"If his command of the Arkendish allows him to spy on any use of Thinkamancy, that would be one heck of a Game Breaker. "
Not really — for starters not all sides have Thinkamancers. And once his ability became known, those sides would just stop relying on them — same way that sides formerly having dragons had to stop using them when Stanley got attuned to *his* Arkentool.
I'd like to welcome Trammennis into the "Smart people's" club, consisting of Charlie and anyone who can stand up to him of a battle of words (formerly just Charlie and Parson). Interesting how the formerly unstoppable Charlie is now losing his footing, first only to Parson and now also perhaps to Trammennis. Indeed, his former status was pretty much just a consequence of the fact that until now, everybody has considered a warlord with strong statistical bonuses to be more important than a warlord with brains. After all, the ruler of a side can see the candidate's statistical bonus.
I'm wondering if Charlie is exaggerating how valuable the secret of Parson's presence is. I mean, nobody even suspects he exists, so no one even could pay Charlie for the info. At this point, the only value of that information is to spread it freely in order to encourage the RCC 2 to take Gobwin Knob seriously. I don't think Charlie intended to hold on to that knowledge for much longer anyway; he's just trying to impress on Trammenis the gravity of the situation by giving out free information.
We're not just men of science, we're men of TROPE!
Pat. St. of Archive Binge
#2-42.
◊ Parson is taking charge and just promoted himself to a field unit. Interesting turn of events; he wants to lead from the front.
Pat. St. of Archive Binge
Planescape Hijack
It also seems like he's twice the size of most of his adversaries. And he did cut off that one unit's head in a single stroke.
This is probably still not a great idea—for one, I can't imagine Charlie not just abducting and mindraping him as soon as he shows up on the battlefield, so hopefully he has some sort of contingency against that.
Productivity is for people without internet connections. -Count DorkuA warlord can determine the attack/defense priorities of units in the battlespace, so Parson can likely choose which enemies to engage within certain limits. Further, Wanda's units are veiled, so it's quite likely that nobody will notice Parson's presence until battle actually commences.
Anyway, based on the Theory of Narrative Causality, there's no way Parson can be croaked in this fight. Like You Would Really Do It applies in spades. Capture, conversion... all of those are possibilities, sure, as they add drama to the plot. But actually croaking - nope, don't buy it. There's also the possibility that his presence causes a Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!.
edited 23rd Sep '10 11:11:26 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Also, while Parson's actual reason of going out into the battle himself is based on philosophical and moral reasons, he's smart enough to back up ideals with contingency plans, so I'm pretty sure he either has some specific advantage that him being in the field will bring in mind, or has a plan to ensure that he, at least, will survive.
Despite what he says, I seriously expect Parson to have a plan here. A plan that at the very least makes him being there safe, and might just rely on it.
Do remember that he gives significant bonuses to his side while he's there—I'm pretty sure Ossomer could do the troop directing Fighteer mentioned, but having the warlord (even a warlord with shitty bonuses) present gives a statistical boost to his side. Still, I doubt he's trying to lead things to an actual fight in which a bonus like that would make a difference—if this turns into a real fight at all it'll be a fight where he's got some crazy circumstantial advantage to combat the numerical disadvantage.
That's correct; Parson has a theory whereby archers may "drop" arrows or other potentially damaging objects from the air zone (off-turn) and have them cross the zone boundary to hit units in the walls or garrison zones. It's a rules exploit, basically.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"He DID say he had a real nasty idea already, when he first got re-promoted.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Hmm… Given his reaction to the stairs, I wonder if his promotion to field unit might've resulted in the sacrifice of some No-Sell abilities he had versus Erfworld's physics.
Parson's always been subject to Erfworld's basic physics. His ability to mess with the rules is more of a meta thing.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Pat. St. of Archive Binge
I see it as more of being able to do it because he hasn't popped there and either a) isn't aware of the rules he should be subject to or b) was summoned with only the pertinent rules for a warlord installed.
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
Pat. St. of Archive Binge
"Let's get down to business..."
◊
Oh dear oh dear oh dear Tramennis. I thought you were smart. You do NOT say "What's the worst that could happen?",you just don't.
Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.Yeah, major Genre Blindness moment here. I think Tramennis may find that he's not as Genre Savvy as he thinks he is.
On the other hand, Parson's giving off vibes of Pure Awesome here. What's the last thing that Jetstone would expect? Yeah, him showing up on the front lines.
edited 19th Oct '10 6:02:23 AM by Fighteer
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"Oh lord. That's a spot of Genre Blindness so large that even Jetstone's king was able to spot and lampshade it. You're supposed to be better than that, Tramennis.
Pat. St. of Archive Binge
I spy a quarter heart piece,Link's shield and the Master Sword.

We already knew from Book 1 that Charlie can snoop on the Eyebooks. If his command of the Arkendish allows him to spy on any use of Thinkamancy, that would be one heck of a Game-Breaker.
Tramennis is really proving the value of a Chief Warlord who thinks, not just looks ... er... Ansom.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"