That's... a LOT of Archons... I counted around thirty, but I counted the ones over the walls as different from the onces over the garrison.
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That's... a LOT of Archons... I counted around thirty, but I counted the ones over the walls as different from the onces over the garrison.
Knew it was about the artifact. One of the few moves I actually called, this comic has a lot of twists. Looks like Charlie is the deciding factor in this battle.
I found the bravado in this strip a lot more humerous than the lame internet culture jokes in many of the previous ones.
Panel 3 shows archons over the walls and the Last panel shows them all withing the city so its a bit hard to get accurate numbers.
Panel 4 has the most in one panel with a count of 29 if the blue glowing dot behind the TA DA is an archon
The only thing i tend to keep a step ahead of in the comic is Wanda. Nothing she does seems unexpected but its not a bad thing.Quote:
Knew it was about the artifact. One of the few moves I actually called, this comic has a lot of twists. Looks like Charlie is the deciding factor in this battle.
I have been pleasantly suprised by the fairly steady updates recently. Sormthorn aproves.
"The fact that I know you aren't lying actually makes it even more imperative that I get you working for me."
I love it.
The last panel looks like 4 groups of 8 archons each. The second from the left may be missing one (Jaclyn?) so around 30.
It looks like we are missing book tones in panels 3, 7, 9, and 12.
Spoiler
Panels 7 and 8 make it sound like losing the city is irrelevant to Parson's plan. This makes me think that we might see a volcanic eruption on Parson's turn. It fits Parson's "getting crushed" and "city falls" comments. Also fits with Sizemore's consideration that he is going to croak a lot of people.
I like those odds. High enough to make it clear he has a good chance, but low enough to make it in doubt. Not to mention the Exact Words potential of them being his odds of "not losing". And, of course, I've had a suspicion that Charlie was trying to capture and/or recruit Parson for a while.
Hmm... more frequent updates, good writing and plot advancement...
my interest in the comic is being rekindled!
I think that a telling factor in this battle will be that Parson knows his victory isn't one hundred percent guaranteed. Ansom believes that his is.
The classic axiom is to know your enemy and to know yourself. The fact that Parson has been able to play Ansom so thouroughly probably put the odds up in his favour. Also, the real factor in the know your enemy line is humility, you cannot know your enemy if you refuse to rate their chances, if you underestimate them, you also can't find their weakness if you do not consider their strengths. You cannot know yourself if you refuse to believe that there is a chance that you may lose, as you may overestimate yourself, you cannot compensate for your weaknesses if you think you don't have them or they do not matter. Whatever his quote on the cast page says about planning for problems, he can never see the entire situation.
It's set as one of his weaknesses, humility, and that is going to be what loses it for Ansom if Charlie does not interfere, I think.
I knew Charlie wasn't there on a strictly friendly basis. Glad to have that confirmed.
Argh. Now I've to hate Charlie. Come on, this is not a "I want to capture you" or a "You are worth to be one of mine". He literally told him "Hey b***h, get on you knees and come crawling to my feet. And don't forget to bring that artifact of your - I means, of mine". Why doesn't he ask Parson to clean the balcony with the tongue, when he is there?
Magnificent Bastard my [heavily censored description of anatomic assorted parts]! This comics is full of people I'd like to kill, or get laid, or both.
Wouldn't it be fun if Parson actually managed to get the alliance to think Charlie switched sides? If they attacked him (don't know how, since the units are flying), it could change all the odds..
Why exactly are we surprised? Charlie is a mercenary, the reason that he pulled out of the Transylvito contract is because the mathamancy was worth more to him than the money. He doesn't get to the position that he is in by being nice.
Ansom already doesn't like Charlie, I think he might just be ready to jump to a pretty tall conclusion if given the right prodding.
Thanks to the artists for more frequent updates. It is very appreciated and makes it feel worth the wait. The last few pages have been full of pure awesomeness.
Yeah it was pretty obvious it was a surrender or I will capture you thing going on there. Even if some people had trouble with the concept :D.
I do hope we dont have a duex et machina thing for the next fight though. The Marbits getting pwned in the tunnels I have no problem with.
The Arkenpliars capture I am less sure about. The only way really would be Wanda's Air force and that would involve Ansom leaving his forces in a dumb position. Unless Parson manages to talk Stanley into coming back. Actually Stanley should be too far away anyway as he has been travelling for 2 turns, unless the fastest dwagons ahve more than twice the move of the slowest ones then he is not coming back this turn either.
