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As the title states, I am curious what everyone thinks and why.

In all honesty, all the Craftworlds are weak. Depending on who is writing the story large Craftworlds have a population of 10ish million for Gav Thorpe and 100 Million for Andy, but both are startlingly small numbers in the scale of things. If it was a Craftworld Vs Craftworld war then Biel-Tan would win because the they have the highest percentage of combatants in there populace, while most other Craftworlds would struggle to find 1 million aspect warriors given Gavs interpretation.

A better question is which eldar bastion is the most powerful, and this would go to Commaragh due to them having numbers boarding on Billions (' To compare a Hive world to Commaragh is to compare an ant hill to a mountain. An average Hive world has 10s of millions of humans) almost all of which are combatants of a kind as well as thousands of Xenos Mercenaries. Or the crown may go to the black library, Craftworld of the Harlequins. Harlequins are undoubtedly the most skilled eldar in combat and an entire craftworld of them would be deadly. Then include the ''Deadly sentinels'' (Probably Solitaires), all those ancient and powerful books and artefacts. Finally them have the patronage of a real god, because if the laughing god makes his pimp lair anywhere, its there.

As much as GW tries to make it look differently, the Craftworld Eldar simply aren't major players in the universe. They don't have the numbers, they don't have the armies and they don't even have the technology anymore. The Dark Eldar have a MUCH more powerful military and they are all but unassailable in the webway, as with the black library. Simply put, Craftworld eldar suck...

Letting Lexicanum do the legwork, Imperial hive worlds have populations ranging from 32 billion to 500 billion. I think Commorragh would need to be working quite hard to rival that

Remember tha Earth today has 7 billion inhabitants and we are definately not a hive world.

Biel-tan seems to be the most aggressive and has the forces to back this aggression.

 Mr Nobody wrote:
Biel-tan seems to be the most aggressive and has the forces to back this aggression.

That is what it seems to me, but I am not that familiar with their fluff just yet.

What do you mean Eldar don't have the numbers? Space marines only number somewhere near 100,000 in total and one would easily consider them more than powerful enough to affect things.
I'd say Ulthwe does the most with Eldrad being all knowing and what not, but Biel-Tan has the largest army obviously gotta love the sword wind.

It depends on what you mean by "most powerful." If you look at it from a conventional standpoint, then yeah it'd go to Biel-Tan due to their abnormally high number of Aspect Warriors and generally warlike culture. Looking at "powerful" from an Eldar point of view, however, I'd say Ulthwe. Their seers are typically better than other craftworlds' and there are more of them, so they are better equipped to alter galactic events in their favor. This lets them exert their power on a much wider scale than a conventional army could (see nudging Ghazkgull to power to cause the 2nd Armaggedon War to protect a maiden world).

The immediate strength of a craftworld is only part of it, they tend to divert things to protect themselves and engage the enemy only on their terms.

That being said, I do think Biel-Tan is probably the strongest in the fluff. Ulthwe would probably be #2, but that may change depending on how the 13th crusade ultimately turns out (IF it ever finishes). I know Eldrad was supposed to kick the bucket while chopping off Abbadon's arms, and considering how important he was to keeping the craftworld a step ahead of their enemies it is likely a pretty serious blow if the fluff remains as is.

Il-Kaithe and Yme-Loc also sound pretty strong, the 6th edition codex mentions that the former has been waging lots of wars against Chaos, in a straight-up crusade, while the latter apparently has a bunch of Eldar titans.

DogofWar1 wrote:
but that may change depending on how the 13th crusade ultimately turns out (IF it ever finishes). I know Eldrad was supposed to kick the bucket while chopping off Abbadon's arms, and considering how important he was to keeping the craftworld a step ahead of their enemies it is likely a pretty serious blow if the fluff remains as is.

The clock has actually been reset to BEFORE the 13th Black Crusade, leaving Eldrad alive and kicking at the moment.

I guess my question could be taken in one of two ways: military might and overall power within the Eldar race itself.

What is everyone's opinion of Iyanden? They call upon ghosts to fight their battles.

 Havok210 wrote:
What is everyone's opinion of Iyanden? They call upon ghosts to fight their battles.

Because they have to. They take risks no one else will because their options are limited. However, I've not read the new supplement, so thus might have been retconned.

Uthwes the best. uthwe all the way!

