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Wasn't the Salamanders attack basically Vect assassinating people en masse? Plus they only attacked one section so the others were totally fine.

That "invasion" involved putting a emergency beacon directly into commmorragh and then shutting down nearly every defence mechanism that protected its entrances, which normaly are next to impossible to even find.
So yes if you have help from the highest dark Eldar ranks then you can do it, but at that point it isn't an invasion, but rather a coup.

Jorim wrote:
That "invasion" involved putting a emergency beacon directly into commmorragh and then shutting down nearly every defence mechanism that protected its entrances, which normaly are next to impossible to even find.
So yes if you have help from the highest dark Eldar ranks then you can do it, but at that point it isn't an invasion, but rather a coup.

Yep. He left the door wide open.
Then he let his rivals expend there forces while 3000 some marines where smashing up all thr other rival Lords and nobility.

He just sat back as they where wiped out, they left and he walked out into the ruins with a fresh and battle ready army that had not been bled dry in a calculated war of attrition.

What book was the Salamanders invasion in? That sounds interesting.

Anyway, it’s unclear how many Dark Eldar there actually are, and how many are able+willing to actually defend the city, so idk what would happen if someone tried anything.

Lots. Pretty sure they'd all defend the city seeing as it's their base of operations and they're definitely all able to fight otherwise another Dark Eldar would've killed them.

 gnome_idea_what wrote:
What book was the Salamanders invasion in? That sounds interesting.

Anyway, it’s unclear how many Dark Eldar there actually are, and how many are able+willing to actually defend the city, so idk what would happen if someone tried anything.

It's in the 5th ed. DE codex. Two dozen Strike Cruisers and a Battlebarges worth of SM follow a DE attack into the city due to Vect leaving the door open and Vect uses the ensuing chaos to seize power.

 gnome_idea_what wrote:
What book was the Salamanders invasion in? That sounds interesting.

Anyway, it’s unclear how many Dark Eldar there actually are, and how many are able+willing to actually defend the city, so idk what would happen if someone tried anything.

It is in one of the older DE codexes.

While it isn't exactly stated how many there are, they are more numerous than the other eldar and physically better than them. Considering that their entire society consists of giant basically never ending gang wars (mostly paused to have fun with other races) and even their children would most likely kill you without hesitating, I would say everyone who isn't 100% sure that his hideout is absolutely save would be able and also willing to defend it.

But then again commmorragh is totally able to kill you without anyone even lifting a finger, big parts of the city make death worlds look like a nice place.

About the size of Commorragh, the new Codex says Commorragh is to the largest megalopolis city in the universe like a mountain is to an anthill.

So basically like a previous poster already said. Commorragh is bigger than multiple star systems combined and it’s in a sub dimension only its murderous inhabitants can control. Nobody in the known 40K setting has the capabilities of winning a war there.

pm713 wrote:
Lots. Pretty sure they'd all defend the city seeing as it's their base of operations and they're definitely all able to fight otherwise another Dark Eldar would've killed them.

Capable of fighting, sure - but also smart enough to not get killed needlessly. Their most important consideration is personal survival, the fighting ability is needed to ensure that. They're used to dealing with backstabbing competition, ritualistic arena violence, gang fights and hapless guards on raids, not real warfare. Having a base like Comorragh is nice but it's worthless if you're dead - and you sure as hell aren't going to sacrifice yourself for another Dark Eldar! A lot of them would jump on their Raiders and ditch their city and kin at the first hint of trouble.

Spetulhu wrote:

pm713 wrote:


Capable of fighting, sure - but also smart enough to not get killed needlessly. Their most important consideration is personal survival, the fighting ability is needed to ensure that. They're used to dealing with backstabbing competition, ritualistic arena violence, gang fights and hapless guards on raids, not real warfare. Having a base like Comorragh is nice but it's worthless if you're dead - and you sure as hell aren't going to sacrifice yourself for another Dark Eldar! A lot of them would jump on their Raiders and ditch their city and kin at the first hint of trouble.

Considering the fact that the DE have successfully attact SM homeworlds, guilimans crusade and tyranid infested planets I wouldn't say that they don't know real wars. They may prefere easier victimes, but that doesn't mean that they can't beat stronger foes. Also commorragh is way to important to just ditch it, especially if staying and fighting means that you have every possible advantage. Also as long as the city doesn't completly fall, you can just be resurected and the haemonculus covens will be one of the last places to ever be invaded.

The city can’t be taken regardless of the possibilities of conquest, staging, and supply. No one would want to devote enough attention to carry out the fight. If any faction threw everything at the city, it would probably fall but that faction would be over run by every other force in the universe. The Dark Eldar are like the Tau in the fact that the cost of defeating them would cripple your own strategic position.

Spetulhu wrote:

pm713 wrote:
Lots. Pretty sure they'd all defend the city seeing as it's their base of operations and they're definitely all able to fight otherwise another Dark Eldar would've killed them.

