Does anyone use Guided Missiles?

[Ajuga]

I actually don't see a very good use for them. Bombers can achieve similar effects and are re-usable and nukes do far more damage.

 

[Matthew.]

Bombers and nukes require strategic resources, guided missiles do not. They are also cheap to some what counter their one-time use.

I think they are mainly as a back up in case you have no resources. Kind of like pikes if you don't have iron.

 

[kkapalk]

I have just bought one for 500 plus gold, used it on an enemy unit to little effect. I won't be buying any more!

 

[Browd]

GMs are better on cities and naval units, I think, but agree they are weapons of (nearly) last resort.

 

[kirbdog]

It is way too much better to beg, borrow, or steal your way into oil and build bombers or aluminum and use rocket artillery protected with anti-air defense (later on, stealth bombers). Hammers are too precious.

I think cruise missiles would be cooler if they were made a building with maintenance, cutting city bombardment power by half or by two thirds but extending the range up to 8 to 10 units out.

 

[Greizer85]

I think cruise missiles would be cooler if they were made a building with maintenance, cutting city bombardment power by half or by two thirds but extending the range up to 8 to 10 units out.

Dear God, please, please no! Imagine being in the range of 3-4 AI cities with cruise missiles... Constantly bombing your slow-moving units as you wiggle through the mountain passes. The mere thought makes my poor brain coil up in terror and disgust.

 

[cakes]

i only remembered they were in the game recently when domination rammy tried to defeat my forces of culture. he ended up winning with science

 

[s0nny80y]

I remember launching them from subs with the advantage of staying hidden especially after hitting a land target....although I do not remember if I had to dock the sub to rearm them versus flying a CM to the sub itself. Doesn't matter since a the stealth advantage is pretty major.

 

[sufficiency]

They are too expensive for their power.

 

[Matthew.]

Also consider its place in the tech tree. If you have ballistics unlocked, you are at the end of the game. Its niche role is you have gold stockpiled, no uranium, and your one rival opponent is close to finishing the game. All buildings are unlocked so you have empty city queues. If you have no strategic resources available, guided missiles are just as good use of hammers as anything else. They are one time use, but the ability to stack missiles on a single tile more than makes up for it.

Yes, bombers are better. Yes, you can usually find ways to get oil or uranium. None of this means the guided missile is wrong. I rarely use anti-air guns since it is easier/faster to transport fighters with my bomber stack, but I don't mind that they are in the game. Same thing with guided missiles.

 

[Smokeybear]

I remember back in vanilla, before they patched it up, when the AI's would spam-build guided missiles by the hundreds and stash them in every city they had. I remember seeing over 20 GM's in one city, back then. No airplanes, no nukes, just endless GM's. When you tried to poke a tank or mech infantry into their territory, it was like a hive of angry GM bees buzzing into them and destroying them instantly before they could even get a second move. Good times... NOT!!!

 

[smallfish]

They still did that btw. Before Fall Patch, at least. Now its 33 stacks of GW Bombers and other stuff


And yes. Mostly in late era starts, where defending against a rush meant defending against someone else's Infantry, artillery, SAM, tank bomber spam. They are also a great way to boost your military standing if you have a not-so-good city needing to produce something

 

[DutchJob]

They are too expensive for their power.

Indeed, only worth it when used against SAM's IMHO.

 

[Anfillius]

I build them in low-production cities, where it would take over 10 turns to build anything useful. If I can crank a missle out every few turns and are within range of a missle cruiser, it can be handy to have.

 

[steveg700]

Also consider its place in the tech tree. If you have ballistics unlocked, you are at the end of the game. Its niche role is you have gold stockpiled, no uranium, and your one rival opponent is close to finishing the game. All buildings are unlocked so you have empty city queues. If you have no strategic resources available, guided missiles are just as good use of hammers as anything else. They are one time use, but the ability to stack missiles on a single tile more than makes up for it.

Yes, bombers are better. Yes, you can usually find ways to get oil or uranium. None of this means the guided missile is wrong. I rarely use anti-air guns since it is easier/faster to transport fighters with my bomber stack, but I don't mind that they are in the game. Same thing with guided missiles.

Matthew has the right of it.

 

[Lanthar]

I like them, personally.

Yes, they are of limited use by themselves. But as other posters have said, they are easy to get a stockpile going by having a low production city make nothing but Cruise missles.

Mounted on Submarines and Missle Cruisers, my preferred option for using them is to smash through an opponent's navy. The missles get everything damaged, so subs, destroyers and capital ships can create a space to send in the nukes and troop ships.

Since they stack on cities, they are useful in defense of key positions against opponents navies. I rarely ever use them on ground troops, preferring bombers and artillery for that.

I only ever use them in a massed attack or desperate defense, as that's when they are most useful. They can deliver a lot of firepower to a lot of targets, but it's an all or nothing proposition!

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

It would be better if units like Missile Cruisers (and some sort of equivalent land unit) started with a stock of say 3 cruise missiles, and could build/regenerate them automatically over a certain number of turns. The requisite time for this regeneration could increase as the distance from your closest city increases.

This eliminates the obnoxious micromanagement of building and re-basing each friggin' missile individually.

 

[Lanthar]

I wish we could multi-select air units for rebasing. It's somewhat tedious having to individually base every air unit.

I'm not a fan of the regenerating idea because I like that Cruise Missles are fairly representative of their role in real life - they are powerful, but it's easy to shoot your entire supply very quickly.

 

[Rpger29]

I like stashing a few in border cities in the late game. They can finish the last 1/3 of a tough unit without having to risk a much more expensive unit in a close fight. Sometimes I'm guarding a secondary border with just one unit, and you can't have the AI using that one last turn alive to pillage something important. Plus no maintenance cost.

 

[flairin]

I like them cause they are cheap to make and you can send in many to hit an enemy city without doing damage to your troops