Reading asteroid madness thread I came to thinking: what about putting some (lots of) engines on some rather small planet followed by some other components/colony facilities and flying it around like a boss. If the Rock and Phalanx can make it then RT should make it too .

One can get a "ship" with almost unlimited crew, energy and space and - as a sweetest addition - very entertaing time in warp travel.

There are so many reasons this wouldn't work, it's not even funny.

I'm with Magellan on this. I wanted to respond earlier when I saw the thread, because the idea was interesting but.. there's just so many reasons this wouldn't work, even in the context of 40k.

Maybe, just maybe some of the supremely powerful might be able to pull this off somehow, such as the Necrons, but even then, I would expect that it would be more "planet-sized ship" than an actual planet.

I'm not even sure if you could get a planet into the warp and fly around with it in there without the storms just up and ripping it apart on entry. And you'd have to cover the entire thing in an enormous Gellar-Field. And then you'd have possibly billions of daemons scratching the walls as moths drawn to a flame.

...and that's even IF you could somehow propel the planet without effectively having whatever you're trying to use to do so just pushing deeper into the soil.

There's just.. so many reasons it wouldn't work it's not even funny.

I agree with Magellan and Fgdsfg. There are a lot of reasons why "strapping giant engines to a planet" wouldn't work, that trying to do it should probably just break the engines in a best case scenario. You might be able to generate enough thrust to knock a planet out of orbit, but the most likely scenario is the engines attempt to embed themselves into the planet. Or explode.

This plan is so ridiculously awesome and unfeasible that it's clear that you're going to run into an Ork planet that they mounted engines onto, and it worked because Ork.

We'z gots da biggest ship! Our ship iz a planet! We'z gonna crush you!

What if the GM uses this instead of the player I wonder what the implications would be then

Either that it's an alien construct made from mind-boggling supertech (or Ork-tech, but that goes without saying), or that simply capturing it and selling it for scrap should make you richer than the Ecclesiarchy.

Then you'd have to figure out the mechanics of such a thing... were I a Rogue Trader, I think I'd stay clear of such an imposing ship.

You know how to wreck ones humour.

Lets scale down from a planet to a small moon and one t-fighter. I mean Dark Angels have Rock, Imperial Fists have Phalanx (which is said to house its own ecosystem). Long time ago it was quite feasible to build those and Koronus is a huge area.

Grav-plates in theory should keep engines in place and if the whole thing is dense enough - you know: nobody would build such a thing on a calcium moon - it maybe possible.

I admit it's just a crazy idea. Guess RT can be full of it anyway.

The Rock is pretty much just an asteroid, ever since their homeworld was destroyed when half the Chapter turned traitor and tried to kill them THEY PARTIED TOO HARD DURING THEIR CELEBRATION OF BEING TOTALLY LOYAL AFTER THE HORUS HERESY, so it would be a lot easier to move. Also they had a fair amount of Heretek and Xenotech that they were stockpiling IMPERIAL SANCTIONED ARCHEOTECH BECAUSE THEY ARE THE MOST LOYAL CHAPTER which would help drive their changes.

Anyway my problems is that I can't see it feasible people building the infrastructure NOW to turn a planet into a mobile fortress. If you say the word "Archeotech" and wave your fingers around though, that's how suspension of disbelief works

My only argument for this is how big is an Eldar Craftworld? They are "planet-sized" (moon-sized maybe) crafts, and they move through space. They could even move through the Warp, if Eldar didn't attract 30 times the moths, and DO move through the Webway, occasionally.

Still, if you aren't Commander Shepard flying an asteroid into the Alpha Relay, or that C'Tan named Galactus, strapping a super-thruster to Ego, just because you'd rather not fight him over the worlds you'd both eat, you should probably stick to ships. Leave mobile worlds to the Magog and Yuuzhan'Vong, both of which are hated for it (among so many other reasons).

My only argument for this is how big is an Eldar Craftworld? They are "planet-sized" (moon-sized maybe) crafts, and they move through space. They could even move through the Warp, if Eldar didn't attract 30 times the moths, and DO move through the Webway, occasionally.

