Nuclear Warfare

[daveonspeed]

I'd like to start this thread to get a collection of strategies on nuclear warfare. Although I have been playing civilization for a long time (started with civ 2 in 1996, played civ I at friends before that), I have only recently started playing at difficulty levels higher than warlord, so my opponents have never nuked back. So I am now playing at regent, and because I have used nukes for defense in most of my games, I Just need some pointers on what nuclear warfare is like in the higher difficulty levels...

 

[CivMonger]

the trick to using nuclear warfare is to land the first rippling blow. Make sure you know where all HIS nukes are located, and blast those cities and move in. If there are more than just you and him, all other civs NOT at war with you target are gonna be and they'll line up to kill you be careful and your war will make you in no time.

 

[Sman]

By the time I get nukes my rival civs are 2-3 techs behind me so I just nuke thier largest cities, usually thier capital and they are pretty much crippled for a few turns then I just blitz in the same turn I use the nukes. But they only think I hate is that the other civs decare war on you. You have like 30 bombers bombing your civ.

 

[Shink]

I agree, if you are going to use nukes, you better be the biggest-badass on the planet because nobody is going to like you afterwards. The strategy I always used is to have about four or five nuclear subs strategically placed around the world where I can hit the enemy capitals. Get a couple transports loaded up with tanks and on the turn I'm about to declare war, light up the enemy capital, thus crippling the civ. If anyone else declares on me, I have nukes to break up their capital as well, thus giving me a big of time while they recover.

 

[XOVER]

If you don't start the nuke war, have any of you played where an a/i civ started a nuke war?

I've always stocked up on nukes, but I've never had to use them.

 

[griffon65]

YEp I had the enemy start a nuke war but I was playing after the 2050 date. I was the biggest country and there was egypt and aztehs who were much weaker then me but still superpowers. They nuked another civ. So eveyone declared on them and I did too. I had 500 ICBMS and launched 200 and nobody declared war on me even their attitude didnt change towards me cuz Aztecs and Egypt started it.

 

[Ouchgeddon]

If you nuke someone everybody hates, they won't declare war on you. Easily done: Start war with your target normally. Then do the usual immediate bribery of everybody else to join your side. Since you're all at war with one guy, nukes won't bother your allies.

A spy in the target civ before the war will be useful, in case you want to check his forces out or sabotage his new productions. Using Embassy you can check out which cities to nuke. You may also want to trade millions of gold-per-turn to your target in exchange for everything he has beforehand, since all long-term payments are off once war begins.

As for actual nuking, nukes can be used for many purposes. Hit a city directly for maximum damage, of course. Nuking strategic spots on the map can cut off enemy railroads, which delays enemy troops from coming to intercept your attackers. And if you want to keep churning out those nukes, Space Defense Initiative is a MUST.

 

[Mr. Civ 3]

I can still remember the first time I used nukes in Civ 3. I was eight years old and my grandpa gave me my first nuke, the Werther's Original Creme Nuke. It killed many French frog-people.

 

[Ackrite99]

My advice with Nukes is to not piss around.

By launching just one nuke, you've already initiated retaliation from him, and possibly from others. So you might just as well launch all the f**ckers and be done with it.

If you plan to start the nuking, then save up some money, and search all of his cities. Find out where his forces are concentrated, where his money is coming from, and most importantly, where his nukes are. Compare notes with your military advisor until you've accounted for all the ICBMs. Make sure all those cities go on your targeting lists. Check if he has any tac nukes unaccounted for. If so, watch out for his subs - spend money on troop plans and find out where they are. Destroy them too.

If you can then avoid other civs declaring war on you (use methods given above), you will have a completely prostrate Civ on his knees, with no/very few nukes left. If you've got SDI, that's very little damage in return.

All you've got to do then is just hope that climate change is kind to you, and that your forests get changed, not your grassland, as your population growth will have already peaked with many cities having little or no surplus by the modern era.

 

[Ouchgeddon]

Nukes halve city pop each hit. So when Germany was going to win the Space Race, I gave one nuke to his capital to cut off trade and luxury distribution, and concentrated the rest on just one city. That way the last spaceship part being built there went from 6 or so turns to 9999 (thank you spy). But overall, the more area you end up nuking the slower he will be overall.

Btw, Ackrite99 is right: Watch out for Tactical Nukes. Space Defense cannot stop them, but a simple submarine or Aegis patrol will stop the nuke subs.

 

[Klasanov]

Hehe. That would be cool if your nukes caused the world change into widespread desert wastelands, causing widespread starvation and bringing all cities to two citizens...

*Watches as everyone slowly steps away from him*

What?

