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Today, I played a friend (my Tyranids vs his DE). It was a sort of custom game, where my nids were supposed to kill a cloak field generator protecting a webway portal to Comorragh. I succesfully destroyed the cloak generator, and won the game. The mission fluff stated that I had to kill the generator to get my nids into the Webway and into Comorragh.

Now, a question. What if this scenario happened in-universe? Say a Tyranid fleet discovered a webway portal leading directly to Comorragh, and passed through it. How would the DE react? What would the fight be like?

They'd probably just close off the tunnel, and strand the nids in some unreachable pocket of the webway.

I also doubt there is any direct portal to Comorragh; there's probably a few dozen junctures you have to pass through and the wrong turn anywhere will get you killed. It's not supposed to be an easy place to find.

I don't think its as easy as just walking through a webway portal, even if you know its there. In all likelihood the Tyranids wouldn't even give it a second thought.

But if they DID get through, I doubt it would be that big of a problem for the Dark Eldar. I believe they have technology that can forcibly close a webway portal, so it could be sealed relatively quickly. Of the Tyranids that got through before it could be sealed, a few would be taken by the Haemonculus for experiments, the rest would be slaughtered.

 MasterSlowPoke wrote:
They'd probably just close off the tunnel, and strand the nids in some unreachable pocket of the webway.

I also doubt there is any direct portal to Comorragh; there's probably a few dozen junctures you have to pass through and the wrong turn anywhere will get you killed. It's not supposed to be an easy place to find.

According to Path of the Renegade and Path of the Outcast this is not the case. Most static DE webway portals lead directly to Comorragh. In fact, the Salamanders space marine chapter has used these portals to launch a (disatrous) invasion of Comorragh in the fluff.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Orblivion wrote:
I don't think its as easy as just walking through a webway portal, even if you know its there. In all likelihood the Tyranids wouldn't even give it a second thought.

But if they DID get through, I doubt it would be that big of a problem for the Dark Eldar. I believe they have technology that can forcibly close a webway portal, so it could be sealed relatively quickly. Of the Tyranids that got through before it could be sealed, a few would be taken by the Haemonculus for experiments, the rest would be slaughtered.

According to Ghostmaker (the scenes on Monthax with the Eldar) it can take days to deal a webway portal completely. It's an extremely complex ritual.

Verviedi wrote:

 MasterSlowPoke wrote:
They'd probably just close off the tunnel, and strand the nids in some unreachable pocket of the webway.

I also doubt there is any direct portal to Comorragh; there's probably a few dozen junctures you have to pass through and the wrong turn anywhere will get you killed. It's not supposed to be an easy place to find.

According to Path of the Renegade and Path of the Outcast this is not the case. Most static DE webway portals lead directly to Comorragh. In fact, the Salamanders space marine chapter has used these portals to launch a (disatrous) invasion of Comorragh in the fluff.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Orblivion wrote:
I don't think its as easy as just walking through a webway portal, even if you know its there. In all likelihood the Tyranids wouldn't even give it a second thought.

But if they DID get through, I doubt it would be that big of a problem for the Dark Eldar. I believe they have technology that can forcibly close a webway portal, so it could be sealed relatively quickly. Of the Tyranids that got through before it could be sealed, a few would be taken by the Haemonculus for experiments, the rest would be slaughtered.

According to Ghostmaker (the scenes on Monthax with the Eldar) it can take days to deal a webway portal completely. It's an extremely complex ritual.

And during those days the Tyranids march through the webway into the most intense crossfire you can imagine. As numerous as the Tyranids are, they cannot do the same kind of immediate damage as a fleet of Battle Barges and Strike Cruisers can. The Dark Eldar are as mobile of a force as you can get, they can reinforce quickly and contain the invasion while the portal is sealed.

I think Comorragh might be a lot bigger than people tend to think. It is bathed in the glow of stolen dying stars...dying stars are actually bigger than normal stars (they expand as they die) thus if you consider Comorragh to have 3 stars worth of space then that is about 3 million miles in diameter alone. Unless the nids bring space ships they are probably not doing much even if the DE take a week to shut the portal.

There is also fluff that indicates vect can reroute where portals come out and arrange portals to deliver forces where he wants.

I am going to assume the best possible scenario for the Tyranids. Let's imagine they got it, the Webway itself didn't eject or mislead them, and they *somehow* found a way through the Myriad of Webway junctures to get to Commaragh.

