When to use warheads?

[jaedite]

Another question from a new player:

Could somebody provide some insight on when to use warheads?

So far in my games, I haven't really run into situations where I have needed to use them. Granted they would have made some situations a lot easier to get through. Although I play on fairly easy levels as well.

Usually what situations do people use them in? When is the progress tradeoff worth it to use a warhead to rid a system of a large number of enemies built up there? When it comes to the AI home world is that a good place to consider it?

I'm guessing it depends largely on the type of AI enemies out there; but I suppose on average how many times are the warheads used in a game and what situations are they called for?

Thanks for any responses in advance!

[Captain Jack]

It depends on your playstyle. Even on higher difficulties warheads aren't necessary. Except maybe 10/10 but that's special.

Broadly speaking, you'll use warheads to either soften an AI world or blunt an overwhelming attack. Using a warhead on an AI homeworld is a good choice since you're going to be racking up AIP anyway. If you need to punch a hole through a highly defended system then the AIP is the price of saving yourself the time and effort of micromanaging your attack on the target. On defense it's often a matter of using a warhead or losing your fleet/the game.

Of course some players use warheads the way you might use a Golem: as often as possible and with extreme prejudice. You know who you are.

[jaedite]

Ok, that makes sense. I wasn't sure if I was "doing it wrong" not really using them.

Aside from the AI homeworld the only other real time I have, is when you run into a situation with a few heavily fortified mark IV planets near a planet you want to take. Sometimes it's just easier to send some warheads in to remove the threat vs. take heavy losses.

[Toranth]

Watashiwa basically covered it, but I'll toss in my 0.02:

Warheads are generally a way to trade AIP for time.  Anything you can kill with a warhead, you can kill with your fleet.  Sometimes, it might take several rebuilds of your fleet to destroy the entire enemy fleet, which means saving a lot of time otherwise spent rebuilding.

It is always worth it to use a warhead to a) not die or b) win.  So, the most frequent times for warhead use are when defending against a CPA (since the CPA also conveniently bunches up, making itself an easier target) and when assaulting an AI Homeworld (popping a warhead to clear out the Reserves is a core strategy).

If you find yourself defending against normal waves with a warhead, it is probably a bad thing - the time you are trading your AIP for is too short to be worth it in most cases.
If you find yourself needing a warhead to attack normal AI held systems, it is probably a bad thing - if your offensive fleet is not capable of attacking a normal system, you'll be in deep trouble when you get to the AI homeworld.  Similarly, if it takes so long to clear a normal AI system with your fleet-rebuild-attack cycle, you have much the same problem.  However, there are times when an AI will have just the right combination of guardposts, goodies, and/or positioning to make it very difficult to attack a normal system.  That's an OK time to use a warhead (if you really need to).

For a newer player, I strongly suggest to avoid using warheads at all.  Using warheads can make it easy to cover mistakes in building defenses, or fleet positioning/composition, or strategic planning, that hinder your growth of those skills.  Combined with the fact that the actual cost of the AIP increase really doesn't become apparent until much later in the game, it can be easy to develop bad habits.

That was a bit rambling, so to summarize:  If your find yourself using warheads against anything but the AI's big punches (CPAs, exowaves, AI HW assaults) you probably have some other problem you need to look at first before relying on warheads to fix.

[tadrinth]

CPAs, exogalactic strikeforces, giant piles of hybrids, cargo train projects, Hunter plot.  Also handy for clearing out the reserves on AI homeworlds. 

[Pumpkin]

Very good advices here. I just wanted to add a little idea: auto AIP. Look at Red.Queen's AAR. However, warhead usage on first game like that is hugely situational: Req.Queen was lured by an outdated tooltip and setup 1AIP/5minutes; at that point any normal player would acknowledge the little mistake and rewind the game with a more normal auto AIP. Red.Queen did not.

So my point is that auto AIP completely change the value of the AIP cost of anything. With 1AIP/30min, a +1AIP warhead asks you "Do my target is worth 30 minutes?" If you can crush this target in 15 minutes, you wasted 1/2 AIP. If the target can't be cleared in less than 2 hours, then you saved 1AIP with the warhead usage. (And I don't consider the usage where it's a lose now/latter/win question.) So with 1AIP/5minutes, you can consider using a +1AIP warhead even on a regular wave that would cost you 10 minutes to clean.

