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This question has been bothering me for so long that I actually went out and bought Shield of Baal: Leviathan just to look up the lore on Aeros. Now that I finally have it let's discuss.

p.88
"Dhrost's metadossiers detailed several incidents of bio-fleets assailing Imperial gas giants. Each time they left nothing but a smattering of barren debris in their wake. The Tyranid race would devour anything, not just flesh and bone, in its constant quest to multiply and consume."

Is this saying Tyranids have consumed multiple Gas Giants? So it's pretty much official that Tyranids nom Gas Giants? Or am I misinterpreting this?

Rest of the stuff on Aeros is talking about the actual battle, and at the end of this supplement it says Aeros transformed into a planet-sized miasma of poison filled to the brim with spores, both microscopic to enormous.

We know Tyranids consume the atmosphere of regular planets, it makes sense they could siphon off gas giants if they so chose.

roboemperor wrote:This question has been bothering me for so long that I actually went out and bought Shield of Baal: Leviathan just to look up the lore on Aeros. Now that I finally have it let's discuss.

p.88
"Dhrost's metadossiers detailed several incidents of bio-fleets assailing Imperial gas giants. Each time they left nothing but a smattering of barren debris in their wake. The Tyranid race would devour anything, not just flesh and bone, in its constant quest to multiply and consume."

Is this saying Tyranids have consumed multiple Gas Giants? So it's pretty much official that Tyranids nom Gas Giants? Or am I misinterpreting this?

Rest of the stuff on Aeros is talking about the actual battle, and at the end of this supplement it says Aeros transformed into a planet-sized miasma of poison filled to the brim with spores, both microscopic to enormous.

NinthMusketeer wrote:We know Tyranids consume the atmosphere of regular planets, it makes sense they could siphon off gas giants if they so chose.

It technically makes more sense to consume gas giants than biomass, because all the C, O, H, N you need is in higher quantities in the giants than the thin smear of life on rocks.

The only reason tyranids would ever need to consume life forms is the harvesting of new genomes to further the evolution of the swarm.


you could have some fun with swarms that lost their norn queens, stuck in the last bioforms they were spawned with, just instinctively consuming gas planets forever like benign browsing animals. With no drive to consume new genes, they would only consume what they needed to keep living.

The concept seems rather suspect. If nids could eat Gas Giants, why the heck do they eat anything else? Gas Giants have far more mass to consume than any solid planet. Mass that would be far easier to access than breaking down actual animals.

 alextroy wrote:
The concept seems rather suspect. If nids could eat Gas Giants, why the heck do they eat anything else? Gas Giants have far more mass to consume than any solid planet. Mass that would be far easier to access than breaking down actual animals.

Possibly the same reason humans need to eat more than just a quantity of calories. Maybe a Hive Fleet that eats only gas giants would get space-scurvy.

 alextroy wrote:
The concept seems rather suspect. If nids could eat Gas Giants, why the heck do they eat anything else? Gas Giants have far more mass to consume than any solid planet. Mass that would be far easier to access than breaking down actual animals.

As i stated above, they eat lifeforms to extract their genes and evolve their species. Tyranids are a space faring eugenics ecosystem. They don't 'invent' new genes, they just recombine existing ones and augment themselves with ones they find.

If they evolved due to their surroundings, then they'd generate mutations and those would be selected by surviving the environment and propagating in the next generation. Instead the norn queens recombine genes and spawn new bioforms based on their conscious exposure to new environments and the deaths they cause and they do this in realtime rather than the generations evolution normally occurs over.

 alextroy wrote:
The concept seems rather suspect. If nids could eat Gas Giants, why the heck do they eat anything else? Gas Giants have far more mass to consume than any solid planet. Mass that would be far easier to access than breaking down actual animals.

They could easily use the various elements to power, pressurize their ships or do space magic to make the ships go. They have ships enough to blot out the sky, so no real end to what they'd need various atmospheric gases for.

Giving a swarm of locusts gestalt sentience and genetic editing still doesn't teach it the merits of sustainable farming. Which is to say looking at is as 'why don't the Tyranids just do X' is somewhat missing the point; viewed from a rational free-thinking standpoint the whole idea of devouring planets is nonsensical in the first place. But we have no real indication, and many to the contrary, that Tyranids operate on that level of thought at all.

So the quote I put in the 1st post, it's undeniably saying that the Tyranids completely nommed multiple Imperial Gas Giants? For sure?

