OpenFront Post-MIRV Recovery: Stop the Bleed and Time Your Counterattack

Direct answer: preserve the cities, then check the next strike

When a MIRV lands, preserve completed Cities, accept some tile loss, and read your troop saturation before spending Gold. There is no global MIRV launch cooldown in v0.34.11: anyone with enough Gold and a ready Silo can fire again at the new price. Counter only when your recovered force, reserve, route, and the attacker’s visible Silo state support a bounded objective. Warhead arrival remains variable.

This guide owns the decision after the split, not the mechanics of the MIRV itself. The MIRV mechanics guide covers the 350-warhead envelope, SAM interception, and MIRV INBOUND; the recovery playbook covers generic stop-loss and rebuild after any nuclear event. Here the question is narrower and decision-changing: you have been MIRVed, your map looks dead, and you need to know exactly what to hold, how fast you recover, and when to hit back. The current launch and price boundary comes from the official v0.34.11 tagged source, not a community answer.

Read the regrowth math before you touch the map

The single most useful fact in a post-MIRV situation is the troop growth function. In troopIncreaseRate(), the base gain per tick is 10 + (troops ^ 0.73) / 4, then it is multiplied by the saturation factor (1 − current Troops / maximum Troops), then adjusted by difficulty and other modifiers, then capped so your count never exceeds maxTroops.

The ^ 0.73 exponent is the decision core. Because the exponent is below 1, the base term grows more slowly than the troop count, which means the relative gain per remaining troop is larger when you are low than when you are near your cap. A player who is MIRVed down to 40,000 Troops has a saturation factor near 1, so the full base term applies. A player who was sitting at 90% of cap and lost a third of their force has a saturation factor near 0.1, so most of the base term is multiplied away. The same MIRV that is devastating in absolute numbers is less devastating in relative terms to the low-capacity player, because the saturation factor is doing the work for them.

The other half of the formula is maxTroops itself, which is what you are regrowing toward. For a human player it is 2 · (tiles^0.6 · 1000 + 50000) + (sum of completed City levels) · cityTroopIncrease, where cityTroopIncrease is a flat 250,000 per completed City level. Two consequences follow directly. First, each surviving completed City is worth 250,000 of your maximum — a level-3 City is worth 750,000 — so preserving City level is worth far more to your recovery than reclaiming an equal number of bare tiles. Second, your tile count feeds the base term only through tiles^0.6, which also grows sub-linearly: going from 3,000 to 6,000 tiles does not double your cap contribution. This is why the correct first instinct is “hold the cities, let the tiles go” rather than “re-take everything.”

Worked example, all numbers from the tagged source. You survive a MIRV with 40,000 current Troops, 3,200 owned tiles, and two completed level-3 Cities. Your maxTroops is 2 · (3200^0.6 · 1000 + 50000) + (3 + 3) · 250,000. The tile term is 3200^0.6 ≈ 126.8, so the non-City term is about 353,583; the City term is 6 · 250,000 = 1,500,000; your cap is about 1,853,583. Your saturation factor is 1 − 40000 / 1853583 ≈ 0.978. Your base term is 10 + 40000^0.73 / 4 ≈ 582. Your net gain is about 582 · 0.978 ≈ 570 Troops per tick, or roughly 5,700 per second at 10 ticks per second. That is a recoverable army, but it is materially slower than the original estimate.

A ready Silo can fire again without a global timer

The second decision core is the follow-up threat, not a protected minute. The v0.34.11 price starts at 25M and rises by 15M for every game-wide MIRV launch. A first attacker who spent 25M needs 40M for the next one, assuming nobody else fires. The price may restrain them, but it does not prevent a launch. A second ready Silo and enough Gold can produce another strike immediately; the same is true of another player with their own ready Silo.

Two more numbers shape the follow-up threat. The MIRV carrier moves at 15 tiles per tick; split warheads start at 22 and receive an index-based bonus up to 26, plus independent waits of 0–14 ticks. Arrival is variable rather than a fixed-ETA threat. The launch also breaks the alliance at −100 to both sides, so survival leaves you in a fresh hostile state. The MIRV INBOUND banner is your warning, but it does not reveal the attacker’s next Silo state.

The practical read is a two-state problem: their visible Silo and Gold options versus your recovery. Counter only when your force and reserve can complete a bounded objective despite a possible follow-up. A second ready Silo or another player’s launch changes the threat and the shared price; re-run the check rather than relying on a fixed timer.

Run SAVE–SAT–COOL–COUNTER after every strike

SAVE is the preserve-cities step. In the first ten seconds after the last warhead lands, do not spend Gold rebuilding bare tiles or starting new construction on exposed ground. Identify every completed City you still own and keep it connected to your force. Each one is worth 250,000 of your maxTroops per level, and a City under construction is not counted, so a half-finished rebuild is not a recovery asset — finish the ones you have before starting new ones.

SAT is the saturation read. Look at your current Troops relative to your maxTroops and confirm you are in the low-saturation zone where the ^ 0.73 term and the near-1 saturation factor give you your best relative regen. If you were already near cap before the MIRV, accept that your regen is slower and plan a longer hold rather than an immediate counter. Write the number: “I am at X% of cap, so my net gain is about Y per tick.”

