My Little Pony C: Friendship Carries On

[BlasTech]

Friggin' finally!

I don't know about you guys, but the forum being down has been a mega withdrawal period for me!

Been mainlining PMVs and reaction videos to get me through it all

[Alabenson]

Hurray, the forums are back!

[Dalinale]

Nice to see the forum's back up and running, it being gone pretty much killed a 3.5 game I was running.

[Aotrs Commander]

Friggin' finally!

I don't know about you guys, but the forum being down has been a mega withdrawal period for me!

Been mainlining PMVs and reaction videos to get me through it all

I know, right!

Ten years ago it might not have bothered me, but a near-decade of ponythread and having the forums constantly around is habit-forming, especially, as noted, during Panto period, doubly-so when none of my mob make it.

Right, now, off to see new nephew and determine what this one will be called...

[Forum Explorer]

I've been reading some pony fanfiction lately, and it sucked not having here to talk about it. Because Aragon posted a new story, and if you haven't read any of his stuff you should correct that. But not all at once, he does have a style and it can get kinda mind warping to read it over and over.

On a slightly different note, where did the idea that Rainbow Dash is borderline retarded start?

[Aotrs Commander]

I've been reading some pony fanfiction lately, and it sucked not having here to talk about it. Because Aragon posted a new story, and if you haven't read any of his stuff you should correct that. But not all at once, he does have a style and it can get kinda mind warping to read it over and over.

On a slightly different note, where did the idea that Rainbow Dash is borderline retarded start?

Aragon is always entertaining. (Must get around to reading that new one, it's on my read-later list and unlike a lot, that one won't be on there very long...!)



If anypony is feeling like being super-helpful, I'm trying to get some impressions on some quest stuff. Basically, long and short, doing an exposition dump for the PCs, this time (rather than memory orbs or cave paintings!) in the form of haunts. Be really useful to see if they present enough appropriate information (especially as it's aimed for Nieces and their mates); got a thread here.



Still workin' on the Elf stuff, on the painting table now. Fortunately, my mate had the genius idea of doing the convention game this is for as a Dwaf/Elf alliance, which took a lot of the pressure off. Bless #im, he's even done 3/4ths the scenario. Had a few changes from the previous post; drone idea wasn't working well, so after a bit of playing around, I just gave 'em the proper PD turret (drone turret can stay for the company command tank). Did an IFV and added a weapons carrier and AAA vehicle, based of their old M113 equivilent APC.

Still working out out to add some Girls und Panzer into the mix - maybe seeing some UCDR ground forces in the moderate future...!

[Rogar Demonblud]

On a slightly different note, where did the idea that Rainbow Dash is borderline retarded start?

I'm not sure about started, but the reveal that she has a learning disability where she really only learns by accident (while flying) likely locked it in.

[Forum Explorer]

I'm not sure about started, but the reveal that she has a learning disability where she really only learns by accident (while flying) likely locked it in.

That's how she can memorize facts, which is much different than learning. There's a difference between the two. Like I can multiply basically any two numbers together. I don't have every number multiplied by a different number memorized.

[Rater202]

Also, "doesn't learn so good by traditional means" isn't the same as "learning disabled." There are different kinds of learning and traditional schooling only does one or two of those.

And the Nmuenonic devices the others gave her didn't work for her.

Rainbow learns best from passive absorption. She just does what she does and picks up information by osmosis, but most forms of formal education actively discourage such things. That's not the same as being learning disabled.

[Rogar Demonblud]

Actually it is a learning disability, since those bars are set largely by the NEA. But that's getting into politics, so I'm going to bow out on the conversation before a mod comes by.

[DigoDragon]

Nice to see the forum's back up and running, it being gone pretty much killed a 3.5 game I was running.

Aye, I lost a game to the lull as well.

Hopefully the new server is as stable as it was advertised. It was nice to see the Patreon really get funded quickly.

[Adderbane]

Glad to see everything is back!

Spoiler: Have a Kirin

Show

[t209]

So managed to get into DND on December last year. I was planning to get into one earlier but lacked friends, fear of edition changes (also forgot to check it up when 5e was in development), and not knowing adventurer’s leagues caused my delays. It was entertaining.
It was fun, but I get to be DM at home since I am the only one who read the rules.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Ah, fun times. I didn't really play much beyond 1e (rather heavily modifined by the time we finished with it), though.

CRPGs are OK, but it's not quite the same...

[Aotrs Commander]

Meanwhile, I've spent several months tantamount to writing my own edition, nearly at this point; 3.A now runs to several hundred pages. Sure, a lot of it is copy-paste, but it all needs checking over, adding to the lists and appropiate changes made...

