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GENESTEALERS

These cults seek to gain control over the host planet subtly, through hidden manipulation of the populace and subversion of the planetary government. However, they can put a potent force into battle if threatened. The Stealer cults sometimes form alliances with other cults, and they can be found fighting alongside Chaos or Vampire cults or warbands - or, if it suits their purpose, against them.

The Genestealers are among the most unusual of creatures Humanity has yet encountered, combining extraordinary intelligence and subtlety of mind with remarkable strength and quickness of body. Their torsos and extremities are protected by a deep blue carapace. Their sinewy muscles are purple-red. They are bipedal, standing in a perpetual crouch atop hooved feet, and they have two sets of arms, one equipped with Human-like hands, one with powerful ripping claws. The Genestealers' hairless heads are bulbous in shape, coloured the same deep purple-red as their muscles, with the creatures' fang-filled mouths and hypnotic eyes at the front.

Genestealers are stronger and hardier than Men, able to withstand even the most hostile environments - including hard vacuum - unprotected. They live for centuries.

REPRODUCTION CYCLE OF THE GENESTEALERS

Genestealers are equipped with oviposters, or egg-layers, in their tongues. They have the ability to mesmerise their victims with their gaze, in much the way a snake can paralyse a bird with terror. Once the victim is subdued, the Stealer pierces the victim with its tongue, which deposits an egg beneath the skin.

The Stealer's egg never hatches - in fact, 'egg' is something of a misnomer; it is more like a cancer than an egg. When implanted, the egg begins to alter the host's genetic structure, cell by cell, wreaking particular damage to the victim's reproductive system. The victim shows little outward sign of the infection - in fact, he gains some of the Stealer's remarkable strength, resilience, and longevity, becoming healthier than he was before. However, the damage is horribly evident in the victim's children.

When someone infected by a Stealer mates, his offspring are hybrids - part Human, part Stealer, with the Stealer traits predominating. Once mature, these hybrids infect other Humans with eggs: their children are also hybrids, though they will look more like normal Humans.

Perhaps the most horrifying aspect of the entire cycle is that the Human hosts appear not to notice - or care - that their children are monsters. The parents love and cherish the creatures, above and beyond even normal parental affection. Whether this is because of some power of the child or because the parents are psychically dominated by the purestrain Genestealer is unknown.

Once the Genestealers begin to infiltrate and infect a new race, that race's days are clearly numbered. A single Genestealer can infect hundreds; their children can infect millions. Unless the infection is spotted early and ruthlessly countered, in short centuries the original race is all but extinct. This makes the Genestealers terrible, implacable enemies - they must constantly seek out new races to conquer, or their race will perish with their victims.

GENESTEALERS AND TECHNOLOGY

However, their hybrid children are not so limited. The first generation tends to have the same mental shortcomings as pure Stealers, but further generations - where the Human genes apparently have more influence - gain some of Man's facility with tools and weapons. Though not technological innovators, these later hybrids can use equipment others have designed and built.

The cycle of infection continues until about the fourth generation, when the hybrids are all but indistinguishable from purestrain Humans. The fourth generation hybrids have no oviposters and mate in the normal Human fashion, but they may spawn Humans, hybrids, or purestrain Genestealers.

SPACE HULKS

Very little is known about the warp. Some studies were undertaken during the Dark Ages of Technology, but most of the knowledge was lost in the Age of Strife, or suppressed by the Ordo Malleus in the years since. However, it is known that there are currents and eddies in the warp, which can trap a vessel in warpspace forever, or turn it from its course and deposit it back in realspace light years - or centuries - from its intended destination.

The vessels known as space hulks suffer a different, and in many ways, much more unpleasant, fate. Space hulks have been wrenched from their course, and drift helplessly through warpspace, travelling wherever the currents take them. They may stay locked in warpspace for centuries, or drop back into realspace minutes after entering the warp.

It is impossible to determine where or when - or if - a hulk will return to real space, and even the psychic Astropaths are unable to influence or predict the hulk's voyage. Once the hulk is returned to realspace, it is not free. Minutes, hours, days, or years later, it will be sucked back into the warp, to endure another uncertain, endless voyage.

Passengers trapped aboard a drifting space hulk face slow death by starvation - or quick death by madness. Possibly the most unfortunate are those whose vessels have efficient life-support systems: they may linger for centuries.

