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Is it likely, or even possible, for, for example hive fleet Leviathan to ally with hive fleet Naga?

Or an ork warband to ally with Tyranids?

You would think that the Tyranid hive mind's eternal lust to feed would not allow so? Would you not? I'm not sure.

Controversially is it possible for a Tyranid fleet to attack another Tyranid fleet?

Does the Tyranid hive mind control the whole invasion? Or is there one mind for each hive?

The hive mind is very intelligent. But what kind of intelligent?

There is only one hive mind, it controls everything. As to allying with other races . . . that depends on whether or not Ward is writing any more codexes.

They tend to kill each other and harvest the biomass...
Essentially this is exactly the same as allying.
Tyranids ally with no one and nothing.
The Hive Mind controls the whole shebang.

there have been cases of Nid Fleets fighting each other to make one stronger.

the weak fleet is destroyed and the strong fleet becomes stronger. and Biomass isn't lost.

Grey Templar wrote:there have been cases of Nid Fleets fighting each other to make one stronger.

the weak fleet is destroyed and the strong fleet becomes stronger. and Biomass isn't lost.

Where is that? I've never heard anything of the sort before now.

laestli wrote:

Grey Templar wrote:there have been cases of Nid Fleets fighting each other to make one stronger.

the weak fleet is destroyed and the strong fleet becomes stronger. and Biomass isn't lost.

Where is that? I've never heard anything of the sort before now.

It was mentioned in the previous Tyranid codex.

In response to the OP,

zilegil wrote:
Is it likely, or even possible, for, for example hive fleet Leviathan to ally with hive fleet Naga?

Its doubtful the Tyranids have any concept of factions. They are one species guided by one will. I see no problems with Hive Fleets working together.

zilegil wrote:
Or an ork warband to ally with Tyranids?

Definitely not. Anything that is not a Tyranid is food. Often, there are even exceptions to that rule.

zilegil wrote:
You would think that the Tyranid hive mind's eternal lust to feed would not allow so? Would you not? I'm not sure.

Anything that is not a Tyranid is food. There is no reason for the Hive Mind to bother attempting to communicate with its prey, assuming such a thing is even possible.

zilegil wrote:
Controversially is it possible for a Tyranid fleet to attack another Tyranid fleet?

Yes. It happens for a few reasons. Usually its just wargames played out by the Hive Mind, or attempts to forcefully breed useful quirks. Sometimes a Hive Fleet will acquire useful traits that would do well to be brought into a larger or more vital Hive Fleet, and this is the most direct way.

zilegil wrote:
Does the Tyranid hive mind control the whole invasion? Or is there one mind for each hive?

There is only one, all-powerful Hive Mind. It has some form of presence in every Tyranid organism.

zilegil wrote:
The hive mind is very intelligent. But what kind of intelligent?

There is some debate about this. Some think its a sentient entity. Others think it exists only as an ant-colony appears to be intelligent and coordinated.

There is only one chance for an Ork Warband to ally with Tyranids ... for a short time: If they are a mind-controlled Genestealer Cult to be consumed by the attracted Hive Fleet later.

A recent audio book (Heart of Rage i think) had the Hive Mind appear to speak thorugh a Adeptus Mechanicus pawn - not especially enlightening but interesting

I'm curious where it says that there is only One Hivemind for everything 'Nid. It makes sense and everything but is there any place where it directly states this as opposed to each fleet having its own Hivemind?

Also read Redemtion Corps.

Azure wrote:I'm curious where it says that there is only One Hivemind for everything 'Nid. It makes sense and everything but is there any place where it directly states this as opposed to each fleet having its own Hivemind?

It's not outright stated, probably because GW never thought it needed to be. There is only ever talk of "The Hivemind", singular. There is also shared resources among the fleets that could only come from a singlular hivemind - like gaining the accumulated knowledge of the Swarmlord across all hive fleets, common bioforms across all hive fleets, etc. The only reason a hive fleet may alter drastically (like Naga being all snake-like bioforms) would be due to the environment that hive fleet is fighting in. That knowledge would be known by all hive fleets, but ony implemented as needed.

It sure seems to me that it is just hive mind and with the way they are advancing as tendrils in different fleets it would seem like a coordinated plan from a single over mind. After all advance on many fronts and consume spread the defenders out so that even a marshaled strong resistance is still only a delaying tactic. Each hive fleet tendril is like a separate finger on the hand, soon the palm and the hand itself will enter the galaxy and there will be no stopping it.

Heck look at the 5 major hive fleets incursions and it's like a 4 fingers coming from one side and a thumb coming in from the other all by it self to surround and trap the prey.

Its one mind. IMO

As to hive fleets fighting? I think the 3rd edition 'dex (could be wrong) talked about a hive fleet consuming a hive fleet that was so weakened or diseased either from war or the travel through the void and that was beyond all hope of healing so as to destroy the damaged strain of the creatures and not risk lossing the biomass in the process.

It appears that the Hive Mind has a limited range (see Genestealer Patriarchs), so it stands to reason that every Tyranid Fleet, perhaps even every tendril has its own Hive Mind - they just "merge" when they get close enough to each other.

