Bad start (early game)- keep playing or restart?

[Ondolindë]

I have restarted games, mostly because the map does not give the correct start bias (I hope they fix that). But lately I’m working on doing it less. It may come a point that I’ll stick to never restarting because it is fun to just push yourself to make it through and win. As in life, that is really rewarding.

 

[Sherlock]

I haven't played in months because I don't find this game that enjoyable. I started a map last night and guess what? Absolutely no good place to put a second city. Yeah, remembering that - I quit a lot. Back to Endless Legend.

 

[Forster]

Personally, I think you should not add the word abuser. People have different play styles, if they want an enjoyable game without a lot of stress (4 barb camps within 10 tiles, 2 are horse), or a start totally opposite your civ's bias, why not restart? I have restarted several times for the reasons I gave you. I also often play until turn 75 to 100 or more and decide I just don't want to play it out, but I don't restart the same game, I will start a new one, probably with another civ.

 

[bbbt]

I'd say the poll needs more options, as I'd say there's restart a bad start people and then keep rerolling for an amazing start people ala:
Never restart
Only if it doesn't match the Civs start bias (Brazil in the desert)
Will generally restart bad/subpar starts
I'll spend two hours rerolling until I get my river/hills/mountains/jungle spice/natural wonder 5 tiles away start

 

[AmazonQueen]

I'd say the poll needs more options, as I'd say there's restart a bad start people and then keep rerolling for an amazing start people ala:
Never restart
Only if it doesn't match the Civs start bias (Brazil in the desert)
Will generally restart bad/subpar starts
I'll spend two hours rerolling until I get my river/hills/mountains/jungle spice/natural wonder 5 tiles away start

I think most of the people who have said they sometimes restart have been in the 2nd or 3rd category.
If things going badly makes the game interesting I'll carry on. One time I thought I was doing well, just conquered Persia, went into the Classical Era with a GA then the Mapuche declared on me and I was being overrun with hordes of +10 warriors. That I played out and survived.
When the games just frustrating or boring like an isolated start with Scythia or Macedon I'll restart.

 

[jddods]

This is one kind of abuse, I feel good about.

 

[pgm123]

I keep playing for a while, but I'm more likely to get bored with the game and start over. What's that count as?

 

[Caprikel]

I keep playing, things are more fun with setbacks.

 

[Isengardtom]

I never restart unless I’m 100% sure it’s game over.

I played a game yesterday that was a lot of fun as Indonesia on emperor so not too difficult
Map: Archipelago standard but with 7 civs
Start was good and found myself on the southern tip of a larger island with a narrow part to the north, perfect for a canal city before the island on the north of the canal location widens a lot both east and west. Wanted to settle the canal first and then one city in between the capital and the canal. I get the fishing boat production pantheon (wanted to not take harvest)

Then I Meet England (northwest) and make a settler early but just as I arrived at my settle location England plops down Hull in the middle of nowhere (no river / no coast ) but too close to my canal location. So I’m stuck with max 2 cities on my little part of the island and no way to put a third. I cross the bay with the settler to the get to the east of my canal location. And settle there. Meet Monti who’s attacking and taking Kabul.

Meantime loyalty is becoming an issue to settle across the bay but I try it anyway. Still ancient era at this point. Idea is declare war and take and raze Hull to replace it with my earlier canal. This would buff the loyalty of the 3rd city. But the war declaration doesn’t go well and Because Monti settles another city and Hull has grown to pop 3 my new city is losing loyalty too fast. It becomes free and flips to England. Me having to focus on getting archers and warriors is causing me to go into a dark age in the classical era.

I get the last religion and take choral music and defender of the faith because I’m so far behind by now and England wants to take me out. Monti I’m friends with early and keep that throughout the game

So expansion north is out of the question. South there is another larger island on another continent with Valletta on it. One possible settle north of it and 2 south and below that tundra. I manage to settle the city north of Valletta and because of a lot of exploring and such I manage to go into a heroic age. Other civs I meet are Mapuche, Russia, and Kongo who had taken out Scotland by then. Especially Kongo was playing a strong game as was Russia which is to be expected.

I was lucky to make friends and later allies with everyone except Kongo. Even Victoria came around about mid game and became an ally.

So I had 6 cities only and went for a science win. Early game was so tough I didn’t get any of my favorite wonders like Artemis or Pyramids or Oracle.
Because I had 4 cities on a different continent I got Casa de contratacion along with Forbidden city, and a few cultural wonders. And in my tundra / snow city I got admundson Scott. That production bonus stacked with casa was great along with all the lumber mills I got.

