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[Mighty Midget]

Is there a way to start further north or south? Every single game throws me straight into the swamp. Seeing food is quite essential, it's rather annoying that the food tiles are always out of reach unless I want to spend 100 years sailing around looking for a tiny spot not occupied by another European nation.

Also: Any hints on how to start the game, building your first colony and all? What priorities should be made? Any swamp tile better than another swamp tile? I always figured tools and food were the most essential things to get sorted out, but it looks like I'm wrong...

EDIT: What's the deal on "diplomacy"? As far as I can gather, the other nations are the only ones who can approach you without declaring war. If I try to approach their units, I'm asked if I want to cancel the treaties. What the hell is that? Furthermore, because of that, they can demand you move your units away from their colonies, while you can only go to war to _try_ to remove theirs... That's more than just a bit odd. Is there a way around this? Is "diplomacy" a one-way thing here, the AI can "talk" to you, but you can only shoot at them? This is no good at all.