I think I know what the exploit is!

[Jacob_Gallagher]

I just thought of this, when Parson mentioned the 'little battles'. I am going to assume that a battle uses an army's move points. So, what if you just feed zombies one at a time to the enemy? Even if they only drain 1 movement point to fight, it won't take that many to stall for a day.

Thoughts?

[jindra34]

umm... no a waste of troops... and you made an assuption...

[Demented]

Been suggested before, actually. Still, what would it buy but a few more turns for Stanley? Parson needs something decisive.

[Cyclone231]

Plus, not all the dudes would have to fight the zombies. They'd probably just use units that can move after attacking to kill off the zombies and continue the march.

[bgardner]

It occurs to me that Parson, being outside the normal mechanics of the world, would be immune to its limitations. Such as a limitation on a units Move rate. If Parson staggered when his sides groups of units attacked Ansom's forces, he could particpate in most if not all of the "little battles". Also since he wouldn't count as a unit in terms of stacking each battle would be the equivalent of +1 unit.

[SteveMB]

It occurs to me that Parson, being outside the normal mechanics of the world, would be immune to its limitations. Such as a limitation on a units Move rate.

You're talking about the same Parson who got winded walking down a flight of stairs, right?

[jindra34]

You're talking about the same Parson who got winded walking down a flight of stairs, right?

Yes, Yes he is talking about the same Parson who gets winded gonig down a flight of stairs... is commonsense that dead...

[Ultimatum479]

That's what riding Dwagonback is for.

[Demented]

Except then the dwagon has its move limitation.
What Parson really needs is a magic carpet to ride on.

[Scientivore]

If the day suddenly ends when Prince Ansom declares his turn over -- if time is ultimately determined by Move, not measured by it -- then it hardly matters how tired Parson gets. If he has infinite move then he'll have all the time in the world to use it.

I don't think that's it, though. Erfworld was able to determine a specific Leadership bonus for him -- likely accurate, given that he's not the handsomest guy around. I expect that he'll also have an accurate Move, assuming he isn't Garrison.

[Welf]

A single turn, however long it lasts, can't solve parson's problems. That 25:1 relation wont just disappear.
My suggestion would be to assasinate all warlords (or at least as many as possible), creat a single super stack (distance battle, self-healing and all that stuff) and rip out the now autoattacking enemy stacks. Only the assasinating is a certain technical problem...

[jindra34]

A single turn, however long it lasts, can't solve parson's problems. That 25:1 relation wont just disappear.
My suggestion would be to assasinate all warlords (or at least as many as possible), creat a single super stack (distance battle, self-healing and all that stuff) and rip out the now autoattacking enemy stacks. Only the assasinating is a certain technical problem...

First resonable plan to be posted...

[Caledonian]

I think we should assume that we've been given all of the information we need to figure out what the exploit is going to be. (It's entirely possible that we can't, due to lack of information, but that would be cheap and stupid.)

It probably has something to do with Ansom separating all of his flying units and flyers being vulnerable only to other flyers when over certain territory.

[SandroTheMaster]

I'm almost sure it has to do with day and night and exploiting the fact that units simply don't do anything at night.

[Innis Cabal]

its going to be a night attack...read the poem...

[Demonicbunny]

...well, it probably beats my own idea of commiting the majority of the dwagons and warlords to the tunnelfighting and crush the Marbit forces before the others can actually break the wall defenses, thus being able to bring up any Gobwin reserves to hold the walls.
The Marbits may have good tunnelfighting bonuses, but they ain't no Jillian Zamussels. Basicly turning the feint into the main battle and achieving local superiority.

[jindra34]

...well, it probably beats my own idea of commiting the majority of the dwagons and warlords to the tunnelfighting and crush the Marbit forces before the others can actually break the wall defenses, thus being able to bring up any Gobwin reserves to hold the walls.
The Marbits may have good tunnelfighting bonuses, but they ain't no Jillian Zamussels. Basicly turning the feint into the main battle and achieving local superiority.

Problem: How would you get dwagons in small tunnels...

[Innis Cabal]

squeeze through rules Jindra

[terror_drone]

Tunnels + Firebreath = Roasted Marbits

[Innis Cabal]

terror gets it Jindra

[EdgarVerona]

Aye, I think that's completely feasible (the assassination idea).

For example, since Parson doesn't apply to the rules, that means he doesn't have to stop moving or even attacking during his turn... but I assume other units can't attack him if it's not their turn (or perhaps they can't even attack him at all since he has no stats! He could very well be invulnerable).

Dispite his lack of physical prowess, he could waddle his way over to the helpless commanders if my very large assumption is true, and hack them to bits with something sharp.

It's a very large "if", but I guess everything is at this stage. =) I think the most important questions to this working would be:

1) Can other units interact with Parson at all, who has no statistics to actually be modified (cast spells on him, attack him etc)?

2) If so, can they do it during another player's "turn"?

3) Can parson, if 1 is true, interact with them in turn? If he has no statistics, could he lack the ability to damage other units?

4) Can he potentially set up traps etc... that DO have statistics, do damage, etc... that otherwise would have had to have been done on their "turn" by their "units"? (I'm picturing a Braveheart style "oil and fire" technique. Until Parson came into the picture, this would have to have been set up on thier own turn, wasting valuable resources and exposing themselves. If Parson can't directly interact with combat units, perhaps he can move objects (or even lift units?) that otherwise wouldn't have been able to move at that time and CAN deal damage on his behalf. It would be a funny comic, Parson lifting up infantry units and toting them to another location for free... or scattering oil through units of enemy that can do nothing to stop him.

