A question about nukes

[Lemon Merchant]

I saw something somewhere around these here forums that said that in CIV4, the AI is coded not to use nukes.

I distinctly recall being nuked with tac nukes by Gilgamesh when my stacks approached his territory and I DoW'd him. (At the time, I didn't know that he had access to uranium by having a fort on it.)

Am I wrong in remembering this? I did not use nukes first, the AI did. I'm almost positive.

 

[drewisfat]

The AI can definitely use nukes. Generally it uses ICBMs on your largest cities on this first turn of war. Since tactical nukes are range limited, those are the ones that are more likely headed to your stacks. I'm not sure if it's coded to target your stacks or if it can just happen from tac nukes being range limited to border targets, which is where your stack may be.

 

[AcaMetis]

I've seen AI Gandhi deploy nukes against another AI, so yes, AIs can and most definitely will use nukes even if they're the ones firing the first shots.

 

[6K Man]

Oh hell yes, they do. In my current game, Boudica is merrily nuking the non-human tech leader, Wangabeth, and Boudi just recalled the English/Korean spaceship that way.

IMO the best use of espionage in the late game is to repeatedly blow up Uranium mines, if Manhattan has been built.

 

[Pangaea]

Am I wrong in remembering this? I did not use nukes first, the AI did. I'm almost positive.

The AI can indeed use nukes, even as a first-strike weapon. It happened to several people in the BOTM 200 game, like for WT in this detailed report.

 

[Lennier]

I've seen AI Gandhi deploy nukes against another AI, so yes, AIs can and most definitely will use nukes even if they're the ones firing the first shots.

Ghandi using nukes is a joke left over from a Civ I underflow error.

 

[crullerdonut]

Ghandi using nukes is a joke left over from a Civ I underflow error.

As far as I know, there is no code in Civ4 which causes Gandhi to use nukes any more than expected. The running joke was, however, revived for Civ5.

 

[Pangaea]

He thought it was such a terrible game that he wanted to nuke it?

 

[Lemon Merchant]

Thank you very much for clearing that up, guys. I was pretty sure that what I read elsewhere was a mistake. It's good to get corroboration on the facts.