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Just wanted an open discussion about all of the races lore wise, and which is the most powerful. Orks are meant to have massive numbers but due to infighting do not use them well, perhaps a powerful warboss could fix this. Tyranids seem one of the most powerful (in my rather biased opinion) as the few hive fleets that have been in the lore are supposedly a very small proportion of the actual tyranid population, and of course the imperium and chaos are both insanely powerful. So what do you guys think, anyone I have missed, who is the most powerful, and will any race ever achieve full supremacy?
I think, following the hyped fluff, Tyranids and Necrons in all of his glory are the most powerfull races.
The Imperium of Mankind is the third one. A unified Ork Race would probably be second after Tyranids.
Chaos Daemons are theoretically the most powerfull one but they have the very great problem of "living" in a different dimension and the fact they hate themselves as much as living beings. Chaos Space Marines and renegade chaos humans can't compete with the Imperium of Mankind, even less with how deorganized they are.
Tau are obviously the least powerfull one, with Craftworld Eldars and Dark Eldars being too one of the lest powerfull races/factions as a wholle (So, counting all Craftworlds as one faction etc...)
I unify the Imperium because even if they can fight between themselves like Orks, is very different. Orks have build into their fluff how they are nearly incapable of being unified, in the case of the Imperium they are organized.
Dakka does have White Knights and is also rather infamous for it's Black Knights. A new edition brings out the passionate and not all of them are good at expressing themselves in written form. There have been plenty of hysterical responses from both sides so far. So we descend into pointless bickering with neither side listening to each other. So posting here becomes more masturbation than conversation.
ERJAK wrote: Forcing a 40k player to keep playing 7th is basically a hate crime.
Formosa wrote: Are we talking completely unified, awoken etc.?
I was talking about as they are currently, although I think considering unification and other factors would be interesting. Do you think it would change anything?
Formosa wrote: Are we talking completely unified, awoken etc.?
I was talking about as they are currently, although I think considering unification and other factors would be interesting. Do you think it would change anything?
Yep it would absolutely, orks under a unified leader would be a true horror to behold, a completely awakened necron race would be unstoppable, even nids with their numbers couldn't stop them, the imperium is a bit of a difficult one though as even unified they still have the problem of getting everything where it's needed, eldar would be a nightmare of epic proportions as all eldar, harlequins and dark eldar together would have such a mobility advantage that again even nids would have to take pause.
But not of it compares to a unified chaos, all 4 gods with the same goal and power combined.... that's reality ending crap right there.
In fluff the ork race as a whole controls the most amount of planets and space in the galaxy. But they are hardly unified. If unified the fluff bluntly states theyd steamroll all opposition. Big if. The Imperium of man is the next up for territory or under control but is also identified as the largest unified and cohesive (loose terms considering it's plodding bureaucracy) force in the galaxy. Tyranids aren't here yet and still remains in the territory of theory but is currently on the list of end game powerhouses. Necrons are the last on this list of big players but I argue that their inclusion on this list since Newcron fluff has been artificially elevated in a sort of let it be so approach. Oldcrons were a unified force working towards the same end game goal. The idea of them all waking up was scary because the galaxy would suddenly face a unfixed galactic power rising up literally within their midst. Newcron, on the other hand, are like modern day human countries ununified, with all the same human internal bickering and politicking. Not only can the galaxy take breath of relief as they wait for Newcron to wake up but they can also kick back and relax while the Newcron fight amongst themselves until unified. But hey, they are on the list of end gamers. Maitaining the status quo should be chaos end game. As in they already won and must hold the title. Wiping out reality shouldn't be beneficial for chaos continued existence , keeping reality in perpetual turmoil that breed extreme emotions fits their plate.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/27 03:12:43
ProwlerPC wrote: In fluff the ork race as a whole controls the most amount of planets and space in the galaxy. But they are hardly unified. If unified the fluff bluntly states theyd steamroll all opposition. Big if. The Imperium of man is the next up for territory or under control but is also identified as the largest unified and cohesive (loose terms considering it's plodding bureaucracy) force in the galaxy. Tyranids aren't here yet and still remains in the territory of theory but is currently on the list of end game powerhouses. Necrons are the last on this list of big players but I argue that their inclusion on this list since Newcron fluff has been artificially elevated in a sort of let it be so approach. Oldcrons were a unified force working towards the same end game goal. The idea of them all waking up was scary because the galaxy would suddenly face a unfixed galactic power rising up literally within their midst. Newcron, on the other hand, are like modern day human countries ununified, with all the same human internal bickering and politicking. Not only can the galaxy take breath of relief as they wait for Newcron to wake up but they can also kick back and relax while the Newcron fight amongst themselves until unified. But hey, they are on the list of end gamers. Maitaining the status quo should be chaos end game. As in they already won and must hold the title. Wiping out reality shouldn't be beneficial for chaos continued existence , keeping reality in perpetual turmoil that breed extreme emotions fits their plate.
