97 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 87

[Arkenputtyknife]

Noting that this did not kill the golem and it is still advancing they begin to dig (presumably for safety? would have to be a Marbit ability since they can't move out of turn) at which point they find the KISS golems and get NWOBHM'd.

They can move as much as they like outside their turn as long as they don't leave the current hex. And as we've seen, hexes are big.

[SteveMB]

They can move as much as they like outside their turn as long as they don't leave the current hex. And as we've seen, hexes are big.

However, they'd be "in contact" with the enemy as long as they're in the same hex. Maybe digging in gives (or represents) a combat bonus.

[LesserHellspawn]

You know....I really like the expressions of the Marbits in panel 6...that's total desperation. They knew what was coming to them, before we got to see it...total annihilation.

[atari_eric]

I've been reading the strip for awhile, but I just registered just to come in here and say:

The Gölem frame has to be made into a wallpaper.

It's a moral imperative.

[Arkenputtyknife]

However, they'd be "in contact" with the enemy as long as they're in the same hex. Maybe digging in gives (or represents) a combat bonus.

Enclosed spaces appear to have some special rules that we haven't seen, or the marbits would already be engaging the GK forces despite the former being underground and the latter on the surface. That would be acceptable in a purely strategic wargame, but would make it pointless to have fine detail such as tunnels and city buildings, and would be very silly in the comic. So for the time being I'm sticking with the idea that the marbits were tunneling to avoid combat rather than digging in.

[teratorn]

Way to go Sizemore. I think he is really surprised with the power he can unleash, he was used to being ignored and/or mocked. Let's hope he doesn't get too carried away.

This was nice, but I can't wait to see Wanda in combat mode. It's going to be epic (or maybe Rob and Jamie will think of something else, with this strip we never know).

[slayerx]

What i think Parson is playing at is causing some confusion with Ansom's forces and either working to divert Ansom's main attack or get the marbits to dissolve their alliance.

The marbits make up one of the largest forces in the alliance, having them leave would do wonders for GK. The Marbits were sent into the tunnels knowing that it was a faint; however they went in there most likely expecting to face Gobwin's and Uncroaked infantry... marbit infantry verus them is no problem as their superior numbers will hold out... at worst, they might meet a crap golem or two, but that's it... What they were not excepting is to be facing far heavier units. If Gk is using 4 metal golams to take out a scouting group the mabits will be quick to conclude that their are A LOT more up ahead; afterall, without lookamancers Ansom can't really get a solid, sure guess on how many troops really are in GK. The Marbits mission looks less like a diversion and more like a suicide mission.

The Marbit leader will likely demand reinforcments from Ansom. the alliance leaders will come to one of two conclusions... either GK fell for the faint and are dedicating their forces to the tunnels, or that GK has A LOT more forces then previously estimated... And considering how much opposition they may likely face at the walls, along with the fact that sending 4 metal golems to kill scouts is TOO much force to be sending to the tunnels to fend off the marbits, they are more liekly to conclude that they had underestimated the remaining forces in GK...

Now, the alliance has two choices, either send reinforcments, or leave the marbits be and attack the walls as orginally planned... the later choice may result in the marbits dissolving their alliance thus taking a good portion of the alliance forces with it. The former choice results in much less attention to the walls making it easier for GK defend but backs up the marbits as needed... Either choice would work out for Parson... Either the allaince looses one of it's largest supporters, or the alliance sends troops to the tunnels where Parson may have sizemore ready to unleash a few vicious traps that could seriously even the odds.

So ya, short version... Parson is planning on tricking the alliance into sending more troops to the tunnels where he liekly has the advantage.

[teratorn]

The Marbits were sent into the tunnels knowing that it was a faint; however they went in there most likely expecting to face Gobwin's and Uncroaked infantry... marbit infantry verus them is no problem as their superior numbers will hold out... at worst, they might meet a crap golem or two, but that's it... What they were not excepting is to be facing far heavier units.

Not only that, heavy units with a bonus! I don't think they were expecting warlords (casters even less).

[The Blind]

As for why they set a trap, they're stuck where they are until their turn starts, but they can fight in response to an attack. Maybe the trap gives them a combat bonus.

It always seems to come back to computer games for me, but I can't help but think of this as "fortifying" in Civilization: a defensive bonus at the cost of some movement points.