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Giving a swarm of locusts gestalt sentience and genetic editing still doesn't teach it the merits of sustainable farming. Which is to say looking at is as 'why don't the Tyranids just do X' is somewhat missing the point; viewed from a rational free-thinking standpoint the whole idea of devouring planets is nonsensical in the first place. But we have no real indication, and many to the contrary, that Tyranids operate on that level of thought at all.

There is no point in "farming". Farming is the act of turning indigestible things like grass, soil, and sunlight into something digestible like vegetables and beef. But since Tyranids are able to consume grass, soil, and even metals and rocks directly, they don't need to farm anything.

Tyranids are more than just feeders.


Tyranids are not just grazing through the Galaxy, they are clearly making specific inroads and invading. They attack planets and strip them of life and resources not just to fuel their own hives, but also to deny those worlds to any opposing faction. Just look at how their Hive Fleets make specific strikes, often aiming for home worlds of Space Marine chapters with the biggest.

Tyranids are clearly conduction not just a harvesting of resources, but a war of resource denial. Every Hive Fleet that strikes and devours multiple worlds denies that world to the Imperium, Eldar and almost any other faction. Sure you can reconlonise some of those worlds and get at what minerals are perhaps left. After intensive resources are spent burning off any last vestiges of remaining Tyranid organisms; then building huge habitats and also shipping vast amounts of air to keep those habitats alive. You could even terraform; but again you've got to transport vast resources to the world to allow it to happen



And if you're doing all that to just get one world back online it means all those resources aren't going into other ventures like building more tanks to combat the swarm.






Tyranids do more than just feed; the intelligence behind them is alien and has objectives that we've never understood (because most of our understanding is based on observation guesswork by Imperial studies)

If they can do it in Space Balls they can do it in 40k.

Why not just consumer Gas Giants?

Well, perhaps we can reasonably infer that’s their main goal. They’re excellent sources of raw materials, yes?

But, when something of that mass suddenly no longer exists, it’d likely cause havoc in solar systems due to missing mass and the affect upon orbits.

Maybe in their home Galaxy, they first started to develop weapon beasts as a defence against those that would attack them, in an effort to spare the local Gas Giants.

From there, the tactic was developed to consumer intelligent life first, allowing them to eat the Gas Giants in peace?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Why not just consumer Gas Giants?

I've long held the view that Tyranids are likely coming in several waves. What we have right now is either the tendrils of exploratory invasion fleets or the bulk of the invasion (which doesn't mean the bulk of Tyranids, there might be many more attacking other galaxies). The idea being that this wave sweeps through destroying other life. Consuming it to gain their generic adaptations, but at the same time also pacifying the Galaxy so that its "cleansed" of any threat. Following that the Tyrainds would have no opposition able to threaten or stop them. At which point you can bring in big feeding ships. Ships designed purely to feed on all the galaxy has to offer. Suns, nebual, gas giants, asteroids, planets. Consume it all when they don't have to then waste energy and materials building armies. Just feed and feed and then once it is all gone they can move on to the next galaxy. Heck it might well be that the attacking fleets will leave early to ready the next for the approaching swarm.

It would be a neat twist if Tyranids had underestimated the Milky Way and were taking longer to pacify and suddenly their feeding fleets arrive. Essential to their survival, but less well defended and not built for war. Fleets that the Imperium and other forces, could strike against and cause real harm to the Hive.

I accept your Head Canon and will gladly buy a subscription!

roboemperor wrote:
So the quote I put in the 1st post, it's undeniably saying that the Tyranids completely nommed multiple Imperial Gas Giants? For sure?

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Giving a swarm of locusts gestalt sentience and genetic editing still doesn't teach it the merits of sustainable farming. Which is to say looking at is as 'why don't the Tyranids just do X' is somewhat missing the point; viewed from a rational free-thinking standpoint the whole idea of devouring planets is nonsensical in the first place. But we have no real indication, and many to the contrary, that Tyranids operate on that level of thought at all.

There is no point in "farming". Farming is the act of turning indigestible things like grass, soil, and sunlight into something digestible like vegetables and beef. But since Tyranids are able to consume grass, soil, and even metals and rocks directly, they don't need to farm anything.

That... isn't what farming is. Farming is about making your food supply local, and as efficient and predictable as possible, rather than ranging over miles and miles foraging and gathering (and hoping food will be out there). Foraging has a very high energy cost, and a low return. Farming is also, very importantly, repeatable. And with time, experience and technology, you can get significantly better at the return of your time and energy investment.

