Star Wars vs Warhammer 40k

[Zardnaar]

This old chestnut has probably been around for a long time on the internet and the Warhammer fanboys seem to heavily favor their uyniverse while the Star Wars fans prefer theirs.

Full disclosure I like Star Wars a lot and know more about it than Warhammer 40k. However I am fully aware Star Wars has some issues, inconsistencies and out right stupidity in it and from what I have read one can claim the same thing about WH40k. The other problem is what time era do you pick from the two genres? Can the Imperium of Man defeat the Republic, the Empire, the New/Old Republic or the First Order? Whats tougher a Space Marine or a Jedi?

For the most part I will assume tat the Imperium of Man (IoM) is from the 41st millenium or 8th edition of the Warhammer universe vs the Star Wars Galactic Empire (GE) just after the Empire Strikes back. Further I will make the following assumptions.

1. This is a mano a mano showdown, that is the Galactic Empire doesn't have to worry about the Rebellion, the Imperium of Man doesn't have to worry about losing the empire to Chaos/Orks/Necrons etc.

2. That the IoM warp drive work in the Star Wars Galaxy and that the Star Wars hyperspace equivalent works in the Warhammer universe. One can make arguments that neither one would actually function in the other universe (this applies more to WH40k than SW, the warp may not exist in other galaxies in WH40k lore AFAIK). The timelines also do not match up (Galaxy far far away a long time ago). It is possible for example the SW galaxy got eaten by the Tyranids although both the Sol system and Star Wars galaxy are in the same multiverse separated by time and space.

3. I will ignore some of the more silly aspects of the Star Wars EU (and would prefer it if any Warhammer fans kinda do the same). This is because they declared a lot of the old EU non cannon and some of it was also silly and over the top even back in the day. I will reference the legends stuff where it doesn't contradict the new canon or where both continuities share certain concepts. For a while their they had super weapons of the month that the Heroes of Yavin invariably blew up (death star prototype, galaxy gun, sun crusher etc).

First things first. The IoM and the GE are similar in various ways. Both are galactic level empires and both have a million worlds+ (accounts vary). Both have super weapons, and both can bombard a planet and render it inhospitable. Both can blow up a planet although such weapons are a bit more common in the Warhammer 40k universe. Warhammer superweapons are a bit more common than in Star Wars, Star Wars ones are bigger in scale or effect (Death Stars, Starkiller Base, various ones in the old EU). Basically if either universe wants to ruin your ball in space they can do it. In Star Wars they can at least pull a Base Delta Zero planetary bombardment, in Warhammer they use exterminatus order both have similar results.

Ground Power

As stated previously on paper the empires are both similar in size ( a million planets, trillions of beings). The Warhammer universe is a bit more over the top in its presentation and they have more hive worlds and forge worlds than the Star Wars equivalents. Hive worlds are just planets with super sized populations. Coruscant would be a similar example in the SW universe. The Imperium of Man relies heavily on its numbers and while the Empire is big they do not seem to have the numbers the IoM has even in the old EU. Star Wars has no equivilent of SPace Marines, the Stormtroopers are probably comparable to the Imperial Guard and although the GE has an Imperial army they are never really heavily featured in the movies or EU. The Empire has walkers, the IoM has Titans.

The GE lacks a Jedi order and does not have enough dark side users to go around so Space Marines are a problem although I believe they could be killed by existing Star Wars tech. One on one Ithink a Jedi Knight or Sith could defeat one buit there are around a million space marines and the Jedi (which the Empire lacks) only number ion the 5-15k range usually in the Star Wars universe. Warhammer universe weapons can definitely deal with Stormtrooper armor, a Titan can probably destroy a walker, although walkers can probably deal with the smaller titans as well. Star Wars has a higher tech level than Warhammer but on the ground I think Warhammer wins.

Fleets.

Space it is hard to rate the Warhammer Universe ships here vs the ships of the Galactic Empire. I suspect it could be an absolute wash out either way depending on ones take of the respective ship classes. The Warhammer battleships are bigger than Star Destroyers, but smaller than a Super Star Destroyer (SSD). SSD are kind of rare thoughboth in the new cannon and the older EU.. The Empire has around 25 000 Star Destroyers (ISD I and II's) at its height plus lots of older models such as Victory Star Destroyers and support ships like Strike Cruisers, escort Carriers down to system patrol ships.I'm not sure how big the IoM navy is.

