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Who would win in an all out war between the Eldar and Necron empires at their respective zeniths.

Some might think that the War in Heaven was that matchup and that the outcome is known, but as I’ll show below, neither faction were at their prime during the War in Heaven. The Necron Empire was probably at its strongest before the Eldar were created, and the Eldar empire was at its strongest while the Necrons were in the great sleep.

In order to answer the question posed above I’ll do a deep dive on each faction and then compare them on a few parameters of warfare.

I’ll preface this by saying that War in Heaven lore is full of contradictions that makes it possible to read these events in multiple ways. Some might decide that this makes it impossible to actually do a proper analysis. Nevertheless, if you’re willing to follow me down this rabbit hole because you’d still like an answer, even one that’s a 'best guess' answer, this thread is for you.

Obviously this assessment requires a lot of assumptions, and obviously some of the judgments I’ll make will be subjective and not shared by others.

In order to minimize controversy I’ll try to make my comparisons based on those pieces of the lore that have the most meat i.e. those pieces of lore that are corroborated in the most places. I will speculate on other interpretations but where I feel like the evidence is thin, I will leave this kind of speculation out of the assessment and my conclusions.

The contest happens in a Milky Way galaxy with no other species present. The Webway already exists as it is a crucial precursor to the emergence of what we mean when we say the Eldar Empire.

Due to formatting limitations I have moved the bulk of this discussion here: https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/g692tq/eldar_empire_vs_necron_empire_a_deep_analysis/

When did the Eldars fought and beat the DAoT humans ? I don't remember that I had the feeling humans actually colonized the galaxy during this time, so not really beaten

 godardc wrote:
When did the Eldars fought and beat the DAoT humans ? I don't remember that I had the feeling humans actually colonized the galaxy during this time, so not really beaten

The eldar empire was spread across the galaxy and dominated it right up to their Fall circa M30.

So the DAoT rose and fell under the shadow of the galactic eldar empire. The eldar spent this time getting decadent and indolent so they had no threats to their borders that worried them. They had automata armies that basically stood as a wall around their empire protecting it. So, whether the DAoT were awesome or not, they never threatened the eldar empire.

You can also take the size of the galaxy as a reason for this. Between 100 and 400 billion stars, planets around most. Even if the eldar empire controlled 1 billion star systems, that's still between 1 and 0.25% of the total galactic system and it's a thousand times larger than the current imperium.

It is actually pretty easy in such a vast scale like this for multiple empires to exist completely overlapping each other. As 40k especially centres on star systems rather than the space between them, connected only by warp travel, you're looking at systems individually rather than connected by the space between them.


i actually think that the reason humanity could rise at all is the eldar empire kept the orks under control, using their automata armies to run eternal extermination missions to keep them in check.

Whilst Eldar legends suggest the Blackstone Fortresses were created to fight the C'tan, we don't know if they succeeded in destroying any of them. We have evidence of the C'tan killing each other and the Necrons defeating them but there are no reports I can recall of Eldar actually killing a C'tan. Khaine defeated the Nightbringer but he wasn't destroyed. Cegorach tricked the Outsider and drove him mad but again he survived. Vaul took on the Void Dragon but we don't know how the battle ended.

 Karhedron wrote:
Whilst Eldar legends suggest the Blackstone Fortresses were created to fight the C'tan, we don't know if they succeeded in destroying any of them. We have evidence of the C'tan killing each other and the Necrons defeating them but there are no reports I can recall of Eldar actually killing a C'tan. Khaine defeated the Nightbringer but he wasn't destroyed. Cegorach tricked the Outsider and drove him mad but again he survived. Vaul took on the Void Dragon but we don't know how the battle ended.

The fact Vaul survived as a deity all the way up to the Eldar's Fall, and the fact the Blackstone Fortresses all survived up to the Gothic War suggests the Void Dragon did not come out on top.

The warp was described as anathema to the c'tan, so enough warp energy should be capable of damaging and killing them.

i think it's enough to say they were 'capable of killing c'tan' even if we have no evidence that they 'actually verifiably killed c'tan'.

This is supported by "The Great Work" where Imperial forces encounter a bound C'tan shard that is being used to power the Pharos beacon on Sotha. It is being held by bands of psychic energy being generated by blackstone that has been tuned to amplify warp energy. Despite its powers, the C'tan cannot break free.

The Necrons at their peak when led by the C'tan buttstomped the Eldar's daddy, much less the emo space elves themselves tbh.

Iracundus wrote:

 Karhedron wrote:
Whilst Eldar legends suggest the Blackstone Fortresses were created to fight the C'tan, we don't know if they succeeded in destroying any of them. We have evidence of the C'tan killing each other and the Necrons defeating them but there are no reports I can recall of Eldar actually killing a C'tan. Khaine defeated the Nightbringer but he wasn't destroyed. Cegorach tricked the Outsider and drove him mad but again he survived. Vaul took on the Void Dragon but we don't know how the battle ended.

The fact Vaul survived as a deity all the way up to the Eldar's Fall, and the fact the Blackstone Fortresses all survived up to the Gothic War suggests the Void Dragon did not come out on top.

Pretty sure the Void Dragon survived being blasted directly by the Fortresses so...

Slayer-Fan123 wrote:

Iracundus wrote:

 Karhedron wrote:
Whilst Eldar legends suggest the Blackstone Fortresses were created to fight the C'tan, we don't know if they succeeded in destroying any of them. We have evidence of the C'tan killing each other and the Necrons defeating them but there are no reports I can recall of Eldar actually killing a C'tan. Khaine defeated the Nightbringer but he wasn't destroyed. Cegorach tricked the Outsider and drove him mad but again he survived. Vaul took on the Void Dragon but we don't know how the battle ended.

The fact Vaul survived as a deity all the way up to the Eldar's Fall, and the fact the Blackstone Fortresses all survived up to the Gothic War suggests the Void Dragon did not come out on top.

Pretty sure the Void Dragon survived being blasted directly by the Fortresses so...

Notice how I never said the Void Dragon was destroyed.

What we do know from the original WD articles was that the Void Dragon (and its Necrons) was rampaging and the Eldar were on the back foot. Then the Eldar legends had Vaul create the Talismans of Vaul aka the Blackstone Fortresses and set off to do battle. Then the legend ended. However since the Eldar did not go extinct and the Void Dragon suddenly stops its genocidal rampage and vanishes, it can be concluded that the Void Dragon did not prevail.