Tyranids(short term)

Tau (long term)

 

Tough choice, there's so many dangers out there

- Necrons, they have the resources, will and patience to see it through to the proverbial end.

- Orks, if someone like Ghazghkul would unite enough Orks the galaxy would be in one serious problem. Orks outnumber nearly everything.

- Tyranids, each new wave is bigger, nastier, tougher and smarter than the last one. Noone knows where did exactly come from or how many there are, so they could potentially be the biggest threat.

- Chaos, can't be destroyed as long a psychicly sensitive creature walk around. So it could potentially outlive any other threat, save perhaps the necrons. And then there are the untold legions of daemonic entities, traitors, mutants and heretics whom are not bound by race.

So Chaos and Nids as most direct, Necrons on long term and Orks for their sheer potential for galactic destruction.

 

Tau, because they evolve freakishly fast. Much like real life humans. I mean, 500 years to go from halberds and horsey men to atomic bombs and laser-guided missiles? 1,000 years ago it was all "arrgh! I'm a viking!" and Norman the Conqueror for christ's sake! Heck, even the new, inventive ways of killing each other in this century! Chemical warfare was practially invented, refined to an art form, and then banned outright. (unless you count rotting animals being thrown over castle walls NBC warfare) Cartridge weapons became mainstream, tanks were introduced, we learned to fly and almost immediately adapted that for war. Rapid fire weapons, body armor, spy satellites that can read license plates, even the art of camoflauge, were all devoloped or made practical in the space of 100 years.

When you consider the tau only need 7,000 years to go from blackpowder and castles (basically middle age tech) to being the second most advanced race in the galaxy, second only to the eldar, that's a hell of a tech leap. And seeing as how it took the imperium 10,000 years to go through three marks of SM battle armor, 32,000 years from today to phase out the assault rifle, and they're still arming their basic troops with solid slug weapons and flak armor. (Autocannons, battlecannons, IG flak armor) Plus, they show a relatively primative understanding of technology anyway. They worship computers as "machine spirts" and require guardsmen to pray before battle that their rifles won't jam.

 

When you consider the tau only need 7,000 years to go from blackpowder and castles (basically middle age tech) to being the second most advanced race in the galaxy, second only to the eldar, that's a hell of a tech leap.

as a necron player, i resent that.unish:

 

True, but the Tau are very small in numbers. If they Imperium would ever launch an all out attack (give or take 200 years due to administratum problems) they would be crushed. It says somewhere in the fluff/codex that they only have several tens of thousands of soldiers. An Imperial Guard regiment can easily have more, as long as the Imperium has bigger problems on their hands they should do fine. Especially if they'd finally manage to get warp travel to work, perhaps and allaince wth the X'tol...or whatever those spiderlike aliens are called :wink:

 

I'm with cccp_one - got to be Necrons.

Tau, Eldar and Dark Eldar an't got the man power and as a added bonus Tau have no warp travel.

Orks will never stop fighting each other ever. Thats about as possible as the CSM being allowed to rejoin the Imperium.

Chaos and Tyranids are probably equal in second place - each have there own ups and downs: Chaos rely on human prey and Tyranids need to come from another Galaxy.

Necrons are all over the place, they want to kill everybody and are able to repair themselves. Whats not to be scared of?

 

I'd say Tyranids. They don't lose any biomass as long as they take the planet, each fleet is bigger than the last, and I'm a 'Nid player. The Necrons have the slight drawback that all thier respective C'tan want to kill each other, but that aside I'd say they're second. And Chaos third.

