It's about time I got something done in this game. I've been combing through Artem's ISO and certain other parts of the game trying to get reads, and I've had some limited success. For starters, Furcolow.
Amazingly, I've reached the conclusion that Furcolow is probably town after all. Despite all his lies and scummy play. The main reason is that Furcolow claimed Heydar Aliyev, and though he has repeatedly changed his role claim, his name claim has remained constant. If Furcolow is Soviet, then I can't see him in the same scumteam with Artem. The bizarre way he voted Artem for being too town to be town may have been clumsy distancing, but other statements by Furcolow have since indicated he was serious with that suspicion, particularly this one:
Furcolow said this about Artem when he replaced out, and though there was no chance in hell Artem would actually be quicklynched before a replacement arrived, I still don't see Furcolow saying this about fellow scum.
As for Artem's side, he repeatedly said he believed Furcolow was third party. He never displayed clear reluctance to lynch him. I don't know how bus-happy Artem is, but Artem's attitude toward Furcolow still suggests they can't be scum together, particularly the part about Furcolow supposedly being third party.
I considered the possibility that Furcolow would've lied about his name as well. DavidParker has claimed Mikhail Bulgakov, author of the
Master and Margarita
, and it seemed plausible that there could be another, non-Soviet author. With Furcolow bringing up
Fahrenheit 451
twice for no apparent reason, I thought he may have been soft claiming Ray Bradbury. If the scum teams are really trying to kill off townies of the opposing nationalities, then it would be natural for the scum to false claim their nationalities to avoid being targeted by the other team. Of all the characters that have been claimed or revealed through flips, I consider Heydar Aliyev to be the most obscure, and therefore a possible false claim that scum did not expect to be in the game. But, frankly I believe this kind of play to be above Furcolow's level, and without daytalk other scum could not have advised him on what to claim.
There is something else too which I spotted in Furcolow's ISO, which I'm not going to quote here. It was but a hint, but it adds up and explains a number of things. I think I've figured out what Furcolow actually is, and I don't think he is scum. If I were to vote him it would be a pure policy lynch now, and though I'm horrified of the thought of him being alive in endgame, we've lost so many townies that I'm not sure we can afford to waste a day in policy lynching him. We may just have to accept that we have a loose cannon in the game.
Other players who I believe not to be Soviet scum based on interactions with Artem are Beasts of the Sea, DavidParker, gonnano, Lowell and The Fonz. LynchMePls probably too. This is most significant for DavidParker who has claimed to be Soviet, since he'd have to be on the Soviet scumteam with Artem if he was scum, unless he lied about his nationality. I also have a town read on DavidParker based on his overall play. He has done some things I considered scummy, but they're not enough to overcome the strong town feeling I got from his early play and his reaction to Amrun's claim. Even though it came from scum, I think Artem's analysis of DavidParker's actions regarding Amrun was genuine, and spot on. The other players I mentioned Artem either suspected or voted when there was no pressure for him to bus, which is a good sign.
