Tyranid Devourer
Not to be confused with the small handheld Tyranid bio-weapon.
The Devourer-class Cruiser is a class of Bio-Ship roughly comparable to a Battlecruiser or Heavy Cruiser. They are substantially larger than their Razorfiend cousins and stop just shy of being classified as a Hive Ship.
Breed[edit]
Basic[edit]
Corrosive Tentacles[edit]
The lame-duck of the family.
As is often the case with Tyranid ships thanks to their large numbers of slightly different craft, there isn't much special to highlight about the Corrosive Tentacles Devourer, being one of the two full standard/mixed battery Battle Cruisers, besides it trading the melee damaging claws for the assault causing/ship pulling tentacles.
The Bio-Plasma does not complement the extended range of the tentacles as nicely as it does the melee ranged Claws and the Feeder Tentacles can also be found mounted on one of the larger Hive Ships, so the Corrosive Tentacles Devourer loses out a bit on uniqueness too. Overall though, still a decent vessel, just not as special.
It is armed with Feeder Tentacles, 2 Pyro-Acid Battery Weapons and 2 Bio-Plasma Battery Weapons.
- Length: 8km; approx
- Mass: 23 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms
- Acceleration: 1.7 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Base[edit]
The standard 'Base' Devourer is a flexible and adaptable bio-ship that could handle itself quite well against other naval vessels at close-medium range.
Of the two claw-equipped Battle Cruisers, the Base Devourer is the more direct fire focused of the two, bringing Bio-Plasma batteries on a vessel that's going to see a lot of close up action. These are also the largest Claw weapons you can find in the Tyranid fleet, along with the Corrosive Clutch, dealing 50 armor negating damage every 2 seconds.
Thanks to the Devourer's massive size, it is liable to do high damage to any target it rams, and with the Claws and batteries to follow up with, the Devourer is more than capable of OMNOMNOMING Light Cruisers within moments.
It is armed with Devourer Claws, 2 Pyro-Acid Battery Weapons and 2 Bio-Plasma Battery Weapons.
- Length: 8.5km; approx
- Mass: 27 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms
- Acceleration: 1.7 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Carrier[edit]
Corrosive Clutch[edit]
The carrier of Devourers.
The Corrosive Clutch Devourer trades the Bio-Plasma for a pair of Launch Bays that actually fit the Claw equipped Battle Cruiser rather nicely. At its affordable cost, it can be a nice compliment to a Carrier fleet or just a support close-range ship without additional significant carrier support, since its melee range ram attacks will put it close enough to launch assault squadrons point-blank to bypass the majority of turret defenses.
It is armed with Devourer Claws, 2 Launch Bays carrying Harpies and Ether-Swimming Broods and 2 Pyro-Acid Battery Weapons.
- Length: 8.5km; approx
- Mass: 26.2 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms, thousands of spaceborne creatures
- Acceleration: 1.7 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Bio-Tentacles[edit]
The other carrier of Devourers.
If you want a little standard weaponry fallback with your Battle Cruiser/Feeder Tentacle option, you have the Bio-Tentacles Devourer available to you as an option. While it doesn't have the efficiency of the full Launch Bay boating Infestation Devourer, it does at least have the potential to cause real hull damage when it needs to.
One fun fact, having Feeder Tentacles on a carrier this heavy can be really useful in terms of hooking enemy line ships and pulling them away from their fellow defending vessels, thus eliminating their ability to cover each other with defensive turret fire. This allows you to pick apart and isolate enemy ships before overwhelming them one by one with assault squadrons, a useful tactic if facing grouped defenders or not having enough carriers yourself to punch through defenses.
It is armed with Feeder Tentacles, 2 Launch Bays carrying Harpies and Ether-Swimming Broods and 2 Bio-Plasma Battery Weapons.
- Length: 8km; approx
- Mass: 22.5 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms, thousands of spaceborne creatures
- Acceleration: 1.7 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
Infestation[edit]
The ULTIMATE carrier of Devourers.
The Infestation Devourer is by far the most cost-effective Launch Bay boating craft of the Tyranid fleet, coming in at 55 points per bay, significantly cheaper than any other carrier option. The downside to this efficient carrier craft is its utter lack of standard weaponry to fall back on.
Now, while the Infestation Devourer can't fire on enemy targets regularly, something nice it can do is stay at long range, occasionally causing heavy assaults with its feeder tentacles while launching squadrons outside of stealth detection range. Your enemy will probably notice where you are launching squadrons from eventually, but the Feeder Tentacles are harder to notice, and the lack of continually firing batteries highlighting its position every few seconds will make the vessel much harder to pinpoint.
It is armed with Feeder Tentacles and 4 Launch Bays carrying Harpies and Ether-Swimming Broods.
- Length: 8km; approx
- Mass: 24 megatonnes; approx
- Crew: Millions of organisms, thousands of spaceborne creatures
- Acceleration: 1.7 gravities max sustainable acceleration; approx
In Battlefleet Gothic: Armada 2[edit]
The Tyranids Devourers gives you some nice weapon combinations you couldn't get with the Cruiser-classed vessels, mixing various standard weapon and Launch Bay broadside mounts with the Feeder Tentacles and Claws special prow weapons, not available from the Razorfiend vessels. Having these weapons installed on the large vessels in this class gives significant boosts to their base capabilities, ensuring higher destructive potential than those found on the Light Cruisers.
Unfortunately, the Devourer-class ships of the Tyranids do not get a direct offensive firepower increase like most other factions get with the tier up in weight class. Instead, they do get an increase to shields and hull points that other factions do not. This gives them a better defensive bonus relatively speaking.
| 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 | |