Ah... that might work then.
Echoes of Creation (30k/Exalted)
- Thread starter Yzarc
- Start date
- Crossover
Ah... that might work then.
Thinking of battle tactics, we should probably have our long ranged forces initially focus their fire on killing the enemy cavalry. They're the most likely to be able to find and run down our infantry. Once they're out of the way, thanks to the Sandstorm and Cameleoline cloaks, our infantry can probably keep redeploying to avoid the chaos infantry in between shooting at them. Our heavy cavalry can keep moving and shooting their powerful fast firing machine gun equivalents at concentrations of enemy forces or groups that are advancing too close to our troops, while our light cavalry can dart in and out to destroy groups or individual chaos warriors hardy enough to weather the storm of fire which their Infernus pistols.
Given that there are regular Warhammer psyker powers that allow sharing prescience with allies to give them bonuses to their skill in close and ranged combat, or bonuses to evading attacks, or foresee failure and avoid it (I.e. rerolling failures), or ignore cover, the better the psyker the more allies affected, I wonder if Lorgar can do this with a combination of four dots of Telepathy and 5 dots of Precog and his basic Mythos boost to expand the effect.
Given how outnumbered we are, even using rapid firing weapons we're going to want to make every shot count, particularly the opening shots.
Slight digression, but given Lorgar's Light Mythos archetype I wonder if he could usefully assist Fan and Thalassa in upgrading the design of our laser weapons at some point. We may need to grant him the relevant Savant specialisation, but it may be worth it.
We still have two Light and two Human aspects undefined, and it might be interesting to have some of them be craft related.
In the longer run, it would seem appropriate for Lorgar's legion to use supped up las weapons rather than bolters, given his archetype.
Probably a longer term project though.
I mean, to be fair, the nobles do Necromunda do have access to some high end tech, like the craziness which are Spryer Hunting Rigs, which are suits of self-repairing power armour with integrated weapons that evolve to upgrade as their wearers kill people and gain experience, but the energy shields are something that nobles on other planets equip their soldiers with as well.
When you look at things like the Spryers, you can see why the Imperial nobility sometimes think they can defy the authorities.
Given that there are regular Warhammer psyker powers that allow sharing prescience with allies to give them bonuses to their skill in close and ranged combat, or bonuses to evading attacks, or foresee failure and avoid it (I.e. rerolling failures), or ignore cover, the better the psyker the more allies affected, I wonder if Lorgar can do this with a combination of four dots of Telepathy and 5 dots of Precog and his basic Mythos boost to expand the effect.
Given how outnumbered we are, even using rapid firing weapons we're going to want to make every shot count, particularly the opening shots.
Slight digression, but given Lorgar's Light Mythos archetype I wonder if he could usefully assist Fan and Thalassa in upgrading the design of our laser weapons at some point. We may need to grant him the relevant Savant specialisation, but it may be worth it.
We still have two Light and two Human aspects undefined, and it might be interesting to have some of them be craft related.
In the longer run, it would seem appropriate for Lorgar's legion to use supped up las weapons rather than bolters, given his archetype.
Probably a longer term project though.
I mean, to be fair, the nobles do Necromunda do have access to some high end tech, like the craziness which are Spryer Hunting Rigs, which are suits of self-repairing power armour with integrated weapons that evolve to upgrade as their wearers kill people and gain experience, but the energy shields are something that nobles on other planets equip their soldiers with as well.
When you look at things like the Spryers, you can see why the Imperial nobility sometimes think they can defy the authorities.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan: Purge with Fire & Light
Done.
If you guys have any sugestions do not hesitate to point them out.
[X] Plan: Purge with Fire & Light (Combat Included)
- [X] [Light Cavalry] Pairs of Inferno Pistols,
- [X] [Heavy Cavalry] Hot Shot Volley guns
- [X] [Infantry] Hotshot Marksman Rifle
- [X] [Other Gear] Helmet integrated versions of the Omnispex, if possible, miniaturised Vox casters in their helmets, Skitarii War Plate, Cameleoline Cloaks for the infantry, Chrono (watches), built into helmet HUDs if possible, Signums for unit leaders to coordinate thieir units. As side arms, give people as many power weapons, ideally bayonets for people for infantry, swords and lances for the cavalry, and Personal Energy Shields as you can find in case they're forced into melee.
