Adeptus Ridiculous - TYRANID BIOFORMS: FROM LARGE TO ABSOLUTE UNITS | Warhammer 40k Lore

Episode Date: August 2, 2023

https://www.patreon.com/AdeptusRidiculoushttps://www.adeptusridiculous.com/https://twitter.com/AdRidiculoushttps://orchideight.com/collections/adeptus-ridiculousThe Tyranids, also known as The Great Devourer are an extragalactic alien race, whose sole purpose is the consumption of all forms of genetic and biological material in order to evolve and reproduce. Tyranid technology is based entirely on biological engineering. Every function is carried out by living, engineered creatures, each of which collectively forms the Hive Fleet, directed by a single Hive Mind. The Tyranid swarm is endless and constantly evolving, and in any given Hive Fleet there are an endless variety of creatures that have been incorporated into the Swarm. Certain Tyranid units are considered Synapse Creatures, whose job it is to control the lesser species within the swarm and exert the will of the Hive Mind.Support the show

Welcome everyone to another episode of the Adeptis Ridiculous podcast. My name is D.K. Diamantis. His name is Bricky. And, oh, boy, bugs. But before we get into that, if you enjoyed today's episode, head on over to the Patreon and consider supporting us at patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous. You can get access to the Discord. Blupers if they happen.

The $15 tier gets you all of our HD posters, including just the most amazing, sweltering zoabbs you've ever seen. Patreon.com slash Adeptus Ridiculous. Bricky, how about the merch? The merch? You can check out the merch at Orchidate.com down in the description. Check it out. We've got posters. You can buy all the posters.

There's a lot of them. There's some great options for posters. I think we've sold out of the mats already almost within a week. Oh, damn. There might be a few left, but probably not. but you could still get the poster versions of the music of the third if you'd like, or the shirts and hoodies version of them as well. It's lots of awesome merch down there.

Also get yourself some dice. We have dice. And then read Storm of Iron, which is the book club, and we are going to be filming that this week. So check it out this weekend. Iron Within? Iron Without. Hell yeah, brother.

It's a good book. I like it. I like it. I like it. I don't know if it's my favorite book, but I am thoroughly enjoying it. I am... Nothing wrong with a good B or B plus? Mm-hmm.

Ain't nothing wrong with it at all. Shai wanted to address something. She said we are not, not doing a sexy Neurallichter poster, and you should leave her alone about it because it's overdone. That's the kind of statement I would hear from someone who is currently working on a sexy Neurolifter poster. I will be honest with you. I am one of the people that message shy after that episode, and I was like, you know what would really with Bricky if we did a Nurelictor poster? And she was like, God damn it's so overdone.

Don't talk to me ever again. And I was like, oh. I mean, fair, but also just imagine Bricky's reaction to a Nurelictor poster. I mean, my reaction would be pretty annoyed, but I feel like we would sell it out almost immediately, much like the Luna Wolf's furry poster. I mean, actually, that's a fair point. That probably would sell like hotcakes, wouldn't it? You know, screw it. Speaking of sexy nids.

Speaking of sexy nids. Speaking of nids, it's day two. Yay! Yay! That means big bug. I love it when we have days like this where, like, we're doing two-part episodes because the second part doesn't have a quote I can screw up and I can just be free and happy.

I love it. I mean, I guess I could use a quote, but like, you know the episode, so that is true. There could be a quote. It's my favorite kind of episode. It's his favorite kind of episode. Mm-mm-mm-mm-mm. Lovely. Fingleckin good.

So, we talk. about Tyrannid bioforms in the last episode, and it was small bug, small. I mean, they were good size, but yeah. It was small bug and like normal bug. Now it's time for big bug. The Monster Mash, let's go. The Monster Mash lists, indeed.

The big bugs. The ones you run when you want to run Tyrannid Monster Match. So there's a lot, actually. I bet they're all. I bet these are the favorites. Well, yeah. No, I guess you probably say, I would probably agree. Some people like their classic, lots of warriors and stuff.

Some people really like their big, like spam of little termagons and stuff. They like their, the title league mids, yeah. Yeah. But there is definitely a group for Monster Match people. And also, Monster Master is cheaper to play. play because it's just a bunch of a couple malls. Always an important factor. Always important factor.

So let's start off with something a little thinner, a little slender, yeah? Okay. Let's start off with the lovely Mollock. You may remember the Mollock in a couple stories. This is the gigantic worm style one that tunnels in the ground and eats people. Okay. I mean, it definitely sounds familiar. I mean, that is a very nid thing to do to tunnel and eat people.

The one, the story that you probably will remember is the one, there it is. Whoa. Okay. Very cool. Very cool. Typical Tao L. Poor Tao. It's up close and personal.

Those Tao are dead. They are so doomed. You remember it from the story of Norc Deadog, where Norc Sergeant was getting eaten by one of these things whole, and it ran up and headbutted so hard, it broke a mandible and then grabbed a sergeant out. Oh, right, right, right, right. Yeah, I do remember that. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So that is what a Moloch looks like. It is enormous, and it is actually entirely blind. It's a very simple organism. It goes underground, and it tears its way through the tunnels very quickly, either eating or ripping apart, all kinds of stuff, rock, bone, sand, gravel, stone, freaking steel. There's a bunker. And it kind of just slides its way through until it eventually bursts out from under

the ground in a very important area in the back lines. And then just starts to kill everything and eat them alive. Cool. Cool. So I'm assuming it's a very sensory bug because obviously it doesn't have eyes. So it relies very much on like the vibrations of the ground as it's digging through and stuff. Yeah, this is kind of your,

do you remember, I don't know exactly the best way to describe it, but when I think of like Zerg and stuff, I think, Ooh, the mini is nice. That looks like an older mini, but very, wow.

