Swarmlord vs. The Queen of Blades

[NidNoms]

Now those who have seen and commented on my Zerg vs. Tyranid thread know that this is a very complex and creative topic that can go many way's. But here I want to focus on the leaders of these 2 unstoppable Swarms, yes as the name of this thread suggests Kerrigan vs. The Swarmlord.

before anyone starts typing, I wish to set up some restrictions on how this fight will take place, I would like to do this Death Battle style and wish to only focus on what the 2 characters can do to each other in a 1 on 1 fight, this means they can't summon creatures like how Kerrigan summoned the Nidus Worm to try and swallow Narud in the Heart of the Swarm game, any thing about the other creatures of the races should take place in my Zerg vs. Tyranid thread, it's a hot topic so go check it out. So with that out of the way, let the flame war (please try not to get tense with this) begin.

[arapaima]

I once saw the madness at the end of this rabbit hole and all I can say, the most objective outcome will boils down to who you like more. Popular opinions favor swarmy tho. Folks who favors kerrigan will say that SC psionic and warp based psychic are different things, so nothing will stop kerrigan from exploding swarmy's face the way she does with an ultralisk. Thanks to "feats" kerrigan can throw energy ball like a dbz character, so she could simply kite swarmy to death with energy blast. Therefore any evidence of swarmy potentially winning is chog up to favorism not "objective research" as they say.

[j0rdan]

Feb 10, 2015 9:16:51 GMT arapaima said:

I once saw the madness at the end of this rabbit hole and all I can say, the most objective outcome will boils down to who you like more.

That's probably very true.

Feb 10, 2015 9:16:51 GMT arapaima said:

Folks who favors kerrigan will say that SC psionic and warp based psychic are different things, so nothing will stop kerrigan from exploding swarmy's face the way she does with an ultralisk.

Except that maybe she could only do that because the ultra was a ZERG, over which she has ultimate control. Conversely, by that logic, there's nothing saying the Swarmlord can't smother the Queen of blades mentally into a gibbering lunatic with the shadow in the warp. Since they are different things, Kerrigan has no defense.

Feb 10, 2015 9:16:51 GMT arapaima said:

Thanks to "feats" kerrigan can throw energy ball like a dbz character, so she could simply kite swarmy to death with energy blast.

And swarmy could just as easily use paroxysm on her to make her be unable to hit the broad-side of a barn.

Feb 10, 2015 9:16:51 GMT arapaima said:

Therefore any evidence of swarmy potentially winning is chog up to favorism not "objective research" as they say.

You could say the same about any evidence of Kerrigan winning as well.

------------------------------------

Since it's impossible to reliably compare the special powers each has that are unique to their universes, why don't we just look at what we can compare?

The Swarmlord is described as being monstrously huge and tough, yet inhumanely quick, making him a terrifying opponent. Kerrigan is also preternaturally fast, perhaps even faster! However, while I don't think it's been directly stated exactly how physically tough she is, it is implied in the way she acts and fights. Have you ever seen Kerrigan bull-rush something, using her bulk to overpower an opponent? I haven't. All I've ever seen of her is dexterous, high speed combat, almost like a ballet - of death. I think on the purely physical front, Kerrigan would be very likely to land a number of solid strikes against swarmy, but he would land his own as well, and simply outlast her.

The swarmlord has lived for countless millennia as a general of the swarm, in fact, as a stress response of the swarm, if I recall correctly. That means that the Swarmlord has been the champion of unnumbered combats where sheer numbers alone weren't enough. His experience, combat savy, and tactical acumen are literally immeasurable.
Kerrigan has seen a LOT of battle in her time. However, that time amounts to less than the span of one human life.

Kerrigan still has a disturbingly human emotional psyche. She is subject to whim, emotion, and hubris. This isn't necessarily all bad though, as her unique perspective could potentially allow her a degree of cunning and adaptability that could give her an advantage. I think the pros and cons even out here, without the Swarmlord even adding his two cents, lol.