Both have sector fleets. The GE sector fleets tend to be larger than IoM fleets but the IoM cruisers are bigger than the GE Star Destroyers. Sector fleets also vary in size a lot in the GE as some sector fleest might consist of older clone wars vintage ships and perhaps even a single Victory Class for sectors in the outer Rim. Battleships are a big deal in the IoM, Star Destroyers the GE equivalent seem a bit more common. GOing byy the fluff it is inescapable that Warhammer ships are generally bigger (with exceptions like Death Stars and Super class Star Destroyers), the GE might have the numbers when it comes to capital ships and they built 25 000 Star Destroyers in the 18 years from Revenge of the Sith to A New Hope. Warhammer Battleships do seem to be slow and unwieldy however but both the IoM and GE ships are shielded as well. If anyone can put some numbers on how many sectors the IoM has we can probably figure out who has the bigger fleet. Can a Star Destroyer take on a WH40k Battleship, can a WH40k Battleship deal with a Super Star Destroyer? TIE fighters are fairly rubbish and I believe the WH40k tech can deal with them, hell; Earth in 2017 can probably deal with them in atmosphere.

Technology levels.

Technology in Star Wars proceeds at a slow place compared with RL. In the Warhammer 40k universe they are arguably regressing. This is one area where Star Wars undeniably has a massive lead. This is most notable with hyper drive vs warp speed. In the WH40k universe it seems to take 1-4 years to get anywhere with warp speed. In the Star Wars universe hyperspace is a lot quicker. Flying from Tatooine (outer rim) to Alderaan (Core world) is a 8 hour trip in a X1 hyperdrive (such as an X-WIng). In the Falcon (0.5 hyperdrive) that is a 4 hour trip or a 16 hour trip in a imperial capital ship such as a Star Destroyer. 16 hours to get from the edge of the galaxy to the core. That is on a hyperspace route however but even a slow trip from one side of the galay to the other is going to be a few weeks of couple of months sort of trip. Only a very bad back up hyper drive on a completely unknown route in a vintage ship would get you the travel times of a fast WH 40k trip. By vintage I mean something from the Old Republic era with a X16 back up hyperdrive which was bad 5000 years ago in the SW universe. Put simply the galactic standard hyperdrives can run rings around the WH40k faster than light IoM systems.

So how far behind are the IoM relative to the imperial standard? The Warhammer 40k ships do have a resemblance to some of the Golden Age of the Sith ships but their warp tech is going back to roughly the early days of Star Wars hyperdrive tech and its somewhere bnetween 5-25000 years behind the Empire. This is also obvious with the day to day technology used in the Star Wars universe. For example they have droids which have not been a thing since the Dark age of Technology. Lightsabers are plasma technology and Star Wars blasters, capital weapons etc are more similar to plasma weapons than lasers as they are fueled by gas to fire super heated beams. Star Wars also tends to have miniaturised technology as a blaster pack for example is not much bigger than a modern cell phone battery pack. If the IoM capiatal weapons are as primitive as there warp drives they are in big trouble vs the Empire (or Republic or even the Rebellion). Its possible that IoM weapons can not penetrate Star Wars shielding as older Star Wars ships (which are arguably superior to WH40k ships) would be useless if they engaged modern Imperial/Rebel designs.

The IoM still seems to use a lot of projectile weapons for example and in the old EU Star Wars had things like planetary shields which seem t have no equivalents in WH40k. Put simply the technology level in Star Wars exceeds the technology level from the Dark Age of technology which in turn exceeds that of the IoM era. Best case scenario is the IoM weapons are roughly equivalent to the GE versions (shields/ship weappns) and they are hopelessly behind on faster than light travel. I don't think you could make the argument they are more powerful and SW ships alsop have good reactor and shield designs comparative to the IoM.

So who wins? The Galactic Empire or the Imperium of Man. Ultimately I think it depends on how much the difference the levels of tech in Star Wars favor can make in the fields of battle. Having uber space marines doesn't really matter if the Galactic Empire can run rings around your forces and/or annihilate your capital ships. If you can't land your troops or can space supremacy your uber commandos won't matter. The two franchises are different takes on the sci fi aspect of them (grim dark vs space opera). Ultimately I don't think the Imperium of Man can actually win based on their warp drives if nothing else. Assuming they can even damage the imperial troops I think this is what more or less happens.

