Poll: The Empire from Star Wars vs The Imperium of Man from Warhammer 40.000, which would win?

[Synthenoid]

Snipper-diddle

The Star Wars universe deals less with a fanatical insight on technological, genocidal war than Warhammer 40k, so finding named worlds whose sole production of anything is rather hard.

Off the top of my head, though, 2 entire systems deal with the training of Imperial Storm Troopers, at least 8 still contain factories and armouries of war droids, 4 planets produce naval vessels as their primary output and 2 export a healing substance that vastly reduces tissue regeneration time.

Xenophobia is synonymous with the Empire, so much so that the majority of most worlds within the inner and mid rims contain designated areas where only aliens are allowed.

As has been stated the Empire has never fought a full scale genocidal war, so each planet basically concerns itself with it's own econoomic income.
If such a war to occur, the Empire wouldn't hesistate to gear the necessary facilities toward production for such a war, if it was ever needed.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Electric Dreck:
Thank you, that was something I was looking for was more to the point of providing reasonings and examples, not just, "Imperium FTW screw the Empire."

As you were saying about the Marines and weapons, the problem would be I'm sure they do not have the range of concentrated bolts of Plasma. Plasma could easily go through anything at the heat its fired from and could easly penatrate the armor stopping them flat. It would disintergrate their body from the inside of were they were shot.

The range of plasma apparantly depends entirely upon the size of the weapon. However, it is generally seen as a fairly close quarters weapon when compared to it's peers.

Force Swords, are held with psychic power, and yes that could probably stop a lightsabre, but you are also talking about the fact they are fighting against a Jedi or a Sith. Someone who has spent their whole life training since the age of 3, in the 7 different styles. And many of the Sith and Jedi after The New Republic was formed have been trianing for many MANY years in their form and their power, allowing them to be skilled fencers/duelists/killing machines.

Any marine that wields such a weapon has had decades of experience in combat with a host of enemies of every type. To put it another way, while a Jedi is a formidable opponent, so is a cybernetically enhanced, genetically augmented supersoldier who has spent decades if not centuries fighting the enemies of man.

For the rubbish claims, yes sure. They are outlandish. But you are looking at a force that has amazing technology and could easily have taken power from fusion, which is even more enrgy then the sun, and simply amplified that, brought it down to smaller sizes and installed it. It may seem impossibly hard, but we are talking about an Empire that has unlimited resources in its own area and could easily do it if given the time.

The sun produces it's power through fusion. Scale is fairly important here. No amount of technology will dramatically alter the fundamental fact that a ship the size of a star destroyer, even if it used all of its mass in the fusion process, would produce power near the level of the sun which consumes roughly 700 million tons of hydrogen every second.

Quite a few Storm Troopers also have that ability, of having personal sheilds.

I was never discounting this but simply pointing out that a given presumed advantage was anything but. Personal shield systems are common enough in the Imperium but are generally reserved only for those who are truly worth protecting. The Guard's status as utterly expendable means only the leaders of such forces are worthy of protection as your guardsman is given little more than stout clothing to face the horrors of the universe with.

Sheer numbers is something that the Guard does have I will admit, but so does the Empire. Following the formation of the New Republic, many races of all kinds joined right into the Empire and recieved amounts of training and became profesional soldiers. Thats all the Storm Trooper was. And I do beleive many of the specalized Storm Troopers such as Novas could go toe to toe on their own with a group of Guards. Novas were practically immune to pain and will not go down until beaten due to their neruos in their body. They are highly mobile and highly equipped with all forms of weaponry.

I think this entire problem of "who has more" is the result of there not being any real statement of just how many systems are in the Empire. I hardly think the number is anywhere near the million worlds the Imperium boasts and indeed the only evidence I ever saw (the number of representatives in the Senate) would only leave room for a few thousand significant planets.

The exact same could be said about the Storm Troopers.
They have fought for almost, 50 years in every kind of terrian imaginable, they have fought creatures the size of houses, to a creature the size of a planet. (I forget its name its been a while since I read that one book.)

Yes they are an experienced army by human terms but like the Imperium's human forces they pale in comparison to the experience of Space Marines. Hell, there are Dreadnoughts that have served for millenia.