Then, you are in the middle of the largest, most well armed city of murders in the entire galaxy, were the basic weapon is enough to put down your greatest assault beasts.Also it should be noted, that if you have read Path of the Archon you'd know, Vect is partial to big weapons. If the Hive Fleet looks like it's getting a hold in whatever Sub-Realm they eat first, it's extremelely likely Vect would simply Block off that single Sub-Realm, then drop an entire Sun on you. Yes, he did that, an entire Sun, Vect is a Boss.

Unfortunately for you, i think Commaragh is one of the only places in the universe that is almost completely safe from the Tyranids, or anyone else for that matter. Think of Commaragh as Helms Deep, except instead of having a draining grill, they have Webway Gates, each chock full of effective and fun ways to make sure only people you want to get in do.

Also, it's worth noting that it's heavily implied the Salamanders only reached the Dark City because Vecht wanted them too.

In the Valedor novel the Tyranids locate an improperly closed webway portal on a Maiden world which the Eldar recently fled through and failed to seal properly.

The Swarmlord senses the psychic presence of the portal, investigates and somehow manages to open it.

A few chapters later thousands of Tyranids are swarming through dis-used webway tunnels and actually manage to ambush a large Eldar army on the way back to Valedor.

The webway is described as an enormous labyrinth of tunnels, some too small for a man, others large enough for Titans. There is even an abandoned city passed by the Eldar army before the ambush.

Anyway it seems that the Tyranids do possess the means to open portals into the webway, assuming said portals have not been "locked", and the endless mass of tunnels is an ideal location for an army of stealthy predators.

An attack on Commoragh, should they even be able to find it, would of course fail. The city is too big. An attack on a distant Dark Eldar settlement elsewhere in the webway though? It could easily be overwhelmed and consumed. It could even lead to a very hard to dislodge Tyranids infestation within the webway.

That needs to happen in the fluff.

Dark Eldar 7th edition codex

999.M41 - Olympus Falling
A tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan lays waste to the Maiden world Garix Prime, slaughtering all who are too slow to escape into the Webway. Scouring the doomed planet, the Hive Mind notices a powerful pulsating psychic presence pulsating from the southern polar regions of the Planet. Investigating, it discovers Garix Prime's webway gate, left unlocked by the Eldar in their haste to escape certain death. Harnessing the massive psychic power of half a dozen Tyrants, the Hive Mind forces the gate open and floods the Webway with millions of Tyranids.

The Tyranid presence is noticed within the psychoactive tunnels almost immediately, and numerous Cabals mobilize to combat the threat. Gunfire flashes and explosions echo in the gloom as pirate and beast face-off, using the complex tunnel-systems to flank one another and perform ambushes. The narrowest tunnels become hunting grounds for Lictors and Genestealers, while Bio-Titans and Tyrants duel with the Dark Kin's sleek skimmers and flyers in caverns vast enough to contain entire Hives.

Though the Cabals fight with the brutality and efficiency that is typical of their race, there is a certain sense of desperation permeating their actions. Though the Tyranids do not yet know it, they have stumbled upon a once-in-a-millennium opportunity, for the webway gate through which they have traveled has put them within the backdoor of the Dark Kin's Crown Jewel- a mere days' travel from Commoragh itself.

Butr then you land in the deadliest place in universe, where death is a art form, one of the most dark and advanced races who are a ultimate preaditor.

Only potential for billions of brutal killers, the dark city is not defined by normal physics.

You can just seal that part of Commoragh off and be done with it.

An attack on Commoragh, should they even be able to find it, would of course fail. The city is too big. An attack on a distant Dark Eldar settlement elsewhere in the webway though? It could easily be overwhelmed and consumed. It could even lead to a very hard to dislodge Tyranids infestation within the webway.

Seal them off and let them starve.

 Psienesis wrote:

An attack on Commoragh, should they even be able to find it, would of course fail. The city is too big. An attack on a distant Dark Eldar settlement elsewhere in the webway though? It could easily be overwhelmed and consumed. It could even lead to a very hard to dislodge Tyranids infestation within the webway.

Seal them off and let them starve.

It was my understanding that while the Dark Eldar know what they are doing with the webway, they are by no means it's undisputed masters and don't have control over the whole thing. Only the Harlequins know the entire webway, and even they don't exert the kind of godlike dominion over it that you imply (otherwise Ahriman breaking into the webway would have been trivial, rather than there being a real threat of him breaching the Black Library). It may not be as easy as "seal them off".