Also note "Eeeyah" is probably a reference to the Ewok who cuts the rope triggering one of the log traps that kill an ATST in Return of the Jedi. He makes the same noise and we've had Marbit/Ewok tie-ins before

That was my first thought too, but I'm too much of a Star Wars dork to know if that's an actual reference or just looks like one to someone overexposed to Ewoks. I'm glad to hear it's real.

What I mean is that, during the Dwagon Doughnut attack, the Allies were celebrating because every engagement ended with the enemy withdrawing, which technically counts as a win. It was only when actual reports came in via hat that Ansom realized that they were dancing as their own siege weapons burned. My suggestion was that this was part of the natural magic scouts are supposed to use to send intel back to command, as in a quick news flash that "Stack X Engaged. Y Outcome." or somesuch. No details on the actual fight, just the outcome.

You may be right, but then what do we make of Vinnie's Doombats? Does the Scout Thinkamancy allow a commander to see what the scout unit sees, or is that special ability reserved for the Doombats in particular? I don't think we've seen any other actual scout units until now, so this might provide the answer, once we see how Ansom becomes aware of the lost Marbits. Perhaps the Marbit commander will "see" their death and report?

There are a few explanations I can think of:

1. Bright blue-white lighting washing out the colors and making hard rock golems look like metal golems.
2. A mistake; there were supposed to be 4 metal golems in the roster.
3. They're hard rock golems and the pictures in the klog are misleading.
4. They've been busy popping metal golems since the roster was written. I would expect metal golems to be expensive to produce, so this seems unlikely.
5. The roster was incomplete for some reason.
6. Artistic license; they're rock golems but look better this way.

I don't like any of those explanations, but things don't match up here and I'd like to know why.

It's also possible that they're simply one unit. Just as KISS is one band, this is one "metal golem" unit. For that matter, we still don't know if the twolls or uncroaked units referred to in the roster mean individuals or regiments: we've seen Wanda order the creation of a regiment, but was she ordering the creation of more uncroaked, or simply organizing what they had? Still don't know, though I think the roster makes more sense referring to individuals. I just can't be sure.

And I would honestly expect KISS golems to be "hard rock" before "metal," appearances aside.

[Calemyr]

Vinnie was definitely a special case. First off, he is not only a royal, he's a half-vampire royal with an exceptionally heroic personality, the brains of a strategist, the ability to KICK the crap out of dwagons, and a supernatural dose of charisma. Second, his bats are extremely limited (low move, crap combat), yet Ansom constantly relies on them for his best intel (wanting to send them with Jillian and sacrificing them to scout out dwagon disposition, for example). This can only be because, as scout units, their sensory feedback is unrivaled. I mean, Orlies would make better scouts, or at least put a Marbit scout on a high level Gwiffon... Why would he always use the bats if there were superior forces with the same abilities?

[Gamebird]

Another option, for the scouts, is that they *allow* a commander to see what's going on from their point of view. Exactly like how Vinnie would look through the bat's eyes and see what was happening. We don't know that a commander has this information *constantly*, or only when they request it/concentrate. So if someone capped off a bat while Vinnie wasn't paying attention to that particular bat, then it would be a mystery to him as to what killed it. Thus, the advantage to killing the Marbit scouts quickly would be to minimize what their commander might see, and if possible kill them at a moment when the commander wasn't looking through that particular scout stack's eyes.

Just a guess.

[Narkis]

I believe those are the 4 hard rock golems. There is absolutely no indication that 3 more metal golems were made, and KISS' songs were more hard rock than metal.

Also, I think the golems in the klog 9 picture were, from left to right, Soft Rock, Acid, Metal and Hard Rock. The far left one looks a lot like a thinner, "soft"er version of the one on the far right, which makes them the two Rock golems. Acid is a type of drug, and the second golem looks quite psychedelic. The third one would then be the metal golem, since its surface is pretty smooth, and it looks like it's wearing an armour.

[SteveMB]

Second, his bats are extremely limited (low move, crap combat), yet Ansom constantly relies on them for his best intel (wanting to send them with Jillian and sacrificing them to scout out dwagon disposition, for example).

Er, Ansom's statement was that he would send Vinny (and, by inference, his bats) instead of Jillian (before he got argued into letter her have her way).

[slayerx]

I believe those are the 4 hard rock golems. There is absolutely no indication that 3 more metal golems were made, and KISS' songs were more hard rock than metal.

