Persia - poor starting positions

[guenzak]

I was recently reading up on playing as persia and using their UA to get long golden ages. I recently went to try it out and all my starting locations seemed very poor. Lots of deserts and plains. Every time i re-loaded it seemed the same so i just went with one of them. Even tho i was able to get a 53 turn golden age with the Taj I am still way behind ceasar. It is late in the game so i was just going to shoot for a point victory by assalting them and ruining their points from cities and land. But even tho i used like 6 great scientists that i had saved up to beline right to mech infintry and upgrade my units they totally outnumber me in units. 5 muskets or mixed with a cpl riuflemen take out my mech inf really easy. I dont have enough gold to buy more units. because of the poor terrain around my city i was only getting around 70 gpt in my golden age. I had to spend most of that on maritime CS to keep the food up to feed my specialists.

Anyway, my point is, it seems that when i sarat a game as persia it is always in a very poor position as far as food goes. Even with CS food i need to build some farms to feed my pop and specialists. that, of course, cuts down on the number of TPs you can build which cuts into the gpt even in golden ages. Its like a death spiral created from a poor starting position

Has anyone else noticed the poor starting positions while playing persia os am i just being unlucky...like 30 times in a row.

 

[firecat318]

It is probably coded in the XML files for them to be biased to start near the desert. One thing you can do is turn off Start Bias in the advanced options when you setup your game.

 

[fed1943]

I just played twice with Persia and the surrondings not bad.
But I must say I think plains are good in Civ5.

 

[wurstburst]

I don't find start bias to be a huge issue. Sure it affects your capital, but the next couple of cities you settle can be wherever you like and the cities you conquer and puppet will have good sites a lot of the time.

 

[EasyGoin]

I haven't noticed poor start bias either. And if you're hauling only 70 gpt during golden age after printing press, you haven't founded or captured enough cities. The power of the golden age increases with the number of cities you have, because each receives a production bonus and your already solid income goes through the roof. If you're doing a OCC with persia (which it sounds like you are) then you aren't really going to reap the full benefit of its UA.

 

[Martin Alvito]

I don't find start bias to be a huge issue.

The land lotto makes a huge difference. You can have anything from five to eight cities pumping Colosseums at turn 50 (without Meritocracy). Where you stand depends on the dirt you got in the immediate area, which luxuries are on it, and what your capital looks like (since it pumps most of the Settlers).

Desert bias is brutal unless you draw Hills, a long river or both. Plains bias means you should gun for Animal Husbandry quickly.

 

[guenzak]

I'm not spamming cities because i am going for culture victory. So currently i have 3. Still, i have played for culture with other civs and been able to crank out a lot more than 70gpt in a golden age because the lands i started on were much better adapted for spamming TPs yet still producing enough food to keep the pop growing.

 

[Dünamünde]

Holly crap! I have never played as a Persian, and golden age x2 ability seems to be very strong ability. I am going to have to try this as a next project.