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One single or dying in a backwater place is all you need. There is no way that we could stop the infection in time.

xlDuke wrote:
100 fluff marines on foot could do it quickly

Nope.

The reality of Earth does not work by Marine fanboy logic. And "fluff" Marines are wildly divergent, because the fluff has a wide variety of interpretations regarding Space Marines. In some lore, Marines cannot die, kill everyone, are the coolest badass antiheroes ever, the most pure things in the galaxy, super-special-awesome gods of war that why don't you like them, aren't htey the coolest things ever? And in some, they die like guardsmen, TO guardsmen, annihilated quickly by not-quite-overwhelming force. We can't even really say there's a happy medium because the lore is just so divergent, even within single books.

40k works on narrative logic. Earth does not. And it is Earth that's being conquered, not 40k. The world would need to be conquered using a force that makes sense in reality's logic, not narrative logic. A standard Imperial Guard invasion force consisting of a few dozen million guardsmen plus vehicles and equipment would suffice, as would most Ork WAAAGH!s, Tyranid Splinter Fleets, and so on. I hesitate to mention Tyranids or Necrons in this as they would not so much conquer as destroy humanity-- but the thread does say conquer Earth, not conquer Humanity, so fair enough, there. Eldar, if they considered Earth a Maiden World, could very well produce a force capable of conquering Earth, but I just don't see it happening. More likely than not they'd just manipulate us to do something they want us to do so instead, that's more their style. Dark Eldar wouldn't conquer so much as raid and pillage. The Tau might be able to put such a force together, but I don't see why they would when they could just try to form a treaty with us, instead. Space Marines and Sisters of Battle likely wouldn't last very long without Imperial Guard support-- if you put the entirety of the population of either one, they'd stand a chance, but a single chapter or order would have limited success before being worn down and destroyed, or being allowed to retreat. And so on and so forth.

Cultists and Genestealers would not conquer Earth, they would subvert it. That is not what was asked for in the original post. Daemons would not like it on Earth, no psykers to feed off of, and there's no guarantee that Earth's soulstuff works the same as 40k's soulstuff (if it even exists). They might be able to conquer Earth if enough were summoned at once, and they had some way to maintain the summoning without easy access to psychic power-- but it'd be by far the most difficult conquest out of any of the possibilities I mentioned above. And more than likely, I think that Daemons would simply be unable to maintain stability within the realspace of our reality for the amount of time needed to conquer us, which would likely be decades-- out of all of the factions, daemons would be the most strongly opposed by the modern population of Earth, as it would likely cause a religious fervor that would unite most of humanity in opposition, and not just from Judeo-Christian populations.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Wow that's a lot of edits. But yeah.

Remember that 'Stealer cults are a distortion of the Imperial Truth, whos to say that Cultists in our day and age would react the same? It's more likely they'd adapt to better blend into society, and as others have said try infiltrate the military. And I believe that a perfectly co-ordinated terrorist group that can co-opt anyone they get their hands on could easily bring the world to it's knees. It'd all depend on how fast they were discovered and how fast technology can adapt to be gene-coded. I imagine it'd end up being a lot like an X-com game, with Stealers in charge and the rebels fighting against them.

**Edit** Silly mistake.

space marine chapters don't CONQUER planets. even when they're credited with it a lot of other work is done.

Let's go over the hows shall we?

Space Marines will show up in orbit. likely we'll figure out they're there. a strike cruiser is a BIIIIIIIIG ship, over a kilometer in length (closed figure I can find is about 4.5 KM), however they can also deploy VERY swiftly, within 20 minutes of arrival. so chances are by time the assault begins the president etc'll still be being briefed. the space marines wouldn't engage in a stand up battle. that's not their strength. they'd drop pod in and strike key strategic targets. C&C centers that sort of thing. remember when I said about the president being briefed? yeah he'd be facing down a squad of terminators.

anyway while all the command locals they could find are destroyed. the Imperial Guard would show up and begin deploying. while the IG is handling the boring legwork of taking and holding, while they're doing that the marines are regrouping in thunderhawks being deployed to hit other targets of hard resistance.

Also it annoys me when people say the space marines are like commando's. No they aren't. Not even close. They operate more like shock troops.

The Deathwatch are the commando's, seals, and spetznaz ect.

 Gamgee wrote:
Also it annoys me when people say the space marines are like commando's. No they aren't. Not even close. They operate more like shock troops.

The Deathwatch are the commando's, seals, and spetznaz ect.

