Now this would make for a great movie…
With soo much power and destruction available to each universe, this would be a fun fight to watch. I will admit that I am a bit biased towards the Star Trek side so that’s where I would place my money…
What say you?





February 2, 2010
#1
40k, without a doubt.
the reasons? scale and philosophy.
using the imperium as an example; the latter is easy to explain. imperial philosophy dictates complete prosecution against a foe in truly total terms untill the foe is defeated; if it cant win on the ground, and it cant win with its fleets, all it needs is a few hours to make whatever its fighting over a barren rock, completely bereft of economic or strategic use for all of eternity. nothing within star trek cannon has anything resembling the resolve to approach this level of total warfare, and thus it would lose before the opening shot.
in the case of the former; one segmentum of the imperium of man, obscurus for example, is larger than the size of all known space as shown in tng era canon. said segmentum controls untold thousands of capital level warships which dwarf anything i know of the the star trek canon by an order of magnitude. segmentum ground forces (imperial guard and planetary defence forces) are so inpconprehensably vast that not even the imperium is able to guess at just how powerful its military is.
the weakest ships of the imperiums navy used in actual fleet engagements, cobra class destroyers, outgun sovereign class ships heavily and the cobra’s gellar field, the forcefield equivalent, can sustain bombardment from ships of about equal power with a reasonable chance of survival. the would probably, though im not entirely sure, be able to outrange federations ships, which means they can dictate range. the majority of a star-trek starships power comes from the various directed energy weapons, afaik non of them can be used at warp speeds, which severely hampers a starships ability to use tactical warps to its advantage.
imperial battalions (the smallest self contained and self-supporting units) number in the thousands in terms of line troopers, not including support. application of mass, as well as the fact that the lasgun (standard imperial weaponry as well as the basic field weapon, literally the weakest used by front line units) is a true directed energy weapon, and therefor problematic for ST defences, dictates that imperial forces would win any and every ground engagement.
in terms of overall strategic manueverability…im not sure in truth. warp travel is faster than sublight travel by default, and is (pretty) safe, which nominally gives ST races an advantage in speed. it is also exceptionally slow compared to imperial FTL travel. assuming the warp is calm an imperial battlefleet could cross the entire alpha quadrant in a matter of a day or so, where it takes months for a federation starship to do the same. afaik only borg transwarp can even approach this level of speed.
in technological terms, no race in star trek has a chance outside of ftl travel. their defences are, by an indeterminate number of orders of magnitude weaker than they would need to be to survive the opening salvo of an imperial warship, whilst, with the acception of 8472 of the canon races, their ability to provide massed firepower again pales in comparison. the entire federation fleet (some thousands of ships i think by the dominion wars?) could unload all of its weaponry continuously against an imperial ship of heavy cruiser class or greater untill their warp drives were exhausted, their capacitors cracked from age, and every torpedo in the alpha quadrant expended, and the imperial warship would then still be able to wipe them all out in a matter of hours; keep in mind the largest starships outside of borg cubes in star trek-romulan warbirds and sovereign class ships are perhaps the size of an imperial corvette.
in terms of industrial base of potential energy output, again, the ST races literally have a snow balls chance in hell. single forgeworlds in 40k are able to produce enough military equipment to maintain whole imperial armies, which number in the millions of line troopers, with tens of thousands of support vehicles, artillery support and air support, not to mention titans…which are preposterous in scope. a single forge world such as armageddon could literally outproduce the entirety of the star trek galaxy without going into some extreme level of output, using just its standard trade links to maintain said production.
furthermore; we have the sheer scale of difference in terms of endurance. the federation, klingons, romulans etc…are able to prosecute wars for years at a time, with losses of hundreds or thousands of their ships representing near crippling losses, and these factions are exhausted utterly by the end of these wars. the imperial war machine is able to fight on all fronts at all times, simultaneasouly fighting defensive wars alongside succesful wars of conquest, using only a fraction of its full potential military power (once again, the imperium is so monolithically powerful it doesnt even know just how much military power it has) and has done for over 10,000 years. it is nowhere near exhaustion, and far from catastrophic defeat. the imperium can lose military forces that would leave the federation irreversably depopulated without even noticing, let alone flinching.
after all this we have the fact that the imperium is slowly losing its eternal war against the other powers of the 40k galaxy, and it is nevertheless so powerful that a fraction of its raw power (not including gods, trans-dimensional beings or 1-letter superbeings) is more than equal to everything the ST canon could throw at it in any pitched battle.
i honestly dont even get how there can be serious arguments on this matter. as powerful the star trek factions are, and as cool as i think they are, the imperium alone is so much more powerful that it is not a matter of how many weeks the ST canon races could last in war with the federation before they cease to exist in political terms, its a question of how many hours they could do so. games workshop have literally invented something which is impossible for any other universe to deal with.
February 2, 2010
#2
except, apparently, nintendo.
February 9, 2010
#3
@some dude
Nintendo wtfpwned Warhammer dont lie
March 19, 2010
#4
The Trektards are hilarious! Borg adapting to Hellfire missiles or Lances? They can’t fully adapt to frequency weapons that fire giga to terawatts! W40k weapons that use *cough*brute force*cough* would DESTROY Borg Cubes without a scratch! Fact is fact.
