Best Civ for Renaissance Start

[krc]

A recent story thread described a game played with America and a Renaissance Era start. Before reading that thread, I had never changed from the default Ancient Era start, but I was intrigued. Since then, I have played a couple of games (on King at standard speed) with different starting eras. The flow of the game seems to change with different starting eras, leading to the opportunity to explore different strategies. Which leads to the question for this poll:

Which civilization would you choose for a Renaissance Era start? (The civs listed in the poll are the ones that have a Renaissance Era UU, but I added "other" so you can explain why someone that I left off would be a better choice....) Feel free to comment on why you chose that particular civ.

 

[brainzl0v3r]

I like to play arhipeleagos,so England.

 

[tetley]

Naturally I voted America, but Iroquois would be very interesting. The reason is that you get access to Workshop/Longhouse at game start. They are cheaper and get +1 hammer on forest tiles, and because you started on Renaissance you didn't chop anything. Plus you get Lumber mills out of the starting gates, which your workers can build very quickly because of the forest/road bonus. A very hammer-heavy start. Don't know where you'll get your food, but....

edit: who am I kidding, I know exactly where you get your food. Build Hanging Gardens. On wet maps, your capital would be a hammer powerhouse.

 

[krc]

Who am I kidding, I know exactly where you get your food. Build Hanging Gardens. On wet maps, your capital would be a hammer powerhouse.

Actually, that won't work. When you start in a later era (like the Renaissance), the wonders from the just-completed era (including Medieval wonders like the Hagia Sophia) are immediately available to build. But wonders from earlier eras (including Classical wonders like the Hanging Gardens) can never be built.

 

[tetley]

Okay, Hanging Gardens is Classical. That can be modded, though (i.e. make Ancient wonders available in Modern starts).

Not having that food for Iroquois hurts. Every farm tile they have to work eats into their advantage. My next try would probably be to ally with a Maritime and get a fast Aqueduct.

 

[joncnunn]

My vote would be Babylon.
You'll start with Writing, and therefore a free Great Scientist
And you can get thru the Rationalism social policies first at record speed.

 

[flairin]

Siam since they could get through rationalism quicker...

 

[tetley]

You can adopt 4 policies up front on Renaissance, which means you can run through Rationalism and get 2 free techs right from the start. Which helps, because the research times at game start arey very long.

I always considered running through Liberty a given, though, because you need the free settler and worker. And then you get the finisher which is a free GP, which could give you one free tech anyway. I always get a free GE, though. The Wonder race at game start is very tight.

 

[JeanBaptiste]

America seems best overall since you still get benefits from all of their UA and UUs in this era and after.

 

[flairin]

With Siam you begin with 2 elephants (22hp) plus a pikeman. You could get a third settler from policy since you start with two and also unlock tradition and rationalism. So u can build three cities from the start!!
Building three temples in your three cities then rush-buying a third one in your fourth puts you in line for four free opera houses under liberty. Then quickly building Wats adds more culture. Plus the bonuses from CS is crazy cause you will be in industrial/modern era super quick...

My first and only try at starting at renaissance was super easy. Modern era within 100 turns and then mech infantry!!

 

[tetley]

The elephants are nice, but in my experience the starting units serve little value except as scouts. That's why America's minutemen own so much: because they're scouts.

I built Opera Houses myself and used Legalism to go all the way to free Broadcast Towers.

I tried my game on King, just because I had never done it before, but that so owned I could have gone all the way to Immortal very easily.

 

[flairin]

so u start with minutemen because they are the UU?? Nice

I didn't use the elephants for anything really but for garrison/scouting... though no one was messing w/me

 

[tetley]

No, you don't quite start with MM. You start with pikes. But you can make Gunpowder the first tech you research and then you're cranking out MM.

 

[krc]

My vote would be Babylon.
You'll start with Writing, and therefore a free Great Scientist
And you can get thru the Rationalism social policies first at record speed.

Hmm. I hadn't realized that you got the free GS for Babylon when starting at the Renaissance. In this case, is it better to settle an academy or bulb an immediate technology?

 

[joncnunn]

Hmm. I hadn't realized that you got the free GS for Babylon when starting at the Renaissance. In this case, is it better to settle an academy or bulb an immediate technology?

In that case, I'd vote for an immediate technology. (Chances are your persuring a science victory; and starting from there, Academy won't have time to pay for itself.)

Another good choice is Korea, especially if your capital is next to a mountain.
(Free RA like boost for every science building in the capital)

 

[tetley]

IMHO even having science victory enabled at Renaissance start is just silly.

 

[krc]

I find it interesting that the Ottomans are the clear leader in this poll, even though they usually get little or no respect as a civ for the usual Ancient Era start....

 

[janboruta]

The Janissaries are just too good. Get the free settler from Liberty, settle three cities and snatch two more of another civ with instahealing infantry - quick, strong headstart. Maybe they don't get enough respect, because in Ancient start you have to wait quite long before you get the UUs and the Ottos suddenly get powerful.

 

[CYZ]

Certainly America, they are made for advanced starts.

+1 sight: This is very important on advanced start, you'll start with several units and they can cover so much more area with that extra sight. This will also help in getting your cities up faster since you'll spot the best locations faster.

Cheaper tile buying: speaks for itself, tile buying is much more important in advanced start games than in regular games. Will save you money and/or allow you to buy more tiles and thus expand your cities faster and gain resources quicker.

UU: 1 is coming up just 1 tech away. It will make for a perfect scout unit. The normal scouts will get eaten by barbarians, but the map is unexplored. Minutemen are the perfect way to scout the map, and you will have a strong millitary too. Then there is the bomber which will do very nicely later on.

With America you have everything you need to get a strong start, expand quickly, scout much faster and you will have the millitary advantage both in the beginning (minutemen) and in the end (bomber).

 

[Mesix]

Certainly America, they are made for advanced starts.

+1 sight: This is very important on advanced start, you'll start with several units and they can cover so much more area with that extra sight. This will also help in getting your cities up faster since you'll spot the best locations faster.

Cheaper tile buying: speaks for itself, tile buying is much more important in advanced start games than in regular games. Will save you money and/or allow you to buy more tiles and thus expand your cities faster and gain resources quicker.

UU: 1 is coming up just 1 tech away. It will make for a perfect scout unit. The normal scouts will get eaten by barbarians, but the map is unexplored. Minutemen are the perfect way to scout the map, and you will have a strong millitary too. Then there is the bomber which will do very nicely later on.

With America you have everything you need to get a strong start, expand quickly, scout much faster and you will have the millitary advantage both in the beginning (minutemen) and in the end (bomber).

Don't forget that Minutemen keep their unique promotion when they are upgraded. Having Mechanized Infantry which ignore terrain and attack multiple times each turn (with Blitz) is devastating in the late game.