What do nukes destroy?

[Eyeoftiger]

I've been using them a lot when games get to the modern era and the freakin' Zulu just want to make war with everyone...

I know they destroy a lot of units in a city, but do they hit buildings too?

 

[warpstorm]

Half the buildings

 

[Gumby78]

Also, half of the population in the city.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

And increase global warming.

 

[Micky Onimusha]

and annoy the world

 

[mazzz]

make sure you nuke it two or three times

 

[Civrules]

...And don’t expect to see ‘Polite’ under another leader’s name anytime soon, if you nuke them that much. Also on top of that expect an immediate retaliation by the Civ you nuked (if they also have nukes).

 

[Bluemofia]

yep. once i nuked china, to try to destroy their nukes in their cities, and i nuked it 7 times, and i stole the plans, and i found that the nukes still survived, so i stole the city. so china and india retaliated by fireing 4 nukes at me. 3 were shot down by the SDI. the last one hit my capital. boom. killed my leader and an army.

 

[planetfall]

If going to use nukes, your armies need to use nuke defense. Impact area is square of 9 tiles. Disperse armies at end of turn so it is more costly to use nuke on army. Nuke on SOD is almost a no brainers, no SOD use is limited.

Remember nukes can target any tile and do not have to target cities.

PF

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

If you are going to use nukes, make sure that it is well worth it. I played a game where I had to nuke the Dutch in order to win(just beat them in histograph by 4 points ). Also, if you have lots of nukes, try to take out their uranium sources so they can't build anymore to retaliate with and are stuck with theirs.

 

[planetfall]

actually sometimes there is less alum. Just get one of them.

Also since your rep is shot anyway, you might preposition some troops prior to launch. ROP violation means nothing when playing with nukes. If you can see nuke war is necessary soon enough you can save tons of shields by using SSN's and tact nukes. Most good targets will be within 5 tiles of shore.

PF

 

[SuperBeaverInc.]

Unless you don't have much of a navy, then ICBM's become really useful on continental maps.

 

[HellboundHeathcliff]

The AI has a tendency to nuke cities that have aluminum in the radius. I've had little tundra cities nuked multiple times because of that.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Man, I'm glad you guys don't actually run any real countries! I'd feel safer with Bin Ladin in charge of China. That baing said, I only build nukes for deterrent purposes and scatter them all over creation so that if the worst case scenario happened (total nuclear apocolypse) they I'll still be able to retaliate against the agressors. Fortunately, since I'm a generally peaceful player, I've yet to see a single nuclear exchange in any of the games I've played. It might also be because I build enough ICBMs and Tactical nukes to destroy every other civ's capitol and set my research toward researching integrated defense (since I ruch-build SAM batteries in all my cities as soon as they become available for bobmer deterrence, I have way more than the 5 required) and build the SDI program.

 

[planetfall]

Note the question was how to play with nukes, NOT do you play with nukes.

If you are building SDI, you are playing at too low a difficulty level.

Move to a difficulty level where I is as skilled as you are and you will not be using any nukes. Even as a come from behind, they are marginal if you are at the right difficulty level.

Also the game lacks a super cruise missile. All that is available is the weak cruise missile and nukes.

"Total nuclear holocaust" is about impossible. Nukes are too expensive in the game. If you drop difficulty level to have nukes to play with, what will you use them on? Trade a 300 sh nuke for a city of 2 rifleman and 8 tiles of pollution to clean up? Do that to 12 cities and see if you like the game. You're going to need about 200 workers to clean up your mess. Conventional forces are much more efficient.

You don't need many nukes for detante, AI does not usually first strike.

PF

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

If you are building SDI, you are playing at too low a difficulty level.

Not necesarily. When you are a scientific civ and have Capernicous' Observatory, Sir Isacc Newton's University, The Internet (and accompanying research lab) and a Library, University and Research lab and all revenue boosting buildings in your capitol with all non-tile working citizens as scientists, you'd be surprised at how fast research gets done in a Democracy with 60% science. Furthermore, I set Integrated defense as my #1 modern era research priority, just in case. I only build enough nukes to serve as a strong deterrence. I'm not a mad nuker, since I hate pollution. For that reason, I won't build hospitals in cities that don't have Mass Transit, and Even with a recycling plant I'll think twice before putting a factory in a city (if the city is already pumping out a ton of shields, over 13 pop and has another polluting improvement such as a commercial dock or airport, then I won't even consider building one). As a result, I rarely have problems with pollution or global warming before the game ends, one way or anoter.