There appears to be some kind of pattern to the arrival and departure of space hulks, and periodically, two or more appear in realspace at the same place and time. If one is empty and dead and the other inhabited, the crew of the inhabited vessel scavenges the other for metal, energy, and spare parts, seeking to repair their own dying ship or expand their living space by binding the two vessels together. If both ships are occupied, the crews may fight savagely to take each other's vessel. Over the millennia, the patchwork vessels attain huge size.

It is impossible to predict when a hulk will re-enter the warp, so anyone who boards them risks eternal prison. However, there are many who are willing to take that risk. Some hulks have been in existence since the Dark Age of Technology or even earlier - though their original inhabitants are long dead, these vessels are treasure-houses of lost technology, containing secrets which could bring unimaginable wealth to anyone who dares plunder them.

Genestealers use this to their great advantage in the war against Man. They have boarded a number of space hulks, accompanied by their hybrid children. The hybrids construct cryogenic suspension chambers for the pure Stealers - though hardy and long-lived, even the Stealers cannot survive for centuries in the awful cold and vacuum of space.

Once the cryogenic chambers are complete, the hybrids depart. The purestrain Genestealers sleep, and the hulk continues its eternal voyage. Though it may take centuries, eventually - inevitably - some day the space hulk will reappear in populated space, to be discovered and boarded by foolhardy treasure-hunters.

When the space hulk is boarded, sensors are triggered, awakening the sleeping Genestealers. The boarding party is attacked, overwhelmed, infected - and then released. Several Stealers accompany the party back to their ship, infecting the ship's crew as well, and then hiding themselves in the ship's holds.

Psychically controlled by the Stealers, the ship's crew have little or no memory of the attack, and may not be aware that they have been infected or that they are carrying Stealers. When the ship reaches a Human-held planet, an implanted crewman departs, accompanied by a Genestealer. The vessel becomes a plague carrier, bringing its cargo of death and despair to each planet it visits.

Once on the planet, the Stealer goes into hiding, and the crewman under his control begins to form a cult.

GENESTEALER CULTS

Some of these cults are harmless, run by religious quacks or charlatans; some are much more sinister. It is rumoured that there are millions of Chaos cults scattered throughout the Imperium, as well as other groups dedicated to the Emperor's downfall - including Genestealer cults.

When they arrive on a Human planet, the Genestealer and its Human thrall go as far away as possible from civilisation, settling in the most remote and desolate part of the planet - either in the far wilderness or deep in the bowels of the abandoned inner city. The Genestealer begins to prey on the Humans around him; those he infects join his cult. The children of the infected Humans (Human-Stealer hybrids) are kept well hidden from prying eyes.

A Genestealer cult usually masquerades as a new religion, with the Stealer's thrall as titular head. In outward appearance the religion is completely harmless, and often laudable, promoting hard work, cherishing the young and respecting the old, and encouraging extreme modesty (most of the priests and priestesses go about completely robed at all times). The religious message is simple, usually foretelling the coming arrival of the Blessed Children, who will lead their parents to eternal bliss.

As it grows in power and influence, the religion attracts genuine converts, who have no idea of the sinister cult hiding behind it. Eventually, these dupes are initiated into the deeper mysteries of the faith - and infected themselves.

Though Genestealers are driven by a ferocious and all but uncontrollable need to infect victims to ensure the survival of their species, the pure Stealer restrains itself and its progeny from infecting too many Humans too fast, recognizing that the religion's too-rapid growth might arouse the suspicion of the Imperial Inquisition.

The years pass, and eventually the third and fourth generation hybrids are born. Some are virtually indistinguishable from untainted Humans. It is at this point that the cult begins to spread its power across the planet. The titular head of the religion, the original crewmember infected by the Stealer, is removed, and his place is taken by a fourth generation hybrid. The hybrid, having some of the Genestealers' hypnotic powers, literally mesmerises those who see him, gaining new and even more fanatical members for the cult.

Other fourth generation hybrids leave the close protection of the cult and, masquerading as diplomats, religious missionaries, merchants, or other travellers, spread the infection across the planet, and throughout the Imperium.

Once the fourth generation is born, virtually the only way to stop the infection is to sterilize the entire planet, killing every living thing on it.

GENESTEALER CULTS IN BATTLE

A Stealer is all but unstoppable in close combat; even a man protected by Tactical Dreadnought Armour is no match. Thus, close combat is at the heart of a Genestealer cult's battle tactics - a massive wave assault of Stealers, hybrids, and Human fanatics. If the attackers reach the enemy's position, the enemy is almost certainly doomed.