I hope we don't have a repeat of the dragon donut/dragon stack thing. The position of the dragon stack was based on the requirement that Ansom not have enough move to escape and have enough move to rescue Jillian rather than Parson being smart.
Anyway we will see, I still see the end result being Parson working for Charlie, we just have him winning the battle of GK first.
Makes me wonder WHOM will Charlie "assist if necessary". :smallcool:
29 archons in-panel, if anyone cares, with obviously more offscreen to complete the circle around GK. Guessing that runs more like 40+ all told.
Things that are awesome = This comic.
Seriously, this is why I read Erfworld.
OnDroid - this is me being an ass, but it's "FOR WHOM." :smalltongue:
I count 31 archons in panel 7, and I'm fairly sure that's all of them unless Charlie's speech rectangle is covering up another one or two. Quite an impressive force, and I agree with Charlie's sentiments in panel 10. It's shaping up to be quite a show.
Oooooohhh yeah, that's telling Charlie off, Parson. And I personally suspect I know what Parson has in mind. What are the Arkenpliers good for? Bashing Uncroaked. How do you make Ansom move? By setting up a situation that will make him get a chance of being a Heroic Rescuer. What would lure him into this? A lot of fresh Uncroaked, such as Uncroaked Marbits rolling out of the tunnels in a floodwave. Bait, hook, fish...
Ok. Previously read comment in some thread, somewhere, has turned my tired brain on.
Spoiler.
I'm not kidding. Giant Elvis has said the goal is story, not surprise, and much of the fun of presents is the anticipation and the guessing before opening. But the greatest is when guesses/hopes are exceeded by what you get. So, spoiler warning. Don't let your anticipation be ruined if you're that type, by reading the spoiler. I hope that my guess and expectations are exceeded (again), but just in case, spoiler warning.
Spoiler
City on old volcano. Lava tubes under city currently FULL of burnable things like, say, marbits for example. Well, everything burns if the fire's hot enough. ANYway. Lackey that can move dirt better then a bad dog.
Gobwin Knob turn. Sizemore *jazz hands*. FUEGO.
Still leaves the walls and air and still arriving units undealt with, but this is about the tunnels.
I'm tired, rambling and all that may be obvious or obviously wrong, but I feel that this is a very very plausible senario.
That spoiler seems to be on the dime for what I'm expecting. Kudos.
It leaves the hatchet fight on the walls as 58,9%. Ansom's going to be ENRAGED.
Which leaves an important question. When and if Ansom loses personally during the wall fight, since Parson wouldn't consider capturing him, is it possible for him to lose his Arkentool without being croaked or similarly falling? Both options, a vengeful Ansom, and a dead Ansom could make for good story. I want and believe in the latter. He's too flat of a character. What's he going to do in the future? Be grumpy, grow in wisdom, and make love with Jillian?
Charlieīs faction is neutral now. He is not allied with Transylvitto, neither with Jetstone.
What if Ansom comes to think that he has been betrayed by Charlie and attacks him and calls back the Air Force?
I just wanted to come in and say that if Jamie and Rob are reading the comment threads still, that this is compelling action and drama. I've always appreciated Erfworld, and didn't have any qualms about the earlier pace, but I feel like this was amazingly well set up. This comic is an excellent companion to OOTS, in both graphic style and storyline.
Two big thumbs up.
No, it's not necessary. But you would be surprised to find the advantages of NOT treating people like walking crap just because you can. Or the next time you will be on a dragon neck trying to figure the name of a wizard that is working for you by years.
There is a deep line between "Parson, I decided to take you on my side. Please, don't have me attack, neither of us would enjoy it. Do you really want to die for Stanley?" and "Bark dog, the master is in the house!".
Oh, and now we know that Charlie can't read Parson's notes. Otherwise, he would know what is going to happen.
Ansom isn't going to be terribly impressed with Charlie bringing his units to GK "to assist if necessary". He isn't primarily after the city per se; he's primarily after Stanley's little square head on a platter, and from Ansom's perspective Charlie got greedy and risked letting Stanley get away.
This will be all the worse if Stanley does, in fact, get away as a result of Chalie pulling out of the battle at the choke point.
Charlie is really freaky and Ansom must be wondering what all these archons mean.
So Parson's only chance is to beat Ansom and then to wait for someone on his team to atune to the arkenpliers...
