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As far as I know, tactical nuclear warheads are only present on Deathstrikes, whos warheads can range from small virus bombs, plasma, to Vortex with nukes included.

But I think the issue is that even in 40k im not sure if they can get rid of the biggest issue nukes have even today. Radiation.
While they might have the medical tech to keep you alive from exposure (survivable exposure...), im sure an irradiated planet would not be worth much unless ther eis mineral value that has not been effected by radiation.


Nuke tyranids? well... killed a bunch but now they got radioactive, glow-in-the-dark killer bugs!
Nuke Orks? they will glow too and possibly have bad mutations with bigger orks and maybe some Mek might get this idea to make "Dat Big Arse Bomb" that he saw the uumies use.


Im sure somewhere in the Imperium is a Space marine chapter (home-made) or Ig regiment that are nuke happy.....

 Engine of War wrote:

But I think the issue is that even in 40k im not sure if they can get rid of the biggest issue nukes have even today. Radiation.
While they might have the medical tech to keep you alive from exposure (survivable exposure...), im sure an irradiated planet would not be worth much unless ther eis mineral value that has not been effected by radiation.

They would just let people die. Most of the Hive Worlds are super-polluted and super-radiated hellholes anyway, so who would care for another such place? I guess absolutely nobody. Same for the soldiers who would fight on the irradiated wasteland.

And the aftermath of a tactical nuclear attack is not even half as severe as one would think. Just look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki: both of them are thriving cities, even though they were nuked pretty hard in the past.

And the main destructive force of a nuclear device is the heat it produces and the shockwave. And ain't no Ork or Tyrannid is immune to that!

 AtoMaki wrote:

 Engine of War wrote:

But I think the issue is that even in 40k im not sure if they can get rid of the biggest issue nukes have even today. Radiation.
While they might have the medical tech to keep you alive from exposure (survivable exposure...), im sure an irradiated planet would not be worth much unless ther eis mineral value that has not been effected by radiation.

They would just let people die. Most of the Hive Worlds are super-polluted and super-radiated hellholes anyway, so who would care for another such place? I guess absolutely nobody. Same for the soldiers who would fight on the irradiated wasteland.

And the aftermath of a tactical nuclear attack is not even half as severe as one would think. Just look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki: both of them are thriving cities, even though they were nuked pretty hard in the past.

And the main destructive force of a nuclear device is the heat it produces and the shockwave. And ain't no Ork or Tyrannid is immune to that!

Given that Deathstrike missiles can't kill (and may not even hurt) a Hierophant Biotitan I wouldn't be so sure about that.

Not to mention that Carnifexes have survived exterminatus with just a bit of dirt on top of them.

Also gargoyles becoming immune to shipgrade multiteraton ion cannons, trololololol.

 Kain wrote:

Given that Deathstrike missiles can't kill (and may not even hurt) a Hierophant Biotitan I wouldn't be so sure about that.

Man, a humble Guardsman can survive a Deathstrike missile completely unscathed. But it doesn't mean that a human can survive a nuke ...

 AtoMaki wrote:

 Kain wrote:

Given that Deathstrike missiles can't kill (and may not even hurt) a Hierophant Biotitan I wouldn't be so sure about that.

Man, a humble Guardsman can survive a Deathstrike missile completely unscathed. But it doesn't mean that a human can survive a nuke ...

Well one is a squishy human in okayish body armor, the other duels with titans who slug around kilo to megaton level weaponry.

 Kain wrote:
Not to mention that Carnifexes have survived exterminatus with just a bit of dirt on top of them.

Got a source? An exterminatus practically cracks a planet's crust open.

 Kain wrote:
Well one is a squishy human in okayish body armor, the other duels with titans who slug around kilo to megaton level weaponry.

Nowhere near megaton weaponry, 3 megatons of explosives was the total used in the whole of ww2 including both A-bombs. Megaton yield weaponry is strategic level power, not tactical level stuff. Can't see any titans having that much power with the possible exception of the emperor class. I'd think Ordinatus' would be the only one to have that much destructive power.

 uk_crow wrote:

 Kain wrote:
Not to mention that Carnifexes have survived exterminatus with just a bit of dirt on top of them.

Got a source? An exterminatus practically cracks a planet's crust open.

 Kain wrote:
Well one is a squishy human in okayish body armor, the other duels with titans who slug around kilo to megaton level weaponry.