Capable of fighting, sure - but also smart enough to not get killed needlessly. Their most important consideration is personal survival, the fighting ability is needed to ensure that. They're used to dealing with backstabbing competition, ritualistic arena violence, gang fights and hapless guards on raids, not real warfare. Having a base like Comorragh is nice but it's worthless if you're dead - and you sure as hell aren't going to sacrifice yourself for another Dark Eldar! A lot of them would jump on their Raiders and ditch their city and kin at the first hint of trouble.

Then afterwards Vect will kill everyone who ran for trying to betray him. Vect says defend and you ask where otherwise someone else will be doing it over your body.

Biggest threat to commorragh atm is that it has a hole in the bottom that keeps leaking warp in. All that Deldar have been able to do so far, is to keep shoving more and more subrealms in to it.

But no doubt geedubs will find some anticlimactic solution for it... or just forget about, either way works for them.

I don't know why we'd take the arrogant preening of the PoV characters in Dark Eldar lore any more seriously than we'd take, say, Imotekh, or Karamazov, or any number of other Saturday morning cartoon villains.

That said, I don't think there's really much of a reason to "invade" Comorragh for the sake of anything, other than to hit the faction that hit you hard enough that they either go looking for weaker targets or fall prey to other factions, who aren't currently raiding you.

Specifically, it isn't really a city in any sense, it's a series of dimensional pockets connected by strands of a system that nobody in the galaxy really understands, though understanding is claimed by many. In that regard, there's not much reason for a more coherent faction to put effort into invading it, nor random Dark Eldar to put effort into defending whatever section is being invaded currently - or their higher ups might decide to take the loss and move on.

I don't know that Vect's threats would mean all that much to some factions - the Poisoned Tongue has already left to connected sub-realms, Iron Thorn was semi-independent before, etc, etc. Also, for the most part, Vect doesn't need to waste political capital in defending territory unless there's something he wants there, when he can just arrange for that section to be cut off.

Though - I think Orks might be the one faction most likely to succeed at demolishing most of it if they don't get stuck in picket dimenions. They have the numbers, they have no existential concerns other than getting into a big scrap, they multiply fast, their tech base is super flexible. But that's true for almost any other species in the galaxy - luckily for everyone else, Orks aren't terribly concerned with grandiose goals.

There was a video about the background of the new Dark Eldar codex on Warhammer TV this week. The daemonic incursion kicked off by the creation of Ynnaed in the Gathering Storm is still ongoing, apparently; it's "contained" by recruiting most of the mercenary forces in the city to fight the daemons, and by creating more "pocket dimensions" between the invaded areas and the rest of Commoragh (think of something like The Raid or Dredd, if the bad guys could keep adding additional floors onto the building as the cops or Judges made their way up; they're progressing, but getting no closer to their goal).

Longstrider wrote:
Though - I think Orks might be the one faction most likely to succeed at demolishing most of it if they don't get stuck in picket dimenions. They have the numbers, they have no existential concerns other than getting into a big scrap, they multiply fast, their tech base is super flexible. But that's true for almost any other species in the galaxy - luckily for everyone else, Orks aren't terribly concerned with grandiose goals.

I agree. Trying to invade Commorragh is stupid, because it requires insane resources for very little gain. But for Orks, the fight itself is the reward. Commorragh is an almost endless supply of good fighters, who actually enjoy fighting too.
Orks would have a blast there. They just have to know about it, and get there in sufficient numbers to get a foothold.

AndrewGPaul wrote:There was a video about the background of the new Dark Eldar codex on Warhammer TV this week. The daemonic incursion kicked off by the creation of Ynnaed in the Gathering Storm is still ongoing, apparently; it's "contained" by recruiting most of the mercenary forces in the city to fight the daemons, and by creating more "pocket dimensions" between the invaded areas and the rest of Commoragh (think of something like The Raid or Dredd, if the bad guys could keep adding additional floors onto the building as the cops or Judges made their way up; they're progressing, but getting no closer to their goal).

fresus wrote:

Longstrider wrote:
Though - I think Orks might be the one faction most likely to succeed at demolishing most of it if they don't get stuck in picket dimenions. They have the numbers, they have no existential concerns other than getting into a big scrap, they multiply fast, their tech base is super flexible. But that's true for almost any other species in the galaxy - luckily for everyone else, Orks aren't terribly concerned with grandiose goals.

I agree. Trying to invade Commorragh is stupid, because it requires insane resources for very little gain. But for Orks, the fight itself is the reward. Commorragh is an almost endless supply of good fighters, who actually enjoy fighting too.
Orks would have a blast there. They just have to know about it, and get there in sufficient numbers to get a foothold.

Yeah. Orks could maybe manage it if someone with a armageddon or beast level assault was mounted.

Dark eldar tactics and so may help in taking out enemy Warboss etx and disrupting the major social structure of Orks.
There flexible but big campaigns need a big war boss.

And that and vect cam implode, collapse or set off black holes and more in those dimensions he sealed off.

He used a pocket back hole in a box before.. I doubt that's not only fancy toy in his box.

