Which planets does the Dark Eldar usually raid?

I have been wondering what planets do the DE usually raids for slaves? I can imagine that worlds such as Tomb Worlds and maybe Forge Worlds might not get visited that often.
With the Tomb Worlds because the Necrons don´t feel any pain at all and as such using resources on raiding their worlds would just be a waste.
Forge Worlds are usually VERY well protected (at least if the game Space Marine is to be believed) and the dangers might outweigh the benefits of such a raid.

So what kinds of world do the DE mostly raid and how long does such a raid last? I remember in Nightbringer such a raid was described though devastating in its effect it was over relatively quickly, though i retrospect that might have had something to do with the fact that living metal was discovered at the village they raided.

The best answer is "it depends".

It'll range from backwater agri worlds to hive worlds. With the obvious exception of incredibly fortified worlds like Cadia, Armageddon, Terra and Mars, where the losses sustained wouldn't be worth the loot, they'll hit whatever the Archon of the respective Kabal feels like raiding.

Are there any particular catches/loot that will bring special status at Commorragh?? Like maybe the catching of a Space Marine captain or something like that?

Quote :

With the obvious exception of incredibly fortified worlds like Cadia, Armageddon, Terra and Mars, where the losses sustained wouldn't be worth the loot

I disagree... I mean, they took out the Tau homeworld, and I can only imagine that it was heavily defended... Probably the only reason they don't assault Cadia, Armageddon, Terra or Mars is because they don't have any interest to... Yes they would sustain heavy losses in doing so, and the loot wouldn't be worth the gain, but if one of the major archons or haemun were slighted in such a way, they surely would attack those places.

@Erikjust - What would bring the most entertainment in the Arena?

I think worlds that are bountiful of harvest and also weakly defended will be the target, so any world that fits that bill will be taken. Either that or some Archon say to another Archon, 'Anything you can do, I can do better' and they go about invading heavily defended worlds or some military world. Haemonculi covens would be interested in archaeotech, so I guess Tomb Worlds and Forge Worlds would be appropriate too. I also believe that space stations and space colonies are also invaded by Dark Eldar as they tend to be isolated.

As for length of the battle, I say from 6pm to 6am in a single day. An Archon has enough resources to stall an Imperial Crusade and that means that they have a lot of men and stuff. But at the same time they would want to attack under the cover of darkness as the darkness can protect them much better. Besides I also like the idea that Phil Kelly once said about them being like faeries having to return before a certain time.

Ruke wrote:

Quote :

With the obvious exception of incredibly fortified worlds like Cadia, Armageddon, Terra and Mars, where the losses sustained wouldn't be worth the loot

I disagree... I mean, they took out the Tau homeworld, and I can only imagine that it was heavily defended.

Uhh... what? There's no mention of the DE ever attacking T'au, let alone "taking it out". Where'd you read that they did? We've attacked a Tau-owned world before, but certainly not T'au.

Quote :

Uhh... what? There's no mention of the DE ever attacking T'au, let alone "taking it out"

You are absolutely right sir! I appologize! It was Rubikon. It's been awhile since I read through the backstory part of the codex, and I just remembered the codex referred to it as the heart of the tau system (it actually refers to it as "the jeweled heart of the tau star system).

Regardless, I'm confident that if one of the more powerful archons like Vect or Malys saw fit to attack even Terra, no force could stop them. The problem in that is that it would probably leave them too weak to fend off attacks from other archons, and they don't have significant reason to...

I love reading threads like this, it's interesting to read other people's ideas. I think they go for sparsely defended worlds with lots of loot and slaves to get.

For some silly reason (logic), I believe most planets of the Imperium are agri-worlds. So that's by default the most common planets to suffer a Dark Eldar-raid.

They can go for other planets as well, like a hive-world if the Kabal is really large, or a forge-world if there is something worth taking there. But in general I would assume the Dark Eldar would go for the sparsely defended planets (Zehra pointed that out) as I don't think they would like protracted combat on equal footing.

Well, agri-worlds are usually very sparsley populated. The majority of Imperial worlds are Civilised worlds, or some other generic name along those lines. They're not as industrialised/overpopulated as a Hive World, but have more population than an agri-world. Agri-worlds, on the other hand, tend to have very low populations, and exist only as farm-land, pretty much.

