Question

[partywhipple]

Can parson snap his fingers and make a unit under his control disband like Stanley or is it only the ruler who can do it? And do any of the units get a chance to turn barbarian or are they automatically gone? I am assuming we don't have the answer to either of these questions yet...

[0beron]

I don't believe that Parson has that power because Chief Warlords haven't been said to have it....and that's assuming it actually is a thing. We've never seen a Ruler actually do it (Jillian has only referred to a "pecking order" of sorts which determined which units would disband when she couldn't afford to pay their upkeep from her purse while she was a Barbarian.) And if Rulers were free to do it whenever they please, Queen Bea would have done it when she committed suicide, since Disbanding doesn't leave any bodies either.

[MarbitChow]

Queen Bea would have done it when she committed suicide, since Disbanding doesn't leave any bodies either.

I think it has already been shown that many rulers aren't the most tactically able. There may have been an emotional reason for the way she ended it - she didn't want to outlive any of her units, perhaps. From a tactical perspective, it would have made much more sense to disband everything, and transfer her treasury to TV or someone else who could use it, rather than just promoting her garrison troops. Maybe she wanted every garrison unit to see the 'outside world', however briefly, before they bought it?

[0beron]

Hmmm while I agree about Ruler's ability for tactics, there may actually be a reason now that you mention the treasury...maybe you need a Moneymancer on YOUR side in order to move Schmuckers. When Slately asked Don for financial help, Don asked Benjamin to make a Gem, so that might be the only way to transfer funds. In which case, Bea actually made an excellent strategic move by coming up with a way to spend the entire treasury AND deprive GK of bodies. (Of course, by saying "excellent move" I'm ignoring the questionable decision to end your side rather than surrender)
In either event, I agree that Queen Bea's example doesn't actually provide us with much evidence on the topic of whether Disbanding is actually a real "whenever-they-feel-like-it" power of Rulers.

[Nnelg]

Stanley certainly has made it out like he can.

As for Queen Bea, there's too much symbolism wrapped up in her last act for much practical analysis.

[Shai_hulud]

Disbanding doesn't leave any bodies

Where has that been said?

[MarbitChow]

A combination of this (click) and this (click). The first describes the fact that if Stanley croaks, field units disband. The second shows field units vanishing when Queen Bea steps into the portal, thus killing herself.

[partywhipple]

I had actually assumed Stanley meant it when he said he could disband them at will. Also, I could have sworn Maggie had said something similar about Stanley's abilities. SIgh. Let me see if I can find it.

[Nnelg]

Well, we haven't actually seen such a thing happen but it's a threat that's been used in most sides in the past, so presumably the fear of disbandment is not unfounded.

There might be more to it than "the ruler snaps his fingers: poof, the unit's gone", such as a morale hit, but I think that it doesn't make sense for such a widespread fear to be unsubstantiated.

[cloudbreaker]

We don't know if Parson can disband units yet, although it wouldn't surprise me if he could since he has the authority to upgrade natural allies. However, we know that rulers can for sure and it isn't just hearsay. We know this because the Disband page in the wiki is one of the few pages Rob has put a canon section in. It says rules can, but it doesn't say chief warlords can't.

Edit: Upon further investigation, I realized that is NOT one of the pages Rob edited. And therefore it should not have a canon section. My bad. I'm going to go edit that to proposed canon right now.

[0beron]

Edit: Upon further investigation, I realized that is NOT one of the pages Rob edited. And therefore it should not have a canon section. My bad. I'm going to go edit that to proposed canon right now.

It's okay for pages to have Canon sections even without Rob himself making them. They just have to be things that are explicitly stated in the comic, rather than inferred or assumed. For example, the fact that units have Hits, Combat, Defense, and Move as visible stats is Canon, and anyone could have written that page.
EDIT: to clarify, I don't believe that disbanding is such a case. there is too much ambiguity for us to call it anything more than proposed canon.

[cloudbreaker]

Edit: Upon further investigation, I realized that is NOT one of the pages Rob edited. And therefore it should not have a canon section. My bad. I'm going to go edit that to proposed canon right now.

It's okay for pages to have Canon sections even without Rob himself making them. They just have to be things that are explicitly stated in the comic, rather than inferred or assumed. For example, the fact that units have Hits, Combat, Defense, and Move as visible stats is Canon, and anyone could have written that page.
EDIT: to clarify, I don't believe that disbanding is such a case. there is too much ambiguity for us to call it anything more than proposed canon.

Turns out that it actually was edited by Rob anyway. He just wasn't logged in at the time (but the IP address matches his other edits). Credit goes to Justyn in the IRC for catching that one. Thanks Justyn!

[partywhipple]

FYI the Don and his Moneymancer talk about disbanding Caesar and the Queen of Unaroyal mentions in her letter to the Don that she almost disbanded one of her troops when they told her they saw her daughter. So rulers I think can definitely disband a soldier. We do not have any information on a Chief Warlord. I'll assume no until I see otherwise.