I ended up winning science post turn 200 by building a few spies to counterspy and one offensive to sabotage Kongo who had about 14 cities
I was building my space parts in my 2 tundra cities as they had the best production Towards the end I had 450 science and 250 culture a turn and I was starting to head towards cultural victory as well.

It was definitely one of my most fun games lately because
A) I played a civ I don’t often play
B) I played a map I don’t often play and archipelago + religion means investing in the “bad” side of the tech tree
C) I took a different pantheon than the usual harvest and despite that still go a ton of faith for my heroic age
D) I had some wonders I never get like Casa and the research station
E) first 100 turns or so was struggling but I managed to get great districts with really good adjacencies and the choral music helped my culture a lot.

 

[Victoria]

Polarised options are never good.
Sometimes I will, sometimes I will not.
If the game is going to be interesting regardless, which to me it often will be I will play on. If it look like it will be dull and teach me nothing I will not.
Regardless at about T150 I’ll stop a game because each move takes so long and the game is fairly predictable from there.

 

[Naeshar]

I am no fan of restarting. However it's always about how I currently feel. I seem to never get a good enough start with Spain. Sometimes it is not worth restarting and start a different game (of Civ6) instead. Sometimes stay in and challenge myself to get into a reasonable state.
If the current game frustrates you, either gather up and stay or leave it. However I kinda hate when people in MP ragequit… then we have to deal with the AI .

 

[ezzlar]

I usually set map/game conditions to be a real challenge. Since the expected challenge is high I cant really handle a miserable start. If I set difficulty a bit lower I could play on, but then a normal start would be too easy. So yeah, I restart every now and then.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

I will but only in the most absurd of circumstances, i.e not starting anywhere near coast as Indonesia, Australia, or Norway..

 

[Delvi]

I usually play on with bad starts (although there are limits, Cree with inland tundra, no non-Tundra in sight, capital not able to go above size 2 w/o a granary, that I restarted) but like Julia I will restart if the start just seems wrong for my civ. Doesn't even need to be bad. Jungle Russia, Netherlands with hardly any rivers, Sumeria w/o riverside plains or grassland for Ziggurats, those I'll restart.

I do exactly the same.
I think the problem is that the starting bias script is not optimized, there we as the same problem with Civ 5. I even tried to edit the script but I didn't get the expected result. Maybe I'm a bit too concerned about it, but I get upset also when I see cities of other cities in not appropriate tiles.

 

[DJ_Tanner]

I never restart due to the game location. I do restart from time to time when I put a save down for too long and forget what I am doing, there I would rather start fresh then jump back into the flow.

 

[UWHabs]

I never restart due to the game location. I do restart from time to time when I put a save down for too long and forget what I am doing, there I would rather start fresh then jump back into the flow.

Which sometimes for me comes back to the same point. Some games I just can't wait to jump back in and figure out what I'm doing next with it. Other games, meh, not a big deal. So that when I do want to jump back in, I forget what's going on and don't feel the need to continue.

 

[iammaxhailme]

I reroll on turn 1 an unreasonably large number of times, almost every game. When I find a start I like I usually make a turn 1 save. If the game is going badly and it's relatively early, I'll just start over and do things a bit differently. If it's later than, say, the beginning of the renaissance, I just abandon it. Civ is too long of a game to go on with an un-fun game. Of course, being in a challenging position doesn't mean I"ll quit necessarily. The kind of things that will make me quit are, if I spent half the early game being invaded and therefore am irreversibly behind on everything.

Or if I lose one of the tile yield wonders in a great spot in my cpaital or early city (petra, chicken pizza, huey louis, st basil...) that's a ragequit

 

[DJ_Tanner]

Which sometimes for me comes back to the same point. Some games I just can't wait to jump back in and figure out what I'm doing next with it. Other games, meh, not a big deal. So that when I do want to jump back in, I forget what's going on and don't feel the need to continue.

I feel that is the crux of the "one more turn" evocation the game has. It is a blessing and curse. No one turn is ever that amazing, instead the game keeps you excited about the next turn, or in 5 turns. And when you get 5 turns down the road you have already moved on from what was exciting you to, the fact that its gonna be awesome in 4 more turns. This cycle that keeps you invested in the future turns is what Civ's major hook is, the downside, is once you break the cycle, either with little to look forward to or a large physical break in time, it loses the magic very quickly.

 

[Kurtbob]

Life's pretty busy for me right now, so its important that the game I am going to play is worth the hours I put into it. I restart probably more than most.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I am an inveterate reroller.

I only require for a start to have fresh water and at least 1 first or second ring luxury. Although some civs have additional requirements like being directly on the coast or having at least 1 adjacent desert tile or a few contiguous mountains.

Yet, these needs are so rarely met on the first shot.