24 megaton torpedoes <<<<<< 610 gigaton missile.
March 26, 2010
#5
1) the weakest ships of the imperiums navy used in actual fleet engagements, cobra class destroyers, outgun sovereign class ships heavily
- Based on what exactly? How do we know a Cobra outguns a Sovereign?
2) and the cobra’s gellar field, the forcefield equivalent, can sustain bombardment from ships of about equal power with a reasonable chance of survival.
- Really? I am not terribly convinced. Would be interested to know the logic.
3) the would probably, though im not entirely sure, be able to outrange federations ships, which means they can dictate range.
- Ranges are… unclear for both. Both have massive ranges, but I am not sure it is quite clear how massive either of them are (am fairly certain no solid figure has ever been given for maximum ranges for either).
4) majority of a star-trek starships power comes from the various directed energy weapons, afaik non of them can be used at warp speeds, which severely hampers a starships ability to use tactical warps to its advantage.
- Photon torpedoes are anti-matter torpedoes, rather than directed energy weapons. Phasers can be used at warp on certain occasions (seems to change series to series, or even episode to episode).
- even the largest Star Trek vessels seem to be much more manueverable than 40k ones (though even the smallest known fleet vessels are big in Star Trek, the Cobra being roughly the same length as the Enterprise D).
5) is a true directed energy weapon, and therefor problematic for ST defences,
- Eh? Why any more than any other weapon? The lasgun is a pretty low powered weapon. It falls in the same kind of “power” class as a modern assault rifle.
6) dictates that imperial forces would win any and every ground engagement.
- Hmm… they certainly are prepared better for ground combat, Star Trek militaries not tending to have much in the realms of proper ground forces. I think that any hypothetical (as in, taking full advantage of their technology) Star Trek ground forces would have the capability to outclass Imperial ones. If they remained as is, yes, the Imperium has the massive advantage in this area.
7) assuming the warp is calm an imperial battlefleet could cross the entire alpha quadrant in a matter of a day or so,
- Halfway across the galaxy in the space of a day? No. Yes, they would (on an average trip with access to a Navigator, so making long jumps and ignoring getting trapped in the Warp, excessive time weirdness etc ) be quicker than the Star Trek races, but it would still take them a matter of months. A calm warp does not really speed you up (in fact, a totally becalmed one leads to getting pretty much nowhere), just makes it easier and safer to navigate.
March 26, 2010
#6
None of that address, the share size difference between the IOM and the other major groups in star trek, the federation has about 100 member worlds and considered one of the major powers, and the other empires where never shown to be any larger, where the IOM has a million worlds and the fleets to guard them.
in the dominion war, 10,000 warships on there way the alpha quandrant was suppose to uttely tip the war in their favour, and allow them to conquer both, the federation and klingon empire, probably as well as the romulans.
March 26, 2010
#7
100 member worlds does not mean it consists of only 100 planets. There are various things to suggest there are many more colonies (so “member planet” may label a home world, or colonies that have got past a certain developmental stage). However, yes, the Imperium dwarfs the Federation, and even all the Alpha and Beta quadrant powers combined, particularly when it comes to population (seeing as even developed Star trek planets seem to have a population density not much more than modern Earth, and there are many colonies who are what I refer to “Star Trek planets, ie small, with populations in the few millions, sometimes even as low as a few thousand).
March 26, 2010
#8
Splat! Would be an excercise in understatement on the scale of calling an atomic bomb going off “A little bit noisy, and hot.”
The higher range for 40K firepower reaches into the double digit teratons a salvo. Ten thousand times the higher ranges of Trek(which loiters in the single digit gigatons as a high end).
The mid range work out to be double digit gigatons against double digit megatons(in 40K’s favour again).
The lower range works out to be sub kiloton for Trek, and 30 megatons per second for 40K.
I think. Not terribly familiar with the firepower ranges for 40K, but those are the common ‘high’ ‘middle’ and ‘low’ numbers I’ve seen bandied about.
March 27, 2010
#9
“The higher range for 40K firepower reaches into the double digit teratons a salvo.”
- What’s this been worked out from?
March 27, 2010
#10
HA how can this even be called a fight?!?! The IOM ALONE would roflstomp. The IOM way outnumbers all major ST empires/republics combined. Not to mention ST ships going against a retribution class capital ship would be like salmon attempting to attack a grizzly bear. I would LOVE to see what would happen to a borg cube hit by a 22 PETAton nova cannon shot. And this is all BEFORE taking into account chaos, orks, tau, eldar or 40K’s 2 biggest hitters Tyranids and Necrons.
April 23, 2010
#11
WTF watches star trek these days?
April 23, 2010
#12
and who plays that shitty board game these days?
April 23, 2010
#13
That “shitty board game” is uber. If you seek to troll, please troll about something that we don’t laugh at you for.
