need help on iron question

[stranger_2]

I was reading Moldndecay's reply on polish campaign (http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/Forum7/HTML/002391.html) and one sentence made me worry:
"but without the iron deposits taken early was somewhat behind in the tech race."

I started worrying 'cause I developed a strategy 4 Poland that seems to work very well so far (which means not so far http://www.totalwar.org/ubb/wink.gif ), but I didn't pay much attention to iron. It's my first faction 'n first campaign, not mentioning some quick strategy try-outs, so I still am kinda newbie (I say kinda, cause I played STW up to Imagawa on expert) and still don't know how important some things are in MTW.

So how important it really is? Should I expect getting my but kicked cause of this later on? And how does it vary depending on difficulty level?

[Grifman]

It's not that big a deal. It's nice, but I've done well with the English and Byzants and they don't have any iron - fact, most factions don't have it.

Grifman

[Yoko Kono]

iron isnt essential but it can compensate somewhat for lack of technology by giving your troops the attack ratings of the next step up

[pdoan8]

Iron can give your troops up to +4 attack bonus. It is important in a very close battle and it does make battle easier to win when your troops have much better upgrades. However, AI doesn't take advantage of iron as much, you can do pretty well without it too.