Erfworld 66: page 60

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Originally Posted by teratorn

Now Ansom will think he is the target and will call Jillian for support. But the tool will be smarter than him and go for something else. Without the fliers on the other side Parson can do a massive attack on the siege with basically no cost. He'll finish all siege, all battle bears and leave Ansom waiting for the battle that is not coming to him.

My guess is that the trap is not for Ansom but for the siege.

My guess
this turn: Ansom calls for Jillian
next turn: Parson finishes all siege and heavies and returns his force to GK

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If Parson is planning to hit the siege and leave Ansom sitting out in the forest to stew, then why on Erf did he make such a point of Ansom now has "his boops in a vise"? Surely that is going to encourage Stanley to assume that their next move is to crack Ansom's group like a walnut, and insist on it if Parson suggests anything else.

Unless Parson is a total idiot at handling the Tool (and he isn't, as evidenced by his willingness to let him take credit for the trap), he's planning to hit Ansom (though perhaps he also plans to hit some or all of the siege as a bonus).

Parson wants to win the war, by winning the battle, not just finishing Ansom. When survival was at stake, he would go for it, but now he'll want to crush this army. He can truly defeat Ansom.

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Originally Posted by SteveMB

Unless Parson is a total idiot at handling the Tool (and he isn't, as evidenced by his willingness to let him take credit for the trap), he's planning to hit Ansom (though perhaps he also plans to hit some or all of the siege as a bonus).

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I see it the other way around.
Parson "See how he's afraid and he thinks these dwagons are going after him?"
Stanley "Yeah let's do it."
Parson "You're smarter than that."
Stanley "Am I?"
Parson "Yes, that is what he expects, but you'll do something else."

EDIT: the thing is, Parson gets Ansom but loses most of his dwagons and lets siege within the column. The alliance could keep going to the city then.

In order to target Ansom Parson needs warlords. Problem is, Ansom has the arkenpliers, so he can crush Parson's warlords from the start of the encounter, leaving the Dwagons without command (being a warlord himself he can target the unit of his choice). So even if he tries to attack Ansom's group with a first stack of 5 Dwagons and 3 warlords, he'll either loose all units, or have to retreat after seeing how fast he lost his warlord(s).

Unless he keeps his warlords for the very end, but that will probably proove counter productive in dwagon to elf/gumps ratio.

I'd say that if he's properly informed on the Arkenpliers properties, he'll avoid Ansom. But from the looks of things I don't think he is, so he'll probably learn the hard way and go for plan B (probably the rest of the siege) or maybe even a retreat.

Actually, I don't recall it being confirmed that the defender, if a warlord or with a warlord, can choose who they damage in defense.

True, we don't know if they can "cover" themselves or have units play shield.

But we know for a fact that they can target the unit of their choice. So Ansom should be able to target the warlords with his arkenpliers.

If dwagon can step in and take the blow, then good for them, but I don't think it works like that since Ansom specifically implied that the 3 warlorsd he thought were in the center hex with those 18 or more wounded Dwagons were uncroaked and that that was a good thing for them.

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Originally Posted by Dwagon

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Originally Posted by darkgolem

Actually, I don't recall it being confirmed that the defender, if a warlord or with a warlord, can choose who they damage in defense.

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True, we don't know if they can "cover" themselves or have units play shield.

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The fact that Jillian was able to have the orlies run interference while she soloed the blue dwagon implies that they can, at least in a situation where the attackers have no warlord and the defender does. I think that's what Ansom was hoping for (he intended to take down the uncroaked warlords along with the wounded dwagons), and now realizes ain't gonna happen.

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Originally Posted by Dwagon

In order to target Ansom Parson needs warlords. Problem is, Ansom has the arkenpliers, so he can crush Parson's warlords from the start of the encounter, leaving the Dwagons without command (being a warlord himself he can target the unit of his choice).

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The Arkenpliers are a "a decent melee weapon" but give no ranged attack [that he knows of] and he can only defend against a singe unit at a time. The Dwagons are the attackers, and even with Ansom gets air-borne likely the faster, so the initiative in the battle is theirs to call. Five (or more) Dwagons going after two fliers, first Ansom then Vinny, while the other three hang back out of the initial sortie and down he'll go. If he doesn't get air-borne, he's no more useful/dangerous to offensive fliers then the Gumps or any other non-flier. The Elves might get a few hitsies while the Dwagons strafed him, but he's basically toasted just the same.

