Inner Peace (Through Superior Firepower) – Episode 006

[balder]

New One is up.

[Nihila]

Wow... this is creepy. Parson, you were too too right... "Wednesday Addams," I believe the phrase was?

Yeah, that seems about right. But I wonder when Wanda starts the whole dominatrix thing she did in Book 1.

[Balerion]

I find the difference in scale most interesting from this update (ie armies of what sounds like maybe 100-200 men as opposed to the thousands the big players field); certainly gaining more of an appreciation for how powerful Jetstone was (and frankly still is), and how powerful GK is now.

[shamelessmerc]

And thus the Zerg Rush came to Erfworld

This does seem like the only real use for Croakamancer... if you lose the momentum of victories (ie you don't have possession of the field) you don't have the corpses to reanimate and your caster sits around, rusting. That's probably why Stanley was in the habit of using her for other things. Croakamancy is only useful on the battlefield itself, and customarily casters sit at home rather than being deployed close to the front. That only seems to be violated in Capital city fights.

[Fiendishrabbit]

Allies: Frenemy and Quisling?

Oh that's comforting.

[OneHugeTuck]

So there's a digging special.

And...did Tommy say that Towers pop -with- 8 digger units? Or that the tower pops and you then put 8 preexisting diggers on the tower (that rolls).

[Dr Pepper]

Goodminton took its turn with its allies Quisling and Frenemy

Foreshadowing, or just signamancy? Next, they'll sign a treaty with Greatwhitefather.

[Godsire]

I seem to have missed the reference about the allies, anyone care to explain while I furthery attempt to sleep?

[Whispri]

Her first time saving the day and her first time as a sacker of cities, all at the grand old age of one and a bit days? Not bad going at all.

[DyolfKnip]

I seem to have missed the reference about the allies, anyone care to explain while I furthery attempt to sleep?

Shamelessly cribbed from Wikipedia:

"Frenemy" is a portmanteau of "friend" and "enemy" that can refer to either an enemy disguised as a friend or to a partner who is simultaneously a competitor and rival. Often involves a lot of passive-aggressive sabotage. Think Hagar and the RCC2; officially an ally in good standing, but they have to be ruthlessly threatened and blackmailed by Charlie into actually serving the alliance.

Quisling is a term used in reference to fascist and collaborationist political parties and military and paramilitary forces in occupied Allied countries which collaborated with Axis occupiers in World War II, as well as for their members and other collaborators. The term comes from Vidkun Quisling, who assisted Nazi Germany as it conquered his own country so that he could rule the collaborationist Norwegian government himself.

Basically, Goodminton can expect a knife in the back from its "allies" any turn now.

[OneHugeTuck]

I wonder if we'll see a 'Reichstag' beast unit at some point.

[Fiendishrabbit]

Quisling is a term used in reference to fascist and collaborationist political parties and military and paramilitary forces in occupied Allied countries which collaborated with Axis occupiers in World War II, as well as for their members and other collaborators. The term comes from Vidkun Quisling, who assisted Nazi Germany as it conquered his own country so that he could rule the collaborationist Norwegian government himself.

In much of Europe Quisling is also synonymous with Traitor, sort of similar to the US Benedict Arnold.

[Dr Pepper]

I seem to have missed the reference about the allies, anyone care to explain while I furthery attempt to sleep?

Quisling: norwegian minister who helped the nazis. Now a colloquialism for traitor.

Frenemy= "friend/enemy", someone who'll socialize with you but who is also a rival willing to stab you in the back to get ahead of you.

[StClair]

Our allies, Quisling and Frenemy

ah yes, I've been in games of Diplomacy like that.

[Sixty]

Also interesting with quisling was that it was used in the book World War Z (by the Zombie Survival Guide guy) to refer to humans who were not zombies but who had gone mad and started acting like them even though they weren't infected (the zombies still could tell though and tore them apart). Obviously itself a reference to the WWII usage, but I thought it interesting considering this is a story involving someone who makes zombies.

[Lamech]

That was almost a good plan with the firemen. At least that should slow them for a bit before the next city. Maybe? Also if siege towers are items can you just craft more?

[Kreistor]

And here it is again: What have we learned this time? For pages 5 and 6...

1) Casters pop with knowledge of how to cast some spells.

Wanda cast Hoboken, the Defensive spell on the Tower, and knew various ways to commit uncroakamancy, and she mentions "powerball" which seems to have a defensive context since as an alternative she regrets losing the scout's veil.

2) Croakamancers have the capacity to sense the internal structure of croaked (and probably uncroaked, but yet to be proven).

3) You claim a croaked by moving it from the hex in which it croaked.

That one has been a minor question mark ever since Parson mentioned it in a Klog.

4) Croaked depop at Dawn.

This is a concern for Croakamancers that go first in the Turn order. If their Side kills units on subsequent Turns, if the Croakamancer has no juice, the bodies will depop before the Caster gets Juice at Turn start. The bodies can't be moved on enemy Turn. Frankly, I think Rob should reconsider that, and retcon it to "end of the Turn on which it died on the day after it died" so Croakamancers of any Turn can have a chance to claim the corpse. There is a small possibility that you can throw it into the next hex off turn, but arrows shot hang on the hex wall, so it's not likely.

5) Some spells are spectrums.

The Croakamancy uncroaking spell was not singular in definition, but had a range of attributes for the result depending on what Wanda concentrated on when she cast.

6) Siege towers are equipment.

I think that was pretty obvious before, but it's important to note that they aren't moving themselves. (This is a world where they might.)

7) Digger special permits:
a) Movement through tunnels
b) tunneling/sieging into city walls.

___

Anyone with some gaming experience should see an opportunity wiht those Siege Tower Diggers. Here's a cool little sleight of hand...

1) Fabricate Pickaxes.
2) Extra Pickaxes accompany siege.
3) Normal infantry puts down their weapons and takes up extra pickaxes.
4) Normal infantry replaces diggers on tower.
5) Siege attacks walls. Normal INfantry hit wall with pickaxes to look like diggers.
6) Diggers tunnel from a secluded spot and come under wall in an unexpected location while the defenses concentrate on the obvious threat.

Ain't I an SoB?

There are other ways to use them, of course. Assailing Charlie's mountainside City may require access to Tunnnels, so they'll come in handy there.

[random_guy]

I think this update shows that Parson was right when he suspected that Wanda knows more about military strategy than she let on. It seems like she was taught a thing or two about tactics by her brother. He was just explaining basic facts about Erfworld, but it is possible that Wanda will learn more about warfare later on. This would explain why she takes initiative and deviates from Parson's plans even though she asks him for advice. She had experience as a warlord herself, so exercised her own judgment based on her understanding of the situation.

[elecampane]

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but if you conquer a city and want to uncroak the casualties, but your croakamancer hasn't enough juice, you need to actually move bodies out of the city to another unprotected hex so that they don't depop at the start of the next turn? That's... unconventient.

[oslecamo2_temp]

Yeah croakmancers level up pretty fast in the frontline.

But I wonder, does it really pay off to sacrifice a lv4 warlord to destroy some siege? Experienced leaders isn't really something you should be sending in suicide attacks, specially when you're suposed to have the upper hand.

Also, did the lv4 warlord have the digging special, or do digger units grant it to their leaders?