This is just my opinion, and I'm sure many will disagree, but I want to say this.

In every single comparison of science-fiction settings, two of them will always worm their way in and claim that they can always boast the top score in anything. These two settings are the Culture, and Warhammer 40K.

I'll likely explain my problems with comparing things to the Culture in a later post, but let's focus on W40K.

When comparing sci-fi settings, you can measure them by a series of categories: Scale, the size of a setting and its military; Planetary strength, what a setting can field in-atmosphere; Naval strength, what a setting can field in space; and Innovation, the thing which sets a setting apart in its own way (psykers, the force, element zero, etc.), something which cannot be easily translated to another setting. This is of course only looking at a setting through the lense of a power-based comparison to another setting, so please don't use this to judge settings on their own.

It has been my experience that most settings will find a way to balance these out, sacrificing one or two while excelling in others. Mass Effect is quite bland in terms of planetary strength, about average in terms of scale and naval strength, and above average in Innovation. Star Wars tends to be more balance, though the Naval strength is more apparent and the Innovation barely plays a role in most encounters. Star Trek falls behind on planetary strength, where a handful of soldiers is sufficient to defend a major military installation, and innovation, where most of it is limited to technobabble and lasers. By comparison it pulls ahead in Scale, with the largest factions ruling hundreds or thousands of systems, and naval strength, able to pitch forward hundreds of ships .

I could go on, but I'll stop now and hope I got my point across. So where does W40K sit on these scales? Too fucking high, that's where.

Planetary strength measured in the millions of soldiers, weapons like Boltors and Meltaguns, promethium, and it goes on. Fair enough, it can have a decent land force. Naval strength, massive fleets armed with similarly powerful weapons, if upscaled for the larger vessels. Scale, enough that the Imperium can afford to lose entire planets to the workings of their own religious order. Innovation, where both psykers are a thing and so is the warp. Every faction is like this, like they were written by that one kid on the playground who always wanted to be the best. It's too good at too many things, and this is why I dislike it for comparing things. I dislike it as a setting for other reasons, but those aren't important here.

And this would be so easy to fix. Just take any one of these things and tone it down a notch. Make ship-to-ship combat highly ineffective, reduce the strength of the grounded army, make it more clear just how dire losing a planet can be, and don't write any interactions between anything and the warp 'lol, warp wins because corruption and limitless demons.'

That's my two cents, and I've been awake for sixteen hours now so goodnight.