Something I have noticed with Warhammer40k is that the grimdarkness is pretty easy to get desensitized to. It is always saying how certain foes are vastly superior to baseline humans, so i thought I should try (not sure if I'll succeed or not
) to put things into perspective.
The best place to start, obviously, is humans.
Humans are more physically resilient than one would expect after reading Warhammer of the
40k variety for any length of time.
You could remove a large part of your internal organs and survive. The human body may appear fragile but it’s possible to survive even with the removal of the stomach, the spleen, 75 percent of the liver, 80 percent of the intestines, one kidney, one lung, and virtually every organ from the pelvic and groin area. You might not feel too great, but the missing organs wouldn’t kill you.
A glancing blow to the some of the more redundant areas of the heart will not kill you. there may be side effect 20 years later, but it will not kill you instantly. Your aorta is actually as thick around as a garden hose.
Your thigh bone is as hard as concrete, and the human body can adapt to harsh conditions and make virtually any other major bone as hard as your thigh.
Hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) can eat through metal.
In extremis (or frenzy/insanity) humans have been known to perform enormous feats of strength. It is not unheard of for people to lift cars slightly to free another.
The maximum cranial capacity of a human is roughly the equvalent of 1000 Terabytes.
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Now, Comparing orks. There is no question that orks are tougher than humans, even with the above information, by orders of magnitude. They are also stronger than the average baseline human by a fair degree, and have an unbelievably quick life cycle, but it's not all advantages.
They have poor spatial awareness, as demonstrated by the fact that they are seen to be one of the easiest xenos species to approach stealthily. They themselves are rather poor at stealth, as even their commandoes are roughly on par with conscripts when it comes to stealth, and get by solely because no one bothers keeping a lookout for sneaky orks.
Their intelligence is noteworthy for it's simplicity. I know ork fanboys are going to go on about it being "single-mindedness" but if that's what you're planning on doing, don't. It isn't. Their minds are on par with Ogryns. That's all there is to it.
While I am sure they are good sprinters, their agility is generally inferior to that of humans.
And while their fighting skill is exceptional when you consider that they never even learn, it is inferior to a trained and conditioned human. Whenever they charge the Imperial Guard, the words "and impaled themselves on a row of bayonets" is almost always happens. While they do manage to kill, defense is a huge part of Swordplay, and it is rarely found amongst orks. I know that fanboys will say "what about the stronger orks", well my reply is "what about the stronger humans". As imposing as Nobz may be, they wouldn't stand a chance against an Eversor.
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On to the Eldar.
They are long-lived, Almost universally skilled in the warrior arts, and as quick as a Callidus (almost). They are smart, they are psychic. Impressive. Wouldn't want to fight one.
While I do admit that Eldar are individually worth more, They are not superior in EVERY aspect.
Strength. While I am not saying that the meekest human is stronger than the most Built Eldar, I
AM saying that humans are generally more physically imposing. Again, I am sure fanboys will disagree, but there are sources that say so. Tau are described as being weaker than humans by a decent enough margin (again, I am sure it is not universal) they are also described as being, in terms of strength, inferior to almost all their foes, with the exception of the Eldar.
Fear. Eldar warriors are terrified of Slaanesh, which means that an Imperial Guard platoon that captured a single soul-stone could likely draw the eldar into a melee (due to the Eldar not wanting to risk shooting the stone) nullifying their superior firarms.
Yeah, I know that was a relatively weak case, but even when you think about it, Eldar are physically superior.
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Tau.
Well humans are physically superior to Tau in some ways. While they do lack the genetic specializations that do give Tau an edge in most non-combat oriented ways, it is irrelevant. We are comparing a
FW to an
IG trooper. I am not sure how
FW intelligence stacks up against that of humans, so I'll leave it alone, but Tau are shorter, less physically powerful, roughly on par in terms of quickness. Their eyesight is slightly superior, though it takes longer to focus, so their is neither an advantage nor disadvantage there. Humans need more water than Tau do, which is an advantage to Tau in a desert survival situation.
Other than that, Tau are very close to humans in physiology.
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None of the other xenos really have enough similarities to Humans to be worth comparing.
Basically, humans have some advantages, and some disadvantages when held up against just about any xenos creature ('cept Necrons and Nids :$) and despite their relative insignificance, they are still adept warriors. Plus they have Ogryns.
Sorry if you feel I came down harsh on your fav xenos, but it's true. Every race has their physiological flaws. Humans' flaw being that despite not being especially fail at anything, they don't do any one thing exceptionally well either.
I didn't bother comparing astates because they're better in every way.