Sorting the spells - which I'm very slowly working through - would be a nightmare without my spreadsheet (actually, does my memory fail me or was it not you that helped with that Manga Shoggoth)?

[DigoDragon]

It was fun, but I get to be DM at home since I am the only one who read the rules.

A couple weeks ago I DM'd for the first time on a podcast game. It was also the first time I played FATE in any incarnation. Bonus part: It's about ponies on a game show!

Microphones make me sound a bit weird. XD


Also also, I noticed the official MLP channel on YouTube had been doing some stop-motion animations, mostly with Pinkie being Pinkie. They're alright I suppose.

[Aotrs Commander]

Finished watching Superhero Squad for the first time yesterday (only a decade after it was made...) Think the first season was maybe better than the second, but it's been a bit since I watched the first one. Certainly second season seemed to hang a little to often on a static shot and Hilarious Sounds coming from off-screen and repeating slap-stick a little bit too long. (One feels they may have slashed the budget.) The finale was a bit of a wet plop. Given the set-up, you'd have thought they would have at least got all the major characters in to do a Hero Up thing with all of them, but no, poor Reptile didn't even show up (he sort of petered out two-thirds of the way through the episodes, despite still having one or two episodes on him earlier) until the very end when they did the everyone-does-the-hero-up thing as the very LAST thing before the credits and only a cameo in that. Little disappointing.


Also, it was not until this morning when I actually looked up the lyrics for the line about Scarlet Witch that I finally had some comprehension what it was despite trying to do so for 26 episodes.

[Manga Shoggoth]

Sorting the spells - which I'm very slowly working through - would be a nightmare without my spreadsheet (actually, does my memory fail me or was it not you that helped with that Manga Shoggoth)?

Yup - I still have the originals as well. I'm glad it's working out for you.

[Rater202]

So there were apparently going to be a comic mini taking place either after the finale or during the time skip. does anyone know if that started yet and if so if they're any good?

Or was that something I imagined?

[Aotrs Commander]

Back from Hammerhead.

Making the most of it, since this is liekly to be the last one for a few months (or more), because once again, idiocy triupmhs sanity. (The almost certain loss of Salute in April will hit all the traders pretty hard; missing likely Partizan May and Barrage in July (and Other Partizan in Septemder, possibly) is not going to do my publicity any favours, either. Have a real good mind to actually work out how to make the legendary Contanimations I've heard about, make it out of the Aotrs Overmaster Strain B virus (the skeleton virus) and then point it them at Twitter...)


Anyway, while numbers were down, the English wargamers were by and large not succumbing to the hysteria and the show was still quite busy. We only got in a bound and a half, though to be fair, we were half an hour late setting up because some twallock realised halfway there he'd not put in 2/3s of the forces being used in the actual game and we had to go back and fetch them.) But as we always say, if we actually have to play, it's a bad convention because we're not talking to the punters.

Spoiler: Dad's table

Show

Majority Aotrs Shipywards models, naturally.

Spoiler: Current progress of updating scratch-built Aotrs vessels (mostly right)to 3D printed ones (mostly left)

Show

Spoiler: Main Battle

Show

Aotrs Brief

The rekindled Dwarf-Elf Alliance between the Zirakthargûm Divinity and the Royal Elven Kingdoms has shifted the balance of power, especially with the addition to the United Concord of Divine Realms to this region of the galaxy. With the elves bolstered by the addition of the Saiyvalyss Alliance as well, It may be that our period of spacial dominance might be coming to a close. Lord Death Despoil has reminded us that, while the morale boost from suffering no loss in starship combat in the last twenty-five years has been significant, there also comes a point to where is also breeds dangerous arrogance and complacently. We are to remember that we have suffered set-backs and losses in other fields than starship combat, and that we should not allow this fact to be forgotten, nor to lay blame on any personnel for those instances, which were invariably brought by attritional losses. While it is true we have not suffered any actual defeats in starship combat, none of the victories were without losses; and those may be replaced over time, even we cannot sustain a rate of attrition forever. Lord Death Despoil reminds all starship crews to remain at the high level of performance, but to be wary that our luck cannot last forever, especially with the addition of significantly more hostile powers now arrayed against us.

However, there has been at least one direct benefit of this alliance. Our Pathfinders have stumbled across a report that the alliance has discovered what they though initially to be a form of Dwarven runegate on the world of Bârad Varg. The runegates were created by Zirakthar throughout the Xakkath Demon Wars, starting from the earliest stages. Dwarven legend places his creation of the runegates even further back in history. This is not substantiated – all known located runegates date from this period, but also has not been entirely ruled out, given the destruction of runegates throughout history, especially in the Demon Wars period. Powerful teleportation spells can allow some level of intersystem transport, after all. The presence of all the dwarf-predominant HPE-L worlds in a loose cluster lends some credence to this theory, with the further flung instances being most likely to have been erected (and/or destroyed) during the Demon Wars.

