what's your perfect starting location?
- Thread starter Cissnei
- Start date
Mrdarklight
Warlord
Barring natural wonders, it would be:
On a hill (for production and defense)
next to a coast (so I can build ships, coastal wonders)
next to a river (for the money and defense)
next to a mountain (So I can build Macchu Picchu and an observatory)
with marble and a mineable resource nearby (for wonder production, regular production and money)
with some desert tiles with flood plains (for food and faith from the Desert Folklore pantheon)
with a balance of grassland and hills/plains (for food and production)
with whales right off the coast
with 2 or 3 wheat/deer (for food, and to make a granary better)
with 2-3 forest (for production)
with only a thin channel to the ocean (the rest being land)
On a hill (for production and defense)
next to a coast (so I can build ships, coastal wonders)
next to a river (for the money and defense)
next to a mountain (So I can build Macchu Picchu and an observatory)
with marble and a mineable resource nearby (for wonder production, regular production and money)
with some desert tiles with flood plains (for food and faith from the Desert Folklore pantheon)
with a balance of grassland and hills/plains (for food and production)
with whales right off the coast
with 2 or 3 wheat/deer (for food, and to make a granary better)
with 2-3 forest (for production)
with only a thin channel to the ocean (the rest being land)
Arachnofiend
Perturbed Pugilist
- Joined
- Oct 5, 2012
- Messages
- 1,950
Desert/river starts with a lot of hills is the best by far.
Smokeybear
Emperor
civvver
Deity
- Joined
- Apr 24, 2007
- Messages
- 5,855
Desert start on a long river so it's full of flood plains and wheat. The desert tiles should ideally be lots of hills with marble, stone and iron (I think the only desert resources besides oil). With petra and desert folklore you will dominate with a start like that.
Mrdarklight
Warlord
I like Petra under some circumstances, but since it doesn't work on flood plains, it basically only improves tiles that suck to begin with, other than desert hills. Regular desert tiles suck.
2nd and 3rd cities: Great Barrier Reef, Uluru. Some random place: El Dorado.
Capital: on a hill, surrounded by desert and some forested grassland, by a river, by a mountain, with 12+ riverside desert hills, 1 marble, 3 salt, 1 gold, 1 oasis, and 3 wheat.
If you have this save, pass it along.
Capital: on a hill, surrounded by desert and some forested grassland, by a river, by a mountain, with 12+ riverside desert hills, 1 marble, 3 salt, 1 gold, 1 oasis, and 3 wheat.
If you have this save, pass it along.
If not going with the desert template that's pretty obvious, I'd like the capitol to be
-huge span of grassland with minimal plains interspersed, dotted with cattle, a couple horses, river wheat.
-a gigantic snaky river that totally wraps around the city
-a couple hills right on that river and/or in the outlying workable area, to include the tile I founded the city on
-stone/marble on the outlying workable area
-a couple of those hills with silver/gold
This location could even, originally, have been jungle, as long as the ground underneath the jungle is grassland and not plains as also if that jungle is actually on the river.
-huge span of grassland with minimal plains interspersed, dotted with cattle, a couple horses, river wheat.
-a gigantic snaky river that totally wraps around the city
-a couple hills right on that river and/or in the outlying workable area, to include the tile I founded the city on
-stone/marble on the outlying workable area
-a couple of those hills with silver/gold
This location could even, originally, have been jungle, as long as the ground underneath the jungle is grassland and not plains as also if that jungle is actually on the river.
Unresolved
King
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2012
- Messages
- 956
Why would you want incense as a resource in your dream location? I'll stick with salt, gold and silver(mostly salt 
).
).The secondary location would be for the second city. The salt argument would be for the quickstart capitol strategy. And believe me, I understand the salt thing. I just don't like it b/c personally to me it sucks later in the game after it gives you the quick start. Also I disclaimed the traditional ideal desert start for the capitol itself. If the 2nd city, to me, was described as I described it, I would be personally 
-iest...
The OP seemed to appeal to personal preferences and not spreadsheeting everything out.
-iest...The OP seemed to appeal to personal preferences and not spreadsheeting everything out.
My perfect start is probably the same as everyone else's, as there are pretty clear advantages to some terrain and resources. I am impartial to starts with tons of flood plains or Uluru, Kailash, or Sinai nearby though - love me an easy religion. So, I will describe my favorite start ever that I rolled in a game.
I was England on a large islands map. The capital was on the coast, and had about 6 fish and 1 whales. I got a quick God of the Seas to get everything up and running quickly. Once the Lighthouse was established, the city just took off with growth and production. The city also was in a desert, with a total of about 18 desert hills in its 3 rings, a few with sheep, 3-4 gold, and about half of them were farmable, either being next to a river or lake. There were also only 1 or 2 "wasted" flat desert tiles. So I rushed up for Petra and built that. It's by far the best city I've ever had; I played the game through 3 times, once with a domination win, once with science, and once with culture. There were also some other really nice perks to the map - like that my island only had one shallow channel to access it, so until the AIs started getting the higher tier navys up my land was extremely defensible.
I was England on a large islands map. The capital was on the coast, and had about 6 fish and 1 whales. I got a quick God of the Seas to get everything up and running quickly. Once the Lighthouse was established, the city just took off with growth and production. The city also was in a desert, with a total of about 18 desert hills in its 3 rings, a few with sheep, 3-4 gold, and about half of them were farmable, either being next to a river or lake. There were also only 1 or 2 "wasted" flat desert tiles. So I rushed up for Petra and built that. It's by far the best city I've ever had; I played the game through 3 times, once with a domination win, once with science, and once with culture. There were also some other really nice perks to the map - like that my island only had one shallow channel to access it, so until the AIs started getting the higher tier navys up my land was extremely defensible.
teddybroosevelt
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2012
- Messages
- 45
a little bit of a different answer, but my perfect starting location would involve the perfect spots for my second through fourth cities located fairly close by. I've abandoned too many games due to not finding any decent terrain to plop down other cities...I hate having to send my settlers on some insanely long excursion.
Ninakoru
A deity on Emperor
Well, regular tiles are like plains near river. If you think that sucks... Not bad for filler tiles
Mrdarklight
Warlord
I'm not sure what you're getting at. Petra doesn't work on Plains tiles. If you mean regular desert tiles are like plains, they're not. The hills are good for mining, the regular desert tiles aren't good for anything.
budweiser
King of the Beers
Wheat, salt, marble.
Smokeybear
Emperor
Au contraire! They're great for placing great people on, they frequently have oil/iron/aluminum hidden under them (which when worked make excellent production tiles +Petra benefits), and if they're next to fresh water of any kind, they're better than a normal farm. Very rarely do I end a Petra game with any unutilized empty desert tiles in my 3-ring. Oh, and since I usually manage to get the +1 faith from desert tiles pantheon when I'm doing a Petra capital, those 'not good for anything' tiles also produce faith for me when utilized. Waste not, want not!
