Book 2 – Page 30

[Altima]

Oh, please let this mean Jillian will stay out of the story for a couple dozen pages! That would make me happy. I do hope that Ansom cannot be turned, though. Just to screw with Jillian.

It also seems like GK and RCC2 are set-up to begin flogging each other to death. I imagine after this day, the disposition of forces will be quite even, with RCC2 going on the offensive. Now that Charlie's back in the good graces of the Royals, he'll be making a mint in addition to screwing over Parson and GK.

Nitpick: It's Faq, not FAQ.

EDIT: Ansom's face is bruised again. Yay!

[BLANDCorporatio]

Oh, please let this mean Jillian will stay out of the story for a couple dozen pages! That would make me happy. I do hope that Ansom cannot be turned, though. Just to screw with Jillian.

I'd say Halleluyah, but seeing as how Jillian is going to grab a bite out of GK's territory, we'll be hearing from her. At least indirectly, in the War Room. Stanley will surely be so happy.

EDIT: Ansom's face is bruised again. Yay!

You sadistic accountant you.

In any case, stuff is happenin', boop is getting real, and I'm very eager to see this play out. It looks like we're heading for GK hopelessly besieged again, but I'm telling you this tinfoil senses that something's gonna go down between this page and the last of the Book. GK won't be the powerhouse it was, of course, but not surrounded at the walls either.

For one, maybe the Dwagons won't suffer as many casualties as Jetstone expects.

For two, at some point Jillian's good luck with her backers will run out- or she'll fall out with them of her own volition.

There's also one more loose thread, barely visible with the corner of the eye- what's Sizemore (and/or Janis) up to?

[Dancing Cthulhu]

There's also one more loose thread, barely visible with the corner of the eye- what's Sizemore (and/or Janis) up to?

I'm not sure we want to know.

Although I guess it isn't surprising we haven't seen Sizemore of late, unless Stanley lets him in his war room. I'm still interested in the time frame of his conversation with Janis and this battle. If it happened some time before it I'd feel sure Sizemore would have to tell Parson "someone has predicted the battle is going to be a mess".

Personally I like to think he's donned a deerstalker and is off investigating the Marbit Mystery. Although I guess it would be pretty scary for GK if he happened to be in one of the cities Jillian is on her way to sack (though if he got caught he'd have a hard time trying to convince Parson to become CW again like Janis wants.)

[MarbitChow]

Re: Charlie's motives - I don't think Charlie said he wanted a chance to turn Ansom explicitly.
I think Charlie wanted Ansom dead, to eliminate the bonus and remove him as a distraction for Jillian.
I hypothesize that Charlie also speculated, in conversations w/ Jillian, that he'd like a chance to try to turn a (random) decrypted unit, to see if it's possible.
Jillian grabs Ansom and uses the "let's see if we can turn him" excuse to get exactly what she wants.

[kriss]

Re: Charlie's motives - I don't think Charlie said he wanted a chance to turn Ansom explicitly.
I think Charlie wanted Ansom dead, to eliminate the bonus and remove him as a distraction for Jillian.
I hypothesize that Charlie also speculated, in conversations w/ Jillian, that he'd like a chance to try to turn a (random) decrypted unit, to see if it's possible.
Jillian grabs Ansom and uses the "let's see if we can turn him" excuse to get exactly what she wants.

That both sounds very Charlie and Jillian, each taking liberal interpritations of thier orders, ideas, and plans to suite thier own needs.

[Raza]

I like Jillian's attitude. Whoo, we get to hit stuff!

Very gamer.

Wait, wait, wait. When did Charlie say he'd like to take a crack at Ansom? And if he really does, why did he give Sammy the primary objective of croaking him?

And since Jillian knows the latter, why is she bringing up the former?

Confused!

I assume he mentioned that he'd like to try turning a decrypted; not necessarily Ansom. Considering she took a turnamancer to battle an army of them this might've reasonably come up.

[Alexei P]

Heh, and it looks like Trem is growing on everyone. Even Jillian is starting to like him.

That's nothing. Wait till Parson... ah... no, better not.

"One of my backers who is, um, not Transylvitian", Tram is too smart not to have figured this one out. But he doesn't seem to mind.