Even if being massively tougher, nearly as quick, similarly equipped in psychic force, and immeasurably more experienced isn't enough for you, there is one last advantage the Swarmlord possesses. Kerrigan cares for, and sometimes fears for, her life. She is utterly unique and very mortal. The Swarmlord is truly neither. The best-case scenario for him is jumping into a digestion pool at the end of a successful war, to be respawned somewhere else when the time is right. The Swarmlord is purpose-built to accomplish his mission(s), no matter what the cost to himself, and is not distracted by such petty things as pain, injury, uncertainty, or fear.

All of this probably makes me sound like a Swarmlord fanboy, but in fact the opposite is true. I greatly prefer Kerrigan as a character, because she's actually a CHARACTER. Ultimately though, it's the lack of character that makes the Swarmlord the superior combatant.

[NidNoms]

Feb 10, 2015 17:32:22 GMT j0rdan said:

Feb 10, 2015 9:16:51 GMT arapaima said:

I once saw the madness at the end of this rabbit hole and all I can say, the most objective outcome will boils down to who you like more.

That's probably very true.

Feb 10, 2015 9:16:51 GMT arapaima said:

Folks who favors kerrigan will say that SC psionic and warp based psychic are different things, so nothing will stop kerrigan from exploding swarmy's face the way she does with an ultralisk.

Except that maybe she could only do that because the ultra was a ZERG, over which she has ultimate control. Conversely, by that logic, there's nothing saying the Swarmlord can't smother the Queen of blades mentally into a gibbering lunatic with the shadow in the warp. Since they are different things, Kerrigan has no defense.

Feb 10, 2015 9:16:51 GMT arapaima said:

Thanks to "feats" kerrigan can throw energy ball like a dbz character, so she could simply kite swarmy to death with energy blast.

And swarmy could just as easily use paroxysm on her to make her be unable to hit the broad-side of a barn.

Feb 10, 2015 9:16:51 GMT arapaima said:

Therefore any evidence of swarmy potentially winning is chog up to favorism not "objective research" as they say.

You could say the same about any evidence of Kerrigan winning as well.

------------------------------------

Since it's impossible to reliably compare the special powers each has that are unique to their universes, why don't we just look at what we can compare?

The Swarmlord is described as being monstrously huge and tough, yet inhumanely quick, making him a terrifying opponent. Kerrigan is also preternaturally fast, perhaps even faster! However, while I don't think it's been directly stated exactly how physically tough she is, it is implied in the way she acts and fights. Have you ever seen Kerrigan bull-rush something, using her bulk to overpower an opponent? I haven't. All I've ever seen of her is dexterous, high speed combat, almost like a ballet - of death. I think on the purely physical front, Kerrigan would be very likely to land a number of solid strikes against swarmy, but he would land his own as well, and simply outlast her.

The swarmlord has lived for countless millennia as a general of the swarm, in fact, as a stress response of the swarm, if I recall correctly. That means that the Swarmlord has been the champion of unnumbered combats where sheer numbers alone weren't enough. His experience, combat savy, and tactical acumen are literally immeasurable.
Kerrigan has seen a LOT of battle in her time. However, that time amounts to less than the span of one human life.

Kerrigan still has a disturbingly human emotional psyche. She is subject to whim, emotion, and hubris. This isn't necessarily all bad though, as her unique perspective could potentially allow her a degree of cunning and adaptability that could give her an advantage. I think the pros and cons even out here, without the Swarmlord even adding his two cents, lol.

Even if being massively tougher, nearly as quick, similarly equipped in psychic force, and immeasurably more experienced isn't enough for you, there is one last advantage the Swarmlord possesses. Kerrigan cares for, and sometimes fears for, her life. She is utterly unique and very mortal. The Swarmlord is truly neither. The best-case scenario for him is jumping into a digestion pool at the end of a successful war, to be respawned somewhere else when the time is right. The Swarmlord is purpose-built to accomplish his mission(s), no matter what the cost to himself, and is not distracted by such petty things as pain, injury, uncertainty, or fear.

All of this probably makes me sound like a Swarmlord fanboy, but in fact the opposite is true. I greatly prefer Kerrigan as a character, because she's actually a CHARACTER. Ultimately though, it's the lack of character that makes the Swarmlord the superior combatant.

1, Kerrigan has flung herself into combat before, after destroying the outer defences of Mensks palace, she goes in and on the way goes completely through a viking and psyonicle wiped out the rest of the squad.