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If dwagon can step in and take the blow, then good for them, but I don't think it works like that since Ansom specifically implied that the 3 warlorsd he thought were in the center hex with those 18 or more wounded Dwagons were uncroaked and that that was a good thing for them.

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In that [planned] battle, Ansom was the attacker, and the defending Dwagons were expected to be low on hit-points. The Elves could drive in against them first and quickly open the path to the warlords. That's no longer the case.

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The fact that Jillian was able to have the orlies run interference while she soloed the blue dwagon implies that they can, at least in a situation where the attackers have no warlord and the defender does. I think that's what Ansom was hoping for (he intended to take down the uncroaked warlords along with the wounded dwagons), and now realizes ain't gonna happen.

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The way I understood it is that Ansom was expecting to take the warlords out fast so the dwagons would loose that bonus and the ability to target individuals in the attacking stack. Thus being able to concentrate fire while the dwagons wouldn't anymore. If not the fact he had the arkenpliers was only an asset if he was lucky and was able to land a hit against a warlord.


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Originally Posted by Dwagon
In order to target Ansom Parson needs warlords. Problem is, Ansom has the arkenpliers, so he can crush Parson's warlords from the start of the encounter, leaving the Dwagons without command (being a warlord himself he can target the unit of his choice).
The Arkenpliers are a "a decent melee weapon" but give no ranged attack [that he knows of] and he can only defend against a singe unit at a time. The Dwagons are the attackers, and even with Ansom gets air-borne likely the faster, so the initiative in the battle is theirs to call. Five (or more) Dwagons going after two fliers, first Ansom then Vinny, while the other three hang back out of the initial sortie and down he'll go. If he doesn't get air-borne, he's no more useful/dangerous to offensive fliers then the Gumps or any other non-flier. The Elves might get a few hitsies while the Dwagons strafed him, but he's basically toasted just the same.

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If dwagon can step in and take the blow, then good for them, but I don't think it works like that since Ansom specifically implied that the 3 warlorsd he thought were in the center hex with those 18 or more wounded Dwagons were uncroaked and that that was a good thing for them.
In that [planned] battle, Ansom was the attacker, and the defending Dwagons were expected to be low on hit-points. The Elves could drive in against them first and quickly open the path to the warlords. That's no longer the case.

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Depends on his stats. Unlike Jillian that only had orlies he has cover from both Vinnie and elves and probably Gumps too since they are forest units in a forest (and dwagons need to close up to attack). So he might be able to croak the 3 warlords while the other buffer/take hits for him. Again, depends on the game mechanics.

That being said, from a pure story telling perspective I would expect Ansom to get out of this situation one way or another, probably Vinnie too. Could be without the pliers, could be without his troops, could be a rescue by Jillian that intercepts the dwagons bringing Ansomn to Gobwin Knob, I don't know. He's the main protagonist that's why I don't think we saw the end of him. We didn't get to see the Wanda-Jillian relation play a role in the war either, and that would be weird storytelling to have put all this in place to not use it later (possible, but not probable).

The only thing Ansom didn't know was that the center hex was empty. He knew all about the other stacks in the fort.
And he came anyway. Meaning he evaluates his chances to survive attacks by all the dwagons in the fort to be very good -otherwise it would have been a real suicide, center hex or not.
I belive Lord Hamster wanted to take the "sente" and lead the fight. He knew ansom was powerful enough not to fear the dwagon formation, so he lured him inside the pincher, knowing he would not fear to be inside it. Now Ansom is far from his own troops, gained nothing, has no move left - and the dwagons can go away without fighting if the uncroaked lords catch them on their way.
I suspect Ansom won't be attacked. The next fights will be far from his hex, on units that he would have protected if he had not thought he could kill all the enemy warlods at once.

