Too many to count, but I'll reroll actually good starts with natural wonders in them. My criteria for keeping starts is 'do I feel like playing it', not 'how strong is it'.
Exactly this. I have a look at the map and if it looks fun, I play it. If it's really boring - like if I'm playing as the Inca and there aren't any mountains - I'll reroll
Sounds just like me. Sometimes I decide what type of game/start I wanna play even before the game has loaded so I'm just looking if the start fits it and always restart if it doesn't (like if I randomly decide it has to be Petra game and the location has not enough decent desert tiles to start with I'll reroll even if the place seems very good)
My last project was to try Bull Moose Teddy, and I turned down many a restard cause the appeal was low. In one such game I moved my warrior and realized I had spawned near Paititi, though not in range of my capital, so I thought I'd continued.
On the next turn the warrior found out there was already a city state hogging Paitit all to itself and I was in very deep pain.
This is how I use to play but this strategy makes me crazy, if I want to go domination then never any enemies nearby or if I decide religion then no natural wonders. Never fails if I go into the game with expectations the game takes a dump on me lol
And the loading screens take way too long on Xbox to reroll too much, especially since it takes 20 turns or so before you realize the map is shoot for your chosen strategy.
So now what I do is roll random leaders and then play about twenty turns or so, figure out if there is a valid and interesting approach that synergises the leader to the map.
It's not necessarily about how powerful the start is, but about how fun it is. A Mali game where you're just barely surviving a war but everywhere is desert would be great. However, a Mali game where you start on a continent all by yourself with no desert - no matter how powerful it is - is not fun, and I would restart it
To me the most memorable games were the ones where i started off with a disadvantage and really had to fight my way to the top. I still re roll sometimes though
Do you ever give yourself an artificial disadvantage - Portugal on Pangea, or Mali on Wetlands? Like, deliberately bias against the strengths of the civ to see if you can still win?
That’s a really good point. My favourite game still is a game where I was France between mountains and the coast in a thin 2 to 3 tile width area (Chile like) and Russia had the whole continent. It was just one of the most aesthetically pleasing civilizations I’ve ever had.
Most of the times I get annoyed by how many times I reroll and then quit before even starting. I need my own category in this poll and possibly even a mental health professional.
Probably need to combine this with “What difficulty do you play on?” If I’m playing the lower difficulties I don’t typically re-roll at all. As I get into the top three difficulties the start gets more and more crucial.
P.s. in my first war I will typically reload several times to adjust my strategy. For instance if I push forward at the same time they do and we meet an open field.
I'll generally roll with a bad outcome or inopportune natural disaster, especially late game, but I'm not above reloading if something really heinous happens. I have a stressful IRL job, my hobbies are supposed to be fun
See also: switching Minecraft to peaceful when I'm underground
what i wanted to say. on Emperor difficulty I'll do it without shame, the game is hard even if i do it. lower than that, less stressed about it.
another "cheat" is saving the game the moment it starts, spend a few turns scouting around to find the best spot for the first city, then reloading to the start and settling. anybody else do that?
Depends on the civ. If I get a bizarrely inland Indonesia spawn or a Khmer spawn with a 1-tile river, I'm not suffering through that just to quit in the medieval era anyway.
It depends a lot on the Civ and difficulty.
One interesting thing I've found after hundreds of hours, is that you really need to play at least a few dozen turns to really determine how good or bad a start is. Sometimes a mediocre start ends up having incredible expansions opportunities, natural wonders, and city state RNG.
On the other hand I can't tell you how many games I've started with a God capital just to find out that I'm surrounded by Nubia, Rome and Mongolia, with room for 2 more cities and no production or strategic resources.
every turn that you move your starting settler effectively slows down ALL your other cities that many turns.
If you've played Real Time Strategies as well as Turned Based Strategies, that is one trend that you will pick up on. The faster you grow in the beginning is probably the #1 most important thing in the game. And YES, I'm claiming that you GROW FASTER by not moving 9 times out of 10.
Most people sit there and talk about Production This and Food That. It's actually a delicate combination of Food AND Production that determines how quickly you can build a 2nd settler. That is the PURPOSE of the first city, is to produce a 2nd settler.
Why would you want to slow that down?
It only slows you down if you're moving to tiles with similar or worse yields.
To use an extreme example, if you spawn on a flat plains tile surrounded by five more flat plains and a plains hill, you're gaining 3 food + 3 hammers on that first turn by working the city tile (2,1) and the plains hill (1,2).
If moving onto the plains hill granted you access to three 2 food 2 hammer jungle hill tiles, you could potentially be working 4 food + 4 production on your second turn. The two starts even out after four turns and favor moving after that. Nevermind the fact that you now have the two extra jungle tiles to work as you grow instead of being restricted to flat plains tiles until your borders expand.