Wiping out reality means nothing to the chaos gods, they have an infinite number to feed off, 40k is just "our" one.
ProwlerPC wrote: In fluff the ork race as a whole controls the most amount of planets and space in the galaxy. But they are hardly unified. If unified the fluff bluntly states theyd steamroll all opposition. Big if. The Imperium of man is the next up for territory or under control but is also identified as the largest unified and cohesive (loose terms considering it's plodding bureaucracy) force in the galaxy. Tyranids aren't here yet and still remains in the territory of theory but is currently on the list of end game powerhouses. Necrons are the last on this list of big players but I argue that their inclusion on this list since Newcron fluff has been artificially elevated in a sort of let it be so approach. Oldcrons were a unified force working towards the same end game goal. The idea of them all waking up was scary because the galaxy would suddenly face a unfixed galactic power rising up literally within their midst. Newcron, on the other hand, are like modern day human countries ununified, with all the same human internal bickering and politicking. Not only can the galaxy take breath of relief as they wait for Newcron to wake up but they can also kick back and relax while the Newcron fight amongst themselves until unified. But hey, they are on the list of end gamers. Maitaining the status quo should be chaos end game. As in they already won and must hold the title. Wiping out reality shouldn't be beneficial for chaos continued existence , keeping reality in perpetual turmoil that breed extreme emotions fits their plate.
Wiping out reality means nothing to the chaos gods, they have an infinite number to feed off, 40k is just "our" one.
Do they though? Not necessarily saying it's unlikely, but with as far as I can tell no evidence either way it could well be, i don't know, 6 realities. Or 3 and a half. Or a billion, but 99% of them are filled with unfeeling unthinking robotic clones of Jeff Goldblum.
ProwlerPC wrote: In fluff the ork race as a whole controls the most amount of planets and space in the galaxy. But they are hardly unified. If unified the fluff bluntly states theyd steamroll all opposition. Big if. The Imperium of man is the next up for territory or under control but is also identified as the largest unified and cohesive (loose terms considering it's plodding bureaucracy) force in the galaxy. Tyranids aren't here yet and still remains in the territory of theory but is currently on the list of end game powerhouses. Necrons are the last on this list of big players but I argue that their inclusion on this list since Newcron fluff has been artificially elevated in a sort of let it be so approach. Oldcrons were a unified force working towards the same end game goal. The idea of them all waking up was scary because the galaxy would suddenly face a unfixed galactic power rising up literally within their midst. Newcron, on the other hand, are like modern day human countries ununified, with all the same human internal bickering and politicking. Not only can the galaxy take breath of relief as they wait for Newcron to wake up but they can also kick back and relax while the Newcron fight amongst themselves until unified. But hey, they are on the list of end gamers. Maitaining the status quo should be chaos end game. As in they already won and must hold the title. Wiping out reality shouldn't be beneficial for chaos continued existence , keeping reality in perpetual turmoil that breed extreme emotions fits their plate.
Wiping out reality means nothing to the chaos gods, they have an infinite number to feed off, 40k is just "our" one.
Do they though? Not necessarily saying it's unlikely, but with as far as I can tell no evidence either way it could well be, i don't know, 6 realities. Or 3 and a half. Or a billion, but 99% of them are filled with unfeeling unthinking robotic clones of Jeff Goldblum.
Yeah they do, it's been established fluff for a few decades now, I'll dig out the quotes for you when I get on my laptop later if you want to read it, it's pretty good.
OK no problem. I'll just discreetly pull the I Win button away from chaos since they have more work to do. I normally separated fantasy and 40k but they would be an example of multiple realities in this regard. It can open up some interesting and some uncomfortable questions if GW chose to make it so but that's another topic. Chaos still remains firmly as a big player.
