Summer Updates – 046

[balder]

New One is up.

[raphfrk]

Wow lots of info.

I guess the defence is due to it being near the peak of a mountain.

Also, Archons are not a dish special, and other sides can pop them. I wonder if the same applies to dwagons. Maybe the hammer lets Stanley's side pop dwagons much faster than any other side, though he clearly can't pop one per turn (he might be able to pop one every 4 turns, while normally they take 20-30).

If an Archon is more powerful than a dwagon then that is advantage Arkendish. However, when the archons one hit killed the dwagons over the lake, they were injured dwagons. OTOH, the dwagons are flying mount units.

Turnamancers are about turn manipulation.

The dish gives unlimited thinkagrams and also allows units to contact charlescomm by thinking hard.

Also, he uses a near flat management structure, rather than hierarchy. Some archons have leadership, but aren't warlords. Alternatively, all the archons are warlords, but only some have leadership. Either way, this is another advantage of archons over dwagons (they don't auto-attack) and have intelligence.

I wonder if archons without foolamancy have the penetrate veil ability ... that would be an important piece of info due to dwagon farming being based on the archons having that ability.

[THF]

MaryAnn mousy for an archon, amiright?

Interesting stuff here, definitely a little more support for whomever had the Charlie is the arkendish theory. I wonder if the jammies and pillow fighting was staged for his benefit if they are used to having "full service" clients.

@Raphfrk I don't think the hammer hastens or cheapens the time it takes to actually pop a dwagon (Like I would actually know ) I think the advantage is just in it's ability to tame them. Which is really awesome but it took parson to realize how to use it most effectively. Two or three dwagons a turn that cost no schmuckers to pop blows being able to pop out an archon a day(keeps warlords away). As for which is more powerful I think it depends on level and these random specials that archons get. A level four archon with some specials that are really good for dwagon slaying might be able to take out a dwagon close to her own level but a first level archon without out specials suited for dwagon slaying I think would need another archon or two to assure victory.

[Justyn]

Alright, Archons are definitively not natural allies....

I had a couple other questions that formed while I was reading this, but I cannot recall them now.

[Gez]

He should have asked what was Charlie's Rule #34.

[Zolon]

Still 38 turns since BFGK?

That said, Definitely more support for the Charlie is the Arkendish theory.

Also adds a whole lot more mystery to the guy.

[HandofShadows]

Veeeeery interesting. Solid info on Charlie.

[Welf von Ehrwald]

Charley has more than 600 Archons? He could easily take over a bunch of smaller kingdoms with those and become a major player. Has Charley some masterplan, to wait until he has enough archons, information and money to take over the world in one campaign?

[CnSvnc]

Another bit added to the evergrowing grimdarkness of Erfworld. Archons are likely the happiest/luckiest of all common units, and look at the life they normally have.
Uniting all Erf into a single side idea definitely has merits. Maybe enough to justify decryption of all who oppose it.

[AstralFire]

Heh, right as I was starting to be really buggered about what Charlie's Secrets -were-. So far, none of it seems particularly troublesome - most people could deduce after working with him that causing problems for the client was part of his MO...

[Pindanin]

more support for my theory that since no one is hiring charlie he is running out of money to support his fleet of archons. Only one city would not be able to support that many units.
Which is why charlie is so desperate for the coalition to hire him. He figures they are the only ones with any real cash.

[elliotbay]

I do wish we could have heard more of the psychological questions he had wanted to ask. Then again, that might have spawned 20 pages of wildly divergent discussion.

As for supporting the "Charlie is the arkendish" theory, I admit when I first read it I found it an interesting prospect. Given what we know about Charlie and storytelling, though, I wouldn't have expected anything else from Parson's conversation with the archons. I mean, did anybody expect them to say something like, "Oh yeah, we hang out with Charlie all the time. He's totally awesome," or, "His face is well-known to all his units." We already knew we weren't going to get that kind of information here.

I'm pretty sure now, though, that one of the Arkendish's powers is an inhuman ability to remember names.


