121 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 109

[fendrin]

If that was true, then Jillian's tactics were poor. A better plan would be to hold position outside the Dragon hex and tell Ansom where the dragons were. Both stacks could then enter the lake hex at the same time.

However, she may have already entered the hex by the time she spotted them. In that case, if she tried to wait, Parson could have attacked. However, even then if she had 2 move left, she could have left the hex and re-entered when Ansom arrived.

Jillian's orders were to find and croak the wounded dwagons. Ansom's initial plan would have been to retreat to the column to avoid being croaked by the dwagon ring (as Vinny says, it's a trap for Ansom). It's only after Jillian's proclamation of her love (via thinkagram) that Ansom acts out of emotion (not strategy) putting his life and Vinnie's on the line to save Jillian. If Stanley hadn't acted equally irrationally, the war might have ended already (Parson wanted to use the B dwagons to croak or capture Ansom on the next turn, but Stanley recalled them instead so he could go off on his own).

Thus Jillian was following strategically sound orders by not waiting for Ansom.
There is some debate about whether or not she saw them before she entered their hex, but my interpretation is that you cannot see units in other hexes.

Another option is that each side is assigned a certain amount of time and move is just a measure of speed. However, that doesn't seem to be the case as Jillian was just waiting around and in turn based games, move is the number of hexes you can move.

Not to mention that turns end at the declaration of the side currently moving, and chronological events (such as nightfall) happen based on the turn ending.

We have seen that move isn't the only limit on what units can do. A Thinkamancer can only make a finite number of calls in a go.

Also Sizemore seems to have the ability to do stuff even when not his move. Presumably, he can't do an infinite amount of stuff per day.

Yes, however it is well established that units can only move on their own turn.

Did I mention that I own a game store? I give game demos all the time. The authors are following the rules for successful game demos, and for the same reasons.

No, I didn't know that. I'm still pretty sure that Rob has stated that Erfworld was not written with a specific set of game mechanics in mind, and that they are determined as needed by the story. I don't have a link, though, so I'm not 100% sure.