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[FallacyofUrist]

Allright, propose a design(future design) for modifying trees to make them better for our purposes.

... I kinda like the idea of carnivorous trees that would eat any humans that come through their forest. The League would not like that one bit. That's what we call a "nasty surprise".

[10ebbor10]

It's also something that we can not do.

[Iituem]

Project: The Shaper of Many

The Queen has taken your design and set to work producing the Shaper of Many, her first daughter and the first Princess of the new age.  The core Queen design is preserved, with minor overt changes; mid-limbs moved and modified to provide a second set of graspers, fine control and dexterity adjusted to said forelimbs, to allow for more direct manipulation of physical assets than the current Queen.  Environmental resistance is sacrificed; the Shaper's sharpened senses grate aggreivously when heat and moisture are out of kilter, requiring a controlled underground environment.  Metabolic demands go up as well; the Queen devotes less energy to egg production than drone modification and sustaining her primary modified attribute; her brain.

The Shaper's brain is slightly larger than that of her mother, but the main change is personality-based.  The Queen gives the Shaper an obsessive attention to detail, improved retention, clearer recall and a sustained capacity for focus.  The Queen did not see any benefit to including the empathy portions of the Thinker design in the Shaper.


The new Princess (un-named, save for the titles of Shaper and Princess) has a relatively slow maturation process; it will take one or more years for her to reach maturity and be ready to establish her own Hive.  During this time the Queen will school her in needed information and skills, indoctrinate her in the running of a Hive, and ruthlessly enforce loyalty.  If this Shaper is found wanting, the Queen will kill her and birth another, a fact of which the Shaper is well aware.

The young Princess does show a remarkable aptitude for drone design, although she seems less enthusiastic about the idea of spending eternity in an environmentally-controlled cave spawning drones.  In these early stages of training, she is still allowed a degree of free time, which she spends contributing to the Thinkers in their project.

You receive an Effectiveness Advantage, to be spent when you will.  Long-term effects will not be known until the Princess is settled into a Hive.


Unfortunately, RL intervenes yet again!  I'm running the prototype version of my RL business this weekend, so I'm afraid the actual turn shall not happen until Monday, most likely.

[Strongpoint]

Put some thought on this "shaped" bones idea

Chitin-wooden tools and weapons
Workers posses a variety of natural tools that are well suited for most tasks. Yet sometimes something more specialized is required. Creating a specialized drone for every manual task looked like a waste of time in the many eyes of the freshborn princess. No, she knew the answer. They must do something that her mother never considered. Create tools. Sure, workers already do some crude tools but stones and bones lack necessary properties. Princess found the solution. She proposed a new type of civilian only drone: Chitinsmiths. This new drone is a simplified worker with a new reinforced chitinous armor. But instead of using properties of the new type of chitin to create a matching armor, through careful manipulation of drone's movements, hormonal releases, symbiont effects,  and other means, new drones are capable to produce pieces of chitin of desired shape, density and hardness. As a proof of concepts, Princess starts with an axe, a tool for cutting trees and humans. Long(for a worker) wooden handle with a chitin axehead on top. Axehead has a sharp chitin blade on one side and a spike on the other. (Desired design effects: Better tools overall, increased timber production, new worker(axe) subtype of unit with some additional timber and manpower cost)

I don't like it much myself, I mostly want a way to use timber, not another way to spend food.

I think the easiest way to start spend timber is a single revision like this.


Armed worker revision
Hive starts to arm its workers with wooden weapons to hit humans and parry their spears. There are no centralized production or predefined designs. It is something workers produces in their spare time between battles. Sometimes it is a mere club, sometimes it is a sharpened stick, sometimes a flat piece of used as shield. Occasionally more refined weapons are produced like stone maces, clubs with spikes made of recycled chitin or short spears that use trophy spearhead.

It should be totally doable as revision and will give some use to timber.

[Detoxicated]

I like the armed worker improvement.

I envision our society to become industrial at one point i think if we gained bronze weapons and armour we could eadily outdo them by creating a species of factory workers mass producing cheap armour and weapons. Since we can also change the body of our beings we could create highly specialized weaponry for our guys.

Think of strong arms with many hands to hold heavy blades so our warriors become whirlwinds of destruction.
Think of helmets that gather spit to release a huge amount at once in high velocities.
Think of a standarized armor set for all of our guys.

If we stay small but increase the efficiency of our muscles we can hold heavy equipment at ease.

[RAM]

Not trying to complain or judge or anything, just sharing some thoughts.

If we can do insect robots then they can probably do magic robots. Or just burn civilians. It is not a bad idea but it is not necessarily going to outcompete The Plague.

I do not get the impression that we are overly swift. "Whirlwind of destruction" implies speed to me. I wonder if perhaps we would be better off with novelty-sized hammers for smooshing vermin... Or perhaps some sort of sticky tether, or hooked or looped or tangling or something... It could latch onto a food and pull it into our ranks for a "divided they fall" effect... At the lest it would probably be more effective to get big swords rather than numerous swords to take advantage of longer weapons obtaining more speed at the far end...

