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We get lots of examples of promethium production, a gel like substance that powers all types of things within the Imperium, we know that food comes from agri-worlds, and are shipped out to the rest of the Imperium as nutritious gruel, sludge, and bars, we know grox are the main supply of cattle. Obviously, the Imperium harvests its fair share of the resources we all know, such as iron, copper, tin, zinc, and gold. But I was wondering, what exactly are power swords made of? Where does promethium come from? Does the Imperium make use of nuclear power? Where does the energy come from to power the massive industrial might of the Imperium? how is the raw material for promethium, plasteel, ceramite, and armaplas harvested? What type of other goods drives the Imperiums economy? Is there a spice trade? Goods? Like wood, oil, textiles, electronics, pharmaceuticals? Space whale oil? lol

edit: TYRANID WHALE OIL!

Adamantine is pretty clearly important too. And well it's a new thing indeed, Blackstone is shaping up to become an important resource in the post cadia era

Food is obviously a key resource. Underground societies like the Valhallans and the people of Nusquam Fundumentibus grow huge amounts of fungus or vat-grown comestibles. Whole agri-worlds are devoted to the cultivation of food crops. (The Eisenhorn series has a harrowing encounter on just such a world, if you're interested.) Although grox are the most widely known livestock animal, there are others as well. (The Ravenor series features a visit to an outpost which specializes in livestock-trading.)

Mining's also a big deal, of course. There are multiple instances of large mining operations. Thanks to the tech the Imperium has, these often take place outside habitable planets, on rogue celestial objects and whatnot. (Soul Hunter starts off with some folks doing a mineral survey on such an object.) A ton of works dealing with Necrons as the adversary feature a mining project that stumbled into a tomb-complex as a plot point. Although adamantine is the primary substance we usually see (and frequently these mining operations are developing some unnamed substance), virtually every element you could mine would be useful to someone in the AdMech.

 LumenPraebeo wrote:
Does the Imperium make use of nuclear power?

The Imperium makes wide use of plasma reactors, which are a type of nuclear fusion reactor, so yes.

Prometheum is not, in fact, a single substance. Rather, it's a catch-all term used to refer to any combustible liquid post-refinement.

The most important resource is people, endless amounts of people. Like the Roman Empire or the Soviets, a lot of problems can be solved when the government can say "Hmm we lost a major battle and our entire army was destroyed, raise five more".

Everything else the IOM has is secondary to it's insane advantage with numbers. This is how they can afford to fight every other faction on a daily basis and hang in there.

And that’s matched by the Astra Militarum’s seemingly low-tech standard kit.

The humble Lasgun is, frankly, a miracle of technology. It has enough punch to kill a human. It’s easily made. It uses (largely, but not universally) standardised ammo, which by comparison to solid slug weapons, very light. Best of all? It’s maintenance light. Very few, if any, moving parts. It’s a weapon intimately familiar to former Hive Gangers, effective enough for those from more rarified stock (Vostroyans), yet more than simply enough for backwater feudal world simpletons to be able to wield. Just need enough sense to know which end goes toward the enemy, and you’re pretty much good to go.

Patterns do of course vary. Some have variable power settings, other shot selectors. Some very rare ones have both, and equally rare are those with set, erm, settings.

But whichever you get resupplied with, your Guardsman will know the holdy end for the Shooty end, and what to do with it.

No post battle stripdown needed compared to solid slug. If it’s a decent model, it’s watertight so less concern when fording water. And in the sheer, staggering, ridiculous numbers it’s typically deployed in, a real threat to most of what the Galaxy has to throw at you.

Same goes for the tanks. The Chimera and Leman Russ for example. Neither is by any means advanced. But when you stick to those patterns, resupply again becomes a doddle. No need to worry about crews having to learn new controls. No need for gunners to learn new sights etc.

Standardisation. When you’re arming untold billions, it really matters!

I mean, arguably, the Imperium could issue Bolters and other more Killy Weapons to Guard Veterans. Except they’re harder to maintain, and harder to resupply by comparison. And if you’ve made it to veteran, chances are you’re a dab hand with a Lasgun!

No matter how laughable us gamers consider the Lasgun, I’m fairly sure any modern military would besmirch their pantaloons if we could offer them the ‘humble’ Lasgun!

