Guided Missile

[PScirocco]

I don't see many people talk about it, so I might as well start a thread to discuss it's value in CiV.

Missiles in general have a peculiar role in CiV, while nukes and a-bomb do AoE damage, it's not always usable or powerful in 1UPT games, especially if you don't want to nuke your own cities (not to mention you need uranium for that, personally I find better use out of uranium powering my nuclear plants or GDR.

That leaves guided missile, the best part of the unit is that it doesn't cost maintenance (probably the same as nukes, but it has other limitations mentioned above). Well, as far as I know it's free, or it costs almost nothing.

It's best use I've seen so far is to stockpile (queue build) a large amount of them for cities that are done building whatever it needs, or you're, for example, just building culture for a OCC culture game.

It's combat uses are not too bad, I'm not sure if they benefit from SP modifiers, in my last game, it did around 3-4 damage to a mech infantry. Sadly the AI is so horrible at naval and air combat, or guided missile would serve an extremely large role in knocking down coastal city defense.

Do you guys have other tips on proper usage of this peculiar unit?

 

[Soronery]

They seem kind of useless. I would rather be building stealth bombers

 

[Callonia]

Cruise Missles is only units in Civ 5 that is maintenance free.
Yes, they're free, u can spam them endlessly.

Nor requires any special resources, feel free to build them in meh production cities to have a decent amount of them.

The only annoyance is the rebasing problems in civ 5.

I didn't feel like froghopping all the way to end of the world so i don't build any kind of airpower at all.

 

[basta]

Built exactly 2 of them in my last game and I agree with Callonia--they're a royal pain to re-base. I was playing continents on immortal and by the time I could build them I had my own continent taken over and couldn't get them across the ocean to my beachheads. So you wait around for a destroyer to whack--ho-hum.

Cheap, amusing one-shot, but you're better off building mech inf.

 

[Monthar]

The re-base issue is why you load them into Missile Destroyers or Nuclear Submarines.

 

[Surgeon]

I've had them rip apart one of my invading navies before so they are pretty useful for the AI.

 

[Jaycob]

I never used guided missiles in IV and will never in 5 primarily for the same reason.... there is just too much micro already involved at that stage in the game and the AI sucks too much at modern warfare for them to be that useful. Last game I had a Deity Alex at 99% literacy and an entire continent to himself, but I saw only 2 bombers and nothing more powerful than a mech infantry as I plowed through his territory... it was quite odd.

Nuclear missiles, on the other hand, are quite useful for speeding up conquests.

 

[Nunya]

I don't use them much, but I always have to laugh when a city state uses them to sink a barbarian Galley or kill a Brute sitting in his encampement.

 

[neilkaz]

Like most air units (other than nukes) I think they are a bit weak in Civ5 and would like to see them have about 10 more attack strength. However, they are useful to kill mid game units in 1 shot and to kill wounded end game units so they don't heal or insta-heal and counterattack next turn.

If you fire two or three at a high end late game unit, that is 400 or 600 shields gone, and perhaps you were better off producing a high end unit instead. Still I make some in my less productive cities that have nothing else to do and move them towards the battle front. They also seem to kill enemy transporting units in 1 shot, which can be nice if you don't have ships around.

.. neilkaz ..

 

[PScirocco]

Aside from the re-basing issue (which can be somewhat alleviated with missile cruisers/subs, I rather think the missile's use now is heavily diminished by the AI not building fighters to intercept bombers.

In any case, it's a relatively cheap unit for smaller cities (like ICS) to mass, because you're not going to be building a stealth bomber in your pop 4 city

 

[Jaycob]

In any case, it's a relatively cheap unit for smaller cities (like ICS) to mass, because you're not going to be building a stealth bomber in your pop 4 city

No, but if you have enough pop 4 cities building say... Infantry (to be upgraded), you could be getting ~1-2 infantry per turn which IMO is infinitely more useful than 3-4 guided missiles per turn.

 

[bryanw1995]

yeah, but you can spam 200 missles without any maintenance cost. it might take a few turns, but get a bunch of these to the front and you'll be able to hold off almost anything and/or steamroller your opposition. some games the economy hit doesn't matter, but if the game is still in doubt then it could be important. wish I'd known about the free maintenance on them earlier.

 

[neilkaz]

yeah, but you can spam 200 missles without any maintenance cost. it might take a few turns, but get a bunch of these to the front and you'll be able to hold off almost anything and/or steamroller your opposition. some games the economy hit doesn't matter, but if the game is still in doubt then it could be important. wish I'd known about the free maintenance on them earlier.

Hmm...can you have more than 1 guided missile based in a city? I haven't tried this, but if not I don't see how dozens of them are getting to anything but a very wide front.

.. neilkaz ..

 

[Monthar]

Hmm...can you have more than 1 guided missile based in a city? I haven't tried this, but if not I don't see how dozens of them are getting to anything but a very wide front.

.. neilkaz ..

Yes, you can have multiple missiles per city, just like you can with aircraft. They'll be stacked with your aircraft in that same little queue number above the city.

 

[bryanw1995]

yes, another HUGE advantage for all air units. you can stack as many as you want in a city, so you can overwhelm any ai opposition typically.

 

[Scarpa]

Can you rebase planes and guided missles in puppet cities?

 

[neilkaz]

Can you rebase planes and guided missles in puppet cities?

Yes for sure, but I was unaware that you could have more than 1 air unit in any city.

 

[Monthar]

You're supposed to also be able to rebase aircraft and maybe missiles as well to friendly City States and gift them. However, I haven't tested this out yet.

 

[Callonia]

Haha, if they update to remove the limited range on rebasing, then i'll be definitely adding them into my options to use xD

 

[Civ'ed]

Haha, if they update to remove the limited range on rebasing, then i'll be definitely adding them into my options to use xD

They also make great home defences

Edit: I'll just explain how I mean this (from own experience and this was a game I played):
You start in future, small inland sea map.
Say you are playing... Germany. Songhai has declared war on you. Askia, in his infinite wisdom, is sending embarked units at you - Persia's in the way. Due to the low production cost (you have started in future) and the maintenance-freeness, you can build a few of these wonderful missiles and sink/mortally wound the units before they reach a coastal city.
(followed by you losing all your land as the Aztecs and Iroquois get you)