It does. It is tremors. That's true. It is basically tremors. It is an older mini. I think a lot of these minis came on sixth edition. It does have eyes,

but it is still totally blind. I think that's why it has those weird milky eyes. guys. Yeah, like they're just covered over. Yeah. It evolved past needing them. It is certainly, it is certainly very tremorsy.

But I mean, this is not the most difficult to understand bug in the world. It's very big. It's actually like a really large model, actually. It looks big. It's like the size of like a mini knight, like an armiger. Oh, wow. That is large. Large.

That's a big boy. So basically, there's two of these guys, right? So there's the Moloch, and then there's something called the Trigon. And they serve two separate purposes. Dammit, Shai, I literally have that in my notes. I was about to read that. Shy doesn't trust you to get these good quotes, man. She doesn't trust you to get the good stuff.

She always thinks that I'm not, I don't know what I'm doing. Gosh, darn it. All right, well, now I have to read it now. Are you going to post the guy getting hit? No. Did you read the book for the book club? No, of course I didn't, but I will have it read on time. She thinks she can beat me by the fact that I haven't read the book yet, but jokes on her, it'll be read by the time we do the book club. Yeah, I'm so glad I'm not getting caught in this crossfire. Oh, boy. Yeah, you read the book.

Well, I still have a little ways to go. I have like an hour left in it, so, you know. Well, that's better than me. Anyway, quote. According to the Ordo Zeno, this is actually by Amberly Vale. Oh, Vail, Miss Vale. Miss Vale, Caiaphas-Cain's lovely squeeze. Yes, yes. Says, according to the Ordo Zenos, it is a flight of fancy that anything unlucky enough to be swallowed whole by a Moloch survives long enough to experience the agony of being digested. Such a victim would I, sorry, they would not, like it's a flight of fantasy that they would not be survive long enough to experience the agony.

Such a victim would either be crushed to death by the contractions of its gullet or suffocate within a few minutes, which, as Inquisitor Amberly Vale admitted, isn't all that comforting. No, I was going to say, if they're getting digested, Shai should play that clip from Nope where the people are literally getting digested by it. It's such an unsettling scene. They're getting digested and screaming and... Yeah, so I kind of have like a vorphobia kind of thing. You don't want to watch the open.

Yeah, I find all that stuff to be really, really gross and weird. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. And people who are into VOR, I think less of, from just a bait. I think they should not vote. I think their voting rights should be stripped from them if they get off to that stuff. I will kinkshame you. I mean, Vore is a weird one. Vore is a super weird one.

I don't get it. Well, Shai says accept if it's Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog is the only acceptable variant. And I feel like it's appropriate in the Monster MASH episode to talk about our fears of vore, right? Because these things will literally eat you. They will pour the hell out of you in mass quantities. The Moloch in particular has a ungodly amount of attacks with their talents and stuff. But specifically, they have the distensible jaw, which is a one single attack meant to eat people.

Also, how are the mollocks in game? Like, how does, like, the blindness work? Like, does it matter that they're blind in game? Does that factor? Okay, that doesn't factor in at all. That's just an in-game lore thing, but, or, yeah. It still senses, like, tremors and stuff. Like, it kind of, it knows where you all.

are despite being blind. Right. They, the Mollock operates much more of a like, uh, terror from the deep is their ability. Basically, when they arrive from Deep Strike or something,

they just kind of burst out there and do damage to things. And then they start immediately stabbing in and murdering it. Of course. Of course. So, pretty classic. Yeah. Yeah.

The other option is the Trigon. Uh, the Trigon is really similar to the Mollok, except it has a bit of a different, uh, role. It's got much. much larger talons. You know, the Mollock has its big mouth and a bunch of little arms. Oh, yeah.

The Trigon has two really big arms that he uses to kill you. Lovely. Just what they needed. Bigger arms and bigger claws. Okay. But mainly the Trigon is used kind of like the nicest world. Holy sheesh. Yeah, he's big.

Yeah, that's a, that's a really nice mini too. Like that one blows the Mollock mini out the water. I'm assuming it is significantly newer. But wow, that is terrifying. No, I think that the exact same kit. No way. You build it either as a Moloch or you build it as a Trigon. Oh, well, I guess, well, one is just painted a lot better then.

Fair enough. The Trigon, though, and also it looks better with the big arms than the tiny little small arms. True, it does. It does. But the trigon actually is more like the nitis worm in Starcraft, where as it digs through, it still murders stuff. But it has this cool, like little biostatic rattle. And it kind of like, it's really weird. It kind of like glasses the tunnel it makes.

By using this, this electric, like, biostatic weird synapse, rattle electricity thing. It almost like glasses. the tunnel it moves through to keep it open. And so a bunch of bugs will follow it. Oh, so like a little tunnel. The tunnel can't collapse. Yeah, exactly. Forces the tunnel.

Oh, that's cool. That is very strategic. Also, when you said Nitisworm, I had Warframe PTSD to the maximum. God damn it. It's a day from the past. I have the same thing with League of Legends. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Anyway, so those are the Mollock type ones. We have a couple. We have many others. Uh, the toxic cream. I love the toxic cream. This mini is so much fun. It is way too big and it can never be fielded on the battlefield because it's way too big and it's terrible to move around on the battlefield. And it's just, yeah, oh yeah, it's, it's so awful.

It's, it's hard to describe. One shy posts the pick. There it is. Whoa. It's like a cracking. It's like, ooh, those tentacles though. hey, what's you doing with those? So those tentacles,

that picture's a little hard to really show it off. They extend, like, the length of the body to both left and right. So it's like the width of like a bane blade. Oh, so this is, oh, so it's just

a very cumbersome model. Yes, it's very difficult to move around. Yeah. I imagine those, those tentacles, like for the mini anyway, they probably get broken a lot, just like trying to move it around

and re-position. They probably get broken a lot, don't they? All the time. Mm-hmm. A lot of sugar glue on those. It's actually a pretty big boy. And the tentacles are obviously there to grab and thrash out whatever gets close to it. But the most importantly, as a toxic cream, if look at it on its back, it's got a bunch of clouds of spores that just keep blasting out of its dorsal chimneys.

