So here I am in a late indian game, got steam power, looking for some coal... For some reason none are to be found in india proper (yet india has 10% of the world's coal)... So I go looking for some and hooray ! There are some in new zealand ... Settle there but in 1850... Arrrrgh... it becomes a useless sheep (useless for me at least). It makes sense for new zealand to have sheep... but to replace a coal mine ??

Anyway that's just me ranting... but can somebody explain this one ?

The coal needs moving to the west coast.

But while NZ has enough coal, it's not a huge resource. I'd be in favour of it being replaced with another seafood (fish) resource in the north - the population is all concentrated in the north (warmer weather); the current positioning of he resources encourages you to settle in Christchurch (only) more to the south.

Cheers, Luke

oh really? It's not supposed to replace something, I'll move it

I've had the same thing happen. I neede coal as the vikings, settled in NZ, built a mine on the coal and started railroads at home once the mine was complete and then the next turn the coal turned into a sheep. So i ended up with like three tiles with railroad back in scandinavia. Weird. I must admit I went WB and replaced the sheep with a coal.