 

True, but the Tau are very small in numbers. If they Imperium would ever launch an all out attack (give or take 200 years due to administratum problems) they would be crushed. It says somewhere in the fluff/codex that they only have several tens of thousands of soldiers. An Imperial Guard regiment can easily have more, as long as the Imperium has bigger problems on their hands they should do fine. Especially if they'd finally manage to get warp travel to work, perhaps and allaince wth the X'tol...or whatever those spiderlike aliens are called :wink:

True, but that works to their advantage. The imperium will ignore them because any one of their basic regiments can wipe them out, and concentrate on bigger threats to their current reign, like chaos and nids. By the time they get around to stamping on the tau (cause they're bored or something) the tau will have surpassed eldar in terms of tech and beat the shit out of the imperium. Plus, in the tau dex, they have a blurb of an eldar ambassador returning to his craftworld and saying that they should look after the tau "because he feels a certain kinship towards them". So I'm willing to bet that if there was ever a fully blown Tau/Imperium war, the Eldar would fight on the Tau side. Plus, Kroot, Vespid, and all of the gue'vesa the tau have, who would be invaluable as spies and saboutours. Even with SM on the imperial side, that's five separate factions fighting the Imperium at once. Nasty.

 

The Tau do beat Imperial science in some respects, but Mankind is waaaaaaay more advanced in others. The Tau don't have anything on Humanity in the arts of Inter-Stellar communication, Teleportation, Warp Travel, basic understanding of the nature of Chaos, Power Armour, Titans, Various Psy-Nullifying technologies, Augmentation, Life-Prolonging drugs (it mentioned in Codex: Tau that 40 stantard is old for a Tau. Some humans are over 1000) et cetera.

In stort, The Tau have some better stuff, but the Imperium has lots of bzarrely advanced crap even it doesn't understand (Though the Imperium doesn't under stand that much about Science, to be honest.)

 

true, true. but at least the tau understand their tech. all the imperial techpriests can do is copy and rebuild archaic tech designs from millenia gone by. The tau are constantly innovating and developing, whereas the imperium seems to be actively resisting any technological advancement.

 

you are right however chaos has come closer than anyone, who killed the emporer who destroyed the emporers palace... cough cough chaos cough cough

 

hephesto
- Orks, if someone like Ghazghkul would unite enough Orks the galaxy would be in one serious problem. Orks outnumber nearly everything.

yeah defo and with the whole spore thing and the whole we all have psycic powers (that aren't linked to the warp) if only we knew how to use them jeese

 

true, true. but at least the tau understand their tech. all the imperial techpriests can do is copy and rebuild archaic tech designs from millenia gone by. The tau are constantly innovating and developing, whereas the imperium seems to be actively resisting any technological advancement.

Yeah, good point. Though the whole you-can't-invent-that-it's-heresy attitude of the Adeptus Mechanicus might rapidly change when two thousand heavily armed Fire Warriors march over the horizon.

 

Im with you all the way, Cadian! I just didnt have the wind to type all that out like you!

 

Me.

:cyclops:

 

Im with you all the way, Cadian! I just didnt have the wind to type all that out like you!

What can i say, slow day right?

 

I'd go with either Orks or Tyranids. The great thing about Orks is that, despite their hilarity, they really ARE an immense threat. I love reading fiction in which an Eldar describes Orkishness. Whereas another race might scoff at their methods, Eldar really seem to "get" the threat Orks pose to themselves and the galaxy at large. A human might cheer when he guns down an Ork, but an Eldar is observant enough to notice that the Ork died with a satisfied grin on its corpse, and realizes the ramifications of that.

It might look hilarious when an Ork's buggy explodes and leaves a smoking crater in the ground, but there are few worlds that withstand a trillion Orks igniting their buggies at once. And it's not that Orks lack the will, they lack only for buggies. The explodier, the better. Potentially, Orks are probably the greatest threat to every race in the 40K galaxy, but they're simply too fractured to run at maximum effectiveness. As it stands, at least.

Tyranids, as they've been described, probably COULD overrun the entire galaxy, given enough time. The Tyranid incursion has thus far been like the head of a spear slowly tearing into the galaxy, widening and leaving a greater gash the deeper it drives. The trick to defeating the Tyranids, ultimately, won't be to destroy them utterly. However, if enough Tyranids can be killed so that the greater extra-galactic swarm calculates that the bio-mass to be harvested is even .00001% less than the bio-mass it has to produce to consume the galaxy, then it will probably withdraw from the scene entirely. And look for another honey tree to stick its claws in, one with less bees that sting.

