Best and worst Civs for start bias

[Werty1066]

Wondering which civs, in your opinion, have the best and worst start bias.
The worst would have to be Brazil. Poor rainforest starts let down what could have been a good civ.
Greece have a pretty strong start. The last three times I've played them have all been fantastic coastal plains starts allowing me to build a strong capital and get the wonders I need quickly.

 

[otaman1]

How does Brazil have a poor start? Not spawning in a jungle would make the Brazilwood Camp the most useless UI in the entire game

 

[Alzadar]

How does Brazil have a poor start? Not spawning in a jungle would make the Brazilwood Camp the most useless UI in the entire game

Expanding to jungle is nice, but starting in jungle sucks.

 

[Arachnofiend]

Pretty sure Greece doesn't have a start bias.

Worst start bias is Sweden. Firaxis randomly decided to give them a tundra start bias in BNW despite them having nothing to benefit from tundra.

 

[tiret]

Worst start bias is Sweden. Firaxis randomly decided to give them a tundra start bias in BNW despite them having nothing to benefit from tundra.

They are the only civ likely to choose faith-from-tundra belief. That's quite a privilege .

 

[Aaron90495]

They are the only civ likely to choose faith-from-tundra belief. That's quite a privilege .

Well, them and Russia.

 

[otaman1]

There are a lot of useless start bias. Desert, tundra, snow, trapped, isolated, one-tile island, etc.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Egypt, no trees means I often start in ice and naked tundra. Map script gives me some deer and calls it even

 

[Strategist83]

India's grassland starting bias often turns out to be problematic. They're simply starved for , which can be fatal.

Coastal starts are almost always a large advantage.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Really? The Dutch have the same bias, and all my best starts have been as them.

 

[Vathris]

I'm not sure you guys are understanding how start bias works...

Austria - Hills
Brazil - Jungle
Mongol - Plains
Morocco - Desert
Poland - Plains
Sweden - Tundra
Venice - Ocean (Always)
Byzantium - Ocean
Indonesia - Ocean
Korea - Ocean
Portugal - Ocean
Carthage - Ocean
Spain - Ocean
Celts - Forest
Netherlands - Grass
England - Ocean
Ottoman - Ocean
Arabia - Desert
Aztec - Jungle
India - Grassland
Iroquois - Forest
Russia - Tundra
Inca - Hill
Polynesia - Ocean
Denmark - Ocean

Egypt - Avoid Jungle, Forest
Siam - Avoid Forest
Songhai - Avoid Tundra
Assyria - Avoid Tundra
Babylon - Avoid Tundra
Huns - Avoid Forest, Jungle
Zulu - Avoid Jungle

I may be missing some newer civs here.

Certain civs have "first pick" when it comes to start bias, like Venice. I think you may be attributing start biases to civs that don't have them. Start bias can be tricky to weigh because of where it ends up landing you. For example, it would appear the Dutch have some sort of desert bias but they have a marsh/floodplains bias that often lands them near desert. You also need to take into account the various other factors to a start bias, again for example, tundra starts tend to have much more defensible capitals due to being on the edge of a continent. There are loads of "hidden" advantages like this for each civ.

Anyway, there's no such thing as a "one-tile island" start bias or a "trapped/isolated" start bias.

 

[Arachnofiend]

There are a lot of useless start bias. Desert, tundra, snow, trapped, isolated, one-tile island, etc.

Desert is a pretty strong start, actually. The game naturally beefs up the area around your capital so if you start in desert you can expect flood plains, mining resources, the works. Desert Folklore alone makes it worth it. I'd rather start in a desert than next to one since the map scripting doesn't take into account you need to be able to expand and usually leaves those tiles barren.

 

[Hoplite191]

Russia has the worst start bias. When I normally play as them I always start next to tundra and the only resources are deer and furs.

Aztecs to me have a good start bias they have a fair distribution between grassland and hills as well as getting plenty of luxury resources. Also the Jaguar is perfect for them should their be plenty of jungles and forests as they have faster movement on jungle and forest tiles.

 

[Arachnofiend]

Russia has the worst start bias. When I normally play as them I always start next to tundra and the only resources are deer and furs.

Russia has at least some synergy with her start bias. Tundra tends to get a lot of iron, oil, and aluminum, all of which Russia benefits from more than any other civ.

Sweden... doesn't have any reason to have a tundra bias, really.

 

[Hoplite191]

Russia has at least some synergy with her start bias. Tundra tends to get a lot of iron, oil, and aluminum, all of which Russia benefits from more than any other civ.

That is true but tundra looks so sad and depressing compared to a green grassland that I have to start with the disable start bias option.

 

[CivAddict201320]

Originally Posted by Arachnofiend View Post
Worst start bias is Sweden. Firaxis randomly decided to give them a tundra start bias in BNW despite them having nothing to benefit from tundra.

I decided to give Sweden a go on immortal with large continents. Five times in a row I get tundra and desert tiles within 10 hexes from eachother. Guess I remove the starting bias, because this is BS.

 

[otaman1]

Originally Posted by Arachnofiend View Post
Worst start bias is Sweden. Firaxis randomly decided to give them a tundra start bias in BNW despite them having nothing to benefit from tundra.

I decided to give Sweden a go on immortal with large continents. Five times in a row I get tundra and desert tiles within 10 hexes from eachother. Guess I remove the starting bias, because this is BS.

Welcome to the Forums ... I swear I've seen another CivAddict.

Anyway, yeah, I agree Sweden's start bias is BS but some people thinks it suits them well cause they're up north (which doesn't even make sense cause there's grass up north). And the Ice Age

 

[MerchantCo]

Mongol. Plains are awesome.

 

[George Abitbol]

Are you sure that Byzantium get an ocean start in BNW? In G&K I have 99% of the time an inland start.

 

[Jampine]

I understand why everyone complains about Sweden, but isn't a base tundra plain more useful than a base desert plain? I mean, it has +1 food over the desert, and can also have dance of the aurora, which isn't picked by the AI often. Whilst the Petra won't be there to back you up, tundra seems to have higher chance of spawning oil and uranium, so whilst your early game might be a bit week, you will make up for it later in rarer resources (I'd be surprised if a tundra start didn't yield at least 8 oil or 4 uranium)