Whats the best civ to settle along the coast?

[WideCoast]

I guess the title says it all

And afaik coastal cities tend to be at a disadvantage in production so is there some sort of upside on all of them? Since only one of them can really benefit from all the +gold thingies on trade. Or am I just making my life harder if I want to stick on the coast?

Thanks in advance!

 

[beetle]

I think most players prefer their cap on a coast. Having a least one strong coastal city is usually advantageous, and your cap is guaranteed to be strong -- so absolutely settle on the coast if it only costs you a turn or two.

So, from that perspective, all civs are best to settle along the coast. A coastal cap is particularly important to making use of UA/UB/UU. But I think you are really asking which civs are more likely to be on the coast at the start. Venice (ugh) gets a strong advantage there, but several civs have a coastal bias. See: wikia Starting bias

 

[consentient]

Coastal cities are better because:-

- They can use cargo ships to send food on internal trade routes, and they are completely broken and OP.

- They can better reach other places with external trade routes, handy for CV

- They can build naval units which might be required to win a DomV

- They are safer from AI attack

 

[phillipwyllie]

Japan: iirc they get culture from fishing boats and their samurai can make fishing boats
Spain: even on a Pangaea map you want a trireme out sharpish
Polynesia: you want a trireme out sharpish as well.

 

[beetle]

Polynesia: you want a trireme out sharpish as well.

Can the Polynesia trireme enter ocean? With them I use scouts or warriors. Polynesia absolutely wants to get out early, but triremes cannot pop ruins or kill barb camps for CS. They need a coastal start for the UI, but being landlocked does not stop them from finding remote CS and other goodies.

 

[bigwillystyle]

Can the Polynesia trireme enter ocean? With them I use scouts or warriors. Polynesia absolutely wants to get out early, but triremes cannot pop ruins or kill barb camps for CS. They need a coastal start for the UI, but being landlocked does not stop them from finding remote CS and other goodies.

Yes, Polynesia's Trireme's can enter open ocean. I did it on DCL 10

 

[budweiser]

Carthage. End of discussion.

 

[beetle]

Yes, Polynesia's Trireme's can enter open ocean.

Good to know. Do unpromoted triremes have a better sight range than Polynesia's embarked units (which get a +1 as part of the UA)? (Polynesia is one of the civs that I never bother with triremes for.)

 

[bigwillystyle]

hmmmm. I don't know, good question!

 

[beetle]

Carthage. End of discussion.

I don't think it is that clear-cut! Carthage has a decent early naval UU, and they certainly want all the expos to be coastal (and they absolutely at least need a road to a nearby expo on the coast). But I think the civ that benefits the most from a coastal versus non-coastal start is actually the Ottomans!

 

[Wolfhound824]

Polynesia, Venice, England, Ottomans and Carthage are all great, but Polynesia is definitely best. For Venice, being on the coast is pretty much mandatory, for their UA allows for many trade routes. England, Ottomans and Carthage are great naval civs for attacking coastal cities and being competitors in the ocean. Polynesia though, has the Moai improvement, which adds culture and gold (Moai must be built on coast) and their UA allows them to cross ocean tiles from turn 1. Polynesia's civ is entirely based upon developing a coastal, cultural, and rich empire. In my opinion, Polynesia is the #1 coastal civ.

 

[budweiser]

The question is:

Whats the best civ to settle along the coast?

Most of the naval civs, including Venice can still survive if they make a city that is not coastal especially Polynesia. The civ that benefits most from going ALL coastal is Carthage.

beetle - why do they need a road?

 

[BlackWizard]

The question is:

Whats the best civ to settle along the coast?

Most of the naval civs, including Venice can still survive if they make a city that is not coastal especially Polynesia. The civ that benefits most from going ALL coastal is Carthage.

beetle - why do they need a road?

I reason is that you wont lose city conenction during war so easily. One unit near your capital cancel all city connection until it's gone. Now if you have road from capital to other city city connection wont stop so easily. Especially important when going to liberty and running low happiness

 

[beetle]

beetle - why do they need a road?

For Carthage (the civ), I would argue that the free harbors are more important for the expos than the capital. A non-coastal Carthage (the city) absolutely needs a road to a coastal expo, if Carthage (the city) is not coastal, it is not terrible.