# Tyranid fluff



## Waaagh_Bong (Aug 10, 2010)

I picked up the nid Codex today just for something new to read. I can say that i really enjoy reading about them. Do you guys know of good nid storys? Novel or short storys that are filled with Tyranids? The Death of Tyran, from the codex is a good read , i enjoyed that alot! I have found a few Novels on the Black Library site but i would like to see what you guys can come up with as well. Thanks a head of time!


----------



## hippypancake (Jul 14, 2010)

The second book in the Ultramarines series is full of nids I think its called "Defenders of Ultramar"


----------



## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

Defenders of Ultramar... UM omnibus.
Let the Galaxy Burn!... has a couple. 

Ciaphas Cain. the first book, and the fifth. Both have tyranids. (Especially the fifth)

That`s all I have right now...


----------



## Angel of Blood (Aug 18, 2010)

In Horus Rising it details a campaign against the 'Megarachnid' Who are very very similiar to Tyranids and some would argue actually are Tyranids


----------



## Chompy Bits (Jun 13, 2010)

Tyranids also make a small appearance in Ravenor Rogue.


----------



## Worldkiller (Jun 16, 2010)

There are nid like creatures in Salamander, Black Tide has some, Dawn of War 2, The original Space Marine has the Imperium's first contact with them, buts not 100% canon anymore, Desert Raiders (I think thats what its called) has Imp Guard vs. nids, the Last Chancers omnibus, specifically the first this of the trilogy, Dark Disciple, the second Word Bearer novel,. Hope that helps.


----------



## Waaagh_Bong (Aug 10, 2010)

thanks guys for all the posts!! i made me a nice little list now.


----------



## Stephen_Newman (Jul 14, 2009)

I thought the fluff from the last nid codex was far more impressive than the current one. Mainly because not every fight was nids assault with massive numbers and are only driven back after many casualties suffered by the defenders. It also created the image of a galaxy under siege and that it was only a matter of time till all life was snuffed out.

On a personal note did you not think the hive fleet (the one that fought tau-dunno name) becoming IMMUNE to all tau weaponry, but not kroot weaponry, then becoming invisible was not only ridiculous but begs the question why the hive fleets in combat with the imperium did not develop since they could have swallowed the emperor already by now.


----------



## Waaagh_Bong (Aug 10, 2010)

Stephen_Newman said:


> On a personal note did you not think the hive fleet (the one that fought tau-dunno name) becoming IMMUNE to all tau weaponry, but not kroot weaponry, then becoming invisible was not only ridiculous but begs the question why the hive fleets in combat with the imperium did not develop since they could have swallowed the emperor already by now.


The Race to adapt-Hive Fleet Gorgon^, its 7am here (up for class at 8am) I read that part twice just to see if i missed out on something. Out of all the things the nids where having hard time with where undergrowth of the forest world Sha'draig,and then the kroot weapsons and traps. I would like to see a Horm trap myself lol. yes to me that was a little odd that the Kroot with traps and common field arms held back the nids, while on the other hand the Tau had to come up with better weapons and ammo ever battle or so just to keep up with Gorgon's adapting. 

This codex did make the Nids sounds like the end all to every race, i would think with a race like this moving around so much it would become more of prod. Thats kind of way i liked it to be true, i enjoyed the "nids, end all life" fill the codex gave them lol. I wish the nids would have more of a background, where did they come from before thay attacked Tyran? but then that would not make them so different i guess.I think im going to have to find the last codex and read it as well.


----------



## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Hive Gorgon was a fleet of particularly adaptive Tyranids. It cost them heavily to continue changing. They couldn't produce a lot of their larger forms.

Also the Imperium of Man uses a variety of weapons. Laser weaponry, purely kinetic weapons, explosives, flamers, ect. It's much more difficult to adapt to everything.


----------



## Stephen_Newman (Jul 14, 2009)

It adapted so ALL tau manufactured weapons were ineffective against it. That means that neutron blasters, pulse weapons, rail weapons, ion cannons, plasma rifles, all types of missiles, burst cannons, fusion blasters, flamers. That is a lot of variety so saying the imperium has too many weapons for it to work on is not valid as an argument.


