SW friends, allies and countrymen - Lend me your eyes.

Recently I have been asked my advice twice regarding the playing of the 
Berserker position. Then I had a suggestion from Sally Paduch to share this 
information in our game. I also remember her suggestion when I told her where to 
haul some metal that "You shouldn't teach your Grandmother how to suck eggs" 
:-). So if any of you would be offended by me proselytizing - Delete this note 
now. I know that many of you are fabulous players and I wouldn't presume to tell 
you how to suck eggs. 

I have a treasure trove of SW articles and information. I have downloaded all 
kinds of words of wisdom from all over the net written by John Shannonhouse. I 
have all SW articles written in FBQ (got the back issues) - I think I can scan 
them into the computer for emailing. I have also written a few articles (some 
with John S) and they are available. 

If any of you would be interested in seeing this stuff from time to time (when I 
have time) - let me know and I will put together a distribution list and send it 
out. Perhaps if this idea is enjoyed by a group of us we could have others send 
out tips and tidbits they have learned to the group. We could be an informal 
listserv on the topic of Starweb. If your not interested - just don't respond - 
I won't spam you again. 

For now - here is a note I wrote on being metallic. It focuses on resource 
management. Needless to say if you use war to destroy your opposition's scoring 
base then you will do well also.


Metallic Advice -
1)You need lots of ships from your allies near the endgame. Somebody has to 
watch the scores to make sure you have time to build, transport and drop the 
bombs. A concerted effort by your allies to shift their builds and ships to you 
will help - especially if you have had a very successful pirate working for you.

2)Never underestimate cooperative kills - be at worlds other Berserkers or 
Apostles are dropping bombs and do an AP - you get full credit for the kills. So 
berserkers allied isn't a bad thing. 

3)Apostles can build you bombs to drop in their Jihad. Better they build them 
for you and they AH at these worlds (an extra 200 pts for you).

4)When deciding whether to R attack vs PBB - breakeven is 100 population. To 
kill 100 takes an R25 and gives 400 points. To PBB a world 0f 100 takes 25 ships 
also and gives 400 points. Any worlds below 100 population you wish to make 
kills on are better R attacked than PBBed. Any world over 100 pop should be 
PBBed - as you get bonus points/ship (that is you get more than the 400 points 
you could get in R attack). Exceptions to this are 
- when you R attack industry worlds - often they can supply their own ships to 
Robotize so you don't use up your HW production. Especially nice when it's an 
enemy HW and you can capture it and grab I ships and be ahead if their are more 
I ships than R attack. Then the world can be used for robotic migrations - see 
below.
-Taking strategic worlds from the enemy
-taking the HW from an enemy
- I have PBBed even small worlds if I run out of good worlds close by - heck, 
I've even dropped a second PBB on a busted world for the 200 points - especially 
on the last turn of the game (On the second last turn of a game you don't have 
time to build the PBB and move, then drop the bomb BUT you can build a bomb with 
a key the very turn you drop a PBB - so you can drop a PBB on the second last 
turn and last turn and get points.

5)Trimming worlds - Worlds with high population can be trimmed from their 
population limit to 50%. They will then recover their population in 7 turns. At 
this point you can trim again (if there is enough turns to recover before game 
end) or PBB and you still get full points for the PBB after you trimmed. Long SW 
games are best for multiple trims. It is very expensive in ships so you had 
better be peaceful in a game you are doing this OR get the ships from others. I 
know berserkers who get an R1-2 from Apostles at their HW each turn for their 
joint scoring using the Apostles ships. I tend to stay away from trimming.

6)If you can spare the keys - you bring a second key to the world you PBB or you 
make sure you have extra ships on the PBB key - why? To do an R1. You will 
capture the world after Busted (robots will live there even if you R attack 
simultaneous with PBB) and you get 5 pts/turn for this. Not just chump change - 
I have owned over 50 robotic worlds in a game - 250 pts/turn.

7)Migrations - Migrating robots only moves 1 robot per industry build (as 
opposed to 2 robots/build at the world or if you R attack with 1 ship = 2 
robots). So each migration nets you only 8 pts. But did you know if you migrate 
a robot to an adjacent world that is getting PBBed by another player you get all 
the points? Also if you have robotized industry worlds you can keep building 
robots and migrating them the whole game. I have been able to score an extra 150 
pts/turn doing this.

8)What do to with your last turn builds? No time to build PBB and move it out or 
to drop it on the HW (can't build and drop). Make sure you have left at least 
one Ring 1 world with carbon based life forms - migration of 30 robots will kill 
another 60 people for an additional 120 points.

Excerpts from a tips sheet that John Shannonhouse wrote:

Everyone knows that when a Berserker drops a PBB (Planet Buster Bomb), it kills
off all population, even robots.  Timing is a critical issue, though.  What is
*not* explained in the rules is that Robots are handled differently from normal
population.  If some nice person from a neighboring world (you can do this
yourself, of course) will migrate people to the world you are bombing or
robotizing from a neighboring world, they will get killed off as well, for the
additional points per population killed.  This happens even if they exceed the
normal population limit of the world, and would have died off anyway. 
However, if you migrate a robot from a robotized neighboring world as it is 
being bombed, it does *not* get killed off in the explosion.  Instead, it runs 
around admiring the newly sterilized world, giving the berserker an extra five 
points a turn for a robotized world, starting immediately.  This also works if 
you have two fleets, and one robotizes while the other bombs.

Hope you find this useful and interesting.

El