-[X] Use MHM o fly high enough that you have line of sight to the sorcerers during a working
-[X] Curse them with everything you have at the height of the ritual (SSC+Willpower+Iron Resolve+CCC)
-[X] Once the chaos and potentially Chaos is unleashed raise a storm to sow more confusion (Willpower+CCC)
-[X] Under cover of the storm attack the edges of the camp while Lorgar makes use of his Gasslighting and Telepathy to try to invert the Warriors' intimacy towards Chaos by pointing out the fickle and weak nature of their gods (Also use willpower)
-[X] Dharok will take challenges from all comers and if any turn use his True Faith to purify at least a few on the spot
-[X] Once the confrontation is done the cavalry will try to pull apart the hopefully disorganized Chaos response until it looks weak enough or they have pulled out some kind of trump card
-[X] At that point the heroes and the Ambulls charge in to break them
-[X] If convenient make use of SSC to cripple commanders and powerful demons allowing Dharok to easily overpower them while Lorgar continues with the Gasslighting and pointing out the many failings of Chaos
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Could we make some artillery real quick, it is a devastating advantage. The ablity to call in fire support at will to all forces whenever they can radio in a enemies location is massive advantage.
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
Youf ability to call storms is your artillery support. You spoiled it but it is still a viable option.
[X] Plan: Purge with Fire & Light
other than some of the siege weapons and the 14 sorcerers, chaos got no range attacks are we gonna have the Cav alpha strike said siege weapons, have Lorgar & dharok use true faith to nuh uh all psykers and demons and then stay like 200 ft away as we just shoot & scoot them to death?
other than some of the siege weapons and the 14 sorcerers, chaos got no range attacks are we gonna have the Cav alpha strike said siege weapons, have Lorgar & dharok use true faith to nuh uh all psykers and demons and then stay like 200 ft away as we just shoot & scoot them to death?
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Baiting enemy sorcs into trying to counter it would be delightful, given SSC. Perils, perils everywhere.
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
Sorry missed this. You cannot give others gifts but can take them, due to your nature being what it is.
So you can take gifts by adding +1 dot to the rating.
Once you can give it to others, they get it at base cost.
@DragonParadox, with the standard Mind Hand Manipulation it just functions like your hands. You can't use it to fly by lifting yourself. Our version has the same description as that. We'd need Ascendant Objectivity Stance to fly.
[X] Plan: Purge with Fire & Light
- [X] [Light Cavalry] Pairs of Inferno Pistols,
- [X] [Heavy Cavalry] Hot Shot Volley guns
- [X] [Infantry] Hotshot Marksman Rifle
- [X] [Other Gear] Helmet integrated versions of the Omnispex, if possible, miniaturised Vox casters in their helmets, Skitarii War Plate, Cameleoline Cloaks for the infantry, Chrono (watches), built into helmet HUDs if possible, Signums for unit leaders to coordinate thieir units. As side arms, give people as many power weapons, ideally bayonets for people for infantry, swords and lances for the cavalry, and Personal Energy Shields as you can find in case they're forced into melee.
- [X] Preparation: Fan uses Sorcery to raise another intense sandstorm to hide the direction of our armies' approach and hopefully hinder the enemy, being ready to counter attempts to use Weather Control to blow the sandstorm away or similar. Use Willpower and CCC to boost the casting. To do this he should advance ahead of our army to get in sight of the enemy and their sorcerers as soon as possible so he can use Shadow Spite Curse against any rituals, whether counter-magic, divination, or anything else, while remaining hidden. Lorgar shoudld accompany him and use Precognition + Telepathy (to sense the location of the minds of the enemy army and any patrols they have as pickets) and radio back to Dharok guide the army on a path that makes us less likely to be detected and end up on top of a set of dunes overlooking the chaos army so we can shoot at any targets within it over the heads of people in between us. Lorgar should use 'You Can See Mee' to try to detect any daemons waiting in ambush while our army is on its way, so we can decide whether to proceed or not.
