Slitherine

Well I've made it as Lusitania. Top of the legacy at turn 160. In the top 10 of the CDR for the last century. A golden age for the last Idoneknowhowmanytimesthetokensjustkeepcoming!

Am sure I can last to the end like this and win over Rome and the Brigantes. But...

I have yet, anywhere, between the western coast of Iberia to the fertile valleys that were once Massalia, been able to build a tool maker! I have reshuffled 3 or 4 regions endlessly, determined the adjacent regions would gain the tool bonus, but to no avail. As well, in all my regions of the entirety of Iberia, I have never once seen the tool maker come up in an offer to build. It's there, right??

Is there a building that NEEDS tools?

Not that it is really a big deal. I'd found a couple regions surrounded by 4-5 or so others and looked at bonus needs of those. Tools came up often. I was just wondering if anyone else has had buildings they wanted and never managed to build them. My capital is the same, with 3 of the 4 religious shrines built there but the 4th one just never comes up as an offer!!

Once you make a Crafter District, there is a ton of possible buildings. Finding a specific Commerce building is rather difficult (even more so on a shore line). It can be better at times to delay building the Crafter District until you built specific buildings

For sure!

It's not like the bonuses are needed. I'd noticed that many of my regions were missing stuff from the Far East and such, but then there was tools and I thought, hey, I can make tools.

I've got at least 5 as Epirus. You need to go the blacksmith/forge route, I think a region with some natural metals and they come up fairly often

I have the smiths etc.. I never thought about natural source of metals. Actually have had master blacksmiths pop up in a few places.

here's one of mine (second image on the commerce row):
so do think you need some sort of base metal (though not totally sure over this)

Tools Manufacture is the Tier II upgrade of the Blacksmith, which also requires the Crafter District to unlock. It has a Pop 3 minimum as well. So, to get Tools you will need:

Population 3
A Blacksmith
A Crafter District
One other Commerce building.

There is no metal requirement, but as Iron is Needed it is probably a good idea to have it in Trade Range. Other metals for Bonuses are obviously nice too.

And as far as importing Tools go, that could be tough, as the only structures that Need Tools are the Tier III Builder Guide and Hellenic Asklepeion.