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No, they didn't glass a whole hive. That's not the kind of thing that goes unnoticed or even the Imperium would do lightly. They merely just glassed the whole wasteland outside of the Hives.
Sterbelicht - One Sacrifice At A Time Against The Galaxy (40K)
- Thread starter HeroCooky
- Start date
- Mature Sci-Fi
Silence, Perception, Protection, Struggle?
Silence perception to protect us against those who defy us? (aka hide us from our enemy)
Protection, Silence, Perception, Struggle? (protect us by silencing perception of those we struggle against)
Gotta agree here. A sub-billion cult out of 700 billion and it's attacked with pinpoint accuracy? I know the other side has actions but why did it focus this much effort on us specifically?
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At this point there's basically no expectation but that the QM is in fact aware of what we are doing. This is literally the second time they've decided to concentrate their actions specifically on targeting infiltration despite in neither case having any strong reason to think that the threats they were facing were doing so.
Once can be happenstance, twice starts to feel... bizarre?
- Location
- ?????????
It's some Emperor's tarot seer bullshit going on I think.
- Location
- Poland
- Pronouns
- He/Him
We are above 500 million. It was said before:
Which is useful, but I feel we need something defensive, too. To keep our revolution hidden for a while longer.
Since Struggle seems related to enemy action...
How about those ones?
1) Void Perception Struggle
2) Protection Perception Struggle Silence
3) Silence Void Struggle Perception
We are in red zone, in the crosshair of powers that be. As I feared.
Huh. This is the offensive song, I feel. The "who is the inquisitor, who is the snitch" kinda song.
Which is useful, but I feel we need something defensive, too. To keep our revolution hidden for a while longer.
Since Struggle seems related to enemy action...
How about those ones?
1) Void Perception Struggle
2) Protection Perception Struggle Silence
3) Silence Void Struggle Perception
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Aside from Voxx Primus being one jump away from a system held by vile xenos that's being rapidly built up?
It'd be crazier not to assume the cult with the strange iconography and extremely rapid growth doesn't have anything to do with it.
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Okay, to try to be more clear here, @HeroCooky , what do you mean by "Burn the Nobles" stage? I was under the understanding that if we started the Revolution and did not immediately ride in to rescue them that they'd all die literally that turn. But if having less than a billion people (IE, less than one percent of the population) is "burn the nobles" territory then... ???
Clearly I'm missing something.
Xenos who have murdered everyone who tried to jump into their space. That reads a lot more like, "Gonna Exterminatus this planet" to me.
We literally KNOW that that's their big worry!
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Any polity in the galaxy that cannot deal with infiltrators converting the populace probably has already fallen to Chaos sometime since the Cicatrix opened. Quite frankly, I am amazed we managed to last this long. From the moment that the Duchy realized that Voxx Primus was on the front line with an unknown enemy faction, them purging that planet of everything that could possibly weaken the planets defences was only logical.
And a gang that follows a weird splinter cult that runs counter to existing dogma is very high on that list.
I think the suspicions against QM are overblown.
Is this really unimaginable if the Psykerlord found one of our Choirs and passes the info to [whatever too many names person is currently in charge] who goes "hey, Inquisition, we got weird shit going on here (the initial scouting report weirdness, a huge "Xeno" fleet at their door) and Psykerlord whatshisface says there are enemy Psykers at [location]" who then counter infiltrates and then have the "accidents" and later glassings to weaken us and to make us panic (and in panicing make us make mistakes)
Is this really unimaginable if the Psykerlord found one of our Choirs and passes the info to [whatever too many names person is currently in charge] who goes "hey, Inquisition, we got weird shit going on here (the initial scouting report weirdness, a huge "Xeno" fleet at their door) and Psykerlord whatshisface says there are enemy Psykers at [location]" who then counter infiltrates and then have the "accidents" and later glassings to weaken us and to make us panic (and in panicing make us make mistakes)
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...we literally specifically got a Melody to reduce these risks.
But, okay, we can actually check that hypothesis pretty easily. @HeroCooky , have any of our Choirs died?
Reduced risk =/= eleminated risk
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That's what Tyranids and Genestealers do, though. Infiltrate well ahead of time, subvert the populace, disrupt the defenses when the Hive Fleet arrives.