The Imperium of Man decides to invade the Star Wars Galaxy (or vice versa). They have some victories using large numbers of imperial guard units, space marines and a battleship can engage a Star Destroyer successfully. However they have very very slow faster than light capabilities and it takes them a long time to replace things like Space Marines. In theory they have near infinite numbers of troops to throw at the Empire. Their very slow warp drives however means they can't win that war quickly. So best case scenario the Imperium of Man can't conquer or counter attack an early imperial incursion quickly. A single warp jump might last as long as the entire rebel/empire civil war.

Now Star Wars did have a grim dark plot line where extra galactic invaders the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy. The overall plotline was terrible but they trashed the galaxy and captured Coruscant and politically the New Republic was weaker than the Empire. The war dragged out but the New Republic (and the Empire) are capable of something the IoM is not and that is innovation. They can design new weapon systems a lot faster/easier than the IoM and they can have things like War Droids. The Trade Federation designed war drioids to shut down Jedi, there is no reason why they can't design droids (heresy I know but war is not fair) to kill Space Marines and Star Wars has several droid designs arguably on par with Space Marines (Yuzhaan Vong Hunters YVH droids, Annihilator War Droids, Droideka II,SD-9 and 10).

Star Wars also has things close to mega structures in Space. The IoM does have Mars but Star Wars has several planets like that along with fully automated worlds of droids that can crank out more droids. The Trade Federation could crank out millions of battle droids and in a long drawn out war there is no reason why the Empire could not do the same thing. Since the war is going to last a long time even if the IoM wins initial battles any reasonable tech from the current canon (TIE Defenders through to First Order techs), will likely be invented. From the movies we also know that it is technically possible to crank out battle druids and clone troops as well. Even if the IoM captures SW tech they can't back wards engineer it or produce it anyway either due to it being heresy (droids/AI), or barely understanding what they do have let alone the superior Star Wars tech. They can get shield generators onto droids down to the size of Droidekas in the current cannon and even smaller in the old legends EU.

If one throws in some of the silly ideas from the old EU or even the current movies (Star Killer Base) the IoM also has a giant weak spot. I am assuming that the Imperium can use there warp drives but they are dependent Emperor and the golden throne to navigate warp space. Starkiller Base and the Galaxy Gun and Sun Crusher in the Star Wars legends EU can destroy planets and unlike the Death Star they can do it stealthily either being smaller or having hyperspace capable weapons of mass destruction. If you can kill the Emperor of Mankind/blow up Sol you more or less win the war. The IoM navy is stranded and the Space Marines can't deploy. Killing Palpatine doesn't have the same effect (especially if Vader is unredeemed/alive).

So who wins? I lean towards the Galactic Empire, the IoM might be able to win in older timelines where the tech difference is a lot less or the Republic is not as militarised as the Empire (but then the Jedi entire the equation). The Imperium has some big ships and lots of men but I think they are the 19th century equivalent of dervishes charging maxim machine guns or the Yamoto vs the USN dive bomber. They are literally around 25 000 years behind in faster than light tech and probably 5000 years behind in ship to ship weapons and do not even have basic things like targeting computers (Luke turned his off). Their weapons are big but IDK if they can penetrate ISD shields, or planetary shields. They do have things like hive and forge worlds to a greater extent than Star Wars but the SW universe doesn't need them as they very efficient automated manufacturing and things like orbital ship yards and factory worlds on the galactic scale.

 

[Zardnaar]

Jedi/Sith Vs Space Marines

So who wins between a Jedi and Space Marine? It depends on the what we are talking about is it a space marine vs Jedi Knight, Padawan, a Primaris marine or a Primarch? How about a Librarian?

Padawans are not generally counted as full Jedi, that is a Jedi Knight.

Generally one on one I think the Jedi win, the problem is the Space Marines outnumber them 100-1. 1 Jedi can't defeat a 100 Space marine IMHO. That assumes the Jedi is actually trained, a Padawan may be in trouble. A Primaris would also be outclassed, while I think a Librarian vs Jedi Knight is roughly on par.

Jedi and Sith masters a more or less crap over anything the Space Marines have with the exception of perhaps powerful librarians and the Primarchs. Yoda vs Horus could be fun while the Emperor of Mankind more or less fills the same roll as Palpatine/Revan/Yoda etc.

