NOTE: Anyone who wants to check my math in the upcoming post, should!
So, one slannpower worth of effort spawning normal lizardmen, with our Magnitude 2 Web, can create the following: 2,000 saurus, 4,000 skinks, and 400 kroxigor. The three 'slices' are interchangeable- we could give up the saurus to get twice as many skinks, for instance. Or vice versa.
Effectively, we can imagine it as a thousand saurus costing one point, two thousand skinks costing one point, and 200 kroxigor costing one point. Each slannpower worth of effort gets us six points.
Now, comparing that to our troop losses last turn...
Campaign Phase 1 Combat Losses, by Species and City of Origin
Saurus
Skink
Kroxigor
Original Size
(approximate)
Itza
101,500
49,200
6,600
1,969,000
Hexoatl
213,400
106,200
15,700
1,157,000
Xlanhuapec
169,000
88,900
10,500
767,000
Tlaxtlan
61,400
31,400
4,000
807,000
Total
545,300
275,700
36,800
All death numbers are to the nearest hundred
So, to roughly estimate the number of lizardmen I'd want to spawn to replenish our troops next turn, we can start by mathing out the "points." 546 for the saurus, 138 for the skinks, and 184 for the kroxigor. Total point cost, 868 points, cashing out as 145 slannpower (slightly rounded up at each step of the calculation). We will probably take further casualties in the upcoming second campaign, but this at least provides a starting baseline.
[I am here defining a 'campaign' as the military action associated with a single war turn]
To fully restore the lizardman armies up to establishment strength after the campaign we just fought would thus take a one-time commitment of 145 slannpower. But what I'd like to do is spawn rather more than that and actively bulk up the weaker, more worn-down armies, while merely rebuilding the Legion of Itza to its original strength (roughly)
Proposed Reinforcement Breakdown, by Species and City of Origin
Saurus
Skink
Kroxigor
Total Slannpower
Replacement Cost
Itza
102,000
50,000
7,000
27
Hexoatl
240,000
120,000
16,800
64
Xlanhuapec
240,000
120,000
16,800
64
Tlaxtlan
240,000
120,000
16,800
64
Total
822,000
410,000
57,400
269
The idea here is that this brings the worst-hit legion (Hexoatl's) up to slightly more than initial strength, while considerably reinforcing the Legions of Xlanhuapec (harder-hit and smaller) and Tlaxtlan (not hard-hit, but small). This will help these legions remain combat-effective next turn, without pre-committing to an extreme expenditure of slannpower.
One minor thing to poll the thread about as I finish the little jittery details (since this is the last update of the turn) - would you prefer if I just assign a third gen slann to rule every city that doesn't have one at the moment (and do so going forward unless you say otherwise when founding a city?) Lengthens the slann spawning notes a bit, but it makes more sense from a defensive standpoint and it takes away what should probably just be an automatic decision anyway.
One minor thing to poll the thread about as I finish the little jittery details (since this is the last update of the turn) - would you prefer if I just assign a third gen slann to rule every city that doesn't have one at the moment (and do so going forward unless you say otherwise when founding a city?) Lengthens the slann spawning notes a bit, but it makes more sense from a defensive standpoint and it takes away what should probably just be an automatic decision anyway.
It does make sense that given the importance we're placing on the rapid expansion of these cities, and on how many of them are only lightly populated which makes efficient coordination of their available labor force imperative, that we'd routinely assign slann administrators to each city to make sure things are being directed effectively.
One minor thing to poll the thread about as I finish the little jittery details (since this is the last update of the turn) - would you prefer if I just assign a third gen slann to rule every city that doesn't have one at the moment (and do so going forward unless you say otherwise when founding a city?) Lengthens the slann spawning notes a bit, but it makes more sense from a defensive standpoint and it takes away what should probably just be an automatic decision anyway.
True, although in fairness, we're gonna run out of Third Spawning slann in a few more turns at this rate... Presumably we'd start in on the Fourth Spawning?
True, although in fairness, we're gonna run out of Third Spawning slann in a few more turns at this rate... Presumably we'd start in on the Fourth Spawning?
Yeah, I'd go with whatever highest-gen slann is available for future expansion.
I'm gonna release the update without the pop growth/shrinkage from casualties part and edit it in later, since that always takes me at least a few hours to knuckle through and it's just background numbers shifting around anyway. I'd rather put it out today and edit tomorrow rather than delay further.
Krushgrungle was a hazardous city to be in, even by ork standards. The cramped streets clogged with resentful grots and hungry squigs that would rob and eat any passerby they they could, the ramshackle buildings ready to fall down or explode at a moment's notice, the ever-present mobs of unruly orks with a fight on their minds - all standard features of a greenskin metropolis, and something that any proper ork got used to quickly.
