nuclear war

[D4everman]

Quick question: Has anyone ever had a nuclear war in their games? I never have, nary a nuke launched.

[Jaybe]

The AI initiates nuclear war very rarely. If a player initiates, every AI not at war with the nuclear 'target' will declare war on the launcher of the nuc. Also, the AI will then feel free to launch nucs at will, though they will often target relatively useless targets (cities only, BTW), and frequently will continually retarget the same city without regard to its lack of value.

[vmxa1]

I have used them a few times and I may need to do it in my current Sid game. China and I are working on our space ship. If they look like they could get me, nukes away.

It should not come to that as my city is more than twice as productive as theirs.

[georges bonbon]

Originally posted by Jaybe
The AI initiates nuclear war very rarely.

It does when you take too many cities from the same civilization.

[spy14]

Nuke away and have some fun

Then of course reload and play as you would have originally..

[Theseus]

I forget which AU course it was, but at one point I launched a MASSIVE nuclear strike on two or three different AI civs at once. All cities over 12 pop were hit.

The counter-attack was something else... 50+ nukes, IIRC. I had build the Strategic Missile Defense (is that what it's called?), and it worked as advertised.

Lot's of fun!!

[Arnelos]

Yes, I've fought a nuclear war as well. The Strategic Missile Defense is indeed very very good for defending yourself from the massive counter-attack.

This said, I've found the most effective strategy for engaging in a nuclear war against the AI ("Future Era" games here) is to send ground troops just off of the guy's coast... spy on him to receive his military troop positions (which include the positions of his ICBM's)... then nuke cities with ICBMs and take out those cities in surgical strikes (which automatically wipes out the ICBM's which survived your own ICBM attacks).

That normally minimizes the number of nukes that will come flying back at you. That, combined with your SDI, should help defend yourself from most of the counter-attack.

You can then afford to mop up the opponent's land with any other military forces without fear of getting barraged by nukes.

The complication comes when you don't have enough ground forces to conduct surgical strikes on MULTIPLE AIs, all armed with nukes.

In that case, I recommend just NOT USING NUKES until you are capable of doing this.

[:) Smiley]

as far as I know, nukes are immune to nuking- you have to take the city to destroy them.

[vmxa1]

Just understand the SDI will not stop all ICMB's. It is a must, but not 100%.

[Theseus]

Here ya go... Nuclear Armageddon, PTW-style:

http://apolyton.net/upload/view.php?file=18894_Armageddon1892AD.zip

[Theseus]

Oh, and vxma1 is correct: I believe the SMD protects against 75% if nukes.

[Arnelos]

Originally posted by Theseus
Oh, and vxma1 is correct: I believe the SMD protects against 75% if nukes.

That is correct.

This is why I state that part of the critical strategy for waging a nuclear war, even WITH SDI, is to remove as many nukes with surgical strikes as possible.

You set up your surgical strikes near enemy cities, hit cities with nukes with your own nukes (to clear out the defenders), then take the cities to destroy the nukes.

You probably can't take every enemy city in this fashion in a single turn, but you can take enough to minimize the number of nukes being fired back at you... and with a 75% fail rate of those counter-attack nukes, you'll only get a few cities hit at most. You can minimize the damage there by evacuating most cities of mil units and putting them further than 1 tile away from most cities before the war starts. You can also stockpile craploads of workers away from the cities so they can head in for the clean-up operations after the counter-attack.

[Theseus]

Arnelos, looking at your avatar and reading your detailed and dispassionate description of "Nuclear War 101" is a little creepy.

[Blademun]

Hahaha, Its a good thing Arnelios is american and not russian... >.> <.<

[woody]

I love nuclear wars. Although, I usually start them just to end a game that's got a little boring.

If the human player has nukes, he'll always come out ahead in a nuclear war. The A.I. just doesn't use nukes well, and doesn't ever stockpile enough of them to turn a continent into a smoking radioactive wasteland (which is what I always do to the enemy).

The enemy has exactly 1 turn to respond to the attack with his nukes (which are about the only unit he has left). After that, he's got no more production to build any more.

The game always ends after I use nukes, because I can't be bothered taking over useless enemy territory. Vast deserts, pollution, and destroyed roads makes it too tedious.