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Have the 6th Rulebook and went right through the fluff section. Nothing remarkable or even really new, GW is keeping the universe stagnant. Here's stuff that stands out regardless:

-Sisters of Silence may officially be gone. Black Ships are described as being crewed by Adepts of the Adeptus Telepathica with Inquistors as captains.
-The Iron Men and their war are alluded to, stating that during the Age of Technology mankind relied heavily on robots. Short before the Age of Strife they rebelled, and a massive war took place that saw such devastation that it helped herald in the Age of Strife
-The largest Ork Waaagh!'s the Galaxy has ever seen took place shortly before the Horus Heresy. They seem to make current Waaagh!'s seem like picnics. Horus' role in defeating them is what earned him the title Warmaster
-The Inquisition still retains the 3 classic Ordo Militants it seems. It is flatly said that the Grey Knights are the Ordo Militant of the Ordo Malleus, the Deathwatch Ordo Xenos, while the SoB maintain "close ties" with the Ordo Hereticus. The SoB don't seem to be formally an Ordo Militant but a de facto one.
-The Tau-Ultramarines alliance or Tau ties to the Emperor is never alluded to. Beyond the Allied chart there's no explanation why the Astartes and Tau are brothers in arms.
-The excerpt about the Golden Throne malfunctioning is in there, but it's the exact same one from 5th Edition. No progress. The only new bit of info really is that the Golden Throne requires far more psyker sacrifices than it used to, about four times the original level.
-There's a new ship called the "Blade of Eternity" that was lost in the Warp over 20,000 years ago and seems to appear again before any major Chaos incursion.
-In M39, 5 great heroes returned that are comparable to the Primarchs. They do a bunch of great stuff and oversee a bunch of great victories but vanish suddenly vanish.
-A major war against the Hrud occurred in M35, the "Hrud Rising". If GW is ever going to add another Xenos race (unlikely), but guess is it'll be Hrud by this point.
-In late M41, much of Segmentum Pacificus is in full-fledged rebellion
-The Adeptus Mechanicus is no longer part of the Adeptus Terra. It is separate and reports directly to the High Lords of Terra, like the Ecclesiarchy.
-During the Dark Age of Technology, mankind went on an alien-extermination campaign. Many xenos species were wiped out and their worlds colonized by humanity. Humanity had some sort of relations with the Eldar during this time, and also mentioned Orks (undoubtedly meaning wars with them). Today, often invasions by lesser alien races on "Imperial" worlds are just attempts to reclaim their lost homelands
-A few new Xenos seem to be mentioned. The Zygo live on Camgia have successfully fought off Imperial invasions for the last 500 years, The Dracolith, an emerging alien empire mentioned in 5th edition, are described as being chrystalline beings. There's a big picture with an illustrtion of lots of interesting-looking minor Xenos races. However none are identified by name. Frustrating.
-At one point, an Ork Warboss known as "The Beast" seemed to have united the Ork race (or at least most of it) and nearly took over the galaxy in an "apocalyptic greenskin uprising". This was during the Age of Imperium and is described as one of its darkest hours.
-Dark Eldar don't just seem to not use Farseers and Warlocks and what have you, they are stated to not be psychic altogether. No explanation as to how this difference from Craftworld Eldar took place.
-Tyranid Hive Fleets encountered are described as consisting of millions of Bio-ships each with millions of Tyranids on board. So it seems that Hive Fleets can easily approach the trillions figure in size.
-Tyranids fight with each other now. Hive Fleets compete with each other and clash over food on planets. The Hive Mind is still stated to be directing the overall Tyranid race regardless of this, this is probably the stupidest thing in the Codex.
-The Tyranid Hive Fleets seen so far are just a splinter of the 1 furthest tendril of the main Tyranid invasion force in the galactic void.
-The section on Chaos is entitled "The Greatest Threat". They get a lot of fluff dedicated to them, Chaos as a whole has a level of fluff coverage (almost 20 pages) only the Imperium surpasses in page amount. Hyperbole, or is GW making Chaos out to be the big baddie again? With downgrading the Tyranids to fighting one another, who knows.
-Chaos is definetly displayed in a more united fashion of CSM, Daemons, and heretics working towards a common goal. CSM/Daemon/Cultist fluff is all intermingled together and their models showcase are intertwined together under the title "The Great Enemy"
-Non-Marine Chaos followers have their own section of fluff (though it says what we already know), preparation for GW to give the Lost and the Damned a greater role in the future perhaps.
-The actions of the battles between the 4 Chaos Gods in the Warp directly effects the Materium in a more material fashion. For instance, if Nurgle is doing well in the war before he is inevitably pushed back, there will be rampant plague in the galaxy.
-A funny tidbit about Alpha Legion taking over Imperial communications outposts and sending false reports for decades at a time (not relevant, just found it funny...)
-Abaddon's Black Crusades are described more as repeated blows to the Imperium to gradually weaken it and as part of a greater plan, rather then 13 separate attempts to march on Terra. None of the Black Crusades are described even as failures. GW trying to end the stereotype of Faildabbon I take it.
-The Ulumeathic League has been destroyed
-The Space Marines are only connected to the Imperial hierarchy by a dotted arrow (everyone else has a straight solid line), perhaps indicating their further dependence
-Not only are Tau and Smurfs not allies, there's accounts of them fighting in 999.[[M41]]. The allied chart is making less sense.

