132 The Battle for Gobwin Knob, Page 119

[fendrin]

True, but the reason may not necessarily have to do with the raw numbers. It could be more a matter of flexibility--two stacks of 8 could be ordered to do two separate things, while one stack of 16 would only follow one set of orders. Conversely, if you order the two stacks of 8 to attack the same target, you get the same effect as if the stacks were merged.

But one stack of 16 can be split into two stacks of 8 with a single order. Compare this to what would have happened if Caesar's direct bonus could have applied to EVERY bat in the hex, instead of just his personal stack.

There might also be targeting concerns related to casters. Some offensive spells might target a single stack--a Thinkamancer might have a spell that confuses a stack, for instance, causing them to attack their allies. By splitting them up, you limit the effect to a smaller group, mitigating the damage.

True, but casters in the field seems to be an exception. They are too valuable. Hence the RCC not having *any* in this attack.

Alternatively, it could just be because Erfworlders generally suffer from a critical lack of imagination. "Oh, the stack bonus stops at 8. No point in adding any more there."

Well yes, that is possible... but an unsatisfying explanation.

This actually makes a lot of sense. I would also like to point out two stacks could surround one enemy stack and hit them from two sides...

Which may or may not provide a bonus. As far as we know, it just makes it harder for the surrounded units to flee the hex. Oh, and see my first point above.

[Lamech]

Compare this to what would have happened if Caesar's direct bonus could have applied to EVERY bat in the hex, instead of just his personal stack.

Stanley, would have toasted them all with his Van de graff? Then watched his dwagons munch the defenseless warlords? Although I do see what your saying...

I think it probably has something to do with screening for Ceaser, and the dwagons AoE breath weapons...

[DigoDragon]

So, Charlie is an Archon? Maybe the "Queen" Archon, like a hive of bees?

Charlie might not even be a person.

[rxmd]

With undead, even warlords turn to dust as soon as they are touched.

They turn most uncroaked to dust, not all uncroaked. It's the little things that make a difference sometimes. ;)

[quindraco]

Headhoncho (sorry, I don't know how to quote):

I think Parson may simply be using a different definition of "hit" and/or "can" than you are, hence the confusion about what Parson "can" "hit" Ansom with.

1) Can: Actions Parson can take without losing the war. For example, if he can physically take Ansom by sacrificing every other unit in the city, which would lose the war the very next turn when anyone else invaded, then it doesn't count as something he "can" do - perhaps literally, given the hidden stats presumably forcing him to be loyal to Stanley.

2) Hit: As in, move in to strike, not actually strike. So, maybe the flyers aren't the only unit physically capable of landing a blow on Ansom, but they ARE the only ones who can move from a place where they can't land a blow to a place where they can.

If I'm Parson, and Ansom's on the wall, wiping my undead, and will die soon but only after making a big enough dent that he'll let the siege behind him through, dealing with him right this instant jumps to a high priority; my flyers are free to move, since the enemy air is dead or gone, but my wall troops are already in place against Ansom and my tunnel troops may still need to fight off incursions. Plus, maybe my tunnel troops physically can't get close to Ansom - there are, after all, undead in the way, and I think Erfworld prevents two people from standing in the same place at once (I wonder what the maximum stack size is......), whereas my flyers can fly over the undead.

So, when Parson says his flyers are the only units he has he can hit Ansom with, it may not mean what you think it does; also, even if Ansom were guaranteed to die - and that very soon - Parson might still need to hurry his death along.

We also don't know enough (and here I totally agree with you about some more expository writing being nice) to conclude that the guys worrying Ansom will fall are even worried about the zombie horde. They may know about the air force Parson was bound to send in, or the Arkenpliers may have a cap on how many times they can be used (and/or used against undead) per turn, or..... etc etc. They may even not mean he'll die, but rather that someone will kill his poor, innocent carpet, the one with the arrows sticking out of it. Won't ANYONE think of the poor, innocent carpet? :(

[Goshen]

All the klog says about the stack bonus is: [...stack bonuses max at eight, so you see a lot of eight unit stacks.]

Thank you for reminding us of this! I think it is the key.

