Tyranids got some stuff backwards

[Deleted]

Last night I'm painting a Ravener, admiring it's carapace, when a realization hits me. Tyranids armor make no sense. Imagine waves of scuttling gribblies pushing forward through a hail of gunfire . . . and their armor is on their back . . . Doesn't really make any sense. Past that, Tyranid armor would actually increase their casualties. Bullet enters softer front, is slowed by internal organs, hits thick chitin on the back and fragments internally or bounces around. Laser burns through softer flesh, is stopped by carapace and cooks innards. Maybe that's why we have low armor saves, our Tyranids aren't running backwards haha!

[Hive Carnithrope]

60! 60... 60...

This is GW... don't question their logic.

[swarmy]

Well if they are doing the good work of the great devourer then whatever is in the forward direction should be trampled and eaten Those plates are just for the cheap-shots at their rears. Also, a termagant stopping a shell on the inner surface of his armor and dying is still doing his job because the other 10 behind him don't catch the shrapnel

[guidebot]

*Kshk* Come in Command, we got a code niner-niner; someone applied conventional logic to the grimdark. Requesting permission for extremely awkward way of this pointing this out that becomes suddenly apparent to author as he types it. Over. *Kshk*.

...

[swarmy]

Is that like dividing by 0? Aw...did I create a black hole?

[Deleted]

Oh I know the futility of applying logic to this game, just thought it was funny imagining my nids running backwards to make use of their chitin.
:-P

[commandersasha]

Nonsense. They do handstands. This is why they have armour on the top of their heads too.

[Hyrrokin]

well imagine the gant running head low only popping it up to shoot, pretty much like the model. Then it makes sense even more when you think of animals like belt animals (those that go in to a ball).

GG did what i could please press no further

[Deleted]

Aug 7, 2012 21:41:15 GMT commandersasha said:

Nonsense. They do handstands. This is why they have armour on the top of their heads too.

We have a winner!!!

[swarmy]

That does explain their sub-par shooting...

[bloodborne]

what has been lost to the fluff is that most tyranid bioforms are nothing more than walking redundant systems. Hence, why only smaller bioforms are the only ones of the ground forces capable of actually breeding. they breath in much the same way as insects, thus, do not actually require lungs, and in spite of this, there entire body, save the tail, is covered in chitin, as opposed to the carapace shell you are referring to. Paz's comment of the smaller bioforms advancing head-low makes sense, although travelling like this for larger bipedal bioforms(warriors, tyrants, and in some cases carnifexen) would be problematic in that they would over balance and continually fall over. Which, brings me back to the internal structure of a tyranid is exceedingly simple as compared to their advanced structure. The premise of their bodies absorbing fire is not all that inaccurate, the shell on most of them limits damage done to the swarm at large. while the "wounds" taken, are more often than not lucky shots hitting vital areas on a tyranid's body. Looking at a good many of my models, I can further beleive this, as the only reinforced spot on larger bioform bodies, is in the centerpoint of the chest/thorax which may indicate a presence of at the very least, a simplistic heart.

it would be interesting to actually get an entomologists opinion on the matter in regards to the various bioforms found within a tyranid force, considering that tyranids seem to be 'most' like insects.

As a side note: Tyranids are most likely the least illogical army in all of 40K, barring the communist fish people...

[danielhayman]

There's a tyranid autopsy in the 3rd edition codex if your interested , it's a really interesting read , like each cell is a tiny digestive system , as opposed to a large vulnerable stomach

[guns]

It's been a while since I took any biology classes, but I'm fairly sure I recall that insect physiology would be impossible if it weren't for their small size. At Tyranid-sizes their respiratory system would no longer be sufficient, and their musculature wouldn't be able to support their own weight and endoskeleton. This would depend on the richness of oxygen in the atmosphere and the gravitic forces of the planet they're on, but we're compelled to imagine earth-like planets by most of the 40K fluff (ie. Guardsmen running around with bare faces).

So I don't think you can consider Tyranids to be similar to insects, other than perhaps the eusociality angle. They're just a pure sci-fi creation.

[wisdomseyes1]

Consider how Raveners move. They are likely to move with their stomachs (the soft parts) towards the ground as they slither forward like a snake (benemoth was a "snake themed" fleet) so, their carapaces will e facing upwards towards the gunfire.

@post above me: they are more like dinosaurs in design, with a hive "bug" behavior. A super organism is what I beleive the term is. Also, they aren't suppose to live for more than a day or 2 at a time before being reintroduced into the pools of biomass that shape the fleet. It's not totally unrealistic... In 40k terms... They do have SOME factors that seems realistic, but getting further into it you begin to see how it is in fact science fiction. But honestly, even the humans in 40k are from science fiction, so we are cool.

[bloodborne]

that goes without saying, still, consider this, you tell someone from two thousand years ago what life will be like today, and it wold be tant amount to being science fiction to them, hells, not a single soul would beleive you until you get to the timeframe of Da Vinci, and even then, he'd probably give you a furrowed brow. Extrapilate that into terms of another 38,000 years... the tech available to the grimdark future I baleive would pale in comparison to what would be available by then. That said, human technology is not by any means too far off from most weapons technology seen in 40K.

After enough trial and error, I think we will see a lot of science fiction become science fact...