Help with resources (Long)

[Acrid]

I'm a newbie at playing civ III. I'm having troubles getting coal in a game. The resources are set at 120 for coal, on a huge map, with 10 other civs. According to my calc. that would mean 12 coal on the map. There is only 5 I can see, and have highlighted all the land on the map. It took me an hour to find them all ( wow really hard to see coal).

I think, because I'm winning, the comp is doing all it can to keep coal from me. None are on my contenant, and I can only see one civ with 2 coal. Yet all the other civs seem to be getting coal from trading, and are keeping me from getting any by trade embargoes. The one civ I (chinese) could see that has 2 coal is on the other side of the world (due north of me), and has only one coal tied in by road. I sent a bunch of calvery, workers, and a settler north to try and deal with the problem. I thought I could make a right of passage agreement and tie in the coal for them so I could trade.

When I was almost there, the Zulus (with only city left, I took the rest) made a trade embargo on me with the chinese. Wouldn't you beleive it, I destroyed the zulus on my continent, then suddenly they mange to build a city using a trieme, on the other side of the world by the chinese. Then they refuse to make a piece agreement, and get all the other comps refusing to trade.

Ayways, my questions is:

If I destroy the Zulus, will that end the trade embargo on me with the Chinese.

Also if I can't get coal, is there any way to change the game to put one on my continent. I know you can do for a new game, but this game is already started.

Any help would be appreciated, as this game took me 2 weeks to get to this point. I'd hate to quite and start over, because I can't get one stupid coal resource.

 

[slothman]

When in my game I relized that coal was under-represented I changed the "dissappearence factor" to 1. I also made RR's require horses and iron instead of coal and iron. I think these changes can affect a saved game as welll as a new game. I started with 7 civs and still have only 4 coal. They gradually move around the map, but I've only had access to them for a few turns. Luckely I could build the ironworks in one of the turns where they appeared. But the coal in that city dissappeared just after I started - I could still finish though.

 

[Herse]

<It took me an hour to find them all ( wow really hard to see coal). >

A tip for finding those resources on the map is to use the toggle CTRL+SHIFT+M to clean up the map. It is much easier to find resources then.

 

[Ironikinit]

Why not attack the Chinese or somebody and take their coal?

(It might seem like the program is pimping you on coal intentionally, but placement is all set up in the beginning.)

This might sound lame, but waiting is an option too, esp. if you control a lot of hills, mountains and jungle (or area that used to be jungle til you cleared it.) Coal might show up eventually. If you've just discovered steam power, more coal will show up in the following turns. It's been my experience that coal doesn't all show up on the first turn, so it's good not to jump to the conclusion that there isn't any in your territory.

You could also declare war on the Zulu, and bribe their closest neighbor into allying with you. Even if the trade embargo ends, however, there's no guarantee that the Chinese will trade the coal to you. It's also unlikely that you'll like their prices.