nukes arent effective in early game...

[VladK02]

Found a nuke launcher and a mobile shield on turn 1 in a new game.

decided to say hello to my neighbour with it. For science.

2x infantry brigade formations with OHQs, some militia, partial 3-hex surround on the AI city.

Defenders are ~2000 assorted raider militia, give or take.

Preliminary nuke strike - 600 kills, 400 retreated, +200 rad to hex, city takes ~1000pts of damage.

Brigades attack next. 400 kills, ~2000+ losses, defenders hold.

GG.

I dont see the point of nukes if they add +200 rad and are so weak. A medium stack of ultra-light bombers with early-game bombs does better then 600 kills on a stack of ~2000.

I understand massed nuke launchers creating impenetrable fields of radiation as a 'wall' of sorts for AI to cross...(does high radiation kill in one turn? dont remember) but honestly....seems kinda lame?

[[] ¬ []1 TEFLON DON 永遠のトランプ]

I am a heavy user of atomic weapons in this game. From my experience in splitting the atom against religious fanatics, militarist regimes and republican AI majors, having good recon is essential to get the most bang for your buck. If you start firing off atomic missiles on hexes you have little recon on, it's a total waste. Send in a militia unit or two to probe the area or do some aerial recon and then fire off your missile. I have wiped out entire infantry formations with thousands of troops just because I had good recon.

[tiavals]

In my experience nukes are usually monstrously powerful, too much so in fact(the AI is usually helpless against them). They have a few weaknesses though, such as not really working against well armored enemies, but all others they turn into ashes. I'm extremely surprised to hear that your nuke would kill only so fer of the raiders. Maybe it's because of the city? It does depend on the variant of the nuke, of course. No idea how good the nukes are you can find on the map, but for your own designed nukes it's essential that their stats are decent and that you have researched a bit of the Atomic Weapons Optimization tech(or whatever it's called).