- Location
- Canada
I've got one one, how bout Chimalli
it's the Nahuatl word for Shield
it's the Nahuatl word for Shield
Respect Your Elders v2 - Galactic Boogaloo [Warhammer Lizardmen Quest]
- Location
- United States, CA
City of Serenity- Axolotl
- Location
- Anchorage, Alaska
hmmm names huh?
There should be some....
-First name for City of Lore: Boo'kan
-second city name: Naht
-Third name: Oce'ana
-Fourth name: Tranqu'ilaty
There should be some....
-First name for City of Lore: Boo'kan
-second city name: Naht
-Third name: Oce'ana
-Fourth name: Tranqu'ilaty
The cities that we're lost. Fair enough.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Amamaniliztli
For the City of Storms, between the forces Mazdamundi unleashed, that of the Quango, and the storm of the first war.
For the City of Storms, between the forces Mazdamundi unleashed, that of the Quango, and the storm of the first war.
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
Nope, they were specified away from the orks, so I put one next to Aztlan by the sea, one above Tlaxtlan, one above Yenehectua, and one west of Kimilik.
- Location
- Canada
- Pronouns
- He/Him
For the city of huanchi, Ocelotl.
Kaboomatic
Where the Wild Things Are
- Pronouns
- He/Him
S O O N
Turn 11 City Expansion/Break The Tide Part 1
Xantalos
Turtle-Speed Writing
Spread Ayotzl's Cult (Krom'tli, 1 Fifth Spawning slann good at Shyish)
Build cities (remaining 13 city actions + Awanabil'tat)
- Build two Mag 2 cities in the captured territory: the City of Lava/Fire and the City of Strength (5 city actions and Awanabil'tat)
- Sweep for Spores (1 Hexoatl action, 1 Qotlpetl action)
- Build four Mag 1 cities in the backfield, away from ork territory (2 city actions each)
Prepare the Ground (1 action each from Itza, Xlanhuapec, Hexoatl)
The spread of Ayotzl's cult had been a slow thing from the moment of the god's inception, a discourse inserted piece by piece into the culture of the temple-cities over a period of years. Decrees from varying slann mage-priests were phrased to contain similar wording to utterances in Krom'tli's recent sermons, skink chieftains known to be accepting of the Ghost Sage's message were given prominent assignments, and a silent procession of faithful through the mists outside of Xlanhuapec was attended by Lord Xhroz-Bonz, a slann known to have extensively contemplated the mysteries of death amongst the gossip-networks of the skinks that tended to the mage-priests. The message was clear - the rise of this new cult was a sanctioned act, within the dictates of the Great Plan.
Strictly speaking, of course, the charade was not necessary. If the ruling slann of each city were to make a proclamation that Ayotzl was to be accepted and worshipped as a new deity in a similar manner to Sotek, the lizardmen would obey without a second thought, and erect statues and temples to the Turtle God. The Warp, however, had its own rules about such things – cause and effect still held sway in the realm of souls, though the two were often disjointed. Giving subtler, tacit approval and allowing the cult to grow on its own merit would nourish Ayotzl more than immediately mandating his worship.
In conjunction with the rise in Ayotzl's worship, Awanabil'tat mustered the utmost reaches of his influence among the planning councils of the lizardmen, two thirds of which he held senior positions in, and pushed forward plans for a wave of expansion far outstripping anything he had overseen before. A veritable flood of materials accumulated in cities all across the lizardmen's dominion – Tlaxtlan and Hexoatl, Kimilik and Aztlan and Yenehectua all swelled with convoys of stone pillars and precisely-cut crystals, obsinite blocks hauled by Stegadons, and thousands of kroxigors with jagged digging implements in hand.
Each headed by one of Awanabil'tat's many underlings, the convoys set off into the jungle, clearing the foliage ahead of them with practiced ease. Scouts mounted on Terradons and Cold Ones ranged ahead of the rest, locating potentially aggressive concentrations of organisms and coordinating with their Saurus escorts to drive them away from the expedition's path. More than a century in the vibrant jungles of Mochantia had given the lizardmen knowledge of what sorts of creatures were most common in the environments close to their cities, and how to best deal with them without loss of life or limb. They by no means had a full measure of the wilds – new species were discovered nearly every day in ordinary conditions, let alone delving into the untamed heart of the rainforest – but it was no longer a place of unpredictable danger, merely known risk.
The expeditions ranged onward, leaving highways of paved stones behind them. Temporary shelters, mounted on tracked wheels in the same manner as the Turtle Bunkers, crawled along them, both bearing sensitive supplies and allowing many of the expedition members to seek shelter from the swarms of invisible biting insects that emerged at night. In places these bunkers were taken off the beaten path and concealed in defensible positions, and squads of sentries were assigned to guard the area, keeping the roads secure.
Construction proceeded quickly once the convoys reached their assigned sites and the requisite leyline triangulation and arcane calculus had been performed to ensure the city schematics were properly followed. The initial push of the expeditions had not held the materials necessary to build the entirety of the new cities, only their core structures and a variety of defensive fortifications, with the rest following behind in a second wave. Awanabil'tat's logistical calculations had arrived at the conclusion that this method would be more efficient than building everything at once, for the simple reason of their new ability to tap into the Geomantic Web early in the construction process.
Indeed, though the four cities the ancient skink's underlings had been charged with would not be large enough to channel the full power of the Web, the effect of beginning with an operational node was a marvel to behold. Supplies were delivered faster to the work sites, wheels disregarding friction as they rolled over the stone highways. Revivification Crystals were run in large numbers, allowing teams of kroxigors and skinks to labor at breakneck paces without damaging their bodies. The outer walls of the cities practically constructed themselves, obsinite blocks slotting into place with ease and surety in the hands of their builders. Streets poured outwards from the city cores like trees growing from a seed, sprouting side avenues and walkways that nourished the fruit of workshops, communal housing, and forges. Obsinite pits were excavated and fired up, pouring out tons of the black stone that was made into the buildings surrounding them.
Within a scant few years the task was done, four new cities founded and secured in the time the Lustrian empire of old could only begin to think of reclaiming a single hollow shell. Now the lizardmen moved from strength to strength, and so it was even with this – as soon as the comparatively small cities of Amamaniliztli, Tenqu'itzcal, Ocelotl, and Illuxoni were completed, a large portion of the work crews were redirected to the other end of the lizardmen's domain, where Awanabil'tat himself labored to secure ground infested by orks, raising cities in the face of the incoming emerald tide.
The ancient skink had coordinated two voyages from Yenehectua, each bearing the more complex geomantic architecture that would allow the construction of a larger, more formidable city. Humming obelisks surrounded by arrays of crystals, sigils of the names of the Old Ones, long columns of stone to be buried in the ground and many others were transported along the paths the lizardmen armies had blazed a decade before, a veritable swarm of carts and bunkers and dinosaurs following behind them. Detachments of Saurus Scar-Veterans mounted on Horned Ones accompanied them, along with a great many Troglodons, entire herds of Salamanders, and an assortment of skink sharpshooters. They roamed all around the convoys, searching out concentrations of feral orks and purging the ground with fire as they went.
The amount of lizardmen and materials moving through their territory drew feral ork tribes to them like iron filings to a magnet, and they were forced to battle their way through their opposition more than once, using the raw materials they were hauling to construct temporary fortifications. More often than not, however, they were aided by already-present defenses – Chakax and Tiktaq'to had been busily fortifying their newly-claimed territory in anticipation of the coming ork counterattack. They had built leapfrogging networks of bunkers to guard strategic chokepoints, created artificial hills to serve as advantageous firing positions, and set targeting markers across great distances to allow for easily-calibrated Omen fire. The slann residing in this region had not been idle either, having inscribed a great many mystic arrays upon the ground, and disguised half-buried Glyph Bombs as stray boulders, ready to be unleashed upon unsuspecting intruders.
The first of Awanabil'tat's convoys went due east, through plains that even after their liberation were blasted and barren, with natural vegetation only just beginning to return. They reached their destination upon a particularly flat stretch of ground not too far from the Orkish border – they were only a few dozen kilometers southeast of the glassy crater where Krushgrungle had once stood, and much of the surrounding area had been hard-hit by the blast winds caused by the manifestation of a miniature star. They set to work immediately, the wide stretch of carbonized ground a potent reminder of the measures that would have to be taken if the orks were allowed to penetrate their territory again.
