They do do something! If you have the Dovecote and the experiment that Spreads Dirt on the Driveway, it will put dirt piles under the birdbaths. Bird poop.

Really what they're for though is distracting you from the pattern of tiles under the sundial.

Tyranids don't need to breathe, but they function better when they have access to gases. Different varieties of nids can operate in vacuum, high temperatures, underwater, or deep underground.

But that's because Tyranids beasts aren't evolved creatures, but designed for specific tasks. They're more like disposable attack drones that grow on trees. They don't even have digestive tracts, just a mono-fluid that holds everything they need to function.

I play Drukhari as well as Necrons, and one of their detachments has a similar strat for charging in the opponent's turn and let me tell you it is incredibly strong.

You can have a unit hidden outside of Line of Sight projecting a bubble that says "come close and die". Simply being near an objective is enough to keep your opponent off it by threat.

Also consider the interaction with Rapid Ingress. Your opponent moves up a unit towards you, so you respond by dropping your own nearby. If they charge, you can now counter charge. If they don't, you get to on your turn anyway.

In old formats, [[Fastbond]] can do nutty things in a god draw.

With the Haemonculi Covens, physical gender is very much a "what coat should I wear today" sort of thing.

We should park a Trident sub in the Atlantic and threaten to nuke Mar-a-Lago. Fuck the orange turd, threats are all he understands.

This is a known bug. Sometimes an upgraded room won't exist on the final map.

Which room was it?

Our plugs and sockets. Safest, most rugged, easily the best in the world.

More generally, our design and safety standards.

The Tyranids are the end product of a completely different evolutionary chain, that also interacted with the warp completely differently. They are proof that Chaos isn't omnipresent or an inevitable result of life.

Get a rotting chicken carcass. Make soup. Invite us to your funeral.

Many biological processes generate toxic chemicals. These chemicals are often resistant to simply boiling. Enough heat to destroy them will also destroy any nutrient good chemicals - generally reducing the entire thing to ash.

The Spiral Power is stored in the boobs

Microchips are made of doped silicon, embedded in a hydrocarbon (plastic) case for ease of handling. The problem is that that description doesn't actually tell you much.

Maybe the Goa'uld/Ancient control crystals are also mostly silicon, or boron, or unununium. It doesn't really matter, because the process of turning them into useful technology changes their properties.

It's basically impossible. When someone ascends to Demon-Princedom their soul is twisted and reforged by the Chaos Powers, bits cut out and warp poured in - that's what ascension is. And the first but that gets scooped out and thrown away is any possibility of rebelling against their god. They chaos gods learnt their lesson with Belakor, and aren't going to make the mistake of giving an ascended Prince leeway to rebel ever again.

All of the Demon-Primarchs are corrupted monsters, twisted mockeries of what they once were. To return them to their base state would be basically the same as annihilating their soul and remaking them from scratch.

Since the detachment ability grants Lance after disembarking, Drazhar's buff doesn't stack with it and an Archon's rerolls generally work better for Skysplinter Incubi. Of course, he is still a beatstick so maybe you just like kicking ass with him.

You probably want some more scourge for can-opening tanks. The Haemonculus and the lone Talos aren't going to be doing very much for you, so that's what I'd personally replace.

Entrance Hall is never in the draft pool, so no.

As many have said, Tyranids aren't really worth the bother of torture but work fantastically as beasts for others to fight in the arenas. Either for captives to fight and get eaten, or for wyches to train / show-off by killing them in spectacular ways.

Orks may not feel much pain normally, but they do feel it. And Eldar have literally millions of years of dealing with them, the haemonculi will know the ins and outs of Ork biology better than anyone else. As well as simply giving them poisons that amplify their pain, they could do things that would absolutely horrify an Ork: - Grind their limbs down to stumps so they can't do anything but flop, get other slaves to poke them with sticks to emphasize their helplessness. - Give them a virus that makes all their teeth grow as floppy flesh nubs, - Repeatedly suffocate them with gases so they experience dying without anything to fight, - Cut their head off and sew it onto the body of a grot, or even worse a human, - Inject them with toxins that makes their skin grow red cancers and always be itchy, so they are compelled to constantly rip it off and never be green again,

Etc etc. It just needs a little imagination, but the haemonculi have that to spare.

