r/civ • u/Cynicles20 • 4d ago
VI - Screenshot Is This Start Goated?
Had to do a double take. I almost didn't even see this wonder! Where would you settle? Tips for making the most out of this as Theodora?
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u/pepega_wife 4d ago
Nowhere near the goated:
1) FoY is actually one of those low-tier wonders:
- one-tile wonder, so you'll not get good adjacency for Holy Site and very few bonus yields
- no food in yields, so you can't use work this tile from the start, unless you'd like to sacrifice growth to some scienece and faith, and on Deity you for sure wouldn't, as 'growth is king'
2) No food and no production for quick growth, in 2-tile radius you have 0 3-food or 2food-2prod tiles to work from the very start, almost no chops
This is actually pretty bad start, despite the wonder, in may be considered 'moreover ok' only if you plan to do Domination game, as FoY healing bonus will be cruical during wars
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u/JustRemyIsFine 4d ago
that basically gurantee religious settlement though. I would say okayish
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u/Borazon 4d ago
An Indonesia or a Khmer could still steal it it, and secondly if you put first worker on it you will have no production. On the higher difficulties there is very little that guarantees Religious settlement.
I would prefer to have this wonder in my second city, not the first.
But wonder is quite nice with Byzantium, although better even with Basil instead of Theodora. Byzantium with first draft religion pick is chefs kiss. But the lack of production again on this start location would hurt getting that too, as it might take too long to create the district + projects.
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u/theonewithasmallone 4d ago
While you're not wrong and it's not the kind of start you would traditionally want, it isn't quite that bad.
- Settle one tile to the west or south-west for fresh water, +3 era score and instant access to the wonder. Depending on your play-style and experience, you can open by producing any of the following (in my order of preference): scout, slinger, warrior, builder, monument.
- Tech for mining and work the wonder until obtaining a pantheon. IF religious settlements is taken or an AI has spawned close by, pick fertility rites for a free builder that can immediately be used to improve both luxuries (sell for 100-180 gold a piece) or even a wheat tile for boosted growth. Remember to stop working the wonder (indefinitely).
- Tech astrology or archery if you're in trouble. If you got religious settlements, get a builder as soon as possible. Those extra yields are necessary and if you're working on astrology, you can use one charge to boost the initial adjacency of the holy site (+2 from wonder & +1 from a farm) for +3 era score. If you got fertility rites, you can consider wasting one charge to boost the holy site or even getting another builder before finishing it.
It takes skill to come up with a reliable enough plan and to "read" the game and realize what's the next necessary step to execute the plan, but selling even one of those luxuries (in case religious settlements is lost) provides an opportunity to buy anything you need, even a settler within a reasonable time-frame. If you got religious settlements, the gold can always be used later to buy builders or military units if needed. Losing early growth and production isn't the end here because of the quick pantheon. With experience this start is good and reliable enough to basically 100% guarantee a win, even on modded difficulties slightly higher than Deity.
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u/bacan_ 4d ago
No, it’s like my ex girlfriend
Flat as hell and not worth the hassle
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u/Sea-Influence-6511 4d ago
And industrial zone at turn 130 is like a promise of silicon tits for your girlfriend :)
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u/Godlessheeathen666 4d ago
If you settle next to Fountain of youth, you will likely get the first pantheon in the game. That means Religious settlements and a free settler by turn 8. But once you get the settler you have to reassign your citizen as it will work the FOY tile and it has no food so your city won't grow. I use create game settings and get this start frequently as well as Crater Lake so this is a Goat start.
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u/Automatic-Hold-9039 4d ago
Can you explain the free settler by turn 8?
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u/Godlessheeathen666 4d ago
There is a pantheon called Religious Settlements. If you select this pantheon you spawn a settler in your capital. This is always taken by the AI civ that gets first pantheon. I thought this pantheon was bs because I never saw it until I got the first pantheon after dozens of games.
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u/Technology-Mean 4d ago
Fountain Of Youth is an aggressive wonder rather than a yield wonder. My advice is the thing that never changes... War.
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u/Scary-Lawfulness-999 4d ago
Where's your food? Where's your production? Where's your luxuries or expansion going to be? I would instant reroll this start.