While this was itself of interest, it became a higher priority when the reports indicated that this “runegate” pre-dated the other by about five thousand years. This places it about fifteen thousand years ago, which is a significant anomaly.

To elucidate, the time period before the Demon Wars is not well-recorded, given the very primitive state of the civilisations and that the memories of gods can be fallible, especially as many would still in the early phases of formation that far back. While certainly some of the better known or more powerful deities would seem to have formed and been in existence thousands of years before that, they would themselves have been in a primitive state; the claims made that they have existed since the dawn of time is largely hyperbolic self-aggrandisement or self-delusion – especially in light of the discovery of the Harbinger probability engineering is now known. There is no evidence that any form of divine-guided interstellar transportation existed during this period (though again, absence of evidence is not conclusive proof). Certainly interplanetary point-to-point transit existed then as now, but only internal to the dimensionally-linked cosmologies that were to form the impetus for Xakkath to develop his Pathways. (And those linked cosmologies themselves appear to have been formed by HPE processes; those worlds tend to be in relatively close spaceographical locations.) So, even considering the most advanced level of societies in existence at the time of the Demon Wars ten thousand years ago, five thousand years before that is too early for this kind of significant structure even on an HPE-L world. Bârad Varg is a later colony world, not an HPE-L planet. While Bârad Varg is an HPE planet, which has been terraformed into a terrestrial planet, it was close enough to the paradigm to be involved in the Demon Wars. It possesses low background magic and had no native life aside from some primitive extremophile monocelluar bacteria, due to atmospheric contaminants long since purged by the terraforming.

The presence of a large structure pertaining to magical interplanetary transportation is HIGHLY unusual, especially during this period. Whatever this structure comes from, it is the first of its kind discovered. It suggests either an unknown culture, or perhaps even an unknown race entirely.

Given the sheer importance of this discovery, we have to investigate. Annexing Bârad Varg is unfortunately impossible at this time. The effort involved to do so would require an extended war with the Divinity and its allies to secure an invasion corridor to reach it, which is an investment in lichpower the Aotrs simply does not have, especially as it would involve us in a long attritional struggle such as the Dwarves themselves are dealing with at their borders or worse, a mess such as the Tver sector.

Thus is will be impossible to sustain long-term operations. The presence of the UCDR also makes, for the previously mentioned reasons, an extended starship operation dangerous, so our only option is a short-term effort to collect as much data as possible before having to withdraw. The good news is that the dwarves and their friends will not be expecting such a strike. Bârad Varg has a minimal military presence; its regular forces are in rotation with those on the front, so it has mostly clan guard forces. The Royal Elven Kingdoms have supplemented the garrison with some of their own ground forces. While the REN is unwilling to engage in protracted ground battles for their allies (as has often been traditional), they are willing to send peace-keeping forces. REN ground forces are, if anything, at a generally lower level that the space-fleet; while professional, they are only averagely equipped and much of their gear is increasingly out-dated.

We can assume, however, that from prior experience with the elves, the alliance will immediately realise our intention when we jump in-system and scramble to defend the facility, so we are likely only to gain limited strategic surprise, rather than tactical. Your task will be to take your forces to the structure and obtain as much information as possible. If you can defeat the garrison forces or force them to pull back, this would be considered a bonus. However, we expect the time period available to be limited, so achieve whatever you can in as short a time as possible and be prepared to retreat at short notice. As a result, the strike force will consist of a full wardroid company, supported by Storm Cleaver Wrathbringer and Alpha and Gamma Line squads and Beta and Zeta Drop squads, transported by Distant Thunder Overkill.

To maximise your chances of success, you have been equipped with the first Enrager Mk 2 wardroids off the production line. These versions have been equipped with some modified charges clamped to the underside of the Snake cassette to be remote detonated if you are forced to withdraw from the battlefield – we do want to preserve the secrets of these new weapons past their first engagement. Otherwise, all wardroid assets are to be deemed expendable.

The battlefield


Aotrs Right Flank


Enrager Mk 1s (front rank) and Mk 2s (rear rank) and six Hunter Drones.

Aotrs Centre


Storm Cleavers (left), Distant Thunder (centre), the Brig (with the two-hand sword oin one hand) and the Hunter Drone and War Droid command elements, with the War Droids in front.

