Do you use nuclear missiles in CivII?

[ferenginar]

I generally do not use nukes, but very occasionally if the Ai starts then I will reatliate. However, for fun in GOTM47, I decided to go on a nuke fest, dropped the things everywhere, and planted a few too. It was fun but didn't half make a mess and bring my score down.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I love nukes!

I even made my own civ-specific nukes (obviously ), but I made them pretty cheap to build--only 30 shields

Plus, global warming isn't ALL bad. In fact, you can use it as a weapon to weaken your enemy. Also, in a few of my plutoemp scenarios, I took full advantage of global warming, and used it so that global warming is a quickie way to terraform pluto, and also, replacing swamp and jungle with snow and ice respectively, global warming turns into nuclear winter!

 

[thx1138]

I use nukes on enemay naval units, if I see a stack of ships within range, I often make a pre-emptive strike. I don't tend to use them on cities, except perhaps to take the capital of a poweful opponent.

 

[hyrule666]

Nukes rock! i use them all the time! The way i use nukes is to build up a fair bit of money, build an engineer, flank it by lots of good units, march right into enemy territory, build a city, buy a load of nukes and watch the devestation!

Contact me on hyrule666@hotmail.com

 

[Konstabel Bach]

Fire and forget... Use then and make sure the enemy is not around afterwards to rataliate...

 

[The Mass Leader]

I usually reach the nuclear era before other civs. But most times there are one or two other civs just about to enter the nuke era.

So, I just try to delay the beginning of nuclear weapons production. I do not build Manhattan Project and sometimes I sabotage foreign Manhattan Projects.

Because, when the first nuclear missile appears, the entire world gets unbalanced. Soon there will be two or three nuclear powers in the world. Nad all kinds of war will become almost impossible. I really like to use Armors and Bombers in WW2 style. I simply can´t control a nuclear war.

 

[The Person]

I never build the Manhattan project. I hate it when the AI uses my cities as nuclear test sites.

 

[EmperorGandalf]

Yes i use nukes!!!!!

Theyre unstoppable when you also use paratroopers to take the empty cities.
yes i know the pollution, that i dont like, but it is nice to get rid of your stronger opponents (I dont waste them on weak civs, i use my tanks for that
Plus occasionally i need a relaxing break, and nuke the world.

i also sometimes like to see what global warming does. once there was so much pollution for so many turns that the whole world turned into swampland.
(that wasnt very pleasant, but it was interesting)
on the whole, if i want to do well in a game, i only use them to take tough cities by using them with paratroopers. afterwards, i clean the polution with a shipment of engineers.

 

[EmperorGandalf]

In a way i miss the civ1 AI; they never used nukes
and sometimes i get annoyed with that SDI....except when i have it of course!

 

[EmperorGandalf]

OOh and i just love how subs can carry nukes.... sneaky and powerful!
....actually i just found that out....

 

[EmperorGandalf]

I just figured out an evil trick to use with nukes:
if an enemy is ajacent to an ally, nuke the enemy, and it kills the ally, and the ally doesnt even care!!! MWAHAHA

 

[bouncelot]

My games rarely see nukes even built. But that's because Manhattan only gets built when my spaceship has alreay been launched and the AI has been reduced to a single city. Far easier to stop it being built than to have nukes used against you, However, back in the days when I wasn't so easily able to stop them being used, I liked to leave a big city within radius of the next-door city's SDI, and within range of the AI's nukes - result? the AI wasted lots of nukes on that city in a single turn. If I do use them, it'll either be against a city that's otherwise impossible to take, or to destroy a whole fleet of ships at once, causing no pollution in the process.

 

[Titi]

I never use nukes. OK, it happened once or twice, but then the game was lost, so I didn't care about the score!
However, I tend to play offensive at the beginning (get rid of the nearby civs) and then more commercial (freight, spies), so war is seldom with powerful units against me (and when that's the case, I've enough productions to build both the space ship and troops!)

 

[Panzerking]

Yeah I use em. Usually just as a punishment weapon for the AI's who really p*** me off.