Still, if you aren't Commander Shepard flying an asteroid into the Alpha Relay, or that C'Tan named Galactus, strapping a super-thruster to Ego, just because you'd rather not fight him over the worlds you'd both eat, you should probably stick to ships. Leave mobile worlds to the Magog and Yuuzhan'Vong, both of which are hated for it (among so many other reasons).

Eldar Craftworlds are "planetoid-sized", perhaps the size of a small moon, and Alaitoc is specifically mentioned to be the size of a continent. Since continents vary greatly in size, make of that what you will.

That being said, Craftworlds were always meant to be voidcrafts. They are shaped like and built like voidcrafts or enormous mobile voidstations, with their engines in the right places, with great care taken to structural integrity, so on and so forth.

They are a far cry from being spherical objects made up of a wide range of nearly random substances.

Planet-sized crafts are definitely possible in the realm of WH40k, but actual planets? I would say.. no, not really. Maybe if you rebuild the entire planet, but at that point, you've really just built a really large voidship á la Craftworlds, anyway.

My only argument for this is how big is an Eldar Craftworld? They are "planet-sized" (moon-sized maybe) crafts, and they move through space. They could even move through the Warp, if Eldar didn't attract 30 times the moths, and DO move through the Webway, occasionally.

Battlefleet Gothic came out with rules for a Craftworld, and the size of the Craftworld was equivalent to their size given for a "small moon". Not very helpful, but that seems like a good rule of thumb. Certainly bigger than anything the Imperium has.

The largest size I could imagine this working with in modern 40k is a Space Hulk. The Orks utilize them as transport, and there is indication that they might be able to control some of them. I actually have a plan for a major Chaos champion to bind his cruiser to a space hulk and use Sorcery and Daemonic Summonings to take control of a Space Hulk and aim it at the players main colony system. The only other viable option for a larger ship is the Dark Eldar base in the Webway. If the players could purge it of Dark Eldar, reactivate and take control of its systems, and repair it sufficiently they could fly it out of the Webway and have a huge ship. Of course, this is a Dark Age vessel and such an endeavor would be the core of a major campaign...

Let me see if I can help you get a sense of scale. Earth is roughly the size of one Void Unit.

A single earth-sized ship would probably have more volume than every single ship in the Imperium combined.

Let me see if I can help you get a sense of scale. Earth is roughly the size of one Void Unit.

A single earth-sized ship would probably have more volume than every single ship in the Imperium combined.

And this is a kind of anwser I was waiting for. Maybe not in the direction I was hoping, yet still. Thanks Magellan.

If you guys want to chat about other stuff, please feel free - I consider original question to be done.

The largest size I could imagine this working with in modern 40k is a Space Hulk. The Orks utilize them as transport, and there is indication that they might be able to control some of them. I actually have a plan for a major Chaos champion to bind his cruiser to a space hulk and use Sorcery and Daemonic Summonings to take control of a Space Hulk and aim it at the players main colony system. The only other viable option for a larger ship is the Dark Eldar base in the Webway. If the players could purge it of Dark Eldar, reactivate and take control of its systems, and repair it sufficiently they could fly it out of the Webway and have a huge ship. Of course, this is a Dark Age vessel and such an endeavor would be the core of a major campaign...

By "Dark Eldar base in the Webway", I assume you mean Commorragh, the massively oversized and added-to former Eldar Craftworld?

As far as I remember, Commorragh was an Eldar Craftworld that has since been added to during the centuries and millennia, and is now way too bloated and unshapely to even consider leaving the Webway. If it has a control unit somewhere, I'm fairly sure that it's situated somewhere right between the ancient buttocks of Asdrubael Vect himself.

