Aussie. Something about Goblaurance seemed so familiar to me; the intelligence with abrasive attitude, the lanky build, the ever-present smokes. And then I realized: he’s very similar to Luce Worth, of the dear departed Hanna is Not a Boy’s Name. I will absolutely hear him with Worth’s gravely, Australian-accented voice henceforth.
And yet we can distinguish American English from Mexican Spanish despite them sometimes being spoken in the same place. By your logic that must make us pretty smart.
“‘Today, … you will take your kamikaze airplane high into the sky, over the Yankee aircraft carrier, then take the kamikaze plane down, crashing on the deck, killing yourself and all aboard. Before we have the ceremonial sake toast, are there any questions?’
‘Honorable general-san: Are you out of your f***ing mind?’ “
You can do science to everything. The problem here I think isn’t that Goblaurence can’t find a solution. I believe Goblaurence can engineer a solution for any problem…provided you give him enough time and materials. Right now “bomb strapped on avian” IS the only plan he can put into action with what he has in the time before the bombs drop. He actually suggest the plan which as the best chances of working: pray the god of fire for a miracle taking out these blimp full of explosives… actually you probably wouldn’t need that much of a miracle, somebody knocking over a candle on one of the ship, or some gear breaking making sparkles and BOOM
I was more referring to the parallel between this scene and the scene at the very beginning of the comic, where Gravedust and Syr are bickering over how she’s apparently expected to just pull something out of thin air to deal with the problem at hand. I think the two scenes are intentionally similar, but that may just be me.
The way his accent is going, he’s going to catapult jarate at those airships very soon.
Not even a wrench? Even gretchin got wrenches and oily rags to do ad hok fixin’. Or pull a Machete opening that jacket and displaying your workshop.
(I miss my old goblin engineer from some tabletop; Could replicate any spell if he spent a number of hours equal to the spell level doing science to produce the accursed device. Guaranteed to work at least once without blowing up! Subsequent uses were 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 and so on chance of going south, but goblins get heavy bonuses and saves against self-damage, much like Soldier and Demoman doing explosive jumps)
Revising my notes, looks like it was 3D&T (last time I checked, it isn’t a popular/known system outside of Brazil. I might be wrong now), but there was implementations of said class in other systems such as GURPS and D&D, the last one he would be like some sort of artificer IIRC.
Other good use for goblins was the Goblin Ballooner (a class on itself or prestige class of the engineer, depending on the realm). Transportation was difficult and wizards would ask for exorbitant fees to teleport/cast flight/allow you into one of their airships. Enter this goblin, who could MacGyver an airworthy contraption in minutes and got ludicrous bonuses for when it eventually blew up (like, automaxed dice+20 against freefall and dodging debris or something hilarious like that). About your non-goblinoid self? Too cheap to include the making of brand-new parachutes? Hope your caster can concentrate on casting featherfall MID-AIR DURING AN EXPLOSION.
Except this really isn’t his field of expertise. Coming up with something to take down warships? Sure. Coming up with something to take down warships, in less than a minute, with no immediately available resources, while on a battlefield?
He might be able to think of some kind of plan, but being asked to just “engineer” something to stop a flying juggernaut like that is a bit silly. I look at that scene and I think it’s Penk’s failing, not Goblaurence’s. Like a manager telling his IT staff “just fix it already, what are we even paying you for?”
Use the swirling death machines, adjust the angle so they swing upwards, hope it has enough for force to deliver a payload ala giant, fuckoff shot-put.
The space above the balloons is a huge blind spot. Avians can just fly above the airships and put whatever they want on top without even causing a single dramatic or tense moment except maybe the few seconds before the goblin C4 goes off.
The tops of the zeppellins is the place you would expect the Avians to attack, their instincts would be to stoop on their prey. Odds at least half the archers are up there, probably more as the magicians would be wanted below to support the bombardment.
Or maybe the engineers who thought up the airships only reinforced the underbelly, only expecting flaming arrows and the like…
Remember the Hindenburg. A huge balloon full of fraking HYDROGEN, and noone thought it might ever come close to a flame or spark…
This is what you get when you divide the gnomes between two sides– sort of like the way the americans and the soviets divided up the nazi scientists– it’s all about who can pump out the best application of tech.
Unfortunately for the World’s Rebellion, (gnome + goblin) < (gnome + sky elf).
Tried to post a comment this morning, no other posts yet
First I got “You need text to post”, when I reposted I found two up, now they are both gone.
????
Just love the way Magda runs off into the skirmish in the second ground on panel 2. Seconds ago she was all awed by the airships. Now she must be thinking along the lines of “Oops, almost forgot : it’s clobbering time!”
I keep thinking of Goblaurence as having an Aussie accent, it keeps cracking me up. I hope that is his intended accent anyway, but it is probably more American isn’t it?
So maybe what they need to do is command the army to spread out to minimise AoE bombing casualties and make a rush toward the wall. Once they’re close enough, the airships won’t be able to bomb without inflicting excessive friendly fire.
Or alternatively just stay anywhere other than underneath them or in their path. They probably don’t corner well and there only appear to be two of them, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.
