If the life and/or tactical career of Goblaurence were to end here, at least it’d be in a way he’d appreciate: Explosively, and with two extra helpings of “fuck you.”
There’s been a LOT of foreshadowing the Arkerra would get airships. The idea was first floated when we saw one in chapter 4 (well, the end of 3), but it was really tacked together when our Sky Elf and Gnome representatives first met on the council, and the latter spoke of the possibilities of merging science and magic. Also, who cares about a blow-hard from the sea navy when you’re building castles in the sky?
Anyway, it’s been pretty clear to see which way the wind was blowing for a while now.
They’ve been industrialzed for some time. They’ve mostly been hiding their technological strength, in an attempt to keep the fragile peace from breaking. I can’t remember the exact strip it showed up in, but the quote was, “If they fear us too little, they will attack. If they fear us too much, they will attack us with everything they have.“
OKAY, LANDSHARK GUY REPORTING FROM THE BATTLEFRONT
HEY, BIG BLIMPS HERE MUST BE ADVERTISING TIRES – NO! NO THEY’RE BAD, BAD!
OH THE HUMANITY – THE TROLLISHNESS – THE GNOMISM – THE SHARKOSITY – THE FUZZINESS – THE GOBLINITY!! HEY HEY LOOKIT ALL THE FRESH FOOD!
They about to come under heavy aerial bombardment and can’t out run the zeppelins. If they break formation and retreat the human troops will slaughter them.
The best response for the Savage races in this situation is a general attack. That way they will be too close, and hopefully intermixed, with the Gastonion troops for the zeppelins to use their bombs. Plus the Savage race troops are likely to love it and think it was the strategy all along, with Penk now shown he is a real Wahhh! style warlord
Are the champions really going to die before we see them in action? Are we really not going to get a fight between the champions and the peacemakers?
From a writing stand point there is no way that could happen (it would make all the scenes with Penk in them pointless for one) yet I see no way out of this. Judging by the looks on their faces, neither do the champions.
Well, go on, Goblaurence, give us your correct opinion.
This is definitely an “oh crap” moment for the savage Champions as well as for most of us readers, I suspect. Much harder to cheer for the “good guys” when we know the people who are (or will be) under the bombs.
Welp, that was some nice misdirection. Set us up perfectly to expect a clash between the Champions and the Peacemakers during/after pitched battle, except whoops now that’s some heavy airborne artillery isn’t it.
Watching this fight is like watching the final game of a sports season, where both teams are your favorites. You don’t know who to root for, leaving you in a gray marsh of indecision. And I can honestly say it’s refreshing to get this from a fantasy setting, the one in which writers most often default to one side being all good and the other being unrepentantly evil.
Oh Pleeeeease.One good Tectonicus Smite(fireballs) and all the Airships will go Hindenburg.
At least i hope that this is what will happen….
…or at least that Araugau will survive….and the landsharks…oh and i guess the other champions should survive too.
Not necessarily; it all depends on what lifting gas they’re using. Hydrogen will go boom, as it did in the Hindenburg, but if they’re using helium, it won’t be an issue.
Of course, they could always be using some sort of magical gas, in which case who knows what it’ll do if exposed to flame.
I’m betting hydrogen- it’s much easier to make and sustain production, and no matter how tight you whip your balloon up, it will leak- [SCIENCE WARNING] especialy considering any serious (kinetic) weapon discharge means dropping weight, which means dumping lifting gas to preserve equilibrium. It works the same way on subs- shoot torpedo, add water or the sub rises. Here, it’s drop bomb and dump gas or airship rises.
Of course, that leads in to fire retardants and backup systems… much logistics.
Given that those airships are headed directly for their lines, and full of bombs – setting them on fire and making them crash into the army of The World’s Champions could be the worst imaginable consequence.
Really? Gastonia? Not the guys who worship the fire god that gives them fire powers? You know, the ones who were jumping in volcanoes and showing off their actual firebending not that long ago? Not them?
I’m guessing this is Goblaurence’s equivalent of the day the cigar fell out of Scipio’s mouth when Gralor made his appearance. He’s just on his back foot for a moment.
KIROV REPORTING
Ahhh, the smells of destruction!
I’m so glad someone made a Red Alert reference.
RED LEADER STANDING BY.
Red October standing by.
Red Foreman, standing by.
Red Riding Hood, walking to Grandma’s cottage.
Red Green, standing by.
Roll of duct tape, standing by.
Moose standing by…
Red Shirt standing by.
Red Lobster standing by.
Red Rooster, standing by.
