How do you deal with no iron copper or horses nearby?

[TruePurple]

So you unlock seeing these resources and realize that all these are very far away or already controlled by AI. Now I suppose the answer to "what if no iron" is to mass some horse archers or axes and take it from the AI in a early war, assuming this AI controlled metal is close enough. Though wouldn't such a early war cripple your economy? But what if you lack all 3? I don't really see invading AI with archers working, or even longbows. AI is super stingy in trading these and want alot assuming it will do it at all.

 

[drewisfat]

Archerpult, the attack of the desperate.
Some leaders have resourceless options: jaguarpult, camel archers
Rush to astro and hope to find strategics on overseas islands
You can also wait for a resource trade. Especially if you got jipped out of iron, at least someone should have 2. Might be super expensive to afford in resource trade though. One trick is prebuilding catapults beforehand and stockpile a bunch of gold, if we get iron for just a single turn we can upgrade them all. Ideally you do a deal trading a resource + gpt for iron. Upgrade call catapults to cannons and then pillage the resource immediately to cancel the expensive trade. Add muskets, another resourceless unit, and you're good to go.

But yeah getting choked to a few cities without strategics is the hardest setup to play out of, especially if your natural target is powerful. It usually shouldn't happen if you expand quickly outside of maybe high seas. Some people play with Balanced Resources to make it less likely to happen.

 

[TruePurple]

Should I fling cities out to copper, iron or horse even if they are far away thus hard to defend? (also super long travel time) If it's too far away, aside from anything else the AI might claim the tile by the time my settler got there.

By "archerpult" do you mean defending with archers and attacking with catapults?

 

[pigswill]

Archerpult usually means attack with a stack of archers and cats. Not ideal but doable. You didn't mention ivory for a conventional elepult stomp.

 

[sampsa]

Archerpult is very doable, I'd say almost a guaranteed success on immortal and below. Just build enough cats and you'll do fine. Holkanpult or similar is much easier. Also, gunpowder units are resourceless. Drafted riflemen accompanied by trebs are usually unstoppable.

Should I fling cities out to copper, iron or horse even if they are far away thus hard to defend? (also super long travel time) If it's too far away, aside from anything else the AI might claim the tile by the time my settler got there.

Depends, but usually no.

 

[TruePurple]

Holkanpult

Which is what? I suppose some special unit of a nation, which nation?

Depends, but usually no.

How far are you willing to fling your cities to capture resources or stop a AI expansion/claim territory borders for latter expansion?

 

[sampsa]

Why ask when you can just check things from civilopedia, you know the in-game-help? Holkan is Mayan unique.

How far are you willing to fling your cities to capture resources or stop a AI expansion/claim territory borders for latter expansion?

There is no answer to such vague questions. It depends. Can you defend the city, how high quality it is, how many worker turns it costs to setup, is it connected via sailing or not and what is the quality of the alternative city spots.

 

[antimony]

Putting a city far away from your capital comes at multiple costs including maintenance, possible lack of trade connection, diplomatic penalty if too close to neighbor, and the turns lost for workers to move there.

So while sampsa is right there are special cases, it's very risky to reduce the overall economic health of your empire for a strategic resource that is in a place where you really wouldn't want to settle otherwise.

 

[sampsa]

Indeed. Nearly always there are better ways to solve the issue, which has been already discussed. There are many units that require no strategic resource, catapults being the most obvious one.