Curious: What do YOU do when you get no bonus from your civ?

[I Kinda Fail]

I've been playing as the Dutch and I'm probably like 60% through a standard game, and... I've gotten zero benefit from playing as them. Literally every other civ is friendly with me, so I don't want to declare war to get benefit from my sea beggars. There's no marsh OR flood plains anywhere on either of the 2 main continents that I can see... so no polders. And the trading/happiness perk hasn't been useful yet since I already have 38?ish happiness and an abundance of luxuries.

Likewise, I've had similar games where I play as Attila, only to discover there's nobody else on the continent or anywhere near me.

So, I'm curious: what do you do in a situation like this? Keep playing? Or reroll and start again? To me, it just feels boring to be playing as a warmonger civ but have nobody to go to war with, and other similar scenarios.

[DerEider]

If you do not like the starting site, try a restart to see whether it may improve it.
See what the RNG gods will give you

To assure a better chance of a favorable starting point for your new Civilization, consider using a mod called Really Advanced Setup {RAS} by Moo Zedong at
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=126959669 ...
RAS offers many options that let the Gamer mold the game to suit one's desire.
The following types of options are available:

Select which Civilizations will be available for game start.

Starting Bias: Select preferred environment for founding capital; such as Coastal, River, Region Priority or Region to Avoid.

Starting Bonuses: Set startup Resources levels in detail for Own Civ and opponents. I.E., set Gold, Culture, Faith, & Free Techs for each player.

Starting Units: Select from among own Civ, or any other Civ's, current Age &/or future Age units.

Detailed criteria for control of geographic distribution of terrain types, natural wonders, resources, etc. ... E.G., ensure URANIUM deposits within reasonable range of your civilization. And specify Coastal hexes are within some specified range of the capital.

Starting Visibility: Control how far one's units can see at game start.

Other Options: Disable Nuclear Weapons, No Science, No Policies, No Happiness, Eternal War or Peace.

[Grendalcat]

Sometimes I restart as many as half a dozen times, to get a starting location I like.
For some civs, I specify a particular map that matches up well with them. Such as Archipelago for Hawaii, or Great Plains for the Mongols.

Special units, such as the Sea Beggar, don't affect my game much. Most special units don't make that much difference, with a few exceptions such as the Hun Battering Ram.

[nullpo]

Personally I roll with it. Restart scumming and choosing map seems like cheating, so I always pick continent so all civ can benefit somewhat. What's the joy of playing strategy games if you can't lose?

[I Kinda Fail]

Originally posted by Grendalcat:

Special units, such as the Sea Beggar, don't affect my game much. Most special units don't make that much difference, with a few exceptions such as the Hun Battering Ram.

I'd partially agree, for units that are like "cheaper to build but 20% stronger". But the sea beggar starts with 2 promotions, so with a Barracks and Armory, you can get them able to attack twice per turn from the get-go. That's a pretty beefy unit. :P

[knighttemplar1960]

I go for the best way to win with what I have at hand.

[Amanoob105]

What I do depends on the answer to one important question.
"Am I having fun?"

[Damsteri]

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

Likewise, I've had similar games where I play as Attila, only to discover there's nobody else on the continent or anywhere near me.

This is viable, and is not a no-bonus situation. The Huns are have very powerful early production due revealed horses and +1 production from pastures, so in that kind of situation it would be best to build couple of huge cities around horses, sheep, and cows,and build all of the world wonders in them. Nobody could match their production if you have enough pastures.

There are some other case though, and I actually once tried what would be the most no-bonus situation you can manufacture by civ/map choice, and ended up for Polynesia on Great Planes. That would be always bad, regardless of luck.

It all depends on the difficulty level. On Immortal/Deity you will never win a game if you can't get benefits from your unique bonuses. On lower levels it doesn't mean that much.

[Bfloo]

I usually just go with it, the best games I've had have always had an early game debacle to set me back.

[Anvos]

Personally I say restart when the game decides to sabotage your ability to play as your civ rather than a generic civ.

Playing Byzantium on any King or higher difficulty for example really requires a good start location else the AI effortlessly gets all the good religion talents leaving you with a mish mash of crap.

[kensw]

Originally posted by Anvos:

Playing Byzantium on any King or higher difficulty for example really requires a good start location else the AI effortlessly gets all the good religion talents leaving you with a mish mash of crap.

There are several good mods that give Byzantium a Buff to early religious growth so it can actually use it's special ability
Just type Byzantium in the workshop search

[Anvos]

Honestly if I was I'd be more likely just to get a mod that removes the free tech and units the AI gets on higher difficulties, even for Civs whose bonuses can't be completely neutered I find the bonuses to everything and starting freebies ruins too much of the game if you don't play a rush through science playstyle and makes rationalism too mandatory.

[John]

As the answer you were given, are you having fun, that is most important.

Do know that the Dutch are one of the worst civs in the game. Their unique traits is trash compared to the Arabian bazaar. Polders are... well great, just gotta find marshlands which for some reason never spawn close to where i am. And unless you're gonna get Petra in a city, it's not worth it for the floodplains as if you have a decent amount of that the rest has desert tiles, so you need Petra, without it, you'll just be downgrading your city. And then the Sea Beggars, which are okay, if you have +30 exp they start with Coastal raiders 1, 2, 3, Logistics, Supply and Prize ships. But we all know they are completely outclassed by ranged ships any day of the week.

If you are someone who wants to play a civ and enjoy the uniqueness they have, i suggest to restart, as the Dutch are hella boring for that

[I Kinda Fail]

Originally posted by John:

As the answer you were given, are you having fun, that is most important.