April 23, 2010
#14
“That “shitty board game” is uber”
doesnt hold a candle to monopoly, and that guys epic mustache
May 11, 2010
#15
I’ve debate this thing with some guy on the SciForums and he says that Borg could adapt to Imperial technology so I have to prove to him that Borg cannot adapt to everything so does anyone have a time to help me.
Help a poor 40k fan to beat a trekkie who believes that 40k calcs are wrong.
May 11, 2010
#16
HAHA! I saw it too, and he says that W40k uses KILOTONS AND MEGATONS! What a fucking idiot!
May 11, 2010
#17
http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=67667&page=12
Here it is.
May 11, 2010
#18
“doesnt hold a candle to monopoly, and that guys epic mustache”
Monopoly would pwn WH40k
May 11, 2010
#19
If you look in this debate you can destroy the ST wanker with L-W statements
http://www.factpile.com/borg-cube-vs-star-wars-imperial-star-destroyer.htm .
May 11, 2010
#20
L-W has to see this.
May 11, 2010
#21
If you look in this debate you can destroy the ST wanker with L-W statements
http://www.factpile.com/borg-cube-vs-star-wars-imperial-star-destroyer.htm .
9.5532321112453/10 says he won’t even figure out what gigaton means.
May 11, 2010
#22
I’m sorry, but I need to see this cancer killed.
May 11, 2010
#23
Thanks Sergey.I’ll post them when I’m over with the everyday responsibilities which should be in some 7 hours.
May 12, 2010
#24
I can’t wait any longer! He said Borg and S8472 beat Warhammer 40,000! (fuckwit)
May 12, 2010
#25
*http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=67667&page=12*
wtf am i reading??
not even going to participate in that but i will keep a close eye on it.
@sergey good luck mate.
May 12, 2010
#26
Posted it,let the trekkie feel the power of the Emperor in all of it’s glory.
May 12, 2010
#27
Oh God, that idiot believes a Nova Cannon goes at 5,000 km/s even though all other sources contradict it! What a hypocrite, whenever there are multiple sources going against him, he just says “well my source is better”.
May 12, 2010
#28
So after close looking at that debate i vote that all W40K fanboys and scholars go and terminate those heathens.
May 12, 2010
#29
Why don’t you read Hellfire8′s posts? He states that teraton and petaton calcs are wrong, and that the Imperium only does megatons on its ship. There’s no debating with Trektards, as they just refuse to understand that Star Trek is weak.
May 12, 2010
#30
stephan;
1) there is a size comparison between sovereigns and cobra’s, the sovereign comes in at about 2/3rds the length of the cobra. cobra’s dish out high end megaton damage as a minimum as memory serves. sovereigns considerably less. i, unfortunately, cannot find the relevant picture.
2) its pretty standard in any navy, especially in any fictional universes naval assets, that a ship of a given class will be capable of equalling a ship of the same class in an engagement. RL examples would be the bismark or tirpitz battleships from the german navy in WW2. fitted with battleship killing guns (15″ main batteries) and able to sustain a certain amount of damage from similar caliber (the bismark was eventually reduced to a hulk after extended bombardment by 14 and 16″ guns from the king george 5th and rodney)
3/4)federation ships are typically portrayed as designed for short range engagements, though they are capable of engagement at range their primary weapons are weak beyond a certain point. the majority of weapons the (for example) federation use are phasers because those are their primary chosen weapon loadout. these weapons are astonishingly weak by wh40k standards.
5) the lasgun is weak by wh40k standards. it is typically also shown to be able to punch through inch thick ferrocrete, which is a compound of undetermined (though manifestly greater) strength than any remotely comparable material within star trek fiction as far as i know it. it is as far beyond the modern assault rifle as the modern assault rifle is beyond the ancient crossbow…and that is almost certainly an understatement.
6) on the ground the star trek races have less than no chance. their tech is inferior (phasers and disrupters are inaccurate at spitting distance) and could not possibly advance to a level where theoretical parity emerges within a thousand years, let alone the few hours theyd have between the beginning of the imperial attack and the imperial victory. the imperium, also, as i said in my original post, the product of a society at war (and usually winning those wars) for approximately 10,000 years. their doctrines, tactics, strategic and tactical capabilities, their very mindset, ensure the imperiums total victory in a month at most.
7) the alpha quadrant is a quarter of the known galaxy, most of it is left pretty vague.
as to the unanswered matter of scale…i would wager it unanswerable.
May 12, 2010
#31
Great, but what about numbers? HF8 says that the Imperium doesn’t even have 100,000 ships.
May 12, 2010
#32
assuming a handful of system monitors (weaker than corvettes) for each planet for patrol and police duty the imperium would have 2-3 million warships.
sector battlefleets tend to be less than 100 (50-70 is standard) ships in size, there are thousands of sectors in each segmentum, and there are 5 segmenti. this makes a minimum (50*1k*5) of 250k fleet warships of varying sizes at constant alert/readyness.
specialised battlefleets with specific purposes (defense of terra, cadia, armageddon, or major ports such as kar dunaish or port maw) will be considerably larger; terra’s system fleet isnt even numbered its so huge…as a baseline i’d assume, just for the systems ive named here (there are more) perhaps 5k capital ships alone, not including escorts…
basically, the star trek universe has less than no chance of victory. as ive said above, a single segmentum fleet could happily annihilate the star trek universe in a matter of months, probably without having to resupply at all, or even make up for losses on campaign, because no fleet musterable in star trek could even theoretically dent an imperial battlefleet, and imperial ground forces would completely dominate any battlespace they entered.