----------



## Waaagh_Bong (Aug 10, 2010)

hailene said:


> Hive Gorgon was a fleet of particularly adaptive Tyranids. It cost them heavily to continue changing. They couldn't produce a lot of their larger forms.
> 
> Also the Imperium of Man uses a variety of weapons. Laser weaponry, purely kinetic weapons, explosives, flamers, ect. It's much more difficult to adapt to everything.


in the battle for macragge, the hive mind had already seen and learnt much of the tactics employed by the Master of Macraffe. The hive mind set the Swarmlord out(the hive tyrant later classified in imperial records as the swarmlord."). It was the swarmlord that lead the final attack against macragge.some where in the fluff its stated that the horms and other smaller nids had changed, they had a layer of slim on them to protect from flamers, and thicker amour plates. 
You are right about the nids having a diffecult time adapting at times and it seems to me that the hive mind will make changes as it sees fit. I would think that Hive Fleet Gorgan tought the Hive mind alot. So its not that the nids cant adapt, its what the hive mind thinks it should adapt and the hive mind will keep note of the fail of Gorgan and spend its Biomass more wise. This i can see making the nids seem like they are having a hard time adapting in a long and hard war, where the hive mind is losing nids at a high rate and has to spend biomass on more nids rather then adapting faster.


----------



## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Stephen_Newman said:


> It adapted so ALL tau manufactured weapons were ineffective against it. That means that neutron blasters, pulse weapons, rail weapons, ion cannons, plasma rifles, all types of missiles, burst cannons, fusion blasters, flamers. That is a lot of variety so saying the imperium has too many weapons for it to work on is not valid as an argument.


It adapted strictly to the Tau pulse-rifles. One line in the Tyranid codex is a bit ambiguous, but several other specifically note resistance to pulse rifle fire.

I've never had a Tau army, so I don't know specifically how much pulse rifle fire makes up an army, but I assume a fair amount.

Anywho, it begs the question why the Tyranids don't adapt to las weaponry? Probably more trouble than it's worth, I think. Better to spawn X more gaunts than spend the energy to reengineer them.


----------



## Waaagh_Bong (Aug 10, 2010)

hailene said:


> It adapted strictly to the Tau pulse-rifles. One line in the Tyranid codex is a bit ambiguous, but several other specifically note resistance to pulse rifle fire.
> 
> I've never had a Tau army, so I don't know specifically how much pulse rifle fire makes up an army, but I assume a fair amount.
> 
> Anywho, it begs the question why the Tyranids don't adapt to las weaponry? Probably more trouble than it's worth, I think. Better to spawn X more gaunts than spend the energy to reengineer them.


i do not think the nids would even care for las, they have the zoanthropes with psyhic powers: warp blast, blast, warp lance. 

Plus if the nids did ever come up with a type of bio las weapon, it would not do much to toops that have armour for such an attack IMO.


----------



## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

No, no. You misunderstand. Why don't the Tyranids change their carapaces to resist las fire when fighting the IoM. Since that makes up a great amount of Imperial weaponry.


----------



## Waaagh_Bong (Aug 10, 2010)

hailene said:


> No, no. You misunderstand. Why don't the Tyranids change their carapaces to resist las fire when fighting the IoM. Since that makes up a great amount of Imperial weaponry.


oh i did im sorry! I do not know why they would not...i bet GW would sell us something that would have this info in it lol


----------



## Stephen_Newman (Jul 14, 2009)

That would however include lascannons and can you see the outrage on peoples faces when they find out that carnifexes and trygons can no longer be taken down by lascannon fire.


----------



## gally912 (Jan 31, 2009)

Because tyranids are already resistant to lasfire, as evidenced by the fact all tyranids get an armor save against the lasgun. 

