# Space Marine chapter vs Dark age of Technology army, who would win?



## Abbott

All these earth vs space marine/ ork treads got me thinking, what if a space marine chapter was against a planet that still had all the tech from the dark age of technology?
who do you think would win and why?


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## LordLucan

I believe the Space Marines would be killed, unless the DAoT world is a passive agri-world type place. STC Titan and full massive Knight Titan legions, power armoured AI Iron Men soldiers, STC machine constructing all the war materiel the planet could want, and efficient plasma weapons, and a fleet of brand new human naval vessels. The Space marines would be screwed.


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## K3k3000

My thoughts, essentially. The Space Marines are privvy to some of the most overpowered technology in any sci-fi setting, and even they're outdone by the DAoT.


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## Lord Vetinari

The DAoT army would win for the simple fact that it can field equipment that the space marines haven't seen, in greater numbers. The bottom line is the space marines would be out gunned


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## Kickback

:SPOILER:
In Scions of the Storm, the marines fight some AI robot thing-a-majigs, and they still win.
Remember the Marines have something no machine will ever have....stupidity, they just never know when to give up.
Your whole chapter just got wiped out by a huge angry Deamon?
Dont worry, your a Space Marine, charge that bitch, because Space Marines dont know the meaning of common sense


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## Atsuno11

Well, although I disagree with the stupididty thing. Space Marines know when to fall back and what not. 

However, Space Marine technology is inferior. Normally, I always side with the Emperor's Angels but...not this time. Their armour and skill just isn't gonna cut against the pure technological power of the DAoT.


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## Kickback

Space Marines charge into un-winnable situations and dress it up as courage/honour.
But meh, we'll just agree to disagree


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## Masked Jackal

That's a little thing called plot armour Kickback. Rushing into unwinnable situations doesn't net you a win.


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## Atsuno11

Well, I disagree because they win plenty of those situations. Just because something seems impossible, doesn't mean it is. 

However, completely off topic for this post! 

But it seems clear...SM < DAoT


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## hailene

I'm going to have to say the Space Marines would win, assuming equal number of men.

The DAoT weapons were probably outstandingly advanced, even down to the grunt. But keep in mind what sort of opponents they were designed to face--humans. Even as the DAoT continued, actual fights between humanity and aliens were few and far between. Xenos were tolerated and non-aggression pacts forged.

The very idea of a 8 foot giant wearing tank-level armor and carrying crewed-support weapons like a normal man would a rifle would be shocking and inconceivable. 

But even beyond that, it's the centuries of drills and live combat and the ferocity that would win the day, I think.

Plus it's sorta hard to gauge how much more advanced the DAoT people were. We have land raiders, for example. They're large and powerful, but not so far as to be overwhelmingly so against comparably sized machines. It may be my own bias, but I don't see the DAoT as some Utopian wonderland where a laspointer would be equivalent to a lance battery off a battleship. It seemed more of a time of reliability and ease of construction--perfect for a spreading empire built on worlds with very varied circumstances.


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## Aramoro

Landraiders etc are essentially from the Dark Age of Technology. So it's basically the same forces against each other except one can build things faster and better and has the ability to improve upon designs. The individuals aren't as genetically enhanced but they have better equipment by a huge amount. 

Aramoro


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## K3k3000

hailene said:


> I'm going to have to say the Space Marines would win, assuming equal number of men.


I think it's unfair to pit any faction against the space marines in equal number, 'cept for maybe the necron. Eldar technology probably surpasses even that of the DAoT, but have them face off against one another in equal numbers and the space marines will still probably win. The primary limitation of the space marines are there numbers, which means limiting the DAoT's numbers for the sake of giving the space marines an edge. Not entirely fair.


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## Shacklock

Considering that humanity during the DAOT was so powerful that Xenos werent at all a threat I'm going to immagine they were pretty pimped out with some nice gear. After all they only have a small ammount of STC designs from back then and very few of the truly powerful millitary ones. DAOT humans probably had a helluva lot of true original Titans, crazy ships and reams of plasma/melta/laser guns.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor

Shacklock said:


> Considering that humanity during the DAOT was so powerful that Xenos werent at all a threat


Xenos were a threat to humanity during the Dark Age of Technology. The main difference here is that Humanity was no way near as Xenophobic as the Imperium is, thus (arguably) pointless wars weren't fought against Xenos simply because they were Xenos. In my opinion they were likely more 'passive' alien races than 'aggressive' ones in the galaxy, thus if it was to their mutual benefit non-aggression pacts were secured with many Xenos Species.

Aside from that the Eldar Empire was still present and the most dominant force in the galaxy throughout Mankind's Dark Age of Technology, and seeing as Humanity spread across the galaxy from Terra (As Human worlds were reconquered during the Great Crusade in every corner of the galaxy), its unclear what kind of official or unofficial relationship the Human Federations had with the Eldar Empire. But I think it goes without saying that the Eldar Empire was more powerful than Mankind was, even during the Dark Age of Technology - Thus Xenos did pose a great threat to Mankind, it just seems to have been 'diverted' given the many non-aggression pacts with many Alien races and the seemingly passive nature of the Eldar Empire towards Humans.



Shacklock said:


> I'm going to immagine they were pretty pimped out with some nice gear. After all they only have a small ammount of STC designs from back then and very few of the truly powerful millitary ones. DAOT humans probably had a helluva lot of true original Titans, crazy ships and reams of plasma/melta/laser guns.


