Ancient beings far beyond the limits of mere corporeal beings watch from orbit as the planet...
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The Fifth Race Quest
- Thread starter SamPardi
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Introduction and Character Gen
SamPardi
Optimistic Nihilist
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2015
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Ancient beings far beyond the limits of mere corporeal beings watch from orbit as the planet below them burns. Most of the fires are mere remnants, guttering tributes to the massive glass craters that cover over sixty percent of the planet's surface. Dust has already begun to gather in the atmosphere, kicked up be the enormous explosions, and soon the planet will be plunged into a global winter. It's few surviving natives were utterly unprepared for the changes in climate. If they somehow managed to survive, they'd still be little better than the ancestors that planted the first cultivated seeds of wild grains.
Their plan was over before it even began. Glassed in the cradle. The future of their children in this galaxy was uncertain but it would certainly be harsh and brutal for all involved.
This was how Ra ended the threat of the Tau'ri, and destroyed the last hope for the Fifth Race.
"I cannot accept this!" Janos stated.
"But what could we even do?" Oma Desala replied. "If we try anything the others will stop us."
"Not... If we're willing to descend preemptively. They can take away any examples of our technology, so we just have to give them something else. Something less that they can build into more!" Janos stated. "Think of it! We can plant the seeds for a new Fifth Race entirely!"
"I fail to see the advantages of that." Oma gave him a flat look. "The humans were our descendants. Children growing into the shoes of an adult, not lab rats being grown."
"So we use a human. Earth was hardly the only source. If they choose not to retain that humanity, who are we to say that is right or wrong?" Janos prodded.
Oma thought it over for a long moment. "I can't stall the others for long, even if, and that's a big if, we do this. Who did you even have in mind?"
---
Background. Pick 1 (Write in physical characteristics and name.)
[ ] Lo'tar: You were the favored slave of the Goa'uld Morrigan. She picked you for your fiery temperament and fierce loyalty, thankfully you managed to keep your innate curiosity well hidden. When you were selected you felt it a great honor to be so close to your goddess, but familiarity, as the saying goes, breeds contempt. Despite her words of fierce courage and honor, she is a coward and worse a liar. You have come to understand the Goa'uld are not exactly gods, at least not as they portray themselves. Perhaps they were the lesser gods, cast off by greater gods that didn't bleed or fear for being immense disappointments. When a being of real power appears and explains the situation to you, well, you don't have any trouble getting behind the plan he espouses.
Start with rough map of the galaxy and System Lord holdings. Knows the current political situation in some detail. Not much of a fighter, and a bit spoiled from the life of a kept pet. Humans and Jaffa are easier to recruit due to a shared cultural history.
[ ] Tok'ra: While some hate the Goa'uld as other, you hate them for what they specifically have done. You and your symbiote have fought them on countless occasions over the past hundred years and over time their atrocities have eroded at your objectivity. If you get sent to bow and scrape to one more inane asshole of a minor lord you may just scream and set their Ha'tak to self-destruct. You were always a person of action, and all this sneaking around is simply no longer to your taste. When one of the great ancestors appears before you and offers you not only the chance to build a true competitor to the Goa'uld, but also to turn your Symbiote into a queen so that the Tok'ra way of life may prosper you don't even hesitate to accept their offer.
Start with a detailed map of the System Lord holdings. Has a decent idea of current political situation. A pretty good fighter. Tok'ra ally early and easily, though recruiting them wholesale will not be easy.
[ ] Athosian: What's a Goa'uld? It's evil? Does it eat life force? Okay, but you're serious about there not being any Wraith in this new galaxy right? So yeah, I'm in. No I don't care about the details. I. Am. In. Now take us to this new planet you were yammering on about.
You don't know the area, nor much about technology. On the other hand you and all your people are kick ass fighters, damn good negotiators, and aren't tempted for even a second by the offers of these false gods. Compared to the hope of possibly returning home to defeat the Wraith, there is nothing these Goa'uld could say to sway you from your track. Also you actually know what a civic government is, even if you never needed one before, and can handle most of the growing pains of going from a tribe to a nation much more smoothly than the others.
[ ] Chief: It's not like all the humans on Earth are dead... yet. Your tribe and its allies are cowering in fear of the dark that fills the sky and the fog that clings to the land. You may be a simple and superstitious people but you are not fools. Clearly something terrible has happened, and only ill-times await your people. The stranger who claims not to be a god, though he wields the power of one, is difficult to understand at times but you think you get the gist of it. While the jungle you live in looks like a star to other lands far away across a black sea, so do they look like stars to you. He will carry your people across the black sea with the last of his power, and give you something that you may turn to plying that same sea. For it is such that a great many tribes led by wicked shamans who use their magicks, what this stranger calls technology, to impersonate gods rather than worship them have infested that black sea. They even tried to enslave the tribes far across the oceans to the East, but those tribes rebelled and it is through their corrupted dark magicks that disaster now befalls your people. Sounds like a good reason to kick somebody's ass if you've ever heard one.
What's technology? Can you eat it? Significant set-backs in large scale organizing and education, but a very free and fluid sort of social structure and society. Give it a generation or two and you'll be the old fuddy duddies complaining about those kids and their computators! Very independently minded and a somewhat higher chance of your subjects having the Ancient Gene.
---
"And how exactly are they going to build themselves into a fighting force capable of challenging the Goa'uld?" Oma asks.
"Well, I'll just give them a bit of a head-start on a specific technology base. Not ours, that they'll have to discover on their own. So long as I keep the starting conditions reasonable, the Others can't complain too much." Janos replied.
---
Tech Base: Pick 1
[ ] Zerg: Evolution. Start as a Queen with a hatchery and the designs for Drones and Queens. Population starts at 0 besides Commanders.
Resource Points = 1 per square kilometer of creep + 1 per active drone mining a vein/distance in hundred yard spans to the nearest hatchery. (rounded up to whole numbers)
Vespene Points = A special resource that fuels evolution. Amount harvested determined by source.
Evolution Points = The Zerg equivalent to tech points. Necessary to purchase more advanced bio-morphs.
Evolutions = The Zerg equivalent to technologies. Necessary to create more advanced creatures.
Drawback: Expect small groups of your soldiers to wind up cut off from the hive mind and kidnapped by advanced scientific races. Also expect to get blamed when people's ill-thought out bio-weapons experiments turn out, le gasp, a extremely deadly bio-weapon that is now beyond any hope of control.
[ ] Tau: Mechanized Warfare. Start with a crashed colony ship (3000 pop), a good library of educational materials and scientists well versed in first principles. Equipment enough to get a small population situated and started producing with Fire-Warriors for protection. No pre-existing battle-suit/vehicle or vehicle grade weapon designs.
Resource Points = 1 per hundred miners + 1 per square kilometer of mining complex. Maximum of 300 miners per km2.
Technology Points = Amount of research potential per turn. Used to reverse engineer captured equipment, explore for new technologies, or improve existing technologies.
Technologies = A library of reactions, interactions and designs that allow the creation of progressively better tools and weapons.
Drawbacks: When your soldiers kill-shot something it explodes. It doesn't matter if physics says it's all inert matter! It doesn't matter if its been specifically designed not to! It goes up in a great big ball of flames unless you specifically attack and kill the pilot and only the pilot. Sadly your own shit does the same and no amount of design work seems to be able to make the problem go away. At least all of your closest advisers are attractive large breasted women who mostly send you conflicting and competing signals while the bloody ancient keeps giggling to himself about flags. No wait that's another drawback.
[ ] Xenomorph: Murder-hobos. Who needs technology when you're death incarnate? Not an actual hive mind, just a cooperative hive social structure to prevent you all from going murder-hobo on yourselves. Needs vict-err 'Aggressively Recruited Volunteers' in order to repopulate. Those don't actually have to be sentient. Janos is less than impressed but willing to give you a while to prove you aren't irredeemably evil. Fail and it won't be just him burning you from existence. Starting population of a very small hive with only 10 drones to serve you, the Queen.
Reproduction Points = 1 per captured creature of useful biomass.
Mutation Points = Inevitably gathers over time unless actively prevented. When 10 points are reached a new strain, and pursuant Queen, is created somewhere else. This strain may be superior or inferior, and may be willing integrate into your command structure or it may not. They may also be mindless killers or cultured artists. All of this is randomly decided by the dice. May be an extreme boon… Or it may be your worst enemy.
Drawbacks: Where one of the ancient enemies goes, the other must follow...
[ ] Goa'uld: The Galactic Standard. You don't get anything a sufficiently high ranking Goa'uld wouldn't have… But you also get a few people that actually understand the principles behind it well enough to design more. Start with fully loaded Ha'tak (2000 pop) with construction and manufacturing equipment in its hold.
Naquadah Points = 1 per acquired ton of Weapons Grade Naquadah.
Trinium Points = 1 per acquired ton of Refined Trinium. Between them these two represent the only important resources in a Goa'uld tech base.
Technology Points = Amount of research potential per turn. Used to reverse engineer captured equipment, explore for new technologies, or improve existing technologies.
Technologies = A library of reactions, interactions and designs that allow the creation of progressively better tools and weapons.
Drawbacks: You're using bog standard tech and trying to create an out of context problem... Does this really need to be explained?
[ ] Modern: A quick peak in a few relatively close universes gives you a decent idea of where Earth would have developed to before they re-opened the Stargate and entered galactic affairs. Of course they won't have the install-base of billions so some things will break down pretty quick… On the other hand since they won't be starting on what was once the heart of your empire and therefore long since mined of any and all useful Naquadah deposits within twenty light-years, they'll quickly discover the galaxy's wonder drug and start making some rather significant leaps. Starts with a planned industrial city (10,000 pop) in a resource rich area and some heavy mining and industrial equipment.
Resource Points = 1 per thousand miners + 1 per ten square kilometers of mining complex. Maximum of 500 miners per km2.
Naquadah Points = 1 per acquired ton of Weapons Grade Naquadah. Necessary for the invention, construction and maintenance of high capacity computers and high energy reactions.
Trinium Points = 1 per acquired ton of Refined Trinium. Necessary for materials strong enough for long distance interstellar flight.
Technology Points = Amount of research potential per turn. Used to reverse engineer captured equipment, explore for new technologies, or improve existing technologies.
Technologies = A library of reactions, interactions and designs that allow the creation of progressively better tools and weapons.
Drawbacks: Something about your planet's Stargate is just weird. Seriously, just enter a semi-random set of valid coordinates and rather than getting one of the many, many, many Goa'uld controlled worlds, you'll instead find yourself sucked into a major political situation, or trapped on an adventure that may or may not reward you with allies, technologies etc. Good thing your exploration teams are especially plucky on average, or else you might have to bury the thing just to prevent it from accidentally dialing a black hole.
---
Advantages: 10 Resource Points to spend.
[ ] Black Market (6): You start out with access to an underground black market that exists between the many lesser Goa'uld Lords. You'll need humans of your own to deliver the goods if you aren't human, but this means Naquadah and Trinium Points can be sold for weapons, vehicles and even technological secrets. What's on offer will change every turn, so try not to miss a good deal when its presented.
[ ] +1000 Human Population (1): Can be taken multiple times. Allows you start with a larger core population or complementary humans if you normally wouldn't have them. All of them are simple untrained serfs that have been... appropriated from forgotten slave worlds. They have some culture but not much and will integrate relatively easily with whatever social structure you decide to set up. (Integrated into the hive mind for Zerg but still fundamentally human including free will. Xenomorphs will need to get clever about making themselves understood but they're at least willing to give you a chance to communicate before they revile you as monsters.)
[ ] +2 Weapons Grade Naquadah/Trinium (5): Can be taken multiple times. Even if your faction doesn't use it, these are very valuable resources. And if your tech base does use it, this is enough to build several wings of death gliders, a couple Tel'taks, arm a small army of soldiers, or significantly improve and fortify your new home base.
[ ] Valuable Garbage (6): Wherever you start you find the remains of a great battle in space floating in orbit of one of the systems outer planets and a couple of ancient crashed ships near your starting point. The participants are unfamiliar and one side has technology you can't even begin to comprehend. None of it is immediately usable but it's certainly a place to start in the reverse engineering game.
[ ] Death World (3): Your new home is full of angry, temperamental, beasts that can rend a man with a single swipe of their claw and tower over your average tank. This makes your home a rather dangerous place, but also significantly more defensible from ground assault. Besides, domesticating the beasts may provide you with a significant source of sheer brawn and battle value.
[ ] Ancient Stargate Platform (4): It doesn't do much for defense, though it does have a fancy energy shield that compared to the power source is practically free. However it's capable of dialing the legendary 8th chevron and therefor connecting to other galaxies. This immensely increases your options... But it's also run by a power supply that you can't even touch until it dies, is too advanced to be feasibly researched, and you're going to have to find a replacement only made by remnants of a lost and forgotten empire that existed millions of years ago. So yeah, good luck with that.
---
"I will descend to act as their adviser... I think I shall call myself Myrddin Emrys." Janos stated.
"Well that's nice. Now I need to go and distract the Others. Work quickly!" Oma said and disappeared.
Janos nodded and disappeared as well.
---
Current Plans:
[ ] Xilph - 5 Votes
[X] Chief
[X] Zerg
[X] Death World
[X] Ancient Stargate Platform
[X] +3000 Human Population
[ ] Dreadis - 1 Vote
[X] Athosian
[X] Xenomorph
[X] Death World (3)
[X] Ancient Stargate Platform (4)
[X] +1000 Human Population (1) X 3
[ ] SirTinal - 1 Vote
[x] Chief
[x] Modern
[x] Extra Humans x 4
[x] Valuable Garbage
[ ] jean5 - 1 Vote
[X] Athosian
[X] Zerg
[X] Death World (3)
[X] Ancient Stargate Platform (4)
[X] +3000 Human Population
Their plan was over before it even began. Glassed in the cradle. The future of their children in this galaxy was uncertain but it would certainly be harsh and brutal for all involved.
This was how Ra ended the threat of the Tau'ri, and destroyed the last hope for the Fifth Race.
"I cannot accept this!" Janos stated.
"But what could we even do?" Oma Desala replied. "If we try anything the others will stop us."
"Not... If we're willing to descend preemptively. They can take away any examples of our technology, so we just have to give them something else. Something less that they can build into more!" Janos stated. "Think of it! We can plant the seeds for a new Fifth Race entirely!"
"I fail to see the advantages of that." Oma gave him a flat look. "The humans were our descendants. Children growing into the shoes of an adult, not lab rats being grown."
"So we use a human. Earth was hardly the only source. If they choose not to retain that humanity, who are we to say that is right or wrong?" Janos prodded.
Oma thought it over for a long moment. "I can't stall the others for long, even if, and that's a big if, we do this. Who did you even have in mind?"
---
Background. Pick 1 (Write in physical characteristics and name.)
[ ] Lo'tar: You were the favored slave of the Goa'uld Morrigan. She picked you for your fiery temperament and fierce loyalty, thankfully you managed to keep your innate curiosity well hidden. When you were selected you felt it a great honor to be so close to your goddess, but familiarity, as the saying goes, breeds contempt. Despite her words of fierce courage and honor, she is a coward and worse a liar. You have come to understand the Goa'uld are not exactly gods, at least not as they portray themselves. Perhaps they were the lesser gods, cast off by greater gods that didn't bleed or fear for being immense disappointments. When a being of real power appears and explains the situation to you, well, you don't have any trouble getting behind the plan he espouses.
Start with rough map of the galaxy and System Lord holdings. Knows the current political situation in some detail. Not much of a fighter, and a bit spoiled from the life of a kept pet. Humans and Jaffa are easier to recruit due to a shared cultural history.
[ ] Tok'ra: While some hate the Goa'uld as other, you hate them for what they specifically have done. You and your symbiote have fought them on countless occasions over the past hundred years and over time their atrocities have eroded at your objectivity. If you get sent to bow and scrape to one more inane asshole of a minor lord you may just scream and set their Ha'tak to self-destruct. You were always a person of action, and all this sneaking around is simply no longer to your taste. When one of the great ancestors appears before you and offers you not only the chance to build a true competitor to the Goa'uld, but also to turn your Symbiote into a queen so that the Tok'ra way of life may prosper you don't even hesitate to accept their offer.
Start with a detailed map of the System Lord holdings. Has a decent idea of current political situation. A pretty good fighter. Tok'ra ally early and easily, though recruiting them wholesale will not be easy.
[ ] Athosian: What's a Goa'uld? It's evil? Does it eat life force? Okay, but you're serious about there not being any Wraith in this new galaxy right? So yeah, I'm in. No I don't care about the details. I. Am. In. Now take us to this new planet you were yammering on about.
You don't know the area, nor much about technology. On the other hand you and all your people are kick ass fighters, damn good negotiators, and aren't tempted for even a second by the offers of these false gods. Compared to the hope of possibly returning home to defeat the Wraith, there is nothing these Goa'uld could say to sway you from your track. Also you actually know what a civic government is, even if you never needed one before, and can handle most of the growing pains of going from a tribe to a nation much more smoothly than the others.
[ ] Chief: It's not like all the humans on Earth are dead... yet. Your tribe and its allies are cowering in fear of the dark that fills the sky and the fog that clings to the land. You may be a simple and superstitious people but you are not fools. Clearly something terrible has happened, and only ill-times await your people. The stranger who claims not to be a god, though he wields the power of one, is difficult to understand at times but you think you get the gist of it. While the jungle you live in looks like a star to other lands far away across a black sea, so do they look like stars to you. He will carry your people across the black sea with the last of his power, and give you something that you may turn to plying that same sea. For it is such that a great many tribes led by wicked shamans who use their magicks, what this stranger calls technology, to impersonate gods rather than worship them have infested that black sea. They even tried to enslave the tribes far across the oceans to the East, but those tribes rebelled and it is through their corrupted dark magicks that disaster now befalls your people. Sounds like a good reason to kick somebody's ass if you've ever heard one.
What's technology? Can you eat it? Significant set-backs in large scale organizing and education, but a very free and fluid sort of social structure and society. Give it a generation or two and you'll be the old fuddy duddies complaining about those kids and their computators! Very independently minded and a somewhat higher chance of your subjects having the Ancient Gene.
---
"And how exactly are they going to build themselves into a fighting force capable of challenging the Goa'uld?" Oma asks.
"Well, I'll just give them a bit of a head-start on a specific technology base. Not ours, that they'll have to discover on their own. So long as I keep the starting conditions reasonable, the Others can't complain too much." Janos replied.
---
Tech Base: Pick 1
[ ] Zerg: Evolution. Start as a Queen with a hatchery and the designs for Drones and Queens. Population starts at 0 besides Commanders.
Resource Points = 1 per square kilometer of creep + 1 per active drone mining a vein/distance in hundred yard spans to the nearest hatchery. (rounded up to whole numbers)
Vespene Points = A special resource that fuels evolution. Amount harvested determined by source.
Evolution Points = The Zerg equivalent to tech points. Necessary to purchase more advanced bio-morphs.
Evolutions = The Zerg equivalent to technologies. Necessary to create more advanced creatures.
Drawback: Expect small groups of your soldiers to wind up cut off from the hive mind and kidnapped by advanced scientific races. Also expect to get blamed when people's ill-thought out bio-weapons experiments turn out, le gasp, a extremely deadly bio-weapon that is now beyond any hope of control.
[ ] Tau: Mechanized Warfare. Start with a crashed colony ship (3000 pop), a good library of educational materials and scientists well versed in first principles. Equipment enough to get a small population situated and started producing with Fire-Warriors for protection. No pre-existing battle-suit/vehicle or vehicle grade weapon designs.
Resource Points = 1 per hundred miners + 1 per square kilometer of mining complex. Maximum of 300 miners per km2.
Technology Points = Amount of research potential per turn. Used to reverse engineer captured equipment, explore for new technologies, or improve existing technologies.
Technologies = A library of reactions, interactions and designs that allow the creation of progressively better tools and weapons.
Drawbacks: When your soldiers kill-shot something it explodes. It doesn't matter if physics says it's all inert matter! It doesn't matter if its been specifically designed not to! It goes up in a great big ball of flames unless you specifically attack and kill the pilot and only the pilot. Sadly your own shit does the same and no amount of design work seems to be able to make the problem go away. At least all of your closest advisers are attractive large breasted women who mostly send you conflicting and competing signals while the bloody ancient keeps giggling to himself about flags. No wait that's another drawback.
[ ] Xenomorph: Murder-hobos. Who needs technology when you're death incarnate? Not an actual hive mind, just a cooperative hive social structure to prevent you all from going murder-hobo on yourselves. Needs vict-err 'Aggressively Recruited Volunteers' in order to repopulate. Those don't actually have to be sentient. Janos is less than impressed but willing to give you a while to prove you aren't irredeemably evil. Fail and it won't be just him burning you from existence. Starting population of a very small hive with only 10 drones to serve you, the Queen.
Reproduction Points = 1 per captured creature of useful biomass.
Mutation Points = Inevitably gathers over time unless actively prevented. When 10 points are reached a new strain, and pursuant Queen, is created somewhere else. This strain may be superior or inferior, and may be willing integrate into your command structure or it may not. They may also be mindless killers or cultured artists. All of this is randomly decided by the dice. May be an extreme boon… Or it may be your worst enemy.
Drawbacks: Where one of the ancient enemies goes, the other must follow...
[ ] Goa'uld: The Galactic Standard. You don't get anything a sufficiently high ranking Goa'uld wouldn't have… But you also get a few people that actually understand the principles behind it well enough to design more. Start with fully loaded Ha'tak (2000 pop) with construction and manufacturing equipment in its hold.
Naquadah Points = 1 per acquired ton of Weapons Grade Naquadah.
Trinium Points = 1 per acquired ton of Refined Trinium. Between them these two represent the only important resources in a Goa'uld tech base.
Technology Points = Amount of research potential per turn. Used to reverse engineer captured equipment, explore for new technologies, or improve existing technologies.
Technologies = A library of reactions, interactions and designs that allow the creation of progressively better tools and weapons.
Drawbacks: You're using bog standard tech and trying to create an out of context problem... Does this really need to be explained?
[ ] Modern: A quick peak in a few relatively close universes gives you a decent idea of where Earth would have developed to before they re-opened the Stargate and entered galactic affairs. Of course they won't have the install-base of billions so some things will break down pretty quick… On the other hand since they won't be starting on what was once the heart of your empire and therefore long since mined of any and all useful Naquadah deposits within twenty light-years, they'll quickly discover the galaxy's wonder drug and start making some rather significant leaps. Starts with a planned industrial city (10,000 pop) in a resource rich area and some heavy mining and industrial equipment.
Resource Points = 1 per thousand miners + 1 per ten square kilometers of mining complex. Maximum of 500 miners per km2.
Naquadah Points = 1 per acquired ton of Weapons Grade Naquadah. Necessary for the invention, construction and maintenance of high capacity computers and high energy reactions.
Trinium Points = 1 per acquired ton of Refined Trinium. Necessary for materials strong enough for long distance interstellar flight.
Technology Points = Amount of research potential per turn. Used to reverse engineer captured equipment, explore for new technologies, or improve existing technologies.
Technologies = A library of reactions, interactions and designs that allow the creation of progressively better tools and weapons.
Drawbacks: Something about your planet's Stargate is just weird. Seriously, just enter a semi-random set of valid coordinates and rather than getting one of the many, many, many Goa'uld controlled worlds, you'll instead find yourself sucked into a major political situation, or trapped on an adventure that may or may not reward you with allies, technologies etc. Good thing your exploration teams are especially plucky on average, or else you might have to bury the thing just to prevent it from accidentally dialing a black hole.
---
Advantages: 10 Resource Points to spend.
[ ] Black Market (6): You start out with access to an underground black market that exists between the many lesser Goa'uld Lords. You'll need humans of your own to deliver the goods if you aren't human, but this means Naquadah and Trinium Points can be sold for weapons, vehicles and even technological secrets. What's on offer will change every turn, so try not to miss a good deal when its presented.
[ ] +1000 Human Population (1): Can be taken multiple times. Allows you start with a larger core population or complementary humans if you normally wouldn't have them. All of them are simple untrained serfs that have been... appropriated from forgotten slave worlds. They have some culture but not much and will integrate relatively easily with whatever social structure you decide to set up. (Integrated into the hive mind for Zerg but still fundamentally human including free will. Xenomorphs will need to get clever about making themselves understood but they're at least willing to give you a chance to communicate before they revile you as monsters.)
[ ] +2 Weapons Grade Naquadah/Trinium (5): Can be taken multiple times. Even if your faction doesn't use it, these are very valuable resources. And if your tech base does use it, this is enough to build several wings of death gliders, a couple Tel'taks, arm a small army of soldiers, or significantly improve and fortify your new home base.
[ ] Valuable Garbage (6): Wherever you start you find the remains of a great battle in space floating in orbit of one of the systems outer planets and a couple of ancient crashed ships near your starting point. The participants are unfamiliar and one side has technology you can't even begin to comprehend. None of it is immediately usable but it's certainly a place to start in the reverse engineering game.
[ ] Death World (3): Your new home is full of angry, temperamental, beasts that can rend a man with a single swipe of their claw and tower over your average tank. This makes your home a rather dangerous place, but also significantly more defensible from ground assault. Besides, domesticating the beasts may provide you with a significant source of sheer brawn and battle value.
[ ] Ancient Stargate Platform (4): It doesn't do much for defense, though it does have a fancy energy shield that compared to the power source is practically free. However it's capable of dialing the legendary 8th chevron and therefor connecting to other galaxies. This immensely increases your options... But it's also run by a power supply that you can't even touch until it dies, is too advanced to be feasibly researched, and you're going to have to find a replacement only made by remnants of a lost and forgotten empire that existed millions of years ago. So yeah, good luck with that.