Aotrs Left Flank


The Runegate temple



Khâguard Main Battle Tanks (blue) and Elven Ainaalca APCs (white), though you could probably guess which were dwarf and elf just by looking... (With a Silmanordo Talco-Otso Weapons Carrier (which is basically the equivilent of a M901 Tow, i.e. a converted equivilent of an M113) at the top of the temple. Strictly speaking, it was hovering behind the top floor, rather than on it, but it's kind of hard to get the model to do that on a fold-flat cardboard temple.)

Alliance Left flank (forward)


Zangrin Battle Wagons of the regular Dwarf army

Alliance Left flank (rear)


Gladrusc MBTs with a Silmanordo Talco–Nertë Anti-Aircraft Artillery

Alliance Right flank (foward)


Clan Guard Khâguard Main Battle Tanks (Clan Guard being a sort of equivilent to the Territorial Army)

Alliance Right flank (rear)


Dûn Kazûl Super Heavy Tank (housing the CnC) and more Gladruscs.

Almost as soon as the Aotrs forces had arrived, Brigadier Frostweaver realised this was a bad starting position. Given that the force consisted entire of walkers, plus a super-heavy IFV, all of which were two stories tall, there was no real cover to be had.

He was left with little option but to launch an attack with the Enragers on the Aotrs left flank, using the Mk 1s (the smaller, older ones) to essentially act as "meat" shields for the newer Mk2s, which had some long-range capability. The dwarves could not entirely ignore the Mk1s, for though theri weapons were almost laughable at the ranges in question, once they got with 100m the Enrager Mk1s would tear them apart.

This... Did not go well. The Wardroid's notoriously spotty command and control failed a couple of times, and the dwarven shooting accuracy was startlingly good, taking out even the Mk 2s.

(Meaning I failed more than of 7+ on D20 check, and my oppo rolled a good three 19s on his penetration roll - enough to knobble an Enrager (regardless of mark) even with their shields up. And my shooting was okay - not that Manouvre Group's to-hit rolls are hard - but my penetration rolls remained low single-digits. Plan B failed to get off the ground in that first bound because of said communications rolls. I thus failed to force the dwarves to run out of reactions (more than three per vehicle and it starts to get very bad) and the Enrager can't take more than three maximum if if they wanted to.) Even with the alliance being able to fire only about four tanks to the six Enragers (because of loine-of-sight and dead ground, which should have been 16 to 36 odds in my favour, really.)




The rest of forces held position, with only thr second two platoons of Enragers on the Aotrs right flank making a slight resposition so they could potentiall take a rush around (out o sight) to be in a better position to engage the alliance on that flank.

The Enragers pressed the assault. With sheer dint of effort, they took out one Clan Guard MBT



with a netrailisng hit and tagged one of the elven MBTS, immobilising it after it made a pop-up attack.


Even HERE luck was against them - normally, a drop from that high would knock the tank out, but it crashed down with no damage. As it was behind a ridge and only armed with the lazer cannon, though, it was still out of the fight.



The cost to the Enragers was severe, however.


The Brigadier came to the conclusion this was a lost cause.

(Also, it was about time to pack-up at this point.)

However, he had one last chance to do SOMETHING. One of the Hunter Drones on the right flank finally managed to get itself in position to scan the temple. It managed to pass the position on to the waiting Storm Cleaver walkers at the rear (though it did not send it to the platoon commander. Stupid drone!) which enabled the Storm Cleaver to dump a load of frost bombs onto the temple. This essentially was just a smokescreen of mist - but of course frost bomb mist tends to freeze livign creatures, meaning the top level of the temple was getting very chilly. (Though the Alliance had NOT placed anyone there.)

The Hunter Drone Command unit managed ot handshake through to get the drone to sensor lock the interior level, and pass this on to the Storm Cleaver platoon commander. He dropped another couple of frost bombs on the temple and (because the Hunter Drone failed to do so), sent the location lock to Captain Flarescourge and the infantry in the Distant Thunder. Flarescourge used Gate X to open a gate right into the temple level, and the infantry scuttled through. On the Brigadier's direct orders, the infantry performed a single quick scan, and then dashed back inside the Distant Thunder, Flarscourge dropping the Gate. Having gotten as much as he thought feasible, the Brig then prdered the retreat in good order - detonating the fallen Mk2s for good measure, to the visible disappointment of the dwarves.


Ya win some... But not many of the ground battles with the Aotrs, it seems.

And of course, that brings us to the oft-heralded nightmare of Humorous Pictures.

