Book 2 – Page 24

[Oberon]

remember that Charlie was going to take out the GK garrison, which had Parson, three casters, a mixed force structure of units, and plenty of multipliers of its own, with a force comprised of, you guessed it, just Archons.

No, he was never "going to" [take the GK garrison]; he asked if he could.

You have an interesting way of looking at things. If your car is for sale and a guy asks if he can buy your car for $1,000, and you say no, and then he asks how much you'll sell it for and you say $5,000, and he goes and get $5,000 and comes back, he IS going to buy your car. There is no mistaking the intent.

Charlie asked if he could take the garrison with the Archons he had at hand. He could not. Then he asked how many Archons it would take, and then he brought that many Archons to GK and issued an ultimatum. He was going to take the garrison. The reason he did not is that Parson convinced him of two things: That it might be interesting to see Parson at work, since Parson had provided Charlie with a lie-proof estimate that showed that Parson had far better odds than Charlie had calculated himself, and that Charlie might be able to take the Arkenpliers from Parson since Parson claimed that he was going to be taking them from Ansom. That, and there was a 2/3 chance that the RCC and GK forces would do a bit of "let's you and him fight" for Charlie, which would make it that less expensive in lost Archons for Charlie to sack the garrison the next turn.

That is it. If not for that parley, TBFGK would have ended with Charlie sacking the city for whatever shmuckers he could get out of it before flying off with Parson, the bracer, and hopefully the Arkenpliers, before the RCC took GK on their own turn.

[Reclaimer]

You have an interesting way of looking at things.

I'll take a compliment where I can get it.

Your comparison with a car sale's flawed because the guy didn't come back with five grand, he came back with a shotgun. I still think he only cocked it to watch Parson crap himself, and the fact that he didn't impressed the hell out of him. He was trying pretty hard to get Parson on his side, and if he'd sacked GK it would've gone against his own mission statement even if he would've wound up with a couple neat toys.

Rattling a saber makes noise, drawing it does not.

[Decorus]

I think the juice issue is simple. Maggie as a thinkamancer is forced to use all of or most of her juice every turn for a variety of things as the demand to use her abilities is massive.
Vanna is a turnamancer she uses a small amount of her juice normally and can store most of it for later uses. Wanda is primarily a combat caster who also "summons" troops the same as Sizemore. They typically don't use thier juice at all except in combat situations. Unless Sizemore is being forced to summon golems outside of combat.