Horrible maps, sparse resources

[Bushface]

Setting up as pangaea, low sea level, temperate, standard size, 5 civs, domination and diplomatic victories off (because I wanted room to spread a nice big empire), what I get is a map consisting of several separate land masses connected by a series of narrow isthmuses and woefully short of resources. My latest effort had three such land patches, one of which was no more than 4 tiles wide anywhere, and as for the resources . . . one civ had 3 dye and two silver and none of the others had more than 1 of anything apart from stone and wheat, which were fairly common. Nor were there more than one of anything anywhere on the map, as I established using scouts and open borders: I can't say if this was true for resources more advanced than copper and iron, since I gave up on the game with all my cities showing lots of red faces and no possible chance of getting useful luxuries except by conquest, which for lack of iron and horses was unfeasible. Obviously there could be no resource trading.
This sort of thing has happened on three successive starts. Is it a bug ? Am I just being hideously unlucky ? Worse, is it not a bug but the way the game is intentionally programmed ?
I am, by the way, a veteran of all the preceding versions of Civ, and, being a retired man, I have lots and lots of playing time available. It's one of the few advantages of age.

 

[Commander Bello]

Sounds like a bit of bad luck, as my experiences do not match your description.

But, I had similar experiences with Civ3 already. Sometimes, you just have to take these things as a challenge -adjust your current game to the environmental settings, it may lead to a new and interesting experience.