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I think since the crusades were going on, I don't think anything wanted to mess with the system. I mean you have high volumes of Warships and troops flooding the gaxaly. Generally not a good idea to attack where you enemy is the strongest...

"That's not a moon! It's a Space Station!"

Except this time, it really IS a moon, Luna, only it's been covered in layer upon layer of the most destructive dakka ever created by man!

If Sol actually was attacked by something serious, I'd not be at all surprised if two or three major craftworlds came to help defend. That is, if the webway have intact tendrils in that direction, of course.

Or they might just watch, with a certain smugness.

Remember that several of the major craftworlds are less than fond of the IOM, and the rest are by and large neutral.

That said, if they did intervene it would likely be decisive, since the last time the IOM attacked a Craftworld they lost an entire sector fleet in the attempt without really doing much to it.

the Eldar wouldn't want Terra to fall.

the Golden Throne is basically sitting on a Webway gate that was ruptured into the Warp.


if Terra fell and the Golden Throne was destroyed, the Webway would be flooded with deamons.

So close it off

They've closed sections off before, after all..

Also, if the golden throne is destroyed, and it is generating the gate to the webway, wouldn't the tunnel collapse? Hard to say, given that they never really go into the how-to on these things..

The Golden Throne ripped a door into the Webway via the Warp. It's already a non-issue for the Eldar/other users of the Webway. The only remaining problem is keeping it closed on the Terra end. If the Eldar were at all concerned with daemons having a static gateway onto Terra, they haven't done much about it.

Ascalam wrote:So close it off

They've closed sections off before, after all..

Also, if the golden throne is destroyed, and it is generating the gate to the webway, wouldn't the tunnel collapse? Hard to say, given that they never really go into the how-to on these things..

the Golden Throne, and the Emperor's royal buttocks, are the only things which are plugging the hole.


if the Golden Throne is wrecked it would open the gateway(which the Emperor is holding shut with his mind)

Why doesn't anyone attack Terra? Let's break it down force-by-force:

Eldar: They certainly could. And, by attacking shipping lanes rather than Sol itself, they could possibly destroy Terra. But, why would they? The IoM is pretty evil (in their view), but they do a good job of keeping the other more evil forces in check.

Dark Eldar: Again, they could. But, why would they? There's much easier slaves to gather from less defended locations.

Orks: They may some day. But, their attacks tend to be rather random. They often times drift along waiting to stumble across a target. If they came across Terra, there would be an epic battle. But, until then, Terra is safe.

Tau: Someday, they may get to that point. But, they're much too far away right now and too focused on expanding their empire into surrounding space to bother going across the Galaxy.

Tyranids: They are on their way. They just haven't gotten to Terra... yet.

Necrons: They certainly could if they wanted to. But, they're still gathering strength. They'll most likely launch an attack when the time is right, if the Nids don't eat it first.

Chaos: They once did. But, then Horus died and Abbadon took over. He's pretty worthless. So, although they'd really like to attack Terra again, they're too incompetent to manage it.

There's not enough Eldar to pose a threat to Sol. Remember, they cannot replenish their numbers very quickly, and lack a centralized system of homeworlds, or even of Craftworlds, to send more troops to the front. In a battle for Sol, the Eldar would have to commit all of their available forces at once, and they'd only get one shot at it. There's no "second wave" for the Eldar in this battle, there's just not enough of them.

Attacking the shipping lanes? Eh, might work, for a bit... but given that the inbound transports are in the Warp until they reach the Sol system, the raiders have very little chance to enjoy long-term success. There's a segmentum's worth of Battlefleet in the Sol System alone... send your transports along a pre-set range of lanes, and have a few battlecruisers just sitting there. When the pirates arrive... it's a pack of raiders versus an entire Imperial Navy battlefleet.

Dark Eldar... much the same problem, with the added problems of infighting and civil war when battles don't go well and some upstart thinks he can run the Kabal better.

Orks... possibly, but the chances of stumbling across a more attractive target first, which causes the Waaagh to stop to fight, and gives rise to challenges to the Waaghboss' rule, means that the Ork forces that do, finally, arrive in Sol space are going to be smaller than they originally set out with, and possibly having internal fights for supremacy, with sub-Bosses not always following the orders of the Waaghboss.

