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[foolish icarus]

Name: Hymbaline Reach
Player: foolish icarus
Faction: independent humans
Military Upkeep: 500
Planets:
Handstadt System
- Parsis (Industrial world) – Shipyard Level 2
- Production: 2500/3/-1/-1
- Caeyan (Agri world)
- Production: 400/1/4/0
- Djel (Feudal world)
- Production: 300/1/2/1
Macrane System
- Hanabor (Mining World)
- Production: 600/2/-1/3
- Al-Yadaran (Agri World)
- Production: 400/1/4/0
- Hurin (Mining World)
- Production 600/2/-1/3
Total Production: 4800/10/7/6
Current banked resources: 0/0/0
Order of Battle: (see spending spree)

Creation spending:

Spoiler:

1 Industrial world – 6 points
2 Agri worlds – 6 points
2 Mining world – 6 points
1 Feudal world – 2 points

Spending Spree:

Cruiser
x1 800
Military Transport Fleet
x1 300
Civilian Transport Fleet
x2 400
Elite Regiment
x2 200
Planetary Defense Air Group
x3 300
Planetary Defense Artillery Regiment
x2 120
Planetary Defense Armored Division
x1 80
Planetary Defense Infantry Division
x6 300

Starting systems
KLS 6 (Handstadt) and CLM 3 (Macrane)

Overview

Spoiler:

Two centuries ago the Hymbaline Marches, an influential land on the isolated world of al-Yadaran, was conquered by the neighboring kingdoms. Some of its people reached the detritus in orbit and with an ancient starship escaped the Macrane system into the meandering currents of the warp. They found themselves deposited into the Handstadt system, and made planetfall on the largely preindustrial world of Caeyan.

These pilgrims awed and schemed their way into power in the empire of Shostoik, one of the planet's two principal powers. Only a few generations later emissaries from the industrial and only recently spacefaring planet of Parsis arrived. Several states on Parsis (a globe also in the Handstadt system) had long been in continuous conflict, and the country of Zhirey sought to enlist the forces of Caeyan as allies and mercenaries.

The wars continued for several more decades, and with the participation of the Hymbaline-led crazed armies of Caeyan and the many cold atrocities committed by Zhirey, the battles finally ceased with the capitulation of Zhirey's enemies. The exhausted and disillusioned populations of Parsis could not or would not adequately resist as the hardened batallions and devious politicians of Caeyan conquered the world that had brought them onto its own continents.

It was only a matter of a few decades before the Hymbaline-Shostokan kings, possessing the might of Caeyan and Parsis, captured not only the little backwards outskirt world of Djel but also returned in force to the world that had driven out their ancestors, conquering in short order the entire Macrane system.

For two generations the Hymbaline, sovereigns of a hundred nations, have ruled in the Shostokan style from their capital on Parsis. These wily fellows have so far handled tidily the internal affairs of empire, but in these years what does that matter? They are young and self important, and a hundred lumbering centuries of Ork or Imperial custom might descend upon this little island another ten thousand years from now or tomorrow. Hymbaline's insignificance has guarded them so far, but in the future, hiding cannot save you forever.

Planets
Handstadt System

Spoiler:

Parsis, second world from the star.
Known history on Parsis goes back only a few thousand years to a time of surly barbarian clans that roamed about vast forests and jungles, though archeology and historical extrapolation suggests mighty precursor civilizations once existed. This planet has a half dozen island-continents scattered about the all encompassing world ocean.

Up until the end of the Zhireyan wars and the Hymbaline unification, each continent was home to one or two completely independent countries, and each struggled to advance faster and project their power farther than all their competitors. The cultural and scientific achievements of these civilizations now form most of the bedrock for the modern Hymbaline regnum.

Now, the world is fairly densely populated, with all manner of accompanying technology present on each landmass. Scientists and historians speculate that long years of war and devastation curbed the extractive efforts of humanity, and some portions of the once-worldwide forests remain.

Population: 5.3 billion
Economic activities: Parsis is the manufacturing hub of the entire Reach. For centuries it was a self sufficient planet, but of late many of the formerly vast plantations and mining complexes of the continental interiors are being downsized or shut down in favor of an increasing concentration of settlement and industrial activity on the coastlines near the immense bustling crashdown and liftoff sites in the coastal waters that tie the entire trade network of the Reach together.
One large natural satellite.

