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what is the least powerful race in 40k?

For this lets count harlequinns as a branch of Dark Eldar. Scions as AM, admech and skitarii as one faction, and assassins with the inquistion.

I would immediately think that the Craftworld eldar would be the least powerful do to lack of numbers. Dark Eldar in-fight a lot, and that might be a weakness, however, with the strength of the Kabal of the Black Heart, they can stand a chance against basically all invasions bar tyranids or necrons, however, with the fact that they reside in the webway, it is unlikely that either would be interested or able to reach commoragh.

happy wargaming,

-Mikey

Tau Empire are weakest for their impact on the galaxy. Like, they only occupy a single region of space that could be (and nearly was) crushed by a single crusade. They have a good effect on tabletop, but in a full fight, they just don't cut it.

I would say in terms of fluff impact in the present setting, the Tau are down there.

You could also make a case for the Necrons, but that is solely because they are still waking up and unifying. They have an enormous potential strength, but at the moment it isn't realized. Not that they are weak, just that they have no flexed their full muscle yet.

The tau are a minor infestation to the Imperium that could be wiped out if they weren't spending their money on Raid for the 'nids, hiring Bill Murray to take care of the spooky ghosts by the Eye of Terror, and bolt rounds to get rid of the incompetent soldiers who can't do these things.

I would say Dark Eldar. They are of less consequence than the Tau, who, while small, are enjoying a meteoric rise.

I'd have to say Tau Empire. We are strong for our size, but are just not big enough to compete.

I will say, that the crusade was nowhere near close to destroying the entire tau empire. AFAIK, all the fighting was contained in one sept. Although that particular crusade certainly wasn't anywhere near the most powerful the imperium can produce.

Edit: they imperium could easily wipe the TE off the map, but it has not even come close to that. It's a bit too preoccupied fighting off the rest of the galaxy. Besides, it's a speed bump for the tyranids.

 zgort wrote:
I would say Dark Eldar. They are of less consequence than the Tau, who, while small, are enjoying a meteoric rise.

I would say both Craftworld Eldar and Dark Eldar are currently less of a threat to the Imperium than the Tau, but that doesn't mean they are less powerful than the Tau.

Tau and Craftworld Eldar are significantly weaker than another faction.

Tau for size/speed; Dark Eldar since they're basically just uncoordinated (as a race) pirates who're very good at what they do.

 DanielBeaver wrote:
Tau and Craftworld Eldar are significantly weaker than another faction.

Eldar. Weak.

Does not compute. In fluff or tabletop they are strong, that dying race schtick has been abandoned essentially.

Tau are weakest fluff wise, naive, arrogant, and no muscle to back up the manifest destiny they have. Don't even have good long range spaceflight capabilities. It is the worst combination of traits to have when you're the weakest.

All it would take is a Waaaagh and a Crusade from opposite directions and they would lose ironically because of a lack of response time.

Space Marines. There's only one million of them. Chaos Space Marines are fairly pathetic as well.

That is a codex not a race.

That is a point. And they are not as invincible as some would have us believe, after all, plasma rifles (canonically less powerful than plasma guns) tend to leave giant holes where their chests were, with not hope of survival.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
That is a point. And they are not as invincible as some would have us believe, after all, plasma rifles (canonically less powerful than plasma guns) tend to leave giant holes where their chests were, with not hope of survival.

According to propaganda, anyway.

That said, Astartes are technically still Imperium as a race and faction, so the answer for this thread is without a doubt Tau.

Tau

Possibly Dark eldar.

If we are talking about actual military influence and stuff.

Aren't Dark Eldar and Craftworld Eldar technically the same race? Where do you draw the line? Are Ogryns still humans? Are grots and orks a single race? The least powerful race is obviously some minor sentient species that doesn't have its own army like the Kroot or Jokaero.

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
That is a point. And they are not as invincible as some would have us believe, after all, plasma rifles (canonically less powerful than plasma guns) tend to leave giant holes where their chests were, with not hope of survival.

According to propaganda, anyway.

That said, Astartes are technically still Imperium as a race and faction, so the answer for this thread is without a doubt Tau.

That particular piece of fluff are the memories of a space marine medic guy thing (I forget their name). Plasma weaponry annihilates SMs (and pretty much anything else). It's just that the only places you will see it in great numbers tends to be the races with total smaller numbers (tau, eldar).

I am not convinced that this gaurantees it to not be propaganda, you'd need GK-style SECRET TO EVERYONE lore for that.

That said, it's irrelevant to my main point - the Tau lack the numbers, reach, galactic awareness and Warp awareness to be anything else than the least powerful.

weakest race= grots

weakest army= csm

weakest gw support = SoB

 Ashiraya wrote:
I am not convinced that this gaurantees it to not be propaganda, you'd need GK-style SECRET TO EVERYONE lore for that.

That said, it's irrelevant to my main point - the Tau lack the numbers, reach, galactic awareness and Warp awareness to be anything else than the least powerful.

Well, that part I agree with.

