Help in an Emperor game

[Timo33]

Hey guys =)

I need some help in my current game. It's been a while i didnt play, and to come back to Civ4 i decided to give Emperor a try; seems like Emp AIs are faster and requests/trades are more expensive.

Anyway, let me summarize the game until now:

I got Mehmed and pretty nice land: flood plains, Copper nearby, lot of room to expand... JC right next to me scared me a bit but he didnt expand towards me, so i didnt rush him; i expanded to 8 cities.

No iron, i didnt feel like going to Engineering, so i decided to take the Lib-Cuirs route. For iron i noticed Hannibal was willing to trade it away cheaply so it was cool.

Now im at 760AD. I teched Nationalism to get the Taj in my capital, im currently starting Gunpowder and after that i'll tech Lib --> MT.
I already started to build some HAs that i'll upgrade into Cuirs.

Now my problem: ............Hannibal doesnt want to trade iron away anymore. :/
He does want, but in exchange of way more things than before, including my only horses.
He's also the only one agreeing to trade it away.

So right now i dont know how to continue the game, since i cant do anything i was planning without iron.

Some AIs are already researching Engineering btw, so i'm late anyway :/

What would you guys do in this situation?

Here's the 760AD save. Feel free to tell any advice, criticism, feedback of any sort.

Thanks in advance =) (and please excuse my average english)

 

[Seraiel]

Now you know why I voted "Iron" for the most desirable strategic Ressource and neither Copper nor Horses

If you're unlucky, you have to give up the game, Iron sometimes costs more than 250 GPT, but, you can try. Negotiate every trade-embargo from him that you can get, so that you can offer him more ressources, lower your slider to zero and give him as much GPT as needed. Use Spies to destroy his ressources so he stops trading them when he doesn't want to stop trading with someone.

 

[pigswill]

Can you draft Janisseries to get hold of iron somewhere?

 

[Ghpstage]

On a similar note to what Seraiel suggested with reducing the slider, you could begin building up your Cuirassier force right now in the form of horse archers or war elephants to upgrade at a later date. This will mean you won't actually need the iron for as long (technicaly just one turn to upgrade, but I think theres a minimum of ten before you can cancel) so the high cost isn't going to be as painful.
Then with that upgraded force you could take the Romans or Americans iron source.

Failing that you can either try Jans or wait for Rifling.

 

[Seraiel]

Ghpstage says what I forgot. You only need Iron for 1 turn, after upgrade, pillage the ressource you trade for it, deal cancelled

 

[Seraiel]

Don't forget to set all your cities on building wealth, maybe you can make it .

 

[shulec]

I didn't really look at potential victims of your cuirrasier attack, but...

Option 1:
You can trade Copper to Caesar for 7 gpt and sugar
You can trade wheat go Frederick for 6 gpt
You can trade copper, horses, and ivory to Hannibal for Iron and he gives 5 gold.

After this:
You can trade Lincoln Spices and sheep with 12 gpt for horses.

Cost: One wheat and Ivory that are not surplus for +6 gpt, sugar and iron.

Option 2: Whip a settler and put a city 4N of Samsun. Grab the iron with culture.

 

[Timo33]

Thanks for your help everyone =)

Now you know why I voted "Iron" for the most desirable strategic Ressource and neither Copper nor Horses

Yeah xD i should have thought about this more seriously. I wanted to settle the city shulec noticed, but at this point i didnt think iron would become such a concern so i didnt settle this food-poor city. I should have xD

Can you draft Janisseries to get hold of iron somewhere?

For some reason i thought Janisseries needed iron... I'm not use to using Muskets and Muskets' UU. I should have thought about it, thanks =)

@Ghpstage & Seraiel
I already started building up an HA force to upgrade, but once more, i didnt think about this fact, i need only one turn of iron if i plan to upgrade xD
No idea how i missed that, thanks guys. Even via expensive trade, one turn of iron will result in me attacking JC and stealing his iron. As you say Seraiel, i just need to set my cities to building wealth, to be able to upgrade everything.

