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Logistical question - Eldar Construction

3K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  Ratmamahatma 
#1 ·
Something came up in my own campaign recently that stumped me. One of my players discovered an old webway portal on one of my planets and being a hardassed Imperium player asked if he could destroy it. I was stumped by his creative simplicity. I had all sorts of rules and scenarios in my head for people trying to use it, but his single minded Imperialistic dogma blindsided me. ;)

Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts on this? I ruled that the melta bombs didn't hurt it, but as he prepped an orbital strike against it, I thought... "shouldn't this work?" but when he counted how many orbital strikes he had, he decided against it. For now.

Anyway, I originally thought that it shouldn't have an AV in game terms, but an OS should be able to hurt it, if not levelling it completely.
 
#3 ·
Since Eldar structures are made of Wraithbone, they aren't exactly the strongest things in the world. Melta bombs probably would do the job, and a single orbital strike most assuredly would. Especially if it's an "old" abandoned portal that hasn't been mantained.
 
#5 ·
well the tanks arnt constructed of wrathbone. You could use the building rules in the 40k rule book, but then have some type of scenario where once its "activated" it can have things like shroud (from dawn of war) which could be adapted to night fighting rules for targeting it and then give it some kind of force field. Probably similer to that of a wave serpeant or holo field or both. But I dont think anything above armor 12 is appropriate for an eldar construction. Unless it was like something like a huge bastion or something.
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Also get your hands on a bonesinger model (ebay). He can be the one who repairs/turns it on.
 
#6 · (Edited)
ideas!

I have a few ideas you might want to consider.

Orbital Bombardment: Very devastating. Might require a bit of time for the orbiting strike cruiser (or whatever) to disengage from it's normal duties to prepare for a bombing run. You might also need someone on the ground to "mark" the area to be bombarded. Your Imperial player might have to risk his fleet guns to powerful orbital defense lasers.

Melta Bombs/Demo Charges: A bit more precise than the Orbital bombardment. A kill team could plant Melta Bombs at key structure points to weaken and eventually demolish the structure.

Ericismyname has a good point about special defenses. Shield generators, holo-fields, psychic defense mechanisms are all very possible with the Eldar. You could run a scenario like Return of the Jedi; have a kill team take out the shield generator.

If you didn't want to destroy it you could write the story in a different manner. Perhaps an Ordos Xenos Inquisitor has approached the army commander and instructs him not to destroy it. Will the player disobey the authority of the Inquisition? If he does not what will the consequences be?

Or maybe a Adeptus Mechanicus taskforce wishes to study the webway portal; and tries to placate the player with a pledge of extra arms/ammunition.

It might not be in the players best interest to destroy the Webway portal. If the gateway is not closed properly, it might create a unstable warp rift.


his single minded Imperialistic dogma blindsided me. ;)
Imperials are so unimaginative. :p

But I dont think anything above armor 12 is appropriate for an eldar construction. Unless it was like something like a huge bastion or something.
It seems to me that the Eldar have always relied heavily on the webway portals in order to traverse the galaxy. (more so after the fall) If we assume that to be true, then we can imagine that the eldar would build there webway gates stronger than other their buildings. I would make it bastion-like with an armor of 14.
 
#7 ·
THe only thing i see wrong with armor 14 for an eldar structure is that it would be unfair to have armor 14 and some type of holo or energy field. It would be near indestructable. It may be true they have always relyed in webways but given the nature of the eldar race and armor values of existing mechanical things, i dont think armor above 12 is appropriate for a webway, if it were a bastion or bunker thatd be different,
 
#8 ·
I think I see what you mean now. Unless its considerably larger armor 14 is probably overdoing it. I would also imagine that the Eldar might have some sort of cloaking device or more subtle means of protecting their structure. Maybe give the portal stats like a Eldar titan? With multiple structure points?
 
#9 ·
Yes, I would consider something like this.

When a bonesinger gets in base contact with the webway he may choose what he wants to fix. THe options being.

Turning it on.
Turning on the cloacking. (night fighting)
Turning on the Energy Field(like wave serpeant)
Turning on the Holofield. (like normal )

And give it multiple structure points and have a different damage table.

Id say it would have armor 12 all around.

Then on a roll of 3+ he turns the thing on. Which units can deepstrike through there with no penalty.

Then next turn a roll of 4+ he can turn on any of hte defensive options. and so forth until hes dead. or games over.

When he dies, if the portal is on then like on a roll of 3+ another one comes through to finish the job.

Its damage table would be like....