- playable ones = Tau
- 40k in general = one of the dead civs where only ruins are left...

Im sorry I should have clarified.

I consider dark eldar and eldar different races, because the eldar live on craftworlds and all the dark eldar live in the webway.

I should have said weakest army, sorry.

like all the imperium, necrons, tyranids, eldar, dark eldar, tau, orks, chaos ect.

Tau, Necrons are coming pretty close these days since the lore retcon. They're just a bunch of small, infighting empires

 Co'tor Shas wrote:

That particular piece of fluff are the memories of a space marine medic guy thing.

Apothecary. I'd be a bit wary of using a single source as "fact" since it'll probably be retconned sooner or later but it's the only source we have then I guess you've got to go with it (though I haven't seen Tau battlesuits with shoulder mounted weaponry either (disregarding the old Broadside Battlesuits)).

Harriticus wrote:Tau, Necrons are coming pretty close these days since the lore retcon. They're just a bunch of small, infighting empires

Still far more powerful than the Tau and potentially more powerful than the Eldar already. Vastly superior technology (especially in space) goes a long way. Despite having no Warp signature they're also capable of countering Psykers whereas as far as I know Tau have no defence against them (other than try to shoot them in time). Not only are the Tau the least powerful they have weaknesses which noone else has (interstellar travel and Psykers in particular).

Basically every race except Tau can project some degree of power just about anywhere in the galaxy. Tau are stuck in their small little corner. Easily the weakest race.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:
Tau Empire are weakest for their impact on the galaxy. Like, they only occupy a single region of space that could be (and nearly was) crushed by a single crusade. They have a good effect on tabletop, but in a full fight, they just don't cut it.

Considering the fact that the Tau are a fairly powerful species, with domination over many others, and they survived the full might of an Imperial Crusade and ground it to a stand-still. I'd say that, as far as races go, the Galg or the Rak'Gol would be major competitors.

On that note, they should really include more alien races in the Tau Empire. I'm going through all of the species currently dominated by the Tau (the Tau are surprisingly like the pre-Caesar Roman Empire), and I"m amazed that none of them have models - they would be so badass, and would make excellent addition to the Tau forces - it would make their codex significantly thicker, and might even cause a lot more players to play Tau.


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 Quickjager wrote:

 DanielBeaver wrote:
Tau and Craftworld Eldar are significantly weaker than another faction.

Eldar. Weak.

Does not compute. In fluff or tabletop they are strong, that dying race schtick has been abandoned essentially.

Tau are weakest fluff wise, naive, arrogant, and no muscle to back up the manifest destiny they have. Don't even have good long range spaceflight capabilities. It is the worst combination of traits to have when you're the weakest.

All it would take is a Waaaagh and a Crusade from opposite directions and they would lose ironically because of a lack of response time.

No muscle? That's like saying the Roman Legions had no cavalry. AKA, completely false.

The Demiurg.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Demiurg

They're only interested in commerce, trading, and mining.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
That is a point. And they are not as invincible as some would have us believe, after all, plasma rifles (canonically less powerful than plasma guns) tend to leave giant holes where their chests were, with not hope of survival.

You're funny
Judging by your hilarity, I'm assuming that you already realize that plasma is able to penetrate any kind of infantry armor period. Seeing as how it's the hottest [known] state of matter in existence, it could burn through virtually everything in five seconds flat.

Im going to go ahead and say DE. Even though theyre by far my favorite, they will never have the power, organization or desire to launch anything that would be more of a thorn in the Imperium's side. They really have no further agenda other than to keep on doing what theyre doing now. They will never expand as a race, and theyll never be coordinated enough to make anything of themselves.
The tau on the other hand are currently expanding, and still do hold a good deal of power. Given that the Imperium is quite preoccupied right now, they could definitely swoop in and take some territory. As for the Craftworld Eldar, they may be small, but theyre certainly organized enough to cause some pretty substantial problems. Furthermore, theyre smart enough to know how to plan and coordinate attacks and manipulate their enemies.

 Jollydevil wrote:
Im going to go ahead and say DE. Even though theyre by far my favorite, they will never have the power, organization or desire to launch anything that would be more of a thorn in the Imperium's side. They really have no further agenda other than to keep on doing what theyre doing now. They will never expand as a race, and theyll never be coordinated enough to make anything of themselves.
The tau on the other hand are currently expanding, and still do hold a good deal of power. Given that the Imperium is quite preoccupied right now, they could definitely swoop in and take some territory. As for the Craftworld Eldar, they may be small, but theyre certainly organized enough to cause some pretty substantial problems. Furthermore, theyre smart enough to know how to plan and coordinate attacks and manipulate their enemies.

No Goals does not mean no power. The Dark Eldar have all of the technology of the Pre-Fall Eldar (possibly equal to that of the DAoT humans), with all of the intelligence and foresight of the Eldar plus the courage to use said weapons. The Dark Eldar are known to raid heavily fortified systems just to say that they can. With Vect at the fore, there is virtually nothing they can't do.