Assume Cataphracts rules for anything that isn't specified.
You are an ant commander, with all that that entails. You are winged, but will mostly be commanding armies of wingless ants.
Terms
Supplies are Food.
Loot is Nectar.
Cities, towns, and fortresses are all nests. Nests have a size and fortification level, both from 1 to 5.
Worker ants are infantry, and can additionally improve the size and fortification of Nests. They can carry up to 10 food.
Soldier ants count as 10 infantry in combat, but consume twice as much food and cannot improve or dig nests. They can carry up to 50 food.
Winged ants fight as infantry, consume twice as much food, cannot improve or dig nests, and are more tactically flexible in battle when commanders are giving their battle orders. Armies composed entirely of winged ants move at 5 times normal speed, and ignore terrain entirely. They can carry up to 10 food.
There are no ships, but there are cool ant spies (agents). They cost nectar as normal because they need the sugar to make their brains work that way.
There are no wagons, but ants don't revolt if you strip food from the countryside. There is only so often you can do this before all the food is gone.
Queens, Eggs, Larvae
Queens can lay eggs when they are inside a nest. They can convert food into eggs on a one to one basis, and it takes one week to lay the eggs once you have decided to do so.
The maximum 'clutch' that can be made this way is 500 per nest size.
Every clutch forms a chemically bonded hatching. In game terms, each clutch counts as a detachment, and cannot be subdivided.
Eggs turn into larvae after one week. Larvae turn into fresh worker ants after one week.
Larvae can also be induced to hatch into soldier ants. You do this by feeding them 1 nectar.
Larvae can be induced to hatch into winged ants. You do this by feeding them 5 nectar.
Larvae can also be induced to hatch into a new queen. You do this by feeding it 50 nectar. You can only have one queen laying per nest, but fresh queens have wings and can be sent out to inhabit new, empty nests.
Nests
All Nests start with 1 size and 1 fortification. It takes [new level]x1000 worker ants garrisoned in the nest to upgrade to the next level of either. The upgrades take one week to complete.
The maximum level of either is 5.
Size affects the number of eggs that can be laid by a resident queen. Fortification works as it does in Cataphracts.
A new nest can be dug in favourable ground by an army with at least 5000 workers. This takes one month.
Each nest size after 3 'spills' into an adjacent hex (meaning that a size 5 nest covers three hexes). Assign each hex a number and roll at random to determine which. If two nests 'spill' into the same hex this way, their tunnels are connected and armies with access to one of them ignore all fortifications in the other. If a nest 'spills' into water, lose 10 percent of the population to flooding, but mark the nest as now containing potentially useful flooded chambers.
Battles
As the cataphracts rules. You still have morale and routs because these are weird slightly anthropomorphised ants.
All casualties on both sides are immediately converted into food for the victor, on a one-to-one basis.
Faction Ants
Factions get unique ants (duh). They might be:
- Faster!
- Stronger!
- Better at defending nests!
- Have a higher carrying capacity!
- Dig and fortify more quickly!
- Capable of limited swimming!
- Better at farming aphids!
- All the cool unique unit Cataphracts stuff.
Other Bugs
You will find other bugs infesting the country, who may be useful for your cause.
Of particular import are aphids - bringing aphids back into your nests and farming them is the only way to sustainably get nectar. Each aphid produces one nectar per week, and must be fed as infantry. You will find them in peaceful, defenceless, leaf eating enclaves. They need your protection!
You will find other bug nests, very dangerous - if you can defeat them and bring their eggs back to your nests, you will be able to have them imprint on you when they hatch. All eggs take a week to hatch once placed inside a nest. All juveniles take a month to mature into adults. When they fight in battle, they have the same odds of dying on a defeat as commanders do. The referee may choose to change those odds depending on the tactical use of a given bug.
- Spiders: Juveniles count as 20 infantry and eat 5 food per day. Adults count as 100 infantry in battle, eat 20 food per day, each attached spider allows its army to ignore a single point of fortification on the offensive.
- Earwigs: Juveniles count as 5 infantry and 10 workers for burrowing and fortification purposes, and eat 2 food per day. Adults count as 10 infantry in battle, 20 workers for burrowing and fortification purposes, and eat 5 food per day. Both can move at twice as fast as ants where necessary.
- Mosquitoes: Hatch into larvae, who then take one week and one nectar to mature into adults. Can fly as flying ants, count as 5 infantry each, cannot eat supplies normally, only the corpses of the dead after a battle. Their eggs must be deposited in specially flooded sections of a nest or they will not hatch.
- Centipedes: Juveniles count as 20 infantry, eat 10 food per day, and can carry 200 supply. Adults count as 100 infantry, eat 50 food per day, and can carry 1000 supply. Each attached adult centipede allows an army to ignore a single point of fortification on the offensive. Centipedes can move five times as fast as ants.
- Wasps: The terror, the bringers of death and enslavement. Juveniles fly, count as 10 infantry, and eat 5 food per day. Adults fly, count as 50 infantry, eat 20 food per day, and, when they successfully take part in the invasion of a nest, convert 100 worker casualties each into zombies, who join their army.
More to come!
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