Gabiluzbad
[40k] is anyone feeling hungry? Let’s talk about the Tyranids, the hungriest guys of all
Gabiluzbad
Previously:
Gabiluzbad
Tau
Gabiluzbad
Eldar
Gabiluzbad
Orks
Gabiluzbad
Necrons
Gabiluzbad
So the Tyranids
Gabiluzbad
Are the faction I personally find the scariest
Gabiluzbad
They’re a race of biological monsters that eat worlds
Gabiluzbad
They’re not a cliche of hive mind big monsters because they wrote the book
Gabiluzbad
The Zerg are a copy of them
BattroidBattery
yeah honestly they seem like they should never lose ground combat
Gabiluzbad
(Well actually I guess Starship Troopers is older)
BattroidBattery
doesn't matter how cool your space marines or psy-titans are when the other guy is literally digesting your planet down to the bedrock to shit out an endless supply of soldiers
Gabiluzbad
The origins of the Tyranids are a COMPLETE mystery
Gabiluzbad
They came to our galaxy from the depths of intergalactic space
Gabiluzbad
No one knows how many there are or what the ultimate fate of their home galaxy was
Gabiluzbad
Or how many galaxies they’ve eaten before ours
Gabiluzbad
pictured: the boys, in town
pictured: the boys, in town
Gabiluzbad
When the Tyranids first arrived, it took the Imperium a while to figure out what was happening, because when a hive fleet arrives at a planet, one of the first effects is the Shadow On The Warp
Gabiluzbad
Which makes communication off the planet impossible
Gabiluzbad
They’d get like one confused distress call, followed by radio silence
Gabiluzbad
By the time a ship actually showed up to investigate the Tyranids had finished, so all they found was a volcanic ball of barren rock where once had been a thriving colony
Gabiluzbad
The first hive fleet was mostly destroyed in a series of pitched battles, and everyone started to relax a bit, and then the second hive fleet arrived
Gabiluzbad
We’re up to the fourth hive fleet, I think?
Gabiluzbad
I think we all know the tropes associated with hive mind bugs at this point
Gabiluzbad
So instead
Gabiluzbad
I’m gonna go over what a Tyranid invasion typically looks like
Gabiluzbad
DAY 1: initial spores arrive, bringing scout forces
Gabiluzbad
Usually genestealers, a tyranid that specializes in stealthily infecting local life
Gabiluzbad
Humans infected by genestealers form cults that quickly starts spreading, undermining local defenses
Gabiluzbad
Until they hit critical mass and send a psychic signal the main hive fleet can detect
Gabiluzbad
Day 9: the initial wave of Tyranids is forces arrive in numbers that can be a threat to local defenses
Gabiluzbad
Day 13: Tyranids begin infecting local water sources to significant degree
Gabiluzbad
Day 37: tyranid infectiob has spread all the way down to the bedrock for about 2000km from initial site of invasion
Gabiluzbad
Day 48: by this point the tyranid population is doubling every two days
Gabiluzbad
Day 50: the main hive fleet arrives, all communication off world is cut off, and hive ships chase down anyone trying to leave the system
Gabiluzbad
Day 51: by this point, all local resistance has usually been defeated and the consumption of the planet’s biomass can begin in earnest
dragon time
Thanks I hate it
pixie lovemail
so. like. the only possible defense against the Tyranids is to know that they're coming ahead of time, evacuate the civilians, and set up an entrenched military. which is also impossible because of the shadow on the warp.
pixie lovemail
hm. this seems apocalyptic for the galaxy!
pixie lovemail
...wait. what if you deliberately seed a planet with ork spores if Tyranid invasions are happening then bug out
BattroidBattery
that would require you to maintain a supply of ork spores which sounds pretty dangerous in its own right
BattroidBattery
though the eldar are known to favor that kind of thing, it just occasionally blows up in their faces even with all their precognitive bullshit
Gabiluzbad
Broodships land, releasing ripper swarms which will start just eating EVERYTHING made of organic matter
Gabiluzbad
Plants, trees, dirt
Gabiluzbad
Everything
Gabiluzbad
When a ripper can’t eat anymore it waddles off to a reclamation pool and throws itself in to be digested
Gabiluzbad
The reclamation pools are connected to capillary towers
Gabiluzbad
Plantlike structures that grow into the upper atmosphere so that hive ships can connect with their docking proboscis and biomass can be slurped up into orbit
Gabiluzbad
Day 80: the hive ships start collecting the atmosphere
Gabiluzbad
When that’s eaten, the oceans start boiling, so they eat those too
Gabiluzbad
When the weight of the oceans go away, it causes tectonic shifts which causes volcanic activity across the planet
Gabiluzbad
The hive fleet pulls out at this point
Gabiluzbad
Day 100: imperial reinforcements arrive, to a barren, volcano ridden ball of rock
pixie lovemail
jesus fuck
Gabiluzbad
Now, there ARE ways to fight the Tyranids
Gabiluzbad
Naval engagements have been semi successful
Gabiluzbad
Hive fleets are BIG but can be fought off
Gabiluzbad
If you can catch the genestealer cults before they reach critical mass then the hive fleet might just fly past you
Gabiluzbad
In open conflict, they have something called synapse creatures
Gabiluzbad
Which act as like relays for the hive mind
Gabiluzbad
So if you can target the synapse creatures then all the tyranids under their control will go berserk and get confused
Gabiluzbad
And if you just bring enough guns you can fight them off in open combat
Gabiluzbad
But that’s a dicey proposition
Gabiluzbad
Goes like the Necrons, which are made of metal, or the forces of chaos, who are largely made of warp energy, provide no sustenance to the tyranids, so they tend to avoid them
Gabiluzbad
But the thing that is the most haunting to me
Gabiluzbad
Is the time between “all local resistance is defeated” and “the tyranids start eating the atmosphere”
Gabiluzbad
Imagine being on that planet during that time
Gabiluzbad
In a neighborhood that they just haven’t quite gotten to yet
Gabiluzbad
You have a few days
Gabiluzbad
No help is coming
Gabiluzbad
The skies are raining spores
Gabiluzbad
And you still have to eat lunch
Gabiluzbad
New Edition Cinematic Trailer – Warhammer 40,000
Gabiluzbad
Features the nids heavily
dragon time
What happens if they go up against a necron planet
Cute Quinn
it sounds like they don't
Cute Quinn
they just leave
Echo
Yeah, I guess if the Necrons have already been there that long, there probably isn't anything organic still alive there for them to eat in the first place.
