Warhammer 40,000

The Tyranids would want to destroy it because the Hive Mind is smart enough to recognize that the factories are strengthening all the worlds around it.

Though in truth, if the show is just being run by seven techpriests, the Lictor that found this information out probably ate them.

Still better to consume it than destroy it :-P

When I said "world destroying", I was just highlighting one of the bigger effects that a psyker of that level can perform apparently without straining themselves (i.e. with just a wave of an arm and a bit of concentration). The stuff that's more relevant to this topic would be ripping a man's body apart like wet tissue with nothing but the bare minimum of will, snapping Titans in half, overwhelming the minds of an entire army, and blasting apart fortresses better than nukes could do it.

It's not unreasonable to assume that they're "scouts" in the sense of "reconnaissance in force", as it's been clearly demonstrated that the Hive Mind could manifest any of the Swarm's myriad creatures across any Hive Fleet, and from what Tigurius' account tells us, the Norn-Queens (though not directly named in said account) really are the highest Synapse Creature you could find. In other words, there are no "best troops" that need the rest of the Swarm to arrive into the Galaxy before they are brought to bear; there are only unfathomably massive numbers of Tyranids that dwarf all of the Hive Fleets we've seen so far combined.

Like Durazno has pointed out, not all types of world are worth the effort of taking over by the Tyranids due to lack of biomass, and the Hive Mind should be able to realize that some of those worlds need to be blown apart to make it easier to take over other, more life-filled worlds.

Then there's of course the issue of fleet-to-fleet battles; not everyone is the Imperium of Man who crew their ships with tens of thousands of people. So far the Tyranids have pointedly avoided Necron worlds, but there's no guarantee that it can do this forever, or that it can avoid clashing with one of the rare Necron fleets (yes, the Necrons do have starships, and they're nasty like everything else they have). Heck, the Silent King broke his exile specifically because of the threat posed by the Tyranids, and one Necron force fought a Tyranid splinter fleet alongside the Blood Angels. Necorn-Tyranid battles are more likely than you'd think.

And then there's the all-too-possible scenario of clashing with a Chaos incursion that's largely composed of Daemons (which I think happened at least once already, with the Tyranids deciding "Screw this!" and bombarding the hell out of the afflicted continent). Daemons don't have biomass that the Swarm could assimilate, yet they're utmostly dangerous and, from that one example, have proven that the Shadow of the Warp does not affect their ability to manifest or fight in the very least.

In all of these cases, the ability to cause extremely wide-scale mass destruction without risking expending too much biomass would be a valuable asset to the Swarm.

edited 17th Aug '15 11:38:00 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

... So what the Narvhals do? Coz they do just that. Causing widespread natural catastrophes on a planet from a distance when they do their gravity tunnel thing. It causes Solar Flares, Tidal Waves, Earthquakes and other such devastation.

That's only while they're in-transit. They cannot do that to a world or other strong gravitational source while they're next to it, as it overwhelms the Narvhal's hypersensitive sensory organs. Can they do it to a fleet? Unlikely, as it's implied the Narvhal uses a star system's own collective gravity in some esoteric way to do what it does; a fleet would have to be ridiculously huge to be able to generate that kind of gravity.

And they are nowhere near reliable in terms of destroying a world; if anything, there seems to be no mention of the effects going anywhere close to such level — which would be counterproductive for the Tyranids' purposes, anyway. They would benefit from weakening and destablizing their target worlds, not turning them into lifeless volcanic wastelands, thank you very much.

edited 18th Aug '15 12:03:21 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

It'd have to be a pretty powerful psyker to overcome the Shadow in the Warp, so I'd say yes to the original question.

... Would you honestly believe me if I told you that I completely forgot about the Shadow in the Warp in the scenario posed by my original question? Factoring it in makes the whole thing a lot more logical and sensible than it already seemed to me; no way the Hive Mind wouldn't take notice of a non-Tyranid psyker if s/he managed to easily overcome the effects of the Shadow of the Warp when nobody else could, especially if it realizes that it's from a human who is far below the level of that one Super-Soldier psychic who managed to be the only one to psychically contact the Hive Mind and both live and retain the sanity to tell the tale.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Anyone who could push past the Shadow would be seriously powerful. Like, beyond-Alpha powerful.

Fluff-wise, I mean. On the Tabletop, Shadow in the Warp is a nuisance at best. Or was at one point, I honestly can't remember what it does these days.

Reminds me of how In Deathwatch they stated the Hive Tyrant so powerful it make a Demon prince look like a chump and beats him for all their money.

