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40k isn't a setting about anyone winning, it is about what humanity ultimately becomes to avoid losing.

But more to the point, few factions would plausibly erase all others even if they 'won'. Chaos, in particular, could at best be completely sealed off but the Great Game would continue. But setting that aside Necrons would really be the only faction with both the ability and desire required to exterminate everything else. Nids eating everything organic would still leave a considerable amount of assets around from various factions.

Not to mention just about everyone outside of Chaos and Necrons would almost certainly miss pockets of factions displaced out of time. Nids could roll through the whole galaxy, eat everything, and leave, only for an inhabited world to pop out of a warp storm millenia later to go 'wtf?'

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
40k isn't a setting about anyone winning, it is about what humanity ultimately becomes to avoid losing.

But more to the point, few factions would plausibly erase all others even if they 'won'. Chaos, in particular, could at best be completely sealed off but the Great Game would continue. But setting that aside Necrons would really be the only faction with both the ability and desire required to exterminate everything else. Nids eating everything organic would still leave a considerable amount of assets around from various factions.

If they ate all organic matter it would basically just leave the Necrons and some Tau drones hovering around for a bit. And perhaps some Eldar constructs hiding in the Webway.

However we know from earlier codex that Tyranids also eat inorganic matter as well. Chances are once the Galaxy is pacified to a state where there are no viable threats any more, the Tyranids would shift to a different feeding strategy which slows down and gorges on everything the Galaxy has to offer. Because at that point they can take their time to feed and they can store it up; they don't have to burn it away fighting. If they cross the gulf of space between Galaxies, they likely need to gorge on a Galaxy to make the jump.

We don't even know how well they travel the gulf. It might be that they just shot-gun out from a Galaxy toward others in the vain hope that some will arrive at the next one and populate and consume it. Much like many insects we see on earth that rely on masses of offspring so that only a handful will survive.

Tyranid consumption of inorganic material has (to my knowledge) only ever been depicted as means to an end; innumerable organs and adaptations would require all sorts of inorganic micronutrients after all.

I would assume they'd clear out the Webway, since DElder have ensured the Hive Mind definitely knows it is there. Better question is what the few remaining thinking machines and men of iron would do XD

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
Tyranid consumption of inorganic material has (to my knowledge) only ever been depicted as means to an end; innumerable organs and adaptations would require all sorts of inorganic micronutrients after all.

True, but I'd argue that right now Tyranids are in a war situation not a consumption one.

Strip worlds of the most quickly consumed biomass, but leave many other big deposits (eg gas giants) as well as slower to digest material. Tyranids are in a fast feed and advance strategy which is clearly designed to give them quick ready armies to smash threats and to also deny worlds to their opponents by consuming the ready biomass and rendering the worlds basically uninhabitable.

Unless your a Necron or a Chaos Demon and they've already started building a planet sized structure that projects a vast Shadow in the Warp to drive demons back.


Tyranids have no reason to waste any resources once in a feeding state and once in a safe situation. Why leave inorganic biomatter if you can use it; why leave suns and gas giants - take it all.

As they have been portreyed so far the point is only to consume other life; giving soldier ants hyper adaptation doesn't make them recognize the merits of sustainable farming, after all!

Or put differently; stockpiling biomass is a means to an end. The goal is to eliminate all non-Tyranid life. Within such context, excess biomass beyond what is necessary to achieve that becomes wasteful.

Sustainable farming has its merits, but it also has its limits.

It simply doesn't fit the Tyranids' goals nor operational tempo nor scale.

And regarding those goals, the destruction of the Necrons are likely part of them. Biomass or not, Necrons are a threat to the Hive Fleets and Tyranids do not tolerate threats.

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
As they have been portreyed so far the point is only to consume other life; giving soldier ants hyper adaptation doesn't make them recognize the merits of sustainable farming, after all!

Or put differently; stockpiling biomass is a means to an end. The goal is to eliminate all non-Tyranid life. Within such context, excess biomass beyond what is necessary to achieve that becomes wasteful.