 

[Bugfatty300]

40k always seemed really weird to me. Sword and sorcery stuff mixed with space marines? I dunno bout that.

 

[Zardnaar]

40k always seemed really weird to me. Sword and sorcery stuff mixed with space marines? I dunno bout that.

One can kind of claim the same about Star Wars lol.

This doesn't really bother me to much I think the WH40k universe has bigger issues. I like reading WH 40k fluff (some of it bad) but once again not all of the SW novel line is that good either (its really hit and miss).

 

[Perfection]

Jack O'Neill would infiltrate the ships of both sides and blow up their reactors with C4.

 

[Zardnaar]

Jack O'Neill would infiltrate the ships of both sides and blow up their reactors with C4.

I like SG1, if I had to pick one though SG: Atlantis was overall better IMHO mostly because it doesn't really have an equivalent of series 9 and 10.

 

[Bugfatty300]

One can kind of claim the same about Star Wars lol.

This doesn't really bother me to much I think the WH40k universe has bigger issues. I like reading WH 40k fluff (some of it bad) but once again not all of the SW novel line is that good either (its really hit and miss).

Yeah but the fantasy elements in Star Wars was really basic light stuff. Laser swords, got it. Vague magic powers for plot conveniences. Got it. 40k seems to have much heavier magic stuff which kind of turned me off, or am I wrong on that? My friends tried to get me into it years and years ago so I don't remember a lot about it.

 

[Evie]

Starkiller is very much current canon, it's just somethign the Empire need a while to develop. The Imperium *has* to win before the Empire develops a Starkiller base (and since The First Order, with considerably less resources than the old Empire, built Starkiller...they can't rely on hitting the Empire hard enough. they have to eradicate it). If Starkiller comes online, Sol goes, the Emperor goes, and the Warp goes, and, since a warp-less Imperium *cannot actually mount an attack on Starkiller base*, it can then continues taking off the biggest Imperium stronghold one after the other with impunity.

 

[Commodore]

However they have very very slow faster than light capabilities

Not necessarily. In Warhammer 40k, travel through The Warp greatly varies in speed depending on the "currents" and general warp-foolery Tzeentch decides to engage in. It can either be extremely fast or slow with the same route sometimes taking days or weeks, while at other times taking months or years. Hell, there are even instances when ships arrive at their destination BEFORE the time they first departed.

There's also the possibility a ship will never come out of The Warp at all. In other words, the proper term to describe the Imperium's FTL travel would be "unreliable" rather than "slow".

In relation to invading the Star Wars galaxy though, the Imperium probably would be largely restricted to sub-light travel since they require the light of the Astronomican to travel through The Warp without getting hopelessly lost and becoming the playthings of soul-hungry daemons. The light of the Astronomican is projected by the God-Emperor of Man and there are portions of our galaxy it doesn't reach, so it definitely wouldn't reach all the way to the Star Wars galaxy.

EDIT: I really hope this discussion takes off since I consider myself pretty well-versed in the lore of both Star Wars and 40k, so I think I could offer some really good insights in this discussion.

 

[Zardnaar]

Not necessarily. In Warhammer 40k, travel through The Warp greatly varies in speed depending on the "currents" and general warp-foolery Tzeentch decides to engage in. It can either be extremely fast or slow with the same route sometimes taking days or weeks, while at other times taking months or years. Hell, there are even instances when ships arrive at their destination BEFORE the time they first departed.

There's also the possibility a ship will never come out of The Warp at all. In other words, the proper term to describe the Imperium's FTL travel would be "unreliable" rather than "slow".

In relation to invading the Star Wars galaxy though, the Imperium probably would be largely restricted to sub-light travel since they require the light of the Astronomican to travel through The Warp without getting hopelessly lost and becoming the playthings of soul-hungry daemons. The light of the Astronomican is projected by the God-Emperor of Man and there are portions of our galaxy it doesn't reach, so it definitely wouldn't reach all the way to the Star Wars galaxy.

EDIT: I really hope this discussion takes off since I consider myself pretty well-versed in the lore of both Star Wars and 40k, so I think I could offer some really good insights in this discussion.

As I said I assumed the IoM could navigate the SW galaxy. The Emperor of Man has moved the golden throne there, found a way to send an essence of himself there or has some other way to project the asronomicon similar to the WH40k universe.