Awanabil'tat himself travelled with the second of the excursions, heading upwards towards the coast. The echoing roars of Thunder Lizards in battle grew louder as he approached, echoing across hundreds of kilometers of open sky. It was a nigh-constant ringing as the convoy reached their destination – directly upon the mouth of the great magmatic canyon that Lord Mazdamundi had torn open the previous decade, where the ocean had clashed and boiled with the fiery stuff of the planet's mantle and sealed itself off from the chasm with a freshly-formed stone plug. The lava had since receded, leaving the canyon an empty abyss that went down further than the eye could see.
Awanabil'tat's mind had been piqued at the thought of such a site for a city, and he had spent much time on the geomantic schematics for it, taking as much advantage of the location as possible. Construction began immediately upon arrival, the first skink-kroxigor pairs not even waiting for the carts to halt before beginning their work. The millennia-old skink architect directed the flow of work with a practiced ease, keeping a wary eye on the eastern horizon as his kin labored.
The city took shape quickly, streets spiderwebbing out from its core like a fractally growing crystal. At the edge of the canyon a wall was built to mark the city limits and provide defence against the oncoming ork onslaught, but below it the construction continued – horizontal platforms sprouted from the wall of the canyon like fungi on a tree, and lizardmen crews burrowed into the exposed bedrock with geomancy-fuelled stamina, carving out a series of caverns and tunnels that mirrored the city above them. These caverns housed hollow tubes of obsinite that were plunged deep into the rock below, utilizing the lingering memory of flowing magma still present in the ground to generate and draw up great stores of lava that were then piped around the city for use in many of its systems. The forge districts enjoyed an increased supply of raw material, the communal barracks used to house lizardmen were provided with heated flooring, the temples of the slann had a ready source of Chamon and Aqshy magic to tap into, and the city had a ready-made form of defence – in times of need, entire lakes worth of lava could be pumped out of apertures in the city walls, immolating anything on the ground between the city and the canyon. It was named Tletl'notec, City of the Underearth, and its sibling to the south was Muukhexla, City of Strength.
Driven at an extreme pace by Awanabil'tat, neither lizardmen stronghold came under significant ork attack until the majority of their fortifications had already been erected and manned. Small bands in the hundreds and low thousands made semi-regular assaults on both sites, but between each lizardmen laborer being heavily armed and the existing fortifications in the surrounding territory, such raids were easily seen off. Combined with the garrison forces commanded by Chakax and Tik'taq'to utilizing them as bases and contributing excess lizardpower to fulfil Awanabil'tat's directives, both cities were as much as eighty percent complete before hordes of millions appeared on the horizon, shaking the ground with their footsteps.
The lizardmen were ready for them.
Six new cities founded! Muukhexla and Tletl'notec, cities of Strength and Underearth, have been constructed within the ork occupied zone. Amamaniliztli, Tenqu'itzcal, Ocelotl, and Illuxoni, all smaller cities, were built to the south and west, well away from the brewing battlefront. Ayacmanik and Ork occupation statuses will be determined post-war turn.
Magnitude 2 Ritual, followed by Magnitude 1 ritual (Mazdamundi + 10 4th Spawning slann)
- Tornado Swarm
- Use Mag 1 against target of opportunity during campaign
"Deepen your focus," Mazdamundi intoned, each word bringing floating traceries of light to the dark interior of the temple of Potec. "Down, into the leyline. Immerse yourselves within its flow." He opened his eyes, shining like searchlights, and gazed down upon the slann sitting below him. The chamber they were in was squat and circular, the ceiling scarcely as high as Mazdamundi's head. He was ensconced in a spire-like throne that rose in the center of the room, with alcoves carved out around its base that ten of the Fourth Spawning now meditated in. The stone had been shaped with Chamon, giving everything a clay-like, almost organic sheen.
The light from Mazdamundi's eyes turned to incense-bearing smoke, filling the chamber with a cloying scent and sending all within it deeper into a meditative trance. "The force within the world is too potent to be moved by our hands alone," he lectured, his voice rolling across space like a wave, carrying subconscious insight to the cogitative minds of his underlings. "You must know the world as you know yourself. Mold your skin into the soil, your flesh the rock beneath. Feel your blood course in tune with the mantle's rhythm."
The elder and his pupils sunk deeper, their spirits descending into the earth. Their souls shone, illuminating the vast skeins of energy already swirling underneath Hexoatl. Tectonic forces pushed and pulled, the vast intersections of gravity and pressure and momentum always moving, changing the planet on a scale of millennia, and yet within the domain of the Geomantic Web they were leashed, their energy siphoned to something greater. "When you grasp the reins of geomancy, you move the deep stone as you move yourself. In these moments, they are one and the same," Mazdamundi boomed. "Take your places. I will show you."
His students obeyed, arranging their astral selves around his and drawing great swathes of power towards themselves. Taking hold of them, Mazdamundi induced a variety of small, seemingly minuscule alterations to the masses of geomantic energy, gently moving tributaries off of the great rivers of power until they were each a mass of glowing strings, moving on courses that intercepted each other, weaving and coursing, gradually forming the arcane geometry of the spell that he desired over the course of years.
It was nothing like the instant and absolute command the slann ordinarily held over the winds of magic; where in most cases they would impose their will upon the spirit realm and shape it into what they desired, this form of geomancy was more inextricably tied to the material world, acknowledging the physical forces that had generated its fuel. It was an art of knowing the goal and the steps leading to it, of taking the forces already in play and guiding them to completion. It was a slow business, but the momentum of an entire world was a potent force, once harnessed.
"This power is taken from the earth, but nothing is truly separate from the fundamental forces within the material world." The ritual neared completion, the last of the strands of power settling into an arcane configuration for air, itself riddled with divisions and sub-divisions accounting for imparted movement, centrifugal force, existing air currents, terrain conditions, and a litany of coordinates, all provided by six junior slann that had been scrying for vulnerable locations since the start of the decade. "Just as a properly destabilized daemon will unravel its own essence, or a dislodged pebble may trigger a landslide, so too may the power of the earth be mirrored by the heavens."
Mazdamundi's students watched in growing comprehension as the ancient elder triggered the ritual, releasing the pent-up energy and letting it flow along the channels he had carved for it. The air itself was subject to currents and courses, paths of power as substantial as any leyline in the earth. The ritual coursed along these jetstreams to the territory of Gardakka Worldhamma, appearing as a swiftly growing pressure in the air to the psychically sensitive among the orks. Their eyes bled and eardrums burst as they looked to the skies, seeing the first of the vortexes form through a veil of red.
Air pressure fluctuated, pockets of vacuum forming across the skies. Cloud banks buckled and writhed, gestating the growing storm inside their wombs of mist. Vortexes of wind grew, the massed energy of the Ritual stoking dozens of the whirling storms to life. They gained momentum of their own as they reached full size, the surrounding air spiralling down their lengths as they descended from the clouds. Across Gardakka's territory, tornadoes sprouted like weeds, like the blunt fingers of a god reaching down to gouge and tear the earth below.
It was pandemonium. The storms had spawned in places the Communion had pinpointed as vulnerable, where the ramshackle architecture of the orks was positioned such that a calamity would cause far-reaching damage. They touched down in crowded settlements, shredding fungus-wood buildings into deadly shards and throwing orks hundreds of meters with the sheer force of their winds. They were unleashed upon bomb stockpiles, becoming whirling vortexes of explosives that exploded whenever they collided with something, causing them to blast their way through walls and buildings. They sucked up lakes of fuel, transforming themselves into nightmarish cyclones of flame that spun yet faster as they burned.
Nearly every major settlement Gardakka had was wrecked by the tornadoes, which continued their destructive course for an entire day, given unnatural longevity by the power of the Ritual, which sustained them past the point of their ordinary dissipation. Small armies of orks were sucked up into their funnels, and while a great deal survived the fall down thanks to their resilient biology, an equally great amount did not. They were splattered across rock faces by the dozens, dropped into pits full of starving squigs, and shot out of the sky by their guffawing comrades.
Mazdamundi's students watched as the storms tracked across the continent, leaving great scars in the ground and shredding the better part of Gardakka's fortifications to bits. His capital city in particular suffered heavy damage, the storms setting off several chains of explosions and tearing gaping holes in its walls. As the winds gradually died down, the slann were drawn back into the chamber within Hexoatl, Mazdamundi's blazing eyes impassively looking down upon them.
"You have seen how the lever we wield may shift the world and all its components," he rumbled, and received unspoken assent. "Now," he proclaimed, "We begin again. The Web holds power still, and it will be needed before the war is concluded. This time, you will shape the energies. I will oversee."