Your right, the Dark Eldar are not the undisputed masters of the Webway, Vect alone his. When Vect took charge, he tortured all the secrets of the Webway that were scattered around his entire race, and killed all others who knew. Know he is the only one with the full knowledge of the Webway. And while not absolute control, sealing off bits of the Webway is something he can do from his gaming chair at home.

In the book Path of the Archon Vect shows this ability to it's fullest, firstly he raises barriers and walls within the Webway in the Dark City to funnel thousands of Chaos Tainted Ur-ghuls into the battle ground where the Kabal of the White Flame had their fortress. Then, he sealed the entire area off around the fortress. Finally, he *moved the entire sub-realm* containing one of the trapped Suns and attached that Sub-realm to the bit Vect had sealed off. Yes, he dropped a Sun on people who he didn't like...

If you want to take out the Dark City, you will have to take out Vect first.

I thought Harelqeuins were the masters of the Webway?

pm713 wrote:
I thought Harelqeuins were the masters of the Webway?

I always saw it as more like the Harlequins knew the webway better than anyone, but had little actual power over it.

Think its know the webway better than any other. and i belive have access to one of the only or insanely rare maps of it.

kind of priceless and insanely deadly in wrong hands

Xyptc wrote:

 Psienesis wrote:

An attack on Commoragh, should they even be able to find it, would of course fail. The city is too big. An attack on a distant Dark Eldar settlement elsewhere in the webway though? It could easily be overwhelmed and consumed. It could even lead to a very hard to dislodge Tyranids infestation within the webway.

Seal them off and let them starve.

It was my understanding that while the Dark Eldar know what they are doing with the webway, they are by no means it's undisputed masters and don't have control over the whole thing. Only the Harlequins know the entire webway, and even they don't exert the kind of godlike dominion over it that you imply (otherwise Ahriman breaking into the webway would have been trivial, rather than there being a real threat of him breaching the Black Library). It may not be as easy as "seal them off".

You don't need to be the master of the entire Webway to be a master of a part of it. Commoragh is the part that Vect is pretty much the undisputed master of.

Lock the Tyranids in a webway-box, then open a gate into star somewhere. Bye-bye, bugs.

... then slaughter half a million people as an example to the rest as why you don't leave doughnuts on the floor, because *THAT* is how you get ants.

 ansacs wrote:
I think Comorragh might be a lot bigger than people tend to think. It is bathed in the glow of stolen dying stars...dying stars are actually bigger than normal stars (they expand as they die) thus if you consider Comorragh to have 3 stars worth of space then that is about 3 million miles in diameter alone. Unless the nids bring space ships they are probably not doing much even if the DE take a week to shut the portal.

There is also fluff that indicates vect can reroute where portals come out and arrange portals to deliver forces where he wants.

Comorragh is definitly bigger than most people think. It is not a city, it is not a hive world, it is on the order of a dysonsphere. It is the grand junction in the webway, a port of sorts, for eldar spacecraft. As we know, craftwords are huge, and once ships this size traveled through the webway and through Comorragh. It is also extra dimentional, with parts of it curving in on itself into another dimesion making it's volume greater than it would otherwise be.

Not all of it might be inhabbited, but a lot of it is. DE are the common form of Eldar, not CWE. So one can bet there are a LOT of DE in comorragh.

Now it is all tightly packed and citylike, so anything with starship sized weapons can do an enormous amount of damage if it gets in. Ala Space Marine Battle Barge or even a strike cruiser getting inside can create a lot of destruction.
But an army, small enough to be going after a cloaking generator on a distant world? Probably repulsed without even thinking about it.

IIRC at the end of the Valedor campaign book the wyche cult of strife secretly captured tyranids from two different hive fleets in runecages to give to the ebon sting back in Comorragh to supposedly crossbreed.

So the fight might involve the Dark Eldar trying to capture the nids and not just kill them for some purpose.

 BlaxicanX wrote:
That needs to happen in the fluff.