Long term, the tyranid 'food' strategy means death. Even the worst farming techniques (that strip the soil of nutrients) allow people to return decades later. Tyranids have no such recourse.

 Overread wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Why not just consumer Gas Giants?

I've long held the view that Tyranids are likely coming in several waves. What we have right now is either the tendrils of exploratory invasion fleets or the bulk of the invasion (which doesn't mean the bulk of Tyranids, there might be many more attacking other galaxies). The idea being that this wave sweeps through destroying other life. Consuming it to gain their generic adaptations, but at the same time also pacifying the Galaxy so that its "cleansed" of any threat. Following that the Tyrainds would have no opposition able to threaten or stop them. At which point you can bring in big feeding ships. Ships designed purely to feed on all the galaxy has to offer. Suns, nebual, gas giants, asteroids, planets. Consume it all when they don't have to then waste energy and materials building armies. Just feed and feed and then once it is all gone they can move on to the next galaxy. Heck it might well be that the attacking fleets will leave early to ready the next for the approaching swarm.

It would be a neat twist if Tyranids had underestimated the Milky Way and were taking longer to pacify and suddenly their feeding fleets arrive. Essential to their survival, but less well defended and not built for war. Fleets that the Imperium and other forces, could strike against and cause real harm to the Hive.

I like that a lot. It makes a lot of sense too considering that the situation in the Milky Way is weird when you look at it as a whole. Soooooo much war.

Voss wrote:
That... isn't what farming is. Farming is about making your food supply local, and as efficient and predictable as possible, rather than ranging over miles and miles foraging and gathering (and hoping food will be out there). Foraging has a very high energy cost, and a low return. Farming is also, very importantly, repeatable. And with time, experience and technology, you can get significantly better at the return of your time and energy investment.

Long term, the tyranid 'food' strategy means death. Even the worst farming techniques (that strip the soil of nutrients) allow people to return decades later. Tyranids have no such recourse.

And with more technology you can turn the very soil the crops grow on and the very air livestock breath into food directly without engaging in farming. Which means there's no point in wasting time and energy growing crops.

You seem to think that farming is indefinite and infinite. It's not. It's actually quite an inefficient cycle wasting way too much energy in each iteration and the cycle continues solely by receiving more energy from the sun. In the end, the whole "farming" system is just recycling matter on earth to turn sunlight into kinetic energy like a really inefficient solar panel.

Tyranids have the right of it. Turn everything into more Tyranid flesh. Because to them eating Tyranid flesh is more efficient than eating soil, or using sunlight to grow crops on the soil and then eating the crops. And they will only starve when the stars die out too because Tyranids should be capable of creating super efficient lifeforms that can subsist solely off of sunlight being the impossible bio-tech species they are.

Voss wrote:

roboemperor wrote:
So the quote I put in the 1st post, it's undeniably saying that the Tyranids completely nommed multiple Imperial Gas Giants? For sure?

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Giving a swarm of locusts gestalt sentience and genetic editing still doesn't teach it the merits of sustainable farming. Which is to say looking at is as 'why don't the Tyranids just do X' is somewhat missing the point; viewed from a rational free-thinking standpoint the whole idea of devouring planets is nonsensical in the first place. But we have no real indication, and many to the contrary, that Tyranids operate on that level of thought at all.

There is no point in "farming". Farming is the act of turning indigestible things like grass, soil, and sunlight into something digestible like vegetables and beef. But since Tyranids are able to consume grass, soil, and even metals and rocks directly, they don't need to farm anything.

That... isn't what farming is. Farming is about making your food supply local, and as efficient and predictable as possible, rather than ranging over miles and miles foraging and gathering (and hoping food will be out there). Foraging has a very high energy cost, and a low return. Farming is also, very importantly, repeatable. And with time, experience and technology, you can get significantly better at the return of your time and energy investment.

Long term, the tyranid 'food' strategy means death. Even the worst farming techniques (that strip the soil of nutrients) allow people to return decades later. Tyranids have no such recourse.

If they weren’t extra galactic, I’d agree with you.

But, with Tyranids we know beyond shadow of a doubt they can comfortably cross the vast distances between galaxies. So total consumption is not in itself a death sentence for the Hive Mind.

Rather, it can possibly and crudely be compared to us driving from town to town, clearing out buffets as we go. To many species, we can cross ridiculous distances in search of food, even just on foot, so it matters less to us whether we scoff everything in a limited area, as we can simply move on to the next.

