whats your worst starting position?

[D4everman]

Its amazing how a starting position can determine a game. I started a new game of SMACX , playing the gaians. (I always rename them Rangers, because I'm a guy) Where did I land? On a one tile piece of land in the moddle of the ocean. I was flabbergasted. There was absolutely no way to expand and I had quite a ways to go to Flex.

Disgusted I tried again. My new start put me almost on top of the Unity Wreckage. Woohoo! Then out of nowhere a probe team ran up to Gaia's landing and probed my newly discovered Biogenetics advance. By now my scout had found the unity bridge and it was apparent I was right next to the Data Angels. DAMN! it would be some time before I got probe teams and Roze seemed determined to pick my bones of any tech I discovered. I hate that! I like to hoard my tech and use superior weaponry to defend myself. So I fired on her second probe team starting a war. I should have paid closer attention to the minimap that showed all the human landing sites. On my other side was YANG! Since I had no real defenses so to speak its not like he was going to sign a treaty. Game over. Both Yang and Roze attacked my one colony pod and base. I didn't even wait to see the defeat screen. I'm usually no good when I start right next to Yang.

So I tried AGAIN. This time I landed smack in the middle of the damn desert. Disgusted I just restarted. At last! I perfect spot. I began expanding, and trying to get my science up. I didn't know if the UoP or the Cyborgs were in the game and it would be hard to out tech them if they were. By the time i four bases I felt fairly confident until I saw an orange flagged rover. *sigh*. Miriam's early game morale advantage spelt the end for me. With nothing but mere scouts I couldn't really stand up to her and she didn't waste time in telling me that planet wasn't big enough for the both of us.

So whats your worst starting position?

D4

[Skanderbeg]

D4, you gave some very good examples of bad starting positions. Starting on a one tile island has never happend to me, luckily.

I once had a start next to Roze, and it ended similar to your game. Because I also hate to be probed, I made war and got spanked.

But what I dislike most ist starting on a peninsula, with a warmonger faction like Yang or Miriam neighboured on the other side of the isthmus. Without room to expand, you can't build a counterforce and will be easy prey.

[Martin Schmidt]

I disagree with you on this topic , while you had to start a new game if you were on a tiny island in civ II this is not true for SMAC because you get a free foil in this case which is a huge advantage .
Starting in a dry environment is not a problem for me because you have so much opportunities to get extra recources from the unity pods , there will be almost ever a monolith or a nutrient bonus on one field .
Starting close to a fraction with military bonus like Santiago , Miriam or Yang is a problem but note that the most other fraction have a bonus too . Morgan has better armour right from the start , Zharkov is able to research the tech needed for attack 4 units quickly , and the Gaians which i like very much have these mindworms for free . The only fraction with which i have difficulties meeting a strong enenmy to early is Lal , thus i play not often as Lal.
I had to start the game new because of a bad position only in the extended version , meeting the aliens to early in the game there it is very hard to survive .

[Blake]

I know how you feel, most the time I play SMAX but just once I decided to try SMAC (this is incidental), chose the UOP, start point right next to jungle, wahoo. Gotta share it with yang, Doh. On my other side Santigo... Damn I hate being a sandwich filling.

Restart, this time gaians, once again I find the good chairman next to me, then I see a orange rover coming to join the party, CRAP! And I havn't even managed to grab a worm.

One last chance, again Gaians. I mean I can't get worse neighbours can I?
I'm wrong, all THREE of them, with disbelief I give up.

Never had the pleasure of a single tile start, but once two AI factions got single tile starts in the same game.

Aside my best starting point was on a random map playing Domai, I started right next to the jungle and found no-one else wanted it, so I expand all over the jungle and find Miriam, managing to deprive her of the jungle by fast expansion. She offers a pact against Santigo, great, her bases stop santigo getting to me.

I expand away from the jungle and find the cult and gaians, both are attached to my land mass by narrow bottlenecks, which are very easily defended. Then I explore the landmass on the farside of the jungle, it is completely empty too! and covers fully 1/4 of the map, connecting via a narrow bottleneck to spartan territory. In all I secured half the land on the map peacefully, I played for a while, and the only SP I didn't get was the datalinks.