Caeyan, third world from the star.
Historical investigation strongly suggests that Caeyan, not Parsis, was once the focal point of this star system. Over a thousand years ago Orks ravaged this planet, and the solution to this problem was severe: Though over time most of the scars were covered up, digging a few meters down almost anywhere on the surface shows that the planet was burned with relentless fires.
Ash shadows still adorn rock and concrete and steel, only memory of that time beyond the oral tradition of the few human survivors. Survive they did, and the green was turned. In its place, the landscape of the single supercontinent was made dun with sandstorm and grey from endless mists off of tormented polar seas.

Yet the rivers still flowed and new sediment was deposited, and when the deserts dwindled and grasses covered the vast steppes again, the humans followed. On one end of the continent the confederacy of the dignified Watermen arose. The other hosted the civilization of the crazed geometer-priests of Shostoik, where the refugee Hymbaliners eventually took power.

Population: 390 million
Economic activities: Today, though lacking in heavy industry, Caeyan is a potent scientific (particularly the social and historical scholastic fields) center of research, as well as a breadbasket for the entire star system. With modern biology and chemistry to renew its seas and lands, and lengthy tracts of fallow land still untapped, Caeyan could feed billions with both food and philosophy.
Two small natural satellites.

Djel, third (fourth) world from the star.
Djel was almost certainly shaped by sentient powers sometime in the distant past. It shares an orbital path with Caeyan, trailing 60 degrees behind. In fact, the presence of Djel in the sky of Caeyan played an important role in the the formulation of the theories and philosophies of the Shostokan madmen.

The eastern hemisphere of this planet is dominated by a central circular inland sea, surrounded by lowlands with myriad small lakes and marshlands that quickly give way to rings of mountains and the continuous highlands that cover the entirety of the western hemisphere, suggesting some kind of enormous impact event long long ago.

Be it amidst the dotted lakes and glaciers of the west or the swamps and atolls of the east, thick and exotic vegetation dominates every landscape below the startlingly high treeline. Amidst these forests and jungles humanity has been and continues to be barely a footnote, living the same simple and frequently violent lives they have for centuries.

Population: 140 million
Economic activities: Nothing of note. Djel's amazing lumber products might find some use abroad if the infrastructure was ever developed to make it worthwhile to extract and export them.
Three small natural satellites.

Macrane System

Spoiler:

Hanabor, third world from the star
Hanabor is a planet dominated by land. It has small, often only seasonal seas and wadis, with much of its limited water resources trapped in glaciers. It rotates slowly (36 Terra Standard days from sunrise to sunrise) and is all around a rather inhospitable place of terrible godless beauty.
Along the narrow band between daytime and nightime the storms pick up and the flora and fauna propagates madly, burrowing and swimming and being born aloft in unstoppable winds to eke out a quick life cycle in the dawns and the dusks before another two weeks of hibernation.

The human presence on this planet is justified by the rich mineral and energy resources of Hymabaline itself and the nearby planetoids...and the mutant presence is justified by the fact that in this place it is very hard to find those who do not want to be found.

From the northern polar region down to the northern mid-latitudes are the cities and missions established by Hurin and taken over by the Hymbaline. In the equatorial zone and the entirety of the southern hemisphere is an even wilder land of mutants and cults. Some of the Reach's most elite fighting units and dedicated civil officers maintain a near-permanent presence on this planet to keep the planet as strategically and economically stable as feasible.

Further, since the establishment of Hymbaline hegemony, some of the natives have been converted to more civilized ways, and amidst the hard baked hills and flash flood zones struggle to bring enlightenment to their bizarre and wicked brethren.

Population: Perhaps 45 to 70 million humans and mutants (human majority)
Economic activities: Mining, chemical processing, crafsmanship, trade, shipbuilding. If it requires vast amounts of empty space or a disregard for hazardous byproducts, it's done here or on one of the nearby moonlets.
No sizable natural sattelites, but very many small planetoids in close orbits.

al-Yadaran, fourth world from the star
From space, this place is pretty, but wouldn't seem to offer much in the way of a place to live. Not a very large planet anyway, most of it's surface is covered by the blue-greens of shallow seas and the browns and greys of mudflats and tiny, low-lying winding island continents. Yet across its shallow bays and tidal atolls live young but vibrant civilizations.

When Al-Yadaran was wiped clean of settlement (probably by the Imperium) a millennium and a half ago, the neglected machines of civilization rapidly fell into complete disrepair. Some seven centuries later Al-Yadaran was resettled by colonists from Hurin, and in less than a millennium built up a new thriving maritime home.

