Is this the sign of a bad player to start new games until you ''like'' your start ?

[Drawmeus]

I'm far from convinced of this, I've been stuck with tundra and an all plains start for the last... dozen plus rolls now at this point? I still have no idea what to do with plains.

Any particular civ? some bias towards plains.

 

[Harv72b]

I started up a game this afternoon, looked at my initial surroundings, and saw nothing but blank coast tiles, jungle, and marsh (with Austria, not one of the jungle-biased civs).

I don't think passing on that start makes me a bad person at all.

 

[Veneke]

Any particular civ? some bias towards plains.

Pretty much consistently England. Their bias is for an ocean start but I don't recall encountering difficulties in getting a river/grassland start before.

 

[Gliese 581]

It depends on what you're after. If you want to prove to yourself that you've mastered a difficulty level and can win it under any circumstance you obviously wouldn't reroll a bad start.

Sometimes I want to play that way and sometimes I'm looking for something particular and might reroll. I also sometimes reroll a start that is too good. For example in one recent game I drew Arabia and got a desert start with a huge flood plains river a wheat a marble and 4 gold. I scrapped that one since it would be like playing two difficulties below my setting.

 

[Flaviusx]

The religion system has gone a long ways towards reducing abysmal starting areas and I don't reroll as much nowadays. Marginal terrain such as tundra and desert can become quite good thanks to religion, and Petra makes desert tiles outstanding. Luxuries seem much more common in the G&K maps, too. There's more natural wonders popping up now, as often as not a faith based wonder is nearby the starting location.

I rarely get a completely bad start between these things. But sometimes you really get a stinker despite all that...and there's no shame in rerolling.

 

[bhavv]

OMG your second city placement just to get the faith bonus from the Natural Wonder

Its a 5th unimportant city for that bonus, just that I settled it first, its really nice. I still have very strong locations for my main cities, and the gold, fish and wheat tile in the natural wonder city can still be used to grow it to a decent size.

Oh right, it actually has two fish, but the top fish is reserved for a 2 fish / 2 gold / wheat / salt / deer city

 

[Brichals]

I often restart because I decide which way I want to play (kind of roleplaying and also tactical) before I start the game. e.g. Montezuma next to no lakes, reroll.

But when I fix favourable conditions like this I will play a level higher than normal (immortal in vanilla). This allows me to get a good start and get into an immortal game, which is more fun than king/emperor because the AI is just more dynamic (better trades, more exciting wars, better tech race etc.).

Getting hooked on rerolling makes you miserable though because you can rage quit over missing a goody hut, whilst you have eldorado and cerro de potosi in the fog.

 

[Vidszhite]

I didn't think it was possible to have a bad start in Civ 5, your first settler always start a great spot for yoru capitol. Previous Civ games were terrible for starting you in the middle of huge deserts or jungles, I'm so glad they changed that...I hated having to restart multiple times.

My last start with Atilla started me off in the middle of a dense jungle with nothing but hills everywhere. I tried to ride out the start until I could take advantage of it with Universities, but that was a useless waste.

There's no dishonor in rerolling because of a bad start, especially on high difficulties. The AI can just run away with the game if they get too far ahead, so if you know you're going to lose anyway, you might as well try again.

 

[Volapyk]

I must admit I reroll a lot, though always on the first turn, once I commite myself to a game I tend to try and play it through. Mostly the rerolls are because I enter a game with a certain strategy in mind I want to try out to the fullest. For example trying to get some insane science going with a fast NC and maybe even the GL I would re-roll till I got a start with some decent production. Or maybe a game with India where I'm trying to get as tall as possible I would re-roll if I didn't have decent growth, as in river side grassland or a decent amount of resources. In a recent game in G&K I wanted to see how powerful you could make a desert start, both with Desert Folklore and the Petra, so took a few re-rolls to get a desert start.

 

[Esoteric Arcane]

Civ 5 does try to give whatever the nation is a good start for it, however it can still fail at times. I was placed in the middle of a desert. First city wasn't TOO bad of a site, but it made placing other cities more challenging. Sure one doesn't need as many cities now, but sometimes building them to far apart just looses its appeal. I did try to play it, but normally it would be a map I'd reroll. Rerolling tends to be a sign of an experienced player.

 

[CYZ]

It's all so relative. What do you consider good and what do you consider bad? Also, a start you 'like' may be different from a start somebody else 'likes'.

Some players consider it a challenge to keep playing, even with a particulary bad start. I think with religion you are more able to let your surroundings work for you though. What used to be a bad start (like desert) can be turned into something really good now.

Personally I like most of my starting positions. I will reroll if I don't but that's actually often because it's too good of a start If I get a big advantage it becomes too easy...

 

[SammyKhalifa]

I don't know about rolling for a "good" start, but often they just look boring and I'll look for something else.

 

[smallfish]

I usually restart if I end up on a landmass on my own. Takes half the fun out of the game.

Come now, that's why we have civs like the Danes. They are explicitly made for isolated lonely island starts, because who would ever expect six Berserkers and three trebs and a bunch of frigates/privateers to storm out of the blue fog, with pillage and loot in mind...

 

[SlithyTove]

Unless I am making a go at Deity I usually try and make things work. Climbing out of a bad start can be very rewarding.

90% of the time if I re-roll its because I end up with a start that takes the fun out of what I was trying. For example Rome with no Iron, Mongols with no horses, Celts with no forest. Still winnable, but missing the flavor.

 

[machival]

Is this the sign of a bad player to start new games until you like your start?

Yes. A good player doesn't restart until he gets 4 luxuries, river, mountain the like. He plays even in unforested tundra and wins.

 

[Putmalk]

My question is who the hell cares if you're a good player or not in a singleplayer game? O_O

 

[duxup]

Who am I to judge how other folks play their single player game?

I find my first city is usually in a good spot to start. Or at least workable.

However, I have had many games where I explore out and... jack squat. My favorite are the maybe two ok spots for my first and second city and then MASSIVE DESERT and on the other side of the desert... opponents already perched

Also as others said I might reroll if I can't use any of my civ's unique abilities, that's no fun.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I only reroll if I find myself on a landlocked ocean as a naval power. That's annoying.

 

[Light Cleric]

It depends on my difficulty, I'll usually stick with my starting location, but if I'm stuck between tundra and desert with one strip of grasslands with no river and one Spice on a marsh on Deity, sorry, throwing it out. Usually I'll scout for a few turns and see if there's a reasonable capital location before I toss the game, though.

 

[Kabloosh]

Its hard to judge if its a bad spot or not cause strategic resources are also very important and if you explore a little further there might be a lot of luxury resources around and you might be rather secluded allowing you to expand and build up.

I'm a sucker for coast line though. I like using naval units a lot.