Ew. And these are really nasty because they, when they're breathed in, they're breathed in, they force themselves into the respiratory system of our breathes them in. They nestle, embed, and then feed on the moisture of the host and grow at an astonishingly fast rate, causing organs to rupture,

airways to close, and filling the lungs with blood. Ew. Oh, that's such a nid thing to do, but it does not stop it from being just so gross. So the thing just dries you out like beef jerky while destroying all of your organs. Yeah, and it also goes through most protective gear, including power armor.

Oh, so even space Marines aren't safe from this thing. It's just like, oh, I have ceramite plate. Don't care. Yep, got to breathe something. I feel like they could, like, close it off for a bit when fighting a toxic cream to be like only breathe, like, reserve air in their suit or something. But it won't last long. Yeah. Much like them being out in open space.

Yeah. Yuck. Often they're accompanied by venom thropes. We talked about those last episode, obviously. Yes, our deep thropes. God damn it. You feel you be proud of yourself. I was so happy about coming up with that on the spot.

I was very pleased with myself, yeah. I wasn't. Deep throat poster shy? How about that one? That's clever. That's unique, huh? Although I've mentioned it on an episode now, so it's never going to happen. Nope.

Yeah. Oh, well. So let's talk about some new ones. Let's talk about some new ones. So we've already, we're not going to talk about the norns. As we've seen, the only lore of the norn emissaries came from the Leviathan book. If you want to learn about the new norn emissary, you can check it out in the Leviathan episode. Put the card, put the card.

But we also have the psychophage and the nero tyrant. Ooh, the neurotirant. I like that name. Tyrant. These are the ones you have kind of already seen. And they're both in the new Leviathan box if I am unmistaken. Okay. The psychophage will start with first is a psycher-consuming bug.

It eats cykers. Oh, yuck. Whoa, cool mini though. God damn. It's a really cool mini. Wow. What it does is it metabolizes psychic life forms into a sort of corrosive ash, which it will then fire from those dorsal chimneys on its back as a weapon.

Oh, wow. So it eats psychers and then blows them out of its little chimneys? It basically dissolves the psychic energy from the thing it ate and shoots it out as a corrosive ash. It's very weird And and not It's Yoshi Shai's right

It's Yoshi But for psychers I didn't need to know this Yay Cursed Yoshi I did I did not need to know this one bit So there's so hard

It's got to make it happen Right Oh and like right below it's big butt They have like a big Yoshi egg That it's it poops out on the bottom Yep yep yep yep yep yep Yep. Oh, it's so cursed.

Do like green armor for the thing and then like, oh, no. Mm-hmm. Oh, what if, can you, can you paint like a small termagant like Mario and put it on its back? Oh, yes, yes, yes, definitely. All right, this is the worst thing I've ever heard of.

Let's go, let's move on. Oh, let's go, Vanhart. Niro tyrant. So this you've seen already as well. This is the one with the funny little dancing boys that accompany it. Oh, yeah, I have. have seen these.

It just looks like a meme waiting to happen. Oh, it already happened. Okay, cool. Just making sure, because that's, I was just like, there's no way someone hasn't made like a dance party meme with this, right? Absolutely has already occurred. It's a really cool mini, though. That's a really dope mini.

The, uh, the Nero Tyrant is basically a giant focusing node for the shadow in the warp. It is a, much like the zone thropes. and the neurothrope, it just kind of floats across the battlefield. And if it doesn't smack you up with the, oh, there it is,

look at him and go, oh, it's not on loop. Oh, I can imagine, though. You can see it. I can see it.

Yeah, yeah. But, oh, no, my voice. Oh, no, he's dying.

You're not allowed to die, Bricky. I fixed myself. But the Nero tyrant, yes, the Nero tyrant is a major, like psychic beacon point from the shadow and the warp. And if you get close enough, it'll whack you with its tendrils.

But mainly the main thing is to relay important synapse to other less developed creatures and also uses gigantic brain power to liqueify your mind into a mulch. Ah, cool. Great. That sucks. It also makes the shadow and the warp just a bit better. Yeah. I mean, you know, at the point,

you see a giant brain, your mind should immediately go, hmm, brain blast. Mm-hmm. Yep. So this thing just makes the shadow and the warp a little bit bigger and a little harder to, like, get through, essentially. So in game, what it does is that when you activate the once per game, shadow in the warp,

it makes so that everyone takes their test at an extra minus one. but the little guys are actually acting as tokens when you fire synaps out into different creatures near it and then those creatures can move on and forward with synaps still on them active. So yeah, it's like a little relay network. Okay, cool, cool, cool, cool. Sorry, this is not fair.

It's not a relay network. It's what Shai said. It's a mobile command center, but it is also often accompanied by those little nirogonts, the little like relay beacon guys, the parasite on them. them we saw it talked about last time yeah yeah so it'll be accompanied by them a lot as well okay naturally because why wouldn't it yeah and then so those guys stick together yeah they push the little

um little neuralids the tiny boys out and they're like okay we put synapse here he puts synapse here and then we go br-hr right so if you see one of these no matter who you are it can just melt your brain like even if you're like a space marine or something it's just like yeah i'm gonna your brain is it's much like the other zonthropes and stuff. It's a big brain bug that'll blast you. Gotcha. And yeah, that shy makes a good point.

