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For example....

"Ork Rok has landed."
"Fire nukes"
"Yes sir. Launching 500 nuclear warheads......."
"Problem solved"

Why can't the Imperium just bombard ork roks when they land on a planet? In the time it takes to get the entire thing set up, surely the Imperium could just bombard it from orbit or from missiles launched nearby? Or when a nid fleet lands, couldn't they just keep launching missiles at the landing site until they gave up and left? Sorry if it's a stupid question, I havn't got an ork dex so I don't know about some of the defences they may have. But wouldn't a force field just be destroyed by artillery if they had one? I use nids and orks as examples since they're the ones who have fewer landing points and the biggest targets.

Less chance of martyrs/ glory, and it's not grimdark enough.

I think maybe I can answer this with a quote from Heinlein's Starship Troopers (page 63):

"If you wanted to teach a baby a lesson, would you cut its head off? Of course not. You'd paddle it. There can be circumstances when it's just as foolish to hit an enemy city with an H-bomb as it would be to spank a baby with an axe. War is not violence and killing, pure and simple; war is controlled violence, for a purpose. The purpose of war is to support your government's decisions by force. The purpose is never to kill the enemy just to be killing him...but to make him do what you want to do. Not killing...but controlled and purposeful violence. But it's not your business or mine to decide the purpose of the control. It's never a soldier's business to decide when or where or how—or why—he fights; that belongs to the statesmen and the generals. The statesmen decide why and how much; the generals take it from there and tell us where and when and how. We supply the violence; other people—'older and wiser heads,' as they say—supply the control. Which is as it should be."

Also, as above, it wouldn't be grimdark enough if nobody ever got hit with a chainsword.

I thought Tyranids would be immune to that kind of attack because of all the vanguard organisms spreading around the prey world? That coupled with the local vegetation going crazy and freak storms/natural disasters. Then the rest of the fleet arrives to simultaneously blanket the world in gribbly horror.

The Imperial Navy already engages anything heading towards an imperial world/system.
Plus planetary defense systems care for invaders.

Lots of fireworks.....

If they were too successful, the IG has nothing to do.
And you don't want billions of bored and unemployed young men twiddling their thumps......

As I understand it even for the best equipped in the Imperium long distance travel is slow and somewhat unpredictable. Long distance communication can also be slow and suffers from accuracy and clarity issues.

That doesn't make a good recipe for rapid response so unless the 500 nukes are already on standby in the immediate area, they may not get there before the situation has escalated. That would be my guess anyway.

Usually invaders don't land in gigantic Rocks (damn orks) and even when they do they land all over the place. If you nuke your whole planet did you really win?

KamikazeCanuck wrote:Usually invaders don't land in gigantic Rocks (damn orks) and even when they do they land all over the place. If you nuke your whole planet did you really win?

Well, if you hit the rocks you kinda soften the blow. Besides, you could always use artillery.

yes, and they do and they did. It's just not that effective.

That's a good point about nuking the Roks, I can even visualise it:

Valkyrie wrote:That's a good point about nuking the Roks, I can even visualise it:

Well in this detailed, technical CGI the red lines are nukes. The green ones are interceptos.

I disagree KamikazeCanuck, Artillary IS effective it is very VERY effective in killing hundreds of thousands of Orks before, during and after they land in their Roks. The problem is that the 2,000 point army that your opponent has on the field IS what's left of their landing party and that's the Imperial Commanders job to clean up. Enjoy!

With Tyranids you could say that the Genestealer infestation that occurs prior to an attack would have the goal of infiltrating and smashing the defensive infrastructure that is in place. As well as disabling or taking control of any monitoring hardware. They are quite the resourceful breed of bugs.

ComputerGeek01 wrote:I disagree KamikazeCanuck, Artillary IS effective it is very VERY effective in killing hundreds of thousands of Orks before, during and after they land in their Roks. The problem is that the 2,000 point army that your opponent has on the field IS what's left of their landing party and that's the Imperial Commanders job to clean up. Enjoy!

Yes, basically. Even an Apoc sized battle would be "what's left".

felixthecat345 wrote:For example....

"Ork Rok has landed."
"Fire nukes"
"Yes sir. Launching 500 nuclear warheads......."
"Problem solved"

"Although, sir, we do now need to rebuild the continent-spanning Manufactorium that was also obliterated in the bombing... And the loss of the Standard Template Construct device that was unique to this world will be a mighty blow to our forces... Oh, and a representative of the Space Wolves chapter of the Adeptus Astartes is in the foyer waiting to speak to you, carrying quite possibly the largest axe I have ever seen. Something to do with a shrine that we have apparently destroyed? "

insaniak wrote:

felixthecat345 wrote:For example....

