Games with no iron

[Solomwi]

I don't remember which plants have which requirement, but even if you could, I do know they're dependent on factories, so they won't boost production. As I mentioned in another thread, several times I've built Hoover before discovering Industrialization, and the resulting hydro plants did nothing until I got factories up. You've got to go get that iron, or keep checking F2 every turn to see if the Celts have some available for trade.

[Kuciwalker]

Hm, I always thought Hydro plants from Hoover gave the bonus...

[Shogun Gunner]

Hearing some updates on this game would be interesting, Dissident.

[conmcb25]

Yes they would. The bigger issue here is the resource scarcity. There are two sides to this issue, both good and bad. Im still not convinced yet that its good......

[Dominae]

Re: Games with no iron

Originally posted by Dissident
I need iron for factories. That's the biggie. These are what allow me to win games. I suppose by that point the celts will connect their iron, and I could possibly buy it off of them. I just don't like being in that position.

You're quite a ways from Industrialization. There's plenty of time to secure Iron. Your first mistake is to despair.

Very rarely will the resource scarcity be such that it is impossible to trade for Iron. You might need to be creative. The weak, Iron-less military that you do have may not be able to conquer enemies like you're used to, but it can (for example) make sure one of your allies has two Iron sources within his borders (which you can then trade for).

I'm sure you're situation is not hopeless. Post a save and we'll help you out of it.

[Dis]

well I kept playing. Now I have no saltpeter

The good thing is I built the Knights Templar. So that has been my military aside from a few horseman and archers. I can't even build pikeman. I have no other contact with the other continents. I don't cheat and do suicide galleys. But I'm getting close to astronomy and navigation...

While the Indians do not have iron, they do have saltpeter.

[Shogun Gunner]

This is rich! At least you are assured that your strategic resource "horses" will not disappear!!!!

[Cookie Monster]

Wow now you have no saltpeter?!? I've been in this situation before and it's not fun.

How are you compared to the other civs? Hit F8 and check your percent landmass vs. your nearest competitor. What is your score in relation to the others? If you are not too far behind then concentrate on getting to the industrial age asap. You need to find out if you have rubber at least. Once you get rubber then start conquering. Until you reach that stage just keep pumping out whatever military units you can. You mustn't be weak or the ai will get you.

If you are far behind on landmass, productivity, and score then you will have to check the diplomacy screen every turn and see if you can get some favorable trade deals. Trade tech for cash per turn deals are the best. Dump any excess luxuries onto the market. There must be someone out there willing to pay you a good price for whatever you have.

[Solomwi]

Wait, you reload for combat results, but consider suicide galleys cheating?

I've been shut out of rubber and coal before, but at least had saltpeter to go get them. Damn, the options are disappearing quickly. Start building bombardment units and spears. Beeline to RP and try to have a hoard of spears in a barracks city on the Indian border when you get it, along with your trebs. Upgrade to Inf and artillery (which means a sizable cash on hand supply) and go get some.

Are you detecting a basic principle behind my suggestions yet?

[gunkulator]

You simply must get iron by the time you get to the industrial age or it's all over. No RR or factories = lose.

[petermarkab]

Originally posted by Solomwi
Wait, you reload for combat results, but consider suicide galleys cheating?

This is off-topic, but how do you know if a player reloads for combat results purely from their saves? I'm trying to ween myself off this cheat, but its really hard!

[Aeson]

Iron is nice to have, but you can win without it. Especially when you neighbor didn't have Iron either... easy pickings for Horsemen. At some point you should have traded for one of the Celt's Iron sources (sign an ROP and use your own Workers to build the roads if you have to), upgraded a bunch of Ansars, and gone and claimed both sources though.

[vmxa1]

Originally posted by petermarkab


This is off-topic, but how do you know if a player reloads for combat results purely from their saves? I'm trying to ween myself off this cheat, but its really hard!

I don't know if it works, but I have read that Gramphos's tool can tell if you reloaded or not. I am guessing it has a count or at least a flag. If it does, that does not prove they did anything nefarious.

[Aeson]

I think Solomwi was just referencing Dissident's post in the "Stop me from cheating" thread.

The save does store data on how many reloads there have been though. Not sure if Gramphos' tool give accurate results there, last I checked it wasn't giving the right numbers.

[Solomwi]

Two things, Aeson...

1. Yes, I was referencing his other post.

2. His neighbor is the most non-iron dependent civ in the game, India. Not that that should stop him from doing just what you (and I, numerous times ) suggested, just that the "especially when your neighbor" part is less applicable in this case than most others.