Otherwise the question of who wins would always be the defender. The IoM tech won't work in the SW galaxy (wrong time frame, wrong galaxy, warp may not cover the SW galaxy, no astronomicon etc). The reverse may not be true thouhg (SW hyperdrive might work in the WH40k universe IDK).

 

[Commodore]

Otherwise the question of who wins would always be the defender.

I think a better way to determine who would win would be to find a comparable force to the Galactic Empire in 40k. Technology wise, that would be the T'au Empire. In the Damocles Gulf Crusade, the Imperium was more or less mopping the floor with the T'au until a Tyranid hive fleet showed up elsewhere and forced the Imperium to negotiate a truce and redirect their forces to counter the Tyranids.

There are also a lot of things available to the Imperium that people who make this comparison fail to consider as well. For one, the Imperium has the Legion of the Damned and Living Saints on their side. Those are, respectively (and for lack of a better term), considered to be the "lesser daemons" and "greater daemons" of the Emperor (since it has been all but confirmed that he has ascended to godhood). Lorewise, the Legion of the Damned and Living Saints would effectively be an "I win" button for the Imperium in any ground battle. The Legion of the Damned especially since they can appear anywhere at anytime to aid the Emperor's forces when they are in the most dire need.

There's also the Adeptus Mechanicus to consider. Those guys have tech that is far in advance of anything the wider Imperium has available and some of that tech surpasses even Star Wars level tech.

warp may not cover the SW galaxy,

The Warp definitely covers the Star Wars galaxy. I forget where exactly I read it, but there is 40k lore that states The Warp is not unique to the Milky Way, and covers the entire universe. After all, The Warp is just an alternate dimension that reflects the physical world we live in.

Give me a bit and I will try to give a point-by-point analysis of the OP to give a better picture of how I think the Imperium of Man stacks up against the Galactic Empire.

 

[Kozmos]

The Imperium has Titans, cyclonic torpedos, flesh eater viruses, HK robots made by the Mechanicum, Primaris marines and other nifty artefacts from the Dark Age of Technology that can make alterations to physical reality like it was playdough.

 

[Commodore]

One on one Ithink a Jedi Knight or Sith could defeat one buit there are around a million space marines and the Jedi (which the Empire lacks) only number ion the 5-15k range usually in the Star Wars universe.

I don't think a Jedi or Sith would win so easily in a one-on-one matchup with an Astartes. Remember: these are super soldiers that regularly face down daemons,sorcerers, and psykers and come out on top most of the time. So while a Jedi/Sith certainly could defeat an Astartes in single combat, I don't think it would be a guaranteed win. Not only do the Astartes have strength, but insane speed as well. It is stated in the lore that an Astartes can move so quickly that they appear as a blur even to the Eldar. Plus, an Astartes can take an insane amount of punishment before dying as well, with instances in the lore of marines taking three or four direct headshots and still surviving.

So again, a Jedi/Sith certainly could win, but it would certainly be one of the toughest fights of their lives.

If anyone can put some numbers on how many sectors the IoM has we can probably figure out who has the bigger fleet.

The Galactic Empire has the larger fleet. That is their greatest advantage in space combat. Ship-to-ship, the Imperium has the GE beat at every level, but the problem is the Imperial Navy doesn't have the numbers to match the GE's fleet. While no exact numbers are given, it is generally assumed the Imperium measures its navy in hundreds, while the GE measures in thousands. The GE can also replace its losses much more quickly than the IoM can. I believe it is stated it can take a century or more to build a cruiser and up to 1,000 years to build a battleship. That's why the loss of a battleship is so devastating to the Imperium.

Shielding is where the Imperium would shine though. Void Shields can take an immense amount of fire before being brought down, with the void shields on a battleship stated to be nearly impossible to breach with anything but the most powerful of weapons. I don't think ISDs would have the firepower to breach the void shields of a battleship, it would take something like the Death Star's superlaser to bring down a battleship.

can a WH40k Battleship deal with a Super Star Destroyer?

Yes. As I already stated, the shields on a battleship would allow the battleship to close with the SSD and either ram it (a very common battle tactic in 40k space battles), blast it with relentless macrocannon broadsides, or capture it in a boarding action. And they have the crew to capture it too. An Imperial Navy battleship is stated to have a crew of up to 3 million. Most of those are ratings used to either defend the ship from boarding actions or to conduct boarding actions against enemy ships. SSD's usually have a crew of several hundred thousand, most of which are not dedicated soldiers for the defense of the ship. The one we see in the movies has only 38,000 stormtroopers on board. That's not enough to repel anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million boarders. And that's not even counting Astartes in Terminator armor teleporting onto the ship as well. They'd probably teleport right onto the bridge and kill the entire command staff before they even knew what hit them.

