Pipeworks II - by CleanOnion

[CleanOnion]

Round 23

RULES - SHEET - BOARDS

Spoiler for Pipeworks at the end of Round 22:

The last of the energy in the Generator's battery dwindled to nothing. External Communications shut down, followed shortly thereafter by Hydroponics.

With the Medics essentially offline, infections reached a lethal peak.

Anyone with a Terminal who happened to take a glance at the control system today would notice that all connections to the Elevator had been severed. It was gone from the system without a trace. It was still there, of course, just not under Pipeworks control anymore.

Nobody noticed the Invader's very thinly-veiled threat from above, and nobody went as far as to check if any weaker signals had been detected while communications were still online - maybe from a less hostile source.

Round 23 ends: Round 23 has ended. (00:00 GMT, 01:00 BST)

Please PM any queries to myself and Naii_the_Baf.

[cribcreaky]

So its definitely in all our best for the medics to use some medicine in their humidifier near a vent to decrease the infection rates since your group ability makes it more efficient. I don't think either us or the Cultists have enough medicine to keep the infection rates down!

[CleanOnion]

Round 24

RULES - SHEET - BOARDS

Spoiler for Pipeworks at the end of Round 23:

Old circuits, untouched for decades, flared back into life as the Elevator's arthritic joints began to creak and moan. Metal ground against metal as it slid slowly downwards, descending from the surface into the heart of the Pipeworks - yet far beyond any of the Pipeworkers' control.

The Legion, the mother of the Invaders and the force that apparently controlled the part of the surface world above the Pipeworks, stepped out of the elevator to survey their new kingdom.

A kingdom that they would rule very briefly.

After the events of the War, life on Earth had changed drastically. Those that stayed above faced hardships like no other. Those that flocked to the Pipeworks faced hardships, too - surviving on mould, living in the dark, no fresh air - but most importantly, they were isolated. With limited variation in the gene pool and the genetic influences that remained from the War, the two groups almost became different species. The Legion called them "Homo Underus".

The Legion was a territory of healthy, strong men and woman. The weak and the unfit were gone, long ago. Their doctrines were met with resistance at first, but as generations passed, those that were born into it acclimatised well.

The Pipeworkers are, of course, a genetic abomination, and need to be eradicated.

The Legion created a weapon capable of wiping out the Pipeworks in one shot. It just needs to be used in the right place.

Round 24 ends: Round 24 has ended.
If the Legion is able to destroy the Pipeworks, the game will end.

Please PM any queries to myself and Naii_the_Baf.

[kaempfer13]

With problems continuing like that we will never progress with just 2 factions cooperating. If you keep adding obstacles every round to keep things interesting only likely conclusion is a slow but sure death for everyone (or a quick one due to us not reacting to the superweapon or infections), medics have proven unable to cooperate for longer than necessary for survival and are completely deserted now presumably. Maybe if you let a new Pipeworker takeover medics interesting things might happen (or maybe an extended period of relative peace with only 1 invader faction to worry about and no unnatural hazards beyond starvation and infections), but otherwise we just keep struggling with no actions left to find a new power source until we finally fail to find a solution or are completely depraved of items.

Cultist should close the gap in P25, so that they win vs underground invaders in influence battle with our help. Unfortunately we kinda wasted our medicine, for it to be effective ventilation must be turned on. We can probably activate the generator again, but will use some actions to try deal with healthy invaders that probably dont care about influence. You should also attempt to fight them where they touch your territory. They also appear to have 10 actions per round. (if they follow the typical scheme of faction with one passive, they just have almost double the actions and no influence boost, unless their speedy expansion is the groupaction)

[JonathanCrazyJ]

Surely their weapon is deployed for N15, or possibly from a generator?

[CleanOnion]

Round 25

RULES - SHEET - BOARDS

Spoiler for Pipeworks at the end of Round 24:

A bomb stuffed full of Medicine detonated somewhere that had not yet tasted the substance's effect, resulting in an effective - albeit temporary, as always - reduce in the rate of infections.

Almost directly after the infections alert had dropped, a new one was raised - the food level had dropped below a level the Pipeworks system deemed acceptable.

Two parties made leaps and bounds towards their goal as destruction, on multiple fronts, inches ever closer.

Round 25 ends: Round 25 has ended.
If the Legion is able to destroy the Pipeworks, the game will end.

Please PM any queries to myself and Naii_the_Baf.

[CleanOnion]

Round 26

RULES - SHEET - BOARDS

Spoiler for Pipeworks at the end of Round 25:

Two factions continued their slow encroach on the Legion's invasion. The Legion did what they could, and almost made it, but they were thwarted at the last second.

Food continued to dwindle, and despite protests from the population (which were met with desperate reassurances that everything was going to be okay), no more was produced. At the current consumption rate, in fact, the Pipeworks has less than a day left before it starves.

Meanwhile, an unchecked infestation of rats in the Medic's territory - a problem which they attempted to solve, but gave up on - continued the infection's ever-growing demand for new infectees.

Things are looking bleak for the Pipeworks.

Round 26 ends: Round 26 has ended.
If the Legion is able to destroy the Pipeworks, the game will end.

Please PM any queries to myself and Naii_the_Baf.

[kaempfer13]

really? constant reinforcements (also destruction of our territory) and highly increased rate of infections? how are we supposed to do anything else but firefight all the time?

[CleanOnion]

Round 27

RULES - SHEET - BOARDS

Spoiler for Pipeworks at the end of Round 26:

The Legion made one last step of progress towards their goal when, through the combined efforts of two factions, they were wiped out. As if on cue, the elevator descended, bringing with it a fresh batch of troops to try again.

The Invaders have not been idle in their absence. A foul-smelling substance began to leak from the ventilation system. Working in tandem with their mother faction, the Legion, they plan to silence you via their own methods.

Round 27 ends: Round 26 has ended.

Please PM any queries to myself and Naii_the_Baf

[Ryli]

Unless the Scientists have a solution to the Infections this round, on top of dealing with the Legion, we're done. gg

[kaempfer13]

Gonna need to use a medicine bomb (either of us but given that it doesnt decay territory after all N15 does seem ideal we just couldnt know that before), since ventilation is taboo now. With narcotics we can pretty much guarantee we stop the legion once more.
I still have no idea what the "easy way" to stop the legion is, its not like destroying the elevator terminal would do anything and the metal box in J8 turned out to be a battery instead (all we knew about it was that it "wanted to the surface", so the plan was to pick it up and give it an elevator ride, but apparently only smashing it open does anything, as CO defaulted to that even though thats not the option I picked). We have everything we need to build a Waterpump btw, not sure we can spare the actions however.
Any ideas how to purify the ventilation? The invaders apply it from somewhere, so invading them is a decent idea, but I also want you to deal with the rat problem at around R6 presumably.

[Ryli]

A medicine bomb will take 3 actions as we need to convert narctoics. We can do this twice, then we're out of Narcotics too.