England with no iron? Seriously?

[Sabrina]

Well, here I am, finally counting the turns to research iron working and then... NO IRON. Seriously, no iron at all, except for a source of TWO iron in the middle of the tundra. I was waiting for the iron to show to settle my 3rd city and there is none. Not even my south neighbors (Gus, Bismarck and Boudicca) seem to have it. So I literally gave up, settled my 3rd city near some more gold and marble (the 4th city will be the same) and will make money to buy it from CS, put my spies in CS that have it to rig elections and keep the alliance and move on. Well, at least my bowmen are stacking promotions like crazy. End of rant

 

[Antiphon]

Hahahahahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahahahahhaha!

No iron for iron lady, eh? Don't worry, I don't think AI is programmed to know about Frigates and Ships of the Line and how they rule and decide games, so don't expect Boudicca and Bismarck to know about that significance and capital snipe you with Frigates and start singing: [
Link to video.

 

[pilot00]

England,Tundra two iron...Same as my pal in our current game.

 

[PreLynMax]

Basically, I rage quit if I don't have iron with any civ, period.
Or that's what I would've said if I was playing Civ 4. Here's why I'm not worried with iron in Civ 5, especially G&K. Because only one type of unit per era requires it. Iron is no longer an either get-it-or-die situation where those without iron parish. If you have G&K, then I wouldn't worry about it. By the time I get up to SotLs, I would have at least 1 iron available, thanks to no other units in the Renaissance era requiring iron (or you haven't expanded far enough to grab iron by that time) I'm glad siege requires no iron, because now I can actually focus on capturing cities.

 

[Light Cleric]

Basically, I rage quit if I don't have iron with any civ, period.
Or that's what I would've said if I was playing Civ 4. Here's why I'm not worried with iron in Civ 5, especially G&K. Because only one type of unit per era requires it. Iron is no longer an either get-it-or-die situation where those without iron parish. If you have G&K, then I wouldn't worry about it. By the time I get up to SotLs, I would have at least 1 iron available, thanks to no other units in the Renaissance era requiring iron (or you haven't expanded far enough to grab iron by that time) I'm glad siege requires no iron, because now I can actually focus on capturing cities.

I could see this if it was Vanilla(esp early vanilla) where Iron was king, but Iron is so bad in G&K. It's for Frigates and that's about it, and the AI can be handled pretty well with promoted Galleasses until you can either get Iron from a CS or kill someone and take their iron. The straight +damage vs domain makes ship combat silly imo, ships way behind in tech can beat later era ones badly.

 

[Horizons]

Swordmen are weaker than pikemen ... making them, and iron, kind of pointless

 

[joncnunn]

Surviving without Iron is not a problem; archer / composites / crossbows will hold off the enemy.

And it turned out that after the AI enters the era in which it values Iron as useless to it; it will also think it's useless to the human. So you can actually get any AI to give Iron needed for Frigates for free (as long as your not too far ahead). This is an exploit and might be changed in a future patch or BNW.

 

[Traejun]

Meh, unless your UU is iron based (i.e. Legion), You're better off with Pikemen. And let's be frank, LSmen are pass-over units because they are 2 techs from Muskets (unless you're Japan).

 

[SirPepsi]

To be honest, Iron is nearly irrelevant to overall military gameplay now. With the follow up techs to Iron Working (Steel & Gunpowder) coming pretty quickly after Iron Working, I wouldn't worry. Use Pikes for melee until Gunpowder is discovered.

 

[Unresolved]

Normally, I'd agree with the majority of the responses here, but the OP is playing England. Frigates are already ridiculous on water maps and SoTL's are even better. Iron is very important on water-heavy maps because Frigates = game over. No need for land units unless you have a neighbor on your starting landmass.

 

[Traejun]

Normally, I'd agree with the majority of the responses here, but the OP is playing England. Frigates are already ridiculous on water maps and SoTL's are even better. Iron is very important on water-heavy maps because Frigates = game over. No need for land units unless you have a neighbor on your starting landmass.

Sure, there's certainly situations where the lack of a particular resource can be near fatal. But those situations are few and far between in my experience.

That said, I've played a game as Japan and restarted after discovering that the nearest iron deposits were on snow 20 hexes north of me and squarely in the middle of an opponent's territory.

