I cannot find the source for Tyranids bio-ship travel mode but I do recall it involving gravitational pulls toward there next meal. I'll try to find it again.

my thoughts are not to bother with a super weapon. partly cause it raises the question of "if ;nids have the biotech to just use planet killer weapons and still consume the world, why isn't that their NORMAL stragety? surely it'd be more efficant then invasion? the big reason to want to board a major tyranid vessel would almost certinly be because it's the lynchpin that needs to be wrecked to end the invasion.

I'd reccomend reading "Warriors of Ultramar" by Gramham mcneil. I think it might give you some intreasting ideas to adapt.

While that idea of taking down the lynchpin is true, I was considering the idea of a superweapon because as this is the final Hive Fleet I wanted to give it something new and especially deadly to set it apart. You know, to Really sell the idea that this is it, the apocalypse is upon us. No more five minutes to midnight, the bell is tolling now.

That kind of thing.

Also superweapon could be an evolution to deal with necron tomb worlds. Most of these are barren dead worlds and sending down wave after wave of beasties just takes to long.

Bah! **** Necrons wasting my time!

Good idea cause Necrons sure have a bad cuisine. It just lacks that rich food to make true monsters. I like the theme of the end-of-world theme but it will need to be worked on to evade the usual 'oh no we are all going to die'. However interesting thoughts. Mind if I take some ideas?

This ain't a copyrighted thing. It's brainstorming, take what you want, add what you want.

Thanks, already taking ideas and mutating them for my purposes.

That second idea with the tendrils sounds spot-on, though. It could anchor itself in low orbit and use tentacle-drills to latch onto the planet, providing it with the opportunity to disgorge millions of tyranids in a minimum of time via an orbital elevator , or alternatively causing massive earthquakes by forcibly shifting tectonic plates around.

Somewhere I saw an art that was supposed to be time-lapse photos of how Tyranids eat a planet. The space elevator thing was used in that. Send Tyranids down, pipe nutrients and planet resources back up. No clue what or where I saw it.

Suggested reading:

EE Doc Smith, first book with Kim Kinnison in it, so probably Galactic Patrol or Lensman. The scene where Kim and VanBuskirk will meet &/or just met Worsel, and the two power-armored dudes have to go through a jungle where everything tries to eat them. Probably one of the earliest descriptions of 'the planet hates you'

Babylon 5: The Shadow planetkiller was living missiles (thousands or millions) that burrowed deep into the planet's crust before exploding. Basically disrupted the planet's crust. If they take hours or days instead of minutes, you could have a scenario "the planet will blow up soon, we don't have enough people who can go deep enough to take out all the missiles. Now what?"

Paranoia game: Example of beating a hive mind. Communication is temporarily lost, when they try to reconnect each piece wants to be the core of the mind. Disagreement and fighting ensues.

Like the death star idea, and using the rest of the fleet as protection. This thing would only show up at places the Swarm didn't want to eat - either defenses too strong, nothing to eat (moon with small research outpost, Necron world) or something.

Way to take it out: With the psychic Tyranid field, your choices boil down to Untouchables, Grey Knights, Librarians, de-fleshed tech-priests. Basically a strike team that can either actively resist the aura, or wouldn't know it's there. And the best time to kill it is that bit where the Swarm is approaching a planet and doing the last couple lightyears at sub-light speed. Let the fleet come to you instead of worrying about warp travel.