What differentiated Krushgrungle was the sheer amount of industrial facilities present. Rumbling factories stretched across whole blocks, outputting enough smoke to turn day to night and leaking runoff liquids that were somehow acidic, radioactive, explosively volatile, and a useful fertilizer all at once. They housed whole tribes that worked their churning gears and burping boilers, who often warred with each other for dominion of their hazardous domain. The losers of these conflicts were left impaled upon scrap-laden altars as an invitation to others, or tossed into great tracts of growling gears that shredded the unfortunate orkoids into paste.
The underside of Krushgrungle was the truly hazardous side, however - primarily consisting of a haphazard nightmare of labyrinthine sewers, hidden lairs of Meks and Doks too eccentric to be tolerated by mainstream orkoid society, and a truly stupendous amount of bunkers full of explosive shells, the entire affair was also home to a particularly vicious variety of Slime Squigs that spat corrosive mucous at anything they saw moving. It was a common occurrence for young orks, looking to prove themselves, to venture down into the sewers to kill these creatures and loot the valuables they tended to collect.
One day not long after Big Boss Zoggrod had occupied the city, there was a massive upsurge in the number of creatures spotted in the upper levels of the underground, massive packs of them stampeding to the surface, almost like they were trying to get away from something. Laughing bands of orks descended into the packed pipes, mulching squig flesh and detonating several bunkers full of ammunition in their eagerness to set the creatures aflame.
None of them knew what the rising heat from beneath their feet meant, nor would they have been able to prevent it if they did.
In a hastily-vacated tunnel deep beneath the city, space buckled inwards as arcane power surged. The firmament of reality cracked, and the air turned to flame. It coursed around itself, compressing inexorably upon itself until it was an infinitesimal ball of plasma that glowed hot enough to liquefy metal meters away. It trembled once as the full energy of the Ritual pumped into it, causing the weirdboys in the city above to perk up in alarm that was far too late in coming. Then it expanded, the shackles of gravity coming loose and allowing it to balloon outwards like a uniform explosion.
The ground was swallowed as a tide of starfire rose from the depths. Buildings melted from the foundations up, metal warping and wood combusting as the heat rose to intolerable degrees. Fuel tanks exploded, ammunition spontaneously detonated, and the air itself was set aflame as the plasma rose higher and higher. Screaming greenskins were vaporized as a dome of incandescence raced up and out, the energy released from their incinerated forms becoming captured by the spell and used to expand the plasma.
[Zoggrod Avoidance Roll, DC 50: 3]
The Boss Fortress, a gargantuan conglomerate of smokestacks and gun-laden walls rising high above the city, was close to the epicenter of the ritual. As the churning wall of death approached closer, Zoggrod was roused from his planning chamber by the wailing of his hordes outside as their blood sublimated and flesh carbonized.
"Wot're you lot moanin' about," he bellowed as he stomped out to a balcony that he enjoyed bellowing at his troops from, ignoring the way his feet sank slightly into the crimson-glowing floors with every step. "Even dem shiny scaly grots ain't sneaky enuff to get 'ere without us seein' em!"
He emerged onto the balcony and found himself face to face with the surface of a star in miniature, which was still bright enough to blind him instantly and set his lungs on fire as the oxygen within them combusted. Didn't see dat coming, he faintly thought as a coil of plasma leapt forward, devouring him and scything through the entire upper spire of his fortress.
---
The lizardmen continued their steady march forward, routing the greenskins wherever they encountered them. With every notable war leader on their side of the Burnin' Kanyon dead, the orks were disorganized, wandering in ragged warbands no larger than a few hundred through the blasted ruins of their territory. They fought with each other whenever two warbands met, the losers submitting to the victor's authority, starting the long cycle towards a true Waaagh!!! once more.
The scouts of the lizardmen fanned out, guided by omens that Azyr priests uttered, their slann overseers sensing the ebb and flow of the Waaagh! field and pinpointing concentrations of greenskins by its fluctuations. Flights of Terradons dropped Glyph Bombs upon burgeoning war hordes, scattering them to the winds as their leaders were swallowed by bladed shadows and infectious lightning. Groups of cavalry caught travelling warbands unawares, pouncing upon them from within groves of fungal trees with overwhelming force. Troglodon toxins blinded orks by the dozen, and the gauntlet-clad claws of Carnosaurs tore through the demoralized greenskins. Poorly positioned and bereft of their advantage of numbers, even their devastating shootas were little issue, for an individual engagement seldom lasted long enough for enough boyz to bring their guns to bear.
As the ork hordes broke and ran, the Ayacmanik followed them. Millions upon millions of every conceivable Mochantian species pushed forwards in a veritable wave from the jungle line, blanketing the ground with their myriad forms. Giant crustacean spiders with sediment-laden shells stomped alongside undulating tubes of flesh lined inside and out with serrated spikes that inverted themselves to move and eat. Radially symmetrical tentacled insectoid creatures whirled through the air, their multitudinous limbs lined with featherlike tufts that both provided lift and injected paralytic neurotoxin into whatever they touched. Great slithering tree-mimics with many eyes and spooled tongues carried colonies of tunnelling marsupials within their mouth-wombs, and clouds of jellyfish-like insects flitted around many-legged ovular creatures with smooth purple skin and rotating beak-mouths.
