Proper Use of Nuclear Weapons?

[LordRahl]

A little story first. I remember when 15 years ago, I beat Civ 1 (Amiga version), Emperor level for the first time. I played on Earth with Americans and managed to control entire North and South America on my own. By that time though Stalin would control entire Europe and Africa, while Ghandi would be in charge of Asia. They were ahead of me in production and tech, but I managed to build United Nations, and started cranking out nukes like crazy after that. I would then bring up a few transports of tanks accross both the Atlantic (to Europe) and the Pacific (to Asia), place a Carrier in between (back in Civ 1 nukes could only move 16 spots), and each turn I would nuke a few cities here and there, and then roll in with my tanks to an empty city. I've easily done it 40-50 times to every single city of theirs. They had nukes of their own, but thanks to the United Nations, they had to agree to peace whenever I contacted them, which I would do after every single turn of delcaring war, nuking, and occupying their cities. I did slip once, and forgot to do it, and immediately got nuked in 2 of my cities, but learned my lesson after that. Needless to say, I won the game.

Anyway - clearly this is 15 years later, and nukes are not as powerful as they once were. What is the proper strategy to use a nuke in single player? How about MP? Did you ever have an opportunity to use it in MP? Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Murky]

They make a great tool for diplomacy.

 

[Holbek]

Spies.
Steal plans, and find their 2 most productive cities.
Nuke the two spots where you hurt the most units, and nuke the 2 best productive cities.
Starting a war this way helps a lot.

oh, and btw.. The UN+Nukes can still be used pretty effectively! Catherine Cottage Spam + Nuke + UN and you can have some 40 nukes and then ban the rest of the civs from building some. This has worked for me up to monarch

 

[Gazurtoid]

What about SDI though? That really puts a hamper on things =/

 

[Ace4nyC]

What about SDI though? That really puts a hamper on things =/

ya it totaly blows.... but then again it prevents a nuke war ... its not like civs actualy use them ... did they fix that in warlords?

 

[Holbek]

Nukes have been used against me on monarch
So, in general, I try to get nukes before everyone else - and if I'm going to use them, I make sure the CIV I use them against doesn't have them.
They are very circumstantial like everything else in the game.

 

[jimbob27]

I've managed to come up with a decent strategy for using the nukes. They're not actually that underpowered if you use the right tactics with them.

The trick is to declare war almost as soon as you get them. If you're at war when the manhatten project is finished, then even better. The AI builds shelters very quicky during peacetime, but if you declare war and he starts loosing huge stacks quicky, the AI tends not to build anti-nuke protection. They just build more units.

Build a few and when 4-8 are about half done..... rush them.You can then use a spy or planes to recon their cities, and then drop 2 nukes on the biggest stacks you can see. Make sure you've got enough land units to defend your land... and some to invade and raze his cities (nuked cities are rubbish to take). Keep building and rushing nukes, and dropping them on all his cities, and using cavalry and tanks to rush around pillaging and razing.

 

[IPEX-731BA5DD06]

Use your nukes on the computers naval task forces...

You know the annoying one's that drop off 1-3 transport loads of pillagers

Nuke them at sea, then they all gone, no global warming and no fallout to clean up....

Also no annoying SDI defences to stop your ICBM's from sprouting into full grown mushrooms...

BTW, I usually play continents, control 1 continent, so have plenty of nukes, nearly all cities will be making one, best production cities, making them non stop..

 

[jimbob27]

SDI protects all of their units..... not just the ones inside the border. If they build the SDI, I guess you've got to go and raze that city before it's worth using any nukes.

 

[voek]

SDI protects all of their units..... not just the ones inside the border. If they build the SDI, I guess you've got to go and raze that city before it's worth using any nukes.

Nah, just build a lot more nukes...

If I use nukes I often use it for a diplo win... Killing some of the world pop. to increase my % of the world pop.

Oh, and the AI never builds nukes for all I have ever seen and this has been discussed before.

 

[BadHorsie]

Nukes have been used against me on monarch

I didn't think AI used nukes?

 

[Cam_H]

SDI protects all of their units..... not just the ones inside the border. If they build the SDI, I guess you've got to go and raze that city before it's worth using any nukes.

Sorry if this is a dumb question from someone who should know better (I've only had one game {pre-Warlords}) but ...

... Isn't the SDI a nation-wide project like The Apollo Program, and not something that resides in one city once completed?

 

[Ace4nyC]

Sorry if this is a dumb question from someone who should know better (I've only had one game {pre-Warlords}) but ...

... Isn't the SDI a nation-wide project like The Apollo Program, and not something that resides in one city once completed?

ya sdi effects all of your cities no matter where they are.

 

[jimbob27]

Sorry if this is a dumb question from someone who should know better (I've only had one game {pre-Warlords}) but ...

... Isn't the SDI a nation-wide project like The Apollo Program, and not something that resides in one city once completed?

No... you're completely right. That stopped working after civ3

 

[Holbek]

I didn't think AI used nukes?

Hm.. I haven't read any threads about whether the AI uses nukes or not.
I just know for a fact that I've only played singleplayer (4-5 MP games with friends, against AI) - and nukes have been used against me.. Pretty sure it was a monarch game.
2 civs were ahead of me in techs and military power. I tried to sack one of them with nukes, saw that as my best option, and had nukes from both of them thrown back at me. I think they dropped 3 on me...

 

[cabert]

Hm.. I haven't read any threads about whether the AI uses nukes or not.
I just know for a fact that I've only played singleplayer (4-5 MP games with friends, against AI) - and nukes have been used against me.. Pretty sure it was a monarch game.
2 civs were ahead of me in techs and military power. I tried to sack one of them with nukes, saw that as my best option, and had nukes from both of them thrown back at me. I think they dropped 3 on me...

well, let me rephrase it in another way:
do AIs nuke you first?
meaning do they build the manhattan project/build nukes/ fire them even if you're still waging conventionnal war only?

With a few dozens SP games, i never had a single nuke dropped on me.
Must say i never (really!) build the manhattan project.

 

[Holbek]

well, let me rephrase it in another way:
do AIs nuke you first?
meaning do they build the manhattan project/build nukes/ fire them even if you're still waging conventionnal war only?

Nope, I nuked first.

 

[Mighty Spearman]

New strategy with them in Warlords perhaps.

I was on one continent and was at war with anoter Civ across the ocean. I didn't feel like really waging war and was only joining in the war to appease the Germans. But I did have a large ICBM stockpile. So I just nuked each one of Monte's cities. The Germans came through and captured ONE city. Monte on his next turn capitulated to me and became my vassal.

 

[cabert]

New strategy with them in Warlords perhaps.

I was on one continent and was at war with anoter Civ across the ocean. I didn't feel like really waging war and was only joining in the war to appease the Germans. But I did have a large ICBM stockpile. So I just nuked each one of Monte's cities. The Germans came through and captured ONE city. Monte on his next turn capitulated to me and became my vassal.

how powerful the AI's warmachine can be

He managed to capture one empty city !

 

[se7en]

I usethem late in the game when doing nothing but building a spaceship. Basically, every city will either produce a spaceship part or a nuke. Anyone who declares war gets held back by nuke strikes until all the spaceship parts are done. It works great.. everyone will be furious with you (except maybe a couple close allies) but the constant nuke production will hold back anyone at least until you're done with your SS parts, and it generaly will ensure the wars are short. I don't know what the AI does when a different city is being nuked every turn or two, but I notice that they don't attempt any more landings after the first.

This is on noble diff, so YMMV.