I love to play odd starting positions that push me to get more creative.
I love to combine different religious faiths with certain wonders and place my cities smart in order to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. This goes for MP games and single player games with lower difficulty where there is a level playfield.
I think desert is one of the coolest terrains and possibly underrated. With the "Desert folklore" faith and "Petra" your capital is a dark horse capable of immence production and surprisingly high fertility, not to mention faith accumulation.
Jungle is another one. It's difficult to move through, it offers cover for invading forces, it offers no production and only enough food to be self sufficient. It ain't no Daisy. But with sacret path and a university, it's super science and culture-palooza all around. And adding trading posts with "Free Though": two food, two gold (with economics), three science and one culture totaling in eight resources for one tile, not including rivers.
Of these two i prefer the desert hands down because of the mobility and personal preference of faith over culture.
Does anyone share my sentiments? I admit that even at it's best, jungle is a doubled edged sword like anything else, you need time, workers, patience and a long term goal. You are promted to walk up the peaceful side of the tech tree wich could have unwelcome ramafications in the short term. One needs to maintain balance and a sufficient army, and the "Great wall" helps.
This is a screenshot from a Small / Large islands MP game I played earlier today as England. I started on a island with desert and rivers. I built a shrine first thing and chose "Desert folklore", then I built the "Stonehenge" to protect my faith, starving my capital to get it done. Then, with some minor deviations (writing, mining, what have you) I went for "Petra" without even finding other cities. I was behind on the scoreboard but there was no need to mark territory. After "Petra" I built two settlers, moved them in place and waited until I could finnish "National College" which took me five turns to do. Then I founded two cities in one turn. Jumped up from last to third place. London was unparrarelled. Production, fertility, faith, gold. The makings of a maritime empire. Aside from "Pogodas" and "Monastaries" missionaries converted three cities each with the "Mosque of Djenne" adding substantial income though the "Tithe" faith.
I had developed Astronomy with Navigation next (read: mass production of "Ship of the Line"). At that point everybody else quit, like people do.
Some points for the picture:
- London is eighteen but is only getting warm
- I have twelve iron nativly which admittedly is a little unusual
- 47 faith is alot on any scale
- The highlighted hex (desert hill by a river) makes three food, three production, one faith and three gold (golden age)
- A plantation of desert incense makes one food, one production, five gold, two faith and one culture.
I love to combine different religious faiths with certain wonders and place my cities smart in order to turn a disadvantage into an advantage. This goes for MP games and single player games with lower difficulty where there is a level playfield.
I think desert is one of the coolest terrains and possibly underrated. With the "Desert folklore" faith and "Petra" your capital is a dark horse capable of immence production and surprisingly high fertility, not to mention faith accumulation.
Jungle is another one. It's difficult to move through, it offers cover for invading forces, it offers no production and only enough food to be self sufficient. It ain't no Daisy. But with sacret path and a university, it's super science and culture-palooza all around. And adding trading posts with "Free Though": two food, two gold (with economics), three science and one culture totaling in eight resources for one tile, not including rivers.
Of these two i prefer the desert hands down because of the mobility and personal preference of faith over culture.
Does anyone share my sentiments? I admit that even at it's best, jungle is a doubled edged sword like anything else, you need time, workers, patience and a long term goal. You are promted to walk up the peaceful side of the tech tree wich could have unwelcome ramafications in the short term. One needs to maintain balance and a sufficient army, and the "Great wall" helps.
This is a screenshot from a Small / Large islands MP game I played earlier today as England. I started on a island with desert and rivers. I built a shrine first thing and chose "Desert folklore", then I built the "Stonehenge" to protect my faith, starving my capital to get it done. Then, with some minor deviations (writing, mining, what have you) I went for "Petra" without even finding other cities. I was behind on the scoreboard but there was no need to mark territory. After "Petra" I built two settlers, moved them in place and waited until I could finnish "National College" which took me five turns to do. Then I founded two cities in one turn. Jumped up from last to third place. London was unparrarelled. Production, fertility, faith, gold. The makings of a maritime empire. Aside from "Pogodas" and "Monastaries" missionaries converted three cities each with the "Mosque of Djenne" adding substantial income though the "Tithe" faith.
I had developed Astronomy with Navigation next (read: mass production of "Ship of the Line"). At that point everybody else quit, like people do.
Some points for the picture:
- London is eighteen but is only getting warm
- I have twelve iron nativly which admittedly is a little unusual
- 47 faith is alot on any scale
- The highlighted hex (desert hill by a river) makes three food, three production, one faith and three gold (golden age)
- A plantation of desert incense makes one food, one production, five gold, two faith and one culture.