Tau? Sol will go out before they reach the system. There's also just not enough of them, nor do they have the industrial base to produce enough war materials for a battle of this magnitude. If every world in the Tau Empire produces X ships/tanks/whatever, no matter how efficient they are, the Imperium has X*100000 worlds doing the same thing.

Nids: Maybe. Lot of space to fly through, however, meaning that the Imperium can harry the Hive Fleet for centuries before it reaches Sol. Though the Hive Fleet is definitely a threat, doing battle with them in deep space, rather than in biomass-containing systems, can bleed the Hive Fleet dry of resources, to the point that they have to start eating each other in order to repair the Hive Ships. Deathwatch surgical strikes could, supported by the Navy, conceivably cripple the Fleet before the bulk of it reaches the Sol system.

Chaos... yeah Failbaddon. 'Nuff said.

Necrons... who knows? They may not care about Sol at all.

SkaerKrow wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:The way of beating the Sol system would be to knock out the nearby agri-world systems and let it wither on the vine.

Yup, Colony Wars style (more or less).

I was thinking of the US island hopping campaign in the Pacific in WW2 however the principle is the same.

Indeed, if you go back to Alexander the Great, he beat the Persian Navy by never fighting it and destroying its bases instead.

One of the most basic principles of the military art is to attack where the enemy is weak.

Considering that happened during the Horus Heresy I would honestly think that they would have fixed that problem.

I could have sworn the entire webway system around the Sol system collapsed after Magnus rushed through it to talk to the Emperor.

Ascalam wrote:Or they might just watch, with a certain smugness.

Remember that several of the major craftworlds are less than fond of the IOM, and the rest are by and large neutral.

That said, if they did intervene it would likely be decisive, since the last time the IOM attacked a Craftworld they lost an entire sector fleet in the attempt without really doing much to it.

Or they'd watch in shock as the sheer level of defence in the solar system tears whatever's attacking a new, ah, warp rift. If it was Chaos, they might intervene, given that Eldar have chosen to side with humans before in such circumstances.

The Eldar would not let Terra fall, if Terra falls, the Imperium falls, which is largely what keeps the Tyranids, Necrons, Orkz, and Chaos at bay.

Similarly, I have no doubt the Eldar would be willing to help defend Terra against a massive enough force, especially if it was a Necron or Chaos force, the Necrons being their ancient enemies, and Chaos being responsible for their race's decline.

Gorskar.da.Lost wrote:[

Or they'd watch in shock as the sheer level of defence in the solar system tears whatever's attacking a new, ah, warp rift. If it was Chaos, they might intervene, given that Eldar have chosen to side with humans before in such circumstances.

Or not.

I'm pretty sure that they are aware of the Sol system's defences, after all this time.

It's also mentioned that they have some pretty tasty firepower of their own. They've sent forces larger than their own off limping (or altogether wiped out) for little damage of their own.

If one craftworld and it's attendant ships can wipe out a whole sector fleet (very very large- there are only a half dozen or so Sectors in the IOM) with no real damage to itself imagine what several can do
I'm not a rabid Eldar fanboy, but people tend to forget that they can put out some SERIOUS firepower when they feel the need.

That said, the eldar are the least likely to take on the IOM. Not because they couldn't, but because they have no real need to, as the IOM has more or less given up trying to exterminate them wholesale. They are the closest ting the IOM has to a xeno ally.

There are WAY more than 6 sectors in the Imperium. There are only 5 or so Segmentum Majors.

Are you saying there's only one sector per segmentum?

Probably got the terms confused. It's been a long day.

How big is the Gothic Sector, then, given that the entire BFG game is set in it. 200 LY cubed or so I think?

How many sectors to a segmentum?

Kilkrazy wrote:

SkaerKrow wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:The way of beating the Sol system would be to knock out the nearby agri-world systems and let it wither on the vine.

Yup, Colony Wars style (more or less).

I was thinking of the US island hopping campaign in the Pacific in WW2 however the principle is the same.

Indeed, if you go back to Alexander the Great, he beat the Persian Navy by never fighting it and destroying its bases instead.

One of the most basic principles of the military art is to attack where the enemy is weak.

Terra has waste reclaimation systems just like any other hive world.

