Remember the last line of the last comic? "For Starters."

Stanley has already guessed what Ansom will do on his turn. I'm willing to bet that it involves tricking Ansom into further worsening his position. Therefore, it's almost a sure bet that Ansom and Vinnie's evaluation of Parson's forces are not only incorrect, but leading them to dangerous conclusions.

I think the uncroaked comment at the end of this strip has less to do with the pliers and more to do with the fact that uncroaked warlords can't think and plan as well as regular warlords -- they can only carry out orders. Ansom is giving stanley full credit for the battle, but knows that Stanley isn't really that good at battle, and thus is underestimating the situation.

And Stanley isn't trying to level up his warlords. At the end of last turn, he didn't even know how warlords leveled up.