Charlie is apparently almost as big of a [THIS WORD HAS BEEN REMOVED BY ERFWORLD STANDARDS OF DECENCY AND MORALITY. PLEASE REPLACE WITH "BOOP" IN FUTURE VERSIONS.] as Stanley is. I don't see how either one of them could be happy around anyone they can not willingly squash.
Speaking of squashing... there are 30 Archons in just that one frame. Considering that it only covers one side of GK but keeping in the mind they just arrived from that direction... It's not unreasonable to expect there to actually be 35-40 Archons there. More than enough than to at the very least make a stach-and-grab on Parson, with or without him surviving.
Charlie may have also given up his most powerful boon to Parson right here, whether he knows it or not. If Charlie does give Ansom a full explanation (something he may not even feel inclined to do without a contract in place) then Ansom is going to assume that the two are now allied. This would give Parson one hell of a bluff.
It's far superior. But then I'm not too fond of stick figure comics or the OotS in general though it has occasional moments imo. I really liked Legendary though.
Erfworld on the other hand is something new. It's weird, but not in the weird-style way. The reasons OotS is famous is because of generally good writing, sustainable plot, the forums and accessories and most of all, scheduled updates; not the stick figure format.
Winged One re: He did that himself.
I don't think you can lie about alliences. Most Strat games I play have an annoucement whenever someone goes to war, signs a peace treaty, or allies with someone else.
I like Charlie now. I really like Charlie. The man is more than a mercenary: he's an opportunist. Bravo way of showing it without zero doubt.
Charlie wants Parson more than he wants the Math toy. His comment about killing Parson was a bluff; but the comment about taking him by force was obviously not. Charlie realizes that Stanley is a fool for tossing aside Parson. Under a more intelligent ruler and in command of a more powerful army, Parson becomes Erfworld's newest WMD. Charlie wants that weapon... who knows how far he'll use it (world conquest perhaps)?
Ansom has yet to realize the potential of Parson, but after a sounding destruction of his forces, I doubt he'll have the "understanding" to consider recruiting Parson on his side. Charlie is Parson's best choice between the three: Charlie did come to save Parson -- for his own selfish reasons... but we know Parson wants to stick in GK so he can at least hand Ansom some severe pain.
I agree, 29 Archons minimum are present. Depending on how many, if any, Archons Charlie pulled off other jobs to boost his force level, this may represent a good chunck of his forces. But I can't quite bring myself to believe that it represents more than half, which gives us a total of 60 Archons.
Someone suggested in a previous thread that victory in war might come down to which side managed to hire Charlie. Given that Archons are staggeringly powerful and versatile units (nearly a match for a dwagon one-on-one and capable of operating independantly like leaders) I'd say that suggestion is spot on, assuming you can afford the fee.
Well, as Parson said they are not a match for Jetstone forces, meaning they could not prevent siege from taking the walls.
Parson's computation of Charlescomm vs GK was based on the garrison's present status, Wanda's uncroaking of a few enemy forces in the upcoming battle was not factored in. Or maybe all off them, the arkenpliers could grant Wanda the power to uncroak everything on sight.
I'd rather not have Parson fighting for Charlie, in fact I'd rather have Parson conquering Charlescomm later in the series.
The computation also does not include whatever UberSword does if it gets completed when the turn flips. Yummm...that should be in the next panel or two.
I can't wait! AWESOME WORK, GUYS! Thanks for taking the time out of your lives to give the gift of Erfworld to the rest of us. :smallbiggrin:
I wonder how much of CharlesComm's cash reserves were used to buy more Archon units - after all we know that (one or two turns ago) his side had approximately half the units. Getting Parson may be a huge economic goal for Charlie.
By 'they' I assume you mean Charlescomm? Perhaps so, if we are talking about the unspecified-number-greater-than-fourteen Archons needed to capture GK.
It was also based on how many Archons Charlie was willing to use to do it. We don't know what that number was. Nor do we know if that number included all of Charlie's Archons.
Could this have something to do with their being solely air units? Maybe to take or hold a city you need units on the ground, meaning the Archons are great for softening up the GK forces (or even completely wiping them out) but to actually hold the city you need ground units.
Wrong; Ansom told him. "Charlie has been apprised of this plan."
And... wait... what? Parson talked him out of it just two strips ago.
Are you reading the same comic we are?
(Note to self: When I have a continually-updating form of fiction, I WON'T have forums for it. Watching people completely misinterpret- or completely miss- what's going on must be painful.)