Red Rider BB-gun…shooting you in the eye.
That’s a while with no more puns, I guess we’re down to Red Five?
Red Rum standing by.
Red Robin Standing By
Red Dead Redemption standing by. Do not remove memory card or switch off console.
Red Skelton standing by.
Red Buttons standing by.
Red October, standing by.
Red Rocket standing by.
Red XIII standing by
Red Monk standing by
Spit, Bailing Wire & Prayer, standing by alongside Duct Tape.
Red Green, Colorblind
Red Rover, Red Rover…
Red Read standing by
Reddit. Standing by.
I love you
I love the smell of Alchemical Bombardment in the morning . . . smells like victory.
“Please. I can always do science to it.”
Some day … this war’s gonna be over.
Damn it, wanted to have it start at 48 seconds to have the guy go “just not today” *old man* let’s drop some lead on those mother Effers
If the life and/or tactical career of Goblaurence were to end here, at least it’d be in a way he’d appreciate: Explosively, and with two extra helpings of “fuck you.”
He’s already thinking up ways to counter the airships, I guarantee it. It probably involves rockets. Lots of rockets.
How convenient that he is about to receive lots of them. Free of charge. The shipping may cost him an arm and a leg, though.
They have a third one, but it’s currently disposed trying to wrangle Loki and the Hulk.
When exactly did Arkerra industrialize?
They probably got the gnomes to build them.
Lotsa wood in the zeppelins. I’m sure the wood elves are thrilled about that (srcsm).
Those things are gorgeous *.*
Not castle Wulfenbach gorgeous, but getting there.
There’s been a LOT of foreshadowing the Arkerra would get airships. The idea was first floated when we saw one in chapter 4 (well, the end of 3), but it was really tacked together when our Sky Elf and Gnome representatives first met on the council, and the latter spoke of the possibilities of merging science and magic. Also, who cares about a blow-hard from the sea navy when you’re building castles in the sky?
Anyway, it’s been pretty clear to see which way the wind was blowing for a while now.
I know all those characters had been dropping hints about this, but I guess I just assumed they were full of hot air.
They’ve been industrialzed for some time. They’ve mostly been hiding their technological strength, in an attempt to keep the fragile peace from breaking. I can’t remember the exact strip it showed up in, but the quote was, “If they fear us too little, they will attack. If they fear us too much, they will attack us with everything they have.“
OKAY, LANDSHARK GUY REPORTING FROM THE BATTLEFRONT
HEY, BIG BLIMPS HERE MUST BE ADVERTISING TIRES – NO! NO THEY’RE BAD, BAD!
OH THE HUMANITY – THE TROLLISHNESS – THE GNOMISM – THE SHARKOSITY – THE FUZZINESS – THE GOBLINITY!! HEY HEY LOOKIT ALL THE FRESH FOOD!
Landshark War Reporter needs to be a real thing like, yesterday.
Candygram.
Landshark!
So THAT’S what was so strange about those clouds…
Shit’s bout to blow up in their faces
Hmm, I think to the savage races, this qualifies as a ‘Oh shit…’ moment…
And that’s why Gastonia had to get Rendar the Renderer back: to render completed airship designs.
Goblaurence is either impressed, or world be if he wasn’t in an “Oh crap” moment.
It can be both.
Never bring birds to a zeppelin fight!
This is gonna blow.
They about to come under heavy aerial bombardment and can’t out run the zeppelins. If they break formation and retreat the human troops will slaughter them.
The best response for the Savage races in this situation is a general attack. That way they will be too close, and hopefully intermixed, with the Gastonion troops for the zeppelins to use their bombs. Plus the Savage race troops are likely to love it and think it was the strategy all along, with Penk now shown he is a real Wahhh! style warlord
That WAHHHH! Needed more caps
And a ‘g’ or 5
as in WAAAGGGGGGHHH!
Are the champions really going to die before we see them in action? Are we really not going to get a fight between the champions and the peacemakers?
From a writing stand point there is no way that could happen (it would make all the scenes with Penk in them pointless for one) yet I see no way out of this. Judging by the looks on their faces, neither do the champions.
Adventures on both sides are standing back while the main forces duke it out, sucks to be a grunt.
Called it
You did! In fact, until I saw you’d said so yourself I was going to remind folks that you had!
Good job!
“I mean that REALLY got out of hand!”
“There was a guy on fire…”
“I swallowed a bug.”
“Launch all vipers”
These things should hopefully have a lot more atmo loiter time than a Battlestar.
Well, go on, Goblaurence, give us your correct opinion.