As for the ewoks, there is no response to that. The empire admitted it was an embarassing defeat because of poor planning and arrogance about the numbers of the rebels. But they came back and dominated the New Republic and puts them in their place quite often.

I only mentioned the ewoks to demonstrate the point that even if the armor could halt a lasrifle or a bolter round (the latter is highly unlikely) they could easily be brought low by a determined beating given that a rather small and poorly armed creature managed to do just that.

Many of the Empire also has untold amoutns of AT-AT's, tanks, AT-ST's, fighters, Argounaunts, a whole list. Many of those could go toe to toe with a Imperium vehicle because of the MASSIVE damage outputs it can do.

Yes I am willing to accept that the Empire has many weapons of war at their disposal but the point is that for any weapon the Empire can field the Imperium has an equivalent. And in most cases, their equivalent exists in hilariously large numbers. The Sentenal, basically an AT-ST, exists in the hundreds for certain Guard Regiments. Their largest ground weapons (The Titans) are, however, relatively rare. That said, there is (to my knowledge) no equivalent in the Empire for ground vehicles the size of cities with shielding sufficient to shrug off the firepower of entire armies.

The only world optional that would be attacked is Kamino, and even then its not that important as the clones are no longer being created their, they are created on incrediably fast mobile ship bases and trained there. There are not many worlds the Empire would need to defend.

That is my point. There are a few points that the Empire must defend. They presumably have the advantage of mobility and the solution to this problem is to force the enemy to come to you. Destroy a few key installations and their war machine comes to a halt. Thus the Empire would have to respond to a threat eventually or simply resign themselves to being unable to replace the inevitable losses they would take.

Then again taking from the fact if The Empire was defeated the Imperium would have to face The New Repbulic. Which has a MASSIVE military, many men, and Jedi as well, a lot more Jedi then the Empire has.

This wasn't a question of "annihilating the Star Wars universe" but rather a question if the Imperium could defeat the Empire. The answer to that question is, in my mind, a resounding yes.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

The Star Wars universe deals less with a fanatical insight on technological, genocidal war than Warhammer 40k, so finding named worlds whose sole production of anything is rather hard.

Generally speaking, because the Star Wars universe is not grimdark, it can be assumed that your average planet would be largely concerned with a reasonable economy. War is not a daily reality of the setting and thus it is not the primary preoccupation of the people of the Empire.

Off the top of my head, though, 2 entire systems deal with the training of Imperial Storm Troopers, at least 8 still contain factories and armouries of war droids, 4 planets produce naval vessels as their primary output and 2 export a healing substance that vastly reduces tissue regeneration time.

I'm perfectly aware that that there are probably planets and systems that are known for producing weapons and the like but I doubt there are any like Mars (as an example) where most of the surface of the planet is covered in vast forges that produce just a small fraction of the weapons and war machines destined to battle the foes of humanity.

Xenophobia is synonymous with the Empire, so much so that the majority of most worlds within the inner and mid rims contain designated areas where only aliens are allowed.

My point here was largely dealing with the presumption that they would draw from the countless non-humans available. Given how they refused to alter the "humans only" policy even when stretched thin trying to hunt down the Alliance, I doubt they'd do so quickly enough to be useful when facing the Imperium. What's more, the Empire's instance on maintaining military dominance all but ensures that the forces they have or can produce are the only ones available on short notice.

As has been stated the Empire has never fought a full scale genocidal war, so each planet basically concerns itself with it's own econoomic income.
If such a war to occur, the Empire wouldn't hesistate to gear the necessary facilities toward production for such a war, if it was ever needed.

Such a change would take time. If an Imperial (WH40k) fleet arrives around an Imperial (Star Wars) world, all they need to do is launch a few virus bombs to resolve the problem. I doubt the Imperium would have any problem resorting to exterminus against a people who would clearly be labeled heretics.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

As a final post on this subject, I'll just say a few things.

First, I love Star Wars. Indeed, were it not for the occasional computer game dealing with WH40k, I wouldn't know a damn thing about that particular universe and in the recent Star Wars vs Star Trek (similar question was asked), I sided with Star Wars.

To me, the problem is simple and breaks down like this:

Superior Numbers: While there doesn't appear to be an exact number of planets in the Empire (or even a rough count), I have seen no evidence that suggests the Empire boasts more than a few thousand Star Systems in it's command. Regardless, due to an utter lack of evidence to the contrary (beyond feeble supposition), it stands to reason that the Imperium simply has far more resources at it's disposal.

