Warhammer 40,000

It's canon that they can travel through the warp, it's probably that their blankness isn't a big enough deal to worry about on a ship, unless they did something stupid like touch the warp drive.

"Coffee! Coffeecoffeecoffee! Coffee! Not as strong as Meth-amphetamine, but it lets you keep your teeth!"

They don't have to touch the warp drive; just them being close enough to it should throw all the delicately precise mechanisms completely out of wack, since the Blanks' Anti-Magic is also a permanent aura effect, not just an inherent property of their "souls".

And I know I might be risking Internet Backdraft and/or Flame Bait by this, so I'll spoiler-tag it  ^WARNING

: There was this one WH 40 K forum thread where one post had given fan-made fluff involving two female Primarchs (I think they were supposed to the missing two Primarchs), who were generally faced with constant sexism from their brother Primarchs and eventually had a fight with a drunken Guilliman  ^*

^{Don't ask me how, I'm just saying it as I read it.}

when he just went too far with his insults.

For the life of me, I can't remember the rest, and I can't seem to find that particular forum or thread, so if anyone recognizes the above mentioned, I'd be grateful if they could pinpoint where it is hosted.

edited 9th Mar '10 5:01:24 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

It's also possible that they don't at the moment, but their influence would spread with any travelers from the Milky Way.

Assuming the other inhabited galaxies don't have their own Chaos Gods, or that the Warp is unique to the Milky Way; the latter is a common speculation, though it's called into question by the fact that the extragalactic Tyranids have an actual presence in the Warp and the Synapse link is essentially Psyker-based.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

the Black Library has blanks travelling through the warp no different then anyone else. I am unsure.

"Coffee! Coffeecoffeecoffee! Coffee! Not as strong as Meth-amphetamine, but it lets you keep your teeth!"

Well Cain has never described Jurgens having any difficulty travelling aboard Imperial Guard transports.

edited 10th Mar '10 5:51:38 PM by KnightofL-sama

Welcome to the Sea of Chaos

nor did Eisenhorn report any difficulties with his resident blank, Bequin.

edited 10th Mar '10 8:04:14 PM by Lanceleoghauni

"Coffee! Coffeecoffeecoffee! Coffee! Not as strong as Meth-amphetamine, but it lets you keep your teeth!"

Why would they have trouble travelling through the warp? Doesen't warp drives mostly work by simply trying to keep the warp AWAY from eating the souls of the crew of the ship? If anything you'd think a blank would be an asset.

That said, that got me to wonder. Chaos tyranids? I mean, obviously the hive mind itself would be immune and such, but chaos does have a decent track record of mutating local wildlife into useful beasties. A carnifex with half a dozen chaos gifts sounds very scary to me.

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent

Unless Chaos finds a way to nullify the Tyranid Hive Mind's "Shadow in the Warp", we'll unfortunately not be able to see that happening.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I guess tyranids seperated from the Hive Mind could be affected by Chaos. But don't you need some sort of sentience to be really attractive to Chaos? Basic tyranids are pretty bestial...

As for extragalactic life there's no official fluff so I guess it's up to you and how much of a Crapsack World your going for. I like to think that a fair portion of the galaxies around the Milky Way have been scoured by tyranids, but I play tyranids, so why wouldn't I?

edited 13th Mar '10 1:45:57 PM by Halos

1. Usually, yes. But there is the possibility of them being trapped on a planet while it's being metamorphosed into a Daemon World, which would make intelligence a moot point (The dumber ones turn into Daemonic Beasts by default); additionally, I wouldn't put it past Fabius Bile to be interested in what applications Tyranid genetics may have for whatever horrific Super-Soldier project he's currently working on for the Traitor Legions (or even Abaddon himself).

2. Well, it is pretty much verified that the closest galaxy to the Swarm's calculated trajectory towards the Milky Way is Andromeda, so they either originated from it, or it was only their latest stop before coming for us.

edited 13th Mar '10 2:16:40 PM by MarqFJA

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Does anyone have any idea of what a Tyranid Norn-Queen looks like? All the descriptions I found were rather vague.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Well, no, but I'd expect them to look like Myrrah from Gears Of War 2.

"what the complete, unabridged, 4k ultra HD fuck with bonus features" - Mark Von Lewis

Basically their completely ship-bound acoording to current fluff, and as highly mutable tyranids you can't really say they have a definant form, the Norn Queens looks may depend entirely on the fleet or ship she's a part of.

I'm really interested in getting into warhammer. What would be good place to start? I'm interested in playing necrons.

Since you can't very well play a game without opponents, first you'll need at least some friends willing to invest the time and money for an army you can crush. I'd also recommend checking local hobby stores to see if they carry Games Workshop stuff. Where you find models, you'll find people who play with them. If you're in a big city like Austin, I'm sure you won't have trouble.