A chorus of ribbits arose from his pupils, signalling their acknowledgement, and Mazdamundi watched as their spirits sank into the earth once more, beginning to tame the flowing energies of the Geomantic Web as they had been shown to. All the while, his mind pulsated with images fed to him by his subordinates - a green tide picking up momentum, rivers of howling greenskins trampling over the land and staring with greedy eyes at the strongholds the lizardmen had built, inviting them to come and tear them down.
Lizardmen armies mustering to halt the warmongering beasts in their tracks, setting up fields of fire and charging their own implements of death. The power of the Web coursed through their flesh, invigorating their spirits and spooling their weapons to full power. The clash would be soon, but the ancient minds overlooking the battleplans did so with a sense of familiarity, confidence even. Lizardmen had been made to defend, to protect and preserve the designs that remade worlds. They could not be battered aside by the ever-raging storm that the greenskins were, for they shared their strength with the incomparable might of the planet itself.
This time, they were ready.
The Magnitude 2 Ritual has killed 23 million orks in Gardakka's territory, including 2 million from his attacking force, leaving 68 million alive. Additionally, the proliferation of tornadoes has served to wreck his industrial equipment and defensive fortifications across a large swathe of his territory, rendering him more vulnerable to concerted pushes on his land.
Replenish War Casualties - 240 Slannpower
There were many empty streets in the temple-cities. Uninhabited buildings, plazas that had not been trod across in years, pens and barracks and food halls that were coated in a layer of dust and time.
The lizardmen had engaged in a brutal clash against the orks the decade before, and paid a staggering toll in lives. The children of the Old Ones were tenacious beyond the bounds of ordinary creatures, unflinching in the face of lost limbs and lives, but against the sheer numerical disparity they fought at, all this accomplished was letting them die slower. For every lizardman there had been sixty orks, and even through the careful choosing of battles, division of the enemy's forces, and Mazdamundi's terrible geomancy, that ratio had been reduced only to twenty, and more often thirty.
Nearly a tenth of all the lizardmen in existence had died on the field of battle. The newly-born cult of Ayotzl found many followers amidst the pallbearers and corpse-handlers that such a massive influx of casualties necessitated, and whispers coursed through its ranks that their god had grown swiftly on the tide of souls that had been sent to His side. Soon, in a few decades at its slowest, the Mist Swimmer would manifest himself, and all lizardmen would have shelter in the after-world.
And yet this was not the end. The orks persisted still on Mochantian shores, and while a single spore still took root upon their soil, the lizardmen could not, would not, rest or give respite. They had been made to build, to defend and cultivate and to remove those things that would bring harm to the Plan. And here, now, there was still work to be done.
Scores of slann descended once more from their stepped pyramids, congregating in the great plazas of the four most ancient temple-cities. Plazas that, despite all the milestones of growth the lizardmen had gone through in recent years, all the chains they had thrown off, still dwarfed the population that trekked through them. Their skink attendants were all around them, bustling about with tablet and rod and paint. Teams of kroxigors carried immense jugs of water that had been passed through dozens of sieves and purified by skink mages of every existing Wind.
In the same moment, the slann opened their eyes and gestured, drawing great skeins of fluid out of the jugs, rippling and weaving them through the air in complex patterns that resonated with the shared thoughts of the mage-priests.
Tzunki's formulae bring infusions of complexity to raw potential. Tlazcotl and Potec's safeguards forestall unwanted input of outside variables. Chotec introduces raw negentropy, Quetzl preserves it within an eternal shell. Tlanxla and Huanchi and Itzl provide directive, leashed innately to the structure by Xhotl's strands. Tepok weaves the others together, and provides the spark to begin.
The Old Ones are lost, yet in this moment, their thoughts live with us.
The water was formed into portals, each jug emptying itself to contribute to a gateway. Their designs were reminiscent of the Polar Gates from eons past, a thin barrier of water stretched between towering arches. There were hundreds of them, stretched out across the plazas, and the imprints of runes arrayed along their edges began to glow as the slann poured their power into them.
The water rippled, ancient magic spreading itself through the substance, and lizardmen began to walk out from the aquatic gates. They appeared from nothing, their flesh generated from within the water mere instants before they stepped forth. It was a great assortment of skinks and saurus and kroxigor, newly-made crests and horns and scales of all colors flexing and stretching and drying in the light of the first day they had ever seen. Here and there the distinctive patterns of Sacred Spawnings could be observed, whole cohorts and lone individuals coming forth marked by the Old Ones before their birth. The presence of skink mages made themselves known as well each coming into the world with a great surge of their spectrum of magic.
The attendants of the slann stepped forth, each a seasoned administrator that had herded their younger kin for centuries. Shrill voices piped up, censers with hanging strings of colorful beads were shaken, and the attention of the newly born lizardmen was drawn to their elders. In short, chattering words, they were informed of the circumstances of their birth – the presence of the orks upon their world, the massive casualties that had necessitated this effort, and the impending conflict that many of them would soon be thrust into.
One and all, the newly-spawned accepted this news without a murmur of discontent. The risk to their lives was no concern to them, nor was the cold, pragmatic logic of their birth. If their deaths were what were needed to defend the cause of the Old Ones whose names they knew in their souls, they would not hesitate to give their lives.
And so the process continued, day after day, for nearly five months. Ten thousand lizardmen were crafted every day by the slann, and swiftly integrated themselves into the workings of their birth cities. Batch after batch marched out of the spawning matrices of the slann, and batch after batch armed and armored themselves, learning from their elders of the myriad things that would try to kill them in the coming years. Of the near million and a half that the toad-mages crafted before returning, weary, to their temples, not a one flinched, hesitated, or refused the duty that was thrust upon them.
War called once more, and as ever, the lizardmen rose to answer.
1,410,200 total lizardmen were spawned by the slann in Itza, Hexoatl, Xlanhuapec, and Tlaxtlan! Population figures have been updated.
Lizardmen Legions:
Hexoatl: Kroq-Gar, 700,000 Saurus, 500,000 Skinks, 80,000 kroxigor
Itza: Teninhuan, 1,150,000 Saurus, 800,000 Skinks, 100,000 kroxigor
Xlanhuapec: Chakax, 500,000 Saurus, 350,000 Skinks, 40,000 kroxigor
Tlaxtlan: Tiktaq'to, 550,000 Saurus, 350,000 Skinks, 40,000 kroxigor
Garrison: 1,100,000 Saurus, 576,000 Skinks, 76,000 Kroxigors
Slann: 1 Third Generation, 10 Fourth Generation, 152 Fifth Generation (2 Third Generation ruling Muukhexla and Tletl'notec)
Controlled Titans: 8 Thunder Lizards, 1 Quango
Sotek's Blessing is active, increasing melee capability and speed for all forces!
Strategic Overview:
Lizardmen territory is being attacked by a total of 53 million greenskins, split between the northern and southern halves of the territory. The legion of Itza protects the south from the city Muukhexla, lead by the Prophet Teninhuan, while Tlaxtlan and Xlanhuapec will defend the north from Tletl'notec, lead by Sky Master Tiktaq'to and Eternity Warden Chakax. Kroq-Gar and Hexoatl's legions are counterattacking Gardakka Worldhamma's territory in the wake of the Geomantic Ritual unleashed by Mazdamundi, accompanied by 8 Thunder Lizards.
Gardakka's armies march to the north, 25 million strong. His forces are generally well-equipped to a modest extent, boasting a variety of shootas, vehicles, squigs, and explosives. His focus lies in the massive amount of artillery, rockets, and other long-ranged, heavy firepower, supported by a fleet composed primarily of bomber aircraft. His forces are approaching both over the Kanyon using artificial bridges and circumventing the obstacle via the northern sea.
Urdgob Noseskorcha sends his hordes to the south, numbering 26 million. His forces are equipped to kill biological enemies, boasting a plethora of incendiary and toxic weapons, as well as heavily armed choppa boyz and squigs. His aircraft and vehicle-building capabilities, while present, are lackluster compared to his rivals. Hemmed in by the Ayacmanik, his armies are heading straight over the Kanyon, using bridges and brute force to make the gap.
Both armies of greenskins will fight each other as well as lizardmen forces. The Ayacmanik are present within lizardmen territory, and will likely attack concentrations of orks, though they may also try their hand against the lizardmen if given the opportunity. The oversoul continues to attack both Gardakka and Urdgob along the outskirts of their respective territories. The two warbosses are both present along their shared border, Urdgob attempting to exploit his rival's sudden vulnerability and Gardakka attempting to hold him off long enough to regain his footing.
3 Thunder Lizards continue to attack Gardakka's territory on their own, with 10 advancing on Urdgob's territory. The Quango will act to impede and destroy any hostile forces attempting to cross the Kanyon.
