160 The battle for Gobwin Knob, page 147

[SteveMB]

Well, that answers some questions about what happened to Faq....

[The Old Hack]

*exhales* Hoo boy. That explains a lot. Wanda is certainly a multilayered person.

[Weimann]

Frankly, I can imagine Wanda as a traitor

I agree with Wanda, Parson lost at Gobwin Knob. That volcano manoeuvre was a flashy way of saving his life, but dooming the rest of both side's forces.

[Lothmar]

Meh, a 'w' is a 'W' no matter how you go about it. But yeah, overall stanleys side would have been quashed easily following that if the arkenplyer Decrypt combo didnt happen. Then again, I think wanda would have simply 'uncroaked' every unit (save for types not allowed) instead of decrypting them instead if she didnt find the plyers. So overall, they had alot of 'raw' materials to work with after that tactic. They just dont have to pay an upkeep, or worry about decay and have seige options now. ^^

[SteveMB]

Wanda's misunderestimation of Stanley (he "seemed an imbecile" who Wanda thought would get himself wiped out by attacking Faq) would explain both why she was able to betray Banhammer (she didn't expect it would do any real harm, and might even be a net benefit for Faq if she got the Arkenhammer out of it) and why she "seems to resent the implication that she knows anything about troops or combat" (her bad estimation of Faq's fighting ability got the place destroyed -- even if she doesn't care about that, it also got her stuck dealing with Stanley for Titans know how many turns).

[Vordrax]

I'm pretty confused about the whole loyalty thing. Wanda doesn't deny that she's loyal to Stanley, but she strongly implies that she's not. And it still appears that Stanley betrayed Saline IV, which, from what I thought I understood from Rockwell, shouldn't be possible.

At least Wanda's "betrayal" of Faq makes sense, since she didn't technically do it on purpose.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Well, at least Jetstone didn't destroy Faq. That would have been ... meh.

Also, Parson did lose Bogroll, and his original cavalier perspective. Even if he technically won the battle.

PS: One has to wonder about Jack though ...

[Welf von Ehrwald]

"Stop! Hammertime." rofl

And so many questions answered. I wonder what Stanley is thinking in panel 2.

[atteSmythe]

I'm pretty confused about the whole loyalty thing. Wanda doesn't deny that she's loyal to Stanley, but she strongly implies that she's not. And it still appears that Stanley betrayed Saline IV, which, from what I thought I understood from Rockwell, shouldn't be possible.

At least Wanda's "betrayal" of Faq makes sense, since she didn't technically do it on purpose.

Only Stanley's enemies have told us that he betrayed Saline, if I remember correctly. To me, it always sounded more manipulative of him than seems his character...It seems much more likely to me, at this point, that Wanda encouraged the Gobwins to break alliance while Stanley was at Faq. That way, she promotes the warlord with whom she has already had very favorable dealings. If Saline, a Royal himself, had learned upon Stanley's return of Wanda's betrayal, things may not have ended well for her.

Edit: Checked my timeline, and the transition to power apparently didn't happen on the excursion to Faq...it does make me wonder as to the timing, though. Faq must already have fallen...why not capture it?

[SteveMB]

I'm pretty confused about the whole loyalty thing. Wanda doesn't deny that she's loyal to Stanley, but she strongly implies that she's not. And it still appears that Stanley betrayed Saline IV, which, from what I thought I understood from Rockwell, shouldn't be possible.

Well, it can't be too impossible (if you'll pardon a qualifier on an absolute term) -- otherwise, Ansom's opinion about Stanley becoming an overlord "by regicide" (with the clear implication that he was behind the regicide*) would be the Erfworld equivalent of lunatic conspiracy-theory spinning.

*My read on Vinny's "well, sorta" response is that he concedes that Stanley became overlord as a result of regicide, but isn't convinced that he caused the regicide.

A remaining unanswered question is whether the fall of Faq happened before or after the croaking of Saline IV and the rise of Stanley to Overlordship....

[Mal]

Threads of speculation finally out the window... IT IS REVEALED TO US!

[Whispri]

Yeah so, why would Wanda arrange this at a time when Jillian was away with her Gwiffons and the defences of the Capital weaker than normal?

[Lothmar]

They probably had the invasion on a set date and did not know they'd be sent away. Either that or stanley didnt follow the plan and simply went "LEROY JENKINS!" and charged in to sack a couple cities and earn som exp. XDt

[Lothmar]

~Edit~ Nm, someone beat me to the punch on this assumption.

[raphfrk]

Panel 2 seems to imply that the dragon is angry with him. That would be consistent with him being about to tame it.

OTOH, someone in the background is riding a dragon.

Is this an example of one of the first few times he tried taming them (he doesn't look entirely confident), so the hammer gives 'tame wild dwagons' and 'add dwagon to build options'?

[Welf von Ehrwald]

So we do know: Wanda and Stanley are responsible for Faq's fall, Wanda was behind the quest for the arkentools. Wanda was not the predictamancer. Lot's of editing needed in the wiki.

Now I'm even more curious why Jack is loyal to Stanley, or why he is pretending.

[Whispri]

They probably had the invasion on a set date and did not know they'd be sent away. Either that or stanley didnt follow the plan and simply went "LEROY JENKINS!" and charged in to sack a couple cities and earn som exp. XDt

Neither of which reasons stand up to Wanda's foreknowledge given how close Gobwin's Knob appears to be to Faq. Contacting him when Jillian just arrived home wouldn't exactly be a stroke of genius.

[Lothmar]

Edit: Checked my timeline, and the transition to power apparently didn't happen on the excursion to Faq...it does make me wonder as to the timing, though. Faq must already have fallen...why not capture it?

Well, as denoted earlier the cities were probably saved in case of emergency, a secondary defensive site in case GK was about to fall. Doubt the coalition train could get through to FAQ. Dont think you can bring 'siege' through tunnel squares.

After all, stanley bailed and went to start a new hidden faction there probably useing the foolamancer to keep FAQ vieled just like before. ^^

[SteveMB]

They probably had the invasion on a set date and did not know they'd be sent away. Either that or stanley didnt follow the plan and simply went "LEROY JENKINS!" and charged in to sack a couple cities and earn som exp. XDt

Neither of which reasons stand up to Wanda's foreknowledge given how close Gobwin's Knob appears to be to Faq. Contacting him when Jilian just arrived home wouldn't exactly be a stroke of genius.

Given that Faq appears to be at least two turns from GK at dwagon-group speeds, it's possible that Wanda did call Stanley in when Jillian returned from a mercenary mission, and they got called out on another mercenary mission before Stanley arrived. It's not as if Jillian would insist on relaxing at home for a while before returning to the field....

[gameboy1234]

And....

...anyone want to bet this is the last page? This seems a good place to stop.