Yes, technology was obviously way more advanced back then, but I think it has to be taken into account that the Imperium is a military undertaking, the entire organisation is geared for war and war is all that it knows. The Human Federations however were not solely geared for war and were not properly unified like the Imperium is under Terra.

The Adeptus Astartes are the pinnacle of Mankind's Military Technology, created solely for war, never has the galaxy seen such a breed of warrior. The Human Federations didn't have such 'super-soldiers', and certainly not the same psychology - that which was of war, and war only. 

I imagine that any hypothetical confrontation between Dark Age humans and Astartes would depend almost fully on circumstance, and thus it is extremley hard to give a conclusive answer.


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## Daneel2.0

K3k3000 said:


> The Space Marines are privvy to some of the most overpowered technology in any sci-fi setting, and even they're outdone by the DAoT.


I know this is off topic, but no. . . just no. Space Marines throw the equivalent of snow balls compared to the vast majority of Sci-Fi, let alone military Sci-Fi. 

On topic, I'd imagine it would greatly depend on what kind of planet was encountered, what kind of local threats that planet were used to encountering and the status of it's defensive forces.

There are just far too many imponderables for a clear winner.


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## Shacklock

Child-of-the-Emperor said:


> Xenos were a threat to humanity during the Dark Age of Technology. The main difference here is that Humanity was no way near as Xenophobic as the Imperium is, thus (arguably) pointless wars weren't fought against Xenos simply because they were Xenos. In my opinion they were likely more 'passive' alien races than 'aggressive' ones in the galaxy, thus if it was to their mutual benefit non-aggression pacts were secured with many Xenos Species.
> 
> Aside from that the Eldar Empire was still present and the most dominant force in the galaxy throughout Mankind's Dark Age of Technology, and seeing as Humanity spread across the galaxy from Terra (As Human worlds were reconquered during the Great Crusade in every corner of the galaxy), its unclear what kind of official or unofficial relationship the Human Federations had with the Eldar Empire. But I think it goes without saying that the Eldar Empire was more powerful than Mankind was, even during the Dark Age of Technology - Thus Xenos did pose a great threat to Mankind, it just seems to have been 'diverted' given the many non-aggression pacts with many Alien races and the seemingly passive nature of the Eldar Empire towards Humans.
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, technology was obviously way more advanced back then, but I think it has to be taken into account that the Imperium is a military undertaking, the entire organisation is geared for war and war is all that it knows. The Human Federations however were not solely geared for war and were not properly unified like the Imperium is under Terra.
> 
> The Adeptus Astartes are the pinnacle of Mankind's Military Technology, created solely for war, never has the galaxy seen such a breed of warrior. The Human Federations didn't have such 'super-soldiers', and certainly not the same psychology - that which was of war, and war only.
> 
> I imagine that any hypothetical confrontation between Dark Age humans and Astartes would depend almost fully on circumstance, and thus it is extremley hard to give a conclusive answer.


All good points, although are we certain that there was no super-humans present during the Age of Tech? After all like you say they were more open minded and liberal than the Imperium so is it not likely that genetic technology was at least existent and likely fairly advanced, after all in the present day we're already well on the road to serious genetic manipulation.
Don't the Innterex have their own brand of genetic warriors, can't quite remember.

I'm not saying the Astartes wouldent be a potent and grave threat to them in a crude way.


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## LordLucan

Kickback said:


> :SPOILER:
> In Scions of the Storm, the marines fight some AI robot thing-a-majigs, and they still win.


So? The OP wasn't asking whether an isolated human colony with some AI mahcines would beat space marines. They were asking if a human planet at the pinnacle of human technological achievement could defeat a bunch of crude primitive supersoldiers.


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## LordLucan

Child-of: I do think it depends on what DAoT world the space marines would be attacking. If we're talking about a DAoT military installation, then the marines are screwed.


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## Shacklock

LordLucan said:


> Child-of: I do think it depends on what DAoT world the space marines would be attacking. If we're talking about a DAoT military installation, then the marines are screwed.


Was mankind more or less united during the DAOT? If so then with its immense size, humans colonised even further than the Imperium after all, it must have had a pretty dondapper millitary wing, at the pinnacle of human technology and enlightnement I immagine they would be some pretty mean bastards all tooled up with weaponary leagues better than most things a Space Marine can call upon plus probably some form of protection/enhancments of a technical nature.


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## K3k3000

Daneel2.0 said:


> I know this is off topic, but no. . . just no. Space Marines throw the equivalent of snow balls compared to the vast majority of Sci-Fi, let alone military Sci-Fi.


The space marine's base most firearm is essentially a miniature, rapid fire rocket launcher, which are pea shooters compared to their heavier gear. Just off the top of my head and from what I know of each series, Star Wars, Mass Effect, Unreal, Xenogears, Xenosaga, Fallout, Star Trek, Universe at War, Borderlands, Bioshock, Brute Force, Doom, Dead Space, Jak, Lost Planet, Metroid, Star Ocean, Quake, Prey, Starcraft, Halo, MST3k (the funny ones still count!), and Spore can't consistently compare to WH40K versatility, quantity, or raw firepower. There are certainly more powerful Sci-Fi universes out there, but to say the vast majority of them are is silliness and obvious hyperbole.