COOL is the counter-launch observation. Note the MIRV INBOUND warning, the attacker’s ready Silo tubes, plausible Gold, the shared MIRV price, and the route a second strike could threaten. A cooling tube takes 90 ticks to reload, but another ready tube can fire earlier. Neither a quiet Silo nor the first launch grants a global 60-second safety window.

COUNTER is the bounded strike. Commit a force only when your SAT number and COOL observation leave enough reserve to survive a follow-up, and make that strike a declared objective — a shortening of your border, a capture of an exposed City, a denial of the attacker’s approach — not a full-send. Keep a reserve that can answer a second MIRV. The test is the same as the land combat stop line: you know in advance what signal ends the counter.

Rerun all four after every material change. A warhead landing mid-recovery resets SAT; a newly ready Silo or changed price resets COOL. A good recovery can finish early and be a win; its purpose is to convert a devastating event into a bounded decision instead of a panic.

Scenario one: mid-FFA counter with a second Silo threat

Assume a v0.34.11 FFA with no earlier MIRV launches. You own 3,200 tiles, two completed level-3 Cities, and 40,000 current Troops after a MIRV from a rival who has 1,100,000 Troops and a second idle Missile Silo. The rival just spent 25M; their next MIRV costs at least 40M. Your maxTroops is about 1,853,583, so your SAT factor is about 0.978 and your net gain is about 570 per tick, or roughly 5,700 per second. You have 600,000 Gold and a land route toward an exposed level-1 City 1,500 tiles behind their front. This is a conditional counter example: the capture is viable only while the reserve and route survive the threat.

The timing check. To capture a City 1,500 tiles behind the front, assume 90,000 committed plus a 50,000 reserve. The total threshold is 140,000, requiring 100,000 more than your current 40,000. At roughly 5,700 Troops per second initially, that takes about 18 seconds in a static calculation; real growth tapers and combat changes the state. Do not call the counter feasible from the clock alone: the second Silo can relaunch immediately, and the 22–26 tile-per-tick warheads add waits and route uncertainty.

Run SAVE–SAT–COOL–COUNTER. SAVE: both level-3 Cities are held and connected, so you keep 1,500,000 of cap. SAT: you are at 2.2% of cap, but the corrected early gain is about 570 per tick. COOL: the second ready Silo can launch immediately if the rival has 40M. COUNTER: commit only after the force-plus-reserve threshold is reached, and cancel when the next launch or route change defeats the plan.

The opponent counterplay is a second launch. If the rival can afford the new 40M price, they may use the time you spent recovering to launch a follow-up; warhead travel and stagger mean its arrival cannot be read from a fixed clock. Your defense is the reserve: it is the difference between a bounded counter that ends in a new City and a full-send that ends in your two Cities captured. Success means you take the City and hold the reserve despite the follow-up threat; it does not require eliminating them.

Scenario two: you lost every City and must rebuild from tiles

Assume the same FFA, but the MIRV took all of your Cities. You have 6,000 tiles, 0 completed Cities, 60,000 Troops, and 400,000 Gold. Your maxTroops is about 469,761 because 6000^0.6 ≈ 184.9. Your SAT factor is about 0.872. Your base term is about 779, so your net gain is about 680 per tick, or about 6,800 per second.

This is the case the community threads describe as “my map is dead,” and the math shows a recoverable position, not a guaranteed comeback. You still have a cap of about 469,761 and a strong relative regen. The decision is where to rebuild. A completed level-3 City would add 750,000, taking the cap to about 1,219,761; at 60,000 Troops that raises the saturation factor to about 0.951, so the immediate growth improvement is roughly 9%, not an order of magnitude. Build behind depth, re-read SAT when it completes, and keep watching for the attacker’s next launch.

Failure modes and how the attacker punishes them

The first failure is panic rebuilding. Spending Gold on exposed tile captures or starting new construction on the front in the first ten seconds looks productive and is not: every tile you commit there is a target for the follow-up, and a City under construction adds zero to your cap. The attacker punishes this with a second ready Silo, landing a warhead on your exposed rebuild while your reserve is committed to the front.

The second failure is imagining a safe minute. A rival with a charged second Silo and enough Gold can launch again without a global delay. Read COOL against visible tubes, likely funds, and possible incoming trajectories, not an ideal timer.

The third failure is the full-send counter. Committing your entire force to the counter leaves no reserve for a second MIRV, so a follow-up warhead captures your now-empty Cities and the game is over. The counter is only worth taking if the declared reserve survives; if it does not, hold.

The fourth failure is misreading fallout. The falloutDefenseModifier is 5 − falloutRatio · 2, which scales both your attack magnitude and the tile cost on fallen-out ground. Standing on heavy fallout to “hold a line” means you fight with degraded attack and pay more to move, while the attacker’s follow-up is partially blunted by the same fallout. If your Cities sit in fallout, plan the rebuild on cleaner ground behind them.