That's true. If you see a tyrannid, you're already in for a bad time because that means the swarm is there. Like, you're never going to see just this guy. If you see this guy, chances are there are a billion other tyrannids that are making a beeline to eat you. Also, yeah. I think in the 10th edition, like cinematic trailer they made. a Terminator,

an Ultramine Terminator librarian gets its mind like completely snuffed out by one of these things. Let's go! God damn I forgot about the Ultramarine part. The Ultramarines getting smoked? Let's go. Tyrannid fan number one right here.

Let's go. So, ultramarine bashing on our bingo card checked off. Let's talk about what might be one of the most iconic Tyrannid models out, not a model, but Tyrannid out there, outside of the warrior and the gaunt.

We're talking the Carnifex. Ooh, I've heard this name and not just from Mass Effect. Yeah, that's such a good pistol. Such a reliable pistol. Oh, my God. Those headshots are just like clean. Crispy. Thick, thick pistol boys.

Mm-hmm. Anyway, the Carnifex is basically a living battering ram slash shock troupe. What makes them super exciting and fun for people is that the fact that they're often really customizable. And also, yes, that is a rhino it is currently smashing into. Oh, oh, oh. It's big. Oh, wow. He's huge.

When I first saw the picture, I wasn't quite sure what I was looking at. I was just like, oh, yeah, you know, I've kind of seen this thing before. That's, that's cool. That's great. And then Shai's like, that's a tank. And you're like, yeah, that's a, wow. I mean, it's smaller. It's smaller than the Mollocks and stuff we talked about so far.

But it's also like storming a tank. It's also blasting a tank. They often have really, they're really big and heavy. but they also more particularly have a thick, thick carapace that they basically use as a living battering ram. They just go, they're rhinos, they're big rhinos. They even have the horn. Damn, he thick, though.

He is thick, though. He is thick with three seas. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So as a basically living battering ram, they are one of the, they also very customizable, like I said, so they equip with all kinds of tools

so they can fire big guns, Guns, heavy weapons and stuff. Oh, they have guns? They can also be fit out with guns. How? They just have claws. What are they going to fire it? Well, I guess it's Tyrann.

Who needs fingers when you have living bio weapons, right? Oh, ODK, you silly man. The Norfolk Queen will just make a version that has a gun in it. Really? Yeah, there's no standard template of carn effects. You just change it up. Okay, I didn't realize the Norn Queen could just be like, this one should have a gun, so, flax, ah, fingers.

She's like the architect of bio-customization. She's like, oh, crap, we need some big tanky nids with guns. All right, Carnifexes, heavy venom cannon, stranglethorn cannon. So she's essentially the Norn Queen is a Tyrannid 3D printer. that's not inaccurate yeah that's about right also those minis are great i love the way those uh those minis look those are i don't know if it's the paint job or whatever but those are great so they're a bit old they're like sixth edition as well um but and before before you hop on to it too quick uh there is also three variants of carn effects the store

Stone Crusher, Thornback, and Screamer Killer. Oh, the Screamer Killer, eh? The Screamer Killer is that bottom right image, which was a brand new mini that just came out with the Leviathan Box. He looks good. Yeah, he does. He looks real good. I mean, they're all good. Like, for being kind of old, they're all really nice, but that screamer killer is nice.

So we'll do the Screamer Killer last. The thornback is a version of Carnifex that is a lot more of short to medium range ballistic weaponry, like living parasites, bombs, kind of more of like a mobile howitzer's slash artillery piece. Okay. But also kind of close range. It's just like, like, like, Carnifax is just entirely rolling up there and just go like, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk. Which is terrifying because they appear to be very tanky and hard to kill. So when those things are outfitted with guns, I imagine it is just a huge.

huge problem. It is. There's the stone crusher, which is basically a carnifex with like a wrecking ball, like a bio wrecking ball. Where's that mini?

Where's the tyrannid with the bio wrecking ball? Where's that at? I want that customization. It's very old. I don't think they make it anymore. I don't think he'll run it anymore. Damn. Oh, hey, that's really cool.

actually the one that shot. That's actually a lot cool than I thought it was going to be. It's kind of derpy still, but it is a little needs. I'm glad it's not like that Michael Bay Transformers movie, where they made Devastator and he had literal wrecking ball

testicles. Oh, the second Transformers. Oh, that was the second one? Yeah, wasn't he like on a pyramid or something? Yeah, he sure was and they had the racist robots and what a bad movie. movie. You loved it here. It's...

You really don't. But the streamer killer is the newest remade one, and it's basically a... What do you think the screamer killer does? I think he just... So it's either

it's one of them like banshy bugs that screams and just blows you two pieces, or you see the thing and you can't help but scream, and then he just cut you to ribbons. The former was correct.

It has a bioplasma screech. Yummy. Yeah. In game, it forces people to take like battle shock tests and stuff, which is very fun. And, yeah, the old screamer-chiller was a little that one

came out when you were like born, so unfairness. I bet I bet you anything it was before. I was born. that that thing came. That is wow. It was in the 90s. Okay. Well, yeah, I was alive in the 90s. Okay.

I guess so was I, but 95. Yeah. Oh, God, that was a while ago, wasn't it? It was. But the new screamer killer looks really good. Oh, yeah. What a glow up. Holy Holy shit. So, after the

Carnifexes, oh, well, we should mention him real quick. There's also old one eye. Oh, old one eye. I remember old one eye, the one that they're not sure if it's dead or not, or if they keep making a new one that just happens to be the one eyed, um, base template, right? Yep, that is the, uh, it is a fancy, unique carnifex. Uh, that is a fourth edition miniature. It is really old. So, for an old mini, that looks right. Also, I didn't realize old one eye was a carnifex. I thought old one eye was a little bit of a, um, it is a little bit of a, smaller tyrannid, didn't realize it was a carnifex.