May 12, 2010
#33
“there is a size comparison between sovereigns and cobra’s, the sovereign comes in at about 2/3rds the length of the cobra.”
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/7406/40kstscale.jpg
May 12, 2010
#34
Really….. this is still occuring?
May 12, 2010
#35
This fight is a joke. Forget the IoM, I want to see Trek try to deal with the Necrons or the ‘nids. I think even the Tau would give Trek a beating in a solo fight (although in that case I think Trek would win, simply because the Tau don’t have FTL travel to my knowledge).
If you combine everything in 40k (the various factions of the Imperium, Chaos, Eldar, Necrons, Tyranids, Orks, Tau, etc) and Trek doesn’t have a chance. Pretty much any one of those factions could solo Trek (except for probably the Tau, as mentioned above), but when you combine them all this is a roflstomp.
I’d pay to see Trek try to deal with Warp Daemons (or even the Warp itself).
May 12, 2010
#36
Tau do have FTL travel. I’m just not sure how it compares to Warp speeds.
May 12, 2010
#37
Dammit, I’m still here because of HF8.
May 12, 2010
#38
“HF8 says that the Imperium doesn’t even have 100,000 ships”
And yet in the 5th Edition, the Imperium loses “millions” of vessels during some gigantic Warp storm or something. Millions of ships lost and still capable of sustaining itself. Less than 100,000 my ass.
May 12, 2010
#39
Yeah, and he demands proof while he uses outdated sources which contradict the rulebook and codex. You should prove him wrong.
May 12, 2010
#40
Can we hurry this up?
May 12, 2010
#41
So yea, we all know that the Imperium alone would crush the small interstellar societies in Star Trek and the Necrons would clean up what’s left etc etc etc.
The big question is Can the Q and other godlike beings of Star Trek defeat the godlike beings of 40k?
May 12, 2010
#42
I meant you post it on the forum.
May 12, 2010
#43
O I post those calcs and still he doesn’t believe me.http://1d4chan.org/images/5/5a/IMPATIENTMARINES.jpg
Grrrr.
May 13, 2010
#44
Wow, he ignored L-W’s posts?
May 13, 2010
#45
1)the sovereign comes in at about 2/3rds the length of the cobra.
- No it doesn’t. A Cobra comes in about 750 metres long (there is a widely distributed, picture which incorrectly doubles its length to 1.5 km, but the creators of Battlefleet Gothic came out ages ago and said it was wrong, asking the orginator of the picture to change it… still hasn’t). Noticably bigger than a Sovereign (certainly so when you get total volume involved, especially as Imperium ships are more blocky than Star Trek ones, rather than pure length), which comes in at about 690m, but not 50% longer again.
Oh, I see someone has posted that inaccurate picture. The Battleship there seems to be slightly too large (seems to be 7.5 km long, but battleships are about 6km long… though I guess 7.5 km may count as “around”). The Cobra is certainly too large though, about twice as big as it should be. This mistake may originate from the fact that the miniatures are not in scale with each other. Within each class (“escort”, “cruiser” and “battleship”) things are ok, but they don’t scale outside their classes… basically so that you don’t have to have unfeasibly large battleships twice the length of cruisers, and tiny escorts that you can barely see any of the details on.
2) cobra’s dish out high end megaton damage as a minimum as memory serves. sovereigns considerably less.
- I am still asking what this is based on. We know the Nova cannon is massively powerful, yes, but there isn’t much that helps us identify the power of lances, macrobatteries and the like. Imperium ships, in all the sources I have seen, are always blasting at each other, which as we don’t know details of their defensive abilities doesn’t tell us much. Real figures are also rarely, if ever used. A deliberate choice, as it does prevent daftly large or small figures complicating issues.
3) its pretty standard in any navy, especially in any fictional universes naval assets, that a ship of a given class will be capable of equalling a ship of the same class in an engagement.
- Yes… So we know a Cobra class doesn’t have a chance against an Emperor class, and an Oberth will be wasted by a Galaxy. However, with comparisons across universes this rule cannot be said to apply. Ok, Imperium ships will almost certainly have more mass than Star Trek ones, but that alone tells us little.
4)federation ships are typically portrayed as designed for short range engagements,
- Eh? Based on what? Ok, we have the onscreen apparent closeness of battles… however, the ranges mentioned on screen often obviously exceed those being shown by the footage, suggesting dramatic license. Then we have the battles in Deep Space 9, which at least elements of which are fought at extremely close range (I am sure 50m metres at one point). However, if I remember correctly no explicit reason is given for doing this, which means that we cannot know that it is because of short effective weapon ranges. Of course, the real, out of universe, reason is so that they can have zippy fighter like scenes with the Defiant dogfighting it out with other 50 metre long combat vessels.
