No Iron, need advice

[Jeddius]

Would someone look at my game file and give me advice on what to do here? I want to start an army and acquire a number of puppets from Khan right next to me, however I wasn't lucky enough to get any iron. There is a tile with 6 iron to the south of me...however I am really hesistant to found another city because I'm playing a culture game and don't want to increase my SP costs.

Is founding another city my only option?

Thanks.

 

[metatheory]

Trade for 5 iron. Might be able to pick up enough to start working over Khan. And his puppets may have iron you need to continue.

 

[WeaselSlapper]

Without having looked at the save file are there any CS with iron you could ally with?

 

[Smote]

I can't look at the save right now, but in general:

Absolutely not.

Quick National College -> Pikemen or quick university to gunpowder/cannon can be very effective.

If you get pikemen fast, you can potentially conquer an AI nation that is not keeping up with tech. It is not effective to try to conquer city states or a player nation with pikemen, since city states automatically keep up with tech and pikemen are only power 10. Players will likely have some clever defense so you shouldn't try until its a clear win.

Alternatively, tech to education, then tech to chemistry as fast as you can and get some muskets and cannons for conquering

I have to say, I very frequently do a 1 city game with puppets, and I haven't had iron in my last 5 games. Its getting those first few puppets that is always hardest.

 

[Jeddius]

Without having looked at the save file are there any CS with iron you could ally with?

There are, but if I understand I have to connect to them by roads? I'm way too far away for that.

 

[Crow, of Earth]

You don't need roads to them, but you do have to make sure that they have a mine for that iron. It's annoying to ally yourself with a CS and find out they don't have the tech to give you access to a resource you have the tech to exploit.

Also, if you ever want to play with few cities, you could go for early NC build, in which case you can tech IW fast enough that you can settle your second city near some iron resource.

 

[WeaselSlapper]

You don't need roads to them, but you do have to make sure that they have a mine for that iron. It's annoying to ally yourself with a CS and find out they don't have the tech to give you access to a resource you have the tech to exploit.

You also have to be sure it's in their borders. In the diplo screen it just says if they have iron "nearby", but I've seen it on more than one occasion where the "nearby" wasn't in their boarders to even be able to build the improvement on.

 

[Smote]

Yea, and you can actually watch the terrain, so you don't ally them until they actually have a mine on it (which they will build eventually, given that they have a worker and it is in their territory)

 

[Civsassin]

I just encountered the same situation in a game using Spain. I rushed to Civil Service and spammed Pikeman and raced to Chivalry and built a few Conquistadors. I puppeted three of England's cities, including the capital, and razed another city. I didn't use a single siege unit.

Eventually, I allied a couple of city states, and one of them provided iron. That occurred during the rush, so I only really had time to build one Swordsman. A Pikeman rush can be very effective early on.

 

[Tabarnak]

I rush to chivalry if i don't have a bottleneck. If i have a nice place to defend, i only build pikemen and i reach education. Then i build PT in capital and i buy a university in it. I finally skyrocket to rifles in no time.