• Member Since 14th Jul, 2012
  • offline last seen Tuesday

Aotrs Commander


Magical Space Lich

More Blog Posts90

  • 129 weeks
    Bleakbane plays Rimworld Part I (37-40; Finale)

    Part Thirty-Seven

    Day Three-Hundred and Seventy-Six.

    Right, then let's actually look at Lightcaller.

    ...

    So, what does it... Do...?

    Read More

    0 comments · 133 views
  • 129 weeks
    Bleakbane plays Rimworld Part H (32-36)

    Part Thirty-Two

    Day Three-Hundred and Thirty-Four.

    Bionic leg for Hallie.

    Oh. It was a techprof persona core, not a regular persona core. You used it for research, not starship control. Oh well. Use to learn FTL drive then, Stab, arriving back at base, guessed.

    More Lenere tribe visitors.

    Stab ordered the wall where the ship would go to be thickened up.

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    0 comments · 162 views
  • 129 weeks
    Bleakbane plays Rimworld Part G (27-31) ·

    Part Twenty-Seven

    Day Two-Hundred and Ninety-Eight.

    Okay.

    Stab would try this quest now.

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    0 comments · 124 views
  • 130 weeks
    Bleakbane plays Rimworld Part F (22-26)

    Part Twenty-Two

    ((Added "faster bio-sculpting" mod, since the 25 days thing is ridonculous. Vanilla values used, except bioregen time set to 10 days (as it was before the change) instead of 25.))

    Day Two-Hundred and Fifty-One.

    Two bionic eyes done. Navarro - your turn!

    Stab authorised four more sleep accelerators for Trocur, Worm, Oscura and Reille plus Barracuda.

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    0 comments · 150 views
  • 130 weeks
    Bleakbane plays Rimworld Part E (18-21)

    Part Eighteen

    Day Two-Hundred and Twenty-Four, several times...

    ((No clue as to the temperature thing. After much reloading experimentation, the only thing that worked was moving the new heaters to the outer corridor. No idea why rooms near the other larger corridors weren't affected.

    Also, the over-wall cooler in the dining room was backwards. Dammit.))

    Restructuring happened.

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    0 comments · 148 views
Mar
27th
2021

On the Army Of The Red Spear 010A: A Guide to the Army Of The Red Spear Part Eight: Postscript · 3:14pm Mar 27th, 2021

(Because it defeated even FimFic apparently to do this in one post...)

Devil Storm Light Munitions Vehicle

Length: 5.04m
Width: 2.40m
Height: 2.41m

The Devil Storm is a light munitions vehicle. Lightly armoured and shielded, it is very fast, though as a low-grav vehicle, unable to truly fly as some of the other Aotrs grav vehicles can.

Devil Storms are armed with a light twin-mount coldbeam turret on the front for anti-infantry and light targets. Its main firepower comes from the rear warhead turret. Typically, this is loaded with sixty Horde semi-guided rockets, but other load-outs (such as Reaper or Harridan anti-fighter warheads) are sometimes seen.

The top rack typically sports two Skull warheads, the Aotrs primary anti-armour/anti-starship guided warhead, though provision is also made for fitting two Reaver anti-fighter warheads instead.

Typically, Devil Storms are used as light artillery to support or as rapid-deployment versions of the Reign of Anger. As one of the lighter Aotrs vehicles, they are often called on support recon elements like the Scitalis, as they can re-deploy faster than other ground units.

The Devil Storm was the first vehicle of the current generation, coming only a few years before the Fallen Soul. Unlike the older vehicles, like the Reign of Anger or Vampires, it is modern enough that is has not yet reached the point where it is due for an upgrade. In light of the 2342 shield revolution, it is possible that the Devil Storm’s power core and shields could be upgraded. But as the vehicle is ideally not supposed to be engaged by enemy forces, such a modification is unlikely to be performed until there is a larger gain for the expenditure of resources.


Lord Death Despoil and Yeller

As a close-out to this project, a composite of a pair of I-don't-know-how-old* pencil drawings of Lord Death Despoil and Lord Yeller, draw by my own foul hand (and illustrating why I stick to CAD modelling, since I commit Art like other people commit crime.)

*Could be easily date to before the millenium.

Postscript

Transcript of records from Lord Death Despoil’s personal chambers, 5th November 2345

Lord Death Despoil emerges from his meditation chamber, showing visible agitation

Lord Death Despoil: Foul Skream! Alert Myst Base and send all available force to Damning Echo base at once!

Lord Foul Skream: (expresses momentary surprise, but immediately reaches for console) Right away.

Lord Death Despoil: Open a channel to Echo Fleet.

Admiral Fellbane: (taken aback) My liege? To what-

Lord Death Despoil: Admiral. You are to make an emergency chain Gate jump to Damning Echo base at once with as many forces as you can manage.

Admiral Fellbane: (startled) Y-yes, my liege. (momentary pause) That will require leaving most of the fleet behind and scattering the fleet; we’re still three weeks off the planned approach. We’ll have to drain power from several ships to make repeated jumps even with the emergency jump to cover that distance. It will mean the drained ships will be left in space with no power and it will take potentially weeks to recover them.

Lord Death Despoil: I’m aware, admiral. Ensure all nonUndead crew are transferred off ships that must be used as batteries; they are to shut down to minimum power and await rescue. Use jump points on interstellar space; that will minimise the risk of detection by potential hostiles. You may offer my apologies to the crew for the sacrifice they must make before we can retrieve them.