"Ork Rok has landed."
"Fire nukes"
"Yes sir. Launching 500 nuclear warheads......."
"Problem solved"

"Although, sir, we do now need to rebuild the continent-spanning Manufactorium that was also obliterated in the bombing... And the loss of the Standard Template Construct device that was unique to this world will be a mighty blow to our forces... Oh, and a representative of the Space Wolves chapter of the Adeptus Astartes is in the foyer waiting to speak to you, carrying quite possibly the largest axe I have ever seen. Something to do with a shrine that we have apparently destroyed? "

"oh and I almost forgot one breath of air now causes instantaneous death by lung cancer."

KamikazeCanuck wrote:"oh and I almost forgot one breath of air now causes instantaneous death by lung cancer."

I think this is already true on many forge worlds anyway.

Ha,lung cancer is funny.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

insaniak wrote:

felixthecat345 wrote:For example....

"Ork Rok has landed."
"Fire nukes"
"Yes sir. Launching 500 nuclear warheads......."
"Problem solved"

"Although, sir, we do now need to rebuild the continent-spanning Manufactorium that was also obliterated in the bombing... And the loss of the Standard Template Construct device that was unique to this world will be a mighty blow to our forces... Oh, and a representative of the Space Wolves chapter of the Adeptus Astartes is in the foyer waiting to speak to you, carrying quite possibly the largest axe I have ever seen. Something to do with a shrine that we have apparently destroyed? "

"oh and I almost forgot one breath of air now causes instantaneous death by lung cancer."

"None of which would matter except for the fact the productivity is down 10% and we can't make our tithes. So you're probably going to be assassinated and replaced with someone who won't nuke the gak out of our own planet the first time a couple thousand greenskins show up. I look forward to my upcoming promotion."

It might also come down to a Battle Ship of the emporer not haveing a weapon small enough to not destroy a continent and everything on it.

And why would you nuke them,when you can GET STUCK IN!

What surprises me is that when an Ork Rok enters a system, why don't the authorities start to stockpile that stuff that gets rid of the black mould in bathrooms.

Kilkrazy wrote:What surprises me is that when an Ork Rok enters a system, why don't the authorities start to stockpile that stuff that gets rid of the black mould in bathrooms.

This made me lol

Because the good guy's ships are fighting the bad guy's ships...

Because it requires ground forces to capture and control things of importance.

What use is a forgeworld rended so radioactive noone can work on it? A hive world left uninhabitable? An Agriworld used to feed a hundred other worlds suddenly poisoned beyond use? A shrine world no one can visit?

and most importantly...

Because if even a smart and capable bunch of people like space marines can't use ballistic missiles against orks without reducing their own fortress monastary to rubble instead, what hope the rest of poor, non-superhuman humanity? (see: 'Rynn's World: What a clusterfeth...).

While the tangent about radioactive weapons is funny (and full of good points) I think we all realize that the Imperium has weapons of a non-nuclear but still large scale artillery nature. I also think that in the case of most invasions by a species with a mind for tactics (Eldar, Chaos, Tau, Necrons to some extent) the invading force takes that into account.

In other cases, with an opponent with little of what we would think of as standard battlefield tactics (Orks, Tyranids, Necrons again to some extent) the invading force arrives in such numbers (or with such stealth) that the Imperial Navy does what it can in the way of bombardment, and the forces that remain on the ground are those that couldn't be gotten to in time.

If you had a few weeds growing in your lawn out in your back yard would you:
A.) Burn the Heretic
B.) Drop a nuke in your back yard
C.) Get your hands dirty and just pull the weeds out



Living healthy populated planets contribute to the greater good and provide something to the rest of the Imperium. Dead radioactive rocks in space that used to be planets don't.

Also I guess it has something to do that nukes are "forbidden and dangerous weaponry" and deemed heretical by the Adeptus Mechaniscus IIRC (see the DKoK fluff for informtion on nukes in the empire)

I'd always choose A. Always.

People have all forgotten the key safety point.

"Nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

Never nuke a planet you actually are on at the time.

Kilkrazy wrote:People have all forgotten the key safety point.

"Nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

Never nuke a planet you actually are on at the time.

That's bad. Okay. All right, important safety tip. Thanks, Kilkrazy.

Remember: safety is the Imperium's number 2037 concern, so please, stay safe. Oh but do those other 2036 things first (most of which involve venerating the Emperor in some form).