Chrysalis

Chapter 863

The defensive strategy of the Colony is a brutal one. Though they shy away from attrition warfare in principle, they have been known to engage in it when the grim calculus of war is sufficiently in their favour. If you are losing ten soldiers for every ant you kill, then that isn't a fight that will go well for you. However, committing meat to the grinder is often the only avenue that the damned insects will leave open for you. The records are filled with example after example of the superiority of their defensive construction. The generals have a saying: "Leave three ants on a rock for two days and you'll find an impregnable fortress when you get back." The folly of rushing to engage the fortifications of the ants has been proven time and time again.

Their mages are well trained and strong, adaptable and with excellent coordination. The spell barrages that would-be attackers are forced to endure are harrowing. If you manage to neutralise the mages with your own, no easy task, then you still have the literal rain of acid to deal with. Their artillery ants are capable of firing the stuff a kilometre, spraying wide areas with a mist that will strip flesh from bones if given the chance. Suppose you manage to overcome that obstacle, you advance into their fortifications, likely an anthill since that's their favoured configuration, then what?

A bloody grind of a battle where you are forced to assault layer after layer of walls, traps and pitfalls, that's what. The ground will open up behind you to vomit out hundreds of ravenous monsters, rivers of acid will explode out of nowhere, bursting from concealed storage chambers and flowing down the hill, literally taking the feet out from under you. It's a nightmare, but it's not impossible. With sufficient numbers, grit and clever tactics, you can overcome this hurdle. But what have you won? The answer is nothing. You have conquered the outside of the anthill, which is nothing. All the things they want to defend are INSIDE the hill, which means the true test is yet to come.

Fighting the ants within the tunnels of their own fortress-hills is some of the most brutal fighting I've ever seen in my forty-year career. I've witnessed veteran soldiers come out of those tunnels as shivering wrecks, completely broken from the experience. It's dark, it's cramped, and at any time, from any direction, a veritable horde of terrifying monsters could burst out through the walls. Fighting the ants outside is hard enough, within the narrow confines of their nests? They turn into another beast entirely.

My official recommendation for assaulting ant fortifications is this: don't.

Establish ranged superiority and throw stuff at it until it crumbles into dust, then burn the dust until nothing remains but a puddle of molten rock. It takes a long time, requires a massive concentration of valuable assets, but it’s the only way that works.

  • Excerpt from 'Report and Theory on assaulting Ant strongholds' by Robert Stronghand.

    me, leaving me inside the small resting chamber all on my lonesome. It's fine though, my feelings aren't hurt. I'm tougher than this! Dammit… I need a diamond covering for my heart. I head out of the chamber to find the Colony has been anything but lazy whilst I was… taking a tactical nap. Construction

    thing, if not more. It's bonkers. Still, the Colony is doing it! A constant stream of construction materials flows into the site but not as many as before. As I take a look around, I can see that a large concentration of ants has been assembled toward the tip of the ramp and that some form of conflict is taking place there. It's already started?! I need to get moving! Flexing my

    Tiny? Crinis? Invidia? Where

    head towards the emerging end of the massive thing I quickly recognise

    Why didn't you wait for

    me. [We thought it would be best to let you sleep. You've been up for

    fighting start without me! I need to be here to help

    isn't all that much going on just yet. If things were getting too crazy we would have definitely made

    distance between the edge of the plate and the ramp is still hundreds of metres, too far for most monsters to harm each other, except of course, the spell slingers. Already a fiery exchange is taking

    view not much is happening since she can't do

    incredible shielding skills to

    the purpose. Thanks to the upgraded coordination cortex, each of my brains has received an additional boost to their individual working capacity, along with their ability to cooperate, giving each construct that extra bit of oomph! Yes! Come to life my shields! Defend the

    that my shields are shattered almost

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