Dropping the Nukes - Ethics or strategy?

[OldieMagee]

Okay so I'm playing the GOTY right now and basically am 25 turns away from the Space Race victory. The last few civs are pressuring me, I'm at war with two and at a very furious staredown with the third, a major world power. The one civ I'm warring with is a land situation, and they are stuck in the Industrial age so it's sincerely a mercy killing deal. I'm taking them over, the citizens are happy to get books and regular meals, blah blah blah... Anyhow the second civ attacked me for no good reason, demanded nothing, and now I've invested considerable monies and lives of my commanders to keep them at bay. I've taken one of their outposts and brought their army to it's knees. I WANT some compensation for the trouble they have given me. They will give me nothing more than a treaty for peace. Frustrated because they have resources and gold to offer up, but won't budge on a single coin, I drop a sub based nuke on thier richest city. Traditionally I only detonate them at sea to show off my balls to another civ, or to take out stacks of destroyers or battleships, but this civ had me frustrated to no end.
Well... immediatly I am now at war with the third civ because they had a problem with my choice.
Yadda yadda... I nuke the third civ's richest city into dust out of sheer anger at them for not recognizing the threat I presented to them and heading into war. The second civ in turn gave up pretty quickly and gave me what I wanted, some gold and a little land.
So currently I'm finishing the shuttle, defending my coast, and resuming taking the first civ over. In the meantime the third civ builds their first shuttle piece. In order to slow them down, I rain down ICBMs on all of their resources and cities with major population. Basically polluting their country and crippling their production.

My question: though the rules shun the use of nukes, and the AI civs come in with guns blazing when you use them, is there ever a use (like the one above) for using nukes unprovoked in the game JUST to win the game? Also, and this is a bit of a goofy question, but do you ever get remorseful when you do use the nukes and think about all the innocent "lives" you wasted out of sheer anger?

-Chris

 

[Longasc]

I use them when the others cannot fire back. Simply because I cannot stand to see my own major cities getting destroyed.

But I have no problems to wipe out an entire civilization by a rain of nukes.

It still gives me a little bit the creeps... even if it is only a game, everything is dead and destroyed. There is never honor in war, even if some believe so. But nuclear weapons are just inhuman, too powerful, too destructive.

I still use them... sometimes they saved me some boring turns of conventional conquest.

 

[Mano3]

Only in a pinch. It gets frustrating when the other AI's declare war on you for using nukes.

 

[Sunthas]

I had the strangest thing happen to me the other day. I never thought about detonating a nuke in the ocean to prove my nuclear capabilities. But anyway. I think I had already won the game and I decided to use my nukes that I had quickly built up near the end of the game.

Russia had been annoying me for quite some time so I nuked every single City they had in a single turn... Then on the next turn they nuked one of my cities that I had ... twice. There were 4 civs total left at this point including me, and the other two went to war against Russia after they attacked me. This has never happened to me before. Neither Japan or India liked me much so I am really confused as to why they attacked Russia for their nuclear use and left me alone for mine.

In the end I nuked them all.

As far as ethics go, I keep thinking as I play this game it makes me value life on a massive scale less. I mean, I go to war if I need spice or gems or rubber or oil. Heh, war for oil, go figure.

 

[DS_Legionary]

I will use nukes extensively if I have them and the AI doesn't. If we both have them then I will think twice about it. That is unless I have the SDI up. Then it's just a matter of how fast I can produce them.

As far as eithics are concerned I really have no feeling for the AI civs. I have been backstabbed or had war declared upon me for no reason so many times that in almost every game I try to wipe out as many AI as possible.

 

[Commander Bello]

I have to admit that it is completely unlogical, but I *NEVER* use nukes.
I happily go to war and smash them... I am not the kind of guy who sheds tears over artificial, virtual blood being lost.
But nukes? No, no way.

 

[Goober]

I use them to teach a Civ a lesson, to tell it to respect me as the true master of the world . . .

Seriously, I use them as the situation permits, I generally use them if I am desperate, or as an opening salvo.

 

[Vancouver 2010]

I nuke for the fun of it!

 

[Globo]

I don't like using them but in some games there just are "evil AI empires". In a game like that where a lying, cheating, backstabbing AI still managed to survive me untill the end while making my blood boil I'll nuke them a few turns from winning.

 

[akillias]

i try to get a mutual protection pact with my neighboor then i nuke em to death that way they cant get thru me

 

[silver 2039]

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads6/Nuclear_War.JPG

Nukes are very effective to wipe out the core of an enemy as you can see.

 

[Bluemofia]

i only use nukes if i don't have any nuclear competition, or if i have a SDI defense up. i never think of any lives being lost, because the "lives" are just bunches of data

 

[taper]

Nukes can be very effective in reducing another civ's army numbers. Smaller maps with few civs at the end work best, as there's fewer countries to go to war with you, and fewer nukes are needed. I rarely build a large navy, so they're really nice at taking out that flotilla of battleships bombarding my coast.

BTW, nuking the ocean as a show of force does nothing except cost you a nuke. The AI knows how many you have anyway.

 

[OldieMagee]

I just used then in the GOTY to lay waste to every square of an entire continent to get one resource.
I nuked all squares except said resource, moved in a settler with Modern Armor, build a city and rushed an airport, and they were glad to give me peace and everything they owned.
I only did it because the resource was not available otherwise and I was in a space race where turns mattered.
Imagine that, I laid waste to 10-12 cities, killing millions, subsequently starving millions more, and destroying an entire continent just to get a shuttle into space.
It was the worst thing I have ever done in Civ3. Bar none.
And I've done some terrible terrible things.
Anyhow I won the game.

 

[Rdog]

It's fun.

 

[OneFastWarrior]

Nuking is fun...

actually, I usually don't use nukes in the game, I have no feelings for the ai's other than they are in my way to win a game.
as for nukes I like to keep a couple of games where I have nukes(lots of them) so after a bad day at work I can go home and nuke everyone who is not polite with me!!

Vote for me for president of America, I promise to not use nukes!

 

[Bluemofia]

nukes should be able to irradicate cities. they should be able to destroy "living" resources: horses, whales, fish, Etc.

 

[apparition]

If the AI civs are powerful an clse to me in tech then I will nuke every source of uranium as quicly as possible. Then I'll nuke their capitols so they surrender quick.

 

[Dr Corbett]

I've done far, far worse.

The Persians had been bugging me all game. I had a tech lead a slightly smaller nation, but it was FAR more industrialized, railroads everywhere, tanks in two turns from most cities, et cetera et cetera. So, I built up a massive army and BURNT IT ALL TO THE GROUND. There was NOTHING left, except for their last city, which I kept as a memorial. I torched the whole darn place. Every single man, woman, and child.

Beat THAT for evil.

(Actually, as I write this, I'm feeling a bit guilty.)

 

[Zardnaar]

Evil man Dr Corbett. Evil. I've wiped out civs for being in the way. Never used a nuke yet as the games usually over by then. I think I built a grand total of 8 ICBMs once and 10 or so tactical nukes. They were going to be used in case I started losing the space race.