Game results (spoiler)

[Kreistor]

This thread is an opinion thread. Do you feel Parson won, lost, and how badly?

This is my take...

Most games begin with winning conditions -- achieve enough of those conditions and you win, even if you don't complete the obvious objective.

GK winning conditions:
Gk survives intact - 3 pts
GK survives partially damaged - 2 pts
GK survives heavily damaged - 1 pt
Stanley and Parson remains on side - 1 pts
Stanley survives - 1 pt

RCC winning conditions
GK captured - 2 pts
GK destroyed - 1 pt
RCC Troops suffer 10% casualties - 2 pts
RCC troops suffer 30% casualties - 1 pts
Stanley killed - 1 pts

You might disagree with the price on Stanley's head. I'm basing that partially on the truth of the hatred for Stanley. Caesar went with Jillian not to kill Stanley, but to get to Faq, and Vinnie tells Ansom he's taking it too personally. Transylvito is not as concerned for Stanley as Ansom is. Ansom doesn't get to set his own winning conditions: I think the RCC rulers would be more happy wiht a captured GK and living Stanley than a dead Stanley and a GK with a new ruler. (Purely a theoretical situation: Stanley never named an heir.)

Given these conditions, it comes out as:
GK 1 pt
RCC 1 pt

Stanley survived, but Parson may not be available to his side anymore. This could change, so this is tentative. IF Parson is back on Earth, he's a loss to GK, and that's what matters for determining if GK won -- dead or on Earth is no different to GK.

That makes this a draw. That could still turn to a Slight Victory for RCC, if Transylvito lets Jillian go and she offs Stanley, though I think that's unlikely. Stanley won a lot of battles with the Arkenhammer: he's probably a better combatant than Jillian is. (Jillina kills dwagons, Stanley tames them.)

For the GK Rulers, the goal of stopping GK was achieved, but the cost was too high to be worth it. They are out the costs of an entire army, and they can't replace losses with captured spoils. So they get their desired result, a neutralized Stanley, but they paid through the nose for it. (All except Transylvito, who lost comparitively little, and are in position to gain several new cities, including a capital.)

Stanley has lost everything. With GK wiped clean, he has no city. Vinnie's comments in page 138 suggest that makes him a barbarian. There is the chance that the volcano revealed a fresh layer of gemstones that he could start a new city with, and he's got a Foolamancer to keep that effort hidden, so Stanley may not be completely done. But it can't get much worse for him unless he dies.

Anyway, I call it a draw.

[Highwarlord]

I find it more likely that Erfworld functions like a game from the Heroes of Might and Magic or Warlords series, rather than one running off of victory points. Sure, there might be a scorecard once the game is over, but it is largely irrelevant to victory.

[BLANDCorporatio]

I can't put score points on it, but my crazy theory goes that the battle for GK is a win by Stanley. Allow me to mention that I think Scarlet lives, and might capture the remains of GK, but she's in no condition to hold it against Stanley's party.

So, RCC more or less utterly destroyed with huge casualties to most sides, Stanley living and in possession of the ruins of GK and some high-level troops. Stanley now dominates Erfworld (if not in actual might and magic, then in perceived might and magic surely).

My other idea is that, yes, Parson will no longer be available to Stanley's side. For whatever reason.

[Bawon von Howse]

..if I were tallying up scores however I would certainly have some kind of kill tally in there:

5 points per kill
+10 points per warlord

(obviously my scoring is on another scale from Kreistor's)

[fangthane]

I can't possibly be the only person reading this thread while Frankie Goes to Hollywood echoes in my head, can I?

Only one side of that engagement ended up with any troops intact. Pyrrhic, to be sure, but a win nonetheless.

Gobwin's Knob - 1.
RCC - 0.

Like the song says, one is all that you can score.