Starting positions

[Roy P Cat]

So every now and then on the first turn you find yourself in a starting position which, lets face it, could be better. Your warrior looks around for a bit and thinks hmmmm, what are we doing here. So what do you do,before you setlle, reroll or play on for a bit, or maybe even further.

Personally I think the following are bad starting positions in Civ VI:

• A lot of tundra (except maybe for Russia)
• A lot of desert
• Not a lot of production or potential production tiles
• No amenities
• Terrain constraints: eg mountains and or coast meaning there is little room for districts.
• Being on a three tile island (happens occassionally on island plates.)

See, the thing is, some of my most enjoyable games in Civ V have been from bad starts; managing to win in different ways from along way back. I suppose I am at point where I am over rerolling Civ VI starts.

So what are the community's thoughts about what are bad starting positions, and what do you do when you have one?

 

[Victoria]

I just saw the poll first and thought, it depends on what you call bad. A 3 tile island, tundra sure
I love mountain starts so quite the opposite.
The rest I will try although low production is soul destroying even to make an army

I think my most enjoyable games have been where I have had to use my wits in other ways like high attacks at the start or tricky civs around me.

 

[greygamer]

Oh I'll play on for at least 80-100 turns. (I picked the second option)

• Moving a few tiles at the start isn't fatal. My first build is usually a scout with a food focus so that can take 10 turns so I have a few turns I can search for a better location. After a couple of turns I'll settle for okay rather than ideal. Ideal is at least 1 3f tile and 3 tiles I can get 2+ production from (including improvements). While low production is not great it can be balanced by good food production (more pop = more science) but I'll want a better production city asap.
• Amenities are critical at the start for me I usually grow to 4 in the capital and build settlers to coincide with the jump to 5. Amenities will be discovered and settle a couple of those and things will balance out pretty quickly.
• Mountains/coast is okay provided they don't take up too much of your initial 6-7 tiles. I play mainly continents so having a coastal city isn't terrible.
• I don't play much island plates, I have had some small land masses on continents but still large enough for 4-5 cities, although they haven't been great (chunks of tundra)

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

As Victoria said, depends on the definition of "bad".

• 3-tile islands or flat tundra/desert without possibility of growth are a straightforward reroll. Those are what I call "terrible", which means the challenge will be an unenjoyable struggle.
• No fresh water is what I call "bad". It's quite limiting, especially early game. I'll usually move my Settler, but if I don't reach a source of fresh water in 1-3 turns, it's a reroll.
• Flat land, coastal start or no amenities aren't terrible, and the land around might be better. Those are "meh", which means not stellar, but may be worth keep playing. Those are a situational reroll (depending also on my mood).

 

[EpicWestern]

I never reroll and never move my settler, so you never have to think about whether you have a good or bad start you're always just dealing with it. Rare and difficult starts is what makes the game interesting and replayable since there's no real campaign or multiplayer value. That said, I still prefer to see good starts which gives me a better chance to beat my fastest victory times. Grassland hills are mainly what you're hoping for, a decent amount of wheat/rice with hills is also decent.

 

[Victoria]

Lol, the other day I played a deity game with no fresh water. Its not that bad if like me you were in jungle hills. People overrate a lack of freshwater because you can pump out settlers early and stay low pop

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

Lol, the other day I played a deity game with no fresh water. Its not that bad if like me you were in jungle hills. Peopke overrate a lack of freshwater because you can pump out settlers early and stay low pop

I do not always start without fresh water, but when I do, I start in the fringes of tundra with a landscape so flat that you think you should invent tundra hockey.

 

[Esperr]

It depends on my mood. I am at the point now after 200ish hours where I mostly do role play type games so I will re-roll poor starts. I am mostly just looking for a good production start, as I still think the production levels are very slow and I hate spending the game just trying to keep up with myself.

 

[Victoria]

Agreed, in so many ways. I am an explorer / role player. I tend to set my own goals and also change game style half way through as my mood takes me.
The sad thing is you can even afford to do this to a degree on deity
Gone are the days where Deity was a hard win.

 

[Esperr]

Agreed, in so many ways. I am an explorer / role player. I tend to set my own goals and also change game style half way through as my mood takes me.
The sad thing is you can even afford to do this to a degree on deity
Gone are the days where Deity was a hard win.

I am still not sure if the A.I can actually win. Ive never seen them get past stage one in the space race, and they can never focus on tourism it seems to ever actually win that way. The closest ive seen them come is a religious victory but yes, the Deity A.I is just like any other difficulty level after turn fifty or so it seems.

Although one thing I like to do now is just play a game with all of the victory conditions turned off. Still looking for a mod however that makes teching more slow but doesn't change production times at all.

 

[Victoria]

I have been beaten by science, culture and... again ... by my own stupidity

 

[Bro]

Sure there's bad starts and I usually see how it goes on those. Then there are unplayable starts where it's just for the sake of enjoyability just better to start another game. And this again depends solely on your mood. Sometimes you want to play a challenging start and sometimes you want it to go smooth.

 

[EditorRex]

You don't always know that a start is "bad" for your intended game plan right away. Had a "great" start recently in which mountains insulated me from Barbs while I REXed early and conquered nearby Saladin quickly. Only problem was that I was all alone on that continent and my only good coastal cities turned out to be clustered in a bay that mean long movement times to reach the other main continent. By the time I swam my army across the pond, I was facing a tech lag.

 

[Forster]

Ha! A bad start is having 3 or 4 barb camps, all within 6 or 7 hexes, and two of them with horses. Of course you don't find out until you have your ass handed to you.

 

[enar]

For a bad start, I'll usually risk going on with it for at least 20-30 turns. For a terrible start, I'll re-roll (no point wasting time if it's clearly hopeless).