2 it is true that Kerrigan is tough but mortal, the meenest thing i have seen her take was as lightsaber weapon to the stomach and she almost died from that, Bone sabers are said to cut through fraking forcefields! so one blow from one saber to a vital spot, she's a gonner. and the Swarmlord's do have there conciens reimplanted into another body.

3 the only deciding factor is psykic abilities, if the Shadow does effect Kerrigans mind, she screwed

[arapaima]

Well Kerrigan got screw over by mengsk with a psy emitter. I doubt she could conjure mental defense if ol swarmy decide to bad touch her mind with shadow, warp scream or paroxysm. It would be the last
thing she expects.

In close quarter swarmy have a huge edge in terms of experience, weapon proficiency and reach. Close combat is how I see the fight will go down. Kerrigan is the Queen of blades, her prefer method of engaging an enemy commander ( Tassadar and Zeratul) is close quarter combat . Swarmy will also oblige. Athough his preferres method of a duel would be 10 dimachaerons and a hierophant vs someone, he would still close in for the kill should it be the best way to remove enemy command. In this instance I felt kerrigan would be biting off more than she can chew. The only anecdotal evidence is that kerrigan is a character and monstrous creature based character have very (please do not swear) track records in 40k. Skarbrand, the Anderson Silva of blood thirster got wtfpwned by Dante, a mediocre space marine in command due to his old he is and swarmy got beaten by Calgar in an "epic duel" on ichar IV. The latter fluff left such a poor taste in ppls mouth they much prefer to forget it ever happening, much like..tau out adapting nids and the actual report is more like Calgar kill stealing from his 1st company marines.

[sarvoc]

Kerrigan wins because Swarmy isn't worth his points value and so isn't fielded.

[NidNoms]

Feb 13, 2015 3:59:15 GMT sarvoc said:

Kerrigan wins because Swarmy isn't worth his points value and so isn't fielded.

Really??

[arapaima]

Swarmy is very meh compare to his 5th edition incarnation who was pretty much the hive mind's mighty pimp hand made flesh and the one of the few fluff characters that could routinely beat a ironhand biker master in CQC via pure maths. When 6th dropped, he lost old adversay bubble, hive commander, paroxysm, reroll to invul, BRB powers and for (please do not swear) know reasons went up in price. It's like GW can't stand a hive tyrant primach being a proper primach cos u can't forge a narrative with heroic space marine when the sole purpose of having MCs is to see them get beaten to death by a mighty warrior of the imperium! They did that when no one find swarmy OP and they recon his fight with marenus to be a gang bang when even ward was contend that it was a duel. Then they add a passage that he got beaten in a duel when marenus caught him solo. It was the first time a unit get Nerf in both fluff and rules, there were no precedents.

Now for viability, In-control managed to make swarmy work as a barbie handler and took top nid in a tourney. He grants her PE and deter melee threat in competitive environment such as dread knights, wraith knights or
Your occasional DPs and TWCs but THE PRIICCEEEEE u pay for that is astronomical.

[glitchrr36]

Again as most people have said, these debates devovle into bloody (please do not swear) storms pretty quickly. I've spent enough time on spacbattles to know that these are quite violent.

[Deleted]

Pyrovore clearly the winner here

[vortexdr]

Swarmy??? Not sure if serious....Swarmy at times is lucky if he wins vs a basic Space Marine Captain...Used to be good when he forced rerolled invulns...Now he sucks bad..Huge waste of 280 points.

[j0rdan]

To those who keep bringing up how much of a value the Swarmlord "isn't" for his points: Kerrigan... doesn't have points. So... we obviously can't compare those things. No one is arguing that Swarmlord is worth his points on the table. I'm not sure if you guys are trying to say this is a reason it would lose to Kerrigan (which makes no sense) or if you just didn't read the OP...

[zergdramon]

The only weakness Kerrigan has is that when Mengsk used the Psi-emitter against her. Even if she is killed she would be reborn again at the Hive Cluster (just like the Swarm Lord).

There's also a thing that keeps bothering me, The Overmind was killed by Zeratul permanently which means that only the Protoss Warp blade can kill the Overmind for good so if you look into it, would it be better if the Overmind would command the Zerg against the Tyranids?