5) the majority of weapons the (for example) federation use are phasers because those are their primary chosen weapon loadout.
- Depends why so many are chosen. There are various reasons why phasers may be present in so many numbers. 1) to cover a greater arc (and so you need a large number), and 2) as has been shown many times, they are a flexible tool, not just a weapon. Now, they are probably the most frequently seen weapon on-screen (though in TNG in combat scenarios photon torpedoes seem to be used about as much), but seeing as so little of Star Trek relies on military combat (most combat being short range skirmishes) that can’t be seen as being definitive proof that phasers are the primary military weapon. TNG uses photons relatively frequently, and DS9 throws them around in large numbers (The Defiant is seen shunting out torpedoes in significant quantities on occasions, even if the rapid fire phasers seem to be its primary weapon). Voyager was meant to be short of the buggers (though that particular element was ignored whenever the script writers wanted to), so was likely to need to rely more on phasers, whether they were the primary weapon or not. Original Series… yup, there Photon Torpedoes were limited in their presence. That could be due to the technology being new or something like that (but then the original out of universe creator of the photon torpedoes saw them more as a setting for the phasers, rather than as an actual missile).
6) the lasgun is weak by wh40k standards.
- Yup. However, it is the standard weapon on ground troops, and alongside autoguns the most common in the 40k background. Autoguns and lasguns are largely interchangeable, and autoguns are basically assault rifles. Some more advanced models have stuff like caseless ammunition and other things like that, but a modern assault rifle would be recognised as an autogun by a resident of the 40k universe. Lasguns are assault rifle equivalents.
6) it is typically also shown to be able to punch through inch thick ferrocrete
- By some daft writers who overpower all sorts of things.
7) which is a compound of undetermined (though manifestly greater) strength than any remotely comparable material within star trek fiction as far as i know it.
- Erm. We have no idea what ferrocrete is. It is something that fulfills a similar role to reinforced concrete in the 40k universe. That is all we know. In fact, it may just be a 40k name for reinforced concrete.
8)on the ground the star trek races have less than no chance.
- As shown in the TV series, yes. However, with the tech demonstrated they could, if they wanted, make a significantly superior ground force. Not that that takes much… many modern armies have a superior ground force (man for man) than the Imperial Guard.
9) their tech is inferior (phasers and disrupters are inaccurate at spitting distance)
- Well, we never see anything beyond spitting distance, but that seems fair.
10) and could not possibly advance to a level where theoretical parity emerges within a thousand years,
- Eh? It would take a matter of months to train up a proper ground force which man for man would be better than the Imperial Guard. Superior weapons would at most take a similar amount of time to develop and construct. The Imperial Guard does not win through superior technology or training (in most cases). It wins through being an unstoppable juggernaut of massed manpower and material. Now, it would probably win against even a properly designed Star Trek ground force (rather than the nonsense we see on screen), but due too big for them to deal with, not due to better tech and soldiers.
11) let alone the few hours theyd have between the beginning of the imperial attack and the imperial victory.
- In any one individual battle, yeah. Over the whole Federation? No. The speed Imperial forces move would mean even a poorly defended planet would take a number of weeks to properly pacify (unless they just destroy the planet, but even the Imperium doesn’t do that without good reason). Plenty of time to to organise proper defensive forces by the 3 or 4th wave of invasions.
10) the imperium, also, as i said in my original post, the product of a society at war (and usually winning those wars) for approximately 10,000 years. their doctrines, tactics, strategic and tactical capabilities, their very mindset, ensure the imperiums total victory in a month at most.
- It would take more than a month to cross Federation space. Now, Warp travel in the 40k sense at its best is faster (if less reliable) than Warp speed (Star Trek) travel, but it even then it would take an unopposed, unhindered force getting the best possible warp speed about 2 months to cross (compared to about a year for Warp Speed travel). And getting that best possible speed is unlikely. Putting aside space combat (as being a bit difficult to be sure about) I would estimate an easy first month or so, with the first wave of invasions. After that it would become progressively harder (as long as the Star Trek universe got its act together and created an actual ground force). I would see final victory taking a few years (3-10), not a month.
11) (although in that case I think Trek would win, simply because the Tau don’t have FTL travel to my knowledge).
- They do. It is not as fast as Imperial Warp travel (the fastest there is. Eldar can get somewhere faster using the webway, but if they are forced to make actual “warp jumps” they are slower than the Imperium), but no interstellar empire would be possible without it. They “skim” the warp, making short jumps, not immersing themselves as much as the Imperium can.
12) And yet in the 5th Edition, the Imperium loses “millions” of vessels during some gigantic Warp storm or something.
- Erm… Not as far as I am aware. They loose a transport convoy which is carrying 5 million guardsmen, not millions of ships (however, I don’t have my rulebook with me, so I cannot be sure).
13) The big question is Can the Q and other godlike beings of Star Trek defeat the godlike beings of 40k?