Gabiluzbad
Pretty much
Gabiluzbad
Genestealers show up and don’t find anything to infect
Gabiluzbad
Hive fleet never shows up
PADORU (Jon)
orks fighting tyranids is probably how you get krorks again
Echo
Sort of like when a dog tries chewing on plastic a little to see if it's a treat and then spits it out.
PADORU (Jon)
alternatively they both evolve which is Bad
Echo
...Actually, I guess that only that one faction wants to kill nonsapient stuff, too? So there might be Necron worlds with like. Plants.
Echo
But I feel like once the vast majority of other life is gone, they're not going to do very well. Bad for the ecosystem.
Echo
I wonder if it ever happens the other way around? Necrons get to a planet ready to wipe out all life and find it getting eaten.
Echo
Do they consider tyranids to be People enough to get wiped out too, or do they just go 'welp, problem solved' and leave?
Cute Quinn
the spirit of wh40k makes me suspect that they do go kill the tyranids
Echo
Yeah, it feels more likely.
Vehrec
Necrons actually are really upset at the tyranids
Vehrec
see, one of their long-term goals is to un-do some of the damage their bio-transferance did, they want to be immortal but also to have souls and be able to like, grow and change.
Vehrec
to that end, they want lots of different sapients species in the galaxy to study, learn from, and maybe transfer their minds into if they ever work out the bugs.
Vehrec
if they Tyranids eat everything, then that's it, no more science experiments!
Vehrec
So part of why the Necrons are waking up is to punch the Tyranid hyper-predator in the snout and scare it away.
Echo
I thought Necrons also wanted to kill everyone, though?
Vehrec
They did in their first incarnation, but more modern Necrons have a variety of motivations
Vehrec
some are omnicidal, some are 'Well, I was here first, so I'll give you one standard year to get off my planet." and some are "Ah great, free slaves moved in while I was asleep, I can get some great new pyramids built."
Vehrec
the Necron's Silent King even had a whole thing where he and the Blood Angels chapter of the Space Marines found each other worthy and honorable allies.
Vehrec
He also feels that Chaos is a big problem in the galaxy, so he commisioned the other Necrons to build giant Chaos-erroding pylons on many worlds of the galaxy-too bad about the fact that they also destroy souls, but ya know, gotta crack a few eggs to patch the holes in reality.
Vehrec
but we're here to talk about the Tyranids, so let's talk about THE SWARMLORD
Vehrec
If the Hive-mind of the Tyranids have a face it is this: 
Cute Quinn
more humanoid than I was expecting
dragon time
Got pipes
Vehrec
Humanoid, but huge, it's a small kaiju, like King-kong scale maybe?
Vehrec
It's a modified Hive Tyrant, a fairly standard leadership monster of the swarm.
Vehrec
Hive Tyrants are the highest form of psychic and physical perfection and investment the hive-mind typically makes upon a battlefield.
Vehrec
The Swarmlord is for when even that is not enough
Vehrec
and it seems, somehow, there is only one Swarmlord incarnated in the entire galaxy at once.
Vehrec
You can kill it, but it can just return to life from the hive-ships, though it's defeat will send shockwaves through the entire hive-mind.
Vehrec
and uh, good luck killing it, those pipes vent spores that absorb ranged weapons and conceal it's form, and it has lots of experience in sword fighting and four Boneswords to use on you.
Vehrec
it also seems to have more...autonomy and individuality than is normal-it's the only 'character' that really exists among the tyranids.
Vehrec
there are some others who crop up though, almost individual beasts and such
Vehrec
Old One Eye, a great Carnifex that is seemingly unkiillable.
Vehrec
The Death Leaper, a kind of infiltraitor lifeform that skulks about.
Vehrec
Doom of Malan'tai, a tyranid that feeds not on flesh and blood but on souls, and single-handedly claimed an entire Eldar Craftworld.
Vehrec
I also recall a great rule from an older version of the game where you could bring a unit of dirt-cheap little bugs and buy an expensive upgrade for them
Vehrec
if you lost the entire unit, you get to set them back up on your side of the board
Vehrec
because you had reserves.
Gabiluzbad
Vehrec offers additional insight
Gabiluzbad
Dawn of War 2 is an excellent Warhammer RTS/action rpg
Gabiluzbad
And the single player campaign is about a unit of space marines fighting off a tyranid invasion
Gabiluzbad
It gets intense
Gabiluzbad
Especially since the eldar are around sabotaging your defenses in hopes of making your worlds a more tempting target to the hive fleet than the nearby damaged eldar craftworld
Gabiluzbad
Anyway
Gabiluzbad
TOMORROW
Gabiluzbad
A SHORT BREAK