Admiral Fellbane: (nods) At once, my liege. What are we to expect at Damning Echo?

Lord Death Despoil: I do not know, Admiral. Be ready for anything.

Admiral Fellbane: (visibly unsettled) As your command, Echo fleet out.

Lord Foul Skream: My lord, Myst Base reports they cannot raise Damning Echo base, nor establish contact, they will continue to try.

Lord Death Despoil: (closes eyeglows) Then my intuition may have come too late.

Lord Foul Skream: My lord… What’s going on?

Lord Death Despoil: I do not know, Foul Skream. As I finished my meditation, I gleaned a sudden urgent sense that something great and terrible was about to happen and Damning Echo base. I have not felt such a strong sense… Ever, I do not believe.

Lord Foul Skream: [Expletive redacted]

Lord Death Despoil: (calmly) [Expletive redacted] indeed. In fact, if I may be so impolite, [Expletive redacted], [Expletive redacted] and, as Yeller would say, double [Expletive redacted].

Lord Foul Skream: Should we prepare to go?

Lord Death Despoil: To what end? Until Myst Base re-establishes contact or Fellbane arrives, there is nothing we can do. Contact the others and have them on standby.

Lord Foul Skream: Should I ready the fleet?

Lord Death Despoil: No. I will Gate True to Myst Base myself if necessary.

Lord Foul Skream: Understood.

[Three hours pass. Lords Deather, Yeller, Bowblast and Unlucky and Generals Shatterscatter, Lacerator and Slaughter arrive; extraneous conversation redacted]

Lord Foul Skream: Report from Myst Base. They have established the Myst Gate, forces deploying now.

Lord Death Despoil: Active feed, please, I will oversee this operation personally.

[Extraneous conversation redacted. Myst Base troops quickly establish contact with Damning Echo base, which is determined to be under attack by human forces of significant number and whose troops are pinned down. Damning Echo forces had however managed to disable a device which had disrupted all teleportation and portal effects (including the Myst Gate) allowing Myst Base to regain contact.

Myst and Damning Echo base forces deemed sufficient to handle situation without High Command intervention.

Hostiles definitively identified as Monks of the Brotherhood of the Grey Lizard by martial arts style, but otherwise who are not wearing robes and who are using standard modern firearms, not the traditional Brotherhood shuriken launchers.

Forces from Echo fleet arrive approximately thirty-five minutes later and immediately engage a series of six enemy craft, apparently heavy transports/supply ships, destroying them in short order.

Forty-seven minutes pass. All hostiles are eradicated.]

Lord Foul Skream: Report from Alpha Squad. They have secured the Core. Core Central Intelligence is offline; they’re working to recover it.

Lord Yeller: Damn, how’d they manage THAT. Must be time travel, I guess? Future technology?

Lord Deather: Must have been saving it for a special occasion.

Lord Unlucky: Me still bothered by them not be in robes. That bad sign. They always in robes, unless undercover.

Lord Death Despoil: Foul Skream, have Alpha confirm. Did they use the device?

Lord Foul Skream: Yes.

[Numerous expletives redacted.]

Lord Foul Skream: It appears to have been activated approximately three hours ago.

Lord Death Despoil: What did they do?

Lord Foul Skream: We don’t know. Whatever they did, it was erased from the system. But we can confirm, retrocausal probability engineering was utilised.

Lord Death Despoil: Which means whatever they did has always been going to have been.

Lord Deather: Explains why they were able to get the jump on everyone, you included.

Lord Death Despoil: Yes, probability engineered to ensure their own success.

Lord Yeller: I hate this metaconceptual stuff.

Lord Foul Skream: The only thing Alpha has been able to recover was the name of the program. Great Time Shade’s Revenge.

Lord Death Despoil: There’s something else.

Lord Foul Skream: “Time Shade” is spelled as two separate words, not one, like his name. No obvious clue as to the significance.

Lord Yeller: So, anyone else feel an inexplicable chill? ‘Cos I’m pretty sure we should not be doing that.

Lord Death Despoil: (calmly) [String of expletives redacted.]

Comments ( 2 )

(calmly) [String of expletives redacted.]

This in particular is a great line. The fact that you can [expletive redacted] with Death Despoil enough to get him cursing up a storm and he doesn't actually lose his composure while doing so speaks volumes.

5484409

That's our Lord Death Despoil!

I really wanted to show a little snippet of the High Command, if not in action, at least doing something, and a transcript of the most recent momentous event was a good one.

(There are a few clues scattered around the guide to exactly just what went down here, which could be parsed through, though it has been all doled out over the course of eight months and, according to the combined Word file, 73k words...!)




While the Guide to the Aotrs is done, there is a little bit of material left over, which might see another On the Aotrs article. A few more bits have to move into place, but my plan is to release the Guide plus those extras with the game stats (since of course the Guide came about as I did a release of the models) on Wargames Vault (where the Maneouvre Group and Accelerate and Attack rules are), but I might also sneak some of the relevant bits on here as well. (Excluding stuff in a tabulated format, like the full breakdown of the various Coldbeams (ranges/weights etc), since doing tables on this format is a massive pain). But there's a bit on the supercruisers, and I might well do a write-up on Lord Doomfire (the dragon mentioned at least once), we'll see. This will be the last thing for a while though.

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