Does the game revolve around a few squares of oil?

[kcd_swede]

In answer to that question; no. A lot of players finish the game before oil is revealed on the map. I'd think that if you didn't have yourself in a dominant position by the time oil is around, say, dominant enough to be guaranteed oil, or guaranteed victory over someone that has oil, then you are pretty screwed as it is, oil or not.

Not true, necessarily. You could be well on your way to a culture victory, for example, having turned off research after Liberalism/Nationalism.

Or you could have beelined Mass Media, built the UN and remained the tiny little civ that was everyone's buddy.

Heck, even a good peaceful space race gets no benefit from oil.

The main thing oil is important for is if you want military (conquest/domination) victories. Then its pretty necessary if (and only if) you are playing a game that drags all the way to the modern era.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

Ethanol Corp! Solves all your oil problems... and oil doesn't "unlock" techs. Do you mean you don't have oil to build units you want? I don't remember needing oil for Artillery.

edit- sorry Standard Ethanol needs plastics too. You say you can get platforms at plastics anyway. That won't help then. Go for Artillery and take out the enemy stacks faster.

 

[Dozmonic]

Hello, new here o/

I'm only just mastering prince level but I'm finding that as others have said, iron is a more important resource than oil. None of my prince games that I've won have lasted to where oil was needed. The last one, a conquest victory, was achieved with cannons and riflemen. The previous ones were domination wins and achieved with artillery at best. For cultural victories riflemen is about as far as I go too, though I haven't won a cultural prince victory yet. I didn't get enough of a buffer zone and couldn't make peace before one of my culture centres was taken ;-(

If it gets to a stage where you need oil but don't have it, wage war earlier.

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Welcome to CFC, Dozmonic!

 

[Dozmonic]

Cheers. Been reading here for ages but only recently decided to start playing some more civ 4 and move it up a difficulty level or two ;-)

 

[StJude1]

I've never had less than three oil resources.
Then again I've never played on anything less than huge

 

[De Begerac]

Just had the 'while exploring your scouts have discovered a long burning black oil'. All Oil deposits revealed in 3000bc. Unfortunately in this game have no iron easily available. Go figure. Does the Ai take into account where future resources will be when expanding/building cities?

Cyrano

 

[Rusty Edge]

Everytime I see this thread I think "I'm the human. The game revolves around me! "

 

[De Begerac]

Lol, keep telling yourself that.

Cyrano

 

[Rusty Edge]

Lol, keep telling yourself that.

Cyrano

The game can't proccede until I hit enter... My last game didn't revolve around me that well, either. I chose the wrong religion and got dogpiled. I'll probably never reload the save and finish it.

 

[Bratmon]

Just had the 'while exploring your scouts have discovered a long burning black oil'. All Oil deposits revealed in 3000bc. Unfortunately in this game have no iron easily available. Go figure. Does the Ai take into account where future resources will be when expanding/building cities?

Cyrano

IIRC, no. In Civ 3 they did, however.

 

[war ensemble]

Much of real life revolves around a few "squares" of oil. I don't think it's that bad especially if you discover the oil and can plan accordingly before other civs. Invade that civ Middle East land!

 

[Sovetskysoyuz]

Just had the 'while exploring your scouts have discovered a long burning black oil'. All Oil deposits revealed in 3000bc. Unfortunately in this game have no iron easily available. Go figure. Does the Ai take into account where future resources will be when expanding/building cities?

Cyrano

I've seen it claimed that the blue circles for recommending city sites, which always seem to be where the AI builds its cities, take into account unrevealed resources. If this is true, it seems likely that the AI does take this into account, in the same way that any human would by following the circles.