How to beat nukes

[maxoverload91]

So after a lot of experimenting, I've figured out what I think is a surefire way to beat the AI's nuke timer when their capital is under attack. Alien Admin got nukes when the Servants gave them Russia and I had a hell of a time trying to take their capital region. Many, many dead before I figured out the strategy.

Essentially they will only fire nukes after a certain period of time greater than two days but shorter than a week, and only if the progress to occupation is around 75%.

The key, then, is to beat that timer. Bait out any troops they have in their capital, and then drop almost every army you have into their capital, it has to be at least 6 against Atomic Age powers, and I think 8 for Information Age powers. Your goal is to take their capital in as short a time as possible, preferably in under 48 hours, so the more troops the better.

[Crucades]

Did you have space defences and how effective where they? I gained mines after beating the administration so I have no idea how effective they are lol.

[maxoverload91]

Originally posted by Crucades:

Did you have space defences and how effective where they? I gained mines after beating the administration so I have no idea how effective they are lol.

lol haven't even gotten a single point of them yet. I've been lucky with bombardment since they keep going after China's armies instead. Also might help that I killed their fleets around earth before attacking the capital.

[Lee]

Wow, that's quite the brave approach, since that's such a tempting stack to nuke. I've had the AI fire a random nuke off even when their capital isn't threatened if the target is juicy enough, it may depend on the faction though and the Aliens may be less crazy than the extremist factions.

[maxoverload91]

Originally posted by Lee:

Wow, that's quite the brave approach, since that's such a tempting stack to nuke. I've had the AI fire a random nuke off even when their capital isn't threatened if the target is juicy enough, it may depend on the faction though and the Aliens may be less crazy than the extremist factions.

it seems to really be all about time - if you capture the capital or whatever location quickly enough, the AI won't reach a tick on which it can decide to fire a nuke. Previously I had tried with smaller stacks and they definitely did not work because they took way too long to capture - the AI always nuked somewhere between two days and a week after the attack began. If the AI only had one nuke it wouldn't have been a problem, but they had 28 so there was no way to sacrifice armies to the nukes one by one until they were defenseless, not without years of army build-up.

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by maxoverload91:

Originally posted by Lee:

Wow, that's quite the brave approach, since that's such a tempting stack to nuke. I've had the AI fire a random nuke off even when their capital isn't threatened if the target is juicy enough, it may depend on the faction though and the Aliens may be less crazy than the extremist factions.

it seems to really be all about time - if you capture the capital or whatever location quickly enough, the AI won't reach a tick on which it can decide to fire a nuke. Previously I had tried with smaller stacks and they definitely did not work because they took way too long to capture - the AI always nuked somewhere between two days and a week after the attack began. If the AI only had one nuke it wouldn't have been a problem, but they had 28 so there was no way to sacrifice armies to the nukes one by one until they were defenseless, not without years of army build-up.

Still prefer the "Sacrifice North Korea" approach lol.