Stuck_As_a_Mac said:
My deputy brings up an apocalyptic tale of woe about loosing iron and loosing horses and being invaded. To this, I say phooey. Fanatannia will have the resources it needs. I first bring notice to our terrain, which is rich with hills and grasslands. For all we know, we may have already found where our Iron and Horses are. Granted, this is a speculation, but so is everything RegentMan says.
Well, I'd rather have my speculation than yours. If we follow mine, we will be basically guaranteed horses and iron. Your speculation is merely a fantasy that will lead us down the tube without resources. You assume that Fanatannia will have all of the resources it needs. How can you say that? Granted, both are only possibilities. However, your possibility is dangerous, as it makes us assume that we have the iron and horses. We cannot assume this. Tanks beat spearmen every time, right?
Stuck_As_a_Mac said:
How do we not know that Iron resides in the hills of the gold and the river?
Different resources rarely spawn next to each other. You won't see gold next to iron. That's why I want to be certain that we have this valuable resource. There's probably only one source in that mountain range. I want to know where it is and claim it before Gandhi does.
Stuck_As_a_Mac said:
We have someone to trade with once we gain our techs.
Writing and philosophy will only get us so far. We won't get all of the techs we need by trading these two. We'll get some, but Gandhi will have our two, plus all of his. I fail to see how this propels us into the tech lead.
Stuck_As_a_Mac said:
My deputy also dismisses the philosophy gambit as a worthless trick. He wants to go for the first tier of techs, then Iron Working. This is precisely what the AI does. It cleans up vertically, and then goes horizontal. We want to beat them to the punch! This will serve as an excellent way to propel us further.
If another AI researches a tech, then that tech will be cheaper for us. Right now, spending fifty turns researching writing while they spend ten or fifteen turns getting others, we'll fall behind even further. Please read my previous answer.
So you see, the Consul of Resources and Technology is assuming that we have iron in the nearby mountain range. Any experienced Civ III player knows that you cannot assume anything in this game. I would rather have my "gloom and doom scenario" than your "oh, everything will be okay" story. World War I was assumed to end all wars. Look what happened.
It is true that the majority of the people want to proceed with the philosophy gambit. I pray it works, otherwise we will have wasted such valuable time researching a tech path that won't aid us. Risks should be taken; unnecessary risks, such as the philosophy gambit, should not.