Summer Updates - 043

[balder]

New One is up.

[moose o death]

wow filled with info and awesome. decrupted can be anihilated by simply dying. and a royal croaks her entire side is vapourised. that expalins why jillian had no units still frozen in FAQ.

[QuothTheRaven]

He never said all the units died, just that all the banners went blank. Which makes sense when you think about it.

The tone just got a lot darker for me, i never looked at Stanley's side as Borg-esque until Queenie here described him as such in her letter. Kind of scary.

EDIT: I didn't read the update carefully enough, the units did indeed vanish. Very interesting.

[Flux]

Lot's of info, hopefully (for the coalition) shared by Don.

The sacrefice by Bea made decrypting by Wanda impossible. No units for GK.

[SkarmoryThePG]

So Decrypted -can- be destroyed. Eeeeenteresting. And kinda balanced. Kinda.

Interesting correlation. Arkenpliers turned normal Uncroaked to dust. Arkenpliers-made Decrypted turn to dust on defeat.

I wonder what was the reason she burned her treasury on promoting all those units only to disband them all. Maybe she just wanted to empty the treasury before GK can take it?

And, strategical blunder on GK's side. Why on earth did they let go of the secret of Decrypting so easily?!

[kunsttyv]

[...] and a royal croaks her entire side is vapourised. that expalins why jillian had no units still frozen in FAQ.

I don't think this is entirely accurate. I believe it has been stated that units in the field disband, while the cities go in stasis. Bea wanted her units to disband rather than letting them be decrypted, so she sent them out. There were no units in Faq because Faq had been razed to the ground, and all units there either killed or captured.

Nice update!


K

[Engy]

A real pity that the queen is no more, she figured out exactly what she had to do to harm Gobwin Knob the most in a very shot period of time, and she made sure the information got to Slately.

I think GK's arkenplier heyday is over.

[lovelyluthien]

I wonder what was the reason she burned her treasury on promoting all those units only to disband them all. Maybe she just wanted to empty the treasury before GK can take it?

I thought she promoted them to get them out of the city, so they wouldn't simply freeze upon her death? [edit: ninja'd!]

Really impressive update. I'm moved by the nobility and heroism of Unaroyal's queen. Transylvito won't like this at all.

[teratorn]

She promoted them so they could leave the city and thus disappear when she died. Nice to know decrypted turn to dust when killed.

How did she die? Did she cross the portal into the Magic Kingdom and was immediately zapped?

[Dancing Cthulhu]

Wow, great update. I feel sorry for Unaroyal, although the Queen seems to have made the right decisions at the end - don't drag Jetstone down, don't give GK anymore free decrypted and give Transylvito all the info possible.

Reminds me a bit of that scene in some zombie movies where a survivor is faced with the reality of their situation and decides that isn't going to happen to them. Moving.

Nice to see Don continues to seem like the decent sort as well, comforting the Queen who who really did care about her daughter.

I wonder why Wanda and co. decided to try and parley Unaroyal onto their side at the end... perhaps they were worried about getting held up and hit by a Jetstone retaliation. And I wonder if Wanda and co. actually expected any other reaction from the Queen after making her decrypted daughter a centerpiece of their negotiations... seems a bit cruel.

And now we know a decrypted can't be decrypted. They die and are dust.

I wonder what was the reason she burned her treasury on promoting all those units only to disband them all. Maybe she just wanted to empty the treasury before GK can take it?

She was leaving nothing for GK forces, get rid of the treasury, and since all the units were out of the city when she and her side ended so did all those units.

[Whispri]

That was a lot of people she just murdered out of spite. Quite shocking.

[teratorn]

That was a lot of people she just murdered out of spite. Quite shocking.

Not spite, they would become abominations.

[Alcazabedabra]

Maaaan, Rob. Way to paint things black.

I want to understand more about what the rules are for Decrypted units. Can they be captured or turned? Can Wanda, if she so chooses, Decrypt a unit while leaving its free will intact? Can Wanda scout with her units like Transylvito warlords can scout with bats?



Decryption rules aside, this is a very dark update. I like it. It gives a little more depth to the tool vs. royal argument, as this was definitely a Queen we were meant to like. Disbanding in that fashion was... noble? Denying a hated enemy more war-borg is definitely a plus any way you look at it, and Queen Bea has definitely made the coming fight a good deal easier for Jetstone. She's denied them her Decrypted daughter, some thousands of soldiers, and herself. She has also set an example - the new rule is to do anything that ultimately reduces their numbers - if self-disbandment is the answer, then you bloody well self-disband. Dwagons can't hold a candle to an army that makes more of itself.

Naturally, Jetstone is going to try to play it the other way - kill more than you lose!


The Royals might be stuffy, self-important peacocks sitting on gaudily jeweled thrones, but Gobwin Knob are *not* the good guys here. The Decrypted are a spreading malignancy fielded by a humorless monster. Their Ruler is a careless buffoon. Their mandate is to turn, slay or Decrypt all of Erfworld.