Edit: Apparently I was wrong. I checked. Commorragh wasn't a craftworld, it was a station from the beginning. I could've sworn I read otherwise at some point...

wow

such ideas

so warp-krackens-larger-than-moons

much tech heresy

The largest size I could imagine this working with in modern 40k is a Space Hulk. The Orks utilize them as transport, and there is indication that they might be able to control some of them. I actually have a plan for a major Chaos champion to bind his cruiser to a space hulk and use Sorcery and Daemonic Summonings to take control of a Space Hulk and aim it at the players main colony system. The only other viable option for a larger ship is the Dark Eldar base in the Webway. If the players could purge it of Dark Eldar, reactivate and take control of its systems, and repair it sufficiently they could fly it out of the Webway and have a huge ship. Of course, this is a Dark Age vessel and such an endeavor would be the core of a major campaign...

By "Dark Eldar base in the Webway", I assume you mean Commorragh, the massively oversized and added-to former Eldar Craftworld?

As far as I remember, Commorragh was an Eldar Craftworld that has since been added to during the centuries and millennia, and is now way too bloated and unshapely to even consider leaving the Webway. If it has a control unit somewhere, I'm fairly sure that it's situated somewhere right between the ancient buttocks of Asdrubael Vect himself.

Edit: Apparently I was wrong. I checked. Commorragh wasn't a craftworld, it was a station from the beginning. I could've sworn I read otherwise at some point...

The largest size I could imagine this working with in modern 40k is a Space Hulk. The Orks utilize them as transport, and there is indication that they might be able to control some of them. I actually have a plan for a major Chaos champion to bind his cruiser to a space hulk and use Sorcery and Daemonic Summonings to take control of a Space Hulk and aim it at the players main colony system. The only other viable option for a larger ship is the Dark Eldar base in the Webway. If the players could purge it of Dark Eldar, reactivate and take control of its systems, and repair it sufficiently they could fly it out of the Webway and have a huge ship. Of course, this is a Dark Age vessel and such an endeavor would be the core of a major campaign...

By "Dark Eldar base in the Webway", I assume you mean Commorragh, the massively oversized and added-to former Eldar Craftworld?

As far as I remember, Commorragh was an Eldar Craftworld that has since been added to during the centuries and millennia, and is now way too bloated and unshapely to even consider leaving the Webway. If it has a control unit somewhere, I'm fairly sure that it's situated somewhere right between the ancient buttocks of Asdrubael Vect himself.

Edit: Apparently I was wrong. I checked. Commorragh wasn't a craftworld, it was a station from the beginning. I could've sworn I read otherwise at some point...

Sad, I thought it was a CW, too. Maybe the Black Library? I am rather sure that IT is a small Craftworld, sequestered within the Deep Webway. I think Commoragh is actually a number of interconnected sites, so the whole isn't mobile, though I guess there could be a large, central area, maybe like a Battlesphere, or Centerpoint Station, from Star Wars EU. If it was, at one time, meant to move Eldar fleets, it USED TO be able to move, but its add-ons might not make that possible, now; they closed the Webway portals to it, rather than scoot it around, when Abaddon did his last tussle.

I don't think it's a Craftworld, because those tend to be powered nowadays by Spirit Stones, which the Dark Eldar don't use. The Eldar did maintain a number of waystations in their Webway, and I thought Commoragh was just the largest one to survive. It's possible that it was a Craftworld in earlier histories, but I think that no matter what it was, it's been portrayed now as the immobile murder fortress of the Dark Eldar.

I meant the Gaelan Sphere in the Nexus of Shadows. It is a DAoT relic that got stuck in the Webway a long time ago and that the Dark Eldar have taken over part of to use as their city. It is populated by Commoragh rejects hiding out in the Expanse. You can read about it in Soul Reaver. If you could wrest control of it (by some herculean engineering feat), you would have a moon sized base.

The problem is how you are going to move it around by human means.

And by human means I mean Warp Travel (not Webway).

Think of the huge warp tentacle-thing creatures it would attract. In comparison, voidships are tremendously small in comparison to a Moon and they are completely f-up when they (even small as they are) attract those monsters.

Those things ignore geller fields for the most part being able to deal massive damage even with gellers active. You'd need massive, MASSIVE macro-batteries to be able to push those back while in warp transit.

