Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I do not get why Tyranids destroy Forge Worlds, as opposed to ignoring them or simply starve them by attacking Agri worlds. Whey did Hive Fleet Leviathan attack Gryphonne IV? It's not like they were supplying weapons as the surrounding worlds were destroyed or evacuated, and theer has to be very little biomass on the planet. Forge Worlds would eventually just run out of food/ materials if the Tyranids just sat around it.

Are you sure Gryphonne IV wasnt supplying weapons?

Tyranids can extract resources from inorganic sources as well, since many of their weapons are laced with metals. Thus, a big metal ball, if processed properly, can yield huge amounts of raw minerals. Also, these forge worlds also have a few hive cities in order to shelters their workers, and these so even forge worlds have huge populations.

It might not be the most tasty planet out there, but it's still viable for invasion.

The hive mind is a very brilliant tactician, i'm not so sure the 'nids want a Forge World behin their main invasion. This could be very, very bad.

Mr Nobody wrote:Tyranids can extract resources from inorganic sources as well, since many of their weapons are laced with metals. Thus, a big metal ball, if processed properly, can yield huge amounts of raw minerals. Also, these forge worlds also have a few hive cities in order to shelters their workers, and these so even forge worlds have huge populations.

It might not be the most tasty planet out there, but it's still viable for invasion.

Never knew that Tyranids can use inorganic materials! Though the greater majority of a planets biomass is not people, I would think that the hive fleet would draw the most resources from plants and dirt.

xXSir MontyXx wrote:The hive mind is a very brilliant tactician, i'm not so sure the 'nids want a Forge World behin their main invasion. This could be very, very bad.

I don't think that Forge Worlds have the space born power to really be a threat, plus mostly Forge Worlds supply ammo/ weapons, and to do that they would have to go through the hive fleet.

Ammo... That's the key word in the above sentence. 'Nids throw piles and piles and...PILES of gaunts/lesser organisms at you. Until you run out of AMMO. What's a Guardsmen with a lasgun...with no battery? Dinner...

Hence The Endless Swarm entry in the Apocalypse: Reload book.

If Tyranids have you short on ammunitions, they can simply overwhelm and kill you that much faster.

They would attack a forge world for the same reason that they would attack any other world, food. Every servitor no matter how much it has been augmented is abased around a fleashy form, and on a forge world there are BILLIONS of them, this doesn't count the techpriests, menials, and others that just happen to be there, plus the nutrient soup that feeds all of the populus. there is food in them there forge worlds my young gaunts go an get it.

The Hivemind would not lay siege to a planet because it would use more biomass preventing supplies reaching the planet. With no biomass intake it would be a losing battle for the hive fleet. So they would just attack it and harvest biomass as they continue to fight to replace lost biomass.

GrrBear wrote:They would attack a forge world for the same reason that they would attack any other world, food. Every servitor no matter how much it has been augmented is abased around a fleashy form, and on a forge world there are BILLIONS of them, this doesn't count the techpriests, menials, and others that just happen to be there, plus the nutrient soup that feeds all of the populus. there is food in them there forge worlds my young gaunts go an get it.

The humans inhabiting a planet and whatever they eat is a tiny, tiny fraction of what actually is in a planets biosphere. The only reason Tyranids attack the defenders of a planet is so said defenders don't destroy the essential life forms that are havesting the planet (like rippers and Pyrovores) and 'structures' feeding the biomass back to the hive ships (like capillary towers and digestion pools).

Hückleberry wrote:The Hivemind would not lay siege to a planet because it would use more biomass preventing supplies reaching the planet. With no biomass intake it would be a losing battle for the hive fleet. So they would just attack it and harvest biomass as they continue to fight to replace lost biomass.

The problem here is thinking of a Hive Fleet as a single large fleet making one devastating push into the galaxy. None have done that since Behemoth. If one tendril of a hive fleet hits a forge world months before other tendrils hit biomass righ agri worlds in the same sector, then the tendril that hit the forge world doesn't need to obtain biomass. It has successfully ensured low losses on the tendrils of the fleet actually harvesting biomass. Once the fleet has harvested the better worlds, they can turn their attention back to the forge world, which will probably still be under attack from the initial hive fleet tendril.

There comes a point in trying to second guess an alien sentience where human reasoning might fail to capture the essence of their intention. Not that it isnt fun to try mind.
Personally the whole 'hungry hungry hierophants' thing covers it for me, they attack stuff because its there and they are impelled to do so because its food and that just what they do.

Yeah, but they're not without intelligence or tactics. That's been made explicitly clear in every Tyranid book. They'd know what the forge world is there for, and know its importance to the defense of all nearby systems.

Sure, i didn;t mean to imply they were stupid, just that their motivations for acting are driven by something utterly inhuman, so the idea of simply leaving it untouched or starving it out would perhaps be against their nature

to be honest this is where alot of people misunderstand tyranid harvesting, they do not just consume 'biomass', the cconsume water, gases, minerals.

do you know how many processes in a living being require metals or inorganic molecules to function, nearly all.

i would assume that tyranids would need these materials as well.

Mustela wrote:I do not get why Tyranids destroy Forge Worlds, as opposed to ignoring them or simply starve them by attacking Agri worlds. Whey did Hive Fleet Leviathan attack Gryphonne IV? It's not like they were supplying weapons as the surrounding worlds were destroyed or evacuated, and theer has to be very little biomass on the planet. Forge Worlds would eventually just run out of food/ materials if the Tyranids just sat around it.

Tyranids also strip planets of nutrients in the planets crust and all metals/gases. A forgeworld would have ALOT of these materials they can digest. Remember carapce/shell/chitin would be formed from minerals. And there's a lot to make a tyranid swarm.

-Loki- wrote:

GrrBear wrote:They would attack a forge world for the same reason that they would attack any other world, food. Every servitor no matter how much it has been augmented is abased around a fleashy form, and on a forge world there are BILLIONS of them, this doesn't count the techpriests, menials, and others that just happen to be there, plus the nutrient soup that feeds all of the populus. there is food in them there forge worlds my young gaunts go an get it.

The humans inhabiting a planet and whatever they eat is a tiny, tiny fraction of what actually is in a planets biosphere. The only reason Tyranids attack the defenders of a planet is so said defenders don't destroy the essential life forms that are havesting the planet (like rippers and Pyrovores) and 'structures' feeding the biomass back to the hive ships (like capillary towers and digestion pools).

Hückleberry wrote:The Hivemind would not lay siege to a planet because it would use more biomass preventing supplies reaching the planet. With no biomass intake it would be a losing battle for the hive fleet. So they would just attack it and harvest biomass as they continue to fight to replace lost biomass.

The problem here is thinking of a Hive Fleet as a single large fleet making one devastating push into the galaxy. None have done that since Behemoth. If one tendril of a hive fleet hits a forge world months before other tendrils hit biomass righ agri worlds in the same sector, then the tendril that hit the forge world doesn't need to obtain biomass. It has successfully ensured low losses on the tendrils of the fleet actually harvesting biomass. Once the fleet has harvested the better worlds, they can turn their attention back to the forge world, which will probably still be under attack from the initial hive fleet tendril.

Thanks! This really clarified things.