Metals tend to do poorly when in contact with acids, and we can make carapace helmets for the same effect. Unless they are disposable/replaceable helmets that are used as some sort of acid-filled pressure-rocket? They could probably be treated with something to last a little while...

Standardised armour is sort of a bad thing. Everyone knows exactly where the weak points are. It is great for production and reliability of unit cohesion, but the former is massively inferior to the ease of carapace production and the latter only applies when you have human civilians all making their own armour set, carapace is consistent enough that we won't be having issues that one would have if everyone is stealing each other's sauce-pans to use as helmets and one guy has half-a-door strapped to his chest and another is wearing a few layers of old leather aprons while the next has nothing... Armour certainly could help, especially against arrows and javelins, but carapace will almost certainly always be much much much cheaper than anything else for the protection it provides, and we can make it thicker if we need more. The only real advantage I can see to metal armour is reducing bulk or being discarded.

Being small implies being light, and being light while carrying something heavy tends to result in flipping over. We could try something like counter-weights so that the centre-of-gravity is always near the wielder, but, well, it is difficult...

[Iituem]

Year 305

Hinting at further changes within the League itself, the League deploys many more trained spearmen than slaves this year.  The Hive seems to have produced no truly new designs this year, but a larger number of the cat-sized acid-vomiting 'hunters' are spawned this year, moving faster than before and possessing much smoother, less clunky chitin armour.

The Hive pushed forward with devastating effect this year on all fronts, though narrowly on the third front; had they not redeployed the spitters to pushing the line back to Nippi, the additional troops sent from Kroton to defend the town's border would have been enough to push the Hive back.  As it was, the spitters prove to be a deadly retort.  The fort of Oracuse is lost, and the 2nd front pushes to the very border of Kydessos.

All three fronts push back; the 1st Front to the Epidaean Coast, the 2nd front to the border of Kydessos, the 3rd front to the walls of Nippi, a 2nd level Fortification.

It is now the Design Phase.  You have 5 dice remaining.

Spoiler: Front Report (click to show/hide)

1st Front

1st Front [Hive 1st Front vs League 1st Front]

200 fortification power vs 13 siege power.

Territorial Control: 915 vs 199.1

Hive 1st Front
  169 soldiers
  674 workers
  0 spitters
  72 hunters
1399 manpower spent, 37 soldiers, 101 hunters, 911 workers reinforced.
Hive 1st Front Deaths: [artillery] 1 soldiers, 60 workers, 5 hunters, [ranged] 5 workers, [charge] 1 soldiers, 57 workers, 2 hunters, [skirmish] 1 soldiers, 39 workers, 4 hunters, [melee] 11 soldiers, 342 workers, 22 hunters

League 1st Front
  0 skirmishers
  0 bowmen
  9 hoplites
  0 cavalry
  0 ballistae
  2 apprentices
  0 mages
  0 spearmen
  0 slaves
  0 aphrokema
918 manpower spent, 9 skirmishers, 16 hoplites, 6 cavalry, 0 ballistae, 3 apprentices, 189 spearmen, 843 slaves, 0 mages reinforced.
League 1st Front Deaths: [charge] 5 skirmishers, 5 hoplites, 1 cavalry, 1 apprentices, 70 spearmen, 421 slaves, [skirmish] 7 hoplites, 44 spearmen, 150 slaves, [melee] 11 skirmishers, 2 bowmen, 25 hoplites, 11 cavalry, 3 ballistae, 5 apprentices, 199 spearmen, 678 slaves

---

2nd Front

2nd Front [Hive 2nd Front vs League 2nd Front]

Territorial Control: 773 vs 28.0

Hive 2nd Front
  0 spitters
  123 soldiers
  607 workers
  43 hunters
839 manpower spent, 22 soldiers, 61 hunters, 546 workers reinforced.
Hive 2nd Front Deaths: [artillery] 21 workers, 1 hunters, [charge] 56 workers, 1 hunters, [skirmish] 50 workers, 3 hunters, [melee] 10 soldiers, 491 workers, 19 hunters

League 2nd Front
  0 aphrokema
  0 skirmishers
  0 bowmen
  18 hoplites
  1 cavalry
  1 ballistae
  5 apprentices
  0 mages
  3 spearmen
  0 slaves
1687 manpower spent, 16 skirmishers, 29 hoplites, 11 cavalry, 0 ballistae, 6 apprentices, 347 spearmen, 1549 slaves, 0 mages reinforced.
League 2nd Front Deaths: [charge] 2 skirmishers, 2 hoplites, 43 spearmen, 288 slaves, [skirmish] 4 hoplites, 42 spearmen, 175 slaves, [melee] 14 skirmishers, 12 hoplites, 10 cavalry, 3 apprentices, 259 spearmen, 1086 slaves

---

3rd Front

3rd Front [Hive 3rd Front vs League 3rd Front]