Now back with Kerrigan vs Swarmlord.

I'll go with Kerrigan, because tearing the Swarmlord inside out with a Crushing Grip ability would be as easy as breathing for Kerrigan.

[voraciousapathy]

I'll weigh in.

Kerrigan is frighteningly powerful, for an overclocked human-Zerg hybrid. She can pulverize hordes of lesser foes, and probably go toe to toe with some fairly scary stuff, and we're speaking about the Starcraft universe, which contains things which are scarier than the Zerg. No one is doubting Kerrigan's ability, her power, or her competence.

Now, let's face the facts about the Swarmlord. Forget about his tabletop performance, because they do not represent the fluff. The stats change from book to book, but the fluff remains fairly consistent about Hive Tyrants, and the Swarmlord as well: they are not like a Termagant when their ISP to the Hive Mind cuts out. They are -Avatars- of Hive Mind aspects, in the same way that Greater Daemons are like miniature versions of their patron deity. The key difference is, Chaos Essence (The One True Chaos which, for all intents and purposes, could simply be the Warp itself) is divided into four key beings, which embody different "flavors" of Chaos ... almost like primary colors. If a Greater Daemon could exist indefinitely, and survive without the Warp in isolation, it may not "know" as much as a Chaos God, who knows everything their little baby Greater Daemons know, because they're literally PIECES of the deity in question, but ... it would still have the same core "personality" of that Chaos God. The same moral compass, likes, and dislikes.

Hive Tyrants? They are "pieces" of the Hive Mind, with their own "section" of life experiences. Their core motivations, desires, drive, and goals, however? They're identical. Two Hive Tyrants may have fought completely different species, but both could "agree", hypothetically, on the mutual goal of total universal lifeform assimilation. They may differ on approaches, methods, and experience, but they are a case of nature-versus-nurture, with the nurture part conveniently done away with: they are all the same Tyrant, upon creation. Their core programming is the same. The Swarmlord is simply the most "senior" of these beings that we know of, having fought and defeated "countless" civilizations over the course of AEONS. If you remove the Hive Mind, the Swarmlord is still the Hive Mind in miniature form, with less aggregate experience to draw upon. Previously, with Hive Mind access, he could browse his entire video folder of memories detailing all the hundreds of THOUSANDS of civilizations he has PERSONALLY overseen the destruction of... and if, for some weird reason, he is somehow shocked to find a foe for which he could think of no corellations, he could just browse all the COLLECTIVE Hive Mind files in the Cloud.

Take away his Cloud? Okay. He's still horrifically psychically powerful, ancient beyond mortal understanding (probably billions of years old? The Codex says they have consumed dozens of galaxies, and Tyranids don't travel very fast over interstellar distances, so that much covered ground would have taken him awhile..), has all of his OWN collective memories to draw upon, still stifles Psykers (and even people who AREN'T psychic..), actually has GREATER chances of driving Psychics insane if they happen to be very powerful (and therefore, very sensitive), and still happens to be a 24-foot tall, six-limbed monstrosity with swords that devour your ******* soul if he so much as KNICKS you.

Let's talk about his speed. He is 24' tall, and moves faster than a Genestealer. Okay? A Genestealer. A human being, military-trained and in good physical condition, represents a core baseline of Strength and Toughness 3. This does not represent a 57 year-old man with diabetes who runs a Prometheum fuel relay station, okay? This is someone who could be a Cadian, and Cadians make Schwarzeneggar look like a wuss. This is Strength 3/Toughness 3, where a bullet can, and frequently does, one-shot you. Bullets are scary.

A Space Marine represents a Strength and Toughness of 4. A Space Marine gains his S/T bonus from being directly neurologically interfaced with a nuclear-powered suit of armor. He is 9' tall, weighs around 600 pounds in full battle dress, and has about 17 more organs than you do. His muscles are powerful enough to uproot a tree -- not a sappling, a TREE -- and smash you with the trunk. He is the fusion of any THREE of the biggest, meanest lumberjacks that you could find. He is Strength, Toughness, and Initiative 4.

