Worst starting bias?

[jlim201]

Tundra, with few to no forest.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Well thundra is easy to move away from which is harder to do with starts like jungle.

Thundra start however probably gives you the best position for wide expansion because you probably don't have any opponent either below you or above you so its kinde of easy to cute of a big part of land for only you to expand in.

 

[George Abitbol]

I also love tundra when playing Russia: most of strategic resources are located at the poles (especially petroleum and iron)

 

[Sagax]

Thundra start however probably gives you the best position for wide expansion because you probably don't have any opponent either below you or above you so its kinde of easy to cute of a big part of land for only you to expand in.

Not in my experience. Relative to plains and grasslands the tundra zone is kinda small and soon leads to snow. If you already have a tundra city, there is little room for expansion in this direction, unless you are ICS-ing and found cities really close to each other (3-4 tiles).

 

[Krajzen]

I dislike jungle starts, especially on Epic speed - making anything useful from a single tile can take ages, if you have no Liberty/Pyramids you are so screwed...
I dislike jungles except when I am Iroquis/Aztec or, obviously, Brazil - Sacred Path + Brasilian UI + University = something beautiful.


I absolutely love deserts in that game and, for some reason, IRL.

 

[HerrDoktor]

It's good to be near jungle, not in the middle of it. I always try to plant at least one mid-jungle city for science, with any Civ. Coastal is only good with 3 or more resources - I once had one insane start with Japan with my capital surrounded by (no bull) 8 resources - it played like Poland. Plains are good for production, not growth, so do what people from the plains have done through all History, build an army and conquer better lands on your horses. Deserts are always good if you can rush Petra, even better with the Pantheon. Grasslands are just the vanilla mode.

That leaves us with tundra - I don't remember ever finishing a game on a tundra start.

In any start, no mountain for observatory and wonders, no possible faith pantheon or a plain coast with no resources always suck.

 

[LoneRebel]

Strangely enough, I got a jungle start as the Shoshone in my most recent game. A big jungle, too. Which could have gone badly, but then it turns out Mount Kailash was nearby. Well then, Liberty, second city near the wonder, founded a pantheon with the jungle culture bonus, and tried to avoid cutting down as much of the jungle as possible. Then Universities and Rationalism. Boom. Thanks to being Shoshone, there were enough non-Jungle tiles nearby to get some production (and put up Academies and Holy Sites without disturbing the jungle). Very eco-friendly.

The capital's production was still a bit on the low side, but then I founded my third city on the coast, with four fish tiles, by a river, in a large desert with some hills. Then I built Petra there. Boom.

As an aside, thanks to Mt. Kailash, my religion, The Covenant, a religion devoted to the worship of the ancient Forerunners building pagodas, is also the strongest religion in the game.

 

[Jampine]

I'd agree that Tundra is the worst start, but it can pay off late game. For me, Tundra tiles seem to have more resources in them, like iron, oil and uranium, so late game you should have a nic epile of special units, especially if you're Russia

 

[joncnunn]

Coastal is second worst because it is so iffy about giving you good sea resources.

Uh, the last thing you want is your luxuries to be off the coast as that is a much slower start than a land luxary resource. Fish is good; but if there isn't fish or any other sea resource in a coastal city, just skip the light house.

Also, coastal start is actually want you what to max out food in your capital (food cargo ships provide 2X as much as caravans even if both cities are on the same landmass) and also you want a coastal city for external trade routes (again 2X the gold even if destination is on the same landmass.)

 

[GoStu]

Uh, the last thing you want is your luxuries to be off the coast as that is a much slower start than a land luxary resource. Fish is good; but if there isn't fish or any other sea resource in a coastal city, just skip the light house.

Also, coastal start is actually want you what to max out food in your capital (food cargo ships provide 2X as much as caravans even if both cities are on the same landmass) and also you want a coastal city for external trade routes (again 2X the gold even if destination is on the same landmass.)

