Why do my icbm's not work?

[GoatT]

I'm at war w/another civ and I go to nuke their city and it says (SEVERAL different time).....'You (player) launch and ICMB, but it explodes!'

My nuke is lost, and no damage is done to the enemy city.....

OR

I'll go to nuke an enemy city and it just doesn't do it! I'll click the nuke, push 'n', click the city, and nothing happens. The nuke is still waiting for orders =(

[spammurabi]

The first one I would guess is due to your target's civilization having built the SDI defense?

The second one might occur due to you not being at war with your target, although I'm not sure, having never tried it.

[Addled Platypus]

spammurabi is correct on being at war first

the nukes will still launch, they wont get shot down till over the city

I found that out...SDI is a nuke killer

[vmxa1]

I am not sure how it works, but I have had cases were I could not bomb or nuke sites that were not in my line of sight.

Launch acts as if I did nothing. I ran aspy or some unit over to were I could now see and the launch worked.

Now I had this issue raised before and someone on CFC posted a game where they could launch, even though they had no line of sight.

What that all means, I do not know. I have not had a chance to test it since I reinstalled. So I am not sure if that was an issue.

I discovered the game defaulted to "all users" and that meant I could not see some game files. I reinstall for ne users and can now see them, so maybe it has an impact (doubt it).

[marvinkosh]

You do need to be able to see into the target location, I ran into this problem myself. Also, unless you are targeting hostile territory the nuke will not launch - if any of the squares around the target are in your territory, it won't launch. This is probably a safety feature so that you don't accidentally nuke your own land.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by vmxa1
I am not sure how it works, but I have had cases were I could not bomb or nuke sites that were not in my line of sight.

Launch acts as if I did nothing. I ran aspy or some unit over to were I could now see and the launch worked.

This is because there's a non-enemy city in the fog of war.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by marvinkosh
You do need to be able to see into the target location, I ran into this problem myself.

No, I've been able to target fog-of-warred areas. In fact, I ran into this issue a couple hours ago and tested it.

[vmxa1]

Ok, what about the stealth bombers. They acted the same way. Once I moved a spy in, I could launch or bomb?

[Kuciwalker]

What do you mean, they acted the same way?

[silver1441]

If you launch an ICBM on an enemy city and it is shotdown/explodes with no detonation they have SDI defense and a 75% chance of brining it down, try launching another.

If one of your units is in any of the 8 spaces around the target zone it won't let you fire the ICBM off, unlike other CIV games. Guess this is to help the idiots who don't know they are nukeing their own stuff, there were times in Civ3 that I found the need of my units out of movement for that turn being within the blast radius worth it to stop the horde of enemies in the target square.

You don't need a line of sight or a spotter to nuke enemy cities in this game, I've launched on citys I've never explored and could only see because of prevously traded maps and had detonation.

I've discovered that somtimes other CIV's you are not at war with have units in the blast zone, or even in the City you are targeting. If you try to nuke that area or city it will just do nothing. No launch but no explinatin either. Cases like that it is nice to have a spotter so you can see that stupid unit from another civ in the city or nearby territory you are trying to nuke.

You do have to declare war on a civ before nukeing, if you experience a time where you try to launch a nuke on an enemy city and it wont' fire, try saving the game declare war on all other civs then fire - bet it works then. Just wish it would tell you why you can't launch on a specific area. For those of you who think you need LOS try doing that and let us know the results.

And I don't know if its a bug or just the way its supposed to be but if an AI nukes you you'll see the radiation around your citie(s) but no nuke graphic to tip you off.

[Addled Platypus]

dont forget ....you can only nuke a city successfully once

[Werdna]

Happened to me too. I launched 3 ICBMs and it said it exploded without showing any explosion.
Then when I moved my units there I noticed that the city was nuked.

[Amniotic]

Originally posted by Werdna
Happened to me too. I launched 3 ICBMs and it said it exploded without showing any explosion.
Then when I moved my units there I noticed that the city was nuked.

Werdna, you've fallen a long way if you can't simply dominate the world by the sheer strength of your colossal Wizardry.

[JakeCourtney]

The next version of the Realism Mod is going to update ICBM's.

[Mace]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker


No, I've been able to target fog-of-warred areas. In fact, I ran into this issue a couple hours ago and tested it.

Yes you can target fog-of-war areas, BUT, I have found, in limited testing (1 test), that you cannot actually see the explosion/animation in a fog of war area. Do you know if this is true?

I fired the nuke, it exploded, but I could not see the explosion (downer!) because the area was not in my line of sight.