Book 2 – Page 48

[balder]

New One is up.

[Althernai]

You can promote a unit to "heavy"? I did not realize that; I'd have guessed units either are heavy or their not based on what they are.

Also, poor Tremmenis. He knows just enough to be dangerous: it doesn't really occur to him that Parson can win outright.

[thorne]

I can't help it. I like Duke Antium. I hope he makes it out or does something heroic.

[KiltedNinja]

Oh my Nice work!

I really like the exchange with Tram and Slately... Another facet of Tramennis's intelligence showing.

So Parson promoting all the hobgobwins to heavy... I'm presuming this will make the dwagons they're riding plummet to the ground a-la Parson+Banana?

And, looks like Wanda's smiling for the first time in a century or so....

Awesome work as usual

[Ytaker]

Can he promote wanda to heavy? Can she cross zones? I wonder...

[CaesarVH]

awesome update! cant wait till "Lunch"!!!

also: never been on the first page of Reactions before.. .feels.. gooooood!

[Neko]

Oh. So. Clever! So all the dwagons who now have heavy riders on them "fall" - what about those without heavy riders? Like Jack, Wanda, and the decrypted warlords? Maybe they manually croak their dwagons to initiate a fall?

[zilfallon]

Wow...that was...surprising, and good.
Nice effect on Spacerock Tower defences, TD

And Tram showing intelligence?

He is posturing, Father. Trying to unsettle us. Showing his contempt by doing the only thing he can, while he can.

This means Tram saw it coming, probably. And this also means that Tram is underestiminating Lord Hamster, even after all he heard from Charlie. Underestiminating your enemy is NEVER a good thing, and Tram is underestiminating the protagonist, which almost always results in defeat, especially if they say "what's the worst that could happen?"

And really, Wanda has a scary smile on her face

Oh also, Ossomer sayin "I am truly sorry, brother" with that look on his face seems like he's having pity on Tram and Jetstone.

Edit: Poor Duke, his arm melted

Edit2: This update showed us why the crap followed a strange route in mid-air. They aren't randomly crapping, they are targeting specific infantry, and those infantry are running. Dwagons have high enough attack to hit the infantry, even if they run, so their crap is homing, and follow the infantry.

[Nihila]

Whoa. Promoting units to heavy? Well, now we know of one more special that can be added.

Actually, since heavy has been more of a disability in the comic (can't use tunnels or mounts), it makes more sense that it can be added than say, ranged. Though Ossomer did have that Tesla bracer...

[hidufel]

Looks like we learned something else... the chief warlord has the ability to countermand his rulers orders in regards to militarily. We can infer then, that parson can override any strategy stanley tries. very interesting.

[TheMutant]

Interesting- wonder if it's only certain units (of which Hobgobwins are one, evidently) that can be heavyized, or if it can be done to any. Curious. Looking forward to seeing how this is all coming together- and crossing my fingers that Charlie doesn't wreck it. I'd like to see one of Parson's plans go off without a hitch, if only the once.

And it may be that Parson CAN override Stanley's orders, but given the temperament of our dear Tool, would he really want to? ;)

[valce]

I wonder if this is a mechanic Parson wants to exploit? We know when Parson rode Banana it didn't croak either of them, nor did they apparently suffer any injuries. Perhaps a heavy trying to ride a mount doesn't suffer a fall, just an aborted take-off, and Erfworld doesn't have any mechanics for damage from aborted take-offs. Still, there are a lot of dwagons with uncroaked warlords/casters on them (and possibly even some unmounted dwagons?). The Atrium roof no longer provides cover from arrows, and they're still susceptible to spells where they are now. I'd like to see how Parson carries through this plan

Also, did Parson already agree to a parley with Tram, or does Tram's last line mean that he has some means of coercing Parson into a parley (which would probably involve Charlie)?

[valce]

Looks like we learned something else... the chief warlord has the ability to countermand his rulers orders in regards to militarily. We can infer then, that parson can override any strategy stanley tries. very interesting.

I don't think that was the implication -- I believe Tram was just trying to point out that according to Jetstone tradition the Chief Warlord has the final say in matters of war. I doubt there's a mechanic that makes the CWL's orders take higher priority than the Ruler's on every Side. IIRC in one of Slately's text updates he was thinking along the same lines (that Jetstone tradition means Tram is fully in charge of military operations).

The Ruler has absolute power in pretty much every regard, I don't see why he wouldn't get the last say in orders.

[Utoryo]

I'm willing to bet Ossomer will turn. He clearly seems unaware of the plan, and Tramennis didn't spend an entire strip making him doubt Paron's honour for nothing. And if that happens, it might mean Jetstone's got an heir again!

The 'promote to heavy' strategy is certainly a very cool way to force the the units to fall, although unlike the poop tactics I don't think there's any hint of it before that. Parson could promote himself to a field unit, but that's quite different. At least it does make good sense if it costs something and making some unit heavy gives it strength advantages in addition to the few known disadvantages (such as not being able to fly on a dwagon).

[Shnezz]

Battlecrap? Expected, and a helpful way to remove the roof.

But I never would have imagined that he would promote the hobgob's to heavy units. Heavy units can't use flying mounts (as skillfully demonstrated by parson himself)... So they fall. The roof is gone, so instead of splatting there, they fall and splat on the enemy soldiers, likely croaking both the enemy and themselves.

Even better, when Wanda uncroaks them, those hobgob's will likely be 'heavy uncroaked' or some equivalent, so the money to promote them shouldn't be a total waste.

So... they killed almost all infantry on the royal side just there (royal side at this location)... Im thinking they force surrender/negotiations on better terms, or else their new uncroaked army takes the city.

Gobwin Knob turns it into a lose-lose situation for the Prince (Or king, if he starts calling the shots again). If they attack Wanda/Jack, the troops at the bottom no longer have a commanding presence and are forced to 'autoattack' all enemies in the city. If they dont attack Wanda/Jack, then they can escape and either the G.K. side has new troops by taking the uncroaked with them... or still attacks to weaken the city.

Daaaaaaaaamn. That is all.

[Emmerson Grant]

Oh, that was good, Parson.

His S-bombs nail unled infantry and causes Tramennis to attack him, enabling him to counter-attack. I'm guessing downed dwagons, riders and uncroaked infantry will assault the Atrium from the remains of the Garrison.
All while Tramennis wants to chat with Parson.

Brilliant.

[technojunkie]

Tramennis is absolute in that he intends to talk to Parson, yet there's no thinkamancer present and the archons were ordered away from the tower. Given that he knows Parson can enter the magic kingdom is it probable that he expects parson to come visit?

[BCCroaker]

That "Let's do lunch" command code means we have yet to see the food fight.

[Magothys]

Tramennis is absolute in that he intends to talk to Parson, yet there's no thinkamancer present and the archons were ordered away from the tower. Given that he knows Parson can enter the magic kingdom is it probable that he expects parson to come visit?

I think he's waiting for Parson to "finish his tantrum" before ordering one of the archons back to the tower.

[GlueDuck]

He wouldn't even have to do that. As we saw back in the Slately-Don King conversation there was no thinkamancer involved except for Benny meaning that only the one initializing the thinkagram would need one.