Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-79.134.161.49-20130225232452/@comment-76.24.162.67-20130303055442

Part 1    One of you mentioned that their total reliance on organic matter is an asset. It's only an unstoppable logic of exponential conquest in the combat enviornment of a habital planet. Once they land they have the conquest and digestion of the biosphere perfected. And their ability to recycle their soldiers and ships is impressive. But the main drawback, and the reason they'll never conquer the milky way galaxy is this: most of the universe is composed of inorganic matter. Most planets cannot support life. The planets that do support life consist of 99.9 percent molten inorganics with .1 percent of the matter on their outer crust sufficiently cool to give rise to a thin scum of organic matter.

The tyranids can manipulate organics down to the molecular level. This means they can utilize every bit of organic matter they consist of and capture at virtually 100% effeciency. But that's the only part of the mass they can utlize. And it's some tiny fraction of a percent of the mass of the stellar body they just stripped.

The Imperium on the other hand can land on the barren sphere, sink mines, extract various inorganic elements and then fashion them into weapons to kill tyranids. The imperium can kill tyranids using the matter that makes up the vast majority of the universe. The tyranids can only use the tiny tiny fraction that is amenable to living things.