As long as you don't care about civilian casualties and reprisals in the same vein.
The problem with this is that the enemy knows this too, so there're really only three possibilities:You might just want to destroy what's on it, at which point "nuke 'em till they glow" is an entirely reasonable course of action along the lines of a strategic bombing raid.
Suppose it's something the size of Ceres and a major source of enemy starship components. A gigaton Ka-Boom will do unkind things to whatever's on the surface and the enemy's ability to keep their fleet operational.
I did but I wasn't clear on the point. C-fractional kinetic strikes from powered missiles. Kinetic energy will cause so much more damage at that speed than the nuke/whatever will. Unless you want to go the "Anti-matter" warhead used on a planet.I surprised no one has mentioned the potential for "Rods from God" type weapons to replace nukes as a bombardment option, given they don't cause any radioactive mess.
Geography is also important. For a planetary invasion I'm a partidary of starting with large islands close, but not too close to continents like Japan or England. For a space based invasion force the traditional defensive advantage of large bodies of water is meaningless and the isolation means that once you have cleared the orbital defense grid in that sector your ortillery can neutralize any counter invasion force trying to cross the ocean with ease, the size of those places make easy to disperse your bases to prevent a surprise nuclear cruise missile on any particular location and with some luck and compatible biology there is enough fertile land and other resources to ease your logistics.Yup, have to be able to access a beachhead, land on it, then reinforce it enough to be able to hold it for follow on forces. I'm thinking you'd need LOTS of ground based AA (for both anti-air as well as anti-bombardment) as well as heavily dug in armored forces.
Submarines with cruise missiles are a huge threat to a planetary invasion force because they can have a large tonnage of weaponry while avoiding orbital surveillance.gland. For a space based invasion force the traditional defensive advantage of large bodies of water is meaningless and the isolation means that once you have cleared the orbital defense grid in that sector your ortillery can neutralize any counter invasion force trying to cross the ocean with ease, the size of those places make easy to disperse your bases to prevent a surprise nuclear cruise missile on any particular location and with some luck and compatible biology there is enough fertile land and other resources to ease your logistics.
True, that's why I'm partly in favor of large islands, some additional miles between the beach and your foward operation's base means more time and better locations to intercept any pesky nuclear missile.Submarines with cruise missiles are a huge threat to a planetary invasion force because they can have a large tonnage of weaponry while avoiding orbital surveillance.
Now you just need Aquatic HK Drones to go hunt subs, OR you can go the boring manned route.Submarines with cruise missiles are a huge threat to a planetary invasion force because they can have a large tonnage of weaponry while avoiding orbital surveillance.
Can just take some nice wide open plains in the middle of a continent. Less likely to be ambushed by underwater missiles that way, and you can still control wide swathes of ground with the kind of weaponry we're proposing.True, that's why I'm partly in favor of large islands, some additional miles between the beach and your foward operation's base means more time and better locations to intercept any pesky nuclear missile.
It would really depend on the planet's geography, the actual strategic objectives and the resources available to provide ortillery. Ler's take for example Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh trail, it was a ground route which despite an interdiction campaign launching an average of a bomb every seven minutes managed to move entire divisions worth of materials and soldiers, and while its the greatest example of that in modern history there are many more instances of large military forces being assembled and supplied despite overwhelming vigilance and interdiction efforts.Can just take some nice wide open plains in the middle of a continent. Less likely to be ambushed by underwater missiles that way, and you can still control wide swathes of ground with the kind of weaponry we're proposing.
That's going to depend on how much the denuding of the planet the aggressor force is willing to do. Obliterate a few forest around your beachhead...might be an OK decision.Trying to stop a Ho Chi Minh effort with a space fleet is actually harder than it sounds, with ideal terrain just giving the illusion of safety, the enemy would just gather in the nearby forested or mountain regions and slowly gather strengh until they can act openly, creating a Diem Bien Phu trap.
Diem Bien Phu had the attackers dig a surprisingly sophisticated trench system that included protections for their artillery, and with modern weaponry the range to raze increases dramatically. Imagine the planetary forces carrying piece by piece a hundred mid-range rockets with FAE warheads to overwhelm in a single barrage your big base in the middle of the siberian steppe, and to add insult to injury they use the stil hot forest fires and the smoke they generate to cover the initial barrage. At the same time and a hundred miles around you other units have assembled semi-mobile ASAT launchers to prevent the arrival of support shuttles while they move their own light infantry battalions in civilian trucks to overwhelm isolated outposts.That's going to depend on how much the denuding of the planet the aggressor force is willing to do. Obliterate a few forest around your beachhead...might be an OK decision.
A lot of ground combat in sci-fi is kinda unrealistic because you'd need hundreds of millions minimum to garrison a force and routine reinforcements due to insurgency and rebellion unless you know you do genocide.
40k and Star Wars is like here's a thousand or a million guys go get em kiddo and that's it.