He is a carnifax. You can actually use him in game and you attach him to other carnifixes and you all get really good. He also heals a lot of health really fast. I like old one-eyed just because I have a one-eyed cat. So I am, I like the one-eyed things. I like the cyclopses and the one-eye, you know, because my cute little cat is just the one-eyed. It's a cute little one-eyed cat. Isn't your V-tuber also have one-eye?

Yep, my new V-tuber is going to be a Cyclops as well. Let's go. I got the idea from my cat. So after, I mean, oh, one, I think you mentioned it, and you already had it on the top of your head. It's basically just, yeah, it keeps on dying. They're like, it keeps coming back. What the hell? And they're not sure if it's the one eye or, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah. So let's go on with more of, like, bugs the size of battle tanks, like, battle tank bugs. Hell yeah. Like monsters. Monstrous creatures one thing, but it's like a war machine. So first thing's first, the Turvagon. Ooh, I've heard this name before. You have.

This is the one with a belly full termagons. Oh, no, it's this gross thing. Oh, man. And the mini looks disgusting because it's got all the br-h-com coming out of it. I just love the idea of it's spawning termagons. It is like, he already has a gun because it's a termagant. and it's like boys coming out of the womb strapped with a tech nine ready to that's right shy as like it when I swear

ready to hurt you up ready to shoot you up that mini is so gross that big old like sack thing and the termagunt coming out of it and just mama Mama dodged this nine mill. Yeah, pretty much. Man, was there a different, is this a new mini? Because I remember seeing, maybe it was a picture of it,

where it was just like its stomach was exploding with termagons. No, this is not a new mini. This is, I think, is still sixth edition. Oh, okay. Most of the big bugs are around since sixth. Okay. Turbrogans have been known to smash great breaches in fortress walls, pressing their birthing sacks into the gap to unleash scores of lesser organisms directly into the enemy ranks. I hate that it says pressing their birthing sacks.

I hate that. I hate it. That is a sentence I never want to hear again. Some cursed words right there. Yes, sir. Do not press your birthing sack against me or my walls. Thanks. The, um, they often are, so most of the time, term, uh, tyrannids are asleep when they travel in their big bioships.

Uh, these ones are nots. They kind of roam the ship, kind of acting as like little centuries and guards. And if there's ever an intruder, they'll spawn a bunch of termagons and then fire their synapse to wake up more bugs. Uh, turvagons are synaps creatures. They're actually like a big leader bug. Um, they're, they're pretty, they're pretty, they're pretty important. as like, you know, the mother type thing. Sure. And they often, they often stay back just to kind of keep berthing more nids. Yeah. But if they got us, sometimes they'll come up and start fighting.

And, I mean, look at them. They're not like they're going to be a pushover. No, definitely not. They're not a pushover. And they're going to be, they're just a never-ending spawn of termagons. So also it's weird. When they're doing Centro and everyone's sleeping, you'd think they would, like, you know, birth a couple of, like, guards to be around it, too.

I mean. They are the guards. That's true. But you think it would want to have like a posse with it while it's doing century work. Well, considering how big these ships are, I'm sure they have many turvigons running around. True enough. True enough. Besides that, the turvagon can actually be made into a different kit, something called the Tyrannofex.

Ooh, nice name. The Tyrannofex is a really interesting bug. it is basically like your mainline battle tank. That's maybe not even the mainland battle tank. It's like it's like your big tank that you use to shoot other tanks. Ah. It's monstrous.

I think it is the highest health and highest armored tyrannid in the game outside of like the really big bugs. Like the ones you get from Forge World. So a lot of people probably run this thing then. Well, no, necessarily. Really?

Big tanky bug? People don't run it? I mean, you know, don't forget, like points is a thing. Oh, that's true. That's true. Since it's so big and tanky, it probably costs an arm and a leg. Yeah. And, you know, so, but that's what it looks like.

What a cool mini. It's the bug with a giant gun. Giant cannon. I don't know why that one doesn't look strange that it's holding a gun at all. Like, it just looks like it kind of belongs. Yeah, it kind of gets, burst out of its arm, but it is a little weird, but it does look pretty cool. Yeah.

The TyranoFex has three different kinds of weapons. The main one that you see in that photo is something known as the rupture cannon. Oh, no. I bet you don't want to get hit by that. I mean, you don't want to get hit by any gun, obviously, but, oh boy, I imagine the rupture gun hurts a lot. The rupture cannon is quite a weapon. in-game it's only got two shots

but it has like it's basically like Tao rail gun levels of powerful granted it's damage characteristic is 2D6 which means two dice which is hilarious to me because you can just roll like snake eyes and do two damage

with that big old rupture cannon it's like with only two shots but the rupture cannon fires two cannonballs in quick succession the first is a bloated tick that bursts shallowering the target in

oil. And the second is an incredibly hard impenetrable seed pod which, when striking the target, will dissolve the shell of the seed pod into the oil and within a fraction of a second implode

on itself. Oh, cool. Which will take a tank and basically take like a rhino or something and just implode it from the inside out, just like a almost like a miniature black hole just went and then it crumbles it like a can. Ah, so the name rupture cannon comes forth, huh? Oh, boy.

So, uh, yeah. The other weapons they have are the acid spray, which is basically a gigantic store of digestive juices that it just sprays on everything and it melts down armor and flesh. And lastly is the flesh borer hive, which is one of my personal favorite looking ones. Whoa. It is a seething colony of fleshbore beetles that we talked about in the last episode.

That are just fired en masse. Yeesh. If you have tryptophobia, I think that's what it's called. Tripophobia. I don't know why it's called it triptophobia, but yeah, this is probably not the mini for you. That one, yeah, because you fire like two shots of it of the flesh bore gun with a catermagon. and this one fires 20. So it's like a Gatling gun of Beatles.