Also: Jillian considers Jetstone has more than enough units to croak Wanda. She's not participating, but she doesn't seem to mind whether she croaks or not. Strange.

[The Game]

I wonder if the troops would still get Ansom's CW hex bonus even if he is captured? If that is the case, bringing him along when they try to lay siege to the aforementioned cities might prove a bit more troublesome than possibly expected seen from Jillian's point of view..

[BLANDCorporatio]

Also: Jillian considers Jetstone has more than enough units to croak Wanda. She's not participating, but she doesn't seem to mind whether she croaks or not. Strange.

Nah, she's lying through her teeth. She knows full well Wanda's getting away.

[Grimnir]

Panel 10 is great. Xin draws some nice faces.

[cloudbreaker]

Also: Jillian considers Jetstone has more than enough units to croak Wanda. She's not participating, but she doesn't seem to mind whether she croaks or not. Strange.

Nah, she's lying through her teeth. She knows full well Wanda's getting away.

That could even be part of the reason why she is getting away. Wanda said herself that the arkentools were fated to come together and nothing would stop it. And I'm pretty sure Jillian believed Wanda, and so Jillian is smart to stay away from that mess. Especially after she was one of the few people who didn't croak in the "impossible" dirtamancy trap at GK.

[Rajin96]

I don't think Charlie ever asked for an attempt to try and turn Ansom or any other decrypted unit. I would not put it past him, but I think Jillian just fed Tremmenis a line that he would buy. Jillian wanted Ansom and now she has him and she is not going to let any one take him away from her again.

[Ditto]

Jillian said she'd take the cities and then raze them before leaving. It's one fewer city held by the enemy, and now it'll be a site Jetstone could possibly reclaim when they have the manpower. Sounds like a pretty okay sitch to me!

I like how the megalo is swishing Ansom back and forth across its face like he's a toothpick or something.

I think it's an exaggeration to say she *knows* Wanda will get away. She just chose to give her a fighting chance by removing her squad from the equation, which would definitely doom them (when coupled with Tram's team, decrypting tricks or not. Consider, Jillian's group is confident they'll be able to run in and pants two low level cities this turn. Not a small ambition. That's a strong fighting force that would have spelled croak-and-a-half had she engaged over Spacerock.). As it is, Tramennis' force returning means that Wanda is definitely doomed anyway for at least the first wave of combat... how it goes if she's able to decrypt and restack rapidly may be a different story.

[Silverhorn]

That is a strong possibility. However, I postulate this:

Charlie said one of the objectives was to croak Ansom, but he knew that it couldn't be done by Haggar's force. He was essentially sending Haggar on a suicide mission that couldn't be achieved. That is very much like Charlie.

ARGGHHH!!! Haggar said that was his objective, NOT necessarily Charlie. Charlie likely just told Haggar to make the GW forces hurt. Hagger probably took this as an oppurtunity to pursue his own grudge.

What I think is more interesting about this situation is that:
1) Charlie wanted to see if Decrypted can be turned.
2) Charlie is not mad about what Jillian's change of plans.
3) Charlie has units in GW's battlespace (they had archons act this day in one of the text updates while within range of attacking GW) WITHOUT GW being aware that they were there (We have not seen GW act like they are aware someone has a turn before them).
4) Charlie knew he was going to freeze Wanda and her forces over Jetsone.
5) Charlie's archons are good at seeing through viels and doing their own foolmancy.
6) It is not such a logic leap that Wanda would realize her own viable way of escape was to use her living units as living shields and decrypt them as they fall. (I saw that coming the minute I saw Wanda order the living stacks into a different stack than her decrypted)

I personally think Charlie's plan all along was to have Jetsone wear itself out trying to destroy Wanda, then ride like the hero as the only one that can stop Wanda before she can escape. Then use a little foolamancy to make it look like he killed Wanda, when actually he captured her and road off with her. Then once she is under his thumb he was going to have her croak archon's, have a turnamancer turn them back to him, and then have bottomless source of costless archons.

[imgran]

The kind of war Jillian's proposing is a better fit for her forces anyway. Move quickly, strike hard, move on or shelter in the best possible posture. Really good flying strikeforces are wasted in siege, and Jillian's no match for Wanda's dwagonhorde on her own. Most likely Jillian will sortie-in-force every chance she gets to disrupt GK from her mountain fortress and be a general nuisance/threat to her enemies. She can probably do more damage as, say, a Nathan Bedford Forrest than she could as a J. E.B Stuart.

