[Dheorl]

I've started to get kinda curious as to how diferent species make planetfall when they go to war and figured it could be an interesting topic. This is as far as I've figured, please correct me if I'm wrong

I figure imperial guard, sisters of battle and tau use pretty normal landing craft.

Space marine have landing craft, drop pods and teleportation (I presume grey knights have all this, although make heavier use of teleportation). What about CSM, do they do all the same things?

Necrons teleport in through monoliths which have drifted down.

Eldar and DA have webway portals on alot of places they're likely to fight, but what about the places they don't?

Deamons just pour through holes in reality they've ripped open.

What about orks? Also unsure about kroot, although I know they're not an official army it's a species which I quite like, and have heard of the war spheres. Do they just land the war sphere?

Lastly the one I'm most interested in the tyranids. I've read about them dropping spores. Do these grow in isolated places into tyranids, or do they grow underground and then burst up through the surface (would be very cool IMO), or something completely different?

 

[realitycheque]

I figure imperial guard, sisters of battle and tau use pretty normal landing craft

Yup.

Space marine have landing craft, drop pods and teleportation (I presume grey knights have all this, although make heavier use of teleportation). What about CSM, do they do all the same things?

Correct, on all accounts.

Necrons teleport in through monoliths which have drifted down.

Correct. They also have transportation portals for travelling between their home planets if some of the books have got their fluff right.

Eldar and DA have webway portals on alot of places they're likely to fight, but what about the places they don't?

Falcons are space capable, so they could fly down from craftworlds or the nearest planet with a webway gate, and I imagine that Wave Serpents can do the same. They've probably got a superheavy transport too.

Deamons just pour through holes in reality they've ripped open.

Right.

What about orks?

Space Hulks to go between systems, and either landing craft, planes or teleportas for the final stage of the journey.

Also unsure about kroot, although I know they're not an official army it's a species which I quite like, and have heard of the war spheres. Do they just land the war sphere?

I'm pretty sure this is a yes, but they could also thumb a lift with their Tau bosses.
Lastly the one I'm most interested in the tyranids. I've read about them dropping spores.

Do these grow in isolated places into tyranids, or do they grow underground and then burst up through the surface (would be very cool IMO), or something completely different?

They have Myetic Assault Pods, which are basically organic drop pods for deploying swarms or the big creatures. They also drop spores, which turn into whatever the hivemind wants from tiny rippers to, iirc, anything smaller than a lictor.

 

[Dheorl]

I was thinking about kroot who aren't with tau (the type I much prefer).

I thought as well, I remember reading tyranids having large winged creatures (I presume like the FW Harridan) which fly down and drop off smaller creatures.

Is there any artwork of these bio drop pods?

Glad I managed to get most of it right :dance:

 

[Marius the Possessed]

Orks tend to crashland onto a planet, either in ships or in giant Roks, ie asteroid fortresses. Those with Ghazhkull or Nazdreg can also use massive tellyportas, which can teleport anything from masses of troops to gargants from one tellyporta to another.

 

[rafis117]

Eldar going to planets without Webway gates will often borrow a Craftworld ship or hitch a lift with a Raider force. They probably could fly a Falcon-variant through space, but it seems gratuitously dangerous, especially given how few Eldar are left.

Sometimes Necrons float down from their Tomb Ships a la Winter Assault. Sometimes they rise out of the ground a la Dark Crusade and Soulstorm.

Either the planet is a tombworld (the latter option) or the Necrons are reinforcements from a tombworld that they reconquered (the former option).

 

[ze_poodle]

Space Marines prefer to deploy using Thunderhawks if possible because it's more controllable and provides an extraction. Drop pods are kind of...messy. Their big advantage is that they fall too fast to be shot down by anti-air batteries and they take enemies by surprise, but what you're actually doing is being shot at the ground from orbit in a big can. It's not a bright idea when you think about it.

Guard use Navy drop ships that can vary in size and armour, but never drop pods or teleportation (they're not worth it.) They've also been known to use grav-chutes, which are parachutes that utilize antigravity to slow descent. Grav-chuting, like regular parachuting, is incredibly dangerous.

Tau and Eldar skimmers can apparently fly at great heights so it's entirely possible that they might deep strike in a manner similar to Marine land speeders. Going by the RTS games, Eldar may also use small webway gates to move troops from an orbiting ship or craftworld. Necrons have total mastery of teleportation, so I'd imagine they use that just as often as they use Monoliths. Their technology is almost omnipotent, however.

Orks basically crash giant meteorites into the ground. They're not too subtle.

Tyranids make use of spore pods, which can vary in size from tiny, microscopic spores that grow into creatures after landing to actual drop pod-esque bubbles containing monsters grown on the hive ship. The former is sown prior to an assault, so that wild Tyranids will grow everywhere and wreak havoc. The latter is more tactical and can be used to transport practically any Tyranid biomorph.

 

[Marius the Possessed]

Chaos drop-pods (Dreadclaws) are actually more advanced than their loyalist equivalents, as they can also go back up into space after being deployed. Just adding that.

 

[Intrepid]

Orks tend to crashland onto a planet

No, no... Orks RAM the planet!


Tau and Guard usually set up heavy fortifications when they first make planetfall, although Tau don't do nearly as much in the way of static defenses. Sisters of Battle probably land in the Church parking lot and advance from there to find heretics--they aren't generally front-line fighters, although they can be.

Necrons and Marines don't set up any bases (barring an ammunition cache or something), they just get on with the killing and then go home. Eldar tend to work in small formations unless they're actively colonizing the planet, so planetfall rarely involves more than a temporary base.

First-wave Tyranids are bred on the bio-ships and then launched like Drop Pods. They're never picked up, however; after they eat the planet they're recycled themselves. Makes more room for the next, new and improved generation.