Hydrogen to fuel the plasma reactors and weapons.

Tangentially I love simplicity of logistics for food supply to the imperial guard.

Wave n-1's bodies are gathered up and rendered down into corpse starch for wave n.

When your reinforcements are food for subsequent reinforcements you need to spend less resources on shipping food leaving more ships available to arms and armies.

Hell, thanks to the durability of the lasguns and so on, the equipment from wave n-1 is probably scavenged from the battlefield and takes minimal refurb to supply wave n!

Jimsolo wrote:Food is obviously a key resource. Underground societies like the Valhallans and the people of Nusquam Fundumentibus grow huge amounts of fungus or vat-grown comestibles. Whole agri-worlds are devoted to the cultivation of food crops. (The Eisenhorn series has a harrowing encounter on just such a world, if you're interested.) Although grox are the most widely known livestock animal, there are others as well. (The Ravenor series features a visit to an outpost which specializes in livestock-trading.)

Mining's also a big deal, of course. There are multiple instances of large mining operations. Thanks to the tech the Imperium has, these often take place outside habitable planets, on rogue celestial objects and whatnot. (Soul Hunter starts off with some folks doing a mineral survey on such an object.) A ton of works dealing with Necrons as the adversary feature a mining project that stumbled into a tomb-complex as a plot point. Although adamantine is the primary substance we usually see (and frequently these mining operations are developing some unnamed substance), virtually every element you could mine would be useful to someone in the AdMech.

Adamantium has definitely been mentioned a few times, and seems to be a particularly rare and valuable resource to the Imperium. Hardly surprising when it is the best material for building warship chasses and armour, but is needed in huge quantities for that application. The endless humans are worthless without Navy transports, so adamantium sources really must be prized.

Another example of very rare and valuable resources is psi-reactive materials. I can't think of any named examples, but they are noted to be both rare, and extremely valuable in assisting and controlling psykers. Blackstone would be a notable example of this kind of resource. Every Sanctioned psyker makes use of some psi-reactive materials in their limiters and equipment, so the demands will be fairly high across the Imperium for these rare resources.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Prometheum is not, in fact, a single substance. Rather, it's a catch-all term used to refer to any combustible liquid post-refinement.

Whilst this is true, the preferred fuel for flamethrowers is described as self-igniting and capable of burning underwater (chemically contains its own oxygen supply? Likely will burn in void too). That is a pretty advanced petrochemical of some kind, so clearly the Imperium has access to refined furls we can only dream of today, as well as the mundane ones.

 Haighus wrote:

Another example of very rare and valuable resources is psi-reactive materials. I can't think of any named examples, but they are noted to be both rare, and extremely valuable in assisting and controlling psykers. Blackstone would be a notable example of this kind of resource. Every Sanctioned psyker makes use of some psi-reactive materials in their limiters and equipment, so the demands will be fairly high across the Imperium for these rare resources.

Lorelei crystals.
Mentioned in Baneblade book by Guy Hayley

And other places, I'm sure I've heard "Lorelei" before.

I'd say simply people. All that fancy stuff is pretty much useless without the unwashed, scared and easily impressed mass of people.

Any information on harvesting Tyranid Hive ships for oil?

An odd thought. Are orks tasty? We know they are a type of fungus, and they "grow" prolifically. Here on Earth, truffles command remarkable prices. If "ork" could be turned into the Imperium's "must-have" taste treat, one could kill two birds with one stone. First, by killing orks, one threat vector to the Imperium could be curtailed, and 2nd, ork is an abundant and apparently never-ending food source. Admittedly, harvesting orks is much more difficult and dangerous than harvesting most fungi, but if there is a profit to be made, humans will find a way to get that profit.

Ork ... It's what's for dinner.

After quick research, it appears they are. Although, I wouldn't recommend eating something which the whole point of existence is to murder you as brutally as possible.
I can imagine some people eat Squigs, but outright Orks... No.

(https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/160532/are-orks-edible)

Great find. While I take your point about the danger of hunting something that is probably even more eager to kill and eat you, that has not stopped people from hunting creatures like wild boars without proper gear. Someone in the 40k universe will have tried ork hunting for sport, maybe even succeeded, then bragged about bagging "the most dangerous game".

