Strange Start, Any Tips?

[Wyvernjack]

I just spawned this strange start, anyone have ideas on how to play this out?

 

[StrategeryBush]

I know what I'd do. But telling you to give up and re roll is probably not what you want to hear.

 

[Bolddrengen]

Hmm, scout the area to the the west, and see where it goes. Looks "okey" to me, you will have a GREAT GP farm at Nidros, the capitol can most lilkely be moved more "inside", this is indeed hard, but I think you will be able to survive, if there's more AI's the the west, you might have to Block some land, anyways, hard to tell, before you have scoutet more

What's the difficulity, this start look rather fun if you have save

 

[OmgItsSpam]

Hmmm isn't this kinda like...
the actual vikings?
Farmers of a colder climate....needed more room to grow so they raided south
You could probably do that?

What's the map type?
If it's like continents or something then you could start with GLighthouse/coastal economy
and gear up for massive sea warfare?

 

[Andii]

TBH this is definitely reroll IMO. If you are pushing your hardest difficulty with will probably get smoked with this setup. Maintenance costs will be insane and you won't be able to leverage the strong culture your capital develops as effectively.

I've seen this kind of start before, but I rerolled it. I've also tried to play them before, but thats why I know to reroll now.

 

[Sleepless]

Still a little bit early to say as I would need to see the land in the West more. What I would probably do is go for a galley/settler. Settle on the hill to the North of the cow and expand from there. Being financial just working coastal tiles is not the worse thing in the world. Especially if you can get a lighthouse up but they would be more filler cities for later.

 

[futurehermit]

EDIT: Actually, #1 is DON'T GIVE UP

1) GLH is a must
2) Secure at least 6 cities
3) With marble and all that food definitely prioritize GL/NE in your capital
4) If you have trading partners, bulb through liberalism+ and backfill tech
4b) If you don't have trading partners then I would settle your great people
5) Consider additional marble wonders

In situations like this where horizontal expansion is not great look for other advantages. You are coastal with coastal sites nearby meaning the GLH is very powerful, regardless of your actual cities' strength. You have marble and a high food capital meaning GL/NE and caste system/pacificism will see you through into the renaissance on the strength of your capital alone.

In the long run, I see you likely settling down for a space victory, depending on the larger land available, opponents, etc.

 

[dirtyparrot]

I agree with Futurehermit. The GLH (and if possible the Colossus) are items to get on this map. If the interior of the land mass looks like garbage then definitely settle on the coast as much as possible. Ragnar is financial, so that will come in handy. I would eventually move the capital too as you have a pretty sweet GP farm there. But, you'll need to explore more to have a better idea of the best course of action. Good luck

 

[ABigCivFan]

If this is lower than Immortal:

Get BW to reveal copper. copper allows Berserkers
GLH
Oracle->Metal Casting (Marble)
Forge->Colosus (copper)
Moai in capital
Temple of Artimis (Marble)
Explore more and expand west
Great Library/National Epic (Marble)
Bulb through Education

This def can be a super powerful Capital with wonders/trade routes.

 

[Wyvernjack]

I definitely was inclined to reroll at first, but I like interesting terrain in this game, and this is definitely one of the more interesting terrain setups. I think I'll take FH's advice and work towards GLH and a strong trade-route economy. I'll throw some updates up as I progress.

FYI, the map specs are Prince, Epic, Archipelago with Medium Seas and Snaky Continents.

Attached is the save game, for any who would like to play this one out. Please avoid posting spoilers outside of spoiler tags.

 

[michmbk]

The save attached was at 3600 BC...but what the hey, I'll shadow a bit.

 

[Wyvernjack]

The save attached was at 3600 BC...but what the hey, I'll shadow a bit.

Right, I don't have the initial save, sorry about that.

 

[Foamy7]

Ouch!

First, the negative aspects :

1. Ouch!

Now, the positives:

1. You don't need to worry about close border tensions for a while
2. Financial will be key, coastal powerhouse on the arch map!
3. That is a really strong capital site.
4. This will be a truly memorable game when you win

Best of luck!

 

[Wyvernjack]

So I've been playing this out following the advice of FH and CivFan, and have reached a decision point where I thought I'd stop, share, and ask for advice. In spoiler tags for any who are playing along. Date is 470BC.

Spoiler :

Built out capital and grabbed GLH, Oracle (for MC), and a Forge. Missed ToA, someone else completed before I even got it started. Now working on Library while copper is brought online to save on Colossus.

Second city 1N of Cows, grabbed the gold to help with economy, has allowed me to run 80% + the whole game thus far. This city will be hard pressed to get large, as its definitely food poor. Also, I never know exactly how to improve terrain like that around this city. Plains tiles on rivers scream watermill to me, especially since its a food poor territory; do I just wait it out in this city until I can build them, accepting its small pop and low yield until later in the game?

