# Tyranids on Catachan?



## Zedix (Nov 23, 2010)

Hey guys!

Being more of a player than a painter/fluffman(do not misinterpret) I recently got the brilliant idea of creating a Catachan-themed Tyranidarmy when our group recently decided to switch from WHFB to 40k.

Reading through codexes both new and old I've always had a "thing" for Catachan, but I just couldn't bear the thought of painting little Ramboes and big tanks. But something has to be lurking in those jungles right?

That's the reason I would like some fluffy help with the armytheme, sofar I've found only vague references to tyranids on catachan, and mostly those of Lictors (which actually are the awesomesaucest units in 40k) so that's a start. 

But, what more kind of aliens are actually lurking in the deep jungles?

Best Regards.


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## Lord_Anonymous (Oct 13, 2010)

Ever heard of a catachan devil? Well they make tyranids look like puppies by comparison, even if the tyranids attacked catachan im willing to bet that the jungle fighters would just adapt to the threat and eventually win most likely with help from the native flora and fauna. No 'nid is going to take on the creatures on catachan and win, tyranids may be nasty but its a deathworld with many other things that you don't want to meet in a dark alleyway.


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## moshpiler (Apr 16, 2009)

but if they do win they get to soak up all that catachan lethality...


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## Grimskul25 (Feb 17, 2009)

I thought there were already forgotten/abandoned types of 'Nids on Catachan. Or was that older fluff? Anywho I don't think even a death world ike Catachan would really slow down the 'Nids, if anything it would just make them tougher and more resilient in the battles to come due to their supreme ability to adapt so readily in any given environment.


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## Ardias26 (Sep 26, 2008)

catachan devils absorbed into the hive fleets...


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## aboytervigon (Jul 6, 2010)

also that natural fauna will turn against the catchans.


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## Zedix (Nov 23, 2010)

Alot of answers already, and you've truly piqued my interest.

So basically there's no nids on Catachan BUT Catachan Devils? Anyone have a description / picture of them?

Perhaps an alternative would be a nid scoutingforce adapting to the deathworld really fast?

Thoughts' ideas?

Thanks alot


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## Imperious (May 20, 2009)

Here's a visual.


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## Angel of Blood (Aug 18, 2010)

That must be a Tyranid, lictor by the looks of it. Catachan Devils are like giant scorpions/centipedes as seen here


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## Zedix (Nov 23, 2010)

The first image is 100% a lictor

And the second one is a centipede that looks pretty harmless compared to a lictor.

Either way, am I right that Catachans only wage work on Catachan? That should mean that at least there's Lictors on the planet. Which is a start.


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## Imperious (May 20, 2009)

Yeah I know. I was showing what it was like to see tyranids on catachan. 

The catachan devil is part centipede, part scorpion, and has giant crap like pincers.

The Catachan Codex has page of the flora and fauna (both deadly) on Catachan.


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## Imperious (May 20, 2009)

Zedix said:


> Either way, am I right that Catachans only wage work on Catachan? That should mean that at least there's Lictors on the planet. Which is a start.


If you mean "wage war" no you are wrong. Imperial Guardsmen are drafted and deployed throughout the galaxy. However planets maintain their own PDFs for local defense.


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## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Zedix said:


> The first image is 100% a lictor
> 
> And the second one is a centipede that looks pretty harmless compared to a lictor.
> 
> Either way, am I right that Catachans only wage work on Catachan? That should mean that at least there's Lictors on the planet. Which is a start.


That 'Centipede' is the size of a Battle Tank.

No Catachans don't fight on Catachan alone, most of the time they fight else where- so that pic of the Catachans fighting a Lictor is most likely not on their homeworld.


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## jfvz (Oct 23, 2010)

From the 4th ed codex it makes referance to the theroy that all deathworlds encounted by the imperium are tyranid in origin. This theroy is from Inquistor Kyrtoman (not sure if thats how u spell it), the foremost "expert" on nids that the imperium have. This theroy is met with burcratic resistance.

The centipede is also said to grow to the size of a land train, and some monsterous ones are equlivant in size to tyranid bio-titians. Of the little i know of catachan's fluff (correct me if im wrong), killing one of those centipedes makes you a legend.


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## locustgate (Dec 6, 2009)

jfvz said:


> The centipede is also said to grow to the size of a land train, and some monsterous ones are equlivant in size to tyranid bio-titians. Of the little i know of catachan's fluff (correct me if im wrong), killing one of those centipedes makes you a legend.


In one of the IG omnibus short stories a catachan recruit managed to scare one off and became a legend. (By memory)


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## ckcrawford (Feb 4, 2009)

I think I stepped on one this morning.:so_happy:....I am legend.

The Catachan Devils just appear to have released on the planet long ago, and forgotten. Basically returning to their animalistic instincts. But I think its fun to think about what may have happened long ago.. or might be happening. Perhaps the fleet that released them was destroyed by an older race or something more mysterious.


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## jfvz (Oct 23, 2010)

ckcrawford said:


> I think I stepped on one this morning.:so_happy:....I am legend.
> 
> The Catachan Devils just appear to have released on the planet long ago, and forgotten. Basically returning to their animalistic instincts. But I think its fun to think about what may have happened long ago.. or might be happening. Perhaps the fleet that released them was destroyed by an older race or something more mysterious.


There are two explinations to how tyranid organisms have come to planets in the imperium, either they have evolved from a strain that was left behind from a long forgotten hivefleet (Im probs thinking a Trygon for the Devil) or a "Tyranid Genetic Seed" was blown by the glatic winds and this evolved into those organisms


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## Chompy Bits (Jun 13, 2010)

Spiker plant anyone? Mind you, would that even work against a Nid?


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## Brother Arnold (Aug 29, 2010)

Zedix said:


> The first image is 100% a lictor
> 
> And the second one is a centipede that looks pretty harmless compared to a lictor.
> 
> Either way, am I right that Catachans only wage work on Catachan? That should mean that at least there's Lictors on the planet. Which is a start.


No, like all IG regiments, the Catachans fight on any planet they're called to, generally one with an environment that the regiment specialises in. So Valhallans are generally put to work on ice worlds, Death Korps of Krieg on worlds with hostile atmospheres, Tallarn on desert worlds, Mordians on night worlds, and Catachans on jungle planets. The Lictor could be bearing down on Catachans on any random jungle world that they're on, but I admit that the idea of Nids on Catachan is cool. I may be wrong, but it's possible that on a death world, most of the environment is unexplored due to extreme environmental hostility. Who knows what's lurking out there?

But yeah, the idea of a themed army of Nids on Catachan is nice. If you really wanted to support the idea and have a really fluffy army list, then I'd recommend as many Lictors as possible, not many Monstrous Creatures, probably a few Genestealers or not very big units of Gaunts (to convey the idea that this force is the vanguard or the remnants of a Hive Fleet that got blown up in the area - if there were as many on the planet as large units of Gaunts would imply, then Catachan would already be dead and buried), some Gargoyles if you went with the "Hive Fleet vanguard" idea, and possibly some converted Catachan Devils that you could use as Raveners or Trygons (depending on their size).


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## Angel of Blood (Aug 18, 2010)

Catachans would give the Tyranids a massive run for their money. Theres an entry in the Guard codex talking about the XVIII Catachan who fought for seven years against a Tyranid infestation, some of them covered themselves in Tyranid ichor and over a period of time built a strong immunity to tyranid toxins and masked their own scent so the Tyranids couldn't find them, and the processed to hunt them! They would use phermones from Lictors to draw Tyranids into ambushes. Eventually they defeated the infestation, then had to spend the next two years on a decontamination ship


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