W40K Imperium of Man vs. Star Trek United Federation of Planets

[Composeure]

At risk of possibly ""necro-ing"" (not sure how long is considered as such) I may as well begin with the preface that W40K is probably one of the most wanked and overestimated things in scifi, and in fact has many major flaws and shortcomings.

Having said that, the IoM would still beat the namby pambies of Star Trek. Frankly it would be weirdly satisfying to see that awful, mishmashy faux-""utopia"" of lies that the UFP (and Star Trek) spouts get crushed by the fascist nightmare that is the IoM (or arguably any other ""major"" W40K faction).

[Crazedwraith]

Wow, you're so edgy and cool.

[Composeure]

Lol just some figurative language to emphasize a (grim)darkly hilarious scenario.

Although in retrospect I probably shouldn't be praising the IoM for this. Personally I dislike both ST and W40K, so I wouldn't want to be biased.

[Q99]

A better matchup would be vs the Borg.

Aside from them being much larger than the UFP, they only need to get a few examples of IoM tech, and they can start incorporating IoM tech into their ships.

At that point, they now have IoM firepower, shields, and FTL speed, but with Star Trek sensors and communication (and ability to go FTL on a dime, avoiding fights they don't like), allowing them to pick and chose and assimilate weaker targets.

Once you have Borg ships with the IoM's ridiculously strong plasma engines, as long as they keep to pick-at-the-weak tactics (which they *do* use, they did this for some time before BoBW), they have a solid angle to ramp up and eventually win.

[Batman]

Who says the Borg CAN assimilate IoM tech? They've only ever assimilated technology similar or inferior to their own (their assimilation ability isn't limitless, see Species 8472).

[Marko Dash]

i can't remember who, but i remember one of the OG members here used to have this as a sig image, and it still holds up almost 20 years later.

[Eternal_Freedom]

There's also a consideration that Borg FTL is almost certainly superior to IoM warp drive already.

And while the Borg ships might be able to adapt to lance batteries, "adapting" only seems to work on energy weapons, and IoM ships tend to have a fuckton of "macro-cannon batteries" as well as giant torpedoes. So actually gaining any samples of technology is questionable. The IoM is also very used to both launching and repelling boarding actions, something the Federation isn't, so that option isn't going to go as well for the drones.

Though the idea of the Borg trying to use a 40K Warp drive and getting the entire hive mind claimed by Tzeentch or Slaneesh is quite amusing.

[Evilchumlee]

Who says the Borg CAN assimilate IoM tech? They've only ever assimilated technology similar or inferior to their own (their assimilation ability isn't limitless, see Species 8472).

They assimilated the Spatial Trajector from VOY as seen in PIC S1, that's more advanced than what they had.

There doesn't seem to be a reason why the Borg couldn't do assimilate IoM tech. 8472 had odd biological properties that prevented it, IoM tech is just... tech. There's not really anything special about it. I'm also not sure how much of it is actually really any more advanced than Borg tech.

I know kinetic shields are always a debated issue, but there should be no reason why the Borg can't do it. They might usually choose not to, because it just doesn't come up often. They're sure not unlimited... throw enough firepower at them you'll take them down... but they certainly have the capability.