They are useless.
I just finished a game where I spent arm and leg to build those missles, but never managed to destroy any city with it.
Only one or two missles did hit with damage (2 out of about 30+ missles sent).

What is the deal? Who is interecpting those missles?
How come it is soo accurate in intercepting? How to counter that?

I am a bit disspointed, since I wanted to see AT LEAST one city melt from nukes.

After your enemy builds the SDI you gotta expect that not many of your missles are gonna get through. Usually I build a little stockpile, but its pretty much just a waste actually using them once the enemy gets SDI. You gotta use like 10 or something before 1 will hit, and even then the damage isnt that catastrophic.

Yea nukes are kinda crappy in Civ 4. :(

Each civ can build a SDI witch will give a 75% chance of interception of a nuke. So you probally nukeing civs with the SDI. What you do is finde out witch city the SDI is in and go and lanch a huge invation then burn down that city. After that they wount have it and you will be free to nuke to your pleasure. Make sure all the civs you at war with have there SDI disstroyed or your nukes will be disstroyed if you use them on a city with foren enimy units in them. Good luck. If you cant do this make "millions" of nukes and hope you will be able to survive the opocoeliptic world you have created. :)

Thanks all for replies.

wow..
to do all this it means that the game will run out of time limit (Time Victory) before even destroying one unit with nukes.
This can take for ever, and by the time you are done with your plans, it is OVER :(

Or maybe it is very doable, but it is just I am a noob?

It's do able. Just send in SODs.

how to know which city has SDI? Spies? How to build them?
Sorry for too many questions :)

Spies usually.

Or go burn every major city...

I haven't built SDI's and I never use nukes, so I'm not sure, but doesn't the SDI turn up on the map?

Thanks all for replies.

wow..
to do all this it means that the game will run out of time limit (Time Victory) before even destroying one unit with nukes.
This can take for ever, and by the time you are done with your plans, it is OVER :(

Or maybe it is very doable, but it is just I am a noob?

The best way to use nukes is to not research the Manhattan project until the very last moment before you want to begin your nuclear war. Once you unlock it, all your opponents will be building bomb shelters. If you take your sweet time before using your nukes, then they'll become useless. I don't recall if its a prereq for SDI, but when I've used nukes in a timely manner I've never had an opponent with SDI.

The best method is to build the Kremlin to reduce the cost of hurrying production, and save up cash before you do the manhattan project. Then hurry nukes in every city and immediately begin your nuclear war before they can build shelters. One nuke will damage all the units and many improvements adjacent to the city. A second nuke that same turn will almost always kill all units in a city and most improvements. So use 2 nukes per enemy city, and send in fast units like tanks, which will be able to waltz into the empty enemy cities and claim them without opposition.

One downside to the massive nuclear war scenario is that for me it always seems to initiate global warming. Whenever I nuke a whole continent, it always seems to start really bad global warming the very next turn. So don't do it if you have plans that involve continuing the game for much longer. But its fun to do anyway.

unitq said .... What you do is find out which city the SDI is in, and go and lanch a huge invation then burn down that city.

isn't sdi a project, ie there is no city to capture in order to stop it taking down nukes ?

Hmmm, is it like civ3 when you take the capital all the projects (space ship etc) are disstroyed. Try going for the capital then?