Imbalanced start spots?

[HalfLotus]

I've had at least 3 games where I thought the start spots were unfair resource-wise. Are start spots made to be balanced? ie-if you have less lumber, you get more iron/fish available? I'll try to upload these replays see what you think.

In game one I (german) have 3 fish compared to his (egypt) 1. This wealth bonus is huge in the early game. Also I have a bit more Iron available. He seems to have a bit more lumber than me, but overall its clearly in my favor.

In game two there a 4 mountains more or less along the center. Additionally the Bantu player has 1 large and 2 medium mountains on his side, Turks have only 2 medium mountains. Bantu also looks to have a little more timber available, but its close.

[Carch]

Yup, the starts are occasionally imbalanced.

The attached map is Warring States, where I started basically with slim pickings for expansion (the nearest was an island), while the AI had room for a couple good cities.

Not sure if playing with the resource options would make a difference, really. When you have randomized maps, sometimes the random factor is gonna screw ya.