Dark Eldar 7th edition codex

999.M41 - Olympus Falling
A tendril of Hive Fleet Leviathan lays waste to the Maiden world Garix Prime, slaughtering all who are too slow to escape into the Webway. Scouring the doomed planet, the Hive Mind notices a powerful pulsating psychic presence pulsating from the southern polar regions of the Planet. Investigating, it discovers Garix Prime's webway gate, left unlocked by the Eldar in their haste to escape certain death. Harnessing the massive psychic power of half a dozen Tyrants, the Hive Mind forces the gate open and floods the Webway with millions of Tyranids.

The Tyranid presence is noticed within the psychoactive tunnels almost immediately, and numerous Cabals mobilize to combat the threat. Gunfire flashes and explosions echo in the gloom as pirate and beast face-off, using the complex tunnel-systems to flank one another and perform ambushes. The narrowest tunnels become hunting grounds for Lictors and Genestealers, while Bio-Titans and Tyrants duel with the Dark Kin's sleek skimmers and flyers in caverns vast enough to contain entire Hives.

Though the Cabals fight with the brutality and efficiency that is typical of their race, there is a certain sense of desperation permeating their actions. Though the Tyranids do not yet know it, they have stumbled upon a once-in-a-millennium opportunity, for the webway gate through which they have traveled has put them within the backdoor of the Dark Kin's Crown Jewel- a mere days' travel from Commoragh itself.

This is... too beautiful for words...

blaktoof wrote:
IIRC at the end of the Valedor campaign book the wyche cult of strife secretly captured tyranids from two different hive fleets in runecages to give to the ebon sting back in Comorragh to supposedly crossbreed.

So the fight might involve the Dark Eldar trying to capture the nids and not just kill them for some purpose.

That's a great scene. The Haemonculi are having a great time playing around and keep the Tyranids sedated. A visiting Wych asks why the Tyranids are sedated (very odd for the Dark Eldar) and the Haemonculi reply that it is much smarter to keep the Tyranids out cold because 1) they could most likely break free if they weren't and 2) they don't really feel pain properly and so there is no "suffering" to enjoy in the same way as there is when mutilating a natural creature or something with a soul. They even have a few Carnifexes standing around being patched up ready for the gladiatorial pits.

The Tyranids are an interesting subject for the Dark Eldar. On the one hand, weapon beasts are amazing opponents to test your skill against, but on the other hand you don't really get anything from killing them. Its like fighting a robot.

Xyptc wrote:
In the Valedor novel the Tyranids locate an improperly closed webway portal on a Maiden world which the Eldar recently fled through and failed to seal properly.

The Swarmlord senses the psychic presence of the portal, investigates and somehow manages to open it.

A few chapters later thousands of Tyranids are swarming through dis-used webway tunnels and actually manage to ambush a large Eldar army on the way back to Valedor.

The webway is described as an enormous labyrinth of tunnels, some too small for a man, others large enough for Titans. There is even an abandoned city passed by the Eldar army before the ambush.

Anyway it seems that the Tyranids do possess the means to open portals into the webway, assuming said portals have not been "locked", and the endless mass of tunnels is an ideal location for an army of stealthy predators.

An attack on Commoragh, should they even be able to find it, would of course fail. The city is too big. An attack on a distant Dark Eldar settlement elsewhere in the webway though? It could easily be overwhelmed and consumed. It could even lead to a very hard to dislodge Tyranids infestation within the webway.

This did indeed happen, however Lelith Hexperax noticed and flew in on hundreds of venoms dropping all the captured Carnifex's they just took from Valedor onto the nid force like massive living rolling boulders from indiana jones squishing bugs with glee and then the Wych Cult of Strife went to work slaughtering the Nids... They then ran into the massive Warhost of Craftworld Iyaden and as the Tyranid force was retreating from the endless harrasment of Wych's and Hellions, they fought Ghost Warriors and Wraith Knights as the living Eldar of Iyaden retreated so not to take to many casualties... Then suddenly all of the Pheonix Warriors appear and go to town on the nids ass...

They got into the Webway, but miles away from any real city and were slaughtered by the second most powerful Dark Eldar, the Pheonix Aspects and a Craftworld of Necromancers... It was beautiful, however on commaragh... The Dark Eldar can close off entire section of the city and then just get rid of it, in one example Vect decided to assassinate one of his rivals by sending him a gift in a small box, it was a Black Hole that sucked in the Archons entire Kabal....

Think they'd just chuckle at the poor nids, wyches would take some of the big ones for their Arena's then they would just make that part dissapear into oblivion.