I've had this problem (lack of iron) in maybe one game I've played (ignoring a couple of games where I died very quickly). Provided you expand effectively at the start it's very unusual to be unable to get iron. I have built Infirmaries a couple of times to aid healing of troops, notably when I was playing with Juggernauts and they kept getting splash damage. I have never chosen +2 metal on a city level up.

The one exception I can think of is where I was short of iron I was stuck on a desert peninsula, there were no iron mines and an AI was blocking my exit. However in that case I did have crystal and I did have wargs, so I built warg mounted leather armoured staff troops, and they were effective enough that I was able to fight my way out of the peninsula.

Troops can be effective even without metal, e.g. give them Fast, Ironskin, Constitution, leather armour, as many trinkets as you can afford and have researched, and they have some survivability even without metal armour and metal weapons.

I don't think it's a problem if sometimes your starting position is bad and it's tough to grab resources. I actually think it's a good thing, it forces you to consider different strategies depending on your situation, rather than relying on the same thing all the time.

http://www.lifetimeprogress.net/files/SaraiTharana1.EleSav

My starting location was Fortress just below the two Towns in the upper right.  Second was Conclave just to the left of those two Towns.  Third and Fourth were the two Towns.  That was all the space that I had.

Yithril had everything south and they were able to conquer my first city temporarily right at the beginning of the game, that's why Conclave is switched with Fortress in the city list.

Resoln was just west of me where the second Fortress (city 7) is located.  I built that city after razing the one they had there.

There were really hard wildland enemies west of my Conclave (town 2) and where both Towns are (3 and 4) and between where my 1 and 2 cities are and where my city 7 is, which enabled Resoln to beat me to it.  I didn't clear out the wildland enemies in 3 and 4 until after I retook my capital.

If you draw a line straight south from the dragon, a runaway custom AI had everything west of that line including about 10 iron mines.

The closest iron mine to my starting point was the one directly south from my first city which was well defended Yithril territory.  This is the same Yithril that had 75 Offense 45 Defense Oppressors when I had 0 metal.  The same ones that conquered my capital before I even located an Iron Mine.

I did work with what I had and I did succeed, but really this is kind of a worst case scenario sort of starting position.  You should be able to clearly see that I did pick +2 metal/turn in my reclaimed capital.  It is the only place anywhere near those 4 cities with black smoke.

Even if I somehow could have taken the Iron Mine that was about 10 turns south of my capital it would have been impossible to defend since it was Yithril territory and it wasn't possible to build a fortress there that could put walls around it.

Luckily the fortress that is in the bottom right corner did have 2 Iron Mines in range of it and I was able to throw everything I had at that and conquer it (city 5) and I was able to start clawing my way back with that metal and with the extra research from the conclave right by it.  That area was pretty defensible since it was far from all the other cities.  I only had to beat 3 Juggernauts (and like 12 other units, a deadly level force) in order to get my first Iron Mines.

Anyway, so yes I was able to win, but this is not the sort of game I want to play, especially on ridiculous level.  The only reason I even survived the opener is because everyone was at war with everyone and I just tried to turtle up in my corner and let them occupy each other.

Games good games are built to have the deck stacked against you. That's how one determines how good the ai is. The stronger the uphill battle to the win the better the game is Who wants to play some mansy pansy wimpy ai? Losers I would say that want to win at all costs. They can't take a challenge and never play a human.

Sounds like little willy needs to play some QWOP or maybe FTL.

I hear Spelunky speed runs are the lastest craze.

There's two losers now, they are quite rabid on the internet and forums. lol

Try this one

http://www.addictinggames.com/action-games/theworldshardestgame.jsp

BTW, it's not our fault you exist.

Finally I made the mod - Patchwork mod. https://forums.elementalgame.com/450250/page/1/ It is designed to make the game more challenging and comfortable. No need to reload, everything is in you hands. Please let me know what features of the game are needed to be improved.