How to turn a win into a loss (courtesy of resources)

[Edgler Vess]

My latest game (which i just quit because i got shafted SO badly) Started out pretty well (Iriqious, regent, standard pangea map, i started the game with 2 neighbors on my peninsula, the french and the english, started a fight real early with the english and wiped them off the map. fast foward about 3000 years, im all the way up to satelites in research but the best thing i can build is rifleman/mounted warrior, due to TOTAL lack of resources in my territory. i use the 40 or so Cavalry i managed to build while trading my life away for saltpeter to help the russians wipe out the french. I claim a lot of their terriory including some saltpeter and some oil to build bombers. As soon as I start building a slightly more modernized force. Persia rolls into my house with a stack of about 40 tanks, my military out numbered his 2 to 1 until after one turn against those tanks now i have about half of what persia has and once again no saltpeter. Translation: Game over, I lose. The lesson learned here is to secure whatever resources you can as early as possible and try to keep a moderized force, It also doesnt hurt to try to settle on some tiles where you have a decent chance of getting some resources you will need/want later. Sorry if this made no sense but im all bent out of shape after playing that game for 2 days and getting wrecked by 1 stack of 40 tanks (since when did the AI learn to use huge stacks of tanks like that anyhow?)

 

[enelrad]

I think a lot of us have been in that mess. I usually don't get the modern resources even though I have put up with those desert and jungle cities.

In my current game, my archers are the best things anyone so far has seen. It is pathetic in 1170 ad. I will die as soon as the other civs show up.

 

[Zachriel]

Your story will be told in the Annals of Civilization.

 

[Fanny Brice]

The quest for resources is why wars are fought. "National Security" is different than but tied to "National Defense."

After learning the same lesson, my plan know is to always be prepared to go to war to secure the resources I need to stay modern.

 

[Moulton]

Yep, REsources have been the reason for lots of wars. In my current game, I was fortunate to find what I needed, but am on top of the world becaue the others did not. English have no saltpeter.. but that is passe for me, not for them. they have oil, but were late developing it. China has no rubber or oil. Rome no longer has either. By the time the find our what aluminum and uranium is for it will be too late.

 

[Jason Fox]

In my current game I had to pay an arm and a leg to keep Persia from attacking me. They were much bigger but I had been winning the war slightly until they showed up with infantry. Cavalry was my best unit and I couldn't attack or defend without losing two to one, at least, which I couldn't keep up. I had to nearly bankrupt myself with per turn gold to get them to stop attacking long enough to organize a force that would take the two cities I needed to steal their rubber.

Had they been smart they never would have stopped fighting and just wiped me out Good thing they're not that smart.

 

[Ionhead]

I find that certain resources have a tendancy all to turn up on the same island, even if you have plenty of the same terrain type on your wn.

For example in my current game, on a huge map playing Babylonians against six opponents, as usual there are two continents with three opponents on each. There's was also another relatively small island in the south that no-one on my continent could get to until they discovered magnetism. By the time i could get there most of it was colonised by a combination of germans and russians from the other continent
Surprise, surprise, the worlds entire supply of coal and rubber turn up on this island. The rubber was especially hard to find, since it was beneath a russian city square, and i only found it by accident during a war.

 

[Fanny Brice]

Usually my games have widely scattered resources (I usually play huge or large maps). Of course, I could also be lucky because I know the AI's sometimes get stiffed for resources. Kind of a pain, but in the early game, you have to grab ALL the land you can because of the resource issue.

And it is true that the AI is not smart. During negotiations to end a war, I usually demand some of his cities which have key strategic resources. I doubt the AI takes this factor into consideration... usually just the size of the city I guess.

Ironhead -- try the "clean map" option (I think it is called that). Hit SHIFT and CTRL and M. (also under "Map" in the options area). This removes all the cities, units, roads, etc. Very helpful for locating the otherwise hard to see resources.