Would you like to play Global Thermonuclear War?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-09-25 03:15pm

Note: the game .dat files are renamed zip files.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2006-09-25 03:52pm

I've been playing it for the last few hours.

Fun fun game, though the naval combat is a bit weird.

SylasGaunt · Post by **SylasGaunt** » 2006-09-25 04:51pm

Played it and immediately scrambled to preorder it after a single round. Maybe it's just me but there are times I like to crank the time down to real-time passage and just watch armageddon unfold.. watching the crawling lines of missiles coming from land, sea, and air to bring death to all...

Of course other times it's fun to crank the speed up all the way and watch the entire east coast of africa turn into a string of fireballs.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-09-26 01:11am

I was sort of hoping for a bit more music variety; the "ominous approach of nuclear death" is okay, but I would have loved some in the style of WarGames.

Straha · Post by **Straha** » 2006-09-26 03:40am

Some screen shots of the aftermath of me and a friend against two AIs with "Show Radiation" on:

He was South America, I was Europe

Chernoybl Beauty Pageant eat your heart out.

Africa, world's largest supply of glass.

Europe, showcasing the one badly hit city (London)

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-09-26 05:03pm

Woo. I just won for the first time. This time though, it was an actual total victory. After the AI's crushed me a few times...

I was Europe. AI was Africa. We had some middling fleet combat, I smashed up most of their subs, they took out my surface combatants and half my carriers. I got lucky though, and maneuvered the carriers near an enemy airbase, radar site and launch center, took all three out with carrier strikes as soon as Defcon 1 hit.

Well, Africa got mad. Started sending bombers at me. All of my airbases were on standby though, so I intercepted all but two, which only damaged one missile silo. I had that silo then open up on an enemy silo I located with a recon flight, and took out out with an 8 ICBM launch. The enemy of course, then fired off everything they had. While they were firing, I had my remaining 4 subs fire off all their missiles, taking out each of the silos that was revealed. My one silo that exposed itself with a launch got clobbered, then once their missile salvo got mostly shot down, or hit military targets (I lost that silo, one airfield and a radar), I opened up on their cities with all my remaining ICBMs and land-based bombers.

Ouch.

First game I had where I had ZERO civilian deaths, and about 120 million dead africans.

Post by **weemadando** » 2006-09-26 05:24pm

Nephtys wrote:Woo. I just won for the first time.

Won? Win? What mean you?

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-09-26 05:29pm

weemadando wrote:
Nephtys wrote:Woo. I just won for the first time.
Won? Win? What mean you?

It's not a curious game! There really is a way to win, while playing.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2006-09-26 07:08pm

How is it decided in multiplayer games how the speed factor is used? Is the one starting it the one deciding what speed is currently active?

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-09-26 07:11pm

Basically, everyone selects what speed they'd like to run at, and I think the game defaults to the slowest speed selected.

Sephirius · Post by **Sephirius** » 2006-09-26 08:22pm

who's up for a game tonights:?

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-09-26 11:09pm

Sephirius wrote:who's up for a game tonights:?

I could try one, but depends on when you want it. How's 9:00 PST/12 EST?

Edit: actually, with our version, you can't play cept by manual IP Connection.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2006-09-26 11:12pm

I'm up for a game.

I'm free for the next ten or so hours.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-27 03:19am

This game is awesome.

I also won my first game. It looked like the AI uses some kind of escalation - when I got to the 'fire a few missiles' phase, I took offence (although my European silos, tightly packed were shooting down all scattered missiles) and launched everything, even the Shep Fleet of subs I'd snuck up into the Arctic. The AI immediately responded with total commitment of their missiles as well. For the loss of Italians and most of the Baltic states, I totally defeated the Africans and Russians. I also fired the last of my missiles at the Chinese for a laugh.

I'll be back in six-odd hours, and I want to play against proper people. Does anyone use diplomacy?

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-09-27 03:23am

The AI waits for you to become vulnerable by mass-launching. It's best to do a limited launch and keep a large counterforce, or use the enemy launch as an opportunity to spam SLBMs.

Uraniun235 · Post by **Uraniun235** » 2006-09-27 04:22am

I must be doing something wrong; the AI keeps whipping my ass at sea.

On the other hand, despite my failure to dominate the seas I still usually manage to effect a win in the nuclear exchange.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2006-09-27 04:53am

Playing Asia against Africa was fun.
I used up most of my nukes except some subs and a silo to attack most of his cities. But he did rarely shoot back, only in the final escalation phase he went nuts on me, but all my silos where in air defense mode and shot most of the missiles directed at me down, except India which got slaughtered. But Africa was a very glowy wasteland...

