I hate it when this happens...

[el_griffador]

Sumeria, monarch, huge, continents, 60% water, 16 opponents. SUPERB start, on a river, 2 cows, hills, bonus grassland, 1 wheat and a forest with 1 silk. Expand nicely, iron, wines, horses, plenty of rivers and fertile grassland, saltpeter, cities nicely linked up, get to steam power.... no. coal. ANYWHERE!

Do the ctrl+shift+m to clear map, only 2 coals on my continent, of which I dominate the south- one allllllll the way up north in some mountains surrounded by tundra in American territory, the other sort of central in Ottoman country in some heavy jungle..

I left my game last night at this point, now I'm sat at work pondering what to do (because I'm a bit sad like that) Ottomans don't have steam power yet, so they can't see it, so I'm thinking I'll raise a massive cavalry force to take a few ottoman towns, including the one by the coal of course. However there is a sort of "buffer zone" between me and the Ottomans, a crappy desert & hills region with few resources which a mixture of civs settled on in the final grab for territory- english, arabians, amaericans and a few others, a mish mash of different unproductive cities with no culture. I'll need to pass through these to get to the ottomans and my beloved coal..

As soon as I finish work today I'm off to get straight into it! Anyway, just thought I'd share that..any thoughts/ideas? Have you been in a similar situation?

Cheers!

 

[Loki130]

I've been in my fair share of foreign wars over coal. I'd call being on the same continent lucky- I've had to fight on tiny colonies halfway around the world with two cavalry to hold down a jungle island teeming with enemies just to secure a decent supply. My advice is go for the coal and try to grab some jungle or maybe some of that desert along the way- you never know where the oil and rubber will pop up

 

[Bartleby]

Glad you decided to start posting!

Is there any chance of a trade with the other continent? There are presumbaly multiple sources over there since you have 16 tribes in your game.

I remember one game where I controlled over half the world and still ended up with no coal. It's also annoying when you have coal but it's not roaded and it'll take a few turns before you can connect it.

 

[el_griffador]

Long time lurker, thought it was about time I contributed!

AFAIK I'm the only one with steam power- got it for free at the start of the era, the other continent is pretty backwards scientifically, bogged down in wars, and I'm pretty sure I'm 1 or 2 techs ahead of every one else on mine.

Looks like a switch to monarchy, then massing cavalry forces for an invasion..when do Ottomans get siphai?

 

[Bartleby]

Military Tradition. [edit: assuming they have Horses and Saltpetre]
Do you have a map of the other continent? I wouldn't be afraid of gifting one or two civs up to the industrial age if it'll mean you can trade for coal.
I also would advise you against switching to Monarchy; just make sure you have sufficient forces to secure the coal in a few turns and then make peace as soon as the otto's will talk. If your culture is very weak, go in with settlers behind your cavs so you can raze and replace.

 

[Loki130]

sipahi are replacements for cav., but they don't do well on defense (not with ai in command, anyway)

 

[el_griffador]

Bartleby- thanks for the advice. Got a few territory maps of the other continent, but most of it I still cant see. Have to do some trading and take it from there.
I'm currently in republic, I'll have to lower my science to be able to support a larger military- currently my army is pretty much defensive- 3 or 4 musketmen and 2 or so cavelry in border towns, just to ward off any aggression. Started bulding cannons but they'll get left behind, I have no road links with the ottomans

I can't recall if they have saltpeter and/or horses- I'll check this eve. The dream scenario would be they are still defending with pikemen and attacking with med inf, resulting in victory and possibly a leader or 2!

Also, I have Sun Tzus, so barracks in each newly captured city

 

[Lanzelot]

If you have been playing for a peaceful victory condition so far, then I would not switch gears and go to war just for getting coal. Just find the weakest nation that has two coal in its territory, send a couple of your workers there to hook it up (if it isn't connected yet), gift that nation up to Steam Power and buy it from them.

This will in any case be cheaper (and faster) than building and maintaining a massive military now... And it will make one nation very grateful (in cae you are going for diplomatic victory).

 

[Bowsling]

Had a game as the Hittites where I was on a four-civ continent.
I was at the northern tip, with horses.
To get I had to conquer the Celts, who had built the ToA, who had the nearest source of iron, which was deep in their core.
To get saltpeter, I had to conquer Germany, who really, with Dutch support, was a pushover.
The two remaining sources of coal were in the Netherlands. And they had a lot of colonies.

 

[GamezRule]

I have not fought any coal wars recently, but I did get into a massive rubber war recently.

 

[CommandoBob]

My first reaction would be to "Make war and take what's mine!" but that is not always the best thing to do. A lot depends on how you plan to win and how a war with Ottomans affects that plan.

Coal is needed for railroads and ironclads but I don't think it is required to build any other units. I'm not sure about that fact, however.

If no units need Coal, then a 20 turn trade should give you plenty of time to rail your empire. How many workers/slaves you have affects that, as does the size of the empire and terrain. After that, the only need for Coal would be to rail to a front line, if you were at war, or to rail any tiles you gained via cultural expansion or building new cities.

I lost my second game on Cheiftain because Egypt had Coal and I (Rome) did not and I waited too long to attack Egypt for that Coal. I understand your concern. Just don't wait too long.

 

[timerover51]

A while ago I did a ran a bunch of tests using the map editor and generating a range of maps with continents, archipelagos, and Pangaeas, and a range of numbers of civilizations. Normally, the number of strategic resources of each type was about plus or minus 1 or 2 of the number of civilizations, although every once in a while, I had a real weird one with a serious shortage in one or two resources show up. There should be a lot more resources of coal, unless this is one of those weird ones.

 

[Chieftess]

The good thing about the AI having rails is that they send ALL of their units into your border from essentially 1 location. A nicely placed artillery, cavalary and infantry (or rifleman) stack would work wonders.

I have not fought any coal wars recently, but I did get into a massive rubber war recently.

I guess that war went back and forth?

 

[DWetzel]

I have not fought any coal wars recently, but I did get into a massive rubber war recently.

The Trojan War, we presume?

(That's right, I went there.)

 

[Nergal]

Happens to me all the time, no iron, horses coal you name I never have it without a fight. At the very least I do ok with aggressive settling but I have seen a lot of variation in maps, some where there is iron everywhere and others with only 1 iron.

 

[darski]

The Trojan War, we presume?

(That's right, I went there.)

You are soooooo bad but WTG!

 

[Aabraxan]

The Trojan War, we presume?

(That's right, I went there.)

Man, I'm just jealous that you got there before I did!

 

[GamezRule]

Maybe you are right...

 

[TobusRex]

Wow, I was about to post on the same topic when I read your message. I'm on warlord, nice size empire with tons of luxuries. When I started researching "Steam Power" I really cranked out a bunch of workers in anticipation of building railroads.

6 turns later I get steam power, but can't build railroads because I have no coal! I go on a diplomatic binge, spending extravagantly for all other nations maps. THERE IS NO COAL ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD!!!

Bah...I can't imagine playing the game out with slow movement. Guess I'll kill it and restart.

 

[Shackel]

That sounds like an interesting world you have there, to tell the truth.