: D


----------



## Waaagh_Bong (Aug 10, 2010)

gally912 said:


> Because tyranids are already resistant to lasfire, as evidenced by the fact all tyranids get an armor save against the lasgun.
> 
> : D


i learn something new each day here:victory:

Out of all the Hive Fleets i like how Karken has waged war, sinking its tendrils in a galaxy and stoping all warnings, and attacking more then one world at a time. A bold move having smaller fleets break off and go after different worlds. unlike behemoth attack as one large hive fleet.


----------



## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

Well, particularly resistant. And I think it would be to a certain degree. Like a bulletproof vest could resist pistol bullets but not a .50 caliber round.

Besides! It'd be a hefty point penalty. Possibly giving negatives. Less toughness against other sorts of attacks or something along those lines. Like a normal toughness 2 against other forms of attack by toughness 4 against las weaponry. This would mean a las gun would have a much tougher time (combined with their usual sucktastic 6+ armor save) wounding them, las cannons would still vaporize one in a hit, and they're not running over every guard army they meet.

But that's TT and not fluff, sooo...


----------



## manyfist (Aug 14, 2010)

I guess that different Hive Fleets have different Hive Minds, each with it's own unique "personality". One Hive Fleet adapts, the other with seer numbers, and yet another tries to go in a two prong attack. The way each Hive Fleet fights and how much resources spent on X and Y are depending on the "personalities". These personalities aren't true personalities just minor quirks that seem to of shown up due to w/e variations they have. That's what I believe. Is it Canon? Who knows. Does it make sense? A bit.


----------



## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

I don't know. I think each fleet is more of an experiment to see how things work out against these particular people in this particular situation with these particular characteristics. 

That's why the Swarmlord never made sense to me. Why have one particular Tyranid leader? They shouldn't need a leader. It's the Hivemind that's in control. The big ones are just relaying the orders.


----------



## manyfist (Aug 14, 2010)

hailene said:


> I don't know. I think each fleet is more of an experiment to see how things work out against these particular people in this particular situation with these particular characteristics.
> 
> That's why the Swarmlord never made sense to me. Why have one particular Tyranid leader? They shouldn't need a leader. It's the Hivemind that's in control. The big ones are just relaying the orders.


Perhaps there's need for the bigger guns, which is why you see unique units pop up in sporadic intervals. Swarmlord could be one those unique units needed to see as fit. It could be a backup server (one that bites, claws, and does nasty stuff but no less a backup server) in case the programs fail. For instance your computer is the hivemind, an individual program is a synapse creature the data provided by the program are the troops. There's tons of data across all these programs, however what if a program is deleted? And enough of these programs are deleted, instead of losing the data it's going through the backup server. This server then sends you the data back, and everything is just fine even without the programs running. 

That's how I see it.


----------



## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

So a "program" or a synapse creature dies? And instead of running amok like most smaller Tyranid forms do in the absence of a synapse creature? So the Swarmlord would be like some super synapse creature that keeps all the smaller forms in line?


----------



## Baron Spikey (Mar 26, 2008)

Imagine it more as the Internet being the Hive Mind, with each computer being a Hive Fleet that has all it's files accessable by said internet and the various splinter fleets and synapse creatures are programmes contained on each Computer.


----------



## manyfist (Aug 14, 2010)

hailene said:


> So a "program" or a synapse creature dies? And instead of running amok like most smaller Tyranid forms do in the absence of a synapse creature? So the Swarmlord would be like some super synapse creature that keeps all the smaller forms in line?


According to Lexicanum Swarm Lord actually thinks, from the looks of things it's fully sentient with memory and everything. Much like a backup computer which has it's own processing but also can take and give stuff to the main computer. It's like having two hiveminds and immortality of the memories and what not because it's auto backed by the main computer. 

Lexicanum states when Physical and Biological adaptation fails, the Swarmlord is there to out-think and develop new strategies. Kinda like a Brain Bug in Starship Troopers. Or a super Genestealer, as Genestealers are sentient and have their own mini Hivemind.


