What if Nukes Weren't Superweapons?

I don't think that question has been answered yet. The celestial mechanics portion is not in the game yet and not everything is decided yet. This almost feels like a balance issue. Actually, the link I posted is of a discussion that spans several pages and might be interesting for you to read. It has to do with what defensive measures are available for the person targeted with the asteroid.

The galaxy map(galactic war) will not be part of a real-time game. It is more like a map of Risk, where you pick a system to fight over and then go into the real-time game and decide who controls that system. Also, the range of nukes in the system itself is not confirmed to be beyond a single planet's gravity well. The only reason they appear to be able to leave the atmosphere at all is due to the Kickstarter video's depiction of them hitting an incoming asteroid. That asteroid was already very close to the planet before they fired as well.

Thank you very much for the helpful information!

Another thing to point out is that planets are not a map like before where a map was simply a small part of a planet. Technically nukes would be downsized considerably in relation to planet size. More like something of a tactical missile. So a tier 1 nuke, able to destroy a formation of units with a good blast radius, not too powerful but more powerful than conventional weaponry of artillery. A tier 2 nuke with devastating power in size relation to the size of the planet maps. So a tactical nuke, and a strategic nuke. The strategic one would still only be able to take out maybe half a good sized base.