Book 2 – Text Updates 030

[Atomic]

As far as a lightsaber on the table... If we're lucky, we'll see Tramennis use it in the battle!

Spoiler: show

Fan Fic time: We need slash fiction involving Ace Hardware and Tramennis.

I'm interested in what'll come out of the casters spending their juices... I'd guess that either the expenditure of the juice will be worth while and save the day; or the lack-of-juice will cost them the battle. Either/or.

Speculation... What exactly do Stuffamancers do? It's always been assumed that they created (or summoned) items, but it seems like Dollamancers can fill that void to some extent, leaving those poor Stuffamancers out of a job.

[DevilDan]

Something else interesting we learned from this update is that Tchotchkes are caster-made units. And we know from other text updates that they can be decrypted. So it seems at least some caster-made units can be reanimated by wanda. I wonder if all of them can.

The dolls were never "alive?"

Bland, I didn't know Jack and Sizemore's stocks were so low!

[Nihila]

Speculation... What exactly do Stuffamancers do? It's always been assumed that they created (or summoned) items, but it seems like Dollamancers can fill that void to some extent, leaving those poor Stuffamancers out of a job.

Dollamancy is Fate-aligned Stuffamancy. No contradiction here.

[Carne]

Perhaps Ace will reward Cubbins for his help with a new pair of shoes - those pointy elvish things he's wearing aren't particularly stylish.

[ftl]

If it goes good I can see Parson not expecting it because the enemy has done something unexpected

How is this counting as unexpected, for Parson? Jetstone has a hatomancer and a dollamancer. I don't think that the Dollamancer making some shiny new accessory can be counted as "unexpected" at all. (Unless Parson doesn't know what Dollamancers can do. It is a bit unexpected for us because we weren't thinking about what else the Dollamancer can do besides golems, but I don't think it's something big enough to throw a wrench into Parson's plans - it seems like it's just a powerup for Tramennis. Probably an anti-air or anti-uncroaked powerup given the fight, but still.)

Either way how will Trem deal with his casters doing this behind his back?

I'm not sure that Trem will have to 'deal with' all that much. What's going to happen? The casters spend a bit of juice to make him a new toy or weapon. It's not earth-shattering in terms of strategy and impact. It's not like Tramennis is going to have to deal with suddenly being down two casters - both have plenty of juice, they haven't done anything this turn yet. I think he'll deal with it the same way he dealt with Ford's elaborate plans - routinely.

I'm interested in what'll come out of the casters spending their juices... I'd guess that either the expenditure of the juice will be worth while and save the day; or the lack-of-juice will cost them the battle. Either/or.

I'd guess the other way around. It's a text update. I think the most likely thing is that the accessory will add some flavor to the coming fight, but that this won't have a significant tactical impact one way or the other. Sort of like Ansom's and Ford's tactical planning, or Wrigley's zeal.

[Atomic]

Dollamancy is Fate-aligned Stuffamancy. No contradiction here.

Dollamancy is Fate-aligned Spookism... Changeamancy is Fate-aligned Stuffamancy

Edit:

I'd guess the other way around. It's a text update. I think the most likely thing is that the accessory will add some flavor to the coming fight, but that this won't have a significant tactical impact one way or the other. Sort of like Ansom's and Ford's tactical planning, or Wrigley's zeal.

Good point, and you're likely correct... But by that reasoning; look how Ford's planning worked out for the ground force. Cant deny the humor of the casters screwing their side over in an attempt to help Tramennis!

[Nihila]

Dollamancy is Fate-aligned Stuffamancy. No contradiction here.

Dollamancy is Fate-aligned Spookism... Changeamancy is Fate-aligned Stuffamancy

...Mea culpa. Thanks for correcting me. Maybe Dollamancers can create things out of existing materials, Stuffamancy can create said materials? And so can Hat Magicians... So, Stuffamancers can do all sorts of stuff, but other disciplines can do parts of that.

Have we seen any Changemancy yet?

[The Shadow]

Why does Cubbins look so familiar in that picture?! I can't place it. He doesn't particularly look like Dr. Suess' Bartholomew Cubbins...

[Angband]

So Cubbins is confirmed as a hat magician, no surprise there.

Of course, if you look at the source you can see that he has the same pointy shoes, but the rest of his outfit is very different from the Dr. Seuss book.

So what IS he wearing? A short sleeved button shirt with a patch on the shoulder? And a cap with a diamond-shaped patch in the middle?