-[X] Once we arrive our long ranged forces initially focus their fire on killing the enemy sorcerers, then switch to the war machines, then the enemy cavalry's mounts.
- [X] Aided by the sandstorm and Cameleoline cloaks, our infantry should keep redeploying to try to avoid the chaos forces in between shooting at them.
- [X] Our heavy cavalry should keep moving and prioritise shooting their powerful fast firing machine gun equivalents at concentrations of enemy forces or groups that are advancing too close to our troops.
- [X] Our light cavalry should mostly stay in reserve on the other side of the ridge line of the dunes ready to dart in and out to destroy groups or individual chaos warriors hardy enough to weather that storm of fire which their Infernus pistols.
- [X] The Ambulls should tunnel through the dune to a position beneath the surface in front of our infantry. If any Chaos Warriors are in danger of engaging our infantry in melee (or if our cavalry is pursued and baits the enemy into position) the Ambulls should ambush them from below on Lorgar's telepathic command.
- [X] During the battle, Fan should use his elevated position to use Shadow Spite Curse on any Sorcerers he sees leading rituals or any effective leaders issuing commands. As a secondary priority he should counter-spell defensive magic or temporary blessings the sorcerers have applied to the enemy army. As a tertiary priority he should use a lascannon he has plugged into his armour to shoot war machines or super-heavy Chaos infantry
- [X] During the battle, Lorgar should try to use a combination of telepathy and precognition to network the army together and feed our troops inspiration, orders, warnings of danger and guidance for targeting based on what he can perceive and foresee. If he can do both simultaneously, do so throughout the battle, but if he can't, wait until the enemy morale starts to waver then switch to using Telepathy + Gaslighting try to push them over the edge and break their faith in the Chaos Gods and then try to encourage them to defect to us. If he can use weapons as well as lead and guide the army, he should carry a heavy weapon like a multi laser, a more powerful hot shot variant if that's possible, and use it on concentrations of enemy troops.
- [X] Dharok should start the battle with the best energy based sniper rifle that the Archmagos can provide to take out high value targets. Later if enemy champions survive long enough to get close to our troops, he should challenge them while wearing power armour. If the enemy does manage to engage any of our warriors in melee Dharok should intervene in melee alongside the Ambulls to try to disrupt the enemy long enough for our people to disengage, and then fire back into the part of the enemy unit that's not directly engaging Dharok. If the enemy starts to waver Dharok should directly seek out and challenge enemy champions (with his power armour on) to support Lorgar's Gaslighting. Given Dharok's Willpower recovery Mythos power, he should use Willpower freely.
- [X] If the enemy army doesn't break or enough of it defect, when they get organised enough to get enough troops close enough to present a real threat of us being swamped our infantry should withdraw first while our heavy cavalry and heroes lay down covering fire and then pull back in turn.
The idea is that because of the sandstorm we raise in advance, the enemy will know we're coming but not know the direction we're coming from or, hopefully, the direction we're coming from. This is key, as it should let us get in an advantageous position, with the height advantage. This, in turn, is essential. We have to be able to shoot down on them so we can hit priority targets deep in their army who would otherwise be shielded by troops in the way. Because we're doing it in advance we should have plenty to time to perform a better ritual that produces a stronger, longer lasting sandstorm that's harder to dispel or blow away.
Thanks to the reduced visibility for them caused by the sandstorm it should be hard for them to even work out what direction we're attacking from. Laser beams may be visible and audible, but that doesn't help if you can't see more than a couple of feet and it's as noisy as a rock concert. This should also make it very hard for them to organise and give/receive orders. Flags won't be visible and musical instruments will be drowned out by the noise. Even if some parts of the army spot is, it'll be hard for them to communicate that fact with the rest of it.