I count a total of seven units in Wanda's stack, while Ansom is only one. He's a big warlord and has the artifact bonus, against all her bonuses, says is a good chance that their bonuses are equal -- maxed out at eight. He has the special ability to destroy any undead he hits, I think, but she also has her special caster abilities.

A very interesting fight! let's not forget that person has his mathemancy artifact, which would warn him against sending Wanda to certain defeat. I think he expects to get Ansom away from the wall for sure, and hopes to get lucky and capture the Arkenpliers.

[Goshen]

Charlie might not even be a person.

I think he's also from the real world, like Parson, because he is so unique. Probably trying to build up enough money to pay for a return-home spell, or just playing to win.

[Walpurgisborn]

True, but the reason may not necessarily have to do with the raw numbers. It could be more a matter of flexibility--two stacks of 8 could be ordered to do two separate things, while one stack of 16 would only follow one set of orders. Conversely, if you order the two stacks of 8 to attack the same target, you get the same effect as if the stacks were merged.

There might also be targeting concerns related to casters. Some offensive spells might target a single stack--a Thinkamancer might have a spell that confuses a stack, for instance, causing them to attack their allies. By splitting them up, you limit the effect to a smaller group, mitigating the damage.

Alternatively, it could just be because Erfworlders generally suffer from a critical lack of imagination. "Oh, the stack bonus stops at 8. No point in adding any more there."

Two points:

First; the stack bonus cap might be referring to the number of people in a stack. So the bonus itself might be significantly different, perhaps n+2^(x-1), where n is the unit base strength and x is equal to the number of people in the stack, with the hard cap at +256. Probably not, but it could be any of a number of non-linear sequences.

Second, this is a turn based strategy, stacks might be resolved in combat as a single unit. So your stack of little bats each contribute 1, plus individual bonus, plus stack bonuses. At that point, splittign the stacks makes sense, unless there are higher individual bonuses you can attach to the unit. Which is why Caeser's transylvito style makes sense, all of those bonuses applied to each bat was worth more than the total bonuses applied to breaking the bats into seperate stacks.

[fendrin]

Stanley, would have toasted them all with his Van de graff? Then watched his dwagons munch the defenseless warlords? Although I do see what your saying...

We don't know what enough about the Van de Graff attack to know... is there a limit to the number/area it can hit? Is it's damage distributed amongst the available targets? Too many questions.

For that matter, even if it is the entire stack, Ceasar (or Vinny or Jillian, considering Ceasar's state) could have formed a mega-stack after the Van de Graff. Sure, they might not get Ceasar's direct bonus (if he wasn't able to be included or if his bonus was for some other reason unavailable), but then they would have at least gotten the highest warlord's bonus, instead of most of them getting a weaker bonus.

Only 6 dwagons survived as it is, if all the bats had the highest leadership bonus (especially if also the CW direct bonus), would any of them survived (other than the veiled dwagon, I mean)?

I think it probably has something to do with screening for Ceaser, and the dwagons AoE breath weapons...

Ceasar still could have been screened, just like Jillian was (twice). We don't know enough about the Van de Graff attack, but we DO know that Dragon AoE attacks do not hit the entire stack.

I count a total of seven units in Wanda's stack, while Ansom is only one. He's a big warlord and has the artifact bonus, against all her bonuses, says is a good chance that their bonuses are equal -- maxed out at eight.

That would imply that there would be no point in having a leadership bonus above an 8 (except maybe for a chief warlord, their bonus seems to work differently). A;so, your 'requote' of my quote from the klog is way wrong. It is only the stack bonus that is stated to be limited to 8. Not the leadership bonuses.

let's not forget that person has his mathemancy artifact, which would warn him against sending Wanda to certain defeat. I think he expects to get Ansom away from the wall for sure, and hopes to get lucky and capture the Arkenpliers.

It won't warn him unless he calculates it. It is a passive device, just giving what he asks for. He probably
did, but he might not have if he felt that slowing Ansom was worth it even if it meant losing Wanda and her fliers.

Also keep in mind that lucky shots happen. The longer Ansom is kept from croaking the archers, the more likely one of them will get a lucky shot. Even if it's only a 1% chance per arrow, 100 arrows gives an ~63.4% chance of a lucky shot.