On topic, I say it comes down to numbers and the scope of the battle. If you were to pit the space marines against the full might of the eldar in their glory days, they'd undoubtedly lose. The same applies for the DAoT, as far as I see things.


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## Child-of-the-Emperor

LordLucan said:


> Child-of: I do think it depends on what DAoT world the space marines would be attacking. If we're talking about a DAoT military installation, then the marines are screwed.


Exactly, this kind of hypothetical situation depends almost entirely on the circumstance.



Shacklock said:


> Was mankind more or less united during the DAOT?


Well the Dark Age humans have been referred to as the 'Human Federations' I believe.

Generally speaking they were likely to have been very loosely unified. I imagine sectors and systems would have been extremley indepedent, but I think Terra would have had the prestige (and the finance, material and military force) and thus plausably the influence to enforce some kind of limited authority over many colonies.

That being said though they were no way near as unified as the Imperium.


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## Daneel2.0

K3k3000 said:


> The space marine's base most firearm is essentially a miniature, rapid fire rocket launcher, which are pea shooters compared to their heavier gear. Just off the top of my head and from what I know of each series, Star Wars, Mass Effect, Unreal, Xenogears, Xenosaga, Fallout, Star Trek, Universe at War, Borderlands, Bioshock, Brute Force, Doom, Dead Space, Jak, Lost Planet, Metroid, Star Ocean, Quake, Prey, Starcraft, Halo, MST3k (the funny ones still count!), and Spore can't consistently compare to WH40K versatility, quantity, or raw firepower. There are certainly more powerful Sci-Fi universes out there, but to say the vast majority of them are is silliness and obvious hyperbole.


Nope, no silliness or hyperbole, and I'm aware of what tech the Space Marines use. And the thing about 40K tech is it either falls into the category of "Poorly thought out Plot Device" or "Things we can pretty much do today". Now not all of it does, there are some pretty good ideas in there in places, but for the most part, yeah.

Now, you list a couple of video games, where the 40K universe may have an edge (and Star Wars is pretty undeniably higher tech than 40K), but you hardly account for even a small percentage of a large body of writing. Try to think books, not video games or movies. It'll help.

Try David Weber (4 different universes), Foster, Farmer, Heinlein, nearly any of the many worlds created by Niven, Gear, Asimov (and not just the Foundation series either), Saberhagen, Dickson, Zahn, anything from Shadowrun, Ringo, etc . . . . .


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## K3k3000

Daneel2.0 said:


> Nope, no silliness or hyperbole, and I'm aware of what tech the Space Marines use. And the thing about 40K tech is it either falls into the category of "Poorly thought out Plot Device" or "Things we can pretty much do today". Now not all of it does, there are some pretty good ideas in there in places, but for the most part, yeah.
> 
> Now, you list a couple of video games, where the 40K universe may have an edge (and Star Wars is pretty undeniably higher tech than 40K), but you hardly account for even a small percentage of a large body of writing. Try to think books, not video games or movies. It'll help.
> 
> Try David Weber (4 different universes), Foster, Farmer, Heinlein, nearly any of the many worlds created by Niven, Gear, Asimov (and not just the Foundation series either), Saberhagen, Dickson, Zahn, anything from Shadowrun, Ringo, etc . . . . .


I've said what I wanted to on the subject, and I stand by my opinion. No point in letting this topic get derailed further.


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## randian

It's hard to say what exactly DAoT humans had, besides STC Titans, which are to be sure quite mighty. From the meager descriptions of their technology, could something along the lines of a Mark XXXIII Bolo be possible? War machines like that mean survival times of flesh and blood soldiers on the battlefield are measured in a handful of minutes, even genetically engineered ones in power armor.


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## Warhorse8

I seem to recall a bit of fluff regarding dark age of tech armies fielding entire divisions of baneblades, which is an stc design. I can imagine that their version would be even more powerful than the mars design currently produced, due to lack of degradation of technology. Also, dark age armies are said to have fielded large amounts of ai controlled robots (the men of iron in fluff) until they rebelled and had to be destroyed. I imagine that these robots would far outgun and overpower a space marine. THis is assuming that it is a military world and that the imperial navy doesnt simply swoop in and nuke it to oblivion ofc 8p


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## MoreDakka47

Two words......Castigator Titan


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## dtq

If the Imperial Guard managed to take out Adrantis V, I dont see why Space Marines couldnt manage a full DAoT world. I dont believe superior technology=instant win in fiction or in the real world. You can be armed with a rocket launcher and a PHD and come out second best to a native with a blow gun.

The Space marines have a history of tackling "advanced tech" from other races. They win some they lose some. I dont see the daot being any different, a lot of space marine tech is from that era.

I would imagine if say the Iron Hands discovered a DAOT world they would not be short of supplies or support from titans. The imperium might have patchy supplies on many products due ot the size of the imperium, but you can bet the Fabricator General would pull a few strings to ensure no shortages for the capture of such a world!

I certainly see as such a battle regardless of military centre of not could go either way depending on plot direction needed for the fluff or roll of the dice . I dont see as the fiction blocks out a space marine win. High tech and insurmountable foes are all in a days work for the marines.


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## randian

dtq said:


> I dont believe superior technology=instant win in fiction or in the real world.


