No matter what you have the Imperial version is better!
What's that Necron? You got Gauss weapons to atomize your foes?
THE CUSTODES HAVE ADRATHIC WHICH IS EVEN BETTER AT DISINTEGRATING!
What's that Aeldari? You're described in your own codex as the 'masters of forcefield technology?'
SORRY STORMSHIELD BETTER THAN ANYTHING YOU HAVE AND ONLY IMPERIUM GETS TO HAVE A 3+ INV NOW
Oh, T'au, you have the best base guns?
NO, YOU DON'T HEAVY INTERCESSORS DO (and honestly even basic Bolt Rifles arguably)
Aeldari, of all kinds, Jetbikes are kind of your thing?
HAHA! CUSTODES JETBIKES ARE FAR MORE POWERFUL AND ADVANCED!
Oh, Asuryani, the one thing repeated about you over and over again always is your species is the most psychic species in the galaxy?
HUMAN PSYKERS LAUGH AT HOW PATHETIC YOU ARE, WE LITERALLY HAVE MULTIPLE HUMAN PSYKERS (Emperor, Malcador, Magnus, Draigo) STRONGER THAN YOUR ENTIRE SPECIES
Haemonculi, you are masters of genetic engineering with an unbroken lineage of this technology going back millions of years?
SPACE MARINES AND CUSTODES SURPASS ALL HAEMONCULI CREATIONS WITH EASE AND REGULARLY HUMILIATE THEM WITH NO EFFORT
Oh, Tyranids, you are meant to adapt quickly?
NOT AS QUICKLY AS SPACE MARINES WHOSE TACTICS CONSTANTLY OUTCLASS YOU! INDEED, THE SWARMLORD GROWS WEAKER WITH EVERY FIGHT, THEIR EVERY DEFEAT MORE HUMILIATING THAN THE LAST!
T'au, you're meant to be rare in the setting as a faction that activaly innovates?
CAWL WIPES HIS ASS WITH YOU AND SINGLE-HANDIDLY OUT INNOVATES YOUR ENTIRE FACTION (he even out-techs Necron now and easily hacks entire Tomb Worlds!)
@tytftyhgb: scale might affect some, but it does not change the underlying point: that the Imperium has the best version of every single thing. That even things which are meant to be the forte of other factions (Jetbikes, forcefields for Aeldari, disintegration for Necron, basic firepower for T'au, genetic engineering for Haemonculus or the Hivemind) the Imperium simply ultimately does best.
The most powerful jetbikes are Imperial.
The most powerful gene-constructs are Imperial.
The strongest Psykers are Imperial.
The strongest Forcefields are Imperial.
And so on and so forth.
To look at some of the specific examples you brought up:
Necron Warrior Gauss weapons aren't even powerful by normal standards. You can just watch Pariah and see that even 40+ Necron Warriors firing at two regular Space Marines barely injure them. The Gauss Weapons of Necron Warriors are not only weak when compared to Adrathic, they are weak when compared to much lower grade Imperial tech as well.
And Adrathic is monumentally better than Gauss if we go by stats and what happens in lore. We again just have a precedent where the Imperial version of a technology is simply superior at its height to that of a faction who are meant to be more technologically advanced.
Another way to put it is: the scale doesn't change anything because of how the lore is written. Necron having 'more' doesn't meaningfully help them. Custodes already have more known victories under them than the Necrons as a species do and so clearly scale doesn't make a difference.
The idea that their 'small numbers' is a drawback isn't really a drawback because of how GW and BL approach lore: namely that Marines/Custodes are always where they need to be anyway and there doesn't seem to be a problem of numbers because every single major war and battlefield has them in it already.
So, not only does their supposed weakness of small numbers not actually translate into a weakness on the field (they win 99% of all battles and campaigns) but they also are in 100% of all major campaigns and battles to the point that we know far more wars and campaigns featuring Space Marines or Custodes than we know which do not.
On top of this being the case we then also have the problem that not only does the small numbers not actually in any way disadvantage them, but their best version of a thing is still always better than everyone else's.