[PS: first-time poster!]

[Lamech]

Hmm... Stanley is probably taming dwagons faster than Charlie is with his Archons. If they are of comparable power? Thats going to be a problem for Charlie. A big one if the plans for a dragon gathering dragon relay pan out. And this comment about the world being so huge... there are two arkentools in this section we here about. (Three?) It seems likely that the "four know" arkentools are really like the "known world", and there are probably a few more than four. And Charlie's main source of cash is telecommunication? He would be so rich if he could add mathamancy too that.

P.S. I do like the "full service" option, at the very least it gives Charlie crediblity. He can blame archon failures on not paying enough.

[Welf von Ehrwald]

Wait, Charley has no warlords? Not a single one? WHY?
I would at least expect 1 single warlord, even if it's some lousy level 1. he could serve as chief warlord, and give all of Charlescomme units at least a +1 bonus. And he could serve as ruler for the capital. A ruler saves a lot of money for the units permanently stationed in a city, and makes the city more productive (more schmuckers). With such expensive units as the archons that should be a load of savings. Why would Charley rather spend more upkeep than having a single warlord?

[Steve-D]

I hate having to ask for jokes to be explained (with all the cultural references in Erfworld I guess some of them are only going to make sense to Americans).

But can someone explain the last bit?

[elliotbay]

And he could serve as ruler for the capital. A ruler saves a lot of money for the units permanently stationed in a city, and makes the city more productive (more schmuckers).

Does Charlie not count, for some reason?

[addendum] Steve-D: Gilligan's Island

[Anton Gaist]

I hate having to ask for jokes to be explained (with all the cultural references in Erfworld I guess some of them are only going to make sense to Americans).

But can someone explain the last bit?

Gilligan's Island, the group originally set out for a three hour boat ride. The two female characters were called Ginger Grant and MaryAnn Summers.

[Simons Mith]

Iiinteresting. Charlie having no warlords at all means Parson would have been his very first. I think the very fact that was willing to attempt to hire Parson represents a sea change for a side like Charlie's to make. And maybe it also partly explains why his attempt to 'hire' Parson was so ham-fisted; Charlie doesn't really know how to handle non-Archons very well - except when he's dealing with them as clients.

[Welf von Ehrwald]

And he could serve as ruler for the capital. A ruler saves a lot of money for the units permanently stationed in a city, and makes the city more productive (more schmuckers).

Does Charlie not count, for some reason?

No. To get the savings and production bonus, the warlord has to actually walk around in his city. And Charley always stays in his tower.

[raphfrk]

Given what we know about Charlie and storytelling, though, I wouldn't have expected anything else from Parson's conversation with the archons. I mean, did anybody expect them to say something like, "Oh yeah, we hang out with Charlie all the time. He's totally awesome," or, "His face is well-known to all his units." We already knew we weren't going to get that kind of information here.

There are "tower" archons who have seen him. Ofc, that doesn't mean he isn't the dish, as the first order would be to tell nobody (including the other archons) about it.

I guess the archon who said "Please hold for Charlie", was one of the tower archons.

The next question should have been if the tower archons ever leave the capital and if so, they should attempt decryption of them.

He should also ask for a full list of Charlie's rules. That would allow mind games when he takes to Charlie, as he could drop casual references to the rules.

Hmm... Stanley is probably taming dwagons faster than Charlie is with his Archons. If they are of comparable power?

True, Stanley is getting at least 2 per turn. Ofc, they also require upkeep, so maybe in both cases smuckers could be an issue.

Thats going to be a problem for Charlie. A big one if the plans for a dragon gathering dragon relay pan out. And this comment about the world being so huge... there are two arkentools in this section we here about. (Three?) It seems likely that the "four know" arkentools are really like the "known world", and there are probably a few more than four. And Charlie's main source of cash is telecommunication? He would be so rich if he could add mathamancy too that.

Right, the others of them might already have been captured by some far off sides. Maybe they could even be attuned.