Two points:

First; the stack bonus cap might be referring to the number of people in a stack. So the bonus itself might be significantly different, perhaps n+2^(x-1), where n is the unit base strength and x is equal to the number of people in the stack, with the hard cap at +256. Probably not, but it could be any of a number of non-linear sequences.

Exactly what I said yesterday.

Second, this is a turn based strategy, stacks might be resolved in combat as a single unit.

Well, it's TBS up to a point... battles seem to be a real-time tactical scenario, but it could be turn-based blended with 'cut scenes'. Keep in mind though that battles with led stacks can be 'directed', so it isn't a pure TBS like the Warlords series or Risk.

So your stack of little bats each contribute 1, plus individual bonus, plus stack bonuses. At that point, splittign the stacks makes sense, unless there are higher individual bonuses you can attach to the unit. Which is why Caeser's transylvito style makes sense, all of those bonuses applied to each bat was worth more than the total bonuses applied to breaking the bats into seperate stacks.

Up to a point. Otherwise all of the bats would have been in Ceasar's stack and the other warlords would not have been as necessary (they still might help to direct individual groups of bats, so that Ceasar would'nt have as much info to parse).

I'm also wondering if doombats maybe have a special 'swarm' ability that allows groups of them to count as a single unit. Otherwise Transylvito forces would almost always be exceeding the stack bonus limit.

[docstrange]

I didn't see it myself before - but Wanda grabbing those pliers makes a great deal of sense:

arkendish -> Charlie, of the mad communication powers
arkenhammer -> Stanley, who likes to "just bust a nut" sometimes
arkenpliers (insta-croaks undead, tool used for manipulating things) -> a croakamancer who manipulates the living and the dead

Go Wanda!

[headhoncho]

If I'm Parson, and Ansom's on the wall, wiping my undead, and will die soon but only after making a big enough dent that he'll let the siege behind him through, dealing with him right this instant jumps to a high priority; my flyers are free to move, since the enemy air is dead or gone, but my wall troops are already in place against Ansom and my tunnel troops may still need to fight off incursions. Plus, maybe my tunnel troops physically can't get close to Ansom - there are, after all, undead in the way, and I think Erfworld prevents two people from standing in the same place at once (I wonder what the maximum stack size is......), whereas my flyers can fly over the undead.

Thanks for your thoughts, I enjoyed reading them. I pretty much agree with the above, as I indicate in post #131:

"Right now, I'm guessing it's some function of the RCC warlords not understanding the true function and power of the arkenpliers, coupled with Parson recognizing the importance of the time that Ansom is buying the siege, to the extent that even if Ansom is croaked, the victory might be pyrrhic for Parson due to the overwhelming numbers (and remaining competent warlords, even if they might not be quite as good as Ansom) that the RCC still has."

By the way, to quote a post, all you have to do is go to the post you want to quote and hit the "QUOTE" button in the lower right corner.

[Walpurgisborn]

Well, it's TBS up to a point... battles seem to be a real-time tactical scenario, but it could be turn-based blended with 'cut scenes'. Keep in mind though that battles with led stacks can be 'directed', so it isn't a pure TBS like the Warlords series or Risk.

That could be described as damage assignment. Warlord allows damage to be assigned to individual units, as opposed to being assigned evenly across the stack. Jillian having the griffin engage here, could be her having it pull off stack, engaging Stanley's stack solo to pull the Dragon's attack. Then she comes in with the rest of the Orly's and Griffins to engage the warlord.

Up to a point. Otherwise all of the bats would have been in Ceasar's stack and the other warlords would not have been as necessary (they still might help to direct individual groups of bats, so that Ceasar would'nt have as much info to parse).

But that means the remaining warlords he brought are sitting ducks for the knights if they're not in his stack. If they are or if he didn't bring any, then Stanley and his knights also equal an individual stack which likely has enough raw power to one-shot Caeser. Not a good investment of resources.

[fendrin]

That could be described as damage assignment. Warlord allows damage to be assigned to individual units, as opposed to being assigned evenly across the stack. Jillian having the griffin engage here, could be her having it pull off stack, engaging Stanley's stack solo to pull the Dragon's attack. Then she comes in with the rest of the Orly's and Griffins to engage the warlord.

I think we would have seen a 'split stack' order if that were the case... but I suppose maybe not.