Territorial Control: 449 vs 51.0

Hive 3rd Front [National!]
  98 soldiers
  292 workers
  19 hunters
  40 spitters
560.0 manpower spent, 13 spitters, 11 soldiers, 31 hunters, 276 workers reinforced.
Hive 3rd Front Deaths: [artillery] 20 workers, [charge] 38 workers, [skirmish] 1 soldiers, 54 workers, 2 hunters, [melee] 12 soldiers, 493 workers, 14 hunters, 10 spitters

League 3rd Front [National!]
  0 skirmishers
  0 bowmen
  23 hoplites
  1 cavalry
  1 ballistae
  6 apprentices
  0 mages
  3 spearmen
  0 slaves
  17 aphrokema
2434 manpower spent, 10 aphrokema, 23 skirmishers, 42 hoplites, 16 cavalry, 0 ballistae, 9 apprentices, 498 spearmen, 2226 slaves, 0 mages reinforced.
League 3rd Front Deaths: [ranged] 12 skirmishers, 8 hoplites, 9 cavalry, 1 apprentices, 190 spearmen, 1213 slaves, 2 aphrokema, [charge] 1 skirmishers, 2 hoplites, 29 spearmen, 137 slaves, [skirmish] 5 hoplites, 38 spearmen, 115 slaves, [melee] 10 skirmishers, 15 hoplites, 7 cavalry, 4 apprentices, 250 spearmen, 761 slaves, 6 aphrokema

---

Spoiler: Map, 305 (click to show/hide)

Spoiler:  Current Status (click to show/hide)

==The Hive==

Production: 0/0 ore, 0/1350.0 timber
Manpower: 4724.8/7919 {2798/turn}  {2798.0 reinforced last turn.}

Menotos [Hive]: [Queen] 4 base food
  Sends 2798 manpower to Hive Node 1.
Nippan Woods [Hive]: 4 base timber
Kydessan Woods [Hive]: 2 base timber

Hive 1st Front
  169 soldiers
  674 workers
  0 spitters
  72 hunters
1399 manpower spent, 37 soldiers, 101 hunters, 911 workers reinforced.
Hive 1st Front Deaths: [artillery] 1 soldiers, 60 workers, 5 hunters, [ranged] 5 workers, [charge] 1 soldiers, 57 workers, 2 hunters, [skirmish] 1 soldiers, 39 workers, 4 hunters, [melee] 11 soldiers, 342 workers, 22 hunters

Hive 2nd Front
  0 spitters
  123 soldiers
  607 workers
  43 hunters
839 manpower spent, 22 soldiers, 61 hunters, 546 workers reinforced.
Hive 2nd Front Deaths: [artillery] 21 workers, 1 hunters, [charge] 56 workers, 1 hunters, [skirmish] 50 workers, 3 hunters, [melee] 10 soldiers, 491 workers, 19 hunters

Hive 3rd Front [National!]
  98 soldiers
  292 workers
  19 hunters
  40 spitters
560.0 manpower spent, 13 spitters, 11 soldiers, 31 hunters, 276 workers reinforced.
Hive 3rd Front Deaths: [artillery] 20 workers, [charge] 38 workers, [skirmish] 1 soldiers, 54 workers, 2 hunters, [melee] 12 soldiers, 493 workers, 14 hunters, 10 spitters

Spoiler:  Budget (click to show/hide)

Hive Budget

Spitters   5%      National Effort.
Hunters      12%
Soldiers   15%
Workers      68%

Spoiler:  Current Units (click to show/hide)

HIVE

Units

Worker Caste   Cost: 1.1 Manpower.  Cheap and plentiful, more suited for day to day operations but a cheap and available design to churn out.  Six-limbed insectoids about the size of a large dog, using four legs for balance and possessing two arms with four-digit graspers.  The middle legs have serrated ridges that double as weapons and saws for cutting wood and butchering meat; the front and back limbs also have small barbs that aid in climbing and provide a desperate back-up weapon.  Workers possess multi-faceted eyes, with six dark eye-spots that flank the compound eyes providing limited Infra-Red light vision that acts as a heat detected.  Workers are excellent for holding and claiming territory.  Competent in melee combat, acceptable in nocturnal ambushes, vulnerable to most other forms of attack.

Soldiers      Cost: 6 Manpower.  Heavy duty drones, a dozen times the size of workers and consuming consumate amounts of food to deal even more damage.  About the size of a shire horse, soldiers have four short, heavy supporting rear legs and a pair of pincered front limbs with sharp, reinforced points and serrated edges, designed for piercing, slashing and cutting with the approximate strength of an ox.  Massive plates of heavy chitin protect the soldier drone from damage and its low, squat (if massive) form gives it a beetle-like appearance.  Soldiers are not fast, but they are difficult to stop.  Its multi-faceted eyes are hooded for protection and forward-facing for better depth perception.  These drones have two main downsides; they need a lot to eat and cannot hold territory as effectively as their metabolic weight in Workers.  Well-armoured against most types of damage, but excels in melee.

Spitters      Cost: 10.5 Manpower.  National Effort.  Drones with massively engorged abdomens, atrophied limbs and tiny heads composed of a pair of massive, globular compound eyes and a thick, barrel-like proboscis.  The spitter expectorates gobbets of slime-encapsulated stomach acid hundreds of feet away to splash against companies of troops.  Terrible in melee combat and susceptible to charges, but potent at range.

