Wait to found a capital?

[DWilson]

I'm just curious about how many turns you might be willing to wait before founding a capital to get a better start location?

Usually I'll go first turn, but sometimes you see golden positions a turn or two away. And if I play as Venice, which I find is one of my new favorites (even though I wasn't keen on the idea to start), then that starting spot is ten times more important and it's usually worth considering.

Not to mention the Polynesia Terra slingshot, which can be really fun at times. (Sailing the original settler to the new continent, then setting up an empire before anyone else can come and compete). That's a bit extreme, though, as the offset to that is a ~15 turn wait

 

[Smote]

2 turns

 

[yasinbin]

depend....if i start in a bad location ( no lux,production) , Iif i'm playing on kings, I will wait 4-5 turn to find a better location.

 

[z284pwr]

depend....if i start in a bad location ( no lux,production) , Iif i'm playing on kings, I will wait 4-5 turn to find a better location.

This.

Difficulty and skill level can play a big roll in this as well. A pretty good player on King and below could easily wait 4-5 turns and still steam roll the AI pretty easily.

 

[Walter R]

I'm with Smote - any more and it's time to re-roll for me. Recent games have seen me take one turn to move because where possible I found on a hill.

 

[TractorBoy]

Playing Epic or Marathon I often go walkabout looking for a hill next to a river and mountain, if you go far enough (3/4 turns) you may even be lucky enough to start with a Natural Wonder within your borders. Several times I have picked up the Great Barrier Reef pairing.

 

[Santa Maria]

I believe waiting up to 5 turns is playable. You are 5 turns behind and they are not very good at taking adv of it. You will catch up. The starting location is for 250 turns so it easily pays off the 5 turns. I dont know but waiting for 2-3 turns is ok even on Deity.

 

[Firesmacker]

I'll only do it if I know for a fact that there is a better spot close by. I don't go wandering around hoping to find a better spot.

 

[Dogmouth]

I tend to play Epic, so 3-4 turns is no big deal.

Does anyone else notice that you tend to get more culture ruins if you settle after hitting a ruin? It seems like almost 50% (on immortal, if difficulty matters) of pre-settling ruins are culture, although that could be my imagination.

 

[EK834]

I've gone around 10-12 on King/Marathon without major impact (I'm overpowered on King). If I find nothing interesting I might restart and build it at my start point after all.

On Emperor I'm far less good and won't go more than 6 turns of Marathon before restarting (with the same map a the initial turn, I rarely change my map unless the start spot and its surroundings are just plain awful).