---
"I will descend to act as their adviser... I think I shall call myself Myrddin Emrys." Janos stated.
"Well that's nice. Now I need to go and distract the Others. Work quickly!" Oma said and disappeared.
Janos nodded and disappeared as well.
---
Current Plans:
[ ] Xilph - 5 Votes
[X] Chief
[X] Zerg
[X] Death World
[X] Ancient Stargate Platform
[X] +3000 Human Population
[ ] Dreadis - 1 Vote
[X] Athosian
[X] Xenomorph
[X] Death World (3)
[X] Ancient Stargate Platform (4)
[X] +1000 Human Population (1) X 3
[ ] SirTinal - 1 Vote
[x] Chief
[x] Modern
[x] Extra Humans x 4
[x] Valuable Garbage
[ ] jean5 - 1 Vote
[X] Athosian
[X] Zerg
[X] Death World (3)
[X] Ancient Stargate Platform (4)
[X] +3000 Human Population
Last edited:
Errata
SamPardi
Optimistic Nihilist
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2015
- Messages
- 1,278
- Likes received
- 26,381
Errata!
Humanoid Troop Qualities
Zerg Troop Qualities
Unit Purchasing Table:
Fad Bonus Price Table
Humanoid Troop Qualities
- Rabble - A bunch of humans, usually armed. Usually. Can sometimes be pointed in the right direction.
- Militia - Humans that have set aside a certain amount of time to train themselves in the art of combat. Citizen soldiery, much more effective than a rabble, yet less than a professional soldiery.
- Soldiers - Humans that have made warfare their profession.
- Jaffa - Still fundamentally soldiers, but slightly physically superior to Humans and from a culture that makes even their least unit respond like seasoned troops.
- Elites - Humans or Jaffa that are above the average soldiery. Their morale is always strong at the beginning of a battle, and their aim tends to be significantly improved over everyone else.
- Super Soldiers - Like the Kull, so well armed and equipped their combatants are grouped individually or in groups of 2-6 for combat rolls.
Zerg Troop Qualities
- Swarmers - Zerglings, Roachlings, meant to throw at the enemy in large numbers and control the flow of the battle.
- Warriors - Roaches, Hydralisks, usually used and grouped in formations but not helpless in an individual battle. Generally the core group intended to break the enemy lines that Swarmers have softened up.
- Specialists - Infestors, Queens, used generally on the individual level but not because of high combat capacity, instead because they can do very different things that may turn a battle one way or the other.
- The Big Guys - Ultralisks are a prime example of this. Basically a single unit or small herd of units, 2-6, is enough to completely change the flow of battle. They trample lesser units into dirt, and soak up enormous damage. The battle could hinge just on where one of these guys is placed in your unit line-up.
Hatchery
Zerg Tenement
Zerg Forge
Zerg Loom
Queen Bio-morph
Drone Biomorph
"Hundling"
Locomotion: Crawler
Locomotion: Agile Quadruped
Locomotion: Amphibian
Weapon: Work Claws
Weapon: Attack Claws
Weapon: Climbing Claws
Weapon: Attack Fangs
Weapon: Infectious Fangs
Weapon: Corrosive Spit
Carapace: Hide
Carapace: Tough Hide
Ability: Detect Resource Vein
Ability: Inject Larvae
Ability: Creep Tumors
Ability: Micromanage
Ability: Predatory Senses
Ability: Twin
Ability: Ferry Passengers
Upgrade: Retractable Claws
Upgrade: Leg Muscle Overbuilding
-
Name: Hatchery
Cost: 10 Resource Points/1 Drone
Armaments: None
Support: Hatching Chambers, Creep Expansion, Resource Processing
The hatchery is the central building of any Hive Cluster. It allows creep to spread, resources to be gathered and larvae to be born. It's also the Swarms main point of weakness. Protect it at all costs.
-
Name: Zerg Tenement
Cost: 1 RP/1 Drone
Armaments: None
Support: Habitable by Humans.
Tenements are merely places for humans to live and enjoy each other's company. The drone do them somewhat more strangely than others, but hey what's life without variety.
-
Name: Zerg Forge
Cost: 3 RP/1 Drone
Armaments: None
Support: Blacksmith's Forge
A place to employ blacksmiths to build equipment for your people.
-
Name: Zerg Loom
Cost: 2 RP/1 Drone
Armaments: None
Support: Weavers Loom
A place to employ weavers to cloth your people.
-
Name: Queen
Quality: Specialist
Cost: 5 RP/1 Larvae
Wounds: 5
Defense: 1d6
Locomotion: Crawlers
Armament: 4x Work Claws
Support: Large Sack (3 Abilities) - Larvae Inject, Creep Tumors, Micromanage
A large and usually quite slow bio-morph. It has the ability to be armed with 4 Claw hard-points, but is best utilized for the large support sack that produces large amounts of energy to fuel support abilities.
-
Name: Drone
Quality: Swarmer
Cost: .33 RP/1 Larvae
Wounds: 2
Defense: 1d4
Locomotion: Crawlers
Armament: 2x Work Claws, 1x Corrosive Spit
Support: Small Sack (1 Ability) - Detect Resource Vein
The drone is the basic worker of the swarm. Their job is to find new resources and exploit them. They are also necessary to create buildings as their special genetics allow them to morph into any building you can support.
-
Name: Hundling
Quality: Swarmer
Cost: .25 RP/1 Larvae
Locomotion: Agile Quadruped - Very Fast
Wounds: 1
Defense: Tough Hide 1d4+1
Weapons: Attack Fangs 1d6, Attack Claws 1d6 x2
Support Sack Small: Twin (Produce 2 units for the price of one. Swarmer only.)
-
Name: Crawler
Speed: Fast/Slow/Very Slow/Glacial (Swarmer/Warrior/Special/Big Guy)
Slots: 2x claws, 1x mouth/4x claws, 1x mouth/4x claws/4x claws, 1x mouth
Special: Small/Medium/Large/Medium
It's useful for some basic line troops but it's nothing special.
-
Name: Agile Quadruped
Speed: Very Fast/Very Fast/Fast/Fast
Slots: 2x claws, 1x mouth/3x claws, 1x mouth/3x claws, 1x mouth/3x claws, 1x mouth
Special: Small/Small/Medium/Small
Meant for straight up combat, the agile quadruped is fast
-
Name: Amphibian
Speed: Fast*/Fast*/Slow*/Very Slow*
Slots: 1x Mouth, 1x Tail/2x Claws, 1x Mouth, 1x Tail/2x Claws, 1x Tail/2x Claws, 1x Mouth, 1x Tail
Special: Small/Small/Large/Medium
Not always the best unit but it has its niche and can swim through any amount of water, diving depth is limited to only slightly better than human norm however.
*Gains one rank of speed when in the water.
-
Name: Work Claws
Damage: 1d4-1
Not truly meant to be used as a weapon. These claws are meant for the less immediate needs of labor and work. Still they can be damaging in close combat.
-
Name: Attack Claws
Damage: 1d6
Claws significantly longer and sharper than work claws meant for tearing into the enemy.
-
Name: Climbing Claws
Damage: 1d4+1
Reinforced claw formations that can be used for attack or work, but mostly are made to survive the rigors of climbing sheer faces.
-
Name: Attack Fangs
Damage: 1d6
Strengthened teeth and fangs that can be used by the attacker to bite their enemy for damage.
-
Name: Infectious Fangs
Damage: 1d4
Low on overall damage making it hard to get them past an enemy's defenses, but when they do you have a 100% chance of infecting them, with 50% chance of conversion to the swarm (as a non-sapient unit)
-
Name: Corrosive Spit
Damage: 1d4
This is an early non-weaponized form. It's great for slowly breaking down things you need to break apart, not so excellent at killing the enemy before they kill you. On the other hand, it's always at least slightly effective.
-
Name: Hide
Defense: 1d4/1d4/1d6/1d8
A layer of leathery skin.
-
Name: Tough Hide
Defense: 1d4+1/1d4+1/1d6+1/1d8+1
A tough layer of leathery skin.
-
Name: Detect Resource Vein
Allows this unit to detect resource veins even underground.
-
Name: Inject Larvae
Inject more larvae into the hatchery allowing it to produce 1/2/6/4 more larvae this turn.
-
Name: Creep Tumors
Lay out some creep tumors to increase the extent to which a hatchery's creep grows this turn by 0.06/0.1/0.33/0.22.
-
Name: Micromanage
Only available to Queens, Brood Leaders and Hero Units. Add another action to the turn.
-
Name: Predatory Senses
Predatory Senses allow a unit to seek out enemies, track enemies, search for specific known chemicals, find heat sources and gives a much better chance of gaining initiative for your units should it come to a fight.
-
Name: Twin
Only for Swarmers, sacrifice the use of your support sack for the ability to buy two for the price of one.
-
Name: Ferry Passengers
Ferry 2 Passengers req. Warrior or greater quality. Stackable.
-
Name: Retractable Claws
Gives a small bonus to initiative, and decreases diplomacy penalties from being armed.
-
Name: Leg Muscle Overbuilding
Creature gains +1 to all attack and defense rolls, increases speed by one rank unless already very fast, increases burrowing speed by one rank if applicable.
Unit Purchasing Table:
| [ ] Morph: Drone | 0.33 RP | 1 Larvae | Limit: As many as can be afforded. |
| [ ] Morph: Queen | 5 RP | 1 Larvae | Limit: 1 per turn. |
| [ ] Hire: Militia | 1 RP | 100 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| [ ] Hire: Soldiers | 2 RP | 100 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| [ ] Hire: Scout | 0.2 RP | 20 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| [ ] Hire: Worker | 0 RP | 100 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| [ ] Hire: Dancers | 0 RP | 40 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| Hunger | Harmony | Concord | Independence | |
| 1 | 50% increase in RP production from drones. All Drones take one wound of damage this turn. | All activities with success percentages gain a +10% chance of success. | If you have regular contact with other neutral or better powers, some people from one of them will immigrate. Amount and Quality depend on the source. Else you will be contacted by an advanced and benevolent power interested in what you've apparently got going for you. | All human units gain +1 wounds and +1d4 defense this turn. |
| 2 | Choose any Zerg Only army you own at a Hive Cluster, it will be sacrificed and fed to the Hive Cluster returning its full cost in RP. | When the first army enters combat this turn, two drone swarms are randomly selected from the resource gatherers. The wounds of the army equals its normal wounds plus the wounds of the two drone swarms. If the army still dies, all three die. | Your next diplomatic check gains +20% chance of success even if it's not this turn. | Gain 1d8 EP per 1000 Humans in your Swarm |
| 3 | Swarmers gain a 50% combat bonus to all stats. 50% penalty to all tactical rolls. | Have one EP bonus worth 2d20 points. All other EP bonuses that turn are doubled. | Despite your general lack of pallet, the humans of your hive worked creep into some rather impressive specialities. So impressive that this turn's production of creep is rendered into a trade good instead. | Gain a +30% chance of success to any Talent checks this turn, and to the specialist ceiling. |
| 4 | Creep production stops entirely, but all expansions younger than 4 turns are advanced to their fourth turn state. | In a miracle of psionics up to ten-thousand humans can be added to the hive-mind without having to be infected at all. | Your one of the nicest people around but even you know that sometimes people just need to leave well enough alone. For three turns the Ancient Platform will 'get a bug' and only allow known friends to successfully dial in. |
Select a zerg unit design. Gain a sapient Hero unit of that design. |
Last edited:
Turn 0
SamPardi
Optimistic Nihilist
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2015
- Messages
- 1,278
- Likes received
- 26,381
A/N: Now that I know the tech base I'll be putting reference material like the current Evolution Library in the second post.
You spent a long time thinking over the choices the traveler gave you for the tools you'd be using to face the sea of darkness and the false shamans. While you couldn't be certain you understood everything he said, he did take you to a still pond and show you reflections of what the original owners of these tools managed at their heights. All were impressive, some were terrifying, but only one spoke to you.
And that is why you are now staring at your clawed hands watching in awe as they move to your will. Whatever you hadn't understood about the swarm before you now know. It's so... Easy. Like genetics. You just know what all these long acid chains do and a few quick pokes show you can fairly guess what changing them would result in, even if it's not entirely exact. Clearly making something new will require many tests. Especially since now that you can think of these changes you're starting to realize just how little you know. There's nothing to tell you whether a certain leg shape will hold its balance, or if a creature will collapse on its own weight.
The traveler returns though he seems... less, somehow. "I have given up my powers and immortality that I might teach you and advise you as you grow into your new role," he explains. Well that would explain that, you suppose. His mind sort of 'appears' at the edge of a cloud of thoughts, you can't access it at all, but you can feel him transmitting his amusement to you. "From now on you may call me Myrrdin Emrys. I have not been allowed to remember much of my education, but that which is relatively common knowledge among those educated across the galaxy I was allowed to retain. In time I will be able to assist you in more direct ways, but for now I'll be quite tied up educating in basic curriculum you will need to survive." (Myrddin is unable for activities for about 4 years.)
Many more minds suddenly appear to your north. These are your people and those you bargained to gain. Their thoughts are relatively private, you can choose to observe anyone's view point or surface thoughts but their memories are their own as is their will. You're free to ask, and they've accepted you as a nominal leader figure, but its still asking. They've spread out across twelve camps of only a few hundred each, with the closest a couple kilometers away and the furthest about seven kilometers away.
From what you can tell between yourself and the various camps, you've landed deep in a jungle. To the west is a mighty river almost three kilometers wide. You can't even dream of attempting to cross such a river at your current level of development. Maybe its the wet season and it will go down later? A much more manageable branch of the river is to the north, and is only a hundred meters wide at some points and shallow enough to ford. It seems to wrap around the mountain that lies to your east. Frankly the only truly open avenue seems to be south, and that would take you around and past the gate platform is which is two kilometers from your starting zone to give you room to build defenses and what not.
"I've taken the [Control Crystal] out of the [Astrea Porta]'s [Dialing Pedestal] for the moment. When you feel ready to face the galaxy or universe at large ask me and I'll return it to functioning order." Myrrdin advises you when you begin to wonder how you'll properly defend yourself.
There's a spike of terror from the hive mind and you watch through a spectator's eyes as a great cat twice the size of your current body attacks one of the camps near the mountain. Before they can even muster a true defense the creature is gone again, having eaten two people wholesale and killing or injuring eight others. It could have gone a lot worse, and who knows when or if it might in the future.
Map of the Area. (On Dropbox.)
---
Important Status Updates:
Your camps may be in danger!
Food is plentiful, and easily accessed! Populace feeds and clothes themselves costing you 0 resources.
You have no drones!
Production:
Creep: 0.56km Radius. (+0.5km Creep radius per turn.)
Resource Points - 2 (+1 per turn.)
Evolution Points - 50 (+20 per turn.)
Vespene Points - 20 (+0 per turn.)
Larvae - 6 (+12 per turn)
Activities: You have one month before the next turn. Pick 3 activities to engage in. (The same activity may be selected multiple times unless otherwise specified or lacking resources.)
[ ] Evolve 3 Drones (Costs 1 RP and 3 Larvae)
Start building that work force!
[ ] Increase Larvae Production
Using your Queen abilities you force the Hatchery to produce 6 more larvae this turn.
[ ] Increase Creep
You lay down creep tumors at strategic points around the hatchery, increasing creep growth by a .33km radius.
[ ] Organize Scouting Parties (Costs 1 RP)
Turn 100 villagers into five parties of twenty scouts. They can increase your understanding of the surroundings and mark important locations like Monster Dens. However they lack a drone's sensitivity for resource veins.
[ ] Organize Militia (Costs 1 RP)
It's simple right, cut off some sticks, sharpen half of them, and convince them to use the other half to beat each other senseless several hours a day in 'training' right? Can't be too hard to figure out.
[ ] Organize Work Crews
Turn 100 villagers into basic manual laborers. Can't exceed 1/3 of the populace due to their increased food needs. Crews will scour the nearby jungle for fallen wood and bring it back to the hatchery to convert into biomass. +1 Resource per turn per work crew.
[ ] Organize Dancing Troupe
Turn 40 villagers into professional dancers. They will increase morale in the village and give you a feather in your cap to show off to prospective allies. Helps to add to your overall culture, an indefinable thing that may be to your advantage or detriment in the long run, but is uniquely you.
[ ] Search Populace for Talented Individuals
They may unlock new options, or just handle being delegated to well and therefore open up more activities per turn. Has 70% chance of failure and 10% chance of producing a specialist.
Evolution Options: Spend your points however you desire. These are the projects currently open to you.
[ ] Evolution Zerg Tenaments (0/100)
Consolidates your human populace, protects them much better, and only costs one resource per thousand individuals to construct.
[ ] Evolution Amphibian Bio-morph (0/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.
[ ] Evolution Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution Attack Claws (0/50)
Right now your claws are made for digging and working and so forth. These claws are made for ripping your enemy to shreds in the heat of combat.
[ ] Evolution Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
EDIT: Added 3 more starting larvae for balance. Renamed research for clarity. Reduced creep growth benefit on Increase Creep.
You spent a long time thinking over the choices the traveler gave you for the tools you'd be using to face the sea of darkness and the false shamans. While you couldn't be certain you understood everything he said, he did take you to a still pond and show you reflections of what the original owners of these tools managed at their heights. All were impressive, some were terrifying, but only one spoke to you.
Queen said:
And that is why you are now staring at your clawed hands watching in awe as they move to your will. Whatever you hadn't understood about the swarm before you now know. It's so... Easy. Like genetics. You just know what all these long acid chains do and a few quick pokes show you can fairly guess what changing them would result in, even if it's not entirely exact. Clearly making something new will require many tests. Especially since now that you can think of these changes you're starting to realize just how little you know. There's nothing to tell you whether a certain leg shape will hold its balance, or if a creature will collapse on its own weight.
The traveler returns though he seems... less, somehow. "I have given up my powers and immortality that I might teach you and advise you as you grow into your new role," he explains. Well that would explain that, you suppose. His mind sort of 'appears' at the edge of a cloud of thoughts, you can't access it at all, but you can feel him transmitting his amusement to you. "From now on you may call me Myrrdin Emrys. I have not been allowed to remember much of my education, but that which is relatively common knowledge among those educated across the galaxy I was allowed to retain. In time I will be able to assist you in more direct ways, but for now I'll be quite tied up educating in basic curriculum you will need to survive." (Myrddin is unable for activities for about 4 years.)
Many more minds suddenly appear to your north. These are your people and those you bargained to gain. Their thoughts are relatively private, you can choose to observe anyone's view point or surface thoughts but their memories are their own as is their will. You're free to ask, and they've accepted you as a nominal leader figure, but its still asking. They've spread out across twelve camps of only a few hundred each, with the closest a couple kilometers away and the furthest about seven kilometers away.
From what you can tell between yourself and the various camps, you've landed deep in a jungle. To the west is a mighty river almost three kilometers wide. You can't even dream of attempting to cross such a river at your current level of development. Maybe its the wet season and it will go down later? A much more manageable branch of the river is to the north, and is only a hundred meters wide at some points and shallow enough to ford. It seems to wrap around the mountain that lies to your east. Frankly the only truly open avenue seems to be south, and that would take you around and past the gate platform is which is two kilometers from your starting zone to give you room to build defenses and what not.
"I've taken the [Control Crystal] out of the [Astrea Porta]'s [Dialing Pedestal] for the moment. When you feel ready to face the galaxy or universe at large ask me and I'll return it to functioning order." Myrrdin advises you when you begin to wonder how you'll properly defend yourself.
There's a spike of terror from the hive mind and you watch through a spectator's eyes as a great cat twice the size of your current body attacks one of the camps near the mountain. Before they can even muster a true defense the creature is gone again, having eaten two people wholesale and killing or injuring eight others. It could have gone a lot worse, and who knows when or if it might in the future.
Map of the Area. (On Dropbox.)
---
Important Status Updates:
Your camps may be in danger!
Food is plentiful, and easily accessed! Populace feeds and clothes themselves costing you 0 resources.
You have no drones!
Production:
Creep: 0.56km Radius. (+0.5km Creep radius per turn.)
Resource Points - 2 (+1 per turn.)
Evolution Points - 50 (+20 per turn.)
Vespene Points - 20 (+0 per turn.)
Larvae - 6 (+12 per turn)
Activities: You have one month before the next turn. Pick 3 activities to engage in. (The same activity may be selected multiple times unless otherwise specified or lacking resources.)
[ ] Evolve 3 Drones (Costs 1 RP and 3 Larvae)
Start building that work force!
[ ] Increase Larvae Production
Using your Queen abilities you force the Hatchery to produce 6 more larvae this turn.
[ ] Increase Creep
You lay down creep tumors at strategic points around the hatchery, increasing creep growth by a .33km radius.
[ ] Organize Scouting Parties (Costs 1 RP)
Turn 100 villagers into five parties of twenty scouts. They can increase your understanding of the surroundings and mark important locations like Monster Dens. However they lack a drone's sensitivity for resource veins.
[ ] Organize Militia (Costs 1 RP)
It's simple right, cut off some sticks, sharpen half of them, and convince them to use the other half to beat each other senseless several hours a day in 'training' right? Can't be too hard to figure out.
[ ] Organize Work Crews
Turn 100 villagers into basic manual laborers. Can't exceed 1/3 of the populace due to their increased food needs. Crews will scour the nearby jungle for fallen wood and bring it back to the hatchery to convert into biomass. +1 Resource per turn per work crew.
[ ] Organize Dancing Troupe
Turn 40 villagers into professional dancers. They will increase morale in the village and give you a feather in your cap to show off to prospective allies. Helps to add to your overall culture, an indefinable thing that may be to your advantage or detriment in the long run, but is uniquely you.
[ ] Search Populace for Talented Individuals
They may unlock new options, or just handle being delegated to well and therefore open up more activities per turn. Has 70% chance of failure and 10% chance of producing a specialist.
Evolution Options: Spend your points however you desire. These are the projects currently open to you.
[ ] Evolution Zerg Tenaments (0/100)
Consolidates your human populace, protects them much better, and only costs one resource per thousand individuals to construct.
[ ] Evolution Amphibian Bio-morph (0/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.
[ ] Evolution Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution Attack Claws (0/50)
Right now your claws are made for digging and working and so forth. These claws are made for ripping your enemy to shreds in the heat of combat.
[ ] Evolution Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
EDIT: Added 3 more starting larvae for balance. Renamed research for clarity. Reduced creep growth benefit on Increase Creep.
Last edited:
Turn 1
SamPardi
Optimistic Nihilist
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2015
- Messages
- 1,278
- Likes received
- 26,381
'What is it!' Cried a panicked recruit at the sight of the giant menacing them. The great reptilian beast opened its long maw and in a single, seemingly impossible with its short stubby legs, lunge snapped up a man and woman that had only been trying to catch some fish in the river shallows.
'I don't know, and I don't care! Get those fishers out, we'll hold it off!' Ordered the older man that had been awarded the head of their small militia. In truth their sharpened poles were no match for the monster and they knew it, but at least they could annoy the creature and drive it off.
Of course the monster violently disagreed and snapped up one of his recruits right off the bat. Still they were a hardy and brave lot, they wouldn't let a few of their deaths get in the way of protecting the workers and the innocents. For several minutes they tried to exchange blows with the creature and came up short. Finally someone plucked up the courage and skill to chuck their spear straight into the creatures eye.
It screeched in pain and thrashed out, crushing another recruit in its ire. Nonetheless it had finally had enough and quickly disappeared back into the water of the Great River from which it came.
It's been a hard month as you try your best to absorb the skills that Myrddin is trying to teach you and juggle keeping people calm in the face of further monster attacks. There had been four separate instances of monster attack, the worst costing nine lives when an aquatic reptile attacked some fishermen by the Great River. Still the other attacks had cost sixteen lives, all to the damn great cats from the hill-lands, making it twenty-five for the month. Over four times those lost to illness and random injuries, six if you were curious.
There was a bit of a light in the darkness so to speak when thirty-one small minds entered the world and their minds connected to the hive for the first time. Only one died of complications, and thankfully it was late enough after birth that the mother was unaffected. You can only hope the numbers remain so good in the future.
Myrddin has been drilling you in numbers, addition and subtraction. Which is not to say that you could not count before, but what he teaches is so... formalized and theoretical. It's easy for you to understand one pepper, and adding two more peppers is more than either group alone, but making the logical leap to there being simply a one, and a two and together they make 3 even if it's not really 3 of anything at all is a bit hard to wrap your head around.
Early on you'd decided that your people needed protectors against the fauna of this new land and decided to train what Myrddin called a militia. You cut down the sticks they'd need and sharpened the sharp half yourself with your claws. Then each camp had contributed a small group and together they made up a hundred individuals. Well ninety-two with the recent monster attacks, but close enough. So far their grasp of discipline and fighting as a unit has come leaps and bounds, though they still tend to fall into a bit of a disorganized mess when the fight really gets going. That's okay, they're mostly fairly young, and they'll learn. It did cost a bit of your resources to make some light armored plates for them to sew into their shirts that help against the less than monstrous threats, but it was worth well worth it when they quickly drove the more annoying opportunistic animals out of the camps.
After that you focused on growing your creep. You're not entirely certain what it does or even is but it gets you the resources you need in your hatchery so making more of it would be a priority. Along the same veins you set your first three drones to evolving. It makes you almost giddy with anticipation to know that they'll soon be ready to go out and take on the world, so to speak.
Your understanding of the process of evolving a larvae also increases. Where as before you fumbled a bit in setting up the evolution order and spent a lot of time making certain everything was actually proceeding correctly, now you have better experience and confidence with the process. This means you can handle the logistics of more simultaneous evolutions.
---
Map of the Area. (On Dropbox.)
Important Status Updates:
Your drones are idle.