Technology: This is always the worst point in these debates as many of the data points people will bring up are the result of people who know nothing about basic scientific principles coming up with something that "sounds reasonable" to a technological item created because "it sounds cool". Regardless, rather than debating the nuances, it seems fairly evident that for any weapon the Empire can field, the Imperium can field an equivalent. Mobility is the only advantage the Empire has, and even then only in space, an advantage readily nullified when considering the vastly superior numbers of the Imperium.

Training: Yes, the Empire's Storm Troopers are excellent for the job. Yes, Jedi and Sith (and, let's be honest, we need only consider the Sith given the question) are fantastic warriors and diplomats. But the Imperium of Man has Storm Troopers just the same, and the Grey Knights are at least the equal of either the Jedi or the Sith. The Space Marines proper obviously have the edge here given the simple fact that they can carry on fighting until they are brought low by violence as they are immune to disease and have a lifespan measured in centuries. The oldest Space Marine (not interred in a Dreadnought) is over a milleania old while the most Venerable Dreadnoughts are nearly 10,000 years old.

The minutiae are relatively unimportant in this debate because such details serve no purpose for either side. The larger details, outlined above, are the only points really worth debating and it paints a stark picture for the empire. They are outnumbered by a hilarious margin, they are outgunned and they face an enemy who is perfectly comfortable wiping a planet clean of life given this is an act commonly performed in this universe. Were the full might of the Imperium leveled against the Empire, all the Empire could do is pile people onto ships and live in the depths of space much the same as the Eldar for it is only here that their mobility would truly be an asset.

 

[Synthenoid]

Snipidy-snip-snip

The fact that the Warhammer 40k universes military might is such a strong point in your argument is due to the fact that the fiction concerning it idolizes it so.
George Lucas wanted to tell a story about good triumphing over evil, he didn't concern himself with the actual size or power of the Empire, he only glimpsed at it.
There is no reason the Empire would be any less stocked on man power and technology as the Imperium.

Imperial doctrine is just as diversified as it's Imperium counterpart, leading to the specilised branches of the Storm Trooper Corps. The fact that one space marine company acts differently to another simply calls for caution and initiative, not a complete redesign of military doctrine as I understanding you are suggesting.

A planetary garrisson of 1,200 Storm Troopers I stated as a minimum. Just as the Imperium heavily guards Cadia and the like the Empire does the same for it's own fortress worlds.

The Empire's vehicles range from the scout's speeder bike to the AT-AT as well as everything between. The Empire doesn't restrict itself to walkers, those are simply used in areas with uneven or harsh terrain where fielding fully shielded repulsorlift vehicles would be impractical.

The heavy support weapon favoured by Storm Troopers and the Empire's military would be, at a minmum, on par with a heavy bolter. The weapons can shoot down spacecraft if they get within range, making them very dangerous against even shielded vehicles.

Star Wars sources are vague on what a Storm Troopers armour can handle and I would agree that a heavy wepaon emplacement would probably render it useless, if not, as you said rendering the occupant unconcious, though sources state that Storm Trooper armour has been the only thing left on a decades old battlefield, once the corpses have finally rotten away.
Storm Troopers are also supported by the Imperial military, but are often the be all and end all of an engagement, attacking as the vanguad unit and neutralising the enemy. Against forces from the Warhammer 40k universe, this may be another story.

I agree AT-AT's are clumsy, huge targets, and not very practical in a slugging match unless it's over several thousand kilometers away were advanced targetting computers earn their keep.
I don't think I could ever underestimate a Leman Russ, it is the epitome of what an armoured fighting vehicle should be, and probably a hundred timed more effective than any tank on the battlefield today.

The Empire sports a large arsenal of atillery, both physical and energy based. Here again, technology aids the Empire, as the widespread use of shields on land based vehicles helps armour such machinary as teh AT-AT.

The atmosphere based fighters of the Imperium have their counterparts, as do their space craft. Simple assumptions about the Empire's military power won''t win any battles.

The Empire was built from the remnants of the Republic, which spanned 25,000 years, not as impressive as the Imperium, but long enough to have established military possibilites not just in space and on the ground, but everywhere in between.