In battle, the cult is led by its Magus - a fourth generation hybrid who is the figurehead leader of the cult. The purestrain Genestealer continues to advise the Magus, but it leaves the actual generalship to someone who is better able to understand the opponent's weaponry.

The Magus and Genestealer are accompanied by the core of the cult - the coven, containing most of the early-generation hybrids and a small number of Humans armed with ranged weapons. The coven takes no part in the early stages of the battle, merely directing the other troops, providing a rallying point, and awaiting the moment to spring.

The cult probably won't have a good deal of ranged weaponry at its disposal - the Genestealer is indifferent to such things and they are often difficult for any but legitimate military forces to attain.

Whatever ranged weapons the cult has are concentrated in a single unit. This unit takes up a good defensive position, attempting to engage the enemy's ranged weapons, pinning them down and drawing fire away from the coven's shock troops.

The bulk of the cult's fanatic Human members are provided with close assault weapons - short-range guns, if available, rocks, clubs, swords, and the like. Forming up in massive waves, they rush out onto the field, screaming wildly, firing indiscriminately, and waving the cult's battle banner. This has two purposes: to work them up into an even greater frenzy, and to frighten and demoralize the enemy. They advance mindlessly, taking no notice of casualties - the only way to stop them is to kill them all.

When the enemy is demoralized or the battle hangs in the balance, the coven itself enters the fray. Moving close behind the fanatics, drawing protection from enemy fire by the seething mass of frenzied Humanity, the Magus, the purestrain Stealer and the early hybrids move in for the kill. When the fanatics have reached the enemy lines, the coven springs into action, ripping their opponents apart in an orgy of blood and destruction.

Of course, specific details vary from battle to battle. The cult may have auxiliary troops from allied Chaos cults or other Genestealer cults; rogue psykers or Beastmen may be fighting alongside the cult for their own purposes; the cultists may be mounted on horseback or within an armoured vehicle; the Magus may be possessed by a Daemon (an awesome combination indeed!). But whatever the circumstances, the overall tactics remain the same: get in close and tear the enemy apart.

Few can face the awesome might of a Genestealer cult at war. If discipline is at all weak, if they waver for even a moment, they are surely doomed.

GENESTEALER PHYSIOLOGY

The first generation Hybrids closely resemble purestrain Genestealers. But, with each new generation of Hybrids, Genestealer traits give way to Human traits, until fourth generation Hybrids arc all but indistinguishable from untainted Humans. However, a Hybrid will always display the Genestealer's primal instincts; these always remain in their genetic structure, and - no matter how Human in appearance - a Hybrid belongs to the Genestealer brood.

Purestrain Genestealers are totally incapable of passing as Human. Their multiple arms, bulbous heads, glaring eyes, and animal crouch give them away; no amount of clothing and make-up can disguise such characteristics. However, later generations, particularly the third and fourth, become more humanoid in appearance. Indeed, many Genestealers of advanced generations can appear as Humans at first glance, especially if wearing concealing clothing. However, as their sharp teeth and hypnotic eyes are somewhat of a giveaway, they tend to avoid speaking to strangers or looking at people straight in the face.

It follows that, in many ways, the later generation Hybrids are the most dangerous - they can move freely among Humans, passing on their terrible disease unnoticed.

Due to the sheer number of Humans throughout the Imperium they are the race most commonly affected by Genestealers. Nevertheless, there is no reason why any other race cannot be infected; Ork-Genestealer Hybrids are perfectly possible - indeed many exist. The appearance of such Hybrids would, of course, depend on the parent race, and they would show different physical characteristics than a Human-Genestealer crossbreed.

GENESTEALER AND HYBRID PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Each physical characteristic goes through certain distinct stages.

The Head
Although Genestealer Hybrids gradually lose their long bulbous craniums as the generations progress, their hypnotic, staring eyes remain; their appearance often gives away a Hybrid who otherwise looks quite Human. In the same way, fangs become shorter in later generations although all the Hybrids retain vicious sharp teeth.

The Carapace
Purestrain Genestealers have a tough, armoured carapace with a horny spinal ridge, and raised ligatures running along their limbs. They are also bent over in a perpetual crouch, as if waiting to spring, making them appear much shorter than their true height. Later Hybrids lose the carapace, and attain a more upright stance as the spine straightens out to accommodate a more Human hip structure.

