What happened to iron?

[Hammer Rabbi]

ive found that if i get even just one node of iron i will also get some aluminum later but if i get none then i will also not get any aluminum. it's anecdotal, but i actually kept track of it over 6 games. 4 of the games, no iron = no aluminum. the other 2, iron nodes = aluminum nodes.

i didnt find the same for coal or oil. i seem to get one but not the other often. and i never see uranium mostly because i rarely tech nukes to reveal them, so im not sure where that fits into any of this.

also, i didnt know that 'abundant' gave me nodes with 9 iron. i thought the max was 6.

 

[ense7en]

Strategic Balance setting.

I've gotten so tired of not having iron anywhere close by, and it really screws over early war.

I love randomness, but it gets a bit punishing @ Immortal+ when most of the time iron is nowhere nearby.

Hence me using the Strategic Balance setting...

 

[Callonia]

It don't really bother me that much. Cuz when I have no iron early on it just means I need to get markets built and trade for it or pay a city state for it. What matters the most is you surviving on defense. And that can be done even with no iron.

Towns early on can be taken by warriors even when towns is at str 11-10 earlier on. Sometimes, the terrain is just plain unfavorable, its better to just sit in ur lands and skirmish until you can sally forth and threaten their cities.

This one war, me and rome fought over a single 6 iron node which's closer to my capitol than his. i know he wanted it that badly cuz he settled a total of 4 towns for it, two of them was surrounding the iron mine with bombardment range from town. But I managed to grab it with culture and built a Iron mine while under constant bombardment and "protests" from roman warriors/archers and towns. When the iron mine got built, those annoying protests got evicted for once and all xD By my shiny upgraded swordmen.

Anyways, back to the topic.

I have a feeling that there's too few types of strategical resources and luxuries to make this fun. Copper or Bronze should be in, rubber should be in, and several different types of new luxuries should be in.

Guerillas should be in, they should be your go to unit when your land is lacking in resources so you have to trade for them, or acquire them via force through guerillas.


It is quite entirely possible for you to snag a 4 iron from some nearby civ and hang onto it for the whole game provided tha tyou keep on paying for them the turn it expires on xD I've done it for one game few months ago china traded me 4 iron for gold coins in lump sum for until teh advent of musketman xD I just used that 4 iron for homeland defense.