Freed from the burden of fending off the orks, the Ayacmanik attacked the orkoid ecosystem with every tactic they possessed – legions of feeder grubs chewed through soil, devouring gestating greenskins as they grew in their fungal wombs. Thousands of mouths tore down great groves of mushroom trees, planting fast-growing fire vines in their place that would immolate themselves at the end of their life. Packs of Amoxnen ran down nests of squigs, trampling them with the aid of thorn-legged quadruped striders armored in black chitin. Larger organisms assisted against the more ferocious varieties of squig, crocodilian behemoths with intersecting jaws ripping great chunks of flesh off of roaring Squiggoths.
The creatures pushed forward, scouring the ground as they went, until the cadres of Oldbloods in command of the lizardmen perimeter determined that they could not be allowed further into lizardmen territory. Tiktaq'to mustered Hexoatl's legions from their own work and met the Ayacmanik with a semi-cohesive line of lizardmen, confronting unacceptably large concentrations of the oversoul's hosts. Arcane engines hummed as Shyish priests switched out their shield configuration for one that would summon storms of amethyst shards to scythe through the spirits of the Ayacmanik.
Scaled Bodies oppose advance. Aggression?
+ A Longing For Minds: The spark in the being of the scaled ones is a potent taste, not easily set aside.
+ Must Purge Fungoid Flesh: The [Kill]-bringers must be exterminated. They will not stop.
+ An Array Of Skins: Variety of hosts brings utility. There are many types here.
- Their Hides Are Black Stone: They have taken the earth-bones and put it around their skins - a powerful secret.
- Their Light Can Kill: They call and the wind answers. They bring fire with their touch and silence in their wake.
- 339 Frigid Stars: These ones … they are [Fear]. They bring old memories of [Predator]. They are too bright to look upon.
- Small Selves Creep Underfoot: They cannot be everywhere. We can.
Conclusion: Avoid their Light, Sheath the Claws
The Ayacmanik, for its part, seemed intent on avoiding direct conflict with the lizardmen. Small skirmishes cropped up all along the border as smaller groups of the oversoul's hosts encountered lizardmen patrols, but the creatures melted away when confronted by any significant force. Whenever the creatures managed to capture and infest a lizardman, it was simple to find and terminate them before the oversoul could take full hold, thanks to the prevalence of Azyr mages in the lizardmen ranks. The Ayacmanik shied away especially quickly whenever a slann took the field – even manifesting their power through a skink priest was enough to induce hesitancy in the creatures, something about the magic of the slann seeming to unnerve the hivemind.
Regardless of their strange fear of the slann, the Ayacmanik were too many for the lizardmen to keep out completely. Tiktaq'to was kept constantly on the move by the need to coordinate Hexoatl's legions between continuing to purge the remnants of the orks and confront large Ayacmanik gatherings, and to the north, Chakax was occupied by similar constraints. The oversoul trickled into lizardmen territory bit by bit, establishing a scattered presence that would be impossible to fully root out without dedicated effort, while the majority of their host bodies turned elsewhere, increasing their pressure on the two remaining Big Bosses.
Towards the northern coast, Chakax led the Legion of Xlanhuapec on a concerted push eastward, towards the magmatic line of the Burning Canyon. Filled with cold malice at the knowledge that some of the slann had perished, even if they had not been under his aegis, the Eternity Warden had commanded the entirety of the legion to assist in constructing a network of fortified bunkers for the mage-lords to be ensconced within, with the added benefit of helping to secure their territorial integrity against wandering mobs of orks or Ayacmanik.
Xlanhuapec marched east, leaving roads of black stone connecting walled bunkers behind them as they went. The orks they found were not quite as disorganized as those who had belonged to Skarstuf's horde – these were Gardakka's boyz, separated from their boss only by the molten line in the earth that was Mazdamundi's wrath. But they had been battered and depleted many times recently – first by Skarstuf, then by Tlaxtlan, then again by the united front of the lizardmen as they pushed the shattered orks back. They were ready with the rolling thunder of their guns, but Chakax was wise to that danger, and his councils of Oldbloods had taken measures against it.
Xlanhuapec's legions darted forth under glowing shields, split up into small enough segments that the entirety of their advance could be conducted under the cover of force field. The foresight of the slann, coupled with the metalshaping powers of Chamon, intercepted and nullified a large portion of the bombardments the greenskins conducted. The lizardmen flowed around the obstacles their foe presented, congealing into a formidable army only when required – even then their ranks were loose when they could not be protected by spell or shield, and they used the magic of the slann and the might of the Thunder Lizards to break the cohesion of ork forces before they closed to the tumult of true battle. In this way they were able to avoid confronting the orks in their areas of strength, and scatter them without accruing unacceptable casualties.
