Quantum computers offer the potential to perform simulations of nuclear processes that are infeasible for classical devices. With a goal of understanding the necessary quantum resources to realize such potential, we estimate the qubit costs and gate costs to simulate an effective nuclear field theory on a cubic lattice, evaluating the various trade-offs in choice of the form of the effective field theory and how this choice interacts with the qubit requirements of encoding the fermionic degrees of freedom into qubits and the gate counts needed for state-of-the-art Hamiltonian simulation. In particular, we compare simulation costs and errors for a pionless effective field theory, a one pion exchange theory, and theories that simulate the pions dynamically.