On a separate note, the Dark Angels seem to take center stage here. They have cover art, back art, and the intro art for the Space Marine section.

Thank you for going through the book and writing this down. My own is still in the mail, but should arrive soonish.

Comments below:

Harriticus wrote:Sisters of Silence may officially be gone. Black Ships are described as being crewed by Adepts of the Adeptus Telepathica with Inquistors as captains.

Well, if we're talking about studio material, they were never "in" in the first place. The bit about the crews is interesting, though - I think in the old fluff it was said that Inquisition Black Ships are separate from Telepathica ones. I'm guessing security is then handled solely by ISTs now, no more SoB?

Harriticus wrote:The Inquisition still retains the 3 classic Ordo Militants it seems. It is flatly said that the Grey Knights are the Ordo Militant of the Ordo Malleus, the Deathwatch Ordo Xenos, while the SoB maintain "close ties" with the Ordo Hereticus. The SoB don't seem to be formally an Ordo Militant but a de facto one.

So the Deathwatch still exists? That is good to know.
The "de facto" role of the SoB fits their previous descriptions, I guess.

Harriticus wrote:The Tau-Ultramarines alliance or Tau ties to the Emperor is never alluded to. Beyond the Allied chart there's no explanation why the Astartes and Tau are brothers in arms.

Heh, good to know. Where did those rumors come from, anyways?

Harriticus wrote:In late M41, much of Segmentum Pacificus is in full-fledged rebellion

Interesting, also.

Harriticus wrote:The Adeptus Mechanicus is no longer part of the Adeptus Terra. It is separate and reports directly to the High Lords of Terra, like the Ecclesiarchy.

I thought this had always been the case?

Harriticus wrote:On a separate note, the Dark Angels seem to take center stage here. They have cover art, back art, and the intro art for the Space Marine section.

Fits to what we heard of the 6E starter box, I suppose.

Lynata wrote:Thank you for going through the book and writing this down. My own is still in the mail, but should arrive soonish.

Comments below:

Harriticus wrote:Sisters of Silence may officially be gone. Black Ships are described as being crewed by Adepts of the Adeptus Telepathica with Inquistors as captains.

Well, if we're talking about studio material, they were never "in" in the first place. The bit about the crews is interesting, though - I think in the old fluff it was said that Inquisition Black Ships are separate from Telepathica ones. I'm guessing security is then handled solely by ISTs now, no more SoB?

Harriticus wrote:The Inquisition still retains the 3 classic Ordo Militants it seems. It is flatly said that the Grey Knights are the Ordo Militant of the Ordo Malleus, the Deathwatch Ordo Xenos, while the SoB maintain "close ties" with the Ordo Hereticus. The SoB don't seem to be formally an Ordo Militant but a de facto one.

