So, I still like the idea of a Genestealer "seeding ship", stopping by various planets, out among the Expanse, and unobtrusively leaving with fewer people than they arrived with (if the ships can shanghai hundreds, to refill lost population, it doesn't seem it would be too hard to sneak a few off, and go without them), but I can see some flaws with the idea. Rehashing it, though, made me think of a few other thoughts.

1. Planetary sensors. What sort of augurs might a world have? In our day, and age, we might have orbiting satellites, laden down with tungsten rods, or something, just waiting to play darts with a major city, and we maybe can't find it. 40K has both much better tech, and much not understood tech. If a ship comes out of warp, on the edge of a planetary system, before the weeks/months of real space traverse to get from the Oort Cloud to Holy Terra, just to use a system we all know, would the people there be aware? This is the same universe where, in a way that would make Geth almost smile, you can "run silent", while near your enemies, because of distance, and no windows, while flying a 4-mile city around, in space, so I don't know how easily a ship might be detected, were it maybe a pirate.
2. Calm Space. So, this is bad for a ship. As nice as peace is, if nothing is there to move your ship, it doesn't move, leaving you stuck. Still, if you need to defend a planet, say yours, can this effect be produced, like gravity wells, in Star Wars?
3. Plasma drives. Ships carry enough resources for half a year, maybe, or more, if they plan for it, but what about their engines? How often do they "need fuel"? You might come across a ship, lost for centuries, but still with guttering power. How long can you push the drives for, before another miniature sun needs to be installed into it? There was something else with this, but I can't remember, and am tired.
4. If you can't come out of the warp near your world (usually), how are the Space Marines efficient? I get that they are better, but if even they need to wait weeks to get to the third-planet battle zone, how are the fights not already over? If THEY can do some sort of intra-system warp exit, why can no one else? if the Chaos Gods are the masters of the Warp, why can't Chaos do this? Dump a big fleet in, near Holy Terra, and even it should be worried.
5. Lastly, and this sort of gets back to my Nids topic, the running idea is that they are being drawn to the Astronomicon, "like moths to a flame", but how? What do they see? How can they sense it? Back when I started 40K (3E), they were warp-based psykers, I think, same as Orks, I think, but since then, they have become "similar to, but with a different source" mumbo jumbo, so the Tyranids have no connection to the Warp. This means they shouldn't be able to perceive the Astronomicon. Even psychic humans can't, and a strain of genetically modified humans is needed to perceive it (and not go nuts, doing so). Also, if they CAN see it/sense it, what scale is required? I get that one big loss of a Genestealer seed ship might be no Navigators, but, if Tyranids can sense the Emperor, couldn't they use that sense to steer their ship, seeding worlds, as they go?

I have other Nid/GS questions, but they don't really matter, right now. We'll see if I get any answers on these, before the forums disappear. Have a great one, everyone.

Aaand that's why you need to infect the RT and his most trusted associates. Then the ships captain will steer the ship wherever you wanna go.

1. Mainly depends on the system: Stuff like Maccrage, Cadia (R.I.P.) armageddon and all the forgeworlds will have lots of quality augers, long range observation satelites, listening outposts and stuff. Your average imperial world...not so much. And ships can run silent very well in 40k. Unless a patrol was actually looking for them and they would chance upon the drifting hulks (in this case ships without power rather than normal spacehulks) They would remain undetected untill it was almost to late.

2. ??? in 40K Ships can go to warp inside a planetary system... It's just the last thing that ship will ever do. But it can be weaponised: activating the warp drive and ramming an enemy ship. (done to a hiveship in the old canon: It got sucked into the warp, smack into a gathering of Bloodthirsters and promptly torn apart.)

3. I... don't know. It depends on ship class/size, engine type etc. of course. I read about the plasma core being replaced (Manual labour, surprise! They don't survive.) in one of the novels but I doubt if it mentioned how long the replacement was due for.

4. They can go real fast (Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaal fast in case of White scars) with their real space / sub light drive I guess. I think it's hours or days between translation and full planetary assault.

4.2: Chaos suffers from plot induced stupidity/ infighting* and self defeatist tactics... I mean It's going all according to Tzeentch master plan. Chaos doesn't mollycoddle it's servants, nor does it truly care about winning. What's that mortal? You want us to open a path trough the warp so you can reach terra safely? Bah! Do it the hard way you whimp! And here are some tentacles on your face for your trouble. Chaos knows it will win in the end and it really doesn't care much how long some planet resists. In the end it will fall. (Cadia again) Closest thing to giving "free passage" to traitor fleets the gods did was In the HH novels: The galaxy was a mess of unavigable warpstorms, but the word bearers got a map with calm currents so the traitors could move their fleets without being stranded or blown of course.

