Summer Updates - 017

[Justyn]

No one's even made a passing reference to this so I'll do it.

Popped 200 turns ago. Vinnie is ANCIENT! 200 turns = 200 days, which doesn't sound like much, but for a unit to survive 200 turns in a turn based game? Well, usually it's an obsolete unit tucked away in a back corner of an empire that was forgotten, otherwise it would have been disbanded or upgraded. "The capital had not been seriously assaulted by ground in thousands of turns" again, we have confirmation that this is a really long time. Thousands of turns = years, not decades, centuries, or millennia, so it may not sound like a long time IRL, but turn based games, thousands of turns IS a very long time.

No, that doesn't mean that he's 200 turns old, it means that 200 turns passed between when he popped and when he first saw Transylvito.

Quite right, but that doesn't change my point that a character over 200 turns old is OLD.

Because I wasn't contesting the fact that a game piece that has been on the table for 200 turns is old. But Erfworld is not a game, its people are not a game pieces; and we just don't know how Erfworlders view of period of 200 turns.

[opal]

I don't think we can assume 200 turns equals a long time either. I don't think it's a short period of time based on Vinny's internal dialog; however, that doesn't mean being 200 turns old makes a character ancient or old.

A single number is simply impossible to analyze.

[moose o death]

yeah it's about the equivalent of someone born in the country saying i was twenty years old before i saw our capital city. it took twenty years but that's not all that old either

[Bloodly]

200+ turns, but remember that he is a General, the equivalent of a Hero-class unit; with special abilities and such. They're the units you want to keep alive as long as possible, over and above even high-powered standard units.

[opal]

What is a Hero class unit? Where did this classification come from? Where did a rank called 'General' appear in Erfworld? Are you saying Vinny is a Hero class unit?

[Anton Gaist]

What is a Hero class unit? Where did this classification come from? Where did a rank called 'General' appear in Erfworld? Are you saying Vinny is a Hero class unit?

It didn't, but I guess he's comparing Vinny to a Warcraft Hero, and instead of General, read Warlord.

[vdragan]

200+ turns, but remember that he is a General, the equivalent of a Hero-class unit; with special abilities and such. They're the units you want to keep alive as long as possible, over and above even high-powered standard units.

translation: vinny's kind of a big deal

also, it seems like he's become a bit less worried about the impression our favourite barbarian princess is making. or maybe that worry is exclusive to don king.
either way..i like hearing the story from vinny's perspective.

i also like the fact that he's from way out in duckula (over and above the count duckula reference). seems like the implication is that he's somewhat different than the other tv's. kinda like the "i don't know how things are in the big city, but back where i'm from, <insert simple but very pertinent observation here>"-style character. though he does seem pretty assimilated, at the same time.

as for charlie wanting to capture parson: true, definitely and absolutely, but you'll remember that charlie doesn't like fighting battles that even contain a losing outcome. so circulating a bounty at this point would mean that he would basically be telling everyone: "oh, hey, p.s., GK has not only destroyed your coalition, but also has this new warlord that is so good that i feel the need to invest a certain amount of schmuckers into getting him on my side". kind of a lot of information that may serve him better when brought into play later. my money's on the fact that charlie's doing what he always does just being there to "assist if necessary"

[moose o death]

charlie is a master manipulator though. he could play the "i want this guy's head on a pike" angle

[gameboy1234]

Maybe in classic drive-in rollergirl uniforms?

You posted that, and the first thing I thought of was "Rollerball."

[Infidel]

Quite right, but that doesn't change my point that a character over 200 turns old is OLD.

I don't think 200 turns is old. It took the RCC 5 turns to march from Warchalking to Gobwin Knob. The RCC destroyed 10 cities during the campaign, and I think it took them 5 turns to move from city to city. It took them 50 turns to take all of Stanley's city if they marched in one column, or 25 when they marched in two columns. More clumns aren't likely, because in that case Stanley could have attacked them with his one 50+ dwagons. It also took some time to gather the troops of the different factions, maybe additional 20-30 turns. The whole campaign took about 50 to 80 turns. But that would be about 1/4 or 1/3 of a timespan that you consider "old", and that is for me not likely. Experienced characters should have seen at least two or three wars.

Yes, all that sounds typical for TBG. It normally takes several turns to move from city to city. 50-80 turns per campaign also sounds typical. So yea, in a world under a constant state of war, a character that is old enough to have lived through 2 or more would be OLD.

