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[Xvareon]

I had a flicker of an idea yesterday, and I wanted to try and put it up for discussion here since y'all seem like just the right sort of people (plus lots of you like Warhammer). What if Kerrigan, the Queen of Blades, came from the Starcraft 2 universe somehow and wound up in WH40k? What if she founded a new Zerg brood, then came into conflict with Tyranids (who the Zerg were based off of fluff-wise)? Who's better? Who would win? How would things play out with the other races? I think it'd be really interesting to see. The Tyranids have plenty of good stuff, but the Zerg do, too, and they share almost exactly the same capacity for rapid and exponential expansion and on-the-fly mutation of their troops. A few primary things that crossed my mind:

* Whereas the Tyranids have Rippers to 'harvest' planets for their resources and biomass, the Zerg have Creep, which carpets the ground and sucks minerals and nutrients right out of the world. Unchecked, Creep can consume an entire planet within days (I checked this on the SC2 wiki).
* Tyranids have the Carnifex, but Zerg have Ultralisks, which seem to be even larger and more deadly. Between their near-impenetrable armor, scythe blades that can cut a tank in half, and three spines to support their weight (I checked this, too), I'd say they have more than enough advantages to compete.
* I'm really interested in seeing how Hydralisks shape up against regular Tyranid warriors. The average Hydralisk is about 5.4 meters in length and weighs about 390 kg. I know Hydralisks have over 4,000 individual muscles in their bodies (Humans have 629), giving them enormous physical strength, and their 30 centimeter-long spines they fire can pierce over 2 centimeters of (neo)steel at a range of over 300 meters, or even half a kilometer -- at a velocity even greater than a mass-accelerator weapon. They're also poisonous, and if the Dark Eldar taught us anything, that's really good against Tyranids. ^^

So what do you guys make of this match-up? Do you think the Zerg would have a decent fighting chance against the Tyranids from WH40k? Would Kerrigan be able to mount a serious challenge against the Tyranid Hivemind and its Hive Tyrants? What kind of new mutations and bioforms might spring out of all this? Discuss.

[Remuthra]

Zerg were directly inspired by the Tyranids :/.

[Criptfeind]

Zerg were directly inspired by the Tyranids :/.

I mean yeah that's something Xvareon said in his post.

Anyway, I don't really know the respective lore enough to make a serious contribution. But I feel like Kerrigan (and by extention the zerg) is much smarter then the Tyranids. Which would be helpful. But I think the Tyranids would be able to win via sheer scale. The zerg are eating a sector of space whereas the Tyranids are eating a galaxy yes? I think weight of numbers would take the zerg down. (As ironic as that would be.)

[Remuthra]

Zerg were directly inspired by the Tyranids :/.

I mean yeah that's something Xvareon said in his post.

Not that I saw, and based on the enunciation of the similarities I felt it needed to be clarified.

[Xvareon]

Edit: @Remuthra -- '...then came into conflict with Tyranids (who the Zerg were based off of fluff-wise)'

It seems to me that the Zerg may actually have more of an advantage on the ground, whilst the Tyranids have it in space. If the Zerg Creep can spread that fast around the world and they can set up countless hives and bases all across the surface, they can nom the planet entire continents at a time within a matter of days. Tyranids seem to take much longer, and they need time to set up their invasive atmosphere-absorbing flora and for their 'capillary towers' to take root, leading back up to their hive ships. That's the problem, though -- the Zerg may have plenty of vacuum-capable life-forms, but the Tyranids are the ones with entire Hive Fleets that go around wrecking planets like its nothing. They would have a clear and present advantage in void combat and sheer number of troops.

However, the Zerg are extremely notorious for being fast and fiercely expansionistic, and they have their own set of advantages, as well. Namely, most of their troops have the ability to burrow -- and I'm not talking about just digging holes or tunnels. It's stated in SC2 that they can 'vibrate' their entire bodies in such a way that allows them to basically 'swim' through the ground like a fish; the only reason they can't take this to its natural (and overpowered) conclusion is 'cause it would destroy the balance of the games they're in. Feel free to prove me wrong, but I don't think the Tyranids have the same kind of ability -- or at least, not on the same scale.

Overall, the Zerg rate of sheer growth and all their natural abilities makes them easily able to match Tyranids by scale of army size -- and unit size, as well. Ultralisks alone are over five meters tall and twenty meters long. Not to mention that their blades have edges a single molecule thick that can cleave through a TANK. Not even Tyranid Hive Guards (based off of Space Marine DNA), famous for their resilience, could hope to withstand that level of sheer "FUCK YOU".

Kerrigan is an uncannily resourceful commander, too, and knows exactly how to work with her forces. Her sheer Class-12 psychic ability may even be able to disrupt the Tyranids' link to their own Hive Mind, which would screw up their coordination -- and possibly even let her convert them to her side. She might even be able to generate her own 'Shadow in the Warp' (anti-Psyker field), since the Tyranids can manage it, too.

[Loud Whispers]

Nothing would happen as Kerrigan's ultimate ability is stagnating the plot and rendering all consequences of previous storylines moot. She fits perfectly into 40k when you think about it.