One moment, the shy suns peek past the clouds, prismifying the light drizzle into opposing rainbows. The warm droplets evaporate quickly as they hit the ground. A gentle hot wind sways the giant mushrooms ever so slightly. The next moment, the suns shut the blinds, turning the sky a dark grey. The drizzle transforms into a downpour. Marble sized hailstones join the fray, bruising all in their path. The only slightly cooled wind has become frantic, on the verge of pulling some giant mushrooms from the ground. A blinding light flashes white for an instant, with a deep, long lasting rumble following seconds after. Colonists cover their heads and run to the nearest buildings, trying to minimize the time they spend pelted by sky ice.
Cold and soaking wet, Citria, Corazon, and Dread make it to the community center.
Antumbra and Itztli play chess against Zuri. Ivy, Tara, and Kitty chat joyfully while basking in the warm crackling light of the fireplace. Socks, Colgate, Kunzite, and Ore are playing jenga; Socks and Kunzite flinching as Ore pulls a block that causes the tower to tumble. Eary, Deary, and Weary are piled atop each other and napping. Foxglove, Steve, and Ycthuthrheth's drone are wiping themselves down with towels.
Ycthuthrheth's voice crackles through the drones speakers. "Sorry I had to cut the tour short."
Foxglove lifts her head after towel-drying her hair. "Don't worry about it."
Steve drapes his towel over his shoulders. "'Ts'all good. It's not like you can control the weather."
Still dripping wet, Citria makes her way into the conversation. "We could still entertain you meanwhile."
Corazon rushes to Citria's side and throws a towel on her. He then faces the guests. "Rainy days are but another aspect of L'Hatzerian life. We have plenty to do."
Dread, not wanting to impose too hard on the guests, makes a different suggestion. "No need if you don't want to. Now would be a good time to rest, if you would like."
"Oh, I'm interested in the games you all have," states Foxglove.
"We have..." Corazon looks around the room, subtracting the games being used right now from the games he knows should be in the center.
Ycthuthrheth counts the ones standing here. Itself, Foxglove, Steve, Citria, Corazon, and Dread. 6. Perfect. Before Corazon can list the available games, Ycthuthrheth interrupts. "We have the perfect number of players for ��������."
Tilting her head, Foxglove asks, "Sorry, what was it called? I only heard static."
After a quick pause, Ycthuthrheth responds, "Huh, comms system seems to be working properly. Don't know how the static happened. But it's called ��������. Or 'Conquest' in the official tongue. It's a game from my home."
"How's it played?" asks Steve.
The drone opens, a metallic hand reaches in and takes out a box. It closes, opens the box, and sets out the board and pieces.
Citria, Corazon, and Dread look at each other while Ycthuthrheth gives a long and complicated explanation of the game's rules. This game requires two teams of three, and Ycthuthrheth's team has yet to lose. Maybe, if he is with the guests, Citria, Corazon, and Dread might have a chance of beating it for once. They face back to Ycthuthrheth's drone as its speakers continue spewing convoluted instructions.
"And that's it. Any questions?" asks Ycthuthrheth.
Foxglove and Steve stare with confused expressions, unsure what to even ask.
Steve mumbles, "I, uh, think it will click as I play."
Foxglove nods. "I'll ask as they come to mind."
The drone nods. "And as for teams..."
Corazon puts a hand on Dread and Citria. "Us three will be a team. I'll take the role of command."
Citria nods. "I will be infantry."
Dread faces Citria, then Corazon. "...Logistics."
"Perfect." A metallic clap rings through the room. Ycthuthrheth points to itself, "I'll be command, as it's overwhelming for beginners." It gestures to the guests, "And you two?"
Steve looks at Foxglove and shrugs.
Foxglove flips a coin. "I'll be infantry, Steve will be logistics."
And with that lineup, Citria, Corazon, and Dread work toward the primary goal: to take down enemy command without immediately taking out infantry and logistics. The exact reverse of the typical game. It would be rude to take out the guests immediately. After that, the game will be an easy win, but to make it fun for the guests, they need to build tension and make the game a close one.
Ycthuthrheth's team goes first. While all ally units are still in range, it uses Command: Expedience, allowing all allies in range to move double their speed at the cost of some defense and reduces the dice size of all actions. With that, Foxglove moves all infantry units forward, claiming all the land she could on the first turn. Command and Logistics move forward in the claimed land. Steve makes his logistics units support Foxglove's archers, increasing their range and attack power. With that, Foxglove's archers are able to attack Citria's cavalry, which are weak to archers.