What's very important is to avoid direct contact with the enemy as long as possible to thin their numbers as much as we can. This should preserve our very small number of troops as king as possible. Our army is a glass cannon. We can put out an enormous amount of firepower (the heavy cavalry is basically carrying laser machine guns that should be able to kill large numbers of enemies very quickly, as they both do massive damage and fire very quickly), but we're very fragile if they bog us down, which I'm doing my best to avoid. That's why Lorgar trying to use Precog+Telepathy to guide our army is so important, both to avoid enemies and make every shot count.
Note that even regular las guns can shoot people through masonry walls. There's a lot less matter in the way in a sandstorm, even at long range, than in a piece of masonry.
[X] Plan: Purge with Fire & Light
- [X] [Light Cavalry] Pairs of Inferno Pistols,
- [X] [Heavy Cavalry] Hot Shot Volley guns
- [X] [Infantry] Hotshot Marksman Rifle
- [X] [Other Gear] Helmet integrated versions of the Omnispex, if possible, miniaturised Vox casters in their helmets, Skitarii War Plate, Cameleoline Cloaks for the infantry, Chrono (watches), built into helmet HUDs if possible, Signums for unit leaders to coordinate thieir units. As side arms, give people as many power weapons, ideally bayonets for people for infantry, swords and lances for the cavalry, and Personal Energy Shields as you can find in case they're forced into melee.
- [X] Preparation: Fan uses Sorcery to raise another intense sandstorm to hide the direction of our armies' approach and hopefully hinder the enemy, being ready to counter attempts to use Weather Control to blow the sandstorm away or similar. Use Willpower and CCC to boost the casting. To do this he should advance ahead of our army to get in sight of the enemy and their sorcerers as soon as possible so he can use Shadow Spite Curse against any rituals, whether counter-magic, divination, or anything else, while remaining hidden. Lorgar shoudld accompany him and use Precognition + Telepathy (to sense the location of the minds of the enemy army and any patrols they have as pickets) and radio back to Dharok guide the army on a path that makes us less likely to be detected and end up on top of a set of dunes overlooking the chaos army so we can shoot at any targets within it over the heads of people in between us. Lorgar should use 'You Can See Mee' to try to detect any daemons waiting in ambush while our army is on its way, so we can decide whether to proceed or not.
-[X] Once we arrive our long ranged forces initially focus their fire on killing the enemy sorcerers, then switch to the war machines, then the enemy cavalry's mounts.
- [X] Aided by the sandstorm and Cameleoline cloaks, our infantry should keep redeploying to try to avoid the chaos forces in between shooting at them.
- [X] Our heavy cavalry should keep moving and prioritise shooting their powerful fast firing machine gun equivalents at concentrations of enemy forces or groups that are advancing too close to our troops.
- [X] Our light cavalry should mostly stay in reserve on the other side of the ridge line of the dunes ready to dart in and out to destroy groups or individual chaos warriors hardy enough to weather that storm of fire which their Infernus pistols.
- [X] The Ambulls should tunnel through the dune to a position beneath the surface in front of our infantry. If any Chaos Warriors are in danger of engaging our infantry in melee (or if our cavalry is pursued and baits the enemy into position) the Ambulls should ambush them from below on Lorgar's telepathic command.
- [X] During the battle, Fan should use his elevated position to use Shadow Spite Curse on any Sorcerers he sees leading rituals or any effective leaders issuing commands. As a secondary priority he should counter-spell defensive magic or temporary blessings the sorcerers have applied to the enemy army. As a tertiary priority he should use a lascannon he has plugged into his armour to shoot war machines or super-heavy Chaos infantry
- [X] During the battle, Lorgar should try to use a combination of telepathy and precognition to network the army together and feed our troops inspiration, orders, warnings of danger and guidance for targeting based on what he can perceive and foresee. If he can do both simultaneously, do so throughout the battle, but if he can't, wait until the enemy morale starts to waver then switch to using Telepathy + Gaslighting try to push them over the edge and break their faith in the Chaos Gods and then try to encourage them to defect to us. If he can use weapons as well as lead and guide the army, he should carry a heavy weapon like a multi laser, a more powerful hot shot variant if that's possible, and use it on concentrations of enemy troops.