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Originally Posted by Dwagon

That being said, from a pure story telling perspective I would expect Ansom to get out of this situation one way or another, probably Vinnie too. Could be without the pliers, could be without his troops, could be a rescue by Jillian that intercepts the dwagons bringing Ansomn to Gobwin Knob, I don't know. He's the main protagonist that's why I don't think we saw the end of him.

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Perhaps so. The last possibility doesn't work, though -- the plan is for the dwagons to return home at the end of Stanley's next turn, and failing to do that would be a major and obvious boop-up (especially if Ansom starts bringing the air units home this turn, so that all of them, not just a few, will be available to screen what's left of his column the turn after that).

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We didn't get to see the Wanda-Jillian relation play a role in the war either, and that would be weird storytelling to have put all this in place to not use it later (possible, but not probable).

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The authors' current plan is to tell more stories in this world if this one is sufficiently successful, so there may be a few Chekovian guns left hanging over the mantel when this chapter ends.

That said, learning Ansom's plans from Jillian was helpful, insofar as it informed Parson that the siege units rather than the tunnel-fighting units were the high-value targets. (Wanda probably also got a description of Ansom's forces, to match up with what they already knew from the Eyemancers and confirm that Jillian was being a very good girl and not holding anything back.)

And, of course, we haven't yet seen just what Wanda intends to do with her "subtle control"....

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Originally Posted by teratorn

I see it the other way around.
Parson "See how he's afraid and he thinks these dwagons are going after him?"
Stanley "Yeah let's do it."
Parson "You're smarter than that."
Stanley "Am I?"
Parson "Yes, that is what he expects, but you'll do something else."

EDIT: the thing is, Parson gets Ansom but loses most of his dwagons and lets siege within the column. The alliance could keep going to the city then.

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Agreed... taking out Ansom won't win the war... Ansom is the chief warlord, does well to hold the alliance together and weilds the arkenpliers... However, the Arkenpliers may not turn the tide in Stanely's favor, the alliance can still hold together in Ansom's absence, and the alliance can promote a new chief warlord to replace Ansom... Even if Ansom goes down, the fight my, and probably will still go on, with the alliance still holding the strong advantage in numbers...

However, If Paron were to attack the column, he could cripple it's ability to attck the city... the Alliance may have numbers and Ansom but they would seriously lack the units needed to properly attack the city... it would really do wonders for evening the fight out...

But hey, it could be possible that Parson is actually capable of attacking both =P

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The Arkenpliers are a "a decent melee weapon" but give no ranged attack [that he knows of] and he can only defend against a singe unit at a time. The Dwagons are the attackers, and even with Ansom gets air-borne likely the faster, so the initiative in the battle is theirs to call. Five (or more) Dwagons going after two fliers, first Ansom then Vinny, while the other three hang back out of the initial sortie and down he'll go. If he doesn't get air-borne, he's no more useful/dangerous to offensive fliers then the Gumps or any other non-flier. The Elves might get a few hitsies while the Dwagons strafed him, but he's basically toasted just the same.

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Ansom has ground support from the elves in addtion to air support from vinne and his bats... i don't think it would be hard for Ansom to just evade the normal dwagons and make a b-line for the warlords... hell, because of how things generally work, Ansom's smaller carpet may very well be better at amnuveuring than the large dwagons... remeber it only takes a single touch for Ansom to take out one of those warlords, which i think Ansom would be very capable of...


Also, for those that bring it upp... i think Parson does know about the arkenpliers... Just as wanda told Parson about Ansom's weakness for Jillian i would think he would tell him about the pliers... considering Gobwinknob's warlord's are uncroaked that would be VERY vital information to leave out

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The authors' current plan is to tell more stories in this world if this one is sufficiently successful, so there may be a few Chekovian guns left hanging over the mantel when this chapter ends.

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I missed that information. Thanks for the heads up on that!

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That said, learning Ansom's plans from Jillian was helpful, insofar as it informed Parson that the siege units rather than the tunnel-fighting units were the high-value targets. (Wanda probably also got a description of Ansom's forces, to match up with what they already knew from the Eyemancers and confirm that Jillian was being a very good girl and not holding anything back.)

And, of course, we haven't yet seen just what Wanda intends to do with her "subtle control"....

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Agreed with both, I was refering to the second when I said we didn't see the Wanda-Jillian relation play a role in the story yet.