The Arms
Purestrain Genestealers have four arms - a pair with hands from their midsection, and a pair with powerful claws mounted at their shoulders with which they attack. Later Hybrids lose one or both of the clawed arms, leaving only those with hands, and their hands become more able to handle manipulative tasks of an intricate nature.

The Legs
Throughout the successive generations, the Hybrids lose the long, powerful legs typical of the Purestrain Genestealers and acquire normal Human legs.

The Purestrain and Hybrid Characteristics table summarises the physical form of the Genestealer and its descendants.

Generation	Head	Body	Legs	Arms	Fangs	Claws	Ovipositor	Hypnotic Gaze	Telepathy	Psi Powers
Purestrain	Purestrain	Carapace	Purestrain	4	Yes	2	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
First	Bulbous	Carapace	Long	3-4	Yes	1-2	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Second	Bulbous	Carapace	Long	3	Yes	1	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Third	Bulbous	Crouched	Humanoid	2-3	No	0-1	50% Chance	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fourth	Humanoid	Humanoid	Humanoid	2	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Later	The firstborn of a fourth generation Hybrid is a Purestrain.

GENESTEALERS IN COMBAT

Purestrain Genestealers and first generation Hybrids can deliver a powerful and destructive blow with their claws, and have a considerably longer reach than most Humans or later generation Hybrids.

The Genestealer Kiss
Purestrain and early generation Hybrids have an ovipositor in their throat which is used to implant the Stealer gene into their victims.

After being implanted with the Stealer gene, the victim immediately collapses in a coma and is unable to do anything. The victim recovers after a few days and appears completely unharmed, if somewhat dazed and with no conscious memory of the Genestealer attack. There are no outward signs that the victim is host to the Stealer gene.

Obviously, a Genestealer intent on passing its genetic material on to a victim will make no further attacks, or do any harm to the victim, once the implant attack is successful. In addition, other Genestealers can identify unconscious gene hosts and will not harm them.

Third generation Hybrids have a 50% chance of having an ovipositor. If they do not possess one, they are neuter Hybrids or Drones, and are unable to mate at all (although, with the appropriate surgical equipment, they can pass on the Stealer gene by injecting a victim with their blood).

Fourth generation Hybrids always lack the ovipositor and can only mate in the normal Human manner.

Genestealers and Weaponry
Purestrain Genestealers are unable to use Human weaponry; their thought processes and aggressive instincts are entirely alien, and they rely instead on their own natural forms of attack. However, later generation Hybrids are sufficiently Human to be able to understand and manipulate weaponry designed for Human hands, eyes and minds.

Psychology
Purestrain Genestealers and all Hybrids are immune to the effects of psychology.

PSYCHIC ABILITIES

Psychic Hybrids
Purestrain Genestealers and first and second generation Hybrids have no psychic powers except for their innate abilities, Hypnotic Gaze and Brood Telepathy. Third and fourth generation Hybrids, however, will often have additional psychic powers. Inherited psychic traits passed on from infected psykers in the Hybrid's ancestory may become apparent in the near-Human third and fourth generation Hybrids.

Purestrains and Hybrids can recognise Human psykers when they find them. Genestealers are attracted to psykers, and share none of the normal Human's prejudices against them, simply regarding them as exceptionally advanced specimens of the race. Consequently, the psykers in a community are amongst the first to be infected by the Stealer gene. This means that Human psychic traits will pass into the gene pool of the Hybrid brood, to be inherited by later generations. Thus, by the third and fourth generations, the Hybrids can develop full psychic powers in addition to possessing the two innate abilities of Genestealers.

Psychic Hybrids tap raw psychic energy emenating from the primitive Genestealer Power that exists in the warp - the shadow image of the will to survive' of the Genestealer species. Psychic Hybrids who worship a Chaos Power may of course draw psychic energy from their patron, thus tainting their simple Genestealer souls.

GENESTEALER INVASION FORCE

It is those broods that are at the expansion stage in the cycle of infestation and conquest, those who require new hosts to breed with, that become a Genestealer Invasion Force.

The reason why the brood has to move on is explained by a summary of its breeding cycle. The first stage is the infection of the original host by a Purestrain Genestealer. Subsequently, this infected gene-host goes on to form a family, from which his first offspring is a first generation Hybrid. This Hybrid then infects more Human hosts, who in turn engender second generation Hybrids - and so the process goes on, progressing geometrically.