Why, he's got on a Cub Scout Uniform, of course.

[mblackadder]

Speaking of images lets see on Ace's? Cubbins? table the following

Two medium sized bottle rockets
Two Sai's
A Darth Vadar esk lightsaber/beam sword
Two unidentified weapons we can only see hilts for directly behind Ace
A pair of nun-chucks
An unidentified object at the very end of the table, could be a dagger, could be a pole cube no way to say.

I agree that Ace seems to be packing a Van Helsing style repeating crossbow. And yes Cubbins is a boy scout.

[cloudbreaker]

Why does Cubbins look so familiar in that picture?! I can't place it. He doesn't particularly look like Dr. Suess' Bartholomew Cubbins...

Maybe you are recognizing him from this panel.

[effataigus]

Don't read this:

Spoiler: show

Ace wants to show Trammenis how his junk works so he can get a happy ending.

LOL

Ace gets a happy ending by showing Tram his junk and blowing his juice behind Tram's back.

Ace, of Ace and Gary?

[Ninjaguineapig]

Has anyone else noticed that Ace doesn't look like a caster? All the other casters we've seen are the size of regular infantry (except Janis and Benjamin, who're kinda on the heavy side), and some of them are really old. Lord Ace Hardware looks like some Titan booped up assigning specials.

[Lamech]

Has anyone else noticed that Ace doesn't look like a caster? All the other casters we've seen are the size of regular infantry (except Janis and Benjamin, who're kinda on the heavy side), and some of them are really old. Lord Ace Hardware looks like some Titan booped up assigning specials.

Not a whole lot of the basic infantry seem to be super tough looking. Even Webinar didn't seem any more tough looking than say... Cubbins. I think its just random; look at Wanda, her stats are high enough to not bother with magic when fighting a level 10 artifact equiped royal warlord.

Also I wonder if anyone is gonna get in trouble for this. Would be kind of funny.

[DevilDan]

Has anyone else noticed that Ace doesn't look like a caster? All the other casters we've seen are the size of regular infantry (except Janis and Benjamin, who're kinda on the heavy side), and some of them are really old. Lord Ace Hardware looks like some Titan booped up assigning specials.

Call it typecasting or call it signamancy. And we know he hasn't been around as long as some others.

[fjolnir]

He's also decidedly more aggressive than most of the caster's we've seen with the possible exception of wanda.

[Glenn]

If Ace is an unusual caster, that may be because he wasn't originally intended to be a caster. He thinks he popped as a Dollamancer because Jetstone's former Dollamancer got killed, and "Jetstone was Fated to have a Dollamancer". Maybe whatever process creates Units started to create Ace as a normal Jetstone Warlord, and then when it suddenly needed to supply Jetstone with a new Dollamancer, modified his design to make him a Dollamancer. So he has the physical strength and personality of a Jetstone Warlord, and the talents of a Dollamancer. Which would seem to make him much better qualified to wield the Arkenhammer than Stanley.

[joosy]

Hopefully Ace won't spend all his juice on accessorizing (sp?) and will have some juice left over to heal the dolls that were damaged and are going to be damaged in the upcoming skirmish.

[Lord Kasavin]

Ace looks like a GI Joe doll/action-figure. Guess what kind of Dollamancy he wants to practice?

I would not think anything more of his appearance beyond that. He is also a bit on the gruff and aggressive side, but there is no particular reason to think casters cannot be this.

Also, I would love to see Parson's plan almost work, only to be defeated with a single arrow through Wanda's heart (possibly fired by that mean looking thing on Ace's back). I know Wanda is on the "cannot be killed list," but quite frankly I think the comic would improve without her. Immediately, GK would be put back on the defensive. It would also drive home to Parson that his life really is on the line and random chance can end it just as readily as poor/stupid planning. I don't think the already decrypted will switch sides or vanish, but will now suffer from very low loyalty paving the way for Ansom to turn. This puts one Jetstone brother on each side in the coming conflict.

I do not think we will see a repeat of Book 1, and this can be solved simply by switching the action to the border cities. But a Parson facing difficult military situations while facing equally difficult ethical considerations is sort of the heart of the comic.

[gaiaswill]

So Jetstone's collective unimaginativeness is so great it stifled a caster from trying new unit types? Did they even let Ace make one action figure golem for demonstration? Oh well, at least Tramennis is the boss now.

I would have rather fancied seeing Ace or Ossomer in an Iron Man suit.