The fact that the planet is going to get Exterminatus'd afterwards only matters if the infiltrators don't resort to the multiple methods of mind control available in 40k. Or just lying through their teeth.
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
I mean, it's Possible that they just used some Dogmatic Horseshit to just go "Spend 10 actions this turn--one for each organization we have, to identify and terminate any internal threats to Voxx Primus"
Which to us looks like insanity, but in reality is just "Dogmatic Working as Intended. Sure, everyone working at cross-purposes is normally shit, but if someone can knock some heads together and get everyone to commit one action to a project, a lot of impossible things can just Happen"
And notably, while they're targetting our dudes, they haven't wiped us out despite what is--apparently--overwhelming intelligence assets committed to it. In fact, it seems like all it's done is restrain our further growth.
It's still nonsense that the Imperium becomes a panopticon only when it hurts us and otherwise tends to miss major infiltrations until they go loud, but if it's "We got everyone of our twenty or thirty different organizations to commit an action each to this project", well...
Still bad, but the fact they did that and still only just stalled us is still good for us.
Which to us looks like insanity, but in reality is just "Dogmatic Working as Intended. Sure, everyone working at cross-purposes is normally shit, but if someone can knock some heads together and get everyone to commit one action to a project, a lot of impossible things can just Happen"
And notably, while they're targetting our dudes, they haven't wiped us out despite what is--apparently--overwhelming intelligence assets committed to it. In fact, it seems like all it's done is restrain our further growth.
It's still nonsense that the Imperium becomes a panopticon only when it hurts us and otherwise tends to miss major infiltrations until they go loud, but if it's "We got everyone of our twenty or thirty different organizations to commit an action each to this project", well...
Still bad, but the fact they did that and still only just stalled us is still good for us.
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- Location
- Poland
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- He/Him
I imagine it's kind of like... like Hunters in Cultist Simulator.
To explain:
- As a cultist, your sus activities provide Notoriety. That's us with our growing cult.
- Said Notoriety may cause a Hunter to spawn. They are essentially an inquisitor.
- They are investigating the player, building a case against them. In our case, it's an investigation with a side of large-scale purge.
- If they build a whole case and present it to their superiors, their Bureau falls on player like a bag of bricks and end the game. In our case, the rulers of the Duchy are notified of a need for a sub-exterminatus treatment, and revolution has to go hot to survive.
So in short, a super cop is on our trail, but mayor has not been notified yet.
Hang the cop and don't get find out while doing so, and we get bit more time for building up.
To explain:
- As a cultist, your sus activities provide Notoriety. That's us with our growing cult.
- Said Notoriety may cause a Hunter to spawn. They are essentially an inquisitor.
- They are investigating the player, building a case against them. In our case, it's an investigation with a side of large-scale purge.
- If they build a whole case and present it to their superiors, their Bureau falls on player like a bag of bricks and end the game. In our case, the rulers of the Duchy are notified of a need for a sub-exterminatus treatment, and revolution has to go hot to survive.
So in short, a super cop is on our trail, but mayor has not been notified yet.
Hang the cop and don't get find out while doing so, and we get bit more time for building up.
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Incidentally, @HeroCooky , how does the State of Emergency mechanically work? In a pure legislative sense it literally doubles the resources that the polity has, but for a maximum of 50 years, but I don't know what that'd look like mechanically.
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"It happened not all at once.
Sometimes, it happened over there, in that Hive. A malfunction was likely the culprit.
Then it happened in that Hive, some sub-levels choking to death on fumes and toxins pumped into their habs and halls. Poor bastards had likely run afoul of someone re-routing industrial by-products through their sections because it was cheaper or quicker.
After that, the "incidents" continued. One after the other. When it happened to a temple of the Star Child, suspicions were raised from low-level concerns by those at the bottom to a concern by those in the middle of the rank ladder.
Investigations happened. Why did the ventilation systems pump toxic waste into the temple? Why hadn't they been destroyed or brought under local control?
When the investigators started to vanish, and more locations belonging to the Star Child began to be hit, the upper leadership got involved.
And then a Hive went silent.
Not the Hive itself, of course. But all communications with those within that had sworn allegiance to the Star Child did."
