All alone on an Island, good or bad?

[DarkSchneider]

Alright, I started playing my first Emporer level difficulty game today, and I was suprised to find myself on an island without any computer players. It looks like it should have room for 6-7 cities and there is another island visible to the North. I started next to Marble and Copper. There are a lot of horses on the island. I don't have iron-working yet so I can't tell if there is iron or not yet.

Is starting on your own island generally a good thing or a bad thing?

 

[southafrica]

is tech trading allowed? otherwise you may fall way behind...

 

[Brota]

How many Civs are there in your game? Being alone on Emperor level = technically backward.

 

[walkerjks]

It completely limits your conquest opportunities. So if keeping your opponents down is a critical part of your strategy, you may have trouble.

I've found it makes cultural wins harder as well. Generally, the city spots are slightly worse for commerce potential. Also, religion won't spread to you early. On Emperor, you might not get a religion until 1200 AD or so (unless you found one yourself). This means you have to rush to get temples and cathedrals built when they do spread. I've had island games where I ended up with 5 religions, but the lateness is still a problem. I have won emperor-level culture wins on islands, but I lose more often with that start.

But not having to worry as much about barbarians, mass invasions, or land grab is nice.

 

[Gargoyle]

But not having to worry as much about barbarians, mass invasions, or land grab is nice.

I tried a game with Custom Continents, one to each team.

Now this is not exactly like being on an island all by yourself. Its like having continents connected by squeeze points.

Barbarians are worse! They have more isolated locations to grow, they are not being squeezed out by the other civs.

No chance for military expansion, trading of techs and goods. Just so limiting.

 

[DeltaV]

I've found it makes cultural wins harder as well.

The fact that you're protected from invasion until the AI gets galleys (and from any significant invasion...galleons) helps alot. I ended up with on a large island/subcontinent on Prince level my last game...I made a beeline for the religion-founding techs. That was possible because I didn't have to get the military/industrial techs early. I managed to snag 2 religions quickly and spread them around. Being able to neglect the military for so long really sped up production of culture-enhancing buildings. I made contact with the Mongols who turned out to be within galley range...the little 1-tile island 2 tiles off my southern coast that I ignored turned out to also be 2 tiles from the Mongol's northern coast. As they had no religion, I spread Confucion amongst them! They made pretty good neighbors after that...they only invaded me once.

By researching advanced culture techs at the expense of lesser military ones, i was able to trade for the ones I bypassed. My score wasn't great, but I did pull off the culture win.

 

[RoddyVR]

i think it depends a LOT on your traits.
if you're agressive/creative, then you're gonna have problems.
if you're financial, industrial,philosophical or even expansive then you're brobably better off on the island.

and since you have marble, if you're industrial or philosophical, then i suggest going for a LOT of great people.
you dont have to have more then 1 warrior in each city (for the happiness thing about "we're scared and unprotected") and a couple units to deal with barbarians untill you are able to lift the fog of war from your whole island (at that point htere's nowhere for the barbs to appear)
when you get to the point where you want to go invading the other continents, THEN you can build an army.

 

[Gufnork]

Being alone means that all you need to defend your land is a good navy is a huge advantage. The problem is the limited space for expansion, possible lack of religions (unless you found them yourself) and no possibility to trade tech. Generally it's bad, unless it's a really big island. The best scenario is sharing the continent with one other civ, that way you can conquer him, which means you can benefit from his infrastructure.

 

[Gargoyle]

you dont have to have more then 1 warrior in each city (for the happiness thing about "we're scared and unprotected") and a couple units to deal with barbarians untill you are able to lift the fog of war from your whole island (at that point htere's nowhere for the barbs to appear)
when you get to the point where you want to go invading the other continents, THEN you can build an army.

I thought barbs could not spawn anywhere but in the fog, but they sure were coming at me hot and heavy with no fog other than on the other continents connected by only squeeze points. Where they all migrating that far.

 

[suspendinlight]

I think they can also spawn boats in the fog and land...? I have seen their boats before.

 

[Shillen]

I thought barbs could not spawn anywhere but in the fog, but they sure were coming at me hot and heavy with no fog other than on the other continents connected by only squeeze points. Where they all migrating that far.

I think you're not looking at the right fog. The black area on the map that you haven't discovered yet isn't what people are talking about when saying barbs only spawn in the fog. They are talking about the "fog of war". These are areas that you do not have line of sight to, areas where you can't see other civ units moving, etc. To get line of sight you need a city or a unit there.

 

[cleverhandle]

If you're playing a Conts map, my guess would be that there's another civ on that island to your north. The game seems to follow a pattern of putting two civs on one small island or pair of islands and the rest across the ocean. I've only ended up in the 2-civ part of the world once, and it sucks. There's no tech trading, since the other civ in the pair thinks it has a monopoly on everything it discovers. And, as others mentioned, there's a lack of religion to help with happiness. Push for military techs and development, take over the neighbor, and use size to your advantage in the late game.

 

[Lord Chambers]

I thought isolation would be limiting on my Monarch game, but I've found that it's actually been to my benefit. Egypt and I are battling for the top spot around 2500 points while the other civs are 1500-1000. Then again, my continent is fairly large for being the only one to start on it. I think that's because half of it was jungle and unsuitable for starting another civ in.

I kept the barbarians at bay by running patrol routes with three quechas in the fog zone until I could expand into it.

 

[dh_epic]

The good news is you're alone so you can really skimp on the military units. The bad news is you're going to fall behind in trade big time, and when you finally meet the other continent, you'll probably come across as a heathen for having your own unique religion. You don't stand a chance converting them either.

Starting on your own island, to me, is at least one or two additional difficulty levels up. It's not impossible to deal with, but it's quite challenging.

 

[Shillen]

When you start on your own island you generally have more land to expand into and you can take your time doing it. Unlike a shared landmass where you pretty much are forced to expand quickly to grab as much of the land mass as possible. With an isolated start you probably need more military to deal with barbs, but other than that you have more freedom to build up and keep a good tech pace going, instead of crippling yourself early on with city maintenance and stunted growth from building so many settlers. You also generally get more coastal cities which means more commerce via trade routes. IMO starting on your own island is a benefit if you're going for a peaceful victory and a drawback if you're going for a military victory.

 

[Vizzini]

They made pretty good neighbors after that...they only invaded me once.

*sneck*