A Simple Transaction I

Tyranny

What is Hunger's strategy for taking the battle to Dien? All strategies below will be executed competently due to Breaker of Suns, with input from Gisena and the others in their areas of specialty. Tactics can still help, however!

What is the purpose of Gisena's findross suffusion? Note that this effect will not persist if the Sophont Halo is destroyed.

[ ] Might Alone - While suffused with findross, Hunger's effective Rank is increased by a further 0.5. As she does not benefit from Once and Future's hyper-scaling, even this increase requires a monumental effort to effect, given the heights of Hunger's current power. Stacks with Supreme Commander, Once and Future etc.

[ ] Spark of Prowess - While suffused with findross, Hunger will gain a broad baseline level of proficiency within all of his domains, substantially increasing the complexity and sophistication of his magical effects. Adds a flat bonus to Hunger's current level of skill regardless of how capable he is, short of true mastery.

What is Hunger's proposed strategy?

[ ] War Across the Stars - Hunger will focus his initial training on a specific array of domains intended to enable the creation of a truly staggering number of wraith-constructs. Each holding his visage and a small fraction of his overall power, this phantasmal menace will spread throughout Republic space to reclaim territory and effectively proliferate the effects of Supreme Commander. Each phantasmal wraith possesses 10% of Hunger's physical and 50% of his mental and social parameters before Praxis use, and can wield Pressure at his Rank -2 levels, or at the present level of Supreme Commander in their locality. They do not benefit from the Praxis except that they receive 0.1 ISH elevation to speed from the Attainment of Quickness and one-tenth the benefits of the Refinement of Battle (currently x2.1 to their offensive and defensive final parameters).

Similarly muted versions of his other magics exist on each such clone, save for his Soul Evocation; given Might Alone, each should be near to a match for an Armament outside its shroud. Hunger estimates he can maintain roughly ~1 billion of them at a time; with Spark of Prowess, losses will be replenished in short order.

Strike teams will further pursue Dien's outflung contingencies to track, parse, and catalog his myriad contingencies. When the noose is tightened sufficiently, a final broadside of constructs, a veritable attack of the clones, will descend upon Dien and enact the revenge of all humanity upon the Surgeon's final redoubt.

An army of clones will not just serve to efficiently utilize Supreme Commander, it will also act as an occupation force for the subsequent conquest of the Human Sphere, ensuring an easy transition of power with minimal or no casualties. By flooding Dien with an unending stream of expendable, yet surprisingly powerful combatants, he can tie up the Surgeon's own resources, freeing up Hunger to continue advancing in his mastery of the Archmage Soul Evocation until victory is inevitable.

Turnabout is the fairest play of all - wouldn't you say so, Hero?

[ ] And I'll Form, the Head - Concentrate on the domains of Essence and Union in order to successfully perform Closing the Fist on Hunger, Novakhron, The Ring of Blood, the Forebear's Blade and the Evening Sky. The resultant entity will have Novakhron's base stats and the Ring's primacy, augmented by the full weight of Hunger's magics and Praxis techniques, with the destructive ferocity of the Forebear's Blade and the vast reach of the Evening Sky, all exponentiated by the power of Closing the Fist. By virtue of encompassing the entire volume affected by his Rank, this giga-conglomerate ultrabeing will expand at the speed of Supreme Commander, and simply engulf Dien wheresoever he resides, eventually. The sheer lunatic power of this fusion is all-but guaranteed to bring Dien to a close, but playing this card now invites Apocryphal escalation in the future, to say nothing of the potential collateral damage to the Human Sphere... take care you do not unmake or transmute into un-recognizability the very realm you are supposed to rule!

This is only possible with Might Alone, and marginally at that. After the fusion recedes Hunger won't be able to re-attempt this procedure for several decades at minimum.

[ ] Overlord - Focus on accelerating the feedback loop of Progression by directing all of Hunger's efforts towards comprehensive self-augmentation via the power of the Archmage. High-pick fights in the Realm itself will become only more dangerous as Hunger diverts resources from recovery towards pure augmentation, but it is simply too dangerous to pursue any individual strategy when Dien's countermeasures are unknown. When in doubt, pursue power: the ability to fulfill instrumental goals no matter what their idiosyncratic nature. Hunger will focus on attempting to increase his Attributes, the power of his magics, and his Rank in the pursuit of complete supremacy: domination of Dien in every field of endeavour, and thus victory inevitable given time. One he emerges from the Realm and can gather more data via his vastly expanded domains, a more specific strategy can be enacted.

With Might Alone - Power begets power. Significant enhancements made to Supreme Commander and November Sky, likely the most relevant magics in halting Dien's expansion.
With Spark of Prowess - Proficiency lends itself well to operations of a delicate nature. Effectiveness of Mental and Social Attribute augmentations enhanced.

[ ] Quick to Anger - But not particularly subtle. Focus unceasingly on three core areas: finding Dien, traveling to where Dien is, and putting Dien down for good. All else can wait. The consistency and strategic vision of this choice are its strengths; its potential myopia and lack of raw conceptual power its potential weaknesses. Still, there is much to be said for decisively pursuing one's objective, even if one's capacity may be insufficient: is that not the story of Hunger himself, after all?

What ought be done to those things which cannot be cut? Cut through, even so. So it is with Heroes as well. The fastest overall strategy if successful, focused monotonically on Dien's defeat. There's much to be said for limiting your opponent's scope of action...

Both of Gisena's buffs are helpful here.

[ ] The Killing Blow - Attempt via esoteric means to create some sort of Astral hyper-virus capable of eradicating Dien itself. Where he hides will matter not, if it is targeted properly, and you've plenty of samples of his work to operate from. Dien expects overwhelming brute force from you; the path of subtlety and technical prowess would run counter to his predictions, but perhaps not his precautions. It will be no trivial thing to slay the Foremost in this manner, very nearly his arena of strength, but even if you fail you still hold the offensive position by virtue of being personally invincible against Dien's counterattacks. What's the harm in trying, especially as this will create a perfect training opportunity for the higher echelons of Archmage mastery?

Spark of Prowess recommended. Gisena will lend her genius to atttempt as well, of course!