Awesome Spain start

[kaltorak]

I have never played as Spain. Since vanilla, I thought it was a too random civ. I don't know why, but today I felt like it and started a game as spain.

This is the start I got. Check the King Solomon's Mines in Barcelona, pretty OP xD

Spoiler :

Those 2 iron on Madrid were also a nice surprise ^^ I'm on turn 143 and it's looking like an easy game with such a start. Emperor.

 

[Randall_Flagg]

Nice and defensible also. Nice to see other people who use the 6 tiles between cities!!

 

[damnyankees]

Nice and defensible also. Nice to see other people who use the 6 tiles between cities!!

Isn't this the default? You want to maximize workable tiles. I pretty much always put cities at least 6 tiles apart.

 

[Randall_Flagg]

Isn't this the default? You want to maximize workable tiles. I pretty much always put cities at least 6 tiles apart.

No default is like 3 tiles or some such craziness. I have mine reset to 5 for the AI. They have issues going with 6. Kind of sucks, as I hate the frigging ICS so much. The general feeling is, you will never work all of those tiles, so no need to have them.

I do it because I love the look of the very large border.

 

[bpower]

If you know you're going super super tall it might be a good idea.

 

[damnyankees]

No default is like 3 tiles or some such craziness. I have mine reset to 5 for the AI. They have issues going with 6. Kind of sucks, as I hate the frigging ICS so much. The general feeling is, you will never work all of those tiles, so no need to have them.

I do it because I love the look of the very large border.

I meant default by practice, not by the rules of the game. The actual rule built into the code is 4.

 

[Gyra Solune]

Spain is definitely a civ that encourages exploration. Most would have their ideal build order be workers or monuments or maybe even a warrior or two with a scout thrown in. Spain? Scout>Scout>Scout>Scout>Scout. Beeline Sailing and Optics, pump out the boats, scout up the continents. You want to know what the whole continent, and know it fast. On a Terra map (a.k.a. what I still feel the game is balanced best for)? Rush over to Astronomy and Exploration, especially with those delicious Conquistadors. Seriously build up a small army of those in the days before the boundaries of the ocean fall and pump all those things into the water. Absolutely, more than anything, you want to know where those Natural Wonders are. For most civs they're something nice but not really vital since they only provide a small boost over usual tiles. For Spain, acquiring them can quickly become the backbone of your empire. You don't want a necessarily wide empire, but you want a city on every last NW. In the Old World use your Conquistadors to strike those sites, up until the Renaissance where you want to switch to Tercios, and send those horsies to the New World to settle and/or take out city-states.

They get a lot of flak, and it baffles me. They're easily one of the most fun and dynamic civs I've played. There is an element of randomness to their main ability, but you can make it your priority to reduce that randomness significantly. They are all about the exploration and what functionally amounts to colonization, and in terms of playstyle very accurately reflects the way the actual empire was. Hell, it even reflects the strong religious presence they've had historically since there's a large chance you'll find a religious Natural Wonder in a sizable map, and any one of those is definitely going to give you a huge portion of your Faith in the early-mid game.

 

[Randall_Flagg]

I meant default by practice, not by the rules of the game. The actual rule built into the code is 4.

Oh I see, well if you look at let's play on youtube. I get the feeling us 6 tile people are a minority. Might be a nice poll to cludder up the forums!!

 

[Teholb]

I do it because I love the look of the very large border.

I do the same thing! Well, generally I'll go for 5 tiles apart, so they each have two fill rings of workable tiles and share the third (even a tall empire will have tons of pop working Specialist slots, so sharing a bit of the third ring doesn't hurt, imo).

I do so much based on how it looks/what I think an empire should be. I started out building roads to other civs in BNW purely because I wanted my caravans to have some little road to travel along. I thought it looked good. Lo and behold, there is actually a massive benefit to ensuring the largest number of civs possible can send trae routes your way via roads. Especially when playing as Morocco and using Commerce. The synergy is subtle and effective.

♥ light-RP

Edit: am I missing something, or does that start only have a single workable luxury? I always start with 2+ luxuries, even a couple times getting four (three of the same [pearls] and one marble). Is that not the default???

 

[Ritzy Cat]

I've always found Spain to have great starts, perfect for building tall empires. Usually Madrid isn't coastal for me, however.

 

[Randall_Flagg]

I do the same thing! Well, generally I'll go for 5 tiles apart, so they each have two fill rings of workable tiles and share the third (even a tall empire will have tons of pop working Specialist slots, so sharing a bit of the third ring doesn't hurt, imo).

