Which faction is the greatess threat to the Imperium ?

[Hades Alpha]

In your opinion, which faction is the greatess threat to the Imperium?

I'm not too familliar with the background of warhammer 40k so I'd like to have arguments, exemples and facts to support your choice.

Cheers.

[gwensdad]

Eldar just want their "old stuff" back, so if ever that happened, they'd stop fighting the Imperium-therefore not a threat.

The Tau and the Orks are kinda "two sides of the same coin." One is selfish and self-serving and the other is the Orks (*rimshot*) but both could be manipulated into doing the Imperium's bidding.

The chaos powers are always out to eat the souls of everyone in the Imperium but....

Should the Tyranid or the Necrons be too successful, everything in the galaxy goes away. This would be a "bad thing" for everyone and could lead to everyone focusing their attention on defeating these two threats. I would rate the Necrons as slightly more of a threat because they could pop up anywhere.

[AirHorse]

Orks are gonna win tbh!! The tyranids might be all consuming but the orks will beat the pants out of them if you ask me, they just love to fight too much!! The chaos gods are gonna get their ***** kicked when the tyranids take on the orks properly since theres gonna be such a massive waaagh!! gork and mork are gonna be truely gargantuan beings!!

[Aldramelech]

Gota be Nids.

[Sitnam]

I think the Eldar and the Tau have a love/hate relationship with the Imperium. Both dont pose serious threats to the Imperium as a whole, just some of the border planets and maiden worlds the Imperials hold. Many Inquisitors, albeit radical ones, have had working relationships with the Eldar. I remember some fluff about Eldar assiting a loyalist legion during the heresy (Don't quote me on that however). And the Tau may be a nuisance at times, but both Terra and T'au are more ocnerned with Orks and Tyranids them each other.

The Dark Eldar, while troublesome, arent too terribly potent. Their goal is slaves and sacrifices, not conquest.

Chaos has quite enough potential to destroy the Imperium. But I think, do to the stigma of the Horus Heresy, the Imperium would do anything not to come so near the brink as they were during the Heresy.

The Tyranids and Necrons, due to their desire to simply wipe out everything, seem to have the best chance of destroying the galaxy. However, the I believe the Orks prevent that from happening. Orks thrive on war. They thrive from a good scrap. If Necron tombworlds start awakening and Tyranid Hivefleets start appearing, any Ork worth his weight will join a Waaagh! against them. They may not beat the Necrons or Tyranids ourright, but the Orks ability to drag their enemies in a war of attrition in unsurpassed. I mean, one Ork warboss was crazy enough to launch a Waaagh! in the Eye of Terror just for a good fight, and he even beat up a few Daemon worlds.

I would also like to note that I do not belive the Necrons would ever win because of the weakness of the C'tan. Their weakness to the warp is a glaring one, and with the warp being so commonplace in the Milky Way galaxy I don't see how they could not run into it sooner or later.

[Inquisitor Soren]

Greatest threat, oh 'Nids by far, will they win though, that is the one-million dollar question you gotta ask, there is a lot of argument on that, I personally think if Wazdaka ever truly united the orks they would win hands down over nearly anything other than maybe Terra itself. (Would be an awesome fight though...)

The C'tan will ultimately be destroyed, as Sitnam said their glaring weakness to the warp is going to be endgame for them. One well placed vortex grenade says goodbye to the poor old C'tan.

Eldar and Tau are really not a threat, the Eldar look like they intend to all drop dead to kill slaanesh, and the Tau, well lets be honest they move like ants ad can be squashed just the same if the Imperium wasn't using them as additional block against the 'Nids.

Chaos Marines? 13 Black Crusades later and still nothing, I think they need a change of command before we consider them a threat in any real sense.

But if I had to pick the two that would be the most dangerous, and one of which ain't on your list though chaos may count, is Chaos Daemons and 'Nids.

As long as the races in the universe exist the Chaos Daemons will as well, in some form or another and will always be locked in an eternal war with the human race, and any races humanity overlooks when crushing the larger threats.

Will humanity survive? Eh, probably but say goodbye to a large portion the Imperium. (Big lose?)

[Lord Anubis]

I've always been puzzled by the train of thought "The Warp is the C'tan's greatest weakness." It's stated very clearly they don't like it and they don't use it, but it doesn't then follow that the warp is their kryptonite.

By that logic, lasguns are the bane of Space Marines. Heck, I could be undone by a good-sized bag of brussel sprouts, and someone should go after my two diabetic friends with a donut gun.

But I digress...

I'd probably go with Tyranids or Necrons, tipping in the favor of Necrons. Simply put, no one knows how much resources the Necrons have buried in asteroids or under dead worlds. The Tyranids and Necrons (and Orks) can all replenish/ rebuild their numbers at a more-or-less equal rate, but the Necrons could just flip a switch and suddenly reactivate a few million warriors. They're all somewhat equal forces, but I think there's a good chance the dead guys will just overwhelm with sheer, entrenched numbers in the end.

[Sitnam]

I personally think if Wazdaka ever truly united the orks they would win hands down over nearly anything other than maybe Terra itself. (Would be an awesome fight though...)

I agree here, but the fact is it seems extremely unlikely they will ever unite. I remember reading a post one time stating that the Orks were like the Milky Ways immune system. Their job is to get rid of any big threat to the existence of life in the galaxy, and to prevent any factions from being too strong. Although the Imperium is plently strong, they have been fighting Orks for millennia and they cant wipe them out. In fact, even in battles Orks lose, they will still linger on the planet for years due to their spore reproduction mechanism. So Orks provide a constant threat, but not a overwhelming threat to the Imperium.

[Aenir]

Id say necrons, as they are very dangerous and even the Tyranids, split their giant fleet into two halves when they came across some necrons (i think, cannot recall)

The weakness for the necrons is the fact that they take their time doing whatever they want to do, which allows other groups to do what they will

[rsheridan5]

It seems to me that the nids are the worst threat, simply because of the extreme difficulty of beating a hive fleet. Without warning entire planets will become lifeless rocks... There is only so much of that the Imperium can handle.
The arguments about the Necrons are good, but they are not united... some groups are so badly damaged that only thier logistic arms are active, providing good sport to some Imperial planets as practice for real war on a "set your watch by it" regular basis. The fact that they are spread throughout the galaxy is thier fundamental weakness, considering what appears to be a complete lack of central command.
By far the nids grow more powerful with each destroyed world and require extreme measures (aka Inquisitor Kryptman's gene mutation weapons) to destroy.