The Dark Eldar in general ain't out for a challenge, they are out for slaves. I actually find it untypical of Dark Eldar to fight a pitched battle unless they have to.

Secondly, yes civilized worlds are many, but I still think the agri-worlds are more, as they have to feed not only hive-worlds but also forge-worlds, industrial worlds, shrine-worlds, mining-worlds, prison-worlds and so on. They just by any stretch of logic must be the most numerous as 33k. worlds are hive-worlds. Which means like at least 100k. must be agri-worlds just to sustain them, then comes the numerous forge-worlds and the other worlds. Also not all agri-worlds are sparsely populated, some are more like a civilized world, but they are easy pickings for the Dark Eldar.

From Apocalypse: "an opportunity arises that even the greatest Archon admits cannot be achieved by lone endeaver. An Imperial hive ripe for the slaughter: A Craftworld left drifting and vulnerable: a newly discovered race unaware of the terror that lurks in the shadows. Such targets are more then a single cult or kabal could hope to overcome, but so great is the potential reward that they are willing to to countenance sharing the spoils with others - better to share a prize then take no prize at all."

I believe this means that while they will in general go for weakly/poorly defended worlds, they will hit a bigger target if the reward is great enough...but they will get help from other kabals, cults, etc.

Nobody here read crimson tears before from the soul drinkers books? dark eldar first invade then defend a world while working on a evil plan.....even if the end results are a bit lacking....

Ruke wrote:

Quote :

Uhh... what? There's no mention of the DE ever attacking T'au, let alone "taking it out"

You are absolutely right sir! I appologize! It was Rubikon. It's been awhile since I read through the backstory part of the codex, and I just remembered the codex referred to it as the heart of the tau system (it actually refers to it as "the jeweled heart of the tau star system).

Regardless, I'm confident that if one of the more powerful archons like Vect or Malys saw fit to attack even Terra, no force could stop them. The problem in that is that it would probably leave them too weak to fend off attacks from other archons, and they don't have significant reason to...

Also, they were clever about it. They had their forces already in the midst of the Tau, pretending to be helping them against the Tyranids (well they were helping them against the Tyranids, but there was an ulterior motive), then turned on them in their midst rather than just flying straight at their guns in a head-to-head clash.

Normally they go on day trips to Terra.....best catch so far being the only human who was not kicking our asses when we landed planetside.

Those Adeptus Custodes guys just keep kicking the cr*p out of us every time.....but just think of the worth one of them are......

In the end it all depends on the Archon leading the Kabal, if they are looking for a challenge, often for purposes of one-upmanship, then they'll do it. If they lack the resources, or can't be bothered with a tough target will aim at agri-worlds, feral worlds and poorly defended Civilised worlds. If there is something worthwhile for the Kabal or if it culminates to a goal then there is nothing to stop them from raising hell.

Erikjust wrote:

I have been wondering what planets do the DE usually raids for slaves? I can imagine that worlds such as Tomb Worlds and maybe Forge Worlds might not get visited that often.
With the Tomb Worlds because the Necrons don´t feel any pain at all and as such using resources on raiding their worlds would just be a waste.
Forge Worlds are usually VERY well protected (at least if the game Space Marine is to be believed) and the dangers might outweigh the benefits of such a raid.

So what kinds of world do the DE mostly raid and how long does such a raid last? I remember in Nightbringer such a raid was described though devastating in its effect it was over relatively quickly, though i retrospect that might have had something to do with the fact that living metal was discovered at the village they raided.

assumed populous ones, with weak defenses for slaves.
and then more heavily armed ones if they wanted to prove martial prowess.
However Path of the Renegade demonstrated, it can vary quite a bit

Even a fortress world like Cadia could be raided quite easily.
Every Cadian cant be armed and alert at all times.
Open a WWP into a bunk house filled with sleeping recruits, in and out.

I wonder how easy it would be to pass a disguised, smart and cunning Dark Eldar as a human?
This could be a good use in fooling the human forces to a distraction during a raid.

well quite easy, I mean they do have all manner of crazy tech to help.

This thread has been inactive since last October, please do not necro threads.