5. I think the hive mind as a whole (as in all of the hive fleets ) can sense it. As to what it sees? Dunno. A flashing sign that says "Eat at joe's"?

* seriously: the only reason Age of Sigmar has a setting is becuz during the age of chaos when the four gods were about to break sigmar's realm and skullf*ck Sigmar for the win, Khorne got it in his head to "pull a Tzeentch" and attacked the other chaos gods, thereby giving Sigmar the time to close of his realm. Sometimes seeing the confused looks on your fellow gods' faces is better than total victory.

14 hours ago, Robin Graves said:

Aaand that's why you need to infect the RT and his most trusted associates. Then the ships captain will steer the ship wherever you wanna go.

1. Mainly depends on the system: Stuff like Maccrage, Cadia (R.I.P.) armageddon and all the forgeworlds will have lots of quality augers, long range observation satelites, listening outposts and stuff. Your average imperial world...not so much. And ships can run silent very well in 40k. Unless a patrol was actually looking for them and they would chance upon the drifting hulks (in this case ships without power rather than normal spacehulks) They would remain undetected untill it was almost to late.

2. ??? in 40K Ships can go to warp inside a planetary system... It's just the last thing that ship will ever do. But it can be weaponised: activating the warp drive and ramming an enemy ship. (done to a hiveship in the old canon: It got sucked into the warp, smack into a gathering of Bloodthirsters and promptly torn apart.)

3. I... don't know. It depends on ship class/size, engine type etc. of course. I read about the plasma core being replaced (Manual labour, surprise! They don't survive.) in one of the novels but I doubt if it mentioned how long the replacement was due for.

4. They can go real fast (Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaal fast in case of White scars) with their real space / sub light drive I guess. I think it's hours or days between translation and full planetary assault.

4.2: Chaos suffers from plot induced stupidity/ infighting* and self defeatist tactics... I mean It's going all according to Tzeentch master plan. Chaos doesn't mollycoddle it's servants, nor does it truly care about winning. What's that mortal? You want us to open a path trough the warp so you can reach terra safely? Bah! Do it the hard way you whimp! And here are some tentacles on your face for your trouble. Chaos knows it will win in the end and it really doesn't care much how long some planet resists. In the end it will fall. (Cadia again) Closest thing to giving "free passage" to traitor fleets the gods did was In the HH novels: The galaxy was a mess of unavigable warpstorms, but the word bearers got a map with calm currents so the traitors could move their fleets without being stranded or blown of course.

5. I think the hive mind as a whole (as in all of the hive fleets ) can sense it. As to what it sees? Dunno. A flashing sign that says "Eat at joe's"?

* seriously: the only reason Age of Sigmar has a setting is becuz during the age of chaos when the four gods were about to break sigmar's realm and skullf*ck Sigmar for the win, Khorne got it in his head to "pull a Tzeentch" and attacked the other chaos gods, thereby giving Sigmar the time to close of his realm. Sometimes seeing the confused looks on your fellow gods' faces is better than total victory.

Except that there are several generations of Genestealer Hybrids between "guy I stabbed", and "guy who can still pass as Human, in public", several hideous, monstrous generations; I'm not sure a Rogue Trader and Co. could be infested (sorry, playing Starcraft 2), and still pass for their prior selves. Kerrigan is cool, and still somewhere between "that person is/used to be a female", and "come on, notice the 'feminine' aspects we accentuated, despite being a monstrous Zerg ", but she is still a monstrous Zerg, to onlookers. Granted, her role isn't required to be stealthy, or incognito, but then, the Tyranids don't often seem to think on that level, either. To the vast Hive Mind, even whole worlds are just morsels, and any efforts to claim them are fine; the "successful" Cult will only be rewarded with death, and re-absorption, anyway. But, I digress. I would definitely at least invent some sort of parasite node that could be planted into a "useful" target, and indoctrinate them into the Cult, such as the Rogue Trader and Co.; imagine something like the Starros, if you are a fan of older DC Comics.