If we're going to dig into technicalities here I suggest you look into the history of the word 'commando'. You may find more shock troops than you'd think.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:

 Melissia wrote:

Cultists and Genestealers would not conquer Earth, they would subvert it. That is not what was asked for in the original post..

Would you mind quoting that from the OP? Because I don't see the word conquer anywhere, I see the words ''Take the planet'', which can reasonably be interpreted as subverting enough of the population to make a civil war viable.

What is the topic title?

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Gamgee wrote:
Also it annoys me when people say the space marines are like commando's. No they aren't. Not even close. They operate more like shock troops.

The Deathwatch are the commando's, seals, and spetznaz ect.

If we're going to dig into technicalities here I suggest you look into the history of the word 'commando'. You may find more shock troops than you'd think.

Semantics aside you know what I mean. The military has different levels of trained soldiers. Your ordinary ground forces, some shock troops to assist in taking objectives and high risk battlefields, and then your special forces to do very precise strikes or even missions that might not be on conventional battlefields. Rangers are a good example of a shock trooper style force they operate at platoon levels and are integrated into the main military to assist in battles. They use their more elite training and equipment to their advantage to assist the main bulk forces. Seals by contrast are usually deployed in small squads or even less and are not normally known to be used on front line roles. The seals are known for their covert operations. They also need to learn far more than the rangers do and have a very high wash out rate.

if we go by tabletop rule most of our basic guns would be S2 with the stuff with heavy pen power being S3. Anything smaller than something that gets dropped our launched would top out somewhere in high S5 a tactical nuke might manage S9-10 but only just. Oh, and garbage AP all around. Besides this isn't really theoretical right? I mean they wipe out civilizations our level pretty regularly in both 30k and 40k.

ERJAK wrote:
if we go by tabletop rule most of our basic guns would be S2

Or...you know, S3, because GW explicitly describes bullet throwing intermediate caliber weapons as such.

with the stuff with heavy pen power being S3

Or...maybe S4 like Heavy Stubbers?

Anything smaller than something that gets dropped our launched would top out somewhere in high S5

Modern day weapons in the game like Autocannons and infantry carried missiles and the like would disagree. Those primitive WW1 designed DKoK Heavy Mortars are S6 and we have guns like those over a hundred years ago.

a tactical nuke might manage S9-10 but only just.

Wait wat? Where on earth are you inventing that headcannon?

Oh, and garbage AP all around. Besides this isn't really theoretical right? I mean they wipe out civilizations our level pretty regularly in both 30k and 40k.

The real world also has technology that would put the Eldar and Tau to shame. Nobody in 40k can fight beyond visual range like modern fighters can. Nobody in 40k has tanks that can move at highway speeds and hit other tanks thousands of meters away with literally 90/95% hit rates with weapons that can penetrate a full meter of hardened steel. Nobody in 40k has anything resembling cruise missiles, GPS guided artillery, or any number of thousands of other things developed since WW2.

And have you *seen* a Land Raider? A shopping mall parking lot speed bump would stop one of those things with its nonexistent ground clearance.

40k is a medieval Fantasy universe with a SciFi skin and represented by WW2 battle tactics at its most advanced.

He's a thought....

what if a single marine somehow got sent back and he bcame the Emperor of mankind and started the entire thing? self fore-filling prophesy.

 Gamgee wrote:
...Semantics aside you know what I mean...

You're the one who started with the semantics.

They wouldn't need an army. They have the gravity well, anyone who controls the gravity well controls the planet. They could simply drop rocks on us until we comply. One country giving more problems than others, drop a bigger rock, and the other problem children will step into line. There isn't a single faction in the game that would care about collateral damage including the Tau.

 Vaktathi wrote:
The real world also has technology that would put the Eldar and Tau to shame.

The opposite is also true. . . starships, antigrav. Even just Lasguns.

 Vaktathi wrote:
Nobody in 40k can fight beyond visual range like modern fighters can.

All 40K starships fight beyond visual range, as do orbital and ground defenses. I'm not up to all the details on their fighters, but there's probably some fluff that says otherwise.

 Vaktathi wrote:
Nobody in 40k has tanks that can move at highway speeds and hit other tanks thousands of meters away with literally 90/95% hit rates with weapons that can penetrate a full meter of hardened steel.

Actually Eldar might. Those grav tanks aren't that fast on the tabletop but in the fluff they are faster.

 Vaktathi wrote:
Nobody in 40k has anything resembling cruise missiles, GPS guided artillery, or any number of thousands of other things developed since WW2.