Needed Decisions:
The legions of Itza, Tlaxtlan, and Xlanhuapec, being on the defense, must choose a strategic goal to prioritize in their efforts. All goals will be pursued, with the one chosen taking priority:
Destroy Enemy Forces: This army will attempt to destroy as many orks as possible, engaging concentrations of greenskins in force wherever they are found and burning their remains.
Prevent Territorial Occupation: This army will operate in conjunction with existing defensive fortifications outside of the city, using harassment, preemptive strikes, and bombardment to slow the enemy's advance.
Preserve Lizardmen Forces: This army will utilize the fortifications of the temple-city and outlying bunkers to preserve lizardmen lives, ceding some of the initiative but ensuring a bloodbath for anyone attempting to assault the defenses.
The legion of Hexoatl (including the Thunder Lizards accompanying it) must choose its strategic goal for the attack on Gardakka's territory:
Destruction of Enemy Forces: This army will attempt to destroy as many orks as possible, engaging concentrations of greenskins in force wherever they are found and burning their remains.
Conquest of Enemy Territory: This army will deploy its forces across wide swathes of land and secure as much as possible against greenskin incursion, cleansing the ground to prevent a resurgence.
Destruction of High-Value Targets: This army will focus on destroying enemy assets of strategic importance - important factories, capital cities, and enemy leaders all qualify.
Each slann must be assigned to an army and focused upon a task, such as:
Nuke From Afar: The slann will stay far from pitched battle and use its magic to destroy enemy forces from safety with the use of arcane vessels and astral scrying. Prioritizes high casualties.
Contest Enemy Shamans: The slann will focus its energies upon preventing enemy mages from working magic, and destroying them in magical duels wherever they are found.
Engage in Battle: The slann will accompany lizardmen forces and assist them in battle by casting shields, supporting faltering forces, and blasting enemy armies with magical firepower.
Write-ins are allowed for slann tasks (ie buffing warboss assassination teams, destroying enemy aircraft).
Each character may be assigned a task, which they will focus on in addition to commanding their army. Said task is subject to write-in akin to these examples:
- Destroy Enemy Factories
- Duel Enemy Leaders/Mages/Etc
- Ambush Enemy Reinforcements
- Coordinate Slann Defenses
Each character is assumed to have assisting forces if needed, so Teninhuan conducting ambush operations would result in him taking a segment of his army and utilizing them to complete the maneuvers.
Finally, the existing garrison forces must be allocated to either the northern or southern front. This will default to a 50/50 split if no specifics are given.
[] Write-in battle plan. Needed elements: Defending Legion Priorities, Hexoatl Legion Priority, Slann Assignment, Character Focus, Garrison Allocation (defaults to 50/50 if not specified).
Build cities (remaining 13 city actions + Awanabil'tat)
- Build two Mag 2 cities in the captured territory: the City of Lava/Fire and the City of Strength (5 city actions and Awanabil'tat)
- Sweep for Spores (1 Hexoatl action, 1 Qotlpetl action)
- Build four Mag 1 cities in the backfield, away from ork territory (2 city actions each)
Prepare the Ground (1 action each from Itza, Xlanhuapec, Hexoatl)
The spread of Ayotzl's cult had been a slow thing from the moment of the god's inception, a discourse inserted piece by piece into the culture of the temple-cities over a period of years. Decrees from varying slann mage-priests were phrased to contain similar wording to utterances in Krom'tli's recent sermons, skink chieftains known to be accepting of the Ghost Sage's message were given prominent assignments, and a silent procession of faithful through the mists outside of Xlanhuapec was attended by Lord Xhroz-Bonz, a slann known to have extensively contemplated the mysteries of death amongst the gossip-networks of the skinks that tended to the mage-priests. The message was clear - the rise of this new cult was a sanctioned act, within the dictates of the Great Plan.
Strictly speaking, of course, the charade was not necessary. If the ruling slann of each city were to make a proclamation that Ayotzl was to be accepted and worshipped as a new deity in a similar manner to Sotek, the lizardmen would obey without a second thought, and erect statues and temples to the Turtle God. The Warp, however, had its own rules about such things – cause and effect still held sway in the realm of souls, though the two were often disjointed. Giving subtler, tacit approval and allowing the cult to grow on its own merit would nourish Ayotzl more than immediately mandating his worship.
In conjunction with the rise in Ayotzl's worship, Awanabil'tat mustered the utmost reaches of his influence among the planning councils of the lizardmen, two thirds of which he held senior positions in, and pushed forward plans for a wave of expansion far outstripping anything he had overseen before. A veritable flood of materials accumulated in cities all across the lizardmen's dominion – Tlaxtlan and Hexoatl, Kimilik and Aztlan and Yenehectua all swelled with convoys of stone pillars and precisely-cut crystals, obsinite blocks hauled by Stegadons, and thousands of kroxigors with jagged digging implements in hand.
Each headed by one of Awanabil'tat's many underlings, the convoys set off into the jungle, clearing the foliage ahead of them with practiced ease. Scouts mounted on Terradons and Cold Ones ranged ahead of the rest, locating potentially aggressive concentrations of organisms and coordinating with their Saurus escorts to drive them away from the expedition's path. More than a century in the vibrant jungles of Mochantia had given the lizardmen knowledge of what sorts of creatures were most common in the environments close to their cities, and how to best deal with them without loss of life or limb. They by no means had a full measure of the wilds – new species were discovered nearly every day in ordinary conditions, let alone delving into the untamed heart of the rainforest – but it was no longer a place of unpredictable danger, merely known risk.
The expeditions ranged onward, leaving highways of paved stones behind them. Temporary shelters, mounted on tracked wheels in the same manner as the Turtle Bunkers, crawled along them, both bearing sensitive supplies and allowing many of the expedition members to seek shelter from the swarms of invisible biting insects that emerged at night. In places these bunkers were taken off the beaten path and concealed in defensible positions, and squads of sentries were assigned to guard the area, keeping the roads secure.
Construction proceeded quickly once the convoys reached their assigned sites and the requisite leyline triangulation and arcane calculus had been performed to ensure the city schematics were properly followed. The initial push of the expeditions had not held the materials necessary to build the entirety of the new cities, only their core structures and a variety of defensive fortifications, with the rest following behind in a second wave. Awanabil'tat's logistical calculations had arrived at the conclusion that this method would be more efficient than building everything at once, for the simple reason of their new ability to tap into the Geomantic Web early in the construction process.
Indeed, though the four cities the ancient skink's underlings had been charged with would not be large enough to channel the full power of the Web, the effect of beginning with an operational node was a marvel to behold. Supplies were delivered faster to the work sites, wheels disregarding friction as they rolled over the stone highways. Revivification Crystals were run in large numbers, allowing teams of kroxigors and skinks to labor at breakneck paces without damaging their bodies. The outer walls of the cities practically constructed themselves, obsinite blocks slotting into place with ease and surety in the hands of their builders. Streets poured outwards from the city cores like trees growing from a seed, sprouting side avenues and walkways that nourished the fruit of workshops, communal housing, and forges. Obsinite pits were excavated and fired up, pouring out tons of the black stone that was made into the buildings surrounding them.
Within a scant few years the task was done, four new cities founded and secured in the time the Lustrian empire of old could only begin to think of reclaiming a single hollow shell. Now the lizardmen moved from strength to strength, and so it was even with this – as soon as the comparatively small cities of Amamaniliztli, Tenqu'itzcal, Ocelotl, and Illuxoni were completed, a large portion of the work crews were redirected to the other end of the lizardmen's domain, where Awanabil'tat himself labored to secure ground infested by orks, raising cities in the face of the incoming emerald tide.
The ancient skink had coordinated two voyages from Yenehectua, each bearing the more complex geomantic architecture that would allow the construction of a larger, more formidable city. Humming obelisks surrounded by arrays of crystals, sigils of the names of the Old Ones, long columns of stone to be buried in the ground and many others were transported along the paths the lizardmen armies had blazed a decade before, a veritable swarm of carts and bunkers and dinosaurs following behind them. Detachments of Saurus Scar-Veterans mounted on Horned Ones accompanied them, along with a great many Troglodons, entire herds of Salamanders, and an assortment of skink sharpshooters. They roamed all around the convoys, searching out concentrations of feral orks and purging the ground with fire as they went.