But ants do farm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant–fungus_mutualism#:~:text=The%20ant–fungus%20mutualism%20is,dependence%20on%20fungi%20for%20food.

nou wrote:

 NinthMusketeer wrote:
As they have been portreyed so far the point is only to consume other life; giving soldier ants hyper adaptation doesn't make them recognize the merits of sustainable farming, after all!

Or put differently; stockpiling biomass is a means to an end. The goal is to eliminate all non-Tyranid life. Within such context, excess biomass beyond what is necessary to achieve that becomes wasteful.

But ants do farm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant–fungus_mutualism#:~:text=The%20ant–fungus%20mutualism%20is,dependence%20on%20fungi%20for%20food.

Yup, some ants farm. They are outnumbered by those which do not, if push came to shove and they declared war on one another I know which side would have my bet

Honestly? Endless Tyranid warfare coming TO the Orkz, endless war to fuel strength and Waagh energy, Ghaz there to unify the klanz and other Waaghs?

I could see Orkz being the one thing which could meet the Nids on and actually come out the other side. There is plenty of fluff to say how numberless, quick to reproduce and damn hardy an Ork is, and it'd be kinda hilarious for Nids to try to take on the Orkz, only to fuel them enough to reach kork status again, ala war in heaven

The ending to the Octarius war, I think, underscored the issue for large unified Ork factions vs Nids. Any Ork faction of decent size needs a suitably powerful warboss to hold it together, and said warbosses are incredibly difficult to put down. But the Hive Mind can respawn a Swarmlord as many times as it needs to, whereas Big Warboss goes down once and Nids won't give Orks the chance to recover.

In my eyes the Ork advantage here is persistence. Tyranids aren't going to scour the galaxy of every Ork spore (or perhaps more specifically, aren't going to scour every space hulk and other warp-screwery) and unless that happens they will keep coming back. Besides, to an Ork this scenario isn't an apocalypse at all--it's paradise. If any faction has already 'won' the setting it is Orks.

Have yeh not forgotten yeh star craft lore? (Yes I know it's not EXACTLY the same but GW has plenty of other sci fi fiction to rip off)

Place a big enough Psychic beacon in another galaxy and the whole invasion might be called off. Or maybe the Aeldari could someone steer them right into the Eye of Terror.

That or figure out a way to fragment the Hive Mind.

Have the tyranids ever made it into the webway?

In a few occasions, apparently the Eldar tend to forget to close the doors.

Really the endgame is between Nids, Chaos, Orks, and arguably Necrons. Necrons for the fact we simply don't know how many haven't awakened yet, how difficult they are to destroy, and their weapons being perfect at killing almost everything.

Everyone else is just trying to survive. Even if the Imperium, Eldar, and Tau allied you'd still be looking at the before mentioned "winning".

Jarms48 wrote:
Really the endgame is between Nids, Chaos, Orks, and arguably Necrons. Necrons for the fact we simply don't know how many haven't awakened yet, how difficult they are to destroy, and their weapons being perfect at killing almost everything.

Everyone else is just trying to survive. Even if the Imperium, Eldar, and Tau allied you'd still be looking at the before mentioned "winning".

Yeah I think if there were an end times scenario and we moved to Warhammer 40K: Age of the Emperor I think chaos, nids orks and necrons would be fighting it out in real space and humans, eldar, tau and vottan would be hiding out in the webway

That kind of assumes the Imperium falls apart entirely. Right now the Imperium fights all of those forces at once.


You'd have the Imperium, Chaos, Orks, Necrons and Tyranids.

There's also a high possibility that in a massive Chaos/Tyranid threat the Imperium might well ally itself with both Ork and Necron.
Not in a "holding hands we all love each other" but in a "dear gods if we don't stop fighting each other we both die" situation.



There are historic records of Orks and Necrons allying with Imperial forces.



Similarly whlist their populations and infrastructure is likely too small to be viable on a galactic war scale, the Eldar would likely ally with the Imperium as well. For all their haughty ways if total oblivion were coming they might well be the surgical strike arm of a combined arms stance. Votaan are the same.



The Imperium will make allies of Xenos when push comes to shove. It's just not a long lasting alliance structure. It's one of necessity. Thus a particularly powerful Chaos incursion or Swarm or even mega-ork waargh could be countered by alliances of necessity. Alliances that would eventually fragment and break down once the major part of the threat is over which would restore balance to what we see in the 40K setting at large of everyone fighting everyone.

