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The Imperium does have more advanced tech than the Tau they just can't distribute and produce them through the entire Imperium. It is easier for Tau to all have pulse rifle because their empire is small and every army has railguns because they don't need trillions of them like the IOM would. If I'm not mistaken the railgun is close to if not the top of their advanced tech and you can't compare that to the IOM most advanced most likely the vortex missile. It's just impossible to give every single army in the IOM a vortex missile or every soldier a gun more advanced then a lasgun as it would be to expensive at this scale. The Tau are catching up fast as they haven't peaked yet like the IOM has, but I don't think they're there yet. It's very hard to debate it though because their economies and size are very different.
Necrons>Eldar>IOM>Tau>Orks

If the IoM could just get past their whole "heresy" thing, I am sure that they could make some pretty impressive stuff, like more true AI's, like the Men of Iron.

I do understand why they don't, due to the Men of Iron. But the IoM calls any true AI "heresy".

Brother Coa wrote:
Tau have rail and plasma technology, but don't have warp or teleportation technology at all. And their warp drive is quite primitive.

This is because they lack the navigator gene and have very little warp presence whatsoever, so if you can say Tyranid tech doesn't exist because they're all organic then the fish people should get let off when they have odd genetics .

Brother Coa wrote:
Orks are just using Imperium technology.

Not true. Orks have an inbuilt ability with technology. They may not understand it, but they're masters at working with it. They can salvage most other races technology, and turn it in to whatever they want, and alot of things they have far exceed even Eldar.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

forruner_mercy wrote:If the IoM could just get past their whole "heresy" thing, I am sure that they could make some pretty impressive stuff, like more true AI's, like the Men of Iron.

I do understand why they don't, due to the Men of Iron. But the IoM calls any true AI "heresy".

It's something to do with a whole Skynet thing were the Men of Iron rebelled and billions died. They then declared AI dangerous, and since the IoM is insane they think it must be heretical.

4M2A wrote:Orks tech levels are extremely high.

4M2A wrote:
They are above the IoM in technology levels.

so youre a comedian?

4M2A wrote:Don't confuse appearance with how effective it is. Orks have no desire to make the technology look nice but it's more functional than imperial tech.

Right. Orkz attach useless stuff to make them not look nice.....
The instabillity is also desired and makes it moar funtastic, because orkz love big xsplosions and don't mind if theyre part of the ka-boom..

4M2A wrote:
Orks have man portable force fields and guns that fire things via the warp. The imperial has the technology but it's no so effective. There most accurate warp transportation (deep striking) is still much less accurate than a Shokk Attack gun and their force fields require huge machines to generate.

"Gate of infinity". Less acurate than a shokk attack gun?
This oh so great force field isn't used by the IoM, because the IoM insists on real void shielding, not cover saves.
So please point out where the ork equivalent to imperial shields is mounted on something smaller than a stompa.

4M2A wrote:
The IoM's technology level is very low.

Maybe these stone age worlds ruin the tech level a bit, but generally the greatest variety is found in the IoM.
Thus its impossible to estimate a tech level without a source of each systems tech level.
Maybe easy to assume a tech level for those with a realm wide level like Eldar, but usually its only smaller factions that get such.

4M2A wrote:
The Tau have Imperial warp drives and could duplicate them- however they know what is inside the warp and want to stay away from it.

They don't have warp drives and they know gak about the warp.
The only thing Tau know in general is which entry to the warp is a forbidden zone. So the Tau want to stay away since the etherals
ordered it. They would stay away from a space - casino, -zoo, resort, too if it was a "no-go" zone as per their leading caste.



Tech levels:

1 necron/Ctan (masters of the material realm, tech "magic")
2 old ones bio engeneering, webway ( didn't save them...)
3 eldar, dark eldar ( trained by the old ones )
4 jokaero ( can build anything with a few scraps..)
5 Iom, orks ( one doesn't remember where to look, the other doesn't care for the past or the future )
6 Tau ( clean tech, but not the experience of ancient races and cannot "upgrade" tech by using another dimension like others do )

4M2A wrote:Orks tech levels are extremely high. They are above the IoM in technology levels.

This is great, I will just add this to my collection.

The IoM does have very powerful plasma weapons, more powerful then the Tau and Eldar of the other races. The only problem is that the weapons are very unstable. If guardsmen that is carrying a plasma gun gets shot at and a round hits the casing on the top, the whole thing pretty much explodes and vaporizes everything around it. This is increased tenfold if a Leman Russ Executioner blows up.