With HUNDREDS OF YEARS OF TRAINING, EXPERIENCE, AND EQUIPMENT INVESTMENT, a Space Marine CAPTAIN could rock Initiative 5, and Weapon Skill 5, fully 2 points above a regular human, and one above a Super-Man In Fusion-Powered Super-Armor With Super-Organs. He would be so fast a human would strain to see the movement that killed them. A Space Marine would be a blur, but at least you'd see something coming -- you'd just have no hope of stopping the killing blow.

A bog-standard Genestealer is more SKILLED in combat by 2 points, than the scariest Tactical Marine, who makes a human who has spent their entire life training and fighting look like a novice, with the physique (by comparison) of a child. You're 2 feet shorter than me, and you're slow and weak. Don't embarrass yourself, says the Space Marine inductee to the six-time worldwide Cadian heavyweight boxing champion. Then, that Space Marine meets a Genestealer in close combat, and HE does not have time to see a Genestealer's killing blow... and even if he could, he can't hold a candle to his Captain in a one-on-one fistfight, and this SINGLE (please do not swear) GENESTEALER WHO IS LIKE EVERY OTHER GENESTEALER is better in melee than the scariest Space Marine a Chapter has ever produced, so far as physical stats are concerned.

A Genestealer moves so fast, it makes a Space Marine feel like a human trying to fight a Space Marine Captain by himself.

The Swarmlord? He has Weapon Skill 9. Okay? 9. Consider that number. That number does not mean "three times better than a trained human at fighting." Weaponskill 5 on a Space Marine Captain means he has studied nothing but WAR for probably half a millenia. Five-hundred years of fighting, reading about fighting, praying about fighting, being tested by Chaplains on how hard you've been praying about fighting, fighting about who to fight, sleeping and REMEMBERING fights, because Space Marines don't dream, but if they did, it would also probably be about fighting, or else that one time when they were twelve and maybe thought girls were kind of cool.

He's Weaponskill 5 after about five-hundred years of that, and Space Marine steroids + equipment.

Weaponskill 7? That's an Archon. He was already scary because he was an Eldar, but he's eaten enough souls to live to see three-thousand, and killing things is his favorite thing in the whole, wide universe. Weaponskill 7 isn't even imaginable. You arrive at Weaponskill 8, and find Asdrubael Vect chilling there, pushing 14,000+ years old. His skill, Ancient Nemesis, says that he has lived for so long, that he knows precisely how to kill everything that walks, crawls, swims, and poops itself.

Weaponskill 9? Lilith Hesperax is supposedly around here, but she's like the most skilled toothpick that ever lived, probably supernaturally good, very old, and naturally gifted, in the same way that some people are simply prodigies -- she is the only mortal creature who exists at this rank, in a universe as scary as 40K.

And then there's the Swarmlord -- good enough to fight Lilith Hesperax to a standstill, if he was stuck in an Eldar body.

Luckily, though, he's not -- he's still chilling in his 25', six-limbed murder-machine of a body, which is also as physically tough as a tank in terms of how difficult it is to damage, and then further augmented by psychic powers which allow him to shrug off ridiculous wounds, AND offensive psychic powers, AND psychic defenses, AND instant-death swords, AND speed on par with a Genestealer, AND melee skills on par with Lilith Hesperax, and bested only by, LITERALLY, an EMBODIMENT OF THE ESSENCE OF KILLING THINGS.

Now, I'm not saying Kerrigan isn't cool, or powerful. I'm saying, I feel I'm being generous if I say she's Weaponskill 9... and even if she was, she's still just "Herself" without the Overmind ... she has only her own experiences, her own very short lifetime of memories, and her very limited number of warfare engagements, compared to something which is physically, mentally, and psychically designed to be superior to the very best that a DOZEN COLLECTIVE GALAXIES OF CIVILIZATIONS (or more... the Codex says "at least"..)could offer. It has no wants, no hopes, no desires, no fears. It embodies hunger, and every atom in its body is unified in the purpose of bloody evolution.

Kerrigan is, quite simply, too human to compare. She would die. She would die hard. She would die screaming. And she would end up in the same place as the billions of other supposed bad-asses who decided they could step up to the plate -- actually, a different place. Different places... like, a piece over here, and a piece over there...

