Quote Originally Posted by factotum View Post
There is already a fairly significant random factor in Civ games--the location you start can make a huge difference to your early growth, which can have knock-on effects throughout the game. Adding another random factor wouldn't necessarily make much of a difference, then, IMHO.
I'm sure that's the same policy that they had with introducing Random Events to Civ4 BtS and many people loathed those. That, and whether you start off on a desert or in Eldorado does tend to give certain advantages and disadvantages but it does so in a "play the hand you are dealt" way, unlike Random Events and goody huts which tend to slap you with a random advantage/disadvantage that you often have no way of dealing with. (Oh hey, you randomly lose your Cottage or forest because game is a jerk and there's nothing you can do about it. Yay. Or, alternately, get random bonus that you may or may not have anything to do with. Zzz.)

Of course Civ has random factors. Combat is random (Spearman beats Tank and all), land is random and so and so. Rarely does it happen though that the odds completely ruin your plans and if you had to rely on random chance you'd just take whatever result you have. Making an elaborate plan that is ruined just because of some random factors is not my kinda gameplay.