Summer Updates - 007

[HandofShadows]

Wonder what Jack's going to do (in the long run). He was the one that prevented Stanley's stupidity from becomen a major incident. Might he end up being a bit of a "buffer" that keeps Stanley from screwing things up too badly?

[jtaylor]

You know, with the incredible abilities displayed by the Arkenpliers in Decrypting Ansom, 28 archons, and who knows how many additional units, I'm just wondering if Wanda didn't decrypt Bogroll on purpose. Based on the rules of Erfworld, we know that corpses are still there in some form until the start of the next turn. So there should have been enough of Bogroll to uncroak/decrypt, since the next turn had not started yet. So why wasn't there enough of Bogroll?

[ang3lboy2001]

Because Bogroll was incinerated by the opposition in retaliation for killing Ansom.

[mutecebu]

Holy Boop, GK has some serious airpower, now! They should hit Charlie first. He has an arkentool and no friends.

That's... actually a good idea.

I still don't understand Jack. He seems like a good guy, but why's he playign for Stanly? I don't pretend to understand Loyalty and it's effects on Parson, Jack and Wanda.

[Welf von Ehrwald]

Attacking Charley is a big gambit. We don't know how many Archons he has left, nor how many cities he has. If he has only one to three cities and has lost half of his archons and is in near space, then he is a good target. If he has 50 archons left, and a bunch of cities with normal troops, and there are some other nations between GK and Charley, it's a bad idea.
Charley has maybe no friends and is generally disliked, but he seems to have no real advisaries. And he has lots of money in his treasure. He simply can buy some alliances with other kingdoms. And against Stanley with his two arkentools it should be quite pricey. Nobody wanted him with one arkentool, much less with three.

[joosy]

Attacking Charlie is problematic at best.

They have no intel on Charlie (that we are aware of) and Parson is still bound to provide 10 more battle calculations.

They need to come up with a viable plan and then somehow convince Stanley it is his plan and go from there.

From what the readers are shown, GK needs to spend its time setting its own house in order before anything else.

[joosy]

I still don't understand Jack. He seems like a good guy, but why's he playing for Stanly? I don't pretend to understand Loyalty and it's effects on Parson, Jack and Wanda.

I think he is loyal to Wanda which translates being loyal to Stanley. Maybe he is following his own prediction/prophesy as well. Remember he is still in love with Jillian but chose Stanley over her.

[PhantomFox]

I'm curious why the dwagons had troubles with the show up there. Do they generally dislike competition in the air, or have they only a problem with other arkentool-units?

It's more that they're like horses, in that they get surprised and scared at sudden explosions and loud noises and bolt.

[Welf von Ehrwald]

It's more that they're like horses, in that they get surprised and scared at sudden explosions and loud noises and bolt.

I don't know; these dwagons probably have years of combat experiences and are rode by Stanley with his hammer. I think it should take more than a little lightning show to scar them.

[Carlan]

It's more that they're like horses, in that they get surprised and scared at sudden explosions and loud noises and bolt.

I don't know; these dwagons probably have years of combat experiences and are rode by Stanley with his hammer. I think it should take more than a little lightning show to scar them.

Sure, but a light show would normally mean fight time for them. They probably wouldn't want to be on the ground for that.

[SteveMB]

From what the readers are shown, GK needs to spend its time setting its own house in order before anything else.

And that Archon thought she'd seen a stunningly dysfunctional group dynamic before....

[Balance]

It's more that they're like horses, in that they get surprised and scared at sudden explosions and loud noises and bolt.

I don't know; these dwagons probably have years of combat experiences and are rode by Stanley with his hammer. I think it should take more than a little lightning show to scar them.

Sure, but a light show would normally mean fight time for them. They probably wouldn't want to be on the ground for that.

Indeed. We don't know just how smart dwagons are, but any creature that fights in the air is logically going to be very nervous about something flying over its head. An advantage in altitude is a big thing in air combat--it translates to speed and/or power. If the critters with that advantage are also making lots of noise, they would almost certainly be perceived as a threat. Add to that the fact that Stanley himself is nervous, and that mounts often react badly to nervous riders, and it would be very surprising if the dwagons didn't try to take to the sky--at least to get above the archons, if not to attack.

[Bobby Archer]

Wanda is now satisfied. She's gotten what she wanted. She achieved her goal.