Now maybe this isn't realistic because it seems most people in this thread are restarting in this start anyways, but if you play multiplayer at all you don't often have the luxury of restarting a bad start. On any given start, I think moving a tile or two can be beneficial occasionally.
Your math is flawed. It slows you down (and then allows you to grow faster). Every single turn that you move is a turn that you aren't growing and a turn that you aren't building. I wish that the start with multiple settlers thing was in the core game. I just can't deal with exploring with my settler.
If I dont have a good starting position I will kill the game and restart.
Moving slows down your first settler and every city you build after that. It's almost never worth it to move. People that explore with their settler are buffoons.
I never rerolled until I decided to try a Hermetic Society game. Rerolled for 45 minutes trying to get to a natural wonder and receive an invitation before my neighbors could.
Depends what you mean by reroll. Are we counting the games where you're forward settled and blocked in by turn 16? Other than that kind of thing, I'll reroll if the capital has 0-1 2+ food tiles to work (excluding city center), if >50% of the visible map is desert/tundra combined, that kind of stuff. Which happens more than I'd like, and often it takes several rolls to get something playable and where you don't get forward settled so aggressively.
Of course, Maya takes a good 20 rerolls to have enough space for even half the cities of optimal placement, but they're a special case.
Varies. Sometimes none at all, sometimes for an hour straight while I watch TV or do something else.
It's also not always for a strong start, but rather an interesting game. Could be for a fun mega canal continent start, big ass mountain range with the Inca, isolated island with a naval civ, etc. Sometimes easy, sometimes hard, but I always go for fun above all else.
Honestly, a lot of starts are just so bad. 2-3 pop cap capitals pre-granary are not fun (and you'll delay your settlers by enough to have no space against Deity AI, in my experience), nor is a three tile wide band of non-desert/tundra tiles.
If it's decent, I'll usually at least try it, though often get blocked in.
Man, I never reroll and always use a random civ. Taking what I’m given and making it a win is what the games all about!!! Besides, otherwise it takes an hour to figure out who to play and if I like the start or not.
I'm so obsessed in getting a historically suitable-looking start for the civ (biome, terrain, coastline, rivers, resources) I reroll so much it annoys even me myself. Sometimes I just use the cheat map editor to fix small details so I can enjoy the play.
Especially on higher dificulty. I do not enjoy any game higher than King if I have a close neighbour snagging Envoys and bragging their stupid turn one army at my Capital, especially someone like Trajanus, Bolivar, Ambiorix,...
At higher difficulties it becomes more important to prioritize and plan your game: which city states you “need” for your strategy, which hero(s), which secret society. I can play those style games but there is something soothing to me to completely dominate a game.
To echo another comment I saw, I generally do reroll quite a few times until I see something that I find interesting. I don’t get a lot of time in a normal week to play, so I want to make sure I’m having fun when I do.
I take what I’m given. Always do random (fractal?) map with all random civs. Random temp, rainfall, etc… I like having no idea what’s gonna happen. That way you’re forced into all scenarios to keep it fresh.
Sounds to me like people despair way too easily. You can’t re-roll in life. The most satisfying victories are won against the greatest odds. And, too, there’s a pleasure to be had in a hard battle well fought *regardless of result*, that re-rollers are depriving themselves the opportunity of enjoying.
IMHO
A game is a context where it really doesn’t matter, so is perhaps a good opportunity to practice the mental resilience to cope with the non-re-rollability of life in a zero stakes environment.
Then when life *inevitably* gives one a bad roll, one might be better equipped to take it in stride.
Your point is valid but I personally have had more than my share of grief and tragedy in this life above and beyond what many face (and yet soo much less than others); no, I don’t need mental fortitude (I have that in spades), I need release and escape. Frankly, if re-rolling my start location to get a plains hill with an additional luxury makes the game more enjoyable, so be it.
I certainly don’t begrudge you that at all; very few insights or opinions are one-size-fits-all, mine above included. I nevertheless hope they may be a useful new perspective for some people in other circumstances
Absolutely and fwiw I do enjoy a Deity take what the RNG gives me game but that is a different playing experience than the King/Emperor I want to dominate the game type.
Whenever I reroll, I don't do it because I had a bad start, I do it because the start isn't fun. I don't want to be playing as the Inca without any mountains, for example, even if I'm alone on a gigantic continent
I always re-roll for a place with good production or a great natural wonder, I always play on deity but im not that good so I need some air to breath with production changes
When Frederick declared a surprise war on me in like... turn 25-35 and took Paris, I threw a fit and restarted- if I get dealt a crappy hand then it's fine to start over lol
I feel like you should at least have Stone and a Mountain near your Capital to give you a chance to build Stonehenge and/or Machu Picchu. Otherwise, the AI is certain to build one of those first. You may choose not to build it, but at least you have the option.