Although, the Tyranid bio-plasma is arguably as good, but I do not know much of the fluff behind it. So any help there would be appreciated.

The Eldar only has one plasma weapon, as far as I know and that is the starcannon. But again, no know fluff behind it.

The Tau have a plasma rifle, though it is less powerful but more reliable then the Imperial plasma gun. But considering that 40K is grimdark and whatnot, the Imperium does not care about its guardsmen.

KingDeath wrote:

Justus wrote:I don't see how people can possibly dispute the existence or the credibility of the Machine Spirit in a universe with Chaos Gods, magic, and Tyranids, among other things. Must we look any further than the "Power of the Machine Spirit" special rule?

I can't see how something that is used to show how "grimdark" and backwards the imperium of man is can be taken at face value.
And yes, you must look further than the "Power of the Machine Spirit" rule. Just because some pieces of Imperial technology are equiped with a semi autonomous bio-mechanical mechanism
does not mean that transcendend, "magical" machine spirits inhabit every piece of technology.

Ahhhh I see. I wasn't trying to say the Machine Spirit was ACTUALLY a magical spirit thing, just real.

@forruner_mercy: The starcannon has a more narrow focus for it's shots (hence str 6) but has some form of generically named "containment field" to provide safety (thus, no "Gets Hot!").

Brother Coa wrote:

4M2A wrote:Orks tech levels are extremely high. They are above the IoM in technology levels.

This is great, I will just add this to my collection.

Name any race that has produced something as advanced as an SAG.
It creates a tunnel through the warp. You press a switch and you can do what took the Old Ones decades-make a Webway portal. Short of a Blackstone Fortress, this is one of the most advanced weapons in the galaxy. And you can't mount a Blackstone Fortress on your back.

A D-Cannon mayhaps? It literally tears a hole into the warp in real space.

A bit cruder, effect wise, than boring a semi-stable tunnel through the warp. A whole lot more reliable though

I feel forced to point out that only the orks can make a man portable ordinance weapon

Of course only the orks would think it a good idea to pack an unstable worm-hole generator on their shoulder and use it as a weapon...


The KMB deserves a mention also. It is a more powerful Plasmagun equivilent that can be used as an assault weapon (even if it does only get one shot ) and officially speaking isn't a plasma weapon, subject to nerfing


Ork tech is so random that it hits heights of genius that no-one can match at times, and abysmally low deeps that any non-ork would never plummet down at others..

Brother Coa wrote:In terms of technology this is how it works:

Necrons have the most advanced technology in the galaxy. But their tech is not compatible with warp and they themselves do not have a freedom to invent new things or upgrade.

Eldar have 2'nd advanced technology in the galaxy, but they received all that from the Old Ones, and they like the IoM can't build some things ( liek the Webway gate ).

Tau have rail and plasma technology, but don't have warp or teleportation technology at all. And their warp drive is quite primitive.

Imperium of Man just have technology from the Dark age of Technology, but even this that they have is more advanced then Tau and Eldar tech. But, they have a ton of things for what they lack STC and when those things broke down, they are broke down for good - or at least until they found STC for that.

Orks are just using Imperium technology.

Tyranids are all organic.

Dark Eldar are using Eldar tech, but with little more warp and dark matter touch to it.

In terms of technology, except Necrons none has the advantage. In addition to all of this, only Imperium and Tau are upgrading their tech and inventing new things.

If the IoM and the Tau built a toaster...

The Tau toaster would toast your toast almost instantly and at a perfect degree to what you wanted.

The Imperium toaster would be the size of a car and need for you to pray at it to work. At this point, it would either explode, incinerate your house, or make you a delicious piece of toast. All the while you wouldn't understand the need for a giant 3 foot mechanical arm on it.


Basically, Tau technology is practical and makes sense, Imperial tech apart from a few trusty designs like Lastech and Power armor is largely impractical. While people laugh at the Tau inability to travel in the warp, it is also a wiser choice to forgo warp travel until you perfect a Necron-ish style of FTL.

The Necron toaster would not only Particle-whip your toast from existence, but kill everyone in the room with mass gauss flux arc fire, all while drifting slowlyand ominously across the room..

'When you absolutely, positively have to kill every person in the breakfast nook, accept no substitutes....'