---
Chakax was a silent monolith, standing stone-still in one of the newer forts. Erected just a few days ago, it consisted of naught but a sturdy wall of obsinite upon which several skinks stood watch, surrounding a squat, square bunker with a single entryway, behind which was four more doors, each thicker than the last, behind which was a small chamber where Lord Tenqotta of the Fourth Spawning sat. His prognostication had foretold that a significant quantity of veteran ork assassins would make an attempt on his life if they learned of his presence. Chakax had thus taken the slann's protection as his priority, and had remained in a shallow alcove carved into the wall of the bunker for the last four days.
Night fell, the shadows of the walls growing long and expanding until they covered the world, pierced only by the light of alien stars. The wind whistled over barren ground around the fort, still bearing scorch marks from the efforts of the lizardmen the day before. There was no other sound in the air.
Jagged blades gripped by thick green fingers slit scaled throats. The bunker's skink sentries collapsed as the 20-strong band of kommandos known as Da Replaceabulz went to their work, having climbed up the fort walls in total silence. Their boots, wrapped in cloth that was soaked in purple blood, hit the ground with muffled thuds as the assassins vaulted down, unlimbering weapons strapped to their backs and exchanging hand signals between themselves.
The orks crept forward, sticking to the edges of the walls until they were able to approach the central bunker, surrounding it from all angles. Tusked mouths stretched wide in anticipatory grins, and thick clouds of breath huffed from the mouth of the largest among them, a scarred specimen with a peculiar droop to his mouth. Packed soil was compressed underfoot as the orks crossed an invisible boundary.
A strand of drool dropped from a tusk.
Chakax emerged from his alcove, long-coiled muscles springing into furious motion. He was at the first ork in two steps, the beast's eye fractionally widening as it recognized its doom. The Star-Stone Mace broke through its skull, reducing it to wet slurry without so much as losing momentum. Chakax continued the motion, scything downwards through the chests of two more orks with the same blow, pulping flesh and crushing bone. He spun, the obsinite blade affixed to his tail slashing the throat of another, and leapt off his other foot, coming off the ground with an arcing knee that caught an ork on the chin, throwing it backward. His other foot shot downward, cracking the greenskin's skull against the ground like an egg as he simultaneously disemboweled two more with the bladed edge of his mace.
The rest of the kommandos had only started to react as Chakax tore through them, their honed reflexes turned sluggish with the time-distorting power of the Eternity Key. Three more fell before the quickest of the surviving orks turned their heads to face their foe. Six were slain before any raised their weapons. The last four were felled in a single swing, the beginnings of a warcry doused as the remnants of limbs and organs spattered the air.
The strand of drool hit the ground, and Chakax surveyed the gore-soaked courtyard, his keen eyes searching for any hint of life in the foe. Finding none, he clacked his teeth once and returned to his alcove, resuming his long vigil.
---
It was well that they had secured the northern shore, for it was not long afterwards that the suspicions of the slann came to pass – a segment of Gardakka's armies, having built a small fleet of ramshackle boats, took to the sea in an attempt to sail around the Burnin' Kanyon and re-establish the Worldhamma's foothold in those territories. The craft they built was shoddy even by orkoid standards, quickly made and unlikely to survive more than a single voyage, but it would be enough if the millions of orks could make landfall.
Fortunately, the titanic creatures of the Old Ones were with the lizardmen, and easily able to intercept such a sluggish force.
---
A dragon of rust and iron and oil coursed across the sea, hundreds of ships and less leaving a wake of polluted water behind them as crude propellers spun. There were trukks and warbuggies affixed with squigskin gas bags, great metallic rafts with hundreds of gretchin furiously paddling at their edges, dilapidated boats held together with spit and squigshit that rattled and coughed and spewed clouds of thick smoke as they moved. The ork fleet left a stain on the world behind them, a trail of smog and debris that clung together under the clouded skies and choppy waters.
There was no warning. An unearthly cold descended as the clouds above began to churn, and the seas froze. A layer of ice sprung up from nowhere, climbing the hulls of ships and freezing whitecaps mid-wave, growing thicker with the deep groan of primordial forces. Flecked ice fell from the sky on evil winds, coursing in fractal patterns as a storm materialized, blowing fast enough that the fragments cut skin and thick enough that the orks could barely see their hands in front of their faces. Many wailed in sudden agony, vomiting coagulated blood as the radiation carried on the winds pierced deep into their tissues.
Something beneath the ice shifted, a sudden quake shooting through the meters-thick ice. Orks were thrown off their feet as the impact happened again, and then a third time, this time accompanied by the shriek of splintering ice and the roaring of water as a gargantuan shape emerged from the depths, its shadow casting hundreds of meters around it into darkness. The Thunder Lizard Ruukh bellowed, a great cone of steam issuing forth from its mouth as the burning hot air from its throat coursed out into the blizzard.