Also, I think the golems in the klog 9 picture were, from left to right, Soft Rock, Acid, Metal and Hard Rock. The far left one looks a lot like a thinner, "soft"er version of the one on the far right, which makes them the two Rock golems. Acid is a type of drug, and the second golem looks quite psychedelic. The third one would then be the metal golem, since its surface is pretty smooth, and it looks like it's wearing an armour.

The third golems do not look like they are made out of Metal... they are also not as extreme as the forth golems. The forth golems look like they are made out of metal and look like they rock as hard as a metal band

Also, everywhere i look it up, Kiss is listed as a metal band despite what your opinion of what is Metal and what is just hard rock

[teratorn]

Also, everywhere i look it up, Kiss is listed as a metal band despite what your opinion of what is Metal and what is just hard rock

Can you guys stop nitpicking? With all the caveats about what one may find in Wikipedia:

New York Times critic Jon Pareles writes, "In the taxonomy of popular music, heavy metal is a major subspecies of hard-rock—the breed with less syncopation, less blues, more showmanship and more brute force."

And the article on KISS uses hard rock many many times, so you didn't look hard enough (pun intended).

[Justyn]

I believe those are the 4 hard rock golems. There is absolutely no indication that 3 more metal golems were made, and KISS' songs were more hard rock than metal.

Also, I think the golems in the klog 9 picture were, from left to right, Soft Rock, Acid, Metal and Hard Rock. The far left one looks a lot like a thinner, "soft"er version of the one on the far right, which makes them the two Rock golems. Acid is a type of drug, and the second golem looks quite psychedelic. The third one would then be the metal golem, since its surface is pretty smooth, and it looks like it's wearing an armour.

The third golems do not look like they are made out of Metal... they are also not as extreme as the forth golems. The forth golems look like they are made out of metal and look like they rock as hard as a metal band

Also, everywhere i look it up, Kiss is listed as a metal band despite what your opinion of what is Metal and what is just hard rock

I assumed that the golem on the far right was the metal golem because it's throwing up the horns.

[Balance]

I assumed that the golem on the far right was the metal golem because it's throwing up the horns.

Well, that and the fact that it's all shiny and, well, metallic, unlike the other examples. And that the golems in the current strip clearly follow the same design, and use the heavy metal umlaut, and make a sound effect that references heavy metal....

[teratorn]

Well, that and the fact that it's all shiny and, well, metallic, unlike the other examples. And that the golems in the current strip clearly follow the same design, and use the heavy metal umlaut, and make a sound effect that references heavy metal....

Curious, because I saw the brown guy as the soft rock golem, and the big shiny guy as a hard rock golem: they look alike in shape and size. I made the association hard rock to music but not metal to music, I expected to see more like a tin soldier kind of thing (though it's something else, but I can't get the reference on the skinny guy).

The acid golem is the only one I'm sure of and I still think that the skinny guy is the metal golem.

Hard rock + heavy metal would be somewhat redundant... there must be some other reference hidden there.

[ShinyBrowncoat]

It always seems to come back to computer games for me, but I can't help but think of this as "fortifying" in Civilization

But in CIV, a unit can only fortify if it doesn't move for at least one turn...

[Randalor]

(though it's something else, but I can't get the reference on the skinny guy).

The Beatles would be my guess (specifically, the earlier years)

[multilis]

In Civ you may give fortify command and it takes a turn to take effect. The Marbits may have been prepping another ambush/defensive position, but it may take a turn to be completed.

[Hell Puppi]

The Beatles would be my guess (specifically, the earlier years)

Actually he reminds me a bit more of Jimmy Hendrix, but that's me.

[El_Chupacabra]

The metal golem in Klog #9 looked craggy enough. And rock golems wouldn't look so metallic. It may be a surprise that metals are actually crystalline in structure.

Parson's unit roster lists five types of golem. We saw four of them in the Klog, and page 87 shows a crap golem which looks nothing like any of them, so they must be the soft, acid, hard, and metal golems respectively. It's pretty obvious which is which.

Those KISS golems look a lot more like the metal golem in the klog than the hard rock golem, in color, general form, and attitude. There's no resemblance to the rather dull-looking hard rock golem. There are a few explanations I can think of:

1. Bright blue-white lighting washing out the colors and making hard rock golems look like metal golems.
2. A mistake; there were supposed to be 4 metal golems in the roster.
3. They're hard rock golems and the pictures in the klog are misleading.
4. They've been busy popping metal golems since the roster was written. I would expect metal golems to be expensive to produce, so this seems unlikely.
5. The roster was incomplete for some reason.
6. Artistic license; they're rock golems but look better this way.

