Extended Nuclear War

[Loki130]

So, has anyone ever had one of these? (i.e., a war going on for several turns in which opponents posses and use nuclear weapons, yet still try to conquer eachother and do war-type things) is there some special strategy for it? is it even viable?

I've got a game coming up to the modern age, and it looks like this may happen, so i was just wondering

 

[Argetnyx]

i have, they suck... total destruction. what was the term? oh yeah, mutually assured destruction...that serves as a great definition of those games

 

[Loki130]

was there a winner, or did everyone just die

 

[Argetnyx]

The war only stopped when we ran out of nukes and the cities with enough production to produce them. no cities gained or lost, all of the units on both sides were decimated

 

[TheOverseer714]

I've been in one war that went nuclear, I figured out their targeting priorities by which cities got hit. First hit, cities with strategic resources in the first 8 tiles. Next, cities with luxury resources in the first 8 tiles. Lastly, capital and forbidden palace. They will only nuke cities, I never had any resource that wasn't right by a city get nuked. I also got so paranoid about nukes that I mostly keep my workers and artillery away from areas that might get nuked.

 

[vmxa]

I have done a number of them, maybe a 10-12 over the years. What I try to accomplish is to investigate a number of the largest cities or even steal the plans.

Then I either have an idea of what units are sort of concentrated or in the case of the plans, I know. I then move gangs of workers to safer locations, so they can zoom in and put my wrecked cities back to full production in two turns. One to get on the road less tiles and one to road/rail and improve. That includes clearing pollution.

Launch my nukes, three per target. A few will get only two, if I am going to be able to finish off the units with bombers or troops. I will use one nuke each on key resources, such as Ur, Al, Oil and Rubber.

If the AI manages to muster up workers to road the city, now a town, I hit that tile to kill as many workers as I can. At Sid you will often find late in the game, no workers as they have maxed unit support.

I am hoping that the game does not go on much longer as the Global Warming gets to be a real pain.

I can usually put them out of the action and they do little to me. The AI will target sites like tundra towns with Oil or something. Launch most of the nukes to the one town. They will target the capitol most of the time with the rest.

I have those towns back to where they where in two turns, by adding workers after fixing the streets.

I will have no units near any towns or only a token, so little is lost, while they lost a ton.

If I learned of any towns making ICBM', these will be the ones I try to raze first. Most of the time the build times will get too large to worry about, since most of the tiles are blasted.

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

I don't have them. I launch preemptive strikes (a nuke per enemy city, preferably ICBM's).

 

[vmxa]

Tank_Guy ICBM's do half damage, so you won't kill most troops, just warriors and workers types. You need to hit the spot with three nukes to kill veteran and elite units.

1- 4hp to 2 hp
2- 2hp to 1 hp
3- 1 to dead

You sometimes will kill even vets with 2 nukes, but usually not mechs and tanks and stuff like that.

 

[capnvonbaron]

A good way to go, also, is to make sure you get your SDI (integrated defense) built. If you can manage that, the AI will not be able to hurt you as badly. If your enemy has his built, find out which city it is in, attack and destroy that city with a ground assault, then let the nukes fall!

One other thing that you can do to pass the time in some scenarios... load up on tac nukes. Its not terribly hard to make some cities into three-turn tac nuke pumps in late game. Hide them away in some corner of your empire for the big day. Once you launch all your ICBMs and the AI counter-attacks, or if the AI was first to start the GTW, the tac nukes will be safe outside the cities. Rail them to the front and commence secondary/retaliatory bombardment.

A few rules I follow when I have trigger-happy nuclear neighbors:
1) Keep your armies and all the attack units you can muster fortified away from your cities as much as possible. I almost always have some unused desert or mountain tile somewhere in my empire.. occupy them with a couple of massive modern armor and artillery stacks.
2) Figure out which of their cities have nukes in them, as well as the SDI, BEFORE the conflict, so if they start anything you know what to go after first.
3) Avoid starting nuclear war without your SDI built, unless you have control of the world uranium or aluminium supply. Avoiding nukes altogether is the best option, though.
4) Learn to accept massive global warming and rediculous IBTs

 

[Argetnyx]

Avoiding nukes altogether is the best option, though.

