Erfworld 65, Page 59

[Scientivore]

[snip] I dont see what would or should prevent Ansom picking off one of the neighboring stacks of dragons since he's there. His forest units cant run away far enough, and he himself either is happy enough with his defense that 20+ B dwagons wasnt an issue (so even the full 50+ shouldnt be too too much), or he has enough personal move left to get himself and his warlords out of the area before the end of turn and the B dwagon counterattack. Either way, the forest units are committed, and there's little difference between attacking and not attacking as far as the warlords are concerned. Any kill they can make now saves them from the slain dwagons attack next turn, and I dont agree that the neighboring dwagon stacks can do much damage to a force intended to destroy 19 dwagons and 3 warlords, even wounded dwagons. It would seem worth it, and would raise Parsons losses from the negligible (3 dwagons) up to 7 dwagons, which I would have reservations about classifying as "almost no cost". "Almost no cost" was a major feature of his plan. 7 might be a worthwhile cost to destroy all the seige, but I dont think it rates as "almost no cost".

[snip] Whatever the reality of the vulnerability or non of the remainder of the platter, and regardless of the temptation of Ansoms presence, its unlikely to be a good idea to attack strong woodsy units in their native terrain, especially if that leaves the seige train undestroyed, so I think its still the best play to primarily complete the destruction of the seige train and disengage back to GK next turn. [snip]

Agreed and agreed. I just realized this morning that Ansom has a particularly strong motivation to press on against the neighboring B dwagons for as far as the Gumps can go (at least one hex, possibly no more). Even if Ansom and Vinny stay with them and Stanley makes his soon-to-be-guessed-at new chief warlord go for the Arkenpliers, the Gumps will be useless on defense if Parson brings the warlords in and selectively targets the fliers, warlords and archers like he selectively targeted the seige.

For that same reason, if Ansom knows how much Stanley wants the Arkenpliers, I doubt that he has enough archers there to feel comfortable with the prospect of 50ish fully healed dwagons gunning for him. I doubt that he has enough archers anywhere to feel comfortable with that. Even if he has enough move to get back to the column, I think that it's quite likely that he'll make yet another error of judgement with Jillian and have her bring air cover to him instead of to the remaining siege.

Mancers. That's what's been bugging me! Erf seems to have magic a rudder - can't prevent the ship from sinking, but can change circumstances dramatically. What kind of mancers does each side have at this point? Tool has Croak, Look, Think and Dirt -mancers, at the least. Ansom prob'ly has a Stagemancer (Hat Magic), but dunno what else. Would be strange if that was all Ansom had.

Stanley also has a Foolamancer (the third Eyemancer). All that Ansom mentioned in his motivational speech were the Lofty and Altruist Elves' healers.