BEST starting location

[puglover]

Now's your chance to brag about your really cool starting location.

I played a game on a random map a long time ago. I explored a little more to find 11 incense squares total.

[Bacon King]

Theoretically, the best starting location would be nothing but Flood Pains w/ cattle, and all luxes and strategic recourses just outside the city, for the 2nd city to get, and not to mention that the city itself would be on a hill.

I belive it would be a miracle if that showed up on a random map.

[SinisterDeath]

Why is it so good? I see a lot of hills, from which you don't get much food, and a lot of tundra which you can't irrigate. I'm not trying to offend or be a jerk, but if you could explain why it is so good, I'd appreciate it.

I know 11 incense are good, but what about the terrain around you? I would think it's slow for city growth, and you have no river which means you need to build aquaducts. Also, if you have less than 10 civs (1 incense for you) then the extra are wasted are they not? As far as I know you can only trade 1 kind of luxury type per deal, and if they already have incense from you, then they can't/won't trade for another.

I know you get a lot of shields out of it, but if growth is slow, then they don't count until much later when there are citizens available to work them.

If you could help me out a bit here, I'd appreciate it. BTW I just won my first monarch game on my first attempt, so while I'm not a pro like BamSpeedy (go Bam go), I'm not exactly a newbie either.

[Turner]

Yeah, but with that much incense there, it's a good chance he can corner the incense market and dictate prices to everyone. Especially later in the game, when everyone has marketplaces and is looking for those four extra happy faces.

With it being hills and coastal tiles, a couple of cities there just to claim the land would be easy to defend, since they get the 50% hill bonus. And he could also put Workers on each tile and fortify them there so that the AI can't land troops there, unless they have bezerkers or Marines. So yeah, while it's poor to start out - I sure hope you've got good expansion to the north, Pug - the corner on the incense market can be very powerful later in the game.

Recently i had 2 wheat on floodplains, with a cow on grassland, and lots of surrounding grassland (with bonus sheilds) and a few hills. I got a new high score with it

[jack merchant]

I wouldn't want that incense to be my starting position - with no 2-food tiles at all, you wouldn't even be able to build a settler until harbours !

[Tweedledum]

It looks more like a candidate for worst starting position than best. How do you get a city past size 2 from there (with a Harbour, of course). Personally, I'd hit "New Game"...

[SinisterDeath]

Originally posted by Gainy bo
Recently i had 2 wheat on floodplains, with a cow on grassland, and lots of surrounding grassland (with bonus sheilds) and a few hills. I got a new high score with it

What do u do with the cow in that case? Mine him or irrigate him? I'm never sure, I know to irrigate any flood plain (unless there is a reason NOT to), but would you mine the cow? Or irrigate him? Especially since you already have the 2 flood plains with wheat, explain if you would.

[Beanzy]

I'd mine it, simply because the ten food generate by the two wheats should be enough for a nice settler factory. If the cows were irrigated, you'd have to micromanage really hard to keep the city from expanding faster than you can get the 30 shields for a settler.

[lz14]

It depends.
If it has three bonus grassland, then you have 4 citizens work on three bouus + one irrigated weat. It gives 5 food + 7 shield per turn. which is a perfect 4 turn settler factory. So you should build new cities to utilise the cattle and the other weat tile.
If it has less than three bonus grassland, then mine it and you should get a 4 turn factory again. Build new cities to use the other weat.
Otherwise(if there's no bonus land), you would irrigate the cattle, cattle + 2 weat give you 10 food per turn, that's one citizen every turn, which is 20 shield every turn. That's not bad, you have a 2 turn settler factory.
Once the city is dead, time for a palace jump.

[JonathanValjean]

Wow, pug! 11 incense in one area? Amazing! I'll bet that left the other tribes, well, incensed!

[LordKestrel]

This is from my last start:

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads5/...w_paradise.jpg

I ended up uncovering another 4 cows under the dark, and some more wines.

[SinisterDeath]

Wow Jimmy I wish I could get a start liek that, but I play on Monarch and as fas as I've seen, the only way to get a start like that is to play an easier level, or mod you map.

If that was on a harder level, Emporer and above, then you were truly blessed.

[jack merchant]

The level you play on has nothing to do with the map setup. Your likelyhood of getting high-food starts can be improved by setting the world settings to Wet, Warm, 5 Billion years. IIRC the number of bonus resources (like cattle) is also in some way dependent on the number of civs in a map, but I don't remember in what way.

[joycem10]

i think if you have fewer civs in your game the map generator will add in a lower amount of strategic/luxury resources and add in a greater amount of bonus resources to make up the difference.

[Lord Beverage]

I think this has to be the best starting location I've ever had. Flood plains and forests (no longer present) for a four turn settler factory, FOUR luxuries, and three of four existing strategic resources all within one screen. All in abundance. I was to win next turn by domination so I never found out about the remaining four.

Anyway, the image:

[andvruss]

The best one I've ever seen wasn't even mine. It was Joanie's her captial was on a river surrounded by BG's and grassland, and 8 wines. I still crushed her though

[Yoda Power]

I had a very cool SL recently. My Capital had 5Cattle 1 Wheat and acces to fresh Water. Also I had 4 different Luxuries within my empire, before reaching the second age(I did´nt even go to war). I also had atleast one of all the strategic resources. That was a really nice game

What do u do with the cow in that case? Mine him or irrigate him? I'm never sure, I know to irrigate any flood plain (unless there is a reason NOT to), but would you mine the cow? Or irrigate him? Especially since you already have the 2 flood plains with wheat, explain if you would.

Normally i would irrigate the cow, but in this case, there really was no point. My city was growing every 3 or so turns, and when the cow was irriagated, this would not improve. Where'as when I mined the cow, the settler was built a few turns quicker than with it not being mined.

Sorry for replying so late, i didn't notice your post

Haven't seen you for a while yoda, welcome back from wherever you've been

[trumpeteer]

Originally posted by SinisterDeath
Why is it so good? I see a lot of hills, from which you don't get much food, and a lot of tundra which you can't irrigate. I'm not trying to offend or be a jerk, but if you could explain why it is so good, I'd appreciate it.

But if you put the city on a hill, it gets the same amount of food no matter what you do to it, and it gets a 50% defense bonus.

I think the perfect starting location would be a city on a hill surrounded by grassland with cattle, a river around the entire city (I love those squares), and another river encircling the 8 squares bordering the city.