After four generations of infected hosts (taking less than a century), a brood made up hybrids of various generations has arisen. The Human members' kin, the parents and untainted siblings, feel very intense bonds towards their Hybrid relations, even though they are deformed. Thus, the entire extended family forms a close-knit clan, the head of which will be the Purestrain progenitor of all the brood, known as the Patriarch.

Once it has become big enough, the clan will strive for dominance within the host society, initiating Chaos worship if it encounters difficulty, to harness power to assist in the struggle. The clan thus becomes a cult.

The fourth generation Hybrids within the clan will go on to found families like normal Humans, with their firstborn being Purestrain Genestealers. Because Hybrids live for Human lifetimes however, and because Purestrains are immortal, the early Hybrids in the brood will die out, leaving an increasing number of Purestrain Genestealers.

Once a whole new generation of Purestrains has grown to maturity, the brood-cycle is almost complete. It is now time for the Purestrain brood, led by their Patriarch, to find a new host with which to continue the cycle, and to found a new colony. In this way, with each Purestrain potentially the Patriarch of a future brood - indeed, it becomes one as soon as it breeds - the Genestealer race expands throughout the universe.

Because they require new genetic material, the Patriarch of each brood and his Purestrain descendants, along with the remaining later generation Hybrids, will either trek to another settlement, city or region, or embark on a captured starship or space hulk to travel to another planet. In the latter case, the Hybrids serve the brood by operating the controls of the spacecraft. Eventually, all of the Hybrids die off, leaving only the Patriarch and the Purestrains.

Once the brood encounters a new intelligent race, the cycle can begin again. They may either overwhelm and infect those who investigate their spacecraft, or transport an advance party on to the hosts' ship or planet. The advance party has the task of overwhelming local defences and any opposition they encounter to prepare the way for the rest of the brood. It is this advance party that is the Genestealer Invasion Force.

From the icy void of interstellar space surge the terrifying forces of the Tyranid hive mind. A massive intelligence formed from the consciousnesses of untold billions of creatures, it threatens the complete destruction of mankind. In the 41st Millennium, the rule of the human Imperium encompasses almost the entire galaxy, a glittering circle of stars ninety thousand light years from rim to rim. It is the largest and most populous empire of all time, comprising more than a million worlds and untold billions of human beings. The Imperium is ruled by the ancient and immeasurably powerful Emperor. Once he was a mighty, living man who forged the bonds of the Imperium. As the power of the Imperium reached its height the Emperor was betrayed by his own Warmaster, Horus, who had been possessed by the Powers of Chaos. The Emperor won the fight, saving the Earth and the whole Imperium from Chaos, but his body was terribly wounded in the struggle. For ten thousand years he has continued to control the destiny of the Imperium, thanks to a complex life-support system which preserves his body. His wishes are enacted by means of the Adeptus Administratum, a colossal bureaucratic organisation based upon Earth, but with the authority and means to control the entire galaxy.

Despite the power of the Imperium, the human race remains under constant threat from the many hostile aliens which seek to destroy or enslave mankind. The enemies of humanity are strong, but man has so far proved stronger, more resourceful and ultimately more enduring. This is largely due to the armed forces of the Imperium. Vast Imperial fleets travel the star clusters of the galactic core and the outer rim, carrying armies of Space Marines and Imperial Guard to wage war on planets fifty thousand light years from Earth.

Beyond the human galaxy lie the vast uncharted regions of intergalactic space. Empty distances too vast to comprehend thwart all of mankind's attempts to navigate them. These are the great barriers which separate galaxy from galaxy and keep the farthest stars the subject of conjecture and mystery. Now something stirs in the frozen emptiness. An intelligence moves through it, a mind that is many inter-linked minds, immeasurably old and alien. This is the Tyranid hive mind, and it has crossed the great, dark void in search of new planets to despoil. Now its advance forces have reached the Imperium, and the fate of mankind and every living thing in the galaxy hang in the balance.

The Tyranids have travelled to the Imperium in a hive fleet consisting of a great dark swarm of millions of individual spacecraft. Each spacecraft is a gigantic living beast, a creature fashioned from organic tissue by means of sophisticated genetic manipulation. During the aeons-long journey across the void the Tyranids have slumbered in a state of frozen hibernation. As the edge of the hive fleet approached the Imperium the spacecraft stirred from sleep and their inhabitants slowly began to thaw. The Tyranids awake and recall the age-old purpose of their kind.