EXTREMELY ANGRY BIRDS
Nah, there needs to be green pigs, and none of the Forest Elves are NEARLY fat enough.
I dunno about Angry, more like Confused Birds. And most deffinetely fried.
They will be less angry in a minute. I want to see some sky elf battlemages in action!
Cue Gilligan Cut in 3… 2…
Cannot imagine Goblaurance being anything but extremely English now.
Aussie. Something about Goblaurance seemed so familiar to me; the intelligence with abrasive attitude, the lanky build, the ever-present smokes. And then I realized: he’s very similar to Luce Worth, of the dear departed Hanna is Not a Boy’s Name. I will absolutely hear him with Worth’s gravely, Australian-accented voice henceforth.
its the “are you having a giggle, mate?”;)
Which is actually a very BRITISH phrasing.
But he is probably a criminal too… so Aussie.
Yeah, Aussie would be more like ‘Ya havin’ a laugh, mate?’
… which is exactly what I’d say, and I’m British.
The take-home point is that the yanks can’t tell the difference… despite Britain and Australia being basically on opposite sides of the world.
And yet we can distinguish American English from Mexican Spanish despite them sometimes being spoken in the same place. By your logic that must make us pretty smart.
Grinch has finally actually lost his composure. He even took his crook out of his mouth.
Well, being the ass of the party, he should expect to be kicked every once in a while.
If he wants to strap bombs to the avians, will they re fuse? This plan sounds like a dud.
Hopefully, Goblaurence can come up with something that will blow everyone’s mind.
Flying suicide bombers against a naval ship? That sounds like it has Zero chance of working.
You mean you kami-can’t see any way of that possibly working?
He will be the Hero he to-tally will destroy them!
“‘Today, … you will take your kamikaze airplane high into the sky, over the Yankee aircraft carrier, then take the kamikaze plane down, crashing on the deck, killing yourself and all aboard. Before we have the ceremonial sake toast, are there any questions?’
‘Honorable general-san: Are you out of your f***ing mind?’ “
This is turning out to be a pretty explosive situation…
The plan will go over like a Led Zeppelin.
I’m sensing a slight parallel here.
“Can you not do science to it?”
You can do science to everything. The problem here I think isn’t that Goblaurence can’t find a solution. I believe Goblaurence can engineer a solution for any problem…provided you give him enough time and materials. Right now “bomb strapped on avian” IS the only plan he can put into action with what he has in the time before the bombs drop. He actually suggest the plan which as the best chances of working: pray the god of fire for a miracle taking out these blimp full of explosives… actually you probably wouldn’t need that much of a miracle, somebody knocking over a candle on one of the ship, or some gear breaking making sparkles and BOOM
I was more referring to the parallel between this scene and the scene at the very beginning of the comic, where Gravedust and Syr are bickering over how she’s apparently expected to just pull something out of thin air to deal with the problem at hand. I think the two scenes are intentionally similar, but that may just be me.
Difference is : Syr actually did science to it. Let’s see if Goblaurence is up to the same challenge.
Did anyone else read the hover-text in the voice of Mister Torgue?
I do now. And it’s beautiful.
“I’ve got just one question: Explooooosions?”
I just checked the list of Torgue quotes, and found the perfect one:
“The blimps are too far away to destroy with gunfire! IT’S LIKE A PUZZLE!”
Oh wow, that’s brilliant. I didn’t even think of the Dragon’s Keep quotes.
With gratuitous paraphrasing:
DID YOU KNOW THAT NINETY-SEVEN PERCENT OF THOSE BLIMPS AREN’T EXPLODING RIGHT NOW? THAT’S BULLSH*T, BUY TORGUE!
“So you can’t make machines right out of thine air? What sort of engineer are you!”
I wish that was funnier, by my wit is gone right now.
What’s funny is that line has probably happened in RL conversation.
Oh, I can assure you it has… but in my case it was computers were the machines.
Whose air?
Coarse air…to make pirated copies!
“‘Thine air’, Mein Herr? … Mine… air… I’ve got it! Get me all the grenades and signal balloons you can muster!”
Hmmm….
The way his accent is going, he’s going to catapult jarate at those airships very soon.
Not even a wrench? Even gretchin got wrenches and oily rags to do ad hok fixin’. Or pull a Machete opening that jacket and displaying your workshop.
(I miss my old goblin engineer from some tabletop; Could replicate any spell if he spent a number of hours equal to the spell level doing science to produce the accursed device. Guaranteed to work at least once without blowing up! Subsequent uses were 1/2, 2/3, 3/4 and so on chance of going south, but goblins get heavy bonuses and saves against self-damage, much like Soldier and Demoman doing explosive jumps)
What game were you playing? This sounds awesome! I wanna tryyyyyy
well jarate makes me think TF2, the rest like D&D ;D
Revising my notes, looks like it was 3D&T (last time I checked, it isn’t a popular/known system outside of Brazil. I might be wrong now), but there was implementations of said class in other systems such as GURPS and D&D, the last one he would be like some sort of artificer IIRC.
