Book 2 – Text Updates 019

[build6]

3. Taken prisoner - (now this one I like) captured but can't be turned so is confined in the dungeon of Jetstsone or Faq until they can figure him out.

I like this too

or maybe

Spoiler: show

The Red Rocker pulls a rabbit out of his hat and take out Ansom - dusting him with a swing of his Axe as Jillian gives the big "NOOOO" in the background while Charlie grins having taken out one of Jillians... distractions

Jillian doesn't strike me as a very ... evidence-based sort of character, and if Charlie did this, he'd risk losing Jillian as an ally ("I can't prove it, but I KNOW you had something to do with it, screw GK, I'm coming after YOU"), so I don't think it likely

[Welf von Ehrwald]

It seems reasonable that one way or another Ansom is removed from the scene so Parson can become Chief Warlord again, so here are the options I see
1. Dusted by Sammy, Jillian or Trammenis - last two, 'releasing' him, like spiking a vampire who was someone you loved.
2. Turned - not totally unlikely - it does seem as if he's acting under a post hypnotic suggestion, and therefore could be broken, either that or deprogram him like a cult member.
3. Taken prisoner - (now this one I like) captured but can't be turned so is confined in the dungeon of Jetstsone or Faq until they can figure him out.

There is a fourth possibility: Ansom resigns. He is about to fight his family, his lover, all while being rejected from his "Mistress". He might have a moment of gnosis like Parson had.

[Sinrus]

I can't see the point of just resigning if the people you worked for would slaughter you for it when you saw them next, and going with Jillian or back to Jetstone would fall under the category of turning.

[gazes_also]

It seems reasonable that one way or another Ansom is removed from the scene so Parson can become Chief Warlord again, so here are the options I see
1. Dusted by Sammy, Jillian or Trammenis - last two, 'releasing' him, like spiking a vampire who was someone you loved.
2. Turned - not totally unlikely - it does seem as if he's acting under a post hypnotic suggestion, and therefore could be broken, either that or deprogram him like a cult member.
3. Taken prisoner - (now this one I like) captured but can't be turned so is confined in the dungeon of Jetstsone or Faq until they can figure him out.

There is a fourth possibility: Ansom resigns. He is about to fight his family, his lover, all while being rejected from his "Mistress". He might have a moment of gnosis like Parson had.

Resigning and refusing to fight would then result in one of the other three, since he can't run away.

[Lord Kasavin]

y'know, what you said there made me think that this update really does put Ansom in a pretty good light. I dunno if I was reading things wrong, but throughout book 1 I was thinking of Ansom as more of a ... well, not outright stupid, but certainly not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed.

but then on reading this:

In war, things went terribly wrong all the time. You planned, and you planned contingencies, and you planned contingencies to the contingencies, and you set up reserves and fallbacks to those, et cetera. You thought as hard as you could, all the time, about what to do when your plans failed. Then you marched into battle, and the failures began, and you hoped to have planned for one more failure than actually occurred.

suddenly, my opinion of Ansom has completely changed. maybe he's not all that creative, but he certainly doesn't appear to be incompetent.

I never thought of Ansom as dumb. For as much as the story of Book 1 relies on GK being badly outmatched, its worth remembering all the advantages Parson had over Ansom.

1.GK itself, one of the strongest defensive positions in the known world.
2.A full description of his opponent, including strengths, weaknesses, and past behaviors. Conversely, Parson was a complete unknown to Ansom.
3.3 to 5 skilled casters, versus the coalition's zero.
4.A much more powerful airforce than the coalition's and unrivaled intelligence (for the first half, anyway).
5.Foreknowledge of the Coalition's basic plan (what Wanda learned from Jillian).
6.Unity of command... kind of. Though Ansom in general got his way from Coalition commanders, a less respected figure might have had to deal with fall out much sooner. Indeed, Sofa King almost abandoned the alliance after the losses in the tunnel.
7.Parson's Bracer. Not only did it let Parson make decisions based on odds instead of false hopes, but it gave him a way to “cheaply” (so it seemed at the time) bargain with Charlie.

With all these points in mind, I find it hard to find any moment in which Ansom did something truly stupid. Unless, the reader inserts his (or her) own knowledge about the series into the equation. Was it stupid for Ansom to believe Parson was bluffing him about the walls? How would he know when he knows nothing of Parson?

[Lamech]

Didn't Parson speculate that Wanda could look through the eyes of the uncroaked? And Stanley certainly seems to be able to command his dwagons with the hammer. I wouldn't be surprised if Wanda could "lead" the uncroaked from a differant hex. I'm actually kind of surprised that Wanda can only seem to uncroak units with the pliers, as opposed to the hammer that has a random collection of powers (carnymancy?) and the dish which comprises a whole school of magic + archons + sharing power with archons.

Hey I have a question: Ansom is complaining about the low attack bonus, but wouldn't Ansom's global +3 combined with what I assume is probably a fairly high bonus from Ossomer, be higher than just a ten from Ansom? I mean if he was their it would be two more, but then Ansom wouldn't be around to defend the ground.

[Lord Kasavin]

Hey I have a question: Ansom is complaining about the low attack bonus, but wouldn't Ansom's global +3 combined with what I assume is probably a fairly high bonus from Ossomer, be higher than just a ten from Ansom? I mean if he was their it would be two more, but then Ansom wouldn't be around to defend the ground.

Presumably, since Ossomer is not CW his bonus would only be applied to his stack. With Ansom there, not only would the entire force get this hex wide bonus (which is greater than his universal bonus), his stack would get his full leadership bonus (presumably +10). I'd guesstimate thats a 10-15% increase in strength (since now Ossomer can lead his own stack with his own presumably high leadership bonus).

[Ninjaguineapig]

I just noticed, Ansom hopes to 'save' Jillian. Kinda ironic.

[Goshen]

Hey I have a question: Ansom is complaining about the low attack bonus, but wouldn't Ansom's global +3 combined with what I assume is probably a fairly high bonus from Ossomer, be higher than just a ten from Ansom? I mean if he was their it would be two more, but then Ansom wouldn't be around to defend the ground.

Probably, two warlords' generic leadership bonuses cannot both be applied to the same stack, because there can only be one leader at that rank. If one of the warlords is the Chief Warlord, then the Chief Warlord global bonus would certainly apply, but maybe or maybe not his personal bonus. I wonder.