Spoiler

Show

To cover the retreat, the Brig called in a ringer from Bleak Despiar sector, after the judicious application of Enlarge Pony, Legendary Proportions, Really Legendary Proportions and This Is Just Getting Silly Proportions. Ensign Thunderpeel Rowdy Tsunami Golden Muffin Do'Hooves I (or "Derpy," as more often known - and well so, given that year she took over from Lord Death Despoil for Reasons) caused a great deal of havoc, and the dwarf side oif the alliance was terrifyed at the approach of a Great Drake sized pony that had super-strength BEFORE being increased four or five size categories (because Ponies Have Superpowers) and the Elf contingent was paralysed with awe, sorry, "awwww," and had to be treated for diabeetus.

[BlasTech]

Hope everypony is staying safe!

Spoiler: Keep healthy!

Show

[otakuryoga]

i am having too much fun atm with this app
https://fifteen.ai/app

hint Fluttershy/Dirty Harry
and Fluttershy/Conan

[Forum Explorer]

Back from Hammerhead.

Making the most of it, since this is liekly to be the last one for a few months (or more), because once again, idiocy triupmhs sanity. (The almost certain loss of Salute in April will hit all the traders pretty hard; missing likely Partizan May and Barrage in July (and Other Partizan in Septemder, possibly) is not going to do my publicity any favours, either. Have a real good mind to actually work out how to make the legendary Contanimations I've heard about, make it out of the Aotrs Overmaster Strain B virus (the skeleton virus) and then point it them at Twitter...)


Anyway, while numbers were down, the English wargamers were by and large not succumbing to the hysteria and the show was still quite busy. We only got in a bound and a half, though to be fair, we were half an hour late setting up because some twallock realised halfway there he'd not put in 2/3s of the forces being used in the actual game and we had to go back and fetch them.) But as we always say, if we actually have to play, it's a bad convention because we're not talking to the punters.

Spoiler: Dad's table

Show

Majority Aotrs Shipywards models, naturally.

Spoiler: Current progress of updating scratch-built Aotrs vessels (mostly right)to 3D printed ones (mostly left)

Show

Spoiler: Main Battle

Show

Aotrs Brief

The rekindled Dwarf-Elf Alliance between the Zirakthargûm Divinity and the Royal Elven Kingdoms has shifted the balance of power, especially with the addition to the United Concord of Divine Realms to this region of the galaxy. With the elves bolstered by the addition of the Saiyvalyss Alliance as well, It may be that our period of spacial dominance might be coming to a close. Lord Death Despoil has reminded us that, while the morale boost from suffering no loss in starship combat in the last twenty-five years has been significant, there also comes a point to where is also breeds dangerous arrogance and complacently. We are to remember that we have suffered set-backs and losses in other fields than starship combat, and that we should not allow this fact to be forgotten, nor to lay blame on any personnel for those instances, which were invariably brought by attritional losses. While it is true we have not suffered any actual defeats in starship combat, none of the victories were without losses; and those may be replaced over time, even we cannot sustain a rate of attrition forever. Lord Death Despoil reminds all starship crews to remain at the high level of performance, but to be wary that our luck cannot last forever, especially with the addition of significantly more hostile powers now arrayed against us.

However, there has been at least one direct benefit of this alliance. Our Pathfinders have stumbled across a report that the alliance has discovered what they though initially to be a form of Dwarven runegate on the world of Bârad Varg. The runegates were created by Zirakthar throughout the Xakkath Demon Wars, starting from the earliest stages. Dwarven legend places his creation of the runegates even further back in history. This is not substantiated – all known located runegates date from this period, but also has not been entirely ruled out, given the destruction of runegates throughout history, especially in the Demon Wars period. Powerful teleportation spells can allow some level of intersystem transport, after all. The presence of all the dwarf-predominant HPE-L worlds in a loose cluster lends some credence to this theory, with the further flung instances being most likely to have been erected (and/or destroyed) during the Demon Wars.

While this was itself of interest, it became a higher priority when the reports indicated that this “runegate” pre-dated the other by about five thousand years. This places it about fifteen thousand years ago, which is a significant anomaly.

To elucidate, the time period before the Demon Wars is not well-recorded, given the very primitive state of the civilisations and that the memories of gods can be fallible, especially as many would still in the early phases of formation that far back. While certainly some of the better known or more powerful deities would seem to have formed and been in existence thousands of years before that, they would themselves have been in a primitive state; the claims made that they have existed since the dawn of time is largely hyperbolic self-aggrandisement or self-delusion – especially in light of the discovery of the Harbinger probability engineering is now known. There is no evidence that any form of divine-guided interstellar transportation existed during this period (though again, absence of evidence is not conclusive proof). Certainly interplanetary point-to-point transit existed then as now, but only internal to the dimensionally-linked cosmologies that were to form the impetus for Xakkath to develop his Pathways. (And those linked cosmologies themselves appear to have been formed by HPE processes; those worlds tend to be in relatively close spaceographical locations.) So, even considering the most advanced level of societies in existence at the time of the Demon Wars ten thousand years ago, five thousand years before that is too early for this kind of significant structure even on an HPE-L world. Bârad Varg is a later colony world, not an HPE-L planet. While Bârad Varg is an HPE planet, which has been terraformed into a terrestrial planet, it was close enough to the paradigm to be involved in the Demon Wars. It possesses low background magic and had no native life aside from some primitive extremophile monocelluar bacteria, due to atmospheric contaminants long since purged by the terraforming.

