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Are Tyranid ships capable of Warp Travel?

If so, how powerful is the Hive Mind compared to the denizens of the Warp?

And more interestingly, since the four Chaos Gods are only present in our own galaxy, is Warp Travel outside our galaxy, aka outside the reach of the ruinous powers, relatively safe? Does the reach of the Chaos gods only extend to the confines of the Milky Way?

Also, in the 5th ed rulebook I read that the Tyranids had left the "husks of a dozen galaxies behind them". Two things pop to my mind:

1) Surely that doesnt mean they have devoured exactly 12, right? A dozen is probably more like a figurative form of speech. More than a "handful" or "couple" but less than 50. So dozen sounds like a good word without having to necessarily mean the exact number 12.

2) This would make the Tyranids the oldest race in existence, older than the Necrons or Old Ones, as those races are merely several hundred million years old (aka less than 1 billion years old)

I Always thought it was like a slingshot thing

 Sir Arun wrote:
Are Tyranid ships capable of Warp Travel?

I think maybe they used too, but now they use gravity via Narwal or something.

 Sir Arun wrote:
If so, how powerful is the Hive Mind compared to the denizens of the Warp?

Not very I don't think, Nids will avoid the warp, and mutant hive fleets sometimes happen if they do get to close.

 Sir Arun wrote:
And more interestingly, since the four Chaos Gods are only present in our own galaxy, is Warp Travel outside our galaxy, aka outside the reach of the ruinous powers, relatively safe? Does the reach of the Chaos gods only extend to the confines of the Milky Way?

Chaos exists outside the galaxy, and the Old One's intergalactic webway was breached by gribbly warp things during the War in Heaven.

 Sir Arun wrote:
Also, in the 5th ed rulebook I read that the Tyranids had left the "husks of a dozen galaxies behind them". Two things pop to my mind:

1) Surely that doesnt mean they have devoured exactly 12, right? A dozen is probably more like a figurative form of speech. More than a "handful" or "couple" but less than 50. So dozen sounds like a good word without having to necessarily mean the exact number 12.

Why not twelve? I'll go with Occam's Razor on this one.

 Sir Arun wrote:
2) This would make the Tyranids the oldest race in existence, older than the Necrons or Old Ones, as those races are merely several hundred million years old (aka less than 1 billion years old)

Well in The Outer Reach it is said that the Necrontyr came about billions of years before the birth of mankind, and the Old Ones are described as "far older," so take that as you will. Then we also don't really know how quickly the Nids can eat a galaxy, or how long it takes to travel between them, so I don't think we're in much of a position to make any final judgements on who is older.

Nids don't use Warp Travel, they use small, unarmed, unarmoured ships called Narvels to harness target planets' gravity field to create a tunnel and ride along it.

The Hive Mind distorts the warp and assumably other Warp Denizens (I think the Daemons are made of the Warp).

The Warp is like a huge river, with enormously powerful currents and that's the danger, Daemons and Dark Gods are only a small part of it.

A dozen sounds like a ballpark figurative number but 12 galaxies is still an enormous figure. For all we know the Nids could be real and consuming the Andromeda galaxy now, and it just takes 38, 000 years to reach Milky Way.

I think the Tyranids would certainly be up there with the Old Ones as the oldest.

I like the Tyranid method of travel; when they abuse the gravity fields of whichever solar system they plan on consuming, the worlds in question suffer earthquakes, tsunamis, and other "natural" disasters. So even before spores hit atmo, the population is freaking out trying to fix up their infrastructure.

It's tough to know anything for sure about the Tyranids. They aren't too chatty. Dozen is probably an estimate with a dash of hyperbole. I'd guess 3-5 would be more reasonable but doesn't sound as cool. One question that this fact brings to mind is how big is the entire tyranid force in addition to how old. Since tyranid fleets tend to splinter into tendrils, are their other fleets going after different galaxies? Consume one galaxy then split into 2 and go after different galaxies. Either way it doesn't look good for the galaxy.

If you remember the earliest Tyranid models back in the 90s, they looked hilariously funny.