Nicholas wrote:The Imperium does have more advanced tech than the Tau they just can't distribute and produce them through the entire Imperium. It is easier for Tau to all have pulse rifle because their empire is small and every army has railguns because they don't need trillions of them like the IOM would. If I'm not mistaken the railgun is close to if not the top of their advanced tech and you can't compare that to the IOM most advanced most likely the vortex missile. It's just impossible to give every single army in the IOM a vortex missile or every soldier a gun more advanced then a lasgun as it would be to expensive at this scale. The Tau are catching up fast as they haven't peaked yet like the IOM has, but I don't think they're there yet. It's very hard to debate it though because their economies and size are very different.
Necrons>Eldar>IOM>Tau>Orks

I don't think it has much to do with how big each empire is. It has more to do with tech mastery. If the IoM knew more about there tech, then every ship could have vortex misses. When the tau get bigger, they will still give their base troops pulse rifles (you know unless they get the ion rifles by then) because they are masters of their tech.

Comparing IoM and tau is hard because they have different combat doctrines.

nomotog wrote:

Nicholas wrote:The Imperium does have more advanced tech than the Tau they just can't distribute and produce them through the entire Imperium. It is easier for Tau to all have pulse rifle because their empire is small and every army has railguns because they don't need trillions of them like the IOM would. If I'm not mistaken the railgun is close to if not the top of their advanced tech and you can't compare that to the IOM most advanced most likely the vortex missile. It's just impossible to give every single army in the IOM a vortex missile or every soldier a gun more advanced then a lasgun as it would be to expensive at this scale. The Tau are catching up fast as they haven't peaked yet like the IOM has, but I don't think they're there yet. It's very hard to debate it though because their economies and size are very different.
Necrons>Eldar>IOM>Tau>Orks

I don't think it has much to do with how big each empire is. It has more to do with tech mastery. If the IoM knew more about there tech, then every ship could have vortex misses. When the tau get bigger, they will still give their base troops pulse rifles (you know unless they get the ion rifles by then) because they are masters of their tech.

Comparing IoM and tau is hard because they have different combat doctrines.

But we can't JUST think of weapons tech. On rich enough planets in the IoM, people can get air-cars and whatnot. I have NO idea what civilian Tau tech is, though, so...

Nicholas wrote:The Imperium does have more advanced tech than the Tau they just can't distribute and produce them through the entire Imperium. It is easier for Tau to all have pulse rifle because their empire is small and every army has railguns because they don't need trillions of them like the IOM would. If I'm not mistaken the railgun is close to if not the top of their advanced tech and you can't compare that to the IOM most advanced most likely the vortex missile. It's just impossible to give every single army in the IOM a vortex missile or every soldier a gun more advanced then a lasgun as it would be to expensive at this scale. The Tau are catching up fast as they haven't peaked yet like the IOM has, but I don't think they're there yet. It's very hard to debate it though because their economies and size are very different.
Necrons>Eldar>IOM>Tau>Orks

The Imperium of Man also has a much larger theoretical and actual manufacturing base. Their problem is the extreme and frankly unnecessary centralisation of certain technologies. This is owed to the dogmatic and petty nature of the techpriests which prefer to hoard their knowledge instead of distributing it, even amongst themselfs.

We don't know a lot about tau civilian tech, but we can make guess from what we do know. The tau can make flying cars (all their vehicles are flying so ya) & we can also guess that they have a large number of drones to handle different jobs. The tau don't have a lot of variable tech levels. If they have combat robots, they get the civilian befits that come form knowing how to make giant robots. (Like auto kitchens and things.)

As far as Land Raiders and their Machine Spirit are concerned, I do recall some old official drawing (probably from the days of Rogue Trader?) that actually showed a human brain wired deep into the vehicle's internal systems.

The way I see it, the so-called Machine Spirit can either be attributed to a cogitator unit or pure superstition, resulting out of the teachings of the Cult Mechanicus and depending on the size of the respective machine/equipment. It goes to show how far mankind has devolved into a scared mass of people desperatly clinging to religious dogma and the status-quo instead of looking forward and risking progress. It's the Dark Ages all over. It's the Grim Darkness of the 41st Millennium. Not some fancy fantasy sorcery.*

I suppose that some licensed products such as novels may occasionally try to tell a different thing, but that's based purely on the individual author's perception and doesn't really swing with what I've read of GW so far. Novels are, in the end, not canon but just the author's interpretation and personal preference. The same goes for any Lexicanum articles referencing their work, so I'd recommend against trusting a wiki too much (though it is an extremely good index).

