Erfworld/Headscratchers

• Why don't we know Parson's Chief Warlord bonus a little better? We know that CWs have three separate bonuses - their direct bonus to units in their stack, their hex-wide bonus to units in their hex, and their regular bonus to all units on their side. We know Parson's side-wide bonus is 2, and he's never joined a stack so there's no reason for us to know his direct bonus, but why don't we know his hex-wide bonus? Is it also 2? That really does suck.
  • When Parson leaves Gobwin Knob via the magic Kingdom, Stanley notices because he sees Knob units bonus decrease, and the units he is going to join discuss how having him present will provide a small benefit. His hex bonus is never specified, but it must be above two.
• Wasn't Haggar supposed to have a "massive column of heavies and infantry" strong enough to capture Jetstone's capital once Gobwin Knob and Jetstone finished beating the hell out of each other? And all of a sudden Haggar's forces "can't expect to beat" the dregs of Gobwin Knob's strike force?
  • Two things to consider here: First, Haggar's plan was to mop up the forces of whomever won at the capital, after they had sustained a major beating in claiming or defending the area. Secondly, and more importantly, the column Prince Sammy lead to attack Ansom's force may well not be the full column. Given that only infantry has been seen, this seems likely to be the case.
    • And choke-points are a bitch.
    • Since part of Haggar's plan was to have their column operate under the pretense of being just too far enough away to help, it could be that some of the column didn't have the move to engage the Gobwin Knob column when their hand was forced.
  • Prince Sammy was attacking on Charlie's instruction, with exactly the forces Charlie told him to use. Charlie did not intend him to beat the column, only beat it up to the point where Jillian could attack it in relative safety.
    • Sorta. Charlie's plan seemed to be centered around ridding himself of both Ansom and Sammy at the same time. He forced Sammy to charge headfirst into a column led by Ansom (though Sammy's bonus is unspecified, it's likely not on Ansom's tier) without the support of Haggar's heavy units, and instructed Sammy to make a personal mad rush down the center to assassinate Ansom, where he (Sammy) would then most likely get croaked seconds after by Ansom's support units. Of course, Jillian blew that plan to hell, as she does.
• When Wanda tried to convince Stanley to spend the 500,000 Shmuckers on the Summon Perfect Warlord spell, he argued that it would completely empty Gobwin Knob's treasury to do so, but Wanda remained adamant that it was for the best. However, if the treasury had been emptied, how would their side pay upkeep for all of their units- including Wanda herself?
  • Cities produce Shmuckers; after they burned through their savings, they could just use the Shmuckers produced by Gobwin Knob to pay upkeep.
  • Completely empty could just mean "Empty enough that I won't be able to do anything else that requires even a little bit of monetary expenditure after I do this". Heck, it could have been exaggeration (would you put that past Stanley?).
  • The actual wording used was that it would literally empty the treasury. However, the spell is also technically 350,000. They didn't pay for the support plan. That gives them 150,000 Shmuckers to work with. Even the upkeep of the Archons are stated to be around 200-500 Shmuckers. Parson's upkeep, which is over one-thousaaaaaand was considered to be quite high. Decrypted units (and possibly uncroaked and/or low-level units) have a zero Shmucker upkeep. Consuming provisions also reduces upkeep (as you then do not need to pay for food for that unit. So, it's reasonable that they could afford everything with the remainder of the treasury. And after Book 1, Gobwin Knob doesn't have to worry about Shmuckers as much.
• I know this is going to sound overly cruel, but it bothers me anyway. Does anyone remember when this was a COMIC, rather than a novel with occasional comic pages? I'd be fine with it if it chose either style, but it seems schizophrenic when it tries to keep two sides of the plotline going in different writing styles. It almost feels like one isn't reading a single work anymore.
  • You could always...not read the text updates. Its not like they're that critical to the story.
    • I disagree entirely. You can't skip things in this story. Almost every detail given is important to the setting. Just as one couldn't just skip the Parson's Klog pages (Which bugged me a lot less for some reason, possibly because at least there it was in-character) in the first book, one can't really skip these and still have a full understanding of what's going on... The plot would likely rely on them, turning it into an All There in the Manual moment. I just wish that this information was being put forth more organically in the style of the story.
    • I actually prefer the text updates, because they can show things in a manner than the comic itself cannot, i.e. characters' internal thoughts and impressions, background information, alternate viewpoints, etc. The comic provides one view of the story and the setting, while the text updates provide a different perspective that would be missing without them.
• Were Jetstone and the other coalition members ever aware of the fact that Transylvito was in the process of essentially throwing out its own Royalty system?