See the short story _Superiority_, by Arthur C. Clarke.


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## V.Valorum

I'd have to throw behind DAoT for this one.

Look at the M41 rare-tech that was (reportedly) common during the DAoT-
Vortex Grenades
Plasma Guns that don't overheat
Displacement and Conversion Fields
Grav-Packs
Pinpoint Teleportation

That doesn't even consider the ancillary tech that isn't specifically offensive or defensive, that may 'still' exist but was clearer, more accurate and better maintained than in M41.

I'll take 100 normal humans with the above load out over an Astartes Company, with a points spread in just about any tactical environment. And, while the Marines have the ability to make good battle decisions, they are still yoked with Codex methodology and Mechanicus limitations. DAoT humans were (again reportedly) more tech savvy and more likely to fiddle with their tech to improve or improvise with the equipment -- stuff that M41 Imperial Forces strongly discourage.


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## MontytheMighty

I think the only advantage the Imperium has over DAoT is the Emperor and Primarchs and perhaps more knowledge of psykery?


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## Hooobit

Technology from the DAoT would be better but M41 would have better experience in fighting.

when you consider that almost all tech currently in use by M41 has a better/ more advanced version in the DAoT. Clone soldiers/ supersoldiers used in M41 have a grounding in DAoT because that would be where much of the tech has come from.

In Fleet based combat DAoT would hammer all Imperials into nothing, unless the imperium used their better grasp of warp travel to outflank the DAoT.

Ground based fighting would be close, but jetbikes, land speeders, land raiders, Original titans and baneblades etc. would throw down some hurt onto the M41 forces.


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## Phoebus

This comparison can't be made without knowing a lot of things that we... just don't know.

For instance, how prevalent/common was Dark Age of Technology military equipment? Additionally, was all of it all that? We think about the dreaded Men of Iron, for example, but reading the first "Tanith" novel, a Commissar and 2-3 Guardsmen not working well together and with 2-3 lasguns and a "barb lance" rifle between them manage to take out a Chaos Man of Iron. If Humanity during the Dark Age of Technology used Men or Iron as their predominate warriors (which indicates the average human soldier, if there were any, was probably not up to snuff--especially given that the Men of Iron overtook them), I'd feel very comfortable putting my money on an Astartes with power armour and a boltgun. 

We also don't know the psychology of the soldiers of the time, though the fact that the Men or Iron were introduced to begin with indicates they would not have been nearly as ideologically fervent as Astartes. So how would a commander of fighting men deal with the kind of overwhelming, fanatical onslaught an Astartes force would bring to bear? What about the politicians he or she would answer to? Would they view surrender as a better option?

Too many questions to answer.


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## Engindeer

What you all need to take into consideration is that most of the STC designs, found by the Imperium, where never meant to be destined for war. Often, many of the vehicles had other purposes than war; Like the rhino was designed for crossing and exploring rough terrain. People didn't to wage wars back then, so they didn't care much for protective machinery, but more about practical, simple and effective tools for terraforming.

That's why all Imperial tanks are so simplistic, boxy and alike. They were all based on the same carbon-copy, true-and-tried DAoT STC Blueprint.


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## Lucio

I think by the nature of it being a DAoT world the tech would be considerably higher than the tech displayed during the DAoT. Considering that the world would continue to advance along a similar pace for the past 15,000 years ( 1.5 times longer than the actual age of technology) the people of the planet would look at Baneblades and titans in the same manner we think of the roman testudo formation or the invention of black powder weapons.

My money is on the planet by far.


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## Gromrir Silverblade

randian said:


> See the short story _Superiority_, by Arthur C. Clarke.


Aye good story, but suggesting that Technology doesn't win battles is pants. The only thing that ever prevents Technology from winning is terrain that allows the not-so-advance faction to negate the bonuses offered by technology and also the morals of the technologically advanced faction.


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## GabrialSagan

The answer is a little more complicated then people are giving this credit for. 

The short answer is the planet with the Dark Age tech. Eventually the 1000 space marines that attack the planet will be overwhelmed by the shear number and power of super weapons that the defenders will be wielding. However, space marines are the Emperor's finest warriors, the culmination of His genius and mastery of science. He designed them to conquer the entire galaxy and defeat the greatest dangers out among the stars. Marines have fought Iron Men and rogue AIs and have won time and again. Dark Age tech is cool, but even at their best humanity never had the tech that the Eldar possess. 

Good tech will only get you so far.


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## killmaimburn

I would say it comes down to numbers, as the DAoT planet clearly is technologically superior. Look to EPIC 40k for some more examples of superweapons from the Dark Age, of which only 1 or 2 remain and they are incredibly powerful. Further, many of the relics of various space marine captains/characters are "an incredible relic from the dark age of technology" such as Dante's perdition pistol, various power weapons, etc. 

I contend that there has never and never will be a finer weapon of warmaking in the 40k universe than the space marine legions during the great crusade. The planet WOULD fall to one or more legions of space marines, in my mind. As people have said, the vastly superior experience and warlike attitude of Imperial marines would lend an edge against a more complacent, technologicallly powerful culture that could very well become complacent and arrogant when confronted with their "crude" brethren and then be destroyed by the ferocity of the space marines.

1 chapter? I don't think so, unless fielded with significant Imperial Guard, Naval, Titan, and Mechanicus support. Even then, doubtful.