Hunters      Cost: 1.75 Manpower.  Cat-sized drones with six forward-facing limbs designed for running and jumping (although not necessarily that effective at either).  Patchwork chitin gives them some mobility and some protection, while aiming to keep them lightweight, giving them enough speed to run up to targets, strafe them, and deploy their weaponised acid-glands in a short-range blast.

Revanchers      Cost: 25 Manpower.  National Effort.  Elephant-sized Soldier drones with extended, double-jointed clubbed and barbed forelimbs.  Lower half is heavily reinforced with extra heavy chitin and optimised for smashing down gates, palisades and structures.  Significant circulatory issues slowing performance.  Heavily armoured, especially in melee.  Competent melee combatant, but shines as a living siege weapon.


Emitics      Non-Battlefield.  Swollen versions of worker drones, the job of Emitic drones is to consume food that cannot be digested by the rest of the Hive and make it digestible.  By passing grains, legumes and plant matter through their ruminant digestive system, they are able to vomit it back up in an edible state for other drones to consume.


Redoubts      Dug out warrens with piled timber supports for defence.  A level 1 fortress.


Technology

Neolithic Toolmaking   -   Drones are capable of constructing crude wood and stone tools where needed, but these are usually superceded by the natural tools of worker drones.
Hunter-Gathering      -   The Hive does not currently practice any kind of stable agriculture, instead hunting or denuding local resources for food.
Construction         -   Despite their relatively limited tools, drones are natural diggers and can create simple structures.  Can create Level 1 Forts (Redoubts).


Gene Bank

Worker Carapace      Light, strong chitinous exteriors.  Deflects close up blows but susceptible to piercing from arrow fire.  Metabolically cheap.  By default, Workers have these carapaces.
Heavy Carapace      Heavy, reinforced chitinous exterior.  Deflects blows and arrows effectively.  Metabolically expensive.  Soldiers and Elites have these carapaces by default.
Light Carapace      Based off the heavy carapace, the light carapace is formed without hardening in the nascent stage.  Infant drones therefore have soft, translucent exoskeletons until they reach maturity, wherupon hormones trigger hardening.  The resulting carapace is thinner than heavy carapace, but better shaped to allow flexibility and movement for the drone, reducing weight but still providing better protection than worker armour.

Hexapod Limb Array      All drones currently employ a six-limb configuration, making them stable if bulky.
Forward-Facing Hexapod Limbs      A form of six-limb configuration where all six limbs are legs, face forward and have limited side-ways mobility and less stability in exchange for the ability to build up forward momentum.
Double-Jointed Limbs      Marginally increased reach and flexibility, but complex to produce.

Low-Power, Endurance Muscles      Drones by default use slow-burn muscles capable of great sustained strength and endurance, but not powerful explosive discharges of muscle power.
High Intensity Muscles   By increasing mitochondrial density and adding tracheation for improved circulatory flow to defined muscles, we create a muscle type capable of much more powerful discharges than our endurance muscles.  They do tire faster, but are excellent for quick bursts of speed or power.

Open Circulatory System      An improved version of the standard arthopod circulatory system, where haemolymph (blood) is free to move between vessels through open body cavities, pumped by a dorsal vessel that serves as a simple heart.

Hypocarnivorous Digestive System         A digestive system that is best suited to metabolising meat but can digest other foods such as fruits, roots and fungi, or even milk and milk products.  Generally cannot digest grains or cereals.  By default, Workers are spawned with this digestive system as it allows the greatest flexibility in diet.
Obligate Carnivorous Digestive System      A digestive system that can only metabolise meat or similar products, including bone marrow.  While this digestive system limits food choice and is therefore expensive to maintain, it provides the most metabolic power.  Soldiers and Elites are designed to be Obligate Carnivores; they consume more food but can support more body mass.
Ruminant Digestive System      A digestive system devoted to metabolising grains, legumes and plant matter.  Food is macerated and stored in stomachs to be digested by different enzymes until it is reduced to a nutrient-rich slurry, then vomited up for consumption by simpler digestive system-bearing drones.
Vomiting      Used by Emitics.  Drones are able to vomit up their semi-digested food if needed.  Weaponised by Hunters into a short-range vomit burst, like a digestive shotgun shell.

Acid Glands      Repurposed duplicated stomachs serve as acid generators.  Once sufficient quantities of acid are produced, they are encapsulated in phlegm.  These glands are colonised by commensal bacteria that help produce acid.

Long-Range Expectoration      Repurposed mouthparts serve as a crude artillery barrel, backed up by powerful modified jaw muscles that serve to create sufficient pressure to spit whatever is in the proboscis up to hundreds of feet away.

Microbial Selectivity      The Queen can select what types of commensal bacteria drones will be born with, and in what proportions.