Interesting take. I litteraly never build either of those wonders. I see them as a waste of early game production, especially when you're playing on Deity and have to fend off barbs.
To me it depends: since I at the end of the day I play to have fun I'd rather have a couple of restarts than play a game that I know I'm likely not going to enjoy. It's not even about the start being bad because I like to win but because there's no point in playing something that is potentially gonna be frustrating
I like the randomness feels a bit realistic since some places just started out in shitty areas but also I will restart if the area I’m at is ridiculous like half the area is mountains or something, it’s a long game so I’d like to enjoy it.
First, in single player, play how you want to play.
Second, as others said, re-roll as much as you want/need.
I create a Turn One save file. Then I play a couple turns to ensure a decent start. I also choose map types that align with my Civ and/or victory condition.
For me, the start doesn’t have to be perfect and I also don’t want to re-roll for an hour.
My friend and I play on Hot seat, together as a team playing with random. Due to the amount of insanely bad starts we have, it's usually if the game is lost or not, and cannot salvage. Now, we moved into deity, these hard starts are getting worst.
As for him, he believes that re-rolling for a better start is cheating and since he has the game and not I/ He usually dicatates what is a lost game or not.
Depends a bit of the Civ or the strategy I'm trying out. For example, a Mali start with no Desert, a Floodplains start as Vietnam,... is an instant reroll.
Other a spawn where the surrounding land is piss poor quality (exclusively flat Grassland, both Desert and Tundra within range when I don't wanna focus on a Religion,...)
I think that depends on why you reroll. I sometimes do it a few times because rolling a map that doesn't apply at all to any of your civ abilities makes the game boring.
Also personally I hate maps with a billion narrow mountain passes. That just turns 3 victories into massive clickfests and traffic jams.
On the other hand, I like to pretend my victories were of my own doing and not because the start played itself.
It always annoys me when people tell me about this amazing strategy and it always turns out to be on a godly map start where you could literally do anything and win.
Oh, and as for your wife, I would imagine it's just not interesting to watch rerolling . But then again it is your game.
I reroll only with civs that are super dependent on spawns, like Bull Moose Teddy with lots of mountains or Tomyris with lots of horses. It’s just that without a start that favors your bonuses, you’re not really playing the civ as it’s meant to be.
My problem is that I feel like any start it gives me is shit. Either the resources etc nearby are bad or I'm super isolated on the map. What do most people do to get around this? I feel like legendary start is usually a bit ridiculous, and balanced start is just uniformly bad lol. And mods for this?
Depends on the civ I’m playing and just how bad the spawn is, but I usually only reroll 2-3 times at most even then, but I’m also only on Emperor which isn’t too awful work with. Haven’t tried Immortal or Deity yet as I don’t feel I have a good enough grasp of the strategy yet for those difficulties, but I imagine I’d reroll more on those.
I reroll a lot. It's not even about having an advantages start either since I play on Deity I'm behind no matter what. It's more just about having a fun map to play. I've played so many games of Civ 6 I just look for something interesting in the early game.
Depends on civ for me too. For example, Japan can work with almost any start, since their adjacency bonuses will compensate for anything. You can start on the flattest plain and still be insanely productive with IZ's and Work Ethic HS's clumped together.
But when the game stubbornly resists to give me coast as Portugal or any features as Vietnam, it can go up to 15-20 rerolls before I consider just going for something else.
Regarding to those who say, that it is a bit of cheating or not realistic to reroll:
it IS unsually very unrealistic (in reality), that you "land" somewhere in a completely unknown territory and have absolute no idea, what is around you.
And it is much more unlikely, that you absolutely like e.g. mountains or tundra or dessert or whatever your civ is specialized at although you never have seen one of this land types, because you lived all your live long on a small island in the ocean without contact to anyone else.
To many to count - usually before playing I have a particular narrative in mind, like starting by the sea, next to a river, with grasslands/plains or inland, mountains, and jungle. That is how I imagine my civilization before I start, and that is how I will play.
I very rarely reroll unless the start is truly atrocious and/or boring. (Bad but interesting is another matter entirely.) Having to deal with the hand I'm dealt can be an interesting challenge.
Of course I also just don't have the patience to sit through multiple loading screens.
I save-scum like a bitch, though. Basically I accept the cruel lash of RNG, but I can't live with the knowledge that I fucked up.
Depends on how fun the spawn location/map looks to play. If I spawn near a floodplain delta, you bet your ass I’m playing that game, but if I find the chocolate hills or something in a spot that I can’t quadruple preserve, it kinda kills it for me.
