Why is iron so rare?

[Cadfael]

The title says it. Half the time I am progressing through the middle ages and renaissance with club men who convert to musket men before I ever manage to unlock a hex with iron in it. I almost never produce swordsmen.

The crust of the Earth is nickel-iron for pete's sake. Iron should be more widespread than wheat or even stone that can be quarried. It should be the single most abundant resource. It could be everywhere in hills and mountains. Half the time we should be ignoring it and building our improvements on top of it. Instead I am building weird little sattelite towns in crappy places to try to not fight pikemen with clubs.

I don't get it.

[LasagnaMan12]

Idk but its pretty difficult building other than regular units

[LasagnaMan12]

But this also a brand new game, so its probaly going to get reworked at some point

[gachi is manly]

Yea I agree. It's a bit too rare.

It's also literally only good for swordsman now, though, so... There's that.

[HeLLfire]

Huh...never had iron problems myself - but i do tend to always have oil issues.

[Kitten Food]

Iron is rare, not that big of deal. I definitely think it should be a tad bit more available, but absolutely don't think it should go how Civ5 had it. There were way too many resources and made resource strategy a laughing thought.

[merccobb]

Originally posted by Lyle Ugleman:

Yea I agree. It's a bit too rare.

It's also literally only good for swordsman now, though, so... There's that.

Also, knights. They don't require horses weirdly, but need iron

[HeLLfire]

Originally posted by merccobb:

Originally posted by Lyle Ugleman:

Yea I agree. It's a bit too rare.

It's also literally only good for swordsman now, though, so... There's that.

Also, knights. They don't require horses weirdly, but need iron

Plate armor and barding :P

[BladeSe7en [ICON_RESOURCE_FURS]]

All resources are rare. If you're coming off of civ5 the biggest change to each strategic resource is that each worked tile provided a set number of iron pieces. With that iron it was a one for one build ratio to how many units you were able to build. On civ6 it's completely different. Some units require two resources to build or only one with an if you have an armory/harbor. With that one worked resource you can now produce an unlimited amount of units requiring iron.

[Saxon]

I understand that resources need to be somewhat scarce, but right now I am lucky to get my hands on 1 node of Iron before it becomes obsolete as a resource. And I never seem to get any alluminum at all. Because this is becoming such a pattern I've reached the point where I simply adapted my strategy to pretend certain units don't even exist. Spear/Pikemen are my frontline infantry until muskets. Biplanes require no special resources so I spam them while I can before higher techs make aircraft completely unavailable to me.

Strangely in the information age my civilization seems to have no problem churning out mechanized infantry and motorized artillery in endless numbers without any fuel or other specialized resources for them.

[Ottofyre]

Originally posted by Jurjen:

I I've reached the point where I simply adapted my strategy to pretend certain units don't even exist.

That's what I did in Civ 5. I hated the way strategic resources where handled there. At least with Civ 6 you only ever need access to one source of the stuff to make as many units as you want of that type.

At first I was very cranky with the rarity of the strategic resources until I realized that the mechanics of the game make it reasonable to deal with the challenges of obtaining them if you want them.

[BladeSe7en [ICON_RESOURCE_FURS]]

Iron is still useful until you research steel in the modern era.
as far as oil and aluminum goes do what I do. When you reach those techs unlocking that resource and you realize it's not within your borders. Simply build a new city where ever it is on the map.

[Saxon]

Originally posted by Hiirazz:

Originally posted by Jurjen:

I I've reached the point where I simply adapted my strategy to pretend certain units don't even exist.

That's what I did in Civ 5. I hated the way strategic resources where handled there. At least with Civ 6 you only ever need access to one source of the stuff to make as many units as you want of that type.

At first I was very cranky with the rarity of the strategic resources until I realized that the mechanics of the game make it reasonable to deal with the challenges of obtaining them if you want them.

Oh wow, I feel so dumb now! So all this time I thought I'd need 6 alluminum nodes to fill even a single aerodrome. Thanks for pointing this out. Now it actually makes sense to me that the resources are rarer to balance it out. Now that I finally know this I agree it's a much better system than civ5!

[yenkin2001]

Last game I played I did not find Uranium anywhere on the map. That seems counter when you are trying to build your army. Like horses, early game, and seeing your neighbor have horses and you can't find them.

[clpfox]

yea i know, it sucks... not to mention thers no inbetween of swordsmen and muskets

[HeLLfire]

Well - not having a strat resource DOES give you a good reason to....acquire said resources from your "friendly" neighbour :)