Compound Eyes      Wide compound eyes produce composite images from tens of thousands of photoreceptors (ommatidia) on their surface.  This produces excellent perception of motion and typically allows close to 360' vision due to their large view angle.  Resolution is not comparable to humans, so our drones cannot see in as fine detail and cannot see out to the same range.  Our drones have a comparative advantage in close combat situations, but a disadvantage at long range. 

Infra-Red Eye Spots:   Small black eyespots that flank standard compound eyes, these pits sense the presence and absence of IR light, allowing for limited heat detection and nocturnal operation.

Antennae         Foot-long antennae perceive a variety of local sensory effects, such as sound and smell.  Senses are comparable to human.

Telepathy         All drones in the hive are linked via short-range telepathy, acting as relays for other drones further away.  They do not communicate verbally or by writing.

[andrea]

ok, so we are sieging one one province, and we are close to sieging another. time to produce siege.

I think it is time to defocus from front 1, they moved soldiers away, there is no prize to be won and we now have fortifications that will help hold them back if they push again.

[flazeo25]

Agreed, taking all the sweet food is priority.

Development Cycle: Through proper cellular modifications of the drone development life cycle, new drones hatched from their eggs have entered new stage of growth, with those of base caste being juvenile form which queen individual births through eggs, the base caste are those consisting of Soldier, Worker and Hunter variants. The main difference of the drones now is through the command of the queen hormones will be flood the body of selected drones causing them undergo metamorphism.

Workers and Soldiers undergoing the metamorphism will find secluded area in which their body form larger chrysalis cocoon around them made from chitin and various proteins. Inside the cocoon their body breaks down and rearranges it's self to develop into the adult caste forms. Workers inside the cocoon develop their bodies into their Spitter form, while Soldiers cocoon grows much larger with them growing into Revencher form.

Development Cycle: (1) Flazeo25

[Strongpoint]

Hunters wrecked them. They need to do a counter design. Hunters kill more than soldiers.

I propose to skip the design phase (this is not a vote yet). I want to de nat-effort spitters, give workers basic wooden weapons, upgrade ravanchers and relocate our reinforcements. Alternatively I am ready to support almost any design that uses wood, because we are sitting on a huge

I dislike development cycle proposal because it looks like - increase cost of hunters, workers and soldiers to get complexity\cost reduction for our elite units. No thanks.

[Blood_Librarian]

If I am reading it correctly, some drones and warriors we want to upgrade will undergo metamorphosis instead of being specially developed for there task? That sounds a little... extreme.

[flazeo25]

Means the queen doesn't have to ouright produce them as the drones can be homonal induced to take elite forms. Any that don't take elite forms act as normal unit.

[Iituem]

Critical Time Warp Alert!

I missed out one of the League's fairly major redistribution orders.  I'm going to revert the turn back to my last save and incorporate it, which may make the difference for this turn.  Consider the last turn invalid until I update in half an hour or so.

Time Warp Concluded:  Some changes to troop numbers, no major changes to territorial gains/losses.

[10ebbor10]

Yar 305

Hinting at further changes within the League itself, the League deploys many more trained spearmen than slaves this yar.  The Hive seems to have produced no truly new designs this yar, but a larger number of the cat-sized acid-vomiting 'hunters' are spawned this yar, moving faster than before and possessing much smoother, less clunky chitin armour.

The Hive pushed forward with devastating effect this yar on all fronts, though narrowly on the third front; had they not redeployed the spitters to pushing the line back to Nippi, the additional troops sent from Kroton to defend the town's border would have been enough to push the Hive back.  As it was, the spitters prove to be a deadly retort.  The fort of Oracuse is lost, and the 2nd front pushes to the very border of Kydessos.

All three fronts push back; the 1st Front to the Epidaean Coast, the 2nd front to the border of Kydessos, the 3rd front to the walls of Nippi, a 2nd level Fortification.

It is now the Design Phase.  You have 5 dice remaining.

Spoiler: Front Report (click to show/hide)

1st Front

1st Front [Hive 1st Front vs League 1st Front]

200 fortification power vs 13 siege power.

Territorial Control: 888 vs 202.4

Hive 1st Front
  169 soldiers
  649 workers
  0 spitters
  70 hunters
1399 manpower spent, 37 soldiers, 101 hunters, 911 workers reinforced.
Hive 1st Front Deaths: [artillery] 1 soldiers, 60 workers, 5 hunters, [ranged] 5 workers, [charge] 1 soldiers, 61 workers, 2 hunters, [skirmish] 1 soldiers, 45 workers, 5 hunters, [melee] 11 soldiers, 357 workers, 23 hunters

League 1st Front
  0 skirmishers
  0 bowmen
  10 hoplites
  0 cavalry
  1 ballistae
  3 apprentices
  0 mages
  0 spearmen
  0 slaves
  0 aphrokema
918 manpower spent, 10 skirmishers, 17 hoplites, 7 cavalry, 0 ballistae, 4 apprentices, 206 spearmen, 836 slaves, 0 mages reinforced.
League 1st Front Deaths: [charge] 5 skirmishers, 5 hoplites, 1 cavalry, 1 apprentices, 73 spearmen, 415 slaves, [skirmish] 1 skirmishers, 7 hoplites, 45 spearmen, 147 slaves, [melee] 11 skirmishers, 2 bowmen, 25 hoplites, 12 cavalry, 2 ballistae, 5 apprentices, 212 spearmen, 680 slaves

