[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Phoenix-D:
We aren't talking about destroying the planet, just killing off the population that lives there. Weapons that are designed to take out large warships will certainly take out cities. The biggest issue would be killing more spread out populations.

Phoenix-D[/QB]

My italics. That's the issue. A ship, a WP, even a troop, is a single 'hard' target. You have to hit it directly with a concentrated attack. Facilities are less 'hard' but at least fairly localized. You can see/scan the location of a mine, factory, research lab and bLast it.

Population is a whole other thing. People are not likely to be in one convenient location unless, as Geo points out, the colony is a hostile atmosphere type and everyone has to live in domes. So it's just not realistic to be able to wipe the slate clean on a populated planet with DUCs or even APBs or any other beam weapons.