So the Deathwatch still exists? That is good to know.
The "de facto" role of the SoB fits their previous descriptions, I guess.

Harriticus wrote:The Tau-Ultramarines alliance or Tau ties to the Emperor is never alluded to. Beyond the Allied chart there's no explanation why the Astartes and Tau are brothers in arms.

Heh, good to know. Where did those rumors come from, anyways?

Harriticus wrote:In late M41, much of Segmentum Pacificus is in full-fledged rebellion

Interesting, also.

Harriticus wrote:The Adeptus Mechanicus is no longer part of the Adeptus Terra. It is separate and reports directly to the High Lords of Terra, like the Ecclesiarchy.

I thought this had always been the case?

Harriticus wrote:On a separate note, the Dark Angels seem to take center stage here. They have cover art, back art, and the intro art for the Space Marine section.

Fits to what we heard of the 6E starter box, I suppose.

Deathwatch certainly exists and is mentioned 2-3 times from what I saw, including how many kill-teams they have on Armageddon and what not.

As for the Tau-Smurfs alliance, it came from a rumor thread a few months back and from the fact that they're brothers in arms on the allied matrix.

Just commenting on a few things.

-Sisters of Silence may officially be gone. Black Ships are described as being crewed by Adepts of the Adeptus Telepathica with Inquistors as captains.

Might mean there's an interesting story related to the disbanding/destruction of the Sisters of Silence still to come in the horus heresy.

-The Inquisition still retains the 3 classic Ordo Militants it seems. It is flatly said that the Grey Knights are the Ordo Militant of the Ordo Malleus, the Deathwatch Ordo Xenos, while the SoB maintain "close ties" with the Ordo Hereticus. The SoB don't seem to be formally an Ordo Militant but a de facto one.

Not too surprised. The SoB were always a branch of the Ecclesiarchy and just happened to share both the goals and methods favored by the Ordo Hereticus.

-There's a new ship called the "Blade of Eternity" that was lost in the Warp over 20,000 years ago and seems to appear again before any major Chaos incursion.

Anything more given about this? 20,000 years would make it from the DaOT. Might have an interesting story connected to it.

-In M39, 5 great heroes returned that are comparable to the Primarchs. They do a bunch of great stuff and oversee a bunch of great victories but vanish suddenly vanish.

Pretty neat idea if they are the Primarchs. Certainly makes more sense than Draigo popping in and out of the warp to lend assistance.

-The Adeptus Mechanicus is no longer part of the Adeptus Terra. It is separate and reports directly to the High Lords of Terra, like the Ecclesiarchy.

This feels right.

-Dark Eldar don't just seem to not use Farseers and Warlocks and what have you, they are stated to not be psychic altogether. No explanation as to how this difference from Craftworld Eldar took place.

This seems rather odd. Perhaps it was some sort of experiment to disconnect themselves from Slaanesh that failed miserably.

-Tyranids fight with each other now. Hive Fleets compete with each other and clash over food on planets. The Hive Mind is still stated to be directing the overall Tyranid race regardless of this, this is probably the stupidest thing in the Codex.

It's not that unbelievable. The Hive Mind probably portions out bits of control to various species, which can inevitably lead to a bit of clashing in terms of resource allocation.

-The actions of the battles between the 4 Chaos Gods in the Warp directly effects the Materium in a more material fashion. For instance, if Nurgle is doing well in the war before he is inevitably pushed back, there will be rampant plague in the galaxy.

I remember there being theories that related to this a few years back. Interesting to see it's been made official.

-Abaddon's Black Crusades are described more as repeated blows to the Imperium to gradually weaken it and as part of a greater plan, rather then 13 separate attempts to march on Terra. None of the Black Crusades are described even as failures. GW trying to end the stereotype of Faildabbon I take it.

This makes me very happy to see.