Nowhere near megaton weaponry, 3 megatons of explosives was the total used in the whole of ww2 including both A-bombs. Megaton yield weaponry is strategic level power, not tactical level stuff. Can't see any titans having that much power with the possible exception of the emperor class. I'd think Ordinatus' would be the only one to have that much destructive power.

The 4e or 3e Tyranid book has a carnifex survive exterminatus by burrowing, it is injured, but must be killed by the Magos Biologis' team when it proves still combat functional.

And I did mean Imperator Titans and their equivalents.

A story of the imperial guard using nukes in an albeit heroic and suicidal way is in the guard codex, page 18, the Vostroyan first born. Basically the guardsmen, realising they are screwed lead to tyranids into a city and detonated their nuclear stack eradicating not only themselves but 85% of the swarm, the surviving 15% starved during the coming winter.

So if the story is anything to go by the Tyranids cope with nukes as well as humans do....they don't.

Kain wrote:

 uk_crow wrote:

 Kain wrote:
Not to mention that Carnifexes have survived exterminatus with just a bit of dirt on top of them.

Got a source? An exterminatus practically cracks a planet's crust open.

 Kain wrote:
Well one is a squishy human in okayish body armor, the other duels with titans who slug around kilo to megaton level weaponry.

Nowhere near megaton weaponry, 3 megatons of explosives was the total used in the whole of ww2 including both A-bombs. Megaton yield weaponry is strategic level power, not tactical level stuff. Can't see any titans having that much power with the possible exception of the emperor class. I'd think Ordinatus' would be the only one to have that much destructive power.

The 4e or 3e Tyranid book has a carnifex survive exterminatus by burrowing, it is injured, but must be killed by the Magos Biologis' team when it proves still combat functional.

And I did mean Imperator Titans and their equivalents.

Yeah they did say carnifexes can survive the exterminatus. Though, AFAIK the exterminatus does differ in methods. Some employ the life eater virus whilst others just bomb the planet to pieces. It's also a Deathwatch team that discover it...

watchamacarcess wrote:A story of the imperial guard using nukes in an albeit heroic and suicidal way is in the guard codex, page 18, the Vostroyan first born. Basically the guardsmen, realising they are screwed lead to tyranids into a city and detonated their nuclear stack eradicating not only themselves but 85% of the swarm, the surviving 15% starved during the coming winter.

So if the story is anything to go by the Tyranids cope with nukes as well as humans do....they don't.

IIRC they detonate the Hive's plasma reactors after luring them inside the Hive.

The fluff on the death guard points to them using bio and chem weapons, ( The Horus Heresy book 1 - Betrayal) as for nukes if you look at what roles they play in current military planning tactical nukes are no longer a part of US planning but they where part of the plan to blunt mass armoured assaults, the French plan to nuke the whole of Germany if the Russians get to close and the Russians use them as part of a combined arms along with chemical weapons, so why if you can achieve all of these, with out the side effects of radiation, contamination etc , by using orbital weapons or the massive stuff mounted on super heavys and titans why bother with chems and nukes?
In terms of levels of power a lance weapons on a imperial warship has enough power to alter a planets geological stability and weather patterns (Sabbats crusade fluff book) so energy output must well over megaton levels.

 purplefood wrote:
Possibly not. But it's not about them giving a damn. It's about them getting ideas.

There's no reason for factions in the setting to not already go all out. Generally, these aren't like nations in real life that need to account for diplomatic or economic fallback from other entities. The entire setting is based around the idea of unending and [generally] total war.

 Engine of War wrote:
As far as I know, tactical nuclear warheads are only present on Deathstrikes, whos warheads can range from small virus bombs, plasma, to Vortex with nukes included.

But I think the issue is that even in 40k im not sure if they can get rid of the biggest issue nukes have even today. Radiation.
While they might have the medical tech to keep you alive from exposure (survivable exposure...), im sure an irradiated planet would not be worth much unless ther eis mineral value that has not been effected by radiation.


Nuke tyranids? well... killed a bunch but now they got radioactive, glow-in-the-dark killer bugs!
Nuke Orks? they will glow too and possibly have bad mutations with bigger orks and maybe some Mek might get this idea to make "Dat Big Arse Bomb" that he saw the uumies use.


Im sure somewhere in the Imperium is a Space marine chapter (home-made) or Ig regiment that are nuke happy.....