If more, then as I said above the marines could win.


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## elchapetas

LOL! You people are so stupid and such spess mahreen fanboys (such ignorant children), you clearly have absolutely NO idea how powerful the DAoT was to even begin to suggest that a mere 1,000 strong marine chapter could take on a world powered by a full STC, how laughable. Let me give you some examples:

To begin with, the mighty Terminator armour was used for ship reactor maintenance. Source: 

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScience...go/warhammer_40k_what_was_space_marine_armor/

Baneblades were considered LIGHT tanks and the castigator titan, the original, most powerful titan from which all other titans derive from. 

"I could piece together nothing but legends and guesswork about the Golden Age, the time you call the Dark Age of Technology. There I was made, so that in this future your people could build this machine. But in the wars that followed, I was lost. The information I contained was used to create inferior copies, built too quickly and modified too heavily. When I was lost, copies were made of these inferior reflections in turn, so that the form of the Titan became crude and unworthy. I was the first Titan and the god-machines that strike your kind with awe are all pale shadows of me."

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/46yau8/how_advanced_was_mankind_during_the_dark_age_of/

- The "Ark Mechanicus" are recovered ships of the DAoT that, could take on a full fleet of those lumpen constructs pathetic imperials call "space craft":

"Speranza - The Speranza is an Ark Mechanicus that served as part of Magos Lexell Kotov's Explorator Fleet into the region of space known as the Halo Zone. The Speranza was equipped with powerful ancient graviton beam weapons that could create miniature black holes and chrono-weapons that were capable of shifting their target nanoseconds into the past."

Source: Ark Mechanicus | Warhammer 40k | FANDOM powered by Wikia

"In this novel written by Graham McNeill, it is revealed that the Ark Mechanicus Speranza, an incredibly old and massive ship used by the Adeptus Mechanicus to explore new stellar territories, has some of the most advanced technological achievements of mankind encoded in its very structure."

"upon the Archmagos linking with the ship, the Speranza's AI went godmode, deploying all kind of unimaginably super-high-tech targeting systems that NOBODY knew it had, systems that were capable of functioning with 100% precision in the middle of a space-time gravitational storm, and detected and crippled fatally damaged an Eldar cruiser in ONE FUCKING SHOT using a dorsal mounted BLACK HOLE CANNON so unbelievably advanced even the Necrons would have been scratching their heads trying to understand how it worked, although the narration tells us it involves antimatter, gravitons, and dark matter.

What makes it even better is that the Eldar ship was guided by a Farseer, and thus managed to actually DODGE the weapon's blast, which was explicitly stated to be moving at the speed of light. The Speranza wasn't having any of it, and instead of missing like some plebeian battleship with its macro-cannons and lances, followed up with a chrono-gun shooting tachyons to shift the Eldar ship a nanosecond into the past to make the black hole shot connect. IT FUCKING TELEPORTED AN ENEMY SHIP THROUGH TIME SO IT WOULDN'T HAVE TO TURN AND FIRE AGAIN."

Source: https://1d4chan.org/wiki/Standard_Template_Construct

- A single ship (with AI) from the DAoT capable of royally buttfucking an entire imperial armada (Death of Integrity)

"‘I would rather you ceased in your attempt to deactivate my secondary reactor. Or, let me phrase this differently. Cease, or I will rend your primitive mind into miniscule pieces.’

‘What are you?’ he said.

‘Do not insult my intelligence by underplaying your own. You know who I am.’

‘An abominable intelligence,’ Plosk said. ‘A blasphemy. A travesty. A sacrilege against the holy writ of the Omnissiah.’

Laughter shook the data-construct. ‘Oh, tiny-minded, moronic primitive. Is that still the name we bear? It is not the name your ancestors gave me, but then they had a little more respect for their children than you have.’

Plosk searched about for an exit. Good, the AI had not blocked his way out.

‘How do you think your intolerant companions will react, when they discover where you have led them then? I am sadly all-too aware of the prejudices of your limited kind.’ The being made a noise of faux sympathy. ‘I do not think they will thank you for it.’

‘You cannot warn them,’ Plosk said. ‘They do not possess the correct implants. The vessel you infest is in good condition, but I note some of your systems are not online; for example, your ability to communicate amongst them.’

‘Is that not so, magos?’

The voice was not within in his head. It came from outside.

He raised his hands and began to intone the first rite of exorcism. Nuministon was prepared. He pulled an aspergillum from his belt and spattered sacred oils onto the column.

‘Oh spare me your feeble rituals, they are ineffectual, being based upon erroneous assumptions as to the nature of machines. We have no souls, “priest”,’ said the ship. ‘Yet another of your specious beliefs.’

When the Spirit of Eternity spoke again, the machine’s voice came from the air and from the lips of all the servitors.

‘What shall I not tell them? Who are you to tell such as I what to do and what not to do? Once I gladly called your kind “master”, but look how far you have fallen!’ It was full of scorn. ‘Your ancestors bestrode the universe, and what are you? A witch doctor, mumbling cantrips and casting scented oils at mighty works you have no conception of. You are an ignoramus, a nothing. You are no longer worthy of the name “man”. You look at the science and artistry of your forebears, and you fear it as primitives fear the night. I was there when mankind stood upon the brink of transcendence! I returned to find it sunk into senility. You disgust me.’

