Talk:Lescatie/@comment-25405125-20150124052227/@comment-25575899-20150315183028

Sorry 'bout that. I logged in to another computer and now I'm on my main.

(Again, this is for a modern setting. The actual setting, which is a medieval / High Rennaisance setting, has no equivalent.)

[This is about to get morbid. If you don't want to talk about theoretical weapon payloads and have anything other than a complete disregard for life, human or otherwise, please do not read this comment]

Indeed, nuking every Demon Realm would be incredibly stupid. You'd be putting a radioactive cloud that results in monsterization of any person who is exposed to it for longer than a few minutes into the atmosphere, potentially into the global winds. Therefore, it would only make sense to apply such force to a formerly human nation that had recently fallen to an assault by monsters, so as to discourage other such attacks. The threat of undoing everything the invading force set out to do with a single strike is usually more than enough of a deterrent, at least for a little while.

That being said, there are methods that can be used to control the amount of fallout produced and mitigate the damage caused by any potential fallout. One method is simply to use smaller, lower yield explosives, but use more of them and pick your targets carefully. Another method would be by detonating a nuclear device in the air about a mile or two before it hits the ground, using the shockwave to do most of the damage to enemy emplacements / infrastructure / etc. One can also control the damage from fallout by simply evacuating the affect areas.

But if we're really going into hard science fiction territory, then an alternative would be the so-called "Rods from God." The basic premise is as follows:

1) Take a large tungsten or depleted uranium rod the size of a telephone pole. In fact, take a few of them.

2) Strap them to a satellite and launch them into low Earth orbit.

3) When you're ready to use them, pick a target and let the computer decide when to release the projectiles.

4) Wait a few minutes and let gravity do the rest. Go make a sandwich or something.

5) Come back to watch your enemy panic as they're hit by something they cannot possibly defend against: ~10 tungsten projectiles hitting the ground at Mach 10, leveling everything in their path.

The advantage of this method is that even though the damage done by each projectile is equivalent to a tactical nuclear warhead, since there are no nuclear devices being used, there is no fallout.