How many nukes do you really need?

[Barleyman]

I've been building nukes as low-priority item in EU, with 7% investment. That's given me 14 barrages so far. Would that be enough doomsday for the game purposes? I guess you would only really want nukes as a major country to nuke alien armies?

[corisai]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von fortydayweekend:

With the US you can pretty easily get the 8 or so miltech 5 armies you need but has anyone managed to do it without them though, and without using nukes?

Yes. Hint: destroy ships before they will land.

[MagnusGrey]

You can also back up your armies with orbital bombardments.

[fortydayweekend]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von corisai:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von fortydayweekend:

With the US you can pretty easily get the 8 or so miltech 5 armies you need but has anyone managed to do it without them though, and without using nukes?

Yes. Hint: destroy ships before they will land.

That didn't seem like an option to me in my game, maybe I poked the nest too early

[nephilimnexus]

Laugh all you want but nuclear winter puts an end to global warming. What's a few million humans to save the world, amirite? And there'll always be someone who has it coming...

[Barleyman]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Darkstorn:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von corisai:

Due to how complex research&projects tree without much details on projects - I'm 99% sure that new player will be unable to reach key techs&project in time. So his first invasion will be defeated by nukes.

That's why I'm saying they're needed.

I get your point, but i don't think you get mine: I'm not posting in this thread to give general advice to first time players. I merely answered a question honestly:

You don't need nukes. You might want to have them for easier time overall, and to make the learning curve easier.

That's what you're saying as well. You're just confusing the word "need" with "want." :)

That's a dishonest answer. Unless aliens kindly land on your doorstep, you need at least one month to declare war on the target country to be able to ship any armies and then you need remarkable sea lift capacity. Like for every army, otherwise they're useless.

And even so if you manage to land some armies before alien admin takes over, they may be teleported away since you're not at war with alien admin right away. Aliens also are not "50%" fresh off the ship, mine were 85-90%. Three armies in both Chile regions. Landed eight EU/US armies to greet the aliens right as they got out of their ships with 5.6/4.9 miltech and hardly could make a dent on them. Six alien armies vs eight low-tech opponents? Yeah, right.

I had EU max military spending the entire time from the beginning of the game and didn't absorb low miltech countries.

So yeah, no you can't beat them without nukes if you try to catch them "unprepared". Maybe ignore advise about "50%"aliens and let them rampage and disperse so you can gang up on some lone armies. Doesn't stop them from converging on you once you land of course.

[LAJ-47FC9]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Ohramies:

I've been building nukes as low-priority item in EU, with 7% investment. That's given me 14 barrages so far. Would that be enough doomsday for the game purposes? I guess you would only really want nukes as a major country to nuke alien armies?

I, personally, like to have a decent stock on hand. Never know when the AI is going to send 8 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ spiderbot armies at Washington.

Ursprünglich geschrieben von nephilimnexus:

Laugh all you want but nuclear winter puts an end to global warming. What's a few million humans to save the world, amirite? And there'll always be someone who has it coming...

That's not the worst idea I've heard. You don't even need to kill people with them, just detonate the things in the ass end of nowhere.
You can also use them for terraforming. Surviving Mars encourages this to release water from the ice caps into the atmosphere!

[Badger BrownCoat]

I remember an old cyberpunk novel where part of mars terraformation was they threw ice-steroids at mars...
nuclear winter to counter global warming? huh... hadn't considered it
edit:
i have a MUCH different experience than Ohramies-

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Ohramies:

So yeah, no you can't beat them without nukes if you try to catch them "unprepared". Maybe ignore advise about "50%"aliens and let them rampage and disperse so you can gang up on some lone armies. Doesn't stop them from converging on you once you land of course.

what dif setting are you on?
- cos in mine I ranted how DUMB the AI was to keep landing where my armies can get them; dreading they'll figure out to drop in Servant/ Cult Of Cirius territory and then I'll have to go to actual war - dreading that and trying to defang their nukes before it happens. (normal /default difficulty)

[💖Medibot💖]

The US in my game reached 8.3 milltech before getting overwhelmed by 9 alien armies coming from 3 dropships in the span of a month.
Their fault though as they didn't make enough armies and they threw all but 3 at the AA's capital just to get nuked

[Brakiros]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von corisai:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von fortydayweekend:

With the US you can pretty easily get the 8 or so miltech 5 armies you need but has anyone managed to do it without them though, and without using nukes?