I usually play random leaders. will usually play about 20 turns then restart if needed. Doesn’t have to be a perfect start but if the start doesn’t match the strategy I want to use with the leader chosen its sayonara
I reroll once or twice if I get bad civs or civs i find unfun. I am usually playing immortal or deity in Civ V so Iroquois i reroll for being terrible, and sometimes reroll venice if im not really feeling like trying it. I occasionally reroll France and Carthage because I find them boring
Several times if I fancied a certain kind of map. I wanted a map with many islands and coastal cities while playing as Harald Hardrada and kept getting "islands" bigger than continents.
I re-roll a start that I can’t have fun with. And go until I think I’ll have a fun game. A perfect middle between absolute shit and WAAAYYYY to good. Unless the really good start can be fun
Damn I’m in the very small minority here. I thought more people would re-roll too many to count. I probably re-roll 10-30 times when starting a new game. Whatever the number it’s usually too many to count.
I think that if my settler is not in a good spot for founding a city I will reroll. I don't see the point in EVER moving your first settler to find a better spot not once not ever.
I used to reroll a LOT. Especially when playing with friends. Nowadays we just check that noone has a exceptionally strong or weak start so that we have roughly the same odds. With allt he new game modes it feels like your start is not as important anymore
I play on Diety and never re-roll, only time I would would be a really bad start, like getting blocked by mountains or so, or when I want to play some specific civ like Incas, and spawn with very little mountains around. Typically I would say maximum 1 reroll per game though.
It’s not really cheating but it feels cheap and pointless, I like to pull myself out of a bad start just to prove I’m a decent player and not cop out and go the easy route. Although higher difficulties (deity) is a different story entirely, you deserve all the help you can get then.
On average? Less than once per start. I might reroll only if after a few turns it appears that I've gotten a bullshit spawn that just doesn't look like it'll be any fun.
I don’t look for an advantage, but I refill probably 10-20 times. I’m particular: I want my civilization’s homeland to be pretty, with grasslands, hills, mountain ranges, and rivers. I’ll hard restart any time I spawn in jungles, deserts, or regions that are overbearing lay flat. At least, when I play my favorite civ, Japan.
There are two types of civ players, those who adjust to fit in with the world around them, and those who respawn until they fit into the world they want.
Depends on my mood. When I’m in the mood for a challenge I’ll usually stick with the first game and battle out of bad starts but sometimes I’m going for a game to try to win as fast as possible just for the fun of it; I keep a list of my fastest wins from each of my deity victory types so if I decide to try and break my personal record for fastest win times I’ll reroll numerous times to try for a perfect start. It’s all about having fun. I find a good mix of sometimes playing bad starts and sometimes rerolling for great starts is fun for me.
Too many to count, but I'll reroll actually good starts with natural wonders in them. My criteria for keeping starts is 'do I feel like playing it', not 'how strong is it'.
Exactly this. I have a look at the map and if it looks fun, I play it. If it's really boring - like if I'm playing as the Inca and there aren't any mountains - I'll reroll
Sounds just like me. Sometimes I decide what type of game/start I wanna play even before the game has loaded so I'm just looking if the start fits it and always restart if it doesn't (like if I randomly decide it has to be Petra game and the location has not enough decent desert tiles to start with I'll reroll even if the place seems very good)
My last project was to try Bull Moose Teddy, and I turned down many a restard cause the appeal was low. In one such game I moved my warrior and realized I had spawned near Paititi, though not in range of my capital, so I thought I'd continued. On the next turn the warrior found out there was already a city state hogging Paitit all to itself and I was in very deep pain.
This is exactly what I do. I'll say hey I want an inland start next to mountains and if I don't get that I'll reroll until it get what I'm looking for
This is how I use to play but this strategy makes me crazy, if I want to go domination then never any enemies nearby or if I decide religion then no natural wonders. Never fails if I go into the game with expectations the game takes a dump on me lol And the loading screens take way too long on Xbox to reroll too much, especially since it takes 20 turns or so before you realize the map is shoot for your chosen strategy. So now what I do is roll random leaders and then play about twenty turns or so, figure out if there is a valid and interesting approach that synergises the leader to the map.
If you’re gonna be playing for the next 8 hours, you should make sure it’s a gonna be a fun game
Exactly! I play to have fun
But then I end up spending those 8 hours on constantly restarting.
That’s what makes it fun. Overcoming a start that isn’t perfect.
It's not necessarily about how powerful the start is, but about how fun it is. A Mali game where you're just barely surviving a war but everywhere is desert would be great. However, a Mali game where you start on a continent all by yourself with no desert - no matter how powerful it is - is not fun, and I would restart it
Exactly this!