 Hawky wrote:
After quick research, it appears they are. Although, I wouldn't recommend eating something which the whole point of existence is to murder you as brutally as possible.
I can imagine some people eat Squigs, but outright Orks... No.

(https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/160532/are-orks-edible)

 Ancestral Hamster wrote:
An odd thought. Are orks tasty? We know they are a type of fungus, and they "grow" prolifically. Here on Earth, truffles command remarkable prices. If "ork" could be turned into the Imperium's "must-have" taste treat, one could kill two birds with one stone. First, by killing orks, one threat vector to the Imperium could be curtailed, and 2nd, ork is an abundant and apparently never-ending food source. Admittedly, harvesting orks is much more difficult and dangerous than harvesting most fungi, but if there is a profit to be made, humans will find a way to get that profit.

Ork ... It's what's for dinner.

You I like!

Plot Armors are in pretty high demand.

Considering the Imperium loses about as many battles as they win, I'm sure they have a high demand for plot armor to avoid those kinds of losses.

T'au still holds the largest reserves of Plot Armor, though. Imperium should put some effort to recapture their storages.

Posters have already mentioned that people are the Imperium's primary resource, but without proper logisitics, those bodies are useless. In order to use the milliions of Imperial Guardsmen, the Imperium needs to feed them, it needs to equip them, and it needs to transport them to a place were they can point the shooting end at something. At a strategic level, the Imperium should highly prioritize the agri worlds that produce food, the hive worlds that produce Guardsmen, and the mining facilities and shipyards that produce transports.

Although most of game play is focused on the company scale battles that we find fun to play, the vast majority of Imperial battles are going to be Naval fights. After all, there is little point dropping a few hundred thousand IG on a planet if they are going to be nuked from orbit before they get out of their shuttles. This means that shipyards, mines, and the schools needed to produce naval crew (navigators, officers, pilots, so forth) are key resources.

The food situation is mitigated by the imperial guard being ghouls; wave n is cannibalised by wave n+1. Delicious corpse starch!

I imagine the most common materials are what really drives economy. Yes unobtainium and plebonium are super important, but they are small in scale. The ginormous amounts of basic elements (iron, copper, fossile matter for fuel and chemicals, gravel and sand for concrete etc) is what shapes the landscapes. Gigantic complexes of several dozend blastfurnaces at once... on normal worlds.
https://www.viktormacha.com/galerie/chmk-chelyabinsk-364/
https://www.viktormacha.com/galerie/kosaya-gora-ironworks-tula-254/
roaring into the sky - unfiltered, unrecycled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tog431UgpW4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JCKivK0k8c
(here a safety valve opened - 40k this would be standard mode of operation...)

Quality blessed stone for skyscraper cathedrals would propably be very high up the list too.

HoundsofDemos wrote:
The most important resource is people, endless amounts of people. Like the Roman Empire or the Soviets, a lot of problems can be solved when the government can say "Hmm we lost a major battle and our entire army was destroyed, raise five more".

Everything else the IOM has is secondary to it's insane advantage with numbers. This is how they can afford to fight every other faction on a daily basis and hang in there.

Hounds of Demos has it, the most critical resource is humans, though not because of what you can do with numbers - but because the Imperium is structured around a economic system that is designed to create a vast need for raw humanity.
Widely distributed STCs are intentionally left incomplete after centuries of testing of a new component that would improve efficiency by orders of magnitudes at the cost of decreasing the need for invididual humans.

Because humanity has taken this path before, and was almost destroyed by it with the war of the Iron Men. It's very easy to engineer a system to need less people, but to keep that system stable over millennia? For that you need to replace bits and for that you want the guy who fixes the repair robots you very rarely use. But for that you need people! And you made them obsolete! So there's almost none left!

So back to the drawing board, fudge the system to create some inefficiencies that require you to maintain a pool of people as a resource themselves. Then fudge a few more things to make it even less efficient to try to take humans out of the system, so no future humans try to engineer the species into extinction in search of an easier life right now.

If your maths are right, you should have a multi-millennia lasting engine that is built from people, and thus incentivises having people about it to exist. Also having the side bonus of keeping humans alive forever rather than transcending to some supreme but alien machine consciousness.

 LumenPraebeo wrote:
Any information on harvesting Tyranid Hive ships for oil?

There's a bit in the GSC Codex about an abattoir world chopping up void whales.