Any tips for when you start off somewhere isolated?

[Theodorick]

In a few of my recent games, I started on an island with little or no city states on it. Everywhere was too far away to send a trade caravan or a cargo ship too, at least until mid-game. As a result, my economy kept collapsing in early game, completely shutting my civilization down. Are there any tips on how to handle your early game economy if you're isolated, or do I have to keep rolling a map until I have a few neighbors?

 

[Timothy001]

How much space?, Place a few cities together, run roads between them. Get a Market in all of them. Get any GP resources. Get a Harbour (adds range of Cargo Ships). Get Banking as well. Restrict what you build, until you can support it. You should be able to survive.

 

[Theodorick]

How much space?, Place a few cities together, run roads between them. Get a Market in all of them. Get any GP resources. Get a Harbour (adds range of Cargo Ships). Get Banking as well. Restrict what you build, until you can support it. You should be able to survive.

My economy is still breaking down before I can get far enough to take advantage of any of this, unless I absolutely handicap my early culture and religion development. That's why I said it's hard to escape this rut in early game. Each game where I've started off isolated has been an almost automatic loss, due to the revamped economy. You -need- some trade routes early on.

In my latest example of this, I started off all alone on an enormous island, with only one city state on it. The city state was on the far side of the island; at least 35 hexes away. I tried sailing around the island, but I was surrounded by ocean. I tried everything to get my economy together, but by 800BC I was in debt, with no religion, and pathetically low culture. I couldn't even develop far enough to get markets, let alone banks. And connecting my cities only put a small dent in my debt. I actually kept running around killing barbarian camps to try and stay in the green, but this still wasn't enough. If I had one or two foreign trade routes, this would have solved everything. Trade routes with your own cities doesn't help.

 

[Enrico Swagolo]

As Venice - restart. The game is going to be very boring and uneventful for you, as well as frustrating.

As any other civ - restart too. Why would you want to play a game of Civ without other civs near you?