Background and Fluff Customisation

[brothercastiel]

Hello my fellow bug overlords,

I am re-entering the hobby after a long time skimming the edges due to 'things' relating to real life and have chosen to start fresh with a Tyranid army.

All of my old armies had a pretty decent background that started with the commander of the force and developed from there. I always enjoyed the game more when there was a story playing out during the battles I fought. This way I could focus on the ever evolving story and not my terrible tactical abilities.

With this in mind, how do you guys create a theme or story for your bugs? The bugs themselves seem to be void of individual identity so starting with the commander as I have in the past wont work. Also most of the stories I have seen are written from the perspective of the Tyranid's foes rather than the Tyranids. While I understand the reason for this I need to find a way to care about "my bugs" or I just cant maintain my focus.

Any tips or examples of what you have used will be very much appreciated. Rules are my last concern at this point so dont worry about the looming 9th and the issues it raises at this stage. I will focus on rules and gameplay once I have a basic force.

Many thanks in advance.

Cas

[yoritomo]

Your best bet is to think of the background from the point of the non-tyranids. This is what the older (think 2nd and 3rd edition) codices did and it was glorious.

Let's start with your commander like you usually do. It's probably a hive tyrant or something. But surely the terrified guardsmen don't call him a hive tyrant. Was he the scourge of some neighboring planet? Was he the terror of some battle that that the enemy was a part of? The best part is that it's all rumors, so you can go hog wild and dial the fluff up to eleven. If you want an example of this look at the fluff for Old One Eye. The tyranids didn't name him that. It was all the guardsmen that he was terrorizing who called him that.

[Overread]

Tyranids don't have "characters" as such beyond a few limited notable examples (eg Swarmlord) and they themselves are not personalities as we'd understand them.

Personally I'd say treat your army writing like you'd approach a campaign summary from the perspective of the hive fleet. Think of them more as a moving active swarm a bit like I do in the link below.

www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/788829.page

It's more about talking from the narrators point of view rather than the Imperials or the Tyranids.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

I think I'd answer this with the answer to the question of "what draws you to 40k?"

Generally, people are interested in different aspects of the hobby: gaming, competitive gaming, fluff, painting, or converting/kitbashing.

If you're in to converting/kitbashing, I would start off by kitbashing a few awesome characters to be warlords for your army. You could name them and base them uniquely to give them their own feel.

If you're into fluff, I'd say approach it from the aspect of what makes your swarm unique? How does it attack it's prey? Does it not strip worlds of all life? Does it only attack with large hordes of gribblies? Does it use big bugs? Does it like flying units? Does it rapidly evolve to threats or does it just use a different tactic when one fails?

If you're predominantly into gaming, think about how you want to play. Do you want to shoot, melee, or cast?

[dranzyl]

The 'character/commander' is the whole army. Gaunts are ammunition you expend, deep strikers are feints in a duel, damage dealing units are the killing blow of your sword arm.
As already mentioned fluff and personality for tyranids works best on a fleet level. Like two opposing commanders getting to know each others personalities by their moves on a strategic board.

[randomspectator]

Jul 3, 2020 11:08:29 GMT dranzyl said:

The 'character/commander' is the whole army. Gaunts are ammunition you expend, deep strikers are feints in a duel, damage dealing units are the killing blow of your sword arm.
As already mentioned fluff and personality for tyranids works best on a fleet level. Like two opposing commanders getting to know each others personalities by their moves on a strategic board.

Now that could be fun to write. A commander who faced a tyranid Hive Fleet who comes to respect the hive mind as a great strategist, and begins to relish the battle of wills. This kind of stuff has happened in history before. Course, due to the grim dark it will end with him "meeting" his foe and just getting mutilated and eaten cause tyranids dont care for such trivialities

[brothercastiel]

Thanks for your help guys. I think that has given me enough to be able to get 'my bugs' loveable enough and get a theme cooking.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Jul 4, 2020 0:04:42 GMT brothercastiel said:

Thanks for your help guys. I think that has given me enough to be able to get 'my bugs' loveable enough and get a theme cooking.

Make sure to post what you go with!

[infornography]

Now I am imagining a hive fleet that consumed an Admech guy with an implanted vox or something and instead of dissolving it, they interfaced with the wetware and figured out how to tune into some broadcasts, but they are stuck on something like Cartoon Network and are addicted to whatever brightly colored propaganda is being made for the children. This has affected their ... aesthetics and resulted in them always overcomitting to deal with any Space Marine threats. Also they are now on a trajectory for the corporate headquarters of the broadcast. Of course the Imperium doesn't know anything of their motivations and thinks they are going there for completely unrelated reasons.

Could be fun to play with the idea.

[ilovethenids]

Personally, I tend to approach it from both a biological and a military approach. For example, my Hive Fleet is called Hive Fleet Laelaps. The name comes from the mythical Ancient Greek Hound that was always destined to catch its prey. The name was chosen due to the extreme and exceptional adaptability of bioforms and battlefield tactics within the fleet, even by Tyranid standards. For example, one of the first campaigns takes place on a large, frozen moon orbiting a gas giant, with a thick, hazy atmosphere approximately 150% more massive than that of the earth (modern-day earth, not 42nd millennium Terra, though I doubt very much that the actual atmosphere of Terra has changed significantly in mass, 42k years is nothing in astronomical terms, but I digress), while having only 20% of the gravity. The Tyranids took full advantage of these circumstances by using swarms composed almost entirely of winged organisms. The most massive of the Tyranid monsters were tougher and more heavily armored than those seen in other battlefields, as the low gravity meant they could be bulkier without sacrificing flight. Furthermore, the Tyranids of the Hive Fleet were able to adapt almost immediately to the deadly hydrocarbon rivers and lakes found across the planet, their anatomy able to cope with temperatures reaching close to -200 degrees C after only hours of making planetfall. It is suspected that Laelaps is effectively a Chimaeric hive fleet - the result of several splinters from previous Tyranid incursions consuming each other and becoming a single entity.

So I guess when coming up with your fleet, in my opinion there are a few things to consider:
1. Their history. When were they first recognized as a threat, and by whom? Was it the Imperium, the Eldar, or perhaps the T'au?
2. What is this Hive Fleet notable for? You can look at the most recent Tyranid codex for some ideas. For example, Behemoth is exceptionally aggressive, known for its abundant use of large monsters that rush into battle, ready to tear their prey limb from limb. On the other hand, Kronos is known for its liberal usage of ranged-bioforms, preferring to drown their enemy in a deadly hail of living ammunition, while their Shadow in the Warp is exceptionally deadly, making them a psyker's worst nightmare. So, what is it that fills the minds of prey with dread when they hear the name of your Hive Fleet? What is it that STICKS OUT about how they act in battle? Perhaps your Hive Fleet has adapted particularly well to overcoming the defenses of a particular prey species. If so, what is different about them? Is it innate to their biology? Or is it related to what creatures the Hive Fleet sends to the surface?
3. What prey have they fought? How did these battles go? This will affect the strength of the Hive Fleet, as well as possibly having an effect on how they move through space. For example, a heavily battered Hive Fleet that has just been pushed back from a prey world will react very differently than a fleet that has consumed multiple worlds in succession. A fleet that has fought Orks excessively will likely be different in character than one that has been consuming mostly Imperium worlds, which in turn would be different from a Hive Fleet that has been infringing on T'au space. Perhaps a particular subfaction has a grudge against them for consuming some valuable world, or destroying a region of extreme historical or cultural significance during an invasion attempt. This can make for interesting narrative opportunities.

Just a bit of food for thought!