benefits of inland sea?

[adkjake]

are there any. other than fish and a little shield (wonders too)

[Flip]

sea trade routes are a lot better than land trade routes, so if there's a different city on the same inland sea you can have a good trade route going. Also barbarian ships are less likely to spawn thus making those trade routes safer too

[KatArus]

Inland Sea is a 'region' map rather than a 'world' map so it does not loop around itself from east to west. This makes corners of the map extremely isolated that, also being mostly grassland, are excellent 'core' regions, they are very hard to reach and take without tanks or aviation. Areas closer to the 'sea' often have mountain ranges or dense forests good for production.

There are 2 main disadvantages though. The first one is... that it's actually a giant fresh-water lake so no whales, reefs or natural wonders. It's just a huge empty body of water. The second one is that is that due to huge water mass civs and city-states have quite a bit less actual land to settle so if you spawn on the edge and don't forward-settle there is a fair chance that by the time your expansion 'naturally' expands to water body on your 4th-5th city there will be no good spots left. Same goes to when you spawn near water.

All in all, it's a VERY fun map to play on

[civ]

Inland seas are the best possible situation, if you can settle multiple cities around it you get to trade internally via cargo ships at zero risk whereas "outland" seas are the most vulnerable method of trade and also coastal cities are the most at risk as at any moment an armada could be at your doorstep.

In general i don't like settling coastally in your capital you for the most part care about production although growth is a major concern you want tonnes of hills for great people and you want a production value that's quite high. Settling coastally drastically reduces your available tiles and is much riskier with barbarians on.