No saltpeter ... at all!

[Bretwalda]

What would you do if you had the biggest land area, easily defendable at two choke points, 5 lux IN you territory, great cities, all the resources (even multiple) - EXCEPT saltpeter? And basically no way to grab it, could trade for it but not any more?
PTW1.14, Emperor, early industrial age?

Is it doable without it, not that important, or what do you think?

 

[The Last Conformist]

Early Industrial Era? Well, you'll have Nationalism soon, which gives a access to a good defender that doesn't require Saltpeter, so it shouldn't be a major handicap. You'll however not be able to build Cav, so you can probably forget offensive warfare for a while.

But surviving shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Bretwalda]

I researched to radio meanwhile, and was stupid enough to get in a war with the smallest player on an isolated island - that brought the world war at me... I got another lux, at least.

So I am waging a war with arty and infantry, not very effectively, real trench warfare...

Testing the survival skills...

 

[The Last Conformist]

Trench warfare is entirely doable, altho' it would be nice to have Cav instead of Infantry to attack with.

But you should be getting Tanks soon if you've already got Radio. And when the come around, vengeance will be yours!

 

[Bretwalda]

Yepp, I am doing OK, and hope to exhaust the other powers sooner or later (I have monopoly of a few lux, which helps)

Originally posted by The Last Conformist
Trench warfare is entirely doable, altho' it would be nice to have Cav instead of Infantry to attack with.

But you should be getting Tanks soon if you've already got Radio. And when the come around, vengeance will be yours!

Actually I researched all the way to Radio while not even getting Corporation, so tanks are quite ahead... But a nice twist: I managed to build Iron Works in my capital, hmm, that's luck...

Thanks for your comments!

 

[nickmandler]

It could be worse. Once, I was playing on a huge map but there was no coal. I couldn't even build railroads! This was probably the most horrible game that I've ever played.

 

[Siegmund]

I don't recall any maps without coal or saltpeter... but I did have one that had only 6 of the 8 luxuries on it - ANYWHERE on it. I wasted a lot of time seeking out every little small island because I "knew" that all the resources had to be on the map somewhere - but apparently not!

Somewhere on here I read that there was a fixed number of the strategic resources put out on each map, but seems not to be the case with luxuries.

 

[thedirk]

In the game I'm playing now I had neither coal nor saltpeter within my boundaries when they became available. I spotted some saltpeter just within the border of one of my neighbors who refused to make a reasonable trade. Fortunately he didn't have musketeers yet so I managed to wrest a slice of territory from him. Coal took a little longer, but I managed to get some eventually although I'm still behind schedule for building railroads because of it.

 

[nickmandler]

Just out of curiousity, what do you think that the worst resource not to have would be?

 

[dexters]

iron.

 

[Bretwalda]

... and also no horses, and no way to get it you are ... done. If you have horses then get the iron!

Now looking back on the game (having MA and stuff) that it can be done without saltpeter if you can survive musketman era, maybe deal for saltpeter, man the chokepoints and hold on... And I was lucky with all the lux...

Originally posted by dexters
iron.

 

[Beanzy]

I onced played a game where I had no Saltpeter, Iron, or Horses anywhere near my territory. It's not a lot of fun defending with Numidian Mercenaries while the enemy is pouring Cavalry into your territory. My advisor just kept telling me to build some Longbowmen, but I think I used a better strategy... RESTART!

 

[Leha]

Once you have rifleman you don't need saltpeter . I played
many games without saltpeter and riflemen+knights vs cavalry
are just fine .

 

[handy900]

Originally posted by nickmandler
Just out of curiousity, what do you think that the worst resource not to have would be?

gotta be iron. especially if your neighbors are the persians & they do have it.

 

[jeffelammar]

Originally posted by nickmandler
Just out of curiousity, what do you think that the worst resource not to have would be?

Early game - Iron
Late Game - Rubber

Either one makes your defense almost useless in the give error.

 

[Yaype]

Iron is the worst not to have. You can get by without a lot of other resources by building different units, but without iron, you can't build railroads, nor can you attack/defend well until late medieval at best.
This may be a somewhat biased opinion, as I just played such a game. Least amount of landmass (not sure what the percentage is--20% land?) with continents, and I had no iron on my little continent, nor the two smaller islands I had taken over. I had access to one saltpeter later in the game, but with the Scandinavians on the next continent over, I found it difficult to just survive on Monarch. I had to sell my soul for some iron just to build some railroads. Oh well.