My worst start ever

I just rolled up what must be the crappiest start I've ever had in Civ4. While I typically like to start isolated, alone on my own island, this one's a bit too much:





Already researched Animal Husbandry...no horses anywhere.

I'm actually thinking of playing this one out, to see if it's winnable!

looks like theres another island 2 tile north of the fish in your 2nd screenshot. If ur gonna play it out then i'd suggest sending a galley there to scout. But seriously this is the worst start ever.

One of the best starting spots for a capital (if all 3 sea foods can be worked) but for the island it sucks to be you

Ice ice baby...

Restart. Seriously. If you don't get off that island you're going to meet other AIs and they'll be so advanced it won't even be funny. What level is it, btw?

hum, what do you need barracks for?
put your settler on a galley and move north!

You can keep you city on this island if you love ice cubes, but you're not going to build an empire there are you?

What a great coastal city with all that food! Enough said.

You need to get off this island asap and go north to join the rest of civilization.

Just wondering what settings this start was on?

wow, i diden't belive this kind of starts where posible. you got chopper nere though

gally is the way to go, leave the capitol for the barbs when your new city is founded

How about this: (I started at the big dot)

Yeah, I had food resources at the four smaller red dots, but Louis had already blocked the peninsula off. Good luck trying to win on Emperor with that start.

Your's is worse though. The only thing I can think of is settle by the copper, oracle slingshot MC. Then build Collosus and build fishing villiages at all of the seafood resources on your island.

Could you post the save, might be an interesting "exercise."

wellllllll... remember that internet beeline game you did? you might need it here *giggle*.

eeeek, wow, i would just restart... i think it's too bad you can't do anything with mountains and ice... lakes can provide some food and fresh water, but even then, there's no resource to grab... what about crawfish?? haha, ok, so i live in the south... fish should be available in lakes right?? what about shrimp on the oceans?

can there not be forests in mountains? iron? ok, maybe nothing you can claim as a resource, but at least a forest?

what could there be on ice? there's a small chance to reveal a resource if you build i mine on a hill... what about a small chance for an ice-fishing post to become available? i know it may sound cruel, but seal? not the baby ones... just the type of resources say, the inuit might utilize...

hmm, still no way to build a thriving metropolis i suppose...

I had a similiar start once and I played it out. I was on a mostly iced over island that had three good spots for cities. There was a better island that I was able to get two more cities on with a gallery and another smaller island that I put my sixth city on. I went through the entire game without anyone declaring war on me.

For practicing on tough stuff, this is excellent. Personally I wouldn't do it; Civ4 is a game and I play games to have fun, not to rip my hair out in frustration. If I see tundra or anything indicative that I'm too close to the ice, I regenerate. Good luck pulling this off. If you play through, follow up and let us know you kicked butt!

I'd love to learn the tactics that would apply in this situation. It must be possible to win from here (eventually), given how easily you guys manage to win in favourable circumstances.

This actually looks like a decent-ish start for a One City Challenge. Lots of food = lots of specialists and happiness is not a worry once you get the Globe Theater.

Of course, if it's not a One City Challenge, then you are pretty much hosed.

KMadCandy said:

wellllllll... remember that internet beeline game you did? you might need it here *giggle*.

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The Al Gore challenge started on some bad land, it's true, but nothing compared to this one. In that game, I actually had tundra!

Galileo44 said:

How about this: (I started at the big dot)
Yeah, I had food resources at the four smaller red dots, but Louis had already blocked the peninsula off.

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You move the initial settler that far?? Impressive.

I've attached the current save, but I do plan to play a few rounds tonight, so no spoilers please for a little while.

The game is Prince level, with the vanilla version of Washington (Fin/Org) so it shouldn't be that hard to survive, at least...

No wonder you are doing so badly, look at your leader name!

Galileo44 said:

No wonder you are doing so badly, look at your leader name!

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Hahaha...naah, the real "G.W." deserves to wind up someplace warmer...MUCH warmer...

