Spawning in ashlands, desert, or tundra should carry some benefit

[scenic perch]

Currently when you spawn in ashlands, desert, or tundra you do not get a pasture. Normally you get one pasture, one iron mine, and one gold mine pre cleared around your capital at the start of the game. As a result, spawning in these other terrains is a big negative and it can happen totally at random. Add that to the more restrictive province types since these terrains don't support farms and it can be quite detrimental to your early game.

I think these terrains should have some other benefit to compensate. Maybe desert capitals spawn an extra gold node probince, tundra capitals spawn a mana node, and ashlands has a guaranteed pickup in each province for an early boost. Chasms should probably confer some additional benefit as well, maybe another free pickup in their territory, since they also cause a stability penalty.

I think this would keep the variety of spawns but help make them more balanced against one another and less like a random die roll just punishing you when you start the game.

[civic river]

Adding to this, but Ashlands also don't have forests, which makes Foresters (and thus Boosts to buildings) difficult without SPIs, or lucking into nearby non-Ashland or Mangrove water tiles. The difficulty of these areas is clearly known, though, given how Primal's Ashland benefit (+3 gold per tile) is stronger than Desert's benefit (+2 gold per tile).

I think that's just part of the game, though; some starts are going to be less beneficial than others, which makes adaptation and knowing how to respond to those situations more important. Maybe a small benefit or bonus depending on the capital's province—sort of like terraformers, but small and static value—might help make them just a little less lopsided, but nothing too big imo.