Are Guided Missiles worth it?

[Stalker0]

I've been trying out GMs for the first time, and I'm not feeling the love. They have weaker ranges then fighters, don't do that much more strike damage, and are consumed right after use. Sure they are cheaper, but not when they die all the time!!

The only benefit is the evasion chance, is the evasion chance really what makes this unit?

 

[obliterate]

If I use guided missiles I'll build them in production inferior cities. 10-12 type cities. I'll then set a rally point in a city near to my enemy where I can dock subs and Missile cruisers. The ships can stock and deal damage to cities out of range of aircraft. If used properly they can be quite effective. The pretty much useless on land battles though. I really only use them at sea.

 

[Refar]

I dont use them because its just to tedious to build and transport them to the war zone, just to be consumed after the first use... Late game turns are long enought as it is, so i dont feel the need for that extra micromanagement...

I think the unit as such is not all that bad, just to uncomfy to use.

 

[obliterate]

Just auto-queue them in a city or two and set the rally point to their ultimate destination. Very little micromanagement invovled.

 

[PimpyMicPimp]

I think they should do (at least a small amount of) collateral damage or totally remove city defences. As is, they kinda suck :/

 

[PibbZ]

I also produce them in cities that dont serve another important purpose, thus i can pile up a huge amount in relatively short time.

Rally them to a fort / several forts, and dock them in ships, or use them as a defensive matter if youre about to get invaded. The important part here is not to build them in either: gp farm, gold farm or any main production city.

I've always loved missiles, so i tend to build much more than i actually need

 

[obliterate]

^yeah. One sub or MC worth of missiles is enough to totally destroy an enemies defenses. Plus, it will always strike.

 

[Slip de Garcon]

Plus, the 4/8 air units per city limit doesn't apply to them.

 

[merceg100]

The main point why I build GM is because they allways hit enemy naval units and make it easier to destroy them afterwards

 

[PibbZ]

The main point why I build GM is because they allways hit enemy naval units and make it easier to destroy them afterwards

Same as me. However i feel that ships should be able to bombard eachother again like in Civ3. Using these missiles to damage the ships in advance before finishing them off could be compared to actually building the rocks your catapults fire, and do siege the same way. A little ackward.

 

[Ossian]

if you get 30 GM's you can take out a stack of doom off a city and just walk up and take/burn it.

Thats how I use them anyways.

 

[azzaman333]

GMs are great for Low Production cities which can't build bigger more expensive things.

 

[graves_09]

I like to load up my subs and use them to destroy resources such as oil and Al. That way i can save my carriers for airstrikes prior to invasion. It is especially helpful when the enemy has many resources spread out among many continents. Otherwise, no i don't really think they are worth it.

 

[Lightwave]

I think it would have doubled or more their usefulness if they had only allowed them to be re-based into the ships like planes onto carriers. I suppose the counter-argument is that it would be "too powerful," but if we can re-base planes around the world, it is logically consistent to rebase the missiles. It would avoid the tedious and micromanaging reload trip. In "Real Life" our destroyers don't trek all the way home to reload (yes, I know there are "fun" and "game play" issues that can trump real life models).

I might look for a way to mod that some day, but I don't know if they AI would be able to do it for their ships, so it might be unfair.

 

[Stolen Rutters]

I dont use them because its just to tedious to build and transport them to the war zone, just to be consumed after the first use... Late game turns are long enought as it is, so i dont feel the need for that extra micromanagement...

I think the unit as such is not all that bad, just to uncomfy to use.

Just auto-queue them in a city or two and set the rally point to their ultimate destination. Very little micromanagement invovled.

I love rally points. I never had to use them before BtS though, so when I started playing the expansion I had the same experience as Refar.

 

[Premier Valle]

I like them, as already said, you can use your missiles to support your land troops, or to save your aircraft for other targets, or a preemptive strike on an enemy fleet, or... well, you get the idea.

I'm thinking to make a new unit: "The Resupply Ship", to transport several missiles to reload the subs or cruisers, however I do not want the ship to be able to fire them... still an early thought.

 

[TheDS]

I believe the Guided Missile should simply be a capability for naval units. Using one would expend like 20% of your ship's health (since health represents its state of supply and combat readiness as much as how much damage it has suffered). As it is, if my sub encounters an enemy cruiser, it can't sink it. But if it launches a missile or two at it, the cruiser gets no defense, and is now weak enough that my sub can sink it. Additionally, cruisers used as missile platforms would not be as capable of defending stacks - this is realistic, since cruisers rely on missiles to do their jobs, and if they're out, they can't do their jobs, now can they? Of course, this doesn't do anything about the no-defense-against-missiles thing, but that can also be fixed with another alteration.

All that aside,

Missiles are not a universal use-this weapon. It has a few specific purposes, and trying to use it for other things will be a waste, just like trying to protect a stack of catapults on a hill with a horse archer.

They are best used when launched from ships, which means coastal cities and stacks are their targets. Unlike airplanes, SAMs and orbiting jet fighters won't do anything about them, so you can tag that tough defending unit and make the enemy city/stack easy to kill. They can also be quite effective in blunting enemy attacks - their short range isn't important when the enemy is marching toward your city, and again, they don't get to defend against them. And they're fairly cheap, so those low-production cities you have can be cranking them out. They're also easily relocatable to any friendly city or fort, so getting your ships restocked isn't that hard.

And I already went over the strategy of using them to soften up tough units.

 

[Roland Johansen]

They are not the most cost-efficient unit for players who don't lose their units all of the time. Most of us know how to fight without losing massive numbers of units and thus the one-time-use guided missile is just not so cost-effective compared to the damage it achieves.

However, they are very flexible. There is no limit to how many you can place in a city (contrary to air units) and there is no limit to how many you can rebase to a single city (contrary to airlifting land units). This means that if you have 20 (or more) of them spread out over a massive empire, then you can have them anywhere you want within 1 turn to react to an unexpected thread.

I have found that characteristic very nice when used on a map where I had such a large spread out empire. It was almost impossible to have ships defending all of my coasts without building a huge number of ships. So I went for some ships near dangerous water borders and for attacking purposes and added bombers+fighters+guided missiles. Whenever I got attacked by a fleet, I could react by bombing the fleet to minimum hitpoints and then sinking it with cruise missiles.

So, I don't like them for their cost-effective use, but I like them for their ability to quickly react to any threat anywhere in the world (within 1 turn). They are the quick reaction force of the modern age.

 

[noto]

One thing I noticed about GMs is that the AI loves them. One has to be very careful about this sometimes. Once upon a time I build myself a massive navy, airforce, and army and decided to invade another continent. I declared war and did the following: I moved my carriers into position and bombed the crap out of everything, and then I landed my troops on a hill. Then the AI, which had far fewer planes, ships and tanks did this: It launched a billion missiles at me, redlining my carriers and their escorting cruisers, and then dumped a few dozen missiles on my stack of tanks and mech inf. then, it sunk my fleet of carriers witha few ships and beat the crap out of my now weak stack of land units. Oh, woe is me. GM i think were developed by Firaxis as a way for the AI to say "piss off, I'm going for a space race and there's nothing you can do about it".

 

[AdmiralGeorge]

How do you set rally points. I generally don't like GMs for the reasons ^ stated above. But if i can set a rally point i mite give it a try.