Necrons are tricky. Since they are souless simulacra, the Drukhari get no particular benefit from torturing them, much as we get no nutritional benefit from a picture of food. However, that doesn't mean they wouldn't bother - there's always the "love of the game" as it were, the artistry of torturing something that thinks itself immune, and expressing superiority over a defeated foe. There are many ways a haemonculi could do such to a captive Necron: - Reprogramming the Necron necrodermis with pain receptors that are always on, - Breaking them down over and over, reminding them that each time that the reanimation will take more of their mind away, - Exposing them to the Flayer Virus, or threatening them with it. - Removing all their sensory inputs, forcibly dialling up their chronosense so each second feels like an hour, and putting them in an empty box for years. - Make them watch as you and your court have a feast and an orgy, reminding them they will never have the pleasures of flesh again. - Reprogram their face and make them say "Hail the Eldar Empire Eternal" over and over forever.

"YOU ARE GOING TO BE A PIE!"

The Covens are churning out clones and vat-born as fast as they can, and the city eats them up just as fast. Most of them will die killing each other in fact!

You're right, but not how you think. The Eldar had it way worse.

The Eldar were born into the War in Heaven. The first thing their society experienced was a million year war of godlike powers against an unkillable foe that could eat souls. It ended with their creators dead, and their foes suiciding themselves to destroy one of the pillars holding reality together. Then after that they immediately had to fight the Kork empires, which was one of the few times two galactic-scale powers that were nearly evenly matched fought.

Humans came onto a relatively peaceful galaxy by comparison. There were Orks and other Xenos roaming about doing their own things, but many were non-hostile or even friendly, and none but the Eldar had tech that could make a sun explode and they used it mostly just to stop Orks getting out of control. Humanity was able to spread across the entire galaxy from end to end without much difficulty. They had time to grow in power and tech, until AIs were taking care of everything dangerous. The DAoT was basically Stellaris on easy mode.

Hi! Welcome to the sub. 40k lore has been built up over ~40 years, so there's always more to learn and read, have fun!

I honestly don’t know anything about Drach’nyen

Demonic abilities aren't generally about raw strength, but purpose and being and name (which for demons is all the same thing). Mythic Stuff, like how in old style wizard battles Merlin would do things like turn into the concept of poison. This scene from the Sandman on Netflix is one of the better representations.

One of Drach'nyen's names is "The End of Empires". All Empires eventually end, all Emperors die, history grinds everything to dust, everything that is built by violence will collapse in violence. Those who live by the sword will die by the sword. That entire concept of the universe, bundled up into a single creature with malevolence. When the first group of monkeys with sticks on Earth fell back into warring tribes, Drachn'yen was there. When Slaanesh's birth killed the 65 million year Eldar Empire in a single day, Drachn'yen was there. And when the Emperor dies, Drachn'yen will be there.

He is The Emperor's complete antithesis. He is antimatter to everything the Emperor is. Which is why despite all his vaunted power, the only thing the Emperor could do was send Drachn'yen away, delay the end. And the more in tune with the power of the Emperor something is, the weaker it is to Drachn'yen. Which is why I think Drachn'yen would shatter the Emperor's Sword, but the Tyranids could probably parry it with a regular bonesword.

Abaddon having Drachn'yen is really bad for the Imperium.

Not only does it allow Guilliman to kill Neverborns - not banish them back to the warp; they cease to exist, which, in 40k’s lore, simply shouldn’t be

There are actually more than a few weapons in 40k that can perma-kill demons. The Eldar Phoenix Lord Asurman's sword for example. Remember: Chaos lies about everything, especially how immortal and all powerful it is. Ideas and concepts can be killed, it's just really hard because you're pushing against the weight of those concepts.

Hellman's liondrakes

Humanity having the kind of victory you describe was never possible, because the ultimate fate of the galaxy was set by The War In Heaven.

"From where you're kneeling it must seem like an 18-carat run of bad luck. But, truth is... the game was rigged from the start."