Due to improvements in animal pest control you've gained 18 'Agile Quadruped' bodies. This has given you +5 EP and started you on the road to understanding 'Agile Quadruped' bodies. Gather another forty-two bodies to unlock 'Evolution Agile Quadruped Bio-morph'.
Production:
Creep: 1.39 km Radius. (+0.5km Creep radius per turn.)
Resource Points - 4 (+7 per turn.)
Evolution Points - 20 (+20 per turn.)
Vespene Points - 20 (+0 per turn.)
Larvae - 15 (+12 per turn)
Activities: You have one month before the next turn. Pick 3 activities to engage in. (The same activity may be selected multiple times unless otherwise specified or lacking resources.)
[ ] Evolve Larvae (Costs Depend on Unit. Max 12 Larvae in a single action.)
Start building your army.
[ ] Increase Larvae Production
Using your Queen abilities you force the Hatchery to produce 6 more larvae this turn.
[ ] Increase Creep
You lay down creep tumors at strategic points around the hatchery, increasing creep growth by a .33km radius.
[ ] Organize Scouting Parties (Costs 1 RP)
Turn 100 villagers into five parties of twenty scouts. They can increase your understanding of the surroundings and mark important locations like Monster Dens. However they lack a drone's sensitivity for resource veins.
[ ] Organize Militia (Costs 1 RP)
It's simple right, cut off some sticks, sharpen half of them, and convince them to use the other half to beat each other senseless several hours a day in 'training' right? Can't be too hard to figure out.
[ ] Organize Work Crews
Turn 100 villagers into basic manual laborers. Can't exceed 1/3 of the populace due to their increased food needs. Crews will scour the nearby jungle for fallen wood and bring it back to the hatchery to convert into biomass. +1 Resource per turn per work crew.
[ ] Organize Dancing Troupe
Turn 40 villagers into professional dancers. They will increase morale in the village and give you a feather in your cap to show off to prospective allies. Helps to add to your overall culture, an indefinable thing that may be to your advantage or detriment in the long run, but is uniquely you.
[ ] Search Populace for Talented Individuals
They may unlock new options, or just handle being delegated to well and therefore open up more activities per turn. Has 70% chance of failure and 10% chance of producing a specialist.
Drone Orders: Pick 1 for each drone. To assign the drone in perpetuity to an action simply add the keyword 'Dedicated' to the vote.
Drones - 3
[ ] Scouting (Pick a direction.)
With your drone's advanced senses they can easily identify and avoid most dangers and discover mineral deposits or other interesting things. While minerals can be just about anywhere, they're more accessible in certain terrain types. 30-90% chance of success in finding a vein, 1% chance of immense success (+4 on quality roll up to max quality), vein quality (max supported miners) determined by 1d8. 10-50% chance of fighting monsters.
[ ] Gathering
Drones are capable of felling entire trees and dragging them back to the Hatchery. They aren't worth a hundred dedicated gatherers on their own, but they're a lot closer than you'd think. +0.5 Resources.
Militia Priorities: Pick 1 focus for the militia forces. This focus will remain the same in perpetuity unless changed.
[ ] Experiment with Monster Fighting.
The militia encourages its members to try new activities and techniques against monsters. Militia losses in monster attacks increase, but increased chance of discovering a monster's weakness and 1% chance of actually killing a monster every engagement.
[ ] Pest Control
Pests cause disease to spread and lower overall sanitation. Killing vermin and running canines out of camps may not be glorious but it's incredibly useful. Random number of 'Agile Quadruped' bodies added each turn.
[ ] Sentry Duty
So there really isn't any unlawful behavior or outside forces showing up at your metaphorical doorstep... But there could be. Might as well have the Militia get some practice at their role of watchful protectors.
Evolution Options: Spend your points however you desire. These are the projects currently open to you.
Evolution Points - 20
[ ] Evolution Zerg Tenaments (55/100)
Consolidates your human populace, protects them much better, and only costs one resource per thousand individuals to construct.
[ ] Evolution Amphibian Bio-morph (0/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.
[ ] Evolution Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution Attack Claws (0/50)
Right now your claws are made for digging and working and so forth. These claws are made for ripping your enemy to shreds in the heat of combat.
[ ] Evolution Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
'I don't know, and I don't care! Get those fishers out, we'll hold it off!' Ordered the older man that had been awarded the head of their small militia. In truth their sharpened poles were no match for the monster and they knew it, but at least they could annoy the creature and drive it off.
Of course the monster violently disagreed and snapped up one of his recruits right off the bat. Still they were a hardy and brave lot, they wouldn't let a few of their deaths get in the way of protecting the workers and the innocents. For several minutes they tried to exchange blows with the creature and came up short. Finally someone plucked up the courage and skill to chuck their spear straight into the creatures eye.
It screeched in pain and thrashed out, crushing another recruit in its ire. Nonetheless it had finally had enough and quickly disappeared back into the water of the Great River from which it came.
It's been a hard month as you try your best to absorb the skills that Myrddin is trying to teach you and juggle keeping people calm in the face of further monster attacks. There had been four separate instances of monster attack, the worst costing nine lives when an aquatic reptile attacked some fishermen by the Great River. Still the other attacks had cost sixteen lives, all to the damn great cats from the hill-lands, making it twenty-five for the month. Over four times those lost to illness and random injuries, six if you were curious.
There was a bit of a light in the darkness so to speak when thirty-one small minds entered the world and their minds connected to the hive for the first time. Only one died of complications, and thankfully it was late enough after birth that the mother was unaffected. You can only hope the numbers remain so good in the future.
Myrddin has been drilling you in numbers, addition and subtraction. Which is not to say that you could not count before, but what he teaches is so... formalized and theoretical. It's easy for you to understand one pepper, and adding two more peppers is more than either group alone, but making the logical leap to there being simply a one, and a two and together they make 3 even if it's not really 3 of anything at all is a bit hard to wrap your head around.
Early on you'd decided that your people needed protectors against the fauna of this new land and decided to train what Myrddin called a militia. You cut down the sticks they'd need and sharpened the sharp half yourself with your claws. Then each camp had contributed a small group and together they made up a hundred individuals. Well ninety-two with the recent monster attacks, but close enough. So far their grasp of discipline and fighting as a unit has come leaps and bounds, though they still tend to fall into a bit of a disorganized mess when the fight really gets going. That's okay, they're mostly fairly young, and they'll learn. It did cost a bit of your resources to make some light armored plates for them to sew into their shirts that help against the less than monstrous threats, but it was worth well worth it when they quickly drove the more annoying opportunistic animals out of the camps.
After that you focused on growing your creep. You're not entirely certain what it does or even is but it gets you the resources you need in your hatchery so making more of it would be a priority. Along the same veins you set your first three drones to evolving. It makes you almost giddy with anticipation to know that they'll soon be ready to go out and take on the world, so to speak.
Your understanding of the process of evolving a larvae also increases. Where as before you fumbled a bit in setting up the evolution order and spent a lot of time making certain everything was actually proceeding correctly, now you have better experience and confidence with the process. This means you can handle the logistics of more simultaneous evolutions.
---
Map of the Area. (On Dropbox.)
Important Status Updates:
Your drones are idle.
Due to improvements in animal pest control you've gained 18 'Agile Quadruped' bodies. This has given you +5 EP and started you on the road to understanding 'Agile Quadruped' bodies. Gather another forty-two bodies to unlock 'Evolution Agile Quadruped Bio-morph'.
Production:
Creep: 1.39 km Radius. (+0.5km Creep radius per turn.)
Resource Points - 4 (+7 per turn.)
Evolution Points - 20 (+20 per turn.)
Vespene Points - 20 (+0 per turn.)
Larvae - 15 (+12 per turn)
Activities: You have one month before the next turn. Pick 3 activities to engage in. (The same activity may be selected multiple times unless otherwise specified or lacking resources.)
[ ] Evolve Larvae (Costs Depend on Unit. Max 12 Larvae in a single action.)
Start building your army.
[ ] Increase Larvae Production
Using your Queen abilities you force the Hatchery to produce 6 more larvae this turn.
[ ] Increase Creep
You lay down creep tumors at strategic points around the hatchery, increasing creep growth by a .33km radius.
[ ] Organize Scouting Parties (Costs 1 RP)
Turn 100 villagers into five parties of twenty scouts. They can increase your understanding of the surroundings and mark important locations like Monster Dens. However they lack a drone's sensitivity for resource veins.
[ ] Organize Militia (Costs 1 RP)
It's simple right, cut off some sticks, sharpen half of them, and convince them to use the other half to beat each other senseless several hours a day in 'training' right? Can't be too hard to figure out.
[ ] Organize Work Crews
Turn 100 villagers into basic manual laborers. Can't exceed 1/3 of the populace due to their increased food needs. Crews will scour the nearby jungle for fallen wood and bring it back to the hatchery to convert into biomass. +1 Resource per turn per work crew.
[ ] Organize Dancing Troupe
Turn 40 villagers into professional dancers. They will increase morale in the village and give you a feather in your cap to show off to prospective allies. Helps to add to your overall culture, an indefinable thing that may be to your advantage or detriment in the long run, but is uniquely you.
[ ] Search Populace for Talented Individuals
They may unlock new options, or just handle being delegated to well and therefore open up more activities per turn. Has 70% chance of failure and 10% chance of producing a specialist.
Drone Orders: Pick 1 for each drone. To assign the drone in perpetuity to an action simply add the keyword 'Dedicated' to the vote.
Drones - 3
[ ] Scouting (Pick a direction.)
With your drone's advanced senses they can easily identify and avoid most dangers and discover mineral deposits or other interesting things. While minerals can be just about anywhere, they're more accessible in certain terrain types. 30-90% chance of success in finding a vein, 1% chance of immense success (+4 on quality roll up to max quality), vein quality (max supported miners) determined by 1d8. 10-50% chance of fighting monsters.
[ ] Gathering
Drones are capable of felling entire trees and dragging them back to the Hatchery. They aren't worth a hundred dedicated gatherers on their own, but they're a lot closer than you'd think. +0.5 Resources.
Militia Priorities: Pick 1 focus for the militia forces. This focus will remain the same in perpetuity unless changed.
[ ] Experiment with Monster Fighting.
The militia encourages its members to try new activities and techniques against monsters. Militia losses in monster attacks increase, but increased chance of discovering a monster's weakness and 1% chance of actually killing a monster every engagement.
[ ] Pest Control
Pests cause disease to spread and lower overall sanitation. Killing vermin and running canines out of camps may not be glorious but it's incredibly useful. Random number of 'Agile Quadruped' bodies added each turn.
[ ] Sentry Duty
So there really isn't any unlawful behavior or outside forces showing up at your metaphorical doorstep... But there could be. Might as well have the Militia get some practice at their role of watchful protectors.
Evolution Options: Spend your points however you desire. These are the projects currently open to you.
Evolution Points - 20
[ ] Evolution Zerg Tenaments (55/100)
Consolidates your human populace, protects them much better, and only costs one resource per thousand individuals to construct.
[ ] Evolution Amphibian Bio-morph (0/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.
[ ] Evolution Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution Attack Claws (0/50)
Right now your claws are made for digging and working and so forth. These claws are made for ripping your enemy to shreds in the heat of combat.
[ ] Evolution Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
Last edited:
Turn 2
SamPardi
Optimistic Nihilist
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2015
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A/N: The Collection Distance mechanic is looking pretty overbearing at the moment, and it kind of kills the expected benefits of drones. Giving it a flat -0.10 RP from the haul per km distance from nearest Hatchery. FYI, that comment on the lucky roll was the Trinium. Some of the rolls here... not so much.
"You must organize yourself. It's not enough to know things, or to hand down orders. With the hive mind you have an impressive amount of control of your swarm and your people, but you have to learn how to use that control effectively and not just as a blunt instrument." Myrddin continues the lecture and during it you gain a certain amount of enlightenment.
So far you'd been organizing things based on many assumptions, things you hadn't even known you were making. Worried about that you started asking around, especially getting advice from Myrddin on how to really organize what you're doing. Between his sage advice, your continuing education and input from various other figures you manage to really get a better grasp on your time and activities.
Your first round of scouting goes pretty well. The drone sent south doesn't find anything, but it does discover that the jungle gets thinner down there and both rivers continue in that direction. To the east you discover a deposit of lead (+5EP for discovering new resource type: Lead). It's nobody's favorite material and Myrrdin had you divert the drone to the river for a bit to make certain the led wasn't poisoning the water supply. Thankfully it wasn't. However as it came around the plateau to its south side it stumbled on what is almost certainly one of the Great Cat's dens. Sadly it missed noticing the Great Cat coming home at that moment and the drone was killed before it even truly realized it was under attack.
The drone sent to the Southwest however has discovered a rare and powerful material that Myrddin insists is called Trinium (+5EP for new resource type: Trinium, +5EP for finding advanced material (Naquadah, Trinium) vein). It's a bit too far to mine out at the moment, you'd be expending entire weeks on single loads if you sent the drones as is. Perhaps its time for another hatchery, you have the resources...
The design you've been working on for some time now, a building to properly house your people. The tenements aren't particularly beautiful, large fleshy spires really, but they house about a thousand people each, have running water and even a sort of indoor plumbing that simply sends the waste down to a creep filled chamber below to keep things sanitary and not create lots of waste problems. They have to be built on creep and will passively increase the rate of its growth, but don't act as a node generating creep of their own. Most importantly, they're relatively safe against monsters, though that doesn't preclude hungry monsters taking a bite out of them from time to time.
During the month you tried to keep an eye out for raw talent whenever possible with your busy schedule. Maybe you're looking in the wrong places though, because even after thoroughly checking all the camp leaders you haven't found anyone with the break-away charisma necessary actually make people listen to them without their constantly needing you to back them up.
Apparently the monster that ate your drone was satisfied with it for the month, sadly that only took care of one vector of attack. An attacking water creature killed 9 people in a harsh attack and a Great Cat took down 7 people as the militia tried to save the small family it was menacing. Needless to say they weren't entirely successful. The last attack was both the least damaging and the most terrifying. One of the camp leaders in a camp that hadn't been attacked yet was by the Great River doing some fishing when a great winged beast, both feathered and scaled swooped down from on high and ate him in a lightning attack. Only 1 dead, but a harsh loss nonetheless.
Last month must have been especially lucky, because this month the infant mortality and maternal mortality rates struck with a vengeance. Out of 24 births this month 18 died soon after birth. 8 of the mothers died of complications during child-birth. Myrddin assures you that you will soon have the knowledge and ability to make such numbers a thing of the past but you aren't as sure.
---
Updated Map of the Area. (On Dropbox.)
Important Updates.
Agile Quadruped Bodies +25, gain another 17 to unlock 'Evolution: Agile Quadruped Bodies Bio-morph'.
Lead Vein of Quality 6 is discovered.
Trinium Vein of Quality 7 is discovered.
Trinium Discovered, 'Evolution: Trinium Carapace' and 'Evolution: Trinium Bones' are now unlocked.
Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 1 Hatchery
Units: 11 Drones, 2 Militia, 5 scouts
Humans: 2980 (980 Recruitable Civilians, Approx. 400 children)
Creep: 1.89km Radius
Stockpiles:
RP: 11 - EP: 30 - VP: 20 - Larvae: 18 - Actions: 3
---
Building Up Phase:
For this phase of the plan, you may take as many options as can be afforded as many times as possible, unless stated otherwise, before moving on to the next phase. Any bonuses, RP, VP, EP earned during this phase may be used in other phases. Any units given a task during this phase cannot be given a task in later phases.
[ ] Buy Units
[ ] Drone: Gather Trees
(+0.5 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone)
[ ] Drone: Gather Lead
(+0.6 RP, Limit 6) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone)
[ ] Drone: Collect Trinium
(Adds no RP but allows construction of Trinium enhanced units. Can only be taken once this turn.) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone)
[ ] Work Crew: Gathering
(+1 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew)
[ ] Work Crews: Make Lead Mining Camp
(Uses human laborers haul the material the Drones mine. Removes collection distance penalty entirely from the Lead.) (Cost: 1 RP & Assign 4 (1/km distance) Work Crews)
[ ] Queen: Increase Creep
(+0.33 Creep = +4 RP, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Increase Larvae
(+12 Larvae, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Micromanage
(+1 Action, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Militia: Pest Control
(Continue to gather 'Agile Quadruped Bodies' to unlock further evolution.) (Cost: Assign 1 Militia Unit)
Phase II: Add up all your gains and losses from the last phase and add that to your stockpile for the rest of the turn.
Scouting: Pick one for each scout.
[ ] Scout/Drone: Explore [Direction.]
(Write-in the direction. Multiples going the same way increase chances of finding something.)
[ ] Scout: Stalk Great Cat
(We know where its den is, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Gather Herbs for study.
(You can fairly easily figure out whether a plant is safe or not or how it can be used as a medicine. Get them gathering some up and it may decrease overall mortality rates.)
Activities: Each Activity costs 1 Action and may have other costs as well.
[ ] Action: Build Tenement Building near Hatchery.
(House 1000 Humans, more sanitary conditions give a -1 on illness fatalities, maternal mortality, and infant mortality rolls, per die.) (Cost: 1 Action, 1 RP, 1 Drone)
[ ] Action: Build Walls
(Not the most traditional Zerg action, but needs must as they say. This will combine simple wooden log walls with creep tumors to build strong fortifications.) (Cost: 1 action, 2 RP, Assign 2 Work Crews and 2 Drones)
[ ] Action: Build Hatchery near Trinium Vein
(Starts a second hive and gives it easy access to the Trinium for both improved resource gathering and as a centralized source of elite units.) (Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone) (May send more units along as seed troops/workers.)
[ ] Action: Build Hatchery near Lead Vein
(Starts a second hive and gives it easy access to the Lead. It will soon connect back up with your own Hatchery to form part of the local Hive Cluster.) (Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone) (May send more units along as seed troops/workers.)
[ ] Action: Build The Bridge
(A large and dangerous project. Set a dozen Work Crews and/or Drones to the massive undertaking of building a bridge across the Great River. Requires access to trinium to start.) (Cost: 1 Action, 12 Work Crews or Drones.)
[ ] Action: Train Militia
(Can be taken multiple times, expend an effort on sharpening a militia unit into real, if not quite so well armed, soldiers. 70% chance of Militia advancing in troop quality.) (Cost: 1 Action, Assign 1 Militia Unit)
[ ] Action: Scout new Talent.
(30% of success, 10% chance of producing specialist. Can be taken multiple times.) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Local Jungle
(Sure it's easy to see how a giant beast that thus far casually destroys everything in its path can help the swarm, but it's hardly the only way things can be helpful. Take a walk in the jungle with Myrddin and observe the small creatures, perhaps one may have something that stands out to you. +10 EP) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Distribute Basic Education Through the Hive Mind
(A nebulous advantage but a very real one. Unlocks some troop types and affects certain roll percentages. Can only be taken once.) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Attack Great Cat Den
(You know where it lives, it can't be that hard to track down. With you and five drones taking on the enemy yourselves there is actually a decent chance of your killing the beast.) (Cost: Assign at least 5 Drones, 1 Action)
[ ] Write-in.
(Cost of write-ins in user posts are suggestions, last word is mine.)
Decisions. Some possibilities have come up moving forwards. If you meet the requirements you may select one thing from the following list.
Requirement (1 new Queen)
[ ] Decision: Delegate Primary Hive Cluster Resource Gathering.
Assuming you bought a Queen you may choose to delegate control of the local work force to them. You can set them limits on how many Drones they can make in a turn, or under what conditions they can organize more Work Crews, and from there they'll come up with and execute an optimally efficient plan to gather RP.
- OR -
[ ] Decision: Delegate Militia
Assuming you bought a Queen you may chose to delegate control of the militias to them. Overall efficiency increases, and with a dedicated micro-manger riding them there is a 20% per unit per turn that they'll evolve into proper soldiery.
Evolutions: Select an evolution to put points into.
[ ] Evolution: Amphibian Bio-morph (0/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.
[ ] Evolution: Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution: Attack Claws (0/50)
Right now your claws are made for digging and working and so forth. These claws are made for ripping your enemy to shreds in the heat of combat.
[ ] Evolution: Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Carapace (0/50)
Your zerg are much tougher in combat and don't die anywhere near as easily.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Bones (0/50)
Your zerg are not only a bit tougher, but their much meaner with weapons sporting Trinium blades and Trinium armored shells.
Projected Unmodified Income Next Turn:
EP: 20, RP: 15, VP: 0, Larvae: 12, Activities: 3
[ ] Meta: Keep new format.
[ ] Meta: Refine new format. (Please add thoughts to comments.)
[ ] Meta: Ditch new format.
Edited:
Unit purchasing table added. A couple activities added.
"You must organize yourself. It's not enough to know things, or to hand down orders. With the hive mind you have an impressive amount of control of your swarm and your people, but you have to learn how to use that control effectively and not just as a blunt instrument." Myrddin continues the lecture and during it you gain a certain amount of enlightenment.
So far you'd been organizing things based on many assumptions, things you hadn't even known you were making. Worried about that you started asking around, especially getting advice from Myrddin on how to really organize what you're doing. Between his sage advice, your continuing education and input from various other figures you manage to really get a better grasp on your time and activities.
Your first round of scouting goes pretty well. The drone sent south doesn't find anything, but it does discover that the jungle gets thinner down there and both rivers continue in that direction. To the east you discover a deposit of lead (+5EP for discovering new resource type: Lead). It's nobody's favorite material and Myrrdin had you divert the drone to the river for a bit to make certain the led wasn't poisoning the water supply. Thankfully it wasn't. However as it came around the plateau to its south side it stumbled on what is almost certainly one of the Great Cat's dens. Sadly it missed noticing the Great Cat coming home at that moment and the drone was killed before it even truly realized it was under attack.
The drone sent to the Southwest however has discovered a rare and powerful material that Myrddin insists is called Trinium (+5EP for new resource type: Trinium, +5EP for finding advanced material (Naquadah, Trinium) vein). It's a bit too far to mine out at the moment, you'd be expending entire weeks on single loads if you sent the drones as is. Perhaps its time for another hatchery, you have the resources...
The design you've been working on for some time now, a building to properly house your people. The tenements aren't particularly beautiful, large fleshy spires really, but they house about a thousand people each, have running water and even a sort of indoor plumbing that simply sends the waste down to a creep filled chamber below to keep things sanitary and not create lots of waste problems. They have to be built on creep and will passively increase the rate of its growth, but don't act as a node generating creep of their own. Most importantly, they're relatively safe against monsters, though that doesn't preclude hungry monsters taking a bite out of them from time to time.
During the month you tried to keep an eye out for raw talent whenever possible with your busy schedule. Maybe you're looking in the wrong places though, because even after thoroughly checking all the camp leaders you haven't found anyone with the break-away charisma necessary actually make people listen to them without their constantly needing you to back them up.
Apparently the monster that ate your drone was satisfied with it for the month, sadly that only took care of one vector of attack. An attacking water creature killed 9 people in a harsh attack and a Great Cat took down 7 people as the militia tried to save the small family it was menacing. Needless to say they weren't entirely successful. The last attack was both the least damaging and the most terrifying. One of the camp leaders in a camp that hadn't been attacked yet was by the Great River doing some fishing when a great winged beast, both feathered and scaled swooped down from on high and ate him in a lightning attack. Only 1 dead, but a harsh loss nonetheless.
Last month must have been especially lucky, because this month the infant mortality and maternal mortality rates struck with a vengeance. Out of 24 births this month 18 died soon after birth. 8 of the mothers died of complications during child-birth. Myrddin assures you that you will soon have the knowledge and ability to make such numbers a thing of the past but you aren't as sure.
---
Updated Map of the Area. (On Dropbox.)
Important Updates.
Agile Quadruped Bodies +25, gain another 17 to unlock 'Evolution: Agile Quadruped Bodies Bio-morph'.
Lead Vein of Quality 6 is discovered.
Trinium Vein of Quality 7 is discovered.
Trinium Discovered, 'Evolution: Trinium Carapace' and 'Evolution: Trinium Bones' are now unlocked.
Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 1 Hatchery
Units: 11 Drones, 2 Militia, 5 scouts
Humans: 2980 (980 Recruitable Civilians, Approx. 400 children)
Creep: 1.89km Radius
Stockpiles:
RP: 11 - EP: 30 - VP: 20 - Larvae: 18 - Actions: 3
---
Building Up Phase:
For this phase of the plan, you may take as many options as can be afforded as many times as possible, unless stated otherwise, before moving on to the next phase. Any bonuses, RP, VP, EP earned during this phase may be used in other phases. Any units given a task during this phase cannot be given a task in later phases.
[ ] Buy Units
| [ ] Morph: Drone | 0.33 RP | 1 Larvae | Limit: As many as can be afforded. |
| [ ] Morph: Queen | 5 RP | 1 Larvae | Limit: 1 per turn. |
| [ ] Hire: Militia | 1 RP | 100 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| [ ] Hire: Scout | 0.2 RP | 20 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| [ ] Hire: Worker | 0 RP | 100 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| [ ] Hire: Dancers | 0 RP | 40 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| Larvae -> | 18 | Civilians Recruitable -> | 693 |
(+0.5 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone)
[ ] Drone: Gather Lead
(+0.6 RP, Limit 6) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone)
[ ] Drone: Collect Trinium
(Adds no RP but allows construction of Trinium enhanced units. Can only be taken once this turn.) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone)
[ ] Work Crew: Gathering
(+1 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew)
[ ] Work Crews: Make Lead Mining Camp
(Uses human laborers haul the material the Drones mine. Removes collection distance penalty entirely from the Lead.) (Cost: 1 RP & Assign 4 (1/km distance) Work Crews)
[ ] Queen: Increase Creep
(+0.33 Creep = +4 RP, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Increase Larvae
(+12 Larvae, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Micromanage
(+1 Action, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Militia: Pest Control
(Continue to gather 'Agile Quadruped Bodies' to unlock further evolution.) (Cost: Assign 1 Militia Unit)
Phase II: Add up all your gains and losses from the last phase and add that to your stockpile for the rest of the turn.