The Necrons, as they stand, are still a little too ambiguous to be able to gauge the full extent of their motives and numbers. The Necrons still kind of give me the feeling that they're licking their wounds. Technically, if all Necrons want is a galaxy free of life, all they have to do is wait long enough. Even if the Tyranids don't lick the plate clean, the various races are doing an excellent job of killing themselves off as is. Perhaps every world the Imperium grinds into ashes leaves a wily and very patient Necron Lord somewhere rubbing his claws together, enjoying what might be a dusty old simulacrum of satisfaction.

 

i think that Tau could definitely destroy the imperium if they are given time to mass their numbers and if they cut away some flaws that would otherwise defeat them, such as warp travel. Though its true the imperium has the dreadnought, titan, thousands of guards man and righteous bastards who wont stop until they and the enemies of man die, they are to pious and religious to understand technology for what it is and they still ram clips full of giant bullets instead of recharging nuclear batteries for their railguns. whats more, they charge into combat with swords hammers and other, more primitive weapons instead of punching a hole through their enemies heads with their bolters.

Second choice would definately be orks. Yes they are stupid, yes they have no tactical sense, but they want to kill and i think half a million small orks firing extremely inaccurate and crude rapid fire weapons with thousands of bullets put into pouches, jammed into guns and hung around shoulders is pretty scary. Not to mention the other half million riding down on buggies and trukks or just running down behind a mass of little goblin-like creatures to either shoot you with their equally inaccurate and crude handguns, or drive a chainsword through your chest. Adding even further to that, they don't give a damn if they die and the spores from the Waaagh! creates even more orks (as if the last wave wasnt enough) the imperium has to deal with. All that needs to happen is for another Gazghull to rise forth kick the living crap out of humanity.

 

Me.

:cyclops:

crap, you beat me too it.

I would say that the biggest threat to all the forces of order are the necrons.

I think that in 5th edition fluff we may see some more alliances specifically to deal with the necron threat.

they still ram clips full of giant bullets instead of recharging nuclear batteries for their railguns. whats more, they charge into combat with swords hammers and other, more primitive weapons instead of punching a hole through their enemies heads with their bolters.

just because the weapons are close combat doesn't make them primative, it simply means that by having them they are ready for more situations. the thunder hammer, and lightening claws are not primative, they are the epitome of close combat. and honestly, stocking all your bets into a single weapon with a poor rate of fire isn't necessarily better, Lasguns may not have the game represent the fluff, but they are probably the best rifle to have, and the bolter is probably the best overall gun to have.

 

i think that Tau could definitely destroy the imperium if they are given time to mass their numbers and if they cut away some flaws that would otherwise defeat them, such as warp travel.

To be fair, couldn't the same be said about the Eldar? Like the Tau, their limited numbers are a serious liability. Unlike the Tau, though, they're quite good at scooting around space. So, they're actually even less limited than the Tau are.

And nobody's proposing an Eldar takeover of the Imperium. Why the Tau, then?

 

Chaos - it's insidious, infiltrates cultures and turns them rotten from the inside out. Added to the more overt threat of the black crusades. It's eternal and plans long term.

Tyranids. They want to eat everything and can't be stopped.

 

Itself?

 

Yeah I mean really, it's not me, I only screw things up on the one planet. It's the 'nids.

I can't think why anyone would possibly think anything other than the nids. Allow me to run through some options to demonstrate, for those who can't see it.

1 - Imperium/Eldar alliance - has happened before, to defeat orks. So obviously the Imperium considers orks more of a menace than Eldar;
2 - Imperium/Tau alliance - hasn't happened yet, as far as I know, but is not impossible to contemplate, there are at least diplomatic exchanges;
3 - Imperiuml/ork alliance - impossible for Imperium to contemplate... (but IIRC Imperial forces were rescued from Tyranid infestation one time by orks somewhere, the name of which escapes me... and in previous versions of fluff orks were sometimes employed by Imperium as mercenaries).

That leaves Chaos and Necrons and nids (oh my!) by my reckoning.

