Favorite Civ with optimal conditions

LOL, I actually set up a similar game situation using the really advanced set up mod. Had to go back and reconfigure though because Spain does not get any gold for Wonders that are within view at the outset. So I put the best one in the first ring and moved the rest to within early scout distance and since I was using really advanced set up I went ahead and gave myself two starting scouts.

The best start ever would be:

Spain + 15 natural wonders within the starting three hexes, plus all of the AIs have a three tile tundra island start
 
Do yourself a favor and go ahead and set that "number of wonders" slider allllll the way to fifty. :)

Which mods would you recommend for advanced setup?

I know the name sounds confusing the way I used it, but the name of the mod is "really advanced setup" by General Tso, who you will occasionally see here on the forums. It's a very fun mod, since you control a lot of map script options but, unlike ige (which is also outstanding) you don't have to peak at the map.
 
Inca on highlands is a lot of fun. That's my go-to setup when I have lost on deity. I like to watch the other civs squirm and stagnate while I work my +7 food terrace farms. War is just a blast in hills as the inca.

France deserves a mention: with the abundant resources start, you seem to have a lot of chateau options. I don't know for a fact that abundant resources actually increases the number of luxes you have, but it seems to.
 
Modded Spain with loads of natural wonders sounds a bit like giving yourself an unfair advantage if I'm honest!!
 
Yeah, the OP was "optimal conditions" not "impossibly overpowered starts".
 
You don't need a cooked map for a great Spain start. The very first time I ever played Spain, the first map I rolled gave me Lake Victoria and Mt. Kailash within 10 spaces of my Capitol and Kilimanjaro a bit further away but isolated from any of my neighbors and in a spot I could easily settle. Then Mt. Fuji was on an uninhabited island I could settle quickly after getting Astronomy. That was an insanely great map setup.
 
That map also had a great expo site with SIX horses and four cattle within three rings. I had never seen that before.
 
Believe it or not, I've never tried Spain - I always thought that the chances of getting a natural wonder were not so great. But after reading some of these comments, I might give them a try!
 
I play large maps, usually. Seems like there is at least one wonder within settling distance about half the time. Sometimes two. The issue is that it's not always the greatest wonder. Old Faithful is kinda meh. But if you get a really good one like Lake Victoria or King Solomon's Mine, it is a pretty fantastic effect. Getting two really makes the UA worth it. You may have to re-roll if you don't get lucky.
 
Even on small. On a recent MP game (small/quick), I rolled a Poland start that the land was rather mediocre for but I managed to find all 4 natural wonders first because I was right in the center of the continent. I settled all four but all game I wished I'd rolled Spain because the start would've been ridiculous. I mean on quick speed, and I think standard too but I'm not sure, the 500 gold from the wonder is enough to immediately purchase a settler. Then because you found the wonder first, you can normally immediately settle it. So finding 4 with Spain means 2000 gold, 1480 of which are spent on 4 settlers, leaving you 520 with which you could buy a fifth settler and an archer, or a worker and two archers, or two archers and a spearman... The Spain bonus is obviously ridiculous. But even finding one wonder first is extremely OP, way past even optimal, and I find that Spain is typically able to find at least one first. This is why in most non-random multiplayer games, Spain is banned. The bonus is just too sizeable and it removes any possibility of competition.
 
I wasn't under the impression that Spain was considered OP. Or is that just for multiplayer? The problem is that their UA is virtually worthless under some conditions and only a little better on some others. If you get an unlucky start with no nearby wonders and get beat to all of them, you get nothing. If none are in a place you can settle, you get almost nothing. For island maps, you might not get anything until after Astronomy, and even then there are no guarantees.
 
I find that even if you don't find them first, Spain can usually manage to grab a couple Natural Wonders, and the double yield can be very, very nice...especially if you got the One with Nature pantheon (that gives Spain +8 fpt, in addition to the doubled normal yeild)

You do realize that Spain's UA works even if you didn't found the city that has the NW, right? Everyone else grabbed up the NWs? So conquer those cities... CS grabbed the NW? Don't conquer the CS, just settle close by and use a general to take it (it will cost you a bit of influence, but I find it WELL worth it...)

Crus8r
 
Even old faithful isn't too bad in the stone age. It's like having a free academy early game, which is pretty awesome. Otherwise it is indeed pretty bad though.

Spawn beside great barrier reef is probably the best start because there's always two of them and with the bonus each reef is 4 food, 2 gold, 4 science and some culture.

Re above: Spain is OP only sometimes. It's kind of a gambler's civ because you could get no NWs at all. Conquistadors are great because you can always have a war, then use your excess knights after winning to start some colonies on out of the way places that have some good luxes or resources.

It's not as reliably good as many of the other good civs.
 
You can obviously conquer cities next to natural wonders, but that isn't nearly as useful as settling in them early, when the bonuses make the most difference. If you are aready strong enough to conquer natural wonder sites without major repercussions, the game is pretty well decided.
 
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