A different Earth in 40k: A Glorious Golden Future? Part 9

Indeed, it is. I blame writers block and the everpresent draw of Crusader Kings 2. If its any comfort, the empire of Ireland (containing the crowns of Ireland, Scotland, Brythain, England, France, Mauretania, and Egypt) is going strong, though.

EDIT:

Hey look I wrote a thing . . .

Aw nuts.

Now, how to solve that?

Your troops are currently recommending the liberal application of bullets.

We exchanged intelligent enemies with ranged attacks against mindless beasts with no ranged attacks. Pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

Few ranged attacks. Some of them are throwing spines or vomiting fire-acid and such. But not many, overall.

Yeah, but they are chaos beasties. Always assume the worst when dealing with those bastards.

Were the Astartes and Daemons at least injured by Rasks attacks? If they simply ignored it, then they should have lost quite a few health levels considering how many dice Rask can throw at them.

Even worstcase gives them a MDV of 10. Motivations and the like might boost it up to 15, though.


Edit:


Cerillian, I want to look at the Cultists at the moment they transformed. Anima Power and Sorcerers Sight are of course active.

Anything interesting in how we could shut it down (Int+Occult+1 Warp=11 Dice roll, TN 4)?

I'll also look at the rank and file astartes to see how they react the instant they are hit by Rasks attack. Are there any magical defences?

Chaos spawn also have a limited lifespan IIRC. While the fact that so many were now spawned so suddenly is a disadvantage, it's also a surprisingly good advantage. They are fairly stupid, mostly limited to close in attacks and perhaps most important of all: The cultists are no longer possible targets for possession.

We traded an army of mooks that could turn engage us along a long front and then focus effort somewhere into an army of better quality mooks that we may be able to outlast, have very limited ability to engage us at range and are unlikely to gain reinforcements we don't know how to deal with.

It also means that suddenly, summoning a Greater Daemon got a fair bit harder, what, without all those sacrifices at hand.

The closest equivalent you could come up for with whats going on is something like Raksha temporary behemoth creation charms. Basically, warp spirits taking possession of the cultists bodies, and applying mutations. Followed by tooling around in a freshly modified fleshsuit.

As for stopping it, it does not appear to be able to be done to a human with an intact soul. Otherwise, it appears to be a shaping effect.

As for the Space Marines, their activity is consistent with Rask failing to beat their DV. As for reasons, you don't detect anything magical involved with that, but beyond that I can't think of anything you'd be able to perceive.

You just had to say it didn't you.

Okay. The situation is not untenable.

Alright. Rask, let's assume the CSM have a high enough MDV that they can no sell your Killing Words combo. The chaos spawn running around will probably treat it as an unacceptable order so it's no good there.

Hmm......How to deal with this?

Alright, our soldiers are currently unloading every scrap of fire power they have on them. No real point in telling them to keep doing what they're doing.

Alectai? How's your Essence pools? When you feel comfortable heading out again, you're on assassination duty. Take out the remaining Chaos Sorcerers and CSM leaders if possible.

Sia. Smash the daemons into itty bitty pieces.

Rask. Support Sia as necessary.

Pity I don't have a wide area shaping reversal bomb.

Note to self: Modify Soulbreaker Orbs into anti-Daemon bombs.

Pity Sidereals can't write new Charms except Martial Arts. Otherwise I'd be asking for a Daemon based variant on the Demon Binding Battlepattern, like there are variants for Fair Folk and Ghosts.

Hmmm, that reminds me, Sidereal War is actually pretty damn potent, especially when the Fellowship starts stacking the bonuses they can apply. Linky, do you have any Charms in the constellation of the Shield/War?

Nope, mostly because I remember thinking the Charms weren't actually that great. (Though the Raksha version probably will work on Daemons.) What do you see in them?

They are fairly good when you have lots of DBed to throw at high level single foes.

True, it works best if you have a bunch of Essence users to throw at the enemy, but Essence Draining Battle Pattern in particular is just damn good to have and throw at the enemy, especially an enemy that is as magic heavy as Chaos is. Sure, the fact that you need the prerequisite up as well makes it a little expensive at 16 motes and 1 willpower, but it has no upper limit on the number of people you can use it on. Sure, the Mass Combat scale in the books stops at Magnitude 10, but we'll eventually be using millions of troops in single battles, and due to the way it scales, that means we can practically guarantee that every time they use magic it costs twice as many motes.

And Predestined Triumph Practice has certain advantages as well, I mean, a Sidereals (Essence) level penalty to all dice pools and DVs that attacks or is attacked by that unit? That's gonna hurt.

If it's MDV, then it's a very near thing for them. The absolute maximum MDV mortals can hit is (10 willpower + 5 integrity + 3 specialty)/2 + 3 against motivation = 12. This is before Appearance shenanigans bring it down further.

My average successes an the roll with TN reductions and 2nd Excellency is 12, so they could concievably fend it off if both their specialty applies and it's against their Motivation and Appearance doesn't apply if they can't see me (which is reasonable). Not sure what kind of Motivation they'd have to have in order to make believing that they are surrounded by traitors go against it. I could have rolled poorly, of course, but I'm inclined to assume that there's something else going on. The easiest explanation would be that they are shielded against telepathy somehow and simply don't get my message.