Do know that the Dutch are one of the worst civs in the game. Their unique traits is trash compared to the Arabian bazaar. Polders are... well great, just gotta find marshlands which for some reason never spawn close to where i am. And unless you're gonna get Petra in a city, it's not worth it for the floodplains as if you have a decent amount of that the rest has desert tiles, so you need Petra, without it, you'll just be downgrading your city.

I understand the IDEA of the Dutch being a sort-of desert civ... Deserts are undesirable for most AI enemies, since you won't get any trees or horses from them... So the idea is that, you play the Dutch as a diplomatic civ. You take land nobody wants, so nobody covets your land, so they're more likely to invade someone else... So in theory, you can have a smaller army, and use your production to build wonders or improvements instead, hopefully making up for the worse tiles. Likewise, their unique trait helps with warmongers, who often demand everything you've got, when they think they can get away with it. You're essentially giving the bully half of your lunch money. The polder helps produce more food and production to make up for the bad desert tiles, and the gold is to help with diplomacy. And Desert Folklore is strong, would help you get a religion.

Like, on paper, the Dutch can be pretty strong... but they just rely too heavily on their start imo. If you can get a desert coastal region, you're golden. Polders everywhere, nobody wants your land, and you can send out sea beggars! But the game has their start bias as grasslands instead, I guess hoping to find sugar and marshes, so... ehhh.

[DerEider]

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

Originally posted by John:

As the answer you were given, are you having fun, that is most important.

Do know that the Dutch are one of the worst civs in the game. Their unique traits is trash compared to the Arabian bazaar. Polders are... well great, just gotta find marshlands which for some reason never spawn close to where i am. And unless you're gonna get Petra in a city, it's not worth it for the floodplains as if you have a decent amount of that the rest has desert tiles, so you need Petra, without it, you'll just be downgrading your city.

I understand the IDEA of the Dutch being a sort-of desert civ... Deserts are undesirable for most AI enemies, since you won't get any trees or horses from them... So the idea is that, you play the Dutch as a diplomatic civ. You take land nobody wants, so nobody covets your land, so they're more likely to invade someone else... So in theory, you can have a smaller army, and use your production to build wonders or improvements instead, hopefully making up for the worse tiles. Likewise, their unique trait helps with warmongers, who often demand everything you've got, when they think they can get away with it. You're essentially giving the bully half of your lunch money. The polder helps produce more food and production to make up for the bad desert tiles, and the gold is to help with diplomacy. And Desert Folklore is strong, would help you get a religion.

Like, on paper, the Dutch can be pretty strong... but they just rely too heavily on their start imo. If you can get a desert coastal region, you're golden. Polders everywhere, nobody wants your land, and you can send out sea beggars! But the game has their start bias as grasslands instead, I guess hoping to find sugar and marshes, so... ehhh.

If you can tolerate mods, Really Advanced Setup will let you set the Start Bias as you prefer, So you know what it should be ... Coastal, Desert. If you're lucky maybe it will give you a river

[The Silent CivVer]

Originally posted by John:

As the answer you were given, are you having fun, that is most important.

Do know that the Dutch are one of the worst civs in the game. Their unique traits is trash compared to the Arabian bazaar. Polders are... well great, just gotta find marshlands which for some reason never spawn close to where i am. And unless you're gonna get Petra in a city, it's not worth it for the floodplains as if you have a decent amount of that the rest has desert tiles, so you need Petra, without it, you'll just be downgrading your city. And then the Sea Beggars, which are okay, if you have +30 exp they start with Coastal raiders 1, 2, 3, Logistics, Supply and Prize ships. But we all know they are completely outclassed by ranged ships any day of the week.

If you are someone who wants to play a civ and enjoy the uniqueness they have, i suggest to restart, as the Dutch are hella boring for that

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

Originally posted by John:

As the answer you were given, are you having fun, that is most important.

Do know that the Dutch are one of the worst civs in the game. Their unique traits is trash compared to the Arabian bazaar. Polders are... well great, just gotta find marshlands which for some reason never spawn close to where i am. And unless you're gonna get Petra in a city, it's not worth it for the floodplains as if you have a decent amount of that the rest has desert tiles, so you need Petra, without it, you'll just be downgrading your city.

I understand the IDEA of the Dutch being a sort-of desert civ... Deserts are undesirable for most AI enemies, since you won't get any trees or horses from them... So the idea is that, you play the Dutch as a diplomatic civ. You take land nobody wants, so nobody covets your land, so they're more likely to invade someone else... So in theory, you can have a smaller army, and use your production to build wonders or improvements instead, hopefully making up for the worse tiles. Likewise, their unique trait helps with warmongers, who often demand everything you've got, when they think they can get away with it. You're essentially giving the bully half of your lunch money. The polder helps produce more food and production to make up for the bad desert tiles, and the gold is to help with diplomacy. And Desert Folklore is strong, would help you get a religion.

Like, on paper, the Dutch can be pretty strong... but they just rely too heavily on their start imo. If you can get a desert coastal region, you're golden. Polders everywhere, nobody wants your land, and you can send out sea beggars! But the game has their start bias as grasslands instead, I guess hoping to find sugar and marshes, so... ehhh.

The Dutch are a good civ on maps with 7 or more so opponents. Their unique ability is strong, especially on higher levels; sell your luxuries to the AI for plenty of cash and use this wisely.

Yes, the Bazaar is better...but only when it is up and running...the Dutch can dominate trade before it is built.

Yes, the Dutch can start in a location where they cannot utilise their polders. However, in such a scenario your priority should be to colonise or conquer such areas.

Sea Beggars are great. They start with the supply promotion that lets them heal in neutral territory. You use Sea Beggars in tandem with Frigates, not instead of Frigates.