- [X] Dharok should start the battle with the best energy based sniper rifle that the Archmagos can provide to take out high value targets. Later if enemy champions survive long enough to get close to our troops, he should challenge them while wearing power armour. If the enemy does manage to engage any of our warriors in melee Dharok should intervene in melee alongside the Ambulls to try to disrupt the enemy long enough for our people to disengage, and then fire back into the part of the enemy unit that's not directly engaging Dharok. If the enemy starts to waver Dharok should directly seek out and challenge enemy champions (with his power armour on) to support Lorgar's Gaslighting. Given Dharok's Willpower recovery Mythos power, he should use Willpower freely.
- [X] If the enemy army doesn't break or enough of it defect, when they get organised enough to get enough troops close enough to present a real threat of us being swamped our infantry should withdraw first while our heavy cavalry and heroes lay down covering fire and then pull back in turn.
The idea is that because of the sandstorm we raise in advance, the enemy will know we're coming but not know the direction we're coming from or, hopefully, the direction we're coming from. This is key, as it should let us get in an advantageous position, with the height advantage. This, in turn, is essential. We have to be able to shoot down on them so we can hit priority targets deep in their army who would otherwise be shielded by troops in the way. Because we're doing it in advance we should have plenty to time to perform a better ritual that produces a stronger, longer lasting sandstorm that's harder to dispel or blow away.
Thanks to the reduced visibility for them caused by the sandstorm it should be hard for them to even work out what direction we're attacking from. Laser beams may be visible and audible, but that doesn't help if you can't see more than a couple of feet and it's as noisy as a rock concert. This should also make it very hard for them to organise and give/receive orders. Flags won't be visible and musical instruments will be drowned out by the noise. Even if some parts of the army spot is, it'll be hard for them to communicate that fact with the rest of it.
What's very important is to avoid direct contact with the enemy as long as possible to thin their numbers as much as we can. This should preserve our very small number of troops as king as possible. Our army is a glass cannon. We can put out an enormous amount of firepower (the heavy cavalry is basically carrying laser machine guns that should be able to kill large numbers of enemies very quickly, as they both do massive damage and fire very quickly), but we're very fragile if they bog us down, which I'm doing my best to avoid. That's why Lorgar trying to use Precog+Telepathy to guide our army is so important, both to avoid enemies and make every shot count.
Note that even regular las guns can shoot people through masonry walls. There's a lot less matter in the way in a sandstorm, even at long range, than in a piece of masonry.
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Sorry for the double post; but can I just advocate again for my plan.
There are a few key factors I think make it the better plan:
There are a few key factors I think make it the better plan:
Based on the text of Mind Hand Manipulation and how it works in the original setting, it doesn't let you fly.- Raising the storm before attacking is much, much more useful than raising it after attacking. This is because it allows us to disguise when and where we're attacking from.
- Rituals work better when you have time to perform them. Raising a sandstorm in advance gives us that time, doing so on the fly after engaging the chaos army does not.
- My proposal uses Lorgar's quite significant psyker powers to let him better lead the army and maximise its effectiveness.
- My proposal is based on exploiting the specific weapons and equipment that we've equipped the army with.
- My proposal does something with our infantry.
- My proposal uses the Ambull's tunnelling ability.
- My proposal is designed to exploit our massive advantage to the fullest with ranged weapons rather than charge in and try to fight an army that outnumbers us fifty to one in melee when they have blessings that make them better in melee. Our army is a glass cannon. We should be aware of that and act accordingly.
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Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
I can confirm that MHM does let you fly. At least this version does.
Ok. Does it let you fly in power armour? MHM seems to, from the current description, not be superhumanly strong - you lift with Strength/Physical + Athletics rating (unrolled, I think), I think, which we use Willpower as a substitute for with MHM.
