The imperium is at best, mid to late stage tier 2. Tier 1 is when strellar engineering becomes so common that it's basically mundane. The halo tech tiers also make specific reference to the abillity to manipulate evolution itself both in the forward and backward direction at a whim. The overwhelming majority of warhammer itself, let alone the imperium, is signifigantly below nearly all of the requirements for the overwhelming majority of what tier 1 is, so much so that it is not even worth discussing. At least untill Bellasarius starts to really get things moving in the pariah nexus.
It's great to see this take on 40ks tech side. I also would like to add the detail that surten high technology is produces by the Admech literary by having a bunch of high ranking magi building on circuitboard at a time because they have the scimatics and the recurces but lack the automation to mass produce the tech.
Man, the Founder Tech Tiers can be useful in Halo, but honestly, the Kardashev Scale fits much more into any merriment; the Solow Residual can be better if anybody would actually know how to use it. So yeah, I would reject the premise of measuring the tech level of a setting using the tech level of another setting.
I somewhat agree with you, the problem is that whilst the impirium is able to utilize technology as easily as say everyday occurrences such as anti gravity technology which is incredibly advanced for simple objects such as lifting pallets or air cars for civilians, along with the more advanced bits of equipment for the astartes, that being said the sort of low level technology used by the guard is both a strength and its weakness, such as using pulse laser rifles that fire super heated hard light particles at a target as it’s form of ((standard)) infantry weapon does also make sense since unlike most sci fi universes where they all have a stable for Of technology as well as culture, vs the guard who has to deal with futuristic worlds wielding personal force fields for their regular soldiers to a rabble of medieval peasants armed with a garden trowel, and so the impirium makes a great deal of using weaponized civilian equipment, such as the lasgun being nothing more than a weaponized laser cutter, or the anti tank melta which is simply a weaponized version of a plasma torch, used in the mining of mineral, to being used as a welding device, even the humble chimera is military version of your average civilian crawler, used in the transportation of goods, resources or personal, all except for the armor and weapons fitted to it and again this not only allows for a much higher level of efficiency since 60% of all military equipment has about 40% compatibility with your average civilian vehicle both increasing the level of production as well as combat capability where if a tank from one world were to be damaged or destroyed them another unit could simply salvage the useful components for their other vehicles or equipment
Would the Cabal from Destiny be more advanced and powerful then the Imperium of Man on average whole? They have some big planet sized superweapon ships the size of entire Imperium navies don't have the firepower and technological capacity to overwhelm or weaken with hit and run tactics. Not to mention Cabal soldier are known for their better coordination and tactical and strageic adaption unlike Imperial Guard regiments and a unit of Cabal would likely be enough to match a Astartes. Plus a bit more reliable ftl travel and efficient communication networks. The only way their vessel the Almighty was taken down was because the ai Rasputin had a vast array of defensive weaponry within the Solar System that would make Offensive Bias impressed.
The T'au, Necrons and Eldar (+Dark Eldar) as well as the hundreds or thousands of other insignificant xenos races *don't* use the warp for travel. Both the Necrons and Eldar use the Webway (which some could argue is just warp highway) whilst the T'au use a mixture of different FTL systems, one being warp skimming where they skim the warp instead of going through it. Ultimately, I believe the Imperium is capable of tier 0 if it wasn't hindered by 10,000 years of self-imposed technological degeneration. I firmly believe the Dark Age of Technology Humans could've likely very well have been tier 0, or at least extremely high tier 1.
Using the Halo Old Ones tech tree to measure 40k´s tech is like trying to use rocks to measure weight. This video became a comedy the moment he said this was more precise than the Kardashev scale LoL. Just say you want to farm views man, we all know that this is the case.
See, I would normally agree that the imperium thinks that way, but we have cawl now. That said, a far better explanation for forggeting tech is one, lifespan, the tech lasts that long that nobody knows how it works and to reverse engineer that is a pain. I see the mechanicus as more multiple heads researching the same topics, everything non-human is rejected and so the imperium must start from the ground up(understanding the world through human view), however the imperium doesn't have time for that and so magos who are valuable are well above standard even techpriests, they are given the keys to direct innovation except innovation is nothing without the industry, the imperium doesn't have time, space travel and resources to spend on the industry. Why change to a better tractor when the one now already has 3 forge worlds producing specific parts. Cawl and his plot hole of a story changes this into horrid story telling and destruction of the lore, regardless that proves the imperium should now be going into more advanced tech, at least going back to the great crusade. Even then the tech jump won't happen, it'll be a slow process.
I somewhat agree with you, the problem is that whilst the impirium is able to utilize technology as easily as say everyday occurrences such as anti gravity technology which is incredibly advanced for simple objects such as lifting pallets or air cars for civilians, along with the more advanced bits of equipment for the astartes, that being said the sort of low level technology used by the guard is both a strength and its weakness, such as using pulse laser rifles that fire super heated hard light particles at a target as it’s form of ((standard)) infantry weapon does also make sense since unlike most sci fi universes where they all have a stable for Of technology as well as culture, vs the guard who has to deal with futuristic worlds wielding personal force fields for their regular soldiers to a rabble of medieval peasants armed with a garden trowel, and so the impirium makes a great deal of using weaponized civilian equipment, such as the lasgun being nothing more than a weaponized laser cutter, or the anti tank melta which is simply a weaponized version of a plasma torch, used in the mining of mineral, to being used as a welding device, even the humble chimera is military version of your average civilian crawler, used in the transportation of goods, resources or personal, all except for the armor and weapons fitted to it and again this not only allows for a much higher level of efficiency since 60% of all military equipment has about 40% compatibility with your average civilian vehicle both increasing the level of production as well as combat capability where if a tank from one world were to be damaged or destroyed them another unit could simply salvage the useful components for their other vehicles or equipment