  • Probably. At least Anson, whose (best?) friend is a Transylvito's chief who is very unformal and openly criticized him after the Prince ranted about the Royalty superiority.
  • A recent text update has King Slately musing that if one good thing has come of Unaroyal, its that Don King has once again seen the importance of a Royal line of succession via an heir. So he was definitely aware that they didn't really take it seriously.
    • They may have tolerated it as an unfortunate eccentricity because Don King's heir designate was still a Noble (if only "barely"). The Royals probably would have looked down on the next leader, but not considered it an affront like having a promoted common infantry unit become Overlord of a major side, such as was the case with Stanley.
• Why does Stanley have such a hard time remembering names? Isn't it stated that leaders (and parson with the glasses) can see unit stats, including the name? When Parson looks at Jack with the glasses (through a thinkagram no less) he can clearly see the name.
  • He doesn't care about the name. He's focused on the stats. It's kind of like how in real life, a lot of gamers, particularly strategy gamers or ones focused on numbers won't even both looking at the name, but will instead look right at the stats first. I know I've done this while playing a lot of RPG games - first thing I look at is stats. Stanley just simply doesn't bother looking at names, because he doesn't care about their names.
    • That doesn't work, because you'd expect Stanley to start noticing the name once his life depended on it. It could be that seeing the actual names is something that only Parson can do, and the others can only see stats. Alternatively, it could be that Parson could only see his name because he already knew what it was (Wanda having told him).
  • The latter makes more sense. Stanley would simply see "Caster" or "Foolamancer."
• Why does Slately come to see Tramennis as his most worthy son after the Atrium disaster? I mean, Tramennis is a great guy, but the only reason Jetstone's in their now-hopeless situation is because the Prince insisted on a parley, against the objections of the King, even knowing full well that Parson is willing to violate a truce. That colossal military blunder doesn't really recommend Tramennis as a leader.
  • Because he's the best they've got, and willing to notice other paths than combat to boot, as all of Slately's other sons seemed to have done. He(Slately) was actually surprised, on reflection, to realize that Tramennis had been more effective than all of his previous heirs. Also, nobody not on Gobwin Knob's side (and even a few who were - see Ossomer's expression during, um, "Phase Number Two") saw the "food fight" coming except for Charlie, so that's a little unfair. Furthermore, it wouldn't be possible for them to "pull the same trickery that got Ansom", as Tram put it, and in their situation it would be very difficult to mount any sort of counter-attack (Jack's plan only consisted of "fight until opportunity arises, then cut losses and escape").
  • In all likelihood, he was impressed by the fact that Tramennis immediately realised his blunder, and was ready to stand and fight while covering his father's retreat.
  • Also, regardless of whether or not they parleyed, Parson's plan would have worked. Had they just start blasting away at the dwagons, Gobwin Knob would have just been spared having to harvest them. In-comic, its implied that Slately considers Tramennis to be a leader as opposed to his other, warrior, sons.
• During the Last Stand in Gobwin Knob "everything but the dungeon" was wrecked and the whole surface part of the fortress was taken over. Shouldn't that have counted as the garrison falling?
  • Dungeon is a Garrison Zone. As long as they held the dungeon, they still controlled the garrison.
• In TBFGK page 5, Wanda mentions that Gobwin Knob only has less than two hundred living men remaining among their forces to advance as warlord. And yet... not only are none of these ever seen, but apart from Stanley, Maggie, Sizemore, Wanda, Jack and Misty, no humans are ever seen among Gobwin Knob's forces. Even Stanley's personal knights are exclusively hobgobwins. And Stanley's later suggestion of demoting and replacing Parson doesn't lead to any indication of where any other warlord would have actually come from. So what happened to their other human forces?
  • According to Parson's Stupid Meal there are some 250 Gobwins alone as of Stanley's departure so chances they aren't counted among the candidates for chief warlord what with them being "natural allies" but the list also notes 15 Knights, 32 Archers, 48 Stabbers and 135 pikers which equals roughly 300 and probably represents the chief warlordable pool. Or rather, that number minus the hobgobwin natural allies.
  • Here Jillian discovers some of them as part of the garrison in one of the cities Gobwin Knob captured in the timeskip.
    • Those were popped after the Gobwin Knob battle. At that point, the only survivors of the GK side were the units Stanley took when he fled (himself, Jack, some hobgobwins and dwagons), the units in the Magic Kingdom (Parson, Wanda, Sizemore, Maggie), and a few rock golems and uncroaked.
• Parson spends a significant amount of time in the first book wondering just how much free will anyone has in Erfworld. Then comes the second book: Wanda has a cool new tool that lets her resurrect a croaked unit. The unit is 100% loyal to her, even if it was formerly an enemy warlord. Can I get a Broken Aesop?