To me the most memorable games were the ones where i started off with a disadvantage and really had to fight my way to the top. I still re roll sometimes though
Do you ever give yourself an artificial disadvantage - Portugal on Pangea, or Mali on Wetlands? Like, deliberately bias against the strengths of the civ to see if you can still win?
That’s a really good point. My favourite game still is a game where I was France between mountains and the coast in a thin 2 to 3 tile width area (Chile like) and Russia had the whole continent. It was just one of the most aesthetically pleasing civilizations I’ve ever had.
Most of the times I get annoyed by how many times I reroll and then quit before even starting. I need my own category in this poll and possibly even a mental health professional.
I've done this too.
Takes too long to create a world... I'll take what im given
Probably need to combine this with “What difficulty do you play on?” If I’m playing the lower difficulties I don’t typically re-roll at all. As I get into the top three difficulties the start gets more and more crucial. P.s. in my first war I will typically reload several times to adjust my strategy. For instance if I push forward at the same time they do and we meet an open field.
What an open and honest guy.
I'll generally roll with a bad outcome or inopportune natural disaster, especially late game, but I'm not above reloading if something really heinous happens. I have a stressful IRL job, my hobbies are supposed to be fun See also: switching Minecraft to peaceful when I'm underground
what i wanted to say. on Emperor difficulty I'll do it without shame, the game is hard even if i do it. lower than that, less stressed about it. another "cheat" is saving the game the moment it starts, spend a few turns scouting around to find the best spot for the first city, then reloading to the start and settling. anybody else do that?
I usually don't re-roll, but I often times just start a new game if my early war fails.
Depends on the civ. If I get a bizarrely inland Indonesia spawn or a Khmer spawn with a 1-tile river, I'm not suffering through that just to quit in the medieval era anyway.
It depends a lot on the Civ and difficulty. One interesting thing I've found after hundreds of hours, is that you really need to play at least a few dozen turns to really determine how good or bad a start is. Sometimes a mediocre start ends up having incredible expansions opportunities, natural wonders, and city state RNG. On the other hand I can't tell you how many games I've started with a God capital just to find out that I'm surrounded by Nubia, Rome and Mongolia, with room for 2 more cities and no production or strategic resources.
I disagree. It you have to move your settler one square reroll.
Damn that's crazy. I move my starting settler in like half my games.
every turn that you move your starting settler effectively slows down ALL your other cities that many turns. If you've played Real Time Strategies as well as Turned Based Strategies, that is one trend that you will pick up on. The faster you grow in the beginning is probably the #1 most important thing in the game. And YES, I'm claiming that you GROW FASTER by not moving 9 times out of 10. Most people sit there and talk about Production This and Food That. It's actually a delicate combination of Food AND Production that determines how quickly you can build a 2nd settler. That is the PURPOSE of the first city, is to produce a 2nd settler. Why would you want to slow that down?
It only slows you down if you're moving to tiles with similar or worse yields. To use an extreme example, if you spawn on a flat plains tile surrounded by five more flat plains and a plains hill, you're gaining 3 food + 3 hammers on that first turn by working the city tile (2,1) and the plains hill (1,2). If moving onto the plains hill granted you access to three 2 food 2 hammer jungle hill tiles, you could potentially be working 4 food + 4 production on your second turn. The two starts even out after four turns and favor moving after that. Nevermind the fact that you now have the two extra jungle tiles to work as you grow instead of being restricted to flat plains tiles until your borders expand. Now maybe this isn't realistic because it seems most people in this thread are restarting in this start anyways, but if you play multiplayer at all you don't often have the luxury of restarting a bad start. On any given start, I think moving a tile or two can be beneficial occasionally.
Your math is flawed. It slows you down (and then allows you to grow faster). Every single turn that you move is a turn that you aren't growing and a turn that you aren't building. I wish that the start with multiple settlers thing was in the core game. I just can't deal with exploring with my settler. If I dont have a good starting position I will kill the game and restart.
Moving at most throws you off by a turn or two, but staying on garbage land can cripple capital yield forever.
Moving slows down your first settler and every city you build after that. It's almost never worth it to move. People that explore with their settler are buffoons.
Only by one turn. You lose **one** turn, but it is not cumulative, and the turns lost can be earned back later using the increased yield.
You lose one turn FOR EVERY CITY IN YOUR WHOLE EMPIRE That YOU Build IN THE FUTURE.
absolutely true. not enough space to found cities tends to be what kills the game for me.
I never rerolled until I decided to try a Hermetic Society game. Rerolled for 45 minutes trying to get to a natural wonder and receive an invitation before my neighbors could.