"Did you see what happened to Kerrigan? I heard she got Marneus Calgared."

[NidNoms]

Apr 29, 2015 19:46:23 GMT voraciousapathy said:

I'll weigh in.

Kerrigan is frighteningly powerful, for an overclocked human-Zerg hybrid. She can pulverize hordes of lesser foes, and probably go toe to toe with some fairly scary stuff, and we're speaking about the Starcraft universe, which contains things which are scarier than the Zerg. No one is doubting Kerrigan's ability, her power, or her competence.

Now, let's face the facts about the Swarmlord. Forget about his tabletop performance, because they do not represent the fluff. The stats change from book to book, but the fluff remains fairly consistent about Hive Tyrants, and the Swarmlord as well: they are not like a Termagant when their ISP to the Hive Mind cuts out. They are -Avatars- of Hive Mind aspects, in the same way that Greater Daemons are like miniature versions of their patron deity. The key difference is, Chaos Essence (The One True Chaos which, for all intents and purposes, could simply be the Warp itself) is divided into four key beings, which embody different "flavors" of Chaos ... almost like primary colors. If a Greater Daemon could exist indefinitely, and survive without the Warp in isolation, it may not "know" as much as a Chaos God, who knows everything their little baby Greater Daemons know, because they're literally PIECES of the deity in question, but ... it would still have the same core "personality" of that Chaos God. The same moral compass, likes, and dislikes.

Hive Tyrants? They are "pieces" of the Hive Mind, with their own "section" of life experiences. Their core motivations, desires, drive, and goals, however? They're identical. Two Hive Tyrants may have fought completely different species, but both could "agree", hypothetically, on the mutual goal of total universal lifeform assimilation. They may differ on approaches, methods, and experience, but they are a case of nature-versus-nurture, with the nurture part conveniently done away with: they are all the same Tyrant, upon creation. Their core programming is the same. The Swarmlord is simply the most "senior" of these beings that we know of, having fought and defeated "countless" civilizations over the course of AEONS. If you remove the Hive Mind, the Swarmlord is still the Hive Mind in miniature form, with less aggregate experience to draw upon. Previously, with Hive Mind access, he could browse his entire video folder of memories detailing all the hundreds of THOUSANDS of civilizations he has PERSONALLY overseen the destruction of... and if, for some weird reason, he is somehow shocked to find a foe for which he could think of no corellations, he could just browse all the COLLECTIVE Hive Mind files in the Cloud.

Take away his Cloud? Okay. He's still horrifically psychically powerful, ancient beyond mortal understanding (probably billions of years old? The Codex says they have consumed dozens of galaxies, and Tyranids don't travel very fast over interstellar distances, so that much covered ground would have taken him awhile..), has all of his OWN collective memories to draw upon, still stifles Psykers (and even people who AREN'T psychic..), actually has GREATER chances of driving Psychics insane if they happen to be very powerful (and therefore, very sensitive), and still happens to be a 24-foot tall, six-limbed monstrosity with swords that devour your ******* soul if he so much as KNICKS you.

Let's talk about his speed. He is 24' tall, and moves faster than a Genestealer. Okay? A Genestealer. A human being, military-trained and in good physical condition, represents a core baseline of Strength and Toughness 3. This does not represent a 57 year-old man with diabetes who runs a Prometheum fuel relay station, okay? This is someone who could be a Cadian, and Cadians make Schwarzeneggar look like a wuss. This is Strength 3/Toughness 3, where a bullet can, and frequently does, one-shot you. Bullets are scary.

A Space Marine represents a Strength and Toughness of 4. A Space Marine gains his S/T bonus from being directly neurologically interfaced with a nuclear-powered suit of armor. He is 9' tall, weighs around 600 pounds in full battle dress, and has about 17 more organs than you do. His muscles are powerful enough to uproot a tree -- not a sappling, a TREE -- and smash you with the trunk. He is the fusion of any THREE of the biggest, meanest lumberjacks that you could find. He is Strength, Toughness, and Initiative 4.

