Fantasy Arms Race, Round Two

A Review

Auselen: The sudden appearance of the Dark Fortress was a shock to the City of the Summoners, they sent out a war party to investigate, it never returned. But within a week the city had been destroyed and in its place the glistening plating of the Hive spread out like black ice crystals. A Cressian Scout had flown over the sight o the back of a Roc but had quickly turned and returned home wityh the news of the destruction.

Whilst on Ausel the High Council had met in urgency, as more of the Formian Warriors had been sighted exploring the Island. Their only option to free the workers and sue for peace.

The peace has been agreed and the Formian Queen looks towards the mainland eager for her dominion to spread. She knows that she needs to Auselen for their ships and for the supply of beasts they supply for the Hive to enslave - but just how long will she trust them?

Meanwhile the Cressian Forces have gathered and taken the offensive for the first time. Ships of Stempan design but Cressian make have been constructed in order to transport the many troops and the griffon and eagle air units. The Cachalot Druids stand ready with their Cetacean forces along with their jellyfish and octopi companions.

The first fleet has already encountered the Auselen Naval Ring and a furious battle has been waged with no clear winner but both sides now with a better understanding of the others ability.

In her Hive the Queen watches and ponders and schemes...

LOTS of QUESTIONS

1.What motivation do Formians actually have? Why is the Queen working wih the Ausel? Who is in control (ie is she using them or they using her?)

2. Where is this War going to be waged? - on Ausel or in Cressia?

3. What do Formian tactics actually look like? - is it just "SWARM -destroy every threat in your path-ignore your wounded-show no fear" or do the Myrmarch and Taskmasters actually have some cunning strategy?

4. iirc Formians must be within 50 feet of the Hive for the Hivemind effect to work - is this correct and does that make the queen vunerable?

5. What do the Ausel actually expect to achieve?

6. Don't ya just wish their was a morale mechanic?

* The Glistening Black Plating (Chitin) of the Hive-Fortress was just a flavour addition for me - I love the image of Formian workers using the bodies of the Formian (and other) dead as building materials -cannibilisign the corpses, reshaping and reforming it as required...

Here is another map. The red circle shows the 50 mile range of the queens telepathy. The formorians need either more queens or the help of the humans. Taking over Auselen is the first step towards domination of the planet. However, if it is not possible to set up any more queens so the whole island is covered I think that an alliance would look profitable.

I would think that an alliance is also in the nature of both the Auselen and this particular group of outsiders.

To the Auselen the Outsiders represent a magical power they have never seen the equal of and high degree of naivete.

To the Outsiders the Auselen seem to be very forthright and organized in a world that is terribly chaotic. The abundance of tamed and created creatures reinforces this idea, that and the quickly offered Auselen explanation and 'evidence' that the Summoners guild was being manipulated by the terrible forces of chaos that threaten them all.

Formian Tactics

The formians have great numbers in this conflict, which you'd think would preclude them to horde tactics. However, they haven't existed in a vacuum until their arrival on Ausel. They've conquered many wildly varied worlds, and faced armies of other extraplanar factions. In fact, considering their alignment, they're probably currently at war with the slaadi, their main enemies.

The average slaad is much tougher than a formian. A formian warrior is roughly human-sized (maybe slightly more considering its centauroid body). A red or blue slaad (the most common slaadi) are Large creatures, probably close to ten feet tall and damn ugly. It relies more on its natural reach and damage capabilities than tactics or weaponry, and is generally unpredictable, being a creature of pure chaos.

So to overcome the slaadi, the formians developed a strategy. Slaadi cannot be counted upon to work as a team, therefore: divide and conquer. Bring maximum force to bear on the individual slaadi and wear them down. The formian battle unit is six strong; six warriors to a slaad, they quickly surround and anihilate the slaad with their poisonous stingers. Formians never developed a mass archery phase for their battle plans; the slaad sometimes employ magical assaults, but never used missile weapons and the formians largely relied on their innate spell resistance. The myrmachs use javelins, but that's about it - the myrmachs are elites, anyway.