Ew, gross. Great mini, but ew. Man, the nids are so gross, as they should be. Blah. Blah. So as its main battle tank kind of thing, this thing is just really chunky. It also has a bunch of things on its back,

a couple anti-infantry weapons, like stinger salvos to fire at people to get too close. But as the main battle line. It does look like it has some like stingers back there that it could maybe fire off or something. Which actually perfectly moves us into the other main battle line shooting one called the Exocrine. Oh, never read about this one. Penis gun. Oh, right.

It looks like a penis. Okay. I'm waiting for the picture. It is a, it's, It's a pretty popular model, actually. Okay. Because it's just got a, it's a bug with a gigantic gun on its back, but it has a, it was something called the bioplasmic cannon, which is a giant ball of plasma or streams of fire from its back, which is, of course, allowing it to fire super long range firepower. And because it's bioplasma, it fires it about everything.

Oh yeah, that is. That is, that's like the, what was the thing that just got remade in the last episode? It looked like a gorilla at first, and it turned into the really cool spider thing with the big cannon. That would be the biovore. The biovore. Yeah, it's like that one. It's a fleshy penis cannon. Yeah, except big.

Yeah, this one looks weird. I don't love the aesthetic on that one, to be honest with you. I don't know what. I don't know if it's because, like, the, he looks like the bug kind of looks like it's like a little flatter. And I don't know, something about that smile on its face with a big penis cannon. It's just like, I don't know. I don't like it. I think it's kind of funny because it looks like a big penis, but besides that, sure.

I don't know. I just don't like it. I mean, it's just, eh, no. Well, it's good to that we move on from that one then in that case because I want to talk about the maliceptor. Okay. Okay. The malicepter is a really bizarre bug. It is basically the big battle line tank version of a psychic bug.

Oh. It's like, okay, what if you wanted to do a big chunky tank style bug, but instead of it firing guns, it is a psychic brain. Wow. Okay. Okay. Cool. Cool. And there it looks.

It's a little. Yeah, it's a little... It's got the little... It's got the little... It's a little goofy. I'm not a huge fan of the model. It's, once again, another 6th edition model, probably. I don't hate it. I think it's fine.

It's fine. I like his face. I like the carapace covering his eyes. Speaking of, he has no eyes. He's also blind. I have no eyes and I need to see. But the Malicepter is like... I'd say besides the Norn emissary,

the number one embodiment of the pure... actually, it's probably even more of it than the nore emissary, of the hive mind psychic power. Basically, he just advances into battle and with its brain just vaporizes everything in its path. Really? It just...

Basically, like, it just fires unimaginable energy from the hive mind into everything it touches. So this must be a very popular mini then. Very popular thing to run. with the monster mash, I assume. People like it a lot. In 9th edition, it was horrendously overpowered. People ran them a lot.

But Maliceptors basically walk around and they're like, Cyker, head explode, head explode, head explode. You bring five of them. Oh, yeah. You bring five of them and then you just watch as it levels a city by using its brain. And you don't need to be a psycher to be affected by this thing, right? Like you could just be a space ring and it'll like pop your head. Oh, God, yeah.

It's a psychic energy, right? And then it can also just do this crazy thing where it blocks all of your incoming fire because it's got a giant psychic, like, you know, field. Wow. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I can see. Yeah, if I were a Nids player, I'd run like five of them. Sure, why not?

These are, they're really rare in, in universe lore. It's not that common that a malicepter is deployed. just because of the way this kind of bug is, and it's such a specific kind of task. But it's really often used against heavy psycher forces. So if you're fighting Eldar or something like that. The El Dar would get wrecked by this thing, wouldn't they? They had no chance against one of them would tear through an army.

It's known to be spectacularly level, spectacular levels of violence when fighting psychers. All right. And of course. As you can see in the image, being near it, you know, like even if it doesn't brain blast you, it'll still kill you. Yeah, it'll still impale you on one of its arms, sure. Sure. Yeah, it'll still stab you.

Oh, yeah, it's still a problem. Oh, yeah. The maleccepter is an interesting bug. I kind of like it. It has some pretty good brain blast power in game, but it's a little expensive for my taste. How expensive is it? I don't know, like, more than I want to use. Very specific.

I don't know. If I told you how many points it would be, would you really know? Well, what? Every Army is 2,000 points, right? So I could at least have a guess at, like, as if you're like, oh, yeah, it's 500 points. It's like, wow, that's a chunky amount of points if you're only allowed 2,000 points. No, okay, it's not that many points. I'm just saying, you know, I could make a rough guesstimate.

You know. Malacector. Unic composition. 165. I mean, from how strong this thing sounds, 165 doesn't seem that bad. It's more that it's like abilities are kind of just,

they're just okay. Okay. And also, it's big brain blasts. It's like, fine, but nothing crazy. Now, okay, you know what? If we're going to talk about undercosted things, we're going to talk about things that are way too cheap, Let's talk about the horror specs.

Okay. The horror spec or the horror specs? The horror specs, H-A-R-U. Okay. The horror specs is 125 points, and it should not be 125 points. That is ungodly cheap. Okay. What does it do?

Whoa. It does that. That's a picture. Whoa. Oh, wow. Wow, that's a, that's a big bug. That's a lot of tentacles. That's a big mouth.

Is that, is that an ultramarine in its mouth? You know it is. Oh, let's go. I love them. Whoa, it's this thing. Oh, it's this thing. I've seen this disgusting mini before and I love it. It's pretty horrible, isn't it?

Oh, it's so awful. It is, this is like the preeminent, like, oh, so you want to know what nids are like Minnie? You look at this awful thing. Oh, it's so disgustingly great. So in game, especially. So obviously, the horror specs is not particularly hard to understand. It eats everything it ever sees and then carries it back to the pools of the reclamation pools and pukes it out and then goes back. Pretty standard tiered shenanigans.

