ahh. now THAT was a fun game......("the Switzerland strategy")

[-proletarian-]

standard size map
4 enemy civs
regent

Egyptians (me) vs.
Japan
England
Rome
Greece

The map generated as two large continents and one small island. I got the small island.

Throughout the game I went with 11 cities that I built on that island, the latest one being founded at 150 AD. I ended up winning a space race victory in 2047.

11 high-quality cities, 5 core production cities (80+ shields) all on one small island, no city overlap........beautiful. I love playing games like this.

I was a small nation, but a small nation with a highly-developed infastructure, a booming economy, and a neutral stance in foreign affairs. Sound like a small country in central Europe?

 

[smallstepforman]

I absolutely hate starting as a lone island Civ. By the time I actually meet someone, they are so far advanced its not funny (think Aborigines in Australia). The best starting spots are in the middle of a hotly disputed continent with a majority of rival civs. You can trade technologies, gang up on opponents and spread. By the time you meet an island Civ, you are almost an entire epoch ahead, and you stay ahead. If you land your tanks on an island civ, the only opposition you'll ever get is Pikemen, maybe Musketmen if they're lucky.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

11 high-quality cities, 5 core production cities (80+ shields) all on one small island, no city overlap........beautiful. I love playing games like this.

My dream come true! How come I never get random maps like that? All too often I wind up with something that looks like the most recent GOTM.

Hey -proletarian- , I don't suppose you've still got the 4000BC save lying around do you? Care to post it?

 

[brody]

Originally posted by smallstepforman
I absolutely hate starting as a lone island Civ. By the time I actually meet someone, they are so far advanced its not funny (think Aborigines in Australia). The best starting spots are in the middle of a hotly disputed continent with a majority of rival civs. You can trade technologies, gang up on opponents and spread. By the time you meet an island Civ, you are almost an entire epoch ahead, and you stay ahead. If you land your tanks on an island civ, the only opposition you'll ever get is Pikemen, maybe Musketmen if they're lucky.

Odd, island civs are great in my experience. I much prefer my own island, because you have so much more leverage if you can afford to be friends with EVERYBODY. I mean, if the whole world is at war with china, and the whole world has learned industrialization EXCEPT china, nobody will trade it to china. But if you are the "peacekeeper" and you don't get involved in these petty disputes, you can make a killing giving china all kinds of stuff while they wage a hopeless war...

I played on an island that was just me and russia once. They were very quickly destroyed, as I didn't want to deal with competing for land. I would raze a few cities, make peace, wait 20 turns, raze another city or two, etc... before I'd contacted anybody else they had only moscow and kiev. Both were surrounded by tundra, but I killed them anyhow and took their land. Both cities sucked, but they were MY cities.

As for technology, I had no problem being ahead in the tech race. Granted, I was playing on Regent, but still...

 

[simwiz2]

i have never started on an island, but in an pangea map, the civ that starts on the small "continent" usually does fairly well. They are harder for me to get to, so they usually survive longer despite having the weakest military. They usually have strong culture (about as much as me) on regent level, while the other civs on my continent have done nothing but pump out obsolete military units. also the "island civ" usually gets quite a few wonders, and has the best-developed terrain (roads on every square long before me)

 

[FenrysWulf]

I started on my own island on purpose once, but I made it even more isolated. I created my own map with one large island completely surrounded by mountains, with a ring of water between so enemies couldn't just land there and attack me. This way I was completely isolated for the whole game. I didn't really have to build any military units, so I did really well with research and wonder construction. Eventually I got kind of sick of not being able to attack anyone, though. I eventually built a spaceship to get it over with. This would be a good plan for those of you who want to see what it's like to play without any other civilizations interfering though.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Island can be great IMEX. If there`s many civs around that have contact, the island civ will fall behind, often fataly. But if there?s only say 5 others, the island makes them usually one of the culturally strongest nations..... as long as the island is big enough!

Does anyone have a good island starting position savegame for me?????

In exchange I can offer a very nice "fight or die" map ;p

 

[aneeshm]

I've seen that starting on an island can be really great if you get space enough for at least five cities . Once I managed with only four as the egyptians ) . The ideal , IMHO , is five . Just enough for either a one - city culture or a space race victory . It's also great if you can stay neutral throughout , and finish of the war-weary , crippled , but bigger civs later in the game , one at a time .

I've had only two games of this sort , one Egyptian & the other Aztes . In both those , I was always at least one military level ahead of my nearest rival .

Another possible way to play these games os OCC style , Where you wait for your city to grow to size six before building any other sities . Then , the next settler will be built only by the 2nd city when it reaches size 4 , & so on till you've filled the island (or continent) . Make sure to have absolutely NO overlap , though .

 

[-proletarian-]

nope, sorry, no 4000 B.C. save.....it was a great game though, I even managed to open up a 2-3 tech lead on my opponents in the middle ages, because although they were all on big continents, they were almost constantly waging huge world wars (with my help, of course )

My objective, once I found myself on the island, was to just play it out no matter what, and see what I could make of it. I was amazed that I was able to still lead in tech, despite being isolated at the beginning. And when the Greeks finally got pissy with me around 1900, (he was the largest civ, with about 25 cities to my 11) he landed a transport full with 8 tanks on my island.......before he got to do anything with 'em I had already wiped them out with my modern armour and radar artillery.

He sued for peace the next turn.......loser. -LoL-

 

[MindRunner]

Playing all alone in an island is a great challenge and very fun.

I used to play my latest Civ 2 games in Deity level and Archipelago in land distribution.
This is when you *real* capacity to manage and construct in a positive way come to life.
And that was where I really “kicked ass”.

I would usually win without much trouble, because I would expand to other islands very soon, and create large empires throughout several small islands.

Unfortunately Civ 3 seems to have put an end to that spread around the world because of a *corrupted* corruption system, which is not realistic at all.

But, thanks for posting that, it’s always comforting to know it is possible. I already won by space race (Civ 3) being only the second most powerful Civ, and that is always fun.