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Before the Age of Strife, there was the Dark Age of Technology and the Stellar Exodus.

Did humanity encounter eldar and orks during these times? Was humanity's relationship with them better or worse?

Eldar encountered mankind long before the first Dark Age, IIRC. But during the Age of Technology, Eldar didn't care about some backwater sea slime.

I imagine that the Eldar hardly batted an eyelash at DAoT humanity. Sure humanity was making tremendous leaps and bounds, but wealthy Eldar could have planets built for them on a whim and their military capability snuffed stars. They, like humanity, had machines to do the fighting for them as well. So any conflict was likely an epic battle between iron men and Eldar A.I. with very little in the way of actual living beings having anything to do with it.

Humanity fought eldar and orks, beating both in "border skirmishes" or outright conflict (Orks I'd guess) daoh tech was comparable in power with the eldar at the time if not better.

However both the eldar and the brb have pretty much the same quote "eldar/humanity were at the pinnacle of there power and barely considered x/y/z a threat" paraphrased of course.

Of course both books on the subject could be true, both empires could have been so powerful that any long term conflict would barely dent them.

I'd imagine Orks were the same as they are now and Eldar just didn't care about them in the slightest.

Eldar never expanded their core empire. And by the time the Age of Technology came about, really only cared about where to find excitement, and looked inward. Prior to that, the rest of the galaxy was their playground ('garden'), and they just pruned upstarts as they felt like it.

Eldar military might came from their mastery of the Immaterium, not from robots (unless you count their gods), as far as I know. Where can I read about their robots?

Eldar culture is focused heavily on tales and myths. It is far less imerpical than mankind. Even if a tactic/method were demonstrably better, their mythos might still lead them to do otherwise.

For their military might, while Necrons could build weapons that could destroy solar systems, Eldar would just will the solar systems out of existence. Every Eldar is a powerful psyker. Imagine a squad of 10 men where each was effectively a ML4+ Demon Prince. Read up on the Necrons during the War In Heaven, and then remember the Eldar went toe-to-toe with them (it is debated who won). They don't even always design UIs into their tech, because using their psker ability to manipulate it is so innate.

While their tech is good, if each 'soldier' could rip apart an army with a thought, weapons tech becomes much less necessary. Perhaps this is why their main weapon (Shuriken Catapult) is more of a sidearm than a weapon of the line.

It should also be noted that, unlike the Necrons, Eldar tech wasn't nealy so focused on war. Necrons had better technology overall, but in some areas Eldar appear better. Compare and contrast the Wave Serpent and the Ghost Ark. They are both well beyond the Rhino or Land Raider or equivalents tech wise, but the Ark is more likely destroyed in return for better firepower (open topped), whereas the Serpent probably has the much more advanced Eldar equivalent of seatbelts and airbags for every passenger.

Well, short story long, humanity flourished because the Eldar were turning inward, leaving a power vacuum. And the Necrons were still in hiding. Either one of those factions could have mopped up humanity, even at its height.

From what I recall reading, Humanity invented the Bolter specifically to counter the treat of the Orks, as their weapons proved less effective against them.

Each eldar a daemon prince? That's new.

I was wondering if humanity was nicer to the eldar back then.

Maximus Bitch wrote:
Each eldar a daemon prince? That's new.

News to me too. Do we have a citation for this, other than some generous inference from "they went toe to toe with the Necrons" and "the stars themselves once lived and died at our command"?

Sorry, overstatement on my part. They were each really powerful psykers. Unclear how powerful, though.

Its unknown how "united" humanity was at this time, so it is likely that relations differed from location to location. However as mentioned with both the eldar and humanity being at the height of their power, conflict seems to have been an exceedingly minor concern.