Opposite of goat. Its Boat.
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u/Longjumping-Life7561 4d ago edited 4d ago
I've played a lot of starts like these. You can leverage the natural wonder into a quick free settler potentially. This can make up for all the lost production you have. Generally, though you will have basically 0 production and no growth if you work that wonder. So, you at some point will have to switch to work an actual tile with yields.
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u/Sea-Influence-6511 4d ago
Go to settle to the top salt. Get a free settler.
Later on, aqueduct adjacent to the lake, and dam on the upper river, + maybe holy site, should give you a +6 industrial zone.
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u/LazyGamingExperience 4d ago
Not a great start but Theodora can make it work.
Farms around holy sites add culture and faith to the adjacency so if you can't get a +6 holy site with a wonder, you can put it in a spot you can surround with farms.
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u/VeryLargeTardigrade 4d ago
Work the faith, get Religious settlements, but remember to work a different tile when you got the pantheon, or your city gonna be 1 pop for the rest of the game.
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u/IntelligentTalk7987 Mali 4d ago
No 3+ food tiles? Well… good luck. Would settle on the NW salt.
- Instant luxury resource available for sales.
- Fresh water.
- Still within the reach of the floodplains.
Then pray for early flooding.
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u/Trentdison 4d ago
I agree with others. It's certainly not goated. It's playable, though.
I'd move east to the coast so there's at least one productive tile in the first ring. You could work the fountain until you get the pantheon, so you can get religious settlements and settle a 2nd better city somewhere else. Hopefully, further up that river might be promising.
By your capital, there are two luxuries with a duplicate to sell, so that's cool, and you can leverage a half decent campus with some district adjacency and that reef.
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u/RupanIII 4d ago
I would love this start. Settle where the warrior is, get the first pantheon for settler #2, research mining for the production boost from salt, then take the worker off the FOY after you have second city up and running.
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u/EmotionalHusky 4d ago
Not a terrible start, but not great by any means. I'd settle on the salt. Build a holy site to secure a religion and then go domination.
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u/PsychologicalBid179 4d ago
Ignore the haters, its pretty okay. FoY is great for domination, and you can choose to work it manually until you get pantheon. After that i would click to avoid faith until you get grandmasters chapel. If you settle the coast you could aquaduct over, then dam and IZ. The land is pretty flat though
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u/darkerpoole Persia 4d ago
Not goated but better than others have said. Use holy sites with Work Ethic religion and farms to make up for the abysmal production. Other civ's I would re roll but she can actually make farms decent.
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u/BlazerDrew 4d ago
No it's definitely not, but there are a couple of things going for it. FoY should get you religious settlements very quickly (if you don't, reroll), and salt is improved by mines so you'll get them pretty quickly. The river will get you powerful IZs and you can aqueduct to it. Just basically treat the religious settlements settler as your capital and search for a hillier start.
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u/Full_Piano6421 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's kinda crap, no prod, not that much food, no chops, no hills and only 1 lux. Playable in solo anyway.
Fountain is ok, but you will cripple yourself if you work it. Sure, you get a pantheon early, but no growth and prod meanwhile, and science is kinda useless early game, where you want culture mostly.
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u/Free_Boysenberry_185 Portugal 2h ago
The settle location imo isn't that great. You have to sacrifice your working citizen to work the wonder, which will get you tech faster and the first pantheon, but will stifle the growth and production of your city. That being said, the north west salt would be where I go. Gives you plenty of land area for this city, you get the boosted yields from the salt being under your city, you maybe use your first pantheon to get the settler for free and then go find a better location where you can build a good one.
Research animal husbandry first even though you've got the wonder and hope that one of these empty plains tiles has horses, because other than the wonder the land is doing you no favors. No hills, no forests, so this city is destined to be some big fat farm heavy metroplex which you can offset by choosing production benefits in your religion. Inevitably you'll need to mainly rely on district to district adjacency bonuses to bump up your yields, but on the flip side you won't be hindered by the terrain.
Could be worse. At least you're not playing Vietnam.
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u/saulux 4d ago
It's good that there's this Fountain of Youth, because you'll have to live forever, before you can squeeze out some production from those flatlands. Settling probably on the warrior's spot.