*: Unless we're talking psychic phenomena - it is entirely possible that some incidents attributed to Machine Spirits are the results of subconscious thoughts and superstition paired with a nascent psyker gene and/or the combined faith of a lot of misled people.

Think about it: People are already talking to their cars and computers today - fast forward a few dozen millennia and you have a psychically active humanity accidentally creating a "Machine Spirit" just because enough people think they exist!

Wait so gates of infinity proves the imperials have equal teleporting tech. Isn't that a phychic power- which makes it irrelavant in this discussion.

Orks have reserved their biggest shield for stompas but the IoM only give void shields to their biggest machines. I don't see the difference

The IoM have no commonly issued weapons that can do anything like the SAG or Ork forcefield. The force fiedls they do have are constantly being tended to by the admech where as the orks just make theirs out of scrap.
Not even the Eldars D- Cannon is as advanced as a SAG. The D-cannon just rips a hole into the warp. The SAG rips a whole into the warp, fires a grot safely (most survive the journey) and accurately through the warp and back into realspace. It's almost a man portable webway generator. The Imperials have nothing as advanced as that. Their warp drives are huge and are horribly inaccurate.

4M2A wrote:Wait so gates of infinity proves the imperials have equal teleporting tech. Isn't that a phychic power- which makes it irrelavant in this discussion.

Orks have reserved their biggest shield for stompas but the IoM only give void shields to their biggest machines. I don't see the difference

The IoM have no commonly issued weapons that can do anything like the SAG or Ork forcefield. The force fiedls they do have are constantly being tended to by the admech where as the orks just make theirs out of scrap.
Not even the Eldars D- Cannon is as advanced as a SAG. The D-cannon just rips a hole into the warp. The SAG rips a whole into the warp, fires a grot safely (most survive the journey) and accurately through the warp and back into realspace. It's almost a man portable webway generator. The Imperials have nothing as advanced as that. Their warp drives are huge and are horribly inaccurate.

That's what rocks about Orkz! They go, "well boyz, dis gun shootz tru da warp fing and sendz da grot boyz to da udder side 'o da linez!"

"Den wot youse wait fer boyz?! Build a fousand of em!"


Orkz could turn a deck of cards into a C'tan killing hand grenade if you gave em enough time and bitz lol

4M2A wrote:Wait so gates of infinity proves the imperials have equal teleporting tech. Isn't that a phychic power- which makes it irrelavant in this discussion.

Orks have reserved their biggest shield for stompas but the IoM only give void shields to their biggest machines. I don't see the difference

The IoM have no commonly issued weapons that can do anything like the SAG or Ork forcefield. The force fiedls they do have are constantly being tended to by the admech where as the orks just make theirs out of scrap.
Not even the Eldars D- Cannon is as advanced as a SAG. The D-cannon just rips a hole into the warp. The SAG rips a whole into the warp, fires a grot safely (most survive the journey) and accurately through the warp and back into realspace. It's almost a man portable webway generator. The Imperials have nothing as advanced as that. Their warp drives are huge and are horribly inaccurate.

Of course the warp drives are huge they are on giant fething SPACE SHIPS. And a warp drive =/= a SAG. I don't know why you think they are so unreliable. Tons and tons of ships go through the warp every "day" and very few end in disaster (but it is a common fear). It's like saying cars are unsafe because there are a lot of car accidents.

Besides, Eldar jump packs send the user through the warp as well, almost all of them survive.

Yes but even the machines used to teleport terminators are huge. There was a peice of fluff (about GKs I believe) and they could barely fit into the teleporting room.

It's not just ships that are unreliable. Deepstriking without a teleport homer is very difficult. Where orks are capable of hitting one individual Imperial's have trouble just hitting the right building.

4M2A wrote:Yes but even the machines used to teleport terminators are huge. There was a peice of fluff (about GKs I believe) and they could barely fit into the teleporting room.

It's not just ships that are unreliable. Deepstriking without a teleport homer is very difficult. Where orks are capable of hitting one individual Imperial's have trouble just hitting the right building.

Orks need buildings to teleport as well. They don't use SAGs to shoot their boyz everywhere. It honestly has very little to do with actual teleportation technology as it applies to the movement of troops and such.

Besides, basing an argument off of one specific example in regards to something where SOOOO many other examples beat out the orks is silly.

MandalorynOranj wrote:That wouldn't have happened if the machine spirit was just religious babble, there is definitely something there.

But that's just a novel, isn't it?

