Tyranid Organisms on Space Hulks

[collector]

If we are talking about Tyranids on Space Hulks normally Genestealers come in our mind. But there is evidence that other Tyranid Biomorphs can also be present on Space Hulks. For explanation it is suprisingly common for Tyranid Hive Ships to get stuck in a Space Hulks.


When a Hive Ship does get stuck in a Space Hulk that is when other Tyranids move aboard the Spacecraft.

There is a list of Biomorphs that have been documented to sometimes be present on Space Hulks:

-Termagant
-Hormogaunt
-Ravener
-Lictor
-Hive Tyrant
-Carnifex
-Zoanthrope
-Trigon
-Mawlock

These Biomorphs are the most common but on rare occasions flying Biomorphs such as Hive Crones, Harpys, Gargoyles can be also present.

[yoritomo]

I’m going to need a source for this.

While nothing is impossible, I don’t recall ever hearing about a space hulk with non-genestealer tyranids aboard.

[bolk]

I know this was the case in the Dawn of War games, but how canon it is I'm not sure since I've never seen it mentioned elsewhere. In the games it was Tyranids stuck there after boarding actions on ships that had disappeared in the Warp and essentially feral, until they reconnected with the invading Hive Fleet.

wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Judgment_of_Carrion

[kazetanade]

Isnt the inquisitor game also featuring these feral tyranids or something like that?

[bolk]

Sept 1, 2019 18:34:30 GMT kazetanade said:

Isnt the inquisitor game also featuring these feral tyranids or something like that?

Don't know, haven't tried the inquisitor game yet. Time is a rare resource.

[yoritomo]

Really, Dawn of War 2 is the source? And not even the Tyranid campaign, but the chaos expansion is where we get non-stealer tyranids in space hulk? Sorry, that sounds like a once in the course of history event rather than the semi-common occurrence that the OP suggests.

[bolk]

Sept 1, 2019 21:33:48 GMT yoritomo said:

Really, Dawn of War 2 is the source? And not even the Tyranid campaign, but the chaos expansion is where we get non-stealer tyranids in space hulk? Sorry, that sounds like a once in the course of history event rather than the semi-common occurrence that the OP suggests.

To be fair, it's not that far from the story of Old One Eye where it becomes the Alpha of the Tyranids left on Calth after Behemoth is defeated. Especially not after all the warp shenanigans that came with the Great Rift

[kazetanade]

The game I was thinking of is warhammer 40k Deathwatch, but I cannot confirm if that's a spacehulk.

[Overread]

Sept 1, 2019 16:40:14 GMT yoritomo said:

I’m going to need a source for this.

While nothing is impossible, I don’t recall ever hearing about a space hulk with non-genestealer tyranids aboard.

Didn't the original Space Hulk game have rules for zoanthropes and screamer killers? I'm sure I recall seeing photos of hulk boards with both those models appearing on them.



I've no recollection of "hive ship getting stuck in a space hulk" as a story; but the idea of a space hulk having more than infested genestealers is possible. Stealers on a hulk are either those that have hatched from infestation on-world and then crippled the ship. Or they are hulks that the Tyranids found abandoned and they seed them to make a trap. In the case of the latter there's ample reason why the Hive might well slip some heavier monsters onto the hulk for the ambush.

[yoritomo]

The original space hulk did not. There was a similar game called Tyranid Attack where space marines board a hive ship in order to destroy it. I believe that game had Tyranid warriors in it. I’m not sure, I never had the chance to play it.

As far as tyranids and space hulks go, I do not believe that the hive mind explicitly place tyranids on space hulks. Genestealers end up on fleeing transports (which then become space hulks) purely as a survival instinct. The hive mind never actually send them there.

Further more, putting big bugs in space hulks or imperial vessels is a bad idea. The only reason genestealers get away with it is because they are hidden. If a ship lands it is going to be very difficult to miss the carnifex that pops out. Now the world is on alert and the tyranid threat is dealt with before it gets large enough to create a psychic beacon.


I’m not saying this is impossible, anything can happen when Matt Ward starts writing fluff. It just goes against a lot of mid cannon.