AI nuclear armageddon

The AI rarely becomes advanced enough to make nukes, but I'v found that they do use them when they have the technology. They don't even treat them as weapons of last resort, they just start launching them as soon as a war begins. Though I'm always happy to return fire.
 
I just notice, any real reason why tac nukes are near useless in land unless you got cities close by? No artillery at all!
 
Noble. Rather bizarre.

I don't know about bizarre, I mostly play Nobel and have had all out nuke slugfests. I would assume it's possible that my crappy gaming skills just match Nobel to point where it happens. My earliest Nobel Standard map win is 1943 AD -- just to give you some idea of my suckiness. Truth is I'm a builder not a conquerer.

I will nuke the snot out of you though.
 
Strange. I play on Noble difficulty, and the most the AI amounts to are normally a few desroyers picking off my seafood resources... :/
When does the AI start playing up? I've been playing at Warlord, and I'm happy for the moment (going for a UN/Space Race because the AI is spamming cities like mad and going for a domination/conquest win even after eliminating two civs and vassalising one still leaves two others and it's boring just moving my tanks from city to city and destroying axemen...) but ! I'm still surprised I didn't move up earlier...on to Noble, I guess.

BTW I very rarely get nukes because I'm much too chicken to use them. I want that city whole, not deep-fried.
 
Use nukes against stacks of units instead then. Tactical nukes Ive found work wonders when fired offshore at a naval city, it GREATLY helps amphibious assaults.

ICBMs are just for show :P
 
While ICBM's GREATLY improve your power rating, they are NOT just for show. Especially if the AI does not have the counter yet, you can utterly screw them. nuked cities drop in pop and there will be fallout everywhere, which they won't be able to scrub yet. You can wipe out enemy SoD's this way from anywhere too...very powerful!

If you make it to nukes far enough ahead of the AI I can't picture them ever catching up, with massively reduced pop and horrible tiles that they can't work or fix. Yes, warming hurts you, but you don't have to deal with the loss of units, pop, and fallout. This is much easier to do with ICBMs!
 
^^ICBM boosts your power rating as much as a Modern armor IIRC ( there is a article in Strategy articles forum about that ). In fact IMHO thaey are not so respected for the AI.... given that 2 tacs can blow a decent naval invasion SOD ( I've done it once against Zara... my good ol' caravel intel network gave me enough early warning ;) ) they really are out of the game regarding that.
 
I think tactical nukes do more damage to units but less damage to cities. At least that's what the book inside the game case said.
 
Those experiences sound really fantastic. xD
Too bad I normally win and start a new game before the AI are advanced enough to make nukes... ):
 
@Wicklic: Nope. They do the same amount of damage (the method call is the same for ICBMs, Tactical Nukes, and Nuclear Plant Meltdown [This is why I ALWAYS build Bomb shelters in a city with a nuclear plant ^^])

HOWEVER, this is the trade-offs between both nukes, and guided missiles:

ICBMs:

Pros: Infinite Range
MASSIVE power increase
Causes devastating collateral damage over 9 tiles, and also levels a fair chunk of a city

Cons: VERY Expensive
75% chance of interception w/ SDI (This is the BIG ONE. It practically makes Nukes entirely useless, as if you get the fact that there is a 1 in 4 chance of an actual explosion, AND the fact that if it DOES work, then bomb shelters will reduce the damage by a FURTHER 50%... it means its better just to build more tanks :P)

Tactical Nukes:

Pros: 37.5% Chance of interception w/ SDI (50% chance of avoiding detection is a GOOD thing :D)
Quite expensive, but not overly so
Causes devastating collateral damage... blah blah blah

Cons: VERY short range. In fact you really need a sub to REALLY use these effectively, or multiple cities at EXTREMELY close range

Guided Missiles:

Pros: Cannot be countered. Ever. There is no way you can stop a guided missile strike.
EXTREMELY cheap, one of the cheapest milatery units!!

Cons: Weak. No collateral damage, and one-use too. Damage dealt to that one target is minimal.
Short range. I think that it has 1 more range than a Tactical Nuke.

So yeah... thats the pros and cons of the three missiles. I never use Guided Missiles, unless I have TONS of low-prod cities. I also never use ICBMs, as after the SDI, they are just big shiny, worthless, toys.
 
Guided missiles are good for naval warfare and amphibious attacks. Drop them on a stack of naval units and attack with >99,9% odds of winning to sink the whole fleet, or drop them on units defending a city, reduce the defense with ships and take the city with marines at >99,9% odds without any siege.

Of course, you can do that with tacticals nukes too, but that's a little bit dirty... And guided missiles are so cheap that it makes the tactic more interesting cost-wise. Sure they're one-shot, but they can save you a lot of battleships or attack units, so it's not a waste.
 
I've never really used guided missiles, but maybe I'll start.

I used to always use nuclear weapons to screw over a rival with a greater score on a distant continent.

Works a treat, but global warming is a pain in the arse
 
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