Where/when to settle your capital?

[Feindbild]

What I've read so far is that a good start would take place on a hill, next to a mountain, river, several luxuries and ocean access. Now that won't happen each time you start a new game, so what do you do? Look for a better place and don't settle on turn 1? Just take whatever you can get to pursue your strategy immediately? What kind of tiles do you prefer to surround your city?

 

[GAGA Extrem]

I usually move my warrior to scout if any important luxury or terrain feature is nearby. If that isn't the case and the starting area looks okay (95% of the time), I'll settle on turn 1 or 2. If its really abyssmal i sometimes move 2-3 more turns, but usually I end up hitting the "restart" button. v_v

I prefer river starts and do not object to a nearby mountain for observaory, Machu Pichu and Neuschwanstein. Salt and amrble are always a cool ressources to have, but as long as I have *something*, its allright.
If I play Venice, coastal starts are a must.

 

[Scott Jegg]

Settle turn 3 at the latest I'd say, and I'd only do that if I was moving to settle somewhere on turn 2, but then noticed a better spot. Move the warrior onto hills to get a better idea of what's nearby.

You don't get amazing starts every time. Some times you will get 10 turns into a game and realise it would have been so much better if you were only a few tiles in another direction... but that's civ. Half the fun/challenge is playing the hand you're dealt.

 

[docbud]

^^I hear 'ya. I've settled my capital, and moved my warrior a few times and then saw if I had moved my settler a tile or two further away, it would have been ideal. Oh well.

 

[Miravlix]

It seems a lot of starts has marble or whatever at tile 4 from the settlers initial placement.

So sometimes you just have to load the "initial autosave" and try again.

 

[steveg700]

Of course, it can be idea to leave something for your second city to grab. Few things more annoying than realizing you settled one tile to close to a prime spot and now there's nowhere 3 tiles away that works.

 

[quantum42]

If you wait more than a turn, you can fall behind and never catch up with the AI. The AI civs seem to get better starting locations for their capitols.

 

[eldiablonoche]

I'm one of the "settle where you spawn" type people... In my experience if it looks like a poor start you usually get horses/iron which balance things out. I rarely even move the settler 1 hex but bear in mind I play at Emperor so I don't know if Immortal/Deity require more attention before settling.

 

[Halps]

I wish there was an option to reveal a larger portion of the map at startup so i can make an informed decision instead of the blind randomness we have now...

 

[Ayestes]

If I can find a spot that will give me a good early production boost (usually settling on a hill plus a resource adjacent) then I'll try to make that spot work. Mountains and Rivers are usually a priority though too.

 

[uncle bulgaria]

Usually where I spawn, will usually move the warrior before to see if there's a better spot but always found the city by turn 3 at the latest. If it's a shocker of a start I'll just restart

 

[Quineloe]

I move the warrior on a hill so I can have a good look around. If I can move my settler one hex to get a better start and still found the city in turn one, I do that.

I never restart.

 

[Hakan-i Cihan]

I wish there was an option to reveal a larger portion of the map at startup so i can make an informed decision instead of the blind randomness we have now...

There is a mod named Really Advanced Setup in which you can change the range of tiles which are visible.

 

[sonicandfffan]

If you wait more than a turn, you can fall behind and never catch up with the AI. The AI civs seem to get better starting locations for their capitols.

No it's simple statistics. If you hit restart 10 times you'll probably hit a good starting spot at least once, so it makes sense that if you are playing 10 civs at least one of them will get a good start.

It's also pretty likely that a few of the AI will get dreadful starts, but nobody actually thinks about their games based on the AI at the back of the pack, they only focus on the runaways.

 

[comatosedragon]

I wish there was an option to reveal a larger portion of the map at startup so i can make an informed decision instead of the blind randomness we have now...

This is exactly why America is a much better Civ than most people are willing to admit.

 

[njmfff]

I prefer river starts and do not object to a nearby mountain for observaory, Machu Pichu and Neuschwanstein. Salt and amrble are always a cool ressources to have, but as long as I have *something*, its allright.
If I play Venice, coastal starts are a must.

Hill, river, 2-3 hills and at least two different luxuries are my pick. If mountain is there, then it's even better, but I'll look for mountain with my second or third city.

Not sure if there's some bias for mountains with specific civs, but I don't remember I've ever seen mountains, not even close with Arabia or other "desert civs", but with Celts, there's always a mountain, sometimes even few tiles of mountains.

oh and I hate plains.

 

[bonafide11]

I think you're crazy to not settle your capital where you spawn, especially if you don't settle on your first turn. There simply is not enough information available at the initial screen to determine whether you should settle your capital so many hexes over, and the starts will never be in such bad locations that you won't have access to some valuable resources early on.

 

[Dogmouth]

No it's simple statistics. If you hit restart 10 times you'll probably hit a good starting spot at least once, so it makes sense that if you are playing 10 civs at least one of them will get a good start.

It's also pretty likely that a few of the AI will get dreadful starts, but nobody actually thinks about their games based on the AI at the back of the pack, they only focus on the runaways.

Yup, I've seen some AIs get terrible starts, but the poor fools who get these starts usually die so quickly that they're barely noticed by the player. For instance, the Aztecs in my last game started with a single marsh locked sugar and a single jungle locked spices in the third row (no rivers and no lakes). They died before making their third city.

 

[JustinianIV]

Unless I'm playing OCC, I'm usually just have my warrior move two hexes in one direction, and if I don't see something much better, I settle where they start me.

I used to try and find a better spot nearby, but it usually ended up that the computer had the best spot for me space wise.

 

[Seabastian Civ]

I think you're crazy to not settle your capital where you spawn, especially if you don't settle on your first turn. There simply is not enough information available at the initial screen to determine whether you should settle your capital so many hexes over, and the starts will never be in such bad locations that you won't have access to some valuable resources early on.

I disagree.

I'll move my settler to be on a riverside hill every chance I get. Extra hammers plus the ability to build a few more buildings (at the expense of the windmill). Unless you're going OCC, then you can always claim "nearby" hexes with other cities, assuming you really will even miss any luxuries that you can't capture with culture growth alone...