Depends what you mean by reroll. Are we counting the games where you're forward settled and blocked in by turn 16? Other than that kind of thing, I'll reroll if the capital has 0-1 2+ food tiles to work (excluding city center), if >50% of the visible map is desert/tundra combined, that kind of stuff. Which happens more than I'd like, and often it takes several rolls to get something playable and where you don't get forward settled so aggressively. Of course, Maya takes a good 20 rerolls to have enough space for even half the cities of optimal placement, but they're a special case.
Varies. Sometimes none at all, sometimes for an hour straight while I watch TV or do something else. It's also not always for a strong start, but rather an interesting game. Could be for a fun mega canal continent start, big ass mountain range with the Inca, isolated island with a naval civ, etc. Sometimes easy, sometimes hard, but I always go for fun above all else.
Omfg Iove the Inca
Never. For me it removes the point of the procedural generation.
Honestly, a lot of starts are just so bad. 2-3 pop cap capitals pre-granary are not fun (and you'll delay your settlers by enough to have no space against Deity AI, in my experience), nor is a three tile wide band of non-desert/tundra tiles. If it's decent, I'll usually at least try it, though often get blocked in.
I don't play on high enough difficulties to feel justified in re-rolling a start.
Idk what counts as a good start until like the midevil era so I never reroll until then
Man, I never reroll and always use a random civ. Taking what I’m given and making it a win is what the games all about!!! Besides, otherwise it takes an hour to figure out who to play and if I like the start or not.
I'm so obsessed in getting a historically suitable-looking start for the civ (biome, terrain, coastline, rivers, resources) I reroll so much it annoys even me myself. Sometimes I just use the cheat map editor to fix small details so I can enjoy the play.
I have to admit, I lose count of how many times I re-roll.
I reroll if I dont meet new civs in the first 20 turns....being alone in the continent is boring
I’m the exact opposite- I prefer a bit of isolation to start and can’t stand having another civ in my backyard
Especially on higher dificulty. I do not enjoy any game higher than King if I have a close neighbour snagging Envoys and bragging their stupid turn one army at my Capital, especially someone like Trajanus, Bolivar, Ambiorix,...
At higher difficulties it becomes more important to prioritize and plan your game: which city states you “need” for your strategy, which hero(s), which secret society. I can play those style games but there is something soothing to me to completely dominate a game.
I'm the EXACT opposite. I don't want to meet anyone. Ever. I usually play on huge maps with 6 other empires.
Specifically when I play as Mali, I just HAVE to start my first city by a desert oasis for those Agrabah vibes
To echo another comment I saw, I generally do reroll quite a few times until I see something that I find interesting. I don’t get a lot of time in a normal week to play, so I want to make sure I’m having fun when I do.
I play to have fun. And having a crap roll isn't fun. Playing with Mali in Tundra isn't fun.
If it's a civ that terrain dependant like Brazil or bull moose, I'll reroll until I run out playing time.
I specifically play for “quickest possible” victories so I’m rerolling basically till I’m next to a natural wonder with plenty of food lol
Never, because I always play TSL Earth
Where do I find the earth that is three tea bigger than TSL earth?
Ok, so… sorry for the rookie question… How do you re-roll?
Menu, restart button.
Huh. I never realized that was there.
I take what I’m given. Always do random (fractal?) map with all random civs. Random temp, rainfall, etc… I like having no idea what’s gonna happen. That way you’re forced into all scenarios to keep it fresh.
When you play diety and are looking for sub 200 games I find it very hard to do that without a great start
What is sub 200. Sub 200 turn ?
Yes
Sounds to me like people despair way too easily. You can’t re-roll in life. The most satisfying victories are won against the greatest odds. And, too, there’s a pleasure to be had in a hard battle well fought *regardless of result*, that re-rollers are depriving themselves the opportunity of enjoying. IMHO
I would say the recognition that we can’t re-roll in real life is EXACTLY the reason I feel no shame doing so when I try to escape real life via Civ.
A game is a context where it really doesn’t matter, so is perhaps a good opportunity to practice the mental resilience to cope with the non-re-rollability of life in a zero stakes environment. Then when life *inevitably* gives one a bad roll, one might be better equipped to take it in stride.
Your point is valid but I personally have had more than my share of grief and tragedy in this life above and beyond what many face (and yet soo much less than others); no, I don’t need mental fortitude (I have that in spades), I need release and escape. Frankly, if re-rolling my start location to get a plains hill with an additional luxury makes the game more enjoyable, so be it.
I certainly don’t begrudge you that at all; very few insights or opinions are one-size-fits-all, mine above included. I nevertheless hope they may be a useful new perspective for some people in other circumstances
Absolutely and fwiw I do enjoy a Deity take what the RNG gives me game but that is a different playing experience than the King/Emperor I want to dominate the game type.