On a side note I wonder if Parson's tactics couldn't be used closer to Gobwin knob with same efficiency? Hit siege and heavies from GN, and get back there the same turn where it's safe. If it works it will put even more pressure on the alliance to go through tunnels. That being said we saw Dwagons were sleeping in trees, not in the city so it might not work.

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Ansom has ground support from the elves in addtion to air support from vinne and his bats... i don't think it would be hard for Ansom to just evade the normal dwagons and make a b-line for the warlords... hell, because of how things generally work, Ansom's smaller carpet may very well be better at amnuveuring than the large dwagons... remeber it only takes a single touch for Ansom to take out one of those warlords, which i think Ansom would be very capable of...

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That's how I understood it too. We'll see (hopefully tomorrow).

I think people are over-estimating the arkenpliers. Its doubtful that they will instantly dust any uncroaked that come within the same hex as them. So the assumption that any warlords that are sent in to attack will be destroyed and the dragons will loose their bonus, overreaches there. As well as the division of combat, the units move into square and attack, things take damage, things die. This isn't DnD with combat realligning itself every 6 seconds (DnD round length), This is warfare gaming, so if warlords attack, warlord bonuses are given. Battle scenes are flavor, all that matters is who's attacking, who's defending, and who's still standing at the end. So even if there is a division of rounds or something else within a turn he's got 3 such time frames that dragons are getting warlord bonuses. And I'm sure they will tear the bloop out of that force in that time or all just focus on ansom and drop him before he'd have a chance to wipe more than 1 or 2 warlords.

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Originally Posted by Nightwalker

I think people are over-estimating the arkenpliers. Its doubtful that they will instantly dust any uncroaked that come within the same hex as them.

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The Arkenpliers can be used as a melee weapon that can "turn most uncroaked to dust" with one hit. That "most" qualifier suggests that some uncroaked have been known to resist the effect; however, Ansom seemed confident (judging from the way he held the Arkenpliers while emphaizing that they were up against uncroaked warlords) that they'd be effective.

If the warlords and wounded dwagons had been inside the Donut of Doom where Ansom expected to find them, he could have used his warlord ability to selectively focus his attack on the enemy warlords. Since it turned out to be a Donut of Deception instead, the enemy warlords are still out there, and will be able to focus their stacks' attacks on him on Stanley's upcoming turn.

It occurs to me that Stanley the Tool will require Parson to attack Ansom, whatever Parson's original plan is. This is because, if you recall, Tool believes that it is his destiny to control all the Arkentools, and furthermore Ansom actions are simply Ansom playing his part in Tool's destiny.

So the conversation could be (if I am correct on this) along these lines:

• "Next turn we attack the column, destroying the rest of the siege, then retreat to Goblin Knob" (Parson)
  
• "Nope, attack Ansom and get the Arkenpliers" (Tool)
  
• "But we will lose so much, including warlords. We should attack the seige now, and attack Ansom later" (Parson)
  
• "Don't question me, I could destroy you in an instant. The Arkentools are my destiny!" (Tool)

A further possibility: Parson uses the Dwagons and treathens the other warlords to croak them, if they don't change sides. This could change the hole war, but I think it's probability is around zero.

Anyway, the warlords are an interesting aim. Croaking the Marbits' warlord would reduce their strength due to lesser bonus (at least if the new warlord's levelis lower). It would be my aim #3, behind Ansom and the sieges.

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Originally Posted by darkgolem

It occurs to me that Stanley the Tool will require Parson to attack Ansom, whatever Parson's original plan is. This is because, if you recall, Tool believes that it is his destiny to control all the Arkentools, and furthermore Ansom actions are simply Ansom playing his part in Tool's destiny.

So the conversation could be (if I am correct on this) along these lines:

• "Next turn we attack the column, destroying the rest of the siege, then retreat to Goblin Knob" (Parson)
  
• "Nope, attack Ansom and get the Arkenpliers" (Tool)
  
• "But we will lose so much, including warlords. We should attack the seige now, and attack Ansom later" (Parson)
  
• "Don't question me, I could destroy you in an instant. The Arkentools are my destiny!" (Tool)

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Hmmmm... thinking about it a bit more, we've seen (well, read in voiceover) Stanley expressing nervousness about a "risky" (but reasonably promising, given what they knew at the time) plan to capture/croak Ansom and grab the Arkenpliers. If Parson's intent is to ignore Ansom for now and finish off the column's siege units, all he really has to do is raise the risk issues and let the Stanley talk himself out of the idea of attacking Ansom.

