Thoughts on this Starting Position

[MrWakezilla]

Spawn

• MrWakezilla
• Jul 3, 2017

Thoughts?

So I'm playing as Russia (obviously), and I'm on Deity difficulty. This is the location I spawned at on a fractal map.

Normally I have a good feeling about whether I should move from my starting location to settle in a different spot, but in this scenario I am conflicted with what to do.

For starters I need to move my warrior, but movie North towards the plains hills will give me no sight of land past those hills, so it would be a wasted turn. On the other hand moving South also does not give me much vision, and even worse it moves me further from possibly contested land to the North which might have city states, ruins, etc.

So my first question is where would you guys move your warrior if you were in this position.

Next I need help deciding where to settle.
Of course there are few major concerns with this starting location. There is very little growth besides the wheat tile, and there is no river, so I would have troubles with housing.

In my opinion there are really only three options.

Option 1: I settle in place where I have whales in range of my borders, and I don't have to waste a turn moving.

Option 2: I move North-East 1 tile and I still settle on this turn, keep the whales, and get an extra ring of tiles to the North, which might be more promising.

Option 3: I move North and settle on one of the plains hills, which would give me two extra rings of tiles to the North, which again might be more promising. The downside is I have to waste two turns to get to those hills, and there is no guarantee there is anything better to the North.

Anyway I just thought I would share and hopefully get some opinions from you guys.

 

[KoKid90]

moving the warrior south will uncover 5 tiles and for this reason I would move there. Depending what I see next, I may move the settler so it's hard to answer the question before that step has been performed ... But let's say the warrior had already moved or if we just ignore him with this setup I would likely settle on place. Option 2 is getting you further away from the tundra forest hill and the copper that are both okay tiles for you early as you don't have much else. on top of that get Dance of the Aurora pantheon and HS south west of your city center for that sweet +6 faith bonus (or +5 not sure if the tile under the city center counts actually). But again the 2 move to the south warriors may give you something more suitable on turn 0.

 

[MrWakezilla]

moving the warrior south will uncover 5 tiles and for this reason I would move there. Depending what I see next, I may move the settler so it's hard to answer the question before that step has been performed ... But let's say the warrior had already moved or if we just ignore him with this setup I would likely settle on place. Option 2 is getting you further away from the tundra forest hill and the copper that are both okay tiles for you early as you don't have much else. on top of that get Dance of the Aurora pantheon and HS south west of your city center for that sweet +6 faith bonus (or +5 not sure if the tile under the city center counts actually). But again the 2 move to the south warriors may give you something more suitable on turn 0.

I think you have a good point about moving the warrior, but do you think there is any reason to possibly move to one of the plains hills in hope of better land? * The plains hills also give an extra production throughout the entirety of the game.

 

[Leyrann]

To be fair I think I'd go for an instant reroll...

 

[MrWakezilla]

To be fair I think I'd go for an instant reroll...

The deity AI is easy enough as it is, so I actually prefer challenging starts.

 

[KoKid90]

I think you have a good point about moving the warrior, but do you think there is any reason to possibly move to one of the plains hills in hope of better land? * The plains hills also give an extra production throughout the entirety of the game.

Well you will go up soon after with this same warrior or another unit but on turn 0 the warrior move to the south is a better move initially because you want to settle on turn 0 if possible and this is the only move making you uncover new tiles.

For the settler you are Russia so you get 1 more production and 1 faith on tundra tiles that your city can work so the tundra forest hill and the copper tile are better tiles and you want them close so that you get to work them sooner or buy the tile at a less expensive price.

 

[hal1000]

Could you upload the save? Thanks.

 

[EpicWestern]

I have a self-imposed no settler move and no reroll policy, but if I didn't I actually move the settler north-west one tile. Idea is that whales come way too late anyway, and this is a very food deprived spot so I need that wheat early on. It also allows more space for my second city which will actually come early this time. I'm a huge fan of immediate 2 slinger into archer on deity but this is one of the rare starts where I think we're isolated enough that builder first with mining is better, and maybe even setter before we start pumping a few slingers. A lot depends on the warrior scout of course.

 

[JustifierNA]

I'd be getting the heck out of there. There's no information that moving the warrior would give you that you cannot already see:

1: Your capital has only 1 visible tile to upgrade for housing (meaning 2.5 extra than base coastal if you're both upgrading that tile and building a granary), meaning you're going to be stuck at 3-4 population at one of the most critical periods of the game (while you're trying to expand) and there's no high food tiles that you can upgrade to help keep your population high enough to continually expand + get out your 3rd district
2: No river system, Meaning you're not getting gpt from building a com hub....which meaaaannss... harbors. (usually not the side of the tech tree you want to be on)
3:You're FORCED to go for a religion for either housing/food (which feed the world is really hard to get on deity games) with that horrible start, if you do not wish to migrate

If that was any civilization but Russia I'd be spending up to the next 5-6 turns getting the heck out of there
Not sure what game speed you're playing on or what difficulty but if that's deity then you're screwed and if it's not online speed I'd simply migrate to much better lands.

 

[Victoria]

I would go north west with both. then on the next turn move my warrior onto the western hill before laying my settler.

You can get good food from the sea but the production is an issue without those plains hills imo.

 

[redrum68]

I'd move northwest to the hill adjacent to the wheat as long as this is standard speed or slower. Either settle on that hill or keeping moving based on what you find.

 

[DrCron]

Settle 1 NE, for the following reasons:

1) You don't waste turns.
2) It's a decent production spot (and mining that copper gives you the eureka for the wheel), and you also keep the whales. A harbor adjacent to the city will also give you decent food. So it's a decent spot overall, despite the lack of fresh water.
3) With those hills to the north, and clearly no AI to the south, it's a very defensible position (if there's a close neighbor to the north you might get attacked around turn 15, so this spot makes for an easier war).

 

[Lily_Lancer]

North West 1 tile and settle instantly. This is the only choice I'm thinking of. I quite don't understand why you're thinking about so many unrelated options( Moreover, none of these much options includes the correct one...)

Reason: Tundra Forest Hills give very good output(1/3/1 without improvement) for Russia, all you need is to get that wheat for food, so you must settle NW1 (which is 2 tiles away from wheat instead of 3 tiles, this place also allows you to get the Tundra forest Hills.)

 

[Mahasona]

A bit late now but how did it turn out?

 

[mckinney156]

The whales are coming so late that they are a non factor. Tough start to me but settling 1NW is best. Take a crappy tile and turn it into a 2f 1 prod and you'll pick up the wheat and crabs. Russia gets hammers from tundra so prod won't be a huge issue but food will. I'd be looking for religion and fast expansion after that.