 

[sendos]

Basically, I rage quit if I don't have iron with any civ, period.
Or that's what I would've said if I was playing Civ 4. Here's why I'm not worried with iron in Civ 5, especially G&K. Because only one type of unit per era requires it. Iron is no longer an either get-it-or-die situation where those without iron parish. If you have G&K, then I wouldn't worry about it. By the time I get up to SotLs, I would have at least 1 iron available, thanks to no other units in the Renaissance era requiring iron (or you haven't expanded far enough to grab iron by that time) I'm glad siege requires no iron, because now I can actually focus on capturing cities.

One doesn't simply ragequit when discovering no iron. Find some horses and trade it with someone who has iron, but no horses. Make sure that civ is on good terms and preferably isn't your neighbour. Wait until early industrial period, no need for iron.

 

[PreLynMax]

One doesn't simply ragequit when discovering no iron. Find some horses and trade it with someone who has iron, but no horses. Make sure that civ is on good terms and preferably isn't your neighbour. Wait until early industrial period, no need for iron.

I'm not that lucky.

 

[joncnunn]

Normally, I'd agree with the majority of the responses here, but the OP is playing England. Frigates are already ridiculous on water maps and SoTL's are even better. Iron is very important on water-heavy maps because Frigates = game over. No need for land units unless you have a neighbor on your starting landmass.

The moment any AI with Iron reaches Industrial era; they will be happy to give you all their Iron for free. So its not an issue for Frigates unless your already running a big tech lead.
Also the moment you have hit the Industrial era you'll have two spies; and since its normally only the capital the AI tries to spy against you just move your new spy to some city state with Iron.

 

[Unresolved]

The moment any AI with Iron reaches Industrial era; they will be happy to give you all their Iron for free. So its not an issue for Frigates unless your already running a big tech lead.
Also the moment you have hit the Industrial era you'll have two spies; and since its normally only the capital the AI tries to spy against you just move your new spy to some city state with Iron.

Ehhh, I like to outpace the AI to Navigation on water-heavy maps. Fighting against Galleases with Frigates is pretty awesome. Almost as good as GW bombers against composite bowmen. No iron starts(which is far too often on water maps) usually results in a galleas(sp?) rush to secure an iron vein.

 

[Sabrina]

Thank you all for the replies! I'm not quitting, just find ironic that I am always tripping on iron, EXCEPT when paying as Japan or England.

 

[PreLynMax]

Thank you all for the replies! I'm not quitting, just find ironic that I am always tripping on iron, EXCEPT when paying as Japan or England.

Yeah, my recent game, I have more iron than I can do with because of Russia's OP UA.

 

[Jelster]

As commented above, I often wait for iron before settling my 3rd or 4th city, so I know I can get some. Either that, or go take it from a neighbour.

However, this predicament allows you to hone your trading and diplomacy skills

Will agree though that England does rule on water based maps with their extra movement and the SofL. It's where they gain their advantage, together with the Longbow. If you are going for almost any VC, you need a strong military, and both of England's UU's are some of the best in the game.

Trade for iron, find a CS with a large chunk and either become life-long buddies, or over run it, either works....

 

[Horizons]

Last time I played as England on an Archipelago ... I had to plop a settler on top of a 6-iron tile on a land mass across the sea so that I could build a fleet of Ships of the Line. I proceeded to kick ass with them though. And that city itself turned out to be a good one, surrounded by mountains it even build the amazing Neuschwanstein Castle for me in the late game.

 

[Light Cleric]

Ehhh, I like to outpace the AI to Navigation on water-heavy maps. Fighting against Galleases with Frigates is pretty awesome. Almost as good as GW bombers against composite bowmen. No iron starts(which is far too often on water maps) usually results in a galleas(sp?) rush to secure an iron vein.

Sadly even on higher difficulties this can work the other way around. You can usually beat an AI Frigate army with your own army of Galleasses with Targeting II.

I really wish naval combat had more complexity to it. I suppose there's only so much you can do especially with the earlier era's ships, but still. Stuff like less domain-based promotions, ships that could let other ships repair slowly outside of your own territory, Marines that are actually useful, etc. would have been cool...

...Sorry, I just had a nerdgasm picturing the Red Alert 2 Navy SEALs in Civ V("Lil' C4 knockin' at your door!" "Who's your daddy?!").