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123ply wrote:
People seem to hate the fact that Tyranids are written to be practically unstoppable, but I love that. Tyranids are supposed to be an undefeatable, ultra regenerative swarm that kills everything and anything. The sense of hopelessness when facing the Tyranids.leviathan is how they contribute to the grim dark setting of wh40k. If there was any hope to defeat them, would they still be scary?

This.

If people want to hide behind a few isolated stories where a Marine chapter has defeated a swarm, and bury their heads in the sand about the true scale of the Tyranid threat then by all means

It's currently unknown whether they're defeatable or not. That's part of what makes them a credible galactic-level threat. We have no idea if what we're seeing is the bulk of the swarm, or if there's even more yet to come.

Eh, they're not really depicted as ultra-regenerative. That's a thing GW tells, but doesn't show.

 Deadshot wrote:
Orks: too much biomass and lack of tactics, see Gholora Swarm
Deldar: No chance
Modern Imperium: No chance on a long enough timeline
DAoT Imperium: Too little info, maybe
Men of Iron: Maybe
Necrons: Best chance
Eldar Empire: Shadow in the Warp at that scale would fry their tiny brains like bacon
Tau: No chance, see Gorgon, and that was a tiny Hive Fleet by comparison
Chaos: Maybe but see Daemons vs Nids for example of why its a toss-up for plot armour to decide

Orks en mass have potential. Much though I despise the fluff for it the Beast would have the numbers and the technology to defeat the Tyranids.

DAoT Imperium is likely, especially if the different empires were willing to ally against the threat.

I feel like the Eldar Empire would annihilate the Tyranids. Even in the current time period they're capable of fighting Tyranids. Give them the superior technology and unshackled Psychic powers of the Eldar pre-Fall and I don't see the Shadow in the Warp doing enough to stop them.

Yeah the key to beating the Tyranids is finding the ships in hibernation and blowing them up, any race could do it.

The hard part is finding the fleet.
As the Tyranids do not use warp travel... technically they don't even travel at FTL (which is the biggest messed up thing with their storylines) they use solar sail and gas propellants (he he they fart for momentum) to travel at near light speeds.
And space is huge and no one else actually spends time traveling through it unless in a system.. at which point the Hive Ships are awake/ing and then its a fight

Fighting Nids in a ground war is never a good option

Sisters of Battle from the gene seed of Sigourney Weaver. 'Nuff said.

GodDamUser wrote:
Yeah the key to beating the Tyranids is finding the ships in hibernation and blowing them up, any race could do it.

The hard part is finding the fleet.
As the Tyranids do not use warp travel... technically they don't even travel at FTL (which is the biggest messed up thing with their storylines) they use solar sail and gas propellants (he he they fart for momentum) to travel at near light speeds.

Last I checked Tyranids use FTL with the Narvhals latching onto the gravity of planets. It's only once they get in system that they stop travelling FTL. A side effect of using Narvhals is that they cause tectonic upheaval on the targeted planets. Helps cause chaos but can forewarn the occupants.

SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:
Last I checked Tyranids use FTL with the Narvhals latching onto the gravity of planets. It's only once they get in system that they stop travelling FTL. A side effect of using Narvhals is that they cause tectonic upheaval on the targeted planets. Helps cause chaos but can forewarn the occupants.

Fair enough.. just the last thing I read said near light speed but not FTL that was a while ago and I may be mistaken. It was also probably from BFG, so I may go reread that when I have spare time

SomeRandomEvilGuy wrote:

GodDamUser wrote:
Yeah the key to beating the Tyranids is finding the ships in hibernation and blowing them up, any race could do it.

The hard part is finding the fleet.
As the Tyranids do not use warp travel... technically they don't even travel at FTL (which is the biggest messed up thing with their storylines) they use solar sail and gas propellants (he he they fart for momentum) to travel at near light speeds.

Last I checked Tyranids use FTL with the Narvhals latching onto the gravity of planets. It's only once they get in system that they stop travelling FTL. A side effect of using Narvhals is that they cause tectonic upheaval on the targeted planets. Helps cause chaos but can forewarn the occupants.

Still the Narvhals have stop before the ships enter the system, meaning that even though they travel FTL, it still takes them decades to go from start to star.

So simple answer for destroying the Nids.. Discover a way to track their fleets in the empty void between systems and systematically destroy the hive ships while they slumber, with lightning quick naval strikes.

That being said it has been done before.. There was a fluff story where a Magus came up with a Virus, Sent in a Unit of Deathwatch to infect a sleeping hive ship it worked.. but it only worked from that particular hive as the virus was based on its DNA

GodDamUser wrote:
So simple answer for destroying the Nids.. Discover a way to track their fleets in the empty void between systems and systematically destroy the hive ships while they slumber, with lightning quick naval strikes.

That being said it has been done before.. There was a fluff story where a Magus came up with a Virus, Sent in a Unit of Deathwatch to infect a sleeping hive ship it worked.. but it only worked from that particular hive as the virus was based on its DNA

1) Some of the biggest Nid Hive ships have tentacles and mouths capable of eating most ships other races are capable of bringing to bear. 2) the ships don't just sit dormant. They all have defenses and release organisms into space to act as x-wing/tie fighter style fighters to swarm enemy ships and protect the fleet. 3) Nids rapidly adapt to virus/disease/poisons. You could kill a ship, maybe 2. The other ships would implement immunities before you could infect another.

GodDamUser wrote:
Yeah the key to beating the Tyranids is finding the ships in hibernation and blowing them up, any race could do it.