Scouting: Pick one for each scout.
[ ] Scout/Drone: Explore [Direction.]
(Write-in the direction. Multiples going the same way increase chances of finding something.)
[ ] Scout: Stalk Great Cat
(We know where its den is, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Gather Herbs for study.
(You can fairly easily figure out whether a plant is safe or not or how it can be used as a medicine. Get them gathering some up and it may decrease overall mortality rates.)
Activities: Each Activity costs 1 Action and may have other costs as well.
[ ] Action: Build Tenement Building near Hatchery.
(House 1000 Humans, more sanitary conditions give a -1 on illness fatalities, maternal mortality, and infant mortality rolls, per die.) (Cost: 1 Action, 1 RP, 1 Drone)
[ ] Action: Build Walls
(Not the most traditional Zerg action, but needs must as they say. This will combine simple wooden log walls with creep tumors to build strong fortifications.) (Cost: 1 action, 2 RP, Assign 2 Work Crews and 2 Drones)
[ ] Action: Build Hatchery near Trinium Vein
(Starts a second hive and gives it easy access to the Trinium for both improved resource gathering and as a centralized source of elite units.) (Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone) (May send more units along as seed troops/workers.)
[ ] Action: Build Hatchery near Lead Vein
(Starts a second hive and gives it easy access to the Lead. It will soon connect back up with your own Hatchery to form part of the local Hive Cluster.) (Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone) (May send more units along as seed troops/workers.)
[ ] Action: Build The Bridge
(A large and dangerous project. Set a dozen Work Crews and/or Drones to the massive undertaking of building a bridge across the Great River. Requires access to trinium to start.) (Cost: 1 Action, 12 Work Crews or Drones.)
[ ] Action: Train Militia
(Can be taken multiple times, expend an effort on sharpening a militia unit into real, if not quite so well armed, soldiers. 70% chance of Militia advancing in troop quality.) (Cost: 1 Action, Assign 1 Militia Unit)
[ ] Action: Scout new Talent.
(30% of success, 10% chance of producing specialist. Can be taken multiple times.) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Local Jungle
(Sure it's easy to see how a giant beast that thus far casually destroys everything in its path can help the swarm, but it's hardly the only way things can be helpful. Take a walk in the jungle with Myrddin and observe the small creatures, perhaps one may have something that stands out to you. +10 EP) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Distribute Basic Education Through the Hive Mind
(A nebulous advantage but a very real one. Unlocks some troop types and affects certain roll percentages. Can only be taken once.) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Attack Great Cat Den
(You know where it lives, it can't be that hard to track down. With you and five drones taking on the enemy yourselves there is actually a decent chance of your killing the beast.) (Cost: Assign at least 5 Drones, 1 Action)
[ ] Write-in.
(Cost of write-ins in user posts are suggestions, last word is mine.)
Decisions. Some possibilities have come up moving forwards. If you meet the requirements you may select one thing from the following list.
Requirement (1 new Queen)
[ ] Decision: Delegate Primary Hive Cluster Resource Gathering.
Assuming you bought a Queen you may choose to delegate control of the local work force to them. You can set them limits on how many Drones they can make in a turn, or under what conditions they can organize more Work Crews, and from there they'll come up with and execute an optimally efficient plan to gather RP.
- OR -
[ ] Decision: Delegate Militia
Assuming you bought a Queen you may chose to delegate control of the militias to them. Overall efficiency increases, and with a dedicated micro-manger riding them there is a 20% per unit per turn that they'll evolve into proper soldiery.
Evolutions: Select an evolution to put points into.
[ ] Evolution: Amphibian Bio-morph (0/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.
[ ] Evolution: Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution: Attack Claws (0/50)
Right now your claws are made for digging and working and so forth. These claws are made for ripping your enemy to shreds in the heat of combat.
[ ] Evolution: Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Carapace (0/50)
Your zerg are much tougher in combat and don't die anywhere near as easily.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Bones (0/50)
Your zerg are not only a bit tougher, but their much meaner with weapons sporting Trinium blades and Trinium armored shells.
Projected Unmodified Income Next Turn:
EP: 20, RP: 15, VP: 0, Larvae: 12, Activities: 3
[ ] Meta: Keep new format.
[ ] Meta: Refine new format. (Please add thoughts to comments.)
[ ] Meta: Ditch new format.
Edited:
Unit purchasing table added. A couple activities added.
Last edited:
Turn 3
SamPardi
Optimistic Nihilist
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"My friend, Destiny is not something I'd recommend placing your bets by, but at times... Well there are times it hits you in the face like a freight train and you'd damn well better pay attention," Myrddin told you. You aren't entirely certain you understand but then Myrddin has been a little odd since your camp gained its newest celebrity.
You'd mostly set the new Queen in charge of the Militia to clean things up a bit, and perhaps train some of them to a slightly more dedicated force. Militia were mostly armed citizens keeping the peace, not professional warriors constantly prepared for battle. Now that everyone was living in closer quarters and they wouldn't be spread across twelve different encampments it seemed like an ideal time to give them a bit of training in the discipline and professional attitude of soldiers.
Both the existing militia group and the first one you raised showed no real sign of improvement after the Queen took them through some basic training (75, 45). Oh they slept less on dull shifts and moved just a bit better in an engagement, but fundamentally they thought and acted like peacekeepers first and soldiers second. Only your last group, but oh damn this last group, caught the image. But they didn't just catch it, they ran with it like they'd been born to it (100). Of course this made you curious and you couldn't help looking further in to find what so readily set them apart. Then you found the so to speak 'top-student' and unofficial leader of that century. His green eyes, pale skin and blond hair certainly set him apart from your, but he was able to look even your intimidating form in the eye without fear which impressed you. Even more so when you drew him into conversation and found him an intelligent, charismatic young man.
Impressed by his potential you brought him to meet Myrddin who suddenly gasped, "Arthur?"
"Umm, close. It's pronounced Artur," The young man replied somewhat awkwardly. Myrddin got through the conversation okay, though a bit stilted, but as soon as it was over wandered off muttering about destiny. And now he's speaking about it some more, but seems to be more at peace with it. Good, you think the two really could be good friends but that'll be hard if Myrdding freaks out every time he sees Artur.
The drones snooping around the Hatchery found some Iron (+5 EP for new resource type: Iron.) just on the edge of the creep. In fact the creep has actually grown over it during the intervening month. It doesn't really make it hard for your drones to get to, but it does mean a certain amount of Iron will always make it back to the hatchery. Of course you can easily fuse it into steel during a morph, but you don't have much knowledge of how to make it otherwise. Until your education level gets higher the humans will have to settle for simple iron weapons and armor, of course they can't just build a traditional forge on the creep so you'll need to build one for them.
Between education, the gathered herbs and just good sanitation you had a bit of a banner month for the day in and day out concerns. While 25 isn't exactly a lot of babies to have in one month, only seven passed within the month, and only two of their mothers died. It also helps that everyone being together meant the few that knew the ways of the midwife could actually get to all of the births.
The opening of the tenements was a surprisingly grand affair, since you'd taken the time to start your settlements very first purely artistic endeavor. The dancers had worn costumes that seemed quite grand to you, possibly because they were the first clothes your settlement ever made without intending them to be worn all the time, and acted out Myrddin's tale of the fall of Atlantis. It was a bit exaggerated, but it seemed to hit all the basic points. A peaceful and advanced society brought low by unintentional consequences and their own hubris. Perhaps one day they won't even need a narrator to explain what's happening, but dance really isn't refined enough to express all of that on its own just yet. (+1 Culture Point)
The really impressive part was how they played with the Hive Mind during the performance. As they each performed their part in the dance, many very different, their thoughts slowly synched together with the rythm and the music, and as the audience began to sway to the music and achieve physical synchronicity so too did their thoughts. For a long and exhilarating moment the entire populace was both individual and connected, doing their own thing which was important while being part of a larger and utterly harmonious whole. It was simply beyond anything you'd expected and you could see this had deeply touched much of the audience. (Harmony has become a Fad.)
"I think," Myrddin adds interrupting your thoughts, "That after this month you will very likely be ready to at least start your journeys in the greater universe. Of course I won't push you towards it either. Simply let me know when you feel you're ready and I'll give you back the Control Crystal for the Stargate's Dialing Device."
"Sirs," One of the scouts comes up to you, looking slightly out of breath. "The Great Cat at the hills! She's going into labor with cubs, if we strike now we can take her out while she's helpless!"
Well you did just get a bunch of new soldiers... On the other hand with all you've done and getting everyone out of the jungles has caused attacks to drop to the point where there was only two fatalities that month and one was one of the scouts who'd gotten a bit too close to the Great Cat Den.
---
Decision:
[ ] Attack the Great Cat to the East. 1 unit of Soldiers, Artur and You will be risked in the attack (You personally can only driven off at this point not killed), in that order. (Costs 1 Action.)
- What do you do with the Cubs if you win?
[ ] Raise them. - Risky, they are wild animals after all.
[ ] Kill them. - No risk, and gain EP, but you get the feeling not everyone would approve.
[ ] Release them near the other Great Cat Den. Sure they'll still probably get killed, but at least you won't be responsible for it. And there is some chance they'll be taken in by the other animal.
---
Updated Area Map.
Important Updates:
'Evolution: Agile Quadruped Bodies Bio-morph' is now unlocked.
Iron Vein of Quality 7 is discovered. 'Evolution: Steel Bones' and 'Evolution: Steel Carapace' unlocked.
Education has risen to Elementary. Increases EP income by 10, will not effect last turns EP expenditure. +10% Chance of success on Talent scouting.
New Buildings, 'Zerg Forge' and 'Zerg Loom' are now available.
The Culture System has been unlocked.
Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 1 Hatchery
Units: 24 Drones (17 Available, 7 Dedicated), 4 Work Crews (3 available, 1 Dedicated (Lead Work Camp)), 2 Militia (2 Dedicated), 1 Soldier, 5 scouts
Humans: 2998 (0 Recruitable Civilians, Approx. 418 children)
Creep: 2.63km Radius
Stockpiles:
RP: 30.27 - EP: 30 - VP: 20 - Larvae: 12 - Actions: 4
Build-Up Phase;
For this phase of the plan, you may take as many options as can be afforded as many times as possible, unless stated otherwise, before moving on to the next phase. Any bonuses, RP, VP, EP earned during this phase may be used in other phases. Any units given a task during this phase cannot be given a task in later phases.
[ ] Drone: Gather Trees
(+0.5 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone)
[ ] Drone: Gather Iron
(+0.8 RP, Limit 7) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone)
[ ] Work Crew: Gathering (Expanding Creep has caused the wood take longer to return to the Hatchery, -0.1 per turn.)
(+0.9 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew)
[ ] Work Crews: Make Iron Mining Camp
Uses human laborers haul the material the Drones mine. Removes collection distance penalty entirely from the Iron. (Cost: 1 RP & Assign 2 (1/km distance) Work Crews)
[ ] Queen: Increase Creep
(+0.33 Creep = +4 RP, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Increase Larvae
(+12 Larvae, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Micromanage
(+1 Action, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Gather: Trade Goods
If you're going to be dealing with other cultures soon you might want to start picking up some things to trade with them. (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew to gather 1 Lumber, 1 Drone to gather 2 Lumber, or 1 Scout to gather 1 Bundle of Herbs)
[ ] Culture: Spend Culture Point
See explanation and table at the end of the turn.
Phase II: Add up all your gains and losses from the last phase and add that to your stockpile for the rest of the turn.
Scouting: Pick one for each scout.
[ ] Scout/Drone: Explore [Direction.]
(Write-in the direction. Multiples going the same way increase chances of finding something.)
[ ] Scout: Stalk Great Cat
(We know where another den is, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Sarcosuchus
(We know where likes to sun itself on the shore, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Gather Herbs for study.
(You can fairly easily figure out whether a plant is safe or not or how it can be used as a medicine. Get them gathering some up and it may decrease overall mortality rates.)
Activities: Each Activity costs 1 Action and may have other costs as well.
[ ] Action: Build Walls
Not the most traditional Zerg action, but needs must as they say. This will combine simple wooden log walls with creep tumors to build strong fortifications. (Cost: 1 action, 2 RP, Assign 2 Work Crews and 2 Drones)
[ ] Action: Build Zerg Forge
Not the most traditional Zerg action, but needs must as they say. This will create a forge-like building by the hatchery with all the tools and supplies a blacksmith needs to ply his trade. (Cost: 1 action, 3 RP, 1 Drone)
[ ] Action: Build Zerg Loom
Not the most traditional Zerg action, but needs must as they say. This will create a large loom in a building by the hatchery which will contain everything necessary to make clothes for your citizens. With access to Trinium it can also make armor increasing the wounds of all human units.) (Cost: 1 action, 2 RP, 1 Drone)
[ ] Action: Build Hatchery near Trinium Vein
Starts a second hive and gives it easy access to the Trinium for both improved resource gathering and as a centralized source of elite units. (Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone) (May send more units along as seed troops/workers.)
[ ] Action: Build Hatchery near Lead Vein
Starts a second hive and gives it easy access to the Lead. It will soon connect back up with your own Hatchery to form part of the local Hive Cluster. (Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone) (May send more units along as seed troops/workers.)
[ ] Action: Build The Bridge
(A large and dangerous project. Set a dozen Work Crews and/or Drones to the massive undertaking of building a bridge across the Great River. Requires access to trinium to start.) (Cost: 1 Action, 12 Work Crews or Drones.)
[ ] Action: Train Militia
(Can be taken multiple times, expend an effort on sharpening a militia unit into real, if not quite so well armed, soldiers. 70% chance of Militia advancing in troop quality.) (Cost: 1 Action, Assign 1 Militia Unit)
[ ] Action: Scout new Talent.
(40% of success, 11% chance of producing specialist. Can be taken multiple times.) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Appreciate Local Jungle
(Sure it's easy to see how a giant beast that thus far casually destroys everything in its path can help the swarm, but it's hardly the only way things can be helpful. Take a walk in the jungle with Myrddin and observe the small creatures, perhaps one may have something that stands out to you. +10 EP) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Attack Northern Great Cat Den
(You know where it lives, it can't be that hard to track down. Select any combination of units, Drones/Militia/Soldiers to this action. Each Hero assigned increases cost by one action.) (Cost: At least 1 Action)
[ ] Write-in.
(Cost of write-ins in user posts are suggestions, last word is mine.
Decisions. Some possibilities have come up moving forwards. If you meet the requirements you may select one thing from the following list.
[ ] Ask Myrddin to Reactivate the Gate.
Next turn you'll have the option to start exploring the Galaxy/Universe. This is a big decision, so be sure you feel ready for it.
Evolutions: Select an evolution to put points into.
[ ] Evolution: Amphibian Bio-morph (0/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.
[ ] Evolution: Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution: Agile Quadruped Bio-morph (0/40)
Allows you to create fast and agile units, though they currently lack any limbs with manipulators.
[ ] Evolution: Attack Claws (35/50)
Right now your claws are made for digging and working and so forth. These claws are made for ripping your enemy to shreds in the heat of combat.
[ ] Evolution: Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Carapace (0/50)
Your zerg are much tougher in combat and don't die anywhere near so easily.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Bones (0/50)
Your zerg are not only a bit tougher, but their much meaner with weapons sporting Trinium blades and protected by Trinium armored shells... assuming they had a shell to begin with.
[ ] Evolution: Steel Carapace (0/10)
Your zerg are a bit tougher in combat and don't die quite so easily.
[ ] Evolution: Steel Bones (0/10)
Your zerg may be a bit tougher, but their definitely a bit meaner with weapons sporting Steel blades and protected by Steel armored shells.... assuming they had a shell to begin with.
Culture!
At various times throughout the quest you might achieve certain cultural milestones where you will start a fad and gain CP. How these can be spent is determined by the current fad.
A fad lasts until a new fad is started. There are four major cultural fads within the Swarm, Hunger, Harmony, Concord, Independence. At any particular time the populace may find themselves more fascinated or appeased by any one of them. Each fad has four bonuses with a rising price point per bonus, taking the spend CP option allows you to spend your cp to acquire the bonus you want from the current fad. Fads also suggest at how the populace may respond to different decisions. Concord makes war unpopular, Hunger makes expansion worth any cost, Independence doesn't take kindly to expanding the hive mind, Harmony finds greater connection with their fellow Swarm members exhilarating.
You'd mostly set the new Queen in charge of the Militia to clean things up a bit, and perhaps train some of them to a slightly more dedicated force. Militia were mostly armed citizens keeping the peace, not professional warriors constantly prepared for battle. Now that everyone was living in closer quarters and they wouldn't be spread across twelve different encampments it seemed like an ideal time to give them a bit of training in the discipline and professional attitude of soldiers.
Both the existing militia group and the first one you raised showed no real sign of improvement after the Queen took them through some basic training (75, 45). Oh they slept less on dull shifts and moved just a bit better in an engagement, but fundamentally they thought and acted like peacekeepers first and soldiers second. Only your last group, but oh damn this last group, caught the image. But they didn't just catch it, they ran with it like they'd been born to it (100). Of course this made you curious and you couldn't help looking further in to find what so readily set them apart. Then you found the so to speak 'top-student' and unofficial leader of that century. His green eyes, pale skin and blond hair certainly set him apart from your, but he was able to look even your intimidating form in the eye without fear which impressed you. Even more so when you drew him into conversation and found him an intelligent, charismatic young man.
Impressed by his potential you brought him to meet Myrddin who suddenly gasped, "Arthur?"
-
Name: Artur - The People's Prince
Wounds: 4
Race: Human
Quality: Soldier
Defense: 1d6+4
Weapon: Wooden Spear 1d6+4
Traits: Charismatic (+10% chance of success for all diplomacy rolls, can lead a 20% larger unit), Talented (+4 to all combat rolls from sheer natural talent), Leadership (+1 Action/turn, Units they lead are resistant to morale shocks, -20 to morale shock rolls), Destined (Hard to define, but some people… They're just destined for great things.) Willpower (This man has amazing willpower, experiences that would break others or leave them dominated will only add to his strength.)
Unlocks Build-Up: [ ] Hire: Soldiers (2 RP, 100civ)
Artur just knows in his bones what it takes to be a soldier and how to instill that in others. By involving him in the recruiting process, those chosen seem to naturally pick up the discipline required for a life of soldiery. Of course give it a month or two and the swarm will have figured out the rough criteria, so he won't be personally needed after the next turn to retain this option.
"Umm, close. It's pronounced Artur," The young man replied somewhat awkwardly. Myrddin got through the conversation okay, though a bit stilted, but as soon as it was over wandered off muttering about destiny. And now he's speaking about it some more, but seems to be more at peace with it. Good, you think the two really could be good friends but that'll be hard if Myrdding freaks out every time he sees Artur.
The drones snooping around the Hatchery found some Iron (+5 EP for new resource type: Iron.) just on the edge of the creep. In fact the creep has actually grown over it during the intervening month. It doesn't really make it hard for your drones to get to, but it does mean a certain amount of Iron will always make it back to the hatchery. Of course you can easily fuse it into steel during a morph, but you don't have much knowledge of how to make it otherwise. Until your education level gets higher the humans will have to settle for simple iron weapons and armor, of course they can't just build a traditional forge on the creep so you'll need to build one for them.
Between education, the gathered herbs and just good sanitation you had a bit of a banner month for the day in and day out concerns. While 25 isn't exactly a lot of babies to have in one month, only seven passed within the month, and only two of their mothers died. It also helps that everyone being together meant the few that knew the ways of the midwife could actually get to all of the births.
The opening of the tenements was a surprisingly grand affair, since you'd taken the time to start your settlements very first purely artistic endeavor. The dancers had worn costumes that seemed quite grand to you, possibly because they were the first clothes your settlement ever made without intending them to be worn all the time, and acted out Myrddin's tale of the fall of Atlantis. It was a bit exaggerated, but it seemed to hit all the basic points. A peaceful and advanced society brought low by unintentional consequences and their own hubris. Perhaps one day they won't even need a narrator to explain what's happening, but dance really isn't refined enough to express all of that on its own just yet. (+1 Culture Point)
The really impressive part was how they played with the Hive Mind during the performance. As they each performed their part in the dance, many very different, their thoughts slowly synched together with the rythm and the music, and as the audience began to sway to the music and achieve physical synchronicity so too did their thoughts. For a long and exhilarating moment the entire populace was both individual and connected, doing their own thing which was important while being part of a larger and utterly harmonious whole. It was simply beyond anything you'd expected and you could see this had deeply touched much of the audience. (Harmony has become a Fad.)
"I think," Myrddin adds interrupting your thoughts, "That after this month you will very likely be ready to at least start your journeys in the greater universe. Of course I won't push you towards it either. Simply let me know when you feel you're ready and I'll give you back the Control Crystal for the Stargate's Dialing Device."
"Sirs," One of the scouts comes up to you, looking slightly out of breath. "The Great Cat at the hills! She's going into labor with cubs, if we strike now we can take her out while she's helpless!"
Well you did just get a bunch of new soldiers... On the other hand with all you've done and getting everyone out of the jungles has caused attacks to drop to the point where there was only two fatalities that month and one was one of the scouts who'd gotten a bit too close to the Great Cat Den.
---
Decision:
[ ] Attack the Great Cat to the East. 1 unit of Soldiers, Artur and You will be risked in the attack (You personally can only driven off at this point not killed), in that order. (Costs 1 Action.)
- What do you do with the Cubs if you win?
[ ] Raise them. - Risky, they are wild animals after all.
[ ] Kill them. - No risk, and gain EP, but you get the feeling not everyone would approve.
[ ] Release them near the other Great Cat Den. Sure they'll still probably get killed, but at least you won't be responsible for it. And there is some chance they'll be taken in by the other animal.
---
Updated Area Map.
Important Updates:
'Evolution: Agile Quadruped Bodies Bio-morph' is now unlocked.
Iron Vein of Quality 7 is discovered. 'Evolution: Steel Bones' and 'Evolution: Steel Carapace' unlocked.
Education has risen to Elementary. Increases EP income by 10, will not effect last turns EP expenditure. +10% Chance of success on Talent scouting.
New Buildings, 'Zerg Forge' and 'Zerg Loom' are now available.
The Culture System has been unlocked.
Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 1 Hatchery
Units: 24 Drones (17 Available, 7 Dedicated), 4 Work Crews (3 available, 1 Dedicated (Lead Work Camp)), 2 Militia (2 Dedicated), 1 Soldier, 5 scouts
Humans: 2998 (0 Recruitable Civilians, Approx. 418 children)
Creep: 2.63km Radius
Stockpiles:
RP: 30.27 - EP: 30 - VP: 20 - Larvae: 12 - Actions: 4
Build-Up Phase;
For this phase of the plan, you may take as many options as can be afforded as many times as possible, unless stated otherwise, before moving on to the next phase. Any bonuses, RP, VP, EP earned during this phase may be used in other phases. Any units given a task during this phase cannot be given a task in later phases.
| [ ] Morph: Drone | 0.33 RP | 1 Larvae | Limit: As many as can be afforded. |
| [ ] Morph: Queen | 5 RP | 1 Larvae | Limit: 1 per turn. |
| [ ] Hire: Militia | 1 RP | 100 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| [ ] Hire: Soldiers | 2 RP | 100 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| [ ] Hire: Scout | 0.2 RP | 20 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| [ ] Hire: Worker | 0 RP | 100 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
| [ ] Hire: Dancers | 0 RP | 40 Civilians | Limit: Recruitable Population cap at 1/3 populace |
[ ] Drone: Gather Trees
(+0.5 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone)
[ ] Drone: Gather Iron
(+0.8 RP, Limit 7) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone)
[ ] Work Crew: Gathering (Expanding Creep has caused the wood take longer to return to the Hatchery, -0.1 per turn.)
(+0.9 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew)
[ ] Work Crews: Make Iron Mining Camp
Uses human laborers haul the material the Drones mine. Removes collection distance penalty entirely from the Iron. (Cost: 1 RP & Assign 2 (1/km distance) Work Crews)
[ ] Queen: Increase Creep
(+0.33 Creep = +4 RP, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Increase Larvae
(+12 Larvae, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Micromanage
(+1 Action, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Gather: Trade Goods
If you're going to be dealing with other cultures soon you might want to start picking up some things to trade with them. (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew to gather 1 Lumber, 1 Drone to gather 2 Lumber, or 1 Scout to gather 1 Bundle of Herbs)
[ ] Culture: Spend Culture Point
See explanation and table at the end of the turn.
Phase II: Add up all your gains and losses from the last phase and add that to your stockpile for the rest of the turn.
Scouting: Pick one for each scout.
[ ] Scout/Drone: Explore [Direction.]
(Write-in the direction. Multiples going the same way increase chances of finding something.)
[ ] Scout: Stalk Great Cat
(We know where another den is, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Sarcosuchus
(We know where likes to sun itself on the shore, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Gather Herbs for study.
(You can fairly easily figure out whether a plant is safe or not or how it can be used as a medicine. Get them gathering some up and it may decrease overall mortality rates.)
Activities: Each Activity costs 1 Action and may have other costs as well.