Citria looks at the cavalry's HP. Minor change of plans, as the cavalry would have been eliminated if it wasn't for expedience. At the start of her team's turn, she moves the foot soldiers in front of the enemy archers, and her cavalry between Foxglove's cavalry and foot soldiers. Dread makes their units support Citria's cavalry to heal them and increase their defense. Corazon moves the command unit to be barely in range of Citria's foot soldiers and cavalry. He activates Command: Trap, which prevents any enemy units within 3 spaces of an infantry unit from moving, trapping Foxglove's and Steve's units in place. Citria moves her archers past Foxglove's units, heading as far as she can toward Ycthuthrheth's unit. The turn is ended with Citria's foot soldiers attacking Foxglove's archers, and missing.
Ycthuthrheth has to make a choice on how to move forward. It can't move straight forward without falling into the archer's trap. It doesn't have enough movement speed to move around the trap. So it has to chose between commanding the archer and logistics, or the foot soldiers and cavalry. Either option puts the command unit in enemy archer range without any meat shield. It opts to go for the archers and gives the command Hold Steady, which reduces movement speed, but increases defense and the dice size for any action.
Steve, stuck with all his units on the archers, once again boosts attack range and damage.
Foxglove is stuck on yet another choice. Her cavalry and footmen are unable to move and out of attack range of any enemy units. All she can use are her archers. She can either attack either the footmen threatening the archers, which have an advantage against her, the cavalry trapping her cavalry and foot soldiers, which she has the advantage against, or the archers threatening command. She then realizes a fourth option, and takes it. With her increased range and damage, she takes a shot at enemy command. And it hits.
Corazon watches as the dice tumble and settle on their numbers and sighs. Almost a one-shot. A single hit point left. Dread and Citria can't help but be amazed at the luck as well. Understanding that this turn will be his last, Corazon moves his command unit in between of all his ally infantry units, and sitting right beside enemy foot soldiers. "Command: Flank." All affected infantry get a flat damage bonus when attacking if the defending unit is between two allied units.
With the claimed path to the archers, Dread has the logistics units split and move from the cavalry, one going to the footmen, another to the archers. Both to improve attack.
Taking full advantage of command's vulnerable position Citria makes her cavalry attack enemy foot soldiers. Next, she takes advantage of the archer's inability to make opportunity attacks, moving her foot soldiers to one side of enemy command, then her archers to the other side, and makes two attacks, both hitting. The flat damage bonus from the flank command was enough to push it over the edge, eliminating enemy command.
The drone nods. "Nicely done!" No longer having a role in the game, Ycthuthrheth stays to give guidance to Foxglove and Steve.
Steve keeps the logistics units on the archers again, but this time only buffing attack and not range.
Foxglove makes the foot soldiers attack Corazon's command, taking out its final hit point. She then moves the archers to hit Citria's cavalry, but misses. Able to make it move again, and confident that she will take down Citria's cavalry in one shot next turn, she moves her cavalry closer to Citria's footmen.
Being out of the game, Corazon watches.
Dread moves her logistics units back to cavalry, going all in on defense.
Citria makes her foot soldiers attack Foxglove's archers, her cavalry attack Foxglove's foot soldiers, and her archers attack one of Steve's logistics units. The foot soldiers and cavalry miss, but the archers make a critical hit, downing one logistic unit in one hit.
Wanting to keep a logistics unit up, Steve moves to have Foxglove's archers between his unit and enemy units. He continues to buff the archers' attack damage.
Foxglove has her archer shoot Citria's cavalry and hits, but it does significantly less damage than expected. Then she remembers Dread's logistics units enhancing its defense, and her own attack no longer being as buffed after one of Steve's units were shot down. She makes her cavalry and foot soldiers gang up on one of Dread's logistics units. Two hits, and it goes down.
A crowd begins to gather as the game gets closer and closer to a conclusion, but the conclusion still remains unclear. Corazon is proud of the good set up that lead to this outcome. Socks, Colgate, Kunzite, Ore, Antumbra, Itztli, and Zuri have all paused their games. Ivy, Tara, and Kitty decide that they can chat more later. Eary, Deary, and Weary are now wide awake. All watching with bated breath as the units are downed one by one.
Steve's last logistics unit. Dread's last logistics unit. Foxglove's foot soldiers. Citria's cavalry. Citria's foot soldiers. Foxglove's cavalry. And now it is a game of chance between two undamaged and evenly matched archer units. When Citria's archer survives a hit with an HP number countable on a tsabhua hand, she strikes Foxglove's archer with a critical hit, winning the game.