TechnoGothic wrote:Don't forget the Warlocks with Elemental summoning too.
those are handy, but the warlocks won't use their elementals as cannon fodder. a shifter doesn't necessarily care even a tiny bit about what happens to the minion that was likely going to stab him in the back in a few months (if the shifter doesn't pay very close attention anyways).
great troops, yes, but not what you want for suicide missions. with my proposed scenario, you can just send in 6,000 gargoyles every time and who cares how many of them die? you can just get more anyways.
however, let it not be said that they're useless... i mean, an earth elemental can walk through the ground pretty much and just firequake from underneath without risking harm. iirc, air elementals are unharmed by bullets (or should be) so they can deal with most SAMAS in the target location while the gargoyles trash the infantry, tanks, mech infantry, etc. fire elementals are also pretty good in the air, so they'd be handy. water elementals would be hardest to put to use, but are essentially invisible underwater, and i'm sure that could be used (it's a region with a lot of small lakes, rivers, streams, etc) although dog boys would make it harder.
but really, the key with the 6,000 gargoyles (or brodkil once you start capturing enemy weapons to equip them with) is that if you send them into a trap and they all die, who cares? if you send them into an uneven fight and they kill 3,000 troops but get wiped out entirely, who cares? you spent absolutely nothing permanent to get them out there (well, maybe a few pieces of paper and some carved wood for talismans), so you can just whip up a new group of them from scratch anyways. support them with tectonic entities and such if you like (step 1: turn CS military into MDC debris. step 2: tectonic entities inhabit debris and start kicking butt!), and add in some worms of taut for good measure (the blow worm would likely be a favorite, but some of the others that aren't purely melee and/or poison), and heck, use whatever other summoning spells you want to provide support (just don't send elementals out to die, you want to stay on the warlocks' good side).
i mean, here's a simple example...
you start with your 6,000 gargoyles. using create wood and ironwood, you give them various iron weapons (including at least a few swords). you give out enough scrolls/talismans to provide the front rank with their choice of frostblades, targeted deflection (almost ideal), or spinning blades and therefore the ability to block energy blasts (give them time to close to melee) and potentially a bit of ranged options. also give the ranks behind a large supply of fire globes (20d6 damage minimum, average 50d6 over time) to throw before they get into melee. so far we've spent: a crudload of PPE, some pieces of paper, some pieces of carved wood.
then, you go hunting for tectonic entities. not terribly common, you'll probably have to use the summon and control entities ritual (if you can find them, you could just use control & enslave entity instead, mind you. on the plus side... they're not likely to die, so you can start with summon and control, then when the duration runs out use control and enslave, and build up an army gradually). while nothing says these spells are limited as to how often you can use it, we'll assume it's 1/caster (or at least that you can only have the max listed for one casting in the description). so that's anywhere from 1,000 up to potentially 10,000 tectonic entities acting as further support and cannon fodder. they can travel through the astral at mach 1, so are highly mobile, and do not need to be teleported even. for the sake of argument, we'll assume only 4,000 tectonic entities. some will start off as cannon fodder, others may likely due to supply of material to be composed of have to wait until sufficient debris is generated from the CS side of things.
ideally, scrolls and talismans would be made with TW printing presses/lathes, to facilitate mass production. again, the only materials needed can be created with nothing more than regular PPE, which tolkeen has in abundance.
allow another type of minion with the summon lesser being ritual. grab something fairly basic (say, gargoyle mages or lords, to provide magical support and possibly manage some scrolls. perhaps gargoylytes to carry realm of chaos scrolls and then hide after casting while the CS troops are ripped apart by astral enemies - make sure to not pull anything that can detect the gargoylyte when he brings them along!)).
note that the summon rituals and the control/enslave can all be available to shifters at very low levels. also note that it is theoretically possible for a shifter to know the spell, "summon worms of taut" since that is a summoning spell, and when they level up they get a choice from spells that include "any summoning spell that may be desired, excluding weather-summoning." and while it is necromancy magic, it is still an invocation. other summoning spells apply also (including sea serpents, among others).
so now we have 6,000 gargoyles, 4,000 tectonic entities, 1,000 gargoyle mages/lords, and you can teleport them in via circle of travel (note that you'd need a few powerful casters for this) or other teleport spells to nearby (this can still be done with just the shifters) and just send them in to battle wherever you like (obviously, you need to plan in advance by placing circles of travel all over for the circle of travel option).
and you don't even care what kind of casualties they suffer, because you can replace them all at essentially zero cost. find a group of CS troops that will get overrun by them, teleport, kill, and then move on to the next bunch (possibly after summoning some replacements). if they all get killed, replace them all over the course of a day, maybe two, tops. you never send your shifters themselves in to fight, or any other citizens. just send in the mooks and let them kill. if you're feeling really confident, loot the battlefield afterwards.
sucks to be on the receiving end of that, i bet.