Third city grabbed closest copper. Could have gone for the inland copper and a nicer city, but this spot seemed closer. Now that I look back on it, I wonder why I didn't go for the inland copper. Mistake?

Current plan is to get the copper online, bang out the Colossus, and work on expansion. Somewhere amidst the REX, pop out the GL/NE.

Diplomacy wise, we have Pacal down there in the corner chugging away, so I'm not entirely isolated. I'm sure with more coastline exploration I'll be meeting other civs.

I've dotmapped the land the best I can. Please offer critiques, as I feel this is one of the weak points in my game. I'm stumped about what to do with the NE portion of the island, as it is SO food poor, same with the Northlands and NW of the capital. Any advice is definitely welcome.




The real reason I stopped playing was due to my first GP, a merchant, nice. It was a toss up between a merchant and a prophet, so I was a bit worried I'd be stuck settling a prophet. But how do I use this wonderful merchant? I could settle him for the game-long +6 to gold and +1 to food, something that's quite appealing given the low food availability for both of my newest cities. I could also use him to light bulb Code of Laws right now, giving me courthouses faster to make the upcoming REX less painful with my oddly placed capital, and letting me run Caste System and go nuts with my GPF. The problem with CS now is I would miss out on the benefits of Slavery for the upcoming REX and much needed military buildup. Heres a look at the current tech situation.



So what are your thoughts? Do I settle him or light bulb?

 

[michmbk]

It is kind of a tough game for awhile - considering this is on prince, looks pretty bad so far. I played along until about 700 AD, and I'm almost embarrassed to post this...but it's about to turn in a major way, especially now that I just finished the first cottage of my entire empire - look out!

Spoiler :

Took the approach of rex out like a madman, which presumably will pay off later, but sure looks bad now.

Got a quick settler out before the obvious path and settled close:

And, duh...

Then built tons of settlers, some workers, and waited for this guy to help:

Pacal only appears to know me, so he wouldn't trade a thing, until FINALLY, I get him to friendly after gifting him marble for awhile. Instant tech trading:

And state of the world - 12 cities, about to be 13 when my axes arrive at the barb city, and probably 1-2 more to drop in. Tech rate sucked for a long time, but is about to skyrocket as I get courthouses, libraries, universities in, so I presume this empire will jump ahead of the AI pretty soon.

Getting CS, as I'm in process of moving my capital to the center of the map, and to my cottage city, and then heading to astro to meet others and blow them out via trade routes and tech trades. Nidaros then becomes a fantastic GP farm. Definitely feels a level or so tougher initially, as it wasn't easy to expand this quickly with the lack of hammers initially, and the lack of great city sites, but all the coastal cities will pay off big time at astro, and I'm sure this is about to turn into a rout.

 

[michmbk]

On the merchant...my view is settle - that's what I did. 6 gold per turn is great - gets even better with multipliers. I rarely if ever bulb with a merchant. Alternative is a galley - trade mission with Pacal, but I wouldn't bother personally.

 

[Malician]

Yeah, it's hard to get started and the maintenance costs are horrible. It's very rewarding once you get going.. need more torque =)

Here's me at 295 AD:

Apologies that the pictures are so big. I was cutting out just the monitor civ4 is on before but it's a huge pain (take screenshot. open paint. paste into paint. select out civ4, trying to scroll around so you can select what you need of the image. copy that into another copy of paint. save, upload, etc..)

Spoiler :

It was hard to decide between making settlers/warriors in Nidaros for continent expanding, building the city up (trading post, granary, library), and going for wonders. I've gotten a start on the continent but a random event destroyed two hamlets ><

Nidaros has turned into a powerhouse now, with GLH, Great Library, Parthenon, and Moai Statues finished, National Epic almost done.

I haven't moved my capital yet because it could be a monster with Bureacracy.. The sheer number of plains everywhere mean Birka and Roskilde are the only two cottageable cities, and Roskilde was just built. I *am* building courthouses everywhere, since my tech rate is collapsing.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Always was a fan of playing crappy starts. I'll take a break from immortal to give this a shadow.

Edit: or not, no BUG for me.

 

[Malician]

Always was a fan of playing crappy starts. I'll take a break from immortal to give this a shadow.

Edit: or not, no BUG for me.

I installed it as a mod. Seems to work well.

 

[Wyvernjack]

I installed it as a mod. Seems to work well.

Yes, thats how I do it. Very easy to install as a mod.

So...settle the merchant? I mean normally I would say yes, definitely settle (unless a trade mission was needed for $$), but grabbing COL early and building early courthouses seems like a big advantage.