Deathwatch Overkill (Deathwatch vs Genestealer cult board game) - 40k rules, free download pg1

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Lance845 wrote:
Tyran wrote:
Lance845 wrote:
There is no such thing as "other hive fleets". That classification is strictly a invention of the imperium used to give name and form to the devourer.

All hive fleets are a part of the single Hive Mind. Within a hive fleet, planet to planet (each invasion), hive ship to hive ship coloration can vary greatly.

There is no such thing as what any tyranid bioform should look like or be colored. They adapt and change, or not, in each environment. Anything goes.

Yes there is, while you are right that all Hive Fleets are part of a greater whole, the Hive Mind, each Hive Fleet is genetically different from the others thanks to the millennium or more time apart spent traveling the universe and eating stuff. And part of this genetic difference is the colors that characterize and differentiate Hive Fleets.

Nope. The fluff specifically talks about how a hive fleet might change coloring on a specific planet. Or how a splinter fleet might break off and change. The genetic changes happen constantly with every organism bred. One hive fleet is no different from any other besides superficially. The hive mind might direct a fleet to act a certain way or evolve a certain way while another does something different. None of that is genetic. It used to be the norm Queens who directed these evolutions. But they are not in the current codex and supplements fluff. So as it stands from colors to tactics, everything is based on biomass and direction from the hive mind. They can all be any color at any time.

All this is true, but it's also true that Hive fleets that encounter each other will fight to the death for the biomass involved - which is not the behaviour of a race under the direction of a single mind. Imo it seems like each hive fleet has its own manifestation of the hive mind - it is possible that the HM wants hive fleets to fight as survival of the fittest, but that would still require it ceding control to things like Norn Queens, tyrants, etc, as otherwise the whole exercise would be akin to playing chess against yourself.