That said ... what exactly is this "Covenant of Blood"? If it's like a Land Raider I could totally picture the human brain wired into the machinery to develop some sort of personality over the ages, essentially "infecting" the cogitator unit slaved to the biological parts...

If it'd be a true machine with a personality that sounds very much like an AI, and the AdMech doesn't like that.

4M2A wrote:Wait so gates of infinity proves the imperials have equal teleporting tech. Isn't that a psychic power- which makes it irrelavant in this discussion.

Not really. Orkz are created as a psychic race ( but different to the eldars ) so without their belief it would not work and thus without
a "psychic" contribution there is no "warp channelling".
Plus the imperials are only outdone in teleporting by necrons, those they learned it possibly from.

4M2A wrote:Orks have reserved their biggest shield for stompas but the IoM only give void shields to their biggest machines. I don't see the difference

The difference is the IoM has no interest in cover saves as lots of imperial weapons not only ignore but also remove cover and all these
hiding there too. So only shields who protect against most weapons are of interest.
The imperium prefers fortifications if at all, and regularly builds it. Bunkers and trenches grant a better save than your crappy force field and cover more troops at once.

4M2A wrote: The SAG rips a whole into the warp, fires a grot safely (most survive the journey) and accurately through the warp and back into realspace. It's almost a man portable webway generator. The Imperials have nothing as advanced as that. Their warp drives are huge and are horribly inaccurate.

Grots are so expendable, their "safety" counts for nothing.
They often don't arrive, being snatched by warp-dwelling creatures in their venture and commonly end up inside of things, so this
webway is vastly superior to the SAG ( shoot a grot ) gun. I don't see the meks willingly travelling with SAG as their method of transport.
About warp-drives :Not sure if the orks are so proud of it, cause bigger is better is one of their favourites.
Orks also travel in space hulks and don't care for the destination, so accuracy is unimportant too.
Seems like orks would love any imperial warp drive they can loot...

Orks don't SAG into battle deliberately. Accidentally, sometimes, but not on purpose.

They do use Tellyportas, but they aren't small, from the fluff i've read. They're usually built into Roks.

Frankly i'd trust an IOM or Ork Teleporter about as much as i would an original series Trek one. Not a lot...

Lynata wrote:

MandalorynOranj wrote:That wouldn't have happened if the machine spirit was just religious babble, there is definitely something there.

But that's just a novel, isn't it?

That said ... what exactly is this "Covenant of Blood"? If it's like a Land Raider I could totally picture the human brain wired into the machinery to develop some sort of personality over the ages, essentially "infecting" the cogitator unit slaved to the biological parts...

If it'd be a true machine with a personality that sounds very much like an AI, and the AdMech doesn't like that.

The Covenant of Blood is a Night Lords strike cruiser. And I'm sorry, but it kind of bothers me when people talk about novels as if they are not legitimate sources of fluff. To be published by Black Library it has to be approved, and Black Library IS a division of GW. It doesn't make sense when people say that the codexes are the only real fluff. So basically there are only ~15 fluff sources out there? I don't mean this as a personal attack or anything, it's just a pet peeve of mine.

MandalorynOranj wrote:The Covenant of Blood is a Night Lords strike cruiser.

Ah! Thanks - yeah, I could easily see such a vessel having similar cogitation mechanisms. Though it could even be explained by daemonic corruption?

MandalorynOranj wrote:And I'm sorry, but it kind of bothers me when people talk about novels as if they are not legitimate sources of fluff. To be published by Black Library it has to be approved, and Black Library IS a division of GW. It doesn't make sense when people say that the codexes are the only real fluff. So basically there are only ~15 fluff sources out there? I don't mean this as a personal attack or anything, it's just a pet peeve of mine.

Understandable - I thought exactly the same way not too long ago! It's just that the more I read in terms of BL books, the more I noticed contradictions, not only between the novels but even to core aspects of the Codex material. So I started doing some research and dug up stuff like:
- Gav Thorpe saying that GW picks and adopts BL stuff they like whilst discarding the rest (source)
- George Mann saying that the novels are just "interpretations" of their individual authors (source)
- Aaron Dembski-Bowden saying that BL has no requirements for novels to be consistent to each other whatsoever (source)
etc...

And these days, I'm grateful for that. Trust me, I'd really love a consistent setting where every single licensed source would be a reliable addition to the setting, like in Star Wars. But we do not have this situation. Instead we get backflipping Terminator Sergeants carrying Cyclone launchers as backup on their backs, Sisters of Battle drinking alcohol, playing cards and sleeping around due to boredom, D-cannons firing projectiles, or multilasers as the new standard issue primary weapon of the Space Marines, whose height changes between 7 and 9 feet every other month depending on who writes the newest book.