Maybe? I think Manticore missiles are pretty sophisticated, don't they have a skyfire version? What counts as "resembling" a cruise missile? A melta torpedo from space? A Deathstrike missile?

Also, much of those particular advances since WWII are about reducing collateral damage. The Imperium tends to give zero ****s about collateral damage.

Two things I find a lot of "pro-earth" people say that is somewhat ridiculous in context of this argument: Ignoring the fundimental laws of the 40k universe and redefining what is "conquered"

First off, the basic laws of the 40k universe: Stuff like the Warp, ridiculously short gun ranges, power armor, and averting the square-cube law are basic fundimental laws needed for the 40k universe to exist. Taking these away is essentially nerfing them on a cosmic scale. The comically short gun ranges from the tabletop game and their pisspoor hit ratios aren't actually a literal representation of their skills; they're there so things have a reasonable chance of missing and our table sizes don't become massive. These things should not be held against them. Conversely, the Warp is a fundimental aspect of 40k, not just in lore. Flat out ignoring it is like saying Earth can't have Electricity or the concept of combustion. We would be screwed if that happened and yet we have no problem imposing the same handicap on our invaders in a theoretical battle. If we're gonna win, it should be without handicapping the enemy from the getgo.

Second, the dictionary defines Conquer as "overcome and take control of (a place or people) by use of military force.". This means that they simply take control of our planet. While yes, this means orbital bombardment technically means that no one has control anymore, in the end they are still the victors and we no longer have control of our own planet. Similarly, if a Cult springs up and becomes the most popular religion or Daemons become the alpha-predators of our world, then we would have lost control and the cult/daemons/whatever have obviously gained control. Whether or not we are alive, have free will or whatever doesn't matter, the world is theirs in such a scenario. The Earth is theirs. This happens the moment they become the top authority on the planet. Being able to destroy it with impunity (and thus wiping out all other competition), controlling the minds of all the inhabitants of the world, or simply eliminating us as the alpha-species would pretty much fit that definition, no matter what kind of semantics you play at.

I'm pointing this out because it's becoming increasingly more ridiculous at the criteria that the 40k universe has to meet to consider "conquering" our planet. Currently, by the responses in this post, they have to:

Not kill everyone (apparently a dead planet isn't a conquered planet)

Not change people's thoughts (because that's subverting a planet, not conquering it)

Not being allowed to assimilate us into their faction (again, it's only a subversion, not "conquer")

Not allowed to replace us as the dominant species (again, apparently it means we're just dead, not conquered)

Not allowed to have any resistance groups (because apparently any pocket of us normal humans left would invalidate it being "conquered")

This essentially leaves our "conquerers" with one valid, but extremely narrow, definition for their victory: They have to enslave us as a race without the use of coercion or anything beyond non-lethal violence. But we have no problem shooting back. And they have lost one of the fundimental laws of their own universe to boot. The sheer amount of limitations imposed on them is hilarious, none of which are logical and quite a few are only "no you can't do this because I say so" rather than be an actual physical limitation of theirs. When the apocalypse does come, rule-lawyering what their definition of a "success" is going to mean diddly squat when they've destroyed or taken control of our government, rendered our species dangerously endangered, and polluted our skies so much that black smog would be considered a good day.

"These things should not be held against them"

Watch me. Battletech has the same absurdities despite taking place in the "future".

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Ignoring the fundimental laws of the 40k universe

The 40k universe isn't what's being conquered therefor it doesn't matter.

When you are attacking a mountain, you cannot say "I wish this mountain was a forest, because then I'd do REALLY well!" and expect the mountain to suddenly drop in to the ground and grow trees.

 Melissia wrote:

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Ignoring the fundimental laws of the 40k universe

The 40k universe isn't what's being conquered therefor it doesn't matter.

When you are attacking a mountain, you cannot say "I wish this mountain was a forest, because then I'd do REALLY well!" and expect the mountain to suddenly drop in to the ground and grow trees.

But by the same logic you can't put a great white shark vs a pool full of toddlers and then say the shark isn't allowed to bite ... just cause.

What I am saying is if you are having any thing coming vs us from 40k it should be at its full effectiveness not gimpped cause we want a fighting chance. I still say one genestealer would do it.

40K just doesn't use any reasonable physics, tactics, strategy, or weaponry. It's much like Star Wars.

 Melissia wrote:

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Ignoring the fundimental laws of the 40k universe

The 40k universe isn't what's being conquered therefor it doesn't matter.