To be blunt: why do Custodes need hyper-advanced better than Necron Gauss guns? They already have better armour, better speed, more strength, overall higher fighting capabilities and a billion other things, why not let the overall tech of Custodes be less advanced than that of the Necron, the species explicitly said to be the most advanced species in the setting?
Jetbikes have the same problem, although that one I am sure will be compounded as the moment I saw Repulsors I have been counting down, and still am 100% confident, we're going to see Space Marine jetbikes as core units sooner than later and they will, of course, 100% outperform Aeldari ones as Custodes do.
The 3+ invuln is admittedly dated, that was because for much of 40k Stormshields gave 3+ invulns whilst the Aeldari, described in their own Codex as the 'masters of Forcefield technology' were never given anything comparable.
Putting all this aside though, at the end of the day, for me the bigger thing is just...why does the Imperium need to be the best at everything? Why can't other factions have niches which, at the highest levels, they simply are the best at?
That's how I feel anyway.
Thank you for recontextualising everything like that, I hadn't quite looked at it from that perspective. It makes me think of how even with the whole Dark Age of Technology tech how many times Imperial tech outclasses other species' tech, like with the Adrasite spears, but also how much Custodians are doing? I don't catch up on the lore extremely often and I'm shocked how many victories they have, considering most of them should be on Terra.
No problem.
Imperial Tech has long (in the lore) actually been better than everyone's (like their psychic). Saw it expressed best in a recent lore thread about Mechanicus:
"The Mechanicus has in a few years managed to reverse engineer Necron blackstone, reinvent DAoT era AI, create hover-vehicles superior to anything used by the other factions, fix all stability issues with plasma, and invent a new higher quality mass producible variant of Space Marines."
Only the Necron in lore technically still sometimes get more hype (with things like the Celestial Orrery) but because narrative demands that Necron lose as easily now as all Xenos this diminished with time (the biggest culprit here being the 4 books and 2 campaign supplements in which Cawl takes over entire tomb worlds by himself by just hacking them).
But Eldar and Tau tech has been functionally in-universe worse than the Imperium always. Same for Eldar psychic which has always just been pathetic compared to the Imperium. Even the Imperium's seers are superior to the Farseers (which isn't saying much, Farseers are up there with Ork Warbosses, the Swarmlord, Greater Daemons and the Avatar of Khaine as the single most pathetic things in the setting).
As for the Custodes: yeah since 8th they are way more active off Terra than on Terra. GW cranked out a LOT of battles for them quick at a time when in other Codices they dropped timeline segments and mentions of achievements Custodes continued to get nonstop litanies of specific battles they won.
It isn't really surprising; to be honest, this is all just a consequence of the same trend we've been seeing since 8th began: Horus Heresy-fication.
The success of the Horus Heresy convinced GW that the key ingredients to make 40k popular are:
Primarchs.
Even MORE Space Marines but now with family drama thanks to Primarchs.
Custodes.
And they probably were right. A consequence of this is just that, like in the Horus Heresy, everything that isn't relevant to this (see all Xenos) just become more and more marginalized than they already were (which was a lot).
Cawl's a strong guy, but there should be no way he can hack an entire tomb world, even with his previous contact with the Necrons. And Mephiston or Tigurius being stronger than Eldrad in terms of psychic might does straight up seem like they forgot about him, like hasn't he stopped time multiple times?
I understand the reasoning GW uses to have the Imperium, and especially Space Marines, win constantly. But it just doesn't make sense, like if they want a whole "good wins over evil" thing like they constantly frame it as, it doesn't work cause they're just not supposed to be the good guys. And even so, seeing your favourite faction win every time without taking a hit gets boring, like in my mind GW has already probably printed a book where Armageddon is won by the Imperials and it just doesn't feel earned as an Imperial victory.
I'm really hoping that GW eventually comes to their senses. Books on the Phoenix Lords and their aspect warriors would be so interesting I feel, or a T'au book about the Water Caste negotiating with a potential new addition to the Empire. And a book on Ghaz's perspective of a victory over Armageddon and sticking it to that random Space Wolf would be incredible I find, especially with how good the Ghaz book I've read was. Or maybe even a book where an Avatar of Khaine chokes Fulgrim to death.
Thank you for the book recommendations too! I'll be sure to take a look.