The amount of lizardmen and materials moving through their territory drew feral ork tribes to them like iron filings to a magnet, and they were forced to battle their way through their opposition more than once, using the raw materials they were hauling to construct temporary fortifications. More often than not, however, they were aided by already-present defenses – Chakax and Tiktaq'to had been busily fortifying their newly-claimed territory in anticipation of the coming ork counterattack. They had built leapfrogging networks of bunkers to guard strategic chokepoints, created artificial hills to serve as advantageous firing positions, and set targeting markers across great distances to allow for easily-calibrated Omen fire. The slann residing in this region had not been idle either, having inscribed a great many mystic arrays upon the ground, and disguised half-buried Glyph Bombs as stray boulders, ready to be unleashed upon unsuspecting intruders.
The first of Awanabil'tat's convoys went due east, through plains that even after their liberation were blasted and barren, with natural vegetation only just beginning to return. They reached their destination upon a particularly flat stretch of ground not too far from the Orkish border – they were only a few dozen kilometers southeast of the glassy crater where Krushgrungle had once stood, and much of the surrounding area had been hard-hit by the blast winds caused by the manifestation of a miniature star. They set to work immediately, the wide stretch of carbonized ground a potent reminder of the measures that would have to be taken if the orks were allowed to penetrate their territory again.
Awanabil'tat himself travelled with the second of the excursions, heading upwards towards the coast. The echoing roars of Thunder Lizards in battle grew louder as he approached, echoing across hundreds of kilometers of open sky. It was a nigh-constant ringing as the convoy reached their destination – directly upon the mouth of the great magmatic canyon that Lord Mazdamundi had torn open the previous decade, where the ocean had clashed and boiled with the fiery stuff of the planet's mantle and sealed itself off from the chasm with a freshly-formed stone plug. The lava had since receded, leaving the canyon an empty abyss that went down further than the eye could see.
Awanabil'tat's mind had been piqued at the thought of such a site for a city, and he had spent much time on the geomantic schematics for it, taking as much advantage of the location as possible. Construction began immediately upon arrival, the first skink-kroxigor pairs not even waiting for the carts to halt before beginning their work. The millennia-old skink architect directed the flow of work with a practiced ease, keeping a wary eye on the eastern horizon as his kin labored.
The city took shape quickly, streets spiderwebbing out from its core like a fractally growing crystal. At the edge of the canyon a wall was built to mark the city limits and provide defence against the oncoming ork onslaught, but below it the construction continued – horizontal platforms sprouted from the wall of the canyon like fungi on a tree, and lizardmen crews burrowed into the exposed bedrock with geomancy-fuelled stamina, carving out a series of caverns and tunnels that mirrored the city above them. These caverns housed hollow tubes of obsinite that were plunged deep into the rock below, utilizing the lingering memory of flowing magma still present in the ground to generate and draw up great stores of lava that were then piped around the city for use in many of its systems. The forge districts enjoyed an increased supply of raw material, the communal barracks used to house lizardmen were provided with heated flooring, the temples of the slann had a ready source of Chamon and Aqshy magic to tap into, and the city had a ready-made form of defence – in times of need, entire lakes worth of lava could be pumped out of apertures in the city walls, immolating anything on the ground between the city and the canyon. It was named Tletl'notec, City of the Underearth, and its sibling to the south was Muukhexla, City of Strength.
Driven at an extreme pace by Awanabil'tat, neither lizardmen stronghold came under significant ork attack until the majority of their fortifications had already been erected and manned. Small bands in the hundreds and low thousands made semi-regular assaults on both sites, but between each lizardmen laborer being heavily armed and the existing fortifications in the surrounding territory, such raids were easily seen off. Combined with the garrison forces commanded by Chakax and Tik'taq'to utilizing them as bases and contributing excess lizardpower to fulfil Awanabil'tat's directives, both cities were as much as eighty percent complete before hordes of millions appeared on the horizon, shaking the ground with their footsteps.
The lizardmen were ready for them.
Six new cities founded! Muukhexla and Tletl'notec, cities of Strength and Underearth, have been constructed within the ork occupied zone. Amamaniliztli, Tenqu'itzcal, Ocelotl, and Illuxoni, all smaller cities, were built to the south and west, well away from the brewing battlefront. Ayacmanik and Ork occupation statuses will be determined post-war turn.
Magnitude 2 Ritual, followed by Magnitude 1 ritual (Mazdamundi + 10 4th Spawning slann)
- Tornado Swarm
- Use Mag 1 against target of opportunity during campaign
"Deepen your focus," Mazdamundi intoned, each word bringing floating traceries of light to the dark interior of the temple of Potec. "Down, into the leyline. Immerse yourselves within its flow." He opened his eyes, shining like searchlights, and gazed down upon the slann sitting below him. The chamber they were in was squat and circular, the ceiling scarcely as high as Mazdamundi's head. He was ensconced in a spire-like throne that rose in the center of the room, with alcoves carved out around its base that ten of the Fourth Spawning now meditated in. The stone had been shaped with Chamon, giving everything a clay-like, almost organic sheen.
The light from Mazdamundi's eyes turned to incense-bearing smoke, filling the chamber with a cloying scent and sending all within it deeper into a meditative trance. "The force within the world is too potent to be moved by our hands alone," he lectured, his voice rolling across space like a wave, carrying subconscious insight to the cogitative minds of his underlings. "You must know the world as you know yourself. Mold your skin into the soil, your flesh the rock beneath. Feel your blood course in tune with the mantle's rhythm."
The elder and his pupils sunk deeper, their spirits descending into the earth. Their souls shone, illuminating the vast skeins of energy already swirling underneath Hexoatl. Tectonic forces pushed and pulled, the vast intersections of gravity and pressure and momentum always moving, changing the planet on a scale of millennia, and yet within the domain of the Geomantic Web they were leashed, their energy siphoned to something greater. "When you grasp the reins of geomancy, you move the deep stone as you move yourself. In these moments, they are one and the same," Mazdamundi boomed. "Take your places. I will show you."
His students obeyed, arranging their astral selves around his and drawing great swathes of power towards themselves. Taking hold of them, Mazdamundi induced a variety of small, seemingly minuscule alterations to the masses of geomantic energy, gently moving tributaries off of the great rivers of power until they were each a mass of glowing strings, moving on courses that intercepted each other, weaving and coursing, gradually forming the arcane geometry of the spell that he desired over the course of years.
It was nothing like the instant and absolute command the slann ordinarily held over the winds of magic; where in most cases they would impose their will upon the spirit realm and shape it into what they desired, this form of geomancy was more inextricably tied to the material world, acknowledging the physical forces that had generated its fuel. It was an art of knowing the goal and the steps leading to it, of taking the forces already in play and guiding them to completion. It was a slow business, but the momentum of an entire world was a potent force, once harnessed.
"This power is taken from the earth, but nothing is truly separate from the fundamental forces within the material world." The ritual neared completion, the last of the strands of power settling into an arcane configuration for air, itself riddled with divisions and sub-divisions accounting for imparted movement, centrifugal force, existing air currents, terrain conditions, and a litany of coordinates, all provided by six junior slann that had been scrying for vulnerable locations since the start of the decade. "Just as a properly destabilized daemon will unravel its own essence, or a dislodged pebble may trigger a landslide, so too may the power of the earth be mirrored by the heavens."
Mazdamundi's students watched in growing comprehension as the ancient elder triggered the ritual, releasing the pent-up energy and letting it flow along the channels he had carved for it. The air itself was subject to currents and courses, paths of power as substantial as any leyline in the earth. The ritual coursed along these jetstreams to the territory of Gardakka Worldhamma, appearing as a swiftly growing pressure in the air to the psychically sensitive among the orks. Their eyes bled and eardrums burst as they looked to the skies, seeing the first of the vortexes form through a veil of red.
Air pressure fluctuated, pockets of vacuum forming across the skies. Cloud banks buckled and writhed, gestating the growing storm inside their wombs of mist. Vortexes of wind grew, the massed energy of the Ritual stoking dozens of the whirling storms to life. They gained momentum of their own as they reached full size, the surrounding air spiralling down their lengths as they descended from the clouds. Across Gardakka's territory, tornadoes sprouted like weeds, like the blunt fingers of a god reaching down to gouge and tear the earth below.
It was pandemonium. The storms had spawned in places the Communion had pinpointed as vulnerable, where the ramshackle architecture of the orks was positioned such that a calamity would cause far-reaching damage. They touched down in crowded settlements, shredding fungus-wood buildings into deadly shards and throwing orks hundreds of meters with the sheer force of their winds. They were unleashed upon bomb stockpiles, becoming whirling vortexes of explosives that exploded whenever they collided with something, causing them to blast their way through walls and buildings. They sucked up lakes of fuel, transforming themselves into nightmarish cyclones of flame that spun yet faster as they burned.