 

[Housebroken Lunatic]

As long as the Imperium of Man isn't seen as the 'protagonist' then the Empire should have a chance. It only seems that they suck against 'the good guys' in any given situation.

Have to say that in this instance, there are no "good guys".

I've always found it rather strange the way that some people view the forces of the Imperium as the "good guys" of the WH40K setting. I mean the Imperium is basically the bastard offspring if German nationalsocialism had a child with the Catholic church from the dark ages. "Good" doesn't come into it in the slightest if you ask me.

In fact the only ones who could be considered as remotely "good" in the Wh40K setting would be the Tau. Heck they even managed to build a functional communistic empire (which is quite a feat considering that we humans fail at it every time we try) and their own slogan is "for the greater good!"


... But of course, the Imperium of Man is a lot more charming than the Tau.

 

[Pyro Paul]

I say Dath Vader or any Sith would be a decisive win against most of the Imperium of Man. The Grey Knights may stop psychic powers and warp, but the force isn't either of those. Its midichlorians, which if memory recalls are cells that can control the pervasive level of ENERGY, not a warp or psychic power. On top of that lightsabers are highly stables bolts of plasma, being to the point of touching anything it melts, cuts, and cleans a cut right through. That being said, not many kinds of armor could survive it. I don't think the Imperium has the mineral, that vibroblades were made out of. (Sorry I can't remember the name.)

As for ship versus ship. An Acclamator Troop Transport outputs somewhere around 300 million GigaWatts. And thats only with 24 guns. Sheilding on that can take almost 700 trillion GW before thats even broken. And then it has the 34' hull, which was made from a form of steel that was almost incrediably powerful. I forget the name of that too. And thats just a troop transport. A Imperial Class Star Destroyer is almost 10 times larger then that, so by standards it could be up to 10 times stronger. (Most of this info was taken from a canon book.)

Land vehicles also contain sheild generators, at some points. Vehciles like the AT-AT can have sheild generators built into the hull, making it an already formidable force against anything to making it a monster able to deal and dish the immense damage. (AT-AT's fire roughly I believe 150 million GW of energy in bolt for roughly 1 every 4 seconds.) Now say AT-ST can deal a lot less then that obviously as its a fast scout vehicle. It has much lighter guns but its interchangable with different turret types allowing Anti-Air/Vehicle with the torpedoes they fire, or Anti-Infintry with energy bolts.

First flaw.
Shields block anything other then Energy attacks.

infact, it is supported that Shields do NOT prevent or even dampen the effect of any ballistic based attack.

So while the shield generators of the standard ship or vehical is enough to stop Las-cannons, Plasma cannons, and the lance battiries, the wide assortment of weapons the Imperium brings to the battle will easily counter any advantage the shield brings the Empire.

in ship to ship battles, nuclear tipped Torpedos.
in air combat, Heavy bolters and Assault Auto cannons.
in ground combat, Heavy bolters, Missle Launchers, and the assortment of mass amplification weapons such as the 'Power Fist'

it is even questionable on if the shields are capable of stopping Melta weaponry, or how much attack a shield can absorb. it is with out question that the shields would be able to absorb a lance attack or a las-cannon, but when you look at the standard IoM assault ship, it is lined up and down its bow with batteries of the weapons. it is easy to believe that the IoM ships can easily overwhelm

The Imperium of Man on the other hand have Void Shields equiped. these are not the standard shields the Empire uses, as they displace incoming attacks rather then absorbing them. Litterally teleporting any incoming projectile, beem, or attack into another plane of existance.

Troopers are actually an elite infantry force. The 501st is a seasoned, WELL seasoned battle regiment from the beggining of the clone wars. They have experiance fighting in space and fighting against droids or humans. They have far superior technology and armor then most give them credit for too. Hell, the only reason why they would "miss" in the movies is because they were shooting at the heros. If you look in the movies they are actually very accurate. They even show advanced tactics, like in the beginning of ANH, they boarded the ship almost immediatly and only a couple got cut down due to surprise attack, but they dominated the rebels shortly there after. Again about the movies and ewoks they were never actually beaten. As someone has already said the 501st continued to be a major pain in the ass for The New Republic. Storm Troopers obviously have incrediably fast reflexes as well noted on Endor during the speederbike scene. A normal human would have a hard time navigating that as well as they did. The only reason Luke didn't crash is he is a jedi. Leia crashed pretty fast but obviously didn't die because she is a hero.

you're looking at a small cross section of the large Empire Storm trooper contengency.