When you are attacking a mountain, you cannot say "I wish this mountain was a forest, because then I'd do REALLY well!" and expect the mountain to suddenly drop in to the ground and grow trees.

That analogy doesn't relate at all to my response. 40k is still attacking our planet. We didn't lose anything, we still abide by our conventions.

The analogy works better if I'm attacking the mountain and the mountain says "you don't have legs anymore" and proceeded to claim victory because I wasn't even able to approach it.

Martel732 wrote:
40K just doesn't use any reasonable physics, tactics, strategy, or weaponry. It's much like Star Wars.

It does if you look for it.

On a similar note, I'm sure you could find all sorts of lousy decisions by earth militaries if you looked for it.

Another thing a lot of people forget is a war (and conquest by extension) isn't just "beat the other guy senselss". It's to make the other guy submit and surrender. Total Annhilation is only a resort if they stubbornly refuse.

This is why orbital bombardment is basically a trump card; you don't use it to pulverize the ground flat. You use it to target their military leadership, their industrial sectors, food production, and logistics. Since we do not have any way to prevent such an orbital attack, they can basically dictate how to fight this war by taking away everything piecemeal. Small bombardments can take out roads, runways and drydocks, making it impossible to ship foodstuffs and fuel to battlezones. Large bombardments can take out city centers, the most likely areas of production, and military bases. Long before we even get to mobilize any of it.

With little military hardware, no means to produce food, and a severely crippled government and infrastructure, it won't be long before people riot. Hell we're rioting right now for (comparatively) comical reasons, can you imagine how big those riots would be when starvation and illnesses become creditable, lethal threats and our livelihoods are completely ruined? And none of these factions abide by the Geneva conventions, they would take every opportunity to attack our injured and infirmed. After that they simply need to send in pacification squads to take out anyone capable of reuniting the people until our spirits are either broken or have submitted.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Another thing a lot of people forget is a war (and conquest by extension) isn't just "beat the other guy senselss". It's to make the other guy submit and surrender. Total Annhilation is only a resort if they stubbornly refuse.

This is why orbital bombardment is basically a trump card; you don't use it to pulverize the ground flat. You use it to target their military leadership, their industrial sectors, food production, and logistics. Since we do not have any way to prevent such an orbital attack, they can basically dictate how to fight this war by taking away everything piecemeal. Small bombardments can take out roads, runways and drydocks, making it impossible to ship foodstuffs and fuel to battlezones. Large bombardments can take out city centers, the most likely areas of production, and military bases. Long before we even get to mobilize any of it.

With little military hardware, no means to produce food, and a severely crippled government and infrastructure, it won't be long before people riot. Hell we're rioting right now for (comparatively) comical reasons, can you imagine how big those riots would be when starvation and illnesses become creditable, lethal threats and our livelihoods are completely ruined? And none of these factions abide by the Geneva conventions, they would take every opportunity to attack our injured and infirmed. After that they simply need to send in pacification squads to take out anyone capable of reuniting the people until our spirits are either broken or have submitted.

problem is such bombardment would hit most of America and Europe, there is not much in the way of empty, unusable land in those areas, Japan would become a dust mote, China would be razed, countries which would be little effected by such bombardment would be most of Africa and Australia and the empty lands in the Middle East and a good chunk of Russia not covered by military bases and such.

The imperium alone has orbital bombardments of varying sizes specifically for tactical and strategic levels of devastation. They can limit the devastation to a mere city block if they wished it. (Space Marine Orbital Strikes are one such example). The kind you're refering to is only used for exterminatus-level of devastation, and even then it's not just a single bombardment; often they need to use multiple warheads to achieve that result.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
The imperium alone has orbital bombardments of varying sizes specifically for tactical and strategic levels of devastation. They can limit the devastation to a mere city block if they wished it. (Space Marine Orbital Strikes are one such example). The kind you're refering to is only used for exterminatus-level of devastation, and even then it's not just a single bombardment; often they need to use multiple warheads to achieve that result.

and i repeat you stated it would be used to take out military leadership, which is any military instillation, food production which includes farms and such and industrial sectors, look at Japan or the USA or even Europe, how much land is not covered by such things? and how much of that land covered by such things is inhabited as in how much of a population? populations gather around such things for a reason, you target them you are essentially wiping out the population too. and there ends your riots since the much smaller population locations probably could self sustain themselves as is.

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Another thing a lot of people forget is a war (and conquest by extension) isn't just "beat the other guy senselss". It's to make the other guy submit and surrender. Total Annhilation is only a resort if they stubbornly refuse.