But in game, I find it hilarious. Wait, so it's the mama bird? Oh yeah, I guess so a little bit. It's the mama bird in it. It just eats everything. Then just here you go, kids. Except it's into a pool, but yeah. Yeah, yeah.

I find it hilarious in game because, yeah, it has three sets of jaws. I thought it just had one giant one, but okay. It has a million gribble things in its face. Yeah. But it has a ungodly amount of attacks with its mouth. And then extra attacks with its. big shoveling claws on the sides. But the funniest part is it has one shooting attack called the grasping tongue,

which can specifically target enemy characters that are normally safe behind their bodyguards. And it's got this really wacky profile where if you roll properly and you roll the damage properly, you can basically just be like, all right, men, like a guard commissar or something. It's like, we fight for the glory of the grabbed out of, just gets yanked all the way back and then dies a horrible death. Oh, damn, another commissar got accidentally killed in battle. What a shame. It has the ability where, when it fights, as the rule, grisly spectacle,

which after killing something, everything around it has to take a battle shock test. Yeah, that's fair. That's fair. I mean, if I saw something just get grabbed by this giant spiky tongue and just get over here, I, too, would suffer battle shock. absolutely sure it's pretty horrifying this thing it's also just really cheap points

wise so yeah what a great mini though what a great mini that is just oh man it's so nasty so there are two quick flying ones I'd like to talk about in a quick second there's the harpy and the hive

of crone the harpy is I mean these aren't really too exciting they're a lot like gargoyles they just basically fly in the air, shoot you with cannons, and also drop spore mines on your face. Okay. So just a normal flying unit.

Just, hey, look at us. We're flying. And they're big, I guess. Yeah, they're just big. They're anti-like aircraft. They use them a lot when you want to destroy an enemy Valkyry transport or other aircraft that's flying in the air, you know? Gotcha.

They're evolved for air-to-air combat a lot. The hive crone especially has a big drool. cannon and just goes bleh and kills you. Yeah. So that's that's the harpy. You know, pretty normal looking. Sure. Sure. Also kind of broke the game in ninth edition. Oh, lovely. Lovely. Aircraft in general, or one of those. But it would fly over and be like, boom, boom, boom, boom, and drop bombs on you and then you'd take a bunch of damage. And it was very aggravating to deal with. Yeah, it's about what I expected from the mini. It's fine. Yeah, it's, it's fine. It's nothing particularly too exciting.

But if we're going to talk about the big bug, we got to talk about the most important big bug out there. The most important by far, which is the hive tyrant. Ooh, I feel like I've heard about this one, but do go on. The hive tyrant is the commander. It is the big main commander, the embodiment of the hive mind and primary synapse conduit for the lesser tyrrhenid creatures. Mm-hmm. They are enormous, extremely powerful monsters,

and often tear through basically anything they get put in their path. There is also the famously named hive tyrant, the swarm lord. Ah, the swarm lord! I knew I had heard about these guys before. Love the swarm lord, because they're just the entire consciousness of like, millions of bugs, right? Basically, there are a completely self-aware tiernid. Unlike the smaller ones, they are incredibly intelligent,

learn from mistakes, are cunning, and just, like these things are about as smart as your average major general in the space marines. They are a genuine alien strategist. Was it Which Which named Ultramarine Got kind of dunked on

By a Swarm Lord Lost an arm and a leg to one or something, right? Marnius Calgar Uh, yep, yep He didn't have a leg to stand on Against these guys He could have used a hand against them God damn it

Mm Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, but yes, you were correct, Marneus Calgar It absolutely did It stomped on them. But the weirdest and most terrifying part of the hive time, besides the fact that it is not just murderous in melee,

often murderous in shooting because it normally has a gun sometimes, and also massive psychic power and just overall psychic strength. It also is functionally immortal as after its death, all of his experience, knowledge, and everything is stored in the hive mind. and then they are rebirthed out again with all the knowledge they have. Right, right. I vaguely remember that in the Ultramarine story because they actually managed to kill the one Swarm Lord.

Then they're just like, oh, hey, how come there's another one? Mm, very true. Yeah, I remember. That's the fancy part about them. I remember a little bit about the Swarm Lord. They're very cool. I remember really liking the Mini. Swarm Lord's pretty cool.

The mini's pretty good. Also still Six Edition stuff, but I do like it. Yeah, I mean, it seems like there's a lot of six edition minis of the nids, and they're all actually pretty good. Like, I don't mind that they're a little on the older side. Actually, these are fourth edition minis, my bad. Yeesh. These are, these ones, I think, are some of the ones that don't look bad, but they're really getting there. Yeah, they're definitely, like, there's nothing bad.

They're not atrociously ugly or anything. They're obviously dated, but they're fine. Yeah, they're okay. That would be the swarm wall. Lord. Okay, he does look a little dated. I'm not going to lie. He looks too skeletal.

I guess it's just the paint job because it's so white on the under part. He looks skeletal. And I don't really like that paint job. I mean, when you think about it, when you think about it, the, what is it, the Swarm Lord and the, or no, the Norn emissary is a lot closer to what we would probably think of what they would look like in terms of its visuals, because the Norn Emissary is like the greatest thing of all time. Of course.

Yeah. But it is pretty nasty. But the hive tyrant's like you main boy. I hate that second picture of the hive tyrant with that like dangly arm going all the way over to the gun. Don't like it. I don't like that. I think it's funny. It is funny, but it's like that's unsettling that they can make arms like that's just like.

All right. There's two more things. There's two more things I want to talk about. about. Okay. There was actually like 15 other things we could talk about, but once again, there's so many nids. We're almost an hour already, so yeah, we could go on for another six, but let's not do that to shy. Shai has indeed read my mind. We have to do the hyerafund. Hyrofen. The hyrophant. Is it, is the E actually silent? I mean, if it's like hieroglyphics. Oh, yeah, I guess you're right. You know. All right. All right.