However, that's assuming it would be a one-on-one fight. Which it most certainly would not be.

TIE fighters are fairly rubbish and I believe the WH40k tech can deal with them,

Agreed. TIE fighters wouldn't stand a chance against Imperial Navy fighters.

Ultimately though, I think space is where the GE has their best shot at beating the IoM. They have the numbers and their ships are just good enough that they wouldn't get completely shredded by the Imperial Navy so they could really bring those numbers to bear and drown Imperial ships in a sea of turbo laser fire.

This is one area where Star Wars undeniably has a massive lead.

Not necessarily. The Imperium has some pretty impressive tech at its disposal, especially when you start factoring in all the cool little toys the AdMech has hidden away. I would just say Star Wars is more consistent in its level of technological development, whereas the Imperium ranges from the hyper-advanced, to stone-age depending on the planet.

For example they have droids which have not been a thing since the Dark age of Technology.

Not because the Imperium can't build them though. The Imperium just has a ban on any AI ever since the "Iron Man Rebellion". However, the Imperium still has droids of a sort. Servitors and servo skulls. Those essentially functions as droids and show the Imperium is certainly capable of building droids, they just choose not to.

**More to come later, as I'm about to leave work**

 

[Zardnaar]

I don't think a Jedi or Sith would win so easily in a one-on-one matchup with an Astartes. Remember: these are super soldiers that regularly face down daemons,sorcerers, and psykers and come out on top most of the time. So while a Jedi/Sith certainly could defeat an Astartes in single combat, I don't think it would be a guaranteed win. Not only do the Astartes have strength, but insane speed as well. It is stated in the lore that an Astartes can move so quickly that they appear as a blur even to the Eldar. Plus, an Astartes can take an insane amount of punishment before dying as well, with instances in the lore of marines taking three or four direct headshots and still surviving.

So again, a Jedi/Sith certainly could win, but it would certainly be one of the toughest fights of their lives.



The Galactic Empire has the larger fleet. That is their greatest advantage in space combat. Ship-to-ship, the Imperium has the GE beat at every level, but the problem is the Imperial Navy doesn't have the numbers to match the GE's fleet. While no exact numbers are given, it is generally assumed the Imperium measures its navy in hundreds, while the GE measures in thousands. The GE can also replace its losses much more quickly than the IoM can. I believe it is stated it can take a century or more to build a cruiser and up to 1,000 years to build a battleship. That's why the loss of a battleship is so devastating to the Imperium.

Shielding is where the Imperium would shine though. Void Shields can take an immense amount of fire before being brought down, with the void shields on a battleship stated to be nearly impossible to breach with anything but the most powerful of weapons. I don't think ISDs would have the firepower to breach the void shields of a battleship, it would take something like the Death Star's superlaser to bring down a battleship.



Yes. As I already stated, the shields on a battleship would allow the battleship to close with the SSD and either ram it (a very common battle tactic in 40k space battles), blast it with relentless macrocannon broadsides, or capture it in a boarding action. And they have the crew to capture it too. An Imperial Navy battleship is stated to have a crew of up to 3 million. Most of those are ratings used to either defend the ship from boarding actions or to conduct boarding actions against enemy ships. SSD's usually have a crew of several hundred thousand, most of which are not dedicated soldiers for the defense of the ship. The one we see in the movies has only 38,000 stormtroopers on board. That's not enough to repel anywhere from 500,000 to 1 million boarders. And that's not even counting Astartes in Terminator armor teleporting onto the ship as well. They'd probably teleport right onto the bridge and kill the entire command staff before they even knew what hit them.

However, that's assuming it would be a one-on-one fight. Which it most certainly would not be.



Agreed. TIE fighters wouldn't stand a chance against Imperial Navy fighters.

Ultimately though, I think space is where the GE has their best shot at beating the IoM. They have the numbers and their ships are just good enough that they wouldn't get completely shredded by the Imperial Navy so they could really bring those numbers to bear and drown Imperial ships in a sea of turbo laser fire.



