Tyranids were first described in Rick Priestley's Rogue Trader, the first edition of the Warhammer 40,000. At that time they were not an emphasized race in the game, instead representing a limited number of occasionally-encountered alien antagonists. In later editions the Tyranids became a major race, popularized by a number of successful board games. Unlike most Warhammer 40,000 races, the Tyranids do not have a Warhammer Fantasy Battle counterpart.
There have been three major hive fleets to date, Hive Fleet Kraken, Hive Fleet Leviathan and Hive Fleet Behemoth. There are many other Tyranid hive fleets that have been destroyed or are still emerging, such as Hive Fleet Jormungand, Colossus, Tiamet, Scarabus, Ouroboris, Reatherus and many more.
Genestealers were introduced in the 1980s with Space Hulk, and later featured in Space Crusade, along with the short-lived Genestealer Magus. The first recognizable incarnation of Tyranid warriors appeared in Advanced Space Crusade in 1990, featuring biological weaponry such as boneswords and deathspitters.
Tyranids were first mentioned under the heading Tyranids and the Hive Fleets in Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, and were illustrated in a form not too different from that of Gaunts.
The first Tyranids used conventional, non-biological equipment such as lasguns and flak armor (although the rulebook stated that these represented organic equipment with similar capabilities). The principal unit available to the Tyranids was the Zoat, a centaur-like creature enslaved to fight on the behalf of their Tyranid masters.
Next week we will look at the Tyranids codex released for 2nd edition and onward to 5th edition.
still practicing_
Tallarn
Great post, made me dust off my own copy of RT!
ReplyDeleteGreat post man, I still have a bunch of Space Crusade Genestealers. Love 'Nids. Look forward to 2nd to 5th post man!
ReplyDeleteThanks guys im glad you like it!
ReplyDeleteI contemplated doing each individual unit, like zonthropes and genestealers, but that would be a huge project and im working on some ad-mech history at the moment!