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I've been looking into the Elite Imperium armies, and was wondering what you guys thought was the best in both casual and semi-competitive play, including resorting to cheese and for regular lists.

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Collegia Titanica

Out of those 3? GKs by far.

GKs easily. They are really, really OP in the lore.

Grey Knights blow them all out of the water. They are all a league above everyone else. These are the guys you call when daemon primarchs show up.

Every GK is a GD librarian. Like seriously it's not even close.

Gameplay-wise none of those three Codexes are great as standalone books, but the Deathwatch are probably the best of them.

Militarum Tempestus and Grey Knights both exist in a weird limbo where they're paying a lot of points for toys they can't really use. MT are overpriced because they've got AP3 lasguns they can't make much use of since S3 doesn't threaten much and what it does threaten tends to wander around with a cover save, Grey Knights are overpriced because they're all wandering around with Psychic mastery levels (with severely limited access to powers) and AP3 force weapons (which they've got very few attacks with).

The Deathwatch are paying the most for their models of the three, but they've got the best tools for getting into fights (Drop Pods, Bikes, and a very nice assault flyer), the most versatile basic infantry (a Deathwatch Veteran can threaten anything that isn't either a vehicle with high rear armour or flying), the least to-field tax (Devastator-equivalent Troops squads, one-model minimum squad size on Terminators/Bikes/Assault Veterans, and incredibly flexible formations), and the nicest guns (I'm not exaggerating when I say that the Deathwatch have the best infantry weapons in the game today).

Any of them would benefit massively from a longer-ranged, more static, and cheaper force to hold backfield objectives, screen expensive units, and deal with volume of opposition; the Inquisition or the Imperial Guard are the logical choices for the role.

(Fluff-wise I'd say it depends; the Grey Knights and the Deathwatch have very similar resources and training but they're both highly specialized. A Grey Knight might struggle fighting a Necron character that a Deathwatch Marine would make short work of, a Deathwatch Marine might get rolled over by a Daemon that a Grey Knight would stomp out without effort. MT aren't really in the same league one-on-one and would be a very odd comparison to either.)

Deathwatch, just because of the numbers.

They considerably outnumber the Grey Knights.

Fluff wise, Grey Knights. First, you need to be a psyker to begin with, then you need to survive becoming a Space Marine. Or maybe the other way 'round? I don't recall exactly.

Tabletop, probably Death Watch from what I've heard.

Fluffwise, the Custodes.

 NInjatactiks wrote:
Fluffwise, the Custodes.

Custodes lack psychic defense (which we saw on Prospero) making them sitting ducks for the GK.

They'd put up a good fight, to be sure, as would the deathwatch thanks to their numbers, but GK just have this vicious combination of wargear quality, psychic powers and overall eliteness.

 Ashiraya wrote:

 NInjatactiks wrote:
Fluffwise, the Custodes.

Custodes lack psychic defense (which we saw on Prospero) making them sitting ducks for the GK.

They'd put up a good fight, to be sure, as would the deathwatch thanks to their numbers, but GK just have this vicious combination of wargear quality, psychic powers and overall eliteness.

If the GK have 'overall eliteness' can we have our two base Attacks back? Please?

That is fine with me, though it is only one point on the very very long list of things I would change with 40k...

 Ashiraya wrote:
That is fine with me, though it is only one point on the very very long list of things I would change with 40k...

I started rewriting that Codex because there was less stuff I wouldn't change in it than stuff I would. Sticking with the basic assumptions of the game there are a lot of small tweaks that'd make things work a whole lot better fairly quickly (free psychic hoods for all/most HQ psykers, planned reserves, superheavy caps, and capping Eldar jetbikes at one weapon per three are one-sentence fixes that would put a big dent in the worst problems pretty quickly).

GK from that last fluff wise they do things that space marine wish they could do

then Scions since their whole thing is to kill rogue marines

then DW because they are made of marines

but the absolute most powerful imperium force is the IG Navy and army.

Sheer force

sheer numbers

all the space boats.

 Desubot wrote:
then Scions since their whole thing is to kill rogue marines

I thought that was the SoB job?

Or rather, the one job everyone claims to do because it makes them sound more dangerous?