From the mind of a genious

 

[Brainiac18]

Well, in all the nuclear conflicts i had, the AI used his ICBMs pretty stupid, almoust never hitting my myghty capital or iron works city, or if hitting - using 5 or sometimes more nukes on a single city (maniac). And btw, AI always (as i've seen myself) using nukes on cities, so if you dont want to your units to suffer, just keep them 1 tile away from the cities!

 

[Argetnyx]

my opponent had A LOT of nukes

 

[absolute zer0]

I have never personally been nuked by anyone. But, I did use a nuke on a game were I conquered the whole world as the Iroquois. China was the last civ that had survived my mighty tanks. I nuked Beijing and took it without them putting up a fight. The only drawback to a nuke is it's pretty much a wonder at 500 shields. But, that's a small price to pat for total ownage.

 

[Argetnyx]

they dont cost so much when you run your civ well

 

[Tank_Guy#3]

Tank_Guy ICBM's do half damage, so you won't kill most troops, just warriors and workers types. You need to hit the spot with three nukes to kill veteran and elite units.

1- 4hp to 2 hp
2- 2hp to 1 hp
3- 1 to dead

You sometimes will kill even vets with 2 nukes, but usually not mechs and tanks and stuff like that.

1 ICBM per enemy city is the bare minimum for a nuclear war. I usually have subs loaded with tactical nukes stationed off my targets coast, and definitely more than one ICBM per enemy city. In a best case scenario (a war I plan), I usually have about half a dozen ICBM per enemy city, and 2 boomers per coastal city.

 

[absolute zer0]

I know. Uusally I can build one in about 10-15 turns. But, that's enough time for the war to take a nasty turn.

 

[vmxa]

1 ICBM per enemy city is the bare minimum for a nuclear war. I usually have subs loaded with tactical nukes stationed off my targets coast, and definitely more than one ICBM per enemy city. In a best case scenario (a war I plan), I usually have about half a dozen ICBM per enemy city, and 2 boomers per coastal city.

You are wasting any beyond the third one. No additional damage will be done, if targeting the same spot. All units will be destroyed after 3 rounds, even elite mechs, if they can be destroyed by nukes.

IOW things like ICBM's will never be damaged by nukes, so no need to try. The only value to a single nuke is to cut the roads and kill workers as only few troops can be killed in one shot.

Now I am only talking about ICBM's as I do not use tactical nukes and do not make subs.

 

[capnvonbaron]

You are wasting any beyond the third one. No additional damage will be done, if targeting the same spot. All units will be destroyed after 3 rounds, even elite mechs, if they can be destroyed by nukes.

Yeah but there is a certain element of fun in turning every square of their continent into unimproved desert wasteland

Excessive? Yes! Waste of time? Probably! Greatly satisfying after suffering 5000 years of their insolence and threats? DEFINITELY.

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

Playing PTW I noticed that a city on top of an aluminum resource tile got close to 19 of 20 nukes. So now, if I have more than one aluminum available I can disband the city over the newly nuked aluminum resource, build a city over another aluminum resource and clean up the pollution without risking my workers to the next turns nukes.

I don't build cities near the modern Strategic Resources, except in the above 'draw their fire' situation, if I do have to, I pillage the resource and only put in a road when I need to start a build requiring that resource. The enemy won't nuke a city unless it is connected to the resource.

 

[Argetnyx]

Playing PTW I noticed that a city on top of an aluminum resource tile got close to 19 of 20 nukes. So now, if I have more than one aluminum available I can disband the city over the newly nuked aluminum resource, build a city over another aluminum resource and clean up the pollution without risking my workers to the next turns nukes.

I don't build cities near the modern Strategic Resources, except in the above 'draw their fire' situation, if I do have to, I pillage the resource and only put in a road when I need to start a build requiring that resource. The enemy won't nuke a city unless it is connected to the resource.

that takes too much time when you REALLY NEED the resource