But not of it compares to a unified chaos, all 4 gods with the same goal and power combined.... that's reality ending crap right there.
Which goes against everything Chaos means. The universe is going to be a cold, dead and empty husk long before the 4 gods agree on something beyond weak compromises.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/27 16:56:39
Also if we were going with the fantasy fluff of all the universes were connected by the warp why are chaos space marines and hell drakes and mortarion not popping out into Fantasy and lighting people up with bolters?
These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
Necrons beat Nids in the long run. Nids can't consume them Necrons can scorched earth the galaxy if necessary to deny them biomass.
The Necrons aren't united, are still mostly sleeping and burning the galaxy is the equivalent of burning your house to kill an infestation. Sure it works, but then you don't have a house anymore.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/27 18:42:07
Lance845 wrote: Tyranids by sheer inevitability of their victory.
Necrons by technology.
IoM by size of controlled space.
Orks are below IOM because they dont have any actual chance of wide spread organization
Necrons beat Nids in the long run. Nids can't consume them Necrons can scorched earth the galaxy if necessary to deny them biomass.
Wrong. Nids consume and use all organic matter Which is any compound with carbon, But the digestion pools dissolve everything. It's not like a space marines armor can survive basking in a digestion pool or the feeder organisms (Haruspex) would avoid eating necron bodies. It all gets ate. It all gets melted down. And any organic compouds in the gruel are used. Would it be efficient to eat only the necrons? No. But if the nids keep winning then it's a net 0 at minimum and the Nids would regain their own biomass plus anything they managed to strip out of the crons themselves.
The crons would need to wipe all hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, etc etc... from the galaxy to actually starve the nids. Even if we took scorched earth literally and they burned all the worlds to ash that ash is still pretty scrumptious to the nids.
The Necrons don't just need to cut off their supply (good luck) they also have to beat back the nids to stop them from consuming their own dead and eliminate that matter as it's being produced.
Now.... do I think the crons could invent ways to do that? Yes. They already have some actually. But they have never deployed them in wide spread usage and so many of them are so insane that they are trapped into their logic of "honorable ways of war" that they would never see them them in wide spread usage. It's a numbers game. Nids always win the numbers game.
These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
I think the definition of "most powerful" needs to be more specific when this kind of question is asked.
The Necrons supposedly have technology that is simply impossible to rival in terms of firepower, although such weapons are locked away rather than used. The Eldar and Tau, on the other hand, have and use technology that is superior to most of the galaxy's major races, but there aren't enough of them to justify them being the most powerful in terms of staying power.
Tyranids and Orks have the greatest numbers, but then the Imperial Guard have a far greater staying power in terms of holding their ground than either of them.
Space Marines and the various elite divisions like the Deathwatch and Grey Knights are well known for surpassing any other type of warrior the other races have, but again their numbers are lacking in comparison.
Even the forces of Chaos, who can and have been quelled before, could be argued to be the most powerful simply because they're impossible to remove from the galaxy, and will always be back to wreak havoc across the Imperium.
You can also look at characters in the lore describing the other races in terms of power. Sergeant Tarkus of the Blood Ravens said in DOW2 that the Necrons were the most dangerous enemy he's faced in combat, but that the Tyranids are the greatest threat to the galaxy.
So yeah, really depends on how you define "most powerful"; I don't think there's a right or wrong answer to a question that broad.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/02/27 19:09:47
To be fair the Necrons DO use some of their unrivaled technology. Flame Gauntlets are portals to the inside of stars. Tachyon Arrows are essentially the Necron version of a derringer and it can level mountains. Deathmarks sit outside of known reality and watch events unfold in 4 dimensions choosing when and where to step into reality and strike.
Necron tech is so astronomically powerful they perform literal miracles of science every day.
These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
Lance845 wrote: Tyranids by sheer inevitability of their victory.
Necrons by technology.
IoM by size of controlled space.
Orks are below IOM because they dont have any actual chance of wide spread organization
Necrons beat Nids in the long run. Nids can't consume them Necrons can scorched earth the galaxy if necessary to deny them biomass.