Nearly every major settlement Gardakka had was wrecked by the tornadoes, which continued their destructive course for an entire day, given unnatural longevity by the power of the Ritual, which sustained them past the point of their ordinary dissipation. Small armies of orks were sucked up into their funnels, and while a great deal survived the fall down thanks to their resilient biology, an equally great amount did not. They were splattered across rock faces by the dozens, dropped into pits full of starving squigs, and shot out of the sky by their guffawing comrades.
Mazdamundi's students watched as the storms tracked across the continent, leaving great scars in the ground and shredding the better part of Gardakka's fortifications to bits. His capital city in particular suffered heavy damage, the storms setting off several chains of explosions and tearing gaping holes in its walls. As the winds gradually died down, the slann were drawn back into the chamber within Hexoatl, Mazdamundi's blazing eyes impassively looking down upon them.
"You have seen how the lever we wield may shift the world and all its components," he rumbled, and received unspoken assent. "Now," he proclaimed, "We begin again. The Web holds power still, and it will be needed before the war is concluded. This time, you will shape the energies. I will oversee."
A chorus of ribbits arose from his pupils, signalling their acknowledgement, and Mazdamundi watched as their spirits sank into the earth once more, beginning to tame the flowing energies of the Geomantic Web as they had been shown to. All the while, his mind pulsated with images fed to him by his subordinates - a green tide picking up momentum, rivers of howling greenskins trampling over the land and staring with greedy eyes at the strongholds the lizardmen had built, inviting them to come and tear them down.
Lizardmen armies mustering to halt the warmongering beasts in their tracks, setting up fields of fire and charging their own implements of death. The power of the Web coursed through their flesh, invigorating their spirits and spooling their weapons to full power. The clash would be soon, but the ancient minds overlooking the battleplans did so with a sense of familiarity, confidence even. Lizardmen had been made to defend, to protect and preserve the designs that remade worlds. They could not be battered aside by the ever-raging storm that the greenskins were, for they shared their strength with the incomparable might of the planet itself.
This time, they were ready.
The Magnitude 2 Ritual has killed 23 million orks in Gardakka's territory, including 2 million from his attacking force, leaving 68 million alive. Additionally, the proliferation of tornadoes has served to wreck his industrial equipment and defensive fortifications across a large swathe of his territory, rendering him more vulnerable to concerted pushes on his land.
----------
Replenish War Casualties - 240 Slannpower
There were many empty streets in the temple-cities. Uninhabited buildings, plazas that had not been trod across in years, pens and barracks and food halls that were coated in a layer of dust and time.
The lizardmen had engaged in a brutal clash against the orks the decade before, and paid a staggering toll in lives. The children of the Old Ones were tenacious beyond the bounds of ordinary creatures, unflinching in the face of lost limbs and lives, but against the sheer numerical disparity they fought at, all this accomplished was letting them die slower. For every lizardman there had been sixty orks, and even through the careful choosing of battles, division of the enemy's forces, and Mazdamundi's terrible geomancy, that ratio had been reduced only to twenty, and more often thirty.
Nearly a tenth of all the lizardmen in existence had died on the field of battle. The newly-born cult of Ayotzl found many followers amidst the pallbearers and corpse-handlers that such a massive influx of casualties necessitated, and whispers coursed through its ranks that their god had grown swiftly on the tide of souls that had been sent to His side. Soon, in a few decades at its slowest, the Mist Swimmer would manifest himself, and all lizardmen would have shelter in the after-world.
And yet this was not the end. The orks persisted still on Mochantian shores, and while a single spore still took root upon their soil, the lizardmen could not, would not, rest or give respite. They had been made to build, to defend and cultivate and to remove those things that would bring harm to the Plan. And here, now, there was still work to be done.
Scores of slann descended once more from their stepped pyramids, congregating in the great plazas of the four most ancient temple-cities. Plazas that, despite all the milestones of growth the lizardmen had gone through in recent years, all the chains they had thrown off, still dwarfed the population that trekked through them. Their skink attendants were all around them, bustling about with tablet and rod and paint. Teams of kroxigors carried immense jugs of water that had been passed through dozens of sieves and purified by skink mages of every existing Wind.
In the same moment, the slann opened their eyes and gestured, drawing great skeins of fluid out of the jugs, rippling and weaving them through the air in complex patterns that resonated with the shared thoughts of the mage-priests.
Tzunki's formulae bring infusions of complexity to raw potential. Tlazcotl and Potec's safeguards forestall unwanted input of outside variables. Chotec introduces raw negentropy, Quetzl preserves it within an eternal shell. Tlanxla and Huanchi and Itzl provide directive, leashed innately to the structure by Xhotl's strands. Tepok weaves the others together, and provides the spark to begin.
The Old Ones are lost, yet in this moment, their thoughts live with us.
The water was formed into portals, each jug emptying itself to contribute to a gateway. Their designs were reminiscent of the Polar Gates from eons past, a thin barrier of water stretched between towering arches. There were hundreds of them, stretched out across the plazas, and the imprints of runes arrayed along their edges began to glow as the slann poured their power into them.
The water rippled, ancient magic spreading itself through the substance, and lizardmen began to walk out from the aquatic gates. They appeared from nothing, their flesh generated from within the water mere instants before they stepped forth. It was a great assortment of skinks and saurus and kroxigor, newly-made crests and horns and scales of all colors flexing and stretching and drying in the light of the first day they had ever seen. Here and there the distinctive patterns of Sacred Spawnings could be observed, whole cohorts and lone individuals coming forth marked by the Old Ones before their birth. The presence of skink mages made themselves known as well each coming into the world with a great surge of their spectrum of magic.
The attendants of the slann stepped forth, each a seasoned administrator that had herded their younger kin for centuries. Shrill voices piped up, censers with hanging strings of colorful beads were shaken, and the attention of the newly born lizardmen was drawn to their elders. In short, chattering words, they were informed of the circumstances of their birth – the presence of the orks upon their world, the massive casualties that had necessitated this effort, and the impending conflict that many of them would soon be thrust into.
One and all, the newly-spawned accepted this news without a murmur of discontent. The risk to their lives was no concern to them, nor was the cold, pragmatic logic of their birth. If their deaths were what were needed to defend the cause of the Old Ones whose names they knew in their souls, they would not hesitate to give their lives.
And so the process continued, day after day, for nearly five months. Ten thousand lizardmen were crafted every day by the slann, and swiftly integrated themselves into the workings of their birth cities. Batch after batch marched out of the spawning matrices of the slann, and batch after batch armed and armored themselves, learning from their elders of the myriad things that would try to kill them in the coming years. Of the near million and a half that the toad-mages crafted before returning, weary, to their temples, not a one flinched, hesitated, or refused the duty that was thrust upon them.
War called once more, and as ever, the lizardmen rose to answer.
1,410,200 total lizardmen were spawned by the slann in Itza, Hexoatl, Xlanhuapec, and Tlaxtlan! Population figures have been updated.
-[] Slannpower Military Actions (787 slannpower)
--[] Magnitude 2 Ritual, followed by Magnitude 1 ritual (Mazdamundi + 10 4th Spawning slann)
--[] Spawn lizardmen, as discussed, to replace casualties (5 3rd Spawning slann, 20 4th spawning slann, 15 5th spawning slann)
--[] Control the Quango and 8 Thunder Lizards (22 4th Spawning slann, 70 5th Spawning slann)
--[] Heal the injured Thunder Lizard (2 4th Spawning slann, )
--[] Reconnaissance of ork territory (2 4th Spawning slann, 10 5th Spawning slann)
---[] Half these slann on scouting targets for the Mag 2 ritual
---[] Half these slann on general reconnaissance, particularly of the ork field armies threatening to hit our defense
--[] Extra direct support of the field armies (5 4th Spawning slann, 102 5th Spawning slann, allocation to be determined in war turns)
-[] Lizardpower Military Actions (total 9 city actions)
--[] Assassinate Urdgob (1 Itza action)
--[] Invoke the Serpent (1 Qotlpetl action)
---[] Support 'Break the Tide'
--[] Break the Tide (Teninhuan, 1 action each from Tlaxtlan and Xlanhuapec)
---[] Legion of Itza under Teninhuan reinforces the south
---[] Legions of Tlaxtlan and Xlanhuapec reinforce the north
--[] Scatter the Barbarians (Kroq-Gar, Legion of Hexoatl)
---[] Plans for a counterattack to seize land from Gardakka after the Mag 2 and Thunder Lizards soften him up. Optionally followed up on by the defensive legions if situationally appropriate and feasible.
-[] War Mobilization
--[] Mobilize a bunch of leftover slann from the plans above.
