Bad terrain - worth settling?

[SnowlyWhite]

There are no such maps, normally, where you don`t see tundra + ice tile combinations together with deserts and peaks and what else not, that really is not the most convenient terrain to settle in. Then again, quite often such terrain offers some resources, that are rarely found anywhere else. The question is - is a junk city worth the cost for some, perhaps, irrelevant resources?

if silver + 1 food resource or 2 furs + 1 food resource, I settle asap for short term.
if not - after blocking, in the end of the queue(around biology or such); hopefully breed some barbarians and raze their cities from time to time for some cash/unlock he/etc.

 

[_invy_]

Straight to the question, it depend how you define bad terrain . Looking at your island, its not that bad. Pretty much every coastal spot is worth settling always. Given enough time cities will be able to pay itself off just by trade routes, rest of the commerce is profit. There there is bonus unit support and production.
Coastal spot with bonus food resource is always worth settling, especially with Fish there.

Try to get Colossus or Great Lighthouse if possible.

 

[Tephros]

Generally, suboptimal terrain like this is better to settle later because more technologies and wonders will make it more profitable. In this case, lumbermills will make many more tiles worthwhile. What wonders you have will also affect where exactly you put the cities. For example, with the great light house you would settle west of the marble, otherwise east would probably be better, but that also depends on what kind of map. Is this a duel pangea map, or one of a half-dozen continents on a huge map? We'd also need to know about the other terrain on the continent. Another advantage of dealing with this area later is that the barbs might settle it for you and then you can take it from them and profit from razing if you don't like their city placement.