Seeing as this is getting quite a few comments it shall remain open, though.
I'd say a Dark Eldar couldn't be disguised as a human. They move in a very different way to humans, they have an unholy coldness and have a contempt for the slave races that would make them not want to get anywhere imitating those vile beasts.
Haemonculi creating human sleeper agents, though, I think could be possible.

Codex Imperialis (I think) said that Eldar could pass as human, until they moved, at which point their unnatural grace would give them away

DominicJ wrote:

Codex Imperialis (I think) said that Eldar could pass as human, until they moved, at which point their unnatural grace would give them away

Didn't the designers of the new DE codex hint that they could pass as humans in their online video though?

I think they would probably go for Hive Worlds. Maybe not quite on the scale of Armegeddon, but around there. I can see them Portaling in, in a out of the way corner, and then striking at midnight, when nobody is ready.

Ruke wrote:

Quote :

With the obvious exception of incredibly fortified worlds like Cadia, Armageddon, Terra and Mars, where the losses sustained wouldn't be worth the loot

I disagree... I mean, they took out the Tau homeworld, and I can only imagine that it was heavily defended... Probably the only reason they don't assault Cadia, Armageddon, Terra or Mars is because they don't have any interest to... Yes they would sustain heavy losses in doing so, and the loot wouldn't be worth the gain, but if one of the major archons or haemun were slighted in such a way, they surely would attack those places.

You are correct, if Vect Wanted, (or any other bigshot archon), he could even attack Terra to steal the Emperors body. He would evade most of the defenders through webway tech, however it would still be tricky, you've got masses of elite soldiers. He has all the resources he needs though, while on the other side, Humans can't properly prepare a fast defense. If Vect even wants the Emperors body, humans won't be able to do much about it, he will have it for sure. He would sustain massive losses, but he would escape with the body.

A good example of a big insane high seciruty raid, was the Attack on Bakka, Duke Slicus wanted to have some fun. The big prize was the Admirals skin to be used as his personal banner. I'm sure their took some recourses as well, very low number of slaves I imagine, seeing how much security there was. It is one of the biggest military space ports in the galaxy.

One Normal Kabal has the manpower and recourses to attack an entire system, imagine the bigger Kabals, the leading Kabals with the most power, their true potential for destruction can't be imagined or calculated.


Another good example of a daring invasion, against through the use of webway tech, the attack on Fenris, homeworld of the Space wolves. For weeks, they didn't notice, then when they wanted to counter attack, they were gone. Remember, this is a space marine home world.

I don't think many here realise the magnitude of some of the attacks described in the codex and rulebook. (old rulebook too)

It is also said in the codex, archon entry, a Kabal can stop something like a crusade, or a Space armada, those used to stop a big Waaagh or a nid invasion, they can stop it, purely for the fun of it.

Quote :

Forge Worlds are usually VERY well protected

You're overestiimating Imperials and underestimating Dark Eldar Kabals, any Kabal can attack these, benefits aren't that big though, it's a lot easier to attack smaller forces, like civilian ships in space, but they can and probably do attack forgeworlds at times.
Also, they don't do this, to not attrack too much attention either. Dark Eldar still prefer it the easy way, unless it's some crazy unpredictable archon. if they can attack a Space marine world unnoticed, i'm sure their can tear up a forgeworld pretty easily.

_________________________________________________________________________________

As long as they have an objective in mind, no matter how crazy, they can attack any world, even an Exodite world.
Apparently such a world is very hardcore to raid, as craftworld arrive shortly after to protect. Dark Eldar seem to be able to attack Craftworlds pretty easily though lol, I've read several examples of attacks on cratftworlds lol, it's all due the fact that these have webway portals, tat can be used to quickly get on board. An exodite world however seems pretty crazy, even for a Dark Eldar standard, to the point where they will almost never attack such a world.

A necron world can still be attack, not for salves ,but for resources and tech. (not that they need any new tech, just talking about more high tech materials, like chemicals and weird compounds not found on imperial worlds.

Nid worlds are harvested for slaves and Souls to, as weird as it sounds, even nids do give some type of energy comparable to a soul.

Orcs, humans, tau, are very popular, to be used as arena cannon fodder, or to work in one of the many weapon factories.