Budget cuts is acctually used to describe why the ANH stormtroopers are worse then the Clone War stormtroopers. While some of the Clone War regiments (501st) are still elite by most standard, a good bulk of the rank and file troopers you see are conscripts or standard recruits not held to the same level of training or skill as the vetted clone regiments.

The Stormtroopers you see are effectively the same as the Imperial Guard as a whole. Some regiments of the IG are elite by most standards (ie- cadian) but just as there are elite regiments, there are plenty rank and file regiments which play the game through volume fire rather then point accuracy.

The Storm Trooper technology is also on par with many things. Their blaster is incrediably powerful as it was fire plasma bolts, most notably drawn from the fact it uses a plasma gas cartridge for 500 shots. The E-11 even had many different variations from a longer barrel for longer range and a sniper rifle, to even a carbine. Storm Troopers also had a side arm (Not seen in movies canon books and shows.) the SE-14r, which was short range obviously but again fired plasma bolts as its implied most SW weaponry fires. Elite Storm Troopers also used a DLT-19 Heavy Blaster rifle. Which could hold many more shots, fired at an increased pace, and had far more accuracy. All Storm Troopers also had a thermal detonation core on their back, which had a unique input code that only the Storm Trooper knew. And even then, it was completely disguised in the back of the armor requiring special ways to get to it.

Armor is another big thing many people look over. Many of the Storm Troopers "killed" probably werent. The Plastoid armor is capable of take bolts and impact, as well as protecting against concussion and explosions, and even the enviorment. Sure a direct hit of plasma could cut through the armor, but it wouldn't actually kill them unless it was a head or direct heart shot because it would barely graze against the skin due to the compositiong of the armor. Very often the armor also had holigraphic displays in the helmet, wrist comms, and resonaters. Storm Troopers could also be outfitted with packs (As seen on SandTroopers.) that had water, food, rations, more ammo, tents, and even Dwarf Spider Droids for support fighting.

EVEN MORE SO, there are specialized units of Storm Troopers. Ranging from Aquatic fighting to Zero-G Assault Troopers. There are many ranges including Force Sensative Troopers which had limited use of the force, and to detect. There are even NovaTroopers, who specalize in shock and awe tactics of boarding enemy ships and having layers of strips and armor, making them bulky, as well as behind enhanced by neuro making them tougher and faster capable of taking ships, infiltrating by force or simply used to force the enemy to surrendur from sheer fire power. You also have Shadowtroopers, which have built in stealth units and specalize in hand to hand combat as well as silent killing. You have Imperial Marines, Incinerator Troopers, Heavy Troopers, Dewback Troopers (They are mounted units for quick assaults.), Field Troopers who are veterans from the Clone Wars and have incrediable amounts of experiance, Magma Troopers, EVO Troopers, Shock Troopers, Storm Commandos.

And of course you can't forget DarkTroopers which are Endoskeltons of clone/droid cyborgs on the indside, resistant to heat, plasma, lightsabers, a whole list. They are even specalized themselves the most notable ones being Purge Troopers who were Jedi killers, I'm positive those could take on the guard. You then also have the Three Phases of Dark Troopers, Phase 1 CQB using a sheild and a vibro blade. Phase 2 more precise storm troopers, with heavy repeating blasters and assault cannons plus jetpacks. Then the final Phase 3, is based almost entirley on Boba and Jango Fett, using Jetpacks, rockets, flamethrowers, blasters, and cannons. All being mounted on the exoskeleton leaving the hands free.

you've basically described the Average Space marine company.
and while each of these variations of storm troopers probably deploys in 1-2 squads (8-16 men) entire companies of Space marines (100 men each) are going to be deployed to counter them.

ontop of this, the Space marines are 10 fold better in every way, having litterally 200+ years of Combat level experience for each man... being genetically engineered, altered, and constructed to be litterally super men... being mentally conditioned to kill with out regret, remorse, or question.