"Behold mortals, you face the chosen of KHORNE! Blessed by the God of WAR HIMSELF! I AM WAR and DEATH COME TO DESTROY YOU ALL! What is this mindless monstrosity? Fool, you think this will scare the chosen of the war god! Blood for the Blood God! Skull for the Skull-OH GOD NOT THE FACE! GETTITOFFF!!!!!!"

edited 18th Aug '15 4:01:03 AM by CobraPrime

Do keep in mind that "Alpha Plus" has no specific ceiling, and is really just meant as "anyone whose psychic power is so high that it breaks the standard scale". I mean, the Emperor is occasionally cited as the most prominent example of an Alpha Plus-level psyker, with Magnus being probably another one.

... Really? Wow, either the average Daemon Prince is not that ungodly-powerful, or the average Hive Tyrant is seriously more powerful than we used to believe. Which sourcebook did you get that info from?

edited 18th Aug '15 9:49:44 AM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

You know what would put a damper on that hive tyrant? Autocannons.

In tabletop I've gunned down numerous tyrants, 'fexes, and other large 'Nid beasties with autocannons and will likely continue to do so.

"You... admire the beast?"

"Of course I do! Its head will be a fine addition to my mantle! Aim low."

On a different note, if an Original Character were created in this setting that is obviously an amalgamation of the character designs, personalities, backstories and storylines of Sarah Kerrigan and November Annabella "Nova" Terra (both from Starcraft franchise) under a barely different name (say, "Novembria Hanabelle Terrhigan"), and various Starcraft-specific elements in the backstories/storylines replaced with WH40K equivalents (e.g. the planet Tarsonis is replaced with an Imperial world, the Zerg are replaced by the Tyranids), the resulting character would be a case of "Composite Character + Captain Ersatz", right?

edited 18th Aug '15 1:05:35 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

No I think the resulting character would be the cause of a larger war than Helen of Troy was. Except instead of between Troy and Greece, it'd be between the 40k and Starcraft fandoms.

Truthfully both games are enjoyable in their own ways. I've no idea why people get so vehement over the whole 40k vs Starcraft nonsense.

edited 18th Aug '15 3:46:23 PM by MarkVonLewis

I think it basically would be a Captain Ersatz, yeah.

This isn't a case of one fandom warring against the other, this is just influence crossing over. It happens.

My apologies, I misread that entirely. Rolled a one on my Reading check, lol.

On another note, I'm not sure when such a character would become an Expy rather than a Captain Ersatz... assuming that she's not an Expy already and I was simply misclassifying her.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

My Knight Errant

I'm writing up some detailed background for the planet my Guard regiment is from. It's going to be kind of a mix of Celtic (Scottish and Irish) and Saxon bits. Will post if anyone is interested once complete.

Nice

Thanks

This weekend I attended the Inquisition Wars Campaign Weekend at Warhammer World (a narrative campaign where the participants are split into two teams then fight special scenarios) with my Sisters of Battle army led by an Inquisitor and backed up by the Knight Errant. I only won 1 of the 5 games but I completed the campaign objective for 3 of the games. There were a nice range of armies and more female players than I have seen in a while (3 or 4).

Game 1 was against a Grey Knight/Red Hunter Space Marines army that resulted in me being totally wiped out (although the Knight did a lot of damage before being double teamed by a pair of Dreadknights).

In Game 2 I was up against a converted Rough Rider Imperial Guard army. I lost the battle by a single VP but completed the campaign objective on the final turn. My Arco-Flagellants did really well (they are brilliant when they charge) and my Knight took a heavy toll on his cavalry.

Game 3 was against Tau and once again I lost the battle but completed the campaign objective. My Knight was killed but did quite a bit of damage before going down and my Canoness managed to beat the Tau Commander in close combat.

Game 4 was against Tyranids and although I lost the game, all I had to do to complete the campaign objective was to have models on the table at the end of the battle. On the last turn all I had left were three Sisters in combat with a pair of Genestealers. Three 1s and a 2 to hit later and I had completed the objective. Another highlight of the battle was my Canoness surviving six rounds of combat with the Swarmlord.

The final game was against Necrons and I managed to win the game on VP (my first ever win with Sisters) but I failed the campaign objective. The highlight of the battle was when my Dominion Squad shot down a Doom Scythe causing it to crash into my Knight, taking its final 2 Hull Points and causing it to blow up.

Overall my team managed to win the weekend and I had a lot of fun.

edited 23rd Aug '15 3:47:18 PM by SebastianGray

Do you recommend taking Basilisks or Manticores?

Depends. Basilisks don't have limited ammo, and in large games on large tables (like Apocalypse events) it's range is awesome. However a Manticore can royally fuck things up, but only has 4 shots.

I'm more of a fan of the Basilisk, especially since it's minimum range can be ignored if you direct fire it.

From what I have seen, the most popular Guard artillery is the Wyvern.

Which do Jack against armour.