[ ] Action: Build Walls
Not the most traditional Zerg action, but needs must as they say. This will combine simple wooden log walls with creep tumors to build strong fortifications. (Cost: 1 action, 2 RP, Assign 2 Work Crews and 2 Drones)
[ ] Action: Build Zerg Forge
Not the most traditional Zerg action, but needs must as they say. This will create a forge-like building by the hatchery with all the tools and supplies a blacksmith needs to ply his trade. (Cost: 1 action, 3 RP, 1 Drone)
[ ] Action: Build Zerg Loom
Not the most traditional Zerg action, but needs must as they say. This will create a large loom in a building by the hatchery which will contain everything necessary to make clothes for your citizens. With access to Trinium it can also make armor increasing the wounds of all human units.) (Cost: 1 action, 2 RP, 1 Drone)
[ ] Action: Build Hatchery near Trinium Vein
Starts a second hive and gives it easy access to the Trinium for both improved resource gathering and as a centralized source of elite units. (Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone) (May send more units along as seed troops/workers.)
[ ] Action: Build Hatchery near Lead Vein
Starts a second hive and gives it easy access to the Lead. It will soon connect back up with your own Hatchery to form part of the local Hive Cluster. (Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone) (May send more units along as seed troops/workers.)
[ ] Action: Build The Bridge
(A large and dangerous project. Set a dozen Work Crews and/or Drones to the massive undertaking of building a bridge across the Great River. Requires access to trinium to start.) (Cost: 1 Action, 12 Work Crews or Drones.)
[ ] Action: Train Militia
(Can be taken multiple times, expend an effort on sharpening a militia unit into real, if not quite so well armed, soldiers. 70% chance of Militia advancing in troop quality.) (Cost: 1 Action, Assign 1 Militia Unit)
[ ] Action: Scout new Talent.
(40% of success, 11% chance of producing specialist. Can be taken multiple times.) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Appreciate Local Jungle
(Sure it's easy to see how a giant beast that thus far casually destroys everything in its path can help the swarm, but it's hardly the only way things can be helpful. Take a walk in the jungle with Myrddin and observe the small creatures, perhaps one may have something that stands out to you. +10 EP) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Attack Northern Great Cat Den
(You know where it lives, it can't be that hard to track down. Select any combination of units, Drones/Militia/Soldiers to this action. Each Hero assigned increases cost by one action.) (Cost: At least 1 Action)
[ ] Write-in.
(Cost of write-ins in user posts are suggestions, last word is mine.
Decisions. Some possibilities have come up moving forwards. If you meet the requirements you may select one thing from the following list.
[ ] Ask Myrddin to Reactivate the Gate.
Next turn you'll have the option to start exploring the Galaxy/Universe. This is a big decision, so be sure you feel ready for it.
Evolutions: Select an evolution to put points into.
[ ] Evolution: Amphibian Bio-morph (0/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.
[ ] Evolution: Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution: Agile Quadruped Bio-morph (0/40)
Allows you to create fast and agile units, though they currently lack any limbs with manipulators.
[ ] Evolution: Attack Claws (35/50)
Right now your claws are made for digging and working and so forth. These claws are made for ripping your enemy to shreds in the heat of combat.
[ ] Evolution: Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Carapace (0/50)
Your zerg are much tougher in combat and don't die anywhere near so easily.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Bones (0/50)
Your zerg are not only a bit tougher, but their much meaner with weapons sporting Trinium blades and protected by Trinium armored shells... assuming they had a shell to begin with.
[ ] Evolution: Steel Carapace (0/10)
Your zerg are a bit tougher in combat and don't die quite so easily.
[ ] Evolution: Steel Bones (0/10)
Your zerg may be a bit tougher, but their definitely a bit meaner with weapons sporting Steel blades and protected by Steel armored shells.... assuming they had a shell to begin with.
Culture!
At various times throughout the quest you might achieve certain cultural milestones where you will start a fad and gain CP. How these can be spent is determined by the current fad.
A fad lasts until a new fad is started. There are four major cultural fads within the Swarm, Hunger, Harmony, Concord, Independence. At any particular time the populace may find themselves more fascinated or appeased by any one of them. Each fad has four bonuses with a rising price point per bonus, taking the spend CP option allows you to spend your cp to acquire the bonus you want from the current fad. Fads also suggest at how the populace may respond to different decisions. Concord makes war unpopular, Hunger makes expansion worth any cost, Independence doesn't take kindly to expanding the hive mind, Harmony finds greater connection with their fellow Swarm members exhilarating.
| Hunger | Harmony | Concord | Independence | |
| 1 | 50% increase in RP production from drones. All Drones take one wound of damage this turn. | All activities with success percentages gain a +10% chance of success. | If you have regular contact with other neutral or better powers, some people from one of them will immigrate. Amount and Quality depend on the source. Else you will be contacted by an advanced and benevolent power interested in what you've apparently got going for you. | All human units gain +1 wounds and +1d4 defense this turn. |
| 2 | Choose any unit you own, it will be killed and fed to the Hive Cluster returning its full cost in RP. | When the first unit enters combat this turn, two drones are randomly selected from the resource gatherers. The wounds of the unit equals its normal wounds plus the wounds of the two drones. If the unit still dies, all three die. | Your next diplomatic check gains +10% chance of success even if it's not this turn. | Gain 1d8 EP per 1000 Humans in your Swarm |
| 3 | Swarmers gain a 50% combat bonus to all stats. 50% penalty to all tactical rolls. | Have one EP bonus worth 2d20 points. All other EP bonuses that turn are doubled. | Despite your general lack of pallet, the humans of your hive worked creep into some rather impressive specialities. So impressive that this turn's production of creep is rendered into a trade good instead. | Gain a +30% chance of success to any Talent checks this turn, and to the specialist ceiling. |
| 4 | Creep production stops entirely, but all buildings cost -1 action to build. | Your unemployed civilians take note of all the work being done and decide to do a little bit of their own. +.25 RP per 100 unemployed civilians. | Your one of the nicest people around but even you know that sometimes people just need to leave well enough alone. For this turn the Ancient Platform will 'get a bug' and only allow known friends to successfully dial in. |
+2 Actions |
Last edited:
Turn 4
SamPardi
Optimistic Nihilist
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Though your party easily gains the drop on the distracted Great Cat it quickly becomes clear that she's not going down without a fight. The first two drones attack but are batted aside with ease. A third drone escapes her notice, though and spit its corrosive on the muscles of her upper leg and dig in deep with both claws. She howls in pain and collapses, incapable of properly standing and bleeding heavily but still not out of the fight.
Your soldiers attack bravely but their luck is particularly awful, every charge is met with the she-beasts unexpectedly quick reaction and lives are lost. Artur darts in and manages to wound her chest but its still not enough to put her down. When the best claws a chunk out of one of the drones you attempt an attack of your own. Faring no better than your soldiers you not only fail but gain a tearing wound across your head, nothing serious but enough that you decide to leave the rest of the fight to the actual fighters.
She kills a drone outright soon after but Artur keeps his assault up and she has no chance of catching the nimble man in his finest form. Soon he buries the shaft of his wooden spear up to the hilt in her eye and she falls for a final time. (+25 EP, 3 Evolutions Discovered, 3 Upgrades Discovered, -10 VP on next Big Guy design.)
16 Soldiers are killed in the battle along with 1 drone, you can't help but think the former was more luck than anything. When it comes to the cubs, you realize that genetically speaking there really aren't any opportunities for interesting mutations. Perhaps a few generations would lead to major changes in size or coloring, but one you have covered and the other is entirely useless to you. You give them a simple and humane death and absorb what little useful genetic information they do give. (+10 EP)
Energized by the victory and the performance your people wind up rather more busy than usual this month, producing 66 new children. Infant mortality is quite low at only 9 lost, and maternal mortality claims only 2 lives despite much higher projections.
"The creatures of nature exist within eco-systems. It's easy as outsiders to see these eco-systems and think 'aha nature loves balance!' The truth is much more complicated and difficult. Rather Eco-systems tend to be in near constant states of change and adjustment. More wolves are bred one year, leading to fewer rabbits the next year, leading to more grass fully growing the next, leading to a rebound in rabbit population just as the wolf population is once more dying off. But these dynamics are not give and take like they seem. Perhaps the Wolves breed far too much, the rabbits are consumed wholesale, the grass grows in while the wolves slowly starve, new herbivores are attracted as the predator population declines enough to make it safe, the remaining wolves find themselves with enough food to get by and suddenly the system is apparently back in balance... Just withotu any rabbits." Myrddin explained. (+10 EP)
"Nature... Is harsh. Uncaring. Beautiful, powerful, and I do recommend you don't consume all of it. But respect her for what she is not how she appears. Greater than beings than most that now walk the stars have been crushed by her unfeeling need to keep the reaction going. An entire galaxy suffers endlessly for my people under-estimating the sheer inertia we unleashed when we thought to have harnessed her completely." He sagely advised.
When you return to camp afterwards you are full of thoughts but soon interrupted. A strong and fast catching fever struck the populace. For a while its very touch and go, but the herb scouts managed to find a particular plant that treats the fever and with proper treatment the epidemic is ended. 19 die, most of them children, sadly. Yet this is life, you can do nothing but keep moving on.
Your scouts following the Great Cat and Sarcosuchus were both attacked by their respective prey while trying to track them. That's the loss of seven more able men and women, but they at least succeed in discovering a single weakness in the Sarcosuchus. Just at the base of its neck, where it meets the jaw the lighter scaling of the underbelly gives way entirely to thick leathery skin. A particularly talented spearman may be able to take advantage of such a weakness, but it'll be a dangerous thing to attempt and almost certainly cost lives to implement in the field.
Looking south, your other scouts found and handily evaded a rather large bipedal lizard that hunts the light jungle territoriality but avoids the heavier jungle. They also get a decent idea of the area and skirt the edges of what one might call 'local'. Sending them any further would require a dedicated effort as they would be moving beyond the area they could decently explore while still coming home at the end of the month. The drones manage to find an Iron vein near the river but its exceptionally close to the latest monster.
Those scouting around the Trinium vein managed to find the most massive, most intimidating and easily the toughest monster yet. In shape its similar to a giant bear almost twice the size of the Great Cat, but its face is an enormous circular maw surrounded by huge webbed jaws. Rather than fur the creature had an outer layer of hardened stone armor over it that seems nearly impenetrable considering your current means. Despite your scouts being utterly terrified at the sight of it, it soon proved to be far less of a threat than it first appeared.
Its strange and enormous mouth is shaped as it is to provide a wide area of intense suction, you see its primary diet are insects which it sucks from trees, rotting logs, obvious ant or termite colonies or even just straight from the soil. The 'Big Softy' as its been nicknamed is actually a remarkably gentle beast, even tolerant of scouts directly approaching or petting it. That being said, its still not something you'd want to intentionally piss off anytime soon.
At the end of the month you can't help but look around and feel that you're truly are making progress. The Primary cluster has a new hatchery and the another has begun the very first satellite cluster. A new unit design has finally come about and more could very well be on the way.
---
Map
Important Updates:
Weapon: Attack Claws is now available.
Locomotion: Agile Quadruped is now available.
Support Ability: Twin is now available.
Weapon: Attack Fangs is now available.
Weapon: Climbing Claws is now available.
Defense: Tough Hide is now available.
Upgrade: Retractable Claws is now available.
Upgrade: Leg Muscle Overbuilding is now available.
Support Ability: Predatory Senses is now available.
Iron Vein of Quality 7 is discovered.
The Unit Design System has been unlocked.
Fever Medication is discovered and is now cultivated in Zerg Tenements.
Unit Hundling is now available.
Primary Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 2 Hatcheries, 3 tenements
Units: 2 Queens (not counting You, 1 available, 1 dedicated(Micromanagement)), 27 (4.5 Swarms) Drones (1.5 Swarms Available, 3 Swarms Dedicated (Lead, Iron, Gathering to support new hatchery), 4 Work Crews (3 available, 1 Dedicated (Iron Work Camp)), 2 Militia (2 Dedicated), 1 Soldier, 5 scouts
Humans: 3011 (0 Recruitable Civilians, Approx. 471 children)
Creep: 3.37km Radius + 0.56km Radius
Satellite Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 1 Hatchery
Units: 5 Drones (5 available)
Humans: 0
Creep: 0.56km Radius
Stockpiles:
RP: 38.79 - EP: 50 - VP: 20 - Larvae: 36 - Actions: 5 (Counts dedicated Micromanagement)
[ ] Drone Swarm: Gather Trees
(+3 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone Swarm, or fewer at appropriate penalty)
[ ] Drone Swarm: Encourage Creep Growth
- [ ] Select a Hatchery
(+0.06 creep growth radius around selected Hatchery.)
[ ] Work Crew: Gathering (Work at Lead hatchery to avoid creep distance penalties.
(+1 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew)
[ ] Work Crew: Build Road Network (finds and hauls paving stones back to the tenements to create a route between them and the primary hatchery, then on to the Stargate for ease of deployment.)
(+1km of road) (Cost: 1RP, Assign 1 Work Crew)
[ ] Queen: Increase Creep
(+0.33 Creep = +4 RP, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Increase Larvae
(+12 Larvae, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Micromanage
(+1 Action, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Gather: Trade Goods
If you're going to be dealing with other cultures soon you might want to start picking up some things to trade with them. (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew to gather 1 Lumber, 1 Drone to gather 2 Lumber, or 1 Scout to gather 1 Bundle of Herbs, automatic +1 bundle of medicine)
[ ] Culture: Spend Culture Point (Still Harmony)
Phase II: Add up all your gains and losses from the last phase and add that to your stockpile for the rest of the turn.
Scouting: Pick one for each scout.
[ ] Scout/Drone: Explore [Direction.]
(Write-in the direction. Multiples going the same way increase chances of finding something.)
[ ] Scout: Stalk Great Cat
(We know where another den is, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Sarcosuchus
(We know where likes to sun itself on the shore, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Gather Herbs for study.
(You can fairly easily figure out whether a plant is safe or not or how it can be used as a medicine. Get them gathering some up and it may decrease overall mortality rates.)
Activities: Each Activity costs at least 1 Action and may have other costs as well.
[ ] Action: Build Walls
Not the most traditional Zerg action, but needs must as they say. This will combine simple wooden log walls with creep tumors to build strong fortifications. (Cost: 1 action, 2 RP, Assign 2 Work Crews and 2 Drones)
[ ] Action: Build Hatchery Near Iron Vein
Starts a second satellite hive and gives it easy access to the Iron. It will soon connect back up with your own Hatchery to form part of the local Hive Cluster. (Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone) (May send more units along as seed troops/workers.)
[ ] Action: Build Support Hatchery
Does nothing but expand creep and pump out more Larva for a given Hive. Limit 1 per Queen.
(Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone)
[ ] Action: Build The Bridge
(A large and dangerous project. Set a dozen Work Crews and/or Drones to the massive undertaking of building a bridge across the Great River. Requires access to trinium to start.) (Cost: 1 Action, 12 Work Crews or Drones.)
[ ] Action: Train Militia
(Can be taken multiple times, expend an effort on sharpening a militia unit into real, if not quite so well armed, soldiers. 70% chance of Militia advancing in troop quality.) (Cost: 1 Action, Assign 1 Militia Unit)
[ ] Action: Draft Militia Into Artur's Soldier Unit
While bringing a whole unit up to speed isn't working out for you there should be more than enough training acumen to cherry pick 36 recruits that can be made worthy of the title in the next month. (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Scout New Talent.
(40% of success, 11% chance of producing specialist. Can be taken multiple times.) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Spar With Artur
Recent experience has shown that Artur's gifts for combat well and truly exceed your own. However through the expenditure of real effort you could both improve. (50% chance, each, of earning the Trait: Skilled (+2 def/+2 all attacks) (Cost: 2 Actions)
[ ] Action: Appreciate Local Jungle
(Sure it's easy to see how a giant beast that thus far casually destroys everything in its path can help the swarm, but it's hardly the only way things can be helpful. Take a walk in the jungle with Myrddin and observe the small creatures, perhaps one may have something that stands out to you. +10 EP) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Ponder A New Unit Design
While Vespene is great for quickly accomplishing things, you can still manually put in the time and research to get it done. (-1 VP on next Design Purchase.)
(Cost: 1 Action, 5 EP)
[ ] Action: Upgrade Yourself
Now that you have some obvious improvements to your equipped morphs you can sacrifice doing anything this turn and apply those morphs to yourself. (Attack Claws, Retractable Claws, Tough Hide) (Changing design costs double the Design Cost of the given design, must be Specialist or Big Guy) (Cost: 3 Actions - Does not grow with number of upgrades)
[ ] Action: Attack Northern Great Cat Den
(You know where it lives, it can't be that hard to track down. Select any combination of units, Drones/Militia/Soldiers to this action. Each Hero assigned increases cost by one action.) (Cost: 1 Action, Assign N Units)
[ ] Action: Attack Sarcosuchus (Very Hard)
Well, you now know of something that might be called a weakness by an optimistic sort and your basic zerg units could get pretty tough here soon. So there may, kind of sort of be hope... Yeah, you'd better send a lot of units and expect to lose most of them. (Cost: 1 Action, Assign N Units)
[ ] Write-in.
(Cost of write-ins in user posts are suggestions, last word is mine
Decisions. Some possibilities have come up moving forwards. If you meet the requirements you may select one thing from the following list.
[ ] Ask Myrddin to Reactivate the Gate.
Next turn you'll have the option to start exploring the Galaxy/Universe. This is a big decision, so be sure you feel ready for it.
Evolutions: Select an evolution to put points into.
[ ] Evolution: Amphibian Bio-morph (0/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.
[ ] Evolution: Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution: Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Hundlings (0/40)
Your Hundlings are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Lair (0/500)
Now that you have multiple hatcheries you've become aware of a possible path for building them into something... More. Better creep spread, more larvae, a tougher building, and an underground cavern network that makes moving things easier near the Lair, reducing any distance penalties by one km. Also gives something else, but you aren't quite certain what just yet.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Carapace (0/50)
Your zerg are much tougher in combat and don't die anywhere near so easily.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Bones (0/50)
Your zerg are not only a bit tougher, but their much meaner with weapons sporting Trinium blades and protected by Trinium armored shells... assuming they had a shell to begin with.
[ ] Evolution: Steel Carapace (0/10)
Your zerg are a bit tougher in combat and don't die quite so easily.
[ ] Evolution: Steel Bones (0/10)
Your zerg may be a bit tougher, but their definitely a bit meaner with weapons sporting Steel blades and protected by Steel armored shells.... assuming they had a shell to begin with
Designs... Details coming soon... Need sleep...
Basic Outline:
User selects the various body types and pieces from the codex, puts it together into a design which must be proposed separate from any plans. All legal designs are added to the codex on the next turn and then Planners can use whatever units strike their fancy.
Process:
Type: 1 VP for Swarmer, 5 VP for Warrior, 10 VP for Special, 20 VP for Big Guy
Assign Locomotion, support sack and weapons (+1 die class for warrior, +2 die class for Big Guy). 1 VP per upgrade or Support Sack Ability. Unit VP cost = upgrades/4
RP costs are estimates, following rule of thumb, Swarmer 1 RP per 3-6 units or 2 for more specialized roles, Warrior 1 RP per 1-2 units with a bit extra for special roles, 4-6 RP for Specialist unit, 6-12 RP for Big Guy depending on size and level of armament. May be tweaked before its added to the codex if I feel it absolutely necessary.
Your soldiers attack bravely but their luck is particularly awful, every charge is met with the she-beasts unexpectedly quick reaction and lives are lost. Artur darts in and manages to wound her chest but its still not enough to put her down. When the best claws a chunk out of one of the drones you attempt an attack of your own. Faring no better than your soldiers you not only fail but gain a tearing wound across your head, nothing serious but enough that you decide to leave the rest of the fight to the actual fighters.
She kills a drone outright soon after but Artur keeps his assault up and she has no chance of catching the nimble man in his finest form. Soon he buries the shaft of his wooden spear up to the hilt in her eye and she falls for a final time. (+25 EP, 3 Evolutions Discovered, 3 Upgrades Discovered, -10 VP on next Big Guy design.)
16 Soldiers are killed in the battle along with 1 drone, you can't help but think the former was more luck than anything. When it comes to the cubs, you realize that genetically speaking there really aren't any opportunities for interesting mutations. Perhaps a few generations would lead to major changes in size or coloring, but one you have covered and the other is entirely useless to you. You give them a simple and humane death and absorb what little useful genetic information they do give. (+10 EP)
Energized by the victory and the performance your people wind up rather more busy than usual this month, producing 66 new children. Infant mortality is quite low at only 9 lost, and maternal mortality claims only 2 lives despite much higher projections.
"The creatures of nature exist within eco-systems. It's easy as outsiders to see these eco-systems and think 'aha nature loves balance!' The truth is much more complicated and difficult. Rather Eco-systems tend to be in near constant states of change and adjustment. More wolves are bred one year, leading to fewer rabbits the next year, leading to more grass fully growing the next, leading to a rebound in rabbit population just as the wolf population is once more dying off. But these dynamics are not give and take like they seem. Perhaps the Wolves breed far too much, the rabbits are consumed wholesale, the grass grows in while the wolves slowly starve, new herbivores are attracted as the predator population declines enough to make it safe, the remaining wolves find themselves with enough food to get by and suddenly the system is apparently back in balance... Just withotu any rabbits." Myrddin explained. (+10 EP)
"Nature... Is harsh. Uncaring. Beautiful, powerful, and I do recommend you don't consume all of it. But respect her for what she is not how she appears. Greater than beings than most that now walk the stars have been crushed by her unfeeling need to keep the reaction going. An entire galaxy suffers endlessly for my people under-estimating the sheer inertia we unleashed when we thought to have harnessed her completely." He sagely advised.
When you return to camp afterwards you are full of thoughts but soon interrupted. A strong and fast catching fever struck the populace. For a while its very touch and go, but the herb scouts managed to find a particular plant that treats the fever and with proper treatment the epidemic is ended. 19 die, most of them children, sadly. Yet this is life, you can do nothing but keep moving on.
Your scouts following the Great Cat and Sarcosuchus were both attacked by their respective prey while trying to track them. That's the loss of seven more able men and women, but they at least succeed in discovering a single weakness in the Sarcosuchus. Just at the base of its neck, where it meets the jaw the lighter scaling of the underbelly gives way entirely to thick leathery skin. A particularly talented spearman may be able to take advantage of such a weakness, but it'll be a dangerous thing to attempt and almost certainly cost lives to implement in the field.
Looking south, your other scouts found and handily evaded a rather large bipedal lizard that hunts the light jungle territoriality but avoids the heavier jungle. They also get a decent idea of the area and skirt the edges of what one might call 'local'. Sending them any further would require a dedicated effort as they would be moving beyond the area they could decently explore while still coming home at the end of the month. The drones manage to find an Iron vein near the river but its exceptionally close to the latest monster.
Those scouting around the Trinium vein managed to find the most massive, most intimidating and easily the toughest monster yet. In shape its similar to a giant bear almost twice the size of the Great Cat, but its face is an enormous circular maw surrounded by huge webbed jaws. Rather than fur the creature had an outer layer of hardened stone armor over it that seems nearly impenetrable considering your current means. Despite your scouts being utterly terrified at the sight of it, it soon proved to be far less of a threat than it first appeared.
Its strange and enormous mouth is shaped as it is to provide a wide area of intense suction, you see its primary diet are insects which it sucks from trees, rotting logs, obvious ant or termite colonies or even just straight from the soil. The 'Big Softy' as its been nicknamed is actually a remarkably gentle beast, even tolerant of scouts directly approaching or petting it. That being said, its still not something you'd want to intentionally piss off anytime soon.
At the end of the month you can't help but look around and feel that you're truly are making progress. The Primary cluster has a new hatchery and the another has begun the very first satellite cluster. A new unit design has finally come about and more could very well be on the way.
---
Map
Important Updates:
Weapon: Attack Claws is now available.
Locomotion: Agile Quadruped is now available.
Support Ability: Twin is now available.
Weapon: Attack Fangs is now available.
Weapon: Climbing Claws is now available.
Defense: Tough Hide is now available.
Upgrade: Retractable Claws is now available.
Upgrade: Leg Muscle Overbuilding is now available.
Support Ability: Predatory Senses is now available.
Iron Vein of Quality 7 is discovered.
The Unit Design System has been unlocked.
Fever Medication is discovered and is now cultivated in Zerg Tenements.
Unit Hundling is now available.
-
Name: Hundling
Quality: Swarmer
Locomotion: Agile Quadruped - Very Fast
Wounds: 1
Defense: Tough Hide 1d4+1
Weapons: Attack Fangs 1d6, Attack Claws 1d6 x2
Support Sack Small: Twin (Produce 2 units for the price of one. Swarmer only.)
Primary Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 2 Hatcheries, 3 tenements
Units: 2 Queens (not counting You, 1 available, 1 dedicated(Micromanagement)), 27 (4.5 Swarms) Drones (1.5 Swarms Available, 3 Swarms Dedicated (Lead, Iron, Gathering to support new hatchery), 4 Work Crews (3 available, 1 Dedicated (Iron Work Camp)), 2 Militia (2 Dedicated), 1 Soldier, 5 scouts
Humans: 3011 (0 Recruitable Civilians, Approx. 471 children)
Creep: 3.37km Radius + 0.56km Radius
Satellite Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 1 Hatchery
Units: 5 Drones (5 available)
Humans: 0
Creep: 0.56km Radius
Stockpiles:
RP: 38.79 - EP: 50 - VP: 20 - Larvae: 36 - Actions: 5 (Counts dedicated Micromanagement)
| [ ] Morph: Drone Swarm (6) | 2 RP | 6 Larvae | Limit: As many as can be afforded. |
| [ ] Morph: Hundling Swarm (6) | 1.5 RP | 3 Larvae | Limit: As many as can be afforded. |
| [ ] Morph: Queen | 5 RP | 1 Larvae | Limit: 1 per turn. |
(+3 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone Swarm, or fewer at appropriate penalty)
[ ] Drone Swarm: Encourage Creep Growth
- [ ] Select a Hatchery
(+0.06 creep growth radius around selected Hatchery.)