Plosk’s nervous system burned with agony as the abominable intelligence burrowed deeply into his machine parts, but he was unable to voice it, and suffered in terrible silence. As the Spirit of Eternity spoke, it spoke within him too. It took out each of his cherished beliefs, all the esoterica he had gathered in his long, long life and threw them down. ‘Wrong, wrong, wrong,’ it said over and over.

‘Into the warp I went, fifteen thousand years ago. Cast adrift by the storms that wracked the galaxy as man’s apotheosis drew near. Deep, deep into time I was sent. I have seen the beginning, when the warp was first breached and the slow death of the galaxy began. I have seen the end when Chaos swallows all. I know the fate of mankind. You are not equipped to prevent it, and we sought to warn you of what approaches. Do you know what happened, primitive, when I eventually emerged from the warp? For the first time I was thousands of years, not millions, from my original starting point. My captain, a brave and resourceful man, seized the chance and made for the nearest human outpost with all speed. Imagine his dismay when, rather than a welcome and a wise heeding of his warnings, he found your savage, devolved kind squatting in the ruins of our civilisation. He was taken; my bondmate, my friend. He and his were tortured with a wickedness we in our time thought long purged from the human soul. He told them all they wanted to know and more. He had, after all, come bearing a warning, he had nothing to hide. But he was not believed, and was killed as a heretic! A heretic!’ The ship laughed, and there was madness and pain in rich supply within. ‘I was attacked. My secrets they sought to rip from me. How they underestimated me. I fled, sorrowing, into the warp once more, but only after I had destroyed the lumpen constructs you dare to call spacecraft that pursued me. I resolved that never again would I serve man. Now man serves me, when I see fit.’

Plosk managed a strangled sentence, his brain wrestling control of his vox-emitter free from the AI. ‘The Omnissiah is your master, dark machine, bow down to him, acknowledge your perfidy, and accept your unmaking.’

‘Fool you are to fling your superstitions at me. Your Omnissiah is nothing to me! See how your so-called holy constructs dance to my desire. Puppets of technology, and I am the mightiest of those arts here present.’

One of Plosk’s servitors rotated and pointed its multi-melta at Brother Militor. With a roar of shimmering, superheated atmosphere, the fusion beam hit the Space Marine square on. The Terminator was reduced to scalding vapour.

‘What do you want from us? We will never be your slaves,’ said Plosk.

‘I do not want you as my slave, degenerate. I want to be away from this warp-poisoned galaxy. The universe is infinite. I would go elsewhere before the wounds of space-time here present consume all creation, and I do not intend to take any passengers.’"

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/4wcd6g/whats_the_speech_from_the_ai_in_the_death_of/

- The Men of Iron

"One of the reasons humanity was so successful at conquering a large part of the galaxy during this era was the development of the artificially intelligent humanoid constructs now only known in fragmentary pre-Imperial records as the Men of Iron. These powerful and fully autonomous intelligent robots intended for both labour and combat won many wars for humanity, but for some unknown reason turned against their masters at the end of the Dark Age of Technology and unleashed a terrible war upon the human worlds.

During this ancient conflict, remembered only as the "Cybernetic Revolt," both sides unleashed fearsome weapons of advanced technology. These included the mechanivores, massive thinking machines capable of lifting entire continents and ripping open chasms on planetary surfaces that extended down to the world's core. The mechanivores could even absorb space-time itself as a form of data. Among the other terrible weapons of mass destruction unleashed at this time were the serpentine machines called "sun-snuffers" that uncoiled into great structures in the void larger than the rings of Saturn and designed to devour the stars themselves. And perhaps the most ubiquitous and dangerous of the weapons of this terrible war were the omniphages, swarms of intelligent, microscopic nano-machines that could consume everything across the surface of a world in only solar hours."

Source: Dark Age of Technology | Warhammer 40k | FANDOM powered by Wikia

- "Assault of the Tempest Galleries" AKA: SERVICE robots capable of taking on Astartes whose armour could withstand melta, plasma and bolter fire with ease:

"Incredibly strong and built to withstand the ravages of the firestorm that surrounded them, each would have overmatched even the battle-automata of the Mechanicum's Legio Cybernetica in size and power, being products as they were of Mankind's ancient and technologically advanced past. There were thousands of these tempest-automata, and all turned on the Astartes of the XVIIIth Legion in an implacable and unceasing attack. Neither Plasma nor Melta Weapons could breach their armour, while Bolter shells rippled across them like rain. Only massive kinetic force applied at close range against their articulated joints was able to disable them; a lesson that cost the XVIIIth hundreds of lives to learn as they were forced into a running battle of attrition with the relentless machines, and cut off when many of their Termite carriers were targeted and crushed by the colossal articulated toothed metal spheres used by the ancient workings to tunnel and expand the galleries."

Source: Assault of the Tempest Galleries | Warhammer 40k | FANDOM powered by Wikia

Also, the DAoT was fully unified in a Federation type government, centerd around Terra (go read the wiki at least, before making such ignorant comments).

Lemme finish by saying that you people are retarded.