Darn, now that I'm thinking about #4, I think that may be a likely possibility. Could be pretty funny too. =)

EDIT: Heck, he could even go in the middle of the "night" and set off explosives at the base of the castle to close off the tunnels at that point. Or bury explosive mines in the ground around the castle. Or pick up Lord Stanley and carry his skinny butt to a safe and unknown location. Or wield the arkentools himself (which I'd assume DO affect the world around them, even if the wielder isn't a participant in the "game") and go bash some heads.

[Lunix Vandal]

At this point, I have a sneaking suspicion that Parson is abusing some turn/diplomacy mechanics to pull off the night attack:

Spoiler

Show

1. Parson assigns direct control over X, Y, and Z military units (read: lots of Dwagons) to himself.

2. Parson declares himself Supreme Overlord of ... um ... his bedchamber, taking X, Y, and Z with him.

3. Since he's now an Overlord, he needs a turn, right? Logical place: after Ansom! Since Parson didn't secede until after Ansom ended his turn/the day, Parson's turn is at night, and ending it will cause the next day to start with Stanley's turn.

4. Since Stanley already paid upkeep on X, Y, and Z, Parson doesn't have to. Just as well, since holding the mystic city of Parson's Bedchamber is only worth 1 Shmucker/turn.

5. Then, to quote OoTS #18,
: SNEAK ATTACK!
: Psst - Haley, you won initiative, go again!
: Oh, right... SNEAK ATTACK!
(Chimera's dragon head): Wow, that first attack was really surprising...
(Chimera's lion head): But I REALLY didn't expect the second one.
(Chimera's goat head): Stupid sneak attacks.

6. Parson then brings X, Y, and Z back into position, where they were at the end of Stanley's previous turn.

7. Parson re-allies himself with Stanley, giving back X, Y, and Z and resuming his "humble" post as Supreme Warlord of Stanley's army.

8. Parson ends turn. The rest of the night plays itself out (or ends immediately, depending), X, Y, and Z get their free healing, and Stanley is none the wiser, which is good since he'd probably disband Parson on the spot if he found out. Ansom, on the other hand, has to deal with "inexplicably" losing all of his siege weapons and half of the Archons to an "inexplicable" midnight Dwagon air raid. Parson is also able to stay awake indefinitely due to the semantics abuse involved in telling Bogroll "I need sleep. Go get some sleep."

Yes? No? Maybe so?

[jindra34]

At this point, I have a sneaking suspicion that Parson is abusing some turn/diplomacy mechanics to pull off the night attack:

Spoiler

Show

1. Parson assigns direct control over X, Y, and Z military units (read: lots of Dwagons) to himself.

2. Parson declares himself Supreme Overlord of ... um ... his bedchamber, taking X, Y, and Z with him.

3. Since he's now an Overlord, he needs a turn, right? Logical place: after Ansom! Since Parson didn't secede until after Ansom ended his turn/the day, Parson's turn is at night, and ending it will cause the next day to start with Stanley's turn.

4. Since Stanley already paid upkeep on X, Y, and Z, Parson doesn't have to. Just as well, since holding the mystic city of Parson's Bedchamber is only worth 1 Shmucker/turn.

5. Then, to quote OoTS #18,
: SNEAK ATTACK!
: Psst - Haley, you won initiative, go again!
: Oh, right... SNEAK ATTACK!
(Chimera's dragon head): Wow, that first attack was really surprising...
(Chimera's lion head): But I REALLY didn't expect the second one.
(Chimera's goat head): Stupid sneak attacks.

6. Parson then brings X, Y, and Z back into position, where they were at the end of Stanley's previous turn.

7. Parson re-allies himself with Stanley, giving back X, Y, and Z and resuming his "humble" post as Supreme Warlord of Stanley's army.

8. Parson ends turn. The rest of the night plays itself out (or ends immediately, depending), X, Y, and Z get their free healing, and Stanley is none the wiser, which is good since he'd probably disband Parson on the spot if he found out. Ansom, on the other hand, has to deal with "inexplicably" losing all of his siege weapons and half of the Archons to an "inexplicable" midnight Dwagon air raid.

Yes? No? Maybe so?

Perfectly cunning for a perfect warlord... and he gets to lather rinse and repeat each day...

[Demented]

Aside from that you've used a ton of rules that didn't previously exist... <_<

[chrono]

Yeah, it makes little sense for one player (warlord) to pay the other one's upkeep and to actually have a newcomer play their turn at night. Plus I can just see how happy Stanley will be about the whole thing.

I think it's far simpler than that (though I don't pay attention enough to know if it was mentioned already) - if you haven't used up your turn during the day and you are allowed to use it at night, what Parson could do is just get a very tough unit (dwagons or no) who have full move and engage units without warlords - they can't move away (exhausted their move), they are forced to attack as per the rules, others can't interfere (again, no move) and they'll be wiped out before they can deal any damage at all. Rince and repeat, using the last move to go back inside city walls.
Come to think of it, one dwagon can probably wipe out a unit of 8 non-ranged units per engagement in this way (or ranged units if they happen to be in a forest or mountain).

Now this whole thing depends on at least 2 things:
1) can you actually move units at night
2) can you move after engaging in combat (including, can you engage more than once per unit per turn)

[Tor the Fallen]

If the day suddenly ends when Prince Ansom declares his turn over -- if time is ultimately determined by Move, not measured by it -- then it hardly matters how tired Parson gets. If he has infinite move then he'll have all the time in the world to use it.

Or, how tired you get is measured more abstractly with 'move'.

In other words, Parson has terrible move.

[Rastafast]

I forget the name of the move, attacking and sacking the enemies capital?

It could be done, funnel troops through the magic kindom to sneak attack the enemies capital.

Just a steady single file stream of uncroaked to overwhelm a defense that is unprepared and spread thin. (most units are gone to attack the Tool)