Wrong. Nids consume and use all organic matter Which is any compound with carbon, But the digestion pools dissolve everything. It's not like a space marines armor can survive basking in a digestion pool or the feeder organisms (Haruspex) would avoid eating necron bodies. It all gets ate. It all gets melted down. And any organic compouds in the gruel are used. Would it be efficient to eat only the necrons? No. But if the nids keep winning then it's a net 0 at minimum and the Nids would regain their own biomass plus anything they managed to strip out of the crons themselves.
The crons would need to wipe all hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, etc etc... from the galaxy to actually starve the nids. Even if we took scorched earth literally and they burned all the worlds to ash that ash is still pretty scrumptious to the nids.
The Necrons don't just need to cut off their supply (good luck) they also have to beat back the nids to stop them from consuming their own dead and eliminate that matter as it's being produced.
Now.... do I think the crons could invent ways to do that? Yes. They already have some actually. But they have never deployed them in wide spread usage and so many of them are so insane that they are trapped into their logic of "honorable ways of war" that they would never see them them in wide spread usage. It's a numbers game. Nids always win the numbers game.
Thats not how the fluff has been represented. Has been demostrated by the Imperium that scorching planets is an effective way to starve Tyranid Hive Fleets, and making them go where you want them to go. If the Imperium with their inferior science can do it, Necrons can.
And remember that basic Gauss weapons destroy matter. Theres no body to eat again and regain that biomass after a necron gauss weapon has vaporized a Tyranid Gaunt, for example.
I actually believe Necrons are the only possible faction that could stand agaisnt Tyranids, if all of them where awoken. I think a flat out war of Chaos vs Tyranids, Tyranids would win with ease.
Dakka does have White Knights and is also rather infamous for it's Black Knights. A new edition brings out the passionate and not all of them are good at expressing themselves in written form. There have been plenty of hysterical responses from both sides so far. So we descend into pointless bickering with neither side listening to each other. So posting here becomes more masturbation than conversation.
ERJAK wrote: Forcing a 40k player to keep playing 7th is basically a hate crime.
Lance845 wrote: Tyranids by sheer inevitability of their victory.
Necrons by technology.
IoM by size of controlled space.
Orks are below IOM because they dont have any actual chance of wide spread organization
Necrons beat Nids in the long run. Nids can't consume them Necrons can scorched earth the galaxy if necessary to deny them biomass.
Wrong. Nids consume and use all organic matter Which is any compound with carbon, But the digestion pools dissolve everything. It's not like a space marines armor can survive basking in a digestion pool or the feeder organisms (Haruspex) would avoid eating necron bodies. It all gets ate. It all gets melted down. And any organic compouds in the gruel are used. Would it be efficient to eat only the necrons? No. But if the nids keep winning then it's a net 0 at minimum and the Nids would regain their own biomass plus anything they managed to strip out of the crons themselves.
The crons would need to wipe all hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, etc etc... from the galaxy to actually starve the nids. Even if we took scorched earth literally and they burned all the worlds to ash that ash is still pretty scrumptious to the nids.
The Necrons don't just need to cut off their supply (good luck) they also have to beat back the nids to stop them from consuming their own dead and eliminate that matter as it's being produced.
Now.... do I think the crons could invent ways to do that? Yes. They already have some actually. But they have never deployed them in wide spread usage and so many of them are so insane that they are trapped into their logic of "honorable ways of war" that they would never see them them in wide spread usage. It's a numbers game. Nids always win the numbers game.
We can agree to disagree. There's some serious chemistry problems with how you describe the Nids, but it's GW, so go figure.
Tyranids could also be beaten by anyone who fielded true Starship Troopers, complete with Y racks. That's getting up to 1,000,000 to 1 kill ratios, at which point the Tyranid numbers are meaningless. But no one wants to play games against Y-rack starship troopers. Turn 1, your army dies from 2 km away. Fluff arguments like this always boil down to the races with technology being stupid. Especially the Imperium.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/27 19:51:44
Lance845 wrote: Tyranids by sheer inevitability of their victory.
Necrons by technology.
IoM by size of controlled space.
Orks are below IOM because they dont have any actual chance of wide spread organization
Necrons beat Nids in the long run. Nids can't consume them Necrons can scorched earth the galaxy if necessary to deny them biomass.
