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1 How exactly do tyranid "ships" move in space?

And
2 how do they go FTL? Do they travel through the warp?

I ask because I have a friend who is a tyranid player and he said they amplify the pull of the planet's gravity they are going to and that it pulls them there or something like that but that doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

40K Does not make a lot of sense.

Your friend is correct in that the Tryanid fleets use gravity to travel FTL. Not as fast as Warp travel, but still fast.

lexicanum has failed me!

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Warp_jump#.Tx-RQ29SSnm

at the bottom it gives some sort of explanation for FTL jumps but not subFTL travel.

I thought I remembered reading something about giant space whales, or something of the sort.

I thought I remembered reading something about giant space whales, or something of the sort.

Lets call it a... tail! Yeah! Tail! And hey, what's this roaring sound, whooshing past?

Andrew1975 wrote:

I thought I remembered reading something about giant space whales, or something of the sort.

Lets call it a... tail! Yeah! Tail! And hey, what's this roaring sound, whooshing past?

HITCHHIKERS!!!! Nids were in our galaxy before 40k!!!

I was actually curious..... would this gravity corridor be capable of involuntarily propelling ships in that direction if they happen to contact it?

xXSir MontyXx wrote:I was actually curious..... would this gravity corridor be capable of involuntarily propelling ships in that direction if they happen to contact it?

like involuntarily pulling in a satellite of sorts? I'm not sure! But it sounds plausible! unless they require a link to the space whales to get pulled along, more like ropes rather than like a slipstream.

Still it would be really interesting

Tyranids travel FTL through something known as a Narvhal (see Lexicanum). It doesn't make a lot of sense, and GW knows it. The GW explanation for why it doesn't make much sense is that the science behind it is so advanced humans can barely comprehend how it works. Basically you just gotta accept the explanation given.

Tyranids travel in-system and sub-light speeds through bio-plasma and air sacks in bioships that act as giant engines. I think I remember that explained in Battlefield Gothic somewhere.

blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

xXSir MontyXx wrote:I was actually curious..... would this gravity corridor be capable of involuntarily propelling ships in that direction if they happen to contact it?

like involuntarily pulling in a satellite of sorts? I'm not sure! But it sounds plausible! unless they require a link to the space whales to get pulled along, more like ropes rather than like a slipstream.

Still it would be really interesting

A connection to the hive mind would make sense. Thats probably what it is. Because if the 'nids were capable of doing that, I have a feeling they would trump EVERYONE in space.

xXSir MontyXx wrote:

blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

xXSir MontyXx wrote:I was actually curious..... would this gravity corridor be capable of involuntarily propelling ships in that direction if they happen to contact it?

like involuntarily pulling in a satellite of sorts? I'm not sure! But it sounds plausible! unless they require a link to the space whales to get pulled along, more like ropes rather than like a slipstream.

Still it would be really interesting

A connection to the hive mind would make sense. Thats probably what it is. Because if the 'nids were capable of doing that, I have a feeling they would trump EVERYONE in space.

Trump in space? How so? I thought that the narvhals kinda sucked when they entered systems

Event Horizon

Harriticus wrote:Tyranids travel FTL through something known as a Narvhal (see Lexicanum). It doesn't make a lot of sense, and GW knows it. The GW explanation for why it doesn't make much sense is that the science behind it is so advanced humans can barely comprehend how it works. Basically you just gotta accept the explanation given.

Tyranids travel in-system and sub-light speeds through bio-plasma and air sacks in bioships that act as giant engines. I think I remember that explained in Battlefield Gothic somewhere.

Improbability drive? They have also been known to travel through plot holes, using a thought engine so complex that you need a creative license to operate it.

I'd *assumed* that they had no FTL and were just slowly encroaching from outside the galaxy.

They have a magical handwavium gland in their brain that does some whoobity joobity and makes it work.

As far as propulsion goes, i'd guess they maybe burn off some of their bio-material, or perhaps expel gasses or something.
As for FTL, I'd always heard that the psychic power of the Hive Mind was such that it could open rifts in real space and travel through the warp. Daemons or even the chaos gods themselves wouldn't dare mess with the swarm because of their psychically resistant abilities/minds and their sheer psychic power.

So basically if your going by the expel gasses thing they would be farting accross the universe

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Narvhal#.TyBRZoFTXng

Cites current 'Nid Codex pg. 19 as source, I'd suggest looking there.

EDIT: Yep, it's there alright. Tyranids travel by means of Narvhals!

FEAR THE TYRANID HIVE FLEET!

Maybe the Astronomicon provides some pull as well? Afterall it is the reason they've come.

Other than that... I suppose Tyranid space 'vessels' are propelled by..... erm... gas? lol

Henners91 wrote:I'd *assumed* that they had no FTL and were just slowly encroaching from outside the galaxy.

I kinda thought the same. They just kinda float through space and hit whatever they hit.

Piz wrote:

Henners91 wrote:I'd *assumed* that they had no FTL and were just slowly encroaching from outside the galaxy.

I kinda thought the same. They just kinda float through space and hit whatever they hit.