Before this comic, I don't think I realized the complete awesomeness of both Parson and Charlie. Now I really, really do. :smallbiggrin:
Also, if they do end up on the same side, I pity the fool who goes up against them. :smallcool:
I suspect that Parson is hoping to resurrect the forces beneath the city. Destroying them, rather than killing them, is not an especially desirable outcome.
Why would he have needed to suddenly buy them? For all we know, Charlie may very well have an ARMY of them in reserve. Charlie is a mercenary, so he might have a huge number of Archon units across the continent: some being contracted out, a garrison at his own fortress, etc.
Question: has it been confirmed or denied, if the Dish provides control over Archons, as the Hammer provides control over Dragons?
I believe the earlier listed number (15 was it?), represented the number of Archon Ansom hired - not the total number of Archon in Charlie's personal control.
"Charlie's intel had [Stanley] flyin' west a turn ago."
Charlie knows that he's out and about, and at least approximately where he is. (That would seem to rule out any suggestion that he's headed somewhere other than where the Coalition expects -- if anything, he's headed away from Charlie, who refers to this war as "the great western conflict", implying that he's off to the east.)
If that is true, I wonder what the pliers gives. Assuming it becomes attuned to someone from GK mid battle, would they get a big boost?
Also, would it be Wanda who gets the pliers ... or maybe Bogroll ? :smallsmile:
Since it is apparently good against undead, maybe Wanda would be the most appropriate.
Now man, no crap. It's just a crap and crappish little of humor, the crap thing you crap with people you like, or the crap people that crapply share you crap crap crappity hobby. We crappily just crap want to crap some crap fun together, no crap against you.
No offense intended.
hmm, i see 33 archons in panel 7. 31 blue dots, which includes the trio on the net, and i assume the text will cover a few, considering the formation.
so charlies turn ends, parson begins, and we see the next sword-piece pop, along with the stupid meal. i kind of expect parson to do very well, and stanley to boop things up somehow despite everything. my vote is for stale marbit zombies, and parson eating their brains :D nom nom nom
good comic as always, and love the new blinding speed updates.
True, Parson probably can't credibly claim to be allied with Charlie. (For one thing, it appears that allied units take their turn with the alliance leader, and Charlie clearly took his turn independently.)
However, even as a neutral party, Charlie is greatly complicating Ansom's situation. From Ansom's viewpoint, the obvious interpretation is that Charlie has decided to make his own play for GK, and with his air units gone, he has little ability to fight the Archons if it comes to that.
I think we should all contemplate the fact that Parson has manged to take a nigh hopeless situation and, despite having his strongest units taken away by His Moronic Toolship, has turned it into a 58.9% chance of not losing GK this turn. That is why Charlie said what he said in panel 9.
Also,Ansom most likely has no clue that those Archons are the ones that were supposed to be with Jillian. Jillian's group no longer has any direct means of communication (though I suppose Don King could have relayed the message, if he even knows).
Pity that this isn't the D&D forum, or I could get XP for killing the joke.:smallredface:
As for it being obvious that Gobwin Knob and Charlescomm aren't allied, remember who has been exploiting the alliance rules by temporarily breaking their alliance.
And if he reacts with another angry accusation that questioning his judgment is tantamount to taking Stanley's side, the situation could get really ugly, really fast.
Losing the battle after going in with such an overwhelming advantage would look pretty bad for obvious reasons. Also, there's the not-so-obvious reason -- on some level, I think Ansom harbors a gnawing suspicion that the apparent verdict of the Arkentools means exactly what Parson said it meant. Wanting to exorcise that notion once and for all, I think, is his real motivation for wanting to annihilate Stanley. Losing the battle would tend to confirm those suspicions, and I can easily see him project that onto anyone who raises doubts about his leadership or about the mission generally (come to think of it, I think that's what was behind his snap at Vinny).
Archery Units. Charlies retaliation could realy dent the enemy and boost Parson's own forces chances.
Parson: *caling Ansom* HAve fun attacking. Oh, and in case you were wondering, I do have air-defence left (not a lie, he really does have some left, just not a lot). CAre to guess wh I'm not useing it?
Also, Charlie is playing it prety cool. a 58.9% in that situation, I'd want to see it too, just to see how valuable he really is.
IMO Parson now has more scheming to do. Not only does he need to defeat the main attackers, he now needs to do it in such a way that he can also repell Charlie after. Which may mean cutting a deal with Ansom, if he can't uncroak enough of Ansom's forces to stop Charlie after.