---

2nd Front

2nd Front [Hive 2nd Front vs League 2nd Front]

Territorial Control: 735 vs 37.0

Hive 2nd Front
  0 spitters
  122 soldiers
  572 workers
  41 hunters
839 manpower spent, 22 soldiers, 61 hunters, 546 workers reinforced.
Hive 2nd Front Deaths: [artillery] 21 workers, 1 hunters, [charge] 61 workers, 1 hunters, [skirmish] 55 workers, 4 hunters, [melee] 11 soldiers, 516 workers, 20 hunters

League 2nd Front
  0 aphrokema
  0 skirmishers
  0 bowmen
  19 hoplites
  1 cavalry
  1 ballistae
  6 apprentices
  0 mages
  10 spearmen
  0 slaves
1687 manpower spent, 18 skirmishers, 32 hoplites, 12 cavalry, 0 ballistae, 7 apprentices, 379 spearmen, 1537 slaves, 0 mages reinforced.
League 2nd Front Deaths: [charge] 3 skirmishers, 2 hoplites, 46 spearmen, 282 slaves, [skirmish] 5 hoplites, 45 spearmen, 170 slaves, [melee] 15 skirmishers, 13 hoplites, 11 cavalry, 3 apprentices, 278 spearmen, 1085 slaves

---

3rd Front

3rd Front [Hive 3rd Front vs League 3rd Front]

Territorial Control: 609 vs 25.0

Hive 3rd Front [National!]
  102 soldiers
  441 workers
  23 hunters
  43 spitters
560.0 manpower spent, 13 spitters, 11 soldiers, 31 hunters, 276 workers reinforced.
Hive 3rd Front Deaths: [artillery] 20 workers, [charge] 29 workers, [skirmish] 48 workers, 2 hunters, [melee] 9 soldiers, 359 workers, 10 hunters, 7 spitters

League 3rd Front [National!]
  0 skirmishers
  0 bowmen
  9 hoplites
  0 cavalry
  1 ballistae
  3 apprentices
  0 mages
  0 spearmen
  0 slaves
  12 aphrokema
2002 manpower spent, 10 aphrokema, 21 skirmishers, 38 hoplites, 14 cavalry, 0 ballistae, 8 apprentices, 448 spearmen, 1814 slaves, 0 mages reinforced.
League 3rd Front Deaths: [ranged] 13 skirmishers, 9 hoplites, 9 cavalry, 1 apprentices, 205 spearmen, 1183 slaves, 2 aphrokema, [charge] 1 skirmishers, 2 hoplites, 34 spearmen, 126 slaves, [skirmish] 7 hoplites, 45 spearmen, 104 slaves, 1 aphrokema, [melee] 7 skirmishers, 22 hoplites, 6 cavalry, 6 apprentices, 176 spearmen, 401 slaves, 10 aphrokema

---

Spoiler: Map, 305 (click to show/hide)

Spoiler:  Current Status (click to show/hide)

==The Hive==

Production: 0/0 ore, 0/1350.0 timber
Manpower: 4872.2/7919 {2798/turn}  {2798.0 reinforced last turn.}

Menotos [Hive]: [Queen] 4 base food
  Sends 2798 manpower to Hive Node 1.
Nippan Woods [Hive]: 4 base timber
Kydessan Woods [Hive]: 2 base timber

Hive 1st Front
  169 soldiers
  649 workers
  0 spitters
  70 hunters
1399 manpower spent, 37 soldiers, 101 hunters, 911 workers reinforced.
Hive 1st Front Deaths: [artillery] 1 soldiers, 60 workers, 5 hunters, [ranged] 5 workers, [charge] 1 soldiers, 61 workers, 2 hunters, [skirmish] 1 soldiers, 45 workers, 5 hunters, [melee] 11 soldiers, 357 workers, 23 hunters

Hive 2nd Front
  0 spitters
  122 soldiers
  572 workers
  41 hunters
839 manpower spent, 22 soldiers, 61 hunters, 546 workers reinforced.
Hive 2nd Front Deaths: [artillery] 21 workers, 1 hunters, [charge] 61 workers, 1 hunters, [skirmish] 55 workers, 4 hunters, [melee] 11 soldiers, 516 workers, 20 hunters

Hive 3rd Front [National!]
  102 soldiers
  441 workers
  23 hunters
  43 spitters
560.0 manpower spent, 13 spitters, 11 soldiers, 31 hunters, 276 workers reinforced.
Hive 3rd Front Deaths: [artillery] 20 workers, [charge] 29 workers, [skirmish] 48 workers, 2 hunters, [melee] 9 soldiers, 359 workers, 10 hunters, 7 spitters

Spoiler:  Budget (click to show/hide)

Hive Budget

Spitters   5%      National Effort.
Hunters      12%
Soldiers   15%
Workers      68%

