initial city positioning

[sabrewolf]

hey there

i noticed fairly early, that the AI places its first city on the spot it appers. while i usually feel like moving mine away (don't cover bonus resource tiles, access to sea if possible).

how about you guys? how many moves in average to found your first city?

[dunk]

I will almost always move to the shore. I hate being one tile away from the water.

[Jawa Jocky]

Originally posted by dunk
I will almost always move to the shore. I hate being one tile away from the water.

I'm the exact opposite. I'd move it farther inland one tile. IMO, Having a capital on the shore lowers the # of possible low corruption cities since you can't build in the water. Pack those cities in around your Capital and FP and you'll notice the benifit in one complete game.

[The_Hawk]

I find that where I place my Capital is so critical, I might move a turn or 2 to find the optimum spot. It all depends somewhat on the difficulty level. The harder the difficulty level, IMO, the quicker you need to plant and deal with it. If you get a bad spot, just start over till you get a game you can live with.

[vondrack]

Originally posted by Jawa Jocky
I'm the exact opposite. I'd move it farther inland one tile. IMO, Having a capital on the shore lowers the # of possible low corruption cities since you can't build in the water. Pack those cities in around your Capital and FP and you'll notice the benifit in one complete game.

Does moving the capital one tile inland improve the corruption problem noticeably for you? You still end up more or less on the shore, without actually enjoying the benefit of being on the shore... or am I missing something?

[Cort Haus]

If the first tile has two shielded grass by it then I'll take it and get the (ind) worker to road & mine those two immediately. Otherwise I'll get the worker to nip up a hill/mountain first move and check out the view. I'll rarely move more than one square and never restart. Even desert, mountain, & jungle starts can be good for resources later.

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
If the first tile has two shielded grass by it then I'll take it and get the (ind) worker to road & mine those two immediately. Otherwise I'll get the worker to nip up a hill/mountain first move and check out the view. I'll rarely move more than one square and never restart. Even desert, mountain, & jungle starts can be good for resources later.

i try never to build a city on a shielded grassland, because you'll lose that bonus with a city. same thing for bonus resources.

you're right, desert, mountains and jungle can contain important resources, but they come a lot later (except iron). so if i build my capital in a big desert, it'll take centuries to build the first settler. by then the AI-civs probably have several cities and you've got an unacceptable backlog.

i once played a game where i started in a gigantic desert (at least 8 tiles in every direction!!). fortunatly there was a river (--> food plains), i would have restarted otherwise

[Datajack Franit]

I agree with Sabrewolf-it's like building a city on the top of an iron source, you'll just waste the shield bonus and there's no way to prevent it from depleting. The only good thing about it could be that in this way your opponents can't destroy the road/rail on it.

If I start on a good position but even only one tile away from the sea I just get so angry that I trash the game

I could move to the coast, but playing at monarch... that's not a smart idea, wasting a turn while building the GL or the Pyramids is just bad

Just place your city on a crappy tile near a river, later in the game you won't need an aqueduct and you'll have the chance of building the hoover dam and a nuclear power plant

[War4ever]

i build wherever i start as well....unless i play expansionist and move my scout and uncover terrain which will make up for the time delay.

[Thoth]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
I agree with Sabrewolf-it's like building a city on the top of an iron source, you'll just waste the shield bonus and there's no way to prevent it from depleting. The only good thing about it could be that in this way your opponents can't destroy the road/rail on it.

This is incorrect. You still recieve production/trade bonuses from building on a bonus tile. Also, I've taken to building on shielded grasslands when I'm playing Industrious Civs.

If you build on an unshielded grassland (or any other terrain tile that normally does not produce a shield) you will recieve a bonus shield in the city square. This replaces the bonus shield you would normally recieve as a city (size 7).

IE: City #1 is built on an unshielded grassland. The centre tile will produce one shield until the town becomes a city. It will then produce two shields.

City #2 is built on shielded grasslands. The centre tile will still only produce one shield until the town becomes a city. The centre tile will then produse three shields (one for the base square, one for the city bonus, and one for the Industrious city bonus).

(On topic)
I'll normally build in the starting location, or within a move or two if there is an obvious reason to move. If I really don't like the location........Shift-Control-Q.

[Torkkeli]

Usually I build it where I start unless there is a hill next to me, when I send the worker there to uncover more areas of the map. If something worth moving is found, move. Else if not on a bonus tile build city where started.

[Tiberius]

I voted "move it one or two fields away until i like it", but it really depends on how the terrain is. If the terrain is OK, I build it right there, on the first spot.

Thoth is right. You don't lose the bonus if you build on resources.

[SanPellegrino]

I think moving 1 or 2 spots to a good positoin makes up for the time loss

[jshelr]

I think that if you add up all the costs of fooling around, an immediate start looks like the best choice most times.

I've been restarting too much lately, but usually only after a few turns to really find out what the land looks like. I respect the folks who take what they are given and do the best they can.

Did you know that there is programming in the game that gives you even worse starting postitions if you abandon too many games on the first turn?

[zeh]

Originally posted by jshelr
Did you know that there is programming in the game that gives you even worse starting postitions if you abandon too many games on the first turn?

Are you sure about this? I really never heard about this mecanism.
Do you have a link for some thread talking about this?