AI Doesn't Use Nukes Very Well

[Cicerosaurus]

I was playing as Nebachdnezzar and had a battle with Japan attacking me- eventually I took offence and grabbed his better cities and settled for large amounts of gold etc.

Gandhi was the other neighbour and he declared war on Japan and as Japan had few units left, and lost their best cities. They were soon beaten. At this point Gandhi had been very friendly to me.

Of course, with Japan out of the way, Gandhi had all these military units and wanted something to do with them so he attacked me. I didn't have a large military, but they were all modern, and I knocked him about a bit and took a city. At that time I didn't have numbers of military sufficient to mop up all his cities.

Gandhi finishes the Manhatten project and starts using nukes. But not very cleverly- he nuked Osaka twice in a row and one other little nuisance city which I didn't really want. It was behind his lines (it had been part of the settlement from japan).

In all Gandhi nuked me about 12 times- finally with missiles- but again he kept hitting Osaka and then not trying to pursue it with land forces (apart from initially knocking around his own forces which were within radiation distance).

It was a really clumsy performance.

 

[Scars n Stripes]

Gotta love that tactically superior AI huh!?

Ain't it great that the only way the AI can challenge is with the benefits they receive on higher levels with happiness, gold, etc. etc.

I am sure I have no clue about how hard it must be to program a game with excellent AI, but shouldn't some of the tactical decisions the AI makes sometimes be no-brainers?? C'mon!!

 

[Babri]

And if he was clever & used nukes properly then u would have probably protested that me & Gandhi were great friends & then suddenly he declared war & nuked me like crap.

 

[vonbach]

The AI may not use nukes well but it sure as heck uses them often.

 

[CoolLizy]

The AI may not use nukes well but it sure as heck uses them often.

Oh heavens, you get into a late-game war with AI players like Monty or Genghis when they get nuke happy and watch your border cities's production plummet as their population quickly drops to a handful of irradiated mutants. -_-

 

[markovnikov]

gandi is a nuke fiend in my experience. Wondering if its an ironic in-joke from the programmers.

 

[Nyanko]

Funny fact, Gandhi is the only leader who has a number greater than 10 for the value of "Nuke" in the AI behaviour charts. So you know a late game war with him will be a holocaust

 

[headcase]

gandi is a nuke fiend in my experience. Wondering if its an ironic in-joke from the programmers.

It was.

It went like this:

In Civ 1, AIs would always tout their latest military breakthrough regardless of which country they represented. So sometimes, Ghandi would mention that he had NUCLEAR WEAPONS.

Gamers loved this and posted about it, creating an early meme.

in Civ 5, the devs decided to make a flavor system where every country would be given a set of flavors. So Greece would be militaristic, Siam would like dealing with City States, etc.

So when it came to Gandhi, they went "all right, make him fairly peaceful, focus on growth, and hey there's the nuke rating! Pump it all the way up! It'll be just like the meme!"

They went a bit overboard with this; his propensity for nukes so outweighs his propensity for peace that he'll often nuke the hell out of your civ in the interest of victory. C'mon man, I gave a worker back for you

 

[timtofly]

In my current game, Spain put 15 atomic bombs in one city which was their closest city to my capital which was on another continent. One nuclear missile took them all out in one hit. Of course I nuked all of their uranium, so they have not been able to build any more. Their victory path seems to be conquest. I doubt they will ever get my capital though.

 

[Becomedeath]

Wherever possible I deny the AI access to uranium, even if it means starting a war to pillage a tile over and over.

I find that without it, their thirst for nuclear conquest is quelled somewhat.

 

[headcase]

Pillaging Uranium... now that's a good idea!

 

[jbevermore]

Pillaging Uranium... now that's a good idea!

Great idea, sending soldiers to go blow up a radioactive mine.

What could possibly go wrong?

"Umm, sir....you have an extra arm growing out of your shoulder...."

 

[cavilier210]

idk, Ghandi keeps nuking the only cities I have in africa on an earth map, repeatedly, and as a first attack when he declares war. I can't get enough unites over to africa to wipe the floor with him atm, and he nukes them before I can get a sizable group together.

 

[Smokeybear]

The AI may not use nukes well but it sure as heck uses them often.

It's *usually* fairly easy to mitigate their nuclear attacks though, unless you're playing a small-tall empire, anyway. They always seem to aim their nukes right on top of cities, so unless you're in a real tight geographic spot, you can usually spread out your units so that they aren't all clumped up next to target cities. You can also usually tell when nukes are going to be part of the war, if you're regularly checking your opponents 'airforce' indicators on its nearby cities. Presuming you've already cleared that danged fog of war, of course. And when on the attack, keep your forces tight on their cities, as they can't put a nuke on a city they own, of course. And, of course, always keep a couple nukes of your own handy to snipe off any enemy nukes that suddenly appear in their closer cities.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

Trouble was he was using nukes faster than I could build them. I only had two sources of uranium so I couldn't build more than two at once.

 

[Babri]

Trouble was he was using nukes faster than I could build them. I only had two sources of uranium so I couldn't build more than two at once.

Nukes use up uranium forever unlike other units/buildings.

 

[Becomedeath]

Only until you detonate them, then the resource is released.

 

[Cicerosaurus]

As mentioned, the uranium is available after use of the weapon. It is no different to any other resource.

 

[Becomedeath]

Okay, erm, is that a series of 4 posts that are actually agreeing with each other but disputing anyway?

 

[builer680]

Okay, erm, is that a series of 4 posts that are actually agreeing with each other but disputing anyway?

longer no uranium use Nukes their detonation after.

<snip>

Moderator Action: Inappropriate language removed.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889