ARMEGGEDON EMPIRES (Post-Apocalypse Conquest Quest!)

The wind blew, hot, gritty
and unfamiliar out of the west, as the sun hung low and brooding over the flat plains, sweeping out away from the Mutant Wastes. The forward scouts arrived by drips and drabs, their burly forms carrying everything they required with them - building materials for the stronghold, corrugated metal for crude roofing, shovels for digging into the ground, and more sophisticated machines and devices. Electrical generators. Solar collectors.

The parts for the vats.

The Wastes had been chosen because it had a community that already existed there - a collection of hovels and huts built around fresh water and arable land. Humans lived there, humans that had been approached, months before, by the first envoys from the mutant tribes. The offer was the same the League had given many, many times before.

You will be stronger.
Your children will live longer.
You will not need to fear the wastes, not anymore.
As had happened many times before - but not every time - the humans of the community had accepted, conditionally. They had allowed the first scouts to come, to settle, to begin to build their fortifications, to dig out irrigation, to improve access to the aquifer. These technical changes had been enough to allay their fears. But when the first Vat was built, and the first village elder was allowed to take the Dip, the murmuring of fear had changed to cries of awe as the ninety two year old man emerged, muscular and strong and young once more.

The mutants were glad. It was always easier when the first dip went well. It was never an...exact science, despite the best efforts of the League. Some humans had genetic problems or flaws that the Vats repaired and smoothed away. But some had hidden flaws or latent issues that the Vats made hideously worse. Those few honored dead were buried with great ceremony and solemn promises to carry their memory in the future.

In the end, the humans became mutants. Their home grew to include not merely the farms and fields, but mines and energy collection facilities. A geothermal vent, cracked open by some ancient bombardment, was tapped. Schools were mutant elders taught the young were built - and the people of the village learned what the League learned.

They learned the true history of the world - that it was not always this wasteland. That the nightmares they whispered of, of monsters from the stars that wore human flesh?

Those nightmares were true.

And the Dergath Tribe was here to make sure they never, ever, harmed anyone ever again.


You stepped into the central room of Derghome, the tribal keep that would serve as the headquarters for mutant operations in the theater. You had been on the road for months now, riding Kalath the entire way. Now she was being fed and watered in the stables, and you had a map to examine. Before you could even step up to the table, though, an advisor ducked her head into the chambers, smiling.

"Honored warmaster," she said. "The scouts are back with their first reports."

Good.

Very good.

You nodded to her. "Bring them in."

The first scouts were nothing like the mutant scouts you were used too - they were just the local humans who had been dipped a few months before, and knew only the most basic information about the lands beyond their homeland. But they were, like most wetlings, eager to please when they met an older mutant. You crossed your arms over your chest, nodding as the first of the scouts took a knee, bowing her head.

"My lord," she said.

"Warmaster," you corrected her, warmly. "I am not Lord. We're not humans after all."

She looked at you in confusion - not shocking. Not every human had heard of the Empire growing in the far off reaches of the world. The rumors about the Empire ran thick and fast among the tribes. You particularly liked the idea that they worshiped a corpse, but you didn't give it much credence.

"W-Warmaster," the young mutant said, bowing her head again. "We know of three major landmarks around our lands - to the northwest, there is a...a town. It is a place of ghosts, the legends say. No one ever sent there returns. To the northest, there is the crater. Some say it still glows in the dark. To the southwest, there is the strange desert - rumors are that beasts and monsters that talk like men live there."

This kind of superstitious murmuring was common. You turned back to the map. The Dergath forward scouts had done slightly more cartography than merely listing the odd things they had seen: You were nestled in the very edge of flatlands that themselves abutted against a mountain range - volcanically active mountain range to boot. That would shield and blind you in equal measures from any threats to the east: The mountains would slow any attacker, but make your own forces have to pick through them with the same plodding speed.

You rubbed your chin.
The Dergath tribe was still traveling and would only arrive in drips and drabs. You knew that General Pax, one of your finest leaders, was a bit of a contradiction. He was...annoyingly prone to enjoying the 'great outdoors' as he called it. He loved being in the wastes and the wild, where he could keep an army fed on bones and bits of dust. He could take a field far further than your supply lines would ever suggest - but he was also a genius when it came to long term strategy. If he was able to work with other tacticians in a well air conditioned barracks, buried about ten meters underground, then he could concoct war winning plans. However, he wasn't coming by himself - a platoon of drakkons, chameleonic stealth soldiers, and possibly materials for antitank weaponry and the mutants to use them.

Of course, none had arrived yet. Giving you time to think.

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SITUATION MAP
Green indicates supply - as you can see, it's easier to supply your forces in the plains, while the mountains make travel and supply different.


HAND


RESOURCES
1 human, 1 material, 1 energy, 1 tech (+1 of each per turn)
All right! What's your initial plan, Warmaster?
[ ] Attempt to bring the Chameleons onto the board, organize them into scout parties, and begin scouting - focusing primarily on...
[ ] Get Pax recruited first and have him scout - this is dangerous, if he runs into any danger, but if he finds resources, he is the best at organizing extraction efforts.
[ ] Get the Drakon platoon online - and scout in force with them.