Re: [Epic] Tyranids vs Tyranids

From: David Lado <lado_at_...>
Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 15:06:27 -0400 (EDT)

>>Al will sucumb to chaos. The psychic prowes of the hive mind will never
>>match the powers of Tzeentch, besides it's not all that difficult for to
>>imagine most of the nids going to khorne, collecting all life off of the
>>planet, usually a pretty bloody process, to collecting blood and skulls for
>>khorne

>Uh, I think it is more complicated than that. These guys (Tyranids) are
>supposed to be without individual consciousness. The billions of Tyranid
>creatures make up the Hive Mind. Imagine an ant. It exist to serve the
>nest/hive. The concept of lazing off or climbing the social structure does
>not happen at all.

I sorta agree. My interpritation of the fluff is that the bugs have
no individuality and so can't be converted to chaos. They have no
avarice, ambition or fear for chaos to play on. And the hive mind
would be too large to succumb to chaos.

>On the other hand, I sure would like to know if an ant is isolated from its
>nest and queen will fare. Anybody aware of this kinda experiment ever
>conducted ?

All the time. Little kinds will go scoop up a bunch of ants and put them
in an ant farm. The behavior of ants is hard wired and they will behave
normally regarless of the how many other ants are around. For example,
a foraging ant will still leave a oderant trail to food even if no other
ants are around to follow it. Of course without the queen, the colony
will die out.

In some social insects, when the queen dies, an existing egg can develop
into a replacement even though it might otherwise have developed into a
normal worker, so killing the queen does not automatically doom the
colony (Honey bees are one example).

Actually, honey bees can be used as an example of how tyrannids might
come to fight each other. The queen bee maintains control over her
minions by the use of pherimones (sp?). One of these chemicals
suppresses the development of any pupae into new queens. If the bee
colony grows very large, the pherimones are spread too thin and the
control begins to break down. The result is that several new queens
may be born. I forget exactly how it works, but the end result is
that one of the new queens may leave the nest, taking a portion of
the original colony with her (a good thing, evolutionarily). I think
the queens fight and if the young queen wins she leaves. Another
queen born later takes over the old hive, killing any other developing
queens before they are born.

A new colony will have no ties to the old. Bee colonies don't fight
each other (like ants) but there is no reason why two seperate
tyrannid "colonies" wouldn't fight each other (like ants).

On the other hand, it's all just fluff and you really don't need an
excuse for the bugs to fight each other, you just need a couple of
bug players.

David
Received on Thu Aug 28 1997 - 19:06:27 UTC