I wont restart a game until my demise comes in for the kill. I may instigate this sometimes, but in multi player, no one is going to want to restart because you dont like your spot, and it would take a lot of reloads to get it so that EVERYONE is happy. I like the online element personally.
I have had them all.
1) Desert Civ, (sucked, and got trampled when russia found me. Dead in around 1000AD)
2) Surrounded. (Everyone saw my borders first or something because I have had about 3-4 games where by the time I had 3 cities, I was surrounded by strong culture on all sides.) Died when west got pissed at east and I was a cassualty twice. Other times I lasted for a while and once managed to get land somewhere else.
3) IMO the worst is Jungle Civ. 2 times. Ivory can be found here easy but u cant use it until medevil (I know its spelled wrong) times with construction. Horses nowhere close. Iron working is ALOT more costly to research than bronze working so you can chop down trees. Not to mention you rarely will find either of these resources in the jungle.
So you spend alot of time researching the ability to cut this stuff down, while its poisoning you people (+1

) Then spend alot of time chopping it down and getting no resources for it. ( I think it would be cool if jungles provided maybe like a +10 hammers or +10 food like the forests give +45 hammers... Resources from a jungle arent worthless in real life.)
Now bring in the overgrowth factor of how rapidly the jungle grows (or has the ability to) and you find yourself not only trying to clear but having to RECLEAR tiles you just cut down, and the jungle spreading makes it harder for you to work your way out of it.
I only have quit 1 jungle Civ game because by the time I was landlocked, my whole civilization was in the toilet.
I have still yet to 'win' a game but you have interesting things happen when you are not a 'top dog' and for me it makes the game feel different with every game. I have found myself trying my but off for diplomacy, or using slavery to push my civ harder just a bit to be able to compete. It's weird but I was anti-slavery civic when I started... but sometimes it is actually a very useful stategy.

I love my people's but the ends justifies the means I guess.. after all its all pretend anyway. Unless the show 'Reboot' is real....poor binaries.
