Problems with stategic Resources, who can help?

[dathpivo]

Hi People,
I've got a problem, I invented "Gunpowder" and now I need Salpeter as strategic Resource to build Musketeer. But I can't find Salpeter on the Map. My Street-Net is very close, do I have to find new continant, where it can appear? Horses and Iron did appear and I use them. But this damn Salpeter, I can't find it!!!
mfg
Matthias

 

[Shabbaman]

Well, that happens. It's there, somewhere. It's on hills and mountains as well.

 

[Shillen]

Saltpeter looks like a white shell almost. It appears in desert, on hills, and on mountains. Maybe elsewhere too but I don't think so. Hit ctrl-shift-m to hide all your cities and infrastructure and search the map for it. If it's not on your continent I'm afraid you'll have to go acquire some on another continent through force or whatever works. Or you could see if any civ's have extra and are willing to trade it to you.

 

[Moonsinger]

To dathpivo,

You could contact all other civs to see if they have it for sale or not for sale. That would give you an idea on who have it and who don't. A lot of time, the AI build their cities ontop of it; therefore, you can't really see it unless you in the clear-map-mode.

 

[TedJackson]

press F2 for the trade advisor and see if another Civ has some for trade (the icon willl appear next to the Civ).

Edit: Xposted same info as Moonsinger


Ted

 

[Grille]

Of course, if you contact other civs to look for excess salpeter, you need to make sure that they also know 'gunpowder'. Unless you don't need a Golden Age know (you are France, I guess) or in near future, you might continue to build pikemen, as they are much more cheaper (speaking of shield costs) than muskets. Spare some gold and upgrade later. I think this delay is reasonable when you haven't got salpeter and your trading partners can't see it on the map (->gunpowder).

 

[Moonsinger]

I second what Grille was saying. The lack of the Strategic Resource can be a great blessing sometimes. Once you have enough units and gold to upgrade, in the worst case, just trade with them for 1 turn, upgrade all your units, then go to war to get it for yourself.

 

[TedJackson]

Originally posted by Moonsinger
In the worst case, just trade with them for 1 turn, upgrade all your units, then go to war to get it for yourself.

:worshp: :worshp: :worshp: :worshp: :worshp: :worshp:
I kneel in awe

Ted

 

[elpadrino87]

I wouldn't fret right now, dathpivo, unless you are far behind in techs and you need stronger defensive units. Pikemen can still defend quite well, and are more efficient. This is mentioned in one of the War Academy articles I think, but I'll post it anyways:

Pikemen: 1.3.1, 30 shields, iron
Musketmen: 2.4.1, 60 shields, saltpeter

You can see that it is usually better to have 2 pikemen in a city than one musketmen. But I'd still try to find and secure a source of saltpeter before you finish researching Military Tradition, which is when you will be able to build Cavalry (6.3.3, 80 shields, horses & saltpeter), which are the mainstay of any industrial age army until the advent of Infantry.

So, to sum it up, don't make finding saltpeter a first priority now, unless you are close to getting Military Tradition. And Welcome to CivFanatics!

 

[MajorFallout]

Originally posted by elpadrino87
I wouldn't fret right now, dathpivo, unless you are far behind in techs and you need stronger defensive units. Pikemen can still defend quite well, and are more efficient. This is mentioned in one of the War Academy articles I think, but I'll post it anyways:

Pikemen: 1.3.1, 30 shields, iron
Musketmen: 2.4.1, 60 shields, saltpeter

You can see that it is usually better to have 2 pikemen in a city than one musketmen. But I'd still try to find and secure a source of saltpeter before you finish researching Military Tradition, which is when you will be able to build Cavalry (6.3.3, 80 shields, horses & saltpeter), which are the mainstay of any industrial age army until the advent of Infantry.

So, to sum it up, don't make finding saltpeter a first priority now, unless you are close to getting Military Tradition. And Welcome to CivFanatics!

Correct. I too, don't bother with Musketmen, they're not much better than Pikemen and cost quite a bit per unit to upgrade (60 gold each, i think). If you manage to get or build Nationalism, you can get Riflemen, which are better defenders, but cost 100 gold per unit to upgrade from Pikemen. So you may want to upgrade half your defenders and build the rest. that way, when you come to upgrade them to infantry, they only cost 20 gold to upgrade.

As for Saltpeter, just build cities close to areas where it will be likely to be discovered later on in the game. Patience is the key, grasshopper. You can buy some for the short term, and later when it suddenly appears, you're sorted.

 

[TheNiceOne]

Originally posted by Moonsinger
I second what Grille was saying. The lack of the Strategic Resource can be a great blessing sometimes. Once you have enough units and gold to upgrade, in the worst case, just trade with them for 1 turn, upgrade all your units, then go to war to get it for yourself.

Agreed (although a deal must be made for 20 turns). If you're not currently in a war, research towards military tradition while building knights. Then, when you have military tradition, buy saltpeter from someone, upgrade all your knights to cavalry (20 gold each), and go take some saltpeter.

If you're in a war now, you may need to buy saltpeter sooner, but two pikes generally defends better than one musketman, so you should be able to do without.