I'll have to devise some kind of field test to figure out if they can receive my telepathic transmissions.

Now, a question about the tactical and strategic situation:
Are we actually getting closer to our objective? How much further until we reach the engine controls? How long will it take us, assuming the level of enemy resistance remains constant?

@Rask: Or they're not considered mortals for whatever reason. Not sure why they wouldn't be, but when you have eliminated the impossible yada yada .

I think the CSM being shielded is more likely. I'd say that part of whatever deals they made with Chaos involves them getting a MDV bonus whenever someone who isn't part of their god's pantheon attempts to influence them.

The Chaos spawn running around right can probably treat any non Chaos UMI as an unacceptable order. So I'd say that the Greater Daemon just cut the legs out of our main AoE against the Hulk.

I would kill for Demon Emperor Shintai right now.

Shielding is unlikely. I did observe them with Sorcerers Sight and anima power. There was nothing out of the ordinary save that they had an absurd level of mental resistance.

Of course, Rask could try a different approach to circumvent either their speciality or their motivation.

Most of them will likely wish to ascend to Daemonhood or get power. Specialities are likely against psychic assaults as those are the most common.

Maybe convincing them that their fellows are in the way of their ascension would turn their motivation against them. It's at least worth a try.

It could actually be something like "Add (Patron's) Essence to calculating your MDV with regards to any action that would result in you turning against Chaos", which would explain why anyone who falls to Chaos basically becomes a ravaging lunatic and can never be turned back again (Since Space Marines are already badasses with a max mortal MDV likely, and getting an extra 7-8 brings them up to "Even an Exalt can't manipulate them without extreme effort)". It's a solar level Charm (Though low essence), but fits their fluff pretty well as being Master Manipulators who'll eventually wear down anyone (Who isn't an Exalt).

As for Alice... She's tapped out, soloing five-six terminators and then a 500 point Chaos Warband is enough to tire anyone out. She'll bounce back given a couple hours to nap, but she's not going to be launching any assassinations anytime soon.

Incidentally, now I don't need to redact all knowledge of the whole "Suddenly, Chaos Spawn Everywhere" Chaos Hax Alice took out a couple of them on the way in.

Incidentally, our guys really want squads to have a decent rapid fire weapon in the future. We came specced for armor crushing and suppressing hordes, not suppressing hordes of hard to kill targets.

Now we need to figure out where the other shoe drops >_<

For those less familiar with the warhammer point system: how big is a 500 point army?

An how many points are 3 chapters of astartes?

As for rapid fire, weren't the Golems outfitted with Artifact Vulcans? You know, the things where you hose down tanks until they are only confetti.

The average army size is usually 1,500-2,000. Beyond that, it quickly grows unmanageable.

Three chapters? The Codex Astartes states that a Space Marine Chapter should be split into 10 Companies of 100 Space Marines each, plus a Space Marine Captain, Apothecary, Company Standard and Chaplain for each company. Meaning 1,040 per Chapter base. (Assuming they follow the rules.)

So, 3,120 Marines in total base.

A basic Chaos Marine is 14 points. So, lets assume that there are nothing but basic Astartes, with zero special equipment. (No Heavy Bolters, no Chaos Buffs, ect.)

The point cost, not counting the extras would be 42,000 points. Again, that is assuming they are nothing but base mook Astartes. This does not include vehicles or armor either.

In short? We're Not Kidding when we call this a Sector Level Threat focused on one planet. The actual numbers are probably closer to 100,000.

Which makes me wonder how the other guys on the hulk are still Alive given that level of Chaos strength.

Basically, yes. 42,000 is the lowest number possible, assuming these are the worst equipped and trained Astartes ever. Nor are we adding in demons or cults, ect.

My guess? They are not worth bothering with. They are most likely completely focused on us.

That, or the Imperials somehow have Creed, the Tanith 1st, Eisenhorn, and the HERO OF THE IMPERIUM! on board.

in which case I vote we just build a engine on Earth and run the fuck away

I guess the chaos forces figure the orks and tyranids will cause more problems for you than for them, and they don't want to push through the 'nids to get to the imperials.

Maybe CSMs can do something akin to an uncontrolled limit break to get their willpower over 10?

Well, you know that picture where a Baneblade is hiding behind a streetlamp? Solar Generals can do that.

Lunar Generals have this funny surprise reetaplishing Charm for armies. A Charm that also works in the cramped conditions of the Hulk where you can't expect in any serious way to hide away your entire army, and attack unexpectetly.

That's why I'm not worried about Creed unless he Exalted. Which is a possibility.

More seriously, the Imperials hiding in the Hulk are little more than naval personnel. And those are rather infamous for how hard they suck at fighting against boarders.

My guess is that they are a trap supposed to kill us even if we beat the Daemons. After all, enough Stealers attract HiveFleets. And a critical mass of Orks can attract Waaghs.

Sooo~o, Rask, if you feel up to it, can you cull the other factions a bit? Linky, can you see about using Astrology to block their psychic signals?