 

[Samson]

I have yet to use nukes in Civ 3, and am very interested in your ideas. I remember the earlier versions, where 1 nuke + 1 paratrooper = 1 city, which was massivly over powered. I would be very interested to hear how people use them now. These are the ways I can imagine using them -

Soften up those heaverly defended border towns. They cost 300 sheilds, so they need to save you 2.5 MA in the attack. They kill half the units? So you would not need to kill that many MI to save this many tanks. Also probably bring them down a level in city size, which would help. Perhaps the damage to transport infrastructure could hurt you though?

Kill his stacks of doom. Probably most powerful against a human. Has to be a powerful use, if you ever get the chance.

Hit those productive inner towns. Reduce some of his 20+ citys to hurt his manfacturing and science development. It may take quite a few turns for this to pay off, esp. as one MA in the hands of a human is worth a good many in the hands of the AI.

Resorce denial. Bomb that oil, and see how long it takes the AI to get a road back. This would be useless against a human, but sometimes the AI just does not bother.

Just keep them as a threat to the AI, to stop them bullying you.

Reading with interest

 

[planetfall]

Not necesarily.

Necessarily, unless you are going for a space win. All other wins should be completed before 1/2 way thru modern ages. That someone gets to SDI is the most obvious sign they are playing at a low coasting play level instead of a challenging play leve.

I only build enough nukes to serve as a strong deterrence.

You don't need many. Three to four should be enough. What you lose in volume you make up in both targeting ability and maximizing other resources.

As a result, I rarely have problems with pollution or global warming before the game ends, one way or anoter.

Global warming is a non factor, but with factories and reseach labs building pollution tends to increase wack-a-mole pollution. People pollution can be handled with 10..14 workers. When research labs come, especially with Internet, workers need to be more about the 25..30 range. Not a problem, but do need more units to handle automatically.

PF

 

[planetfall]

I have yet to use nukes in Civ 3, and am very interested in your ideas. I remember the earlier versions, where 1 nuke + 1 paratrooper = 1 city, which was massivly over powered. I would be very interested to hear how people use them now.

Rarely use them. Primarily as deterent. In last game used one to punish china, but it wasn't necessary. Other 3 just sat there and did zip.

Soften up those heaverly defended border towns. They cost 300 sheilds, so they need to save you 2.5 MA in the attack. They kill half the units? So you would not need to kill that many MI to save this many tanks. Also probably bring them down a level in city size, which would help. Perhaps the damage to transport infrastructure could hurt you though?

Heavily defended border towns, where? MA's are 120 each. ICBM's are 600. TN are 300 b but you have to include the cost of SSN at 120 and anticipate losing 1/5 of these. Thus TN is [300+120] * 1.2 is 504, which is 4.20 MA's. Even with a hugh metro of 30 and 12 defenders it is hard to justify nukes. MA plus artillery or radar artillery are much better as you can use these without losing more than 1..2 units per city. The other problem with nukes is the roads are blown away and so you need movements to get to the city. And naturally workers to rebuild roads.
[/quote]

Kill his stacks of doom. Probably most powerful against a human. Has to be a powerful use, if you ever get the chance.

You would injure, but to kill you would need multiple nukes.

Hit those productive inner towns. Reduce some of his 20+ citys to hurt his manfacturing and science development. It may take quite a few turns for this to pay off, esp. as one MA in the hands of a human is worth a good many in the hands of the AI.

Only worthwhile if AI has very old wonder with lots of culture generation.

Resorce denial. Bomb that oil, and see how long it takes the AI to get a road back. This would be useless against a human, but sometimes the AI just does not bother.

Just keep them as a threat to the AI, to stop them bullying you.

Reading with interest

AI bothers but may need to build workers first. Occasionally AI has ton of workers and roads would be rebuilt quickly. But would be enough to slow down some builds.

Bottom line: nukes and MA are not as cost effective as artillery/radar artillery/bombers and MA.

PF

 

[Samson]

Thanks for the input.

Bottom line: nukes and MA are not as cost effective as artillery/radar artillery/bombers and MA

I can belive this. A big stack of artys does seem unstoppable, and reusable.

You would injure, but to kill you would need multiple nukes.

Have you a link to a description of what they do? is it like a certain number of artillery (or bomber, with lethal bombard) attacks per unit? I was just thinking I should set up a scenario with a load of modern units just so I can play with them before I decide what to build for myself.

Only worthwhile if AI has very old wonder with lots of culture generation.

So nukes kill wonders? That is significant.