Ruukh laid waste to the helpless fleet, titanic limbs crushing the largest of the ork craft like leaves underfoot, great chasms opening in the ice wherever it directed its fury. It was soon joined by its sibling Bak'unawa, the two Thunder Lizards heating the air around them such that they were swathed in thick layers of steam, illuminated only by the ominous glow issuing from their chasm-like throats. They rose almost in unison to their hind legs, lungs the size of a city block drawing great currents of air in and in and in.
The thunderous eruption of their cataclysmic exhalations superheated the air around their beams, raising it from sub-zero temperatures to scorching incandescence within a fraction of a second. The resulting shockwave from the change in air pressure blew out every eardrum within a kilometer, and the gouts of steam that arose from their impact were tall enough to reach the cloud layer. The terrible light issued out again and again, the deafening booming echoing like the hammer on a world-smith's anvil.
---
As the other lizardmen commanders wrapped up their theatres of war, Itza's legions converged on the orkish city of Urtytoof, nominally belonging to Urdgob Noseskorcha but isolated from the pyromaniac Boss' territory by the Burnin' Kanyon. It represented the last concentration of significant orkoid force on the near side of the Kanyon, and had thus been designated as a priority target for Itza to break, so that the consolidation of their conquered territory could proceed without the need to account for it.
Sotek had marched with the lizardmen for the whole of their campaign, girding their flesh and enflaming their spirits, but nowhere were his blessings more concentrated than the army where his prophet Teninhuan walked. There, the ritual fires flared up in fang-like protrusions, the sacrificial altars were watered near-constantly with the blood of orks, and the hissing brood of the serpent god blanketed the ground with their numbers.
The territory surrounding Urtytoof was littered with ork defensive fortifications, and Teninhuan had taken to the task of cracking these open with considerable fervor. Leading bands of his most skilled and fanatical followers, he would storm the walls of the orkoid bunkers at the head of a host of holy serpents, using their bodies to shield his troops from gunfire and melting through the walls with the venom dripping from his twin daggers. More than once the Prophet himself was cut down during these brutal, frantic assaults, only to later emerge from the corpse of a sacrificed Shaxesh serpent. Mere bodily death could not stop his mission of holy extermination, and great crowds of worshipers chanted praise to Sotek each time that Teninhuan was reincarnated.
---
The walls of Urtytoof were a haphazard assortment of materials – crooked sheets of metal, wooden scaffolding taken from fungoid trees, irregularly-shaped stone bricks and the occasional gretchin who had been 'accidentally' entombed. Despite their shoddy construction, they stood fifteen meters high, and were mounted with sentry towers bristling with guns, crewed by orks bored enough to consider anything they saw moving as a worthwhile target.
Two kroxigor ascended the wall, their clawed hands using the various outcroppings of material as leverage to climb. Itza's armies lay well away, hiding themselves in the fungal forests that blanketed this region, for so long as the great gate in Urtytoof's walls was sealed, the task of taking the city would be a bloody one indeed for the lizardmen legion. Thus Teninhuan had sent his most trusted servants forth to break the gate, and allow for the followers of Sotek to perform their sacred duty.
One of the kroxigor bore two enormous obsinite blades upon his back, the other a tremendous bow and a brace of lances as tall as a Saurus. Both bore the marks of Sotek's favor upon their scales – the first had two fang-like streaks of red descending from the top of his head down over his eyes, and his yellow eyes shone with a reddish glow. His compatriot bore a band of crimson scales from shoulder to hip, and the rest of his body blended into the darkness of the night. Each climbed with a brace of Glyph Spheres on their waists, the artifacts glowing ominously with the magic infused into them.
Ah'my'tai was the first to reach the top of the wall, vaulting upwards and tearing a hapless ork in two with his hands and jaws. To the left and right, other greenskins heard their fellow's death cries and turned, brutish joy showing on their features. They charged, crude axes in hand and the eternal warcry of their kind on their lips, and were cut down in droves by the razor-sharp weapons of the Sword of Sotek.
As the alarm was raised, ork gunnery crews leapt to their places, eagerly cranking the wall-mounted Big Gunz around to face the two kroxigors. They pumped out a constant stream of fire, smoke and soot issuing forth from their contraptions, and so they were not aware of their incoming doom until it arrived in the form of a fusillade of gargantuan arrows fired from Hrun'ting's bow. The obsinite lances were more fit for a ballista than a handheld bow, and yet the ancient kroxigor fired them with unrelenting precision and speed, each shot moving with enough force to punch through dozens of orks at a time.
The blessed kroxigors fought their way through the ork sentries, making their way to the city's gate and leaving a trail of shredded ork in their wake. Moving quickly, they affixed their bandoliers of Glyph Spheres to the enormous hinges on either side of the gate, activating the glowing bombs and stepping back as their Aqshy and Chamon reserves spooled up with a high-pitched whine.