That said, the way Parson plays up the fact that he -- excuse me, His Toolishness -- maneuvered Ansom into a trap suggests to me that he does intend to spring it.

[QUOTE=Dwagon;2853790On a side note I wonder if Parson's tactics couldn't be used closer to Gobwin knob with same efficiency? Hit siege and heavies from GN, and get back there the same turn where it's safe.[/QUOTE]

Parson's plan on the last turn and his next was heavily dependent on one thing: the Air Cover that should have been over the column were not, having been sent off on what Ansom must now consider to have been not merely the trap Vinny warned him of, but the first in a a set of calculated moves to set up his current circumstances.

That situation even if he extricates himself now will not be repeated. If anything he will be even more reluctant to send them off, opening the chance for attacks of opportunity outside the column, but not within it.

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Originally Posted by darkgolem

It occurs to me that Stanley the Tool will require Parson to attack Ansom, whatever Parson's original plan is. This is because, if you recall, Tool believes that it is his destiny to control all the Arkentools, and furthermore Ansom actions are simply Ansom playing his part in Tool's destiny.

So the conversation could be (if I am correct on this) along these lines:

• "Next turn we attack the column, destroying the rest of the siege, then retreat to Goblin Knob" (Parson)
  
• "Nope, attack Ansom and get the Arkenpliers" (Tool)
  
• "But we will lose so much, including warlords. We should attack the seige now, and attack Ansom later" (Parson)
  
• "Don't question me, I could destroy you in an instant. The Arkentools are my destiny!" (Tool)

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Not nessasarily... Parson is learning well how to manipulate Stanley... all he has to do is convince Stanely that now would be a bad time to attack Ansom, sugessting to wait later; and make Stanely feel like it was all his idea... for instance, Parson can entice Stanely with waiting Till Ansom falls into a trap in the tunnels so that he can have the pleasure of taking the Pliers from Ansom himself; kind of Telling Stanely, why just beat Ansom when you can destory and humilate him and his whole Alliance... i'm sure Stanely is the type who would love to rub his victory in the face of his enemy...

i kinda liked how teratorn put it

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Parson "See how he's afraid and he thinks these dwagons are going after him?"
Stanley "Yeah let's do it."
Parson "You're smarter than that."
Stanley "Am I?"
Parson "Yes, that is what he expects, but you'll do something else."

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However you need to consider that Stanley thinks in a very linear fashion and his top priority is getting the Arkenpliers, not outsmarting Ansom. While Stanley may like being dominant, a winner, and 'outsmarting' people, all of that means nothing in comparison to his driving goal to obtain the Arkentools. I don't think any amount of manipulation would sway Stanley from demanding that Ansom be attacked.

I believe someone mentioned something about breath attacks being area-based. It's entirely possible that the dwagon's area-based breath attacks will quite happily roast the opposition and that Ansom was banking on a direct assault taking out the wounded dwagons before they could turn their concentrated fire on him.

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Originally Posted by ChowGuy

Parson's plan on the last turn and his next was heavily dependent on one thing: the Air Cover that should have been over the column were not, having been sent off on what Ansom must now consider to have been not merely the trap Vinny warned him of, but the first in a a set of calculated moves to set up his current circumstances.

That situation even if he extricates himself now will not be repeated. If anything he will be even more reluctant to send them off, opening the chance for attacks of opportunity outside the column, but not within it.

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I assumed that that was the whole point of baiting Ansom out into the woods. The rescue of Jillian motivated Ansom to mess up the disposition of the column. However, after a turn or so, he would have put it back together again. Therefore, Parson, in addition to taking advantage of Ansom's disarray, made a further plan to keep Ansom off balance for an additional turn.