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-09-27 05:42am

Uraniun235 wrote:I must be doing something wrong; the AI keeps whipping my ass at sea.

On the other hand, despite my failure to dominate the seas I still usually manage to effect a win in the nuclear exchange.

The AI seems to micromanage fighters, which own your carriers.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-27 10:48am

Naval combat seems to be easier if you keep some distance: whenever I get really close to an enemy fleet, I take high losses. Standing off and using bombers is far more effective.

Has anyone noticed AI firing missiles at nothing? I was kicking Russia and Asia, and they spammed out their last missiles (giving me a chance for easy kills against their cities). The few that got through my defences hit random empty parts of Hungary and the Balkans. What the hell was that about?

And I love the 'shuffle bombers to new airbases to pick up the last few nukes' phase.

loomer · Post by **loomer** » 2006-09-27 11:03am

I'm going to be available for a game for the next three hours, so if anyone wants one, send me a PM.

Dahak · Post by **Dahak** » 2006-09-27 11:26am

Stark wrote: And I love the 'shuffle bombers to new airbases to pick up the last few nukes' phase.

Oh, what "phase" is that?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-09-27 11:30am

The phase that comes after most of your nuclear stockpile is depleated and you're scrambling to get the last hits off.

For me, a problem is shuffling fighters and bombers around to the frontiers.

Also, sea battles are easy, just micro them. They happen mostly early on and you just have to settle down and fight them out properly.

Stark · Post by **Stark** » 2006-09-27 11:45am

I just played a game on 'big world' and holy fuck, the AI gets off early there. Less than a minute into defcon 1 and three fleets of subs had emptied their bays into the United States. They're still REALLY bad targeters, though: they don't go for silos, they don't go for cities, they go for empty space and airbases. What's with that?

And the bomber-shuffle is super-useful when someone has sat out the insanity and still has a powerful defence. You need to overwhelm them, and I always end up with half my bases with no bombers and half with no bombs.

As an aside, what's up with the warmup on bombers? Sometimes they can fire immediately after launch, sometimes it takes FOUR MINUTES before they fire, to the point where they'll circle the target for minutes before firing.

EDIT - I'm seriously considering knocking up a quick mod to allow naval access to the med. It just has to be done.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-09-27 11:47am

Stark wrote:I just played a game on 'big world' and holy fuck, the AI gets off early there. Less than a minute into defcon 1 and three fleets of subs had emptied their bays into the United States. They're still REALLY bad targeters, though: they don't go for silos, they don't go for cities, they go for empty space and airbases. What's with that?

And the bomber-shuffle is super-useful when someone has sat out the insanity and still has a powerful defence. You need to overwhelm them, and I always end up with half my bases with no bombers and half with no bombs.

As an aside, what's up with the warmup on bombers? Sometimes they can fire immediately after launch, sometimes it takes FOUR MINUTES before they fire, to the point where they'll circle the target for minutes before firing.

I think it depends on launch mode, if they were launched on SRBM mode, they can launch nearly at once, however, if you sent them under flight mode it's differant.

I'm trying to figure out the whole timing thing, which has large rampifications on subs.

Nephtys · Post by **Nephtys** » 2006-09-27 01:45pm

Ace Pace wrote:
Stark wrote:I just played a game on 'big world' and holy fuck, the AI gets off early there. Less than a minute into defcon 1 and three fleets of subs had emptied their bays into the United States. They're still REALLY bad targeters, though: they don't go for silos, they don't go for cities, they go for empty space and airbases. What's with that?

And the bomber-shuffle is super-useful when someone has sat out the insanity and still has a powerful defence. You need to overwhelm them, and I always end up with half my bases with no bombers and half with no bombs.

As an aside, what's up with the warmup on bombers? Sometimes they can fire immediately after launch, sometimes it takes FOUR MINUTES before they fire, to the point where they'll circle the target for minutes before firing.
I think it depends on launch mode, if they were launched on SRBM mode, they can launch nearly at once, however, if you sent them under flight mode it's differant.

I'm trying to figure out the whole timing thing, which has large rampifications on subs.

If they strike first, they probably didn't have a clear picture of where stuff was. They were blind-firing. That's a bad idea, but not an impossible one to score hits. I took out two silos once with an SLBM blind-fire.