I don't like any of those explanations, but things don't match up here and I'd like to know why.

7. As mentioned before, it's one unit of Metal Golems, not one Metal Golem
8. A Golem's Special Attack causes it to resemble some band analogue in this world -- you might get a Soft Rock Golem make a Special Attack making it look like Air Supply and casting Sleep or Charm
9. Sizemore's Force Multiplier causes Golem stats to either upgrade outright or appear to match that of higher-Order Golems.

The interesting side effect would be that Sizemore would cause a Metal Golem to become a Death Metal Golem, or Grindcore/Hardcore etc.

And Stack a Dirtamancer with a Foolamancer and you get the rarest of Breeds, a Glam Metal Golem.

/I need to lay off the crack

[Arkenputtyknife]

7. As mentioned before, it's one unit of Metal Golems, not one Metal Golem

It's a nice theory. The only thing I see wrong with it is that (to the best of my recollection) it'd be the first time in the entire comic that the word “unit” has referred to a collection of individuals rather than a single individual. In all previous cases, as I recall, the appropriate term was “stack”.

[The Blind]

Vinnie was definitely a special case. ... Why would he always use the bats if there were superior forces with the same abilities?

I may have been unclear. Vinnie in himself is a unique snowflake, absolutely, but the question is whether the ability to see through the eyes of his bats is general to all scouts. Ansom's use of them doesn't clear up that question at all, because even if his Marbit commander could see through the eyes of the Marbit scouts, Doombats can fly and are disposable. They'd still be the go-to scouts.

Just what Gamebird says:

Another option, for the scouts, is that they *allow* a commander to see what's going on from their point of view.

Regarding fortification or whatever the Marbits did to lay a trap:

But in CIV, a unit can only fortify if it doesn't move for at least one turn...

In Civ you may give fortify command and it takes a turn to take effect. The Marbits may have been prepping another ambush/defensive position, but it may take a turn to be completed.

Any comparison can only be taken so far. I have no idea what the mechanic for trap-laying would be, but I doubt it would be waiting a whole turn. I originally thought of trading movement points for the ability to lay a trap - ie. move three hexes instead of four, using the last movement point for trap-laying. But obviously that is nothing more than hazarding a guess. I just wanted to point out that trading range for extra defense seems to make the most sense, both logically and gameplay-wise.

[Lord_Butters_I]

the interesting side effect would be that Sizemore would cause a Metal Golem to become a Death Metal Golem, or Grindcore/Hardcore etc.

I would say a Death Metal Golem would be a fusion of Dirtamancy and Croakamancy by the sheer name of the thing.

[multilis]

Does Wanda have to get better to give the uncroaked units a bonus? Or is it enough if the former 'puppet master' is a puppet of the thinkomancer?

[rosebud]

It will be interesting to see Ansoms reaction to the idea of actually have casters lead, at all.

If Sizemore had anything to say, it would take place underneath a NWOBHM.

[slayerx]

Curious, because I saw the brown guy as the soft rock golem, and the big shiny guy as a hard rock golem: they look alike in shape and size. I made the association hard rock to music but not metal to music, I expected to see more like a tin soldier kind of thing (though it's something else, but I can't get the reference on the skinny guy).

The acid golem is the only one I'm sure of and I still think that the skinny guy is the metal golem.

Hard rock + heavy metal would be somewhat redundant... there must be some other reference hidden there.

The skinny one doesn't fit the Metal golem idea at all... first off, compared to the one all the way to the right, the one to the right looks much more like it is made out of metal; he's all shiny and what not. Second, when we thinking about this in terms of music, the one all the way to the left looks like something like out of the beetles (soft rock musician), while the one all the way to the right is pointy, throwing up the horns, and is much more extreme overall (Metal Rock musician)... So from left to right its, Soft rock, acid rock, hard rock, and metal

Does Wanda have to get better to give the uncroaked units a bonus? Or is it enough if the former 'puppet master' is a puppet of the thinkomancer?

Parson wasn't asking the thinkamancer to use Wanda like a puppet, he was asking her to fix her, to bring wanda out of that veggie like state

[Lamech]

I think I might know how Sizemore got three more metal golems suddenly. (Assuming he did.) Maybe he had an extra three "create metal golem" scrolls lying around, and Stanley just didn't want to pay the upkeep before.