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
In all honesty, all the Craftworlds are weak. Depending on who is writing the story large Craftworlds have a population of 10ish million for Gav Thorpe and 100 Million for Andy, but both are startlingly small numbers in the scale of things. If it was a Craftworld Vs Craftworld war then Biel-Tan would win because the they have the highest percentage of combatants in there populace, while most other Craftworlds would struggle to find 1 million aspect warriors given Gavs interpretation.

A better question is which eldar bastion is the most powerful, and this would go to Commaragh due to them having numbers boarding on Billions (' To compare a Hive world to Commaragh is to compare an ant hill to a mountain. An average Hive world has 10s of millions of humans) almost all of which are combatants of a kind as well as thousands of Xenos Mercenaries. Or the crown may go to the black library, Craftworld of the Harlequins. Harlequins are undoubtedly the most skilled eldar in combat and an entire craftworld of them would be deadly. Then include the ''Deadly sentinels'' (Probably Solitaires), all those ancient and powerful books and artefacts. Finally them have the patronage of a real god, because if the laughing god makes his pimp lair anywhere, its there.

As much as GW tries to make it look differently, the Craftworld Eldar simply aren't major players in the universe. They don't have the numbers, they don't have the armies and they don't even have the technology anymore. The Dark Eldar have a MUCH more powerful military and they are all but unassailable in the webway, as with the black library. Simply put, Craftworld eldar suck...

None of the writers in 40k really understand scale or think about the numbers they pencil in. Really it's better to just not think about 40k in those terms. Pretty soon you start wondering why a million soldiers, even if they are superhuman, are such a big deal for a whole galaxy. Then you start thinking about the logistics of warfare on a galactic scale where the only FTL travel is inherently random. Then its why swordfights still win battles when there are orbital bombardments. Then of course you realise its just a game and isn't even supposed to make sense, and you've wasted a lot of time.

ninjafiredragon wrote:
Uthwes the best. uthwe all the way!

This isn't a 'whats your favourite craftworld' thread. Its which s the strongest. i voted for Biel-Tan not only are they one of the major craftworlds they have one of the larger populations and are not low in numbers due to large wars like that of Iyanden and Alaitoc. Plus they have a larger military to keep them safe. If it wasn't for the attack on Alaitoc by the IoM I may have said them. As the Rangers and Pathfinders still retreat to their Craftworld and work for them when needed. And so would have had the numbers

Depends on how you define "power".

Iyanden was the most populous of the Craftworlds before the attack by Kraken. It is described in the Iyanden supplement as losing billions, so the Craftworld populations have been increased by GW to more reasonable sounding levels (considering these are meant to be the largest bastions of the Craftworld Eldar). Before Hive Fleet Naga, it was described as forming alliances with many Exodites and also 2 smaller Craftworlds. In the supplement, Iyanden was also the reason why Chaos never established any major stronghold on the eastern edge of the galaxy in nearly 10,000 years. So what Iyanden accomplished before they got hit by Kraken was significant.

We don't know enough about Biel-tan's population, only that it is the most militarized of the Craftworlds. So that doesn't strictly speaking tell us enough about it to give comparison, merely that it has a higher proportion of its unknown population size as Aspect Warriors. It also appears to engage in a lot more conflicts in wiping out colonization or exploration efforts by other races. While this might appear to indicate power, it also means there is greater attrition so Biel-tan might be expending its power on relatively minor goals and conflicts. This was Iyanden's opinion in the Iyanden supplement, and Iyanden refused to spend its strength in similar efforts against other races on the eastern edge of the galaxy.

Ulthwe is described as having the most Seers and their Seers being more precise and able to see further into the future. This additional predictive power appears to put Ulthwe up there in power, but divination still is not totally accurate. It is also described as relying on Black Guardians as it has a lower proportion of its population as Aspect Warriors. So in terms of per capita military strength it might be weaker.

Alaitoc has the farthest flung network of Corsairs, Rangers, and Pathfinders giving it perhaps the greatest conventional intelligence network. These Outcasts are also sometimes engaged on special missions for the Craftworld such as retrieving artifacts or spirit stones. Alaitoc is also described as cultivating a relationship with the Harlequins. So Alaitoc's true power might be greater than its relatively low profile might suggest. Against Necrons, it is also apparently the Craftworld with the most detailed knowledge due to possession of an ancient map on the Necrons.

All in all it depends on how you view power. For the Craftworld Eldar, and Eldar in general, it isn't so much about sheer brute force numbers but rather the knowledge of where to strike, and also their unsurpassed mobility to get to where they need to ahead of other races.