Tyranids are akin to conducting slash and burn strategies for food harvesting. Just on a universal scale. If the universe if inifinte and they can cross the gulf between galaxies then it doesn't matter if they eat mostly if not totally everything - there's another galaxy out there for them.

roboemperor wrote:

Voss wrote:
That... isn't what farming is. Farming is about making your food supply local, and as efficient and predictable as possible, rather than ranging over miles and miles foraging and gathering (and hoping food will be out there). Foraging has a very high energy cost, and a low return. Farming is also, very importantly, repeatable. And with time, experience and technology, you can get significantly better at the return of your time and energy investment.

Long term, the tyranid 'food' strategy means death. Even the worst farming techniques (that strip the soil of nutrients) allow people to return decades later. Tyranids have no such recourse.

And with more technology you can turn the very soil the crops grow on and the very air livestock breath into food directly without engaging in farming. Which means there's no point in wasting time and energy growing crops.

You seem to think that farming is indefinite and infinite. It's not. It's actually quite an inefficient cycle wasting way too much energy in each iteration and the cycle continues solely by receiving more energy from the sun. In the end, the whole "farming" system is just recycling matter on earth to turn sunlight into kinetic energy like a really inefficient solar panel.

Yeah, magic fantasy 'science' nonsense doesn't enter into it. Neither does infinity. At some point the suspension of disbelief gets kicked in the head 'til its dead.

The point is, the tyranid pattern is a destructive foraging pattern. They'd be a lot more effective with 'nest' systems and a farming pattern supplemented by 'hunting', and it would be far more narratively interesting if they actually had a stake in the galaxy rather than just an unstoppable, unending wave of nonsense.

Tyranids have the right of it. Turn everything into more Tyranid flesh. Because to them eating Tyranid flesh is more efficient than eating soil, or using sunlight to grow crops on the soil and then eating the crops. And they will only starve when the stars die out too because Tyranids should be capable of creating super efficient lifeforms that can subsist solely off of sunlight being the impossible bio-tech species they are.

Except, of course, they don't do that. They go into stasis on at least the extra-galactic trips. I'm not particularly sure there's much to suggest they eat each other, or that they're 'eating' soil and rocks rather than using it for ship resources.

Voss wrote:
They'd be a lot more effective with 'nest' systems and a farming pattern supplemented by 'hunting', and it would be far more narratively interesting if they actually had a stake in the galaxy rather than just an unstoppable, unending wave of nonsense.

The hunting model doesn't work here because unlike humans, Tyranids can eat everything. Us Humans gotta make sure we don't hunt things to extinction because if the things we eat go extinct, we die of starvation, and the grass and other stuff our prey ate become the sole survivors.

I don't think using any living creature model is a good idea with Tyranids. I like to thing of them as machines except with organics. Like if we had a killer robot species, they'd turn 100% of matter into space constructs be it space stations, battleships, etc. and just move on to planet to planet until 100% of matter is part of their ring worlds or dyson spheres. Tyranids are the same. They turn as much matter into Tyranid flesh. Not 100% because they can't eat bedrock for some reason.

So imo, farming, hunting, foraging, etc. models don't work with Tyranids because those models require indigestible things made digestible through a "middle species".

roboemperor wrote:

Voss wrote:
They'd be a lot more effective with 'nest' systems and a farming pattern supplemented by 'hunting', and it would be far more narratively interesting if they actually had a stake in the galaxy rather than just an unstoppable, unending wave of nonsense.

The hunting model doesn't work here because unlike humans, Tyranids can eat everything. Us Humans gotta make sure we don't hunt things to extinction because if the things we eat go extinct, we die of starvation, and the grass and other stuff our prey ate become the sole survivors.

I don't think using any living creature model is a good idea with Tyranids. I like to thing of them as machines except with organics. Like if we had a killer robot species, they'd turn 100% of matter into space constructs be it space stations, battleships, etc. and just move on to planet to planet until 100% of matter is part of their ring worlds or dyson spheres. Tyranids are the same. They turn as much matter into Tyranid flesh. Not 100% because they can't eat bedrock for some reason.

So imo, farming, hunting, foraging, etc. models don't work with Tyranids because those models require indigestible things made digestible through a "middle species".

Correction, the gargantuan moon-sized planet eaters that do eat bedrock and everything else just haven’t arrived yet. Leviathan is a Lictor, just wait for the galactic scale Haruapex

Voss wrote:
The point is, the tyranid pattern is a destructive foraging pattern. They'd be a lot more effective with 'nest' systems and a farming pattern supplemented by 'hunting', and it would be far more narratively interesting if they actually had a stake in the galaxy rather than just an unstoppable, unending wave of nonsense.