Actually, what the fuck is going on here. It looks like someone actively plotted to bring us to the attention of the authorities. Like, specifically sabotaged us in a way that would draw the eye of our enemy. Or, am I misunderstanding this, @HeroCooky . Are the investigators highlighted here ours or theirs or... what's going on here?
Sometimes, it happened over there, in that Hive. A malfunction was likely the culprit.
Then it happened in that Hive, some sub-levels choking to death on fumes and toxins pumped into their habs and halls. Poor bastards had likely run afoul of someone re-routing industrial by-products through their sections because it was cheaper or quicker.
After that, the "incidents" continued. One after the other. When it happened to a temple of the Star Child, suspicions were raised from low-level concerns by those at the bottom to a concern by those in the middle of the rank ladder.
Investigations happened. Why did the ventilation systems pump toxic waste into the temple? Why hadn't they been destroyed or brought under local control?
When the investigators started to vanish, and more locations belonging to the Star Child began to be hit, the upper leadership got involved.
And then a Hive went silent.
Not the Hive itself, of course. But all communications with those within that had sworn allegiance to the Star Child did."
Actually, what the fuck is going on here. It looks like someone actively plotted to bring us to the attention of the authorities. Like, specifically sabotaged us in a way that would draw the eye of our enemy. Or, am I misunderstanding this, @HeroCooky . Are the investigators highlighted here ours or theirs or... what's going on here?
Why would they need 10 actions in one turn?
We can send our fleets on a war mission for multiple turns for 1 AP.
1 AP to chuck Psykerlords organisation at hunting our Choirs, we go dark but he doesn't give up, later he gets our trail again.
1 AP to go "Hey, Inquisition..." who investigate and decide "yeah, this is worth our attention".
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It's copium, since if they're that absurdly overpowered that they can essentially put us at a point where we might lose a dozen+ action investment in Voxx Primus because of 2 AP, we're kinda just fucked.
One of the reasons I was on-board with Voxx in the first place is that it would divert their attention. I would much rather have the van Zandt duchy focused on suppressing the infiltration in their primary recruiting world over building up and throwing fleets against us. They're supposed to be worse at that then it seems like they are, but I think that may have been an unjustified assumption.
Still, it's likely they'll continue spending actions on us. But note that even with them focusing on us they stalled our growth, without actually reducing our overall numbers. If we finish the propaganda bureau and do some other upgrades then we'll likely at least be able to keep pace, maybe even resume expanding. And most importantly, have it happen without spending more actions on it. We will have successfully distracted them without investing additional actions!
Additionally, this:
Also - as to the red letter, I think that's to note that we are on a timer. But even if one letter turns red every turn, we still have about 24 turns left. Plenty of time to continue preparing, grab all-X, do a dance and terraform some more planets.
[] Stay the Course, distract the Monster
-[] [Military] Militarize The Schools Of Paladins
-[] [General] Propaganda For The Foreign Masses x2
With the Glimmering Federation's lessons in subverting Voxx, some have proposed creating a dedicated office that would be responsible with to continue the mission of converting foreign peoples forever more. This Subversion Bureau would be outfitted with ships, Choirs, materials, factories, and a mandate to subvert, convert, and then integrate new systems without causing mass casualties or widespread destruction. They would incorporate the wealth of experience gained from the Voxx covert campaign thus far into their organizational structure, and their first mission would be to complete the infiltration of the Hive world and it's defensive forces, shifting the focus from mass conversion to infiltration of the Hive's policing & defense forces, as well as the nobility, all to set the stage for a revolution across all levels of society when the time is ripe. This will be a pricy Initiative, but it will set the stage for the Federation's future growth.
(Gain: Allows you to slowly convert one [1] random system at a time to the Glimmering Federation without Action cost.)
Still, it's likely they'll continue spending actions on us. But note that even with them focusing on us they stalled our growth, without actually reducing our overall numbers. If we finish the propaganda bureau and do some other upgrades then we'll likely at least be able to keep pace, maybe even resume expanding. And most importantly, have it happen without spending more actions on it. We will have successfully distracted them without investing additional actions!
Additionally, this:
Makes me think we 100% need to [] [Military] Militarize The Schools Of Paladins this turn. That's what we're being called out as missing.