Spoiler:  Current Units (click to show/hide)

HIVE

Units

Worker Caste   Cost: 1.1 Manpower.  Cheap and plentiful, more suited for day to day operations but a cheap and available design to churn out.  Six-limbed insectoids about the size of a large dog, using four legs for balance and possessing two arms with four-digit graspers.  The middle legs have serrated ridges that double as weapons and saws for cutting wood and butchering meat; the front and back limbs also have small barbs that aid in climbing and provide a desperate back-up weapon.  Workers possess multi-faceted eyes, with six dark eye-spots that flank the compound eyes providing limited Infra-Red light vision that acts as a heat detected.  Workers are excellent for holding and claiming territory.  Competent in melee combat, acceptable in nocturnal ambushes, vulnerable to most other forms of attack.

Soldiers      Cost: 6 Manpower.  Heavy duty drones, a dozen times the size of workers and consuming consumate amounts of food to deal even more damage.  About the size of a shire horse, soldiers have four short, heavy supporting rear legs and a pair of pincered front limbs with sharp, reinforced points and serrated edges, designed for piercing, slashing and cutting with the approximate strength of an ox.  Massive plates of heavy chitin protect the soldier drone from damage and its low, squat (if massive) form gives it a beetle-like appearance.  Soldiers are not fast, but they are difficult to stop.  Its multi-faceted eyes are hooded for protection and forward-facing for better depth perception.  These drones have two main downsides; they need a lot to eat and cannot hold territory as effectively as their metabolic weight in Workers.  Well-armoured against most types of damage, but excels in melee.

Spitters      Cost: 10.5 Manpower.  National Effort.  Drones with massively engorged abdomens, atrophied limbs and tiny heads composed of a pair of massive, globular compound eyes and a thick, barrel-like proboscis.  The spitter expectorates gobbets of slime-encapsulated stomach acid hundreds of feet away to splash against companies of troops.  Terrible in melee combat and susceptible to charges, but potent at range.

Hunters      Cost: 1.75 Manpower.  Cat-sized drones with six forward-facing limbs designed for running and jumping (although not necessarily that effective at either).  Patchwork chitin gives them some mobility and some protection, while aiming to keep them lightweight, giving them enough speed to run up to targets, strafe them, and deploy their weaponised acid-glands in a short-range blast.

Revanchers      Cost: 25 Manpower.  National Effort.  Elephant-sized Soldier drones with extended, double-jointed clubbed and barbed forelimbs.  Lower half is heavily reinforced with extra heavy chitin and optimised for smashing down gates, palisades and structures.  Significant circulatory issues slowing performance.  Heavily armoured, especially in melee.  Competent melee combatant, but shines as a living siege weapon.


Emitics      Non-Battlefield.  Swollen versions of worker drones, the job of Emitic drones is to consume food that cannot be digested by the rest of the Hive and make it digestible.  By passing grains, legumes and plant matter through their ruminant digestive system, they are able to vomit it back up in an edible state for other drones to consume.


Redoubts      Dug out warrens with piled timber supports for defence.  A level 1 fortress.


Technology

Neolithic Toolmaking   -   Drones are capable of constructing crude wood and stone tools where needed, but these are usually superceded by the natural tools of worker drones.
Hunter-Gathering      -   The Hive does not currently practice any kind of stable agriculture, instead hunting or denuding local resources for food.
Construction         -   Despite their relatively limited tools, drones are natural diggers and can create simple structures.  Can create Level 1 Forts (Redoubts).


Gene Bank

Worker Carapace      Light, strong chitinous exteriors.  Deflects close up blows but susceptible to piercing from arrow fire.  Metabolically cheap.  By default, Workers have these carapaces.
Heavy Carapace      Heavy, reinforced chitinous exterior.  Deflects blows and arrows effectively.  Metabolically expensive.  Soldiers and Elites have these carapaces by default.
Light Carapace      Based off the heavy carapace, the light carapace is formed without hardening in the nascent stage.  Infant drones therefore have soft, translucent exoskeletons until they reach maturity, wherupon hormones trigger hardening.  The resulting carapace is thinner than heavy carapace, but better shaped to allow flexibility and movement for the drone, reducing weight but still providing better protection than worker armour.

Hexapod Limb Array      All drones currently employ a six-limb configuration, making them stable if bulky.
Forward-Facing Hexapod Limbs      A form of six-limb configuration where all six limbs are legs, face forward and have limited side-ways mobility and less stability in exchange for the ability to build up forward momentum.
Double-Jointed Limbs      Marginally increased reach and flexibility, but complex to produce.

Low-Power, Endurance Muscles      Drones by default use slow-burn muscles capable of great sustained strength and endurance, but not powerful explosive discharges of muscle power.
High Intensity Muscles   By increasing mitochondrial density and adding tracheation for improved circulatory flow to defined muscles, we create a muscle type capable of much more powerful discharges than our endurance muscles.  They do tire faster, but are excellent for quick bursts of speed or power.

Open Circulatory System      An improved version of the standard arthopod circulatory system, where haemolymph (blood) is free to move between vessels through open body cavities, pumped by a dorsal vessel that serves as a simple heart.