Harriticus wrote:Deathwatch certainly exists and is mentioned 2-3 times from what I saw, including how many kill-teams they have on Armageddon and what not.

Very cool. After their complete absence in 5E and by how the role of the Grey Knights was worded, I had feared they would have been phased out entirely - which would've been a shame, as I always liked their unique "small groups" role and their induction of non-Marines into kill teams. Good to see they're still kicking around.

Lynata wrote:Thank you for going through the book and writing this down. My own is still in the mail, but should arrive soonish.

Comments below:

Harriticus wrote:Sisters of Silence may officially be gone. Black Ships are described as being crewed by Adepts of the Adeptus Telepathica with Inquistors as captains.

Well, if we're talking about studio material, they were never "in" in the first place. The bit about the crews is interesting, though - I think in the old fluff it was said that Inquisition Black Ships are separate from Telepathica ones. I'm guessing security is then handled solely by ISTs now, no more SoB?

It was never once said that the Black Ships were crewed by Sisters of Silence OR Sisters of Battle. The Inquisitorial Black Ships have always had a mention of the Adeptus Telepathica involved, by the by.

That has been an assumption, with no real basis upon it outside of the fact that the Sisters of Silence vanished from the setting post-Heresy.

Harriticus wrote:The Inquisition still retains the 3 classic Ordo Militants it seems. It is flatly said that the Grey Knights are the Ordo Militant of the Ordo Malleus, the Deathwatch Ordo Xenos, while the SoB maintain "close ties" with the Ordo Hereticus. The SoB don't seem to be formally an Ordo Militant but a de facto one.

So the Deathwatch still exists? That is good to know.

...
Why would the Deathwatch not still exist?
I mean, I know you like to thump your chest and say "THERE IS NO CANON!" but what in the world made you think the Deathwatch was gone?!

The "de facto" role of the SoB fits their previous descriptions, I guess.

This hasn't changed, so that's good.

Harriticus wrote:The Tau-Ultramarines alliance or Tau ties to the Emperor is never alluded to. Beyond the Allied chart there's no explanation why the Astartes and Tau are brothers in arms.

Heh, good to know. Where did those rumors come from, anyways?

Blood of Kittens.

Harriticus wrote:In late M41, much of Segmentum Pacificus is in full-fledged rebellion

Interesting, also.

It is an interesting development.

Harriticus wrote:The Adeptus Mechanicus is no longer part of the Adeptus Terra. It is separate and reports directly to the High Lords of Terra, like the Ecclesiarchy.

I thought this had always been the case?

Indeed it has been. Some are under the mistaken assumption otherwise though.

Harriticus wrote:On a separate note, the Dark Angels seem to take center stage here. They have cover art, back art, and the intro art for the Space Marine section.

Fits to what we heard of the 6E starter box, I suppose.

YAY!

The Unforgiven are in charge!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

jareddm wrote:

-There's a new ship called the "Blade of Eternity" that was lost in the Warp over 20,000 years ago and seems to appear again before any major Chaos incursion.

Anything more given about this? 20,000 years would make it from the DaOT. Might have an interesting story connected to it.

It being from the Dark Age of Technology is definitely going to be...strange.

-In M39, 5 great heroes returned that are comparable to the Primarchs. They do a bunch of great stuff and oversee a bunch of great victories but vanish suddenly vanish.

Pretty neat idea if they are the Primarchs. Certainly makes more sense than Draigo popping in and out of the warp to lend assistance.

You're aware that the majority of the Primarchs who went missing, went into the Warp, right?
Off the very top of my head:
Corax--went hunting in the Warp.
Leman Russ--went hunting in the Warp.
The Khan--went hunting in the Warp.

-Dark Eldar don't just seem to not use Farseers and Warlocks and what have you, they are stated to not be psychic altogether. No explanation as to how this difference from Craftworld Eldar took place.

This seems rather odd. Perhaps it was some sort of experiment to disconnect themselves from Slaanesh that failed miserably.

No real mystery.