[badninja]

Meh, Jillian is acting like a fool. This battle was to cause mass confusion and bring back Parson to the front. Now Jillian is leaving and all GK has to do is demote Ansom and promote someone else. Yes I realize that this is not a good action but someone as smart as Ansom should realize that it is necessary. All she is doing is allowing for GK to keep on going with little problems. Now without Jillian the RCC 2 is in the more difficult position, even if they currently have the upper hand. All Jillian is doing is taking her forces and running home so she can use Charlie to free her old boy toy. I hope that Charlie screws Jillian over and takes control of Ansom so she gets nothing in return. I use to think of Jillian as an OK commander and a passable Queen, but now she is an utter fool, even if it is love, and her mistakes are going to lead to the downfall of the RCC 2. I cannot wait to see Don King's reaction because he has been set up as someone who may know Jillian is also dealing with Charlie and it has not been in his interests.

[Crumshaw]

Perhaps this was addressed already but:

Do units still gain the warlord bonus for being nearby (as in hex, I doubt they'd get the stack bonus) if said warlord is incapacitated? If so, Jillian might inadvertently help the defenders at the cities she plans on razing by utilizing the megalogwiff carrying Ansom, and right now she seems reckless enough to overlook that. I don't think the bonus would be enough to stop Jillian, but I'm still curious.

[jinzil]

Jillian's behaviour puzzles me, for as she can be reckless and vengeful, she is usually not stupid. Failure to turn Ansom is most likely not due to the Turnamancer's limited juice, but because Ansom is essentially the creation and follower of an Arkentool. Perhaps Ansom will turn into dust as Wanda is croaked, but even if Wanda survives, the Arkenpliers may be necessary to make Ansom alive again- but said Pliers will then be on a living Wanda in the almost untakeable fortress of Gobwin Knob. It would seem more logical to try take Wanda prisoner with their combined forces, as Slately may be interested himself in seeing his two lost sons returned to a living status, if only to prevent his costly investment in popping them go to waste.

*shrugs* Anyway, we'll see.

[nerf-dweller]

I think it's rather interesting that Tramennis apparently has no issue with Jillian taking (and then razing) formerly-Jetstone-held cities on her way back to FAQ. Perhaps there's a mechanic in place to allow leaders to cede one or more cities to each other bloodlessly?

Certain not a big deal. FAQ isn't going to occupy them. So all Jetstone need do is to send a force to reoccupy, spend the Smuckers and poof instance City again in a Turn.

And in general, it's got to be Charlie that wants a crack at Ansome. If he can turn Ansome, he can get his Decrypted Archons back.Charlie seems to care for his Archons very much. GK using them as GK troops must be a terrible affront to him.

And as to Sammy having Ansome as a target, Sammy did some bad things to some Archons presumably while Charlie as out of action after the Uber Turn Ending Spell. I think Charlie made Sammy an offer he couldn't refuse. And I think Charlie knew that Sammy didn't have much of a chance of dusting Ansome. I definitely see it as a form of payback. to me it show that Charlie can fight nasty and dirty when it suits him.

[atalex]

I think it's rather interesting that Tramennis apparently has no issue with Jillian taking (and then razing) formerly-Jetstone-held cities on her way back to FAQ. Perhaps there's a mechanic in place to allow leaders to cede one or more cities to each other bloodlessly?

I thought that sounded strange too. I think Jetstone can claim and then pop new buildings and walls in one turn. So razing and moving on comes close.

This is so going to come back to bite Jillian.

Wanda will escape this trap. Perhaps only her and her mount, but she will escape to decrypt new armies. And she'll be able to escape because Jillian refused to kill her. But Wanda won't forget who put her on this trap.

I suspect Jillian will not mind the punishment. The biting threat would just motivate her.

The formerly-Jetstone-held cities are now most likely held by a skeleton force of Decrypted. Once Jillian razes it and moves on, Jetstone can move back in and rebuild the city within a turn just by spending Schmuckers. After all, GK was rebuilt even better than before after the volcano eruption on the very next turn.