Thanks to falling into Parson's trap, Ansom is still unable to get his air defenses fully in place. Instead, he has to make a choice between protecting his own stack, and protecting the column. Parson can go for whichever one Ansom leaves undefended. The longer that Parson can keep Ansom off balance, the longer Ansom can be prevented from bringing his overwhelming force to bear, and the more opportunities Parson has to create advantageous battles.

As far as Ansom getting crushed easily ... let's remember that Ansom's whole plan was just to take out the wounded dragons in the center hex. That plan would have left 20+ B dragons healthy and all around him, yet Ansom didn't seem worried about that. Therefore, I think we can assume that if Parson does want to take out Ansom's stack, it will take all of his available forces to do so.

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Originally Posted by Yenkaz

I don't remember anyone predicting that he'd use a lake, brilliant.

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It was talked about several strips ago. I predicted the center hex might be a lake, though I was more certain it was simply empty forest. If you look carefully you can see the lake under the edge of the fog of war on Ansom's map. Once I saw that further speculation was moot; Parson's actual strategy was obvious.

The only thing that has been puzzling me for the last few weeks is what he will do with Jillian. It's been bothering me ever since he said he would "keep her in reserve". Ansom may be caught between protecting himself and protecting the siege equipment, but either way, one option might be to give Jillian the arkenpliers and send her against the three warlords. That would be radical and dangerous, but it seems to be the only way left to end the hit-and-run attacks this turn. Without the three uncroaked warlords the dwagons are much less effective.

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Originally Posted by Airshark

See, I *did* take that into account. If Ansom has no water units, those dwagons were as safe as a babe in its mother's arms. Yes, he would have had no "trap", but a trap is unnecessary if he's going to whip the siege again.

So I conclude he intends to croak Ansom, because that's the only reason he'd need the trap.

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Don't put so much emphasis on the idea of "trap" in this case. Turn-based strategy games are somewhat abstract in their movement. Players usually do not even think of the actual path they take but merely what the maximum range is, so instead of looking at paths they see a mental map of hexes that the unit can occupy on this turn. All Parson needs to trap Ansom this way is to get him alone in a hex that is accessible and within range of his dwagons. Ansom could be in one of the more lightly defended column hexes right now and it it would be an identical situation, strategically. The "pincer" that they are talking about does not really exist for practical purposes. Some dwagons are adjacent to Ansom and some are two or three hexes away, that is all; direction and facing are irrelevant as long as the terrain is the same and no one is defending it en route. Parson could collect all his dwagons into one super-stack and send them in if he wants; it will not affect their move, much.

Still, Ansom is a possible target. I would not say that he is dead meat, though. He has choices to make, and if he protects his position well enough Parson can probably go and finish off the siege equipment this turn. Ansom is like a chess player in an end game in which his opponent has an unmatched queen. That queen will keep putting him in "check" and taking his good pieces one by one as Ansom tries to advance his pawns into enemy territory. But Parson does not even have to take out the siege today. As he advances closer to the city it will eventually become possible for Parson to attack from GK and return on the same turn.

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Originally Posted by Vreejack

But Parson does not even have to take out the siege today. As he advances closer to the city it will eventually become possible for Parson to attack from GK and return on the same turn.

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By then, the air cover will be fully back in place over the column (unless Parson manages to take out Ansom's flyers), making dwagon raids much riskier.

by creating the ansom in a hole, he forces ansom to defend himself at the cost of the column, and because he thought he was going to croak the dwagons he didnt bother to organise some basic anti dwagon measures (siege surrounded by every marbit crossbowman in sight and then some)

the siege is wide open

ansom must protect himself or risk being swarmed

When Ansom defends himself but is revealed to be not the target and that command has got the stanley plan wrong YET AGAIN making 3 in a row,
it will create psychological cracks in the alliance as the less dedicated elements start to think why are we fighting with this looser whos having rings run round him by a moron and whatever sycophant he's dredged up from somewhere,
result the alliance that Ansom himself described as unnatural and tennuous fractures and breaks removing far more units for far less cost possibly only the 3 dwagons already croaked,
And the Siege gets dry roasted,

Its not just about the physical war,
its about the psychological war as well

[QUOTE=Vreejack;2855178]It was talked about several strips ago. I predicted the center hex might be a lake, though I was more certain it was simply empty forest. If you look carefully you can see the lake under the edge of the fog of war on Ansom's map. Once I saw that further speculation was moot; Parson's actual strategy was obvious.

