Book 2 – Parson’s Klog 003

[balder]

New One is up.

[Chevalier]

Interesting - looks like the riders (except hobgobwins) are croaking their mounts. Will they disappear? Will they also fall to ground, as we can see the yellow dwagons start to do? And will the now-heavy hobgobwins also get harvested?

Also interesting is where Parson was going with his musings on creating a self-sustaining, even positive-output side - will he try to split and do this later?

[Raza]

Nice. I like how we get a page out of an ongoing set of notes, framed in context.

Interesting - looks like the riders (except hobgobwins) are croaking their mounts. Will they disappear? Will they also fall to ground, as we can see the yellow dwagons start to do? And will the now-heavy hobgobwins also get harvested?

Also interesting is where Parson was going with his musings on creating a self-sustaining, even positive-output side - will he try to split and do this later?

As the klog says, they'll disappear normally as the turn passes. Presumably Wanda will decrypt them before then.

And there's no reason to harvest the hobgobwins - the harvesting is just to ground dwagons that don't have units on them that can become heavies. 'Sides, hobgobwins talk.

[fjolnir]

interesting, another facet of the "food fight" trick, also we learn another facet of the rules of the world. Can this be an exploit with decrypted? Heavies fall, those that are decrypted and incapacitated get "harvested", leave a corpse and get decrypted again??

also his suspicion that it's possible to make a zero or plus sum warfree side is an interesting one, is this going to be parson's future goal?

[Ansan Gotti]

Fascinating. So the next piece of the puzzle fits into place. One of my last remaining questions is, what about all of the dwagons which are riderless?

[mea culpa]

The last part about self-sufficient cities hints at a potential far-future pacifist-parity possibility.

[Knight13]

Aside from the harvesting thing and the possibility of self-sufficiency, this klog gives us another interesting bit of information. In order for a kingdom to maintain an army large enough to defend itself from its neighbors, it has to attack other kingdoms, since the cities alone don't produce enough shmuckers to pay upkeep. I always wondered how the constant war thing was enforced, turns out it's a neat little vicious circle.

[Wrathwind]

Well I'm guessing that the dwagons w/ riders harvest the riderless dwagons first then harvest theirs to fall this is getting really really good, and thx rob on the fast updates I was going crazy there for a bit

[BarGamer]

Eating dragons for fun and profit? Why am I having flashbacks to a certain Slayers episode? Granted, one turn is a vast improvement over 1 year...

[Ansan Gotti]

Well I'm guessing that the dwagons w/ riders harvest the riderless dwagons first then harvest theirs to fall this is getting really really good, and thx rob on the fast updates I was going crazy there for a bit

Yeah, I guess that would work. Would need to move fast, though, or else arrows will start a-flyin' and put the riders in danger. (Like they aren't in enough danger already from the fall...)

[Vorteks]

Is this an out-of-context page, or was the previous page in another update a while back? I don't recall.

[Knott]

"Let's do lunch" indeed

[fjolnir]

it is tangentially related to the current action, we don't need to know the previous page or the one after to know that this mechanic will come up, and the self sufficiency thing is setup as a chekov's gun or at least foreshadowing...
it is not out of context, it's just contextually strange.

Am I the only one who thinks that the self sufficient bubble kingdom requires a ditto- and a turna- 'mancer to crank out heavies at a fast enough rate to reach that perfect equilibrium between making your upkeep and defensibility?

[President_Allosaurus]

The art on this one is incredible.

[TheMutant]

Looks like the hobgobwins and their mounts are the lucky ones here- they get a free(er?) passage to the ground. Wonder if Ossomer's being ordered to do the same, or if he gets to remain up there with Tramennis?

Guess now they have to cross their fingers that Jack and Wanda aren't both incapacitated (presumably one or both of them have Healomancy scrolls).

And I love the art, too. Especially the frantically flapping Hobgobwin-ridden dwagons. Though dead dwagons make me sad :(

[Ansan Gotti]

Someone speculated a couple of pages ago about a "catch" mechanic a la Jillian and her gwiffons. I'm betting the heavy hobgobwins and their surviving mounts (which will hit the ground at least a few moments before the harvesters, based on the chronology) will be trying to do just that for the falling riders.

It seems optimally that the sequence ought to be, promote to heavy, harvest the riderless dwagons, harvest the dwagons they're riding, catch the falling riders.

[CelebrenIthil]

Poor Dwagons. D:

We about knew it would happen tough.

Is it me, or do the Hobgobwins look more buff now they are Heavy units?

EDIT: Wow there's a former Jetstone unit there that couldn't hang on to his dead mount it seems. Really no hope to cushion the fall there. Poor guy. The things he has to go through.... serve JS, die in a fire, serve GK, kill your flying mount under yourself and plummet to your possible doom....

[Foolamancer]

So the hobgobwins are croaking their dwagons, presumably with the intent to harvest.

...I am at a loss as to how, exactly, this wins Parson the battle, though.

[Ace]

Aside from the harvesting thing and the possibility of self-sufficiency, this klog gives us another interesting bit of information. In order for a kingdom to maintain an army large enough to defend itself from its neighbors, it has to attack other kingdoms, since the cities alone don't produce enough shmuckers to pay upkeep. I always wondered how the constant war thing was enforced, turns out it's a neat little vicious circle.

This is implied, but I'm not convinced sides need to fight others to be viable as sides. After all, GK has all those gems, pops rations, etc. And they weren't winning wars before book 1 (quite the opposite), but still seemed to have plenty of capital. I think there's some evidence to suggest sides can survive without war, they just risk being weak. I'd like alot more information on this, that's for sure.

Also, I guess this means that it would have taken too long to kill the Dwagons without popping them for rations or something? It's a little odd... why couldn't they just kill the Dwagons normally and let them fall? I understanding killing them (if it's safer than just flying down and "falling/landing", but this seems needlessly complicated unless killing Dwagons is just too hard to do...

I guess the Archons in the airspace are boned too, which is annoying. I hope Parson still has some handy. Also, this explains why this gambit will cause them to lose most of their forces in a satisfactory way (they'll be rations next turn). Which makes sense, because one assumes that otherwise they'd steamroll the unprepared Jetstones, decrypting at will, and taking the castle from within.

[Ace]

So the hobgobwins are croaking their dwagons, presumably with the intent to harvest.

...I am at a loss as to how, exactly, this wins Parson the battle, though.

The croaked Dwagons become food next turn. In the meantime, Wanda will be able to decrypt them and have them fight for her, ripping up the city from within, and burning the tower (if she even needs to), decrypting all the units they kill (or have already killed) and taking the city from within.