I wouldn't put too much stock into the whole allying with Orks and Crons thing purely because of how rare those instances are.
The Silent King allying with Dante to defeat a tendril of Tyranids was a one off now that Szarehk has his power base back. He doesn't need outside help when he's basically back to commanding the Necron empire.
As for the Orks, any assistance has to be paid and when the pay runs out, the Orks stop helping. Plus its usually the Blood Axes and the Imperium trusts them about as far as a child could throw a Warboss.

Exactly. If all of Chaos were spilling out of the Eye or if a dozen vast hive fleets appeared at once then alliances of situation would arise.

They would not be long lasting ones; they would likely often involve alliances at the top end whilst local commanders would still attack, so the top end would ensure that forces were deployed as such that they don't meet each other on the field. Ergo Necrons and Imperials might ally and that alliance might just be as much as agreeing not to attack each other; ordering forces to withdraw from any situation where they might encounter each other and coordinating the main battle thrusts so that they cause the most damage on their foe.

And yes in the end once most of the Chaos army or Hive Fleet were smashed beyond being a viable threat to the allied force; then the alliance would fall apart. One side would likely try to attack the other outright etc..


So you'd end up back where we are now; everyone against everyone

 Dekskull wrote:
Have yeh not forgotten yeh star craft lore? (Yes I know it's not EXACTLY the same but GW has plenty of other sci fi fiction to rip off)

Place a big enough Psychic beacon in another galaxy and the whole invasion might be called off. Or maybe the Aeldari could someone steer them right into the Eye of Terror.

That or figure out a way to fragment the Hive Mind.

That is perhaps the most horrifying part of the Tyranids; they are without number. There would very well be dozens, hundreds, millions of other galaxies that the Tyranids are invading and consuming (or have already done so). Or the galaxy could be facing the dying gasp of a race reduced to mere shreds of its former self by the uncaring whims of fate... or by something worse. Or anywhere in between. The nature of the Tyranids is we don't know, and it is that unknown which grants much of their fear factor IMO.

Orks. Orks is neva beaten.

mrFickle wrote:

Jarms48 wrote:
Really the endgame is between Nids, Chaos, Orks, and arguably Necrons. Necrons for the fact we simply don't know how many haven't awakened yet, how difficult they are to destroy, and their weapons being perfect at killing almost everything.

Everyone else is just trying to survive. Even if the Imperium, Eldar, and Tau allied you'd still be looking at the before mentioned "winning".

Yeah I think if there were an end times scenario and we moved to Warhammer 40K: Age of the Emperor I think chaos, nids orks and necrons would be fighting it out in real space and humans, eldar, tau and vottan would be hiding out in the webway

Something like this, though I'd prefer to distance 40k from end times. I'd prefer actually battling to preserve "the old world" rather than destroying it completely.

Though in terms of alliances I could see:
- Imperium, Eldar/Dark Eldar (Ynnari), Votann, and Tau. Maybe some Orks, either through Eldar manipulation, being hired as mercenaries, or just joining as a wild card due to this war being the biggest fight ever.
- Imperium, Necrons, Votann, Tau, and some Orks but only for the 2 of the above options. With the Eldar and Orks being wildcards. The Eldar instead completely looking after themselves, trying to still let this alliance stop this destruction but making sure it doesn't lead to the Necrons getting too powerful.

I just can't see Necrons and Eldar working together. Unless they write a massively compelling reason.

Necrons and Eldar hate each other, but they are both also sane enough (at least at the top end of command) to realise that if the Galaxy gets consumed by the Tyranids, neither of them gets to win.

Chances are it would work by allying with the Imperium and simply not operating in the same theatres of war. So Necrons and Eldar would stand side by side with the Imperium and perhaps the very odd battle where they'd either unite just to kill Tyranids and then kill each other; or where particularly forward thinking commanders are able to put aside millennia of grudges for a tiny moment of unity to beat back the Tyranids.


Thing is pretty much all the allies in this have reason to backstab each other; reason to distrust and reason to not ally. The only reason they would is the simple fact that if they don't stand united they will fall divided.