Chaos, though in some ways the opposite of the Imperium, at least shares some basic philosophy with it - it wants the Imperium fot itself. if the choice was between destroying the Imperium and humanity, or fighting to preserve it, then Chaos would go for the second option, because it doesn't want to conquer bare rock, it wants to conquer living souls - even Khorne, I guess, because when there's no more blood... what then? So there's some leverage there, some common intrest (at least philosophically. Which isn't a good argument compared to a chain-axe, I'll grant you). So essentially the choice is between different kinds of tyrant, Khornate, Tzeentchian, Slaaneshi, Nurgloid or Imperial; nids and necrons really mess this up so it's just about plausible to posit a chaos/imperium alliance against one or other.

Necrons - utterly implacable, cannot be bargained with, there's no leverage, but their resources are pretty limited; actual numbers not known, but there's no suggestion in the fluff that they have crypts on every planet (or anything like), and if we take what 'we', as Chaptermasters, Warbosses, Autarchs, High Ecclesiarchs or whatever, 'know' about the 40k galaxy, (from out experience of gaming), Necrons aren't that common (or, if you live in a Necron heavy sector, do let me know!). It is, however, just about conceivable that Necrons would fight nids in defence of the other races, to protect the souls that they themselves seek to harvest; but no possibility that necrons would help nids turn the other races to soup.

Tyranids, on the other hand, are everywhere. They also cannot be bargained with, any more than athelete's foot can be, or an avalanche, or time. They just want to eat. They feel no more pity for humanity than you do for yoghurt. There is nothing that we can offer them to make them go away, there is no way to persuade them to adopt another course of action, except by killing so many that they stop bothering. As however there are no reliable estimates of their numbers - the three fleets and innumerable splinters known could be the first of trillions of invasions - it seems likely that the nids will not only destroy the Imperium but all the other the other races too (with the possible exception of Necrons, whom they may ignore).

Thanks y'all for putting up me to the end of this.

(It's the nids! The nids I tells ya!)

:cyclops:

 

Damn!

If only I'd noticed there was a page 2!

Yeah, "itself" is a pretty good answer.

How about "history"?

All class societies are destined to collapse under the weight of their own contradictions.

:cyclops:

 

#1. Tyranids. The Tyranids destroyed the entire first Company of the Ultramarines, and they still put up a fight when the 3rd landed. They cannot be stopped. They change in a matter of days to better kill a world.

#2. The Imperium itself. If you think about it, I've come to the conclusion that if the Imperium ever had a relatively peaceful time, then a war would break out over some manner of doctrine. The Imperium would be torn apart by civil war, much like the Horus Heresy.

#3. I want to say Chaos. Chaos is pervasive. You can't fight Change. Death. Lust. Frenzy....basic human emotions become their downfall.

#4. Tau. Tau are on the verge of becoming much more. Their only crippling factor is their numbers.

#5. Orks. Orks are indeed weak alone, but if another warlord like Thraka were to attack at the right time...

#6 I have to say Eldar and Necrons tie for 6. Eldar are too few and Necrons are fighting each other too often to please their gods to pose a real threat. Sure, they might wipe out a world, but the Imperium lingers. There has never been a full-scale Necron assault on the Imperium.

#7. Bringing up the rear is the Dark Eldar. They simply don't want to conquer. Just a selection of slaves to torture is fine.

-Dirge

 

Quick and easy answer: The Imperium itself.

 

i like dirge's answer... and you guys kicked my last posts' ass about the marines being primitive and now i see the flaws in it... damn...

But i agree with dirge, its very logical, i mean, who can wipe out any of the marines' companies, just like that, especially the Ultramarines First Company The FIRST company. its like impossible, and it still took half the third company to wipe them out. And still there are supposedly splinter fleets terrorizing the Imperium still. Its only a matter of time till they evolve enough and send another hive fleet to finish the job and kill the Ultramarines first company and the third company this time. Although i must say that they should have come back in those 250 years when the ultramarines were still weak.

I also agree with everyone who said The Imperium itself. The Imperium is religious, and religion leads to inevitable conflict.



'Nitiate