@Shulec
Resources trading is one of my weakest point xD
I looked if someone was ok to trade me horses but noone wanted. I didnt think of checking it after trading away my own horses. Thanks for the tip =) that's actually even easier that way xD

Thank you again everybody
And sorry for not having checked some things myself, like Janisseries not needing iron, or trade possibilities, or 1 turn of iron only needed for upgrade.
I think the large amount of mistakes/misplays i did in the game until now, made me pessimistic: Pacal getting the Great Library 4 turns before me, Philo pretty late so no GA-Pacifism-GP spam thing, Ais being faster than usual, then no iron... I was desperate xD

So thank you all =)

 

[Timo33]

Hello again dudes

I followed most of your advices: I made an HA force to upgrade, the turn i was ready i traded for iron following shulec's advice (more expensive than expected because of wars happening, they were more reluctant to trade away their iron/horses i guess).
Then i attacked JC who was already against 2 guys (Elizabeth and Lincoln i think, or maybe only Elizabeth).
I met almost no resistance from JC (however he had Muskets, but didnt use them in the cities i targetted). What hurted me was the AP resolutions, that i had to defy if i wanted the horses/iron trades to happen; the ton of unhappiness was a pain for a while, but i delt with it by highing the culture slider so it was still ok.

Now i'm in 1200AD, i capitulated JC and i have both horses and iron (stopped the trades immediatly after 10 turns, i didnt wanna bother with spying).

So thanks again for your help, im in a good shape thanks to you now =)

Im out of trouble now, but still, i'd appreciate some advices about the situation. I think the game is won anyway but i was wondering who was the best AI to attack right now.

- Pacal loves me, so i'd prefer not attacking him; also he's usually not a threat when it comes to war (at least thats what i presume from my previous games).
- Elizabeth was in war with JC so she's not too happy with me now; but only 3 cities, she's not a threat so i dont think attacking her would be the best continuation.
- The german guy is too far away for my taste.
- Lincoln is right north of me and is cautious towards me; but he's not as big of a threat as the next guy.
- Hannibal... This one seems to be a pain, he's already got not only Muskets but also Grenadeers :/ he's pretty big so yeah, he can become a real threat if i dont attack him.

On the other hand, he likes me and loves JC; i dont think he'd attack me unless i fail hard in diplo. So i can basically just roll over everyone else, and then attak Hannibal with all my vasals.


So yeah, both would be winning in my opinion, but i wonder what you guys would do?
Im posting the save in case that helps. Once more, dont hesitate to criticise, advice or anything =)


EDIT:
One point that might be important:
Pacal owns the AP (im scared about resolutions now xD so attacking him... i just fear the AP) while Hannibal has Chichen Itza (i fear the defenses).
What i could do is waiting for rifling and then attack Hannibal (or the others) with Cavalries; im 6 turns away from RP and 9 from Rifling (i can speed it up i think).

 

[Pengu]

Well, I went a different route. I didn't care for iron but instead went for cavs and just annihilated Hannibal as he was too big for my liking and was about to get rifles Then I went for JC and capped him. No match at all. And now at 1500 I am att war with Lincoln as his land is pretty nice.Pacal is advanced but he has 7 cities and I have 20 at least. Fredrick and Lizzy are no danger.

 

[Timo33]

Well you've been definitely faster than me =)

I continued the game by attacking Hannibal right after having Rifling and upgrading all my troops to Cavs; he resisted quite a bit, and i managed to cap him at 1520AD, if i remember correctly.
Then i just attacked Lincoln (2 cities was enough), then Pacal who's been a real pain (took 3 cities), then Elizabeth just because i wated her wonders.
I won by Domination at 1685AD; i'll poste the save below, in case it interests some of you.

Thanks again for the help everyone =)