I don't envision an ork invasion as a big one time thing, but more like a small pest you can mostly kill off, but never completely get rid off.
So a small waaagh comes in, kills a few people/destroy a few things, and get repelled/sealed off in another space. But after some time, new orks (offspring from the first invasion) show up, and you have to start over. Over a long period of time, Orks could win an attrition war like that.

The question is whether or not ork spores can successfully replicate in an entirely artificial environment like the webway. It doesn't exactly have much in the way of natural soil to grow full sized boys in.

Given that the Orks aren't exactly known for procreating on barren rocks or spaceships,I'm inclined to say it's a no. Sure, they might find the odd place here and there which would be suitable due to built up organic detritus from the inhabitants (deliberately or otherwise), but there simply wouldn't be a sufficient quantity of it to ever build an effective Ork population. Especially given that the DE know how Orks reproduce, and would immedately begin hunting for and eliminating those 'reproduction spots' the minute the first Grot was sighted.

Considering all the horrors that inhabit some of commmorragh regions a few orks would most likely not be a threat, but rather an attraction/slaves.
There already are thousands of orks in commmorragh, they are valuable slaves.

Pretty sure there are some Tyrannid Lictors knocking around Commorragh, too. Woke up before the Dark Eldar could sell them, killed their guards and escaped.

If anything, GW has plenty of threads they can pull on to make things happen...

The problem comes. Dark eldar weapons seem designed to destroy spores. Dry you to dust, deadly poisons and chemicals. All of these basic weapons are ideal to destroy organic matter.

They no doubt have imsenesly toxic chemical and so warfare options, vector has black holes. He can make a fungicide.

Spores wouldn't even matter. Just as when demons overwhelmed a subrealm Vector would just lock infected realms off from the city proper

In Black Legion by ADB

 Ketara wrote:


Given that the Orks aren't exactly known for procreating on barren rocks or spaceships

Oks are known exactly for this.

I don't think orks could do it. They don't have the warp tech to do it. I think Necrons, who are powerful, numerous and have pocket dimensions tech (they even use the webway with dolmen gates) and tech as good as the DK, could do it.
Necrons or Chaos if they could corrupt some leaders, opened portals and made the corrupt eldars keep the sub realms connected to them. They don't even have to fight to win, and they are endless.
But necrons are the only ones I think.
Not the tau, not the humans, not the eldars nor the tyranids (maybe if a genestealer cult invaded the upper casts , or even better, a Haemonculi. Imagine, each wrack, each flesh construct being corrupted, each dark eldar coming to see him, corrupted too, during decades, centuries even. Every vat grown DE he would grown, corrupted. Hmm, interesting idea !).

They lay siege to commoragh for 1 speciific kabal.

 Earth127 wrote:
They lay siege to commoragh for 1 speciific kabal.

In Black Legion? I think you are right there.

 godardc wrote:

Oks are known exactly for this.
.

Errr....wut?



Orks are plant/animal hybrids. That means that they need certain conditions to be met in order to grow, one of which is light (in small doses) for fuel, the other of which is sufficient organic detritus (be it earth, piles of rotting corpses, etc) for the Orkoid cocoon to flourish in. They're not overly picky about the nutritional content of that organic matter, I believe (fungus rarely is), but they still need those elements. An artificial environment like the webway or a spaceship is exceptionally short on the organic side of things, and the 'light' end of things is variable.

Hence why not every single asteroid in the galaxy is covered in Orks. They can adapt, they can endure, they can pile onto Space Hulks and survive the conditions for extended periods Genestealer style, but they cannot create organic mass where there is none, and therefore cannot live where there is none.

I don't doubt that there are probably piles of rotting flesh/meat and various other waste products thrown out by the DE which first stage snotlings and grots could incubate in, before attempting to gather more organic material and build their little spawning pit higher so the Orks could start to grow. But the DE know precisely how Orks gestate, and the minute they spotted Grots scuttling about nicking food and compost? They'd track down the gestation point and either cultivate it further whilst keeping it under watch, or burn it.

 gnome_idea_what wrote:


Anyway, it’s unclear how many Dark Eldar there actually are, and how many are able+willing to actually defend the city, so idk what would happen if someone tried anything.

It is unclear. DE are the dominant form of Eldar though, there are more of them than there are craftworld, harliquin, corsair, and exodite combined.

And they have slaves, beasts, and fleshy....abominations.

but certainly less than orks or humans.

 Exergy wrote:

 gnome_idea_what wrote:


Anyway, it’s unclear how many Dark Eldar there actually are, and how many are able+willing to actually defend the city, so idk what would happen if someone tried anything.

It is unclear. DE are the dominant form of Eldar though, there are more of them than there are craftworld, harliquin, corsair, and exodite combined.

And they have slaves, beasts, and fleshy....abominations.

but certainly less than orks or humans.

They are also not politically united though, and far more fractious than Craftworlders. I doubt anywhere near the full strength in Commorragh would come to its defence in a serious invasion, but then in the vast majority of cases I doubt it would need to either. I agree with the idea that the most an attacker could do is cripple a particular part of Commorragh before being sealed off, or breaking the city back into it's components and scattering it, depending on where they attack.