rag-lafart
Chieftain
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2004
- Messages
- 2
I'm surprised I haven't seen more articles about this. As a longtime civ2 and civ3 player who just recently discovered this forum, I expected oil to be more central to the geopolitical discussions taking place here.
As in the real world, any modern war in civ 3 requires - absolutely requires - oil. Without oil, the only worthwile units you can have are nukes and cruise missiles.
As I approach modern times on Emperor or Deity, I generally find myself in sole possession of my island/continent. Opposing me are a couple other large civilizations and a couple small, technologically backwards ones. Among my opponents, there is always one that is head and shoulders above the rest - depending on how well I've played, they are about equivalent with my civilization (sometimes a little ahead, sometimes a little behind in power, techs, size). Time and again I've found that the single most effective way of dealing with this player is cutting off his oil supply.
Since this opponent should never be on your island (I'm assuming you're good enough to neutralize all proximate civilizations earlier in the game), any war between the two of you is going to inherently favor the defender (shorter supply lines to their production centers, fast movement over their railroads, etc.) The way to change this is to effectively give yourself a technology edge by only allowing your enemy to build infantry and cavalry.
Securing the World's Oil:
As you approach Refining, which allows you to see the oil resource, start snatching up desert and tundra cities from your smaller opponents. The last thing you want is some small civ funelling oil into your main rival. If possible, take the tundra and desert cities from this rival, too (although often a war with them is courting disaster). If the rival is already at war with a neighbor, you can often get into a quick war and snatch some luxury/resource cities and then negotiate for peace. Since the oil cities aren't going to be production centers (owing to them being in deserts/tundra), it is best to raze them and then use your own settlers to build cities with more loyal citizenries. Get some quick culture in these.
If a third party has excess oil, either take it from them (if they aren't friendly), or butter them up and get a trade embargo against your rival. I usually pursue the former, as it's more of a guarantee.
The only other scenario is if your rival has oil in his borders. This happens less than you might think - partly, I speculate, because your rival is strong for a reason: he has mostly good territory in his borders, without a lot of tundra or too much desert. If this does occur, however, be prepared to go to war over it - and stay at war until it is resolved. A resolution takes the form of you capturing and then abandoning his oil city (this is less offensive than razing it) and any cities close to it, and then founding your own (and pumping culture there, of course). The best way to pursue a war like this is to let some time pass after the declaration, beat off his attacks, and then launch a vicious counter-attack right as he is preparing to make peace with you. This way, if you overextend a little, you can sue for peace and not be hurt too bad. Often, such a war has single-handedly forced me into communism because of war-weariness. But there is no question that it is worth it.
The Payoff:
This should be pretty clear to anybody who has even looked at a manual for this game. By controlling all oil, you will have an easy edge on any army your rival (or any other civ) can field. Instead of belaboring the point, I will address the one danger that is not averted by oil dominance: Mutually assured destruction. If, for whatever reason, you've frittered away your time and let your opponent get nukes even though your military was far superior - do not worry. The key to dealing with nuclear weapons against someone without oil is the one-turn blitzkrieg. Essentially, what you do is this:
Fill one or two transports with marines. Fill at least five more with modern armor. Use the marines to take out one of the enemy's coastal cities that is connected to his railroad network (the 'entry city'). Move the transports into the city and unload the modern armor there - they'll still have their three movement points. Nuke all the major enemy cities that are big enough to have nukes - hit the really big ones and capital twice, if you can. Attack the nearest with your modern armor. Since the opponent has no oil, their nuked infantry defenders should be no problem for your armor. Cities, when properly spaced, will be just within range of each other for a modern armor's three movement points. Captures cities progressively until all nuke-worthy cities have been captured (you have to capture them so that you get the cultural border around the cities and the movement bonuses that go with it - only raze the peripheral ones). If all goes well, and assuming the spacing is proper, you should be able to destroy the vast majority of their nuclear arsenal. Sometimes you get hit with one or two nukes - but that's worth it, because at this point you've won the game. The one thing to worry about is mountains: choose your entry city wisely, and plan your route beforehand. Keep a couple nukes in reserve just in case - but remember that they will destroy the roads wherever you use them. Also, sometimes the terrain dictates that you have to use two entry cities, but since marines are cheap that shouldn't be a problem. I've used variations on this model using paratroopers, but I'll let you figure that out. With adequate planning, and allowing yourself some flexibility depending on the obstacles you face, you should have no problem eliminating the MAD threat - the only threat that exists in an oil dominated game.