We don't know that. The Prediction that set her off after the Arkentools might have had more to it. Wanda is still Loyal to Fate magic, and Fate may have more in store for Wanda.

[Matty]

With regards to attacking Charlie, didn't Vinnie make reference early on to the fact that two attuned arkentools on opposing sides will effectively cancel each other out? It's possible that Vinnie was just referring generally to the balance of fate/power that they represent, but, if taken literally, now that GK has 2 arkentools, couldn't they choose which would be best for conquering Charlie and use the other to negate the source of Charlie's power? Parson's already explicitly stated that the battle system works around force multipliers, so wouldn't that count as a pretty effective way of sapping Charlie's big bonus? What would even happen if Charlie's powers were neutralized - would the troops he created using the arkendish be frozen in time, disband, defect, or carry on as usual? I don't think we know enough about Archons to say, but there are some interesting strategic possibilities here.

[Welf von Ehrwald]

Sure, but a light show would normally mean fight time for them. They probably wouldn't want to be on the ground for that.

Indeed. We don't know just how smart dwagons are, but any creature that fights in the air is logically going to be very nervous about something flying over its head. An advantage in altitude is a big thing in air combat--it translates to speed and/or power. If the critters with that advantage are also making lots of noise, they would almost certainly be perceived as a threat. Add to that the fact that Stanley himself is nervous, and that mounts often react badly to nervous riders, and it would be very surprising if the dwagons didn't try to take to the sky--at least to get above the archons, if not to attack.[/quote]

That sounds plausible; yet I can't adapt to the idea that the dwagons can feel menaced by their own troops. But whatever.

[joosy]

To those who reference Vinny's statement "don't they cancel each other out or sumthin?" regarding the Arkentools.

I believe Vinny was referring to the combat bonus each one applies. As far as accessing their powers (i.e. being attuned) that was the advantage GK had over the RCC.

The question now is: Does the bonus from each Arkentool stack for all troops or just those under the wielder's stack or at least current occupied hex?

Based on the battles in the forest (donut of Doooooooooom!) and the lake, I would guess hex.

[temprus]

You know, with the incredible abilities displayed by the Arkenpliers in Decrypting Ansom, 28 archons, and who knows how many additional units, I'm just wondering if Wanda didn't decrypt Bogroll on purpose. Based on the rules of Erfworld, we know that corpses are still there in some form until the start of the next turn. So there should have been enough of Bogroll to uncroak/decrypt, since the next turn had not started yet. So why wasn't there enough of Bogroll?

I agree, Bogroll was just killed and burned by fire, yet most of the Coalition were either killed by lava (or worse) or buried under it after death and yet they are somehow easily De-Crypted?

[raphfrk]

I agree, Bogroll was just killed and burned by fire, yet most of the Coalition were either killed by lava (or worse) or buried under it after death and yet they are somehow easily De-Crypted?

Maybe, "burn" is a special action you can perform on a dead body to prevent uncroaking. It converts the body to ash, the other deaths wouldn't have had the special action performed.

[Matty]

To those who reference Vinny's statement "don't they cancel each other out or sumthin?" regarding the Arkentools.

I believe Vinny was referring to the combat bonus each one applies.

I disagree with your interpretation. After Vinny poses this question, Ansom answers with: "I wield the Arkenpliers. But I am not attuned to them, as Stanley is to his artifact. At best, they are a good combat weapon." http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F022.jpg

To me, this demonstrates how Ansom is taking Vinny's question literally. Note how he makes reference to the combat bonus indirectly in the last sentence, but that is not the answer he gives to Vinny's question - the second sentence is. In saying that "[he is] not attuned to [the Arkenpliers], as Stanley is to his artifact," Ansom is suggesting that, while Vinny's assumption may indeed be the case, it's of no help to them in this case as he's not attuned to his own artifact. He therefore doesn't confirm one way or another whether what Vinny said was true (allowing for us, the audience, to spectulate as much as we want), but he does clearly delineate that Vinny's question is not about combat bonuses.

[Maldeus]

Attacking Charlie is problematic at best.

They have no intel on Charlie (that we are aware of) and Parson is still bound to provide 10 more battle calculations.

Nine. He started with twelve, used one to figure out if he could take Gobwin Knob with his current Archons, another to determine how many more he'd need, and another to figure out the odds Parson's plan would beat the Royal Crown Coalition (which came out to a little under 60%, I believe).