[ ] Work Crew: Gathering (Work at Lead hatchery to avoid creep distance penalties.
(+1 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew)
[ ] Work Crew: Build Road Network (finds and hauls paving stones back to the tenements to create a route between them and the primary hatchery, then on to the Stargate for ease of deployment.)
(+1km of road) (Cost: 1RP, Assign 1 Work Crew)
[ ] Queen: Increase Creep
(+0.33 Creep = +4 RP, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Increase Larvae
(+12 Larvae, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Micromanage
(+1 Action, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Gather: Trade Goods
If you're going to be dealing with other cultures soon you might want to start picking up some things to trade with them. (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew to gather 1 Lumber, 1 Drone to gather 2 Lumber, or 1 Scout to gather 1 Bundle of Herbs, automatic +1 bundle of medicine)
[ ] Culture: Spend Culture Point (Still Harmony)
Phase II: Add up all your gains and losses from the last phase and add that to your stockpile for the rest of the turn.
Scouting: Pick one for each scout.
[ ] Scout/Drone: Explore [Direction.]
(Write-in the direction. Multiples going the same way increase chances of finding something.)
[ ] Scout: Stalk Great Cat
(We know where another den is, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Sarcosuchus
(We know where likes to sun itself on the shore, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Gather Herbs for study.
(You can fairly easily figure out whether a plant is safe or not or how it can be used as a medicine. Get them gathering some up and it may decrease overall mortality rates.)
Activities: Each Activity costs at least 1 Action and may have other costs as well.
[ ] Action: Build Walls
Not the most traditional Zerg action, but needs must as they say. This will combine simple wooden log walls with creep tumors to build strong fortifications. (Cost: 1 action, 2 RP, Assign 2 Work Crews and 2 Drones)
[ ] Action: Build Hatchery Near Iron Vein
Starts a second satellite hive and gives it easy access to the Iron. It will soon connect back up with your own Hatchery to form part of the local Hive Cluster. (Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone) (May send more units along as seed troops/workers.)
[ ] Action: Build Support Hatchery
Does nothing but expand creep and pump out more Larva for a given Hive. Limit 1 per Queen.
(Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone)
[ ] Action: Build The Bridge
(A large and dangerous project. Set a dozen Work Crews and/or Drones to the massive undertaking of building a bridge across the Great River. Requires access to trinium to start.) (Cost: 1 Action, 12 Work Crews or Drones.)
[ ] Action: Train Militia
(Can be taken multiple times, expend an effort on sharpening a militia unit into real, if not quite so well armed, soldiers. 70% chance of Militia advancing in troop quality.) (Cost: 1 Action, Assign 1 Militia Unit)
[ ] Action: Draft Militia Into Artur's Soldier Unit
While bringing a whole unit up to speed isn't working out for you there should be more than enough training acumen to cherry pick 36 recruits that can be made worthy of the title in the next month. (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Scout New Talent.
(40% of success, 11% chance of producing specialist. Can be taken multiple times.) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Spar With Artur
Recent experience has shown that Artur's gifts for combat well and truly exceed your own. However through the expenditure of real effort you could both improve. (50% chance, each, of earning the Trait: Skilled (+2 def/+2 all attacks) (Cost: 2 Actions)
[ ] Action: Appreciate Local Jungle
(Sure it's easy to see how a giant beast that thus far casually destroys everything in its path can help the swarm, but it's hardly the only way things can be helpful. Take a walk in the jungle with Myrddin and observe the small creatures, perhaps one may have something that stands out to you. +10 EP) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Ponder A New Unit Design
While Vespene is great for quickly accomplishing things, you can still manually put in the time and research to get it done. (-1 VP on next Design Purchase.)
(Cost: 1 Action, 5 EP)
[ ] Action: Upgrade Yourself
Now that you have some obvious improvements to your equipped morphs you can sacrifice doing anything this turn and apply those morphs to yourself. (Attack Claws, Retractable Claws, Tough Hide) (Changing design costs double the Design Cost of the given design, must be Specialist or Big Guy) (Cost: 3 Actions - Does not grow with number of upgrades)
[ ] Action: Attack Northern Great Cat Den
(You know where it lives, it can't be that hard to track down. Select any combination of units, Drones/Militia/Soldiers to this action. Each Hero assigned increases cost by one action.) (Cost: 1 Action, Assign N Units)
[ ] Action: Attack Sarcosuchus (Very Hard)
Well, you now know of something that might be called a weakness by an optimistic sort and your basic zerg units could get pretty tough here soon. So there may, kind of sort of be hope... Yeah, you'd better send a lot of units and expect to lose most of them. (Cost: 1 Action, Assign N Units)
[ ] Write-in.
(Cost of write-ins in user posts are suggestions, last word is mine
Decisions. Some possibilities have come up moving forwards. If you meet the requirements you may select one thing from the following list.
[ ] Ask Myrddin to Reactivate the Gate.
Next turn you'll have the option to start exploring the Galaxy/Universe. This is a big decision, so be sure you feel ready for it.
Evolutions: Select an evolution to put points into.
[ ] Evolution: Amphibian Bio-morph (0/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.
[ ] Evolution: Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution: Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Hundlings (0/40)
Your Hundlings are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Lair (0/500)
Now that you have multiple hatcheries you've become aware of a possible path for building them into something... More. Better creep spread, more larvae, a tougher building, and an underground cavern network that makes moving things easier near the Lair, reducing any distance penalties by one km. Also gives something else, but you aren't quite certain what just yet.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Carapace (0/50)
Your zerg are much tougher in combat and don't die anywhere near so easily.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Bones (0/50)
Your zerg are not only a bit tougher, but their much meaner with weapons sporting Trinium blades and protected by Trinium armored shells... assuming they had a shell to begin with.
[ ] Evolution: Steel Carapace (0/10)
Your zerg are a bit tougher in combat and don't die quite so easily.
[ ] Evolution: Steel Bones (0/10)
Your zerg may be a bit tougher, but their definitely a bit meaner with weapons sporting Steel blades and protected by Steel armored shells.... assuming they had a shell to begin with
Designs... Details coming soon... Need sleep...
Basic Outline:
User selects the various body types and pieces from the codex, puts it together into a design which must be proposed separate from any plans. All legal designs are added to the codex on the next turn and then Planners can use whatever units strike their fancy.
Process:
Type: 1 VP for Swarmer, 5 VP for Warrior, 10 VP for Special, 20 VP for Big Guy
Assign Locomotion, support sack and weapons (+1 die class for warrior, +2 die class for Big Guy). 1 VP per upgrade or Support Sack Ability. Unit VP cost = upgrades/4
RP costs are estimates, following rule of thumb, Swarmer 1 RP per 3-6 units or 2 for more specialized roles, Warrior 1 RP per 1-2 units with a bit extra for special roles, 4-6 RP for Specialist unit, 6-12 RP for Big Guy depending on size and level of armament. May be tweaked before its added to the codex if I feel it absolutely necessary.
Last edited:
Design System Tutorial
SamPardi
Optimistic Nihilist
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Xilph Each Hatchery comes with 0.56 if its built off the creep and then adds 0.5 to its particular satellite hive until the creep touches at which point it then contributes to the growth of the larger hive. The Lead hatchery was built off the creep at the beginning of the month, but by the end of the month the Primary Hive's creep had expanded to the point where they touched. So this is a kind of special case where it fulfilled one role when built, then took a second one by the time the next turn started.
The calculation for this turn's creep spelled out was - 2.63 (Last Turn) + 0.50 from Hatchery, +0.24 from tenements (0.08
) = 3.37
Next turn's without any plan's modifications would be - 3.37 + 0.50 from primary Hatchery, +0.24 from tenements, + 0.50 from lead hatchery = 4.61 adjust that to account for overlap with existing creep and you get 4.7305
Okay so Unit Design!
So first off, you need the codex. Though you can pass on the buildings part.
Second off, you need Vespene Points. Every design has a cost in VP that is calculable from the simple formula, 1/5/10/20 + 1 per upgrade + 1 per ability.
However that assumes you want to create a new design. Certain creatures have special properties, like Drones being able to morph into buildings and Queens counting towards Queen only actions and decisions. In these cases you may 'change the loudout' so to speak by only changing weapons, carapace and upgrades for the low cost of 1VP + 1VP per upgrade. These designs are considered variants and any unit can have them.
So if you made a Schwerhundlisk and wanted one copy to have fangs and another to spit acid, that would only cost 1 VP to implement. However if you originally gave it 'Creep Tumors' since you intended it to guard hives anyways and then decided you wanted a variant with 'Detect Resources' and acid spit to act as a heavy miner that would cost the full design price. (20 VP for Big Guy, 1 VP for ability, +N VP for whatever else you add.) It goes without saying that changing locomotion or unit quality requires an entirely new design.
The reason for this is that it shouldn't cost too much to make something do what it already does but slightly better or slightly differently. while on the other hand if you're needing to a fill an entirely new role simply throwing the basis of that onto the existing design is going to cost enough to make you stop and ask yourself if you don't have any better options that might fulfill the role in a superior fashion.
So, let's walk through the process. In fact we'll walk through the creation of the Schwerhundlisk specifically.
With the intention of creating a unit intended to fight monsters on their own terms and win, these are the considerations and choices I'd make.
First up is the most basic decision: what quality of unit do we want? Unlike humans which have a lot of straight upwards changes where cost in RP and training time is the only difference, each of the Zerg qualities represent a very different intended purpose for the unit.
Swarmers are fundamentally disposable. In combat they take the early attacks so others can strike at the target unmolested. They are intended to be used in quantity and have prices and abilities that encourage using them en-mass. Quantity really is its own quality though as they excel in scouting roles and are often the fastest form for their particular method of locomotion.
Warriors are the actual meat of the fighting force. It's not a tragedy if you lose some but they aren't really 'disposable' either. In terms of size their small enough to be missed on a battlefield by blending with the crowds of swarmers and dangerous enough to make the enemy regret doing so. Sometimes they'll have more abilities to fall back on than your swarmers and their weapons are always much larger than their swarmer equivalents, this makes them dangerous and versatile while often more useful to have around. Warriors get a +1 to weapon die quality due to role.
Specialists tend to be similarly stated to the Warriors but are larger, a bit more bloated than lean. This can make them slower and they don't get a bonus to weapon quality. Instead they are the only form to have access to large support sacks. This sheer weight of utility and their tendency for filling special roles make them utterly indispensable to the Swarm though often not as fighters.
Big Guys are the anchors of the fighting force. Large, expensive and powerful in turn. They tend to be the slowest of their locomotion categories which can make them slow to enter battle, but when they do they make themselves felt. Their also the toughest, which they need to be since they stand out immensely drawing enemy fire to them like a magnet. Against organized armies they're often high cost to early loss especially if used poorly, but then again if your enemy has tanks they may be your best option. They get +2 to die quality on attacks due to their size.
Since it needs to fight on the level with a monster, and will usually have some swarmer support to make losing them unlikely, our best choice here is the Big Guy category. They can fight one of the monsters on even terms and create those difficult openings needed for lesser units to exploit a critical weakness.
That's 20VP to the cost. Normally this would immediately turn me off, but our first Big Guy design is -10VP so that makes the cost reasonable for this turn.
Next we decide our locomotion. The Crawler is the one we started with but their Big Guys are glacially slow. As a locomotion type its intended for workers and specialists, explaining the medium support pouch. Also its claws are on manipulator arms which may later be combined with all sorts of weapon types. The Agile Quadruped on the other hand is much faster at the cost of that support. Also its claws will only ever be capable of being claws since the legs their attached to are fore-legs necessary for moving the body properly.
For now there's no significant difference in weapons so its really a choice of do we want speed or another ability. Speed gets us better initiative in combat and gets us to distant combat more easily where as our ability choices are a bit stacked towards support at the moment. So ultimately I decide on Agile Quadruped. Besides, with proper upgrades to the design later there is a chance it may mutate to have more limbs or something similarly awesome.
Defenses at the moment we only really have Tough Hide so that's an easy choice. (which replaces Hide for any unit made moving forwards.)
Weapons are also an easy choice. Its a bit big to be climbing and its really meant as an attack creature. If climbing is necessary a swarmer with those claws can probably be used to bait the target out to a better fighting area anyways. So Attack Claws x2. Plus the tail slot which we fill with another Attack Claw. Spitting acid is nice but its not really a combat tool just yet. It would be nice for variety, but for the moment Attack Fangs just gets us the better roll straight up.
Wounds are probably the biggest point of straight up judgement call. It's most complicated on the small end since you need at least 1 wounds and can safely go up to two on a swarmer, but wounds are your most direct tie to RP. Hundlings have 1 and cost 0.25, drones have 2 and cost 0.33. As a rule of thumb a swarmer RP should form a whole number at 12 and should have 1 or 2 wounds, 3 at the far outside of extreme toughness. Warriors are hardest as they generally have from 2-4 wounds and should cost about 1 RP +/- 25%. Specialists and Big Guys are much easier. The rule of thumb is they should be 1 for 1 with Specialists in the 4-6 range and Big Guys in the 6-12 range. (Winged One go ahead and adjust your design up to four wounds to comply with this. My bad for leading you astray earlier.)
Now we want it tough but we don't want to break the bank on something that we stand a serious chance of losing in a fight, so we'll split the difference and go with 8 Wounds. For a base RP cost of 8 RP as well.
Now we get to the support abilities. In this case we have a Small Support Sack because of our locomotion. Since we only get one ability, I'll go ahead and pick the Predatory Senses ability since it increases my chances of winning initiative against monsters and lowers the chance of getting ambushed. Remember this is because its intended to be an offensive combatant. Other abilities may go better with other roles, but in this case I think ability and role complement each other well. Since we've picked an ability that's one more 1 VP. You are allowed to not pick any abilities at all, but it isn't recommended.
Finally we get to upgrades. Retractable Claws don't seem especially useful to our combat build, though it does assist in sneaking around for that initiative bonus... Let's add it just so we don't regret not having it later. Leg Muscle Overbuilding on the other hand is awesome. It makes us faster, greatly increasing our combat range, and makes us defend a bit better and attack a bit harder. What's not to love? That's 2 VP to our design cost. Upgrades also cost 0.25 VP each when building the unit, so now our unit costs 0.5 VP to build.
Put it all together and you get this unit card:
This is then added to the next turn in the Build-Up phase as:
[ ] Buy Design: Schwerhundlisk
(Cost: 23 VP unless first Big Guy researched, then 13 VP)
Allowing planners and voters to decide if they really want to go with the design proposed.
Addendum:
Die Quality levels: (Because of the roller I'm using I can't do really odd ones like 1d7 so there's actual discrete jumps here.)
The calculation for this turn's creep spelled out was - 2.63 (Last Turn) + 0.50 from Hatchery, +0.24 from tenements (0.08
) = 3.37Next turn's without any plan's modifications would be - 3.37 + 0.50 from primary Hatchery, +0.24 from tenements, + 0.50 from lead hatchery = 4.61 adjust that to account for overlap with existing creep and you get 4.7305
Okay so Unit Design!
So first off, you need the codex. Though you can pass on the buildings part.
Evolution Codex:
Queen Bio-morph
Drone Biomorph
"Hundling"
Locomotion: Crawler
Agile Quadruped
Weapon: Work Claws
Weapon: Attack Claws
Weapon: Climbing Claws
Weapon: Attack Fangs
Weapon: Corrosive Spit
Carapace: Hide
Carapace: Tough Hide
Ability: Detect Resource Vein
Ability: Inject Larvae
Ability: Creep Tumors
Ability: Micromanage
Ability: Predatory Senses
Ability: Twin
Upgrade: Retractable Claws
Upgrade: Leg Muscle Overbuilding
-
Name: Queen
Quality: Specialist
Cost: 5 RP/1 Larvae
Wounds: 5
Defense: 1d6
Locomotion: Crawlers
Armament: 4x Work Claws
Support: Large Sack (3 Abilities) - Larvae Inject, Creep Tumors, Micromanage
A large and usually quite slow bio-morph. It has the ability to be armed with 4 Claw hard-points, but is best utilized for the large support sack that produces large amounts of energy to fuel support abilities.
-
Name: Drone
Quality: Swarmer
Cost: .33 RP/1 Larvae
Wounds: 2
Defense: 1d4
Locomotion: Crawlers
Armament: 2x Work Claws, 1x Corrosive Spit
Support: Small Sack (1 Ability) - Detect Resource Vein
The drone is the basic worker of the swarm. Their job is to find new resources and exploit them. They are also necessary to create buildings as their special genetics allow them to morph into any building you can support.
-
Name: Hundling
Quality: Swarmer
Cost: .25 RP/1 Larvae
Locomotion: Agile Quadruped - Very Fast
Wounds: 1
Defense: Tough Hide 1d4+1
Weapons: Attack Fangs 1d6, Attack Claws 1d6 x2
Support Sack Small: Twin (Produce 2 units for the price of one. Swarmer only.)
-
Name: Crawler
Speed: Fast/Slow/Very Slow/Glacial (Swarmer/Warrior/Special/Big Guy)
Slots: 2x claws, 1x mouth/4x claws, 1x mouth/4x claws/4x claws, 1x mouth
Special: Small/Medium/Large/Medium
It's useful for some basic line troops but it's nothing special.
-
Name: Agile Quadruped
Speed: Very Fast/Very Fast/Fast/Fast
Slots: 2x claws, 1x mouth/3x claws, 1x mouth/3x claws, 1x mouth/3x claws, 1x mouth
Special: Small/Small/Medium/Small
Meant for straight up combat, the agile quadruped is fast
-
Name: Work Claws
Damage: 1d4-1
Not truly meant to be used as a weapon. These claws are meant for the less immediate needs of labor and work. Still they can be damaging in close combat.
-
Name: Attack Claws
Damage: 1d6
Claws significantly longer and sharper than work claws meant for tearing into the enemy.
-
Name: Climbing Claws
Damage: 1d4+1
Reinforced claw formations that can be used for attack or work, but mostly are made to survive the rigors of climbing sheer faces.
-
Name: Attack Fangs
Damage: 1d6
Strengthened teeth and fangs that can be used by the attacker to bite their enemy for damage.
-
Name: Corrosive Spit
Damage: 1d4
This is an early non-weaponized form. It's great for slowly breaking down things you need to break apart, not so excellent at killing the enemy before they kill you. On the other hand, it's always at least slightly effective.
-
Name: Hide
Defense: 1d4/1d4/1d6/1d8
A layer of leathery skin.
-
Name: Tough Hide
Defense: 1d4+1/1d4+1/1d6+1/1d8+1
A tough layer of leathery skin.
-
Name: Detect Resource Vein
Allows this unit to detect resource veins even underground.
-
Name: Inject Larvae
Inject more larvae into the hatchery allowing it to produce 6 more larvae this turn.
-
Name: Creep Tumors
Lay out some creep tumors to increase the extent to which a hatchery's creep grows this turn.
-
Name: Micromanage
Only available to Queens, Brood Leaders and Hero Units. Add another action to the turn.
-
Name: Predatory Senses
Predatory Senses allow a unit to seek out enemies, track enemies, search for specific known chemicals, find heat sources and gives a much better chance of gaining initiative for your units should it come to a fight.
-
Name: Twin
Only for Swarmers, sacrifice the use of your support sack for the ability to buy two for the price of one.
-
Name: Retractable Claws
Gives a small bonus to initiative, and decreases diplomacy penalties from being armed.
-
Name: Leg Muscle Overbuilding
Creature gains +1 to all attack and defense rolls, increases speed by one rank unless already very fast, increases burrowing speed by one rank if applicable.
Second off, you need Vespene Points. Every design has a cost in VP that is calculable from the simple formula, 1/5/10/20 + 1 per upgrade + 1 per ability.
However that assumes you want to create a new design. Certain creatures have special properties, like Drones being able to morph into buildings and Queens counting towards Queen only actions and decisions. In these cases you may 'change the loudout' so to speak by only changing weapons, carapace and upgrades for the low cost of 1VP + 1VP per upgrade. These designs are considered variants and any unit can have them.
So if you made a Schwerhundlisk and wanted one copy to have fangs and another to spit acid, that would only cost 1 VP to implement. However if you originally gave it 'Creep Tumors' since you intended it to guard hives anyways and then decided you wanted a variant with 'Detect Resources' and acid spit to act as a heavy miner that would cost the full design price. (20 VP for Big Guy, 1 VP for ability, +N VP for whatever else you add.) It goes without saying that changing locomotion or unit quality requires an entirely new design.
The reason for this is that it shouldn't cost too much to make something do what it already does but slightly better or slightly differently. while on the other hand if you're needing to a fill an entirely new role simply throwing the basis of that onto the existing design is going to cost enough to make you stop and ask yourself if you don't have any better options that might fulfill the role in a superior fashion.
So, let's walk through the process. In fact we'll walk through the creation of the Schwerhundlisk specifically.
With the intention of creating a unit intended to fight monsters on their own terms and win, these are the considerations and choices I'd make.
First up is the most basic decision: what quality of unit do we want? Unlike humans which have a lot of straight upwards changes where cost in RP and training time is the only difference, each of the Zerg qualities represent a very different intended purpose for the unit.
Swarmers are fundamentally disposable. In combat they take the early attacks so others can strike at the target unmolested. They are intended to be used in quantity and have prices and abilities that encourage using them en-mass. Quantity really is its own quality though as they excel in scouting roles and are often the fastest form for their particular method of locomotion.
Warriors are the actual meat of the fighting force. It's not a tragedy if you lose some but they aren't really 'disposable' either. In terms of size their small enough to be missed on a battlefield by blending with the crowds of swarmers and dangerous enough to make the enemy regret doing so. Sometimes they'll have more abilities to fall back on than your swarmers and their weapons are always much larger than their swarmer equivalents, this makes them dangerous and versatile while often more useful to have around. Warriors get a +1 to weapon die quality due to role.
Specialists tend to be similarly stated to the Warriors but are larger, a bit more bloated than lean. This can make them slower and they don't get a bonus to weapon quality. Instead they are the only form to have access to large support sacks. This sheer weight of utility and their tendency for filling special roles make them utterly indispensable to the Swarm though often not as fighters.
Big Guys are the anchors of the fighting force. Large, expensive and powerful in turn. They tend to be the slowest of their locomotion categories which can make them slow to enter battle, but when they do they make themselves felt. Their also the toughest, which they need to be since they stand out immensely drawing enemy fire to them like a magnet. Against organized armies they're often high cost to early loss especially if used poorly, but then again if your enemy has tanks they may be your best option. They get +2 to die quality on attacks due to their size.
Since it needs to fight on the level with a monster, and will usually have some swarmer support to make losing them unlikely, our best choice here is the Big Guy category. They can fight one of the monsters on even terms and create those difficult openings needed for lesser units to exploit a critical weakness.
That's 20VP to the cost. Normally this would immediately turn me off, but our first Big Guy design is -10VP so that makes the cost reasonable for this turn.
Next we decide our locomotion. The Crawler is the one we started with but their Big Guys are glacially slow. As a locomotion type its intended for workers and specialists, explaining the medium support pouch. Also its claws are on manipulator arms which may later be combined with all sorts of weapon types. The Agile Quadruped on the other hand is much faster at the cost of that support. Also its claws will only ever be capable of being claws since the legs their attached to are fore-legs necessary for moving the body properly.
For now there's no significant difference in weapons so its really a choice of do we want speed or another ability. Speed gets us better initiative in combat and gets us to distant combat more easily where as our ability choices are a bit stacked towards support at the moment. So ultimately I decide on Agile Quadruped. Besides, with proper upgrades to the design later there is a chance it may mutate to have more limbs or something similarly awesome.
Defenses at the moment we only really have Tough Hide so that's an easy choice. (which replaces Hide for any unit made moving forwards.)
Weapons are also an easy choice. Its a bit big to be climbing and its really meant as an attack creature. If climbing is necessary a swarmer with those claws can probably be used to bait the target out to a better fighting area anyways. So Attack Claws x2. Plus the tail slot which we fill with another Attack Claw. Spitting acid is nice but its not really a combat tool just yet. It would be nice for variety, but for the moment Attack Fangs just gets us the better roll straight up.
Wounds are probably the biggest point of straight up judgement call. It's most complicated on the small end since you need at least 1 wounds and can safely go up to two on a swarmer, but wounds are your most direct tie to RP. Hundlings have 1 and cost 0.25, drones have 2 and cost 0.33. As a rule of thumb a swarmer RP should form a whole number at 12 and should have 1 or 2 wounds, 3 at the far outside of extreme toughness. Warriors are hardest as they generally have from 2-4 wounds and should cost about 1 RP +/- 25%. Specialists and Big Guys are much easier. The rule of thumb is they should be 1 for 1 with Specialists in the 4-6 range and Big Guys in the 6-12 range. (Winged One go ahead and adjust your design up to four wounds to comply with this. My bad for leading you astray earlier.)
Now we want it tough but we don't want to break the bank on something that we stand a serious chance of losing in a fight, so we'll split the difference and go with 8 Wounds. For a base RP cost of 8 RP as well.
Now we get to the support abilities. In this case we have a Small Support Sack because of our locomotion. Since we only get one ability, I'll go ahead and pick the Predatory Senses ability since it increases my chances of winning initiative against monsters and lowers the chance of getting ambushed. Remember this is because its intended to be an offensive combatant. Other abilities may go better with other roles, but in this case I think ability and role complement each other well. Since we've picked an ability that's one more 1 VP. You are allowed to not pick any abilities at all, but it isn't recommended.
Finally we get to upgrades. Retractable Claws don't seem especially useful to our combat build, though it does assist in sneaking around for that initiative bonus... Let's add it just so we don't regret not having it later. Leg Muscle Overbuilding on the other hand is awesome. It makes us faster, greatly increasing our combat range, and makes us defend a bit better and attack a bit harder. What's not to love? That's 2 VP to our design cost. Upgrades also cost 0.25 VP each when building the unit, so now our unit costs 0.5 VP to build.