The hard part is finding the fleet.
As the Tyranids do not use warp travel... technically they don't even travel at FTL (which is the biggest messed up thing with their storylines) they use solar sail and gas propellants (he he they fart for momentum) to travel at near light speeds.
And space is huge and no one else actually spends time traveling through it unless in a system.. at which point the Hive Ships are awake/ing and then its a fight

Fighting Nids in a ground war is never a good option

This actually sounds like a sensible option. Unfortunately, as Lance845 suggested the issue with the 'nids is that although they appear animalistic they're far from it. They're immensely intelligent and adaptive (just like us, and all other intelligent races). You might be able to get the drop on them a couple of times wit ha particular tactic, but they've got enough numbers that they can stomach that and adapt.

Now, that's not to say that they are actually undefeatable. Not at all. All it means is that it's not that simple.

The only way to defeat the 'nids is to come up with new ways of killing them faster than they can adapt. It's a massively tall order, but TBH it should be. They're a major faction in 40k. It shouldn't be easy to wipe them out.

Replace the 'nids with the Imperium in this example. It'd be a thoroughly gakky storyline if the Imperium was fighting the Tau, and the Tau came up with a virus that wiped out all of humanity. gakky storyline because it's just fantastically farfetched. Now, why would you think that such a situation is more believable with the 'nids? They're just as complicated and competent a race as we are, if not more. So, it's not that the 'nids are 'Mary Sue'. It's that they're actually a credible threat to the Imperium and the galaxy as a whole, just like an antagonist should be.

GodDamUser wrote:

Fair enough.. just the last thing I read said near light speed but not FTL that was a while ago and I may be mistaken. It was also probably from BFG, so I may go reread that when I have spare time

As far as I know in BFG Tyranids used Warp Travel like everyone bar Necrons, being protected by the Shadow in the Warp. It was retconned in the 5th Edition Codex I think.

Exergy wrote:Still the Narvhals have stop before the ships enter the system, meaning that even though they travel FTL, it still takes them decades to go from start to star.

True, it's a definite weakness.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:

Spetulhu wrote:
Two chimpanzees with sharp sticks, probably. Nothing as stupid as the tyranids could ever have survived, much less managed to get anywhere. Living ships is a stupid idea - the radiation in space is not funny, it's why we still think a trip to Mars is too dangerous. The poor things are dead before reaching the edge of their original solar system. Soldiers with weapons grafted on and no way of refilling energy? What a waste. And ofc, having exoskeletons and bug-like bodies in general at that size means they can't do anything on a planet except lie down and wait to asphyxiate if they didnt die from the crushing force of real gravity.

Once they meet intelligent opposition (said chimps) they'll quickly fold.

It's a shame this comment was ignored.

It's a dumb comment. Someone doesn't believe in evolution/ adaptability.

Oh I wasnt saying there wouldnt be a fight involed, and perfectly aware during their hibernation that they do have clouds of Spores surrounding the fleet.

It is that every major Victory against Nids has been won in space. So the best thing is to get them when theu are most vulnerable, which would be lighting strikes to try and kill the hive queens before they reach system. While this isnt a garenteed thing in itself and the tatic will get harder as the years go on

123ply wrote:

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:

Spetulhu wrote:
Two chimpanzees with sharp sticks, probably. Nothing as stupid as the tyranids could ever have survived, much less managed to get anywhere. Living ships is a stupid idea - the radiation in space is not funny, it's why we still think a trip to Mars is too dangerous. The poor things are dead before reaching the edge of their original solar system. Soldiers with weapons grafted on and no way of refilling energy? What a waste. And ofc, having exoskeletons and bug-like bodies in general at that size means they can't do anything on a planet except lie down and wait to asphyxiate if they didnt die from the crushing force of real gravity.

Once they meet intelligent opposition (said chimps) they'll quickly fold.

It's a shame this comment was ignored.

It's a dumb comment. Someone doesn't believe in evolution/ adaptability.

While I agree with you regarding evolution/ adaptability, I'm prone to siding emotionally with the OP just due to the uninteresting and unoriginal nature of the fluff. I mean, GW rips off Dan O’Bannon and later decides to make them like the Borg collective so they can travel through space. Every other faction is so much cooler and original than Tyranids. Orks are so different and original than what Orcs in LOTRs was, it ashamed they didn't name them something else. Eldar are the same, IMO. It sucks to think the doom of the Milky Way could be the most boring and unoriginal faction in 40k.

123ply wrote:

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:

Spetulhu wrote:
Two chimpanzees with sharp sticks, probably. Nothing as stupid as the tyranids could ever have survived, much less managed to get anywhere. Living ships is a stupid idea - the radiation in space is not funny, it's why we still think a trip to Mars is too dangerous. The poor things are dead before reaching the edge of their original solar system. Soldiers with weapons grafted on and no way of refilling energy? What a waste. And ofc, having exoskeletons and bug-like bodies in general at that size means they can't do anything on a planet except lie down and wait to asphyxiate if they didnt die from the crushing force of real gravity.

Once they meet intelligent opposition (said chimps) they'll quickly fold.

It's a shame this comment was ignored.

It's a dumb comment. Someone doesn't believe in evolution/ adaptability.

If evolution/adaptability magically fixed any problem or allowed animals to do anything (hint, it doesn't) the we would have larger insects than the goliath beetle, hell, we might even have actual tyrannids. While I would never suggest we try to apply the logic of the real world to 40k, when the OP does ask us to bring 40k into the real world, "What historical forces do you think could have defeated the Tyranid threat?" then the tyrannids are subject to the laws of physics and the realities of evolution.