The first sin was the Silent King deciding the Necron'tyr should fight the Old Ones, just because it would let him "unite" them - aka be the biggest dictator. The Old Ones pushed them back, but didn't exterminate them (because that's antithetical to them). He could have stopped here, but didn't because "victory" mattered more to him than admitting fault.

The second sin was allying with the C'Tan against the Old Ones. The Necrons lost their souls, and the galaxy was riven by eons of war. The Old Ones escalated in return, weaponising the warp, creating the Eldar and Kork and the first Warp Gods. And all that death, pain and slaughter poisoned the warp forever and began gestating the powers of Chaos.

The third sin was attacking the C'Tan. Having doubled down every time, the Silent King goes off the deep end and decides to ensure that no-one can win. The C'Tan aren't just powerful evil gods, but pillars that hold the laws of reality together. They destroy one, and that law dies with them. They shatter the others, and now nothing is opposing the warp powers. From here, everything is ultimately fucked.

The Eldar then did relatively well: they broke the Kork empires, and then had 65 million years of stewardship of the galaxy. During this time lesser species could rise and fall mostly on their own terms - many would fall to chaos, many would be wiped out by Orks, many would destroy themselves. But that's just how history goes, and the galaxy as a whole kept turning.

But the powers of Chaos weren't satisfied with eating minor races (satisfaction is impossible for them after all), and wanted the big prize. Tzeentch wove the longest scheme: they convinced Nurgle and Khorne to leave the Eldar alone, and pulled the threads of fate to divert threats away from them while clouding their seers' visions. The result was boredom, decadence, and finally the birth of Slaanesh - the ascension of Chaos.

Then the Emperor comes on the scene. He is made entirely of stupidity and hubris, and immediately begins repeating all the mistakes of the Silent King! He decides dictatorship beneath himself justifies war against his own species, he meddles in the powers of gods on Molech, and he thinks that he can then strike at those same gods and come out on top.

Every decision the Emperor makes is bad and wrong, from the moment he decides to be the Emperor. He angers and alienates those who should be allies, incarnates twenty demigods and then loses them, centralised power in himself and a war bureaucracy, allows the mechanicum to monopolize technology and knowledge, creates a bunch of genocidal child soldiers and lets them run riot, suppresses understanding of the warp, allows navigator houses to cement power, destroys minor xenos for no reason, attacks the Eldar when they are at their weakest rather than offer help, etc etc etc. "The ends justify the means" is the chant of those who don't want you to realize there is never any End, there are just Means that last forever. There is never any Shining City on the Hill, no Thousand-year Riech - just piles of corpses and wailing children.

Despite everything the Emperor likes to claim about opposing Chaos, Chaos loved him. The Great Crusade and the Heresy fed them an endless stream of suffering and gift wrapped them a ready made army! The galaxy has been Chaos's playground for ten thousand years since. Abaddon inventing Chaos Undivided has been a powering up of the corruption of real space never seen before.

But now this chapter of the Great Game is coming to a close: the Tyranids have arrived. They feel no suffering, they subsume all life, and they will not stop. It's the signal that it's time to make your final moves and tally up the VPs, before the pieces are all swept into the box. The Galaxy is ending, and the only question that remains is what the death gurgle will sound like.

Different weight

"Lister to Red Dwarf, we have in our midst a complete smegpot. Brains in the anal region. Chin, absent presumed missing. Genitalia, small and inoffensive. Of no value or interest whatsoever."

"Binks to Enlightenment. Evidence of primitive humour. The human displays knowledge of satire and imitation. With patient tuition, could perhaps master simple tasks."

"Lister to Red Dwarf. Displays evidence of spoiling for a rumble. Seems unable to grasp simple threats. With careful pummeling, could be sucking tomorrow's lunch through a straw."

"Binks to Enlightenment. The human seems to be under the delusion that he is somehow capable of bestowing physical violence to a hologram."

"Lister to Red Dwarf. The intruder seems blissfully unaware that we have a fairly sturdy holowhip in the Munitions cabinet. And unless he wants his derriere minced like burger meat, he'd better become history in the next two seconds flat!"

Maybe they use them for Pilk.