Hypocarnivorous Digestive System         A digestive system that is best suited to metabolising meat but can digest other foods such as fruits, roots and fungi, or even milk and milk products.  Generally cannot digest grains or cereals.  By default, Workers are spawned with this digestive system as it allows the greatest flexibility in diet.
Obligate Carnivorous Digestive System      A digestive system that can only metabolise meat or similar products, including bone marrow.  While this digestive system limits food choice and is therefore expensive to maintain, it provides the most metabolic power.  Soldiers and Elites are designed to be Obligate Carnivores; they consume more food but can support more body mass.
Ruminant Digestive System      A digestive system devoted to metabolising grains, legumes and plant matter.  Food is macerated and stored in stomachs to be digested by different enzymes until it is reduced to a nutrient-rich slurry, then vomited up for consumption by simpler digestive system-bearing drones.
Vomiting      Used by Emitics.  Drones are able to vomit up their semi-digested food if needed.  Weaponised by Hunters into a short-range vomit burst, like a digestive shotgun shell.

Acid Glands      Repurposed duplicated stomachs serve as acid generators.  Once sufficient quantities of acid are produced, they are encapsulated in phlegm.  These glands are colonised by commensal bacteria that help produce acid.

Long-Range Expectoration      Repurposed mouthparts serve as a crude artillery barrel, backed up by powerful modified jaw muscles that serve to create sufficient pressure to spit whatever is in the proboscis up to hundreds of feet away.

Microbial Selectivity      The Queen can select what types of commensal bacteria drones will be born with, and in what proportions.

Compound Eyes      Wide compound eyes produce composite images from tens of thousands of photoreceptors (ommatidia) on their surface.  This produces excellent perception of motion and typically allows close to 360' vision due to their large view angle.  Resolution is not comparable to humans, so our drones cannot see in as fine detail and cannot see out to the same range.  Our drones have a comparative advantage in close combat situations, but a disadvantage at long range. 

Infra-Red Eye Spots:   Small black eyespots that flank standard compound eyes, these pits sense the presence and absence of IR light, allowing for limited heat detection and nocturnal operation.

Antennae         Foot-long antennae perceive a variety of local sensory effects, such as sound and smell.  Senses are comparable to human.

Telepathy         All drones in the hive are linked via short-range telepathy, acting as relays for other drones further away.  They do not communicate verbally or by writing.

Turn copy for comparison

[10ebbor10]

Symbiotic Bloodworms
A new creature for the swarm, it's template structured based off of innumerable mundane parasites. It's life cycle is best described beginning with the pupae  (we'll cycle back around to the larvae in a minute), which can exist in a dormant state within the bloodstream of any of the hive's creatures. In their pupal state, the bloodworms have virtually no impact on a Hive host organism.

When blood is exposed to atmosphere and begins to congeal, this triggers the pupal bloodworms to finish their morph and emerge from their pupae as minute, sluglike creatures. On a Hive creature, these bloodworms are capable of distinguishing between living and dead flesh, and will exclusively chew away dead tissue in order to combat infections that would otherwise burrow under chitin and fester. On humans (and animals) the bloodworms are less discriminant, and will consume relentlessly, devouring soft tissue.

In this mature state, the bloodworms will go through to major reproductive states: asexual multiplication, and egg-laying. Asexual multiplication is achieved through what amounts to budding, where individual bloodworms will clone themselves in order to more effectively utilize any resources they have available. When the colony of bloodworms reaches critical mass due to clone population density, the bloodworms will begin the coagulate and merge into a peculiar structure, somewhat akin in profile to a dandelion with a full seed-head, except the stalk and head are constructed from toughened flesh. Sexual reproduction occurs and fills the bulbous head of the structure with bloodworm eggs, some of which will remain dormant, and others of which will hatch, pupate, and emerge to slither back down the bulbous fruiting-body and rejoin the main mass of adult bloodworms.

In this manner, bloodworms can spread across a battlefield, an unsuspecting human, or a wounded Hive Warrior in short order. In the case of the battle-field, which changes the landscape until the ground is covered with fleshy growths topped in spherical bulbs of bloodworm eggs. For the wounded hive warrior, this can result in odd-seeming growths sprouting from injuries. The purpose of these growths is to recycle nourishment back into our hive warriors (and drones, if needed). When the seed-head is ingested, the bloodworm eggs burst and hatch, the minute larvae wriggling into the bloodstream via the mucus membranes, and then pupate withing the blood, ready to begin the cycle anew. The fleshy seed-pod itself, however, is designed to carry a great deal of the material the bloodworms consumed, and is nutritious in its own right.

Of course, any animal other than a hive creature who consumes one of the bulbs will rapidly be filled with bloodworms, which hatch as soon as they've finished pupating in any substance other than the blood of a hive creature. The resulting infestation is gruesome.

tl;dr: Convert battle-fields into long term food storage and give our hive creatures infectious blood!

Given that we researched the other thing specifically as a preparation step to make thses, I'll bring this up again.