I'm not sure where you're getting the idea that tyranids or orks exposed to radiation would somehow become living radioactive weapons(maybe a joke though :p).

Though there is the point that Orks might be the least likely to use WMDs, but only because they prefer more visceral and personal combat.

 Vaerros wrote:

 purplefood wrote:
Possibly not. But it's not about them giving a damn. It's about them getting ideas.

There's no reason for factions in the setting to not already go all out. Generally, these aren't like nations in real life that need to account for diplomatic or economic fallback from other entities. The entire setting is based around the idea of unending and [generally] total war.

True but those kind of weapons tend to wreck what you're fighting for to start with (Barring bio weapons)

 purplefood wrote:

 Vaerros wrote:

 purplefood wrote:
Possibly not. But it's not about them giving a damn. It's about them getting ideas.

There's no reason for factions in the setting to not already go all out. Generally, these aren't like nations in real life that need to account for diplomatic or economic fallback from other entities. The entire setting is based around the idea of unending and [generally] total war.

True but those kind of weapons tend to wreck what you're fighting for to start with (Barring bio weapons)

That's true, but there's plenty of scenarios where deploying WMDs would make against, most often against tyranids or orks who tend to attack in huge hordes.

And planets tend to be razed on the regular in the setting, anyway - planetwide conflicts that last untold decades aren't unheard of it, and we have the likes of hive worlds which tend to already be damned desolate to begin with.

 Vaerros wrote:

 purplefood wrote:

 Vaerros wrote:

 purplefood wrote:
Possibly not. But it's not about them giving a damn. It's about them getting ideas.

There's no reason for factions in the setting to not already go all out. Generally, these aren't like nations in real life that need to account for diplomatic or economic fallback from other entities. The entire setting is based around the idea of unending and [generally] total war.

True but those kind of weapons tend to wreck what you're fighting for to start with (Barring bio weapons)

That's true, but there's plenty of scenarios where deploying WMDs would make against, most often against tyranids or orks who tend to attack in huge hordes.

And planets tend to be razed on the regular in the setting, anyway - planetwide conflicts that last untold decades aren't unheard of it, and we have the likes of hive worlds which tend to already be damned desolate to begin with.

It changes...
Like Lynata is so fond of saying. 'There is no canon'.
So in some cases it's regular and in other cases it is a very very last resort option.

watchamacarcess wrote:A story of the imperial guard using nukes in an albeit heroic and suicidal way is in the guard codex, page 18, the Vostroyan first born. Basically the guardsmen, realising they are screwed lead to tyranids into a city and detonated their nuclear stack eradicating not only themselves but 85% of the swarm, the surviving 15% starved during the coming winter.

So if the story is anything to go by the Tyranids cope with nukes as well as humans do....they don't.

IIRC they detonate the Hive's plasma reactors after luring them inside the Hive.

 watchamacarcess wrote:

Purplefood wrote:

watchamacarcess wrote:A story of the imperial guard using nukes in an albeit heroic and suicidal way is in the guard codex, page 18, the Vostroyan first born. Basically the guardsmen, realising they are screwed lead to tyranids into a city and detonated their nuclear stack eradicating not only themselves but 85% of the swarm, the surviving 15% starved during the coming winter.

So if the story is anything to go by the Tyranids cope with nukes as well as humans do....they don't.

IIRC they detonate the Hive's plasma reactors after luring them inside the Hive.

It doesn't say anything about plasma reactors. "Only when the bulk of the Tyranid swarm had passed into the city did the 9th Vostroyan regiment detonate its nucleonic stack, incinerating the hive, its defenders and an estimated 85% of the Tyranid swarm." I imagine that they detonated their nuclear warheads they no longer had the resources to use (i.e fuel for the vehicles)

Okay. I'm not a physicist but nucleonic stack doesn't mean a damn thing. It could mean they have nuclear warheads for their artillery (Which wouldn't need fuel to fire) which they detonated. On the other hand it could also mean they detonated the plasma reactors of the hive which tend to cause large explosions. (Being big enough to provide power for an entire hive and all). Not only that but most of our understanding of plasma comes from controlled nuclear fusion which kinda leads me that way...

One of the main reasons you would deploy a WMD is to even a difference between your force and the enemy, especially a numerical one.

