Quote Originally Posted by Soras Teva Gee View Post
Well let's see:

-Space Marines standard is a round 1000 chapters of 1000, that's what I've always heard over a decade of being familiar with 40k. Even in the time of the Empire it wasn't that different just they were organized in the 20 (18) bigger Legions for a single purpose. There's some play, but in the thousands or hundreds of thousands when they need billions or trillions for the whole galaxy basis. There are fewer Space Marines then there are worlds in the Imperium. That's just unacceptable. Like I said at one point, they should ALL be in some unified purpose like defending Cadia or maybe Terra. As is all the real work defending the Imperium is done by the PDFs and IG, in that order.

-I'm not seeing much of a point about the factions. The Imperium is dying little by little. All the other factions ARE killing it. The Imperium holds Maccaggre, that's one world barely held while hundreds (or whatever) more were lost. And guess what happens, those lost worlds are not reclaimed because either the Hive Fleet stripped them bare or the Exterminatus did. Imperial "victories" are all Pyrrhic, they survive but they don't win. This fundamental lack of hope is why its the namer of GRIMDARK, because its not a matter of if but when the Imperium is torn apart and by whom. In the end I'm not seeing anything that obviate the idea that the Imperium doesn't finish its enemies because it can't.

-You are off about spores, spores create periodic Ork problems on worlds defended but they are "feral" orks and the like. They keep the Ork species going because they reduce the need for "civilization" on worlds the Orks have long held. Ork Waaghs come from when the already massive Ork holdings (in excess of the Imperium) decide to expand.

-So the goal post is that the Covenant has to beat the Imperium? Fine they engage in a reasonably well planned centuries long campaign to do that. They fought the UNSC for 28 years, they clearly know long term planning and not being stupid in doing so by say overextending themselves. Keep the Halos unknown or non-existant and then nobody tries to start the Great Journey so it becomes a long range goal of the Covenant appropriate to the scale of the task. Either this goal peters out in the complications of the other concerns of the 40k verse (though parity with the Imperium means parity with them since everyone fights everyone) or becomes another steady force tearing the Imperium apart.

Lots can happen in that time though, I consider galactic conquest a question to big to be meaningful. For example the Covenant have at least a better grasp on science then the Martian Idiot Cult since they've made for example advancements over the years. They may not advance as quickly as they perhaps should, but they aren't outright static and monolithic as their religious basis would normally suggest in a story either. However I don't feel right speculating on where their tech would go or can go. Or maybe they break for internal reasons like happened in story.

Then again maybe five years into the war the Golden Throne breaks (it will by canon on 40k end) and the Astronomicon runs out of fuel as the Emperor is truly gone.

If they can survive what the Imperium is going to actually muster short term then the Covernant can survive long term. If the Imperium show heretofore untold initiative or can magically ignore its own problems (external and internal) then it can turn around and muster the forces it needs to do crush the Covenant sure. That's not victory because that would require it not being what it fundamentally is not in my book. Functional.
So your argument boils down to the fact that the Imperium is already in a long term state of defeat against the various forces arrayed against it and the Covenant would just be another coffin nail?