With the exception of increased interplanetary trade and an integrated military force, not much has changed since the Hymbaline exiles departed and the present. The modern day culture of those Hymbaliners that stayed behind and were absorbed into neighboring kingdoms is still quite recognizable to their starfaring cousins, and forms a socio-political bulwark of the Reach. Even those states which once were adversaries and now are dominated in turn by those audacious people from that little strip of spongy land have proven mostly complacent within the new order. Perhaps Al-Yadaran does not produce the best warriors or workers or scientists, but it breeds damned stalwart humans, and that seems to be what the galaxy needs most right about now.

Population: 220 million
Economic activities: Al-Yadaran possesses respectable energy resources and extensive agriculture production in its sea farms. A high proportion of the Yadaranese population ends up going to other planets in the Reach as soldiers or workers or bureaucrats or what have you, and they seem to mostly do pretty well for themselves out there.
One large and one small natural sattelite.

Hurin, fifth world from the star.
They huddled and they survived on their great big rock of mountains, canyons, and ice. When entire systems were made uninhabited and populations were swallowed uncomfortably literally by chaos or Orks, they went into the caves and deep domes and toughed it out.

When they came out and finally worked their ruined cities into a semblance of operating order again (and, you know, occasionally ruined them again in struggles with their local adversaries) they found that, small and weak as they were, they were what was left of civilization in this star system.
They kept fighting and skirmishing, of course, but they also settled, breathing good old human life back into Al-Yadaran and refounding the polar cities and sending missionaries to gather up and educate the feral mutants and cultists of the deep deserts of Hanabor.

Hurin has very impressive vertical relief, a product of early star system formation and the volcanism and tidal forces related to the bracing push and pull of its two moons. Deep, deep chasms in the shape of scars hold slush-ice-liquid seas crisscrossing across the planet, and in some places it's hard to tell amidst the thick damp ice fogs where the sea ends and the atmosphere begins.

The important places, however, are up higher, beyond the perpetual mists, in the mountainous plateaus where the rather chilly climate actually tends to be warmer. Here almost everything is built on a mountain, be it the sheer crags of space-scraping peaks or the nearly horizontal flanks of immense shield volcanoes. The seemingly irrational climate zones have kept societies fragmented, and oftimes nowadays entire winding mountainside paths go unused in favor of transport aircraft barges that the modern Hymbaline era has introduced. The residents of Hurin retain their own dour, insular intentions, all the while happily buying and selling from the far flung export centers of the greater Reach.

The Hurinese do not see the contradiction between planning—perhaps ten generations from now, perhaps a hundred—on their eventual unfettered return to their old posturing and rivalries, and doing their best today to uphold the well being of the Reach. After all, they went to ground before, and when this young upstart empire of their nephew's nephew eventually fails, they know, sure as the sky is cold and full of ice, that they will weather that time, too

Population: 155 million.
Economic activities: Mining, construction, precision machining, the best damn cold weather garments this side of Terra, haggling well past the point of reason, casting knowing looks and disapproving glares.
Two large natural satellites.

[Fulton]

Excellent stuff foolish icarus. Approved.

Map updated to reflect the Hymbaline Reach and the claimed but not specified systems of the Tau and Vernith.

[Niklas]

Due to fantasmo's exodus (hope everything works out well for you and your sister), and seeing the need for one in the game, I've decided to pick up the Eldar Craftworld instead of and Ork faction. I'll write up stats during the day.

[human-slaughter]

Ok Dethium System is in KLS - 3 (3 planets)
Ragnorian System is in KLS - 8 (1 Planet)

I will drop KLS - 11

[Fulton]

Niklas,
Sounds good, thanks for stepping up to take the craftworld.

human-slaughter,
As you wish. Map will be updated tomorrow to reflect your choices.

[germanicus12]

Concerning you espionage section....

I see we can recruit agents... but is it possible to recruit an agent from another race?

I.E
Race A wants to spy on race B, can race A obtain an agent of race B to use against race B?

[Niklas]

Question: The creation rules for shipyards are a bit ambiguous. Does "1 level of shipyard" mean a level 1 shipyard, or can we spend more spending points to get higher levels? In particular, could I spend 1 of my 4 points to get a level 3 shipyard on my home system?