The explosions carved great trenches into the gates, shining whips of magic lashing out and searing metal away. Night turned to day momentarily, but when the radiance of the explosions faded, the gates still stood, twisted scraps of metal somehow clinging onto their housing. Both kroxigor growled at the sight, knowing that their task would not be done until the edifice was torn down entirely.
Ah'my'tai rumbled, gazing down at the crowd of orks massing at the base of the gates. "Defend," he rasped. Hrun'ting nodded in acknowledgement, planting his feet upon the wall and drawing another colossal arrow back. "Go," he hissed, and with that, Ah'my'tai leapt off the wall, landing amidst a crowd of orks at its base and laying all around him with his swords.
Hrun'ting's arrows hissed down, wrapped in coronas of magical force that detonated in searing arcs of light wherever they landed. Ah'my'tai's blades reaped greenskin lives by the score, cutting through ork bodies without even slowing down. Once a suitable amount of space was cleared, Ah'my'tai turned, setting his colossal blades down. As Hrun'ting continued to shoot down orks as they came running in from nearby streets, Sotek's Sword grasped the orkish gates, thrice as tall as he, in his gnarled hands and heaved.
Metal buckled under his divine-bolstered strength, the gates warping and shrieking as a hellish amount of force was applied. Ah'my'tai pulled once, twice, thrice more, each time pulling the gates a little more out of their housing, until with a deep groan they pulled free. The blessed kroxigor took a step back, hefting the multi-ton edifice over his head, then turned and slammed it down upon a pack of orks as they ran towards him. He roared in triumph, the chilling echo audible to all within the city.
Urtytoof fell not long after – with its defenses compromised, and sentries occupied searching for Itza's legions, which had split up into innumerable groups that made constant small raids upon the city, it was trivial for chameleon skinks and priests of Sotek to infiltrate the orkish stronghold. There they sabotaged critical infrastructure, slew Nobs wherever the opportunity presented itself, and were able to consecrate the city's massive acid vats in Sotek's name, rendering them unable to harm the children of the Old Ones.
After the city had been thrown into sufficient disarray, Itza's armies grouped up and presented themselves before the city, a line of glowing domes large enough to stretch from horizon to horizon. Bereft of any significant leadership elements, Urtytoof's boyz charged to meet the lizardmen, eager to finally have a tangible foe to get to grips with, and were mercilessly cut down by massed Solar Engine fire and the strength of Saurus shieldwalls. Many captives were taken, and with the sacrifice of ten thousand ork hearts, Teninhuan was able to summon a veritable tidal wave of snakes, sending them into the city to cleanse it with their holy venom.
---
The lizardmen force that marched back to the core of their territory was one much reduced – where whole spawning cohorts had once marched in formation, often only a few survivors now stood, holding the memory of their lost kin in their minds. Equipment once pristine and unblemished now bore scars of battle – chips had been torn out of obsinite armor by the whirling edge of chain-choppas, the stone harnesses of Solar Engines bore scorch marks from heavy use, and glyphs that had once glowed with magic now lay dull and inert, their charges spent. Nearby the Revivification Crystals, many lizardmen and warbeasts were missing limbs, lost due to near-misses from artillery fire or an unlucky swing during melee. Their flesh slowly but surely regrew in the aura of the healing artifacts, which had been spread out to cover swathes of the armies.
The dead were brought back in great stone carts, each lizardman pieced together as much as was possible and stacked atop their brethren like bricks. Skink priests of Shyish cast their magics across the many corpses, holding decomposition at bay. It had been decreed by the slann that all deceased were to be brought to Xlanhuapec, to be interred with the rites of the new god they had devised. Many of the lizardmen rumbled in acknowledgement of the foresight of the slann, for without Ayotzl, the souls of their fallen brethren would surely be consigned to an uncertain fate.
The slann were silent idols in the center of massive formations of Temple Guard, deep in wordless contemplation of the deaths of five of their kin. While the passing of a slann was by no means an unknown occurrence, particularly among the Fifth Spawning, whose members had been the most apt to leave the protection of their temples and fight the enemies of Lustria in times past, it was a seldom one. In ones and twos the slann had passed to the Tomb Collective over the millennia, a slow but inevitable whittling. Five at once would not substantially impact the Sublime Communion's goals for the future, but it was still not a loss taken lightly. The spirits of three hundred thirty nine slann joined in remembrance of their kin, speaking in turn their names, deeds, and legacies, shaping their words into spells of binding and preserving that would anchor the souls of their dead brethren to their mummified corpses. They would travel back to the cities they had called home in life, to reside forever within the timeless vaults of the Relic Priests.
