I know. Wookiepedia. But this time they made an useful list. The movies gave the impression The Death star was a one of a kind terror that changed the tide of history forever. But I see a lot of planetkiller weapons there. And that's not even getting into how JJ's starkiller base is basically the Death Star again but bigger.
The Death Star was more of a scare tactic. Sure, there were glazers for it in the Imperial system, but the fact that the Emperor could build something of this scope without the Senate noticing, or the fact that he could rebuild it without the Rebels noticing until he tipped them off, goes to show that in the full scale of things, the Death Star was just another terror weapon, and the Empire had more than enough of those. So it makes sense the Empire would have other projects in the works, like the Galaxy Gun, Sun Crusher, and World Devastator. The Death Star was iconic, but it was hardly the Empire's best.
One of my favorites is the Orbital Nightcloak; a system of satellites that not only jam all communications and sensors, but they can also block all forms of light from reaching a planet. The eventual result is that a planet slowly freezes itself to death. Simple, yet effective.
And unlike the Death Star, where the target planet at least goes out with a bang rather quickly, the horror factor for the Orbital Nightcloak is pure nightmare fuel, especially since the freezing process takes days or weeks. Just imagine what's happening to the people below. They can't call for help. They can't tell what's above them. Then before they know it, the sun is blacked out, temperatures fall to freezing levels, and eventually, all plant and animal life dies, leaving the humans and other sapients to slowly starve to death.
Not only does it guarantee total annihilation of the target planet's defenders and populace, it also keeps the planet mostly intact, so if there were any valuable resources under the surface, you can mine it afterwards, once the system is turned off and the weather and temperature return to normal.
Another one of my favorites is the Magnetic Bombard. Made for those who wish to fight the likes of the droid armies and other high-tech civilizations, or more accurately, for those who wish to capture the enemy alive by disabling their technology, the Magnetic Bombard is a warhead that can send an entire city back to the Dark Ages by literally EMP-ing the entire settlement with one blast.
Remember the Guardians from Halo 5? Well, this is the Star Wars equivalent of it. Not quite useful when you're fighting Felucians or the Vong, but against the CIS or the Rebels who use a lot of technology, it's a sure-fire way to win. Just imagine that large EMP bomb they dropped on the droids on Malastare back in TCW, but big enough to force a large city to surrender.
The only problem was that this weapon was very expensive, but I can see someone like Thrawn producing this weapon in greater quantities in lieu of the Death Star or some other superweapon, then dropping it on resisting planets who suddenly find the urge to submit once their surface-to-orbit defense turbolasers just blacked out and they now have a pissed-off fleet of Star Destroyers ready to reduce them to rubble.
