Devel's Workshop III - Surviving Sub-Par Starts

[Velociryx]

Good summary, Dom....as for moving the settler...was hoping to reveal some seafood out there....no luck tho...

Of all of them, I think my favorite is the ice one....looks like fun!

-=Vel=-

[Blake]

I think Vel's choice of moving the settler in GameI must be attributed to meds! Wasting the river tile, criminal .

Game IV is obviously (?) the most intersting I think. And as a non-philo civ too, but Financial will be the redeeming quality. Man, if the save were posted I'd already be playing it.

To be honest since I'm a masochist highlands/oasis player all the other starts look luxurious .

[Dominae]

I agree that the ice one looks like fun. I'm just saying that, if the point of this workshop is sub-par but still "normal" starts, the ice one does not fit the bill.

If, rather, you're looking for "What the heck am I supposed to do with this!?" -type starts, the ice one is perfect!

[Velociryx]

Nahhh, I don't think it necessarily has to be limited to "normal" starts. Sometimes the map generator just hands you strangeness. I'd be good with any of these, although when I put out a call for bad starts, I quickly learned that what I consider to be a bad start is quite different from other folks.

I don't really count the ice start as "bad" per se...the city site itself is awesome, and if we can find another site somewhere beyond the ice, we're in fantastic shape.

The worst one, in my opinion, is the first...anemic production, only one food special...rots, but I'll be happy to play any of them out...

-=Vel=-

[Blake]

However the first one (if you founded at the original location) has stone. I think that alone makes it workable. You need to whack all the forest anyway to free up land for cottages and could thus chop the Pyramids...
You know maybe I just realised why that start might be considered bad , there's a right way to do it, but not many right ways.

[Risa]

Game IV is awesome! I have seen only one similar (and worse) starting position, which is in the "screenshot thread". It is criminal not to try these maps at least once.

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by Velociryx
Game VI, AFter founding the City

Ahhhh, tricky tricky. The whole place has been covered over in Jungle. This will present health and time problems, but I really don't see any difficulty in dealing with it. We've got fast workers in this setup, and all we need is iron working and a bit of time, and we'll be able to make the land productive. I'd be okay with this start, tho I would class it as a Type II beginning, given the surrounding terrain.

Why does the jungle look all funky, and why is there jungle on desert tiles?

[Marid Audran]

I think for the Bad STart workshop Vel you should definitely do Game I or Game VI, as they represent realistic common challenges in a less than stellar start. Everyone's dealt with bland, subpar terrain in game I (or Game III, but that one at least has a food special and LOTS of forest for chopping), and recently I've had to deal with an island continent which was severely covered with jungle, like 60% covered! Even with Iron Working, chopping jungle takes a lot of time and unlike forest doesn't net hammers.

Game IV looks fun, surely, but rather anomalous.

[Jawa Jocky]

SVCIV

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, I'd think that Game IV is a definetly rare case and maybe better suited for its own seperate Devel's Workshop (ie, VERY bad starts ).

[uberfish]

Of this bunch I rate #3 the worst city site, since although you have 2 food resources there isn't much to do with the surplus food except work 1/2/0 plains forests and 1/1/1 plains cottages for a while and hope bronze/iron/horses pop in your city radius, which would greatly improve the city. I would have moved the settler east right at the beginning though, in the hopes of getting some hills or coast.

#4 and #6 look too weird to be normally generated maps (plains surrounded by ice, jungle on desert?) They'd be interesting to see how people play them though.

[snafuc4]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Yeah, I'd think that Game IV is a definetly rare case and maybe better suited for its own seperate Devel's Workshop (ie, VERY bad starts ).

Wait 'till you see more

[fluffyflyingpig]

Oops, delete. =\

[Uchuu-kun[SM42]]

Er, that's not Game IV...

[fluffyflyingpig]

Hmm, my mistake. I confused the game I offered to Vel in his earlier thread with this one. They look pretty similar, both iceballs. Oops. =\