The fifth failure is treating the recovery as a race to cap. You do not need to be at cap to counter; you need the declared force plus reserve. Reaching cap is the goal of the next phase, not this one. Chasing the last few percent of regen after a bounded counter is the same error as the full-send: it commits the reserve to a number instead of to an objective.

Bad shortcut	Why it fails in v34	Recoverable replacement
”Rebuild every tile right now”	Exposed rebuilds are follow-up targets; unfinished Cities add no cap	Hold completed Cities, rebuild one City behind depth
”I have a safe minute”	There is no global launch lockout	Check ready tubes, price, and reserve before moving
”Full-send the counter”	No reserve means a follow-up captures your Cities	Commit a bounded force, hold a reserve, set a stop line
”Hold the line on heavy fallout”	5 − falloutRatio·2 degrades your attack and raises tile cost	Rebuild on cleaner ground behind the fallout
”Race to full cap before hitting back”	Cap is the next phase; the counter needs force + reserve, not max	Strike at the declared threshold, re-read SAT after

Adjust the loop for maps, FFA, Team, and Nations

On a small map, warhead travel time is short and a second-Silo relaunch is decisive, so visible launch capacity is the binding constraint. Prefer a counter that ends inside your own territory (a shortening of the border) over one that advances onto the attacker’s, because the return trip is where a follow-up warhead catches you. On a large map, the 22–26 tiles-per-tick warheads may take longer to arrive, but their waits and a second hostile contact on another edge can still close your route; count your exposures the way threat assessment does before committing.

In Team, the alliance break at −100 on a MIRV launch matters more: a MIRVed teammate drops the alliance, which can expose a flank you were relying on. Coordinate the COOL observation — one teammate holds the Cities, one preserves the reserve, and nobody opens a second front without naming who covers it. The v34 Team win threshold is 80%, so a long nuclear cleanup should not distract from a nearer territory finish.

In Humans versus Nations, a Nation that has MIRVed you shares the same rising price and local Silo reload rules, while its AI may also send a normal attack. Treat COOL as a threat observation: another ready Silo can fire if the Nation can afford the next rung. The SAVE and SAT steps are unchanged; only the COOL read is more conservative.

The map-scale lesson is the same as the pressure guide: it changes the time available to react, not the four checks. The numbers — 90-tick Silo reload, 15M per prior MIRV, 250,000 per City level, ^ 0.73 growth — should be rechecked whenever a later Release changes them.

Keep a recovery ledger and verify the version boundary

The repeatable practice is a three-line ledger taken at impact, at the recovery midpoint, and at the counter decision. At impact, record your current and maximum Troops, the completed City levels you still own, the attacker’s visible Silo state, and the shared MIRV price. At the midpoint, record your SAT factor and net gain per tick, and whether another Silo became ready or a launch raised the price. At the decision, record the declared force, the reserve, and the stop line. Short records expose which assumption failed without pretending that internal random state was observable.

Ledger moment	Record	Continue only when	Stop or switch when
At impact	Troops/cap, surviving City levels, attacker Silo state, current MIRV price	Completed Cities are connected and the reserve is intact	A City is under attack or the reserve is already committed
At midpoint	SAT factor, net gain per tick, ready tubes and shared price	Net gain is positive and reserve can answer a follow-up	A new launch or SAT drop defeats the plan
At decision	Declared force, reserve, stop line	The strike can hold despite a possible follow-up	The second Silo lights up or the reserve falls below plan

The evidence boundary is OpenFront v0.34.11, checked on 20 September 2026. The official Release is the version boundary. The Stats source records the game-wide MIRV launch count. The Config source defines the 25M + 15M price, Silo reload, maxTroops, cityTroopIncrease, troopIncreaseRate, falloutDefenseModifier, and nukeSpeed. The NukeExecution source defines warhead flight and fallout impact. MIRVExecution defines the 350-warhead envelope, 55-tile minimum spread, 1500 range, and alliance break.

Community posts and videos in the linked research pack answer a different question: what players notice and which decisions repeatedly fail. They support the language of “my map is dead,” the confusion about whether to counter, and the concern about a second MIRV. They do not prove current ratios, guaranteed survival, or a universal build order. That separation is deliberate. If a later Release changes the MIRV price, Silo reload, growth function, or City troop bonus, preserve the SAVE–SAT–COOL–COUNTER loop and recompute the numbers from the new tag.

Continue according to the failed check. For the MIRV mechanics and the split, use the MIRV mechanics guide. For the damage model behind the warheads, use the nuke calculator. For how the counter resolves once you commit, use land combat. For the endgame clock that can end the game during recovery, use Doomsday Clock. For the deterrence logic that prevents the next MIRV, use nuclear deterrence. Each next page repairs one decision input rather than restarting a generic nuclear walkthrough.

The final rule is testable: after a MIRV lands, preserve completed Cities, read your saturation, check ready Silos and the current shared price, and strike a bounded objective with a held reserve. Make the first move small enough to observe the response. Stop when the declared signal appears even if land remains. Resume only after a new SAVE–SAT–COOL–COUNTER pass. That discipline cannot remove the risk of a second launch, but it prevents the most common post-MIRV error: treating a devastating strike as a death sentence or relying on a nonexistent safe minute.