getting screwed by resource placement

Kenjura · November 22, 2001, 20:41

Anyone else have this problem?

In my current game, it's the 19th century, and I'm doing fairly well. I got steam power quite some time ago, but I haven't built a single railroad yet. Why?

I'll tell you why. There is NO COAL. The entire map contains only TWO COAL DEPOSITS. They are both so deep in enemy territory, on another continent, that I would have to mount a major offensive (against people who never bother me) and try to maintain cities on the other side of the continent. I know I'm supposed to try to trade with another civilization, but the civ that owns the coal is so far behind me that I'd have to give them about 15 techs just to make them realize they had it.

It's one thing to, say, start out in the midst of an entire *continent* of jungle, and subsequently be so far behind everyone that I can't hope for any victory in a CHEIFTAIN game (my first game to learn the new rules). It's another to find out, many hours into a game, that I'll basically *never* get railroads. Whatever algorithm they use to place resources in random maps definately needs work.

Or at least I seem to think so. ^_^

JasonLBarnes · November 22, 2001, 21:17

What bothers me the most is that you can't use wood as a replacement for coal!

Capt Dizle · November 22, 2001, 23:03

I have noticed that islands have a lot of strategic resources on them. You may have some outlying islands not yet revealed with resource clusters.

This may be an intentional feature.

It is my understanding that there is one of each resource per civ.

In my current game there are four four islands containing 50% of the world's iron, 25% of the horses, and 12.5 % of the rubber and oil.

The islands probably constitute less than 3% of the total land mass.

I have seen several maps like this. I suspect the evil intellect of Soren.

If true then a part of any winning strategy would include REX into all islands.

Green Giant · November 23, 2001, 02:24

Quote:

Originally posted by JasonLBarnes
What bothers me the most is that you can't use wood as a replacement for coal!

your joking right?

civ-n00b · November 23, 2001, 02:50

me too - i run into this alot. i'm ALWAYS lacking coal in my civ - i just had to conquer about 20 cities in order to get coal... so annoying (considering i was heavily outnumbered too, i had to put 90 cities @ tank every 2 turns = trouble for the AI

)

Ruiner · November 24, 2001, 04:38

Let me see if I understand you correctly:

You said there is only 2 coal deposits in the world (there should be more, keep looking!), but you'd have to attack the AI to get them. One of the only reasons to have coal in the first place is to build better military units so . . . build a military, take what is yours, then upgrade

JK,

Honestly see if you can trade with the AI for the coal. Really keep looking though, there should be more unless you've modified the appearance ratio of coal in the rules editor.

Adam