I knew the key to having any hope for survival was to shut off the French oil supply. There turned out to be three sources, located at the big green dots in the shot below.
I saw the one in the northwest, and the one at Tabriz not too far from our eastern front. The circled one in the northeast was not known. None of us had spotted it, and so my battle plans did not account for it.
My first course of action was to retake the lost ground on our western flank. The yellow arrows represent this action. Using our tank armies, I charged in there and recaptured Madras. That's the first yellow arrow, in the southwest. I had to mop up units sitting on airport, and retake our second town (second yellow arrow). I then used cavalry to ride over and pillage the rail and road at the yellow circle, thus preventing the enemy from reaching Madras on one turn with any two-move units.
The orange dot in our core is a stack of French units. I used our recaptured artillery to redline and then wipe out these offenders. I signed Right of Passage with Ottomans and the green arrow shows a pair of mechs sent on the mission to the north to disconnect one of the oils.
This all occurred on the inherited turn. I pressed next turn and the blue arrows show the lines of French attack. They took two cities, including the one sitting on our oil
just north of our core. WE START THIS TURN WITH NO OIL.
French attacks at our northernmost and easternmost cities were repelled. A French destroyer in the east is bombarding that city, Indus. That's the blue arrow in the water.
Indus in the far east is our weakest point. The red line hops indicate four cities in a row that would fall like dominoes if Indus falls. The last in that chain is our only rubber source. And with a ship pestering it, ONE elite mech is not enough to deter attacks. If the mech takes a bombardment hit, the Gates of Hell are opened.
To start the next turn, I disconnect one of Joanie's oils, in the north at the green X.
I recaptured our oil city and the one to the east of it. These are the yellow arrows.
I used two cavalry to pillage the rail and road at the yellow circle, thus preventing any repeat of this French maneuver for our oil by preventing them from reaching the eastern city (Kolhapur) in one turn. (All the other roads were already cratered and disconnected, as shown by the green line).
This was all I could manage, as our forces were mostly healing.
The French made a strong push at Indus (eastern blue arrow) and nearly captured it. Gave me a heck of a scare. I'm building mostly mechs now, instead of tanks, because we have GOT TO get multiple elite mechs into Indus and shut that down as a way for the French to flank us and drive deep into our back lines.
The western arrow is a long battleship. I've got a cav parked in the city on our western tip, and it is distracting the battle ship. The ship can do no more than 2hp damage per turn, and the cav can heal, so that's an endless loop in our favor so long as no other ships join in.
The French moved two TOW onto our aluminum at the northernmost city, and since I had left one city up there completely undefended, they also charged a stack into the hills.
Another stack charged in to the west of Sirian's Gap, between that and Jaipur, the blue arrow pointing due south.
Two French Tanks killed our exposed (pillager) cavs at the yellow circle area, but the city was spared.
(Not shown in any pictures) I killed the two exposed tanks and cleaned up the stack that had invaded near Sirian's Gap.
I moved an elite mech in to the town I had left empty, and that's all I could do on that round.
Between turns, the blue arrows below show the French response.
They pillaged the rail on our aluminum BUT NOT THE ROAD. The second TOW, at the yellow X in the north, moved off the tile without pillaging. Thus our aluminum is still connected by road. What were they smoking?
The other stack in that area retreated due to the elite mech. This is at the town I have circled in yellow.
The French made another thrust at Indus, barely repelled, and another drive in past Sirian's Gap on the west. They came at our northwest town with only a couple of tanks, and failed, but they came from the east to take a town two towns north of our oil supply. They also put a mech on the airport one tile north of Oil City.
The yellow arrows show my moves. I retook the lost town. Then I used most of our artillery to strike at the French city of Erdenet and used our now-healed tank armies to burn it down. I used the rest of our forces to clean out the invaders at Sirian's Gap, but I had to use mechs and cavs to do the killing, and we lost a mech and some horsies in this fight.
The small yellow circle, which I had gone to such pains to pillage (to stop the French drive for Oil City) now had to be reconnected so I could attack again next round. I sent two workers there and some mechs to cover.
Silly AI. Tricks are for kids. 