Put it all together and you get this unit card:
-
Name: Schwerhundlisk
Quality: Big Guy
Cost: 8 RP, 0.5 VP, 1 Larvae
Locomotion: Agile Quadruped - Very Fast
Wounds: 8
Defense: Tough Hide 1d8+2
Weapons: Attack Claws 1d10+1, Attack Fangs 1d10+1
Support Sack Small: Predatory Senses
Upgrades Installed: Retractable Claws, Leg Muscle Overbuilding (Effects already shown.)
This is then added to the next turn in the Build-Up phase as:
[ ] Buy Design: Schwerhundlisk
(Cost: 23 VP unless first Big Guy researched, then 13 VP)
Allowing planners and voters to decide if they really want to go with the design proposed.
Addendum:
Die Quality levels: (Because of the roller I'm using I can't do really odd ones like 1d7 so there's actual discrete jumps here.)
- 1d4 A workman's tool
- 1d6 A sturdy spear
- 1d8 A Great Cat's claws
- 1d10 Armor piercing bullets
- 1d12 A Ma'toc staff blast
- 1d20 A staff cannon blast
- 2d20 Standing on-top of C4
- 3d20
- Nd20 Starship Main Weapons
Last edited:
Turn 5
SamPardi
Optimistic Nihilist
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2015
- Messages
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- 26,381
You and Artur circle around each other for what feels like the thousandth time this month, though was probably closer the hundredth. He's gotten much more used to moving in the basic lamellar, small iron plates laced together to form a larger protective surface, armor your blacksmiths had worked out to equip your troops with. Likewise, being forced to face your superior bulk and greater selection of striking angles has really made him faster and sharper. Enough so that you're not eager to take the fight in close despite the range advantage he gains from his spear.
Then again, you think as he rushes in to end the spar, its not as though you haven't grown as well. You smoothly evade his spear thrusts despite your size and strike back with your longer claws just missing his armor by millimeters as he dances around your attack. For several seconds you keep the exchange going but soon natural talent shines through as usual and you wind up nursing a hard bump to the head.
"You're much better than when you started," he acknowledges to soften the loss. (You gained Skilled)
"Asss are you," you compliment him in an annoyingly hissing tone. (Artur gained Skilled) Frankly you prefer talking through the hive mind, but Myrddin made a good point about relying overly much on something that future allies may not have access to. Like it or not, you are the face of the swarm and getting to the point where you can pronounce words correctly will be a long hard road.
"I heard the scouts only lost one person to the Great Cats this month," he observes.
"Yesss. Having Rashe take over the invesstigation of the Ssarcosssuchuss has sssaved many livess. Sssadly we have discovered no new weaknessssess," you reply. (Scout Talent: Success, Rashe the Falconer (Scout) discovered.)
The both of you fall silent as you look towards the brand new bridge over the Great River. It had been your people's greatest feat of engineering thus far and had claimed over a dozen lives in the process of construction, including a couple drones.
"I've heard there's been increased pressure to expand the hives, he stated."
You shrug. "It iss ssomething of a fad. Perhapss we will get lucky and it will die down sssoon."
"After that fiasco at the victory celebration? I kind of doubt it." Artur chuckled at the memory. You remembered it less fondly.
The intention had been to respect the fallen enemies and their sacrifice. You couldn't entirely blame the dancers when it went right off the rails into glorifying the kill. Something in the audience just hadn't been ready to forgive or respect the creatures and as the hive mind grew closer their antagonism bled over. You'd been able to keep it from going completely to pot, but the goal had still been a dismal failure. Rather than providing Myrrdin with some proof he made a good decision he instead walked away mildly disappointed with your people. (Natural 99, Critical Failure, +1 CP, Fad has changed to Hunger)
A follow up performance meant to promote harmony did nothing to change the cultural pressures, despite being a rather good performance all around.
"Hey, I had an idea!" He tells you and then sends you something through the swarm. You have to admit it's actually rather impressive for its supposed simplicity. After all its really just a saddle, or perhaps a saddle chair hybrid... In any case, the concept was simply a creature that ferried people around in covered comfort. Kind of like a covered land-boat that steered itself, you thought. (Ability: Ferry 2 Passengers req. Warrior or greater quality. Stackable.)
"It'll be consssidered like all the others. I make no promissses, but truly a ingenious idea." You tell him. And it would make it easier to get out to that nice lake and waterfall over to the South-East. It was apparently quite the sight and despite seeing it through the swarm you couldn't help wanting to see it a bit better with your own eyes. They'd even discovered a heard of herbivorous pachyderms in the area. Much too defensive to get close too, unlike the 'Big Softy' but equally as harmless so long as you gave them their space.
The first roads had been paved within the hive though they only connected one of the tenements to the hive at the moment. Still it was progress of a sorts and supposedly as you'd get more trade goods their lives would become somewhat more cosmopolitan.
A/N: The map doesn't go all the way South because you hit the edge of the map I had ready and kept going. A Continent-Map is in the works, though.
Map
Important Updates:
80/200 Birds gathered towards unlocking, 'Thin-boned Avian Bio-morph'
Hive Upgrade Discovered - Steel Carapace, all wounds +1
Hive Upgrade Discovered - Steel Bones, +2 wounds if the creature has the armored perk, all bone weapons (claws, spikes, horns, etc…) gain +2 to all rolls.
Ability Discovered - Ferry 2 Passengers req. Warrior or greater quality. Stackable.
Talent: Rashe the Falconer discovered.
Unit Creeper is now available.
Primary Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 3 Hatcheries, 3 tenements, 1 Forge, 1 Loom
Larvae: 36
Units: 3 Queens (not counting You, 2 available, 1 dedicated(Micromanagement)), 6 Drone Swarms (4 Swarms Available, 2 Swarms Dedicated (Lead, Iron)), 2 Hundling Swarms (1 Available, 1 Dedicated (Scouting Next Map Southward)), 4 Work Crews (2 available, 2 Dedicated (Gathering)), 2 Militia (2 Dedicated), 1 Soldier, 5 scouts (1 Dedicated)
Humans: 3032 (0 Recruitable Civilians, Approx. 510 children) (Ten Children come of age and are used to fill holes in various units.)
Creep: 5.2305km Radius (85.95 RP)
Trinium Satellite Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 1 Hatchery
Larvae: 24
Units: 5 Drones (5 available)
Humans: 0
Creep: 1.06km Radius (3.53 RP)
Iron Satellite Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 1 Hatchery
Larvae: 12
Units: 0 Drones (0 available)
Humans: 0
Creep: 0.56 km Radius (1 RP)
Stockpiles:
RP: 100.04 - EP: 30 - VP: 18 - Actions: 5 (Counts dedicated Micromanagement)
[ ] Drone Swarm: Gather Trees
(+3 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone Swarm, or fewer at appropriate penalty)
[ ] Drone Swarm: Encourage Creep Growth
- [ ] Select a Hatchery
(+0.06 creep growth radius around selected Hatchery.)
[ ] Work Crew: Gathering (Work at Lead hatchery to avoid creep distance penalties.
(+1 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew)
[ ] Work Crew: Build Road Network (finds and hauls paving stones back to the tenements to create a route between them and the primary hatchery, then on to the Stargate for ease of deployment.)
(+1km of road) (Cost: 1RP, Assign 1 Work Crew)
[ ] Queen: Increase Creep
(+0.33 Creep = +4 RP, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Increase Larvae
(+12 Larvae, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Micromanage
(+1 Action, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Gather: Trade Goods
If you're going to be dealing with other cultures soon you might want to start picking up some things to trade with them. (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew to gather 1 Lumber, 1 Drone to gather 2 Lumber, or 1 Scout to gather 1 Bundle of Herbs, automatic +1 bundle of medicine)
[ ] Culture: Spend Culture Points (Up to 2 Hunger)
Phase II: Add up all your gains and losses from the last phase and add that to your stockpile for the rest of the turn.
Scouting: Pick one for each scout.
[ ] Scout/Drone: Explore [Direction.]
(Write-in the direction. Multiples going the same way increase chances of finding something.)
[ ] Scout: Stalk Great Cat
(We know where another den is, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Sarcosuchus
(We know where likes to sun itself on the shore, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Gather Herbs for study.
(You can fairly easily figure out whether a plant is safe or not or how it can be used as a medicine. Get them gathering some up and it may decrease overall mortality rates.)
Activities: Each Activity costs at least 1 Action and may have other costs as well.
[ ] Action: Build Walls Around Stargate
Not the most traditional Zerg action, but needs must as they say. This will combine simple wooden log walls with creep tumors to build strong fortifications forcing the enemy through a check-point you control before they can assault the Hive. (Cost: 1 action, 2 RP, Assign 2 Work Crews and 2 Drones)
[ ] Action: Build Support Hatchery
Does nothing but expand creep and pump out more Larva for a given Hive. Limit 1 per Queen.
- [ ] Select Hive
(Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone)
[ ] Action: Train Militia
(Can be taken multiple times, expend an effort on sharpening a militia unit into real, if not quite so well armed, soldiers. 70% chance of Militia advancing in troop quality.) (Cost: 1 Action, Assign 1 Militia Unit)
[ ] Action: Scout New Talent.
(40% of success, 11% chance of producing specialist. Can be taken multiple times.) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Appreciate Local Jungle
(Sure it's easy to see how a giant beast that thus far casually destroys everything in its path can help the swarm, but it's hardly the only way things can be helpful. Take a walk in the jungle with Myrddin and observe the small creatures, perhaps one may have something that stands out to you. +10 EP) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Ponder A New Unit Design
While Vespene is great for quickly accomplishing things, you can still manually put in the time and research to get it done. (-1 VP on next Design Purchase.)
(Cost: 1 Action, 5 EP)
[ ] Action: Upgrade Yourself
Now that you have some obvious improvements to your equipped morphs you can sacrifice doing anything this turn and apply those morphs to yourself. (Attack Claws, Retractable Claws, Tough Hide) (Changing design costs double the Design Cost of the given design, must be Specialist or Big Guy) (Cost: 3 Actions - Does not grow with number of upgrades)
[ ] Action: Attack Northern Great Cat Den (Medium-Easy depending on force sent.)
(You know where it lives, it can't be that hard to track down. It won't give you much, but there should be some EP from its relatively unique genetic make-up. Select any combination of units, Drones/Militia/Soldiers to this action. Each Hero assigned increases cost by one action.) (Cost:1 Action, Assign N Units)
[ ] Action: Attack Southern Rex (Medium)
(You know where it hunts, it can't be that hard to track down. Select any combination of units, Drones/Militia/Soldiers to this action. Each Hero assigned increases cost by one action.) (Cost:1 Action, Assign N Units)
[ ] Action: Attack Sarcosuchus (Hard)
Well, you now know of something that might be called a weakness by an optimistic sort and your basic zerg units are literally steely now. So there may be some hope... Yeah, you'd better send a lot of units and expect to lose many of them. (Cost: 1 Action, Assign N Units)
[ ] Write-in.
(Cost of write-ins in user posts are suggestions, last word is mine
Decisions. Some possibilities have come up moving forwards. If you meet the requirements you may select one thing from the following list.
[ ] Ask Myrddin to Reactivate the Gate.
Next turn you'll have the option to start exploring the Galaxy/Universe. This is a big decision, so be sure you feel ready for it.
Evolutions: Select an evolution to put points into.
[ ] Evolution: Amphibian Bio-morph (30/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.
[ ] Evolution: Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution: Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Hundlings (0/40)
Your Hundlings are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Lair (0/500)
Now that you have multiple hatcheries you've become aware of a possible path for building them into something... More. Better creep spread, more larvae, a tougher building, and an underground cavern network that makes moving things easier near the Lair, reducing any distance penalties by one km. Also gives something else, but you aren't quite certain what just yet.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Carapace (0/50)
Your zerg are much tougher in combat and don't die anywhere near so easily.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Bones (0/50)
Your zerg are not only a bit tougher, but their much meaner with weapons sporting Trinium blades and protected by Trinium armored shells... assuming they had a shell to begin with.
Designs:
[ ] Schwerhundlisk: 12 VP (22 if not first Big Guy)
[ ] Zerg Bloodcat: 13 VP (4 Wounds unlike in the link.)
[ ] Barnacle: 2 VP
[ ] Houndling: 2 VP
[ ] Hundling 2.0: 2 VP
[ ] Carpet: 2 VP
[ ] Kilemdedar: 12 VP (22 if not first Big Guy)
[ ] Wagenling: 8 VP
Then again, you think as he rushes in to end the spar, its not as though you haven't grown as well. You smoothly evade his spear thrusts despite your size and strike back with your longer claws just missing his armor by millimeters as he dances around your attack. For several seconds you keep the exchange going but soon natural talent shines through as usual and you wind up nursing a hard bump to the head.
"You're much better than when you started," he acknowledges to soften the loss. (You gained Skilled)
"Asss are you," you compliment him in an annoyingly hissing tone. (Artur gained Skilled) Frankly you prefer talking through the hive mind, but Myrddin made a good point about relying overly much on something that future allies may not have access to. Like it or not, you are the face of the swarm and getting to the point where you can pronounce words correctly will be a long hard road.
"I heard the scouts only lost one person to the Great Cats this month," he observes.
"Yesss. Having Rashe take over the invesstigation of the Ssarcosssuchuss has sssaved many livess. Sssadly we have discovered no new weaknessssess," you reply. (Scout Talent: Success, Rashe the Falconer (Scout) discovered.)
The both of you fall silent as you look towards the brand new bridge over the Great River. It had been your people's greatest feat of engineering thus far and had claimed over a dozen lives in the process of construction, including a couple drones.
"I've heard there's been increased pressure to expand the hives, he stated."
You shrug. "It iss ssomething of a fad. Perhapss we will get lucky and it will die down sssoon."
"After that fiasco at the victory celebration? I kind of doubt it." Artur chuckled at the memory. You remembered it less fondly.
The intention had been to respect the fallen enemies and their sacrifice. You couldn't entirely blame the dancers when it went right off the rails into glorifying the kill. Something in the audience just hadn't been ready to forgive or respect the creatures and as the hive mind grew closer their antagonism bled over. You'd been able to keep it from going completely to pot, but the goal had still been a dismal failure. Rather than providing Myrrdin with some proof he made a good decision he instead walked away mildly disappointed with your people. (Natural 99, Critical Failure, +1 CP, Fad has changed to Hunger)
A follow up performance meant to promote harmony did nothing to change the cultural pressures, despite being a rather good performance all around.
"Hey, I had an idea!" He tells you and then sends you something through the swarm. You have to admit it's actually rather impressive for its supposed simplicity. After all its really just a saddle, or perhaps a saddle chair hybrid... In any case, the concept was simply a creature that ferried people around in covered comfort. Kind of like a covered land-boat that steered itself, you thought. (Ability: Ferry 2 Passengers req. Warrior or greater quality. Stackable.)
"It'll be consssidered like all the others. I make no promissses, but truly a ingenious idea." You tell him. And it would make it easier to get out to that nice lake and waterfall over to the South-East. It was apparently quite the sight and despite seeing it through the swarm you couldn't help wanting to see it a bit better with your own eyes. They'd even discovered a heard of herbivorous pachyderms in the area. Much too defensive to get close too, unlike the 'Big Softy' but equally as harmless so long as you gave them their space.
The first roads had been paved within the hive though they only connected one of the tenements to the hive at the moment. Still it was progress of a sorts and supposedly as you'd get more trade goods their lives would become somewhat more cosmopolitan.
A/N: The map doesn't go all the way South because you hit the edge of the map I had ready and kept going. A Continent-Map is in the works, though.
Map
Important Updates:
80/200 Birds gathered towards unlocking, 'Thin-boned Avian Bio-morph'
Hive Upgrade Discovered - Steel Carapace, all wounds +1
Hive Upgrade Discovered - Steel Bones, +2 wounds if the creature has the armored perk, all bone weapons (claws, spikes, horns, etc…) gain +2 to all rolls.
Ability Discovered - Ferry 2 Passengers req. Warrior or greater quality. Stackable.
Talent: Rashe the Falconer discovered.
Unit Creeper is now available.
-
Name: Rashe the Falconer
Wounds: 2
Race: Human
Quality: Soldier
Defense: Leather Armor with Iron Inserts 1d4+1
Weapon: Iron Spear 1d6+2
Traits: Loner (-10 chance of success on all diplomacy rolls, must lead a 20% smaller unit), Falconer (Can scout creatures from a distance and is less likely to lose any of her team while finding or tracking monsters.) Sneak Attack (Gets one free attack at the start of combat if she wins initiative.)\
-
Name: Artur
Wounds: 4
Race: Human
Quality: Soldier
Defense: Llemelar Iron Armor 1d6+8
Weapon: Iron Spear 1d6+8
Traits: Charismatic (+10% chance of success for all diplomacy rolls, can lead a 20% larger unit), Talented (+4 to all combat rolls from sheer natural talent), Leadership (Units they lead are resistant to morale shocks, -20 to morale shock rolls), Destined (Hard to define, but some people… They're just destined for great things.) Skilled (+2 Attack/Defense)
-
Name: You (Queen)
Wounds: 5
Race: Zerg
Quality: Specialist
Defense: Hide 1d4+2
Weapons: Work Claws 1d4+3 x4
Support: Large Sack (3 Abilities) - Larvae Inject, Creep Tumors, Micromanage
Traits: Overmind (You are the founder and leader of Zerg society and you are the one ultimately in charge of everything. +3 Actions/turn) Steel Carapace (+1 Wound), Steel Bones (+2 to all claw attack rolls), Skilled (+2 Attack/Defense)
-
Name: Creeper
Quality: Swarmer
Cost: 0.25 RP, 1 Larva
Wounds: 1
Locomotion: Crawlers
Defense: Hide 1d4
Weapons: Attack Claws, Climbing Claws
Support Sack Small: Creep Tumors
Primary Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 3 Hatcheries, 3 tenements, 1 Forge, 1 Loom
Larvae: 36
Units: 3 Queens (not counting You, 2 available, 1 dedicated(Micromanagement)), 6 Drone Swarms (4 Swarms Available, 2 Swarms Dedicated (Lead, Iron)), 2 Hundling Swarms (1 Available, 1 Dedicated (Scouting Next Map Southward)), 4 Work Crews (2 available, 2 Dedicated (Gathering)), 2 Militia (2 Dedicated), 1 Soldier, 5 scouts (1 Dedicated)
Humans: 3032 (0 Recruitable Civilians, Approx. 510 children) (Ten Children come of age and are used to fill holes in various units.)
Creep: 5.2305km Radius (85.95 RP)
Trinium Satellite Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 1 Hatchery
Larvae: 24
Units: 5 Drones (5 available)
Humans: 0
Creep: 1.06km Radius (3.53 RP)
Iron Satellite Hive Statistics:
Buildings: 1 Hatchery
Larvae: 12
Units: 0 Drones (0 available)
Humans: 0
Creep: 0.56 km Radius (1 RP)
Stockpiles:
RP: 100.04 - EP: 30 - VP: 18 - Actions: 5 (Counts dedicated Micromanagement)
| [ ] Morph: Drone Swarm (6) | 2 RP | 6 Larvae | Limit: As many as can be afforded. |
| [ ] Morph: Creeper Swarm (6) | 1.5 RP | 6 Larvae | Limit: As many as can be afforded |
| [ ] Morph: Hundling Swarm (6) | 1.5 RP | 3 Larvae | Limit: As many as can be afforded. |
| [ ] Morph: Queen | 5 RP | 1 Larvae | Limit: 1 per turn/per hatchery. |
(+3 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Drone Swarm, or fewer at appropriate penalty)
[ ] Drone Swarm: Encourage Creep Growth
- [ ] Select a Hatchery
(+0.06 creep growth radius around selected Hatchery.)
[ ] Work Crew: Gathering (Work at Lead hatchery to avoid creep distance penalties.
(+1 RP) (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew)
[ ] Work Crew: Build Road Network (finds and hauls paving stones back to the tenements to create a route between them and the primary hatchery, then on to the Stargate for ease of deployment.)
(+1km of road) (Cost: 1RP, Assign 1 Work Crew)
[ ] Queen: Increase Creep
(+0.33 Creep = +4 RP, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Increase Larvae
(+12 Larvae, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Queen: Micromanage
(+1 Action, Queens may use only 1 ability per turn.)
[ ] Gather: Trade Goods
If you're going to be dealing with other cultures soon you might want to start picking up some things to trade with them. (Cost: Assign 1 Work Crew to gather 1 Lumber, 1 Drone to gather 2 Lumber, or 1 Scout to gather 1 Bundle of Herbs, automatic +1 bundle of medicine)
[ ] Culture: Spend Culture Points (Up to 2 Hunger)
Phase II: Add up all your gains and losses from the last phase and add that to your stockpile for the rest of the turn.
Scouting: Pick one for each scout.
[ ] Scout/Drone: Explore [Direction.]
(Write-in the direction. Multiples going the same way increase chances of finding something.)
[ ] Scout: Stalk Great Cat
(We know where another den is, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Sarcosuchus
(We know where likes to sun itself on the shore, now we just need to follow it around a bit form a distance and maybe we can learn of its weaknesses.)
[ ] Scout: Gather Herbs for study.
(You can fairly easily figure out whether a plant is safe or not or how it can be used as a medicine. Get them gathering some up and it may decrease overall mortality rates.)
Activities: Each Activity costs at least 1 Action and may have other costs as well.
[ ] Action: Build Walls Around Stargate
Not the most traditional Zerg action, but needs must as they say. This will combine simple wooden log walls with creep tumors to build strong fortifications forcing the enemy through a check-point you control before they can assault the Hive. (Cost: 1 action, 2 RP, Assign 2 Work Crews and 2 Drones)
[ ] Action: Build Support Hatchery
Does nothing but expand creep and pump out more Larva for a given Hive. Limit 1 per Queen.
- [ ] Select Hive
(Cost: 1 Action, 10 RP, 1 Drone)
[ ] Action: Train Militia
(Can be taken multiple times, expend an effort on sharpening a militia unit into real, if not quite so well armed, soldiers. 70% chance of Militia advancing in troop quality.) (Cost: 1 Action, Assign 1 Militia Unit)
[ ] Action: Scout New Talent.
(40% of success, 11% chance of producing specialist. Can be taken multiple times.) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Appreciate Local Jungle
(Sure it's easy to see how a giant beast that thus far casually destroys everything in its path can help the swarm, but it's hardly the only way things can be helpful. Take a walk in the jungle with Myrddin and observe the small creatures, perhaps one may have something that stands out to you. +10 EP) (Cost: 1 Action)
[ ] Action: Ponder A New Unit Design
While Vespene is great for quickly accomplishing things, you can still manually put in the time and research to get it done. (-1 VP on next Design Purchase.)
(Cost: 1 Action, 5 EP)
[ ] Action: Upgrade Yourself
Now that you have some obvious improvements to your equipped morphs you can sacrifice doing anything this turn and apply those morphs to yourself. (Attack Claws, Retractable Claws, Tough Hide) (Changing design costs double the Design Cost of the given design, must be Specialist or Big Guy) (Cost: 3 Actions - Does not grow with number of upgrades)
[ ] Action: Attack Northern Great Cat Den (Medium-Easy depending on force sent.)
(You know where it lives, it can't be that hard to track down. It won't give you much, but there should be some EP from its relatively unique genetic make-up. Select any combination of units, Drones/Militia/Soldiers to this action. Each Hero assigned increases cost by one action.) (Cost:1 Action, Assign N Units)
[ ] Action: Attack Southern Rex (Medium)
(You know where it hunts, it can't be that hard to track down. Select any combination of units, Drones/Militia/Soldiers to this action. Each Hero assigned increases cost by one action.) (Cost:1 Action, Assign N Units)
[ ] Action: Attack Sarcosuchus (Hard)
Well, you now know of something that might be called a weakness by an optimistic sort and your basic zerg units are literally steely now. So there may be some hope... Yeah, you'd better send a lot of units and expect to lose many of them. (Cost: 1 Action, Assign N Units)
[ ] Write-in.
(Cost of write-ins in user posts are suggestions, last word is mine
Decisions. Some possibilities have come up moving forwards. If you meet the requirements you may select one thing from the following list.
[ ] Ask Myrddin to Reactivate the Gate.
Next turn you'll have the option to start exploring the Galaxy/Universe. This is a big decision, so be sure you feel ready for it.
Evolutions: Select an evolution to put points into.
[ ] Evolution: Amphibian Bio-morph (30/100)
Being able to cross water and interact with it can be a huge boon. After all, many interesting bio-morphs occur only in water. You're still going to be limited to the shallows and will be fairly small to start with.
[ ] Evolution: Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution: Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Hundlings (0/40)
Your Hundlings are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Lair (0/500)
Now that you have multiple hatcheries you've become aware of a possible path for building them into something... More. Better creep spread, more larvae, a tougher building, and an underground cavern network that makes moving things easier near the Lair, reducing any distance penalties by one km. Also gives something else, but you aren't quite certain what just yet.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Carapace (0/50)
Your zerg are much tougher in combat and don't die anywhere near so easily.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Bones (0/50)
Your zerg are not only a bit tougher, but their much meaner with weapons sporting Trinium blades and protected by Trinium armored shells... assuming they had a shell to begin with.
Designs:
[ ] Schwerhundlisk: 12 VP (22 if not first Big Guy)
[ ] Zerg Bloodcat: 13 VP (4 Wounds unlike in the link.)