I do so much based on how it looks/what I think an empire should be. I started out building roads to other civs in BNW purely because I wanted my caravans to have some little road to travel along. I thought it looked good. Lo and behold, there is actually a massive benefit to ensuring the largest number of civs possible can send trae routes your way via roads. Especially when playing as Morocco and using Commerce. The synergy is subtle and effective.


♥ light-RP

I just cannot go forward without my 5 rings. lol. My wars are always over encroachment into my rings. If the AI would not encraoch, I probably would have very few wars.

2 stone in that start and the silver, as well as 2 cows and 2 fish. That is a legendary start, and 7 good tiles. So not having 2 luxury items seems fair.

 

[Abraxis]

No default is like 3 tiles or some such craziness. I have mine reset to 5 for the AI. They have issues going with 6. Kind of sucks, as I hate the frigging ICS so much. The general feeling is, you will never work all of those tiles, so no need to have them.

I do it because I love the look of the very large border.

This is why I play carthage, and have never stopped playing carthage, and will always play carthage. three tiles, six tiles, ONE-HUNDRED TILES! It doesn't ev-ELEPHANTS

 

[Teholb]

I just cannot go forward without my 5 rings. lol. My wars are always over encroachment into my rings. If the AI would not encraoch, I probably would have very few wars.

2 stone in that start and the silver, as well as 2 cows and 2 fish. That is a legendary start, and 7 good tiles. So not having 2 luxury items seems fair.

I think, when we as humans adopt certain "gameplay ideologies," it just makes things so much more interesting/fun. Playing too much by strictly numerical gain makes it feel like a giant equation, which is fun sometimes, but not for the hours and hours a CiV game takes, for me. I'm becoming more and more addicted to BNW as the days go by, the features are jsut so much better for my playstyle than G&K ever was.


And I wasn't saying the start was bad, it's just that I've never started with less than 2 luxuries. I just assumed it was the default, from Vanilla onward

 

[kaltorak]

An update on the easiest Emperor game I've ever had, thanks to spain+Solomon's Mines on my second city:

I managed to get several wonders while still expanding and building an army. I went Tradition and Honor. The Mayans where my neightbours and they just went for wonders, so I easily crushed them with trebuchets, longswordsmen and Crossbowman. Actually I could have done it with half of what I sent.

So on turn 180 it's like this:

Demographics

Spoiler :

Empire North

Spoiler :

Empire South

Spoiler :

I didn't even care about diplomacy penalty of exterminating a civ. I feel I can beat them all at the same time with my safe position and good production, science and income.

 

[Randall_Flagg]

I think, when we as humans adopt certain "gameplay ideologies," it just makes things so much more interesting/fun. Playing too much by strictly numerical gain makes it feel like a giant equation, which is fun sometimes, but not for the hours and hours a CiV game takes, for me. I'm becoming more and more addicted to BNW as the days go by, the features are jsut so much better for my playstyle than G&K ever was.


And I wasn't saying the start was bad, it's just that I've never started with less than 2 luxuries. I just assumed it was the default, from Vanilla onward

It is a good expansion and very one more one addicting!! I have not had such a lack of sleep since CK II came out!!

 

[Calouste]

I do the same thing! Well, generally I'll go for 5 tiles apart, so they each have two fill rings of workable tiles and share the third (even a tall empire will have tons of pop working Specialist slots, so sharing a bit of the third ring doesn't hurt, imo).

I do so much based on how it looks/what I think an empire should be. I started out building roads to other civs in BNW purely because I wanted my caravans to have some little road to travel along. I thought it looked good. Lo and behold, there is actually a massive benefit to ensuring the largest number of civs possible can send trae routes your way via roads. Especially when playing as Morocco and using Commerce. The synergy is subtle and effective.

♥ light-RP

Edit: am I missing something, or does that start only have a single workable luxury? I always start with 2+ luxuries, even a couple times getting four (three of the same [pearls] and one marble). Is that not the default???

There's the gold to the north east as well, in the third ring.

Btw, grassland starts quite often have these kind of resources (specially the cows and the stone), which is a benefit of the Dutch, who have a grassland start bias, that not many people seem to know about.

 

[Buccaneer]

Regarding tiles, I don't bother to count because I am far more interested in claiming all available luxuries in my area given the fewest amount of cities. The spacing can be anywhere from 3-10.