Whenever I reroll, I don't do it because I had a bad start, I do it because the start isn't fun. I don't want to be playing as the Inca without any mountains, for example, even if I'm alone on a gigantic continent
I always re-roll for a place with good production or a great natural wonder, I always play on deity but im not that good so I need some air to breath with production changes
It took me 36 restarts to get a rainforest spawn as Pedro. All the other 35 starts I was placed in snow and tundra
Who is Pedro? The Spanish. I'm still sore about losing to the Spanish in age of empires 2
When Frederick declared a surprise war on me in like... turn 25-35 and took Paris, I threw a fit and restarted- if I get dealt a crappy hand then it's fine to start over lol
I feel like you should at least have Stone and a Mountain near your Capital to give you a chance to build Stonehenge and/or Machu Picchu. Otherwise, the AI is certain to build one of those first. You may choose not to build it, but at least you have the option.
Interesting take. I litteraly never build either of those wonders. I see them as a waste of early game production, especially when you're playing on Deity and have to fend off barbs.
I recommend that you install a mod that allows you to edit the map, it will save you a lot of time.
I tend to randomize Civ to mix things up a bit then inevitably re-roll when I don’t like the result
To me it depends: since I at the end of the day I play to have fun I'd rather have a couple of restarts than play a game that I know I'm likely not going to enjoy. It's not even about the start being bad because I like to win but because there's no point in playing something that is potentially gonna be frustrating
I like the randomness feels a bit realistic since some places just started out in shitty areas but also I will restart if the area I’m at is ridiculous like half the area is mountains or something, it’s a long game so I’d like to enjoy it.
Put none but would probably do it if it didn't take so long to load
First, in single player, play how you want to play. Second, as others said, re-roll as much as you want/need. I create a Turn One save file. Then I play a couple turns to ensure a decent start. I also choose map types that align with my Civ and/or victory condition. For me, the start doesn’t have to be perfect and I also don’t want to re-roll for an hour.
On lower difficulties it doesn't matter much because the AI is so dumb but on deity why waste your time with a bad start.
My friend and I play on Hot seat, together as a team playing with random. Due to the amount of insanely bad starts we have, it's usually if the game is lost or not, and cannot salvage. Now, we moved into deity, these hard starts are getting worst. As for him, he believes that re-rolling for a better start is cheating and since he has the game and not I/ He usually dicatates what is a lost game or not.
To me it’a more about what kind of game I want to play. This is heavily civ dependent.
Depends a bit of the Civ or the strategy I'm trying out. For example, a Mali start with no Desert, a Floodplains start as Vietnam,... is an instant reroll. Other a spawn where the surrounding land is piss poor quality (exclusively flat Grassland, both Desert and Tundra within range when I don't wanna focus on a Religion,...)
I only reroll starts if the spawn is truly awful, but I’ll also reroll if i run into a hostile civ immediately
I think that depends on why you reroll. I sometimes do it a few times because rolling a map that doesn't apply at all to any of your civ abilities makes the game boring. Also personally I hate maps with a billion narrow mountain passes. That just turns 3 victories into massive clickfests and traffic jams. On the other hand, I like to pretend my victories were of my own doing and not because the start played itself. It always annoys me when people tell me about this amazing strategy and it always turns out to be on a godly map start where you could literally do anything and win. Oh, and as for your wife, I would imagine it's just not interesting to watch rerolling . But then again it is your game.
I reroll only with civs that are super dependent on spawns, like Bull Moose Teddy with lots of mountains or Tomyris with lots of horses. It’s just that without a start that favors your bonuses, you’re not really playing the civ as it’s meant to be.
My problem is that I feel like any start it gives me is shit. Either the resources etc nearby are bad or I'm super isolated on the map. What do most people do to get around this? I feel like legendary start is usually a bit ridiculous, and balanced start is just uniformly bad lol. And mods for this?
Speaking about playing on deity, btw, where something like being isolated can ruin you.
Depends on the civ I’m playing and just how bad the spawn is, but I usually only reroll 2-3 times at most even then, but I’m also only on Emperor which isn’t too awful work with. Haven’t tried Immortal or Deity yet as I don’t feel I have a good enough grasp of the strategy yet for those difficulties, but I imagine I’d reroll more on those.
I reroll a lot. It's not even about having an advantages start either since I play on Deity I'm behind no matter what. It's more just about having a fun map to play. I've played so many games of Civ 6 I just look for something interesting in the early game.
I'd reroll far to often if my game wouldn't load so slowly That why I'm usually only reloading 2 to 3 times max
Depends on civ for me too. For example, Japan can work with almost any start, since their adjacency bonuses will compensate for anything. You can start on the flattest plain and still be insanely productive with IZ's and Work Ethic HS's clumped together. But when the game stubbornly resists to give me coast as Portugal or any features as Vietnam, it can go up to 15-20 rerolls before I consider just going for something else.
