Why Stanley did the right decision by fleeing GK in book 1

[oslecamo2_temp]

Now one thing I've noticed among several forumites around here it's that they love to call Stanley a coward idiot for retreating from GK in book 1, and it was only by dumb luck that it ended up working.

Well I say it was actualy the best tactical option at the moment. First of all, quick review of the Evil Overlod List.


Evil overlord Rule 106: If my supreme command center comes under attack, I will immediately flee to safety in my prepared escape pod and direct the defenses from there. I will not wait until the troops break into my inner sanctum to attempt this.


Because see, like pointed out by Trems himself, the leader of a faction is their life line. If the leader dies and there's no heirs, the side is lost no matter how much of a supreme warlord you are. Thus you want to keep an heirless leader away from battle as much as possible.

But Stanley had the perfect Warlord! Why didn't he blindly trust him to the end?-may some of you ask.

Well, the answher to that question is quite simple actualy. From Stanley's point of view after the dwagon doughnut failure, there's two options:

1-Hamster isn't perfect. He can fail, and if he fails when Stanley's life on the line, then GK's doomed.

2-Hamster is indeed the perfect warlord, and will win regardless of how dire things look. In that case, Hamster can still perfectly win whitout dwagons and a couple of mancers less. That handicap certainly won't hinder the perfect warlord in any way, but will provide a nice escort to Stanley.

Either situation, the best plan for Stanley is to quietly pull back to FAQ ruins while Hamster performs his last stand. Either Hamster falls or pulls out some miracle. Either way, Stanley's actual presence at the final battle isn't needed, and is actualy a completely unnecessary risk.

[MarbitChow]

Stanley's definitely not very bright. He's not a brilliant tactician by any stretch of the imagination. But I don't recall anyone calling him a coward. He *loves* to fight. He's got no problem being right in the thick of things. That's how he got where he is today.

Stanley fleeing GK was a sound, obvious tactic. In fact, since we don't whether he could have reached FAQ that turn or not, it might have been better if he left a turn earlier, so he could guarantee getting there before GK fell. Going barbarian before he took FAQ may have cost him a lot of dwagons and knights, if he couldn't pay their upkeep.

[Swodaems]

But I don't recall anyone calling him a coward.

Forumites may not call Stanley a coward, but he's been called a coward in comic.

The title that Ansom and other called him in book 1 may also be another accusation of cowardice. 'Stanley the Worm' may be more than a insult based purely on Stanley's origin as a common unit. It may also mean that Stanley is accused of acting like a worm, a creature usually percieved as cowardly in personality.

Stanley's actions might very well look exceedingly cowardly to most erfworld outsiders:
Instead of either openly challanging Saline for the throne or trying to kill Saline himself, Stanley setup a natural allies revolution*. (At least that's what Jetstone thinks.)
After that he then stayed cooped up in the an extermely well defended city without ever leading his considerable power to the troops who were fighting for him.

[Sixty]

Not to mention that Parson's "blow up the mountain" strategy wouldn't have worked if Stanley was still in GK as he couldn't go through the portal and losing him is losing the side.

[drachefly]

Yeah, but that's obviously non-foreseeable.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Yeah, I don't recall seeing Stanley's retreat dissed quite so much around here. My memory ain't that good so maybe those discussions happened, but they probably were more subdued that the typical "Charlie is too powerful"/"the Pliers are too powerful"/"I love/hate Jillian" and of course "*** is carrying the Idiot Ball".

More to the topic, the reasons stated in this thread are the reasons why I'd suppose most people felt Stanley chose right when leaving GK to its fate. Apart from the volcano thing, which while useful in hindsight, surely was not among Stanley's thoughts when he ordered the evacuation.

Rather, his thoughts were, "you've all failed me, this is going nowhere good for me, I'm getting out of this clusterboop while I still can".

[Sixty]

Obviously everyone is ignoring the obvious fact that Stanley is secretly a predictamancer and KNEW the volcano would be exploded and thus my point is completely relevant. >_>