I think a lot of misconceptions about the 40k Universe seem to be flying about.
shuri said:
let's not forget that the Empire is using state of the art technology that they can fix.. The Warhammer 40k universe is based on old centuries old spaceships that barely hold together.. they've been at war for so long they dont remember how to fix their own technology and survive on scavenging. Losing a spaceship is hugeeee drama for them.
The Empire has complete air superiority. Also it doesnt help that the space marines are freaked out by anything 'psychic' .. The dark jedis would fuck with them hardcore. Most Space Marines are mostly dumb meatheads after all.
Those century old spaceships are still some of the most technologically advanced ships around. They are effective and hence kept in use. A lot of them have however been replaced with newer and better models. On this note, whilst losing a ship is a big deal, it's not an irrecoverable one. I think you underestimate how much technology the current Imperium understands. Very few technologies are beyond them. Not really seeing how the Empire has complete air superiority there...
All Space Marines are highly capable soldiers. They aren't idiots, in fact they are far from it. All relevant knowledge is pumped into their brains as Aspirants, and this includes a massive catalogue of strategies and what not. They are bred to know that the "dark arts" are bad, and despise it, but they do not fear it. Space Marines do not know fear.
shuri said:
Also, the big problem with Space Marine is equipment.. they have re-use old equipment all the time, some of the power armors are thousand years old and they have Technicians (I forgot their official name) doing voodoo on them so that the suits still work.
Let's not forget that Space Marines are a finite resource. It takes a LOOONNNG time to become a space marine, tons of enhancements are required too, and one of the main enhancement that they get is a special heart that was modified to support the various cyborg enhancements and implants, and that heart is installed on a space marine recruit before getting those upgrades. From memory its called Lieman's heart, or something, and they were cloned from one of the first legendary space marine. And from memory it takes a long time to create a space marine from start to finish, something like 20-40 years..
ANYHOW
Those hearts cannot be reproduced anymore, and the warhammer clerics have to pull them out of dead space marines to re-implant them on new recruits.. It's kind of fucked up really, and If the Empire blows up a planet full of space marines, that's a lot of replacement hearts gone forever.
The empire can clone an infinite number of troopers. And what's stopping them from cloning space marines..
In the long run, the space marines are fucked.
Yes a lot of their equipment is old but their workings are based on mechanics and science. Not imperial voodoo. They are just superstitious that way about the "Machine God".
As for creating a Space Marine....it doesn't take 20-40 years. In fact, it takes less than 5. Around 2-3 I believe....and that includes training.
Now, these Space Marine hearts which I believe you mean Gene-seeds aren't finite in number. It's just that number of SM's allowed per chapter is limited by their war codes (blame that twat Robute Guillaman). They are only allowed 1000 per chapter, but the Black Templars have over 6000 at a given time.
JayDubya said:
I'm rusty on 40k though I've RP'd in it a little bit...
From what I understand, though, you've made things pretty hard on Palps by making him want to take the throne.
My first thought on seeing the thread title was:
1) Take Imperial Star Destroyer
2) Remove hyperspace safety inhibitor
3) Plot coordinates for location of God Emperor.
4) Boom.
5) Imperium of Man can no longer use their ships. Empire can move unfettered. Empire wins.
Since that is off the table...
Erm, won't they have to find those Coordinates first?
Also, the Imperium has a fair few Psykers who can see the future and what not. They would probably see this coming.
I really don't see the Imperium of Man losing this. They just have too much going for them. Death Star is the only thing that can wipe out planets? Well too bad that the Imperium can do this aswell.
Also.....Virus bomb. GG.
Also, I'm going to pose a question. Does the SW use of Hyperdrives involve the Warp?