But that means the remaining warlords he brought are sitting ducks for the knights if they're not in his stack. If they are or if he didn't bring any, then Stanley and his knights also equal an individual stack which likely has enough raw power to one-shot Caeser. Not a good investment of resources.

What I meant is that they wouldn't have been needed at all (and thus not at the battle at all), or they could have been in his stack along with the bats, to act as sub-commanders (or just uber-infantry). Neither was the case, so there must be some sort of disadvantage (or total impossibility) of doing so. We have not to my knowledge seen either (with the possible exception of the Van de Graff attack- surely so rare as to not have an influence on standard tactics).

This came up before, in conversation about the RCC column. Namely, why have a column instead of putting all the units in a single hex (or in this case, stack)? If they CANNOT be all on one stack (or even one stack per warlord) there might be a problem with unled units attacking each other, but that seems unlikely, as they are all on the same 'side' (or are they?).

[Walpurgisborn]

What I meant is that they wouldn't have been needed at all (and thus not at the battle at all), or they could have been in his stack along with the bats, to act as sub-commanders (or just uber-infantry). Neither was the case, so there must be some sort of disadvantage (or total impossibility) of doing so. We have not to my knowledge seen either (with the possible exception of the Van de Graff attack- surely so rare as to not have an influence on standard tactics).

Sorry, I was working on the theory that stacks resolve as a unit, and having a warlord allows for the attacker to assign damage. In that case, both Caeser and Stanley would have been vulnerable if it came down to one big stack versus one big stack, as both sides would try to eliminate the Unit with the highest bonus.

Of course it is speculation, but I haven't seen anything that directly or indirectly contradicts either theory.

FWIW, I do agree that there needs to be a hard limit on the number of units per hex. Otherwise there would be no need for a column, you just roll everything up into one hex and you're good to go. I'd assume there also is a size element, so you can get more bats into an area than you can siege weapons.

[DevilDan]

At the end of the day, PLOT will be the deciding factor. And we'll be playing catch-up and come up with reasonable reasons for why things work out as they did. If Ansom prevails, we'll mention his various bonuses and try to figure out how having a flying mount changed things. If Wanda's stack prevails, we'll discuss her mysterious background and knowledge of combat, the bonus for uncroaked units led by a croakamancer, and, if need be, suggest that she got some sort of sneak attack on Ansom or even theorize that her poem also gave her some sort of dance-bonus-like advantage.

[Ragn Charran]

I think [Charlie]'s also from the real world, like Parson, because he is so unique. Probably trying to build up enough money to pay for a return-home spell, or just playing to win.

I've always suspected the same thing, though not necessarily from our "real world". He seems to have the same "outside the game" thinking that Parson does that could be attributed from being from a different reality.

Nowhere did it say this was the first time the Magic Kingdom sold the perfect warlord spell. Wanda said they forged the spell, but didn't say when.

[SteveMB]

Nowhere did it say this was the first time the Magic Kingdom sold the perfect warlord spell. Wanda said they forged the spell, but didn't say when.

A thought: If Charlie had originally been summoned with such a spell, Wanda would make a point of NOT mentioning that during her pitch, given Stanley's strong personal dislike for him.

[fendrin]

A thought: If Charlie had originally been summoned with such a spell, Wanda would make a point of NOT mentioning that during her pitch, given Stanley's strong personal dislike for him.

Assuming she even knew...

Wild and crazy alternative theory that is very likely untrue (and very likely to have been posted by someone else in an earlier thread):
Charlie IS the ArkenDish, and is trying to free/destroy it's ArkenKin.

[Aether]

Gah! my internet, or maybe this website, was acting up so I only got up to and through page 4 before I wrote this up. Here goes:

In all the talk about the conflict, hardly any attention has been placed on Wanda's verse. What does it mean?

Rejoice, despair, Fate does not care

Is this only her battle cry, or part of her philosophy? The Titans don't care what you do, perhaps? Although she seemed to believe in an earlier comic. Does it mean, "do whatever you want"?

Each knotted mind entwined, each soul another's bind
Obviously Wanda knows quite a bit about binding the dead, but also a fair amount about the living. What does she mean here? What interconnections are she referring to, love, "popping", or something further? Does she see something deeper, that all the inhabitants are puppets?