The Tyranid hive mind hungers for fresh genetic material, gene-stocks that can be used to create new bio-construct creatures and organic machine-slaves. Their own galaxy is exhausted, its creatures long since absorbed into the hive mind, their flesh turned to unfathomable purposes or discarded as useless. With its billions of humans and countless other creatures the Imperium offers the Tyranids an almost inexhaustible stock of flesh and genes which will invigorate the hive mind and enable it to embody itself in new forms.

Humanity will be absorbed, broken into strands of DNA to be used to create a new generation of bio-technology. It will be the death of the human race, but to the Tyranid hive mind this is of no more consequence than the mining of ores or the harvesting of crops. For the Tyranids have no sense of pity or compassion, they are as utterly beyond human understanding as humans are beyond their comprehension. To them man is just an inefficient and primitive lifeform, something to be consumed and turned to a higher purpose. Such has been the fate of a thousand galaxies, of millions of intelligent species, since time immemorial.

THE TYRANID HIVE MIND

Such an evolved consciousness is impossible for humans to comprehend. The billions of creatures in the hive fleet all act in concert, serving as individual cells in the single creature that is the hive mind. Mankind still searches vainly for the higher beings they suppose control the hive fleets, and though such mighty creatures exist they no more control the hive mind than single brain cells control a man's body. It is the sum of the hive mind which motivates it, not its constituent parts.

The Tyranids are the undisputed masters of genetic manipulation and bio-engineering. Great factory-creatures, the Tyranid Nom-Queens, ingest genetic materials and chum out all the countless types of creatures that go to make up the hive fleet.

Tyranid technology is based upon biological engineering. All functions are performed by genetically tailored bioconstructed creatures which have a rudimentary consciousness and form part of the hive mind. The Tyranid spacecraft are living creatures, and individual components such as sphincter doors, food hatcheries and teleportation cysts are highly modified living things. Even the most basic Tyranid devices have their origins as living tissue and have a thread of the hive mind within them.

Tyranids also use gene-manipulation to create new races of servant creatures from captives. These advanced bioconstructs are artificial races bred by the Tyranids. Their minds form part of the hive mind but they can still think and act for themselves and can make and act upon decisions within the limits engineered into them. There are many hundreds of these races, amongst them the Genestealers and the Zoats. Although these awesome creatures may look monstrous and horrific to human eyes, they are all designed to fulfil some specific role.

THE SHADOW IN THE WARP

The Tyranid hive fleet also travels through the warp. Normally any spacecraft moving through the warp sets up vibrations which can be detected by a human Astropath, but the hive fleet is so unimaginably vast that it creates an impenetrable disturbance like a huge blocking shadow. This shadow is the dark, impenetrable will of the hive mind itself, before which the astral spirit of a puny psyker is as safe as a candle in a hurricane.

The shadow cast by the hive mind presents an impenetrable wall which prevents Astropaths from sending or receiving telepathic messages, stops spacecraft entering the warp and forces spacecraft already in the warp wildly off-course. As the Tyranid hive fleet advances, the area of the Imperium swallowed up by it simply stops communicating, giving almost no clues as to what has happened.

THE ADVANCE OF THE TYRANIDS

A thousand human worlds have already fallen to the invader, their populations consumed or imprisoned by the Tyranids. Even after so short a time new races of human-based bioconstructed creatures swell the armies of the hive mind.

Only the vaguest details of the fighting have reached the Imperium. Millions of human warriors have died. Entire Chapters of the Imperium's Space Marines have vanished without trace leaving no clue to their fate. The Lamenters Chapter is presumed to have been destroyed and the Scythes of the Emperor has been reduced to a few scattered remnants.

But these human warriors have not died in vain. During the fiercest fighting Space Marine spacecraft engaged ships of the Tyranid fleet. Boarding parties entered the vitals of the immense alien craft, gathering information about the Tyranids and successfully destroying untold thousands of aliens. The information gained by these brave Space Marines is essential if the Tyranids are going to be driven back.

Armed with this precious information the Imperium prepares for open war against the enemy it has named Hivefleet Kraken after the mythical monster of Earth's ancient past. The weaponshops of Mars turn out new and more potent machineries of war, gleaming new spacecraft pour from the shipyards of the Imperium, and the vast resources of the Imperial Guard gradually swing into action as millions of men prepare to fight for the very survival of mankind.

