I just had a thought. I’ve been mulling over Decrypted Antium’s slip of the tongue since yesterday, and wondering if there is some residual bond that exists between a Decrypted unit and the side it belonged to in life.
If an heirless Ruler is croaked, all of the non-casting units serving under him/her are disbanded, yes? Can that disbandment also fall upon a Decrypted former subject? Perhaps if the side falls before the Ruler is croaked, those units remain bonded to Wanda, but if Slately falls in mid-evacuation, Wanda could be reduced to her original expeditionary force?
Think of it in terms of the tabletop wargame they’re in:
The Arkenpliers rules probably say “take dead units from the discard pile and return them to play as units of your Side.”
Regardless of what Side they used to be, they’re now part of Wanda’s Side. Shown by their livery change. So Slately croaking wouldn’t affect them.
… And the reason that Casters don’t croak with their Side is if they get sent to the Magic Kingdom. That’s why Queen Bea sent Vanna and the other Casters through the portal before she croaked herself.
Units are able, and in fact obligated, to disobey orders that in their best judgment would hurt their Side (this was explicitly stated somewhere, but I don’t remember where-- Probably in one of the Klogs). Benjamin, being a moneymancer, is acutely aware of the precarious state of Transylvito’s finances, and so can’t justify spending a huge chunk of it without knowing what it’s for.
It’s usually more of a shock when Jillian has judgment, other than bad judment (excepting in battle). Maybe another effect of being queened.
Curious about the defenses of Progrock, though. Decrypted cost no update… so why pop living units that do require upkeep to protect the place. Seems like that’d be a wily Parson choice to stave off Wanda’s will to power… but the defenses of Progrock would have been set by Ansom. (And Parson would’ve put at least one commander in place, I’d think.)
Maggie said it when Parson called her on giving the Tool her “suggestion”.
In what way? I see her being careless with her attack, and assuming that decrypted other than Ansom are not the same as “real” people, but where particularly are you seeing Wanda?
Jillian’s choice may have been motivated by irrational reasons, but it isn’t inherently irrational. Decrypted units are almost certainly harder to turn than living, and they only have so much capacity to carry prisoners. It makes sense to try to turn a single, high-value prisoner first, and only after that’s successful (if it is) to go after lesser units.
After Ansom calls her on not thinking of the Decrypted as living units, she mutters “Least they’re free of Wanda” but can’t manage to look Ansom in the eye while doing so, 'cause she’s not willing to examine her motivations too closely.
Tactically, it was a good decision. If Wanda wasn’t an issue, she could have defended her choice to Ansom that way. But Wanda is an issue, and both she and Ansom know it.
But I’m guessing that Parson intends to send Wanda after Jillian, and Wanda will be just as willing to croak Jillian as Jillian was to croak Wanda. Messy.
When we first got the description of the Transylvito capital I did wonder how Parson was going to take down such a formidable side. Now it looks like he’ll do it without even realizing it. Money changes everything, as they say.
Nope. Just standing in front of it waiting for word from Sizemore, from what I can tell.
Don King may not be willing to disband a Caster, but I bet he’s willing to disband a whole bunch of rebellious Warlords. He’s disbanded several Heirs, and those’re much more costly to pop. It’ll save on their Upkeep too, and as he’s been reminded, they’re short of funds…