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While reading into something for another topic.

a question entered my mind.

Can a Large Spacecraft land in a controled manner?

like could a Battle Barge actully LAND on a planet? Could a huge Troop transport land on a planet to release its troops all at once instead of using smaller ships? (if the area around it is secured and no Anti-ship weapons are in the area.)
I know there are transports and shuttles that are built to do so but could the larger ones touch down?

i dout there is landing gear on board (but can't find anything about there not being any).

That is a great question... because I have absolutely no idea.

Large ships are constructed and maintained in space docks, and never see the surface of the planet. If they did land, they'd never be able to break orbit again due to the gravitational pull and their ridiculous mass.

Yeah, if they land, they are taking massive damage and never leaving again without both help and extensive repairs.

Once a big ships hits dirtside, it tends to stay there.

My guess (GUESS!) is that they could... but they never do.
I suppose if they were built on the ground of a forgeworld they would have to take off once.

But really after that there are no conditions that would ever necessitate them landing on a planet.

Hunterindarkness wrote:Yeah, if they land, they are taking massive damage and never leaving again without both help and extensive repairs.

Once a big ships hits dirtside, it tends to stay there.

Suddenly i remember a short Angry Marines comic 9thats obviously a bit vulgar for this) that involves using the entire battle barge (infact 2 of them) as a projectile to smash a nurgle Demon.


I would think if outfitted correctly a ship the size of a Battlebarge or larger could land planetside and take off into orbit again. The engines coudl cause massive climatic shifts in the planets atmosphere on take off or landing but when has the Imperium cared about doing that? (see IGs traditional mass blitzkireg with thousands of landing ships hitting the atmosphere at the same time causing gigantic storms and other problems)


But i must admit that would be an effective way to mass deploy IG or Space Marines once an area is captured.

A Bb would break up in orbit. Its not designed to ever land, most other large vessels would be a better bet as its to wide and "Hollow" and its dead meat as soon as it hits atmo

Hunterindarkness wrote:A Bb would break up in orbit. Its not designed to ever land, most other large vessels would be a better bet as its to wide and "Hollow" and its dead meat as soon as it hits atmo

On reentry. not orbit. spacecraft orbit planets all the time.

a Slow controled atmosphereic entry one might survive intact.


but used as a projectile careening into the planet would break up as it entered but the sheer mass of the ship would stay together.
A ship has thick armor and sheilds against the harshness of space. The stress of re-entry into a planets atmosphere would be a tickle compared to the beating of space.

Then again those cog boys use alot of Duct tape in everything they make.......

Duct Tape! the Ommnisiahs blessed bindings!

LOl oh I love that man. The duct tape thing. I think I know have a sig.


Anyhow yeah, I meant reentry, BB have an awful lot of dead hold space inside em. I see em mostly being crushed like a can trying to leave or once they "settle"

there is a reason they are built in space


try getting a continent to lift off

Engine of War wrote:

A ship has thick armor and sheilds against the harshness of space. The stress of re-entry into a planets atmosphere would be a tickle compared to the beating of space.

Yes because a space craft has never been lost on re-entery.

Space on the other hand has all that nothingness that really beats the gak out of space ships.

The BFG rulebook is the source to go to for this. Only escort sized ships can land. Anything larger cannot do so.

well..all in how ones defines "Landing"

Hunterindarkness wrote:well..all in how ones defines "Landing"

In BFG, anything larger doing so is Destroyed.

We talking one piece or three...One piece could be a landing. By the way man I agree with ya. Big ships are never leaving the atmo.

Depends on the Writer - its GW / BL etc

Capital ships would usually suffer badly in landing...........although it would likely depend of the gravity of the world, atmospheric density etc?

A Salamanders Strike Cruiser crash lands but does manage to get back into the void in a BL novel.

The Imperial Giuard and The Mechanicus does use huge landers to transport whole regiments and Titans

Imperial Guard Tetrarch Lnders are pictured in Tactica Imperalis p60

In IA:10 one fleet based chapter is granted a new homeworld as a prize for fighting. They land a badly damaged battle barge on an ice moon. to serve as the foundation for a new fortress monestary.

I doubt it could have taken off again even if it was fully repaired.

