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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 793655" data-attributes="member: 6533">What about a bronze?  The aquatic nature of this conflict would make that a lot of trouble for the Cressians, but it would also make it impossible to explain its absence in the conflict here to fore.I don't at all know what the tactics of the Ausel invasion force would be.  They've basically got superlight troops, great ships, and better magic.  I think there will probably be a variety of unit tactics and lots of sneakery.  Will give it some thought and write more later.In terms of Formian tactics I think I have a better idea.  The idea of a Formian wave is frightening, but also strikes me as unlikely.  The Soldiers are only ECL 3 afterall and they don't have much in the way of missile weapons.  They might use a tactic like this when invading a place from the security of their base and hivemind radius.  The overall tactic, doesn't make sense in terms of their limited numbers on this plane and the tactics they must use to coordinate with each other and to fight opponents like Slaadi. You can't just ignore an individual Slaadi in the conviction that the tide as a whole will finish it off.  For creatures like the Formians to fight the Slaadi they must be tactically clever and coordinated on a very fine level to pursue and destroy an Slaad they come into contact with before it can summon more of its fellows or implant too many of their own number.Regardless I would imagine that they would be better served fighting as a highly coordinated web of small units.  In this system I would guess that the Formians would basically follow the organization outlined in the Monster Manual.   One Myrmach would command one twleve man groups of warriors and two eight man groups of workers.   This insures that the groups of warriors have commanders and that two cure serious wound spells may be cast upon the battle groups each round.  This would be a platoon.Given the nature of the conflict I would presume that each platoon would also be accompanied by a taskmaster.  This taskmaster would enable the platoon to enjoy the benefits of the hivemind to at least a limited extent, more importantly it allows the individual platoons to maintain communication with central command.  Each platoon is accompanied by two individuals dominated by taskmasters at central and regional command.   The infinite range on dominated telepathy enables these taskmasters to maintain communication between the platoon and the command groups.  If a platoon looses its communicator then one of the myrmachs at command will teleport another dominated individual to the platoons last known location.As a reflection of the number of individuals that a taskmaster may dominate, platoons are organized into groups of four and so on up the chain of command.   Each command group consists of two to four myrmachs, a conscription team of four taskmasters, and two eight man groups of workers.   The basic strategic unit of the Formian invasion is the March.   This consists of 64 platoons and at least 2000 formians counting the command groups, a minumum number of dominated individuals, and the maximum number of myrmachs plus an additional four at march command for use as an emergency strike team.  Each march consists of four paths, each path of four courses, and each course of four platoons.Let's say that there are four Marches of Formians in the invasion force with the remaining 2000 members of the Formian invasion force consisting of less organized forces of workers, conscripts, taskmasters, and myrmachs specializing in non-front line command roles such as scholars, engineers, educators, translators, strategists, craftsmen, and commandos.  Approximately half of this group would be taken up by a group of taskmasters and Myrmachs who specialize in dominating and commanding a unit of the best flying and swimming creatures that the Formians could find.  They can't dominate anything of greater size than large, but concievably that could be something like 400 chimera flying and fighting in perfect formation.I think that this formation actually makes the fight both more and less hard for the Cressians.  The Formians are likely to fight in very close formation and somewhat conservatively given their desire to stay within and protect their limited command and control system.  On the other hand their magical abilities make this a much more viable strategy for them than most other creatures, their heavy melee formation should make a perfect complement for the light missile heavy formations of the Ausel, the myrmachs' emphasis on divination spells grants their forces great intelligence, the taskmasters and workers make occupation really easy, and their limited command and control is still very good.    Still, the rough heavily fortified terrain of Cressia, the superior numbers and more varied forces of the defenders, and the tremendous will and tenacity of the defenders should make the invasion front an extremely interesting prospect.</blockquote>

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