The presence of a large structure pertaining to magical interplanetary transportation is HIGHLY unusual, especially during this period. Whatever this structure comes from, it is the first of its kind discovered. It suggests either an unknown culture, or perhaps even an unknown race entirely.

Given the sheer importance of this discovery, we have to investigate. Annexing Bârad Varg is unfortunately impossible at this time. The effort involved to do so would require an extended war with the Divinity and its allies to secure an invasion corridor to reach it, which is an investment in lichpower the Aotrs simply does not have, especially as it would involve us in a long attritional struggle such as the Dwarves themselves are dealing with at their borders or worse, a mess such as the Tver sector.

Thus is will be impossible to sustain long-term operations. The presence of the UCDR also makes, for the previously mentioned reasons, an extended starship operation dangerous, so our only option is a short-term effort to collect as much data as possible before having to withdraw. The good news is that the dwarves and their friends will not be expecting such a strike. Bârad Varg has a minimal military presence; its regular forces are in rotation with those on the front, so it has mostly clan guard forces. The Royal Elven Kingdoms have supplemented the garrison with some of their own ground forces. While the REN is unwilling to engage in protracted ground battles for their allies (as has often been traditional), they are willing to send peace-keeping forces. REN ground forces are, if anything, at a generally lower level that the space-fleet; while professional, they are only averagely equipped and much of their gear is increasingly out-dated.

We can assume, however, that from prior experience with the elves, the alliance will immediately realise our intention when we jump in-system and scramble to defend the facility, so we are likely only to gain limited strategic surprise, rather than tactical. Your task will be to take your forces to the structure and obtain as much information as possible. If you can defeat the garrison forces or force them to pull back, this would be considered a bonus. However, we expect the time period available to be limited, so achieve whatever you can in as short a time as possible and be prepared to retreat at short notice. As a result, the strike force will consist of a full wardroid company, supported by Storm Cleaver Wrathbringer and Alpha and Gamma Line squads and Beta and Zeta Drop squads, transported by Distant Thunder Overkill.

To maximise your chances of success, you have been equipped with the first Enrager Mk 2 wardroids off the production line. These versions have been equipped with some modified charges clamped to the underside of the Snake cassette to be remote detonated if you are forced to withdraw from the battlefield – we do want to preserve the secrets of these new weapons past their first engagement. Otherwise, all wardroid assets are to be deemed expendable.

The battlefield


Aotrs Right Flank


Enrager Mk 1s (front rank) and Mk 2s (rear rank) and six Hunter Drones.

Aotrs Centre


Storm Cleavers (left), Distant Thunder (centre), the Brig (with the two-hand sword oin one hand) and the Hunter Drone and War Droid command elements, with the War Droids in front.

Aotrs Left Flank


The Runegate temple



Khâguard Main Battle Tanks (blue) and Elven Ainaalca APCs (white), though you could probably guess which were dwarf and elf just by looking... (With a Silmanordo Talco-Otso Weapons Carrier (which is basically the equivilent of a M901 Tow, i.e. a converted equivilent of an M113) at the top of the temple. Strictly speaking, it was hovering behind the top floor, rather than on it, but it's kind of hard to get the model to do that on a fold-flat cardboard temple.)

Alliance Left flank (forward)


Zangrin Battle Wagons of the regular Dwarf army

Alliance Left flank (rear)


Gladrusc MBTs with a Silmanordo Talco–Nertë Anti-Aircraft Artillery

Alliance Right flank (foward)


Clan Guard Khâguard Main Battle Tanks (Clan Guard being a sort of equivilent to the Territorial Army)

Alliance Right flank (rear)


Dûn Kazûl Super Heavy Tank (housing the CnC) and more Gladruscs.

Almost as soon as the Aotrs forces had arrived, Brigadier Frostweaver realised this was a bad starting position. Given that the force consisted entire of walkers, plus a super-heavy IFV, all of which were two stories tall, there was no real cover to be had.