Also, have in mind that you don't have also a mobile sun while in the warp or when moving to the jump point.

The temperature changes on the planet's surface would cause huge storms and make life impossible without void shields and life-support systems.

So, what's the use of having a mobile planetoid if you will have to basically mount voidships on it anyway everytime you want to expand your base?

I'd much rather invest on having a large fleet. Which will call much less attention from warp "gargants" while being way more flexible.

The problem is how you are going to move it around by human means.

And by human means I mean Warp Travel (not Webway).

Think of the huge warp tentacle-thing creatures it would attract. In comparison, voidships are tremendously small in comparison to a Moon and they are completely f-up when they (even small as they are) attract those monsters.

Those things ignore geller fields for the most part being able to deal massive damage even with gellers active. You'd need massive, MASSIVE macro-batteries to be able to push those back while in warp transit.

Also, have in mind that you don't have also a mobile sun while in the warp or when moving to the jump point.

The temperature changes on the planet's surface would cause huge storms and make life impossible without void shields and life-support systems.

So, what's the use of having a mobile planetoid if you will have to basically mount voidships on it anyway everytime you want to expand your base?

I'd much rather invest on having a large fleet. Which will call much less attention from warp "gargants" while being way more flexible.

The reason to have one is the same reason that made me skip the original question: it's space volume is practically game-breaking.

Why get cruiser if you can get a pair of raiders?

Think about warp-capable hive/forge/shrine world it'd be worth of investing massive amounts into voidshields and gellar fields. It's basically battleship going 11 - Human made craftworld indeed.

You won't need massive macrocannons as you can have them is massive amounts - limitless almost.

Life on the surface will be impossible and/or unpractical, but hey - how much space volume you've got under surface?

Gravitational variances caused by nearby planetary bodies or stars would probably also cause massive quakes and volcanos to erupt.

Depends a lot on the planet's characteristics though... Anyone remember how the Grey Knights were created?

Titan (a moon) was thrown in the warp to hide it from Horus' fleet, it had loads of geller fields attached to it.

If you mean the Gaelan Sphere, it allready has all the systems to handle such things. It was made to do so. Those systems would need repaired, and that is where the massive campaign to repair it comes in.

Reading all the posts in this topic gave me a general idea for a campagn that might give you the oppertunity if you had your heart set on it.

Ok so say that there's a moon orbiting an Ork world in the Undred Undred Teef region, and the moon is itself a fully Orkified world ruled by a Warboss/Mechboy who does alot of the Ork shipbuilding for all the Freebooterz. So say he gets it in his head he wants to build "da biggest an ardest rok evah and 'ave me own WAAAGH" so he spends decades coverting his moon into a gigantic excessively ambitious void craft even as Orky tech goes with warp travel capibility and everything.

So he flies the thing accross the expanse and into the passage with the intention of launching his Waagh on the Calixis Sector, but the thing is way too stupidly huge especially at points where where the passage is narrow or excessively turbulant so they run into trouble. Still makes it though and the thing pops back into realspace just outside of the Rubicon system but by now it's had tons of incursions and the surface is littered with groups of demons that the orks living on it are now engaged in a chatoic global war with and it's systems have been damaged so it's flying erraticly around the system throwing small craft full of boys at Port Wander whenever it gets anywhere close smashing through the asteroid field making things fly everywhere.

So of course the Navy at Port wander is freaking out calling for help from everyone in the area and that's where the players come in, having been in the area as the situation began now they must somehow work to resolve the situation with the added complication/help of other RTs in the area with their own ideas.

Well... wouldn't the defensive turrets of Port Wander largely invalidate any small craft attack? As for the moon itself, sustained bombardment from all the navy ships around port wander should take care of it fairly quickly, no? It can't have more than a few thousand hull points, right?

If I were you, I might add a fleet of Orkish ships to the mix, too busy trying to put out the fires on the moon itself to mount a concerted attack, but still there to give the attackers a bit more variation. It would certainly give players with a large fleet a chance to stretch their space-legs.