Size of Craftworlds?

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**Fafnir**

Just wondering how big Craftworlds are, and what kind of damage they'd cause to a planet if they were to say... fall into one. The backstory I want for my Eldar is that they'd be a Craftworld that actually ended up crashing into an icy planet, and I want to know if that even makes sense, fluff wise.

**Grimpost**

I couldn't say how large they are for sure, but I would say that the size of our moon would not be too large. So I imagine that a Craftworld hitting a planet would end it. Maybe both.

**Grignard**

Yes, a backgroud story that involves survivors from a collision of a craftworld with a planet would stretch my suspension of disbelief quite a bit. Perhaps you could recover the little soul crystals from such a collison, and maybe they could reestablish the craftworld when picked up by exodites or whatever. That would be more reasonable if you wanted to use that story.

**Corpsesarefun**

Grignard wrote:Yes, a backgroud story that involves survivors from a collision of a craftworld with a planet would stretch my suspension of disbelief quite a bit. Perhaps you could recover the little soul crystals from such a collison, and maybe they could reestablish the craftworld when picked up by exodites or whatever. That would be more reasonable if you wanted to use that story.

The planet would be most likely destroyed by an impact that large, and if not there would be some serious damage to its enviroment.

**Fafnir**

So they're that big then, eh?

If a Craftworld were to be attacked by a massive fleet (what if someone rammed a massive Space Hulk into it?), could it be shot down? And, were the craftworld shot down, would the Eldar be able to get off it in time to get on a nearby planet?

**Emperors Faithful**

Remember, craftworlds are ships. So there is no 'set' size. They could be anything from moonzsize to little more than a city. (Or even smaller mabye)

**darkkt**

Wait. Thats no moon!

**Emperors Faithful**

Saw that coming a mile(km) away darkkt.

**darkkt**

Yeah, Im kinda dissapointed in myself for taking such an obvious joke.

*sigh*

**Emperors Faithful**

Darkkt, go sit in the corner and think about what you've done.

Bad joke =

(just kidding...

)

**Fafnir**

Well then, if their size isn't so huge a factor, I could make the fluff for my Eldar be:

A somewhat small craftworld(about the size of... somewhere inbetween Russia and Canada) ends up crashing into a planet, causing an impact winter across the entire planet, creating what would effecivly be an ice age.

**Emperors Faithful**

Definitely, or perhaps (just keeping it open) there was an evacuation of the craftworld before it crashed 9mabye damaged in battle, I don't know) and the ensuing crash knocked the planet of it's axis. (Much like Valhalla.) The eldar pods and ships had no choice but to land on the planet and make the best of it.

**oggers**

Sounds good but I always thought the craft-worlds wouldn't come that small. See craft-world. World.

**Fafnir**

Pluto's pretty damn sma--- wait... nevermind.

**Emperors Faithful**

@oggers: (joggers?) Anyway, the craftworlds mentioned are small by anyones standards (when compared to planets) the most populous craftworlds are the ones mentioned in the dex. By all acounts there are most likely hundreds of smaller craftworlds. Craftworlds that don't play as large a part in the galactic game.

**statu**

pre fall, a craftworld would have held hundreds of eldar families, and now they are about 10-100 times bigger than that, so i would say they are pretty damn big

**Exarch_Nektel**

I'd say that they are bigger than a planet, but they seem even bigger than they are because you can go inside them. Not so with a planet.

**Witzkatz**

That brings up an interesting occurrence: If a craftworld is as big as or bigger than a planet, its mass would probably be the source of quite a gravitational force. A craftworld near solar systems might cause quite some changes and disturbances in the planetary orbits and tides of these planets...

...although, with all the tech the Eldar have, there's probably an antidote for that. Lightweight construction craftworlds with anti-gravity emitters or some mojo like that.

**HiddenPower**

well like mentioned before prefall craftworlds were just merchant ships i can imagine the size of an imperial cruiser, their growth post fall increased dramatically.
I just gave a quick look to the codex and it doesnt mention size but i have read they are the size of small moons i belive it was in the old codex. Then again they are commonly reffered to a floating cities in space which is not too impressive.