Wrong. Nids consume and use all organic matter Which is any compound with carbon, But the digestion pools dissolve everything. It's not like a space marines armor can survive basking in a digestion pool or the feeder organisms (Haruspex) would avoid eating necron bodies. It all gets ate. It all gets melted down. And any organic compouds in the gruel are used. Would it be efficient to eat only the necrons? No. But if the nids keep winning then it's a net 0 at minimum and the Nids would regain their own biomass plus anything they managed to strip out of the crons themselves.
The crons would need to wipe all hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, etc etc... from the galaxy to actually starve the nids. Even if we took scorched earth literally and they burned all the worlds to ash that ash is still pretty scrumptious to the nids.
The Necrons don't just need to cut off their supply (good luck) they also have to beat back the nids to stop them from consuming their own dead and eliminate that matter as it's being produced.
Now.... do I think the crons could invent ways to do that? Yes. They already have some actually. But they have never deployed them in wide spread usage and so many of them are so insane that they are trapped into their logic of "honorable ways of war" that they would never see them them in wide spread usage. It's a numbers game. Nids always win the numbers game.
Thats not how the fluff has been represented. Has been demostrated by the Imperium that scorching planets is an effective way to starve Tyranid Hive Fleets, and making them go where you want them to go. If the Imperium with their inferior science can do it, Necrons can.
And remember that basic Gauss weapons destroy matter. Theres no body to eat again and regain that biomass after a necron gauss weapon has vaporized a Tyranid Gaunt, for example.
I actually believe Necrons are the only possible faction that could stand agaisnt Tyranids, if all of them where awoken. I think a flat out war of Chaos vs Tyranids, Tyranids would win with ease.
They used Exterminatus to divert the nids to more favorable planets. That doesn't mean those planet didn't still have things the nids could consume. IoM has many methods of Exterminatus, including planet crackers that actually destroy the world itself.
Basic Gauss weapons don't destroy matter. It breaks it down into it's basic atoms. Acording to the fluff the nids strip planets of every drop of water, every molecule of gas. Every usable scrap of organic mater. They don't need rippers to eat a body to regain the matter to produce more nids.
We can agree to disagree. There's some serious chemistry problems with how you describe the Nids, but it's GW, so go figure.
Tyranids could also be beaten by anyone who fielded true Starship Troopers, complete with Y racks. That's getting up to 1,000,000 to 1 kill ratios, at which point the Tyranid numbers are meaningless. But no one wants to play games against Y-rack starship troopers. Turn 1, your army dies from 2 km away. Fluff arguments like this always boil down to the races with technology being stupid. Especially the Imperium.
Agree there are major chemistry probems. Agree that GW fluff is real dumb.
Yup. When every race in the game has an infinite supply of planet destroying weapons what are you even arguing about? The one thing I would say about nids is that they are their own planet destroying weapons.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/27 20:19:43
These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
Lance845 wrote: To be fair the Necrons DO use some of their unrivaled technology. Flame Gauntlets are portals to the inside of stars. Tachyon Arrows are essentially the Necron version of a derringer and it can level mountains. Deathmarks sit outside of known reality and watch events unfold in 4 dimensions choosing when and where to step into reality and strike.
Necron tech is so astronomically powerful they perform literal miracles of science every day.
This is true, they do use a portion of the vastly superior technology that they have created on their foes (the Tesseract Labyrinth of one of favourites in that regard). But it is also likely that far more powerful technology is locked away by various Crypteks; I reckon this combined with the Great Sleep not being completely finished would be reason to say that the Necrons are not the most credible threat to the galaxy, but that they're one of the most, if not the most, dangerous races to face on the battlefield.
Ultimately like I said previously, it depends on what answer you want to the question of "who is the most powerful" to get an answer to that.
Whichever race the developers are writing about at the time.
-Loki- wrote:
40k is about slamming two slegdehammers together and hoping the other breaks first. Malifaux is about fighting with scalpels trying to hit select areas and hoping you connect more.
Hm... this is a tough one. Orks have remained the strongest the longest. They where around winning before the necrons went to sleep and they’re around wining now.
Tyranids are a kind of untested powerhouse since lore wise they’ve only been in the Milky Way for some 300years-ish. Any talk about the tyranids must eventually lead to speculations about how big the race actually is.
If I remember things correctly the necrons where losing the war against the elders, old ones and orks when they went to take their little nap. Since they lost the war vs pre craft world eldar and orks I’m assuming they’re not as powerfull as can be fantasised.
