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Hello, I was wondering, does any faction in W40k universe have the technology to shield entire planets? I've read that the Necron world engine does this but it didn't really say if that was an actual planet or a Death star-style construct

The World Engine was believed to be a fully activated Tom World though what it is is never said.
The IoM does have the technology to shield things (Void Shields) These are used on large bunkers, titans or space ships and hive cities...
However for an entire planet... that would require so much power it'd be pointless because the entire planet would just be power plants...

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Purplefood is right to an extent.

There are no "planetary shields" in the sense of "Spaceballs" where they had an entire planet bubbled up. It's more like we saw in "The Empire Strikes Back" where they'll have strategically placed Void Shield generators which protect important installations/areas. They'll usually be combined with orbiting defensive platforms, system fleets, and various ground-based installations full of weapons which can burn ships clear out of the sky.

They just have a fat pile of Battleships, fortress worlds, and defense lasers you have to crunch through to get to anything. Shielding in a sense, yes.

uhhhh has anyone read the Gk codex? the entire planet was placed in a shield and moved to the EoT.

Rimmy wrote:uhhhh has anyone read the Gk codex? the entire planet was placed in a shield and moved to the EoT.

It was a Gellar Field and just into the Warp no?
Moving an entire planet into the EoT would be fairly difficult even if it was Cadia...

The Eye of Terror is not where it was moved to.The Eye of Terror is reaaaaaaaally far from the Sol system.

Titan(a moon, not a planet by the way) was given extremely large Gellar shields(not Void Shields) and then shifted into the Warp. Gellar shields are what ships are required to have in order to travel within the Warp, and the exact details of how they work aren't exactly explained.

Kanluwen wrote:The Eye of Terror is not where it was moved to.The Eye of Terror is reaaaaaaaally far from the Sol system.

Titan(a moon, not a planet by the way) was given extremely large Gellar shields(not Void Shields) and then shifted into the Warp. Gellar shields are what ships are required to have in order to travel within the Warp, and the exact details of how they work aren't exactly explained.

I accept that my details were incorrect, but the answer is the same isn't it? the entire moon WAS shielded in some fashion. (granted it being the only one)

its still fairly large too. bigger than blackstone.

I don't think we should be calling a Gellar Field a shield. It's not really a shield unless it stops a bullet.

As nomotog said, a Gellar Field isn't really a "shield" in the common sense. It's more of a "cloak" as it prevents the ship(or in this case--moon) from being detected by the denizens of the Warp. If that Field is breached though, it's open season on the inhabitants.

Moving entire worlds into the Warp isn't that great a feat, considering there are already hundreds of DaemonWorlds in the reaches of the Imperium which have done exactly that. Doing it on purpose, though, is something else entirely... but is also something that the Imperium no longer seems capable of.

IIRC, Titan did not, however, change locations, it just moved from its usual point, through the barrier that separates dimensions, into the exact same spot in the Warp.

Necrons might but we've yet to see it. I dont think Eldar do, but they have other means of protecting planets or craftworlds and similar, although craftworld shielding might qualify.

The closest to 'planetary' shielding the Imperium had was something experimental some Forge World tried making in the Planetkill short story 'Phobos Worked in Adamant' which actually didn't work out as intended. Otherwise hive shielding is about the closest (which can cover areas of tens, hundreds or thousands of kilometers.. the latter bieng the 'continent sized' hives like on Terra.)

Orks could probably make planetary shielding through WAAAGH magic, but I doubt they'd do it unless they found some way to loot an entire planet, stick engines and guns on it, and move it about the galaxy.

Connor MacLeod wrote:
Orks could probably make planetary shielding through WAAAGH magic, but I doubt they'd do it unless they found some way to loot an entire planet, stick engines and guns on it, and move it about the galaxy.

Connor MacLeod wrote:Orks could probably make planetary shielding through WAAAGH magic, but I doubt they'd do it unless they found some way to loot an entire planet, stick engines and guns on it, and move it about the galaxy.

with this reality though, Orks could dominate the universe if they were ever smart enough to realize their actual power. (which they aren't)

so by definition too, this makes Orks the most powerful army in the universe, they're just too stupid to realize it.

Think of a planet as being just a really really big Rok with its built in enviromental systems. Don't try crashing it into another planet, however.

Connor MacLeod wrote:Think of a planet as being just a really really big Rok with its built in enviromental systems. Don't try crashing it into another planet, however.

If it can't ram, it ain't a proppa ship!

I think it's safe to say, no there aren't planetary shields.

If the IoM has shields for their ships its totally possible for more advanced factions to have planetary shields.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=h6l1AlK5JZ0#t=99s

Rimmy wrote:

Connor MacLeod wrote:Orks could probably make planetary shielding through WAAAGH magic, but I doubt they'd do it unless they found some way to loot an entire planet, stick engines and guns on it, and move it about the galaxy.

with this reality though, Orks could dominate the universe if they were ever smart enough to realize their actual power. (which they aren't)

so by definition too, this makes Orks the most powerful army in the universe, they're just too stupid to realize it.

They have always been that, even by sheer numbers, f all orks in the galaxy would unite under a single waagh, without the infighting, Every single faction (except maybe nids) would be gone by now. This however, goes against exactly what Orks want. Non stop war.

The closest I've seen to planetary sheilds, was the void sheild in titanicus.

BUT, it did not cover the entire planet.

In theory, you could use the over lapping sheilds of star ships to sheild a world, then you would not have to cover the entire world in power plants, you could lower parts of the sheild instead of the whole thing...
Over all, it would be an easier and more effective way of sheilding a world.

If any world has a planetary sheild, it would probably be Mars in my opinion. Yeah I know this should have stoped the Necrons, but, it could have been down at the time for maintanace, or it was not yet being built, or was under construction.

Safor wrote:If the IoM has shields for their ships its totally possible for more advanced factions to have planetary shields.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=h6l1AlK5JZ0#t=99s

Yeah but space based weapons are so powerful it'd be pointless without massive amounts of energy...
No to mention the orkish proclivity of ramming gigantic asteroids into things...

The Imperium can protect points on a planet with Void Shields(all Hive Cities have their own Voids to protect them and most fortresses will have this as well)

They arn't going to sheath the entire planet in Voids, not worth it.




Titan was a different deal entirely. Its a fairly small moon for starters and they protected it with Geller Fields which prevent Warp entities from passing through it. It does something similer to a shields, but it is specific towards a particular type of unwanted object.

It would be possable to do this, but extremely impractical.


Terra probably has enough hard points shielded to where a good portion of the surface is protected, but they certaintly arn't protecting the entire planet.

purplefood wrote:

Safor wrote:If the IoM has shields for their ships its totally possible for more advanced factions to have planetary shields.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=h6l1AlK5JZ0#t=99s

Yeah but space based weapons are so powerful it'd be pointless without massive amounts of energy...
No to mention the orkish proclivity of ramming gigantic asteroids into things...

Unless some faction manages to create an perfectly reflecting shield. All the energy that hits the shield is simply reflected back into space. And an asteroid would simply bounce back into space without losing any of its kinetic energy.
Such an field would be problematic with ships for while the shield is up it can't change its speed or direction of movement, use its weapons or communicate with other ships nor can they see whats going on outside.
And many planets can't be without sun light for long periods not to mention that they would have no idea of whats happening outside.