Silo nukes and AA

[Sinnie]

I've only played 2 games so far so am fairly new... forgive me =]

I'm having an issue with my nukes, mostly from silos being shot down really easily, and then my own air defence being unable to shoot down 1 nuke, even after shooting at it for ages.

The recent situation was more or less thus:

i'm SA and one enemy is Asia... They launch from about 5 silos, so I send 4 bombers and 15 nukes from silos (keeping my other silos on AA mode)... all but one of my nukes is destoryed by his (1?) silo... maybe some had managed to switch modes by then end however.

On my end, I still have 4-5 silos in AA mode, 3 grouped next to each other... and a single nuke is easily able to sail in and land in my biggest city, right next to the 3 silos.

Am I missing some obvious tactic? Surely my nukes should have decimated his silos and my silos have at least halved his missiles?

Also, are carriers the only way to deal with submerged subs? and then bombers the next option (for when they are surfaced?) I frequently lose a whole load of subs while submerged and then lost 4 in quick succession right after surfacing.

[bert_the_turtle]

Welcome to these parts of the forums

i'm SA and one enemy is Asia... They launch from about 5 silos, so I send 4 bombers and 15 nukes from silos (keeping my other silos on AA mode)... all but one of my nukes is destoryed by his (1?) silo... maybe some had managed to switch modes by then end however.

Yes, it's probable that all his silos switched back to AA mode by the time your silo nukes arrived. Since your nukes came in one after the other, they were easy targets. To get through a tight defense, you need to pack your presents equally tight, and of course it's best to strike while the enemy is firing. Silo nukes almost never make it in time for that. For taking out enemy silos, subs and bombers are better.

On my end, I still have 4-5 silos in AA mode, 3 grouped next to each other... and a single nuke is easily able to sail in and land in my biggest city, right next to the 3 silos.

This could be a combination of bad luck (all kills in Defcon are handled purely probabilisticly, meaning that each shot that hits has a set chance to kill the target) plus something else: silos are good at shooting down nukes coming directly towards them, but horrible if the nuke is traveling at an angle (worst is 90 degrees).

Also, are carriers the only way to deal with submerged subs?

The only good way for subs in passive sonar mode. Other subs can also deal with them, but only if one of the subs is in active sonar mode; passive sonar subs happily pass by each other. And having your subs in active sonar mode makes them spotted really easily (they appear on radar), and the usual response these days is a nuke dropped onto them.

and then bombers the next option (for when they are surfaced?)

Battleships are also quite fatal to subs once they surface. Fighters not so. It's important to know that carriers can't hurt surfaced subs at all.

[Sinnie]

Ok.. That helps a lot =] Thanks very much.

[jt23]

What I usually do when playing against the computer is I choose United States and select Asia for the computer. I place subs off the coast then just wait until he starts firing nukes from his silo's when the location of his silo's is revealed I launch nukes from my subs while he is still in firing mode destroying his AA then that leaves hime open to attack from my silos. even if he is left with one AA site it it not enough to cover everything and usually I come out the winner.

[DTNC Vicious]

Yeah this thread is kind of old jt