Not necessarily. The Imperium has some pretty impressive tech at its disposal, especially when you start factoring in all the cool little toys the AdMech has hidden away. I would just say Star Wars is more consistent in its level of technological development, whereas the Imperium ranges from the hyper-advanced, to stone-age depending on the planet.



Not because the Imperium can't build them though. The Imperium just has a ban on any AI ever since the "Iron Man Rebellion". However, the Imperium still has droids of a sort. Servitors and servo skulls. Those essentially functions as droids and show the Imperium is certainly capable of building droids, they just choose not to.

**More to come later, as I'm about to leave work**

I know the Imperium has some droid substitutes but they are not very advanced (not true AI) and are not an every day thing for the average citizen in the Imperium.Droids in SW are the equivilent of dishwashers or cars almost.

I did not know the GE had that big of an advantage in space. I knew it took the Imperium a long time to build some things like Titans.

IN the SW universe ISDs are supposed to be tough but they di easy enough to other SW ships due to the supposed power level of things like proton torpedoes (more powerful than nukes apparently) and things like thermal detonators can level mega skyscrapers on Coruscant.

The ruined star destroyer on Jakku fell from orbit for example. Star Wars weapons would be plasma I think in terms of the imperial weapons and any SW ship with shielding has things like particle shields. IoM ships are big but in the old SW EU they moved towards smaller ships generally eventually packing ISD I and II level firepower into cruisers similar in size to Strike Cruisers and Victory class ships (600-900 metres). That was the Imperial remnant and the legacy era and NJO books (20-30 years after RotJ and 140 years after RotJ.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think a better way to determine who would win would be to find a comparable force to the Galactic Empire in 40k. Technology wise, that would be the T'au Empire. In the Damocles Gulf Crusade, the Imperium was more or less mopping the floor with the T'au until a Tyranid hive fleet showed up elsewhere and forced the Imperium to negotiate a truce and redirect their forces to counter the Tyranids.

There are also a lot of things available to the Imperium that people who make this comparison fail to consider as well. For one, the Imperium has the Legion of the Damned and Living Saints on their side. Those are, respectively (and for lack of a better term), considered to be the "lesser daemons" and "greater daemons" of the Emperor (since it has been all but confirmed that he has ascended to godhood). Lorewise, the Legion of the Damned and Living Saints would effectively be an "I win" button for the Imperium in any ground battle. The Legion of the Damned especially since they can appear anywhere at anytime to aid the Emperor's forces when they are in the most dire need.

There's also the Adeptus Mechanicus to consider. Those guys have tech that is far in advance of anything the wider Imperium has available and some of that tech surpasses even Star Wars level tech.



The Warp definitely covers the Star Wars galaxy. I forget where exactly I read it, but there is 40k lore that states The Warp is not unique to the Milky Way, and covers the entire universe. After all, The Warp is just an alternate dimension that reflects the physical world we live in.

Give me a bit and I will try to give a point-by-point analysis of the OP to give a better picture of how I think the Imperium of Man stacks up against the Galactic Empire.

Tau are also behind the SW galctic standard especially with their drive systems once again being about 20k-25k years behind the SW tech level. As I said in the OP thematically a lot of the Warhammer stuff evokes things from the very earliest days of the Republic and the Golden Age of the Sith in the old EU.

 

[BvBPL]

Warhammer 40k because of the social commentary, humour, and zaniness.

 

[Senethro]

Noone would win. The Force is clearly on the verge of consciousness and directed action. Its already creating organic avatars for itself and driving cultures to conquest and domination to feed itself. I'm betting even brief contact with Chaos would be all it takes to crystallize a bunch of personalities into self-awareness and create a new pantheon of thirsting gods.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Jack O'Neill would infiltrate the ships of both sides and blow up their reactors with C4.

You assume you are referring to the 4C explosives?

 

[warpus]

I know absolutely nothing about the Warhammer 40k universe except that I think I remember an RTS game called that. I never played it though.

In which ways is it comparable to Star Wars?

 

[Evie]

I think you have to assume that the Imperium is able to use the Warp in the Star Wars galaxy. Otherwise the Empire has an enormous tactical and strategic advantage, and it's highly likely that the Empire will simply be able to rebuild its fleet and recover from any losses it take before the Imperium can move from one star system to the next. Ultimately, this turns an Imperium Attack on the Empire into a war of attraction the Imperium cannot hope to win.