This is why orbital bombardment is basically a trump card; you don't use it to pulverize the ground flat. You use it to target their military leadership, their industrial sectors, food production, and logistics. Since we do not have any way to prevent such an orbital attack, they can basically dictate how to fight this war by taking away everything piecemeal. Small bombardments can take out roads, runways and drydocks, making it impossible to ship foodstuffs and fuel to battlezones. Large bombardments can take out city centers, the most likely areas of production, and military bases. Long before we even get to mobilize any of it.

With little military hardware, no means to produce food, and a severely crippled government and infrastructure, it won't be long before people riot. Hell we're rioting right now for (comparatively) comical reasons, can you imagine how big those riots would be when starvation and illnesses become creditable, lethal threats and our livelihoods are completely ruined? And none of these factions abide by the Geneva conventions, they would take every opportunity to attack our injured and infirmed. After that they simply need to send in pacification squads to take out anyone capable of reuniting the people until our spirits are either broken or have submitted.

Exactly.

This is the deal, say Marines show up. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.

1: The easy way.
Marine send an envoy down to meet the planetary governorship. They could meet with everybody, or maybe just one. For this example they start with the US.

Envoy: "We have a number of Starships in orbit, and their weapons are trained on your major population centers. You are now part of the greater Galactic Imperium. There are a thousand worlds ready to open trade routes with you if you want access to our technology and culture. If you decline inclusion to the Imperium, there will be war. If you kill me, take me prisoner, or in any way disallow me to return to my craft in the next 30 min, we will open fire on one of your population centers."

U.S. Leadership: Uhh. . . freedom?

Envoy: "You can rule in any way that you please, as long as your world in able to meet our tithes required of your local sector, based on your population and industrial capacity. In an undetermined number of years an Ecclesiarchy envoy will contact you, and provide you with the Imperial Creed (U.S. Leadership: "wtf?"). If you agree to our terms you have ten years to meet the appropriate tithes given by the local Sector Envoy, unless the Sector Envoy says otherwise. Do you agree?"

U.S. Ummmm. . . Ok.


2. (The hard way)

U.S. Leadership: No, we do not agree. This is outrageous!

Envoy: "That is disappointing. We will give you 24 hours to change your mind. In six hours, we will begin sinking your navy fleets. If you change your mind within that 24 hour period, we will still negotiate with you and leave your government intact. After 24 hours, we will contact either Russia or China, I'm sure they will be more accommodating."

U.S. remains stubborn. Fleets are sunk. Obvious military aircraft bases are destroyed. No Marine even sets foot on the ground, it's all done from orbit.

Marines then send one envoy to China, and one Envoy to Russia.

Envoy: "So, how do the words 'Planetary Governorship' sound to you?"


That's how imperialism is done.

There are huge chunks of the US not covered by farms and industrial sectors/cities.

 Insectum7 wrote:

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
Another thing a lot of people forget is a war (and conquest by extension) isn't just "beat the other guy senselss". It's to make the other guy submit and surrender. Total Annhilation is only a resort if they stubbornly refuse.

This is why orbital bombardment is basically a trump card; you don't use it to pulverize the ground flat. You use it to target their military leadership, their industrial sectors, food production, and logistics. Since we do not have any way to prevent such an orbital attack, they can basically dictate how to fight this war by taking away everything piecemeal. Small bombardments can take out roads, runways and drydocks, making it impossible to ship foodstuffs and fuel to battlezones. Large bombardments can take out city centers, the most likely areas of production, and military bases. Long before we even get to mobilize any of it.

With little military hardware, no means to produce food, and a severely crippled government and infrastructure, it won't be long before people riot. Hell we're rioting right now for (comparatively) comical reasons, can you imagine how big those riots would be when starvation and illnesses become creditable, lethal threats and our livelihoods are completely ruined? And none of these factions abide by the Geneva conventions, they would take every opportunity to attack our injured and infirmed. After that they simply need to send in pacification squads to take out anyone capable of reuniting the people until our spirits are either broken or have submitted.

Exactly.

This is the deal, say Marines show up. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.

1: The easy way.
Marine send an envoy down to meet the planetary governorship. They could meet with everybody, or maybe just one. For this example they start with the US.

Envoy: "We have a number of Starships in orbit, and their weapons are trained on your major population centers. You are now part of the greater Galactic Imperium. There are a thousand worlds ready to open trade routes with you if you want access to our technology and culture. If you decline inclusion to the Imperium, there will be war. If you kill me, take me prisoner, or in any way disallow me to return to my craft in the next 30 min, we will open fire on one of your population centers."

