What is the most valuable Strategic Resource?

[Last Conformist]

No Iron, no Horses, no Saltpeter? That's murder ...

[gunkulator]

I confess to being a Ctrl-Shift-Q'er if I don't get either Iron or Horses at the beginning. If I have either one, I can just go and get the other . Lacking both puts the kaibosh on any kind of ancient warfare.

[Last Conformist]

Well, Archer/Spear/Catapult stacks do work, with a bit of luck.

[Dry]

Originally posted by LodeRunner31
I managed to hold them off until gunpowder...then, no saltpeter. Ctrl+Shift+Q.

Exactly.
That's why I made a difference between the most valuable resource (iron) and the one I pray all gods of the civ pantheon for (saltpeter).
No Iron? You discover that early in the game. If you don't want to take the challenge, Ctrl+Shift+Q and you start again, the evening is not spoiled.
No saltpeter? Man, you spent so many hours, to discover that so late , that's not fair.
No Coal? Great! You have a few turns before the infantries show up to 'take' some with your cavalry.

[LodeRunner31]

The lack of saltpeter was basically the straw that broke the camels back in this game. My strategic options were dwindling in number. Rome wasn't built in a day for a reason, Rome sucks as a peaceful builder. I was in a good defensive position, but it would have been hard to go on the offensive that late in the game. I was falling behind in techs and lacked the infastructure to catch up both militarily and in research.

I have gone through games successfully without saltpeter, however. As a builder, by that time I should have a pretty sizable empire and be kicking out new techs relatively quickly. I feel that I can hold out until the Industrial Era. I do love cannons and cavs, though.

[MrWhereItsAt]

After some initial uncertainty, reading this thread convinced me - Iron for sure. You often don't need the military in the early game, as there can be games with plenty of time/room to expand peacefully. HOWEVER, Iron is required for RRs, THE top improvement for the industrial/modern ages, and a number of city improvements in those times as well. Coal is needed for RRs and a few improvementsa as well, but militarily you can live without it, and you wouldn't feel any effects from a lack of Coal until much later. Oil is pretty crucial in the modern era, but at the same time there are alternatives and my games tend not to last that long.

So for overall necessity, over the entire panoply of history in the game, Iron is necessary for good military and domestic strength.

[Theseus]

I've been changing my views on this...

Just before AU 502, I was playing a Celts game just for practice. I got the early game triple-whammy: No iron, horses, or saltpeter.

And ya know what? No problem. It's doable, albeit hard.

I'm starting to think in terms of the direst emergencies... what do you need to TAKE the resources you don't have, especially if forced into an intercontinental invasion?

[MrWhereItsAt]

Well I must promote my precious...

No horses? Hope for the SoZ. Several 1.00 games of C3C I got this deal - no Horses but Ivory, and the SoZ solved that problem. By the time it went out of date I had conquered at least 1.5 civs and had Horses too.

Theseus - did you have no Iron for the whole game, or did you pick it up somewhere along the line? No Iron at the start is a b*tch, but doable if you have some luck. I don't like to think about what no Iron for the entire game would be like though...

[Jaybe]

I went bananas.
The most valuable resource(s) are the ones you don't have. Especially if they are obtainable (by plowshare or by the sword).

[Dis]

good point. even aluminum is important if you are going for space ship victory. good luck winning that way without it.

[spy14]

It all depends on what era ur in and what strategy you prefer (smaller high-tech force or hordes or cheaper lower-tech units?)

Personally a like a highly mobile high tech force

[Theseus]

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
Theseus - did you have no Iron for the whole game, or did you pick it up somewhere along the line? No Iron at the start is a b*tch, but doable if you have some luck. I don't like to think about what no Iron for the entire game would be like though...

I took each resource that I needed, of course... it was just an uphill battle. And that's exactly my point: what resource, in the lack thereof, is most likely to prevent that uphill battle? In a typical mid-difficulty game (say, emperor or lower), I think that home continent conquest is almost always possible, so the question should be framed for necessary resources that require an IC invasion.

[bongo]

C3C armies has somewhat lessened the lack-of-resource agony. I started without iron/horses/ivory on a huge archipalego map. Even with the lighthouse trading were impossible.

My closest neighbour, the zulus had horses, the great wall and most important, tradelanes which could connect a lighthouse owner to the rest of the world. In PTW this would have been a very slow and painful war. But a couple of longbowmen armies, supported by tons of longbowmen/spearmen/trebuchet were able to make me forget the lack of resources.

[Cerbykins]

We're looking on iron. Once I had to do without oil, so had the curious navy of nuclear subs to replace the normal ones I couldn't have, and went into space ANYWAY - getting the other civs ot fight the wars for me
I just had a situation where I had 50% of the map and no coal, with the rest of them having -3-
That would have been unfunny if that'd kept up, but no iron would have been worse. No swords...BAAAAAD...see the avatar...
Next age. No medi infs, no pikes, no knights. Again, at a time I normally want and need them.
Industrial age. No iron, no factory, so no plants in turn
No rails either, not that you care with no coal

Agreed, if no-one else has it, it's not so bad. But it cases where they do, iron is by far the most vicious, with coal following.

Lack of rubber may be bad, but in 2 years I've never suffered it. It just doesn't seem to be scarce, and doesn't deplete anyway AFAIK.

[Mad Bomber]

I would like to extend a thanks to all of those who have replied.

As of this writing Iron leads Coal 81-38 with Oil and the Banana option tied for third with 17 votes. My largest surprise of this poll is that the Nuclear club did not score more than 3 votes.

In retrospect I probably should have included Horses and SP.

The debate in the thread has been excellent, it was exactly what I was looking for when I opened this thread.