The Dark Eldar kill off individuals with even the barest hint of psyker potential--and the majority of them are not "born" so much as "cloned".
It's why we have the elite Kabalite unit called the "Trueborn", in fact.

-Abaddon's Black Crusades are described more as repeated blows to the Imperium to gradually weaken it and as part of a greater plan, rather then 13 separate attempts to march on Terra. None of the Black Crusades are described even as failures. GW trying to end the stereotype of Faildabbon I take it.

This makes me very happy to see.

Absolutely!
This is what I've been arguing for years now. He might not be winning the battles, but he most certainly is not out of the war yet.

You're aware that the majority of the Primarchs who went missing, went into the Warp, right?
Off the very top of my head:
Corax--went hunting in the Warp.
Leman Russ--went hunting in the Warp.
The Khan--went hunting in the Warp.

Yes but they're also Primarchs. I understood that this is still them popping out of the warp, but it feels more appropriate given how much more we know about them and what they've gone through.

No real mystery.

The Dark Eldar kill off individuals with even the barest hint of psyker potential--and the majority of them are not "born" so much as "cloned".
It's why we have the elite Kabalite unit called the "Trueborn", in fact.

Shows what I know about the DE

jareddm wrote:

You're aware that the majority of the Primarchs who went missing, went into the Warp, right?
Off the very top of my head:
Corax--went hunting in the Warp.
Leman Russ--went hunting in the Warp.
The Khan--went hunting in the Warp.

Yes but they're also Primarchs. I understood that this is still them popping out of the warp, but it feels more appropriate given how much more we know about them and what they've gone through.

Sure, but at the same time it's important to remember that the Grey Knights are closer to the Custodes than the "regular" Astartes.

By all measures, what we have for information suggests that they might even be closer to the Emperor than the Custodes were.

jareddm wrote:

You're aware that the majority of the Primarchs who went missing, went into the Warp, right?
Off the very top of my head:
Corax--went hunting in the Warp.
Leman Russ--went hunting in the Warp.
The Khan--went hunting in the Warp.

Yes but they're also Primarchs. I understood that this is still them popping out of the warp, but it feels more appropriate given how much more we know about them and what they've gone through.

No real mystery.

The Dark Eldar kill off individuals with even the barest hint of psyker potential--and the majority of them are not "born" so much as "cloned".
It's why we have the elite Kabalite unit called the "Trueborn", in fact.

Shows what I know about the DE

Trueborn are DE that have gone through natural birth. Other Dark Eldar are taken out of the tummy and their growth accelerated. Hell, some might be cloned, but not in the sense you are thinking of.

I was most suprised to see a direct reference to the Squats by name, even though it's not much... After all the trouble they went to removing all the references to them..

Rogue psykers, mutants and traitors, the enemy inside, have now their own faction fluff (and some artwork, too) just behind Daemons and CSM.

I'm really hoping this is something more than 2nd ed. nostalgia.

Also, the Adeptus Mechanicus seem to have been sidelined, barely getting a couple important mentions.

Kanluwen wrote:

Harriticus wrote:The Inquisition still retains the 3 classic Ordo Militants it seems. It is flatly said that the Grey Knights are the Ordo Militant of the Ordo Malleus, the Deathwatch Ordo Xenos, while the SoB maintain "close ties" with the Ordo Hereticus. The SoB don't seem to be formally an Ordo Militant but a de facto one.

So the Deathwatch still exists? That is good to know.

...
Why would the Deathwatch not still exist?
I mean, I know you like to thump your chest and say "THERE IS NO CANON!" but what in the world made you think the Deathwatch was gone?!

AustonT wrote:

Kanluwen wrote:Why would the Deathwatch not still exist? I mean, I know you like to thump your chest and say "THERE IS NO CANON!" but what in the world made you think the Deathwatch was gone?!

Yeah that got a lolwhut from me too considering the Deathwatch are a well documented and relatively popular part of 40k. They had about as much chance as the Ultramarines of being written out in 6E.