The lizardmen arrived back in their cities and almost immediately set to work, for even in victory there was much to be done. Great herds of dinosaurs were re-housed, Temple Guard security protocols reorganized to account for observed orkoid capabilities. A great flood of material was sent to the Forge Districts, to be repaired and revamped in accordance with updated combat doctrine. Most importantly, a glut of looted Orkish technology was brought to the smith-scientists residing in their upper levels – piles of shootas and chain-choppas, hulking trukks and gutted aircraft. Teams of chameleon skinks had managed to steal into the remains of Orkfred's sanctum and recover a number of the Mekboss' more esoteric projects before they were reused by his former underlings – much of it simply consisted of piles of indecipherable notes, but some were more concrete – crude blades attached to generators that coughed and smoked, a fragile gun prototype with snotling corpses stuffed into the barrel, and crude limbs made out of metal that sparked and twitched, but somehow moved without magical energy. It remained to be seen if anything of value could be extracted from the demented designs of the orks, but the principles behind some of them, if correctly implemented, had the potential to reshape the lizardmen way of war.
Campaign Results:
With every Boss on the lizardmen's side of the Burnin' Kanyon dead and their cohesion largely shattered, securing of ork territory proceeded with minimal casualties. The Ayacmanik largely chose to avoid massed conflict with the lizardmen, instead concentrating their efforts on the remaining two ork leaders while infiltrating lizardmen territory with smaller numbers of hosts. Gardakka Worldhamma attempted to bypass the Kanyon by sailing around it, but his forces were intercepted midway and destroyed by the Quango and several Thunder Lizards. It is considered highly likely that both Gardakka and Urdgob will attempt to seize lizardmen territory in the following decade – to that end, a garrison force may be left to keep it secure until further dedicated infrastructure may be placed. Vote below.
Approximate Enemy Figures:
Skarstuf Blitzrippa: 55 million orks – 8 million slain by Gardakka, 22 million slain by lizardmen armies, 24 million recruited by Zoggrod. Skarstuf slain by Kroq-Gar. 1 million survivors.
Zoggrod Shakfang: 27 million orks – 3 million slain by Urdgob, 8 million slain by lizardmen, 16 million + 24 million Skarstuf recruits + Zoggrod slain by Magnitude 1 Ritual. 100,000 survivors.
Gardakka Worldhamma: 106 million orks – 1 million slain by Burning Canyon, 7 million slain by Skarstuf, 26 million slain by Urdgob. 72 million survivors.
Urdgob Noseskorcha: 89 million orks – 1 million slain by Burning Canyon, 1 million slain by Zoggrod, 17 million slain by Gardakka. 70 million survivors.
Approximately 2.5 million scattered greenskins remain on the northern continent, 1.5 million of which are orks.
Sufficient orkish technology obtained to unlock research projects for: Automatic Guns, Non-Magical Artillery, Armored Personnel Carriers (dinosaur-pulled), Armored Watercraft, Anti-Air Batteries, as well as speculative Mek projects that may be investigated for viability.
New city founded - Yagoqua, City of War! Sacred Sites established: Omnipresent Atlas. Allows all lizardmen within the area of effect to know the exact position and movement of enemies nearby the city, and allows Communion-like distribution of orders.
Kimilik and Tekuanzi upgraded to level 2.
Leave a garrison in territory taken during this campaign? The garrison will build defensive structures and attempt to keep enemies out of the territory, but will not build cities or conduct full military campaigns without your intervention. Up to 2,306,000 Saurus, 1,149,880 Skinks, and 153,430 Kroxigor may be assigned, as well as any number of hero units, who will have their action locked into defending the taken territory.
[] Write-in garrison amount.
Itza population growth: 50,000 Saurus, 100,000 Skinks, 10,000 Kroxigor
Hexoatl population growth: 30,000 Saurus, 60,000 Skinks, 6,000 Kroxigor
Xlanhuapec population growth: 30,000 Saurus, 60,000 Skinks, 6,000 Kroxigor
Tlaxtlan population growth: 30,000 Saurus, 60,000 Skinks, 6,000 Kroxigor
Yenehectua population growth: 30,000 Saurus, 60,000 Skinks, 6,000 Kroxigor
Qotlpetl population growth: 30,000 Saurus, 60,000 Skinks, 6,000 Kroxigor
Chalkaro population growth: 20,000 Saurus, 40,000 Skinks, 4,000 Kroxigor
Aztlan population growth: 20,000 Saurus, 40,000 Skinks, 4,000 Kroxigor
Kimilik population growth: 20,000 Saurus, 40,000 Skinks, 4,000 Kroxigor
Tekuanzi population growth: 20,000 Saurus, 40,000 Skinks, 4,000 Kroxigor
Yagoqua population growth: 20,000 Saurus, 40,000 Skinks, 4,000 Kroxigor
250,000 saurus, 500,000 skinks, and 50,000 kroxigor moved to Yagoqua from various cities
- 50,000 saurus, 100,000 skinks, and 10,000 kroxigor from each of the original four cities
- 20,000 saurus, 40,000 skinks, and 4,000 kroxigor from Yenehectua
- 10,000 saurus, 20,000 skinks, and 2,000 kroxigor each from Qotlpetl, Chalkaro, and Aztlan
Ayacmanik infiltration attempts resulted in:
33 saurus, 121 skinks, and 34 kroxigors as casualties in Itza.
