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This whole "empire of 1million worlds" thing, the imperium may CONTROL 1million worlds but do you honestly expect every single one to be inhabited? Even the ad mech has cant terraform EVERY planet. Most of these worlds are probably similar to our solar system in the fact that there may be a few inhabited planets in one system but most are left relatively untouched, the IoM isnt going to be interested if the planet dosent hold any strategic or resource value. Even so id expect the population of the imperium to be in the high Quadrillions (a hive world can contain trillions of people).

vodo40k wrote:This whole "empire of 1million worlds" thing, the imperium may CONTROL 1million worlds but do you honestly expect every single one to be inhabited? Even the ad mech has cant terraform EVERY planet. Most of these worlds are probably similar to our solar system in the fact that there may be a few inhabited planets in one system but most are left relatively untouched, the IoM isnt going to be interested if the planet dosent hold any strategic or resource value. Even so id expect the population of the imperium to be in the high Quadrillions (a hive world can contain trillions of people).

I'd expect something like the 3rd ed rulebook stated at page 114/115:

Hiveworld ( 140.000 + )
Pop: 500.000.000.000 - 100.000.000.000

Civilized world ( 350.000 + )
Pop: 10.000.000.000 - 15.000.000

Agriworld ( 200.000 + )
Pop: 1.000.000 - 15.000

"Stone-age" world ( 80.000 + )
Pop: 5.000.000 - 100.000

Lifeless world ( 20.000 )
pop: none ( 4 examples, Istvaan III and Prandium the well known ones )

Death world ( 60.000+ )
Pop: 15.000.000 - 1.000

Feudal world ( 40.000 + )
Pop: 500.000.000 - 10.000.000

Forgeworld ( 100.000+ )
Pop: 15.000.000.000 - 1.000.000

Orbitals, research posts , listening posts ( 10.000+ )
Pop: 500.000 - 100

Summed up to: Excactly 1.000.000 worlds.

The vast majority will be terraformed/have had their own lifeforms before human colonization.


Many Imperial worlds were simply human colonies that had been seperated during the Dark Age and had been settled during the early 10k and 20k milleniums.

You don't have to terraform worlds. Their ability to build hive worlds and underground cities (Tallarn, Valhalla, etc.) are testaments to that.

Pyrogeist wrote:

1990? No major wars? Yeah, okay then, whatever you say.

The invasion of Kuwait, the Rwandan civil war, and the Tuareg Rebellion were all quite minor conflicts. Less than 200,000 combatants in total, for all three.

The Gulf War did not begin until January of 1991; there weren't even any air attacks during 1990. The actual ground fighting itself lasted less than two weeks. It was an EXTREMELY minor war. The entire coalition suffered more accidental deaths than it had soldiers KIA.

I think you need to mention Berzerker what sort of context or definitions you're using for 'major' and 'minor' wars.. since its possible other people will have a different idea on what constitutes 'major' and 'minor.'

For example one differentiating factor between the Iraq wars is how lopsided the battles actually were. There wasn't a serious chance of the Iraqis threatening the US or actually defeating them (The US had too many advantages with their equipment, technology, logistics, size, industry, etc.)

You guys do realize that wars have effect on population only when they are in major numbers or on major scale? And we haven't got big scale war since 1945 or big scale war since 2003.

Besides, as you can see since the end of WW2 no big drop in population is made at all, instead the population grew larger.

It is exactly 8 metric feth tons, thank you for the thread, we can all go home now

Connor MacLeod wrote:I think you need to mention Berzerker what sort of context or definitions you're using for 'major' and 'minor' wars.. since its possible other people will have a different idea on what constitutes 'major' and 'minor.'

For example one differentiating factor between the Iraq wars is how lopsided the battles actually were. There wasn't a serious chance of the Iraqis threatening the US or actually defeating them (The US had too many advantages with their equipment, technology, logistics, size, industry, etc.)

Of course thats only in hindsight.

Prior to the invasion of Iraq, they had the 3rd(IIRC) largest army in the world and, on paper anyway, were a serious enemy to contend with.

It turned out to be the most overrated enemy the US has ever dealt with.


I like to call it the biggest bluff the world has ever seen, and the US called it

It's called Countless Trillions of sould for a dam good reason.
then there the people who make their own stuff up so you could never reallly count it unless you are bored.

I am just wondering about the Orks. how would Orks out-number the Imperium if there are a million planets under their control varying from hive worlds to industral worlds. How is that possiable? And how would the tyranids out-number them as well?

LORD_PANTERA wrote:I am just wondering about the Orks. how would Orks out-number the Imperium if there are a million planets under their control varying from hive worlds to industral worlds. How is that possiable?

Every time an Ork dies, millions of spores are released, very many end up surviving to fighting age. The hold a lot of the area around the Imperium as well as the space between the Imperium and Tau Empire. War breeds Orks, and the Orks live on the largest war-front EVER.

LORD_PANTERA wrote:I am just wondering about the Orks. how would Orks out-number the Imperium if there are a million planets under their control varying from hive worlds to industral worlds. How is that possiable? And how would the tyranids out-number them as well?

Space is big and Orks populate a lot of it. A million planets and quadrillions of humans sounds like a lot and compared to the scales we are used to it is. Compared to the galaxy as a whole with its hundreds of billions of stars the million worlds of the Imperium take up a tiny fraction of space. There are possibly thousands of usable planets for each one that the Imperium controls and Orks get all over the place.

As for Tyranids, I think a big part of the problem with them is not so much that they absolutely outnumber the Imperium (though by some accounts that could be the case) but that they tend to concentrate what they do have beyond the means of any local opposition to defeat and interfere with the Imperium's normal practice of reinforcing troubled sectors.

Connor MacLeod wrote:I think you need to mention Berzerker what sort of context or definitions you're using for 'major' and 'minor' wars.. since its possible other people will have a different idea on what constitutes 'major' and 'minor.'

You might like reading this: http://www.berghof-handbook.net/documents/publications/cooper_etal_handbook.pdf

It's a pretty good analysis of everything that's been going on for the past 60+ years. I especially like the "summary and policy recommendations" starting on page 42.

LORD_PANTERA wrote:I am just wondering about the Orks. how would Orks out-number the Imperium if there are a million planets under their control varying from hive worlds to industral worlds. How is that possiable? And how would the tyranids out-number them as well?

Because there are millions and millions of planets that arn't held by the Imperium.


and many Imperial planets have Orks on them. They are kept it check by the PDF to keep from toppling the planet.

Often Ork Waaaghs will attack a system and suddenly you have indigenous orks coming out of the hinterlands and joining the Waaagh. A system that otherwise could have weathered the Waaaagh is lost because of the native orks.