Never mind. The hierophant. The hierophant biotitan. Ooh, I do like the word biotitan. Like that. Oh, my God. What is? Wow.

Yes, biotitan is a great word for that thing. So I got to find the image that I love seeing whenever I see the biotitan. I'm assuming it doesn't have a mini. No, it does. Oh, yeah. Let's go. Where is that piece? There's that piece of R I was looking for.

This is one of my favorite pieces. There we go. Oh my God. Yeah. It's bigger than the spaceships. Also, there's your, well, the spaceships are way higher up, so it doesn't really count. Whoa. There's the mini.

That mini. Whoa. I love it. Here is a decent, oh, yep, sorry to be missing. There's a night.

Oh, it's very big. And by all accounts, it is kind of a skinny bug, and it is still huge. Oh, God. One of my favorite,

my favorite memes is the guardsman with the plasma gun on the left-hand side of that image. And it's the, it's a SpongeBob meme. so I know you don't like it, but it's the, a glaze look in the eye.

Look very closely at the I really wish I weren't here right now, button. Yep. Yeah, that's a, yeah, yeah, you're screwed. You're screwed. That's like a, like, what would you do if this happened, meme? Or it's just a picture of, like, a meteor hitting the earth and half of the earth exploding. It's like, well, I'm going to die.

The end. I mean, I would probably have a, an easier time reading what this thing doesn't have in terms of weaponry. Does it just have all of the tyrannid weapons at its disposal? It's got bio-canons. It's got tons of claws. It's heavily armored. It shoots out poisonous spores.

Like, what else do you want? It's bigger than a titan. Like, it's bigger than a knight. It's the size of like a titan, yeah. Like, it's giant. It's just the big, you're screwed tyrannid. Now, this, I am sure this thing has got to be absolutely, like, Tyrannid players aren't running this thing

because I'm assuming it's got to be like a thousand points or something. Like it's got to be like half of your army. It's basically, I think it is. I actually used to have one. It's crazy. And you never made it? You never like built it?

It was like half built. It was a lot of problems. But the Hierophon BioTitan is 810 points, which is actually way cheaper than I thought it would be. It's still basically half your army. Yeah. It has dire bio-canons, bioplasma torrent, and then Titanic sithing talons, and lash-wip pods.

It also is a transport that can carry infantry. Of course it is. Why wouldn't it be? Look at the size of this thing. Of course it's an infantry transport, too. Sure. Sure. Why not?

It's got two dire biocanons, the bioplasma torrent, and all the extra attacks. Eight attacks is strength 20 and D6 plus one damage. Gargantuan scything towns. Gargantuan. It's a lovely word. So rarely get a chance to use it. Toughness 14, two up save, 30 wounds. You love it.

You love to see it. It's actually a lot cheaper than I thought it was going to be, but damn. All right. And then last but not least, the last one I'd like to do, you know, just because you guys, you guys really put me in the mood from last episode. Oh, does it have thighs? Does this thing have thighs that you're going to talk about? No, let's talk about the dominatrix.

Yes, yes, let's go. Let's talk. I saw this when I was doing the research and I was like, I'm sorry, shy, you got to deal with me right now. I was like, what the fuck is this? Is it actually called the dominatrix? Yes. No way.

There's a charity called the dominatrix. The dominatrix. species name is a tyranid species which exerts a controlling psychic aura to bring lesser tyranid creatures to its will, allowing the storm to operate under its command with uncanny efficiency and tactical ability. So GW knew exactly what they were doing. They knew exactly what they were putting out there. Okay, cool. So the mini is only available in Epic, which is like a version of 40K where everything is really, really tiny. Therefore, it looks absolutely horrid.

I can't even tell what that's supposed to be. Like, what is that? Like, come on. Dominatrix should look like the neuralictor. We all can agree on this, right? It should be a variant of the neuralictor. Hello? You good?

Yeah, I'm all right. All right, good. So, it is... It does have thighs, though. I was right. It does have thighs, though. That's what I was thinking. It apparently says that it is a colossal.

So, okay. Because it's only an epic, we don't know much about this, but it says possesses a large array of bioweaponry and packs a colossal mass, dwarfing that of an imperial super heavy tank. Ooh. Which would be basically like a dwarfs a bane blade. Okay.

So that's a big bug. That's a big old bug. It is a gargantuan composite creature of nightmarish proportions equipped with ripping claws and fangs and a stunning profusion of symbiotic weaponry. Dominaetracies are the brood queens of a tyranet horde, their children spawning into all the different tyrannid classes. So it's like an uber tervigom that doesn't just spit out termagons.

It also spits out warriors. Everything. Everything just starts going from this thing. So it's a good thing that this is just an epic model, because otherwise it seems like this would be a very popular Tyrannid mini to run. I mean, it's got them birth and hips. I mean, it has to birth literally everything. So, I mean, you know, it's understandable.

It's got them birth and hips. Mm-hmm. And that's the dominatrix. That's the, yep, hips don't lie. There are many creatures that we have not talked about. There's the domicarian, there's the malanthrope, there's all the flying ones, like the, Tyrannosite.

God damn it. And all the other hive shifts. But for the most part, I think, what is more on brand for, okay, well, there is that. That's the tyranosite. It's like a transport. Ah, okay.

It's a big, bulbous thing. He's a girthy lad. That's true, yeah. I don't want to end on that, though. I want to end in the Domitrix because it's on brand for our stream. Hell, yeah, it is. And this isn't a stream, but that's okay.

Me, when the Domitrix tier, and it does not in fact want to have sex and instead consumes me whole. Yeah, all right, let's end on that. Did I press the right button? Was that the dying emoji? That was the scream. Yeah, the dying emoji.

Yeah.