- Yes. At least that would be my take. The Gods of 40k are more constrained in their power than the Q are (they *may* be more powerful, but they have barriers to using it that the Q apprently don’t). They can do pretty much as they wish inside the warp, but outside it they rely more on influencing people subtly, or on the warp/real space barrier being weakened (or even broken, ala the Eye of Terror). The Q don’t have such constraints on their power (aside from being policed by others of their own kind), seemingly doing as they please as long as another Q doesn’t intervene.
Actually, I guess it is more that I feel that the Q could do something, while the 40k Gods couldn’t do much. Whether they could destroy the 40k gods is questionable (aside from wiping out all emotional life, as the 40k gods are manifestations of certain emotions in the warp), but the 40k gods are likely to be irrelevant to any war (their plans tend to take years to come to fruition on any major scale), while if the Q chose to (it is debatable whether they would) they could defeat any 40k invasion with the flick of a wrist.
May 13, 2010
#46
“A Cobra comes in about 750 metres long (there is a widely distributed, picture which incorrectly doubles its length to 1.5 km, but the creators of Battlefleet Gothic came out ages ago and said it was wrong, asking the orginator of the picture to change it… still hasn’t)”
Care to post evidence of this? Those pictures are accurate according to nearly everything I’ve read about ship sizes. Escorts can be as small as 750 meters, but that’s as small as they get.
“Erm… Not as far as I am aware. They loose a transport convoy which is carrying 5 million guardsmen, not millions of ships (however, I don’t have my rulebook with me, so I cannot be sure).”
No problem, I got it right here.
“Black Templar Space Marines end the Catelexis Hersey by executing the Cacodominus, an alien cyborg whose formidable psychic presence allowed it to control the populance of thirteen hundred planetary systems. Alas the Cacodominus’ death scream echoes and amplifies through the Warp, burning out the minds of a billion astropaths and distorting the signal of the Astronomican. Millions upon millions of ships are lost in the resulting upheaval and entire sub-sectors slide into barbarism without the dictats of the Adeptus Terra to guide them.” – 5th Edition Rulebook
Millions upon millions.
May 13, 2010
#47
Could anyone help me to beat that trekkie who ignored L-W posts.
May 13, 2010
#48
I tell him that according to the most recent fluff Nova cannon travels close to the speed of light and he still atempts to undermine it’s power.
Hellblade is a perfect example of a trekard we need to purge the heathen.
May 14, 2010
#49
BFG canon > Ultramarines novel. Seriously, that prick takes the absolute worst of W40k and puts it as the maximum, so fuck him.
May 14, 2010
#50
I’ll just leave him or I will invite him to here.
May 14, 2010
#51
trektards who really go to utter extremes to defend their universe are the worst.i am simply afraid on how he will react on the next facts presented to him.
May 14, 2010
#52
i nominate wh40k, even though im sure its already been done before
May 14, 2010
#53
My only gripe here is that if anyone really settled the strength of the hyper-beings or deities on both sides.
May 14, 2010
#54
I think that hyper-beings aren’t included in this debate,same goes for the temporeral thing.
May 14, 2010
#55
“trektards who really go to utter extremes to defend their universe are the worst.i am simply afraid on how he will react on the next facts presented to him.”
There will be always a certain fanboy in every franchise that will act like an ass-mongrel.
“I think that hyper-beings aren’t included in this debate,same goes for the temporeral thing.”
I thought it was the whole of both franchises.
May 14, 2010
#56
That fucking idiot said 31st century Federation beats Xeelee, so fuck him. He clearly doesn’t know jack shit about debating. Fuck his stupidity, he’s the worst Trektroll I have ever seen.
May 14, 2010
#57
I know that this is not exactly a canon source but read what this has to say at the threat assessment section.
http://www.stardestroyer.net/mrwong/wiki/index.php/Tau_Empire
I genuinely want to know if that is true about the tau conquering all of star trek easily.
May 15, 2010
#58
i would say it is. i pretty much take it as a given that any faction within 40k would be able to destroy/conquer the factions of star trek with little actual effort, and nothing has disproved this conceit of mine yet…
May 16, 2010
#59
1) Care to post evidence of this? Those pictures are accurate according to nearly everything I’ve read about ship sizes. Escorts can be as small as 750 meters, but that’s as small as they get.
- Those pictures were arbitrarily changed by that Spaceship size website (merzo.net), and even though the original artist asked that it be changed back to their original sizes nothing has since happened… and it keeps being brought up as evidence for longer ship lengths.
This matter has been debated many times on Warseer (a GW games forum, largely devoted to 40k) and the general consensus among those in the know is that Imperiam ships, while very large, are not as big as often presumed (same goes for Titans). Those that say larger scales tend to have got their information from the merzo website (or second hand information, which originally came from the merzo website).
I did find quite a good thread discussing this very issue… unfortunately I can’t find it again.
2) Millions upon millions.
- OK. Yup. Firstly I would take that as being typical of 40k exaggeration, but whether it is or not, we have massive numbers of ships being lost. Not all military vessels of course. But yeah, the Imperium dwarfs the Federation on a massive scale, be it in number of planets, population or military resources.
3) My only gripe here is that if anyone really settled the strength of the hyper-beings or deities on both sides.