As in the real world, any modern war in civ 3 requires - absolutely requires - oil. Without oil, the only worthwile units you can have are nukes and cruise missiles.
As I approach modern times on Emperor or Deity, I generally find myself in sole possession of my island/continent. Opposing me are a couple other large civilizations and a couple small, technologically backwards ones. Among my opponents, there is always one that is head and shoulders above the rest - depending on how well I've played, they are about equivalent with my civilization (sometimes a little ahead, sometimes a little behind in power, techs, size). Time and again I've found that the single most effective way of dealing with this player is cutting off his oil supply.
Since this opponent should never be on your island (I'm assuming you're good enough to neutralize all proximate civilizations earlier in the game), any war between the two of you is going to inherently favor the defender (shorter supply lines to their production centers, fast movement over their railroads, etc.) The way to change this is to effectively give yourself a technology edge by only allowing your enemy to build infantry and cavalry.
Securing the World's Oil:
As you approach Refining, which allows you to see the oil resource, start snatching up desert and tundra cities from your smaller opponents. The last thing you want is some small civ funelling oil into your main rival. If possible, take the tundra and desert cities from this rival, too (although often a war with them is courting disaster). If the rival is already at war with a neighbor, you can often get into a quick war and snatch some luxury/resource cities and then negotiate for peace. Since the oil cities aren't going to be production centers (owing to them being in deserts/tundra), it is best to raze them and then use your own settlers to build cities with more loyal citizenries. Get some quick culture in these.
If a third party has excess oil, either take it from them (if they aren't friendly), or butter them up and get a trade embargo against your rival. I usually pursue the former, as it's more of a guarantee.
The only other scenario is if your rival has oil in his borders. This happens less than you might think - partly, I speculate, because your rival is strong for a reason: he has mostly good territory in his borders, without a lot of tundra or too much desert. If this does occur, however, be prepared to go to war over it - and stay at war until it is resolved. A resolution takes the form of you capturing and then abandoning his oil city (this is less offensive than razing it) and any cities close to it, and then founding your own (and pumping culture there, of course). The best way to pursue a war like this is to let some time pass after the declaration, beat off his attacks, and then launch a vicious counter-attack right as he is preparing to make peace with you. This way, if you overextend a little, you can sue for peace and not be hurt too bad. Often, such a war has single-handedly forced me into communism because of war-weariness. But there is no question that it is worth it.
The Payoff:
This should be pretty clear to anybody who has even looked at a manual for this game. By controlling all oil, you will have an easy edge on any army your rival (or any other civ) can field. Instead of belaboring the point, I will address the one danger that is not averted by oil dominance: Mutually assured destruction. If, for whatever reason, you've frittered away your time and let your opponent get nukes even though your military was far superior - do not worry. The key to dealing with nuclear weapons against someone without oil is the one-turn blitzkrieg. Essentially, what you do is this:
Fill one or two transports with marines. Fill at least five more with modern armor. Use the marines to take out one of the enemy's coastal cities that is connected to his railroad network (the 'entry city'). Move the transports into the city and unload the modern armor there - they'll still have their three movement points. Nuke all the major enemy cities that are big enough to have nukes - hit the really big ones and capital twice, if you can. Attack the nearest with your modern armor. Since the opponent has no oil, their nuked infantry defenders should be no problem for your armor. Cities, when properly spaced, will be just within range of each other for a modern armor's three movement points. Captures cities progressively until all nuke-worthy cities have been captured (you have to capture them so that you get the cultural border around the cities and the movement bonuses that go with it - only raze the peripheral ones). If all goes well, and assuming the spacing is proper, you should be able to destroy the vast majority of their nuclear arsenal. Sometimes you get hit with one or two nukes - but that's worth it, because at this point you've won the game. The one thing to worry about is mountains: choose your entry city wisely, and plan your route beforehand. Keep a couple nukes in reserve just in case - but remember that they will destroy the roads wherever you use them. Also, sometimes the terrain dictates that you have to use two entry cities, but since marines are cheap that shouldn't be a problem. I've used variations on this model using paratroopers, but I'll let you figure that out. With adequate planning, and allowing yourself some flexibility depending on the obstacles you face, you should have no problem eliminating the MAD threat - the only threat that exists in an oil dominated game.