Then you'll need the core rulebook, the hardback copy of which is roughly as expensive as a video game. If you and some buddies are getting into this together, it'd be an excellent idea to pool your funds for this, provided you can reach an agreement over who gets it when. Of course, if you're just going to play out of your homes, you strictly-speaking don't need a hard copy of the rules, but I wouldn't recommend walking into a tournament with the printed-out rulebook you made from that torrent you found. The same applies to your army's Codex, which will cost you around $20 (or not). Oh, you'll need dice, some tape measures, and those three templates for special weapons.

After that comes the models, which are expensive. Ebay is a wonderful thing, though you would do well to build some goodwill with the owner of your local gaming store if you plan on playing there. You need a minimum of glue and clippers to put the things together, and paints and brushes if you don't like the color of plastic and pewter.

GW sells boxes of "Battle Forces," bundles of plastic models that are excellent starting places for an army. They give you the minimum of the Troops choices you'll need for a battle, but rarely a Headquarters unit to lead them, so you'll have to pick that out separately. From there it's a matter of playing a few games, seeing what you like about your army, and adding other units to it. Or, you know, go nuts and get one of every entry from your Codex.

Necrons though... I'd almost advise being patient. They've been stuck with the same Codex for the past two rules editions, and are overdue for an overhaul. One was rumored to be coming soon, but it looks like the Blood Angels are next. If the Necrons are getting new models and rules in the near future, it'd be a particularly bad time to start collecting the old ones. There tend to be special offers to help promote a new army, too, if you're willing to wait for it. But I couldn't begin to guess when exactly the Necrons will get their long-awaited update - months, at least.

If you do decide to go skellybot, $137 (GW going rate, Ebay can be much cheaper) will net you the Codex, a Battleforce with enough units to start an army, and a Necron Lord to lead them. If you expand your army, Elites choices will be all metal models and therefore around $50 for a full unit's worth, your Monolith is a cool $55, and anything that isn't a Troops choice will be at least $20 for a single giant robot spider/floating skeletal war machine. On the upside, your army will be among the easiest to paint in the game.

If that gives you second thoughts, there's always the "noob army." Space Marines (and their Chaos counterparts) have a spiffy new Codex, are very cost-effective in terms of game points vs dollars, straightforward to paint, forgiving to play with, and most of their kits are plastic and therefore cheaper (relatively speaking) than metal models. That'd also give you an excuse to buy the Assault on Black Reach box, which is just glorious - it's $75, but contains a paperback rulebook, dice, templates, crude measuring sticks, and two Battle Forces' worth of models for both the Space Marines and Orks, complete with delicious units like Deth Koptas, Nobz and a Dreadnought. To put it into perspective, the $75 box includes five Space Marine Terminators, which cost $50 on their own. Hell, it's only $18 more than the hardcover rulebook, and you could always sell the models you don't need.

...and sweet zombie Jesus I've rambled a lot about 40k.

Current earworm: "The White Witch"

FOR THE EMPEROR!

An useless name, a forsaken connection.

On the issue of blanks and the warp, I'd think you would be safer in the Warp with a blank onboard, seeing as when you're next to a Blank on a ship evil nasty chaos freak demons aren't going to float through the hull and disembowel you.

Just don't let Jurgen hang out next to the engine or the astropaths.

Ok, I hope this is not going to appear in the upcoming Codex: Blood Angels, but apparently, there will be an article where DANTE allies with a TOMB LORD to defeat a tyranid hive fleet.

Now, let's pause here for a moment an reflect, the chapter master of the Blood Angels allies with a tomb lord, a soulless leader to the Necrons, to defeat tyranids?!! Why would necrons ever ally with anything, let alone space marines?

Also, don't Tyranids always avoid tombworlds?

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

Forgot to add that said incident occured on Gehenna too, which has had Genestealer activity before. I should probably also mention that Dante chose to not eliminate the tomb lord out of distaste of killing somebody he had fought alongside. The ironic part is that the necron lord did the same.

Here's the text in full, if you're interested:

That sounds a bit like Unreliable Narrator; you don't think the superhuman blood crazy supermen are actually going to admit to thinking they might not win a battle.

[[tvtropes.org/pmwiki/lb_i.php?lb_id=12919183980B30760200 Liveblog of]] John Carter Of Mars

May be the case, I'm still calling a Wall Banger on this part. Necrons are the last enemy I'd want to fight alongside in an Enemy Mine situation, save maybe Chaos or Dark Eldar, and necrons are usually not the type to do that kind of thing to humans either, for that matter.

edited 21st Mar '10 12:32:27 PM by Kulsprutejojjo

By the way, I just discovered this. Not necessarily to be played (albeit it could help if you're on vacation and forgot your miniatures), but a fun read anyway.

"And as long as a sack of shit is not a good thing to be, chivalry will never die."

The tyranids and necrons always struck me as natural enemies, tbh.

Although for a second there I read "Tomb Lord" as "Tomb King" and was like "WTF crossover?" (although it would be fun)

"No, the Singularity will not happen. Computation is hard." -Happy Ent