strategic ressources

[DirtyHenry]

Every time I discover a technology that enables strategic ressources, these ressources only appear on other civilizations territory and since they don't know how to use it they won't sell it to me!
I discovered that my brand new tanks and mobile infantries were easily wiped out by pikemen?

Is that a bugs or did I miss a new aspect of the game?

Thanks fo your helping me.

[spy14]

Resources wont always appear in your territory, likewise some will appear in your territory but not the AI's. Why they wont trade I dont know, I assume as you say cos they dont have your tech level yet. Tanks and infantry being beaten by pikemen... its something you'll hear a lot about. Its stupid (what does a pike do to a tank??) but it happens because of the hit point settings in the game. Try the editor...

[Lucilla]

I've heard lots of people asking about ancient units killing modern attackers. I didn't follow these discussions, but there are some articles about the so-called "spearman beats tank" phenomenon. You will find about ten articles or so if you use the search option on top of the page. Whether they are useful or not I can't say, so I can't give any recommendations.

Concerning the resources:
My experience is, that the AI values strategic resources much more than luxury resources and will only very rarely sell them to you. Whether the AI has the corresponding tech or not, doesn't matter in this case, I think.

On the other hand, if the AI doesn't have the technology yet, it will not build roads to the resource, and that's maybe also a reason why it just can't trade (you could sell the tech to him of course...). And the AI needs to have at least two resources of a kind to be able to trade one.

The only way to get around this problems is to either expand quickly, so that it't likely that the resources will pop up on your territory or you have to fight for it. Maybe if you offer important techs, they might be willing to deal with you.

[Ethelred]

Is that a bugs or did I miss a new aspect of the game?

Well those aren't bugs anyway.

Every time I discover a technology that enables strategic ressources, these ressources only appear on other civilizations territory and since they don't know how to use it they won't sell it to me!

Not so much won't as can't. The resources are often in your territory. Well at least they are often in mine. If they often aren't you just don't have enough territory. Now even with say 16 cities on a standard map you can still miss out on some to the resources but if its all the resources you don't have that many cities.

Or you have had incredibly bad luck.

You could sell the tech to a civ that has more than two of the resource you need. Especially if they have allready roaded the tile. If you do that you should trade for the resource before you end your turn and then you should sell the tech to anyone that can pay for it also before you end your turn. The civ you sell the tech will do it if you don't so you might as well get the cash yourself.

I discovered that my brand new tanks and mobile infantries were easily wiped out by pikemen?

Mine aren't. What do you call easily? One tank attacking multiple pikes in a city of 13 on a hill? Pike has an attack of one. They have about zero chance of winning on an attack. They have some chance of winning on defense especially in a large city.

You don't have ANY mobile infantry. Thats Star Ship Troopers and this is Civ III. Mechanized Infantry are not the right choice for attacking forified units in cities. They will occasionly lose even to pike under those conditions. Not often though.

Mechanized Infantry are pretty good at attacking tanks on open ground and they should almost always win against pike on open ground. You would be well advised not to use them against fortified units in large cities without pounding the city with artillery or bombs first.

[Lucilla]

Wow, three answers within 6 minutes...

[DirtyHenry]

For ressources my problem may be that I have a huge world, so I can't expand on more that about a fifth of it, but since the world is large, maybe there should be more gisements.
For the tanks I was indeed attacking a city (6 on a plain with 2 pikemen in but with 5 tanks...), but war elephants or others rather old units kill my tanks outside cities. I didn't noticed it but it may have been armies. I don't know how they look like since I don't succeed to build a military academy.

Thanks.

[Lucilla]

An army looks like an extra unit next to a pile of units, carrying a flag and following that stacked units, but not attacking himself.

BTW, you don't need to have a military academy to build armies. If one of your elite units wins a battle, there is the small chance that a great leader is produced. You can use that GL to build an army in a city as well. IMO, great leaders are much more useful for rushing wonder building, though.

[Willem]

Another option you have is to go into the editor and increase the frequency of the resources appearing.