Somehow I like to think that since the Nids arent talkative at all, the only way to discern information about the inhabitants of the previous galaxy they devoured is by looking at the first wave of Tyranids themselves.

Since they are a constantly evolving organism, they adapt to the foes they face. For example I read that Tyrant Guard are Nids made by the Hive Mind after Space Marines had been devoured. Similarly, I read other 40k universe races being "inspiration" for different Nid creatures. Zoanthropes possibly for Eldar and Biovores from something else.

I think the earliest Nids didnt have ranged weapon biomorphs at all, giving rise to the theory that the previous galaxy they devoured didnt put up much of a sophisticated fight.

The first Carnifex had only Scything Talons and short ranged Bio Plasma (basically Acid Spit) so your theory about not having devoured sophisticated races seems plausible.

I prefer to think of each Nid creature as a counter or answer to particular things. For example, Zoanthropes, highly cerebral, psychic creatures would be an ideal counter to the likewise Eldar whereas Biovores may be an attempt to adapt to the tactics of the Imperial Guard, as the Hive Mind learns it can't win all its fights in close proximity. The Sky-Slasher Ripper Swarms were made because larger Harpies, Flyrants and Shrikes were shot down by Interceptor guns. The Swarmlord was created because certain commanders proved too intelligent for any other Tyrant to deal with

Biovores are made out of Orks. The facial structure is very similar, and given that Ork artillery is often "guided" by on-board Gretchen, Biovores launching Spore-mines (also alive and sorta aware) apes that.

The earliest Tyranid forces included mind controlled humans, squig swarms and the long missed Zoats. Technically, as the background has evolved and Tyranids have had more experience with the denizens of the 40k galaxy, they have evolved I thin Genestealers are pretty much the only thing that have survived largely as their original design (except maybe for the tentacly mouths).

 Sir Arun wrote:
Are Tyranid ships capable of Warp Travel?

No, they use specialized ships that use a target planet/solar system's gravity. They create a small tunnel of intense gravity that allows their ships to travel at FTL speeds, however as they get closer to their target they slow down and the last leg of a long journey can take a long time. Years iirc. They stay out of the warp.

 Sir Arun wrote:
If so, how powerful is the Hive Mind compared to the denizens of the Warp?

No idea. I know the Hive Mind creates a "shadow in the warp" but not completely sure how this works. Would be interesting to see if daemons can stills survive in real space with the shadow over their relative area.

 Sir Arun wrote:
And more interestingly, since the four Chaos Gods are only present in our own galaxy, is Warp Travel outside our galaxy, aka outside the reach of the ruinous powers, relatively safe? Does the reach of the Chaos gods only extend to the confines of the Milky Way?

Open to interpretation I believe. I personally see the warp interact with real space as a geometrical sphere: every point of the surface area of the sphere (real space) is connected to a central focal point (the warp) with in the sphere via line segment. The warp touches all reality but the daemons and gods are only interested in the populated parts of the universe. Intergalactic space is very boring for them but it is possible for them to find you in it. My opinion anyway.

 Sir Arun wrote:

1) Surely that doesnt mean they have devoured exactly 12, right? A dozen is probably more like a figurative form of speech. More than a "handful" or "couple" but less than 50. So dozen sounds like a good word without having to necessarily mean the exact number 12.

Agreed

 Sir Arun wrote:
2) This would make the Tyranids the oldest race in existence, older than the Necrons or Old Ones, as those races are merely several hundred million years old (aka less than 1 billion years old)

Maybe. What if the Hive Mind is eating several galaxies at once? What if they were some sort of creation (lame, I know) that someone put in several galaxies? What if the galaxies were small or offered no resistance? Think Earth back when there was only invertebrates. What if the milky way only had the Tau (small sector of space/just expanding) and the remnants of the Eldar (few in population)? The Nids would surely mow through them when their whole Hive Fleet arrived. Too much unknown, but I would say it fair that the Milky Way at 40k present is a proving ground unlike many other galaxies. (then again the universe is a large place )