31 saurus, 165 skinks, and 37 kroxigors as casualties in Hexoatl.
36 saurus, 101 skinks, and 33 kroxigors as casualties in Tlaxtlan.
No casualties in Xlanhuapec.
21 saurus, 189 skinks, and 30 kroxigors as casualties in Yenehectua.
43 saurus, 217 skinks, and 40 kroxigors as casualties in Qotlpetl.
45 saurus, 177 skinks, and 21 kroxigors as casualties in Chalkaro.
16 saurus, 190 skinks, and 38 kroxigors as casualties in Aztlan.
27 saurus, 137 skinks, and 42 kroxigors as casualties in Kimilik.
25 saurus, 209 skinks, and 34 kroxigors as casualties in Tekuanzi.
31 Saurus, 193 skinks, and 31 kroxigors as casualties in Yagoqua.
Does the territory actually matter to us? We are not exploiting it for resources and as it is the Aya can move in if we leave and fight the orks when they come back and since it is still divided it does bottleneck the forces they can deploy to an extent. Basically my view is pull back, develop artillery and anti-air and then attack them when they move in with rituals.
145.6 million orks left out of 277 million to start with.
Honestly queuing up 2 plasma bomb rituals in the middle of the two bosses seems the better bet to me than keeping garrisons to be targeted. More so since if we are not there they will more likely fight each other and the aya, letting us replenish.
Main purpose of a garrison would probably be to help keep orks off you as you build cities in the faces of the orks. They can be sent back to whatever city at any point.
That went very very very well for us. We absolutely need to build cities to hold our new clay, and purge the wandering/newly spawning orks, but this is an excellent first step. Looking at the research projects, we need Automatic Guns, Artillery, and Anti-Air Batteries. Everything else can wait until we have time both those are immediately useful for us.
Thanks Xantalos, also once you've got the time, could you tell us what the progress of our new God is?
New city founded - Yagoqua, City of War! Sacred Sites established: Omnipresent Atlas. Allows all lizardmen within the area of effect to know the exact position and movement of enemies nearby the city, and allows Communion-like distribution of orders.
Main purpose of a garrison would probably be to help keep orks off you as you build cities in the faces of the orks. They can be sent back to whatever city at any point.
The bunker's skink sentries collapsed as the 20-strong band of kommandos known as Da Replaceabulz went to their work, having climbed up the fort walls in total silence.
Ten thousand years ago an experimental Old One project was abandoned on a death world for a failure they didn't commit. These toads promptly escaped from a death trap into the galactic underground. Today, still wanted by literally no one, they survive as best they can on another, different death world. If you have a problem... if no one else can help... and if you can find them... maybe you can hire... The L-Team.
Ten thousand years ago an experimental Old One project was abandoned on a death world for a failure they didn't commit. These toads promptly escaped from a death trap into the galactic underground. Today, still wanted by literally no one, they survive as best they can on another, different death world. If you have a problem... if no one else can help... and if you can find them... maybe you can hire... The L-Team.
Yeah, pretty much the whole area within a hundred or so km, more or less.
Ayotzl got a pretty damn big boost from this war - exact numbers are gonna have to wait until I figure out what percentage of your population died so I can convert that into god points.
Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet. Combine that with Geomantic Enhancements, Automatic Guns, Artillery, and *sadly not yey* Ulgu Skinks and its legit 'WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE'.
Enjoyed this post. We've claimed new territory, killed plenty of orks, and got plenty of loot. I enjoyed the small perspective of how the Aya "thinks" and the cameo of the shaxesh and two lizardmen ocs
The canyon makes an incredible defensive position. A garrison there would be able to hold the Orks at the canyon much more easily. If we let the orks retake territory that means more orks will spawn.
@Xantalos which character is best at defense? I assume its Chahax. Also, should we put the garrison as a plan vote?
This proposal would devote roughly 25% from each force we committed to the campaign, except for Itza which contributes 50% of its campaign forces, along with however many Engines of the Gods are needed to protect our garrisons from ork Artillery. [] Garrison the area:
-[] Hexoatl: 125,000 Saurus, 62,500 Skinks, 9,000 Kroxigors
-[] Xlanhuapec: 75,000 Saurus, 40,000 Skinks, 4,500 Kroxigors
-[] Tlaxtlan: 100,000 Saurus, 53,000 Skinks, 6,500 Kroxigors
-[] Itza: 500,000 Saurus, 265,000 Skinks, 36,000 Kroxigors
-[] Total Force: 800,000 Saurus, 420,500 Skinks, 56,000 Kroxigors
-[] Additionally, commit enough Engines of the Gods to shield the garrison from Ork Artillery
-[] Chahax will oversee the garrison
