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Depends on how big you want the hive fleets to be. Some people want them to be "SWALLOW THE GALAXY IN BODIES, THERE IS NO HOPE THERE IS ONLY INEVITABLE DEATH AND NOTHING YOU DO CAN EVEN HOPE TO STOP IT, YOU CAN BARELY EVEN DELAY IT!" big, and others want them to be "they endanger all life in the galaxy, and we must sacrifice our lives to slow down or stop it!" big.

 Lance845 wrote:

Its not 12 chapters. Its 12 chapters, several craft worlds, tau fleets, and the octarius battle and leviathan has only been slowed.

Not including Countless Guardsmens, and the fact that a large portion of the Leviathan tendrils got redirected into Ork territory

Just depends really.

30K Imperium was much better organized. The military was more powerful, better led, and better supplied, and had better technology powering their war engine.

At the end of the day, there was still only roughly 2 million space marines at the start of the Heresy, but I'd bet that with the threat being faced, the Primarchs would have ramped up their recruit production significantly.

Wars are won and lost by many things, but one thing that 30K had that 40K doesn't, is the greatest war minds, quite possibly ever. 18 Primarchs, and the Emperor. 19 men who took a force of 2 million super humans, and conquered a galaxy. 40K is shackled by the Codex Astartes. A military system that was put in place to ensure the Imperium could never again develop the level of military might that it once had.

I for one feel that if we're talking pre-heresy 30K, the Tyranid threat would have been much more easily handled.

It depends.

If you are a Tyranid fan, Tyranids win and you will interpreted the lore to support that.

If you are a Space Marine (Or worse, a 30k fan urgh! ) fan, it will be at the inverse.


Now, my personal opinion is: Pyrric victory to the empire and the Hive Mind just twist his moustache as it laught because, unkown to the empire, he has advance one more step in his masterfull crafted plan for TOTAL ANIHILATION!

Thats how all the storylines in Warhammer works.

GodDamUser wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:

Its not 12 chapters. Its 12 chapters, several craft worlds, tau fleets, and the octarius battle and leviathan has only been slowed.

Not including Countless Guardsmens, and the fact that a large portion of the Leviathan tendrils got redirected into Ork territory

Right. And then take into account that being nids, slowed is meaningless. If the tendrils are advancing AT ALL than leviathan is actually growing stronger. Not only is it the largest hive fleet to grace the galaxy thus far, but with all the forces of all the races rallied agasint it it is still progressing. Which means each new planet is more mass.

Leviathan on its own is hitting about 1/4 to 1/3 of the galactic disc all at once. How big do you think the iom is?

 Lance845 wrote:

Right. And then take into account that being nids, slowed is meaningless. If the tendrils are advancing AT ALL than leviathan is actually growing stronger. Not only is it the largest hive fleet to grace the galaxy thus far, but with all the forces of all the races rallied agasint it it is still progressing. Which means each new planet is more mass.

Give and take no this one, Inquisitor Kryptman started up the defensive policy of evacing worlds about to be consumed and doing Exterminatus on them before the Tyranids had a chance to consume and/or doing raids on the hive ships while they were venerable feeding.

But Inquisitor Krytman was deemed Hereticus Extremus, for taking up such a drastic tatic freely giving up Imperial territory by some of his peers. Some regions are still doing this strat while others have not.

But in the cases where they have been successful in their Exterminatus, and Raids they are forcing the Hive fleets to expend energy which they haven't been able to recuperate from consuming a planets biomass

GodDamUser wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:

Right. And then take into account that being nids, slowed is meaningless. If the tendrils are advancing AT ALL than leviathan is actually growing stronger. Not only is it the largest hive fleet to grace the galaxy thus far, but with all the forces of all the races rallied agasint it it is still progressing. Which means each new planet is more mass.

Give and take no this one, Inquisitor Kryptman started up the defensive policy of evacing worlds about to be consumed and doing Exterminatus on them before the Tyranids had a chance to consume and/or doing raids on the hive ships while they were venerable feeding.

But Inquisitor Krytman was deemed Hereticus Extremus, for taking up such a drastic tatic freely giving up Imperial territory by some of his peers. Some regions are still doing this strat while others have not.

But in the cases where they have been successful in their Exterminatus, and Raids they are forcing the Hive fleets to expend energy which they haven't been able to recuperate from consuming a planets biomass

You are talking about a part of one of the factions that is fighting leviathan right now. Even if 75 percent of all iom forces engaged with leviathan were using kryptmans strategy you would still have the orks, the tau the eldar and all the other planets and systems that are just unclaimed but in the path that the hive fleet as a whole has been devouring. Leviathan now is for sure stronger than when it first struck. 12 sm chapters is a fraction of the forces arrayed agasint leviathan and arguably one of the least effective.

The iom might MIGHT be as big as the spaces leviathan is currently active in. If the 30k legions were in a fight agasint the full might of the nids. They might slow the advance. They wouldnt stop it.