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I agree, one of the many reasons I try to run my bugs just close combat focused because it looks cooler, sure its not as competitive but... I do have some ranged gaunts but I equipped them with spine-fists because of the whole gun thing.

Dudeface wrote:

 Tyran wrote:
It has create the issue people have started to believe Tyranids are naturally evolved animals rather than bio-enginnered tools and weapons.

Tyranid guns are guns. They may be biomechanical rather than conventional mechanics, but they are still accelerating projectiles at supersonic velocities and with enough force to penetrate armor. A Tyranid fleshborer is as artificial as a bolter, both being the result of weapon development rather than natural evolution.

So at least for me it makes sense they are gunlike, there are only so many ways to make a functional gun.

Taking a step back, you're creating a creature with the intent of having it fire beetles en mass at someone. Why would you specifically need it to look like a gun? Why would it need to be held in/by the forelimbs? Why would it be outside of the armoured body?

There's a lot of redundancy there, it could simply be a series of internal organs and project via the head of the creature to reduce waste of biomass on additional limbs etc.

It's not supposed to be a tyranid with a tyranid gun, it's supposed to be a bilogical weapon on legs.

I maintain that Tyranids have a bunch of elements of how they operate which are basically "set in stone" in their genetic code that they can't actually change.
Much like how AI in The Matrix couldn't disobey their core programming = the Tyranids can't disobey their core genetics

These limits on what they can and can't do might well be why a fleshborer ends up looking like a gun and not like a pure tyranid.

Perhaps its a hold-over from their travel between Galaxies where a bunch of Gaunts would remain formed and ready in hibernation to act to protect the hive-ship; and since you can't predict what foe you'd face the Swarm created separate guns as weapons so your single gaunt platform could pick up any one of a number of pre-made guns (guns taking less resources than gaunts to create) to select for whatever attacks the ship.

Having them as separate organisms lets them be evolved/tweaked differently.

You can evolve the gaunt body to be the ultimate light swarm monster, while also evolving the guns separately.

If you needed to do both together, there might be strains for the body that would compromise the guns performance and vice versus. Having them separate, but symbiotic might be more efficient for the hive mind to get it’s best results.

Most of them are symbiotic - things like the Exocrine or Barbgaunts both have the gun basically controlling the host where the host is just there for legwork.

 Nevelon wrote:
Having them as separate organisms lets them be evolved/tweaked differently.

You can evolve the gaunt body to be the ultimate light swarm monster, while also evolving the guns separately.

If you needed to do both together, there might be strains for the body that would compromise the guns performance and vice versus. Having them separate, but symbiotic might be more efficient for the hive mind to get it’s best results.

This is good headcanon, but I still wish the "external organism" didn't look like firearms with a flesh reskin. I think I basically want Saturday morning cartoon monsters? Like, give termagants bigger tails with a fleshborer/devourer looking thing worked into it. Have dakka fexes shoot projectiles from their claws or have their guns mounted on/housed inside their back carapaces. Or if you absolutely need to put the gun on an arm, go the Megaman route: have the gun *replace* the hand instead of keeping a hand-shaped part of the limb that looks like it's grasping a handle.

There are plenty of ways to keep the weapon organisms "modular" without also making them look like rifles.

I think spine fists actually kind of succeed here? The meat tubes sort of detract from it by looking vaguely like ammo belts, but the overall impression is a lot less, "this is a hand holding a gun" because the "gun" isn't especially gun-shaped.

Right, its not a question of whether it can be explained, its just an aesthetic choice I don't prefer.

 LunarSol wrote:
Right, its not a question of whether it can be explained, its just an aesthetic choice I don't prefer.

That’s fair. You like what you like; nothing wrong with that.

Sometime models can go from “hate” to “like” with a perspective change. For example, once I stopped thinking of marine flyers as jets, but through the lens of helicopters, I switched to liking them a lot more.

All somethings need is a little headcannon swap.

But obviously, it’s very personal.

I feel like they got the design backwards. It would make sense if they began their invasion with fully integrated designs, and as they approached all the weapons and armies of the galaxy, began imitating their designs more and looking distinct from one another.


The 3rd ed designs were effectively separate - Jes goodwin did the plastic warriors and carnifexes, but others designed the metal models. Jes strength has always been cohesive design across all aspects, but only when he's in charge of the whole process. It's clear he created a clear design language for the warriors et al, but the metals got their own.