Other good use for goblins was the Goblin Ballooner (a class on itself or prestige class of the engineer, depending on the realm). Transportation was difficult and wizards would ask for exorbitant fees to teleport/cast flight/allow you into one of their airships. Enter this goblin, who could MacGyver an airworthy contraption in minutes and got ludicrous bonuses for when it eventually blew up (like, automaxed dice+20 against freefall and dodging debris or something hilarious like that). About your non-goblinoid self? Too cheap to include the making of brand-new parachutes? Hope your caster can concentrate on casting featherfall MID-AIR DURING AN EXPLOSION.
I’ll hook u in the gabber I swear on me mum.
U WOT M8
Kamikaze Avians? Who would think of that?
anyone who’s neither an avian nor very concerned by body count…
Time to step up, Goblaurence.
This is also the second time he’s put out this idea. He may as well try it.
And for the Avians doing it, it ain’t necessarily suicide. But definitely, desperate times call for desperate measures.
Trouble is, we saw yesterday that the airships have archers and spellcasters prepared in case the avians try something desperate.
They’re going to have to try something anyway. Getting bombed won’t just blunt but obliterate Penk’s forces.
Except this really isn’t his field of expertise. Coming up with something to take down warships? Sure. Coming up with something to take down warships, in less than a minute, with no immediately available resources, while on a battlefield?
He might be able to think of some kind of plan, but being asked to just “engineer” something to stop a flying juggernaut like that is a bit silly. I look at that scene and I think it’s Penk’s failing, not Goblaurence’s. Like a manager telling his IT staff “just fix it already, what are we even paying you for?”
Those are good points. But in Penk’s defense, it’s not like he (or Harky and even Gondolessa) could have foreseen this secret weapon.
BANZAAAIIII!!!!
It’s time to ZERO in on the problem !
Use the swirling death machines, adjust the angle so they swing upwards, hope it has enough for force to deliver a payload ala giant, fuckoff shot-put.
The space above the balloons is a huge blind spot. Avians can just fly above the airships and put whatever they want on top without even causing a single dramatic or tense moment except maybe the few seconds before the goblin C4 goes off.
Was thinkin’ the same thing.
The tops of the zeppellins is the place you would expect the Avians to attack, their instincts would be to stoop on their prey. Odds at least half the archers are up there, probably more as the magicians would be wanted below to support the bombardment.
Or maybe the engineers who thought up the airships only reinforced the underbelly, only expecting flaming arrows and the like…
Remember the Hindenburg. A huge balloon full of fraking HYDROGEN, and noone thought it might ever come close to a flame or spark…
“Well, that is a good idea…but no, not good for morale.”
Sissy !
(I’m talking to your extremely appropriate gravatar)
Beat the drum and hit the airships with some kind of divine sonic attack? The explosives on board might not take kindly to being vibrated…
Lotsa word errors in this one (not typoes, just extra words that shouldn’t be there)
Someone needs to catch up on their sleep!
That person is me.
I like to believe to that in rage sometimes often words are extra used in conjunction with emotion.
Bravo.
Surprised none of the shit-elf fans picked up on the last word in the last bubble of the last panel
Nah, not a clue, its too obvious;D
I love you for this comment !
Flaming ballista bolt through the bomb bay door?
This is what you get when you divide the gnomes between two sides– sort of like the way the americans and the soviets divided up the nazi scientists– it’s all about who can pump out the best application of tech.
Unfortunately for the World’s Rebellion, (gnome + goblin) < (gnome + sky elf).
As far as I know, there aren’t any gnomes on the World’s Rebellion. They have the Savasi (Dwarves), but they’re not the same thing.
The idea of explosive-laden troops immediately made me think:
“DO NOT RUN! WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS!”
“WE COME IN PEACE”
“Guys? You know I was joking about the exploding Avians, right? Guys?”
Goblaurence is officially my favorite character.
Tried to post a comment this morning, no other posts yet
First I got “You need text to post”, when I reposted I found two up, now they are both gone.
????
The last word in today’s comic is “Best”, in bold no less. I’m surprised there hasn’t been rampant speculation that this heralds someone’s return.
Look up a few posts, already pointed it out to the shit-elf brigade :P
Anyone else having flashbacks to his sketch of the rocket-powered chariot?
Ramped off something, Wazdakka style, he could launch himself into an airship cockpit… or just puncture the balloon with the pointy bit.
Just love the way Magda runs off into the skirmish in the second ground on panel 2. Seconds ago she was all awed by the airships. Now she must be thinking along the lines of “Oops, almost forgot : it’s clobbering time!”
I think there might be a typo in the ‘Yes, and that you means you’ part where there’s a ‘you’ too many. o.o
I keep thinking of Goblaurence as having an Aussie accent, it keeps cracking me up. I hope that is his intended accent anyway, but it is probably more American isn’t it?
This was discussed higher up the page.
So maybe what they need to do is command the army to spread out to minimise AoE bombing casualties and make a rush toward the wall. Once they’re close enough, the airships won’t be able to bomb without inflicting excessive friendly fire.
Or alternatively just stay anywhere other than underneath them or in their path. They probably don’t corner well and there only appear to be two of them, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.