With HUNDREDS OF YEARS OF TRAINING, EXPERIENCE, AND EQUIPMENT INVESTMENT, a Space Marine CAPTAIN could rock Initiative 5, and Weapon Skill 5, fully 2 points above a regular human, and one above a Super-Man In Fusion-Powered Super-Armor With Super-Organs. He would be so fast a human would strain to see the movement that killed them. A Space Marine would be a blur, but at least you'd see something coming -- you'd just have no hope of stopping the killing blow.

A bog-standard Genestealer is more SKILLED in combat by 2 points, than the scariest Tactical Marine, who makes a human who has spent their entire life training and fighting look like a novice, with the physique (by comparison) of a child. You're 2 feet shorter than me, and you're slow and weak. Don't embarrass yourself, says the Space Marine inductee to the six-time worldwide Cadian heavyweight boxing champion. Then, that Space Marine meets a Genestealer in close combat, and HE does not have time to see a Genestealer's killing blow... and even if he could, he can't hold a candle to his Captain in a one-on-one fistfight, and this SINGLE (please do not swear) GENESTEALER WHO IS LIKE EVERY OTHER GENESTEALER is better in melee than the scariest Space Marine a Chapter has ever produced, so far as physical stats are concerned.

A Genestealer moves so fast, it makes a Space Marine feel like a human trying to fight a Space Marine Captain by himself.

The Swarmlord? He has Weapon Skill 9. Okay? 9. Consider that number. That number does not mean "three times better than a trained human at fighting." Weaponskill 5 on a Space Marine Captain means he has studied nothing but WAR for probably half a millenia. Five-hundred years of fighting, reading about fighting, praying about fighting, being tested by Chaplains on how hard you've been praying about fighting, fighting about who to fight, sleeping and REMEMBERING fights, because Space Marines don't dream, but if they did, it would also probably be about fighting, or else that one time when they were twelve and maybe thought girls were kind of cool.

He's Weaponskill 5 after about five-hundred years of that, and Space Marine steroids + equipment.

Weaponskill 7? That's an Archon. He was already scary because he was an Eldar, but he's eaten enough souls to live to see three-thousand, and killing things is his favorite thing in the whole, wide universe. Weaponskill 7 isn't even imaginable. You arrive at Weaponskill 8, and find Asdrubael Vect chilling there, pushing 14,000+ years old. His skill, Ancient Nemesis, says that he has lived for so long, that he knows precisely how to kill everything that walks, crawls, swims, and poops itself.

Weaponskill 9? Lilith Hesperax is supposedly around here, but she's like the most skilled toothpick that ever lived, probably supernaturally good, very old, and naturally gifted, in the same way that some people are simply prodigies -- she is the only mortal creature who exists at this rank, in a universe as scary as 40K.

And then there's the Swarmlord -- good enough to fight Lilith Hesperax to a standstill, if he was stuck in an Eldar body.

Luckily, though, he's not -- he's still chilling in his 25', six-limbed murder-machine of a body, which is also as physically tough as a tank in terms of how difficult it is to damage, and then further augmented by psychic powers which allow him to shrug off ridiculous wounds, AND offensive psychic powers, AND psychic defenses, AND instant-death swords, AND speed on par with a Genestealer, AND melee skills on par with Lilith Hesperax, and bested only by, LITERALLY, an EMBODIMENT OF THE ESSENCE OF KILLING THINGS.

Now, I'm not saying Kerrigan isn't cool, or powerful. I'm saying, I feel I'm being generous if I say she's Weaponskill 9... and even if she was, she's still just "Herself" without the Overmind ... she has only her own experiences, her own very short lifetime of memories, and her very limited number of warfare engagements, compared to something which is physically, mentally, and psychically designed to be superior to the very best that a DOZEN COLLECTIVE GALAXIES OF CIVILIZATIONS (or more... the Codex says "at least"..)could offer. It has no wants, no hopes, no desires, no fears. It embodies hunger, and every atom in its body is unified in the purpose of bloody evolution.

Kerrigan is, quite simply, too human to compare. She would die. She would die hard. She would die screaming. And she would end up in the same place as the billions of other supposed bad-asses who decided they could step up to the plate -- actually, a different place. Different places... like, a piece over here, and a piece over there...

"Did you see what happened to Kerrigan? I heard she got Marneus Calgared."

Man!!! someone has done some homework!