Flood Plains

[Arrian]

Wow, so I go home and start a new game and find ~5 desert tiles on a river just north of my starting spot. It's a rare occurrence, but I've now had it in 2 of my last 5 games.

The only thing you can do is watermill 'em.

-Arrian

[Palpster]

Originally posted by Arrian
Wow, so I go home and start a new game and find ~5 desert tiles on a river just north of my starting spot. It's a rare occurrence, but I've now had it in 2 of my last 5 games.

The only thing you can do is watermill 'em.

-Arrian

...or find a better spot for your city?

[Arrian]

Clearly. Happily for me, "just north" wasn't "within the fat cross of my capital."

Several tiles of desert-on-river ended up falling within a city radius, however, because it was an otherwise good location (coastal, wheat and stone). I built that city fairly late, however. I backfilled, in fact, behind a city I'd conquered from the AI.

-Arrian

[Swissy]

I play on the Civ4Players Ladder and the non-floodplain desert/river square is more common than you would think. I see it regularly on such maps as Inland Sea, Hub, Wheel and Ring.

[Blaupanzer]

Fractal and continents also produce this phenomenon often. As noted, watermills are the only useful thing you can use them for.