--[] Mobilize legions from the Big Four cities, as outlined above. Exact numbers (factoring in spawned replacements)
---[] Legion of Itza (Teninhuan): 1,150,000 saurus, 800,000 skinks, 100,000 kroxigor
---[] Legion of Hexoatl (Kroq-Gar): 700,000 saurus, 500,000 skinks, 80,000 kroxigor
---[] Legion of Xlanhuapec (joining Chak'ax): 500,000 saurus, 350,000 skinks, 40,000 kroxigor
---[] Legion of Tlaxtlan (leadership ???, see war turn): 550,000 saurus, 350,000 skinks, 40,000 kroxigor
-[] War Plan (outline)
--[] Hit Gardakka with a Mag 2 ritual, scouring his inland territory with swarms of F5 tornadoes to cause mass havoc and ruination.
---[] Save a Mag 1 ritual for later in the campaign against a target of opportunity, as was done last time.
---[] Mazdamundi works with his 10 Fourth Spawning apprentices, so they can take over future ritual duties.
--[] Mobilize a bunch of Thunder Lizards and wreck Gardakka's coast
--[] Have Kroq-Gar and the Legion of Hexoatl go on a limited offensive to clear and hold the chunks of Gardakka's coast ("Scatter the Barbarians") that are pretty well wiped out by the Mag 2 and the Thunder Lizards.
--[] The other three legions will reinforce the line of the Kanyon, as discussed above.
--[] Have the Quango zap any particularly successful-looking ork offensives that manage to push forward along the line of the Kanyon.
--[] Magnitude 2 Ritual, followed by Magnitude 1 ritual (Mazdamundi + 10 4th Spawning slann)
--[] Spawn lizardmen, as discussed, to replace casualties (5 3rd Spawning slann, 20 4th spawning slann, 15 5th spawning slann)
--[] Control the Quango and 8 Thunder Lizards (22 4th Spawning slann, 70 5th Spawning slann)
--[] Heal the injured Thunder Lizard (2 4th Spawning slann, )
--[] Reconnaissance of ork territory (2 4th Spawning slann, 10 5th Spawning slann)
---[] Half these slann on scouting targets for the Mag 2 ritual
---[] Half these slann on general reconnaissance, particularly of the ork field armies threatening to hit our defense
--[] Extra direct support of the field armies (5 4th Spawning slann, 102 5th Spawning slann, allocation to be determined in war turns)
-[] Lizardpower Military Actions (total 9 city actions)
--[] Assassinate Urdgob (1 Itza action)
--[] Invoke the Serpent (1 Qotlpetl action)
---[] Support 'Break the Tide'
--[] Break the Tide (Teninhuan, 1 action each from Tlaxtlan and Xlanhuapec)
---[] Legion of Itza under Teninhuan reinforces the south
---[] Legions of Tlaxtlan and Xlanhuapec reinforce the north
--[] Scatter the Barbarians (Kroq-Gar, Legion of Hexoatl)
---[] Plans for a counterattack to seize land from Gardakka after the Mag 2 and Thunder Lizards soften him up. Optionally followed up on by the defensive legions if situationally appropriate and feasible.
-[] War Mobilization
--[] Mobilize a bunch of leftover slann from the plans above.
--[] Mobilize legions from the Big Four cities, as outlined above. Exact numbers (factoring in spawned replacements)
---[] Legion of Itza (Teninhuan): 1,150,000 saurus, 800,000 skinks, 100,000 kroxigor
---[] Legion of Hexoatl (Kroq-Gar): 700,000 saurus, 500,000 skinks, 80,000 kroxigor
---[] Legion of Xlanhuapec (joining Chak'ax): 500,000 saurus, 350,000 skinks, 40,000 kroxigor
---[] Legion of Tlaxtlan (leadership ???, see war turn): 550,000 saurus, 350,000 skinks, 40,000 kroxigor
-[] War Plan (outline)
--[] Hit Gardakka with a Mag 2 ritual, scouring his inland territory with swarms of F5 tornadoes to cause mass havoc and ruination.
---[] Save a Mag 1 ritual for later in the campaign against a target of opportunity, as was done last time.
---[] Mazdamundi works with his 10 Fourth Spawning apprentices, so they can take over future ritual duties.
--[] Mobilize a bunch of Thunder Lizards and wreck Gardakka's coast
--[] Have Kroq-Gar and the Legion of Hexoatl go on a limited offensive to clear and hold the chunks of Gardakka's coast ("Scatter the Barbarians") that are pretty well wiped out by the Mag 2 and the Thunder Lizards.
--[] The other three legions will reinforce the line of the Kanyon, as discussed above.
--[] Have the Quango zap any particularly successful-looking ork offensives that manage to push forward along the line of the Kanyon.
Lizardmen Legions:
Hexoatl: Kroq-Gar, 700,000 Saurus, 500,000 Skinks, 80,000 kroxigor
Favored: Cold Ones, Horned Ones, Terradons, Ripperdactyls, Carnosaurs, Loquatl*
Neutral: Salamanders, Razordons, Troglodons
Disfavored: Bastiladons, Stegadons
Neutral: Salamanders, Razordons, Troglodons
Disfavored: Bastiladons, Stegadons
Favored: Bastiladons, Stegadons, Razordons, Salamanders, Troglodons
Neutral: Terradons, Ripperdactyls, Carnosaurs
Disfavored: Cold Ones, Horned Ones
Neutral: Terradons, Ripperdactyls, Carnosaurs
Disfavored: Cold Ones, Horned Ones
Favored: Terradons, Razordons, Troglodons, Coatl
Neutral: Cold Ones, Horned Ones, Salamanders
Disfavored: Carnosaurs, Bastiladons, Stegadons, Ripperdactyls
Neutral: Cold Ones, Horned Ones, Salamanders
Disfavored: Carnosaurs, Bastiladons, Stegadons, Ripperdactyls
Favored: Stegadons, Razordons, Horned Ones, Dread Saurians
Neutral: Bastiladons, Cold Ones, Terradons, Carnosaurs
Disfavored: Troglodons, Ripperdactyls, Salamanders
Neutral: Bastiladons, Cold Ones, Terradons, Carnosaurs
Disfavored: Troglodons, Ripperdactyls, Salamanders
Slann: 1 Third Generation, 10 Fourth Generation, 152 Fifth Generation (2 Third Generation ruling Muukhexla and Tletl'notec)
Controlled Titans: 8 Thunder Lizards, 1 Quango
Sotek's Blessing is active, increasing melee capability and speed for all forces!
Strategic Overview:
Lizardmen territory is being attacked by a total of 53 million greenskins, split between the northern and southern halves of the territory. The legion of Itza protects the south from the city Muukhexla, lead by the Prophet Teninhuan, while Tlaxtlan and Xlanhuapec will defend the north from Tletl'notec, lead by Sky Master Tiktaq'to and Eternity Warden Chakax. Kroq-Gar and Hexoatl's legions are counterattacking Gardakka Worldhamma's territory in the wake of the Geomantic Ritual unleashed by Mazdamundi, accompanied by 8 Thunder Lizards.
Gardakka's armies march to the north, 25 million strong. His forces are generally well-equipped to a modest extent, boasting a variety of shootas, vehicles, squigs, and explosives. His focus lies in the massive amount of artillery, rockets, and other long-ranged, heavy firepower, supported by a fleet composed primarily of bomber aircraft. His forces are approaching both over the Kanyon using artificial bridges and circumventing the obstacle via the northern sea.
Urdgob Noseskorcha sends his hordes to the south, numbering 26 million. His forces are equipped to kill biological enemies, boasting a plethora of incendiary and toxic weapons, as well as heavily armed choppa boyz and squigs. His aircraft and vehicle-building capabilities, while present, are lackluster compared to his rivals. Hemmed in by the Ayacmanik, his armies are heading straight over the Kanyon, using bridges and brute force to make the gap.
Both armies of greenskins will fight each other as well as lizardmen forces. The Ayacmanik are present within lizardmen territory, and will likely attack concentrations of orks, though they may also try their hand against the lizardmen if given the opportunity. The oversoul continues to attack both Gardakka and Urdgob along the outskirts of their respective territories. The two warbosses are both present along their shared border, Urdgob attempting to exploit his rival's sudden vulnerability and Gardakka attempting to hold him off long enough to regain his footing.
3 Thunder Lizards continue to attack Gardakka's territory on their own, with 10 advancing on Urdgob's territory. The Quango will act to impede and destroy any hostile forces attempting to cross the Kanyon.
