what if: Tyranids invade Viltrum

[Masonicon]

what's happened if Tyranids invade Viltrum?

the Tyranids starts with Genestealer cults, then full-fledged hive fleets

how goes?

[master of read]

so if these guys are like DC kryptonians......

and there's a genestealer there........

then they are kind of fucked.

[Nik Hasta]

From what I recall of Tyranid invasion strategy, the Tyranids might have to take a long view on this.

The Orks and Eldar are both are noted as being problematic for the Tyranid's standard invasion practice as the former only breeds at the end of its life via spores and will happily kill first generation hybrids for being un-Orky, and the latter apparently has more complex biology than a human so it takes a long time for the hybrids to even start appearing.

The Viltrumites might be a bad mix of the two problems. They have "powerful" biology that tends to largely supersede the biology of different species they mate with so the hybrids might take a while to come out at all and they are exceptionally long lived so they don't breed very often as far as we can see [outside of troop generation] and, by-and-large, they would have no issue with killing a hybrid that seems monstrous or doesn't match up to their standards of perceived superiority. Also, their notion of placing hybrids in positions of political power over generations won't really work as the Viltrumites are essentially a monarchy with an extremely long-lived and largely unchallengeable ruler. You can't really politick your way to victory there, you have to go for sedition and the Viltrumites aren't exactly known for kidding around on that front.

So, it's a problem, but it's not insurmountable. The issue of Tyranid hypnosis and their psychic abilities are the real issue.

Hive Fleet is actually an easier thing for the Viltrumites to deal with as they just have to tear them apart in a more conventional warfare situation. An issue of the big psychic mass of the Hive Mind but again, not insurmountable.

[Hiromi]

yeah I also don't think the infiltration thing is going to work very well here, brute force likewise is going to be difficult as I don't think the combat forms will have much luck against Viltumites, the issue for the Viltrumites though are Zoanthropes as I don't believe there are any psychic powered individuals in the Invincible verse. And the hive mind WILL start focusing on producing more of them if they discover it to be effective and physical attacks to be ineffective, and in the case of a full fledged hive fleet the numbers are probably going to be simply too massive for the Viltrumites' limited numbers to make a sizeable enough dent in before that happens. Also regardless Viltrum is likely screwed, planets generally don't survive unscathed even if the Nids are repulsed



and of course the really scary thing is what happens once the hive fleet starts getting Viltrumite corpses and produces new forms based on them

[master of read]

note: i know jack squat about these guys so i'm just going by what you guys tell me about them.

[Hiromi]

I mulled it over a bit more and honestly I'm not 100% that the Viltrumites are immune to the physical damage forms either, Tyranids are supposed to have claws that are insanely sharp even for their setting, it's how Genestealers can canonically cut through Space Marine Terminator armor with ease and Carnifixes can cut tanks in half, granted I don't think they can easily decapitate a Viltrumite but the numbers they'll be facing are staggering and it could easily be a death by a thousand(or in this case a trillion) cuts

[Nik Hasta]

I mulled it over a bit more and honestly I'm not 100% that the Viltrumites are immune to the physical damage forms either, Tyranids are supposed to have claws that are insanely sharp even for their setting, it's how Genestealers can canonically cut through Space Marine Terminator armor with ease and Carnifixes can cut tanks in half, granted I don't think they can easily decapitate a Viltrumite but the numbers they'll be facing are staggering and it could easily be a death by a thousand(or in this case a trillion) cuts

This thought also occurred to me. I mean, they will have a devil of a time with the higher level Viltrumites but they can likely wear them down over time.

The main counterpoint from my perspective was speed. PIS off Viltrumites are very, very fast and can just plow through most things that get in their way.

I figured they might be able to shove the main Hive Ships into a nearby sun or something in order to kill big numbers swiftly.

[Hiromi]

Probably two problems with that, the first being that Tyranid "ships" are just giant Tyranids that can travel through space, and given that they not only travel interstellar distances but between galaxies they might be capable of greater thrust than a Viltrumite, also the Viltrumite will probably be assaulted by a ship sized Tyranid at the same time. The second is a spoiler so I'm spoiling it spoilers:

their just aren't that many Viltrumites, a few dozen or so, there's absolutely no way they can suntoss the ships faster than the ships can arrive, a mere splinter fleet is comparable to a massed Imperial fleet where they count ships in hundreds if not thousands, a full on hive fleet would probably get into hundreds of thousands if not millions

end of spoilers

[Nik Hasta]

I know about the spoilered content, didn't realise how big a full Hive Fleet was.

Yeah, they ain't winning that.