AI Nuke Morals

[GMguy16]

I just finished a game and had a question. World opinion of you drastically falls if you use nuclear weapons. Most people declare war on you. What if your on the recieving end of a nuke. Will the AI still like lowly upon you if you retaliate? I think once they start it you should be able to unload on them.

[Azeem]

Not sure, but I think their opinion of you, even if you retal a nuke with a nuke, would still remain really low.

The AI is really wierd in CivIII. You can reduce them to one city and they'll still refuse a peace treaty or you can negotiate a peace with them and they'll declare war on the same turn.

[David Murray]

Well, if I was an immortal world leader, I probably wouldn't get down onto my knees and beg for forgiveness under any circumstances, so I think it's reasonable in that respect.

As for the nuclear situation, I don't think the AI ever launches first-strikes under any circumstances! And if you are the one to start a nuclear war, you deserve everything you get!

[PLATO]

I have to agree with David Murray. I have never once had the AI start a nuclear war.

[Nor Me]

I think they don't declare war on you if they're already at war with the target. They certainly don't if you retaliate and they've already declared war on the target.

In one game, the Persians nuked me when it looked like I would kill them. Every civ used all their ICBMs on them. Several turns later, the Indians made peace with the Persians who now had one size one city on an island. Then when any other civ built an ICBM, they nuked the Persians and the Indians declared war on them. The Indians quickly followed the Persians into oblivion.

[Jethro83]

I never had problems with other civs using nukes. But then again, I'll always be trying to deprive them of uranium as soon as I've discovered Fission.

But in the few circumstances where the AI has managed to get a few nukes, they've never used them. I only use nukes as a deterrent anyway. Never launch them. After all, what use is the land around a city once its been nuked? If I'm at war I'll want to be able to use their territory once I've taken it from them.

[nationalist]

Originally posted by Nor Me
I think they don't declare war on you if they're already at war with the target. They certainly don't if you retaliate and they've already declared war on the target.

In one game, the Persians nuked me when it looked like I would kill them. Every civ used all their ICBMs on them. Several turns later, the Indians made peace with the Persians who now had one size one city on an island. Then when any other civ built an ICBM, they nuked the Persians and the Indians declared war on them. The Indians quickly followed the Persians into oblivion.

I've never seen more than 2 AI civs survive to reach the nuclear age.

[badams52]

If you play beyond the win, then you will sometimes see the AI use nukes first and watch all the other AIs retaliate. That's the best part, but I could do without the global warming that comes after.

[GMguy16]

Its interesting that they don't seem to first strike till after the game is over. I wonder why. I know you wouldn't want to nuke any pontential conquerable cities, but does anyone just nuke their useless distant cities that you know you'll never take?

[badams52]

They might initiate first strike before a win, it's just that by the time they have nuke capabilities, I have already won. I don't go for the milking the score method of launching in 2050...

[PLATO]

The only time I will use Nukes is when I am planning on eliminating a strong Civ. I will have an invasion force poised at the boarder and will strike quickly at multiple targets. Preceding this, I will try to hammer out agreements with any other nuclear powers that I am aware of. If I have a Gracious Civ, they usually won't launch against me.

[MotownDennis]

I have definitely seen the AI launch a first strike. I'm surprised no one else has. I play at emperor level and wonder if that has anything to do with it. I agree that the AI usually doesn't even get the tech to build nukes, but there have been times when I get bogged down in games with tough AIs. The one time that sticks out in my mind was a game I was playing as the Mongols. The Chinese were pretty close to me in size, power, tech, etc. and they launched a first strike even though I also had nukes. All the other AIs immediately declared war on them. On my next turn, I returned the favor and the cool part was that no AIs declared war on me for doing it (because they were now all at war with the Chinese and obviously wanted to see them die!)

Nuking your enemy's capital is the way to go; if they have any trade agreements involving resources, those deals come to an abrupt end (the mushroom cloud cuts all the roads around the city).