Chemical Attack

A Chemical Attack is a gas missile. It ruins fewer regions than a nuclear missile, and it also kills people. It ruins about a third as many regions as a nuclear strike and kills a fifth of the enemy's people outright. It also lowers both their military morale and their popular support. It leaves their troopers alone.

The morale and support damage is the part that lasts. Casualties come back as the population grows; a realm knocked down to two-thirds support earns less and fights worse until it has climbed back.

The arms broker prices the missile off the target's population as well as its regions, so gassing a crowded realm is expensive. Nothing intercepts it — not SDI, not turrets, not tanks.

Strategy: this is the weapon to use on a rich, crowded rival you cannot beat in the field. A Nuclear Attack hurts their regions harder, but only a chemical strike touches the people paying for their army.