 

[peanutgallery83]

I've actually had that happen. 5 civs left on a 'huge' map (out of 10 that started). I declare war on 1 of my enemies, and sign MPP's with 2 other civs, and it ends up being 3 vs 2. Anyways, I ended up nuking the Germans, who tried to nuke me back (thank you SDI), and it turned into an all out nuke war with 4 of the 5 countried who had nukes available.

In the end, 3 of the civs were in ruins after OVER 500 nukes were dropped (counted each civs stock with the spy both before and after the war), and the Global Warming was changing between 95-115 squares per turn! After about 45 more turns, MOST of the world had been converted to desert, tundra, and grassland (in a few places), it was a mess. Every city was starving in every civ, and I think the largest city at that point had shrunk to about an 8 pop. The only places that were okay was on 5 little islands out in the middle of the ocean far from anyone else, that just happened to have enough resources to keep the 1-2 cites on them happy.

Nukes can be good...but use them with caution...and all out nuke war brings nothing but a mess over the entire world...even if you yourself doesn't get directly hit.

 

[Windwalker]

Originally posted by peanutgallery83
I've actually had that happen. 5 civs left on a 'huge' map (out of 10 that started). I declare war on 1 of my enemies, and sign MPP's with 2 other civs, and it ends up being 3 vs 2. Anyways, I ended up nuking the Germans, who tried to nuke me back (thank you SDI), and it turned into an all out nuke war with 4 of the 5 countried who had nukes available.

In the end, 3 of the civs were in ruins after OVER 500 nukes were dropped (counted each civs stock with the spy both before and after the war), and the Global Warming was changing between 95-115 squares per turn! After about 45 more turns, MOST of the world had been converted to desert, tundra, and grassland (in a few places), it was a mess. Every city was starving in every civ, and I think the largest city at that point had shrunk to about an 8 pop. The only places that were okay was on 5 little islands out in the middle of the ocean far from anyone else, that just happened to have enough resources to keep the 1-2 cites on them happy.

Nukes can be good...but use them with caution...and all out nuke war brings nothing but a mess over the entire world...even if you yourself doesn't get directly hit.

Heh, I may just be sick, but that's kind of cool of Civ to model widespread Nuclear fallout like that... But shouldn't the long term effect be a nuclear winter, not global warming?

- Windwalker

 

[Ackrite99]

Nuclear Winter would be a short-term conequence, and would be over within 2/3 years as all of the dust sanks back to earth, letting the sun back in. The accepted wisdom is that the Nukes would have destroyed the ozone layer, making everything hotter. Global warming might then ensue.

 

[argolite]

Has anyone had a post-nuclear cataclysm Global Warming subside? In my game, it been 40 years (40 turns) since about 40 nukes were used in a two-nation exchage, and I still have Global Warming turning my lush green squares into barren desert!

 

[MrBiggBoy]

lol i'm a cautious player.. but i still stock up on nukes. i've wondered how many nukes it takes to initiate to warming process... or how many years it takes.

 

[Ackrite99]

Sid did a reasonable job with the nukes in my opinion. The accepted wisdom is that a certain number of nuclear explosions would be required in close sequence to set off a catastrophic nuclear winter in a short time. In Civ III this is represented, especially if a devastating nuclear strike is launched in one turn -excellent.

 

[JoseM]

Originally posted by Ouchgeddon
Nukes halve city pop each hit. So when Germany was going to win the Space Race, I gave one nuke to his capital to cut off trade and luxury distribution, and concentrated the rest on just one city. That way the last spaceship part being built there went from 6 or so turns to 9999 (thank you spy). But overall, the more area you end up nuking the slower he will be overall.

Btw, Ackrite99 is right: Watch out for Tactical Nukes. Space Defense cannot stop them, but a simple submarine or Aegis patrol will stop the nuke subs.

Space Desense Iniciative (SDI) CAN stop tactical nukes too, trust me they can because the computer destroyed one of my taktical nukes few times.

 

[MightyMick]

In my experience, preemptive strikes aren't terribly useful if he's got nukes, too. For game balance issues, enemy nukes are NEVER destroyed on the ground. At least that's what I've been told, and it jives with my experience.

 

[The Last Conformist]

If nuclear war is already ongoing, or you've only one AI that represents anything resembling a threat, nukes are good for weakening particularly ugly SoDs too.

(Speaking of nuclear holocausts, I still fondly remember a Civ2 game on the World Map in which all coasts turned to Swamps and all interior areas to deserts (except for Mountains etc). I had Engineers standing continually clearing the Swamps in the city-tiles of my coastal cities, and almost all production came from Offshore platforms.)