Because the Deathwatch was entirely missing from the list of Imperial forces in the 5E rulebook (which included the GKs and SoB), and due to the 5E GK Codex having stated that the Grey Knights would now fulfill the role of Chamber Militant for all the Inquisition - including the Ordo Xenos.
In short, the Deathwatch was suddenly without a job, and had vanished from places where it should have been mentioned. It thus appeared it might have been "squatted".

It's good that this is not the case.

But "well documented"? I wouldn't compare a short WD article and a section in GW's Inquisitor RPG to all the fluff the Ultramarines had amassed over the decades. The studio had pretty much dropped the ball on the DW in the previous years; I hope that their re-appearance (possibly sparked by FFG's RPG?) means they have something planned for it. Like, new kill team rules?

Kanluwen wrote:It was never once said that the Black Ships were crewed by Sisters of Silence OR Sisters of Battle.

"[...] Thus, the Sisters find themselves in the service of the Inquisition, performing purity sweeps through Imperial organisations, persecuting apostate clerics, challenging renegade Space Marine Chapters, guarding the most dangerous of the Ordo's prisoners and acting as wardens on the infamous Black Ships."
- 3E C:WH

Kanluwen wrote:The Inquisitorial Black Ships have always had a mention of the Adeptus Telepathica involved, by the by.

Where? I did not find anything in their Battlefleet Gothic entry.
Not that I couldn't believe it, I've just never read anything of the like.

Has anyone had a good look through the appendices yet? I only had a quick flick through, but there looks to be some really cool stuff in there. An article on how to dress a lasgun wound jumped out at me as interesting.

Lynata wrote:[

Kanluwen wrote:The Inquisitorial Black Ships have always had a mention of the Adeptus Telepathica involved, by the by.

Where? I did not find anything in their Battlefleet Gothic entry. Not that I couldn't believe it, I've just never read anything of the like.

If memory serves, the very old (circa White Dwarf 120) articles on space travel and the warp put the black ships in the Adeptus Astra Telepathica's sphere, which makes sense (or at least did so at the time), given their mission of gathering nascent psykers from the Imperium's worlds.

English Assassin wrote:If memory serves, the very old (circa White Dwarf 120) articles on space travel and the warp put the black ships in the Adeptus Astra Telepathica's sphere, which makes sense (or at least did so at the time), given their mission of gathering nascent psykers from the Imperium's worlds.

The actual psyker-collecting Black Ships, yeah - but the Battlefleet article pretty much established two different sorts of Black Ships, one for the Astra Telepathica (-> collecting psykers) and one for the Inquisition (-> Inquisition stuff).

I wonder if this means they've now merged the two... or if they still have two types of Black Ships, but that the Inquisition is "overseeing" the psyker tithe to ensure they get 'em all.

I'm very skeptical of this idea that the Adeptus Mechanicus reports to the High Lords of Terra. Also, I don't know where OP got the idea that the Mechanicum was ever part of Adeptus Terra.

Manchu wrote:I'm very skeptical of this idea that the Adeptus Mechanicus reports to the High Lords of Terra.

Erm, the Fabricator-General is one of the high lords of tera.

The Tyranids have always fought each other. It's an evolutionary thing, and in no way detrimental to them as a whole. Quite the opposite, in fact - the stronger fleet consumes the weaker and becomes larger (and stronger) as a result, as well as taking any unique bioforms from the weaker fleet. It's the explanation for how characters like Deathleaper keep showing up in random fleets. I doubt they would fight if confronted by an enemy, though - a bit like Orks, I guess. It's not like you'd get Hive Fleet X fighting the Tau on a planet and suddenly Hive Fleet Y shows up and starts eating X (That would almost be an excuse for allies, lmao). That wouldn't prove the stronger of the fleets, as one is attacking while bolstered by the indirect support of, in this case, the Tau.

Also, we've always known about how the encountered Hive Fleets were mere vanguards of a much greater armada, ditto to the trillions of Tyranids thing. It was never in the BRB, though, so I guess it's new?