Yes. Hint: destroy ships before they will land.

Yeah it's virtually impossible to destroy the UFOs on the ground have to kill them in orbit

[Takao]

It's more about preventing others from having/using nukes than using them yourself.
This is especially true for Russia and the US, because of the number of nukes they have, which can end the entire planet.

Tip from Perun:
Grab North Korea or Israel for an "emergency nuke option" if you REALLY have to nuke someone but you don't want to get nuked on your main country.

[Barleyman]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Badger BrownCoat:

I remember an old cyberpunk novel where part of mars terraformation was they threw ice-steroids at mars...
nuclear winter to counter global warming? huh... hadn't considered it
edit:
i have a MUCH different experience than Ohramies-

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Ohramies:

So yeah, no you can't beat them without nukes if you try to catch them "unprepared". Maybe ignore advise about "50%"aliens and let them rampage and disperse so you can gang up on some lone armies. Doesn't stop them from converging on you once you land of course.

what dif setting are you on?
- cos in mine I ranted how DUMB the AI was to keep landing where my armies can get them; dreading they'll figure out to drop in Servant/ Cult Of Cirius territory and then I'll have to go to actual war - dreading that and trying to defang their nukes before it happens. (normal /default difficulty)

Just normal difficulty. Chile in this game is Protectorate territory so only way to land was to start a war with them, which you need a national policy mission to do.

Argentina was Humanity first but there's 0% chance of alliance there. I guess you need at at least NAP and maybe not even then if you're too strong.

In any case. As landing on hostile territory overseas means you have to ship all armies, that means majority of EU army is sitting at home watching the war on twitter as I didn't realise you need to be able to shift 8-10 overseas.

So I guess my best bet here is to live to fight another day and nuke the xenos when clear. I don't think it'd be possible to attack their robot armies in South America without getting all six to converge on me as soon as I make a move.

[Badger BrownCoat]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Ohramies:

Just normal difficulty. Chile in this game is Protectorate territory so only way to land was to start a war with them, which you need a national policy mission to do.

Argentina was Humanity first but there's 0% chance of alliance there. I guess you need at at least NAP and maybe not even then if you're too strong.

In any case. As landing on hostile territory overseas means you have to ship all armies, that means majority of EU army is sitting at home watching the war on twitter as I didn't realise you need to be able to shift 8-10 overseas.

So I guess my best bet here is to live to fight another day and nuke the xenos when clear. I don't think it'd be possible to attack their robot armies in South America without getting all six to converge on me as soon as I make a move.

I can't argue with your experience-
but why i asked if you were on a higher difficulty is that mine is MUCH different-
to the point I mocked the AI for setting down where I could reach 'em.
( one reason ours is different- i lucked out there )
- so the other guy prolly wasn't giving you a hard time, just happens his playthrough went more like mine; where they dropped and got roffle-stomped; shrekt, and rekt.
note to Xeno: don't hot-drop in the hot LZ; back to basic ya boots!

rather than assume you're a nut i just tried to hone in on *why* so different an outcome- and i think the key is they landed smarter in yours.
and lest you doubt my sanity ( no, you should- but not on this particular)-
Perun of the SlideShows - on his gaming channel run as HumanityJunta -
had pretty much the same result we did -
his was planned, mine mostly lucked into ( first real run for me I've stuck with inc. demo start-stops ) -
but I'm not doubting you; just wondering why they came on so much tougher in yours.

[Badger BrownCoat]

oh ps:

how many nukes do we really need

YES.

[martyr]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Badger BrownCoat:

oh ps:

how many nukes do we really need

YES.

I was about to respond like this. How many? All of them. Not because I want to use them, just so other idiots can't.

[Badger BrownCoat]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von martyr:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Badger BrownCoat:

oh ps:

YES.

I was about to respond like this. How many? All of them. Not because I want to use them, just so other idiots can't.

I was just reverting to my snarky space-marine soul; or 'moar dakka' if you like
but j/k aside- no you're right that's a dang valid point-
like why i could stop the aliens on mine- i moved heaven n earth to be sure the servants/cult o Cirius jerks did not have the red button.
"we'll make great pets" they sang... get rekt you new-age nonnies