I'm going to be running an Only War campaign where the first

>>48835088
The excuse I'm using in my campaign is that the Navy was needed elsewhere ao they just shattered the planet's space capability and then fucked off to a new warzone

>>48835088

Factories, archives, various useful/irreplacable shit.

Holy cites are good

Planetary governor who refuses to (or can't) leave is good

fuck with 40k you could literally just have the Navy not give enough of a fuck to bombard the planet, like the admiral has the ships fuck off to somewhere else.

>>48835088
The city is of too great import to simply glass without making a concerted effort to seize it.

The city controls massive anti-orbital defense batteries, and therefor ships can't get into position to safely target it.

The planets crust is somewhat unstable - hitting the planet with massive kinetic force or with lance strikes can potentially cause global repercussions as tremors and collapses in the crust cause massive tectonic displacement all across the globe.

The ships in orbit are largely transports, and are not equipped for proper orbital bombardment. Their cogitators can't reliably target planetary targets with a reasonable degree of accuracy, so they don't for fear of missing.

There are extremely high-value prisoners, such as Inquisitors or the Planetary Governor, being held hostage in the city, as insurance. Killing them would cause...complications.

The Lord Commander of this group doesn't want to do it, so he can prove his superiority on the battlefield by leading his men. Bombarding them from space takes away his glory.

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The Holy Saint Bendactiriaus was laid to rest in the City, at least that is what the story says. The real reason is they just can't spare the munitions to bomb a city when in the very same sub-sector they are removing every blamphemous monument on a previously Chaos held world.

If and when the taint of Chaos begins to seep in to the very being of a planet then city ruining munitions will be made available to the Sub-Sector Command until then, they appear to be pushing for a advancement in the Central Crusade Command by taking the city intact, each army-lead having laid down staggering amounts of their respective families wealth and estate that they will be the one to plant their personal heraldry in Saint Bendractiaraus Maesaleum.

The city is the resting place of a saint who gave their life defeating the forces of chaos within the sector prior to the uprising.

The Imperial Navy was called elsewhere as they are needed to help stem the tide of a chaos fleet running rampant throughout the sector.

The Imperial Navy was only ordered to deliver the Guardsmen and their equipment to the fight. Nothing more, nothing less.

The planet has large amount of orbital defenses on the planet and in the planets orbit, the regiments on the ground are either local forces or survivors of the first wave that finally made it through.

The Planetary Governor has enough pull within the Imperium to only allow minimal bombardment of his planet.

High-Value prisoners are supposedly being kept somewhere within the city.

The city itself hosts a large array of manufactorums and other Cult Mechanicus facilities.

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>>48835088
I think a combination of holy sites and the Navy being needed elsewhere--so they could only stop by long enough to trash all but one or two of the spaceports--is probably the best way to go about it.

Also the Guard don't get enough love. They and the Navy are really the only parts of 40k I find interesting anymore.

>>48835088
The navy is engaged elsewhere, there is perpetual bad weather that makes fire too inaccurate to consider, the navy just doesn't want to because 'fuck those peasants, fighting on the ground like filth', things already mentioned in the thread, etc.

Shipyards, moons and space stations got destroyed in the early stage of the conflict, so getting a spaceship in orbit is a nightmare.
This has the additional benefit of making reinforcements and orbital recon harder, if you want to make things difficult for your players.

That part of the continent still has a very active anti-orbital defense grid, with a decent part of it located in that city.

Of course, the navy COULD push through it, take some losses and turn the place into a parking lot, but repairing voidships and retraining valuable personnel is a lot more expensive then some IG regiments. So unless the the Navy gets direct orders, you will not find them in an orbit that covers that continent.