I disagree that they would be more interesting, I think they would be less interesting and the setting would be less for it. By being a massive alien force that does not care they fill an antagonist role in the 40k setting that is difficult to fill otherwise, and they do it with remarkably plausible motivations.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Overread wrote:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Why not just consumer Gas Giants?

I've long held the view that Tyranids are likely coming in several waves. What we have right now is either the tendrils of exploratory invasion fleets or the bulk of the invasion (which doesn't mean the bulk of Tyranids, there might be many more attacking other galaxies). The idea being that this wave sweeps through destroying other life. Consuming it to gain their generic adaptations, but at the same time also pacifying the Galaxy so that its "cleansed" of any threat. Following that the Tyrainds would have no opposition able to threaten or stop them. At which point you can bring in big feeding ships. Ships designed purely to feed on all the galaxy has to offer. Suns, nebual, gas giants, asteroids, planets. Consume it all when they don't have to then waste energy and materials building armies. Just feed and feed and then once it is all gone they can move on to the next galaxy. Heck it might well be that the attacking fleets will leave early to ready the next for the approaching swarm.

It would be a neat twist if Tyranids had underestimated the Milky Way and were taking longer to pacify and suddenly their feeding fleets arrive. Essential to their survival, but less well defended and not built for war. Fleets that the Imperium and other forces, could strike against and cause real harm to the Hive.

Interesting, also for how it would put a time frame on the Tyranids. The effects of such feeding would be visible to the Milky Way; gravitational changes altering orbits, dimming stars, etc. It takes a certain amount of time for the light from one galaxy to reach another and Tyranids have FTL, so it is possible but puts an exact timeframe on when any such consumption occurred.

Patriarch Phyrx wrote:
Correction, the gargantuan moon-sized planet eaters that do eat bedrock and everything else just haven’t arrived yet. Leviathan is a Lictor, just wait for the galactic scale Haruapex

Until GW makes this official I will be forever tormented for wanting it.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
I disagree that they would be more interesting, I think they would be less interesting and the setting would be less for it. By being a massive alien force that does not care they fill an antagonist role in the 40k setting that is difficult to fill otherwise, and they do it with remarkably plausible motivations.

I agree. Despite prefering robots over bugs, I can't stop myself from coming back to Tyranids over and over and over because of what they do, how they do it, and because they're the only ones in the setting doing it. Which is convert all matter and energy into Tyranid flesh, and using that flesh to create pure weaponized monsters and absolutely nothing else. So saying they should act like every other faction in the setting and just settle down and farm is something I heavily disagree with. If anything it would make them significantly more boring instead of interesting.
.
.

Not sure there are planet eating gribblies, as there’s evidence this isn’t the first time the Nids have eaten the Galaxy?

It’s said in the Cawl novel that some biological life survives, albeit on a microbial level. Given time, evolution will do its thing, and a new ecosystem will become established (albeit potentially radically different to what came before).

It could well be that eating the bedrock and core of planets is simply too much effort for the rewards they yield.

Look at scavenger creatures on land. Often, the bones will be cracked for the tasty marrow, but not otherwise consumed. So it may be with the Tyranids, with the effort of getting to the molten core all habitable planets presumably have simply being more than the nutritional gain from devouring them.

Especially when you can just consume a Gas Giant with far more ease.

Everything the Tyranids do is arguably driven by that pitiless calculation of reward vs cost. That's why I dislike that whole stuff about the Hive Mind having some sort of vendetta against the Blood Angels.

Lack of sufficient reward explains multiple Tyranid behaviors, such as why they avoid Necron tomb worlds on dead worlds. Tyranids can and have overwhelmed Necron tombs on worlds that have active biospheres, but they stay clear of dead worlds because there would be little return in both biomass and genetic material for the effort expended. Similarly, the Tyranids stop at bedrock because at some point the Hive Mind has concluded that beyond that point it would be more efficient to go look for a different target.

The Tyranids seem content to pick off the weak and vulnerable worlds because those offer most reward for the least effort. Though they may target highly defended worlds from time to time, such as Gryphonne IV, for every high value world a far higher number of no-name worlds are attacked and devoured. The Tyranids seem to accept losing the battle for a big world here and there while quietly winning 9 other lower profile worlds elsewhere. That is how the splinter fleets of Kraken regrew despite Kraken's defeat at Ichar IV.

As for why the Tyranids preferentially target life bearing worlds: The Tyranids have 2 needs.