Adding even more to the pile as my final two sense (I may quote myself and post more if I remember anything else.), the Empire is highly mobile as they use Hyper Speed, not warp speed. So they can deploy much faster then the Imperium. And they have continuous clone resources, as well as recruits joing into the Empire after the formation of the New Republic. You don't give the Storm Troopers enough credit. They are an incrediably powerful fighting force and could easily give the Imperium a run for their money.
And I didn't even start on their ships, or the Sith. (Keep in mind, their are also Sith/Storm Trooper hybrids. Just something to think about.)

speed is something to be argued, as warp travel is rather finnicky.
for the IoM it can take 2 hours to get to their engagement, 2 months, or 200 years if they get stuck in a time bubble while in the warp (even though to them it was mearly a few moments) infact, it is entirely possible that a force could Arrive at a sector Before they where even sent due to the random nature that is the warp.

Hyperspeed is acctually probably the same type of travel that the Tau use to get around, in that it is acctually Slower then Warp Travel. What hyper speed (and tau Ether Drives) have over warp travel is that it is more reliable so you can depend on time tables you set.

So my whole statement here. Is that accounting for everything the Empire has to offer, (Death Star with held at this momment.), the Empire could win. Not a total crush, it would be a long and hard fight. But they could win.

it is impossible for the Empire to win this conflict as the very design of the Empire is built around the concept of Domination rather then Genocide. There is no way the SW:empire can compete with the WH40k:Imperium.

 

[Zannah]

Executor-Class Ships aren't battle stations though, and still large enough (As are Sunhammers and Darksabers, both technically ships and both capable of firepower on death star level).

Well when it comes to firepower I still doubt their ability and the sufficiency of their numbers. Destroying planets might be one thing, but does it give you a tactical advantage in combat against other ships? Planets aren't particularly manoevrable after all, but ships are.

"The term originated within the Old Republic and referred to ships capable of destroying entire star systems with their heavy firepower." (Wookiepedia). What Han refers to, is blowing the entire planet into bits, not merely making the planit inhabitale for a few thousand years. Physically disintegrating the planet is something an exterminatus isn't capable of, either.

Besides, the Exterminatus is (to my knowledge) the worst weapon available to the imperium of men. On the other hand, the firepower to burn through a planets crust, extinguishing all organic life in the process is something even the relatively small Imperial-Class star destroyers can do. (they still deserve their name after all).

Well, not really the "worst". But more like the "most infamous". It's a sort of last resort, scorched earth tactic that they employ when they consider a world to be "lost" to heresy or some alien influence. Inquisitor Kryptmann also employed this strategy heavily against the Tyranids in order to deprive them of potential sources of bio-organic material for them to use to sustain their hive fleets.

But ships most definetly use more heavy hitting weapons. It's just that they are more intended to be used against local targets employing void shields (which demand a lot of energy to penetrate).

Also Exterminatus is something even the smaller ships (frigates) can achieve, depending on what methods they employ (virus bombs or cyclonic torpedoes).

As torpedoes go, there is also a kind which can shatter the planet (much in the way that the strike from a Death Star does) which burrows into the planetary core and detonate at the core. (these are used against planets that lack a sufficient atmosphere to burn)

Would be interesting to compare different shield and weapon tech in detail - Star Wars Ion cannons for example seem to work radically different from warhammer ones.

As for maneuverability, I'd presume that Hyperspace and Warpspace are two different things (since they both work radically different, as a ship in hyperspace just moves faster then the eye but is still present in the material plane. Meaning that the glactic empires fleets would move considerably faster and more reliable then the empire of men could move their ships.

Also, though somebody mentioned that some tech can still be reproduced, as far as I know, anyway, for the most part they're sustaining tech, whereas pretty much everything the galactic empire sents into battle, including their soldiers, can be mass produced in little time.

As for the uniforms -

Spoiler: need I say more?

That is a very real possibility. I'd expect some political fallout since one side doesn't take to kind to the other not bowing down to their ultimate dictator, but since there are so many aliens to exterminate they could find some civilized middleground.

Likely this - both are after all known for cutting some corners behind all the radicalism.

 

[Pyro Paul]

Electric Dreck:
Thank you, that was something I was looking for was more to the point of providing reasonings and examples, not just, "Imperium FTW screw the Empire."

