Why the Dark Eldar can build and deploy 'superheavies'.

[Archon Charybdis]

The VDP is not a super heavy, it just packs a crap-ton of firepower.

[Old_Paladin]

Oops, my mistake.
I was thinking of the Vampire (all those eldar aircraft look the same to me).

[Wildeybeast]

Well it is complicated. Much of the Craftworld technology is post-Fall, Warp Spiders, Night Spinners and whatnot. And the entire Aspect system. Whereas the Dark Eldar are completely wedded to the idea of maintaining pre-Fall Eldar culture despite it causing the Fall. They do share some common vehicles, as you say, but it is interesting how much moredifferent they are to the Craftworld vehicles than the Dark Eldar.

So do the DE have Titans? I would have thought they would have chosen not to use them, given that the Craftworlders would normally deploy them in protracted battles where they need to bring massive firepower to bear and that sort of warfare is anathema to DE, but do they actually have any?

[eldargal]

Personally I doubt it, having a walker however large and lithe doesn't really fit with the DE given that every vehicle they have floats in some fashion.

[Thornblood]

Titan wise - could there be a giant Talos-construct thingy??? Maybe one made out of a Tyranid Bio-Titan??

Fauna in 40k go as big as Void whales. We could have a Haemonculous experiment or a Wych beast that was big- maybe only as big as the FW Greater Daemons and avatar though. Or to start with...

Also, as we know the Dark Eldar are Pirates and capture ships (such as the aforementioned Space Marine Strike Cruiser), they could capture vehicles that don't require too many crew to be hard wired or spiritually attuned to the craft. Would they then use them in battle??? We are headed towards a more sophisticaed and depraved orky looted vehicle concept here though.

The super heavy three sailed giant raider thingy on the box art looks awesome. It also looks more heaviloy armoured and like it mounts a turret on the forecastle.

[DrLove42]

Also, as we know the Dark Eldar are Pirates and capture ships (such as the aforementioned Space Marine Strike Cruiser), they could capture vehicles that don't require too many crew to be hard wired or spiritually attuned to the craft. Would they then use them in battle??? We are headed towards a more sophisticaed and depraved orky looted vehicle concept here though.

.

I don't see DE looting vehicles. Slaves maybe. But the technology no. The greatest tech in the Imperium is a childs toy to the DE. Its very beneath them

[Thornblood]

Thats why I asked. I think your right, I cant see them using them in battle. What do you think they do with looted superheavies? Inhabitanting them has just as much detest to it as using them in battle.

However I am thinking bomb ships and lures- using distress beacons to lure Imperial forces to the crippled craft and then out jump the deldar.

Where do they put them? Just a pocket dimension filled with giant trophies? Maybe left as breeding grounds for the races that inhabit them to supply cormorrogh with slaves?

[DrLove42]

Well unlike their craftworld brothers all DE weaponry is manufactured (by slaves) not grown. So they've got to get minerals and rescources from somewhere

I like the idea of a seperate area in the webway that is just a graveyard of ships from every race, floating silently in the cold.

2 things to consider though

a) The Rise of Vect story talks about them fighting over salvage rights to the Space Marine cruiser. So amy be they do strip parts?

b) After leaving a ship in Commaragh and ending up getting Marinified i'd imagine there a bit more careful about distress beacons and the like now

[Anggul]

Freefall is right, all that quote could refer to is the fact that the void raven is the preferred choice for deploying void lances, the heaviest armaments we know the Dark Eldar to possess. It is a considerable leap to say there are no larger combat craft than that.

Without meaning to sound childish, I think you're just clutching at straws.

I have no doubt they have heavier firepower, but said firepower would most likely be their spacecraft. A slave barge is hardly a battle-ship, even though it would inevitably be armed. Yes they'd have bigger craft, but primarily for transport of captives after battle, anything else would be too big a target for them I think.

[Multigeneral]

Wow. All this talk about DE superheavies has me imagining a massive anti-grav barge (think the QE II of pain and suffering) cruising about an imperial planet as the slightly faster Raiders zip up, unload thier soon-to-be-slave cargo, and tear back into the fray for another run. It's massive aethersails signalling doom to the poor slobs not yet caught, as enemy fire patters harmlessly off its super night shields. Slaves are currency to the DE so it would no doubt be well armed to protect it from potential rescuers and other DE kabals! Not recreatable on a scale that would allow it to be used in game, but impressive none the less, and perfectly reasonable in my opinion.
I can also see massive, cobbled together floating monstrosities being used just for the shear amount of terror they would cause among the prey. Mmmmmm, terrory goodness......like cupcakes made with tears.