cutting off trade routes

MattPilot · February 2, 2004, 19:15

I'm sure one of you civ geeks out there knows this

I think i read once that you could put the harbor out of service when you put one of your own ships right next to an enemy town (during war time of course). And if memory serves me correctly, i think i did this in pre conquests games.

Though now in my latest epic game, i'm trying to cut off a city with a harbor on a remote island which coincidentally has the only rubber source for that civ (i checked, it didn't get the rubber from another civ cause its at war with everyone, and no - there is no airport). For this task i've allocated my only destroyer in the region. Though the coastal city has 4 sea squares. Doing some espionage missions, i can see that the main land still has access to that resource - even after a turn.

Conclusions:

a) it no longer works (or never has worked) to cut off harbors

or,

b) you need to cover every single coastal square to cut it off.

does anybody know what the deal is with this?

Also, Can i cut off an airtrade route by placing AA units adjacent to the city? Currently don't have the resources in my game to test this.

Any input greatly appreciated!

mactenchi · February 2, 2004, 19:44

you need to blockade it completely, such that the enemy would not be able to move a ship in or out of that port. sounds like you'd need 3 more destroyers to do the job.

MattPilot · February 2, 2004, 20:01

oki kewl - you got any idea about the AIrport & AA question?

Inverse Icarus · February 2, 2004, 20:21

trade route blocking is all but useless, especially late game.

if there were defined paths merchant ships traveled, that could be blockaded, destroyed, or raided, it would be a lot better.

surrounding an entire city (or GROUP of cities) is retarded.

vmxa1 · February 2, 2004, 22:01

I don't think you can cut of air routes, you have to destroy the airport.

chequita guevara · February 2, 2004, 23:34

I've cut off every water path out of a city and it could still build units it didn't have the resources for, leading me to believe the blockade wasn't working.

MattPilot · February 3, 2004, 00:23

just did it.. and it worked. Blocking all 4 squares of the previously mentioned town eliminated the resource from the main land. Thanks for the help!

I just wish there were a way block Air trade routes with AA units - hope Jesse changes that

vmxa1 · February 3, 2004, 01:21

Quote:

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
I've cut off every water path out of a city and it could still build units it didn't have the resources for, leading me to believe the blockade wasn't working.

Did they have an airport? Did they have roads to anothe city that had a harbor? I know they can use other civs trade routes on some circimstances, but I am not sure how that works.

Alexander's Horse · February 3, 2004, 02:42

I had supply resources on a continent from my home continent but when I got in a war that source of resources was cut off.

What Happened? I had many ports to ship the ore.

vmxa1 · February 3, 2004, 03:25

Quote:

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
I had supply resources on a continent from my home continent but when I got in a war that source of resources was cut off.

What Happened? I had many ports to ship the ore.

Did you have a trade with someone for the resource? If say you have 2 sources of Iron and trade one and lose the road to one of them or it depletes, the trade will be filled with your remaining resource.

That would mean you would have none for your interal use.
So that is one way. Of course if you only had one source in the first place and it was depleted, then you are SOL.

Check with F2 to see if you have that resource still and check your trades.

Inverse Icarus · February 3, 2004, 04:06

IIRC navigation allows trade over sea, and magnetism allows trade over ocean.

if you don't have either, you can only trade across coastal tiles. if you go to war with someone IN THE PATH of your current trade path (like, if they control the coasts you would use to get there), you can't trade.

Alexander's Horse · February 3, 2004, 09:01

I have lots of sources and modern ships.

vmxa1 · February 3, 2004, 13:27

Can you post a save where this occurred? Best if it is just before you lost the access.

Alexander's Horse · February 3, 2004, 18:29

I will when I get home - it looks like the enemy civ has somehow blocked trade routes to my home continent - but no ships are evident and I have dozens of open ports on both continents.

chequita guevara · February 4, 2004, 14:19

Quote:

Originally posted by vmxa1

Did they have an airport? Did they have roads to anothe city that had a harbor? I know they can use other civs trade routes on some circimstances, but I am not sure how that works.

Nope and nope and the only other cities it had roads to were mine.

MattPilot · February 4, 2004, 14:50

were you at war?

Catt · February 4, 2004, 15:11

Quote:

Originally posted by chegitz guevara

Nope and nope and the only other cities it had roads to were mine.

Certain resource trading concepts are non-intuitive and may seem unrealistic (or even crazy!) in Civ III (and have always been so from the get go, AFAIK).

If the enemy civ is importing resources, those imported resources can actually use your road network to get to your enemy provided the deal hasn't yet been broken due to your blockade of enemy resources. In other words, when the only trade route left goes through your territory, your enemy cannot export resources but can still import them. If the enemy was trading resource for resource, your effective blockade breaks the deal and the importation stops; but if the enemy was trading gold, techs, etc. for an imported resource, your blockade doesn't break the deal, and doesn't stop the flow of imported goods.

To make this more clear, imagine this example: your enemy is France; you are Germany; the third party trading civ is England. If France is importing iron from England in exchange for a tech that it gave to England, so long as any connection exists to the French capital (even through your lands), the iron arrives safely -- it is as if you have given a pledge to England that you will not molest English traders, even as they carry precious iron across the battlelines to your hated enemy. Had France traded horses to England for English iron, your blockade would have disrupted the trade since you are not permitting French horses to pass through your territory (and the English, deprived of their horses, will no longer deliver iron to France).

Even in those situations in which foreign goods continue to make it into the enemy lands, there are at least three ways to disrupt the trade: (1) sever all connections, including your own, to the enemy capital; (2) secure a trade embargo against the enemy from the enemy's trading partner; or (3) declare war against the enemy's trading partner. In may not seem logical or terribly realistic, but as I said, this is, I believe, how resource trading and trading networks in Civ have always worked.

Catt

vmxa1 · February 4, 2004, 18:18

Thanks Catt that was what I was trying to refer to ealier, but could not remeber the details.

Alexander's Horse · February 4, 2004, 18:59

Doesn't answer my question though.

Catt · February 4, 2004, 19:37

Quote:

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Doesn't answer my question though.

Post a save or a screenshot and maybe I or someone else can help.

Catt

Rasputin · February 8, 2004, 02:35

Quote:

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse
Doesn't answer my question though.

without the screen shots hard to make a guess...

id think that yes they have blockeaded the route somehow. you will need to sail from home to a port and check the route....

notyoueither · February 8, 2004, 04:39

I'd say subs if it were not for him saying that he has dozens of ports on both sides.

You do have harbours built in all those ports, yes AH?

MrWhereItsAt · February 9, 2004, 05:18

If you start building a unit and then have your city cut off, you can continue and finish that unit, but you cannot build any more until the resource is reattached.

Keep a look out for barb Galleys - they can stack up for some time, and especailly early in the game when sea routes are very tenuously winding through coast tiles a barb can accidentally block you off and cause all sorts of nightmares with trading civs, as you tend to get blamed.....