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In Fulgrim CW Ulthwe is estimated to be between 9-14 kilometers in size. Whilst estimates vary wildly due to okd, outdated and crazy fluff I think its generally acvepted the largest Imp ships are 5km?
Not saying size is the key factor but something to note. Also cws dont travel by themselves, they are attended by their fleets and support craft.

Ratius wrote:In Fulgrim CW Ulthwe is estimated to be between 9-14 kilometers in size. Whilst estimates vary wildly due to okd, outdated and crazy fluff I think its generally acvepted the largest Imp ships are 5km?
Not saying size is the key factor but something to note. Also cws dont travel by themselves, they are attended by their fleets and support craft.

Yes but as stated before Craftworlds arent warships, more like a colony ship or something

Colony ships bursting to the brim with warriors, titans, vehicles, psykers and the ship itself being a humongous psychic network with webway portals scattered around it.

And then of course, the ginormous amount of ships surrounding the Craftworld like a mobile bulwark.

It took a hive fleet to cripple Iyanden to the point of being the CW of the Dead(later almost leading it to being destroyed by Orks until the DE showed up to save them 'cause they think Iyanden is amusing). In 4th ed, a single hive fleet was close to killing off Macragge and the Ultramarines with it, if I remember correctly.

And those are both major factions in W40k. The ones mentioned now in the rulebook/codices are smaller. If the Tyrannic fluff is correct in regards to Idrahae, then I'm not surprised 1,000 SM were able to empty it. With this I mean that Idrahae probably did suffer heavy casualties when wiping out Naga.

However, I'm not surprised a fully powerful, undamaged CW was capable of fending off an entire IoM force, if we use the Tyranids as a "perspective bar"(battle for Macragge, anyone?), since they are the be all end all doom of everything(come now, there's an innumerable amount of them in dark SPESS).

StrikingOgryn wrote:
It took a hive fleet to cripple Iyanden to the point of being the CW of the Dead(later almost leading it to being destroyed by Orks until the DE showed up to save them 'cause they think Iyanden is amusing). In 4th ed, a single hive fleet was close to killing off Macragge and the Ultramarines with it, if I remember correctly.

Iyanden only fought one tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken. Macragge was attacked by pretty much the whole might of Behemoth (although it would have fallen if not of massive amounts of Imperial reinforcements). The other major tendril of Kraken was defeated at Ichar IV, with the Ultramarines again playing a role.

SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:

StrikingOgryn wrote:
It took a hive fleet to cripple Iyanden to the point of being the CW of the Dead(later almost leading it to being destroyed by Orks until the DE showed up to save them 'cause they think Iyanden is amusing). In 4th ed, a single hive fleet was close to killing off Macragge and the Ultramarines with it, if I remember correctly.

Iyanden only fought one tendril of Hive Fleet Kraken. Macragge was attacked by pretty much the whole might of Behemoth (although it would have fallen if not of massive amounts of Imperial reinforcements). The other major tendril of Kraken was defeated at Ichar IV, with the Ultramarines again playing a role.

Inyandan Fought the other HALF of kraken, it then broke off into splinter fleets, still pretty impressive eh


I think depending on chapter, that marines are easily capable of destorying a craftworld, but on the flipside Eldar as easily capable of defending themselves, its a good matchup.

Well, remember that most of the time the fluff is told from the perspective of the Imperium. And as such, it tends to favor the Imperium because it is written as if the reader is some sort of authority in the Imperium. Because of this it is usually written as dogma, and propoganda.

But lets look at it a bit more logically.

During the days of the Great Crusade the Eldar had been almost completely wiped out by the birth of Slaanesh. This left many craftworlds with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants onboard. The fluff from the 2nd edition Epic Space Marine game gives us those numbers.

But that was 10,000 years ago. Since that time the craftworlds have grown immense and now house millions of inhabitants each.

These are still small numbers compared to what the Eldar empire used to be. Fluff has the Eldar dying by the billions upon billions when slaanesh is born.

The Emperor's space marines during the Great Crusade seemed unstoppable because he had the primarchs leading them and they were at full legion strength.

When dealing with Eldar, the legions were easily able to defeat and destroy a few craftworlds (because the craftworlds were at very low population levels, were still reeling from the birth of slaanesh, and were not used to having to do anything for themselves as eldar society provided all that they needed without having to work for it. They didn't even know how to fight wars very well until the Phoenix Lords showed them)

Since that time, the Eldar craftworlds have learned the arts of war, have increased in population, have re discovered some of the old technology from their civilization that was lost during the fall.

In comparison, the Space Marine Legions have been cut down in size, the Emperor has been confined to the golden throne, the Primarchs have all died/disappeared, and they have lost a lot of their tech level.

Because of this, it is much harder for the Space Marine Chapters to destroy any of the craftworlds like they did during the Great Crusade. And according to many pieces of fluff, the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Guard have a very hard time with them as well, even when all of them are combined together to form a very large fighting force.