Book 2 – Text Updates 035

[Duric]

One has tabled the turn?

English is not my first language. I am not getting it

[Diss Champ]

One has tabled the turn?

English is not my first language. I am not getting it

To "table" a motion is technically to delay it indefinately by placing it on the table and take it out of debate, but in practice when a motion is tabled it is dead. Thus to "tabled the turn" was when the turn was ended.

[Duric]

thanks

[ftl]

OMG! It just dawned on me how Parson is going to win this.

Correct me if I'm wrong but,
1)What zone do you have to take in a city to actually take control of the city?

2)What part of the city is currently unoccupied by military units since they are all out parading or planing to shot fish in a barrel?

3)What part of the city is Parson, a warlord, going to magically show up in?

Oh that's right the garrison.

Parson will single-handedly take the whole city allowing the entire might of the dwagons to cross the zones of the city (since it now belongs to them) and come swooping in for the decapitating strike!

The dropping thing has just been a red herring.

I could be entirely wrong about this though, and there could still be guards in the garrison that Parson will have to take care of quickly and quietly, also Parson's entry into the garrison may not be enough to be considered taken, and finally he may not come out in the garrison, ie in the tower or some other place.

Who knows.

Ooh, that would be interesting.

I suspect that won't work quite so easily - after all, even with most of the units up in the tower, there's probably still guards posted in their usual stations in the garrison, all the infantry that wouldn't be useful for shooting down dwagons and which aren't important enough to have ceremonial functions.

But it's a good idea. If Parson comes through with anything other than just himself, he could probably take down the guards.

[Urf]

Goddamn I love this story.

So many favorite characters.

[Geordy]

The garrison is Spacerocks special level 5 building giving it an inate boost in being defensive. This was mentioned in the text update after Tramennis returned from the battle at the bridge and before he was about to have a talk with his father.

Secondly during the same update it was clearly stated that Tramennis stationed all non-flyers inside the garrison (for which you Parson fanbois booed him by the way). So no, it is highly unlikely that Parson is going to take the garrison singlehandedly.

[Oberon]

It's a bit of a moral conundrum, that thing about abusing the MK portals. That rule exists to allow there to be at least one place in Erfworld which is neutral, outside of war. Parson is breaking it merely for his own convenience, and convenience alone is not the basis needed to make an act good.

Merely convenience? You're comparing the contrast of losing Wanda's entire expeditionary force against destroying the Jetstone capitol city and presumably the Jetstone Side as well, and labeling this a mere convenience? Really?

Supposedly, Parson is trying to make it so that Erfworld, eventually, will know lasting peace, but the end does not justify the means.

That is Janice's plan. And Sizemore has heard at least a little bit about it. But we've no indication that Parson has been consulted on the matter, at all. Parson is looking for his greatest advantage, not for an end of war on Erf. There is no "peace of Erf" justification motivating Parson, right now his motivation is turning a clear loss into a clear victory. And violating a mere convention, which he just heard about 5 minutes ago and which doesn't even have any real evidence that it applies to him in any event, is not an "ends justifies the means" argument. You can decide to dislike Parson for violating this convention, but you can't make him into an amoral monster for violating it.

[Ansan Gotti]

Here is my theory for what will go down.

Parson wanted the parley and was glad for the orders Jetstone had for bringing the dwagons in close because he is theorizing that a shorter fall equals a greater chance of mere injury or incapacitation rather than death. At the appointed moment, all of the dwagons fall onto the tower. Jack and Wanda go last, with instructions and a priority list for using the healing scrolls. As the landing dwagons cause chaos (both with respect to the Jetstone units they landed on, and the units (both Jetstone units and incapacitated dwagons) the live ones are slaying), a hopefully surviving Wanda decrypts everything available, multiple times during the battle. Jack casts a big baffle or illusion so decrypted units appear as Jetstone units, or vice versa, or both. Everything is chaos and confusion and everything starts to kill each other, not being able to trust whether it's a friendly or enemy unit. In other words, a big food fight. Wanda still wins in the end because food fight or no, the inevitable weight of averages over time in the fight leverages down to "dead," which means they will be decrypted on her side. And at some point, the dwagons burn the tower.

And Parson is planning to go through the MK to Jetstone to make sure they will be able to use his bonus, small though it may be. Unless it's not even close, in which case he can stay behind, hence his comment to Sizemore about not even being sure they're going.

[Xorbon]

There are some who seem to think that Parson going through the Magic Kingdom portal to Spacerock is an important part of his plan. I really don't think so.

It seemed to me that this was an afterthought to Parson's main plan. Parson says explicitly here: http://www.erfworld.com/page/9/ that he was not "gonna send people into battles I wouldn't fight myself". That tells me that he doesn't need to be there, but that he wants to be there. Any bonus he provides his side will be secondary to his central plan.

That being said, I'm getting more and more curious what Parson's plan is.

[TheMutant]

Okay, I'm now coherant enough to post properly.

So, my main thought after reading this update (besides 'omg Jack so awesome') is that Jack's reason for not turning to Jillian when she asked recently has been explained (or as explained as you can get with mister talks-in-riddles), but what still has me wondering is why he didn't turn back in the pass fight, with Stanley vs Transylvito and Jillian. Neither of his reasons for turning now seem to exactly fit... the main missing bit of info here for making serious conjectures is whether linked units remember events around them when they were linked. We know they remember SOMETHING, but has this been determined fully one way or another? It'd be important to know whether Jack remembered all of the commands and events that transpired around him in the command room, or if he only recalls the bits associated with his function; ie, the display.

