Resources less important than Income?

[JonBrave]

[I play SP vanilla, against Impossible AIs.] In this game, I find most strategies/advantages/disadvantages balance out nicely. But I'm being driven to a conclusion that income is vital and resources irrelevant, which I'd rather not be the case!

I have played a variety of nations, scales & strategies. I always find I have insufficient money compared to resources. The only time I have enough money is later if I'm winning handsomely, and by then it doesn't really matter about my resource level.

I assume the intention is that you want resources as a strategy choice so that you can buy (fewer but) better quality units per dollar spent. But my bottleneck is always total income. This is especially true since mages & specials cost loads of money for only a couple of resources. I can't begin to afford constant mages every turn, and whatever I do I'll need more money for them.

So..... please convince me that I'm wrong! Because if you don't then --- unless the nation is "unusual" --- I shall go for 3-Order in exchange for 3-Sloth every game from now on, which would be a shame...