First off, swarm factions zerg, nids, B.E.T.A, rachni and so forth) seem to exclusivly improve their "tech" through ever inceasingly potent combat animals as opposed to any application of the more basic weaponry that gets used by everyone else. I see no reason for why advanced alien bugs would not be willing to construct/integrate conventional-ish anti-air defenses or scavenge from enemy stockpiles.
>Gaunts equiping themselves with bolters and opening fire during charge or the zerg comendering a terran ship after making a breach.
Genestealers and infested terrains Read into stuff a bit more.
Still OP has a good point we don't see too much of that stuff.
Easton Barnes
Genestealer Cults are just that, but afterwards it's the bugs proper that come in and their own superior* biomorphs.
Zerg are also known for utilizing infestation as a means of subversion, taking control of important individuals or even just a basic grunt depending on their circumstances. In some cases attaching tiny brain bugs that control the host, rather than turning the whole body into a zerg.
For biologically advanced organisms, their own means of production and supply lines trend towards the organic in nature, and they've already developed supply lines to keep those going to supply their needs. Utilizing enemy equipment is opening yourself up to sabotage, and asking for a quick discard because you're likely not carrying any extra ammo for it, nor would you be able to supply such weapons with ammo without extensive overhaul of how you manufacture your tools of war or have captured a good supply of such weapons, which is exactly what genestealers do because they can grow only basic biomorphs.
It depends on how a faction is portrayed. Zerg and Tyranids are seen not simply as bugs, but as viral infections or infestations. Rachi, at least, are much more like ants and are a more relatable Hive than a viral infestation.
>*not represented on tabletop
Evan Morales
>Genestealers only work as well as they do because the imperium can't seem to root them out for shit. Regular sci-fi faction would detect and kill this stuff the instant they discover the horror babies.
>Infested terrains
Literally just zombies and are wasted biomass that could be used to morph better things.
Instead of either of these how about creating pest creatures(s) to with behaviours specialized to countering extermination.
>A rat- equivlent creature that deals in gestating pathogens & spawning other swarm creatures.
>Would seek out a thing, excrete a given pathogen (zombie virus in grains, shortfuse chemical trigger in oil) While the rat leaves to go cause mischief elsewhere or breed more rats or spawn other swarm creatures..
Dominic Hernandez
>I see no reason for why advanced alien bugs would not be willing to construct/integrate conventional-ish anti-air defenses or scavenge from enemy stockpiles.
Because they don't need or want to.
And now for the best depiction of a Tyrannid invasion ever. Took StarCraft to do it, but we'll ignore that and call them Tyrannids anyway.
Starship Troopers bugs (from the book) have an industry, build spaceships and weapons and all. But they can still swarm.
Julian Myers
If a swarm had infrastructure it defeats the whole loctus part because then they will settle and inhabit the worlds they rest in to harvest ore and the like.
That means they arent eating the universe like a swarm of vermin but are infesting it like termites, building their own colonies.
Like, a empire.
And thus the entire archetpe is diminished because they cease to be a animal like monster and just become a "Always ce horde".
Aka, you turned the nids into orks.
Lincoln Clark
Genestealers have the combined uniformed intellect of everyone in the group and are physically indistinguishable as infected or not until autopsied, besides the ones in hiding underground.
No shit its hard to figure out.
Dominic Scott
Swarm factions are terrible and anyone who likes them should be burnt.
Jack Hall
Overlords/overseers from the zerg line are absolutly something i like quite a bit from a practical standpoint. They fill a roll roll that most of the other swarm factions tend to completly disregard. Overlords are absolutly beautiful at being scouts, literal eyes in the sky that serve as synapse networks, Field comanders, scouts and watchtowers. Very pragmatical. Veeky Forums's culture of contrarianism for its own sake its terrible and anyone that likes it should be burnt. >Because they don't need or want to.
Then they are really fucking dumb for not arming their swarms with salveged guns.
Wyatt Cook
Swarms are depicted as overwhelming foes because they specialize in what they do.
If you want them to be more, then you'll just end up with human faximilies.
So what if the zerg can be nuked from orbit. They can fly through space and start world devouring colonies from one escaped larva.
Or just grow biological anti air zerg.
Jaxson Jenkins
>Gaunts equiping themselves with bolters and opening fire during charge Do Gaunts even have opposable thumbs?
Xavier Rivera
Yes.