Nah, even at speeds close to C a trip between stars would take hundreds if not thousands of years. An intergalactic voyage without FTL would last longer than most stars' lifespans.

So, they MUST have FTL.

What they use, I don't know. But I won't be surprised if future 'dexes depicted Tyranids as ordinary Warp users, with those 'Narwhal' bioships being some kind of navigator/astropath/Gellar field generator for the larger 'Nid vessels. The fact that Necrons lost their exotic non-warp based FTL hints that GW fluffmeisters have decided that there's no other way to navigate the stars than surfing the Immaterium. It's either the Warp, complete with Daemons and unpredictability and stuff, the slower quasi-warp used by the Tau and other upstart races, or the Webway, which is the closest you can get to perfect, risk-free Faster than Light travel in this universe.

I kinda like it that way, actually.

Lord Demon wrote:So basically if your going by the expel gasses thing they would be farting accross the universe

What, you actually thought organic weapons sounded like gunshots.

Tyranids travel FTL through something known as a Narvhal (see Lexicanum). It doesn't make a lot of sense, and GW knows it. The GW explanation for why it doesn't make much sense is that the science behind it is so advanced humans can barely comprehend how it works. Basically you just gotta accept the explanation given.

Tyranids travel in-system and sub-light speeds through bio-plasma and air sacks in bioships that act as giant engines. I think I remember that explained in Battlefield Gothic somewhere.

Nids aren't in BFG as far as I can tell, PDF's are available on GW's website.

40K Does not make a lot of sense.

Your friend is correct in that the Tryanid fleets use gravity to travel FTL. Not as fast as Warp travel, but still fast.

If all questions were answered GW would not sell as much product.

I am more interested to know how the hell they survive trip between the galaxies?

Closest one to us, Andromeda, is 2.5 million light years away from Terra. Others are much, much farther. They have to spend their biomass in some degree to keep themselves alive while travelling. It's little hard to me to understand that they can travel thousands of light-years, or even millions and still having enough biomass to overrun Imperial planets.

Given how slow their version of FTL is and how often they seem to attack, saying there are trillions of nids is an understatement.

xXSir MontyXx wrote:I was actually curious..... would this gravity corridor be capable of involuntarily propelling ships in that direction if they happen to contact it?

Actually this isn't that far fetched. I'm an astrodynamics grad student and my research is in the field of invariant manifolds which I guess in a way can be described as "gravity corridors". However they tend to twist, twirl, and change constantly and are hard to plot. That and they don't really speed you up at all (actually considering the complexity of the orbits/paths followed, it take a lot longer than a simple point-to-point hohmann transfer)....just make course corrections and plane changes very cheap in terms of fuel spent.

If you're actually interested in the subject I can point out a few papers and disertations on the various potential uses of invariant manifolds in interplanetary missions.

Vice_Grip wrote:Nids aren't in BFG as far as I can tell, PDF's are available on GW's website.

Sure they are.....I play them......they're in the Armada expansion along with the other races.

That would be why I thought that, I don't have that one.

blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

xXSir MontyXx wrote:

blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

xXSir MontyXx wrote:I was actually curious..... would this gravity corridor be capable of involuntarily propelling ships in that direction if they happen to contact it?

like involuntarily pulling in a satellite of sorts? I'm not sure! But it sounds plausible! unless they require a link to the space whales to get pulled along, more like ropes rather than like a slipstream.

Still it would be really interesting

A connection to the hive mind would make sense. Thats probably what it is. Because if the 'nids were capable of doing that, I have a feeling they would trump EVERYONE in space.

Trump in space? How so? I thought that the narvhals kinda sucked when they entered systems

No they definitely dont at present. I was was saying IF they could just screw with the gravity of ANYTHING they could send enemy vessels crashing into planets beore they assaulted it.... hel maybe even send planets out of orbit for whatever reason. After all, gravity is the universes most powerful force..... next to fluff that is

xXSir MontyXx wrote:

blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

xXSir MontyXx wrote:

blazinpsycho&typhooni wrote:

xXSir MontyXx wrote:I was actually curious..... would this gravity corridor be capable of involuntarily propelling ships in that direction if they happen to contact it?

like involuntarily pulling in a satellite of sorts? I'm not sure! But it sounds plausible! unless they require a link to the space whales to get pulled along, more like ropes rather than like a slipstream.

Still it would be really interesting

A connection to the hive mind would make sense. Thats probably what it is. Because if the 'nids were capable of doing that, I have a feeling they would trump EVERYONE in space.

Trump in space? How so? I thought that the narvhals kinda sucked when they entered systems

No they definitely dont at present. I was was saying IF they could just screw with the gravity of ANYTHING they could send enemy vessels crashing into planets beore they assaulted it.... hel maybe even send planets out of orbit for whatever reason. After all, gravity is the universes most powerful force..... next to fluff that is

That's for sure, kinda like an Ork roc crashing on a hive city

I'm all for the gas idea, because I don't really know of other ways to fly through space using bio stuffs....

Perhaps travelling by solar wind? Y'know like sailboats in space?

or how bout a bio organic fusion propulsion system? Involving farting........

If a nid farts in space and no one is around, does it smell?