Problem: Harbors and overseas trade

Right. I've read the FAQ and hope this is the right place for this.

I'm doing a PBEM against a mate and have a very tasty empire twice the size of his. Trouble is, my home continent lacks iron.

So I went exploring, found some iron in another continent, shuttled settlers, workers and military units over several turns; painstakingly built roads and a harbour, shield-by-shield and eventually, I got my iron.

However, despite the presence of a fine road from the iron to the harbour on the 'foreign' continent, and a couple of harbours on my home continent, I still don't have access to iron in the cities of my home continent, while the cities on the foreign continent aren't benefiting from all the goodies produced at home.

Yep, the crappy cities on the foreign continent can make all the iron related units they want to, but my most productive cities on my home continent are still limited to making archers and spearmen!

In short, no trade connection seems to have been made between the two harbours on the two continents.

What the fox have I missed? I thought the harbours were supposed to provide the link in the trade network. Does anyone have any ideas please? Pleeassse?

You may probably have not researched technology needed for overseas trade: astronomy for landmasses separated by sea or navigation/magnetism for the ocean, respectively.

Thank you for your quick response.

I've just re-read the poorly-phrased Civilopedia entry and it seems like you're right. I have to wait until I've worked out navigation or magnetism before I can get my hands on that iron, despite having a viable route (made all the easier by my having the great lighthouse, an excellent great wonder to have, it seems).

That's really annoying. I'll have to spend more on spearmen in my border cities and max out on science to get to navigation and hope my opponent doesn't recognise my weakness for the next couple of hundred years.....

what about shuttling some spearmen to the foreign continent for a quick upgrade?

Sparrow3! I like the cut of yer gib. That's a very good idea indeed. I've got galleys galore, after all, but building those barracks is going to take some time, what with them all being on the take!

Uh... Smiggins. How are you at one post when you have three on this thread alone?

if you can physically transport spearman, upgrade them and bring them back with new equippment, why doesnt the game allow you to physically bring some iron back unless its part of some unit?

Originally posted by Coorae
if you can physically transport spearman, upgrade them and bring them back with new equippment, why doesnt the game allow you to physically bring some iron back unless its part of some unit?

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Because the overseas route to the iron might be just "blocked" by one or two ocean tiles.
However, I wouldn't ship over units to upgrade them there. Probably too much of an effort for me. Instead, I'd disconnect the iron source (make a trade with some civ if possible - and if iron is really needed) to avoid depletion and wait for magnestism/navigation.
If I wanted to fight and couldn't get iron by trade, I'd probably attack with longbows instead of knights.

Originally posted by cameramano
Uh... Smiggins. How are you at one post when you have three on this thread alone?

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There was something wrong. Appearantly posts and threads could be created, but user specs weren't updated.

Originally posted by Grille
Instead, I'd disconnect the iron source (make a trade with some civ if possible - and if iron is really needed) to avoid depletion and wait for magnestism/navigation.
If I wanted to fight and couldn't get iron by trade, I'd probably attack with longbows instead of knights.

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I hope you are correct when you say that if you pillage a road, you cannot deplete a resource. I heard speculation that if you pillage it, it can still deplete because there was a road at some point.

Also, you might want to deplete it and hope it ends up in your own continent.

Did you build a harbor on your home continent? I've made that particular mistake twice, and boy did I feel dumb!

Originally posted by smiggins
Sparrow3! I like the cut of yer gib. That's a very good idea indeed. I've got galleys galore, after all, but building those barracks is going to take some time, what with them all being on the take!

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You only need one barracks in the city shortest sailing distance to your home continent. Have you got enough gold to rush build?

Originally posted by Hygro


I hope you are correct when you say that if you pillage a road, you cannot deplete a resource. I heard speculation that if you pillage it, it can still deplete because there was a road at some point.

Also, you might want to deplete it and hope it ends up in your own continent.

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Pillaging the road will not help. I can't remember which thread, but a Firaxian confirmed that once conected the expendable resources are at peril of depletion.

In that case, I must have been lucky.
Anyways, I tend to disconnect resources for mass-upgrading purposes in the first place.