The Imperium doesn't have issues with numbers. Human bodies are the most abundant resource they have to offer. So right away the main reason for using a WMD isn't present.


Why would I use a bunch of WMDs, retake the planet more or less instantly, and then have to wait 20 years for the Radiation to go away when I can send in a few million Guardsmen and spend 5 years retaking the planet.

Its more cost effective to spend 5 years and millions of Guardsmen than it is to use a few dozen nukes and 20+ years of Radiation clean up.

Well we know they used chemical and nuclear tactical weapons extensively during the Crusade/Heresy-era; phosphex, rad-missiles, irrad-cleansers and so forth. Sure some of the Legions considered them "dishonourable", but they were still fairly widespread, I'm sure some of that tech survived into 40K, even if it is comparatively rare or restricted to use by elite AdMech forces or the Marines.

Consider; nukes might actually be an extremely useful weapon for the Imperium, particularly ones calibrated to produce massive bursts of radiation but have a low explosive-yield and little or no EMP; airburst a few hundred of those in a planet's atmosphere and you could cripple or even wipe-out any biological life on the surface. If there's anything left alive, send in some Marines or a few regiments of expendable Guardsmen to mop up what remains, then order up a new colony fleet from the Administratum - by the time it arrives at the planet, the levels of radiation could easily have decayed to the kind of not-immediately-lethal levels that most Hive and Forgeworld denizens deal with on a daily basis.

Sure, you could use Life Eater, but that stuff isn't supposed to be exactly common, using a few hundred nukes would likely be much easier and less resource-intensive. Full Exterminatus would certainly deny the world to the enemy, but to you afterwords as well, which isn't so good if it has valuable strategic or manufacturing characteristics.

I'm sure tactical nukes are common in 40k. I am sure that I have heard of them being used regularly by the IG.

I don't see them being a problem since rad grenades are pretty common as are man portable reactors. Different theory's, but all in the same area. I think lots of the IoM tech relies on fusion and fission reactors.

In terms of why we don't see them I see a few reasons. Lets start with the simple ones:

Strategic nukes: Why bother. Virus bombs & other exterminatus devices are much more destructive and effective.

"Dirty" devices that leave radiation. Why bother. Why turn the place in to an unlivable hell hole unless you have a VERY good reason.

Tactical nukes. I see them as being used regularly. They do not leave long term radiation. They are just one of the "big bombs" that is used all the time. Radiation from these dose not leave a lasting effect. Within a day it is down to minimal levels, within a week it practically gone. Sustained nuclear bombing will have an cumulative effect on a planet, but it would take allot of bombs over a sustained period to have an appreciable effect, and even then the IoM doesn't really care if a few people get cancer 20 years on.

In terms of games, we don't see them because that is not the scale we play on. Don't forget that the actual time scale of a 40k game is probably under 5 minutes, and it is about sudden strikes or fighting over vital points. Nowadays we don't just call in air strikes, or even tanks. We still have elite infantry for a reason. Same in 40k games. We are looking at a tiny flash point in a larger war, or a momentary skirmish.

I also see them as not being mentioned because of the background. When 40k was first created nukes were not a joke. This was in the mid 80's. At that time nuclear war was a very real fear of many people. Mentioning nukes in a "fun" context would have put allot of people off.

In one of the short stories in Treacheries of the Space Marines an Iron Warriors war band uses low yield nukes to first over come the void fields and then breach the walls of a fortress built by the Imperial Fists. IIRC they are supplied by the Dark Mechanicum group that is supporting them.

 uk_crow wrote:
This isn't strategic level stuff though that wipes out entire cities, but designed knock out strong points, chokes points etc. Has any fluff ever mentioned a bio-engineered virus designed to solely target a specific race, although tyranids would probably just adapt to it but against orks it could wreak havoc? The tau could easily manage that. Maybe it would make the story move on too quickly.

 TheSGC wrote:
Nuclear weaponry is still used (man-portable nukes are carried around in the novel Baneblade, and IIRC they were part of the 2nd Armageddon War), it's just largely eschewed in favor of more precise laser weaponry.

ahhh cheers, you know the whereabouts of the fluff about the 2nd Armageddon War?

The Tau have indeed built mutagenic viruses that the Tyranids cannot adapt and evolve beyond. Farsight's group used one that kept mutating fast enough that the Tyranids could not evolve out of it and it destroyed the whole 'fleet'.