This is definitely an “oh crap” moment for the savage Champions as well as for most of us readers, I suspect. Much harder to cheer for the “good guys” when we know the people who are (or will be) under the bombs.
“For what we are about to receive, may Tectonicus make us truly grateful.”
Penk will run around under the bombs bouncing them back up to the airships with his drum.
spoiler alert:
ack! when did youtube links start embedding?!
well that kinda ruined the joke…
Don’t worry, I have really high fire resistance.
Really, really high…
Rendar continues to be Gastonian MVP. Everyone else is all personal stats and he’s like “TECH TREE, MOTHERFUCKERS.”
I love his expression. It’s so passively terrifying.
The only thing more dangerous than mad science is calm science.
What I love is that he and Goblaurence share The Unkempt Chin Hair of Science.
The goggles, too. Not that they do anything…
Welp, that was some nice misdirection. Set us up perfectly to expect a clash between the Champions and the Peacemakers during/after pitched battle, except whoops now that’s some heavy airborne artillery isn’t it.
Watching this fight is like watching the final game of a sports season, where both teams are your favorites. You don’t know who to root for, leaving you in a gray marsh of indecision. And I can honestly say it’s refreshing to get this from a fantasy setting, the one in which writers most often default to one side being all good and the other being unrepentantly evil.
Tectonicus is a god of fire; his avatar may have some abilities that will surprise the airships.
plot twist:
Tectonicus is actually all, “omg, yay! catering!”
Oh Pleeeeease.One good Tectonicus Smite(fireballs) and all the Airships will go Hindenburg.
At least i hope that this is what will happen….
…or at least that Araugau will survive….and the landsharks…oh and i guess the other champions should survive too.
Not necessarily; it all depends on what lifting gas they’re using. Hydrogen will go boom, as it did in the Hindenburg, but if they’re using helium, it won’t be an issue.
Of course, they could always be using some sort of magical gas, in which case who knows what it’ll do if exposed to flame.
Burst into magical flames.
Magic, by it’s nature, tends to be…. unstable.
I’m betting hydrogen- it’s much easier to make and sustain production, and no matter how tight you whip your balloon up, it will leak- [SCIENCE WARNING] especialy considering any serious (kinetic) weapon discharge means dropping weight, which means dumping lifting gas to preserve equilibrium. It works the same way on subs- shoot torpedo, add water or the sub rises. Here, it’s drop bomb and dump gas or airship rises.
Of course, that leads in to fire retardants and backup systems… much logistics.
“Magical gas” … Do you have any idea how long it takes to collect that many fairy farts???
Given that those airships are headed directly for their lines, and full of bombs – setting them on fire and making them crash into the army of The World’s Champions could be the worst imaginable consequence.
Hoooooooly shit. I did not see that coming.
-Goblaurence
I call next update goblin guy grins because he had a plan for that and he finishes by saying something sneaky…
Or he pees his pants and runs for it…
It’s just not complete without this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V92OBNsQgxU
Or this:
http://youtu.be/a88Z7YOh_us
Or maybe this:
http://youtu.be/uvoUvDKh9SA
Wondering if we’ll finally see what Penk’s war drum can do.
It’s proof!
Gastonia is the Fire Nation!
With, apparently, at least one airbender…
Really? Gastonia? Not the guys who worship the fire god that gives them fire powers? You know, the ones who were jumping in volcanoes and showing off their actual firebending not that long ago? Not them?
Oh. Oh, okay.
Of course not. That would be too obvious.
And a Huzzah! for the Gastonian Navy, who finally has a part to play in this conflict.
“HUNHH. Magickally veilled airships that…”
NOT FAIR!! Just..not..fair!!
Why didn’t somebody tell me he had one of those… things? Bob, gun.
“… cheating! Why didn’t I think of that!!!”
Or, maybe, instead of ‘cheating’ he meant to say ‘genius’
. . . Why would you unveil your warships? Just rain death and to hell with the enemy if they can’t figure it out.
If no one rides a bomb down while waving a cowboy helmet and yelling ‘yeehaw!’ I’m going to be severely disappointed.
Their illusion-casters may need the mana for something else.
It’ll be Slim Pickens, trying to find a caster to recreate the scene from Dr. Strangelove.
my thoughts of what is going through goblaurence’s mind
Wait, if there is all the time left, why can’t he go loot an optometrists?
I’m guessing this is Goblaurence’s equivalent of the day the cigar fell out of Scipio’s mouth when Gralor made his appearance. He’s just on his back foot for a moment.