1. Biomass
2. Genetic material

Life bearing worlds meet both needs, while inorganic sources of CHNOPS don't. The other reason life bearing worlds may be targeted and stripped bare is time. It may be quicker to strip a world that has biomass than making your own biomass from inorganic sources. If one could consume 10 worlds of biomass in the time to make the equivalent of 1 world's worth of biomass yourself from inorganic sources, then stripping bare would be favored.

It's the same reason why predation exists in the first place as opposed to all life synthesizing their own stuff like plants. When you eat another creature, you get far more organic material in an easily utilized format already whereas synthesizing it yourself is slow by comparison.

The Hive Mind may also make general exceptions when facing Necrons.

After all, even the most basic of Necron weapons leave nothing behind. Gauss literally disintegrates the target.

Tyranids can probably break down even living metal and Necrodermis to its constituent elements. But when the foe erase your weapon beasts from existence, and most of their fallen teleport away elsewhere (not always back to the world’s tomb complex, as it depends)? Risk is high, reward is low.

And as you noted? There’s no Necrontyr genetic material to harvest.

They can evolve plasma resistance carapace (Codex Tau, I think, where Fire Warriors adopted Kroot Rifles when the Hive Mind developed carapace resistant to Pulse weapons, which are plasma based). But Gauss? How do you stop a weapon where the base function is strip an object away, atom by atom?

You could pack in more atoms, but I’m fairly sure that leads to greater density, and thus weight. There has to be a tipping point between protectyness and actually being able to scuttle about freely, no?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
The Hive Mind may also make general exceptions when facing Necrons.

After all, even the most basic of Necron weapons leave nothing behind. Gauss literally disintegrates the target.

Tyranids can probably break down even living metal and Necrodermis to its constituent elements. But when the foe erase your weapon beasts from existence, and most of their fallen teleport away elsewhere (not always back to the world’s tomb complex, as it depends)? Risk is high, reward is low.

And as you noted? There’s no Necrontyr genetic material to harvest.

They can evolve plasma resistance carapace (Codex Tau, I think, where Fire Warriors adopted Kroot Rifles when the Hive Mind developed carapace resistant to Pulse weapons, which are plasma based). But Gauss? How do you stop a weapon where the base function is strip an object away, atom by atom?

You could pack in more atoms, but I’m fairly sure that leads to greater density, and thus weight. There has to be a tipping point between protectyness and actually being able to scuttle about freely, no?

Gauss weapons strip off layer by layer. That is why armor still has some protective effect in game terms. A single gauss weapon hit may strip off a bit of armor but doesn't get to anything vital. So thicker Tyranid carapaces could provide some degree of protection, but there is the trade-off of more resources needed per creature. Same thing goes for making Tyranids with warp fields as protection.

Note that even when the Tyranids evolved resistance to pulse weaponry in Hive Fleet Gorgon, it wasn't a total immunity. I see it as more of a grand scale resistance. So maybe 1 in 6 Termagants might need a 2nd pulse shot before it dies, but that means the total number of Termagant casualties in the warzone has been reduced by 16% (or the Tau have to expend 16% more pulse ammunition). That's the kind of resistance I see the Tyranids dealing with, rather than trying to make any species immune. I think that would again be the Hive Mind making a calculation of how much is "good enough" and then manufacturing that creature in enormous numbers.

Iracundus wrote:
Note that even when the Tyranids evolved resistance to pulse weaponry in Hive Fleet Gorgon, it wasn't a total immunity. I see it as more of a grand scale resistance. So maybe 1 in 6 Termagants might need a 2nd pulse shot before it days, but that means the total number of Termagant casualties in the warzone has been reduced by 16% (or the Tau have to expend 16% more pulse ammunition). That's the kind of resistance I see the Tyranids dealing with, rather than trying to make any species immune. I think that would again be the Hive Mind making a calculation of how much is "good enough" and then manufacturing that creature in enormous numbers.

20%, actually.

If you avoid 16% of casualties, then the Tau would need 20% more ammo. Same thing with a 6+ FNP providing 20% extra wounds.

Edit: Which is not to say the thrust of your argument is invalid! I'm just nitpicking details.

Fair points both.

Though when it comes to Gauss, my Head Canon has always been that it’s a continuous beam, rather than pulses of energy.

Now I’m not 100% sure where that comes from. It may be the original Necron background. It may be my mate and I doing Mars Attack noises when his Necrons shot up my Dark Angels! Could be something in between!