The Imperium, though, lacks that 'out of the box' thinking for developing such a bio weapon, and thus theirs have not been as effective.

 Maniac_nmt wrote:

 uk_crow wrote:
This isn't strategic level stuff though that wipes out entire cities, but designed knock out strong points, chokes points etc. Has any fluff ever mentioned a bio-engineered virus designed to solely target a specific race, although tyranids would probably just adapt to it but against orks it could wreak havoc? The tau could easily manage that. Maybe it would make the story move on too quickly.

 TheSGC wrote:
Nuclear weaponry is still used (man-portable nukes are carried around in the novel Baneblade, and IIRC they were part of the 2nd Armageddon War), it's just largely eschewed in favor of more precise laser weaponry.

ahhh cheers, you know the whereabouts of the fluff about the 2nd Armageddon War?

The Tau have indeed built mutagenic viruses that the Tyranids cannot adapt and evolve beyond. Farsight's group used one that kept mutating fast enough that the Tyranids could not evolve out of it and it destroyed the whole 'fleet'.

The Imperium, though, lacks that 'out of the box' thinking for developing such a bio weapon, and thus theirs have not been as effective.

No, it just was fast enough to overcome that fleet. It will not work against the next fleet.

Imperial Bio weapons have accomplished similar things, but the Imperium realizes that it only ever works once. So putting energy into a bio weapon is simply not an effective way of countering the Tyranids.

 Maniac_nmt wrote:

 uk_crow wrote:
This isn't strategic level stuff though that wipes out entire cities, but designed knock out strong points, chokes points etc. Has any fluff ever mentioned a bio-engineered virus designed to solely target a specific race, although tyranids would probably just adapt to it but against orks it could wreak havoc? The tau could easily manage that. Maybe it would make the story move on too quickly.

 TheSGC wrote:
Nuclear weaponry is still used (man-portable nukes are carried around in the novel Baneblade, and IIRC they were part of the 2nd Armageddon War), it's just largely eschewed in favor of more precise laser weaponry.

ahhh cheers, you know the whereabouts of the fluff about the 2nd Armageddon War?

The Tau have indeed built mutagenic viruses that the Tyranids cannot adapt and evolve beyond. Farsight's group used one that kept mutating fast enough that the Tyranids could not evolve out of it and it destroyed the whole 'fleet'.

The Imperium, though, lacks that 'out of the box' thinking for developing such a bio weapon, and thus theirs have not been as effective.

And then the next fleet arrives utterly impervious to it.

Every single biological trick used against the Tyranids has never worked twice.

Even Nurgle's plagues are no longer effective against Tyranids as of the thirteenth black crusades.

And Nurgle is a vastly greater poisoner than the Tau.

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Maniac_nmt wrote:

 uk_crow wrote:
This isn't strategic level stuff though that wipes out entire cities, but designed knock out strong points, chokes points etc. Has any fluff ever mentioned a bio-engineered virus designed to solely target a specific race, although tyranids would probably just adapt to it but against orks it could wreak havoc? The tau could easily manage that. Maybe it would make the story move on too quickly.

 TheSGC wrote:
Nuclear weaponry is still used (man-portable nukes are carried around in the novel Baneblade, and IIRC they were part of the 2nd Armageddon War), it's just largely eschewed in favor of more precise laser weaponry.

ahhh cheers, you know the whereabouts of the fluff about the 2nd Armageddon War?

The Tau have indeed built mutagenic viruses that the Tyranids cannot adapt and evolve beyond. Farsight's group used one that kept mutating fast enough that the Tyranids could not evolve out of it and it destroyed the whole 'fleet'.

The Imperium, though, lacks that 'out of the box' thinking for developing such a bio weapon, and thus theirs have not been as effective.

No, it just was fast enough to overcome that fleet. It will not work against the next fleet.

Imperial Bio weapons have accomplished similar things, but the Imperium realizes that it only ever works once. So putting energy into a bio weapon is simply not an effective way of countering the Tyranids.

That's a pretty great trick as there was nothing left for the Tyranids to evolve a counter to. You cannot generate a counter or evolve out of something when you don't have anything to work from, which they don't.

Nothing to do with power levels.

Second, a Hellfire shell is a weapon made for fighting tyranids and they have not 'evolved' beyond it, despite it being, on a certain level, analogous to a viral weapon.