Power armour is going to be very heavy. Is Fan's mind hand strong enough to pick up himself as well as the weight of his armour and gear.
Even if MHM can let him fly, I think it's a very bad idea to fly in the open skies without any cover above a thousand strong army. They may not have many psykers or enchanted ranged weapons, but they may well have enough to shoot us down.
I think it's much safer and just as effective to target them from on top of the ridge of a dune, of which there should be some in the desert. This gives us visibility from the high ground while also giving us cover if we just peak over the ridge. It's vastly harder to spot and target us, particularly if we've already raised a sandstorm.
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Good idea. Added. Given Dharok's Willpower recovery Mythos power, I'll also add it in for him.
[X] Plan: Purge with Fire & Light
Given Yzarc's slightly ominous post, can anyone see any weaknesses in this plan or things the Chaos Army/its sponsors can exploit or counter?
The description of it as a gambit pile up makes me wonder if there's something they can do we haven't anticipated.
We've previously revealed our ability to call storms and our power armour, and Lorgar's Telepathy. Is there anything people can think that can be turned against us?
They could use the start of the sandstorm as a signal that we're coming and start preparing traps or summon daemons that then hide somehow. Fan doesn't have supernatural senses. Lorgar, however, does, so we may want him to accompany Fan when he runs ahead of the main body of the army. Lorgar can then look for any hidden threats that are too great a risk so we can either account for them or decide to try again later. If we throw sandstorms at them a few times without attacking they're likely to stop making as thorough preparations, as they're probably expensive.
In terms of the power armour, Thalassa used the Mechanicum rites on our gear to protect it from scrap code, but it may still be a threat.
For the Telepathy, they may try to have someone ready to telepathically duel Lorgar if he tries to use it on them again, which between True Faith and Mind Shields would probably be a severe error on their part. They may also have someone waiting to try to jam him. I'm not sure what we can do about that apart from hope Lorgar's strong enough to prevail.
In terms of their own gambits, the main one I can think of is them having prepared a sorcerous ritual as a giant trap. If that's the case then we may want Lorgar/Dharok on alert to use True Faith countermagic on it. The other big one I see is them having daemonic allies suddenly manifest on top of us. The best answer I can see to that is to use True Faith to ward them off. In some 40K sources people with sufficient Faith can bless their allies weapons to be able to hurt daemons. Maybe one for @Yzarc, would Dharok/Lorgar be able to do this, perhaps with a True Faith 9 miracle? If so, we could have them ready for this.
For the thread, one thing we're not doing is using Enuncia. Do we want to take the risk of hitting enemies with it, particularly and daemons that are summoned?
Any one see anything else we need to take into account?
As a before action review; thinking about what tech we're missing that I'd have like to have had when planning this that I thought I couldn't justify our people having.
Power armour. Versions that don't require a Black Carapace exist, even if they're usually harder to interface with and control. If regular space marines without an awakened mythos can receive mutations that aren't derived from their Primarch's Mythos (as Chaos Space Marines suggest), then the option to make our warriors into were-space marines may still be on the table. This would mean our warriors look less like mutants and should also help them live more normal lives when not in combat, which would make the transformation much more palatable.
Jet packs that integrate with Power Armour. Fan may be able to fly at his normal ground movement pace, but jet packs would be much faster, and the rest of the circle can't fly*.
Perhaps stretching the definition of equipment, but, grav bikes would be absurdly better than regular bikes in the desert, and that's ignoring their ability to carry heavy weapons. This is on both tactical and strategic levels, as imperial jet bikes can reach just sub-sonic speeds. This makes hit and run attacks much easier but also means a force mounted on them can travel around the continent vastly faster than a regular army, which is an enormous force multipler.
Virus grenades. Potentially comically effective against a mostly medieval tech army, even if some are blessed by Nurgle most won't be. Also, relatively safe to deploy in a desert.
