Webway Portals

[BlueRonin]

How can webway portals be used strategically by the Eldar?

We know from fluff that there exists portals large enough to move capital ships through the webway, and that even portals of this size are mobile (as some are anchored to the rear of some Craftworlds).

We know that there is an inner structure and geography of the webway, and that whatever is travelling through it is limited by the fixed size of the tunnel (i.e. the capitol ship can only travel along tunnels large enough to fit it).

We know that Eldar can project a webway tunnel and open a small portal some distance away (such as on a planet below from orbit).

However, is there any reference to how large of a portal the Eldar can simply project, and how far away?

I'm working on the development of a campaign storyline where the Eldar are attacking an Imperial World, and trying to get my head around strategic issues facing the Eldar. Is there any limitation to their movement? Can they simply deploy any size force anywhere at anytime?

I'm imagining that unless there is a fixed portal on the planet the Eldar would need at least to get a starship in orbit in order to project a portal, at least that was my impression from Path of the Warrior. However, is there any limitation to where they project such a portal and its size?

Could the Eldar simply walk a Titan inn wherever they wanted?

Does anybody know of any more specific information about this, or have some reasonable ideas of what limitations the Eldar have as far as mobility goes?

[Mal]

They can create a webway portal of pretty much any size they like, and they can intrigate the realms so seemlessly that you won't know you've passed through one.

I do remember a reference to one of the deathwatch books about the docking bay on the craftworld... it was actually a portal large enough to hold an entire sector fleet.

[BlueRonin]

So once the Eldar are in range, so to speak, there are no strategic limitations to their mobility whatsoever?

Why would they ever cross any expanse of land? With invisible portals of any size, anywhere, what stops the Eldar from deploying Titans right into the middle of enemy fortifications? Or sending Aspect Warriors straight onto the bridge of an enemy Titan? Or simply sabotaging all enemy supplies?

I know the Eldar are powerful, but if there are no limitations to their mobility there is no war... there is simply no way to mount any meaningful defense.

[Mal]

Because they need a psyical 'anchor' for the portals... larger portals require more resources to 'anchor'

They can't just make them appear anywhere they like, they have to lay groundwork first, this is the whole reason they still have ships rather than just walking through the webway from one planet to the next.

If the eldar can get a WWP (same tech as DE use since it was created before the great fall) into enemy held terority then they can do all the the things you mentioned... but thats no easy feat, and sneaking one onboard a titan would be well nigh impossible.

So they can do prfetty much anything they like, within the limitations of their technology.

[Herald of Nurgle]

Storm Serpent.

[BlueRonin]

So in order to open a portal the Eldar need a physical anchor of size and complexity relative to the size of the portal. Now that is a strategic limitation that makes sense.

Are there any references or suggestions as to how large of a portal can be 'summoned' with a man-portable anchor? The Storm Serpent's anchor seems limited to Vyper-sized craft. That suggests to me that there can't be any tactical deployments of portals large enough to pass Grav tanks through?

[Mal]

There isn't any hard and fast rules apart from whats in the codex, I expect this is largely because the eldar lost the technology to manipulate the webway like they used to during the fall... they can still make access points but its usually limited to smaller ones (although I do recall references to larger portals still rarely occuring).

I don't think there is any black and white limit that we can put on it, it'll probally just be a case of best judgement.

[Freefall945]

A little late, but a fine limitation is that the webway is what it is. The Eldar are unable to create more webway passages, though they seem to be able, more or less, to make portals where they like. This is important.

The Webway spans much of the galaxy, but not all of it. And huge swathes of the webway have been isolated and sealed by the Eldar because of demonic incursion, Dark Eldar occupation, Ahriman's tooling about... In a sense, the Webway is much like Imperial Technology is to mankind, in that it is immeasurably valuable but precious because it is irreplaceable and slowly, slowly, slipping away from the user.

Essentially, you can limit the Eldar's ability to siege a world through the webway however you like. Perhaps the webway in that area is a mess of Horrors.

In a 40k RPG I ran, the acolytes were baffled to witness a web-way incursion of a warhost of battered, wounded eldar and their smoking, damaged vehicles; the Eldar having to fight a savage battle through Dark Eldar lines in the webway to get to their destination.

[HappyHaunt]

I don't actually remember or believe any of the current fluff has reference to the Craftworld Eldar being able to "create" webway portals, rather that they are only able to use the existing webway portals created prior to the fall, having lost the technology during the events of the fall. My understanding is that when the Eldar "appear" from nowhere they are using hidden portals not creating them.

In the Ian Watson Inquisition Wars trilogy there is a fair bit of detail about the webway, in terms of the entry points being fixed in place, and many locations within the webway only being accessible to those who travel via set paths, there was also reference to a place where timelines crossed - time stands still in the webway as we know, backed up by the new Dark Eldar fluff - and those books also mentioned the differing size of sections of webway. This was backed up by Warrior Coven - the Deathwatch book.

The Dark Eldar retain web portal technology because they do not suffer the devestation of the fall, being safe in the webway itself. The tech is obviously limited though as only Archons and Haemonculus can access it. and even then only for foot troops. From the fluff in Codex Dark Eldar, about how Vect overthrows his rivals initially by leading several Astartes chapters to Comorragh, it seems that even the Dark Eldar cannot create massive webway portals from scratch.

[eldargal]

Actually the Eldar can create new webway portals, their larger space craft have portals in/on them to allow them to deploy smaller craft/land forces from the Craftworld. I've always assumed the reason they don't make larger portals is they would simply be too time consuming/expensive to justfy except in rare cases.