As for no DE psykers - well, they're already highly effected by the Warp, constantly on the brink of being consumed by She Who Thirsts. I don't think inviting Slaaneshi daemons into one's mind is a very intelligent thing to do.

Im not sure about this in previous editions, but is now says the imperium isnt at all out war with the eldar? and they do not act aggressively toward them unless provoked? Is that how it always was?

Manchu wrote:I'm very skeptical of this idea that the Adeptus Mechanicus reports to the High Lords of Terra. Also, I don't know where OP got the idea that the Mechanicum was ever part of Adeptus Terra.

Codex Imperialis. It's old, but amazingly enough it's the only hierarchy chart of the Imperium until 6th.

hotsauceman1 wrote:Im not sure about this in previous editions, but is now says the imperium isnt at all out war with the eldar? and they do not act aggressively toward them unless provoked? Is that how it always was?

5th Edition more or less said the same thing. That the Eldar aren't bothered because:
A.) They're hard to find
B.) Attacks on Craftworlds are bloody messes
C.) They're not on Imperial worlds, though this certainly changes when they attack a planet of the Imperium or vice versa.

hotsauceman1 wrote:Im not sure about this in previous editions, but is now says the imperium isnt at all out war with the eldar? and they do not act aggressively toward them unless provoked? Is that how it always was?

The Imperium is not so unified as to be able to give a solid answer. Certain Marine chapters or Ordo Xenos Inquisitors may be pursuing the Eldar with military intent, but I think the general policy is that the Eldar can wait. There's bigger fish to fry.

Indeed, the Eldar are at worse just a minor nuisance.

Eldar and the Imperium might have minor skirmishes from time to time, and if an Imperial ship comes across a terribly outgunned Eldar ship, or vice versa, they'll probably blow it out of the sky just on GP, but on the whole both sides realize that tangling with each other on a larger scale is more trouble than it's worth.


edit- I don't buy the concept of the Tyranids fighting each other for resources. It's apart of Tyranid psychology to eat itself -they do it every time they conquer a planet- thus if they actually "fought" each other that would imply that one side of the Tyranids would be trying to not get eaten. That goes against the Tyranid concept. Tyranids eating Tyranids would basically just be one force dunking itself into a gestation pool of its own volition while the other force waited to eat.

Harriticus wrote:Codex Imperialis. It's old, but amazingly enough it's the only hierarchy chart of the Imperium until 6th.

Huh, you're right, I totally didn't pay attention to this small "anomaly" in the chart. The AdMech should stand apart just as the Inquisition and the Ministorum do, reporting directly to the High Lords. I think this must have changed several years ago already, though - in the previous books, the domains of the Mechanicus (Forge Worlds) were always described as independent from the Adeptus Terra.

BlaxicanX wrote:I don't buy the concept of the Tyranids fighting each other for resources. It's apart of Tyranid psychology to eat itself -they do it every time they conquer a planet- thus if they actually "fought" each other that would imply that one side of the Tyranids would be trying to not get eaten. That goes against the Tyranid concept. Tyranids eating Tyranids would basically just be one force dunking itself into a gestation pool of its own volition while the other force waited to eat.

Well, I guess it could make sense if there are several hives present that aren't "networked" to ally but simply think of their own hive first...

Kind of like a simple machine script:
1. eat any non-Tyranids
2a. unless additional biomass is required for upkeep, go back to 1
2b. if no non-'nids are present, eat 'nids from a hive that isn't yours
3. if no other hive is present ,eat yourself

Essentially, the hivemind's self-preservation preventing its organisms from consuming themselves before consuming another hive. In a way, this could even work in favour of the greater self of the Tyranids - the strong weeding out the weak, using their biomass to further improve the superior strain? Mayhaps it could help looking at certain ant species.

Just an attempt at justifying stuff - often times, things conflicting at first can be explained by conjuring excuses that at least partially draw upon the existing fluff. How far you want to go with this (meaning the point where any excuse will just look silly) is a matter of personal interpretation and preferences; we all have our own thresholds where it just becomes too much.

