13th Warrior?

Ok, I was arguing about comic 126(page 114) and something relevant led me to counting warlords in this comic, and there are more warlords in panels 9/11(behind) and 10(front) than the comic *ever* mentions explicitly. The best guess I can come up with is:

Jillian
Vinny
Ceaser
10 generic Transylvito warlords.

Which makes the proper 13, but what other interpretations are there? Here, discounting the obviously wrong warlord count(body count is shown elsewhere at 12 warlords), the flight group is listed as having warlords, gwiffons, orlys, and doombats. That means that our mysterious 13th humanoid must be a warlord, but is it a Transylvito? We see here only 12 warlord type units, but chat boxs for both Vinny? and Ceaser? are placed so that another warlord figure could be blotted out on either stack's side, so that doesn't help. In this comic, we have a view of Jillian's flight group prior to any reinforcements, which shows every expected unit, and no surprise units, so it supports, but does not confirm, the theory that the 13th warlord is a TV unit. A full survey of all comics since the flight group is formed, and I've found nothing concrete as to the identity of this unit. However, as I voiced elsewhere, my theory for his identity is:

Vinny asked Don King to reinforce the flight group with 10 generic TV warlords, and these were dispatched. Before/as/after those 10 left TV, Charlie pull out, and at which point, the decision to add Ceaser to the strike force was made, and he joined the first 10, and they then met up with Jillian and Vinny. This gives us the required 13(assuming that count is correct) while still, imho, giving the most validity to what characters have said in the strip.

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Originally Posted by Godskook

Before/as/after those 10 left TV, Charlie pull out, and at which point, the decision to add Ceaser to the strike force was made, and he joined the first 10, and they then met up with Jillian and Vinny. This gives us the required 13(assuming that count is correct) while still, imho, giving the most validity to what characters have said in the strip.

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I agree with your analysis in everthing but this. Vinny talked to the Don by thinkagram in the night, so off-turn. The Don questioned the price ("I do not like to spend money when I am confused), but finally agreed to the plan as it then stood, broke the connection, and entered into negotiations with Charlie.

Charlie then (still off turn) "bent them over and tied them in a knot" by demanded an exorbitant price for forming an alliance and retaining the services of the additional Archons, which Vinny has "already met up with" at the end of the Coalition's turn - presumably they dispatched were dispatched there under Charlie's then existing contarct with Jetstone.They expect a cakewalk.

The Don, reluctant to pony up that kind of cash, decides instead to add "hundreds of bats" to the mix, which he now knows will be sans Archons and expects to be either a screwup or a trap, along with his chief warlord for the extra Leadership bonus. All of these units leave TV together at the start of their turn (which is where I disagree with you), arriving shortly after Charlie's units bug out for parts unkown (to them), and immediately ends turn over GK. Vinny, having had no further contact with the Don in the meantime, notes his surprise at the unexpected change in his reinforcements.

Nobody of course expects it to be a cakewalk anymore, "still, it'll be tight" says the V-man, but it's war, and in war you either take risks, or turtle like Banhammer did. And look where that seems to have gotten him. Of course, Caesar also apparently not put much faith in Jillian's ability, and it was she who may (or may not) have taken Stanley out of the battle if not the war.

It remains to be seen though just how badly hurt either side is at the moment, or what the ultimate outcome will be, though I suspect it will be TV missing a lot of warlords including perhaps Caesar himself, GK missing its Dwagons and three Knights, and Stanley just "missing." TV will then pull back rather then throw away more units, expecting GK to fall to Ansom anyway anyway making Stanley an irrelevant barbarian (no-one in TV believes he's really heading for an unknown city), leaving Jillian to pursue alone.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChowGuy

I agree with your analysis in everthing but this. Vinny talked to the Don by thinkagram in the night, so off-turn. The Don questioned the price ("I do not like to spend money when I am confused), but finally agreed to the plan as it then stood, broke the connection, and entered into negotiations with Charlie.

Charlie then (still off turn) "bent them over and tied them in a knot" by demanded an exorbitant price for forming an alliance and retaining the services of the additional Archons, which Vinny has "already met up with" at the end of the Coalition's turn - presumably they dispatched were dispatched there under Charlie's then existing contarct with Jetstone.They expect a cakewalk.

The Don, reluctant to pony up that kind of cash, decides instead to add "hundreds of bats" to the mix, which he now knows will be sans Archons and expects to be either a screwup or a trap, along with his chief warlord for the extra Leadership bonus. All of these units leave TV together at the start of their turn (which is where I disagree with you), arriving shortly after Charlie's units bug out for parts unkown (to them), and immediately ends turn over GK. Vinny, having had no further contact with the Don in the meantime, notes his surprise at the unexpected change in his reinforcements.

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That fits perfectly with what I said, so I'm confused as to the disagreement. Unless me saying "these were dispatched" lead you to believe that I meant that TV neccesarily started turn before Caesar was added to the warlord party. In actuallity, my theory is entirely unconcerned with when Caesar joined the other 10 warlords, be it before turn, during turn but after leaving, or before leaving. Doesn't matter to me. My point was/is the same. Caesar was an addition to the 10, made after Vinny talked to Don.

The greatest likelihood is that there's simply a miscount in 0122.
The second greatest likelihood is that there's an 11th warlord obscured in 0116, who is not mentioned and does not appear subsequently until 0122.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Demented

The greatest likelihood is that there's simply a miscount in 0122.
The second greatest likelihood is that there's an 11th warlord obscured in 0116, who is not mentioned and does not appear subsequently until 0122.

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1 is possible.
2 is the theory raised by me and then Chowguy.

They say eleven warlords twice. Here and here.

That would be Ceaser, Vinny, Jillian + 8 generic Transylvito warlords.

Pannel 1 of 116 (linked above) shows 7 in a pannel with Ceaser, but 910 figures in his group in pannel 2. I'll refer to the "generics" from right to left as:
Hats, Greaser I, Baldy, Brunette, Red, Blondie, and Greaser II.

The only Transylvitos we see clearly since then are:
in 119: Brunette in panels 2,6, and 11; Blondie in panel 5; and both Greaser I and II in panels 5 and 6.

in 123: Hats in panels 7 and 9.

in 125: Hats in panels 1 and 3; and Red and Brunette in panel one.

in 127: Red in panel 7.

We see no other Transvylitos, but there's definitely one

So what to do about the apparent 13 warlords in 122?

Personally, I'd call either the third from the left in panel 10 (the one to Jillian's left) or the one on the far right in panel 11 to actually be clumps of bats on closer inspection.

The get friendly enough with one another in 125 that you could conceivably mistake parts of them for a single figure if you were farther away.

Also possible: There was an additional vampire with Ceaser's group that's not a warlord and not mentioned in 125. Some sort of thinkamancer that went into hiding at start of turn in order to avoid getting croaked (in which case both of the possible mentioned could be bats).

One of Rob's recent posts in the Bloopers thread indicates that there are a total of thirteen (presumably the ten generic warlords sent by Don King plus Caesar, added to Vinny and Jillian).