And blind, though we are led, In time, we do know when to cut a thread

The inhabitants can't see, led by fellow "idiots", but she's figured out how to cut her ties? Of course, as she's trying to cut Ansom's thread tying him to the mortal coil, it could be simpler. It's more fun to read a deeper meaning though. It ties into the speculation that she works for Stanley more for the freedom it afforded her than anything else.

All this may be simply throw away verse that fits the mood, but Wanda's motivations are the biggest mystery remaining. She's been seeming more straight forward of late but it's nice to get a hint of meaning.

"Rejoice, despair, Fate does not care"

This could mean Fate doesn't care whether you love or hate, it's going to string you along regardless...
It could mean that in the end, nothing matters..
It could mean you're free to feel whatever you want.

"Each knotted mind entwined, each soul another's bind"
It's true this could refer to life and death... but it could also be about how the people are each connected to each other. I mean in the "everybody's actions form a greater.. something" kind of way.


"And blind, though we are led, In time, we do know when to cut a thread"
This could refer to the fact that people can't tell their fate ahead of time... but eventually, they will wiseup and do what they were supposed to do.


Taken together, this is all very interesting. For instance, Jack mentioned that "a wiseman gets more aid from his enemies, than a fool from his friends." The simple (or is it cynical?) translation is that a smart man can get more info and such out of his enemies--which Parson has been doing; psychology--then a fool could get out of his friends trying to advise him.
It could also be Jack complaining that, though he regards Jillian as friend (as opposed to enemy), he can't get much help from her... and he needs to work with Stanley.

In other words, Stanley the worm might have been right when he said he was part of something greater. For all we know, this war might have been sparked just to bring Parson, bring several Arkentools together, and see who wins in the slugfest... Still, even a broken clock is right occasionally... Stanley might have just been needed to summon Parson and is superfluous after that---I would certainly enjoy seeing that.

I don't like Stanley enough to want to see him reform or change his ways--just suffer; he's.. petty. Ansom changing his mindset, however, presents me with a lot of possibilities. (Well, it's that I can imagine lots of scenarios and all, but rather that Ansom changing will change things more interestingly plot-wise. We don't know of all his connections and interactions; they will change and we'll be shown that.)

Another thing to consider is how Parson fits in here what with all the fate and destiny stuff. I don't know. I don't know if he's a wild card, an unforeseen variable... If maybe he was "fated" to BE a wildcard, to bring some change.


But remember the very beginning. In the first few strips, we were told that small things can make big changes. A small change led to Parson being summoned...
... Keeping that in mind, what is going to happen NOW?

If Ansom beats Wanda.. what will the Tool think when he shows up? Will he blow up, misinterpret things.. what?
If Wanda beats Ansom? What will the Tool think when he sees Archons all over Gobwin Knob?
What will Parson think if he only sees one of the warlords he sent down the tunnels--the other being kept back, just to keep him guessing? Okay, so both were probably sent to the wall, but meh.


Also, does anybody think Parson might have shared his Luckamancy charms with any of the other warlords--Wanda perhaps?

Also... do you really think Wanda is such a badass combatant? She killed an Archon and to... other flying things. By firing off all the city's air defenses. Right now, she has... A couple units under her control, yet another wardrobe change... We suspect she might have been buffed, but have we really seen any casters in Gobwin Knob capable of doing stuff like that? And I mean to units that they DON'T specialize in... Personally, I'm curios as to what Parson will get that Thinkamancer to do. Maybe she can mess with Ansom's mind... though I doubt from that far away.

[SteveMB]

Also... do you really think Wanda is such a badass combatant? She killed an Archon and to... other flying things. By firing off all the city's air defenses. Right now, she has... A couple units under her control, yet another wardrobe change... We suspect she might have been buffed, but have we really seen any casters in Gobwin Knob capable of doing stuff like that? And I mean to units that they DON'T specialize in....

The only thing we've seen so far that possibly implies a buffing bonus is the combat costuming for dance-fighting, etc. Jillian's initial switch from a Valkyrie helmet to a message hat also seems to suggest that the former has some kind of combat bonus ("You're scouting, not fighting.").

I don't expect Wanda to be comparable to Ansom in melee ability, but leading a stack of powerful uncroaked to which she provides a "huge" bonus may be enough to even the odds.