- From what we have seen (ie, there may be more, but they are not demonstrated anywhere) the Q seem to theoretically pretty much be able to do what they want. However, those Q that go too far or do things the Q continuum disapprove of can be brought into line by other Q (and have been on occasion), and they generally seem to stay out of “mortal” affairs (as far as we can see… doesn’t rule out invisible meddling, but various thing suggest that is limited).
The 40k Gods, on the other hand, are more limited. In the warp they are extremely powerful, pretty much shaping reality as they seem fit, but outside the warp (or warp/real space overlaps like the Eye of Terror) their power is extremely limited. They largely rely on corrupt mortals doing their bidding, or using demonic servants (who are weakened when they are disconnected from the warp, generally operating in places where the barrier between the real world and the warp is weak).
The Q, in my mind, have the advantage. However, the likelihood is that neither would really get involved.
4) I genuinely want to know if that is true about the tau conquering all of star trek easily.
- I would say balls. The Tau, in my mind, are pretty much the strength of the Federation. They are both small territories (when compared to the Imperium), largely limited by the speed of their vessels (I am guessing the Tau and Federation FTL speeds are comparable, but accept I have no basis for this aside from the stated fact of the Tau’s limited warp capabilities, and size of territory). In fact, in terms of major planets the Federation have many more (we know about the 100+ member worlds, while the Tau Septs number in the few dozen), which may suggest a greater size of territory (and so possibly even a greater speed). Military? Space ships I am still unwilling to commit to in relative power as I don’t see any way to accurately compare them, but ground forces are easier.
In this are the Tau apparently have a major advantage. They clearly have a proper ground force, with various elements to it. Star Trek… well, in the Federation all we know of infantry armed with basic phaser weapons, and there is a reference to an offscreen vehicles (I think it was called a “hopper”, but I am not sure) about which little is know aside from it being able to carry about a platoon of ground forces. The Original series had some weird mortar thing, but it is not seen since. The Klingons had some form of artillery… but it appeared to be fairly substandard. The Cardassians had “mechanised infantry” divisions, which suggests some sort of military transport (as well as much large ground combat formations than we have otherwise seen, unless the term is purely an administrative term). Various figures thrown about in Deep Space 9 suggest there is much more to all the factions ground forces than seen on screen. There are some very large (for Star Trek) ground force deployments mentioned, but no other information is given so we have no way to assess their abilities (and unlike in 40k space combat remains the primary determinant of who is the victor).
However, given the technology available to them, if they pulled themselves together the Federation could make a viable military ground force (as I have said, I accept that they apparently don’t as of the TV series). Given the much slower speed of the Tau, meaning they could not overwhelm the whole Federation (or any of the major powers really) before a sensible defence was established I would take it to be a much harder fight. The Tau (unlike the Imperium) cannot throw nearly unlimited manpower at the war. Based purely on ground forces I would say the Tau would not be able to conquer any of the major powers, as long as they were vaguely sensible about it.
May 16, 2010
#60
Here is a discussion on the size of 40k ships on Warseer. This is a largely 40k site, so you are not going to get people talking down the ships purely so as to make other universes better against them.
http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145957&highlight=size+cobra+destroyer
May 16, 2010
#61
…and the picture that aint merzo (that you say intentionally and incorrectly oversizes ships) is nothing more than the result of general consensus amongst bfg fans on a single forum. in the comments regarding the picture itself the creator of the picture admits as much and states (i quote) “I am completely unconcerned with their true size as I am a fan of there design and not their scale.” and “until GW spells it out in plain tables for all to see it really just doesn’t matter to me every time someone discovers some reference in a novel, gaming source-book, codex or antique and forgotten game system.”
as such citing the creator of that picture (which for some reason wont load for me, so i havent got first hand evidence of it *kicks web browser*) as a reliable source on canon description of ship sizes is, to be frank, a waste of time.
May 16, 2010
#62
“…and the picture that aint merzo (that you say intentionally and incorrectly oversizes ships) is nothing more than the result of general consensus amongst bfg fans on a single forum.”
- OK. True. However, I would take the reached consensus (which that image apparently fairly accurately represents) of what had been a very active group of dedicated BattleFleet Gothic fans over the arbitrary decision of the creator of merzo.net. This was a group who had discussed this stuff extensively, and from what I have gathered included discussions with some of the designers of the BFG game. It is also roughly the figures used by the better informed authors of (official) stories focusing on the Imperial Navy.
Now, there are contradictory statements as well. One story apparently increases the size of the vessels by a factor of about 10 (but the author has apparently come out and said this was not his doing, and seems to have been the decision of one editor who just decided to pretty much add an extra 0 on the figures… and I think ends up overshooting even the “larger” consensus). There are other sources which side with larger sized vessels (there are few which give solid figures). The one I can remember is the Rogue Trader rulebook which has figures of about 1.5 km for frigates (larger than destroyers in BFG terminology, so Cobras would be smaller, but still a bit too large… by my best reckoning frigates should be around the 1km mark), and 5km cruisers (which other sources suggest as not far off battleship size). It also gives crew sizes totally out of whack of the guidance of one of the creators of the BFG game. It gives crews of escorts in the 20,000+ region, while Andy Chambers suggested 1-2000 crew per hit point for cruisers, and less than a 1000 for escorts (which had one hit point). Now, his figures do result in *very* sparsely populated ships (even with the smaller suggested sizes for vessels) but as one of the creators of the game it seems a valid figure for what was being aimed at (and so if the crew figures are flawed their size ones are similarly best treated with care).