Marching in units of 6, the formians nevertheless stick together in larger groups - six units make a Task, six Tasks make a Myrm of 216 warriors. Six myrms make a Legion of 1296 warriors. At current count, there are three hundred and eighty-six legions operating out of the fortress. A Legion marches together, unless the area is deemed 'secure'.

A secure region is an area roughly a square mile in size. One legion advances to the far end and patrols the border. It is now secure from reinforcements. Another legion splits up and thoroughly works through the area, attempting to take captives before Taskmasters or, failing capture, killing anything that moves - but they don't like doing that.

The 50-mile hive mind is a problem for extended campaigns, but there's a fix for this: the taskmasters. They have telepathy with 100-foot range, and are therefore capable of coordinating a tactical assault with absolute silence, albeit from the back. Overall strategic communication is achieved by the myrmachs; they can teleport without error at will - and they can carry 600lb with them! That's certainly enough for a taskmaster or a warrior. Myrmachs therefore remain in communication with their home base and their field commanders at will.

Formian communication is reliant on knowledge of the myrmach's landing zone. For this reason, formians construct a small fortress in every square mile of conquered territory, where myrmachs can 'port in and coordinate with troop movements. (This fortress is build out of whatever comes to hand - stone, trees, baked clay. The subaquatic fortresses are typically created later, because they have to be watertight and have neat windows - typically permanent walls of force.)

Conquered formian territory is arranged in hexagonal or square patterns. The formian worker populace will eventually move in and transform each hex or square into one specific type, normally based on what it currently is: forests will have the gaps filled in, farms will be amalgamated and extended into huge level terraces, cities will expand to the edge of their hex and then build upwards. However, the formians don't have the time to do this... yet.

Against human opponents, the anti-slaadi tactics won't be so useful. The first thing the formians won't expect is archers. The second thing is battle lines - they expect to flood forwards in their own line, each unit splitting off when they encounter an enemy. If a human line can stand strong, the encircling tactics of a formian horde will fail. (Formians are still formidable opponents, but they're not quite so formidable if they're fighting you one-on-one, as opposed to six-on-one.)

s/LASH.... Inspiring post.

Can anyone imagine the first battle? Here the Cressians are, cutting down the Formians with their Javelins, when suddenly, in perfect unison all of the Formian, without any commands, suddenly change their tactics - ie, start using shields. The Deltanes vs. Formians? Do the Formians know of silver's effect? If so, this will really limit the usefulness of the Deltanes.

I can't imagine that the hive-queen has yet to encounter lycanthropes... anyway, the Cressians are also at a mobility disadvantage, but more so than last time, because the Formians don't have to wait around for the Heaven River troops like the centaurs did. Though I suppose the Ausel might slow them down...

Just a short one this time.

Nice idea about the shields, GladiusNP.

That actually brings up another advantage that the formians have should they march to war: coordination. If the enemy has a tactic, they will get to use it once. The formians will disseminate that information across their territory within 10 minutes, no matter how many miles wide it is, and be ready for it forever after.

The Stempa should come ashore with a few innovations. First, the War Wagon. These were developed during skirmishes with the Ti'Jinn. Even with chariots the Stempan armies could not match the mobility of the centaurs. However, they made up for it with raw firepower. These armored wagons are arranged in a square formation. From behind cover the crossbowman can mass fire against the enemy. Unlike the Hussites the Stempa don't use dray animals to pull the wagons but rather Ogres. The driver of each wagon is also the Ogres handler. When not pulling them the Ogres are trained to defend the wagons. The Stempan also employ large numbers of goblins with spears set to discourage charges.

The second is an older invention that was created when the city-states were fighting each other. The mobile siege tower provides high ground. Spellcasters in towers would have an excellent field of view. They will need it to cast counterspells (and Harm!!). Towers will be important later when or if formorian strongholds need to be taken.

