Worst Start in Civ?

[phos_hilaron]

A friend of mine sent this to me today:

http://kotaku.com/this-is-surely-th..._source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

It's worth checking out. It's pretty bad as starts go. But three crabs can't be that bad? Right? ...and Marble...with...all those hills?

 

[Thereon]

It's not bad at all

 

[AW Arcaeca]

It's a terrible start! You wouldn't be able to do anything until Optics!

 

[ggmoyang]

I want the initial save!

 

[MantaRevan]

I've seen worse, but it's pretty darn bad. Sure, there's marble and potential for God of the Sea, but you're screwed otherwise.

 

[Zaldrizes]

Otherwise known as "The Deadliest Catch" scenario.

 

[Gyra Solune]

It's...definitely an odd one. On one hand, absolutely immune to taking your capital by land, and since the AI sucks at naval combat, functionally immune to taking your capital at all. Plus that's a pretty good start for going into Sailing, what with all the Crabs. But...y'know, there's the matter of being immobile until Optics, and your starting Warrior basically not being able to get any Ruins whatsoever.

It's definitely an early game that's pretty much decided for you.

 

[Ashigaru]

Whoops, posted a duplicate thread on this. I really want to see the save and give this a crack! As I said on Kotaku, my biggest question is what difficulty is it on? That would make it pretty clear on whether or not you should bother trying or re-rolling

 

[I_qua_I]

I'd be happy with that start. It would be an awesome occ game. Get the God of the Sea pantheon, build the Colossus and any other wonders you can with the marble. Become a trade powerhouse and later a naval one. Not bad at all.

 

[BSPollux]

I want the initial save!

Me too!

And most of all I want you guys to make it a challenge and afterwards I want to laugh my ass off

 

[wigwam]

Yeah, I don't know if it's that bad, really. The Warrior isn't trapped—look at the minimap. Not being able to get a Scout out is a drag, and having to do all your exploring with just one Warrior will definitely drag down your early income from meeting city-states and whatnot. But it's going to be impossible to take, with even the slightest defense, until Astronomy at least.

Monument first, research Pottery, build a Shrine, then Sailing, build or buy a Trireme and start exploring. Put some spare hammers towards a Scout or something, maybe enough to build a Granary after the Shrine. Crank out as many Work Boats as possible while researching Optics. Pop out the scout, then take a crack at the Great Lighthouse—there's not going to be a lot of competition that early. Try to squeeze in a Cargo Ship somewhere, assuming you've met neighbors. Then Writing, Library, Calendar, Philosophy, NC. Having to build four Work Boats would be a nuisance—and I doubt you could afford to buy many of them—but once you got a Lighthouse up, you'd actually be doing pretty well. If you get God of the Sea, that's what, 4 2 1 per Crab? Beats anything on land. Plus you can wait a good long while before you have to research Archery/Animal Husbandry/Mining or build a Worker, just work your way up towards Compass. It's kind of a cool spot.

If you went Liberty, would it stick your free units in the city? Probably. So Piety or Tradition?

 

[LiamNosliw]

Wouldn't be to bad if you where Carthage then you could walk across the mountains.

 

[TyBoy]

I don't see the defensive position as worth much. It's unlikely to work well as an OCC because of a lack of food. So you're going to have to get cities out and your capital isn't going to do anything for you in their defense. You've still lost if they limit you to that city.

Needing to rush optics keeps you from rushing anything else, but it wouldn't really slow your ability to found more cities. You would be able to spend the time before optics building a monument, granary or shrine, lighthouse and maybe a workboat.

It really depends on what gets revealed behind those mountains. If it's a lot of flat tundra or more mountains you're in a bad spot. If it's tundra hills, forest and deer you've got a solid hammer producer in the early game.

 

[wigwam]

Yeah, it's true that it's not going to work for OCC. I count what, fifteen resourceless water tiles? And at least four mountains, probably more. It'll still get to 10 pop or so in a hurry, though, assuming there's at least one Deer or something to the north or east, and production will be very strong. Just beeline Compass, spam out a bunch of Galleasses, and crush your neighbors!

 

[Cicerosaurus]

It would make your policy and tech choice pretty easy.

 

[Noxius]

It'd be good if you were playing Carthage lol

 

[digrosz]

Carthage requires a Great General to pass mountains. Good luck getting that on this map lol

 

[IkM]

Lol'd so hard.

but it's no so bad. just disband your warrior. nobody can threat you until sea era.

 

[tomoliop]

Great pity there is no initial save.

 

[Jerman]

The worst start ever would be on a desert 1 tile island with no yields surrounded by ocean with no luxes and bonus resources.