[Fulton]

germanicus12,
Yes, you can recruit agents from other races. It isn't necessary, but it helps, a lot, especially if the target is another race

Niklas,
Yes, you can buy higher levels of shipyards. However, since you are craftworld Eldar, you use your craftworld's production to buy ships so you do not need (and cannot buy) shipyards at the beginning of the game.

You can build them later if you decide to colonize planets.

[Niklas]

Ah, I missed that entirely, sine it said "Eldar spacecraft can be built at shipyards or by using the craftworld’s unit production capability" I thought I had both. Alright, then I think I know everything, stats will come shortly.

[Fulton]

You can build separate shipyards later if you have colonies. I think I should probably rewrite that section to clarify it, it is a bit confusing.

EDIT: Oh, and before I forget, I'm going to add this too: When selecting a location, Craftworld Eldar players don't choose a system, the choose a location anywhere on the map. Craftworld can move, though at a slower right, and change their position throughout the game. As a general rule, they can cross the game map in the course of three years (one game turn)

[Niklas]

Ah, that's very good to know, I was just in the process of selecting a system.

[Niklas]

Uarthe

Located far from the action, at the outskirts of civilization, lies the Uarthe Craftworld. The Uarthe Eldar are a faction of mystics and scholars, ever striving to rediscover and reclaim long lost lore, always pushing the boundaries of their own significant knowledge.

Mystics more than warriors, they more often rely on their farseeing and psychic powers to avoid battle altogether. This is mostly out of convenience though, for they are far from weak in battle, and again the psychic powers of the can wreak confusion in the enemy lines before the battle is joined. But battle is seen only as the means to an end, a way to stop a threat, and not necessarily a thing to strive for.

While some craftworld factions seek to reforge the Eldar empire of old, the Uarthe look towards a new future, ascending and transcending the bounds of the old ways. The Fall was inevitable, and the current Eldar Winter is the time of change, the waxing of the forces of Chaos. But the new spring will come, the dawn of a new Golden Age for the Eldar, built on the vast knowledge that the Uarthe are accumulating.

Spoiler for Uarthe Stats:

Name: Uarthe
Player: Niklas
Faction: Craftworld Eldar
Military Upkeep: 2100
Planets:
Uarthe
- Uarthe (craftworld)
- Production: 5000/8/0/0
- Starting location: Between GHU-20 and CLM-15
Total Production: 5000/8/0/0
Current banked resources: 0/0/0
Order of Battle:
6 Guardian Divisions
3 Aspect Warrior Regiments
2 Armored Regiments
4 Warlock Teams
4 Eldar Aerial Groups
2 Military Transport Fleets
5 Eldar Escorts
2 Eldar Cruisers
2 Eldar Battleship

Creation Spending:
4 points on 4000 military.

Military Spending Spree (6500):
6 Guardian Divisions (120)
3 Aspect Warrior Regiments (120)
2 Armored Regiments (120)
4 Warlock Teams (320)
4 Eldar Aerial Groups (320)
2 Military Transport Fleets (600)
5 Eldar Escorts (2000)
2 Eldar Cruisers (1300)
2 Eldar Battleship (1600)

[Fulton]

Good stuff Niklas. Approved. You and human-slaughter have been added to the map. I think we'll be good to go today, though I expect a straggler or two to show up before the first update.

Dreadnought and KimzonStriker, you will need to get stats to me soon or your claim on your factions will lapse.

Everyone who has yet to do so, a description of your faction would be greatly appreciated. It can long and detailed like foolish Icarus or short and sweet like Niklas. Both are good models to use, as are the others who have posted on their realms.

[MadDogOfMI]

Very good setup Fulton.

[Lord_Iggy]

@Nik- Self reference to your avvie at all?

[Lord_Iggy]

I just realized, I don't think I bought a cult on any of my planets. What are the costs to establish one once the game has started? Or should I redo my stats? I buy a cult presence with 2 planet spending points, right?

[Fulton]

You are assumed to have a cult presence on all of your starting planets. The cult is, de facto if not de jure, the ruling body of those planets.

The buying of cults is to give you a head start on infiltrating other players...

[Lord_Iggy]

Okay, so 2 Points is used to put a cult presence on other planets after the game starts?

[Fulton]

Before the game starts. Like say, you want an established cult in the Bahmali capital world. That would cost 2 points.

After the game starts, you have to use espionage to create cults. Although warfare and other inventive ways of spreading the genestealer's kiss are possible.

[Lord_Iggy]

Okay. Thanks for the clarification.