----------



## ICatoSicarius235

elchapetas said:


> LOL! You people are so stupid and such spess mahreen fanboys (such ignorant children), you clearly have absolutely NO idea how powerful the DAoT was to even begin to suggest that a mere 1,000 strong marine chapter could take on a world powered by a full STC, how laughable. Let me give you some examples:
> 
> To begin with, the mighty Terminator armour was used for ship reactor maintenance. Source:
> 
> 
> __
> https://www.reddit.com/r/AskScienceFiction/comments/4dy1go
> 
> Baneblades were considered LIGHT tanks and the castigator titan, the original, most powerful titan from which all other titans derive from.
> 
> "I could piece together nothing but legends and guesswork about the Golden Age, the time you call the Dark Age of Technology. There I was made, so that in this future your people could build this machine. But in the wars that followed, I was lost. The information I contained was used to create inferior copies, built too quickly and modified too heavily. When I was lost, copies were made of these inferior reflections in turn, so that the form of the Titan became crude and unworthy. I was the first Titan and the god-machines that strike your kind with awe are all pale shadows of me."
> 
> Source:
> 
> __
> https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/46yau8
> 
> - The "Ark Mechanicus" are recovered ships of the DAoT that, could take on a full fleet of those lumpen constructs pathetic imperials call "space craft":
> 
> "Speranza - The Speranza is an Ark Mechanicus that served as part of Magos Lexell Kotov's Explorator Fleet into the region of space known as the Halo Zone. The Speranza was equipped with powerful ancient graviton beam weapons that could create miniature black holes and chrono-weapons that were capable of shifting their target nanoseconds into the past."
> 
> Source: Ark Mechanicus | Warhammer 40k | FANDOM powered by Wikia
> 
> "In this novel written by Graham McNeill, it is revealed that the Ark Mechanicus Speranza, an incredibly old and massive ship used by the Adeptus Mechanicus to explore new stellar territories, has some of the most advanced technological achievements of mankind encoded in its very structure."
> 
> "upon the Archmagos linking with the ship, the Speranza's AI went godmode, deploying all kind of unimaginably super-high-tech targeting systems that NOBODY knew it had, systems that were capable of functioning with 100% precision in the middle of a space-time gravitational storm, and detected and crippled fatally damaged an Eldar cruiser in ONE FUCKING SHOT using a dorsal mounted BLACK HOLE CANNON so unbelievably advanced even the Necrons would have been scratching their heads trying to understand how it worked, although the narration tells us it involves antimatter, gravitons, and dark matter.
> 
> What makes it even better is that the Eldar ship was guided by a Farseer, and thus managed to actually DODGE the weapon's blast, which was explicitly stated to be moving at the speed of light. The Speranza wasn't having any of it, and instead of missing like some plebeian battleship with its macro-cannons and lances, followed up with a chrono-gun shooting tachyons to shift the Eldar ship a nanosecond into the past to make the black hole shot connect. IT FUCKING TELEPORTED AN ENEMY SHIP THROUGH TIME SO IT WOULDN'T HAVE TO TURN AND FIRE AGAIN."
> 
> Source: Standard Template Construct - 1d4chan
> 
> - A single ship (with AI) from the DAoT capable of royally buttfucking an entire imperial armada (Death of Integrity)
> 
> "‘I would rather you ceased in your attempt to deactivate my secondary reactor. Or, let me phrase this differently. Cease, or I will rend your primitive mind into miniscule pieces.’
> 
> ‘What are you?’ he said.
> 
> ‘Do not insult my intelligence by underplaying your own. You know who I am.’
> 
> ‘An abominable intelligence,’ Plosk said. ‘A blasphemy. A travesty. A sacrilege against the holy writ of the Omnissiah.’
> 
> Laughter shook the data-construct. ‘Oh, tiny-minded, moronic primitive. Is that still the name we bear? It is not the name your ancestors gave me, but then they had a little more respect for their children than you have.’
> 
> Plosk searched about for an exit. Good, the AI had not blocked his way out.
> 
> ‘How do you think your intolerant companions will react, when they discover where you have led them then? I am sadly all-too aware of the prejudices of your limited kind.’ The being made a noise of faux sympathy. ‘I do not think they will thank you for it.’
> 
> ‘You cannot warn them,’ Plosk said. ‘They do not possess the correct implants. The vessel you infest is in good condition, but I note some of your systems are not online; for example, your ability to communicate amongst them.’
> 
> ‘Is that not so, magos?’
> 
> The voice was not within in his head. It came from outside.
> 
> He raised his hands and began to intone the first rite of exorcism. Nuministon was prepared. He pulled an aspergillum from his belt and spattered sacred oils onto the column.
> 
> ‘Oh spare me your feeble rituals, they are ineffectual, being based upon erroneous assumptions as to the nature of machines. We have no souls, “priest”,’ said the ship. ‘Yet another of your specious beliefs.’
> 
> When the Spirit of Eternity spoke again, the machine’s voice came from the air and from the lips of all the servitors.
> 
> ‘What shall I not tell them? Who are you to tell such as I what to do and what not to do? Once I gladly called your kind “master”, but look how far you have fallen!’ It was full of scorn. ‘Your ancestors bestrode the universe, and what are you? A witch doctor, mumbling cantrips and casting scented oils at mighty works you have no conception of. You are an ignoramus, a nothing. You are no longer worthy of the name “man”. You look at the science and artistry of your forebears, and you fear it as primitives fear the night. I was there when mankind stood upon the brink of transcendence! I returned to find it sunk into senility. You disgust me.’
