Two fun starts

[Seedle]

I usually get crappy terrain around my capital, full of desert, tundra, and ocean, with hardly any fresh water. Not so with these starts. The capitals are good without being insane (well, depending on how you feel about flood plains.) There are opponents nearby to rush. And there are rivers EVERYWHERE, with plentiful and diverse resources. Makes me want to alter the files so I'm financial. Also, AAHZ, I think you should use the Japan start for his monarch challenge if your current (horrible) start doesn't work out. If you'd like to, but want some settings changed and don't know how, I can change them for you. (And for all I know, you give Dale advice on modding, so if that was stupid offer, sorry.)

Japan's start:

Good capital, even if the visible resources aren't my favorites. You're bounded by tundra to south, but when you see what's north, you won't care. If the AI does the same thing in your game as mine, Washington and Boston are nice, and while I don't like where Elizabeth put her cities, she is loaded with resources, particularly east of London. Copper and horse both easily attainable, and opponents are close enough for Quecha/Archer rush to be viable as well. Fishing goes to waste though. Rivers everywhere, and space far enough apart so that cities can all have river access and not share too many tiles.
Zulu start:

Capital is even weaker than I remembered, but still playable. Copper is present, but you have to go get it. Paris is beyond sick, and London is very good too. I won this game in either 1205 or 1250 A.D., quickest win ever for me, by diplomatic victory. (I had enough votes to give myself the win.) Lots of flat land river cities here, financial would do well. I was impressed with the rivers on this save, but after that Japan one, I'm not so sure...
Okay, that works right?

[Krill]

You know the saying, the thread is useless with pics.

[Krill]

or saves.

[Seedle]

Fine, you want pics too, big bunch of whiners...
Part of the point of this thread was to play the saves (at least a little) and be astounded (or not) by what you found. This ruins the surprise...
First, Japan:



And the Zulu:
Yeah, the capital is weak, and I just loaded it for the pics, so that is not how I would really use my advance start.

But this is a decent site that will produce units (and up north between cap and this is a site (with the stone and uranium) where every tile touches the river. Like I said, I want to be financial:

So you can get this piece of hotness (gah, paris is founded just south of the corn, not on the gold):

And since it is right next door, this too:

Yeah, too many photos in one post, I know. But you cried for 'em And the thing to remember here, is these starts aren't just about 2 or 3 or 5 great city sites, what I found remarkable was how the sites all fit together so there isn't a bunch of wasted space, nor must the cities share too many tiles, over the course of half a continent.

[Krill]

best to upload and then link to the pics.

[snoopy369]

Upload the pics separately from the save... you are doing it roughly correctly except the thumb needs to be for a picture, it doesn't generate thumbnails from saves

[Krill]

upload the saves directly, and link to the pics uploaded to say, imageshack by the code,

< img src ="inserturlofpicturehere" >

[Krill]

I'll have a look at the saves tomorrow evening or saturday and see how many civs I can rush with Impis. Zulu with a good start and copper nearby (I hope...) is always enjoyable.

[Krill]

Don't use the image code that the forum tells you to use, it doesn't work.

[Fleme]

Pics or this thread never happened!

[Krill]

Indeed, Fleme, indeed...the thread demands pics

[Supr49er]

Zulus. I like bacon.

[Krill]

You farmed a pig? And Shakas' start is awesome, hands down better than Tokus'.

[Seedle]

Originally posted by Krill
You farmed a pig? And Shakas' start is awesome, hands down better than Tokus'.

Nah, as I said, I just pressed "begin" on advanced start so I could take the screen shots. Oddly enough, if you let the computer do your advance start for you, it just farms and adds population. But the AIs aren't that bad at it. They aren't good necessarily, but what the computer does for an automated advance start is not what the computer does for an AI advanced start. Unless the farms are just allowing super early settlers, and I just think they're founding new cities with their points...

Care to discuss why Shaka's start is better? I am very curious and anxious to learn, an eager student.

And do you think just the cap is better, or all the land? Cause I like Japan in both cases, but learning why I'm wrong would be informative.

And just in case I wasn't clear before, my point isn't that either capital is sick (well, for the player. Paris is insane, imo) I've had sick capitals, these aren't them, but my second, third, AND twentieth cities are really good. Just two of the strongest landforms I've ever played.

[Lancer]

Very nice. I like being on the ocean myself, and having somewhere to go on the ocean. Pangea for me is like a story without a catch, a poem without a rhyme, trousers without a zipper.

I just couldn't get to where I wanna go.