Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-27642965-20160211003725/@comment-4851119-20160418201046

StarSword wrote: The Galactic Empire at its peak would probably overmatch the Imperium at its peak in space just because of the strategic implications of hyperdrive. Travel by Warp is slow, unreliable, and incredibly dangerous (yes, I know we have Han's speech to Luke in A New Hope, but come on, it's space: orbits are mathematically predictable and space is 99.9-repeating% empty), whereas Star Wars is a setting where people casually talk about traveling to the other side of the galaxy like they were jogging down to the corner store. The main trouble is that safe Hyperspace travel requires having hyperlanes mapped out; in the SW galaxy this isn't an issue because this was done thousands of years ago and hyperlanes don't shift around too much, but if anyone in SW were to go on the offensive into the 40K galaxy they'd need to travel cautiously and map it out as they go along.

That and there's Daemon attacks to consider. This tidbit from the 5th Ed Necron Codex "Necrons were ever masters of transcendant physics, pocket dimensions and hyper-geometry, and these sciences are put to full effect wherever they can serve useful function. Many Tomb Worlds and strongholds are far more vast within than they might appear from the outside, or are protected by energy labyrinths of impossible size. Some specialized troops, notably Deathmarks, regularly employ pocket dimensions as vantage points from which to hunt their foes, and the more accomplished nemesors can conceal entire armies and fleets in slivers of out-of-phase reality. Yet as confounding as these technologies might be to the other races of the galaxy, there is one enemy whom they are no defense. To the Daemons of the Warp, such technological conjurings are merely another flavour of existence to be corrupted and devoured." Tells us that Warp entities can in fact target other planes of reality beside realspace since Daemons can apparently break into Necron pocket dimensions. Hyperspace still ought to be safer than traversing the Warp but the risk is there.

Add in the logistical and manufacturing capability that must exist to build 2/3 of Death Star II in a few months Don't take that by the letter though, building one big station is not the same as building many small warships. (If you assume it is the same, and thus scale linearly by mass, you get that ridiculous calculation where the a Star Destroyer is completed every 2-4 seconds or something, which doesn't at all match up with the ship numbers we actually see in any source that doesn't involve the Star Forge.) plus the fact that, like the Tau, the Empire actually properly understands its technology. They seem to insist on not using that tech to its full potential though. Where are the droid brain-controlled targeting systems for heavy gun turrets? Where are the anti-fighter PD guns on any ship that isn't the Millenium Falcon? And so on and so forth.

Argh, space opera tropes frustrate me so much. (Then again 40K, especially in older fluff, is equally guilty of the same things for the arguably worse reason of meeting the grimdark quota.) And though I'm inclined to give ground battles to the Imperium due to proper combined arms and godawful-huge blind spots on Galactic Imperial armored vehicles Not to mention the most important and relevant factor, that being that 40K vehicles generally display superior performance as weapons of war in their source material compared to their SW counterparts. (Though like everything in 40K it's inconsistent as heck, for example using DoW visuals they're around the same level, the superior performance on the 40K side comes from certain showings in the novels.)