The only game I've yet bailed on because of a lack of resources was when I was playing as Germany, saving my golden age for panzers, and there wasn't a single source of oil on the entire map. It was only a standard sized map, with almost no tundra or desert, but I was very surprised to see that there was no oil on the entire map. It was like the rng laughing in my face, knowing the entire game as I saved my golden age for the wonderful panzer blitz that it would never come. That made me not play conquests for a while and only play ptw, but I've since started playing conquests again.
I think the lack of resources compared to previous versions is a mistake. In the game I'm working on, it's a huge map with 16 civs. There are only around 7-10 of any given resource, including luxuries. The civs that have resources appropriate to the era they are in do well, and the ones that lack resources are assimilated into other civs. I control several hundred mountain squares, and have four of the maps 12 coal squares. Of the eight remaining coal sources, two of those civs haven't learned Steam Power yet, so can't use them. That leaves 6 civs with access to coal, plus whoever I feel like trading with. Railroads are probably the biggest thing to help the AI in this game, and with 6 out of 15 able to build them, the rest of the world is at a huge disadvantage.
Resources need to be more abundant. Maybe not all of them, but the key ones like luxuries, coal, rubber and oil need to have one per civ.
