Do certain Civs/starting spots always prosper?

[DarkSchneider]

I have played part of the way through a number of games of Civilization 3, and a few things have struck me, first, corruption, even in towns a resonable distance away from your palace is horrendous, second, it seems to me that certain Civilizations and certain starting spots always seem to prosper. Even on a random map, anytime someone beats you to the Pyramids you can almost bet it is the French. The Egyptians always seem to get the big Religious works (Micky's Chapel and Bach's Cathedral) if you don't, and always seem to be ahead techonologically until at least the Industrial era. Has anyone else noticed this? Also, on the World Map, it seems that South America is a particularly good draw, which seems counterinuitive because it seems as though it would be very difficult to maintain a large empire. Then again, they didn't have me hammering on them the whole game, but still

 

[Suvorov]

I've noticed that the French, Greeks and Romans always seem to do well, so long as they have a reasonable starting location. But any civ that's cut off from contact with other civs or is denied iron tends to get their ass handed to them.

 

[exorcist]

My sympathy goes out to those poor people who start in the jungles or mountains. You really cant win in either. One game, the babyl's started out in the jungle and i had about 8 cities and they still had three, I ate them for breakfast (the persian immortals helped) but they just couldn't keep up in any aspects of the game.

Then there is russia whom I am playing now who is in what appears to be a peninsula of mountains. They are right up from me. They have about 20 cities and two over size 3 because they are all in mountains with perhaps one grassland and never grow beyond one, lucky for two. They dont get any trade and are quickly falling behind in research. Poor babies.

 

[LKendter]

I haven't played enough games to decide about Civs. However, my last game very much showed the importants of starting position. The second most powerful player was the Iroquis. They started by themselves on a LARGE land mass. Watching the histograph at the end, I could see there advantage. At one point they were no bigger then anyone else. But when our board hit out of city space time, the Iroquis still had plenty of choice. And kept growing. When I found then, they where in first place score wise.

 

[Malys Faisent]

I think it is location...

Expansionist = best on a large open area with no other expansionist
Militaristic = best where you can put it to use quickly and get your GLs and Epic early.
Commercial = best when you have room to expand
Industrious = best when you've got good terrain to start with
Religious = well...ok religious isn't modified by terrain directly
Scientific = same as religious

So except for the Babylonians, everyone has an ability that prospers from the right geography...and I doubt anyone would say that they'd find starting in the Jungle to be an advantage (ah but a floodplain with wheat near grasslands with cattle...ahhhh).

Also starting near other civs (but not too near!) is a huge advantage. You can trade techs, make war, trade luxuries, and not need to expand so much, unlike being alone on an island where you are crimped or on a continent where by the time you get to all the good stuff you've got corruption so bad all you see is red.

 

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

Second game I remember planting my capital down next to three cows and a river Needless to say, I was out the gate quickly