----------



## Waaagh_Bong (Aug 10, 2010)

Baron Spikey said:


> Imagine it more as the Internet being the Hive Mind, with each computer being a Hive Fleet that has all it's files accessable by said internet and the various splinter fleets and synapse creatures are programmes contained on each Computer.


good show.:victory:


----------



## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

But, why would they need to be sentient? There are two cases:

It has all the knowledge that the Hivemind has. Therefore it is equal to the Hivemind. Why do you need a general to lead it?

It has less knowledge than the Hivemind. It's worse than the Hivemind. Why do you let it lead?

And of course I dismiss the possibility it has more knowledge than the Hivemind...since you could just feed the information back to the Hivemind and it would then be equal with the Hivemind.


----------



## manyfist (Aug 14, 2010)

hailene said:


> But, why would they need to be sentient? There are two cases:
> 
> It has all the knowledge that the Hivemind has. Therefore it is equal to the Hivemind. Why do you need a general to lead it?
> 
> ...


Hivemind is multiple minds all together. Perhaps the need for a single mind that has the knowledge of multiple minds but the decisive order of a single mind. 

Perhaps that's what the Swarmlord's supposed sentience is for, to shift through the data given by the Hivemind and come up with new ways of getting the noms. When the need for brains instead of brawn comes into play, a single mind with quick thinking is better than multiple minds in a semi-gestalt sentience.


----------



## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

The individual parts of the Hivemind (apparently the higher forms) are more akin to CPUs than programs. They aren't taking information from the Hivemind and making their own decisions, but processing the information for the Hivemind who ultimately makes a single, instantaneous decision with all available knowledge.

The codex states it has a sense of autonomy. This is very strange for a race engineered to function as a single being. The ONLY possible way I can see it having any sort of benefit (in the long run) would be if the knowledge it and its hivefleet gained was not sent back to the Hivemind. Therefore the Swarmlord would have a situational advantage.

But why bother with that? Do as every other Hivefleet does and send the knowledge and calculate a new, better plan.


----------



## Serpion5 (Mar 19, 2010)

Think of the zerg for a simple anology. Each Hive Fleet has an overmind. (Norn Queen) 

Each overmind commands a number of cerebrates. (Hive Tyrants)

Which then command overlords. (Tyranid Warriors)


If you read the fluff, each creature designated as a synapse creature is described as having a level of sentience, as well as access to the repository of the Hive Mind`s collective knowledge. 

The Hive Mind in this case would be the sum of all Hive Fleet`s psyches (overminds) spread across the fleets. Not necessarily an entity in itself, simply a common driving instinct, a shared bond of knowledge and will. It explains why some fleets behave differently than others. They have their own preferrd styles of warfare, hunting, overall strategy, and pursue it as per their own whim.

The swarmlord is a particularly powerful Hive Tyrant, grown in influence to such a degree that it can trancend the boundaries of Hive Fleets to appear where it is needed most. The codex describes it pretty well; summoning the swarmlord is a stress response to a threat that the original overmind could not outwit. Naturally, such an ancient and powerful member of their race would be a great boon when leading in person. Just ask Calgar.

These are my thoughts on this. As a tyranid and necron player, I am getting a bit irritated by all the rants about how my two favourite races are completely devoid of character and heart. You just don`t understand us...


----------



## Waaagh_Bong (Aug 10, 2010)

when i 1st played the starcraft RTS, i thought that some unites looked alot like 40k unites. Did Blizzard and starcraft have something to do with GW? i asked a friend about this way back when i was a freshmen in highschool, he had told me that starcraft was a game project Blizzard was trying to sell to GW, or something along those lines. Is there some truth to this or not?

i have neve thought about that until today, its been years lol im getting old.


----------



## hailene (Aug 28, 2009)

It seems odd that these guys would be sentient in any way. To what benefit would an individual have over the enormous thinking capacity of the entire Hivemind? I know the codex says so, but it seems silly to have thinking Tyranids.

And my understanding on the differing strategies differs from yours, Serpion5. I always assumed that each Hivefleet is testing a particular strategy against a particular foe. See what works best.

It seems sorta silly, again, to handicap yourself into one strategy.


----------