Chaos doesn’t make much sense. Its goals are more controlled by the desires of specific individuals rather then the faction as a whole.
I think it’s easy to at least say that all eldar factions and the tak are the weakest.
Mankind as a species has been dominant in the galaxy for about 3.5X as long as the imperium has been around, depending on the source. The Imperium isn’t a very efficient state but it is a very impressive machine of war. Theese guys have been in a constant state of war for as long as the Imperium has existed, and they’re pretty good at it.
In my biased opinion the Imperium wins at being currently the most powerfull faction. The reason for this is because the Imperium is taking on every other faction at once and is still standing. Second I would put the tyranids due to their many recent victories. Then comes the necrons, though I’ve not read off many conflicts they’ve participated in. After that comes the orks for obvious reasons. I’d put chaos after the orks due to it not playing by the same rules as the others. Bear in mind that I’m very well aware of how the badly the Imperium is currently being beaten. I’m thinking that it’s losing heavily but still taking everyone on and might very well end up on top in the end. Even with necron science and tyranids multiplications the imperium has won great wars against them in the past. Destroying the necron world engine, wrecking many tomb worlds and beating both hive fleet Behemoth and Kraken in the first and second tyrannic wars.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/02/27 21:21:16
His pattern of returning alive after being declared dead occurred often enough during Cain's career that the Munitorum made a special ruling that Ciaphas Cain is to never be considered dead, despite evidence to the contrary.
But not of it compares to a unified chaos, all 4 gods with the same goal and power combined.... that's reality ending crap right there.
Which goes against everything Chaos means. The universe is going to be a cold, dead and empty husk long before the 4 gods agree on something beyond weak compromises.
All it takes is for one of them to win, then it becomes the other 3, all 4 combined would be a super chaos god of Death, war, excess and change "Tzeen'Khor'Slaa'Urgle"
Not gonna happen, but thats why I asked if it was united forces.
Lance845 wrote: Tyranids by sheer inevitability of their victory.
Necrons by technology.
IoM by size of controlled space.
Orks are below IOM because they dont have any actual chance of wide spread organization
Necrons beat Nids in the long run. Nids can't consume them Necrons can scorched earth the galaxy if necessary to deny them biomass.
Wrong. Nids consume and use all organic matter Which is any compound with carbon, But the digestion pools dissolve everything. It's not like a space marines armor can survive basking in a digestion pool or the feeder organisms (Haruspex) would avoid eating necron bodies. It all gets ate. It all gets melted down. And any organic compouds in the gruel are used. Would it be efficient to eat only the necrons? No. But if the nids keep winning then it's a net 0 at minimum and the Nids would regain their own biomass plus anything they managed to strip out of the crons themselves.
The crons would need to wipe all hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, etc etc... from the galaxy to actually starve the nids. Even if we took scorched earth literally and they burned all the worlds to ash that ash is still pretty scrumptious to the nids.
The Necrons don't just need to cut off their supply (good luck) they also have to beat back the nids to stop them from consuming their own dead and eliminate that matter as it's being produced.
Now.... do I think the crons could invent ways to do that? Yes. They already have some actually. But they have never deployed them in wide spread usage and so many of them are so insane that they are trapped into their logic of "honorable ways of war" that they would never see them them in wide spread usage. It's a numbers game. Nids always win the numbers game.
Necron bodies are either teleported back to base or vaporize upon death, so no, the Tyranids wouldn't be able to eat that. Organic matter also isn't just any compound with carbon. Carbon Dioxide isn't an organic compound, just for an example. The Necrons' gauss weaponry would be pretty ideal facing Tyranids, literally vaporizing the bodies atom by atom and depriving the Tyranids of their own bodies. Even if the Tyranids did recover some of their own dead, the energy they'd expend in doing so, consuming them, returning to the digestive pits and rebirthing them would be quite a bit more than they'd recover.
Solar-powered_chainsword wrote: Even if the Tyranids did recover some of their own dead, the energy they'd expend in doing so, consuming them, returning to the digestive pits and rebirthing them would be quite a bit more than they'd recover.
Tyranids don't rely on biomass for energy - because they literally cannot, given what they do, going from star system to star system, landing and then pumping biomass to geostationary orbit. There just isn't enough energy stored in even the most energy dense biomass (fat). Presumably they get free energy from the warp.