In the rear areas Clerics will tend to the wounded. They have Heal, Regenerate and Resurrection. I think this would change the dynamics of war a little. Soldiers would be less likely to break if they know they can be healed or get a Raise Dead afterwards. Also, they would leave no one behind. Not only do you have to be able to count on your buddy to watch your back in a battle you also have to be able to count on him to carry your corpse out. Highly modivated armies will do better while conscripts will be next to useless.

One thing I was unsure about was how many animated objects the Stempan have. I imagined huge war engines rolling across the battlefield but after looking at the cost I don't think they could have more then a dozen.

I just noticed Holy Word is 7th level!! I think that spell is going to be cast a lot.

I think the war will actually occur on three fronts.

First, a lot of the coolest action will probably happen on the water, but...

Ausel probably can't prevent the small team strategy from working, indeed I see it as critical to the eventual success of the war, I mean c'mon who can't see this as turning into a real war of the lance style event where small groups make the critical difference in several areas and one small group in particular really destabilizes the Formians and their Ausel allies.

If Ausel and the Formians really make an effort they can probably land an invasion force in Cressia, and while supplying it might be difficult I still think it impossible for Cressia to prevent them.

The Cressian conflict is probably where we'll see the war chariots and such.

If the formians launch an attack, the Cresians are in trouble. And the jinn, for that matter - together, they're outnumbered five to one by creatures the size of ponies. While an experienced centaur might be a match for a basic formian warrior, there are just too many of them - even facing missile fire, the formians would win out through sheer force of numbers.

At least, that's the theory, and the Queen is eager to see it in action, being a practical sort. How do the formians cross the ocean? They have a few Auselen transport vessels, but it will take them a while to put together a fleet big enough to accommodate their full legions. Probably months to fell the forests of Ausel and dredge the depths for precious metals. Nevertheless, one legion can be carried on three transport vessels, and Ausel probably has at least fifty transports - so shall we say that an initial pacification force of 16 legions (1296 warriors apiece) is sent over? While that's only slightly over twenty thousand troops, they still outnumber a Tamarch two to one, and Cresia has never been as militant as Ta'jinn, so probably can't expect to field more than twenty thousand troops against the formians themselves.

Stempan reinforcements, on the other hand... the idea of battle wagons (portable mini-fortresses) would certainly be in their national character. I expect thirty thousand troops could be mobilised from Stempa, given the numbers from the last round, including support troops like hobgoblins and ogres and clerics. The clerics would be useful in battle, certainly - largely as spontaneous healers, but a force that comes to rely on its healers will probably spend most of its time falling back to the clerics and not fighting, which is awful as far as tactics go. No, clerics are pretty good fighters themselves - I can see them on the front lines, occasionally stopping to heal a comrade, then smashing in another formian. Of course, the clerics are slightly more fragile than the warriors, so each cleric would have an escort of four veteran troopers to keep them safe and screen them when they're casting.

Unfortunately, while Holy Word would carve a swathe through formian armies, there probably aren't more than a few dozen fighting-age clerics who can cast it. It's seventh level, right on the edge of magic for this scenario. I expect that only heroes will employ Holy Word - but it will be an awesome weapon if the heroes manage to reach the formian fortress on Ausel.

Anyway, as things currently stand:

A few bands of heroes are exploring Ausel.

The formians are setting sail for the mainland.

Cresia has had little time to prepare, but they do have excellent scouting abilities... they'll be able to bring their fleet to bear on the formian armada.

The formians have a pet dragon.

I think that last one is likely to cause the most problems. A dragon, especially one of the great wyrms that lead Ausel, is going to wreak absolute havoc on any battlefield, naval or not. And if the formians decide to use it in a suicide maneuver, they don't really care. (In fact, it's probably using a simulacrum at the formian's order.)

We just need to decide what colour this dragon is.

Bump?

I should probably do some art from this setting at some point... Babylonian werewolves and Mongol centaurs are just too cool an image to pass up, really. If only I weren't so lazy.