The Most Important Part of Any Endgame: Oil

[Holy Despot]

I agree OIL is the most important! Once in an endgame on emperor it was just between me(China) and him(Persia).He had ICBM'S but he only lately found a source of oil and only had 6-7 tanks +mech infantry(I was backward and couldn't create nukes).I declared war,mobilized and created continuously tanks and mech infantry.He bombed me with nukes(all of them) in about turn 15 of the war without provocation.I recovered hard but all my cities were producing tanks and soon enough I had dozens of tanks+ mech infantry(work best in combination=attack+ defense).He still produced bombs and nuked me but his fate was sealed thanks to OIL.This is a classic example on how OIL beats uranium and tanks beat ICBM's.Also Tomoyo said the AI only uses Nukes if you use them.FALSE,I had no nukes and he nuked me but my tanks saved me and the world of OIL was mine!

 

[Zardnaar]

He also said the AI uses them as a weapon of last resort. I've been nuked for invading an AI and the war has dragged on.

 

[Holy Despot]

Only on Chieftain,Warlord,Regent is what Tomoyo said true.On harder difficulties the AI is very arrogant and unpredictable so be careful(he might sacrifice his reputation or declare war with a democracy government!).
But let's talk about OIL not nukes!

 

[FascistRepublic]

Keep in mind also that oil exausts faster then you can say "I coulda sworn I had Oil", so you can't ever form a good monopoly or even prevent rivals from getting it unless you own every desert and tundra square in the game.

 

[Aegis]

Only on Chieftain,Warlord,Regent is what Tomoyo said true.On harder difficulties the AI is very arrogant and unpredictable so be careful(he might sacrifice his reputation or declare war with a democracy government!).
But let's talk about OIL not nukes!

You should bite your tongue; Tomoyo is one of the best Civ players out there and knows what he is talking about. His knowledge and experience is to be envied.

 

[Pequenino]

I haven´t found myself without Oil in any of my games (then again i only play on Warlord and Chieftain), but i would guess i´d be pretty hurt since i usually attack civs with Modern Armor as my main assault unit in Modern Ages.

 

[AutomatedTeller]

modern warfare without oil is not the most fun in the world, no...

 

[Virtual Alex]

One time, in a game I was having a massive war, on my home continent (which was very huge) with Spain. It was pretty funny actually. I had the east half, spain had the west half, both of us with about 20 cities per side. All level 20+. And in between the two of us, was a thin line of about 6 aztec cities. Totally backwards, and weak. Me and spain were having a massive tank war right on aztec soil. I am not sure if spain had a rop, but I know I didn't. But monty never dared to ask me to get out.

Anyway, my oil ran out. All of the sudden I was in real bad shape. Luckily for me, I just upgraded all my infantry to MI so I had a good amount of defense. But my tank army was dropping quickly. Spain was determined to kill me, so they wouldn't make peace. So nuked all of spains oil supplies.

What a mess that turned out to be. It was the funnest war I ever had though!

 

[pol1]

IMO oil is very important - but it _usually_ comes late in the game, at least much later than RP with rubber and that tech with inf and arti makes the difference.
thence i rate rubber as more valuable - tanks and bombers are nice, but most fighting i do with arti+inf+cav stacks in IA. and that usually ends real wars (dg lvl).

 

[bender19]

Id have to say rubber is more important than oil.

If your fighting a late industrial age war before TOW has appeared, a rubberless foe will be restricted to riflemen, ships and planes. While an oil less enemy will have infantry and marines to play with. In terms of invading itll be far easier to cut through cities defended by riflemen than infatry. On the counterattack marines have a higher attack than cavalry. While sure if your invading a whole new continent the enemy will have a navy with oil, but I've never encountered an AI civilization that could use their navy well enough to prevent an invasion forces laniding, and after that the navy is of no use. If you blitz the enemies riflemen held cities with tanks those bombers will have been of no use to the enemy at all. Those bombers will do alot less damage to your invading forces than infantry fortified in a metropolis.

In the modern age oil becomes more important than rubber though. However by this stage aluminium is far more important than oil, needed to produce all missles including nukes, Aegis cruiser, armor, all mordern aircraft and radar artillery. By contrast oil would prevents the construction of armor and mech infantry and aircraft, and given TOWs can be contructed resource free the advantage of not producing mech infantry isnt as great as the advantage of denying your enemy the use of nuclear weapons.

 

[redvtt]

I had a problem of no iron, early in the game. And, I was on an island. I gave that one up, will take another look at it one day.

 

[Game_Addy]

I think rubber is more important than oil, because in all of my games, i've never had the problem of not having oil(except for about 3 games). In my last game, Scandinavia was avoiding the lower part of their continent, which was largely jungles and desert. So being the good neighbor I am, I make a conveyor belt of galleys carrying settlers. many, many turns later, lo and behold: it had oil, as well as coal, and I have another source of oil in one of my tundra squares on my home continent, while almost every other counter except for me has rubber(I had to take it from the Mongols with my Sipahi a few turns before they could get Replaceable Parts).

So because I will take any squares I can get under my rule, and most of them are squares which are either desert or tundra, with the occasional Jungle(like it was here), I usually have no problem getting a source or two of oil, while rubber just about screwed me over when the Iroquois wanted an "early" war

Michael

 

[MAS]

In the early game, horses are the most important, but you can do well without them (but then do make a point of getting horses a.s.a.p. if possible) using archers.

In early middle ages, you can do without any resources still with a combination of bowman and a few spears. With trebs thrown into the mix this can do well even if your opponent has musket defenders, but if you are in such a situation, do make a point of getting horses and salpeter.

If you haven't manage to get any resources still into the industrial age, then your only hope will be your diplomatic skills. try to get a hold on rubber, iron and coal. (and horses and salpeter) use the trade chances to build a force capable of taking and holding the enemy cities that holds these vital resources.
Though you could still do without the coal, but it will get though without RR.

oil is not needed until the late modern age, but you should have already been in a situation where you can win before your enemy gets to the modern age (i'm not counting sid level) so It would be safe to argue that indeed, oil is not important at all.

So:
I would rate horses the most important (but not essential) during the early part of the game salpeter almost essential during the late MA early IA. and rubber essential during the late IA.

 

[RFHolloway]

You don't need oil for artillery and infantry. I can kill any civ if I have artillery, infantry, and maybe cavalry, even if they have modern armor. Plus, TOWs are better than you would think.

I think the point of the article is not that it is important to secure your own oil, as Tomoyo points out you can take out an AI without it. The point is that it is a significant advantage to deny the AI oil, because they do not effectively use the non oil units.