Part 3: Antalgic

Chapter 3 - Antalgic



So last time, we found out our mere presence retards the growth of a colony compared to the rapid automatic growth of the other colonies. If we leave this colony, it will suddenly become full of ants, so let's do that.



We head back to our original colony, which has grown to 300 ants. The game limits a colony to approximately 300 ants (it can be higher than that), mainly because the system can't handle any more ants. Right now, the game is much more sluggish, and it takes much longer for our ant to move anywhere simply because the game's so bogged down, so it takes longer for "turns" to happen.



The status screen is bitching at me to dig more, so I do. I don't think it really matters, though.



I'll be honest, there really isn't much action this update. Instead, it will be all about expansion of both sides. The human is really little threat to us at this point between us and the red assholes.



Let's see if I can encourage these guys to spread out so we can start getting footholds in the red colonies.





And murder more spiders, of course.



We expand a bit, with both sides' colonies being pretty damn huge.



...There's really not much to talk about other than the golf balls and sheer amount of ants. It's all about mixing the two colonies so we can start fighting the red ants and move in.



At one point, our home colony randomly disappears...





...and then immediately returns at full strength. Yeah, I don't know either.



When you see this face, it's because the spider has its sights set on eating the shit out of you.



Fortunately, I lucked the hell out and escaped in time for my sisters to rip its fucking legs out and beat its lifeless corpse with them.



The red ants have already cracked into the house, the jerks.



Aha! Our first real battlefield!



It's...not looking too good for our side right now.



I use a pebble to block the only hole to the queen. She won't starve for a long time, and really the goal here isn't so much to expand my colony (else my mere presence will damn them terribly) but to defeat the red queen and cause the red ants to die out.



Thus I decide to make a break for their camp with the intent to block their nest with pebbles. You see, the yellow ant is the only one smart enough to pick up pebbles, as they confound black and red ants alike.



Of course, the problem is reaching the nest when there's close to 200 red ants wandering around.





At last, I finally reach the red ant nest. Now to





FUCK



Well, let's go Soldier and destroy them.



Unfortunately, I need to remove this pebble to get out, but we'll just put it right back and-



OH DAMMIT





FUCK FUCK FUCK

Yeah, the red ants have busted in. After a death or two trying to protect the queen...



I am reborn only to immediately die. It's actually pretty hilarious and depressing that I don't even get to live two seconds before being torn apart by my foes. Such are the atrocities of war, especially in the insect kingdom where we are being encouraged to destroy newborns and the unborn alike, all for our fat fuck mother.





Oh, nevermind, the queen's dead.



If you die without a queen, you still spawn as normal despite there being nothing to give birth to you.



But a short time after your queen dies, you're kicked out of the area and have to relocate.



So this is where we're at. Even if we do get a foothold in their colony, we can't do much against their sheer numbers.



So really, we just have to protect ourselves for the time being by ripping invaders apart with our massive numbers.



Eventually, one of our colonies is invaded. Time to take it out!



...I think we've got this one.







The red ant nest is still small and immature. Ripe for the taking.







Hilariously, my fellow ants end up destroying a spider without my involvement. Clearly these ants are well-trained and know what the hell they're doing. The important thing is that we dismembered the queen and ate her remains.



After finishing off the stragglers, here's the state of the house. Unfortunately, the red ants are expanding more quickly than us and have a firm foothold in the house. Still, they aren't in any position to take any of our colonies.

Also, I literally spent a few minutes just waiting for things to change in this menu because there's really nothing else to do right now.



Well, let's try attacking them again!







Eventually I just leave instead of waiting for our queen to die like inevitably she will.



Instead I go back here to keep the red ants out.





And then another colony.





Two red queens staved off.



So at the end we...haven't really done much. At least we've kept the red ants off, but at the same time we can't seem to gain ground on them. Soon both our sides will run out of room to expand westward and will have no choice but to attack each other. I worry the red ants may be able to overpower us, so I'd like to start crushing them soon. I just need to find ways to start crushing these colonies.

Next time, the war continues.