Wars over Diminishing resources

[Icaria909]

I've played this game for a while, and so far I play on regent and can do pretty well up until the industrial age. During the ancient and medieval age, I am almost always a tech leader, or close to being one, I have a good amount of gold, and I have the largest population. My problem is when I hit the industrial age and key resources appear: like coal, oil aluminum. Most time I don't get these key resources in my empire, and there are too few of these resources within the borders of countries willing to trade with me. How do I get these key resources? Do I declare war and risk angering every AI, or do I sit and wait with an outdated military until I someone is willing to trade with me?

BTW, in my games I usually invade, but sooner or later, every AI is annoyed with me and they begin to declare war on me like crazy.

 

[Aabraxan]

My first question would be: How do you like to win? I suppose if you're shooting for a diplo victory, warring for them might be a bad idea, but I usually go for domination or conquest, so I just war for them. If that's how you want to win, I wouldn't "sit and wait with an outdated military." The longer you wait, the more the AI can build up a stronger military. I spend most games with most or all of the AIs "furious" with me, but that's of no concern.

 

[Snarkhunter]

My first question would be: How do you like to win? I suppose if you're shooting for a diplo victory, warring for them might be a bad idea, but I usually go for domination or conquest, so I just war for them. If that's how you want to win, I wouldn't "sit and wait with an outdated military." The longer you wait, the more the AI can build up a stronger military. I spend most games with most or all of the AIs "furious" with me, but that's of no concern.

Right, they will still trade and/or ally with you, even if furious. Don't overlook the possibility of getting an alliance with some of the AI's once you've selected a victim, or of engineering a dogpile.

Also, the situation may allow you to trade for a resource briefly just to put yourself in a stronger position to war later. I once traded for coal & had my entire empire railed in the 20 turns of the agreement. That was all I really needed; I then went to war in earnest. Bear in mind that anything you are building/working on when the trade agreement ends will still complete, so you can actually generate a pretty strong position this way.

I think I've managed to extort a resource or lux from time to time as well, but that is rare in my experience.

kk

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Sounds like your trade reputation is at the core of your problem. Keeping the AI's in your good favor and having things to trade will get you those deals every time.

 

[pat1968]

It can be a pain when you dont have resources, the following advice is based on my (limited) experience but its how ive found it.

The best way to ensure you get those resources in your land when they appear is to have more land! So id go to war before then, cavalry or knights perhaps, get some leaders produced and MA.

If you dont have the resource that you need to fight a war, then trade for it till you can secure your own... you can always go back to peaceful later.

I have had the same problem my current game though earlier than you , no saltpeter or horses, and trying to get it took forever so i had to pay the earth for them... but it was worth it because now ive got my own source and 3 times the land...

Id personally like to try a peacefull game, but the lessons im learning are that you quite often have to fight early on...

If the AI army is close or better than mine...and i have a tech lead, what ill normally do is trade one tech (if i dont have enough gold) to bring an AI in on my side then sell the tech to everyone so that at least i make money out of it all.

Oh and always check for a backwards civ that has resources for outdated tech

Anyway just my take on it mate

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Just a couple days ago I ran into this problem with rubber. I noticed on the other continent a rubber tile was unclaimed. Off goes my settler to an obviously vulnerable position, I didn't hold it forever, but long enough to upgrade my riflemen and get some tanks built so I could go after a more permanent source. In past games I've held these far-off lone resource cities for amazing long periods.

The resource doesn't even have to be unclaimed, if it is 2 tiles from a city and on the border of unclaimed territory you can steal it. The chances of AI Declaration of War are pretty high so don't expect to hold it very long.

 

[Icaria909]

I usually like to play as the sumerians or babylonians, using tech leads and culture to do a lot of building. I usually try for a diplo victory, but I'm not very good on the diplo front. In another game I played, I was the sumerians and I had been hedged in early, stopping my expansion, so I declared war on the indians and in three wars took almost all their territory to get horses, iron, and five luxery resources (I had elephants and got the temple of zeus wonder for ancient cavalry). Even then, I was only an average sized civ, and everyone was furious with me. No one would trade techs with me, saying "you declared war on the poor indians" or something, and I even had the romans come in and steamroll my defenses and take several important cities. by the time I was looking for coal, not a single civ would part with their resources.

It's scenarios like these that make me not like declaring war unless absolutely necesary. Is their any tricks in the game that would allow me to go to war without being hated. For instance, I remember once hearing that MIs only go into effect if the enemy crosses your borders even if you declared war or something.... things like that.

 

[Theryman]

Fight wars honorably. By this I mean follow your treaties- if you make peace, keep peace for the 20 turn minimum. Don't declare war when you have any sort of per turn agreement with them. Don't declare war when you have troops in their territory. It helps if you don't raze cities, either, but I do anyway.

Also, don't declare war when you are trading resources with Civs on the other side of them. They may blockade you (inadvertently of course) and cause you to break your agreement. This does not apply when you can trade through ocean tiles.

 

[pat1968]

It's scenarios like these that make me not like declaring war unless absolutely necesary. Is their any tricks in the game that would allow me to go to war without being hated. For instance, I remember once hearing that MIs only go into effect if the enemy crosses your borders even if you declared war or something.... things like that.

If i know im going to attack a civ i cancel all agreements with them before i even enter their land. And it seems to be keeping my rep ok, a few civs are 'annoyed with me' but i get that all the time, lots more are 'polite' instead..

 

[Snarkhunter]

It's scenarios like these that make me not like declaring war unless absolutely necesary. Is their any tricks in the game that would allow me to go to war without being hated. For instance, I remember once hearing that MIs only go into effect if the enemy crosses your borders even if you declared war or something.... things like that.

If they have some units on your turf, land or sea, make them furious by demanding outrageous things, then tell them to leave or declare. Having an AI declare on you gives you war happiness & makes it more likely you can ally with other AI's. This doesn't always work, but it's always worth trying. An honorably sneaky thing to do when they do have units on your turf is to trap them so they can't move off, then go the furious/declare route whenever you feel like making war.

It is possible to win this game, at high levels, without making a single military unit, btw.

kk