U.S. Leadership: Uhh. . . freedom?

Envoy: "You can rule in any way that you please, as long as your world in able to meet our tithes required of your local sector, based on your population and industrial capacity. In an undetermined number of years an Ecclesiarchy envoy will contact you, and provide you with the Imperial creed (U.S. Leadership: "wtf?"). If you agree to our terms you have ten years to meet the appropriate tithes given by the Sector envoy, unless the Sector Envoy says otherwise. Do you agree?"

U.S. Ummmm. . . Ok.


2. (The hard way)

U.S. Leadership: No, we do not agree. This is outrageous!

Envoy: "That is disappointing. We will give you 24 hours to change your mind. In six hours, we will begin sinking your navy fleets. If you change your mind within that 24 hour period, we will still negotiate with you and leave your government intact. After 24 hours, we will contact either Russia or China, I'm sure they will be more accommodating."

U.S. remains stubborn. Fleets are sunk. Obvious military aircraft bases are destroyed. No Marine even sets foot on the ground, it's all done from orbit.

Marines then send one envoy to China, and one Envoy to Russia.

Envoy: "So, how do the words "Planetary governorship sound to you?"

obviously you miss the whole point of what the 40K universe is about, its not so easy, there is only one religion, the religion of the God Emperor on his golden Throne and thats it, anything else is sedition and up for exterminatus, in fact the SM's wouldn't even bother with negotiations or such, they would just wipe us out from orbit as being tainted.

Asterios wrote:

obviously you miss the whole point of what the 40K universe is about, its not so easy, there is only one religion, the religion of the God Emperor on his golden Throne and thats it, anything else is sedition and up for exterminatus, in fact the SM's wouldn't even bother with negotiations or such, they would just wipe us out from orbit as being tainted.

Then you aren't reading all the fiction. Some Chapters are more viscous than others. What I gave is the "nice approach", the way Ultramarines (who prefer to leave worlds intact and capable) might go about it. Black Templars? I'm sure they would be more prone to just start firing.

Asterios wrote:

 MechaEmperor7000 wrote:
The imperium alone has orbital bombardments of varying sizes specifically for tactical and strategic levels of devastation. They can limit the devastation to a mere city block if they wished it. (Space Marine Orbital Strikes are one such example). The kind you're refering to is only used for exterminatus-level of devastation, and even then it's not just a single bombardment; often they need to use multiple warheads to achieve that result.

and i repeat you stated it would be used to take out military leadership, which is any military instillation, food production which includes farms and such and industrial sectors, look at Japan or the USA or even Europe, how much land is not covered by such things? and how much of that land covered by such things is inhabited as in how much of a population? populations gather around such things for a reason, you target them you are essentially wiping out the population too. and there ends your riots since the much smaller population locations probably could self sustain themselves as is.

I question whether or not you know how much area those things cover, as there's a specific reason why you don't have condo high-rises right next to military installations, food farms and industrial sectors; Military Installations would be the first place people expect to be struck during an attack and in the case of places where they keep high-tech hardware, they specifically DON'T want anyone to just peak over a fence to see what shiny toys they have, which is why they're generally in isolated areas.

Food Production requires vast amounts of land. Land that can't hold people because food is grown there and livestock are raised.

And Industrial sectors are called that for a reason; they're entire Sectors that are dedicated to industry; they require vast amounts of space for the hardware to do so, generate lots of waste and noise (so few people like to actually live next to them) and often are clustered with other industrial buildings to maximize efficiency. A large amount of the workers commute in to them specifically because you can't live next to them.

Another thing is this tactic isn't new. It's exactly what current armies use. In fact look at the nukes dropped during WW2; they're by far some of the most devastating weapons we've got and even those ancient things were bigger than Space Marine Strike Cruiser Bombardments (much bigger since they can level entire cities, as oppose to only city blocks).

Finally, you greatly exaggerate how people can self sustain themselves. To illustrate, how many of you actually know how to slaughter a chicken? And that's just properly killing it so you don't suffer poisoning from contamination from it's waste. You still need to catch it, or even just find it. Or crops; how many of us actually know how to properly plant something so it can bear enough fruit to actually eat? if you think food production would be as easy as digging a hole, tossing in a seed and dumping some water on it, you wouldn't last very long in such a scenario. As an exercise, see if you can gather, from your own group of friend, at least one person who would know how to make a shirt from scratch, how to build a stable shelter that can stand up to a rain storm, and how to properly catch game and slaughter it for human consumption.