Editing Star Wars vs Warhammer 40K (section)

=Strengths of the Republic=
Let's not mince words here; the Imperial Refugees ''drastically'' outclass the Republic when it comes to their respective specialist forces. [[Space Marine]]s curbstomp pretty much anything that isn't a Jedi, and the Crimson Razor [[Space Marine Librarian|Epistolary]] takes on over a ''hundred'' Jedi simultaneously, kills dozens, wounds dozens more, and causes one to Fall to the Dark Side before being brought down with a lightsaber through one heart and two lungs, and he might have survived if he hadn't given the Jedi Council's High Librarian the chance to core him like an apple with a Sith War-era energy blaster. Imperial Ships are far bigger and more heavily armored than their Republic counterparts, outrange them with their arsenals, and are far more durable in a ramming incident. The Imperials are far more battle-hardened and zealous than the Republic is. But despite this, the Republic aren't defenseless, either.

One for one, Clones are easily equal to the Imperial Guard. Blasters are on tier, power wise, with Lasguns - in fact, their specialization to make them better at defeating [[Robot|droids]] makes blasters surprisingly deadly to [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] forces - but they do have the drawback of being much easier to dodge. Clone Trooper armor actually completely nullifies lasguns... well, the ''first'' hit, anyway, after which it becomes useless.

Adding to their technological parity, Clones have the benefit of far greater tactical creativity and freedom compred to the Imperials. It's not that the Imperial forces are ''stupid'', it's just they tend to be... hidebound. There are consequences to having [[Commissar]]s and [[Adeptus Soritas]] constantly watching you for unacceptable mental deviancy; Imperials are usually rather rigid in their thoughts, though the exceptions are deadly. In cointrast, the Republic gives the Clones full freedom, and they excel at tactical innovation on the battlefield.

The Jedi/Space Marine disparity is also unfairly stacked in the Space Marine's favor only because the Jedi have grown rusty over thousands of years of peace. Back in the last Sith War, they used ''armor'' and wielded far more destructive weaponry and techniques; now they just run around in robes waving lightsabers and using only the most basic Force manuevers. And even then, if a Space Marine finds themselves up against a properly battle-hardened Jedi, things are a lot less stacked in the Imperial's favor than they seem - lightsabers go through ceramite like they were [[Power Weapon]]s. If the Jedi shake off the dust and start getting back into Sith War-tier condition, things are only going to get worse for the Imperials.

The Republic also may have crappier weapons-tech in blasters, but that's only because of the centuries-old treaty from the end of the last Jedi/Sith War, followed by centuries of widespread peace. With the Imperium goading them, the Republic is being pushed to expand their arsenal, both by dusting off some of the really nasty shit they used in the last great war, and by inventing entirely new ways to fuck people over. And when it comes to innovation, the Republic has the Imperials beat hands down - the [[Adeptus Mechanicus]] may be geniuses in their own right, but their focus is on reverse-engineering, not creating from scratch, and even then they move at a pace ranging from "sluggish" to "glacial". The Republic-turned-Empire was able to build the first Death Star in 21 years, and the second was over halfway complete in just 4 years - in contrast, it takes the Mechanicus about a century or so to make ''one'' ship. And even an Imperial ship vs. a fully functioning Death Star is not exactly a fight stacked in the Imperium's favor.

Which brings up the least flashy but also perhaps the most vital strength the Republic has: logistics. The Imperial Refugees are alone; their arrival in the galaxy was a complete fluke, they can't even perceive the [[Astronomicon]] to begin navigating back home, they can't contact home, and nobody is coming for them. Even if the [[Imperium]] ''knew'' where the Xek-Tek Survivors had ended up, they would almost certainly not bother coming to get them because they simply can't spare the manpower - remember that little thing called the [[Indomitus Crusade]]? Honestly, you have to suspect that [[Roboute Guilliman]] would have some pretty choice words for the poor sap who calls him on the Astropathic Choir and tells him they went and picked the Imperium a fight with ''an entire second galaxy''. So that means that the refugees, as massive as their initial numbers are, don't have the greater bulwark of the Imperium's reserves to replenish their casualties and supplies. Which also highlights the Imperium's biggest logistical issue even in the Milky Way: their extraordinarily wasteful and inefficient resupply rate. Even with a fully functioning manufactorum, it canonically takes the Imperium ''years'' to make even heavier equipment, like [[bolter]]s. And then there's their elite forces; it takes decades and well over a thousand aspirants to get ''one'' rookie [[Space Marine]]. And one Space Marine facing the equivalent of a hundred-thousand Imperial Guardsmen armed with Tau Plasma Rifles is... well, it's not likely to end very well for the Space Marine, is it? And that's assuming the Republic hasn't reverse-engineered [[Power Armor]] by then! The Imperial Refugees, then, are literally at risk of being bled dry, as the Republic has more manpower, more resources, and will both advance its basic tech ''and'' replenish its losses far faster than the Refugees. It might be a slow, lingering death... but it wouldn't make them any less dead.