On the cover of the Imperial Guard codec it shows some ships in the background letting out troops . Are those landing craft or full sized ships landing?

pie zuri wrote:On the cover of the Imperial Guard codec it shows some ships in the background letting out troops . Are those landing craft or full sized ships landing?

Landing craft...
Really big landing craft...

purplefood wrote:

pie zuri wrote:On the cover of the Imperial Guard codec it shows some ships in the background letting out troops . Are those landing craft or full sized ships landing?

Landing craft...
Really big landing craft...

Wow, Imperial ships must have some impressive sized holds to house those landing craft.

purplefood wrote:

pie zuri wrote:On the cover of the Imperial Guard codec it shows some ships in the background letting out troops . Are those landing craft or full sized ships landing?

Landing craft...
Really big landing craft...

Think IG scale, they are actually normal sized landing craft

Imperial Monkey wrote:

purplefood wrote:

pie zuri wrote:On the cover of the Imperial Guard codec it shows some ships in the background letting out troops . Are those landing craft or full sized ships landing?

Landing craft...
Really big landing craft...

Think IG scale, they are actually normal sized landing craft

If it was IG scale wouldn't it just be loads of smaller really cramped ones that can't take off again afterwards?

I would think that nothing cruiser-size or bigger would still be space-worthy after landing. They would have to be specifically designed for that kind of duty, and there's no particular reason to do so.

Building a ship to survive planet-side conditions would be a very different thing than designing it to survive combat; just loading it with armor wouldn't help, because you aren't worried about a sharp, damaging impact but rather about the cumulative force of atmospheric pressure and gravity on every part of the ship simultaneously. Actually, more armor could be counterproductive; more weight means more pressure on the superstructure. Designing a large starship to land and take off without damage would probably compromise its ability to perform its main function of sailing around in space blowing things up, so I don't think it would be done.

And, I mean. . . they don't need to. A square landing craft, 200 by 200 meters on a side, has 40,000 square meters of floorspace. That's enough to land several thousand troops plus associated war machines in a single drop, assuming there's only one level, and it's a tiny fraction of the size of a cruiser or battleship.

According to Mr Abnett there's no reason for battleships to enter a planet's atmosphere. Collossal troop ships are landed however and its from these that infantry are transported to the fleet (yep they're still only taxis, or support vessels for the fleet). Spaceship vs Planet's gravity probably would = the planet winning every time (ignoring that one piece of art with an Imperial Battlecruiser flying between skyscrapers.....). =P

Presumably given a good enough matery of gravity nullifying technology - alot of these problems will go away?

So Necrons, Eldar and maybe the the Orks can take off and land really big ships

Depends on the ship, depends on the planet. Basically, if the ship looks aerodynamic, it's atmosphere-capable; if it's loaded with spiky bits, boxy, or flimsy-looking it probably isn't. Trying to land a Battle Barge on a planet would be like trying to drop an aircraft carrier fifty feet onto solid pavement, the materials aren't designed to hold up to the stresses you're suggesting placing on them.

After a quick check of BFG rule book, all OrK attack ships can land on a planet. These are roughly equivalent to Imperial escort class ships

Edit I forgot Kroot warspheres can land on a planet. It has also been mentioned that Ork roks have done so in past major battles(Armageddon)

Frostyfire wrote:After a quick check of BFG rule book, all OrK attack ships can land on a planet. These are roughly equivalent to Imperial escort class ships

Edit I forgot Kroot warspheres can land on a planet. It has also been mentioned that Ork roks have done so in past major battles(Armageddon)

Rokks don't leave the planet again, though.

(ignoring that one piece of art with an Imperial Battlecruiser flying between skyscrapers.....)

I imagine on a low gravity/weak atmosphere world, that the ships could get between the sky scrapers. also depends how tall they are, since the Imperium tends to build giant structures.

The Tau routinely use Manta transports as landing craft. These are described as being 'small spacecraft rather than large transports', and definitely couldn't fit something as large as a titan (i think they fit approx 300 troops inside). The smallest Tau escort can carry a small fleet of these fitted for landing (but not for space combat).

Depends on the ship, Imperial city sized warship - yeah its called CRASHING.