Needed Decisions:
The legions of Itza, Tlaxtlan, and Xlanhuapec, being on the defense, must choose a strategic goal to prioritize in their efforts. All goals will be pursued, with the one chosen taking priority:
Destroy Enemy Forces: This army will attempt to destroy as many orks as possible, engaging concentrations of greenskins in force wherever they are found and burning their remains.
Prevent Territorial Occupation: This army will operate in conjunction with existing defensive fortifications outside of the city, using harassment, preemptive strikes, and bombardment to slow the enemy's advance.
Preserve Lizardmen Forces: This army will utilize the fortifications of the temple-city and outlying bunkers to preserve lizardmen lives, ceding some of the initiative but ensuring a bloodbath for anyone attempting to assault the defenses.
The legion of Hexoatl (including the Thunder Lizards accompanying it) must choose its strategic goal for the attack on Gardakka's territory:
Destruction of Enemy Forces: This army will attempt to destroy as many orks as possible, engaging concentrations of greenskins in force wherever they are found and burning their remains.
Conquest of Enemy Territory: This army will deploy its forces across wide swathes of land and secure as much as possible against greenskin incursion, cleansing the ground to prevent a resurgence.
Destruction of High-Value Targets: This army will focus on destroying enemy assets of strategic importance - important factories, capital cities, and enemy leaders all qualify.
Each slann must be assigned to an army and focused upon a task, such as:
Nuke From Afar: The slann will stay far from pitched battle and use its magic to destroy enemy forces from safety with the use of arcane vessels and astral scrying. Prioritizes high casualties.
Contest Enemy Shamans: The slann will focus its energies upon preventing enemy mages from working magic, and destroying them in magical duels wherever they are found.
Engage in Battle: The slann will accompany lizardmen forces and assist them in battle by casting shields, supporting faltering forces, and blasting enemy armies with magical firepower.
Write-ins are allowed for slann tasks (ie buffing warboss assassination teams, destroying enemy aircraft).
Each character may be assigned a task, which they will focus on in addition to commanding their army. Said task is subject to write-in akin to these examples:
- Destroy Enemy Factories
- Duel Enemy Leaders/Mages/Etc
- Ambush Enemy Reinforcements
- Coordinate Slann Defenses
Each character is assumed to have assisting forces if needed, so Teninhuan conducting ambush operations would result in him taking a segment of his army and utilizing them to complete the maneuvers.
Finally, the existing garrison forces must be allocated to either the northern or southern front. This will default to a 50/50 split if no specifics are given.
[] Write-in battle plan. Needed elements: Defending Legion Priorities, Hexoatl Legion Priority, Slann Assignment, Character Focus, Garrison Allocation (defaults to 50/50 if not specified).
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
Nuke From Afar: The slann will stay far from pitched battle and use its magic to destroy enemy forces from safety with the use of arcane vessels and astral scrying. Prioritizes high casualties.
This is most important for the defensive Slann. The enemy is massed against us now as opposed to starting more spread out as they were in the offensive: We know where they're going, in the general direction of our defenses and cities, and our defenses have been buffed significantly even as the Geomantic Web empowers our forces.
@Xantalos
I realized that the whole solar system affecting thing, and the psychic cyborg that enslaved over a thousand systems but was killed by nothing special?
After reading Lord of the First and seeing how the Khrave work, the latter was probably working off of something similar, a psychic web spread out such that it doesn't have to project from across lightyears, similar to the arcane vassals, as opposed to being an entity capable of reaching out on it's own across such a vast space.
Reaching the city level is most commendable for an Alpha, and going into extremes is not a result of raw power, but access to unique resources. A Bloodthirster that drives a planet insane is probably doing it over a period of time as it travels and its presence spreads, or with amplifiers or building on the daemonic presences of the nominal hordes. I figure it might help with the discrepancy in metaphysical scales. Red Flag does something similar, like how even Magnus uses daemonic favour for his really bullshit stuff. That and it seems to be easier to do things that don't require exertion of affects on the materium, like telepathy and astral communication.
This is most important for the defensive Slann. The enemy is massed against us now as opposed to starting more spread out as they were in the offensive: We know where they're going, in the general direction of our defenses and cities, and our defenses have been buffed significantly even as the Geomantic Web empowers our forces.
@Xantalos
I realized that the whole solar system affecting thing, and the psychic cyborg that enslaved over a thousand systems but was killed by nothing special?
After reading Lord of the First and seeing how the Khrave work, the latter was probably working off of something similar, a psychic web spread out such that it doesn't have to project from across lightyears, similar to the arcane vassals, as opposed to being an entity capable of reaching out on it's own across such a vast space.
Reaching the city level is most commendable for an Alpha, and going into extremes is not a result of raw power, but access to unique resources. A Bloodthirster that drives a planet insane is probably doing it over a period of time as it travels and its presence spreads, or with amplifiers or building on the daemonic presences of the nominal hordes. I figure it might help with the discrepancy in metaphysical scales. Red Flag does something similar, like how even Magnus uses daemonic favour for his really bullshit stuff. That and it seems to be easier to do things that don't require exertion of affects on the materium, like telepathy and astral communication.
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- Location
- Seattle, Washington
@Xantalos Urdgob does have a notable amount of planes, correct?
So, first off, in terms of Slann deployment, I would deploy about a third of our Slann to our offensive force because our defenses have more numbers and more defense.
Tentative idea:
[ ] Slann Deployment
-[ ] 1 3rd Gen, 4 4th Gen, 50 5th gen to Legion of Hexoatl
--[ ] 1 3rd Gen, 4 4th Gen, 25 5th Gen Nuke From Afar
--[ ] 10 5th Gen Engage in Battle
--[ ] 10 5th Gen Destroy Enemy aircraft
--[ ] 5 5th Gen Contest Enemy Shaman
-[ ] 6 4th Gen, 102 5th Gen (2 3rd gen in charge of cities) spread throughout defensive armies
--[ ] 6 4th Gen, 75 5th Gen Nuke from Afar
--[ ] 15 5th Gen Destroy enemy aircraft
--[ ] 10 5th Gen Contest Enemy Shamans.
So, first off, in terms of Slann deployment, I would deploy about a third of our Slann to our offensive force because our defenses have more numbers and more defense.
Tentative idea:
[ ] Slann Deployment
-[ ] 1 3rd Gen, 4 4th Gen, 50 5th gen to Legion of Hexoatl
--[ ] 1 3rd Gen, 4 4th Gen, 25 5th Gen Nuke From Afar
--[ ] 10 5th Gen Engage in Battle
--[ ] 10 5th Gen Destroy Enemy aircraft
--[ ] 5 5th Gen Contest Enemy Shaman
-[ ] 6 4th Gen, 102 5th Gen (2 3rd gen in charge of cities) spread throughout defensive armies
--[ ] 6 4th Gen, 75 5th Gen Nuke from Afar
--[ ] 15 5th Gen Destroy enemy aircraft
--[ ] 10 5th Gen Contest Enemy Shamans.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Holy shit only two weeks, this is a treat.
DocMatoi
Theoretical Lover of Girls
- Location
- within 2 hours of the White House
- Pronouns
- They/Them
GOD are you good at this
Undead-Spaceman
Skeleton Supreme
- Location
- Somewhere in Orbit
You know, it didn't occur to me until just now that the Lizardmen cities are mostly made of obsinite. That means the cities are all black and gold, bedecked with reptilian statues and floating structures, and everything is aglow with primordial energies.
As befitting our new universe, our cities look metal as hell.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Looks like we have Kroq'Gar's target.
Speaking of which:
I'd say have him go for this. We keep wrecking their infrastructure with geomantic rituals. And with those Thunder Lizards for naval combat...
And maybe this for his personal focus:
So that he's running down any punks he gets the chance to. If we're lucky Gardakka will be in the coastal assault force.
- Location
- Great Khanate of Scotland
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I think we should aim for "Destruction of Enemy Forces" since it'll mean less work for us rooting out spores later, and ultimately that is the goal here.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sky Master Tiktaq'to
What about "Neutralizing Enemy Artillery"?
If we put enough Slann on anti-aircraft defense...?
What about "Neutralizing Enemy Artillery"?
If we put enough Slann on anti-aircraft defense...?
- Location
- Seattle, Washington
Keep in mind Orks have AA guns too, even if their AA guns are worse than ours.
Noroboro
Consistency is key and I’m consistently tired :)
- Location
- Canada
@Xantalos Quick question, since Mazdamundi made the giant canyon around Gardakka's and Urdgob's land to isolate them and the canyon reaches to the sea, shouldn't the Canyon be filled up with water by now or have become one giant river? Or is that going to be awhile since it reaches the mantle of the planet?
- Location
- Seattle, Washington
It states that the lava was solidified where it met the ocean