And that's why I tend to adopt licensed stuff only where it does not conflict with GW material - as only GW knows which direction it wants to go.

Also, sadly BL's editing/approval process does not appear to be as thorough - see the source next to the point regarding Mr. Mann.

Like I said, I've argued on your side of the fence for several years, so I know how you feel. Just these days, it's a pet peeve of mine to clear up the myth regarding BL canonicity, as I really, really dislike some of the things that have creeped into certain novels or other licensed products, and I do not think that they should overrule what was established for decades in GW books, just because a single writer likes it better that way (or simply didn't do his research *cough*Goto*cough*). No hard feelings, I hope, on both our parts.

I agree with a lot you're saying actually, I just feel like even if not regarded as "official" fluff, most BL work is of sufficient quality to at least be credible reference points. But no, no hard feelings

Lynata wrote:...Sisters of Battle drinking alcohol, playing cards and sleeping around due to boredom...

As a matter of fact I just finished Cain's Last Stand this morning, those are some great books!

Also judging by your unfamiliarity with the Covenant of Blood, I'd assume you haven't read Aaron Dembski-Bowden's Soul Hunter and Blood Reaver. Pick em up when you get the chance, they're fantastic books.

Your placement of Orks on the scale depends on what definition of "technology" you subscribe to: flashy sparkly stuff that goes boom or concious invention/innovation.

Essentially, Orks have no or very little technology at all, anymore than a child pressing a button on a food dispenser would know about making it. A very large portion of what they use, which make no mistakes is extremely potent, they have no concious knowledge of how it works. Some portion of their "technology" may even work simply because they think it works. As such, I'd place Orks more or less on the same technology step as Tyranids. Neatly to the side of the playing field right among the other spectators.

forruner_mercy wrote:The Eldar only has one plasma weapon, as far as I know and that is the starcannon. But again, no know fluff behind it.

Eldar Plasma is highly efficient with low amount of energy needs, vastly improved energy storage, and portable energy generators. In the standard codex Star Cannons, Plasma Grenades and Missile Launchers are plasma weapons, with a very strong hint that everything explosive the Eldars use is plasma based. I'm not entirely certain what the Eldar flamers are based on, nor what the Destructor psychic power brings forth is. It's largely a matter of "all those benefits that would really matter to you in real life actually make the stuff have worse stats in game".

BeefCakeSoup wrote:

Brother Coa wrote:In terms of technology this is how it works:

Necrons have the most advanced technology in the galaxy. But their tech is not compatible with warp and they themselves do not have a freedom to invent new things or upgrade.

Eldar have 2'nd advanced technology in the galaxy, but they received all that from the Old Ones, and they like the IoM can't build some things ( liek the Webway gate ).

Tau have rail and plasma technology, but don't have warp or teleportation technology at all. And their warp drive is quite primitive.

Imperium of Man just have technology from the Dark age of Technology, but even this that they have is more advanced then Tau and Eldar tech. But, they have a ton of things for what they lack STC and when those things broke down, they are broke down for good - or at least until they found STC for that.

Orks are just using Imperium technology.

Tyranids are all organic.

Dark Eldar are using Eldar tech, but with little more warp and dark matter touch to it.

In terms of technology, except Necrons none has the advantage. In addition to all of this, only Imperium and Tau are upgrading their tech and inventing new things.

If the IoM and the Tau built a toaster...

The Tau toaster would toast your toast almost instantly and at a perfect degree to what you wanted.

The Imperium toaster would be the size of a car and need for you to pray at it to work. At this point, it would either explode, incinerate your house, or make you a delicious piece of toast. All the while you wouldn't understand the need for a giant 3 foot mechanical arm on it.


Basically, Tau technology is practical and makes sense, Imperial tech apart from a few trusty designs like Lastech and Power armor is largely impractical. While people laugh at the Tau inability to travel in the warp, it is also a wiser choice to forgo warp travel until you perfect a Necron-ish style of FTL.

Ah, that Imperium toaster literally made me laugh out load. Exploding seems more like a Orkish thing though. And I do not laugh at the Tau for that. I would prefer that actually then normal Warp travel. I am sure that the Lamenters and the Fire Hawks* chapters would have loved to have been traveling via something other than Warp.

*Legion of the Damned