04 Verdant Cleansed
Set the Scene
The Dark Hive starts to grow and spread to re-establish itself. It's final goal: take out the Verdant Ageis
Complication: 5 All is not as it seems
Altered Scene: 4 Normal
The Verdant Ageis didn't just raze the hive they gathered and farmed the land and kept it occupied. The Verdant Ageis so far expanded they will likely come into contact with the Dark Hive much sooner than expected.
Might+ 5 - Ekaterina uses the cloning chamber to rapidly breed a new warrior caste of Flea Hopper. Still minimally intelligent but stubborn and deadly all the same.
Sovereignty+ 1 - The Verdant Ageis is still trying to consolidate control of the new territories but the internal corruption and personal power grabs in the fertile new regions is leaving the same power struggles it always has
Might+ 3 - Ekaterina introduces a new smarter warrior leader caste but the addition of predictability seems to cancel out the additional tactical advantages
Might+ 5 The Verdant Ageis leans into its fragmentation with local security forces. The decentralized power allows them to cover multiple fronts at once, if not disorganized while doing so.
Might+ 4 Quietly observing and leaning in in her specific enemy Ekaterina develops a specialized caste of Flame Hoppers specifically to deal with the Floran's unique flammability
Might+ 6 The Verdant Ageis has an internal arms race and starts outfitting their security forces individually instead of with stock cheap supplies
sovereignty+ 6 The Verdant Ageis finally gets the corruption working cleanly with the system. entering a golden age and starting to work on technological improvements
Might- 1 The Verdant Ageis expands further the mountain holdings, spreading them out thinner than they were before
Might+ 5 - With the Verdant Ageis expanding discovery is inevitable but with so much land to conquer Ekaterina knows she cannot strike first and hold that much territory without time to consolidate so starts preparing her Fungal region with fortifications and traps as the Floran Star Hunters did before her.
Treasure+ 4 Ekaterina, happy with her defensive situation starts working on contingency plans and starts amassing Pixel friendly raw materials to be used later for rapid reactive options.
Tech advance 0 - The Verdant Ageis tries to start utilizing heavy metal armors and advanced construction techniques but quickly runs itself dry on resources and is only able to support small wealthy donors for such frivolous holdings. All this in the same year they finally stumble into the Dark Hive and must resume their war efforts against the Fungal growth.
Influence 2.5 Now known, but unwilling to compromise her military positions, the Dark Hive sends individual sappers in hopes of disrupting supply lines and key infrastructure. It doesn't affect much, but the attempt was basically free.
Influence 5.5 - pulled into an indirect war the Verdant Ageis tries to probe the fortifications in the Fungal Lands but finds no purchase.
Treasure 1 - Continuing to probe and defend before open war starts the Dark Hive starts raiding supplies, never enough to counter the casualties, just enough to be annoying and require attention
Might 4 - The Verdant Ageis finally attacks openly but the Flame Hoppers , traps, pits , and walls stop them from ever getting close to any actual infrastructure. The attacks cost them dearly, now clearly overextended for such a siege.
Might+ 4.5 the Dark Hive redoubles its defenses based on the combat data Ekaterina has collected. Hive minds are impossible to get an advantage against for long.
Might+ 5 The Verdant Ageis settles in for a long war and starts consolidation on the front.
Might 2 - The Dark Hive finally pushes out now that the Verdant Ageis is in a weak position from the long siege and takes back the old hive location, now Fungal farmland
Might+ 4 The Verdant Ageis abandons the territory to consolidate a fresh line of dense. Hoping to put a stop to the momentum of the Dark Hive
Might+ 3.5 Ekaterina considers the costs of upgrading the worker caste but doesn't want to over extend on new technologies like the Verdant Ageis did and instead focus on cloning more and more Flame Hoppers
Treasury 3.5 The Verdant Ageis on the back foot pulls in their stockpiles of materials to push back into the razed hive but the Flame Hoppers are simply being replenished too fast.
Treasury 4.5 - continuing to burn through it's stocks to fill the gap in it's fractured defense the Verdant Ageis continues to throw money at the problem unsuccessfully, the corrupted oligarchs not committing to victory enough to risk themselves and thus making victory impossible
Tech up 3 - The Dark Hive slowly switches over to proper siege equipment and heavy metal armors. totally out classing the Verdant Ageis, but also risking overextension from a technology standpoint as Flame Hopper Artillery are far more time consuming and high value to field.
Research - Seeing the mindless hive forces now sporting better weapons and facilities than the proud Floran people. The Verdant Ageis desperately scramble to keep up
might+ 6 The Dark Hive finishes refitting it's entire insectoid clone army with it's now modern medieval siege warfare gear
Treasure 4.5 The Verdant Ageis oligarchs continue the token efforts and against the now clearly superior foe it continues to fail
might+ 5 - The Dark Hive forces test the defenders with the new equipment but don't fully commit yet. still learning. Now fully aware of how the Verdant Ageis will respond and ready to strike with full technological and tactical advantage.
Tech up 1 - The Verdant Ageis produces exactly one unit of defensive trebuchet lines on the front lines and they are extremely effective... for one day until they are burned down by a Flame Hopper sapper. The Verdant Ageis can match the technology but just can't match the hives unified production output.
might 1 - All the defenses expecting those trebuchet in place fall easily to the next assault and the Dark Hive swarms over the old buffer lands between the quarry and the razed hive.
Influence 6 - The Verdant Ageis, desperate, tries unfamiliar tactics and tries to send sapper units and hunters into the field just to give them an edge, any advantage. The efforts are fully committed to by the desperate oligarchs but it's little to late and only a few token victories arise for the trouble as the corrupted internal factions start to splinter and fend for themselves.
Might 3 - The Dark Hive pushes the advantage and rolls over the quarry easily. After all Ekaterina spent years their training during her old life and so every single soldier in the Dark Hive knows it intimately as well.
Treasury+ 6 The Verdant Ageis is falling apart and the Senate and oligarchs are all scrambling to accumulate dwindling resources for themselves. Successfully, but not helpfully.
Might 2 - The Dark Hive strikes the capital of the Verdant Ageis and splits the territory in two. Each faction doing their best to survive as Florans flee into the jungle to hide
Both remaining halves of the dwindling territories of the Verdant Ageis mount a final offensive to take the capital back. relying on a prisoners dilemma tactic that the other side is doing to the same and creating a split front. Floran honor pays off and both fronts attack in a strong coordinated pincer maneuver. The Dark Hive rebukes both fronts casually and within 2 months the Verdant Ageis is no more.