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KamikazeCanuck wrote:

ghosty wrote:Thanks for the comments!

Ok, but say the hive fleet of a vanguard organism was obliterated in space, would the lictor/genestealers stop being nodes for the hiveships considering their fleet was wiped out?

And secondly, if a vanguard organism found itself on a planet with adverse conditions (such as ice worlds, death worlds, and magma worlds) would they undergo a fast evolution cycle to adapt to the enviroment before the enviroment kills them.

1) nope. There really is only one hive fleet. The Tyranid guided by The Hive Mind. They are all one.
2) nope. No need, 'nids are rock solid and can survive in almost any enviroment anyway.

This mostly. If the chain of command for hive creatures is broken then any synapse creatures left would take over. Probably with less purpose and direction if it was so far from the hive mind it couldn't communicate with the rest of the hive. And yeah. Nids can live under the worst conditions that most environs can throw at them. Failing that they can go into hibernation till a hive splinter fleet arrives or the environment is more conducive. Like after the ultramarines staved off the first major tyranid assault there was the ongoing issue of rogue elements of the swarm hiding in the polar regions and causing huge collateral damage in times after that. The only time they "evolve" is on a larger decision of the hive. Say an assault wave constantly gets killed by a certain tactic. The hive mind will engineer the next assault wave to compensate and capitalize on any weaknesses in the enemy strategy. This is why Hive fleet gorgon was so mutative. The Tau they faced constantly adapted and it was a constant war of changing tactics and counter moves. It just couldn't get enough biomass to compensate for all that and keep going.