He was left with little option but to launch an attack with the Enragers on the Aotrs left flank, using the Mk 1s (the smaller, older ones) to essentially act as "meat" shields for the newer Mk2s, which had some long-range capability. The dwarves could not entirely ignore the Mk1s, for though theri weapons were almost laughable at the ranges in question, once they got with 100m the Enrager Mk1s would tear them apart.

This... Did not go well. The Wardroid's notoriously spotty command and control failed a couple of times, and the dwarven shooting accuracy was startlingly good, taking out even the Mk 2s.

(Meaning I failed more than of 7+ on D20 check, and my oppo rolled a good three 19s on his penetration roll - enough to knobble an Enrager (regardless of mark) even with their shields up. And my shooting was okay - not that Manouvre Group's to-hit rolls are hard - but my penetration rolls remained low single-digits. Plan B failed to get off the ground in that first bound because of said communications rolls. I thus failed to force the dwarves to run out of reactions (more than three per vehicle and it starts to get very bad) and the Enrager can't take more than three maximum if if they wanted to.) Even with the alliance being able to fire only about four tanks to the six Enragers (because of loine-of-sight and dead ground, which should have been 16 to 36 odds in my favour, really.)




The rest of forces held position, with only thr second two platoons of Enragers on the Aotrs right flank making a slight resposition so they could potentiall take a rush around (out o sight) to be in a better position to engage the alliance on that flank.

The Enragers pressed the assault. With sheer dint of effort, they took out one Clan Guard MBT



with a netrailisng hit and tagged one of the elven MBTS, immobilising it after it made a pop-up attack.


Even HERE luck was against them - normally, a drop from that high would knock the tank out, but it crashed down with no damage. As it was behind a ridge and only armed with the lazer cannon, though, it was still out of the fight.



The cost to the Enragers was severe, however.


The Brigadier came to the conclusion this was a lost cause.

(Also, it was about time to pack-up at this point.)

However, he had one last chance to do SOMETHING. One of the Hunter Drones on the right flank finally managed to get itself in position to scan the temple. It managed to pass the position on to the waiting Storm Cleaver walkers at the rear (though it did not send it to the platoon commander. Stupid drone!) which enabled the Storm Cleaver to dump a load of frost bombs onto the temple. This essentially was just a smokescreen of mist - but of course frost bomb mist tends to freeze livign creatures, meaning the top level of the temple was getting very chilly. (Though the Alliance had NOT placed anyone there.)

The Hunter Drone Command unit managed ot handshake through to get the drone to sensor lock the interior level, and pass this on to the Storm Cleaver platoon commander. He dropped another couple of frost bombs on the temple and (because the Hunter Drone failed to do so), sent the location lock to Captain Flarescourge and the infantry in the Distant Thunder. Flarescourge used Gate X to open a gate right into the temple level, and the infantry scuttled through. On the Brigadier's direct orders, the infantry performed a single quick scan, and then dashed back inside the Distant Thunder, Flarscourge dropping the Gate. Having gotten as much as he thought feasible, the Brig then prdered the retreat in good order - detonating the fallen Mk2s for good measure, to the visible disappointment of the dwarves.


Ya win some... But not many of the ground battles with the Aotrs, it seems.

And of course, that brings us to the oft-heralded nightmare of Humorous Pictures.

Spoiler

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To cover the retreat, the Brig called in a ringer from Bleak Despiar sector, after the judicious application of Enlarge Pony, Legendary Proportions, Really Legendary Proportions and This Is Just Getting Silly Proportions. Ensign Thunderpeel Rowdy Tsunami Golden Muffin Do'Hooves I (or "Derpy," as more often known - and well so, given that year she took over from Lord Death Despoil for Reasons) caused a great deal of havoc, and the dwarf side oif the alliance was terrifyed at the approach of a Great Drake sized pony that had super-strength BEFORE being increased four or five size categories (because Ponies Have Superpowers) and the Elf contingent was paralysed with awe, sorry, "awwww," and had to be treated for diabeetus.

Good show, though AotRS forces never seem to do very good on land. And I actually can't remember the last time you showed a space battle with them.

[Aotrs Commander]

Good show, though AotRS forces never seem to do very good on land. And I actually can't remember the last time you showed a space battle with them.

That's generally because they don't come out very often, because the unbroken track record of 25 years of victories tends to skew things rather a bit.

