So I tried starting a game of Civ6 as China...

[King Phaedron]

It doesn't look I'll be getting anywhere... for a very long time. Map is huge Tilted Axis, Immortal.

I saved the advanced setup of leaders and victory conditions I picked.
Tried restarting, but I just get the same thing.

Is this even playable? I'd have to beeline science for embarking before I could do anything. I can't reach anything with a builder to improve it, I can't settle new cities. My only warrior might be able to find a goody hut or two, but that's about it.

Would you play it? Do you think you could win Immortal with this start?

 

[reddishrecue]

I would quit and remake. There's a very bad chance that your civilization will be as good as other civilizations.

 

[King Phaedron]

True, but the game is ultimately easy when you know what you're doing, at least in the long run. Those empty coast tiles are terrible, it's quite a lousy capital. I'd have to buy the tile where the warrior is standing, build an encampment on the other side of the mountains with my measly 2 production, and then train warriors and slings to capture an enemy city, but the lack of production would probably be too great an obstacle to overcome.

Even if it is winnable, it wouldn't be a fun game to play as China. I'd miss out on the wonder building, and probably miss getting an age of monumentality. Kind of hard to earn a golden age, when your capital is wedged between mountains and the ocean.

 

[linaker]

I think you answered your own question by saying it wouldn't be a fun game to play as China. Part of the fun for me is maximising the benefits of a civilisation's abilities and as you say, with this start it's going to be difficult to build any early wonders. Some people would like the challenge of playing from that start and winning given you are starting with one hand tied behind your back. If that has no appeal to you, reroll.

I don't know what would happen if you build two units that can't exist in the same hex in your capital. (eg if you build two slingers). Maybe one would be flung over the mountains in which case building a builder and a settler could be interesting. I would probably play it long enough to see what happens in those circumstances.

 

[King Phaedron]

This would be interesting to test. I think the second warrior would just get finished and then the game would demand that you move him to progress, but there is nowhere to move him to, so it would just freeze up. I've had something similar happen on custom maps with Archeology. You try to select the artifact and nothing happens, so you're forced to reload the turn.

Even if I got a free builder from that hut up in the north, it would just appear in the capital and have nowhere to go. I do think it would still be possible to win, even with a start that terrible, But yeah, I don't want to play it as China. If I could somehow change my civ to INCA or reroll the same map as Inca, I could just train a builder and have him make an Inca mountain tunnel.

 

[Pietato]

Only Auckland can save you.

 

[Buktu]

I guess you saved the seed as well when you saved your settings, thats why you are starting over and over on the same place again.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

Oof. Now that is a rough start. I would get exploring with your warriors and pray you do not lose them.

 

[UWHabs]

As China, probably not a very fun game to play. If you were another civ, though, it would be more interesting.

I think the best plan would be to go for grabbing a campus first - you're bound to have at least a +2, maybe a +3 or +4 spot on the other side of that mountain range. With that extra science, then you can go towards harbors and embarking. If you find a nearby civ with a coastal city, you could even try a galley rush on them! If you were playing a naval civ, the start would be a lot better. It's also a pain because there aren't even a lot of sea resources. Even with a bunch of fish or crabs nearby then you could potentially make use of some fisheries, but here they're basically only going to be 3f tiles.

 

[tedhebert]

I think you can do one of these:

1) take your saved setup, but just before relaunching, erase both the seeds... you should get a new map
2) alternatly, take that save setting and replace China with another civ that you feel might make that game an interesting challenge, and keep the seeds. I'm pretty sure you can change the civs and still get the same map

This would certainly be a challenging map with any Civ. Maybe Harald ? but the prod will always be crippling; as @Pietato mentioned, I feel only Auckland and Liang as top governor might make it

 

[hhhhhh]

This is definitely winnable. I played a deity Cree start with only two tiles (so the warrior is also trapped) on epic speed and

by turn 150 I got Kilwa Kisiwani and is leading in science with Geneva suzerain so I stopped there. I did pull consecutive Golden Ages.

Just start with sailing and your builder can move around. But don't consume it - you will need it as a scout! And get goody huts!

 

[reddishrecue]

This is definitely winnable. I played a deity Cree start with only two tiles (so the warrior is also trapped) on epic speed and View attachment 566917 by turn 150 I got Kilwa Kisiwani and is leading in science with Geneva suzerain so I stopped there. I did pull consecutive Golden Ages.

Just start with sailing and your builder can move around. But don't consume it - you will need it as a scout! And get goody huts!

That sounds fun. I had better starts than that and ended up re-rolling.

True, but the game is ultimately easy when you know what you're doing, at least in the long run. Those empty coast tiles are terrible, it's quite a lousy capital. I'd have to buy the tile where the warrior is standing, build an encampment on the other side of the mountains with my measly 2 production, and then train warriors and slings to capture an enemy city, but the lack of production would probably be too great an obstacle to overcome.

Even if it is winnable, it wouldn't be a fun game to play as China. I'd miss out on the wonder building, and probably miss getting an age of monumentality. Kind of hard to earn a golden age, when your capital is wedged between mountains and the ocean.

True, if I were to continue with such a start, I would do what UWHabs said and start with a campus next to those peaks and attack with galleys.
However, it sounds like fun conquering other civilizations early, but I would do it with civs like macedonia, egypt or maybe even Scythia because of their early UUs. Not only that but if you were in land you would have to defend from barbarians from plundering your campus.

I think the best plan would be to go for grabbing a campus first - you're bound to have at least a +2, maybe a +3 or +4 spot on the other side of that mountain range. With that extra science, then you can go towards harbors and embarking. If you find a nearby civ with a coastal city, you could even try a galley rush on them! If you were playing a naval civ, the start would be a lot better. It's also a pain because there aren't even a lot of sea resources. Even with a bunch of fish or crabs nearby then you could potentially make use of some fisheries, but here they're basically only going to be 3f tiles.

 

[iammaxhailme]

If it was a low difficulty (say, 5 or below) I'd try it just for fun.

Otherwise I'd reroll. Sure it's POSSIBLE, but more likely you'll just waste ten hours and get frustrated

 

[Lily_Lancer]

If it is standard deity I think I may have a try.

BTW instead of researching embarking you can build an encampment.

 

[hhhhhh]

This is definitely winnable. I played a deity Cree start with only two tiles (so the warrior is also trapped) on epic speed and View attachment 566917 by turn 150 I got Kilwa Kisiwani and is leading in science with Geneva suzerain so I stopped there. I did pull consecutive Golden Ages.

Just start with sailing and your builder can move around. But don't consume it - you will need it as a scout! And get goody huts!

In case someone wants to play this start, here's the turn 1 save. It was a epic speed deity game with 18 Civ on a large map iirc. I wasn't the one who set up this, someone asked on Reddit if one can win this start so I gave it a shot.