Ok, here's what's happened so far:

First, I chopped The Oracle and took Code Of Laws as the free tech. I was tempted to take Metal Casting instead, but decided that the Colossus could wait, whereas a second religion could not. Besides, I had grander designs in mind, as you'll see...

Meanwhile, I took cabert's advice and build a galley to investigate that desert island to the northeast. The results were slightly disappointing:



After the Oracle, I whipped a temple and ran a priest specialist to hurry up my first Great Prophet. By researching Meditation, but avoiding Masonry & Monotheism, I was able to get a headstart on Civil Service:



I had also researched Iron Working by this point. But the iron resource placement was downright unfair:



Not one of them near a food source!! Still, by 160BC I was able to revolt to Bureaucracy. Strangely, it didn't seem to increase my research by that much. I figured it was time to finally start settling this big hunk of rock...and, as always seems to be the case, it turns out that NO land is too crappy for the barbarians:





I decided to keep Mauryan -- why not? Any city I placed down there was going to suck. At least it gave me a head start on hooking up the furs. As it turned out, happiness wasn't a big issue after hooking up all the resources -- I detoured towards Monarchy for Hereditary Rule, but turns out I really didn't need it. HEALTH, on the other hand, is becoming a major problem. Harbors help, but granaries & grocers are useless!!!!

This map also really played havoc with my Wonder Addiction™. With no stone or marble and no real production city to take over for Washington, I had to sit by helplessly as Stonehenge, the Great Lighthouse, the Pyramids, the Parthenon, and the Great Library were all BIADL. Aside from the Oracle, I only managed to complete two Wonders:



They were the ones I needed, though. Colossus was a MASSIVE shot in the arm to my economy, nearly doubling my beaker rate!!! And THG helped grow some of those crappy resource cities (although, in most cases, the extra pop got whipped away for Obelisks & Lighthouses!)

So here's what my empire looks like as of 1166AD:



Still no contact from the AI's yet. I'm confident that I'm first to get caravels out in the ocean -- usually happens around 1100AD, so I'm not that far behind the curve. I still haven't researched Alphabet (!), Feudalism, Construction, Philosophy, Paper, Theology, or Horseback Riding; I'll probably pick up Alpha & Paper next, to trade techs & buy maps from the AI when I meet them. Another consideration is heading to Banking for Mercantilism. Or possibly taking a stab at founding Islam, though that's a real longshot at this point. (All the religions went quickly in this game -- must be a lot of spiritual nuts out there!)

Luckily, barbarians haven't been a serious issue, thanks to some aggressive fogbusting:



...although that barbarian horse archer did take me by surprise!



(Where on earth did they get the horses from??)

I also finally got wise and clicked the "Emphasize Research" & "Emphasize Great People" buttons in Washington, to keep it from outgrowing its health/happiness limit and generate some quick GP's in the process:



Yep, I'm running a specialist economy with a financial leader...how is that??

Wow, you've done pretty good so far! Can't wait to see where the other civs are in terms of research though. By the way, you don't really need Alphabet since all the other civs should have it by now. Good luck!

carl corey said:

Wow, you've done pretty good so far!

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Behold the power of Fin/Org, my friend. There's a reason they took out that combo in Warlords...

Can't wait to see where the other civs are in terms of research though. By the way, you don't really need Alphabet since all the other civs should have it by now. Good luck!

Click to expand...

True, but researching Alpha will open up Lit/Drama for trade, which the AI's almost certainly have by now. I'll bet they have Const/Feud too, and possibly Guilds. And at least one civ knows Philosophy. I might have a monopoly on Civil Service & Optics, or close to it -- only time will tell.

The real catch-22 is that I need Astronomy to expand/trade/invade. But Astro will obsolete my precious Colossus, which is the only thing keeping my economy humming along right now. (Believe it or not, popping Astronomy from a late tribal hut would be a BAD THING!!)