Jack Sanchez
>Then they are really fucking dumb for not arming their swarms with salveged guns. Why would they need them when they can grow their own superior ones much more quickly in much better numbers that operate and fire themselves on instinct so that the day-old newborn untrained critters that carry them don't need to waste time learning how to aim and reload?
Jaxson Scott
I dunno about the rest, but the whole point of the Tyranids not using captured/salvaged weapons is to ensure that the Tyranids keep inventing new biological weapon systems through (guided) evolution.
This ensures the continued advancement of new weapon systems in the long term, instead of the short term advancements of using enemy equipment.
Zachary Murphy
That's actually a nice concept to expand. Weapon and swarm soldier are actually symbiotic and both have some brains and specialised senses.
Soldier is good at recognising general patterns and thinks about tactics. Weapon just waits until something with no friendly signature comes into a firing arc. The moment soldier points it into a direction of enemy it locks the targets, calculates trajectory and fires. Soldier doesn't need to push buttons or give orders.
Justin Myers
They probably have farming worlds, just not in Milky Way. Milky Way is a military polygon.
Dylan Ortiz
This is exactly how Tyranids and their guns already operate, it doesn't need a whole lot of expanding.
Juan Russell
>They probably have farming worlds Have you... actually read any of the Tyranid fluff, friend? That's uh... that's not how it works. At all.
Jason Thompson
The problem with this idea is that the moment a true swarm gets access to equipment on par with the non-swarm factions, it wins. All warfare is swarm warfare dressed in different clothing. The historical truth of the matter is pretty clear on this, the guy who brought the most, the quickest and in higher concentrations, wins. The few battles that contradict this are usually set in very specific scenarios exclusive to that specific conflict. Even battles like the battle of Mogadishu, which at this glance contradict this idea, instead support it. The American and UN Task Forces had more air support, more armor, and generally concentrated themselves better (the almost 100 vehicle strong relief convoy). The militia had more individual soldiers, but were otherwise out swarmed in every way.
Tyranid biological weapons are already cutting it close for the other 40k factions as is. Give them proper artillery in numbers and Space Marines are going to start blinking.
Ayden Brown
...
Thomas Hall
Swarm large enemies as a way to both defend against and assault them
Lucas Rodriguez
overlords' role is more than scout, that's an incidental.
They are actually command nodes for the hive mind and micromanage the swarm.
Lincoln Anderson
Hello, you rang?
Michael Rivera
Yes but they lend themselves to being effective at several functions regardless.
There is very little reason for why they shouldn't be able to pick up radio signals and spam the enemy comms. The whole 'airdrop' part of the overlord fluff is just nonsensense though.
Eli Stewart
The simple answer has already been given. Logistics and supply. It would be like a modern military suddenly all arming themselves with whatever the locals are using despite having perfectly adequate supplies of what they were trained with at their disposal. Its an unnecessary change that would serve only to confuse the troops in the short term, and in the long term cause massive logistics issues.
And in the only scenario where you might see pockets of salvaged weapons use, cut off and away from supplies, Swarm Factions still don't have to worry about it, because usually their guns make their own ammo. So again, no reason to pick use anybody else's tech.
The reason is that they'd run out of ammo before they even learned how to use the enemy weapons.
Connor Gomez
>don't need to waste time learning how to aim and reload? I could be wrong on this, but theoretically, if for whatever reason a Tyranid hive decided it wanted to use scavenged bolters for whatever reason, wouldn't it only have to learn how to use the weapon once, then it could spit out all future morphs with the inherent knowledge of how to fire bolters? Or am I wrong?
Hunter Thomas
You are missing the whole point of swarms in fiction. They don´t tend to use technology because they are strong enough. Most swarm-based lifeforms tend to have roles and adaptability to make the 'swarm' survive. They always try to be 'good enough' to survive their biggest foes not to overthrow them. Also, in a swarm soldier units are expendable that´s why it´s a motherfucking swarm. They got a role, they fullfill this role, they die. They are not meant to evolve into a state where they are supersoldiers and fuck everything up. The only thing that is evolving is their queen/core-being which then furthermore could alter the swarm. But why should she? If she allready survived that long to build a whole friggin swarm she is doing it right. No need to expend unnecessary resources. Only way this would function would be if you throw a queen into some kind of lab and 'force' her to adapt to technology and shit.
Leo Bailey
why use the enemies weapons, which need factories and supply trains, when you can simply grow your own weapons here and now?
