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First, it seems Tiamet seems to a radical departure from standard eat and move on pattern. Instead they have settled on a cluster of worlds to protect, not stripping them entirely of biomass, and building a continent sized organic construct of some sort that has immense psychic power. In the Codex it says Inquisitors speculate whether it is a beacon to guide more Tyranid fleets. Based on the sidebars though (of ships of other races being lured to the planet, and a prophet rising among Chaos slaves that then leads them to a pilgrimage to the Tiamet system in search of paradise), I have another theory. I speculate the construct is the Tyranid equivalent of a bug light. I speculate that the construct's psychic pulses disrupt navigation, and induce delusions in faraway locations that result in them journeying to the Tiamet system (resulting in their destruction). Hive Fleet Tiamet therefore could be an attempt at a new strategy of luring prey.

Hive Fleet Kronos is pretty much stated to be the Hive Mind's solution to Chaos (or at least the first solution with others to come). However daemons provide no biomass when slain/banished, so it seems Leviathan has deliberately left certain vulnerable worlds untouched for Kronos to consume, then Kronos zeroes in on warp rifts and areas of high psychic activity. In effect, Kronos is being subsidized by other hive fleets, so it can go about its task of defeating Daemons and closing warp rifts. It does precisely this on the planet Shadowrbrink, where Leviathan had previously defeated a Chaos daemonic invasion and which had been invaded again by daemons. The Shadow in the Warp became so powerful that the rifts closed. This subsidizing also supports the original idea of the Tyranids acting as one unified race. For a time about 3rd edition, there had been a competing theme that was advanced suggesting each hive fleet operated truly independently of each other like separate predators. Since then there has been a reversion to the original all fleets are one idea, with the various fleet vs. fleet conflicts explained to be more the Hive Mind testing out various adaptations or solutions.

On a grander level, I wonder whether the various races, inadvertently in their own various ways end up checking Chaos by the net effect of their separate efforts. The Necrons have their pylons which block and push back against warp activity. The Eldar have their various rituals and artifacts which also have the net effect of sealing warp rifts. Cawl is supposedly researching the Cadian/Necron pylons and it is speculated that he may be trying to create his own versions in order to seal rifts. Finally, we have the Tyranids and their new Kronos fleet with its intensified Shadow that seems capable of shutting down open warp rifts. Though they may not be actively cooperating with each other, I wonder whether their efforts will add up nonetheless. Hive Fleet Kronos eats a few worlds and seals some rifts near where some Necrons awaken, and near where Cawl plants some experimental pylons of his own. Net effect? Maybe a clear path across the Great Rift.

Interesting. Has there been any mention of the Norn Queens in the codex? I know they were absent in the 6th ed book. Just curious.

No, the Norn Queen and the Dominatrix are not mentioned. I think GW is trying to play up the Hive Tyrants' role, rather than have them being lieutenants of the Dominatrix (which was the largest ground force Synapse creature). The rationale probably being that the humanoid Hive Tyrants are more easily related to as player inserts than the superheavy sized composite creature of the Dominatrix.

It could also be due to GW's policy of avoiding mentioning things that have no models, and also of renaming things. Hence we get Tiamet not Tiamat. Ouroboris not Ouroboros.

Iracundus wrote:
No, the Norn Queen and the Dominatrix are not mentioned. I think GW is trying to play up the Hive Tyrants' role, rather than have them being lieutenants of the Dominatrix (which was the largest ground force Synapse creature). The rationale probably being that the humanoid Hive Tyrants are more easily related to as player inserts than the superheavy sized composite creature of the Dominatrix.

It could also be due to GW's policy of avoiding mentioning things that have no models, and also of renaming things. Hence we get Tiamet not Tiamat. Ouroboris not Ouroboros.

I think they see the sexual connotation of the dominatrix as well.

But I kind of expect that if next year we start seeing new models for armies (which GW has said was the plan) we might see a re-imagining of the dominatrix as a Norn Queen thats some kind of giant sized hive tyrant or other really large LoW bug as a direct counter to primarchs/deamon primarchs.

There are the Hierodules from FW. Way back in the days of Epic Hive War, Hierodules were the smaller of the two classes of Tyranid bio-titans, but then FW downgraded them to mere superheavy status.

Let's face it, the meanings behind many of the Tyranid names are rather anti-female. They're just not as well known as Dominatrix. Take Hierodule or Termagant for example. What I mourn however is having Tyranid names that actually had another meaning as opposed to being entirely made up by GW. Haruspex, Exocrine, Hierophant, etc. are all real existing words with meanings. The newer Tyranid species though are just jumbled mashes of existing words or Tyranid names.

Iracundus wrote:
There are the Hierodules from FW. Way back in the days of Epic Hive War, Hierodules were the smaller of the two classes of Tyranid bio-titans, but then FW downgraded them to mere superheavy status.

Let's face it, the meanings behind many of the Tyranid names are rather anti-female. They're just not as well known as Dominatrix. Take Hierodule or Termagant for example. What I mourn however is having Tyranid names that actually had another meaning as opposed to being entirely made up by GW. Haruspex, Exocrine, Hierophant, etc. are all real existing words with meanings. The newer Tyranid species though are just jumbled mashes of existing words or Tyranid names.

Yeah but Hireodules are more knight equivalent then primarch equivalent. Arguably the Swarmlord would be our Primarch equivalent except he hands out no passive buffs that other synapse creatures don't already do and he isn't a LoW. I would consider the swarmlord closer to a nid chapter master then a primarch. Nids really have every slot filled to bursting with options except LoW where everything we have is a massive titanic unit. We could really use a force multiplier in the slot and that's what Norn Queens should be doing.

I would almost argue that perhaps there is a bit of redundancy in how many Tyranid options there are for certain roles. Toxicrene, Venomthrope, Malanthrope all are variations of each other.

What I miss is doing what is described in the background stories through sheer numbers, because that is even more Tyranid thematic than having a direct organic equivalent to everything. Things like how Titans on Macragge were pulled down by sheer numbers of Termagants, or how in the BL novel about Tarsis Ultra, an Imperial Guard Leviathan superheavy command vehicle was immobilized by the simple expedient of throwing so many Termagants and Hormagaunts at it that their pulped remains jammed the tracks.

That would equate to something like an ability to take an automatic 10 mortal wounds on a Termagant or Hormagaunt unit in return for inflicting one mortal wound on an enemy.

Tide of Chitin - At the end of the fight phase, a unit of Termagaunts or Homagaunts may throw itself at an enemy unit within 1", heedless of immense casualties suffered to inflict damage upon the foe. Roll a d6 for every ten models in the Termagaunt or Hormagaunt unit; it suffers mortal wounds equal to the total. The target then suffers one mortal wound for each d6 rolled.


I would really like to see some updated termy/hormy kits and -gasp- new kits for swarmy bugs instead of big ones. They'll probably release right after the plastic thunderhawk

the meanings behind many of the Tyranid names are rather anti-female. They're just not as well known as Dominatrix. Take Hierodule or Termagant for example.

Hey that's pretty cool, I never realised that they were real words! Maybe I should try to use them in an email on Monday?

I like that GW are giving Tyranids more of a sense of having an overall plan and that they are reacting to whats happening in the galaxy.