Nuclear Attack

A Nuclear Attack ruins a slice of the enemy's regions, turning them to waste. It takes no land 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 neighbour needs a large missile — up to a ceiling, so the very biggest realms are proportionally cheap to hit.

About 7% of the target's land is 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 neighbour on your own.

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

Strategy: a nuclear strike wears a rival down. It cannot finish one off and it hands you nothing you can use; it makes an enemy's territory expensive to hold while you build toward a real attack. Against a small realm the damage rounds away to almost nothing, so save the gold for a large one.