Most Boring Starting Location Ever

[krc]

As part of a (probably misguided but eventually successful) quest to get the "Ruler of the Seas" achievement, I have now played several games in a row as England. The fact that they (almost) never seem to have any iron anywhere near them (and iron is required for the unique ship-of-the-line unit) is mildly annoying.

But one of the games I played ending up being incredibly boring because of the starting location. I was playing standard size with small continents. I spawned on a land mass with one city-state and no AI civilizations. The coastal hexes around this land mass did not connect to any other land mass. As a result, I was alone in the world until I could construct caravels.

This fact alone pretty much negates both the English unique ability (unless you like seeing your triremes circle your small continent at a high rate of speed) and their unique longbowman unit (which isn't terribly useful as an invading force that late in the game).

My starting land mass contained no iron. When my caravels had explored and found all of the city-states, only one of them had a 2-spot of iron. This fact made it impossible to take advantage of their other UU.

My continent also contained 0 oil, 0 aluminum, and 0 uranium. It did contain one tile with coal (which I had to purchase in order to get it and mine it before the CS did). At least this allowed me to build factories in all of my cities.

Except for reducing two barbarian camps during the early game, none of my troops ever had any combat experience. I was never DOWed. Everyone remained friendly with me. But there was absolutely nothing to do, except sign RAs and eventually build a spaceship.

Hence the topic of this thread. And the challenge: has anyone ever had a more boring starting position?

 

[Steelyglint]

I had this, except there was no city state and there were two islands not a small continent. ^^

 

[Atlas627]

In a multiplayer game with friends, I got a tiny southern continent all to myself. How did I know it was Southern? More than half (the bottom half) was snow or tundra. The rest was desert. And the only good spot to settle other than my capital (which wasnt on the coast and just had a nice river) was taken up by a city state.

Sat around for a long time before my friends agreed to restart. They all had pretty starts

 

[Pouakai]

I haven't but in the funny screenshots topic I saw someone playing as England spawn on an One Tile island with a terrain of snow, their warrior was on a nearby continent.

 

[Haig]

krc, you should have used the opportunity to play a "historical" british empire game, you have your own island and you create a colonial empire:
Dominate fully another empire (think British India) and create many dominions (allied city-states) and if someone gets upset, send your navy and royal marines.

 

[Glassmage]

indeed, playing TSL map like Gedemon map force you to build a few cities in limited starting location and you have to get to Astronomy quick to go to other continents while trying to defend yourself from AI's and make alliance and denounce people strategically. There will be less resources but with Abundant turned on you will be okay.

 

[mutant-enemy]

krc, you should have used the opportunity to play a "historical" british empire game, you have your own island and you create a colonial empire:

When was the british empire ever completely isolated like he was? Romans -> Saxons, Anglons, Jutes -> Skandinavians -> Normans...

 

[Horizons]

Pics or it didn't happen.

 

[ShahJahanII]

Pics or it didn't happen.

Pics would be nice.

 

[krc]

Pics would be nice.

I don't have any of the saved games, but do have a screenshot (taken because I thought there might be skeptics...) from just before the science victory:

You can (mostly) tell that the coastal hexes do not connect to any of the other land masses. The coal to the north of York was the only (non-horse) strategic resource on the land mass. The oil icon points off shore to a tile that the CS might eventually claim.... All of my troops are visible in the screenshot. The ship-of-the-line to the east uses one iron, and there is one more available from the 2-spot I got from an alliance with the only CS that had iron. (I do not have screenshots showing all of the CS locations.) The available oil and aluminum comes from other CS allies. You can also see the spaceship engine sitting in London about to be added to complete the science victory.

I also do not have a screenshot showing the absence of uranium . After completing the spaceship, I switched research to atomic theory and played enough turns to confirm its absence, but forgot to take a screenshot.

 

[HammerandSickle]

Wow. I got something almost exactly the same. I was England. I met two city-states, one on a tiny island nearby. I had a lot of iron, though, but rarely used them. My entire army at the time of the victory (my earliest science victory, as far as I can remember) was a spearman in London, a longbowman in Nottingham, and several destroyers. Nobody ever declared war at me, and I signed research agreements like mad.

It wasn't THAT boring for me.

 

[Smokeybear]

I don't have any of the saved games, but do have a screenshot (taken because I thought there might be skeptics...) from just before the science victory:

You can (mostly) tell that the coastal hexes do not connect to any of the other land masses. The coal to the north of York was the only (non-horse) strategic resource on the land mass. The oil icon points off shore to a tile that the CS might eventually claim.... All of my troops are visible in the screenshot. The ship-of-the-line to the east uses one iron, and there is one more available from the 2-spot I got from an alliance with the only CS that had iron. (I do not have screenshots showing all of the CS locations.) The available oil and aluminum comes from other CS allies. You can also see the spaceship engine sitting in London about to be added to complete the science victory.

I also do not have a screenshot showing the absence of uranium . After completing the spaceship, I switched research to atomic theory and played enough turns to confirm its absence, but forgot to take a screenshot.

Looks like my most perfectest dream of a science/culture game start. Usually get a start in the wide-open, indefensible middle of a continent somewhere, surrounded by monty, alex, and elizabeth (hell scenario). I should ever be so lucky as you.

 

[krc]

Looks like my most perfectest dream of a science/culture game start. Usually get a start in the wide-open, indefensible middle of a continent somewhere, surrounded by monty, alex, and elizabeth (hell scenario). I should ever be so lucky as you.

But England has no unique abilities or units that would contribute to a science or culture game. I chose to play England with the idea that the extra naval movement (for embarked troops as well as ships) would facilitate naval invasions, using SoTL to first take out any naval units in the way, and then to bombard enemy cities and land units when the invasion commences. And (even when going for science or culture victories) I think it's more ... interesting ... if you have to at least fight an occasional defensive war or two.

 

[Smokeybear]

But England has no unique abilities or units that would contribute to a science or culture game. I chose to play England with the idea that the extra naval movement (for embarked troops as well as ships) would facilitate naval invasions, using SoTL to first take out any naval units in the way, and then to bombard enemy cities and land units when the invasion commences. And (even when going for science or culture victories) I think it's more ... interesting ... if you have to at least fight an occasional defensive war or two.

Probably so. But I've won science victories with England before. Any civ can do fine at any victory condition, some are just a bit faster at it due to unique advantages. Not having the best science or cultural civ doesn't preclude winning that way.

 

[krc]

Probably so. But I've won science victories with England before. Any civ can do fine at any victory condition, some are just a bit faster at it due to unique advantages. Not having the best science or cultural civ doesn't preclude winning that way.

I agree. (And I obviously adapted to the situation and went for the science victory.) However, I went into the game expecting to use the unique attributes of England for something, and found it rather boring that none of them were ever useful for anything with this starting position.

 

[Smokeybear]

I agree. (And I obviously adapted to the situation and went for the science victory.) However, I went into the game expecting to use the unique attributes of England for something, and found it rather boring that none of them were ever useful for anything with this starting position.

Hehe... in CiV, as in life, 'stuff' happens

Weirdness in this game is the norm, not the exception, in my experience.

 

[hix]

Gotta push for the use of the Strategic Balance setting here. Island or small continent games especially.

I avoided it in the past, thinking it would take the fun of suprise away, but I find just having guaranteed 6 iron and 4 horses in my capital makes for both less frustration and more fun overall.

In a game like this where one resource (iron) is such a mandatory element, (especially when I play on Deity) I now play more than most other settings.

Sorry for the thread hijack, but SB rules!