The starting location can affect the outcome of the entire game. I have restarted many games because the starting location was unfavorable. If you wait too many turns before building your capitol city, you can fall behind early, and have a harder time catching up with the AI.
One of the early Civilopedias stated up front, choosing the location of your starting city probably is the most important decision you'll make in the game. In regard to BNW I saw another argument (a complaint) that the game had become overly dependent on starting location. I find most of my starting locations are unfavorable so it's clear from the opening I'm going to be running like mad to catch the AI. (I have gotten bored with the endless repetition of endless deserts, jungles and tundra that reveal themselves to be practically hopeless within a dozen moves). I thought I had found a good map at last, lots of potential for movement, plenty of resources, and a river mouth where I could later build the Brandenburg gate for a strong naval force. The river proved to be on one of those nearly worthless inland seas. When I do come to a river mouth that would be ideal for a port city, there's a CS already there.
On a rainy Sunday, yesterday, I tried to get a favorable start for Persia - would get frustrated, bored, give up, come back later and try again. I suspect all this may be a part of the overall "slow start" strategy introduced into BNW that I think has harmed the game. It is my fervent hope the fall patch will fix this or I expect, I will be drifting away to await Civ 6.
I commented in a post the other day that I was at turn 907 and my income was stuck in the "teens." Some commented that with my small army I must be "doing something wrong." I even adapted some of their advice, micromanaging with particular care to gp income - only to find myself at turn 1,000 with two trade routes, a market in every city, a trading post on any hex not on a river and having no "bonus" resource, an income of +2, with four knights, three swordsmen, and composite bows garrisoned in each of four cities. These smaller armies when applied to other civs also lead to battles that are more like slicing through cheese, in terms of the "intensity of competition."
Second cities equally have become a drag. Previously, I liked to use my second city as my arsenal, where I would try to build Alhambra for the rough terrain bonus. Not so in BNW. A couple of days ago, limited to building my empire on desert and a combination of jungle and forest, as I selected Alhambra, I noted that it was going to require 108 turns, although my second city had been built on the best of only four mediocre locations available for satellite cities. By the time, I had built Alhambra and an armory, (huge map, marathon length) two hours had passed.
Despite this even in G&K when I checked the diplomatic screen, I'd regularly find one or two other civs way ahead of me on points. In BNW, other civs fall quickly behind, and soon enough are too far behind even to "eat my dust.
I thought those insane rushes by Oda, Bismark and Attila, at the beginnings of Civ 5 and G&K were a bit excessive but I miss the fact that they have completely gone in BNW. And yes, I have been double DoW early in BNW.
I have always played huge map and marathon so, it's obvious that I enjoy the more immersive long game. But instead of being immersive BNW feels dragged out. I have stated in previous posts that I find the elongated tech tree, that does not match the historical time line another unnecessary impediment to flow that exacerbates the sense of, "nothing happening, nothing happening, nothing happening."
I see there are some who have invested what could be called real scholarship into the game, and surely I can learn from them and I come here to do so. Though I play incessantly, I play casually, since my every day work demands intensive research. While I applaud all the advancements of BNW as real breakthroughs for the franchise, this gives rise to an oxymoron: despite the breakthroughs, I find BNW the least addictive in the series and more often than not, when I do stop playing it's because of the sheer boredom of waiting and waiting for the next significant advance.
I've started looking for the Civ alternative to keep me occupied while I await, in hope, the fall patch for BNW.