[SteveMB]

Yes, all that sounds typical for TBG. It normally takes several turns to move from city to city. 50-80 turns per campaign also sounds typical. So yea, in a world under a constant state of war, a character that is old enough to have lived through 2 or more would be OLD.

There are still too many unknowns. For instance, we don't know how often a typical side is actually at war or what fraction of a side's units typically go to the front (if either percentage is too high, the side may burn itself out and end up as the sort of easy pickings Gobwin Knob was supposed to be at the beginning of Book 1). For that matter, we don't know if units last indefinitely unless croaked by violence (the fact that Banhammer saw no need for an heir until it was Predicted that his kingdom would fall points in that direction, but is hardly conclusive).

[Lothmar]

Can units "capture" things like defense towers, or other building-like structures in a city during the "tactical phase" of battle?

http://www.erfworld.com/book-1-archive/?px=%2F098a.jpg
The simplest explanation would be on page 98.^^

Essentially, if you can conquer two zones in one turn the city effectively becomes yours, including any bonuses granted?

[DevilDan]

I agree that one number really means nothing. 200 turns could be translated as one year, or five, or twenty-five. Comparisons are essentially meaningless without knowing what the average lifespan of a unit is (assuming it's not croaked in battle). They are popped as adults, and we know little about what, if any, aging occurs subsequently.

[SandroTheMaster]

Thanks for making me create yet another account, Erfworld. Sigh...

Anyway, could someone enlighten me into the supposedly secret pun within Goyle? I know it is related to "garGOYLES", but is there a less innocent implication I'm not aware off as well?

Other than that, I'd like to say: Erfworld remains awesome. I just rope it gets back to comic format soon.

[SteveMB]

Anyway, could someone enlighten me into the supposedly secret pun within Goyle? I know it is related to "garGOYLES", but is there a less innocent implication I'm not aware off as well?

"Goyle" = "Girl", as said with a thick accent.

[SandroTheMaster]

Anyway, could someone enlighten me into the supposedly secret pun within Goyle? I know it is related to "garGOYLES", but is there a less innocent implication I'm not aware off as well?

"Goyle" = "Girl", as said with a thick accent.

Thick accent? How awfully generic! Southern thick accent? Mid-western thick accent? English thick accent? Cockney thick accent? Australian thick accent? Hawaiian thick accent? German/French/Spanish/Latino(not same thing)/Middle Eastern/Russian/etc... thick accent?

Also, I am certainly unequipped to interpret English phones. Because either this is not an obvious pun at all or you need a very specific way to say "goyle" I am unaware the English language contains for it to work. Whatever the case, I'm still astonished.

[Unclever title]

Anyway, could someone enlighten me into the supposedly secret pun within Goyle? I know it is related to "garGOYLES", but is there a less innocent implication I'm not aware off as well?

"Goyle" = "Girl", as said with a thick accent.

Thick accent? How awfully generic! Southern thick accent? Mid-western thick accent? English thick accent? Cockney thick accent? Australian thick accent? Hawaiian thick accent? German/French/Spanish/Latino(not same thing)/Middle Eastern/Russian/etc... thick accent?

How about a thick Bugs Bunny style accent (except thicker)? Actually I'm not really sure if it is accent related but it is a pun because the words both begin and end with the same sounds, we maybe just picked up on it quicker because we've heard the word "goyle" spoken before, we've likely never seen it spelled though.

It could work both ways now that I think about it, you might insult an apparently male animated statue by calling him a "gar-girl."

We may also be working under different pronunciations. Here "Goyle" rhymes with oil and girl rhymes with whirl. So while the "oy" and "er" sounds are drastically different the g**le and g**l similarities are strong enough for the joke to come into play.

Anyway that was probably over-analytic and covered more bases than necessary but I hope you get the idea.

[atteSmythe]

Thick accent? How awfully generic! Southern thick accent? Mid-western thick accent? English thick accent? Cockney thick accent? Australian thick accent? Hawaiian thick accent? German/French/Spanish/Latino(not same thing)/Middle Eastern/Russian/etc... thick accent?

New York dialect, thick and exaggerated/lampooned. See especially the last bullet point under "Vowels"

[DevilDan]

New York dialect, thick and exaggerated/lampooned. See especially the last bullet point under "Vowels"

Precisely. Think of it as the exaggerated dialect of a Jersey mobster.

[Lothmar]

Meh, either way it's heavily italiano influence.