Guided missile, worst unit in the game?

[DrakenKin]

For 150 hammers, you get a missile that hits a single target, does only 60 damage (which is equal or worse than most units available at his era), and is destroyed on the pot.

Is there even any situation where you want to use those, no matter how crazy or remote? Frankly I don't know what the designers were thinking when making this misguided unit.

 

[LoneRebel]

Either the cost should be decreased or the damage increased, I guess.

I read that they have no maintenance cost, so you could put a pile of 10 of these in a city without paying the ridiculous late-game maintenance costs for them.

 

[Mutineer]

For 150 hammers, you get a missile that hits a single target, does only 60 damage (which is equal or worse than most units available at his era), and is destroyed on the pot.

Is there even any situation where you want to use those, no matter how crazy or remote? Frankly I don't know what the designers were thinking when making this misguided unit.

at 150 hammers it mean 1 unit/turn in that time in most cities, is it not?

It does give you cheap burst damage with use of some mobile platform for safe delivery.

To be try non of my game went that late for me to use this.

 

[andreafin]

think of it more as a softener-upper for your assault units? i like to have my subs lurk around my units (sea or land) during a defence or assault and be the first unit to open fire. the missile is cheap and quick to build usually so replacement ammo isnt a problem. and i may also have a nuke missile in case the follow up attacks fail so badly my other units are wiped out but i havent used one of those so far.

 

[GoStu]

You can arm missile cruisers or nuclear subs with them if you don't have nuclear missiles to go there.

Can't say I've ever built one but I have had a victory fleet shot up pretty bad by them.

 

[Arcaian]

I read that they have no maintenance cost, so you could put a pile of 10 of these in a city without paying the ridiculous late-game maintenance costs for them.

If they have no maintenance they could be useful for stockpiling in cities when you don't have the cash for the maintenance of a proper unit, and can still enable a smaller army to successfully defend?

 

[reddishrecue]

I have used these before and they do good damage for a small time on most later era units. Guided missiles are also built quick so that you can get them up in recently conquered low population annexations.

 

[Memoryjar]

There are nice backup in late war. When you're units are far from your land, there are cheaper than airplane and can go to front line fast. Not as wonderful as bomber or rocket artillery, but faster.

 

[Vikingr]

I try to build tons of them and try to keep cruisers and such filled up. They only take like 1-a few turns to make and you can transport them from city to city instantly (or from city to cruiser/sub) too. I'll dump the lot of them on an enemy city or unit either before or after using other ranged attacks like rocket arty and only then send in direct contact units. The damage of the guided missiles isn't fantastic but considering how plentiful and pretty risk-less they are, it's gotta be better using them than not using them, especially considering that it preserves the health of your units just that much more, so then you can have them heal for less time or just put up more of a fight in general.

 

[zukenft]

yes, it's the awfullest unit in the game. now, if the missile start with '+200% vs cities', it will be as strong as a rocket artillery...but still only one-shot. also the need for a transport makes this even more useless logistics-wise, you have to build another unit just to get the missiles in range.

this unit need serious buffs.

 

[Jaybe]

Guided Missiles are just fine for their purpose: To soften up before the main attack or to finish off a unit you already ALMOST destroyed.

They don't cost much and therefore should NOT be a primary weapon. They DO count against air unit stacking as I recall, however. They also count against your unit supply capacity (F3, left-side column), so if that's ever an issue for you, beware.

 

[DrakenKin]

Consider this :

* They have the same strength as rocket artillery, which is available around the same time.
* They are single use, while rocket arty is unlimited use
* They cost 150 hammers, while rockets 425, meaning you can get an arty for every 2 missiles, especially when you factor in the cost of carriers. As soon as that arty attacks twice, even if it dies after, you got a better deal hammer wise. Every hit past the 3rd one is a bonus, for the whole game.

If you are making them because what you are attacking is not accessible to rockets (coastal city, etc), consider making bombers. They do more damage et 65, are even cheaper than rocket arty at 375, and it's a better use of a carrier that would be empty after your first guided missiles attack.

