7 Nuclear Weapons for Battletech

1. Infantry Satchel Nuke

The Nuke in a bag was created by taking the warhead from an LRM-N and attaching a timer to it and removing the rest of the missile. Congrats, you now have a nuke too heavy to throw far enough to use as a non-suicide weapon, but it can be attached to vehicles, or mecha, where it explodes for 10 damage. 

2. Infantry Support LRM-1 Nuclear

Once engineering boffins figured out how to attach a nuke to a standard LRM, it was just a matter of time before a more demented and risk blind group of boffins designed an infantry launcher to lob a single nuke missile. This gives the lone infantryman the power to hit as hard as a large autocannon, or PPC, and the ability to one-shot unsealed vehicles, clear infantry from a hex, or generally turn any building less than a hardened or fortified building into a fiery tomb. These weapons are generally unpopular because part of the manufacturing process relies on reducing shielding for the warheads, and they tend to be spicy, radioactively speaking. Plus, a launcher that is destroyed, or misfires, has a habit of spewing its radioactive fuel in the launcher's hex. There is no damage from this, but everyone gets some spicy air.

3. LRM Nuclear

An experiment in miniature nuclear warheads, the LRM-N replaces the conventional warhead with a micro-nuke. The ammo reloads are heavy, so the launcher only has half the number of a regular load, but instead of 1 damage, each missile deals 10 damage. This might seem like a relatively modest thing, considering the cost of the missiles, but it is magnified by the fact that launchers range from five tube to twenty tube versions. Each warhead also generates heat, an EMP, and is devastating against infantry, armored vehicles, or ground installations.

While the armchair general might reach to equip his Archers and Catapults with LRM-Ns, turning them into walking war crimes, the most effective use of the LRM-N system was on light fast mechs typically equipped with the smallest launcher, the comical LRM-5. This weapon upgrade turned these scout machines into brutal hunter/killer machines, unleashing nuclear fire against assault mechs, firebases, and forward operating positions.

4. Thunderbolt 10/Nuclear

The Thunderbolt series of missiles replaced the Macross missile massacre of the traditional LRM with a single larger tactical missile. The Thunderbolt 10 is not the largest, but the most commonly equipped with a nuclear warhead. The weapon has a very modest 10 kiloton warhead and a fire factor of 1,000 damage. It is an unpopular weapon with mechwarriors and tank crews as the delivery vehicle is technically within the blast radius of the warhead, even if fire from extended range. Mech packing these weapons can generally avoid damage, but no pilot enjoys experiencing gamma flash, or the heat surge from a near blast.

5. Arrow IV/Nuclear

A nuclear armed Arrow IV artillery missile, the traditional weapon deals 2/20 conventional damage, and from modest range. The weapon system can be found on mechs, armored vehicles, fixed installations, and even air-to-air versions for interceptor fighters and dropships. The nuclear version has a modest 50 kiloton yield, dealing 5,000 damage. Such a weapon would be used as a strategic option, allowing for a small number of mechs to shatter large armor formations, remove fortresses, or even cripple or destroy dropships on the ground.

6. SturmFeur Kalki

The Kalki is a fifty ton cruise missile that deals 5/50 damage and has strategic range. The SturmFeur is a converted heavy/assault tank that has had all of its weapons stripped so it can mount the launch equipment and a single Kalki missile. Nominally considered a wasteful weapon, nuclear armed Kalki missiles proved their value. Armed with a 250 kiloton warhead, the missile has a fire factor of 250,000 and can be used to clear bottlenecks, and chokepoints, or break stubborn defenses. Unlike similar and larger cruise missiles and capital missiles, it isn't a war-ender, it's a game changer. 

7. Kraken-N

The Kraken is a 220 ton anti-ship missile deployed by the Star League and has a fire factor of 10/100 (10 capital/100 standard)

The nuclear-armed version of the missile delivers a two megaton warhead, with a fire factor of 200,000,000 conventional artillery damage. It is safe to assume that when a Kraken-N is dropped onto a battlefield, the battle is ended, and only those who are in space, a mile underground, or more than twelve kilometers from the blast have a chance of survival. These missiles, and their less potent Killer While and Barracuda nuclear missiles would erase entire regiments, cities, and entire swaths of planets into radioactive ruins. No capital ship could survive a direct hit, orbital facilities would be vaporized, asteroid colonies would disintegrate, and even a small moon would be cracked by the power of this weapon.