 Maniac_nmt wrote:

 Grey Templar wrote:

 Maniac_nmt wrote:

 uk_crow wrote:
This isn't strategic level stuff though that wipes out entire cities, but designed knock out strong points, chokes points etc. Has any fluff ever mentioned a bio-engineered virus designed to solely target a specific race, although tyranids would probably just adapt to it but against orks it could wreak havoc? The tau could easily manage that. Maybe it would make the story move on too quickly.

 TheSGC wrote:
Nuclear weaponry is still used (man-portable nukes are carried around in the novel Baneblade, and IIRC they were part of the 2nd Armageddon War), it's just largely eschewed in favor of more precise laser weaponry.

ahhh cheers, you know the whereabouts of the fluff about the 2nd Armageddon War?

The Tau have indeed built mutagenic viruses that the Tyranids cannot adapt and evolve beyond. Farsight's group used one that kept mutating fast enough that the Tyranids could not evolve out of it and it destroyed the whole 'fleet'.

The Imperium, though, lacks that 'out of the box' thinking for developing such a bio weapon, and thus theirs have not been as effective.

No, it just was fast enough to overcome that fleet. It will not work against the next fleet.

Imperial Bio weapons have accomplished similar things, but the Imperium realizes that it only ever works once. So putting energy into a bio weapon is simply not an effective way of countering the Tyranids.

That's a pretty great trick as there was nothing left for the Tyranids to evolve a counter to. You cannot generate a counter or evolve out of something when you don't have anything to work from, which they don't.

Nothing to do with power levels.

Second, a Hellfire shell is a weapon made for fighting tyranids and they have not 'evolved' beyond it, despite it being, on a certain level, analogous to a viral weapon.

The Tyranids can adapt to be impervious to ship grade Ion weaponry with some extra snot.

The gargoyles that is.

And if Nurgle, who is the literal god and lord of all disease and decay, can't do it, there's no way some puny, weak, and irrelevant little empire like the Tau can get it to stick.

Ork dont use WMD's in numbers cause then they cant stomp on the squishy ummies face at the end of the fight ..(not enough face left to stomp on ..and dats no fun ..)

 Kain wrote:
[
The Tyranids can adapt to be impervious to ship grade Ion weaponry with some extra snot.

The gargoyles that is.

And if Nurgle, who is the literal god and lord of all disease and decay, can't do it, there's no way some puny, weak, and irrelevant little empire like the Tau can get it to stick.

Yet some puny, weak, irrelevant, and caught in incredibly bass-ackwards approach to science folks like the Imperium can, have, and have made that into a standard weapon that is touted as being very effective against the Tyranids?

 Maniac_nmt wrote:

 Kain wrote:
[
The Tyranids can adapt to be impervious to ship grade Ion weaponry with some extra snot.

The gargoyles that is.

And if Nurgle, who is the literal god and lord of all disease and decay, can't do it, there's no way some puny, weak, and irrelevant little empire like the Tau can get it to stick.

Yet some puny, weak, irrelevant, and caught in incredibly bass-ackwards approach to science folks like the Imperium can, have, and have made that into a standard weapon that is touted as being very effective against the Tyranids?

The high end of the Imperium is vastly more advanced than anything the Tau have ever come up with or likely ever will.

The Tau cannot touch Horus Heresy era and Dark age of technology era technology.

Additionally, the Adeptus Mechanicus is actually very competent at science. They're just very conservative at invention.

The Tau will never amount to anything but a footnote. They're no larger than many other minor xenos empires, and some (like the Qo'orrl swarmhood) are actually larger and more powerful, they just happen to have an army book.

 Exergy wrote:

40k missions are objective based. You dont want to use nukes because the magic objectives cant take the radiation.

lol tell that to the poor Relic Marker in the last game I played... I vectored down so many large blast templates on top of that thing that whatever it was probably resembled a glowing ionized lump of slag rather than whatever it was supposed to be.

The used to be rules for Radiation on the board wayyyyy back in Rogue Trader, plus the backstory of Krieg, as has been touched on before.

Also, a capitol ship in orbit can use a lance strike or a bombardment cannon for virtually the same kinetic damage as a tactical nuke, with no radiation danger.

Much like us here on earth, if we found a way to do the damage of a nuke with none of the downsides, we would abandon nukes for anything other than terrorist attacks.