[MadMaw]

Is it just me, or in the last panel can you see something very similar to Webinar's scythe-thing in the hand of the right-most unipetigar's rider?

Wonder who's the other rider? Dora for maximum psychological effect, an uncroaked warlord for maximum bonus, or something else for maximum WTB?

[Sieggy]

I've always suspected the same thing, though not necessarily from our "real world". He seems to have the same "outside the game" thinking that Parson does that could be attributed from being from a different reality.

Nowhere did it say this was the first time the Magic Kingdom sold the perfect warlord spell. Wanda said they forged the spell, but didn't say when.

Given that a great deal of Erfworld consists of puns / allusions to 'real world' things, Charlie is simply carrying along the lines of Charlie in the Original 'Charlie's Angels', who was never seen . . . simply a voice over the phone. Consider that when Parson first contacted Charlie telepathically via thinkagram, he manifested as in the garb of Mork, as he was seen speaking with Orson in the final expository scenes in 'Mork & Mindy'. And the Archon receptionist gave him the basic help line opener . . . These constant take-offs of what is pop culture to Parson is what keeps him from having absolute faith in the reality he must deal with. Which may, in the final chapters, be the crux of the entire strip, the subjectivity of reality.

I'm going to croak myself if the final Arkenthingie turns out to be a pair of Ruby Birkenstocks that Parson has to put on and click his heels three times saying 'Get me the boop out of here . . .'

[DevilDan]

I don't think that Parson would send Wanda out to face Ansom without some real probability of success given how valuable she is. That said, he would ruthlessly send her on a suicidal attack if his only shot at winning the whole thing is to keep the RCC from breaching the outer walls and if he thinks that the RCC's only chance of doing so is with Ansom on the wall during this turn.

I don't get why we assume that the Luckamancy Charms have any magical effect at all. Did the Stupid Meal make him stupid? Yes, if one reads all the stuff on the box literally then this is a possibility, but one I wouldn't bet on necessarily.

I always thought that the line about "a fool and his friends" was a suggestion that Stanley is more trouble than he's worth to Parson.

[noncaloric]

Earlier, Wanda appeared to think her stack would be enough to make a difference in the fight between Jill's stack and Stanley's stack. I wouldn't assume her stack is negligible vs. Ansom.

[Aquillion]

Also... do you really think Wanda is such a badass combatant? She killed an Archon and to... other flying things. By firing off all the city's air defenses. Right now, she has... A couple units under her control, yet another wardrobe change... We suspect she might have been buffed, but have we really seen any casters in Gobwin Knob capable of doing stuff like that? And I mean to units that they DON'T specialize in... Personally, I'm curios as to what Parson will get that Thinkamancer to do. Maybe she can mess with Ansom's mind... though I doubt from that far away.

Don't forget: Jaclyn is still glowing (while in a different color than before.) That may indicate that some of her powers as an Archon have survived into undeath; in that case, she could be a major factor as long as the stays out of the Arkenpliers' reach (and the Archons seem to be ranged attackers anyway... and the Arkenpliers only turn 'most' uncroaked to dust; a powerful Archon is likely to be an exception if there are any.)

The fact that Jaclyn retains her ability to fly shows that she keeps some powers, actually.

[Sieggy]

Look at the tactical situation.

You have Wanda (badass psycho warbitch spellcaster with a hardon for Ansom the size of a small New England state, massively boosted by the fact that he is her rival for Jillian's love . . .), an uncroaked Archon of unknown (but great, or she wouldn't be there) capability with a truly evil expression on her face, three undead unipegataurs (who look quite capable of kicking major boop all by themselves), two of whom are bearing his most trusted warlord and the warlord's beloved, both of who were sent to their croaks and subsequent uncroaking through Ansom's poor judgement. Seven effectives airborne, close to a thousand undead directly below on the wall, as well as an unknown number of ground based archers laying fire.

And you have Ansom, a Royal with an Artifact with which he is not attuned (though it is especially effective against uncroaked), desperately fighting to keep his coalition together by fighting a valiant action in a bid to buy time for his forces to open a breach in the wall, alone and unsupported by the forces outside that wall, riding a twinkie that has already sustained an indeterminate amount of damage. If he loses his mount, he falls into the hands of his foes.