1- the cloaking field is damaged for the next eldar turn
2- the energy or holo field is damaged for the next turn
3- the gate may not tranport any units next turn through it.
4- The gate loses one its things that have been turned on and must be turned on again.
5-Wrecked
6- Destroyed

give it 2 structure points.
 
#10 ·
For those who say wraithbone isn't the strongest thing in the world and cannot be compared to bunkers & such, I disagree. Look at a wraithlord compared to anything else in the game. T8 surpasses anything else with a high T available and that thing is a stick! If you make an entire building or structure out of that it will be rediculously hard to destroy. Even little wraithguards have a toughness equal to monstrous creatures or the avatar which is pure metal.

It's like comparing a wraithlord to a dreadnought - who wins out here? Look at all the metal and bulk on a dread which only provides AV 12/13. If wraithbone was a that level of density it would be AV 14++! I think grav tanks were made a bit less dense in order to fly, but wraithbone is strong enough to make starships and craftworlds - pretty tough stuff!
 
#13 ·
For those who say wraithbone isn't the strongest thing in the world and cannot be compared to bunkers & such, I disagree. Look at a wraithlord compared to anything else in the game. T8 surpasses anything else with a high T available and that thing is a stick! If you make an entire building or structure out of that it will be rediculously hard to destroy. Even little wraithguards have a toughness equal to monstrous creatures or the avatar which is pure metal.

It's like comparing a wraithlord to a dreadnought - who wins out here? Look at all the metal and bulk on a dread which only provides AV 12/13. If wraithbone was a that level of density it would be AV 14++! I think grav tanks were made a bit less dense in order to fly, but wraithbone is strong enough to make starships and craftworlds - pretty tough stuff!
I agree that wrathbone has to be something strong. But something with a high av doesnt fit fluff of eldar. They use trickery and technology. This would be where the fields and cloaking come into play.
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Thanks for all the ideas guys! I had settled on a AV of 12 but the holo fields is a great idea, or at least something similar. Didn't matter though since he'd cleared the area (and the rest of the planet) of any combatants before deciding to decorate the wargate with Melta-ornaments. I let him destroy it as he had plenty of time. Pattermaker's idea of a warp disturbance actually meshes well with the Chaos Sorcerer that he's about to run into. I've never had a problem letting players make mistakes and pay the price for it later. I do try to give hints though. I'll make sure that the Sorc thanks him for all the wonderful work he's doing for Chaos. ;)

The Inquisitor player actually studied it. Good chap that one. The Eldar player still hasn't even found one yet.

ericismyname you've given me another cool idea for my Cami-paign revison which I'll call 'non-combatants' or VIPs. I have bonuses for people who have psykers or techs/meks on Discoveries after a victory and other items, but some races are left out or don't have one or the other. So, I'll allow races that have such things, (Earth Caste, Bonesingers, and the like) to have builders, but if they get attacked then those 'VIPs' must be modelled and protected. :) Thanks!!

Cami

No problem, good luck with your campaign, get that bonsinger model on ebay before it sky rockets in price anymore!
 
#12 ·
Thanks for all the ideas guys! I had settled on a AV of 12 but the holo fields is a great idea, or at least something similar. Didn't matter though since he'd cleared the area (and the rest of the planet) of any combatants before deciding to decorate the wargate with Melta-ornaments. I let him destroy it as he had plenty of time. Pattermaker's idea of a warp disturbance actually meshes well with the Chaos Sorcerer that he's about to run into. I've never had a problem letting players make mistakes and pay the price for it later. I do try to give hints though. I'll make sure that the Sorc thanks him for all the wonderful work he's doing for Chaos. ;)

The Inquisitor player actually studied it. Good chap that one. The Eldar player still hasn't even found one yet.

ericismyname you've given me another cool idea for my Cami-paign revison which I'll call 'non-combatants' or VIPs. I have bonuses for people who have psykers or techs/meks on Discoveries after a victory and other items, but some races are left out or don't have one or the other. So, I'll allow races that have such things, (Earth Caste, Bonesingers, and the like) to have builders, but if they get attacked then those 'VIPs' must be modelled and protected. :) Thanks!!

Cami
 
#15 ·
Ech, you silly humans :) . The point is that the Webway entrance is simply there. The gate itself is only a conductor. If you bombard that gate you would probably destroy it - Wraithbone is hard but not indestructible - but you cant attack webway - its like attacking warp! Eldars would be even able to get on the planet without the gate, but the gate is more stable and comfortable - that's the reason why they build them.
As for the vehicles - only a core of starship or skimmer is made out of wraithbone, the rest is only psychoplastic.
 
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