Alternatively, maybe GW just likes the idea of Kerrigan's Swarm War. Given the Tyranid Redesign, it wouldn't be the first time they copy something from Blizz back. In this case, brace yourselves for Newnid Hiveminds with personalities like the Necron Lords.

Okay, I know this sounds kind of stupid, but does Codex: Tyranids ever mention how they manage to recycle their dead warriors and still be at 100% strength each time?

I mean, from middle school biology, for each step up the food chain, only 10% of the energy used to create is level is transferred to the next tier.

For example:
1,000,000 Calories (lets just say) is used to make a termagant. Then only 100,000 Calories from one termagant can make 1 gene stealer. Then 10,000 Calories from one gene stealer can make a Carnifex. And so on.

Usually, the more sophisticated the genus, the more energy it needs to make it. So if 1,000,000 Calories are needed to make a termagant, then 1,000,000,000 Calories are needed to make a gene stealer, and 1,000,000,000,000 Calories are needed to make a Carnifex. And so on.

So if they recycle themselves, they retain 10% of available biomass while around 90% is lost as heat, or a 10% efficiency. (Think of them as Carnot engines from Thermodynamics.) That means they are losing more units then they can afford from the resources that they take from the planets. If they really wanted to, they should have photosynthetic hive ships dedicated to converting the energy emitted from the sun to creating these little buggers. That would make more sense, almost like a solar powered Tyranid.

Rant aside, new things that I saw was that Necrons have their own webway getes, (or perhaps steal them from the Eldar) and use them for traveling rather than just inertia cancelers.

I'm also kind of happy that SoB are still hanging around, even if its by the thinnest thread in my opinion.

Yes, let's apply Earth biology to extragalactic insectoid monsters.

You're right, this does sound knd of stupid.

Omegus wrote:Yes, let's apply Earth biology to extragalactic insectoid monsters.

You're right, this does sound knd of stupid.

There's no point in applying logic to 40k.

Harriticus wrote:In late M41, much of Segmentum Pacificus is in full-fledged rebellion

Kinda funny its called the Segmentum Pacificus. Which is where my Homebrew IG regiment is from. This add some potential roleplay if it IGvsIG or any other Imperial.

Tadashi wrote:

Omegus wrote:Yes, let's apply Earth biology to extragalactic insectoid monsters.

You're right, this does sound knd of stupid.

There's no point in applying logic to 40k.

Yeah, you guys are right. Saves a lot of burnt brain cells.

Omegus wrote:Yes, let's apply Earth biology to extragalactic insectoid monsters.

It's not a matter of just one planet's biology but one of thermodynamics. There is and can never be 100% efficiency in any form of process or energy conversion. Even if one gives the Tyranids some greater efficiency compared to Earth's biology, they can never reach 100%.

However, the question of Tyranid loss replacement has to take into account the fact that the Tyranid consumption ecosystem is not a closed energy system. There are energy inputs, such as from the sun which is absorbed by Tyranid flora. In the past WD from 3rd edition, there was an article by Sherman Bishop detailing use of geothermal energy sources by Tyranids. This is energy input from the planet's internal heat, which comes from radioactive decay, and the planet's own original heat of formation. Both of these are external energy inputs.

Finally, there is the sheer volume of a planet's biomass. Aside from literal raw material to create new Tyranids, biomass can also be metabolized to release energy to drive other processes.

When looking at the Tyranids, their entire ecosystem, composed of all the various species from Rippers to capillary towers to Tyranid flora and bacteria, all needs to be considered.

And before people try to claim all logic should be thrown out in 40K, the fact that gravity still works, guns still fire ammunition and bolter shells need propulsion, shows there are still laws of physics in action. Just because a universe is a fictional universe doesn't mean anything goes. Fictional universes still have their own internal paradigms and tales within such a universe should be internally consistent with the setting's rules. The 40K universe has the addition of the warp which is often a way to bend or avoid real world physics, but the Tyranids are about "evolution gone mad" and are about a realspace alien menace as opposed to the otherworldly magical beings of the warp.