Other weapons that require ammunition. Given our almost completely absent industrial base, things like missile launchers with plasma munitions, while likely effective, didn't seem a good idea. As would plasma grenades to throw with superhuman strength at incoming chaos warriors. Or man-portable mortars firing plasma rounds indirectly over a ridge line into the Chaos army. If we do have any of this we should save it for a potential final battle at our home.
Remote controlled aurveillance drones. I'd be more confident about our plan if we could survey the land and know what route the Chaos Army is taking and what rhey're doing before planning where to send the sandstorm and where to attack them. We couldn't deploy drones in the sandstorm; but before then they'd be very useful.
Psi-tech. Force weapons or psi-boosters for Lorgar and Dharok.
Other enchanted weapons and armour**. I'm not sure if they exist, but if the Sorcery path of Enchantment is available then this gear might be a better counter for any esoteric defences or attacks the Chaos Warriors have.
Augmentations. We should get on with developing our genetor augmentation packages, as this is a slow burner. If we get a few regular space marines I've realised that we may want to run a parallel mutation reverse engineering project on them to try to derive non-supernatural upgrades to the basic space marine package. We know this is possible, there's a 'superior' space marine who appears to be a surviving Thunder Warrior that had geneseed implanted in the Heresy Era, as well as the Primaris marines of a potential far future. There are other forms of technological augmentation we should consider as well. For example, it's canon that there are Skitarii with super-tech like quantum bioware cerebral implants. I'm not sure what combination of Savant specialties would be required for Thalassa to duplicate those. There's also bionics, which I'm a bit sceptical about deploying widely, given the risks of Scrap Code.
Other things that would have been helpful include granting/teaching Lorgar and Dharok Maelstrom Sorcery so they can assist with rituals, and closing the Wound so that we could ask for the spirits' assistance with Sorcery. A stockpile of exotic reagents wouldn't have hurt either.
* long term, for Dharok and Lorgar, I wonder if it would be possible to combine the Wings mutation with the Hidden Power merit, fluffed as Diablo angel style wings of light that can be manifested and dismissed at will. Seems cooler than jet packs. It also seems in line with a combination of Light and Celestial Lores and the fact that the Lores are quasi-psyker manifestations of True Faith. Might not be though.
** Long long term it would be nice to develop Path of the Arbiter Style and have a core of Enlightened space marine elites who can manifest artifacts from their own essence. I suspect this is a very long road though…
The description of it as a gambit pile up makes me wonder if there's something they can do we haven't anticipated.
We've previously revealed our ability to call storms and our power armour, and Lorgar's Telepathy. Is there anything people can think that can be turned against us?
They could use the start of the sandstorm as a signal that we're coming and start preparing traps or summon daemons that then hide somehow. Fan doesn't have supernatural senses. Lorgar, however, does, so we may want him to accompany Fan when he runs ahead of the main body of the army. Lorgar can then look for any hidden threats that are too great a risk so we can either account for them or decide to try again later. If we throw sandstorms at them a few times without attacking they're likely to stop making as thorough preparations, as they're probably expensive.
In terms of the power armour, Thalassa used the Mechanicum rites on our gear to protect it from scrap code, but it may still be a threat.
For the Telepathy, they may try to have someone ready to telepathically duel Lorgar if he tries to use it on them again, which between True Faith and Mind Shields would probably be a severe error on their part. They may also have someone waiting to try to jam him. I'm not sure what we can do about that apart from hope Lorgar's strong enough to prevail.
In terms of their own gambits, the main one I can think of is them having prepared a sorcerous ritual as a giant trap. If that's the case then we may want Lorgar/Dharok on alert to use True Faith countermagic on it. The other big one I see is them having daemonic allies suddenly manifest on top of us. The best answer I can see to that is to use True Faith to ward them off. In some 40K sources people with sufficient Faith can bless their allies weapons to be able to hurt daemons. Maybe one for @Yzarc, would Dharok/Lorgar be able to do this, perhaps with a True Faith 9 miracle? If so, we could have them ready for this.