I'd assume that the individual Nids can't perceive the Astronomicon, but if they were able to understand the thoughts/memories of their victims, aboard ship, they might know how the devices work, and what they require. If they could catch the Navigator, they might even be able to assimilate that genetic code, and partly use it. It wouldn't be too different than a Necron Hybrid idea I made, which could allow a Necron (unique one, mind) to peer into the Warp, sort of as an early warning system; she had been human, and the Necrons modified her, in ways similar to "crafting" Pariahs into pseudo-Necrons, back when they were still a thing. Unlike Necrons, who can't easily handle the Warp, the Nids might have an easier time of it, to the extremely limited extent that they could.

RT: "Greetingss Master Ven, Shall we discuss my delivery of 10.000 cryo containers full of foodstuffs to your world? What's that? My volumous purple robes and mask? Oh those are all the rage these dayss. Ssso isss afecting a slight lissp or hiss. Personaly I don't care much for it, but noblesssse obligé, one must follow the fashions if one wantssss to make a good impression, no? Ah! I see you have noticed my bodyguards. Absolutly devout warriors, picked them up on some backwater world. They shave their heads and die their skin a deep purple. Quite striking I must say. What's that? My Arch Militant seems to have a third arm? Ha ha! 'tis but a cybernetic enhancement. Now keep thisss to yourself Master Ven, but it's shaped in the style of some xenos beasssst. Fashionwise it won't do at the courts of the core worlds, but it sure strikes an imposing immage, scares any hostile locals or ork boarding parties. And out on the edge of the galaxy a rogue trader is permitted to go bit extravagant, wouldn't you say? But enough about the fasssion of my entourage. let'ssss talk about those containers..."

On 3. fuel usage is going to be based on activity with activating the warp drives at the top of the energy drains by a mile then combat if you have a lot of lances/plasma/laser weapons (macros or missiles shouldn't really need much at all) then movement and pretty much bottom of the list is life support.

I think the game base limit of 6 months is based on you doing lots of things - theoretically a ship just stuck in the middle of nowhere with just life support on could last centuries? The intro story in the rulebook still has power on the treasure ship after a long time for example. Of course you'll run out of food a lot faster than that.

Unless you do whatever it is people do in Lire of the Expanse. Be it a derelict ship, lost for over 1000 years, the burned out hulls of thousands of ships, orbiting a negative star, or primitive loonies, living on the lightning-lanced, cloud-covered, radioactive hellscape that is a planetary "ship graveyard", somehow, even without sunlight, and stable atmosphere, these people always seem to be able to find sustainable food, and it doesn't even seem that much cannibalism is used, except maybe to the degree the standing Imperium also already does it; corpse starch, and liquefied remains, to have the dead continue to support the living.

It doesn't entirely make sense, but I'm glad to see these ships somehow manage to keep power, especially if there isn't much eating away at it, for long periods. There are various ship upgrades, and such, that can extend other resources, allowing some ships to stay out for a year, maybe even a little more than that, at a time; I'm not entirely supposing, however, that any of these can also extend fuel; judicious management of power, on the part of the Explorator, or resident Mechanicus, maybe, but probably not much else. I do wonder now, though, if you defeat an enemy vessel, and don't destroy it, while you, and the rest of your murderhobos, are about, looting their best stuff, maybe taking some of their crew, to recoup your own losses, and stealing some supplies, if your Tech-Priests could "siphon the fuel tank", for alack of a better analogy, and get you back some plasma? You don't have to kill the Captain, or take all their supplies, if you are a "nice person", so I wonder if ship fuel falls into this category, too?

It would be a lot easier if we knew what the fuel is so we could have an idea how much volume 6 months of fuel takes up.

There's that factory ship that travels into stars to create starship fuel - it requires a load of metals as well but its not clear whether its producing stellar matter in cans or just using the available energy in a star to help transmute the metals into some sort of superheavy stable element or maybe antimatter?

There's no ship critical for exploded fuel tank so maybe whatever it is it's somehow safe to store?

Ships in 40k don't have fuel because they use plasma reactors, aka fusion reactors or miniature suns in other words. Those are self-contained as the fuel source and powerplant are one and the same. The only "fuel" they require is purified hydrogen or other fusion-capable matter, and even a relatively small amount of that like a few thousand tonnes can sustain an ongoing reaction for millions of years.

Further, if you're looking for a critical result to represent a "fuel tank explosion" look no further than Plasma Reactor Overload.