Also - as to the red letter, I think that's to note that we are on a timer. But even if one letter turns red every turn, we still have about 24 turns left. Plenty of time to continue preparing, grab all-X, do a dance and terraform some more planets.
[] Stay the Course, distract the Monster
-[] [Military] Militarize The Schools Of Paladins
-[] [General] Propaganda For The Foreign Masses x2
With the Glimmering Federation's lessons in subverting Voxx, some have proposed creating a dedicated office that would be responsible with to continue the mission of converting foreign peoples forever more. This Subversion Bureau would be outfitted with ships, Choirs, materials, factories, and a mandate to subvert, convert, and then integrate new systems without causing mass casualties or widespread destruction. They would incorporate the wealth of experience gained from the Voxx covert campaign thus far into their organizational structure, and their first mission would be to complete the infiltration of the Hive world and it's defensive forces, shifting the focus from mass conversion to infiltration of the Hive's policing & defense forces, as well as the nobility, all to set the stage for a revolution across all levels of society when the time is ripe. This will be a pricy Initiative, but it will set the stage for the Federation's future growth.
(Gain: Allows you to slowly convert one [1] random system at a time to the Glimmering Federation without Action cost.)
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I mean, part of the difficulty of understanding here, and why I asked @HeroCooky about it outright, is that I was under the impression that the moment they really find us and the Revolution starts, our entire cause will die literally that turn of "they bombed us all from space" unless we immediately rush in our fleet to help.
It'd be nice if the revolution down below could distract them, but my impression is that that's not... fully the case?
I also would say that I'm really skepticial about converting the Nobility. I don't think it's nearly as viable as you seem to think, in a HIve World where we're going to have to be taking huge chunks out of their hide.
- Location
- Poland
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- He/Him
I don't think we were hit too badly. Population on Voxx is not reduced, but stagnant. So we lose some, we gain some, and it all evens out. We'd need to up our stealth game to keep going for longer, but it's not a step back, as much as not taking a step forward.
Also, they have actions too. Imagine they repeated a crackdown on infiltrators action again. Assuming they also have only 3 actions, that's 1/3rd of their GPD going into rooting out heresies, possibly even more focused on this particular hive.
Still, just like with that psyker purge, we need to scramble to survive:
[] Blessed Dagger In The Dark
-[] Templars
-[] Stealth Song
-[] Voxx action to send choirs, Cerberus people and Templars to deal with this problem.
Postpones Propaganda office for immediate problem solving.
... Hey, could we ask Lamenters to help out here? They should be useful for spec-ops we are dealing with here. Even just a squad would be immensely useful.
Also, they have actions too. Imagine they repeated a crackdown on infiltrators action again. Assuming they also have only 3 actions, that's 1/3rd of their GPD going into rooting out heresies, possibly even more focused on this particular hive.
Still, just like with that psyker purge, we need to scramble to survive:
[] Blessed Dagger In The Dark
-[] Templars
-[] Stealth Song
-[] Voxx action to send choirs, Cerberus people and Templars to deal with this problem.
Postpones Propaganda office for immediate problem solving.
... Hey, could we ask Lamenters to help out here? They should be useful for spec-ops we are dealing with here. Even just a squad would be immensely useful.
Pempelune
Fanfiction Deep State
It's almost like the QM has been warning us about this for like, 4 turns. As I'd been saying.
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My worry here is that, like, the Lamenters and Templars would be obvious red flags! Like the worry isn't that we don't have the resources to face them, it's this:
"Plans would need to be made to combat them, plans that would likely involve the gratuitous use of violence by massed gangs and soldiers. Plans that would give them away if they fucked up even one part, for they had no singular combatants to send against the worst the Free Duchy had to offer and expect them to return without tipping them off as to the true nature of the Federation."
If a Space Marine or a Sister of Battle but Based killed all our enemies... that's going to draw attention?
If they could suppress the underhive that easily then the imperium would have a lot fewer problems. We just have another source of opposition to our expansion now.
The nobles thing is more a 'laying the groundwork' sort of goal. Maybe we convert some people on the upper levels. Then get in with the servants. Then replace a noble with a body double augmented to look like them. It's setting the bureau's mandate, which is to infiltrate all levels of society to make more productive revolutions.