The hive fleet has swallowed up a thousand Imperial worlds already and confused details of the fighting on the planets portray the Tyranids as an unstoppable force. Tales have reached the Imperium of skies turned black over whole continents by clouds of wind-born poison spores. Confused stories of hulking monsters that stalk the land, ripping and slashing with their gigantic claws; of millions of bio-constructs crawling across a world, devouring everything in their path and leaving the planet a wasteland. Whole population centres have been subdued or wiped out in a single night, those taken alive envying the dead. Such battles as are fought turn into nightmares when the terrifying Tyranid weapons are unleashed against ill- prepared defenders. Men are driven mad with terror and despair before the Tyranids ever reach them. Others are frozen by the sight of the creatures. Weapons hanging uselessly in their hands they can do nothing more than watch the bloody approach of their butchers.

The Space Marines have fought too, their altered bodies and psycho-conditioning enabling them to better withstand the Tyranids. But even they are unable to deny the horror of their opponents. Even when cut off and surrounded, the

Tyranid Warriors and their bio-constructs fight with uncompromising ferocity, trying to kill as many enemy as possible with no thought for their own lives. The Tyranids seem to have no concept of defence. As long as they can perceive enemy forces they will continue to attack, hurling themselves against their opponents in wave after relentless wave. Often a Tyranid battleforce will be completely destroyed and a relative calm will fall, but only for as long as it takes a new force to reach the area and attack. Tyranids never rest, never retreat, and never surrender.

TYRANIDS IN WARHAMMER 40,000

• The Tyranid Hive Mind in Warhammer 40,000 Games
• Losing Contact with the Hive Mind
• The Tyranid Army Cards
  • Hunter-Slayer (Termagant) Squads
  • Tyranid Battle Squads
  • Purestrain Genestealer Bands
  • Zoats
  • Genestealer Patriarch
  • Genestealer Magus
  • Genestealer Hybrids
  • Bands of Brood Brothers
  • Squig Swarm
  • Screamer-Killer (Carnifex)
  • Mind Slave Squad

• Codex Tyranids
• Take me to your Leader...
• Organic Weaponry
• Tyranid Warriors
• Heavy Firepower
• 'Eavy Metal: Gargoyles
• The Birth of a Nightmare: Mini Design
• 'Eavy Metal: Tyranid Termagants
• Missions
• Strategy
• Biomorphs
• Swarms
• ... and Genestealers too!
• Finishing Touches
• In Conclusion...

• Tyranid Warriors
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• Weapon Variants
• Ranged Weapons
• Heavy Fire
• Tyranid Warrior Brood
• 'Eavy Metal: Tyranid Warriors
• Tyranid Ranged Weapons
  • Deathspitter
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  • Barbed Strangler
  • Venom Cannon

• Hive Nemesis Results

• Tyranid Bio-War
• Zoanthropes
  • Special Rules
• Ripper Swarms
  • Special Rules

• Genestealer Cult Armoury
• Genestealer Cult Special Rules
• Genestealer Invasion Force: Army List
  • HQ
    • Genestealer Magus
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    • Genestealer Hierarch
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  • Genestealer Cults Wargear

• Genestealer Invasion Force: Army List
• Creating Your Cult: Modelling
• Buying Time, Armoury Raid: Scenarios
• Special Characters: Janos Armistadt the Traveller, Manos the Mad

Scythed Hierodule: Tyranid Heavy Support

• Rules based on Chapter Approved Tyranid Monstrosities in WD 255
• Mark Bedford's method of painted by Tyranid beasties

Epic Hive War: Tyranids Supplement - Review

• Epic Games System
• Until Now...
• Tyranid Forces
• 'Eavy Metal: (Epic) Tyranid Broods
• 'Eavy Metal: Epic Tyranids and Chaos
• Bio-Warfare
• Bio-Titans
• Tyranids on the Battlefield
• The Hive Mind

Abomination!: Battle Report - Imperials vs. Tyranids

• 'Eavy Metal: Tyranid Broods

Irresistible Onslaught: Tyranids

• The Hive Fleet
• Bio-Titans
• Terror Tactics
• Hierodule
• Rapid Assault
• Hierophant
• Overrun Attack
• Bio-Titan Broods
• Hive Mind Cards
• Invade and Destroy