QUOTE]


Er, where is that lake on page 56? I can't see any hint of blue under that fog.

[QUOTE=Chewy;2855467]

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Originally Posted by Vreejack

It was talked about several strips ago. I predicted the center hex might be a lake, though I was more certain it was simply empty forest. If you look carefully you can see the lake under the edge of the fog of war on Ansom's map. Once I saw that further speculation was moot; Parson's actual strategy was obvious.

QUOTE]


Er, where is that lake on page 56? I can't see any hint of blue under that fog.

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My mistake. You have to look at the blow-up to see it. You can see one of the water hexes very clearly, next to the one the wounded dwagons are in. If you assume that the fog is dynamically animated on the map (and not just sloppy) then anyone looking at the map should be able to tell the terrain type of the adjacent hexes, though obviously not what units are actually inside them.

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Originally Posted by SteveMB

By then, the air cover will be fully back in place over the column (unless Parson manages to take out Ansom's flyers), making dwagon raids much riskier.

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Yes, the air cover will return, but that is one area where Stanley's forces are not hopelessly out-classed. Ansom will have to spread his defenders about evenly, but Parson can focus on one hex at a time and perhaps eliminate both the siege and the air power---something he cannot really do against the enormous bulk of land forces because of the length of time required.

If Ansom keeps his air and siege units scattered within the column then Parson will destroy them all piecemeal. If Ansom masses all his air and siege units in one hex then Parson might be able to find some other undefended target to destroy, though few targets would be as important as the siege.

When Ansom reaches GK the dwagons will be able to rape targets of opportunity with impunity many times over each turn. Ansom will find counter-attacking almost impossible.

Seriously, with the dwagons on your side a competent strategist should never have lost a single city never mind ten (or whatever).

I suspect Parson is going to attack and "defeat" Ansom (be that kill or capture, as required by the rules of Erfworld) and ignore the column. He can leave the main army alone because, if he can take out Ansom, he doesn't need to worry about it.

Ansom is the coalition leader. He's not just a warlord, but the one who forged the Alliance (as seen in the case of Charlie). Parson doesn't need the Alliance to auto-lose with the loss of its leader, he only needs for it to dissolve.

The clue is here: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/erf0044.html

Specifically:

Stacks without a leader are forced to autoattack when in contact with units from non-allied capitals.

The story play-through of this system effect might be as follows.

With news of Ansom's loss, the coalition first hesitates, then dissolves. The units in the column will either panic, or blame each other for the predicament. Skirmishes will break out, and those that don't initiate out-right hostilities will withdraw in such an disordly stampede that they effectively (from a system point of view) "attack" each other by dealing significant damage to each other.

This would in no way mean the end of the strip either. We're only on Part 1. In the aftermath of the Alliance's destruction, the world might descend into chaos and total warfare, providing the dramatic crucible for the next story arc.

Not nessasarily true...
Remember, Ansom is the chief warlord, the man he works under is King Stately and his will still be around... It would be very risky for Parson to assume that the alliance will crumble without Ansom; nothing says the Ansom was the only thing keeping them together... It is still plenty possible for the King to promote a new chief warlord and hold the Alliance together. If the King manages to hold together the alliance than the attack on Gobwinknob will continue as planned... They may have lost almost half their seige and a lot of forest units when they lost Ansom and Vinnie, but the alliance more than likely still heavily outnumbers Gobwinknobs forces... Hell even if the alliance did break up, the nations involved still hate Stanely and may continue their attack on Gobwinknob (most of them would probably have the sense to take out Stanley first instead of attacking eachother)... they loose the organization they had, but they still heavily outnumber Gobwinknob and may still manage to take the city; they'll suffer more losses, but in the end the city would fall... not to emntion that if the nations split up and moved on their own, it would make it much harder for Parson to plan for all the different ways they would be attacking; especially if he doesn't have intel on the mind set of the other warlords

In short, it is entirely nessasary for Parson to continue attacking the alliance forces... with or without Ansom, they are still too mighty a force to leave alone