by Swodaems » Fri Jun 25, 2010 1:16 am
Nice to see Don caring about the welfare of Jetstone's general. Of course he may merely be looking for an opportunity to grab a useful unit.
Could Jetstone be using schmuckers to help coerce some sides of the coalition into fighting? Don King's similar money problems would suggest not, but just because Don King is willing to fight at a big loss, doesn't mean everyone else is. I had hereforeto assumed Jetstone to be one of the richer sides considering it was able to send off a big force to conquer gobwin knob and had so many cities bringing in income. They could have lost alot of cities to GK before the fall of unaroyal, but I was under the impression the cities lost mostly belonged to unaroyal itself. (The 10 cities that Stanley lost pre Parson, but were recently were reclaimed by Ansom, were probably split between Unaroyal and Jetstone as the largest non natural sides. They don't factor into the equation mostly because I assume Stanley lost them quickly and Jetstone had to use mostly its pre RCC strength, but that's debatable. I therefore don't think ansom's conquerings should have hit jetstone this drastically.) Jetstone's treasury should have spiked post volcano with so many units and their upkeep requirements lost, (assuming the units represented the lion's share of their upkeep, of course. They did keep the 4 expensive casters, the 2 other princes, and some protective forces behind, but I don't think that would out weigh the sheer amount of upkeep decrease that would have happened when those 2000+ units were lost.)
The hesitation before Slately said 'to lead' interests me. It really makes me question the ideals of both Trem and Slately (since I consider Slately to be the epitome of erfworld Royal rulers and sides, (at least in this region of the world,) his ideals speaks for alot of others.) When he attacked the column, we found Trem usually wants to steel himself up for battle by thinking about losses he suffered. He probably doesn't like losing people anymore than parson does. How rare is actually caring about the people next to you in Erfworld? I don't think Slately does much because of how his updates have mostly centered on him thinking about how he should act in order to let him keep his own self image.
The most interesting thing about the update was Slately saying that the move of a Foraging field unit was wasted. Last I checked, move was use it or lose it. The only way to actually waste it is to not use it. Foraging sounds like something a side should always be trying to do. While it may be a problem if the unit isn't where it needs to be at turns end or during action, but good planning should always be able to get some value out of foraging while meeting any alternate conditions you may have. Of course, you can also lose the unit if it finds something it can't handle, like an enemy heavy, but in that case the unit has still performed well as a scout. (You might also make an enemy if the unled hunter stumbles upon an unallied, but neutral force, but that problem is solved by having good communications with any neighbors that may threaten you if provoked.) I can think of only 5 explanations for Slately’s comment:
A: His side usually forages within limits designed to still allow the side to achieve any alternate goals, but recently has had to make sacrifices in those goals to allow for adequate foraging.
B: He thinks foraging is beneath him, something poor barbarians do.
C: He and his high ranked officers are too incompetent, overworked, or lazy to come up with decent foraging strategies. (Probably overworked or lazy in Trem’s case) (Any other person on the side capable of plotting the movements probably lacks the authority.)
D: This is a money-losing extension of the same line of thinking that says that relays are a waste of flyers.
E: A game mechanic that gives an advantage for not spending move, like a move based tiring debuff system. (possibly affecting the theoretical morale stat) Unlikely as we should have seen evidence for something like this before now. (Ansom wanting to keep the gumps fresh in book one may simply mean he wanted them uninjured. Ansom wanting sleep in the summer update describing the relay system does not apply as he was both mounted, allowing him to conserve his own move, and the context of the update implied that he was thinking in turns of time. We have seen little evidence of time based sleep deprivation meaning much outside of a vague Maggie comment in book 1.)
One last thing. Can anyone find me a specific point when Ossomer is said to be heir in the comic or text updates? (By specific, I mean I want an actual link and quote.)