 

[Yuri2356]

I do, but I use more spy-nukes than missiles. Much more effective, espescialy under communism.

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

i also sometimes like to see what global warming does. once there was so much pollution for so many turns that the whole world turned into swampland.

In my early days of civ2'ing, that happened in nearly EVERY SINGLE GAME!!!

EDIT: And it was fun!

EDIT 2: And yes, that still happens, but more frequently now, the game ends halfway through the warming cycles

 

[PlutonianEmpire]

I do, but I use more spy-nukes than missiles. Much more effective, espescialy under communism.

I"ve been gone for extended periods of time, and I still have more posts than you

 

[Panzerking]

Looking through all the replies on this topic I am suprised how many people do not favour the use of nukes. In most of my games (Prince Level) I have found that there tends to be at least one AI Civ who is very close to or level with me tech-wise. Of course they are to be regarded as my most dangerous rival so when Manhattan Project is complete, provoking war and then firing Nukes is an absolute MUST!!

 

[sethos]

@Panzerking
It should be a part of your strategy to eliminate your strongest rival BEFORE they can build nukes.
I prefer the spy war: Bribing the rival's cities.
I usually do this in several steps

Step 1: Expansion Part 1 - Target: Monarchy
Wonders: Hanging Gardens, Colossus, Marco Polo's
It's important to build 2-4 triremes with diplos on it in order to
discover the world an find advanced tribes.
You should have cities in the neighborhood of each civ.

Step 2: Expansion Part 2 - Target: Republic
Wonders: Michelangelo's, Leo's, Copernicus, Sun Tzu's(!)
Step 3: Expansion Part 3 - Target: Democracy
Wonders: Bach's, Statue of Liberty, Newton's
Nice to have: Adam Smith's (but no must have at this moment)
Step 4: Expansion Part 4 - Target: Industrialization
Wonders: Darwin's, United Nations, Hoover Dam, Cure for Cancer (!)

During step 1-4 I try to avoid war.
Why no pyramids? Because I will bribe the AI city that has built it
The wonders that I mentioned are a must have.
Every city must have a temple, and, if possible, a market place.
Some frontier cities will get city walls.
At this point of the game I usually have abou 30-50 cities (that depends
on the size of my home continent)
Now I'm ready for war.

Step 5: Fundamentalism
Since I have temples and market places in nearly all my cities, Fundy brings me
a lot of cash. Most of the cities celebrate (Mike's+Bach's+CFC !!! = ca$h ca$h ca$h)
I make between 400g and 2000g a turn.
Coastal cities build galeons and spies.
Science comes from trade and some scientists - and from tech stealing.

Step 7: Time to bribe Target: AI cities with wonders. First target:
The city with Adam Smith's in it (saves LOTS of money!).
2nd target: Pyramid city.
Wonders: Allt the wonders I couldn't build.
3rd target: Magellan city.
If the rival has democracy and switches to it, I switch to communism
and build tons of veteran spies (200 - 400).
My cities will celebrate under communism, too.
Those spies will poison the enemy's water supply again and again
until the cities are at size 1, so that the cities cannot support a lot of
troops.
Then I switch back to fundy and I build tons of veteran (->Sun Tzu's!) dragoons/cavalry.
With those it's easy to conquer or to destroy the enemy's cities.
At this point of the game I'm at war with each other civ. But
I put my focus on my strongest rivals.
Each bribed city will get a temple (to raise my income) and a market place
(->celebration!)
Cease fires won't last a long time (normally until the end of the turn, then the
AI will attack you again!)

Don't forget to switch back to demcracy from time to time (->WE LOVE ... DAYS)
in order to grow your population.

 

[Panzerking]

Excellent post Sethos and a good strategy guide for world domination. I have printed your post for use and, in my current game, I have almost all the Wonders etc. you have mentioned but have not yet discovered Espionage (most recent discovery was Conscription) so I have a little bit of time to wait before putting Step 7 into action but will use your advice. Thanks mate, those Sioux are in for a tough time now!!