Parson is a shining ray of hope. So is his retinue, as the Casters of Gobwin Knob are loyal to him, and relatively free-willed. Stanley I am convinced has something resembling a good heart, as I think he could be made to at least try to stop Wanda from destroying everything. Not that you'd really want Stanley on your side - he makes a better enemy than he does an ally. I just don't think he understands what's going on here. He's in the unprecedented position of being completely overwhelmed by the powers at his command.



Remember when I predicted that Parson would end up fighting Gobwin Knob?

[Sonic Screwdriver]

Was it's Ansom's bone-headed idea to have that parley and give out all of that tactical info? Now they know for certain it's an Arkentool, that it's attuned to Wanda, that it wholly converts units to their side, it cannot revive fallen decrypted. He could've done the same thing on his own turn so there wouldn't be time for the Queen to run back inside and initiate jauhar.

[Sixty]

Interesting. They also mentioned maximum stacks which make it sound like there is a maximum size a stack can be. Maximum stacks were also mentioned by Tarfu in the Donut of Doom (he said something along the lines of he was going to try sending in a maximum stack in next). I recall a while back (back when I just lurked before I had an account) someone had wondered whether stacks have a maximum size and there seems to be strong evidence that this is true. I wonder if the maximum size depends on the kind of unit (aka a maximum unit of pikers might contain more pikers then a maximum stack of dwagons would contain dwagons) but to my knowledge we have no evidence of that either way.

I wonder if the Princess was turned to dust because she took massive damage (the whole stack attacked her and only her) or simply because she was decrypted and then died again?

[moose o death]

yeah i missed that they were outside the walls, thanks to those who corrected me.

the other intertesting tidbit. it costs schmukers to un garrison a unit.

the costs to ungarrison parson probably make it too expensive to even try thats why stanley didn't seem all that keen on the idea back on turn 1after tbfgk.

and why the last update had us debating dwagon charriots.

[Dancing Cthulhu]

That was a lot of people she just murdered out of spite. Quite shocking.

By what definition?

Short of accepting GK offer (which may or may not have been genuine) any other course of action gets all her units killed and raised again as grinning Wanda-ists to be used against everyone else in Erfworld who opposes them.

If she could of I imagine she would have got them all away like she did with her casters. As it was it seems she believed she was sparing them the fate of her daughter.

[Sareln]

I know we've covered how family, parent/children dynamics are different in Erfworld and don't map well to Earth, but good gracious that was heart-wrenching to read... poignant, and definitely geared for Earthworlders. At the same time, it also builds up the character of the Don, whose people skills seem to be really top notch. I really liked this update, it has fantastic imagery and pacing.

As to why they would even bother to negotiate:

It is easier to conquer the world if you show people a carrot alongside the stick. If folks feel like they have nothing to lose, they go all out, they get clever, they act unpredictably (by say, spending the vast majority of the treasury on summoning the perfect warlord). By offering alliance alongside a worldbeating army, GK changes the dynamic from an us vs. the juggernaut which cannot be stopped or reasoned with into a more standard alliance battle. We're stronger than you, and we have this goal, team with us, and we'll leave you relatively unmolested. Yes, the philosophy is a little weird and you'll lose your title, but that's it! You'll still have your lands, and your lives. With this Army and the best tactical mind in Erf (Ansom, as far as they know) we're not going to lose! Make it easy on yourself. Also, Ansom (and other decrypted) have "seen the light" as it were, perhaps they made an argument (or an appeal in the daughter's case) to try and "save" their family, and Wanda and Parson were willing to let them try it (since Parson knows that knowledge isn't worth that much, at least to Charlie, the foremost information broker on Erf).

GK also had what they viewed as leverage -- the former royal heir. If familial relations are even remotely as strong as they are here on Earth (traditionally speaking), the offer to return what has been lost, might seem an insurmountable temptation to Monarchs known to be affectionate towards their heirs. This I think also builds up Unaroyal's Queen even moreso in my mind, that she recognizes the clear abomination that decrypting is, and gives a powerful voice to the royalist argument.

This would've been a good strategy... if GK could have an inter-hex way of croaking the queen after negotiations had broken down (I understand the way they had set it up here, turn based movement prevents it). That way, the story doesn't get out, and GK doesn't lose the Decryption trick, sure other sides would no longer be willing to parley, but with a letter like that (which if the Don is smart will be halfway across Erf by the next turn), they've lost that ability anyways with royal sides.

As to disbanding her side:

Is it spite, or a mercy in her eyes? That they be spared the fate of her daughter, or her chief warlord, to be eternal servants of the Croakamancer / Arkenpliers until some brave soul manages to free them from their bondage? It all depends in how you look at it. Is decrypting a new lease on life, or an unholy extension of it, denying a unit its rightful place in the afterlife/city of heroes/what-have-you?

[Justyn]

Did anyone notice that Bea's list of casters didn't have a Thinkamancer? We already know that Unaroyal had a Thinkamancer, and this means that Bea sent her Thinkamancer to the Magic Kingdom beforehand, or that Gobwin Knob has a second Thinkamancer.'

EDIT: Or that she sent the Thinkamancer to another side, or got croaked.

[Tabletop]

So now they have both Jetstone and Unaroyal's Chief Warlords. That's got to count for something. It's a shame they missed out on all those casters though. Seems like a Findamancer would really help Stanley with the dragon hunt.