Where is France getting its oil from?

[Angmar]

Or in search of Joan's dark sticky spot.


France has been my neighbour on our island for thousands of years but its coming to the point where its getting a little too crowded for both of our Nations. FRANCE HAS TO GO. The issue with this is that France had a boom during the industrial era and managed to get into the modern era before anyone else. This means that they have a massive standing army of Modern Armour and Mechanical Infantry, and not to mention Navy and Airforce.

Due to the wars that we fought on our Island there are few places in France that I am unable to strike with bombers. This means that when the war starts I should be able to deprive France of its key resources. My goal is to start the war and only have to cope with rifleman reinforcments rather than MA and MI.

The trick is where is their oil coming from? According to spying on Paris they only have one source of oil. This means two bombs and no more modern units for France .. but where? I have gone over and over all of France and I am unable to spot their oil anywhere.

Two possible reasons for this:

One, France doesnt have oil of their own and they are trading for it .. but with whom? Who do I have to Bribe into not trading with France? Anyway to find this out?

Two, France has a city ontop of their oil. This will make it a little more complex as Ill have to destroy all the roads around this city to cut it off from the trade network, if its on the coast, Ill have to destroy the harbour, if it has an airport this will have to go also. Complex, but my the Russian Airforce is up to this task! Which city though?

However how do I find out which reason this is? And specifically what target / civ do I have to deal with?

I hope someone out there has a good solution for this problem, as the only way I will be able to win the War with France is to cripple its ability to reinforce .. and even then its going to be a huge struggle.

 

[satchel]

You can use ctrl-shift-M to find out whether they have oil underneath one of their cities.

If they don't, you can look around to see who has extra oil that they might be trading to France. If you have embassies everywhere, shouldn't your foreign advisor be able to tell you who France has trades with. Then look to see if one of those is a civ that both has extra oil, and has refining. That should narrow it down to at most 2-3 civs. Secure trade embargos against France, and you are good to go.

 

[Angmar]

Well I found out where France is getting its oil from. I did the ctrl-shift-m trick ( thanks lots satchel!! ) and I was able to confirm that France has no oil of their own. I then checked the trade window and saw that excluding myself France was trading with two civilizaitions. I checked them out, they only had one oil each. I was starting to get frustrated. Clicking through menues .. then I found it! I WAS TRADING OIL TO FRANCE .. heh! ( remember kids, drugs are bad )

This trade had one turn left on it and our MPP had 10 turns left on it. I let both of them expire while cranking out the Stealth Bombers, Cruise Missile and Modern Armour.

The war has started. Each turn France has lost a major city to the combined might of the Russian Airforce and Armoured Divisions. Our lines have held and beyond the loss of some Modern Armour going into a 20+ city to crush some mechanized infantry the war is going exactly as planned.

( On a side note: Once the MPP dropped I did a test invasion to see what would happen. Seems as though the first city I struck had France's entire collection of Stealth Bombers 9 or so of them. I then reloaded and built a few more turns, as I was mainly testing to see if France would strike back with Nukes nor not When I actually started the war for real a few turns later the bombers where moved somewhere such that I have only had to deal with them dropping bombs on one of my three horses. CRUEL FRENCH BASTARDS! Those are fine spanish horses you are bombing! )

 

[EdwardTking]

IRAQ

 

[Justus II]

Originally posted by EdwardTking
IRAQ

That's exactly what I was thinking when I saw the topic!

 

[zebomba2]

So YOU were selling oil to them, and you didn't notice it promptly. You know, late night games aren't healthy .

 

[Jaybe]

A favorite schedule for me in modern warfare (representative government) when a border is shared:

1. Acquire MPP's with all other major civs (so they don't ally with the enemy)
2. Declare war
3. Do NOT attack or bombard within enemy's borders!
4. Enemy comes to you, triggering MPP's, with most of its offensive units which you can easily bombard, encircle and eliminate while you take out their cities.

 

[hbdragon88]

Careful about MPPs. If they like the enemy, they'll end the MPP as fast as possible, get into peace with the enemy, and may strike against you. If the foreign advisor tells you there's an alliance or another MPP signed - careful, careful...

Egypt was "fighting" - never fought - against the Russians in an activated MPP. Then it made peace and signed an MPP with France, who I got winded in a war with because of an MPP there as well. And then I was fighting Egypt.

 

[Naval Freak]

It wasnt drugs, Angmar, it was a younger sibling who started the oil trade!

if u dont have siblings, blame the dog.

where does russia's Navy come into play? im dyin' here...

 

[Angmar]

All of my war plans up until recently revolved around securing my entire continent. For this I build a massive collection of Mechanical Infantry, Modern Armour and Stealth Bombers. This means that Russia has only just recently built a Navy. It consisted of 4 transports that were sent to America to invade. For cover I brought along 6 destroyers, one battle ship and 3 carriers, the Kiev, the Bremen and one named after the Great Leader that sped its creation.

However if you are a big Russian Navy fan you will be glad to hear that the Great War vs France has generated a great leader each and every turn. These great leaders have rushed to Vladistovok and built battleships! I now have six of them smashing some crappy little french city in the hills with the majority of their reserves of Mechanized Infantry ..

This city will simply not fall, its a piece of crap population 2 city, which constantly gets smashed down to 1 population, has no improvements ( after 10 turns of massive radar artillery bombardment ) but I have yet to find the bottom of their MI stack .. arrr. Last turn I gave up on this crappy city and Ill get it in the peace deal once I smash York ( size 28 and 3 silks.. mmMm )

This game has been going on for 2 weeks .. I love it

 

[fephisto]

You attacked France?! I love you man! 8)

 

[Ihmotep]

I like being the last civ standing...tis fun

 

[Naval Freak]

WooWho! Touchdown!