Quote Originally Posted by Grotzooka View Post
Don't forget that a bombardment of any kind is NEVER as powerful as one might think it is. If I had a dollar for every historic battle I've read about in which the navy promised to "wipe the enemy off the beaches" and then bombarded it for hours and failed to do diddly, I'd at least have enough for a blister pack. There is always somewhere you can hide, even from uber nukes from space.
Fluff examples include Armor of Contempt, where the one strongpoint gets blasted from space and the Guard still have to slog through it mopping up cultists, and Isstvan III, where plenty of Marines live through being virus bombed AND firestormed.
A good point. Artillery has always been rather overrated throughout history, WW1 being the prime example, and the Russian bombardment of the Seelow heights during the Battle for Berlin was just comical.

But orbital bombardment should in theory be much more effective. Look at the fuss the Russians make every time America even thinks about FOB systems.