The fact they have now officially become the highest PV starfleet (and a ridiculous 57000 point fleet, now overtaking the Shardan Maruaders who are like, tech level 20) doesn't help. (Especially since I was a Stupids and instead of printing one each of the new Midnight dreadnoguht models, I printed a two Ds instead of an A and a D and the Drain dreadnoughts are more espensive and rather less general use and only realised when I was halfway through painting them...) They are noew the thrid largest fleet, which doesn't help (with ionly my mate's Imperial Japanese being slightly larger - though I don't think that's counting the designs I haven't updated for the Aotrs yet) and the largest being the 120 ship NAC fleet, which is a little over half the total PV at 32k.

(And yes, a typical game is often between 3000 and 5000 points, to give you idea of how silly it is.)



Ground-side, in this case, the terrain was really unsuited for the walkers (as demonstrated); even with some ranged capability, it shows why the Revenant Spear MBT was a necessity. (And I deliberately brought the Storm Cleavers, because while the Revenant Spears have frost bombs as well (for the temple rush plan), their launchers are the equivilent of smoke dischargers, and only have a 500m (50cm on the tabletop, since 10mm is 10m) range.
It did not help, I was unlucky[sup]1[sup] and my mate was vey lucky (for once) and we only had the one and a bit bounds (which isn't many dice rolls) so statistics of small numbers applies. If I'd rolled a 19 or two on penetration myself, even the pot-shots from the Mk1 from outside their effective range would have likely done SOMETHING.

The Aotrs have won ground-side, but not at games at conventions, typically; but as I had to repeatedly explain to my mate who was bricking himself the whole time, the Aotrs ground force is not the starfleet.



[sup]1[sup]Lot of that going around for me this week. Monday's session last week, I rolled about ten or twenty single digits in a row on my D20 rolls. (My normal D20 I use every week.) My dice-god mate picked it up, rolled a nat 20 (I nearly strangled him) in an attempt to make his magic work, but I still rolled a couple more single digits before I finally got something that wasn't awful.

(And of coruse Starfinder is SPECIFICALLY scaled so as to be giving you a 66% chance at the best of times, even when maxed out.)

The chances of that, by the by, of getting a 45% ten times in a row, are 0.034% (that's 1/29th of a 1%), which is less, of course, than flipping ten heds on a coin in a row (which is "only" 0.097% or nearly a tenth of a percent).

[t209]

Hope everypony is staying safe!

Spoiler: Keep healthy!

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Well, decided to stay at home instead of joining Adventure League.
Probably for Months, or "indetermined amount of time".

[DigoDragon]

AJ finally decided to embrace automation. Sorta.

So there were apparently going to be a comic mini taking place either after the finale or during the time skip. does anyone know if that started yet and if so if they're any good?

I've seen a couple covers, but no idea if they're any good. I dropped off the comic scene a long time ago and only seen random bits since. I think I saw the series with Luna assembling reformed characters to hop another dimension to save Daybreaker, but I don't know where that falls in the series, other than after the pony movie.

Hope everypony is staying safe!

Spoiler: Keep healthy!

Show

Dang. That needle's almost as large as my last tetnus shot.

[Forum Explorer]

AJ finally decided to embrace automation. Sorta.

I love that Rainbow Dash kept up effortlessly.


Anyways, since we are kinda talking about the virus, I got to say that it is cutting into my hours. I work at a kennel/dog daycare, and with everyone at home they don't need to bring their dogs in. So we don't need as many people to take care of them.

[Alabenson]

The virus finally impacted my work as well, my firm is having everyone work from home until further notice.

[Rogar Demonblud]

I wish that would happen to us. Unfortunately, my job entails going to other people's houses, workplaces and schools. And with people cooped up together, well, we're busy.

[Rater202]

I think I chose the best possible time to take a semester off: My school's closed for a bit.

I don't really leave home very often so I'm more or less okay.

My mom is convinced that she and my stepfather had Covid-19 when they were sick for two weeks(apparently her doctor didn't think fever and flu symptoms were a flu but didn't have an alternative diagnosis), but they're over 40, he's a smoker, and she's diabetic. I keep telling her that if they had Corona they'd have been sick enough to go to the hospital and that my brother and I would have shown symptoms by now but she won't listen.

The important thing for people to know: While Corona is very contagious and very dangerous to people 40 or older, especially the elderly, and people with chronic health conditions or compromised immune systems, for a healthy person under 40 the risk is comparable to an ordinary flu. I'm not gonna say ti's not a big deal, becuase it is killing people, but it's not as big a deal as some people are making it out to be.

Stay calm. Wash your hands thoroughly, make sure your food is cooked thoroughly at germ-killing temperatures, and don't mingle to long with strangers. If you're that scared, don't leave the house more than you need to, and if you start feeling sick and it doesn't seem normal for you, go to the doctor.

Basically all the stuff you're supposed to be doing anyway.

The worst thing you can do right now is panic.