(The same apply for taking planets: 1 more planet = 20 AIP = 100 minutes worth of AIP with 1/5min setup.)

Also, nuking the last homeworld is to be considered: even if you reach amounts you won't be able to handle, if you win before, it's ok. So a last onslaught nuke is kind of free if you really win with the next step.

[Red.Queen]

Can't resist chiming in real quick instead of getting to sleep before a workday...

Pumpkin did an excellent job recapping my logic as to why I used warheads so freely in that match.  At the same time, Toranth was right too -- there were several occasions where I let the WMDs fly because my defenses on certain outlying planets were stretched too thin, but I refused to sacrifice something else to defend them more conventionally.  So I was indeed spackling over a flaw in defense that the AI was picking up on and trying to exploit.  It was just less harmful of a move due to the fairly intense auto-AIP -- far better to burn 5-15 minutes worth of AIP rather than the at least 20 minutes it would have taken to redirect my fleet, try to catch and stamp out the wave-turned-threat, and rebuild.

Basically, playing a clock-racing game (whether intentionally or because the AI tricked you with a deprecated tooltip  ) turns a lot of the general "best practices" on their head, and probably shouldn't be taken as advice for a normal game, where having some restraint on hammering that shiny red button is probably a safer bet.  (I kind of wonder just how far this "M.A.D. strategy" can be taken in a clock-racer match, and how high up the difficulty scale it could be viable -- given my proclivities and the fact that talking this through really makes me wonder whether such a fringe style could work, expect to see me try that in an AAR after the upcoming one for my current 8/8 game, if I find any success with it.  >D )

There was also another factor that can play into when to use warheads that I ran into -- what plots you have enabled (aside from Hybrids and Hunter, which were already astutely mentioned by tadrinth -- Armored warheads were *made* for Hunter/Killers).  I was running with Preemption in that game, which is a plot that appears to be one of the harsher ones per point of intensity.  If you're not familiar with it, it kicks a certain chunk of every planet's reinforcements directly into Threat -- so it's another layer of time pressure, as every reinforcement cycle that passes doubles as an offense booster for the AI... and don't forget that AIP combos with it to tighten the noose further.  Depending on whether you have one of the Shark plots on and how severe they are, those can also warrant breaking out the warheads -- especially Shark A, as it's a +AIP hit.  If the warhead is less than what Shark A would tag you with for losing any command center (or if a Shark B attack is likely to cause a serious problem, like breaking another command center), bombs away!

[RabidDonkey]

I use warheads during AI homeworld assaults, usually the second one. Nukes can be used for clearing out the mark IV core worlds, but this seems more like a luxury than necessity. Armored and lightening are great for the strategic reserves.

The other scenario is if I'm going for the fallen spire win, in which case I'll cheerfully dump all my warheads on the worlds bordering my big choke where thousands of AI threats are gathered.

**SPOILER**SPOILER**





Best time from my limited experience seems to be around 20-ish minute mark out of the 30 minute countdown as threat peaks just before the AI rush your front. If you can hold this assault off or delay it even just a few minutes, you're guaranteed to win.

Just be sure to store the nukes away from your frontline and guide it to the front under the cover of cloaks.

[Mal]

To cover some of the other areas that warheads can serve -

EMP Warheads
These can be a necessity for heavily shielded worlds that hide multiple layers of invincibility for the command post or defenses structures like Orbital Mass Drivers/Eyes that can really take a lot of time/ships/resources to grind down. They can also be used defensively to slow down CPAs so that only Guardians/Starships/Core make it to your defenses first and you can grind down the attack in a staggered way.

Tachyon Warheads
These are even more specialized. You can use them defensively for when the AI has shown that they are using Vampire Claw ships or Eyebots to sneak attack your command posts. You can use them offensively to reveal specialized AI's ( such as Stealth Master and the like) worlds to see the world or reveal cloaked ships like Vampire Claw and the like so you can blast them before they chew your fragile ships to pieces.