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
then Scions since their whole thing is to kill rogue marines

I thought that was the SoB job?

Or rather, the one job everyone claims to do because it makes them sound more dangerous?

I thought their job was to put down heretics in general

im sure their is overlap

like how GK also goes against Chaos in general

and Chaos space marines are still marines so scions still go after them

and so do sisters.

I demand that the OP add Sisters of Battle to the poll so that I can click it for the laughs.

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
then Scions since their whole thing is to kill rogue marines

I thought that was the SoB job?

Or rather, the one job everyone claims to do because it makes them sound more dangerous?

There isn't a specific rogue-Marine-hunting force. SM Sternguard and the Deathwatch haul Vengeance rounds around for the purpose, GK have all their anti-Chaos tech, and presumably hot-shot lasguns are at least somewhat intended for the purpose.

The closest thing to a specific designated anti-rogue-Marine task force was the Space Wolves Legion before the post-Heresy reorg.

 Desubot wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
then Scions since their whole thing is to kill rogue marines

I thought that was the SoB job?

Or rather, the one job everyone claims to do because it makes them sound more dangerous?

I thought their job was to put down heretics in general

im sure their is overlap

like how GK also goes against Chaos in general

and Chaos space marines are still marines so scions still go after them

and so do sisters.

The Sisters of Battle are the Ecclesiarchy's private military. They guard Ecclesiarchy personnel and property, kill heretics, guard pilgrimage routes, undertake wars of Faith, and just generally perform every task the Ecclesiarchy needs done that requires highly-trained killers.

At one point the Space Wolves' practices brought them under Ecclesiarchy suspicion of performing paganistic rituals. The Ecclesiarchy sent a small force to Fenris to investigate, not expecting any resistance. The Space Wolves drove them out of the system with nearly-lethal force. The Ecclesiarchy returned later, this time with a god damned battlefleet. The Space Wolves and Sisters of Battle fought in space for a few weeks before the Ecclesiarchy fleet decided to drop the matter and left.

God damn, stuff like that and the Months of Shame story are why Space Wolves are a close second for my favorite Space Marine Chapter (after Salamanders of course). They just flat-out refuse to let the Inquisition, Grey Knights and Ecclesiarchy to do their horsegak unchecked and respond so, so amazingly. It's really too bad I hate their aesthetic or else I'd play them instead of vanilla Space Marines.

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
then Scions since their whole thing is to kill rogue marines

I thought that was the SoB job?

Or rather, the one job everyone claims to do because it makes them sound more dangerous?

There isn't a specific rogue-Marine-hunting force. SM Sternguard and the Deathwatch haul Vengeance rounds around for the purpose, GK have all their anti-Chaos tech, and presumably hot-shot lasguns are at least somewhat intended for the purpose.

The closest thing to a specific designated anti-rogue-Marine task force was the Space Wolves Legion before the post-Heresy reorg.

I recall that was their whole shtick. maybe it was older fluff or some cross fluff with inquisition i was mis remembering.

 Desubot wrote:

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Ashiraya wrote:

 Desubot wrote:
then Scions since their whole thing is to kill rogue marines

I thought that was the SoB job?

Or rather, the one job everyone claims to do because it makes them sound more dangerous?

There isn't a specific rogue-Marine-hunting force. SM Sternguard and the Deathwatch haul Vengeance rounds around for the purpose, GK have all their anti-Chaos tech, and presumably hot-shot lasguns are at least somewhat intended for the purpose.

The closest thing to a specific designated anti-rogue-Marine task force was the Space Wolves Legion before the post-Heresy reorg.

I recall that was their whole shtick. maybe it was older fluff or some cross fluff with inquisition i was mis remembering.

I have heard that that was their thing at one point.

However, I have also heard that the original iteration of the Sisters of Battle army released in 1997 already had them as the Ecclesiarchy's military. It's possible that an earlier iteration of them that only existed in a lore story without any models to represent them, described them as Space Marine hunters.

I'm admittedly not familiar with Sisters of Silence lore, but I know that one of the recent box sets contained 5 of them. Is it possible the Sisters of Silence are what you're remembering?