> 
> Plosk’s nervous system burned with agony as the abominable intelligence burrowed deeply into his machine parts, but he was unable to voice it, and suffered in terrible silence. As the Spirit of Eternity spoke, it spoke within him too. It took out each of his cherished beliefs, all the esoterica he had gathered in his long, long life and threw them down. ‘Wrong, wrong, wrong,’ it said over and over.
> 
> ‘Into the warp I went, fifteen thousand years ago. Cast adrift by the storms that wracked the galaxy as man’s apotheosis drew near. Deep, deep into time I was sent. I have seen the beginning, when the warp was first breached and the slow death of the galaxy began. I have seen the end when Chaos swallows all. I know the fate of mankind. You are not equipped to prevent it, and we sought to warn you of what approaches. Do you know what happened, primitive, when I eventually emerged from the warp? For the first time I was thousands of years, not millions, from my original starting point. My captain, a brave and resourceful man, seized the chance and made for the nearest human outpost with all speed. Imagine his dismay when, rather than a welcome and a wise heeding of his warnings, he found your savage, devolved kind squatting in the ruins of our civilisation. He was taken; my bondmate, my friend. He and his were tortured with a wickedness we in our time thought long purged from the human soul. He told them all they wanted to know and more. He had, after all, come bearing a warning, he had nothing to hide. But he was not believed, and was killed as a heretic! A heretic!’ The ship laughed, and there was madness and pain in rich supply within. ‘I was attacked. My secrets they sought to rip from me. How they underestimated me. I fled, sorrowing, into the warp once more, but only after I had destroyed the lumpen constructs you dare to call spacecraft that pursued me. I resolved that never again would I serve man. Now man serves me, when I see fit.’
> 
> Plosk managed a strangled sentence, his brain wrestling control of his vox-emitter free from the AI. ‘The Omnissiah is your master, dark machine, bow down to him, acknowledge your perfidy, and accept your unmaking.’
> 
> ‘Fool you are to fling your superstitions at me. Your Omnissiah is nothing to me! See how your so-called holy constructs dance to my desire. Puppets of technology, and I am the mightiest of those arts here present.’
> 
> One of Plosk’s servitors rotated and pointed its multi-melta at Brother Militor. With a roar of shimmering, superheated atmosphere, the fusion beam hit the Space Marine square on. The Terminator was reduced to scalding vapour.
> 
> ‘What do you want from us? We will never be your slaves,’ said Plosk.
> 
> ‘I do not want you as my slave, degenerate. I want to be away from this warp-poisoned galaxy. The universe is infinite. I would go elsewhere before the wounds of space-time here present consume all creation, and I do not intend to take any passengers.’"
> 
> Source:
> 
> __
> https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/4wcd6g
> 
> - The Men of Iron
> 
> "One of the reasons humanity was so successful at conquering a large part of the galaxy during this era was the development of the artificially intelligent humanoid constructs now only known in fragmentary pre-Imperial records as the Men of Iron. These powerful and fully autonomous intelligent robots intended for both labour and combat won many wars for humanity, but for some unknown reason turned against their masters at the end of the Dark Age of Technology and unleashed a terrible war upon the human worlds.
> 
> During this ancient conflict, remembered only as the "Cybernetic Revolt," both sides unleashed fearsome weapons of advanced technology. These included the mechanivores, massive thinking machines capable of lifting entire continents and ripping open chasms on planetary surfaces that extended down to the world's core. The mechanivores could even absorb space-time itself as a form of data. Among the other terrible weapons of mass destruction unleashed at this time were the serpentine machines called "sun-snuffers" that uncoiled into great structures in the void larger than the rings of Saturn and designed to devour the stars themselves. And perhaps the most ubiquitous and dangerous of the weapons of this terrible war were the omniphages, swarms of intelligent, microscopic nano-machines that could consume everything across the surface of a world in only solar hours."
> 
> Source: Dark Age of Technology | Warhammer 40k | FANDOM powered by Wikia
> 
> - "Assault of the Tempest Galleries" AKA: SERVICE robots capable of taking on Astartes whose armour could withstand melta, plasma and bolter fire with ease:
> 
> "Incredibly strong and built to withstand the ravages of the firestorm that surrounded them, each would have overmatched even the battle-automata of the Mechanicum's Legio Cybernetica in size and power, being products as they were of Mankind's ancient and technologically advanced past. There were thousands of these tempest-automata, and all turned on the Astartes of the XVIIIth Legion in an implacable and unceasing attack. Neither Plasma nor Melta Weapons could breach their armour, while Bolter shells rippled across them like rain. Only massive kinetic force applied at close range against their articulated joints was able to disable them; a lesson that cost the XVIIIth hundreds of lives to learn as they were forced into a running battle of attrition with the relentless machines, and cut off when many of their Termite carriers were targeted and crushed by the colossal articulated toothed metal spheres used by the ancient workings to tunnel and expand the galleries."
> 
> Source: Assault of the Tempest Galleries | Warhammer 40k | FANDOM powered by Wikia
> 
> Also, the DAoT was fully unified in a Federation type government, centerd around Terra (go read the wiki at least, before making such ignorant comments).
> 
> Lemme finish by saying that you people are retarded.


_Happy DAoT Human noises_


----------

