Well, me and Cookie had a splendid game of this not-so-long ago. Cookie was Africa and I was the Middle East/East Asia Bloc. Despite a partially successful trademark fleet nuking early on, Cookie had trouble for a good deal of time owing to a drib-drab of silo launches, revealling their locations to me. Also, my scouts located a lot of his hardware so, once he switched his silos to nuke mode I sent out a massive bomber wave that took half of them out, plus most of his radar and nearly all his airbases. Then my two sub fleets opened up and combined with a mass silo launch I anhilated Africa. I felt pretty smug, as not one of my cities had been touched.
Cue mass Cookie remaining sub fleet nuke launch off Tokyo, and wave goodbye to Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and three other major cities. Damn. Thought for once I had the perfect game.
Anyway great game, and to level the playing field a little more I've written up some 1vs1 tips for Defcon. This is basically my manual for nuke-warfare. I realise I'm giving my game away, but hey, I want to be forced into changing strategies.
Deploying...Place radar on borders for maximum coverage.
Place Silos around cities, and don't neglect a couple for the coastal rear sections - subs may attack from
there.
Airbases - place them deep inland. If you launch bombers to nuke targets, they need time to arm their
nukes - best if they do this in safe territory then fly around till they arm over enemy land.
Subs - place them at the limit of your range, but where you think the enemy won't deploy their fleets. The object is to sneak 'em around the enemy fleet. But then you're good at that already!
They are your best unit, imho.
Naval battles...Target your fleet against an enemy. Where possible, gang your fleets up on one fleet at a time, even if you're ignoring a fleet firing on you. Concentrating your fire will sink 'em faster. Try to force naval battles near your own land, where the silos can join in by firing missiles at the enemy ships - avoid fighting near their coast for the same reason.
Your battleships will fire away, but carriers don't do anything unless you launch fighters and bombers. Use
fighters to intercept their fighters or soak up battleship missiles, use bombers against their carriers, then battleships.
Subs can torpedo ships, but are very, very vulnerable to battleships if they're set to sub patrol.
If you win a naval engagement, don't fling all your fleets at the enemy, leave one behind for anti-sub
patrol. Set to Anti-Sub and make sure the nightmare of a coastal MIRV launch at your cities/silos doesn't
happen.
Send your subs to non-obvious places outside enemy territory. For example, above Scotland/UK for Europe
rather than off Spain. Above Alaska for the US. At Polar ice caps for Russia. Etc. (Again, you're good at this one.
)
Defcon 1:Silos on air defence will knock out even three incoming missiles at a time. I consider them
priorities. If possible, send all your bombers against silos barring a few against radars. Radars extend
anti-air silo range, so by blinding the enemy you cut down their firing range. Try to hold off doing this
until you have your subs ready, then launch those MIRVS from the coast at the same time against a mix of
silos, airbases and cities.
Radars take 1 hit.
Airbases take 2.
Silos take 3 but lose 1/3rd of their nukes with each
hit. I tend to launch anything between five and eight against each silo if I have the sub & bomber attack going. Then I'll pick off the cities with my ICBM silos.
By swamping the enemy airspace with nukes, some will get through. But maybe not enough to make a difference
- it's chancy. This is why...
Provoke them into making the first move. Hold back on arming your own silos. A couple of nukes on big cities
of theirs by a fluky half dozen bombers can sting them into silo nuke launches if their own bomber raids
fail. Basically, you want to have as many non-silo launch options as possible (bomber/subs) at the moment
you reveal their silos. Sending out fighters as scouts can reveal their silos, but more importantly if they
launch you can see their silos. And if they're launching then they can't intercept.
While you've got your silos on anti-air/nuke, most of their nukes are failing to hit yours. Meanwhile, most
of your bomber/sub nukes can get through - and that's when you hit their silos and defences. Once they're gone, you
can focus on mopping up the cities.
My usual decision chain...Move subs to obscure close location to their main cities. Most of their silos will probably be there for
air defence. Take care to avoid enemy fleets.Send multi-fleets against single enemy fleets. Use
naval bombers/fighters against carriers/fighters. Winning naval war, move carrier fleets against enemy
coast, holding one or two back for anti-sub patrol. Move the anti-sub patrol up and down the coast
repeatedly for max effect. SUBS ARE EVIL.
Provoke enemy into launching missiles with bomber raids on radar/unprotected cities.
When enemy has committed to strike, send in subs/bombers against defenceless silos. You will lose
maybe up to 1/3rd of your cities here, or your capital, but the enemy will be stuffed when those silos are nuked and you have all or nearly all your silos still ready for action.
Once they seem to have launched all their nukes, or you've destroyed all their silos, launch your own
silos and laugh.
Laugh insanely. Like a Bond villain.
Remember, the key is to either knock out their defences first, or overwhelm with volume of fire.