Founding the Capital – Where is the best location?

Overview

An overview about the aspects of placing the capital and when to simply restart the game before it really started.

0. What’s The Big Deal? I’ll Just Settle!

Most newer players follow this strategy, especially when they come fresh from the earlier games. Positioning your city has become more important in the fifth installment of Civilisation. With the increasing amount of bonus, strategy and luxury resources your capital must be placed properly to obtain all the possible boni. And by placing I mean…

Consider if your starting position is worth playing!

1. Restarting Is Not A Shame!

When you are playing singleplayer, then you have the option to restart the game on the first turn. Even after moving your units. The button is placed at the top of the menu and will restart the game by generating a new map and placing you at a different place, if it is a randomly generated map.

After you observed your starting location and came to the conclusion, that this place should be nuked by Gandhi first, then restart. Just don’t bother. And it is okay. Do you really want to waste over an hour of your life on a game round that is destined to fail? I hope the answer is no, so press that sweet little button and go again. A new roll of the dice will bring you closer to the salt plains and gold hills.

My point is, just be aware of your surroundings before you throw valuable time into the trash bin. You want to have fun, so make sure you have a proper foundation.

2. The Right Amount Of Luxury Resources

As your people awake in a new, unforgiving world, all they seek is a full belly, a sturdy roof over their head and buckets full of Gold, Silk and Ivory. So lay eye on the lands and judge over it if it can fulfill the costly desires of your constantly unhappy subjects.

Usually, your starting location has 2 different luxury resources, a handful of bonus resources and maybe hidden strategic resources. The total amount of luxury tiles varies from 2 to 4. 5 and higher is a rare sight, at least in my games. So after scouting your surroundings, there should be at least 4 luxuries in range of your city!

You might wonder: Aren’t 2 luxuries enough to get happiness? Why yes indeed! Having multiple luxuries of the same kind do not increase your happiness. Directly. The additional luxuries have other benefits:

– More productive tiles + possible boni from religion and buildings
– Tradegoods for other civs, granting you gold or new luxuries
– Backup luxuries for trade or pillaging, so you don’t lose the happiness

So let’s have a look at the following starting positions!

Here we have 4 luxuries (2 Gold, 2 Incense) in range, which will provide you with a nice gold output. You have 2 backup luxuries you can trade away safely for more gold or luxuries. Also, Gold is rather potent in combination with the Mint and Incense with buildings and pantheons. On the con side, the food situation is lacking and fish is “far” in the south. It would require us to waste another move to get in the right place. If we settle on the current spot, our growth would stop rather quickly.

Here is a 2 luxuries situation. This is bad and you should restart right away. Your only hope could be that there are buckets of horses and iron hidden in the ground, making this a rather medium potent starting position. Next please!

Jackpot! This rather curious starting point has, after a short recon trip, THREE different luxuries available. This gives you a lot of happiness early on. The land provides enough food and production to manifest a proper city. The only thing it lacks is a river, but who knows what else lurks in the fog of war.

This place seems to only have one luxury for us. This is not okay. Compared to the other starting points, it would slow you down by a lot. And I am not yet talking about the food situation! One would require to settle farther east to have enough growing potential. There might be more riches in the south or west. This requires more scouting and, if no additional luxuries are found, a restart.

3. The Importance Of Food And Bonus Resources

Food! Everyone loves food! Your people love food! And by eating all the food available, they will grow in numbers, granting you science, production, culture and more! This means your starting location should be able to feed your people until you can build farms and clear woods. Every turn not used to grow your city is a wasted turn as it keeps you behind in tech, gold and production. Growth is the name of the game and every early food and production bonus will bring you ahead!

Your starting position should have some grasslands, floodplains, jungles or bonus resources. These resources like Wheat, Cows and Fish, will increase the food production of tiles by 1. Further improvement will grant even more food and production. Like luxuries, you want to have a bunch of bonus resources nearby. While bonus resources unfold their full potential in the mid and later game, the +1 Food will work wonders in the early game.

If your starting position is covered in forests, hills, plains and coasts, your Capital won’t be able to grow beyond size 3 very soon as it would require a Worker, a Granary or a Lighthouse. Yes, these buildings can be build after a short amount of research, but still leaves you at a sluggish growing speed. If your starting point doesn’t feature enough growing potential until you have a Worker, restart. To get an impression about a slow growth start, consult the last screenshot from the 2. section. Plains and forest don’t provide enough food early on. One would need to settle in the east, close to the Wheat, to have a pleasent Growth.

To sum it up, always have a tile with at least 2 Food available to grow constantly until advanced Food buildings and technologies are available.

4. King Of The Hills Or Queen Of The Flatlands?

Now it is getting interesting as we come to the matter of settling on hills or on flatlands (grasslands, plains, desert, tundra…). Unlike in earlier civs, your city will always provide 2 Food to its citizens, regardless of the tile. So your desert city produces as much Food and Production as your grassland city. What changes is the Production output and Defense value of the city when it is placed on hills. It is granted 1 additional Production and about 5 additional Defence.

In numbers, placing your city on a hill is always a boon in the very beginning and should be done if possible. BUT! think of the lategame consequences!

Is a river next to the hill? Important water-requiring buildings like garden and waterplant require a river and should not be neglected, when the river is long enough.

Is a coast next to the hill? If you have the big blue ocean nearby, prefer to build next to the coast. Having access to ships and exploration will pay off in the middle game. Leaving 1 tile distance to the coast will leave you with a lot of 1 Food water tiles that cannot be improved!

Is a luxury resource on the hill? Gems, Gold and Silver can be found on hills and are worth considering to be settled on. Benefits are immediate gold suplus and unpillagable access to the luxury. On the long run you will loose gold and production, since you cannot build a mine on the tile and work it manually. In the beginning it can however prove to be useful.

Are you a fan of windmills? To compensate the bonus hills provide, the developers introduced the windmill. It cannot be built if the city is on hills. I bet most of you wondered WHY? and the answer is to grant you the extra production that you are missing from hills. However, the windmill is available in the midgame only.

To sum it up: Settle on hills for the early bonus. If hill-positions are counterproductive for your later goals, stay next to the river and coasts.

5. You Have One Turn Before Settling!

It is not necessary to settle immediately. If you seek to get closer to a river or the coast, use the first turn for movement and settle on the second turn. If you like to get on a hill, use that first turn for that. It is totally fine to spend that first turn to get into a better position.

Before moving your Settler tough, scout with your Warrior. Place him on a hill if possible to have the largest sight radius. Once you spotted the perfect location, move your settler there. Count the movement points you will need to reach the destination. To reach a destination and settle on the second turn, you have 3 movement points available. You can move 3 tiles and settle. Don’t forget the increased costs of heavy terrain!

There isn’t much more to say about that topic. Just know you can use the first turn for movement.

6. Video Guide!

Is in the making! : 3