May 17, 2010
#63
Very few people on this site seem to understand the power of the chaos gods. It is heavily implied that chaos would eventually merge the warp with our reality thus establishing what can only be called hell on earth (or galaxy). The only reason they don’t do that is twofold
1) The God-Emperor is holding reality shut in his comatose state.
2) The Chaos Gods simply don’t care. No really they couldn’t care less about the material world. They are far more preoccupied with their great game they play for dominance in the warp. The Chaos Gods occasionally direct their attention towards the materium and during these times entire sectors have been swept aside (a feat well beyond what the Q have demonstrated). In many ways the Chaos Gods are winning in 40K as the current neverending state of war in the galaxy feeds them all the emotions that they need. Them destroying the universe would be like a farmer burning his field.
Also the Chaos Gods are repeatedly stated to be beyond human comprehension. So much so that the minds of those who even see the least of their daemons are in danger of collapsing in on themselves in utter madness. The Q have been by contrast very much comprehensible by “mortals” and I don’t seem to remember Picard’s Mind collapsing into madness and him curling up into a little ball and crying every time he saw Q (which is what happens to the lucky ones who even have the merest glimpse of the true nature of the chaos gods)
Chaos Gods have this one in the bag as far as the Q
The C’tan would be far more interesting opponents for the Q.
June 2, 2010
#64
On the other hand I find phaser weak against non-organic matter.Check L-W posts in Phaser vs Blaster thread.
June 2, 2010
#65
the q could *snap* the wh40k universe out of existance.
Just sayin…
June 3, 2010
#66
@: galorian: did you even read what I wrote
Beings that think of humans as children <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Beings for which there is no analogy that accurately shows how small and worthless we are to them
Chaos Gods are Just shy of Cthulu power levels
June 13, 2010
#67
i will why 40k would win in a nut shell. first the emperor, he would make it so the federation would never make it whith in 500 light years of terra(if they some how magicly destroyed terra defence flee). chaos GODS, self exsplanitory. the necrons have far suppier technolohy to the borg. the imperial navy is made up of million!!! of CAPITAL SHIPS not fighters, CAPITAL ships. psykers are also superweapons, the best of them can blow up planets. superior speed for every 40k race, including the tau.the orks number in the googles. and last but sertinly not least, the whole Philosophy behind 40k is kill the enamy before they kill you, and star trek Philosophy is lets fly around space and spread peace.
sorry for all mis-spelling’s
July 2, 2010
#68
There has been a great deal of data given in the above posts over the technical aspects of the discussion. The last line of post #67 I think is key to answering the question. In watching the Star Trek series ( I admit I don’t know much of the tech side at all) I hear them call themselves a peacekeeping and humanitarian force. 40k is not hampered by this philosophy. The Imperial Guard by description soaks up massive casualties easily due to its staggering size. Understanding that they can not just send multiptudes there easily, The Federation would be at a great disadvantage as would most likely not suffer large casualties in the same fashion. I am not saying that either side would or would not win a decisive conflict but the longer the conflict would last the more it would favor the forces of the Emperor.
August 1, 2010
#69
Sorry for necro,but what are current calcs for 40k weapons.?
August 2, 2010
#70
WH40K For the win!!!
August 4, 2010
#71
We all know that 40k would stomp ST(certanly without Q,but with Q I don’t know) and either admin won’t give factpile reward.
August 4, 2010
#72
i dunno the calcs, but as i understand it (having never checked the rules for how awards happen) if its a total curbstomp the the award isnt given. im probably wrong but who knows.
also, im commencing the timer before the new trektards start screeching about whatever rubbish they think equals a half a hoot against wh40k…
August 4, 2010
#73
Are you andrew.C from the DakkaDakka who constantly claims that Borg would win against the Imperium.
I hate when people say that Borg can adapt to anything,that’s bullshit,enough force will destroy them and how are Borg going to adapt to the Imperium’s technology and assimilate it?
August 4, 2010
#74
umm…no. im not on those fora. i think youll find that i am not the only andrew that uses the internet
besides, im pretty obviously arguing for a 40k win here.
August 4, 2010
#75
Now I know thanks for the info.
And can L-W tell us the current calcs for 40k ships(is nova cannon still 22 petatons or do 40k ships do triple digit teraton or single digit petatons).
August 4, 2010
#76
*also, im commencing the timer before the new trektards start screeching about whatever rubbish they think equals a half a hoot against wh40k…*
Naah they won’t.They might try to debate against the Imperium but damn well know its a dead end when chaos and the necrons come in debate.
August 5, 2010
#77
Hellblade is back again this time he tries to disprove L-W posts in Borg Cube vs Star Destroyer.