you hit frigates, and mined iron has a high hammers output). It sometimes happens that you can't found a city near iron. In this case, don't be afraid to invest in a big bribe to get a city state with iron as your ally. Its that important. Vitally, don't waste iron on anything but frigates.

So basically, get your naval techs, found some colonies to get iron should you need to do so, use cargoships to transport food bonuses about, get three or four galleasses, get them XPed up, then upgrade them to Frigates.

Then, essentially, take them to war. Three to four frigates plus a single melee ship will drop a city in 1 to 3 turns, depending on how quickly you set up. Before the naval tech has moved to the next level, you should have won a domination victory.

Prozac1964 said:

A couple of things I forgot, that may have caused this. I bumped up my difficulty from settler to warlord, I chose Europe as my map because I'm playing as France. I thought the Europe map would be fun......

So right off Paris is settled on the coast and the island is maybe 4 tiles long and 3 tiles wide. So my warrior could only move back and forth and I made a worker and same for him because I didn't have the tech to work any tiles. So I should just wait? Until I go up the tech tree for boat stuff, or do I just keep taking turns while I build buildings? hmm

Thanks everyone for your help.

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Not sure what size of map you selected but you are on the British Isles so thats why you only have a few hexes of land

Learning something from everyone, thx. Yep once I got to the boat techs like Optics, and I think it was Compass, everything started flying in the right direction. Now I'm enjoy the start I had....never stop learning in this game.

Build a navy. Build a navy. Build a...

You will absolutely dominate.

Keep researching, also.. primitive navies aren't always all that succesful since they usually lack ranged attack and a good walled defending city can often soften up attacking triremes.. Frigates with iron are better than galleasses.

reddishrecue said:

Frigates with iron are better than galleasses.

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True, but the quickest way to build the Frigates to pre build all the ones you want as Galleasses before completing Navigation, finishing Navigation right after and then cash upgrade them all.

Cities will later reach the point in which you really don't want anything ending the turn within 2 tiles of it, so you'll later want to upgrade the Frigates to Battleships.

Some bad news for Information Era wars though, the Battleships don't upgrade to Missile Cruisers (Missile Cruisers have the same range as Battleships and both more strength & more ranged strength)