Bad starts

[Feyd]

At what point do you realize you have had a bad start?

Three out of every five games I have I have the distinct feeling that I'm fighting a losing battle. Whether that is due to opponent AI placement, resource scarcity, "so-so" starting location, or whatever.

In my current game (Marathon Warlord) I am the Greeks and it is 300 BC on a Terra Map. I have four cities and I'm stuck in a rut and have been since the start. I'm in the top two or three in the power/score rankings, but this is warlord! Everything just seems to be dragging quite a bit more than my typical games marathon or no... I don't know what it is though.

I'll try to figure out how to post a save sometime tomorrow so you can see what I'm talking about. Too complex right now for my sleep deprived brain

Peace,

[hallumj]

I think, for me, I want to play through as long as I can, so I rarely give up the ghost until I know it's going to be over (aka, when I've lost the capital, or lost about a quarter of the cities in my civ). I've only played a handful of games, though.

[Golden Bear]

I was playing a Monarch game and growing well. The Aztecs tried an early war and I fought them back and fortified against them.

Turns went by and I grew steadily - fought two pruning wars and had a nice balance of cash, tech and military. I was looking to pruning the Aztecs.

Then Montezuma declares war. The next turn he reduces a walled city defended by 2 spears, 2 archers and 5 axemen. On the same turn he takes two other cities. The turn after that my capital was surrounded.

I knew that I was not going to win at that point!! I got a laugh out of that one.

If I am not in a position to get either horses or iron I'll usually pull the plug. Also, on Monarch, if I am geographically in the middle of 4-5 AI civs, I usually realize that my existance will be problematical.

[ZargonX]

I always restart if I am on an island alone, unless it is the greatest island ever. I've just found that island starts in this game leave me too far behind later in the game. An island with one other civ, though, is fantastic.

[Yosho]

Originally posted by ZargonX
I always restart if I am on an island alone, unless it is the greatest island ever. I've just found that island starts in this game leave me too far behind later in the game. An island with one other civ, though, is fantastic.

I don't know...I've been able to do very well on an island alone. That lets you devote pretty much your entire economy to expansion, development, and technology, and if you're careful and a little lucky you can survive on next to no millitary except for what you need to deal with barbarians for a very long time if you've got an island to yourself. Sure, when you finally make contant with the AI's, you're probably behind in technology, but you also should have a much better developed infastructure, and I've found it quite possible to catch up and pass the AI in time to build the space ship first. (shrug) At least on monarch I have, anyway, I have not tried that on emperor.

[Beatie]

My current game, what I am going to win for sure, one level higher than warlord (forgot the name).. I started finding myself on a HUGE continent. On the west side there where the aztecs I was starting on the east side. I had a bad start.. because of the payment of my buildings I was not able to keep up the tech level high enough, not enough gold income. I was nearly on the quit-pont... but I manage to go on, and it was getting better, and better... Now eg flight take only 3 turns, and some techs taked only 2 turns... the latest tech in the tree is going to take 6 turns.... I have my sience output on 80% and I have 144 gold going on my bank account every turn

My point: don't give up to quicky.. because you feel even better to came from 3-0 down to 3-6.. (sorry also soccer fan) than if you just win with 6-0

[Bkeela]

I pray for a game where I'm on an island alone. Out of 15 or so games, it just hasn't happened. Winning a science/culture war is what I love. Being on a continent with 3 aggressive civs all allied against me is what I'm dealing with in my current game - and what I hate.

I just deal with bad starts though. I'm developing an ethic to persist as long as possible no matter what.

[Urban Ranger]

I have never started on an island by myself. Last time when I was on an island with only Victoria, it was poor land. There were very few resources. An awful place all in all.

[Quillan]

I've had 3 or 4 solo island starts, and I like them. They do require that you discover the fact early on, configure yourself for maximum research, and develop Optics rather quickly in order to do well. There's also the probability that you'll be lacking in luxuries, but if you find at least a couple of luxuries on the island, you can do quite well with it.

[Hauptman]

I hate doing it cause its hard to keep my eye from wandering but...


I often CTRL+W and have a quick look around to see if the game is worth playing, or remaking.

But if i look TOO much it ruins the most fun part of the game... exploration.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Quillan
I've had 3 or 4 solo island starts, and I like them. They do require that you discover the fact early on, configure yourself for maximum research, and develop Optics rather quickly in order to do well. There's also the probability that you'll be lacking in luxuries, but if you find at least a couple of luxuries on the island, you can do quite well with it.

There were also very few food resources.

[Common Sensei]

Originally posted by Bkeela
I pray for a game where I'm on an island alone. Out of 15 or so games, it just hasn't happened. Winning a science/culture war is what I love. Being on a continent with 3 aggressive civs all allied against me is what I'm dealing with in my current game - and what I hate.

I just deal with bad starts though. I'm developing an ethic to persist as long as possible no matter what.

One recent game I played as Peter the Great I started on a large Archipelago world with Snaky Continents. I ended up beginning on a massive continent alone and the other eight got a smattering of smaller ones. I managed to claim the whole thing plus a small island off to the southeast. It was the first game for me that running State Property was way, way beyond the other economic choices.

[joncnunn]

Well, I just abandoed my first one in Civ IV; it was a bad start because there was a barb warrior next to the closest horse site about to eat my settler. [I had no military to speak of just 3 scouts in widely scatered parts of the map and 1 warrior]

A complete abandoment is less of a cheat than going back 10 turns and placing a scout in that area.

This was in late ancient era. (My most advanced tech being Monotheism)

[SandMonkey]

During my current game (noble, archipelago, epic) I found myself completely separated from the other 10 civs (10! I'm a civ2 vet and it blew my mind to have that many other civs in one game!), and I was very worried after I got off to a rocky start and missed every wonder save the Sistine Chapel. I definetely had the thought to quit once i found out how far behind in tech I was, but in the end I stuck with the game, and now I have a civilization ready to conquer the high seas!

The whole point of this game is to have fun. If your civ ends up in a situation where the game feels more like getting your teeth pulled than playing a game, there's no shame in retiring and starting a new one. Then again, there's something to be said for perseverance when the going is tough.

[trumbo]

I only restart if I'm in a jungle surrounded by Napolean, Genghis Khan, Togukawa and Montezuma and that Incan dork. That's a bit too much for my pacificist tendencies.

One of my best games turned out to be one of my worst starts ... no hills and tons of desert in the immediate area surrounding my capitol. I wound up, eventually, getting resources in about a third of the desert spots.