Hive Ship
Tyranid Hive Ships are the massive Bio-ships that form the heart of the Hive fleets, acting as nodes for the Hive Mind to direct the swarm around them and serving as starborne factories that churn out the endless Tyranid swarms. They are the equivelent of most factions' Battleships and are among the largest superorganism of the Tyranids. Of course, being a superorganism, a Hive Ship is composed of various smaller creatures working in unison, like those of a Portuguese Man o' War.
Breed[edit]
Basic[edit]
Base[edit]
The most basic and generic of Hive Ship. A 'Base' Hive Ship are the most common and adaptable breed of these superorganisms.
Rumours abound regarding Hive Ships. Some believe that though most swarms have multiple Hive Ships, there is still just one ship that maintains a central control of the entire swarm, allowing it to coordinate its fleet's assault, though this can not be confirmed. There are also unsubstantiated reports of indescribably huge Hive Ships that arrive in the final stages of a world's consumption, which would explain how the Hive Fleets can consume the vast quantities of material represented by a planet's life, air, and oceans.
The base Hive Ship is the only one of the Battleships in the Tyranid fleet that fields entirely standard weaponry, however, it actually comes in second place for raw dps due to the amount of lance based Bio-Plasma weapons it has. The Hive Ship does take the lead when it comes to critical hits per minute, being well above and beyond any other ship in the Tyranid arsenal.
One other point to mention about the Hive Ship is that of the two top damage number Battleships, it has significantly closer ranges for all of its weaponry due to the damage type choice. The Bio Acid Hive Ship, on the other hand, has higher dps, includes launch bays and can maintain a much longer range, longer than any other Tyranid ship by default.
It is armed with 2 Heavy Bio-Plasma Discharge Artillery, 2 Bio-Plasma Battery Weapons, 4 Pyro-Acid Battery Weapons and a Spur.
- Length: 10-15km; approx
- Mass: 35.5 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions to billions of organisms
- Acceleration: 1.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Carrier[edit]
Bio-Tentacles[edit]
A carrier meant for close-ranged assaults.
The weakest Battleship both in dps numbers-wise and single target damage/cpm wise, the Bio-Tentacles Hive Ship trades that for having powerful assault actions with its combined Feeder Tentacles and 3 launch bays that can all deploy assault squadrons against the same enemy.
The Acid Infestation Hive Ship is comparable considering it can launch another 4 assault squadrons and do more damage and cpm against a single target, but the added bonus of flinging enemy ships around with the Hook ability gives the Bio Tentacles Hive Ship a definite fun factor.
It is armed with Feeder Tentacles, 3 Bio-Plasma Battery Weapons, 3 Launch Bays carrying Harpies and Ether-Swimming Broods and a Spur.
- Length: 10-15km; approx
- Mass: 31 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions to billions of organisms, millions of spaceborne creatures
- Acceleration: 1.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Acid Infestation[edit]
The second carrier type and this one is for more longer ranges. The Acid Infestation Hive Ship with its 6 Launch Bays it brings to the field, is actually the second most efficient Carrier when considering points cost per launch bay, coming in just a fraction below 60 points per bay.
The Battleship Carrier gets beaten out by 55 points per bay with the Infestation Devourer Battle Cruiser. The plus side to taking the Hive Ship version is that you actually get standard weaponry to fall back on, and fairly decent weaponry at that, which compares to the raw dps/cpm numbers of many Cruisers/Battle Cruisers.
It is armed with 1 Super Heavy Pyro-Acid Artillery, 1 Heavy Bio-Plasma Discharge Artillery, 6 Launch Bays carrying Harpies and Ether-Swimming Broods and a Spur.
- Length: 10-15km; approx
- Mass: 32.3 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions to billions of organisms, millions of spaceborne creatures
- Acceleration: 1.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Lance-Boat[edit]
Bio-Acid[edit]
A lance-boat with some limited carrier capabilities. The Bio-Acid Hive Ship is an excellent choice of Battleship for a number of reasons. First things first, it can cause a considerable number of fires with its high, second place CPM and takes the spot for top DPS damage dealer of the entire Tyranid fleet, without taking special weapon effects into account.
While it does this, it also takes top spot of longest range hitter of the Tyranid ship in the fleets, being the only Battleship to host two of the 13,500 range Pyro-Acid Artillery weapons and only one of two ships to have them at all.
It is armed with 2 Super Heavy Pyro-Acid Artillery, 2 Bio-Plasma Battery Weapons, 2 Pyro-Acid Battery Weapons, 2 Launch Bays carrying Harpies and Ether-Swimming Broods and a Spur.
- Length: 10-15km; approx
- Mass: 36 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions to billions of organisms, millions of spaceborne creatures
- Acceleration: 1.2 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
In Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2[edit]
The Battleships weight class of the Tyranid fleet is made up of the Hive Ship and three of its variants, meant to serve as the Synaptic Control ships of a Tyranid force. These vessels have a lot of unique features that set them apart from the other tiers of vessels, besides the obvious statistical increases found as a default.
One of these special upgrades is the ramming spurs, found on all 4 Hive Ships, one of which also possess the Hook Tentacles capable of yanking enemy vessels towards itself to help set up the perfect ram or just separate it from its allies. The ships of this class that do have them, are also the only vessels to have both wide arc 270° turrets and prow mounted Bio-Plasma, lance-like weapons. All four of the available Battleships serve as deadly choices of flagships, offering a variety of flavours to choose form.
| Vessels of the Tyranids | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spaceships | ||
| Battleships | Hive Ship (Ancient One) | |
| Cruisers | Void Prowler - Cruiser (Razorfiend Dark Prowler - Void Fiend) - Devourer | |
| Escorts | Escort (Escort Drone - Vanguard Drone Ship Kraken) | |
| Logistics | Narvhal | |
| Landships | ||
| Bio-titans | Viciator - Dominatrix Hierophant - Hydraphant | |
| Airships | ||
| Flying Fortress | Harridan | |