As you were saying about the Marines and weapons, the problem would be I'm sure they do not have the range of concentrated bolts of Plasma. Plasma could easily go through anything at the heat its fired from and could easly penatrate the armor stopping them flat. It would disintergrate their body from the inside of were they were shot.

Rather incorrect, as if this where true, then every single blaster battle you see inside a ship would cause violent decompression as the plasma bolt would peirce through every layer of the hull until it hit space.

the star wars blaster is analagous to the Imperium Plasma Rifle in that it is a super heated bolt contained in a magnetic field which causes it to burst upon impact of a solid surface and vaporizing the immediate area. in most cases this leads to a fatal wound, however with space marines and the equipment they could deploy (terminator armor) there are redundent systems in both their suits and their biology which allows them to counter act even direct strikes from Plasma weaponry (Invunrable save rule)

true, not every space marine or guardsmen is going to have these systems, but it is wise to not bank on the idea that the blaster is an end all be all killing weapon.

Force Swords, are held with psychic power, and yes that could probably stop a lightsabre, but you are also talking about the fact they are fighting against a Jedi or a Sith. Someone who has spent their whole life training since the age of 3, in the 7 different styles. And many of the Sith and Jedi after The New Republic was formed have been trianing for many MANY years in their form and their power, allowing them to be skilled fencers/duelists/killing machines.

And they are probably fighting a Space Marine Sorcerer, Libarian, or Grey knight. whom has not only been trained since the age of 11 but also genetically engineered to be the ultimate killing machine. While the Jedi may have 'MANY years' in their form and power, the average Libarian/grey knight has Many CENTURIES to master his. and if it is a Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer... he probably has over 10,000 Years of experience weilding his force weapon.

Many of the Empire also has untold amoutns of AT-AT's, tanks, AT-ST's, fighters, Argounaunts, a whole list. Many of those could go toe to toe with a Imperium vehicle because of the MASSIVE damage outputs it can do.

The only world optional that would be attacked is Kamino, and even then its not that important as the clones are no longer being created their, they are created on incrediably fast mobile ship bases and trained there. There are not many worlds the Empire would need to defend.

Then again taking from the fact if The Empire was defeated the Imperium would have to face The New Repbulic. Which has a MASSIVE military, many men, and Jedi as well, a lot more Jedi then the Empire has.

the effectiveness of all these things are incrediably questionable, exspecially considering how easily the predicesor of the New Republic felt.

a handful of upstarts, teddy bears, and heros mounted a massive coup and overthrew an Empire.

Half of the Space Marine Legions (9 legions of +1 million space marines per legion) defected to Chaos and lead a surprise attack, and the Imperium of Man Preserved.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Shit, that wasn't meant to happen. Ignore post plz.

 

[The Forces of Chaos]

Not to forget the Terror Factor alone combating such an army once the battle has begins, (dont want to think about the Night Lords Legion). I wonder how many Empire and Rebel bases would try to "defect" to the Imperium.

 

[Reveras]

I would like to name a few things that should get people thinking about the Imperium: Ogryn, Kasrkin, Grey Knights, Chaplains (there are few of them thanks to their insanity and power) and OH RIGHT Baneblade.

 

[Carboncrown]

The Star Wars universe was created(I'm guessing) without paying any mind on the actual size or shape to the galaxy and the Empire, besides to fit into the adventure of a single Jedi. Now, it has been expanded, but still in kind of the same mindset, or atleast without deviating too far.

Warhammer on the other hand... well, it's warhmammer. Everyone who knows the slightest bit about it, knows the whole idea is a war as grim as fuck on a truly astronomical scale.

So there's really no point in comparing them as armies, when the other one is not really made for war. But if you must, the answer is pretty obvious. Only thing you could argue is that SW is light science fantasy, while WH is dark and thus, is the only one that would allow the entirety of human civilizations to lose.

 

[thahat]

Da big 'umies would stomp em good!

and we'ze join da fun!, dem new humies need a good krumpin!, dont you forget you grot! and diez new humies, dem dont have heavy bolters. -hur hur hur- WAAAAAGH!!!
-spoken by mekboss waragh, after grabbing a local space hulk that drifted in the direction of the empire. . .

*do note, knowing the imperum, they'd laugh at this and let the imperium fight the orks, and stabbing both in the back at the end, by killing the local warboss XD