Consider also the experience aspect. By the time you get guided missiles, you have military academies and maybe the gate which means you get 3 promotions for all new units. A bomber with 3x 33% damage to units promotion has effectively double damage, meaning 130 damage. Compare that to a guided missile that does not get any experience or promotion and will only do 60 damage. You'r wasting at least 70%+ of your hammers in this way. And that's not even considering repeated attack from a unit that does not vanish, if you do, the amount of hammers you are wasting approach infinity the longer the game lasts.

Conclusion, it's a useless unit that does everything worse than another unit. There is no reason to make it, and i never saw anyone playing on immortal or deity who made guided missiles, ever.

They need a damage buff or a bonus vs a specific kind of unit or something to give them an edge like the ability to strike anywhere on the map, or at least xcom range. That last one is the one i prefer, it would make them useful to build when you are pushing far away lands and don't want to deal with the hassle of moving units all the way there. You'd waste hammers for convenience, which is a good trade off. That would make me use them in my games, actually.

 

[LoneRebel]

Seems to me that maybe they were included to give players something to build if one or more of their cities no longer had any buildings or wonders you wanted to build and you didn't want to build any more units either, due to unit maintenance costs for example. Do any of you ever find yourselves in that situation?

 

[DutchJob]

They are useful against SAM outfits.

And in late game costs don't matter that much imho and if maintenance does you get some of these guys.

 

[DrakenKin]

They are useful against SAM outfits.

It takes 4 of them to take a SAM down, or is it 6? I can't remember.

Which is at least twice / three times less efficient than upgraded bombers, of course you should sweep first with fighters.

Give them bonus damage so they one or two shot SAMs and i'll consider them useful. They would be the anti anti air, that's a niche they could fit into.

Good point about no maintenance, but i never have a moment where i have nothing else to build, and even then science or gold would be better. You should be winning before that point anyway.

 

[andreafin]

yes, it's the awfullest unit in the game. now, if the missile start with '+200% vs cities', it will be as strong as a rocket artillery...but still only one-shot. also the need for a transport makes this even more useless logistics-wise, you have to build another unit just to get the missiles in range.

this unit need serious buffs.

you seriously mean to tell me you dont ever build nuclear subs or missile cruisers? ever? or carriers? even if not you can build these missiles when a city is under siege and hit the enemy with them from nearby cities as well.
or if your telling me that you only have nukes in the subs and missile cruisers...where are you finding so much uranium for that many nuclear missiles?

 

[Vitruvius]

I guess it can be useful when you don't have oil for bombers. Also, does it actually trigger an interception even though it has evasion (100)? If it does then it can be used as a replacement for air sweep with the exception that it actually does damage.

 

[BrokTheFanatic]

I am not a fan. What I'd like is if they did double damage to naval vessels and cities. Then they'd be worth it and I don't think OP, just nice to have in coastal cities and on your ships that can use them.

 

[Vikingr]

It seems to me like if you already have some missile cruisers, you might as well put a few guided missiles on them. Even though the CGs do have a range of 3 (or is it an upgrade that gives 3--I can't remember), it seems like launching all 3 missiles against an enemy ship or whatnot first, and then closing for a usual ranged attack would put the opponent's health down so that if they do attack back, you may well be able to take them out right after that, or shortly thereafter. Which means that your cruiser sustains less less damage which means that it can heal quicker and get back out to sea quicker, or continue to do more damage to any other enemies present before it is withdrawn/dies/whatever, then it would have otherwise.

But this is probably idiotic.

Also it's funny how for these cruisers, the naval gun is essentially the main weapon and the missiles are not--in reality it's the other way around!

 

[JimBobV]

I feel these missiles are just fine for my uses. I was playing as Brazil and hadn't taken the time I would've been building units to finish up some of those important late game wonders, thus leaving me with a smaller army compared to Persia, which at this point was intent on killing me. He declared war, and since my army was weak and I could only get bazookas every 4 turns, I just spammed guided missiles. They didn't do much on their own, but they softened up his troops so that the units I did have could hold their own. In the end this tuned out well for me, and the worst that happened was my lands getting the crap pillaged out of them.

Overall, they seem to be more of a defensive unit, but you could turn them into a more offensive unit by raising the production cost a bit and making them one hit kills. That would balance them out some so that they can sustain themselves as a viable defense, but aren't to OP for offensive.