  • I think I missed something here. How is this a Broken Aesop? People in Erfworld don't really have free will unless they're a faction leader. The Arkenpliers simply slave the Loyalty of non-faction-leader units to Wanda. I'm not seeing what you're getting at.
  • What I'm getting at is, in the first book, Parson wonders whether he or anyone else in Erfworld has free will. He even considers the option that only Faction leaders have free will, and if I remember right, he rejects this immediately. He even rejects the sword of ruthlessness to make a point that he's in control of his own life. Then come the Arkenpliers, which are basically one big "boop you" to any discussion or meditation on free will up to that point. Parson wants to think that free will exists in Erfworld, even among lower units (ie the lookamancer), but free will means nothing when your loyalty can be reversed in an instant.
  • I'm not seeing the aesop, broken or otherwise. "Is there free will at all here," "Lolno" isn't much of a Moral of the Story.
  • Besides, there are more than a few stories where free will exists, and there's also some way to brainwash or otherwise remove the free will.
  • The most recent text update indicates that even the Decrypted have some form of free will. Ossomer, even after being decrypted, is ashamed of what he's done and is willing to let his father and his minions kill him without resisting.
  • You can do brain surgery on a person and remove a good deal of their "free will" or saddle them with a crippling chemical dependency that literally rewires their maslow hierarchy but does that mean that debates on free will in our world don't have merit? The issue of free will in Erfworld obviously has a couple of extra dimensions vis a vis mindcontrol and patently divine devices but while Parson has shown free will by breaking the swear filter doesn't automatically make this a free world, nor does it make it a broken aesop when game mechanics are introduced that impinge on free will. In fact if there is an aesop it is that Parson doesn't want to be a tool like seemingly everyone else in the setting.
  • And this strip pretty much completely demolishes this complaint.Decrypted do have free will, they just need to overcome the programming caused by the Arkenpliers.
• The new Peace Through Superior Firepower updates and the wiki mentions that Wanda, Stanley and Sizemore (and Jeftichew, after the Unaroyal fiasco I'd guess) are all members of extinct or nearly extinct "tribes of men". Okay, it makes sense that sides that get destroyed cease to be, and it's obviously happened before... so... is war on Erfworld slowly killing off "sides/tribes" with no means of introducing new ones? Would there eventually come a time when there would "naturally" only be one side due to attrition?
  • Possibly, but remember, barbarian Nobles that can claim cities can start up a new side (or restart it if they want). That's what Jillian did with Faq and what Tramennis and Slately are planning to do with Jetstone City after Spacerock fell.
  • And barbarian warlords pop randomly (albeit extremely rarely) in wild hexes. I wouldn't be at all surprised if all current sides are descendants of barbarians, maybe with the "royals" simply being a higher species of barbarian.
  • If the population ever gets too low, I suspect Erfworld itself will start popping more tribes. Hell, the Titans could do that if the population gets too low.
• I get that if a Royal Ruler has another Royal popped, that Royal is considered the first Royal's "son" or "daughter". But Wanda's "father" wasn't Royal. Why are she and Tommy considered his kids? If it's just that they were popped in the same city as him, wouldn't the family be a lot bigger? How do family relationships work?
  • It may just depend on the culture and more specifically the ruler of the side whether popped units are considered sons or daughters or not. Since units are popped knowing a lot about their side, this presumbaly includes whether the ruler considers them a son or daughter. Plus it may be only restricted to Warlords or Casters both being commanders and thus closer to the leader in the command structure. Finally it's a viable tactic for trying to make sure your units won't betray you (although not always perfect), although in some cases a more professional relationship might be better.
  • It seems like Royals can pop Royals (warlords or casters) in a city they are governing, these are probably considered their children and would be a required status to be popped as an Heir by a Royal (as opposed to being designated/promoted to the position). They might also be able to choose to pop Nobles faster and/or cheaper as warlords/casters and maybe non-commander units (we have not seen any explicit examples yet of a Noble or Royal who was not a commander of some kind). Basically Royals>Nobles>Commoners, where each can pop units of status equal to or less than their own in a city they directly govern.
• Ceasar (I think it was Ceasar) threatened to drink Jillian's blood, but I thought Erfworlders had no blood?
  • It could be that "blood" simply refers to a person's "life points" or "life force". In the summer updates, we see that Vampires and bats "feed" off certain animals through biting. Why they would use the word "blood", however, is not explained.
  • Erfworlders don't bleed. They could have blood that stays in their bodies instead of pouring out on its own when the skin is broken although how that would work is anyone's guess.