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Out of all the races, who has the most effective tactic for Planetary Invasion? I am not asking for who can conquer the world with the least amount of troops, but who can deploy and start battle on the ground as well as deal crippling blows. I think orks cause of tellyportaz and cause of the amount of troops they have, but that is just me. Tyranids are up there though. What do you think?

Necrons

Ex. Maynarkh Dynasty - The Orphean War

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

Probably Tyranids since unless you kill all of them, they can recover casualties.

The legions of old? Only about 10000 sm in each one and they did the job quickly and effectively.

Necrons are at the top when it comes to speed and overwhelming power where-ever they strike. No other race has the technology to match them.

On the other hand, a proper Tyranid invasion has so many bodies that you simply cannot win without an Exterminatus-level event, and at that point "winning" is an academic distinction. The Tyranids aren't as fast as the Necrons, but you will drown in the tide eventually and there is nothing you can do about it.

Necrons have better teleporters than Orks, comparable numbers, and much more power on an individual basis.

I would say Space Marines, they are designed for this (they even had a mission in their codex which was an orbital strike^^ )

Nerak wrote:
The legions of old? Only about 10000 sm in each one and they did the job quickly and effectively.

10,000 was a small legion, like the Thousand Sons.

The Ultramarines were the largest post heresy with 200,000.

Uhhh...Tyranids?

 Crazyterran wrote:

Nerak wrote:
The legions of old? Only about 10000 sm in each one and they did the job quickly and effectively.

10,000 was a small legion, like the Thousand Sons.

The Ultramarines were the largest post heresy with 200,000.

10,000 was the standard per legion under the older fluff ~ at the time Ultramarines were 25,000, hence 25 successor chapters.

When the CCG came out Alan Merritt (GW's head of IP) decided to retcon it to even the smallest legions being able to field around 100,000.

The Black Library novels are a mess as some authors were going off the old numbers and some off the new.

*but* under the new fluff the legions were scattered around dozens of expeditionary fleets, so the average legion planetary assault would be smaller than 10,000.

Orks have the tendency to contaminate the planet with spores. Not sure if they are the best in invading a planet but they sure are hard to get rid of your planet.

Dark Eldar are very efficient at invading planets, while they cant attack as well defended planets as other factions they can kidnap an entire population and leave without a trace.

There's also stories of Dark Eldar hiding whole systems behind stealth fields so they can freely raid them without any threat of counter attack.

Taffy17 wrote:
Dark Eldar are very efficient at invading planetsk.

Lol they are horrible at invading. They might be one of the best raiders but raiding =/= invading.
If they where good at invading half the galaxy would be under the Iron rule of a dark eldar kabal

Taffy17 wrote:
Dark Eldar are very efficient at invading planets, while they cant attack as well defended planets

So...they are bad at invading? If you can only attack undefended targets, your aren't a very good invader, are you?
I mean, that's like the baseline.
Its like claiming some guy is an excellent fighter because he can beat a crippled fellow senseless.

I didn't say they were good, i said they were efficient. And it depends on you're definition of good.

Space Marines invade a Tau world, an SOS gets out and the Tau send a fleet to counter and you end up in full scale war. Dark Eldar invades a Tau world and by the time anyone realises what's happened the population has long since been shipped back to commoragh to build an Archons next palace. Who's methods are better?

If the best is who can take a world quickest, probably go marines. The most destructive, probably 'nids. Most Stealthily, Dark Eldar.

 Crazyterran wrote:

Nerak wrote:
The legions of old? Only about 10000 sm in each one and they did the job quickly and effectively.

10,000 was a small legion, like the Thousand Sons.

The Ultramarines were the largest post heresy with 200,000.

Thousand sons have more that 80,000 marines at the mo, it's an indirect retcon from book 4 hh, or 3, can't remember, but the raven guard are stated as the smallest Legion pre heresy.

But your point is valid, marines pre heresy are the best hands down, even crons would have severe issues, nids would be a minor footnote in history.

Imagine 10,000 years of advancement and recruitment, the Ultramarines could have MILLIONS of space Marines ready to defend the eastern rim, as well as dark age level of tech, nids would be a joke.