Remember the Corpse Starch, its always there

I wonder if the Imperium's figured out how to power a... whatsit called again... basically, it's a weaponized atomsmasher that takes a single proton and accelerates it to near-light velocities, aimed at the enemy ships. This, for some reason beyond my comprehension, causes it to become the size of a planet. Apparently when this planet-sized object impacts a vessel at .99999~c, even if the ship is structurally perfect and manages to survive, if the artificial gravity has any delay whatsoever in compensating, the crew becomes red jelly on the walls. According to my source, the problem with the whole thing is the power required - roughly the same as our star's entire output.

Wait, this is 40k we're talking about, not real life... Nevermind.

a Graviton pulsar???

they have those in spades on some ships as weapon batteries.



unless you meant a Nova Cannon(which is a Giant Railgun which fires a massive Fusion bomb which makes a small sun on detonation)

Pouncey wrote: basically, it's a weaponized atomsmasher that takes a single proton and accelerates it to near-light velocities, aimed at the enemy ships.

I think you're having a deficiency with scale if you think that would damage a 40k space vessel.

Ascalam wrote:
If one craftworld and it's attendant ships can wipe out a whole sector fleet (very very large- there are only a half dozen or so Sectors in the IOM) with no real damage to itself imagine what several can do
I'm not a rabid Eldar fanboy, but people tend to forget that they can put out some SERIOUS firepower when they feel the need.

That one Craftworld was size of Earth... You cannot attack something that big with few hundred ships...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Ascalam wrote:Probably got the terms confused. It's been a long day.

How big is the Gothic Sector, then, given that the entire BFG game is set in it. 200 LY cubed or so I think?

How many sectors to a segmentum?

I would say...A LOT.

Brother Coa wrote:Enemies of man are known to hit hard targets ( Caida, Armageddon, Macragge... ), why not Terra all this millenia?

Terra isn't a hard target, it is the hardest. No other planet in the whole of 40k is going to be so well defended, and then it isn't just one target every nearby planet, space station, etc. is going to be the second or third best defended and so on. Plenty of enemies have tried to attack the sol system in past 10000 years, every one of the 13 black crusades has tried it, I'm sure plenty of waaaaghs have gone in that direction, they just all get stopped elsewhere. Do you not understand how well defended the sol system is?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

DarknessEternal wrote:

Pouncey wrote: basically, it's a weaponized atomsmasher that takes a single proton and accelerates it to near-light velocities, aimed at the enemy ships.

I think you're having a deficiency with scale if you think that would damage a 40k space vessel.

Please read the rest of the post before commenting on it.

Grey Templar wrote:a Graviton pulsar???

they have those in spades on some ships as weapon batteries.



unless you meant a Nova Cannon(which is a Giant Railgun which fires a massive Fusion bomb which makes a small sun on detonation)

No, I mean a souped-up mass driver.

so basically Railguns.

yes, they have those as standard armament as Weapon batteries(which defines a mixture of Railguns, Macro-cannons, plasma projectors, and laser cannons)


they use a massive Railgun to fire Nova Cannon shells(a gun the length of the ship, cruisers are between 5 and 6km in length)

Grey Templar wrote:so basically Railguns.

yes, they have those as standard armament as Weapon batteries(which defines a mixture of Railguns, Macro-cannons, plasma projectors, and laser cannons)


they use a massive Railgun to fire Nova Cannon shells(a gun the length of the ship, cruisers are between 5 and 6km in length)

The Nova Cannon, if it were as powerful as the type of mass driver I mean, wouldn't need to use fusion bombs. It'd be wholly un-necessary, when a projectile consisting of a single proton is more than capable of destroying ships that are not literally perfect.

Edit: Easier to accelerate, too. I could see it maybe as a large area-effect weapon, though.

a Proton as a projectile?


it has just as much chance of passing right through the ship with no harm as it does to do massive damage.

a Proton is going to have trouble doing much damage as Force is Mass times velocity. with almost no mass, the Proton would completely rely on its Velocity.

Lob bigger things at people, it does more damage.

Lysenis wrote:Considering that happened during the Horus Heresy I would honestly think that they would have fixed that problem.

It's a problem that can't be fixed.

At least, you could fix it by moving a number of agri-worlds into the sol system and putting them into Earth's orbit, etc. to make the system self-sufficient.

That's not an ability the IoM has, though.

Pouncey wrote:
No, I mean a souped-up mass driver.

I hate to be a grammar nazi here, but this made me laugh a lot. It's 'suped up' not 'souped up'. Now I can't get this image of a ship with gun covered in soup and spaghetti out of my head.