Agreed that you want a capital on the coast, however there's a world of difference between merely having coastal access, and having half its workable tiles being water. I like Coastal capitals that are on some kind of narrow bay for both workability and defensibility, but I really dislike ones where I've got a lot of pretty flat water to work and worry about.

Sea luxuries are pretty slow to get the Work Boats on, but I will say the nice thing about them is that they tend to be decent food tiles once a Lighthouse is up on them. Whales in particular being 4 Food is nice.

 

[njmfff]

Tundra start has to be the worst.

Desert is mixed for me. Sure, you can get flood titles, but there's a chance that there will be large portion of just empty desert titles too.

Plains is also kinda bad unless there's salt\stone\river around.

Jungle can be bit painful at first 50-60 turns because you need extra techs all up to Bronze to chop it down.

 

[Beaver79]

I'd vote tundra the worst followed by plains.

I rarely seem to get mountains on my desert starts, but desert folklore is so powerful that I sometimes get it even if I don't start desert and just have one near me. If you get 2 or 3 cities in the desert with folklore you don't have to build any shrines or temples.

This statement might be completely untrue, but the 2 faith natural wonders tend to spawn in the desert for me as well. I love me a desert start.

 

[Bagi]

Tundra starts have usually the worst tiles, but I find them much easier to play out than jungle starts. Needing bronze working to do anything and a lack of production really hurts. Also the fact that jungles spawn near the equator which results in you being often surrounded on all fronts, avoiding DOWs can become extremely difficult.

Tundra on the other hand means you usually have only 1 or 2 fronts to worry about which makes them ideal for more peaceful games.

 

[KmDubya]

I'd go with tundra as the worst with tundra on barren coast as the absolute worst.

Jungle can be overcome with extra workers or Liberty with Pyramids. Riverside jungle can be chopped to get you farmable plains, jungle hills can be mined or farmed if riverside, and trading posts on flat non river jungles can be pretty good.

Tundra with a single food yield is basically worthless no matter what you do to it. It is as bad as coast tiles.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

Uh, the last thing you want is your luxuries to be off the coast as that is a much slower start than a land luxary resource. Fish is good; but if there isn't fish or any other sea resource in a coastal city, just skip the light house.

Also, coastal start is actually want you what to max out food in your capital (food cargo ships provide 2X as much as caravans even if both cities are on the same landmass) and also you want a coastal city for external trade routes (again 2X the gold even if destination is on the same landmass.)

They aren't much slower, just spend the first 400 gold on a lighthouse and everything is great. I love coastal starts... where most of the water tiles are seafood. But those are very few, most coastal starts are bollocks where I'm on this little Florida peninsula surrounded by worthless water tiles. It doesn't really matter how fast my capital grows with food ships when I have no tiles to work.

 

[orasis]

Bias? I'll have to think about that but... today I started in the snow. All snow.

 

[GhostSalsa]

Tundra would be ok if there was more consistent water and hills. Hills are nice because they qualify for the otherwise useless Aurora pantheon. I actually had a really strong island game as Portugal where my capital was pretty much just hills and a nearby river wheat tile, a fish and whale tile too. 3 food ships all game and faith generating mines made for an easy culture victory.

But, tundra is usually way too flat. Salt in tundra can make things ok though.

 

[YourHarry]

Rarely tundra is playable. Most of the time not. I reload.

 

[droberts97470]

Russia in tundra without horses.

 

[Suicidekills]

Wow I didn't know Sweden had a tundra bias but along with Russia i guess they both have a tundra bias due to their current geological location??? lol Russia makes a little more sense gameplay wise due to the fact that there's usually a couple of strategic resources in tundra. I would say jungle is a worse starting bias than tundra tho because I want a capital with decent production and just working with jungles takes a long time to start up your city. With tundra at least u can get some useful tile like tundra hills aren't too bad and deer and furs with forests. If you have luxuries in your jungles tiles you have to chop them down which takes time. Also tundra has that pantheon with faith which could be useful at times.