They have been described very differently so its up to you to decide its size but i wouldnt go much larger than a small moon.

by the way when it comes to defence they are unbeatable! in the main rulebook it is described how an entire segmentum fleet was launched against one and it was wiped out! Even an entire tyranid hive fleet wasnt enough to take down Iyanden close though.

The exodite world spirits now those sound impressive!

**lemon detective**

Fafnir wrote:

Just wondering how big Craftworlds are

I would say about |_____| yay big....

Ok, more like 16 'klom for a small one i would say...

*EDIT* a REALLY small one

**Emperors Faithful**

Why does everyone think there is a 'set' size?
They weren't massed produced before the fall, they were basically evacuation flottillas of all different sizes.

**Orkeosaurus**

I recall Iyanden being the size of a small moon.

If that's the biggest one, most would probably be large asteroid size. Being hollow, though, they would still hold a hell of a lot, probably ending up comparable to a regular planet.

**Durandal**

Craftworlds grow over time as the eldar add to their structure, but in Battlefleet Gothic if you got close to them they had the same effects as a planet, ie gravity wells and their own "low orbit" table.

As craftworlds are surrounded by starship sized webway portals, and in one instance Ulthwe moved through one itself, and piloted by a council of seers scrying the future, it would take a epic fail for a craftworld to crash into anything.

**Orkeosaurus**

The Farseer had his runes on backwards.

"No, I said left! Left!"

"I turned left!"

"I meant my left!"

"We're facing the same direction!"

**HellsGuardian316**

Just throwing this out there... but who said that a crash landing has to be this almighty collison? I imagine that with all the technology of the Eldar that their craftworlds would/might be capable of actually landing.

A possible background story could be that the Eldar encountered a Tryanid fleet that was simply too large to avoid and the resulting damage damaged the ship to such a point that the only way to repair the ship was to make a physical landing. (such as needing to deactivate a system that would destroy the craftworld if it was deactivated in space)

The craftworld made its descent on the nearest planet which was a ice planet but the craftworld landed far more heavily than it was designed to due to its damage and the result crippled the craftworld's structure/engines beyond repair.

Any good?

Automatically Appended Next Post:
@Orkeosaurus

"Ok, do we go left or right?"

"Go Straight ahead"

"Straight ahead is a giant planetoid!!"

"Hey I'm only saying what the map is telling me"

"Thats a god-damn Little Chef Road Map you lum-nuts!!!!

**Dark Lord Seanron**

Actually, the Craftworlds themselves have partial links to the webway, with entire sections of the craft being mart of the immaterium. So the survivors could have hidden in these webway pockets, then came back out into a desolate world where the impact of the Craftworld caused a horrific nuclear winter. The survivors then start salvaging what the can. I think that makes sense ^^

**HellsGuardian316**

Also, I've read the pdf files for Battle Fleet Gothic, specifically the Corsairs one that detailed a splinter faction of the Eldar who was exiled only to come back when the craftworld was in danger (hence my post above) in there it mentioned the sheer scale of these "floating cities"

So IMHO the size of these craftworlds will vary considerably.

**starbomber109**

Fafnir wrote:Well then, if their size isn't so huge a factor, I could make the fluff for my Eldar be:

A somewhat small craftworld(about the size of... somewhere inbetween Russia and Canada) ends up crashing into a planet, causing an impact winter across the entire planet, creating what would effecivly be an ice age.

Sounds almost like the backstory for GorkaMorka. (In that game, an Ork ship crashed into a planet and totally wrecked it, so I imagine a craftworld of similar size to an Ork Space 'ulk would cause the same sort of effect.)

But bassicly? If you wanted to make a craftworld for apoc, it would have to be the size of the entire room.

**Eldar Own**

Craftworlds i imagine vary greatly in size (as mentioned before) the size of a well known craftworld like biel-tan or siam-hann would probably be huge, the size of saturn maybe. but less well known craftworlds like yme-loc would be moon-sized for instance. As for your eldar background you could say the eldar manufactured smaller, 'scout' craftworlds to check out a new galaxy or something and crashed into an invisible planet or they crashed into one when a mysterious pshycic force from a nearby planet made the controls go funny.

**Scott-S6**

How about this - small craftword crashing into a mars-like planet.

The surivors are those that got onto lifeboats (not the folks on the actual craftworld)

The crash throws up enough debris to warm the place up enough to make it habitable and get the ice-caps melting for a water supply.