For the thread, one thing we're not doing is using Enuncia. Do we want to take the risk of hitting enemies with it, particularly and daemons that are summoned?
Any one see anything else we need to take into account?
As a before action review; thinking about what tech we're missing that I'd have like to have had when planning this that I thought I couldn't justify our people having.
Power armour. Versions that don't require a Black Carapace exist, even if they're usually harder to interface with and control. If regular space marines without an awakened mythos can receive mutations that aren't derived from their Primarch's Mythos (as Chaos Space Marines suggest), then the option to make our warriors into were-space marines may still be on the table. This would mean our warriors look less like mutants and should also help them live more normal lives when not in combat, which would make the transformation much more palatable.
Jet packs that integrate with Power Armour. Fan may be able to fly at his normal ground movement pace, but jet packs would be much faster, and the rest of the circle can't fly*.
Perhaps stretching the definition of equipment, but, grav bikes would be absurdly better than regular bikes in the desert, and that's ignoring their ability to carry heavy weapons. This is on both tactical and strategic levels, as imperial jet bikes can reach just sub-sonic speeds. This makes hit and run attacks much easier but also means a force mounted on them can travel around the continent vastly faster than a regular army, which is an enormous force multipler.
Virus grenades. Potentially comically effective against a mostly medieval tech army, even if some are blessed by Nurgle most won't be. Also, relatively safe to deploy in a desert.
Other weapons that require ammunition. Given our almost completely absent industrial base, things like missile launchers with plasma munitions, while likely effective, didn't seem a good idea. As would plasma grenades to throw with superhuman strength at incoming chaos warriors. Or man-portable mortars firing plasma rounds indirectly over a ridge line into the Chaos army. If we do have any of this we should save it for a potential final battle at our home.
Remote controlled aurveillance drones. I'd be more confident about our plan if we could survey the land and know what route the Chaos Army is taking and what rhey're doing before planning where to send the sandstorm and where to attack them. We couldn't deploy drones in the sandstorm; but before then they'd be very useful.
Psi-tech. Force weapons or psi-boosters for Lorgar and Dharok.
Other enchanted weapons and armour**. I'm not sure if they exist, but if the Sorcery path of Enchantment is available then this gear might be a better counter for any esoteric defences or attacks the Chaos Warriors have.
Augmentations. We should get on with developing our genetor augmentation packages, as this is a slow burner. If we get a few regular space marines I've realised that we may want to run a parallel mutation reverse engineering project on them to try to derive non-supernatural upgrades to the basic space marine package. We know this is possible, there's a 'superior' space marine who appears to be a surviving Thunder Warrior that had geneseed implanted in the Heresy Era, as well as the Primaris marines of a potential far future. There are other forms of technological augmentation we should consider as well. For example, it's canon that there are Skitarii with super-tech like quantum bioware cerebral implants. I'm not sure what combination of Savant specialties would be required for Thalassa to duplicate those. There's also bionics, which I'm a bit sceptical about deploying widely, given the risks of Scrap Code.
Other things that would have been helpful include granting/teaching Lorgar and Dharok Maelstrom Sorcery so they can assist with rituals, and closing the Wound so that we could ask for the spirits' assistance with Sorcery. A stockpile of exotic reagents wouldn't have hurt either.
* long term, for Dharok and Lorgar, I wonder if it would be possible to combine the Wings mutation with the Hidden Power merit, fluffed as Diablo angel style wings of light that can be manifested and dismissed at will. Seems cooler than jet packs. It also seems in line with a combination of Light and Celestial Lores and the fact that the Lores are quasi-psyker manifestations of True Faith. Might not be though.
** Long long term it would be nice to develop Path of the Arbiter Style and have a core of Enlightened space marine elites who can manifest artifacts from their own essence. I suspect this is a very long road though…
Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
Do not think this is possible with Vanilla True Faith and in 40k, none of their equipment has been used for long enough to count as blessed.
With regards to the Gambits part, a lot more powers than you think have made plans and they have all lead to this battle.
OCC: I have made the background rolls on who is doing what.