At least that'd be my theory.

I don't know about true alliance but the hive mind can 'talk' to other people it happens in a short story in the Let the Galaxy Burn novel. A Space Marine scout showing signs of psyhic potential starts to hear them talk.

Lynata wrote:It appears that the Hive Mind has a limited range (see Genestealer Patriarchs), so it stands to reason that every Tyranid Fleet, perhaps even every tendril has its own Hive Mind - they just "merge" when they get close enough to each other.

At least that'd be my theory.

Genestealers have their own collective brood intelligence. They hear the hive mind, but aren't reliant on it for instructions like pretty much every other Tyranid life form. This is not a reason to explain there being many hive minds at all.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

KingmanHighborn wrote:I don't know about true alliance but the hive mind can 'talk' to other people it happens in a short story in the Let the Galaxy Burn novel. A Space Marine scout showing signs of psyhic potential starts to hear them talk.

That would be the typical Black Library author doing his own thing. All GW non-Black Library fluff about the hive mind talks about all but the most powerful psykers going insane and/or dying outright just from touching the hive mind. The only psyker who has managed to touch it, live and also learn from it has been Tigerius, and all he learned from it was their hunger.

An untrained psyker with just emerging powers not only surviving contact with the hive mind, but also understanding it, flies in the face of everything else written about it. It's also written by Bill King, who is... pretty terrible.

the Hive Mind does have a limited range, but all the fleets are connected psychically. they just require synapse to be maintained with all the creatures. if its lost or weakened the Mind won't have as much control.

Genestealers are designed to operate beyond the hive minds influence as a scout/weakining force. they have a biological program to follow and are basically autonomous from the Hive Mind.


Hive fleets are all controlled by the same intelligence, but some of the information can only be passed on if they are in close proximity. hence why some mutations are unique to the different fleets.

the Hive Mind also isn't intelligent in the way a human is. it has a brutal practical streak. it could have all its creatures have hardened carapaces or ones that are resistant to energy weapons because the fleet that fought the Tau developed it, but it doesn't. this is because it has only detected the need for this mutation in that area. it won't plan ahead thinking "hey, we might encounter energy weapons here so we should evolve hardened carapaces to counter a possable threat"

it has to have encountered something before it reacts to it. it doesn't plan ahead, but rather makes it up as it goes along.

Grey Templar wrote:the Hive Mind also isn't intelligent in the way a human is. it has a brutal practical streak. it could have all its creatures have hardened carapaces or ones that are resistant to energy weapons because the fleet that fought the Tau developed it, but it doesn't. this is because it has only detected the need for this mutation in that area. it won't plan ahead thinking "hey, we might encounter energy weapons here so we should evolve hardened carapaces to counter a possable threat"

it has to have encountered something before it reacts to it. it doesn't plan ahead, but rather makes it up as it goes along.

This is something that hasn't been witten about much, but technically, it would. Hence why it sends out scouts. If it didn't think ahead and plan, it wouldn't send out vanguards to assess the military forces on planets before arriving. The fact that the hive mind has those genetic strains from fighting Tau means that after their vanguard tells them what kind of opposition is on said planet, they should have ground forces ready with specific mutations for resistance. The fact they haven't said they do this doesn't mean they don't, since it would make sending out vanguards pretty meaningless.

Ok, bad choice of words(its late )


It is focused on feeding and conserving its Biomass. it won't waste energy developing thicker carapaces and stuff if it doesn't need them. although it could.

practicality beats anticipation.


Genestealers are also more for locating food then actually scouting them out and finding out weaponry so it can evolve to combat it. they do weaken defenses by infiltrating them and generally causing mayhem, but doing actual research is probably beyond what it does.

I could be wrong though.

Well, the vanguard, while assessing the 'food levels', would again be pretty pointless if it didn't assess the difficulty in obtaining that food. This would include military strengths and general technology. Once the hive mind knows what is there, it can prepare forces by falling back on stores of information from fighting that foe. you're also forgetting Lictors, who infiltrate, assess and even discover military information by capturing higher ranking leaders and having a grey matter snack.

It's really pointless having a race that evolves to survive if it doesn't use that evolution. Just more stuff that they gloss over in the fluff, but would actually be nice to officially hear. Logically, if they've faced the race previously, they'd be rolling up with all broods mutated specifically to combat that foe in that environment (again, if they've fought in that environment). The whole 'evolving the perfect killing machines' thing Tyranids are meant to do.

-Loki- wrote:Genestealers have their own collective brood intelligence. They hear the hive mind, but aren't reliant on it for instructions like pretty much every other Tyranid life form.

They have their own collective because they are separated from the Hive Mind as long as it's out of range. They don't start falling under its sway until they reconnect when the 'nids approach this world.

At least that's what it says on the Lexicanum article.
I know that Lexicanum not only includes GW canon but also BL novel stuff etc, so maybe this bit is just from some licensed product and not studio material. If so I'd greatly appreciate clarification and apologize for submitting flawed info.