Nuclear Attack

A Nuclear Attack is a missile that ruins part of an enemy's regions. It turns them to waste. It takes no regions from them and kills nobody: the target keeps every region, pays upkeep on all of them, and earns nothing from the ruined ones until they are cleaned up.

You are quoted a price once you name a target, and you can walk away from it. The price is set by the size of the realm you are aiming at — a large neighbor needs a large missile — up to a ceiling, so the very biggest realms are proportionally cheap to hit.

About 7% of the target's regions are ruined per strike, varying a couple of points either way. Nothing shoots the missile down: an SDI program defends against missiles arriving from another planet, not from a neighbor on your own.

A successful strike raises your score, whether or not it did much damage.

Strategy: a nuclear strike weakens a rival over time. It cannot destroy a realm, and it gives you nothing. It makes the enemy's regions expensive to hold while you prepare a real attack. Against a small realm the damage is almost zero, so save your gold for a large one.