[Althernai]

With two of them having healomancy scrolls, they can take turns falling - first one, then the other - avoiding the chance where they're both incapacitated at once.

I don't think having them fall is a good idea. Falling can incapacitate, but it can also croak instantly in which case the scrolls won't help. That's too high of a risk to take, particularly with Wanda (on whose decryption abilities the entire plan almost certainly hinges).

[joosy]

With two of them having healomancy scrolls, they can take turns falling - first one, then the other - avoiding the chance where they're both incapacitated at once.

I don't think having them fall is a good idea. Falling can incapacitate, but it can also croak instantly in which case the scrolls won't help. That's too high of a risk to take, particularly with Wanda (on whose decryption abilities the entire plan almost certainly hinges).

I don't believe Wanda can decrypt across zones. Leaving Wanda alone in the airspace makes her the sole target for the arrows and thus croaked anyway.
Either they lose Wanda to the arrows or they lose her to a fall. If she falls she at least has a chance of surviving and increasing the odds of GK taking the Garrison.

[clik]

We don't know what a bunch of Parson's magic items do, so that leaves doors wide open. He may be able to teleport over a stack of units (or maybe just 1 or 2 units) to his position after he goes through the portal, making it a good thing that the rest are farther away to be able to move out of range of archers while the guys inside tear things up. I imagine if this is the case then he likely brought items to hand off to Wanda and/or Jack. I doubt he is going to use the ram's head staff but Wanda has already used it with a devastating area effect. More reason for it to be a good thing to already have the rest of their units far away out of harm's reach from Parson's POV (though she was able to be at least somewhat selective with the item last time perhaps Parson doesn't know that, or it takes less juice to be indiscriminate).

I think the whole food fight bit was likely misdirection or a coded message for Jack since Parson is well aware that Charlie has hacked the eyebooks and was aware before Jack went off with Wanda on her campaign.

So I say Parson runs through, smacks a couple low level Jetstone guys and uses an item to Dimension Door over Wanda and/or Jack. She gets the staff and goes "AGGRO" again while Jack and Parson defend her as she casts the spell then decrypts like crazy turning the tables in a few moments.

A pity that Parson and Trammenis won't get to have some parley first, but the pacing demands some imminent explosions before that.

[fractal]

So I say Parson runs through, smacks a couple low level Jetstone guys and uses an item to Dimension Door over Wanda and/or Jack. She gets the staff and goes "AGGRO" again while Jack and Parson defend her as she casts the spell then decrypts like crazy turning the tables in a few moments.

AGGRO wasn't Wanda's spell. She was just invoking Gobwin Knob's previously set-up Shockamancy air defenses. Sizemore or Maggie could have done it as well. If anything like that is going to happen in Spacerock, it will go the other direction, blasting Wanda and the dwagons.

[clik]

So I say Parson runs through, smacks a couple low level Jetstone guys and uses an item to Dimension Door over Wanda and/or Jack. She gets the staff and goes "AGGRO" again while Jack and Parson defend her as she casts the spell then decrypts like crazy turning the tables in a few moments.

AGGRO wasn't Wanda's spell. She was just invoking Gobwin Knob's previously set-up Shockamancy air defenses. Sizemore or Maggie could have done it as well. If anything like that is going to happen in Spacerock, it will go the other direction, blasting Wanda and the dwagons.

Very well. Not Aggro specifically, but some sort of area attack. I suspect the staff was instrumental in doing it or at least otherwise useful. If it were just pointless bling then Parson would not have selected it from among all the other magic items that could tie up his hand.

[knight427]

I have been reading this comic from the beginning. Tonight I was inspired by the this text update to register and post. It was by far my favorite text update ever and I could not NOT let that go unsaid. Well done.

[Lor]

One has to wonder if Rob enjoys writing for Jack as much as I enjoy reading it, and if so, why he doesn't write for him more often? if he would write more often, would we get tired of him, and is that just the reason Rob doesn't right for him often ...

What was I saying again? heh.

You can see how much a Masterful (if not Master-class) foolamancer respects someone able to out-lateral him.

[Hatu]

One has tabled the turn?

English is not my first language. I am not getting it

To "table" a motion is technically to delay it indefinately by placing it on the table and take it out of debate, but in practice when a motion is tabled it is dead. Thus to "tabled the turn" was when the turn was ended.

This is correct. Though, at least as I understand it, the meaning is particular to the United States. In Britain, to "table" something apparently means to bring it up for discussion - almost the exact opposite meaning.

Meanwhile, nice update; Jack is always a joy to watch. But I'm still skeptical Parson's plan can live up to the hype without seeming forced.

-H

[Chit Rule Railroad]

This is correct. Though, at least as I understand it, the meaning is particular to the United States. In Britain, to "table" something apparently means to bring it up for discussion - almost the exact opposite meaning.

Fortunately, both meanings fit what Jillian did - she suppressed GK's turn but brought up JS's turn.

[Lor]

This is correct. Though, at least as I understand it, the meaning is particular to the United States. In Britain, to "table" something apparently means to bring it up for discussion - almost the exact opposite meaning.

Fortunately, both meanings fit what Jillian did - she suppressed GK's turn but brought up JS's turn.

If the British meaning is accurate, then it still works ... Jillian brought JS's turn up -- for the parley.