Missile Silos
How to deal with missile silos
- Air power. Bombers, troop transports, attack helicopters, etc. Watch out for air defenses. Silos are often protected by SAMs.
- Spread out. Silos target the group of attackers with the highest hitpoints, so deploy a cluster of Generals/Tanks to draw the missile silo's fire, then deploy your other troops far away. Deploying to four sides or four corners of the enemy base can work well. This can make it hard to get to the town center for quick victory, so you will probably have to use the 50% rule instead. Here is a YouTube video showing this technique (Disclaimer: I did not make this video).
- Start small. Silos will not trigger until a certain (number unknown) hit points worth of troops have been deployed. So deploy low-health infantry/shooters/artillery first then deal with the silo while they get started destroying things. This can help make good use of those precious seconds for quick victory.
- Saboteur/Commando. Deploy this sneaky attacker and rally it to the silo before deploying the rest of your troops. Or better, dedicate your army to this style of attack. Here is a great guide from reddit. Disclaimer: I did not write this, but I think highly of the person that did.
- Ignore it. An army of mostly heavy tanks (the ones from the Factory, not the ones from the Barracks) have enough health to just ignore the silo. Watch out for anti-tank guns, and train some First Aid to heal your tanks as needed. This is my favorite approach.
- Demolition. Against Atomic/Global silos, three or four fully upgraded Atomic demolitions should do it (but beware buffs). This leaves you with a few tactics for other things. Make sure to research the University skill that buffs your Demolition damage. The coalition that buffs your tactics damage is helpful. This gets ineffective in higher ages, and I mention it mostly for completeness. Generally speaking, Demolition is trash in higher ages and you should use a different strategy.
- Barrages. Against Atomic/Global silos, six or seven fully upgraded Atomic barrages will take out most silos (but beware buffs). This means you'll use most or all of your tactics. But if you target the edges of the silo, you can often weaken a large area of the enemy defenses in addition to the silo. The coalition that buffs your tactics damage is helpful. This gets ineffective in higher ages, same as Demolition, and I don't really recommend it.
- Decoys. I haven't tried this, but I've heard that some people successfully use them to distract silos.
- Rush it. Silos have a big exclusion area they can't hit. Deploy fast and rally to the silo. Can work for some base layouts, but if the silo is heavily protected it can also fail dramatically - you may rally your army to its death.
Watch out for buffs, which may make the silos tougher. This especially matters in war, where a strong defensive coalition can double the silo health. It is good to be proficient in a backup strategy, in case circumstances make your normal strategy ineffective.
Whatever you do, have a plan. Do not think it will be okay, deploy your troops, and lose half of them before you realize you're in trouble. Know what you are going to do about the silo before you attack, then execute your plan quickly, before the silo can destroy your army.