A starting position to die for

[Theseus]

Here ya go (I'm a big fan):

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41321

[Tiberius]

Originally posted by Theseus
My contribution; I have the 4000BC SAV if anybody wants it.

This is a good starting position, too, but still not a "to die for"
Maybe if you had some cattles

[Theseus]

Yeah, I agree, not tremendous, but I started a game tonight and got this, and thought it was pretty damned good (I've been getting atrocious starts since 1.29f).

In the absence of cattle, what impressed me here was the balance... coming off of my Civ2 biases, I've grown to respect each of the tile types. Fer chrissakes, I look at unshielded grassland with joy!

[Tiberius]

Yeah, correct, I'd be too very grateful to start with one of the positions from this thread.

What are those feathers above the city?

[Chemical Ollie]

Originally posted by Moonsinger
Sorry, on a scale 1 to 10, I give this starting position a 5. I have always played with the random map and I have seen many better starting position than this.

PS: I like grassland and floodplain best. I don't like hill, mountain and ice.

Seems you have had some luck with the map generator. Can you show us what a 9 or 10 would look like in your opinion?

I mostly get ****loads of mountains, desert and jungle. What is really great with the starting position I gave you is the possibility to have a city with freshwater and 4 cattle - a real wonder machine, plus the fact that all cities closest to the capitol will be highly populated.

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by Olaf HÃ¥rfagre
Seems you have had some luck with the map generator. Can you show us what a 9 or 10 would look like in your opinion?

Ok, I will dig out some old map tonight. I have some luck in getting the 7 or 8 position but never any higher. However, I have seen someone post a really good starting position (but never a 10, #10 is really what I would call 'to die for') on the CivFanantic forum before. Beside, it's very hard to get the 'to die for' starting position anyway. After 40 turns or so, you may realize that there is no iron or horse in your continent, therefore, what originally seems to be a good starting position is now actually no good.

IMO, Theseus has a better starting position than your map.

[Moonsinger]

Originally posted by Tiberius
What are those feathers above the city?

It could be another kind of 'wheat'.

[Tiberius]

I checked Theseus' link and I think it's wheat.
But it really looks like feather

[Theseus]

It's the special "feather" resource, which Liz and Cathy will pay anything for!!!

It's wheat.

[Arrian]

I think I will dig up a starting spot or two I would consider "to die for" tonight and post some screenies. I am (notoriously?) picky. I love the "quickstart" feature

I have decided my favorite early game resource is cows on plains, provided there is water available. Why? Because all you gotta do is irrigate and road, and you get 3 food, 2 shields. A Cow on grassland will also provide 3/2, but you have to mine, which takes slightly longer.

Things I normally want in a starting spot: river, 1-2 food bonus squares, some shielded grassland, some forest or hills. In addition, I want some good cities sites nearby. If I'm industrious, forests become a bit more desirable due to the speed with which they can be converted into 10 shields. All that, and a minimum of two neighbors.

I hate floodplains. They cause disease.

-Arrian

[Chemical Ollie]

A floodplain or two with wheat and a few hills with iron and gold is a nice combination. Decease is in my experience more common in jungle than on floodplains.

[DrFell]

I'd say a start to die for would be similar to the one on Aeson's 65k game, lots of free space to expand, most of it being grassland, luxuries really close by, and plenty of cows and horses about. That's all you need for a great game on a huge map. I rarely get bad starts though myself, because I set up maps for the best land possible (I'm talking wet, warm/temperate, 5 billion years). But I've never seen a random start that topped that one.

[Theseus]

For a second I misread that, and thought you were referring to Aeson's SVC game!!

I remember somebody on CFC showing off an insanely great start once; it was like a Civ3 Garden of Eden, or maybe the equivalent of Willie Wonka's factory... cows and wheat and rivers and luxuries *everywhere*. The number of cows was absurd, like the map generator treated them as clumped luxury resources at 3B.

[Arrian]

Here is something along the lines of what I was talking about...

[Theseus]

Sweet.