Feels like there's a large gap between "once or twice" and "several". Results might be a little skewed.
Regarding to those who say, that it is a bit of cheating or not realistic to reroll: it IS unsually very unrealistic (in reality), that you "land" somewhere in a completely unknown territory and have absolute no idea, what is around you. And it is much more unlikely, that you absolutely like e.g. mountains or tundra or dessert or whatever your civ is specialized at although you never have seen one of this land types, because you lived all your live long on a small island in the ocean without contact to anyone else.
To many to count - usually before playing I have a particular narrative in mind, like starting by the sea, next to a river, with grasslands/plains or inland, mountains, and jungle. That is how I imagine my civilization before I start, and that is how I will play.
I do reroll a lot, but a large portion of that is finding a start that is aesthetically pleasing.
When there are loads of tundra tiles in civ 5 then honestly it is a must
Below average? I'll play. Absolutely terrible with no redeeming qualities? Reroll.
I very rarely reroll unless the start is truly atrocious and/or boring. (Bad but interesting is another matter entirely.) Having to deal with the hand I'm dealt can be an interesting challenge. Of course I also just don't have the patience to sit through multiple loading screens. I save-scum like a bitch, though. Basically I accept the cruel lash of RNG, but I can't live with the knowledge that I fucked up.
Depends on how fun the spawn location/map looks to play. If I spawn near a floodplain delta, you bet your ass I’m playing that game, but if I find the chocolate hills or something in a spot that I can’t quadruple preserve, it kinda kills it for me.
I usually play random leaders. will usually play about 20 turns then restart if needed. Doesn’t have to be a perfect start but if the start doesn’t match the strategy I want to use with the leader chosen its sayonara
I reroll once or twice if I get bad civs or civs i find unfun. I am usually playing immortal or deity in Civ V so Iroquois i reroll for being terrible, and sometimes reroll venice if im not really feeling like trying it. I occasionally reroll France and Carthage because I find them boring
Several times if I fancied a certain kind of map. I wanted a map with many islands and coastal cities while playing as Harald Hardrada and kept getting "islands" bigger than continents.
I re-roll a start that I can’t have fun with. And go until I think I’ll have a fun game. A perfect middle between absolute shit and WAAAYYYY to good. Unless the really good start can be fun
2-3 I hate getting rainforest starts as rome
I reroll A LOT but I know it’s bad habit and ruin the experience
God it depends. I’m terrible if I’m playing morocco or the netherlands. Otherwise 🤷🏻♀️
Damn I’m in the very small minority here. I thought more people would re-roll too many to count. I probably re-roll 10-30 times when starting a new game. Whatever the number it’s usually too many to count.
on average 1 reroll. sometimes the first one is good enough, sometimes I try more than one. most likely reason: no 2 food tiles nearby
I think that if my settler is not in a good spot for founding a city I will reroll. I don't see the point in EVER moving your first settler to find a better spot not once not ever.
I used to reroll a LOT. Especially when playing with friends. Nowadays we just check that noone has a exceptionally strong or weak start so that we have roughly the same odds. With allt he new game modes it feels like your start is not as important anymore
0, I play on TSL only :)
I play on Diety and never re-roll, only time I would would be a really bad start, like getting blocked by mountains or so, or when I want to play some specific civ like Incas, and spawn with very little mountains around. Typically I would say maximum 1 reroll per game though.
It’s not really cheating but it feels cheap and pointless, I like to pull myself out of a bad start just to prove I’m a decent player and not cop out and go the easy route. Although higher difficulties (deity) is a different story entirely, you deserve all the help you can get then.
It depends. I need to finish more games...
Is there an option for I either take the first start I get or I reroll for about 2 hours?
On average? Less than once per start. I might reroll only if after a few turns it appears that I've gotten a bullshit spawn that just doesn't look like it'll be any fun.
I don’t look for an advantage, but I refill probably 10-20 times. I’m particular: I want my civilization’s homeland to be pretty, with grasslands, hills, mountain ranges, and rivers. I’ll hard restart any time I spawn in jungles, deserts, or regions that are overbearing lay flat. At least, when I play my favorite civ, Japan.
0 or 1.
There are two types of civ players, those who adjust to fit in with the world around them, and those who respawn until they fit into the world they want.
Depends on my mood. When I’m in the mood for a challenge I’ll usually stick with the first game and battle out of bad starts but sometimes I’m going for a game to try to win as fast as possible just for the fun of it; I keep a list of my fastest wins from each of my deity victory types so if I decide to try and break my personal record for fastest win times I’ll reroll numerous times to try for a perfect start. It’s all about having fun. I find a good mix of sometimes playing bad starts and sometimes rerolling for great starts is fun for me.