Favorite place to start on Earth Map

[Civking5]

Yes, i tried playing as japan before. I tried this before G&k and it was a great game. With G&k should be even better. Keep in mind u will need a strong combined army (sea, air, land) to protect the islands.

 

[Sidor1982]

My opinions are based on 4 - 8 player maps. As with larger maps the spawning locations in Americas might not be isolated. Earth map is my favourite to play, therefore a rather complex description.

North America - best when going for a non militaristic games (cultural, scientific builds), where you don't need to build an army.

South America - very poor production, the isolation and a lot of science from jungles once you build uniwersities don't compensate for the lack of any production tiles and early trading possibilities.

West Africa - the best spawning location for most games. Only one front to defend until AI's get to Astronomy, easy expansion, trading possibilities, lots of resources.

East Africa and Europe are similarly good. However your capitol is closer to enemies than when starting in West Africa and it is more difficult to defend early rushes.

South East Asia - one of worst spawning locations, poor production, usually enemies coming from north and west. Only good thing from this location is the possibility of expansion to Australia where no AI's go in the early game.

East Asia - not the best due to lack of luxury resources and lots of tundra and desert tiles. However easy to defend.

Central Asia/Indian Peninsula - by far the worst spawning locations. Right in the middle of everyones "coveted" territory. Expect a multifront attack around turn 50 - 70. No expansion possibilities (unless you want to found a city right next to enemy borders). Limited trading options, peaceful strategies not possible (emperor and higher).

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

South America is interesting at first (usually tons of dye resources), until you realize that it's basically going to be lots of slogging through jungle and playing whack-a-barb until Astronomy. At that point, you have to hope that the rest of the world hasn't been getting along and signing research agreements willy-nilly, leaving you in a backwater. Also, city states always seem to take the best spots in South America.

i actually like some jungle starts. and now that i think about it, i remember a CS always being at the bottleneck to North America. i never liked that as I wanted to settle that bottleneck and didnt want to attack a CS to get it. Maybe I'll give it another go. I'd like a southern Canada coastal start with lots of forests. ive never used the settings that give you an accurate start location so Asia was it every time. Maybe Hiawatha with an accurate starting location.

 

[ShuShu62]

South America is interesting at first (usually tons of dye resources), until you realize that it's basically going to be lots of slogging through jungle and playing whack-a-barb until Astronomy...

I used to think the Amazon was the kiss of death, until I tried playing an Amazon specific strategy (Emperor, Vanilla)

1) Found on hills exclusively (else you can build nothing)
2) Beeline Universities
3) Spam cities
4) Trade post the jungle

an unintended consequence of the amazon university strategy is you end up rolling in gold and do not need it for a military.

5) Buy production buildings (and buildings in general)
6) Ally all your city states
7) Connect capital with harbors (not roads)
8) Liberty Policy tree
9) Commerce +3 port city production policy
10) Freedom Specialist policies
11) Rationalism Policy Tree

colonize any and every island
only build naval troops as needed
Trade with american neighbors until you are able to circumnavigate

Once I made contact with the rest of the world, I was in second place in tech (behind my American neighbor). Closing the rationalism tree closed out the space race.

 

[joncnunn]

#4 doesn't work as well in G&K: Trade posts pushed back to Guilds

 

[Seabastian Civ]

#4 doesn't work as well in G&K: Trade posts pushed back to Guilds

Yep, jungle starts are much tougher in G&K in general. TP being pushed back is really tough to overcome, jungles->farms take forever, and production is crippled. Sacred path eases the pain slightly, and messenger of the gods is solid if you can get up and running quickly, but Amazon is one of my least favorite starts.