That boy be in a heap o' hurt . . .

[BarGamer]

Looking at it from a melee combat perspective, as long as Ansom doesn't crush Wanda's staff in between his pliers, the other fliers could flank him and whittle him down, with the awesome possibility of a "Sneak Attack, BOOP!" I'm holding out for Wanda to cast Grease on the Pliers, or something magically clever.

If only Parson could tip the odds over and do some sort of Power Ranger's Villian move, and throw his sword down, cracking the earth and making Wanda grow to Epic size... XDDD

[multilis]

Wanda's "fliers" were thought by her able to make a difference in saving Stanley (before Parson told her about deal with Charlie).

She is a caster, which means lower HP and less defence (although special armour buff may help), *but* she is death caster, and may have nasty hurting/killing/unbuffing close combat spells.

(For example common for a death sphere caster to have several spells such as 'curse', 'weaken', 'sickness/plague' that reduce the armour class rating of enemy)

Ansom has no other help beside him to 'block' some of the damage (rather than the normal personal stack with full buf, eg Stanley, Jullian, Caeser, or Wanda).

[Starwaster]

I hate for my first post here to be critical, but you folks overanalyze the HELL out of these comics. What does this mean, what does that mean? To some extent I guess it's natural, the author drops all kinds of literary and linguistic easter eggs and people want to decipher them.

The world is based on wargame rules and so people want to analyze that.

Suddenly, Wanda speaks in verse and everyone's obsessed. Probably a literary reference to the fates, to be sure, but everyone's trying to work all kinds of hidden meaning into it. Like Freud said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

I leave you with this anecodotal story about Gary Larson:

The "Cow Tools" episode is one that will probably haunt me for the rest of my life. A week after it was published back in 1982, I wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere and die.

Cows, as some Far Side readers know, are a favorite subject of mine. I've always found them to be the quintessentially absurd animal for situations even more absurd. Even the name "cow," to me, is intrinsically funny.

And so one day I started thinking back on an anthropology course I had studies in college and how we learned that man used to be defined as "the only animal that made and shaped tools." Unfortunately, researchers discovered that certain primates and even some bird species did the same thing--so the definition had to be extended somewhat to avoid awkward situations such as someone hiring a crew of chimpanzees to remodel their kitchen.

Inevitably, I began thinking about cows, and what if they, too, were discovered as toolmakers. What would they make? Primitive tools are always, well, primitive-looking--appearing rather nondescript to the lay person. So, it seemed to me whatever a cow would make would have to be even a couple notches further down the "skill-o-meter."

I imagined, and subsequently drew, a cow standing next to her workbench, proudly displaying her handiwork (hoofiwork?). The "cow tools" were supposed to be just meaningless artifacts--only the cow or a cowthropologist is supposed to know what they are used for.

The first mistake I made was in thinking this was funny. The second was making one of the tools resemble a crude handsaw--which made already confused people decide that their only hope in understanding the cartoon meant deciphering what the other tools were as well. Of course, they didn't have a chance in hell.

But, for the first time, "Cow tools" awakened me to the fact that my profession was not just an isolated exercise in the corner of my apartment. The day after its release, my phone began to ring with inquiries from reporters and radio stations from regions in the country where The Far Side was published. Everyone, it seemed, wanted to know what in the world this cartoon meant! My syndicate was equally bombarded, and I was ultimately asked to write a press release explaining "Cow tools." Someone sent me the front page of one newspaper which, down in one corner, ran the tease, "Cow Tools: What does it mean? (See pg. B14.)" I was mortified.

In the first year ot two of drawing The Far Side, I always believed my career perpetually hung by a thread. And this time I was convinced it had been finally severed. Ironically, when the dust had finally settled and as a result of all the "noise" it made, "Cow tools" became more of a boost to The Far Side than anything else.

So, in summary, I drew a really weird, obtuse cartoon that no one understood and wasn't funny and therefore I went on to even greater success and recognition.
Yeah--I like this country.

[small pumpkin m]

Assuming she even knew...

Wild and crazy alternative theory that is very likely untrue (and very likely to have been posted by someone else in an earlier thread):
Charlie IS the ArkenDish, and is trying to free/destroy it's ArkenKin.

My new favourite theory.