[ ] Barnacle: 2 VP
[ ] Houndling: 2 VP
[ ] Hundling 2.0: 2 VP
[ ] Carpet: 2 VP
[ ] Kilemdedar: 12 VP (22 if not first Big Guy)
[ ] Wagenling: 8 VP
-
Name: Wagenling
Quality: Warrior
Cost: 1 RP, 0.25 VP, 1 Larvae
Locomotion: Crawler - Fast
Wounds: 2
Defense: Tough Hide 1d6+2
Attack: Climbing Claws 1d6+2 x4
Support Sack Medium: Ferry 2 Passengers x2
Upgrade: Leg Muscle Overbuilding
Last edited:
Turn 6
SamPardi
Optimistic Nihilist
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2015
- Messages
- 1,278
- Likes received
- 26,381
We are the Zerg.
A Great Cat lopes across the creep towards the Primary Hive Cluster. It's anger is understandable. The expansion of creep has pushed it out of its den and it is intelligent enough to track it back to its source. However, despite the seemingly flat plane of the creep and the Cat's well tuned senses it failed to notice the pack of six Hundlings pressing themselves tight to the creep.
In a single explosive moment they throw themselves violently at the great creature. The first jumped savagely at the Cat's side but found itself batted from the air and tossed away but not quite far enough to harm it. It's partner was more careful and managed to swipe at the monster's flank leaving a deep furrow along its hind leg. Another struck for the fore-leg but was rebuffed and sent tumbling across the creep, however this time it was merely a distraction. Its partner attacked from the other side and bit deeply into the fore-leg it used to keep its balance.
The mighty beast turned to bite at the annoying creature, but it picked the wrong moment to do so. For the fifth member of the Hundling Swarm came from the back but struck for the neck. It's claws and teeth tore at the tough hide and hardened muscle digging deep until the Hundling was soaked in the blood of its prey. Still the monster struggled despite choking on its own blood, but there was one last Hundling yet to strike. When it threw itself the creatures injured flank, tearing away great strips of flesh it was finally too much for the weary beast.
It died having never even seen the human population of the Hive it targeted. (+10 EP from interesting DNA)
Our strength is the strength of the swarm. Every individual, working together in common cause for a singular goal.
"You know you didn't have to plan anything like this. I got over my disappointment quickly enough," Myrddin stated while watching the performance with a smile.
You turned to watch as the latest bright star of your settlement, a dancer named Caiti, led the performers through the story of the early days of a great civilization. (+1 CP, Independence - See Hero Card) "Perhaps," you graciously allow, "But then I wouldn't have had the chance to make you smile."
As the performance continues you notice that he's actually watching Caiti quite a bit more than usual... Perhaps there may be something to that...
-Political Leanings Updated, Myrddin: Concord, Artur: Harmony, Rashe: Hunger, Caiti: Independence, You: [ ] Concord/[ ] Harmony/[ ] Hunger/[ ] Independence
Political Leanings determine what fad is started if a hero causes you to gain CP. Only the first fad per turn is used.
We evolve, constantly improving ourselves and adjusting to the environment around us.
"Feels surprisingly light," Artur commented as he brushed off his new trinium laced doublet.
"It is a very light material despite its strength," you say in agreement, glad you've gotten past your hiss for the most part. Frankly you just can't wait until you can get some of that for your own claws.
You notice a pair of scouts carefully transporting a few blanket wrapped animal bodies. A feral grin splits your face despite your preference for appearing somewhat non-threatening around the Hive. You're just too damned excited about the possibilities with this one.
One of the scouts out looking for herbs had come across a few sick deer. After carefully checking them over they'd discovered that they'd been infected with some sort of fungus that parasitically grew within them until it infected every inch of their body. A rushed examination of a small sample had proved that it was well within your capacity to emulate. Now they were bringing you enough material to make a real break-through. The sheer possibilities were mind-boggling... Sadly the most interesting one was still some distance away since the fungus affected the brain too much to allow its victims to retain sentience. (+40 EP from huge breakthrough.)
And we expand, building ourselves to the heights of greatness from the humblest of beginnings.
You look out at the massive carpet of creep that has finally connected both of your satellite hatcheries to the Primary Hive. Trinium is already filtering in, but so is gold(+5 EP) and a small amount more lead. If your scouts are to be believed you're only a couple months, at most, away from acquiring Naquadah(+10 EP), Platinum(+5 EP) and even some trace amounts of Vespene(+10 EP). Though monsters yet roam beyond your creep, you can't help but feel that they simply haven't realized yet that you truly are the master of all your survey.
Your eyes naturally turn to the Stargate... Well, perhaps not all you survey just yet.
---
---
Continent Map
Local Area Map
Purchase units as needed or wanted.
RP: 689.01 - EP: 70 - VP: 18 – Larva: 98 – 3087 Civilians (approx. 550 children) - 175/200 Birds Gathered (Auto-completes next turn.)
Armies:
Primary Hive Combat Swarm (36/300 Units) (36 Hundlings.)
Primary Hive Army (General: Artur, 2/10 Units) (Artur's Guard (Soldiers), 1 Soldiers)
Gate Guards (General: You, 1/100 Units) (1 Militia)
[ ] Primary Hive Cluster (10/16 Hatcheries (+1 Queen Slot per hatchery)) (14.47 CR, +15.16km CR/turn, +156 Larva)
[ ] Develop Vespene Refinery (0/100 RP, 4 Drone Swarms) (+10 VP/turn, +4 Hatcheries (w/ slots), +6 Mining Slots in Primary Hive Cluster from)
[ ] Develop Research and Education Campus (0/200 RP) (+20 EP/turn, reduces EP cost of Unit Improvements by 10%)
[ ] Improve Infrastructure to Basic (50/500 RP)
---
[ ] Expand: New Hive Cluster, cannot be adjacent to Primary Hive on continent map. (0/100 RP, 0/7 Queens) (+7 Hatcheries) (Follows Expansion Plan for 4 months(turns).)
---
[ ] Great Project: The Ark of Ecology (0/100,000 RP, 0/1000 EP, 0/100 Scouting Expeditions)
While your creep may yet overcome the world, you can still find and keep samples from all of the planet's Flora and Fauna preserved for study and appreciation by future generations. It's not enough though to just throw resources and research at the problem. You're going to need boots on the ground to get samples of all the species and ensure they are properly preserved, making it a part of every scouting mission.
(If you consume too much of the world in creep for there to be enough scouting expeditions then the project is automatically failed for that planet.)
[ ] Great Project: The First Brood Mother (0/1000 EP, 9/99 Queens (not consumed))
For now, yours is the only Zerg Brood and you its only great leader. With this investment of research and will-power you can create a new intelligence nearly on par with yourself. They will have their own wants, needs and agenda, but will always hold a basic loyalty to the swarm as a whole and you in particular.
[ ] Great Project: Sapient Infestation (0/1000 EP, 0/1000 VP, 3/6 Key Discoveries)
Still shrouded in mystery, you are starting to see hints at the possible future of this project. Now you have Unit Designing, a hero of great Willpower, and have discovered Infestation. At right this moment you'd still wind up doing little more than reducing your human subject's mind to soup, sadly. Myrddin though has given you a hint for two, letting you know that there is a world within this galaxy that has one of the components you need, and that the other is fairly common in the Pegasus Galaxy.
---
[ ] Hero: Scouting Expedition (0/1 Hero/Army w/general, 0/N Support units, at least 1 unit must be a scout or have Predatory Senses and at least 1 unit must have Resource Detector)
Moves 3* Hexes in the six major hex directions NW/N/NE/SE/S/SW on the continent map, forces a roll of all resources in the hexes they move through (1 roll per .1 value), 40% chance of monster attack, 20% chance of EP bonus, 10% chance of discovering random evolution to research. Must be moved back to a Hive to Free up hero and units.
Speed may be improved or reduced by hero and unit selection as well as terrain.
[ ] Hero: Dancing Performance (Caiti only, 0/N backup performers, at least 1 must be dancers)
Caiti dances with a proper troupe in the hopes of gaining you an additional CP.
[ ] You: Activate the gate, dial a random address and send through a drone.
It's a big universe out there, but you know, you might just be able to take it… And you'll even find out once you've tried enough combinations to figure out one that leads to an actual planet.
[ ] Army: Kill Aggressive Monsters (Assign at least one Army)
Your units will hunt down and kill the more aggressive monster types in the local area but leave the peaceful varieties alone.
---
[ ] Culture: Spend Culture Points (Up to 3 Independence)
Hunger 4 new wording: Creep production stops entirely, but all expansions younger than 4 turns are advanced to their fourth turn state.
---
[ ] Evolution: Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution: Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Evolution: Amphibious Buildings (0/100)
Allows current buildings to be built in shallow water. Also allows a few unique buildings.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Hundlings (0/40)
Your Hundlings are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Carapace (0/50)
Your zerg are much tougher in combat and don't die anywhere near so easily.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Bones (0/50)
Your zerg are not only a bit tougher, but their much meaner with weapons sporting Trinium blades and protected by Trinium armored shells... assuming they had a shell to begin with.
Designs:
[ ] Schwerhundlisk: 12 VP (22 if not first Big Guy)
[ ] Zerg Bloodcat: 13 VP (4 Wounds unlike in the link.)
[ ] Barnacle: 2 VP
[ ] Houndling: 2 VP
[ ] Hundling 2.0: 2 VP
[ ] Carpet: 2 VP
[ ] Kilemdedar: 12 VP (22 if not first Big Guy)
[ ] Wagenling: 8 VP
As ever, I'm open to criticism. I think this does a better job of balancing detail and options. Actions are gone, instead heroes and the like can be directly ordered around to do various things.
A Great Cat lopes across the creep towards the Primary Hive Cluster. It's anger is understandable. The expansion of creep has pushed it out of its den and it is intelligent enough to track it back to its source. However, despite the seemingly flat plane of the creep and the Cat's well tuned senses it failed to notice the pack of six Hundlings pressing themselves tight to the creep.
In a single explosive moment they throw themselves violently at the great creature. The first jumped savagely at the Cat's side but found itself batted from the air and tossed away but not quite far enough to harm it. It's partner was more careful and managed to swipe at the monster's flank leaving a deep furrow along its hind leg. Another struck for the fore-leg but was rebuffed and sent tumbling across the creep, however this time it was merely a distraction. Its partner attacked from the other side and bit deeply into the fore-leg it used to keep its balance.
The mighty beast turned to bite at the annoying creature, but it picked the wrong moment to do so. For the fifth member of the Hundling Swarm came from the back but struck for the neck. It's claws and teeth tore at the tough hide and hardened muscle digging deep until the Hundling was soaked in the blood of its prey. Still the monster struggled despite choking on its own blood, but there was one last Hundling yet to strike. When it threw itself the creatures injured flank, tearing away great strips of flesh it was finally too much for the weary beast.
It died having never even seen the human population of the Hive it targeted. (+10 EP from interesting DNA)
Our strength is the strength of the swarm. Every individual, working together in common cause for a singular goal.
"You know you didn't have to plan anything like this. I got over my disappointment quickly enough," Myrddin stated while watching the performance with a smile.
You turned to watch as the latest bright star of your settlement, a dancer named Caiti, led the performers through the story of the early days of a great civilization. (+1 CP, Independence - See Hero Card) "Perhaps," you graciously allow, "But then I wouldn't have had the chance to make you smile."
As the performance continues you notice that he's actually watching Caiti quite a bit more than usual... Perhaps there may be something to that...
-
Name: Caiti the Sensuous (Independence)
Wounds: 2
Race: Human
Quality: Specialist
Defense: Trinium Laced Dress 1d4 -1
Weapon: Bare Hands 1d4
Traits: Charismatic (+10% chance of success for all diplomacy rolls, can lead a 20% larger unit), Dancer (May dance with a troupe at the Primary Hive Cluster for a 50% chance of +1 CP, unless already changed that turn, the Fad will change to match their political leaning), Cultured (+10% chance of success in diplomacy when opponent is also cultured, additional +10% if their political leanings are compatible.)
-Political Leanings Updated, Myrddin: Concord, Artur: Harmony, Rashe: Hunger, Caiti: Independence, You: [ ] Concord/[ ] Harmony/[ ] Hunger/[ ] Independence
Political Leanings determine what fad is started if a hero causes you to gain CP. Only the first fad per turn is used.
We evolve, constantly improving ourselves and adjusting to the environment around us.
"Feels surprisingly light," Artur commented as he brushed off his new trinium laced doublet.
"It is a very light material despite its strength," you say in agreement, glad you've gotten past your hiss for the most part. Frankly you just can't wait until you can get some of that for your own claws.
You notice a pair of scouts carefully transporting a few blanket wrapped animal bodies. A feral grin splits your face despite your preference for appearing somewhat non-threatening around the Hive. You're just too damned excited about the possibilities with this one.
One of the scouts out looking for herbs had come across a few sick deer. After carefully checking them over they'd discovered that they'd been infected with some sort of fungus that parasitically grew within them until it infected every inch of their body. A rushed examination of a small sample had proved that it was well within your capacity to emulate. Now they were bringing you enough material to make a real break-through. The sheer possibilities were mind-boggling... Sadly the most interesting one was still some distance away since the fungus affected the brain too much to allow its victims to retain sentience. (+40 EP from huge breakthrough.)
-
Name: Infectious Fangs
Damage: 1d4
Low on overall damage making it hard to get them past an enemy's defenses, but when they do you have a 100% chance of infecting them, with 50% chance of conversion to the swarm (as a non-sapient unit)
And we expand, building ourselves to the heights of greatness from the humblest of beginnings.
You look out at the massive carpet of creep that has finally connected both of your satellite hatcheries to the Primary Hive. Trinium is already filtering in, but so is gold(+5 EP) and a small amount more lead. If your scouts are to be believed you're only a couple months, at most, away from acquiring Naquadah(+10 EP), Platinum(+5 EP) and even some trace amounts of Vespene(+10 EP). Though monsters yet roam beyond your creep, you can't help but feel that they simply haven't realized yet that you truly are the master of all your survey.
Your eyes naturally turn to the Stargate... Well, perhaps not all you survey just yet.
---
-
Name: Amphibian
Speed: Fast*/Fast*/Slow*/Very Slow*
Slots: 1x Mouth, 1x Tail/2x Claws, 1x Mouth, 1x Tail/2x Claws, 1x Tail/2x Claws, 1x Mouth, 1x Tail
Special: Small/Small/Large/Medium
Not always the best unit but it has its niche and can swim through any amount of water, diving depth is limited to only slightly better than human norm however.
*Gains one rank of speed when in the water.
---
Continent Map
Local Area Map
Purchase units as needed or wanted.
| [ ] Morph: Drone Swarm (6) | 2 RP | 6 Larvae | Limit: As many as can be afforded. |
| [ ] Morph: Creeper Swarm (6) | 1.5 RP | 6 Larvae | Limit: As many as can be afforded |
| [ ] Morph: Hundling Swarm (6) | 1.5 RP | 3 Larvae | Limit: As many as can be afforded. |
| [ ] Morph: Queen | 5 RP | 1 Larvae | Limit: 1 per turn/per hatchery. |
Armies:
Primary Hive Combat Swarm (36/300 Units) (36 Hundlings.)
Primary Hive Army (General: Artur, 2/10 Units) (Artur's Guard (Soldiers), 1 Soldiers)
Gate Guards (General: You, 1/100 Units) (1 Militia)
[ ] Primary Hive Cluster (10/16 Hatcheries (+1 Queen Slot per hatchery)) (14.47 CR, +15.16km CR/turn, +156 Larva)
- [ ] Upgrade to Lair (0/500 EP, 0/500 RP)
[ ]Build Tenements +0.08 (5/5 RP, 4/4 slots)[ ]Add Queen for +6 Larvae, +0.66km CR/T, +1 Hatchery Slot (10/10 Slots)- [ ] Add Drone Swarm for Mining +10 RP (2/36 Slots) (1 slot per 1 quality of resource)
- [ ] Add Creeper Swarm for +0.36km CR/T (9)
- [ ] Add Barnacle Swarm for +6 Larva (0) (Req. Barnacles)
[ ] Develop Vespene Refinery (0/100 RP, 4 Drone Swarms) (+10 VP/turn, +4 Hatcheries (w/ slots), +6 Mining Slots in Primary Hive Cluster from)
- [ ] Add Carpet Swarms for +1 VP (0/4 Carpet Slots) (Req. Carpets)
- [ ] Add Queen to oversee project for +5 VP (0/1)
[ ] Develop Research and Education Campus (0/200 RP) (+20 EP/turn, reduces EP cost of Unit Improvements by 10%)
- [ ] Add Queen to act as researcher for +5 EP (0/4)
- [ ] Add Barnacle Swarm to improve prototyping rate. -1 EP to bio-morph research or unit improvement research. (0/1) (Barnacles Req.)
[ ] Improve Infrastructure to Basic (50/500 RP)
[ ]Workers give 10:1 RP Boost (500/500)
---
[ ] Expand: New Hive Cluster, cannot be adjacent to Primary Hive on continent map. (0/100 RP, 0/7 Queens) (+7 Hatcheries) (Follows Expansion Plan for 4 months(turns).)
[ ] Expansion Plan Max RP (All Larvae go to Creepers)
[ ] Expansion Plan Mixed (Half goes to Creepers, other half goes to Barnacles (Req. Barnacles))
[ ] Expansion Plan Hostile (Half goes to Barnacles, Half goes to Hundlings or a write-in set of units) (Req. Barnacles)
[ ] Expansion Plan Hyper-Hostile (All Larvae go to Schwerhundlisks or a write-in big guy) (Req. Big Guy units)
[ ] Expansion Plan Mixed (Half goes to Creepers, other half goes to Barnacles (Req. Barnacles))
[ ] Expansion Plan Hostile (Half goes to Barnacles, Half goes to Hundlings or a write-in set of units) (Req. Barnacles)
[ ] Expansion Plan Hyper-Hostile (All Larvae go to Schwerhundlisks or a write-in big guy) (Req. Big Guy units)
---
[ ] Great Project: The Ark of Ecology (0/100,000 RP, 0/1000 EP, 0/100 Scouting Expeditions)
While your creep may yet overcome the world, you can still find and keep samples from all of the planet's Flora and Fauna preserved for study and appreciation by future generations. It's not enough though to just throw resources and research at the problem. You're going to need boots on the ground to get samples of all the species and ensure they are properly preserved, making it a part of every scouting mission.
(If you consume too much of the world in creep for there to be enough scouting expeditions then the project is automatically failed for that planet.)
[ ] Great Project: The First Brood Mother (0/1000 EP, 9/99 Queens (not consumed))
For now, yours is the only Zerg Brood and you its only great leader. With this investment of research and will-power you can create a new intelligence nearly on par with yourself. They will have their own wants, needs and agenda, but will always hold a basic loyalty to the swarm as a whole and you in particular.
[ ] Great Project: Sapient Infestation (0/1000 EP, 0/1000 VP, 3/6 Key Discoveries)
Still shrouded in mystery, you are starting to see hints at the possible future of this project. Now you have Unit Designing, a hero of great Willpower, and have discovered Infestation. At right this moment you'd still wind up doing little more than reducing your human subject's mind to soup, sadly. Myrddin though has given you a hint for two, letting you know that there is a world within this galaxy that has one of the components you need, and that the other is fairly common in the Pegasus Galaxy.
---
[ ] Hero: Scouting Expedition (0/1 Hero/Army w/general, 0/N Support units, at least 1 unit must be a scout or have Predatory Senses and at least 1 unit must have Resource Detector)
Moves 3* Hexes in the six major hex directions NW/N/NE/SE/S/SW on the continent map, forces a roll of all resources in the hexes they move through (1 roll per .1 value), 40% chance of monster attack, 20% chance of EP bonus, 10% chance of discovering random evolution to research. Must be moved back to a Hive to Free up hero and units.
Speed may be improved or reduced by hero and unit selection as well as terrain.
[ ] Hero: Dancing Performance (Caiti only, 0/N backup performers, at least 1 must be dancers)
Caiti dances with a proper troupe in the hopes of gaining you an additional CP.
[ ] You: Activate the gate, dial a random address and send through a drone.
It's a big universe out there, but you know, you might just be able to take it… And you'll even find out once you've tried enough combinations to figure out one that leads to an actual planet.
[ ] Army: Kill Aggressive Monsters (Assign at least one Army)
Your units will hunt down and kill the more aggressive monster types in the local area but leave the peaceful varieties alone.
- [ ] Kill ALL Monsters. (Kill all of the monsters nearby regardless of whether they present a threat or not. Or at least try in any case.)
---
[ ] Culture: Spend Culture Points (Up to 3 Independence)
Hunger 4 new wording: Creep production stops entirely, but all expansions younger than 4 turns are advanced to their fourth turn state.
---
[ ] Evolution: Hominid Bio-morph (0/250)
Allows you to build a relatively short but decently powerful two legged unit. Think Infested Gorilla not Dwarf though.
[ ] Evolution: Zerg Tentacles (0/150)
Meant to go on buildings and some units, these use the concept of a tail to create a strong, prehensile construct that can be used for grabbing or for whipping. Add claws to it and it becomes a basic defense mechanism. Excellent for chasing animals away from structures.
[ ] Evolution: Amphibious Buildings (0/100)
Allows current buildings to be built in shallow water. Also allows a few unique buildings.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Drones (0/50)
Your drones are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Improved Hundlings (0/40)
Your Hundlings are good, but they could be better. How you're not entirely certain, but that's why you're spending the time researching it. 100% chance to improve one trait/attribute, 50% chance to improve two, 5% chance to produce entirely new and favorable mutation. 5% chance of developing unfavorable mutation, can be fixed through later research.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Carapace (0/50)
Your zerg are much tougher in combat and don't die anywhere near so easily.
[ ] Evolution: Trinium Bones (0/50)
Your zerg are not only a bit tougher, but their much meaner with weapons sporting Trinium blades and protected by Trinium armored shells... assuming they had a shell to begin with.
Designs:
[ ] Schwerhundlisk: 12 VP (22 if not first Big Guy)
[ ] Zerg Bloodcat: 13 VP (4 Wounds unlike in the link.)
[ ] Barnacle: 2 VP
[ ] Houndling: 2 VP
[ ] Hundling 2.0: 2 VP
[ ] Carpet: 2 VP
[ ] Kilemdedar: 12 VP (22 if not first Big Guy)
[ ] Wagenling: 8 VP
As ever, I'm open to criticism. I think this does a better job of balancing detail and options. Actions are gone, instead heroes and the like can be directly ordered around to do various things.
Last edited:
Politics Expounded
SamPardi
Optimistic Nihilist
- Joined
- Feb 17, 2015
- Messages
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- 26,381
Not sure if I enumerated this before so here we go.
Hunger:
A typical member of the swarm that falls within the Hunger quadrant of the political spectrum believes that the fundamental Zerg instincts are not only right but a good thing. They believe the swarm should grow, improve and necessarily consume the resources around them so that they may be put towards the overall improvement of the swarm. While they favor expansion they don't necessarily favor war, though they do produce more pro-war thinkers than not. Still, they have as much desire to hold the moral high ground and distaste for conquering peaceful peoples as any of their peers.
Harmony:
Harmony is an ironically insular ideal. It's strongest adherents believe ferociously in the importance of the community and the bond of the swarm. Nothing should come between the members of the swarm and the bond should be used to foster greater understanding and unity within the community whenever possible. However when it comes to anything or anyone outside the swarm they can be remarkably apathetic. While few would espouse anything so crass as 'they're not us, so they don't count', they would say 'without the Swarm to give them purpose they are unstable and dangerous, how can we trust them?'
Concord:
Followers of Concord believe strongly in a manifest destiny of becoming the fifth race and the benevolent protectors of the galaxy. They support expansion and military growth, but are strongly against starting wars for any reason besides moral reasons. Can be exceptionally stubborn at times due to their feeling of having the 'moral imperative' on their side.
Independence:
Despite how its name may appear, Independents are not after a dissolution of the swarm or the hive mind. They instead believe that the strength of the hive is an amalgam of the strengths of its individuals and so focus on improving the whole through improving the individuals within the whole. In their mind it is important that people are a part of the Hive Mind and not merely parts in the Hive Mind. Of all the groups they focus least on expansion, instead favoring self-improvement, and are usually in favor of diplomacy unless provoked.
Hunger:
A typical member of the swarm that falls within the Hunger quadrant of the political spectrum believes that the fundamental Zerg instincts are not only right but a good thing. They believe the swarm should grow, improve and necessarily consume the resources around them so that they may be put towards the overall improvement of the swarm. While they favor expansion they don't necessarily favor war, though they do produce more pro-war thinkers than not. Still, they have as much desire to hold the moral high ground and distaste for conquering peaceful peoples as any of their peers.
Harmony:
Harmony is an ironically insular ideal. It's strongest adherents believe ferociously in the importance of the community and the bond of the swarm. Nothing should come between the members of the swarm and the bond should be used to foster greater understanding and unity within the community whenever possible. However when it comes to anything or anyone outside the swarm they can be remarkably apathetic. While few would espouse anything so crass as 'they're not us, so they don't count', they would say 'without the Swarm to give them purpose they are unstable and dangerous, how can we trust them?'
Concord:
Followers of Concord believe strongly in a manifest destiny of becoming the fifth race and the benevolent protectors of the galaxy. They support expansion and military growth, but are strongly against starting wars for any reason besides moral reasons. Can be exceptionally stubborn at times due to their feeling of having the 'moral imperative' on their side.
Independence:
Despite how its name may appear, Independents are not after a dissolution of the swarm or the hive mind. They instead believe that the strength of the hive is an amalgam of the strengths of its individuals and so focus on improving the whole through improving the individuals within the whole. In their mind it is important that people are a part of the Hive Mind and not merely parts in the Hive Mind. Of all the groups they focus least on expansion, instead favoring self-improvement, and are usually in favor of diplomacy unless provoked.