STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://www.accessv.com/~wulkan/fmt.html) VOL 10, July 5, 1999 CONTENTS Something new - SEDG Maps Feature Article - How to Survive as a Standby! By John Shannonhouse Questions - AH and neutral homefleets SEDG Web Page URL The Captain's Log Correspondence - PROTOS responds! Call for Articles SOMETHING NEW: Maps on the SEDG Web Page. Mapping - I am going to make maps of deceased games available on the SEDGE Web Page. For the most part they will be gif files easy to view and download. The purpose of this is to enjoy some of the very convoluted and amazing webs that Starweb has been played in. I would welcome any maps you would like to share. Please don't send current game's maps as this might compromise the play of that game. The best format would be gif but I can accept and convert many of the common graphic styles of jpg, jpeg, tif, bmp, word files. A brief description of what the map looks like would be helpful, as I will post that as well. I have a few maps on file and will slowly convert and upload them so it will be worth your while to visit the SEDG web page periodically to see new maps and to get back issues. At present I believe I have over 10 maps posted. FEATURE ARTICLE - How to Survive as a Standby! By John Shannonhouse (JohnShannonhouse@compuserve.com) Starweb does encourage players to apply for standby positions. So a "How to survive as a standby" article is appropriate. Unlike the other trivia posts (Editor's note: John has published many SW trivia posts on the Internet), which are factual and verifiable in nature, this one is subjective. Some of these suggestions run counter to a player's normal cautious nature, but they have worked for me. First, realize that whatever position you have is probably not the best. The person who dropped perhaps just did not understand the game, and left you in a completely unacceptable position. Or he may have realized that he was going to be wiped out by the players he antagonized and insulted. At least one turn has been missed, and your neighbors are probably moving in to take over your territory right *now*. You have to somehow protect your position while not antagonizing any of your neighbors. A standby position is the ultimate test of your diplomatic capabilities. No matter how bad the turn is, just keep in mind that your opponents can get better results with your active help. Even if that means dismantling your empire, you can use that to your advantage. When you get your new turn, the first thing to look for are any messages that you may have received that turn, particularly any with addresses, phone numbers, and/or internet addresses. Even a message such as "Die you evil scum! To work out surrender terms, please contact me at:" is a godsend. Next, check out the names of people that you have declared allies. If there are several, you are in luck. Chances are your allies are counting on your position to help them, and would be very relieved to have a new, competent player taking over the position. If there are no allies declared, prepare for an interesting game. Work out the map pattern as best you can, placing neighboring players in their appropriate positions. Try to determine their character type if possible. There are usually hints -- plundered worlds belonging to pirates, converts for Apostles, consumer goods dropped by merchants, plus scores of players you can see that match the patterns of certain player types. Take a realistic assessment of your position. Keep in mind that your neighbors probably know much more about what is going on in your territory than you would like. Look for things you can do that can help the other players at minimal loss to yourself, based on your character type. If you have anyone's telephone number, call! Explain that you are a standby. Get as much information as possible about the other players in the game, particularly names and telephone numbers. Find out what alliances have formed, and any of the game gossip. If you find that an alliance is in place and you are target number one, don't despair. Call each of the members individually and present your case. Point out what you can do to help them, and also what you can do to ruin their plans. Don't lie, but you don't have to say how *completely* hopeless your position is. Threatening to kill off one of your neighbors if he does not back off will just get him moving that much faster to knock you out. Admitting that any one of them could wipe you out individually, but that you could make the process expensive, is much more likely to get the results you want. Trust your instincts in this area. If you get the feeling that the person you are talking to, is trying to put one over on you, you are probably right. Try working with another player or perhaps even another alliance. If you do not have any contacts, send out messages to everyone. Take the appropriate moves to blunt any ongoing attacks. This might just include moving a one-ship key out to prevent the capture of a world. Make all your attacks conditional, so that you do not fire against anyone who was just innocently passing through. In your messages, tell the player what actions you took against him and why. You cannot afford to antagonize your neighbors, but you cannot just roll over and play dead either. You should be using your limit of two gifts a turn every turn, even the one that just started. Even if you were not able to contact anyone, a gift order showing up along with your first message sets the right tone. Work out deals with *everyone*, even players who are bitter enemies. Just let them know that you are doing it. Explain that as a standby you cannot possibly do well without working as many deals as possible. Believe it or not, this works. As a corollary, do *not* get directly involved in any of the wars unless you are a Pirate or Berserker, where your capabilities can come in handy. You are much better off providing ships for your allies to use to their own best advantage. Try to get the biggest bang for the buck with your deals. If you can get two Berserkers and an Apostle to kill off the population of your highest population world on the same turn, they get as many points as if you had them destroy three worlds individually. Gift a valuable Empire Builder world to a Pirate first for the plunder, with the agreement that he then gifts it to the Empire Builder. Make sure the Empire Builder is also aware of the deal. If you keep getting things to other players, they will respond in kind. This gives the basic idea. Communicate. Deal. Don't bluster or threaten. Admitting that you can be taken out means they don't have to *prove* that you can be taken out. Point out how cooperating with you is easier than working against you -- they can expand in some other area while still gaining in yours without wasted effort. Help the other players as much as possible. Thank them when they help you. Other than that, there is only one final word of advice -- don't buy any of Bob McLain's one way tickets. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these? Paul Balsamo would like to refute something --In Volume 6 John Shannonhouse wrote: "How can I capture a PBB'D world and get 10 points per turn? Migrate a convert every turn. The *2nd* turn you will own the world. The old population will die off every turn replaced by the new converts." Paul Balsamo: Unfortunately, this is NOT true. If I migrate a convert to a PBBd world it cannot capture the world that turn as the program checks for apostle capture before migration (as John figured). It also DOES NOT capture it the second turn because the old convert dies before the program checks for apostle capture. In John's scenario of sending a convert there every turn, there is no convert on the world at the instant the program is checking for apostle world capture on any turn. There is at least 1 way I know of to get the 10 points per turn. Anyone wanna try again? I refuse to tell yet as this had me crazy for quite a while. John also wrote: "What if I migrate my convert to the other apostle's world?I think it is the same as robot migration -- there is a percentage chance of conversion based on number migrated compared to number owned at the world. Try it!" Paul Balsamo: As per above, the program checks for apostle world capture before migrations, so you have no chance of capturing the world and you're just increasing the other guy's convert total. EDITOR - Can anyone take Paul up on his challenge? How can an apostle capture a PBBed world and get the 10 points? Sharon Wyatt said: I found the article on pre-diplomacy of particular interest, as that is where I am now on both my games. The strategy works well ordinarily. Perhaps you could comment on the situation in my new regular game. I have a two connection HW and both those worlds had home fleets. This resulted in my having to stop and fire at the ships before I could continue exploring. That tied up two keys and I sent my other fleets through on turn 2 so I probably have lost ships to an ambush. Editor's note - Actually if you fire at homefleet (and destroy it totally) there will be no ambush of your keys flying through. Good plan Sharon! The Editor (Elliot) asks: Why can't I find any experienced players to write an article on Bitter End, Anonymous or Multi games? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP - is now available on the web. Look for our new MAPPER'S SECTION on the SEDG Web Page. http://www.accessv.com/~somnos/sedg.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE CAPTAIN'S LOG 99.06.27.14.45(GMT-05) By Walt Schmidt - walts@dorsai.org "Therefore the skillful leader subdues the enemy's troops without any fighting; he captures their cities without laying siege to them; he overthrows their kingdom without lengthy operations in the field." Sun Tzu Sometimes I think I'm either getting too old, or just overlooking things more easily. Last log's opening quote was from Walt Kelly's Pogo. But my eternal overly optimistic opinion of what I can accomplish in any given time period - ain't changed one bit. So for those of you who were waiting with baited-breath (yeah I know - dream on Nemo) for my comparison of the current rules, to rules version one, er, well, you see - next log. I've submitted my turn-one for a new game. I did the build and transfer I&P ship thing. And tried the let-me-see-if-I-can-guess-the-connector- I-can't-see thing. My version of the later is to send the two keys with only 4 ships each (I presume you know the former - it was a major article in SEDG - eMail if I'm making no sense to you) through only one connector to two different (guessed) worlds one connector beyond. Think about it. That makes the most sense to me - even though others have written otherwise. I am willing to entertain a discussion on this - hey, I might learn something. Talking about my new game, did you know: 1 - You've got to (see I don't need to say gotta) let Rick know ifn (butI like ifn) you want your turns sent to you via eMail? 2 - There are (at least ?) two commands that are specific to eMail ? - don"t know if they can be used with snail or fax mail too - I haven't asked about that, yet. 3 - And that if you are sending in your turns via eMail, you really gotta() try Flying Moose's Starweb Analyzer! Its output includes a conformed text-file, all ready for upload. You gonna () love it. By the way, this is an unsolicited what-I-think comment. Being the impartial S.O.B. that I am (still dreaming, Nemo?), if you know of another (to all my Starwars friends I say, gd&rlh), let me know. Talking about getting not-younger (you know, like Not-The-Mommy), there seems to be a group of players that also know what a Rooty Kazoty is (sorry about the spelling), know What Time It Is, or when confronted with the statement "There's Only One Gang For You and Me, . . ." can finish that sentence. (Okay, a hint: niiiiiice!) That having been said - what do we (there you go - first dreaming - then using the third person)(I am not using the third person - I am asking the readers of SEDG a question)(That might be so - but you ARE holding a conversation with yourself!)(Wise ass!)(I am not)(yes you are!)...which reminds me of an other question - how many of us remember Geiss (again - sorry about the spelling) or Alter Ego? Ah, but I digress... As I was saying, what do we think about starting a game in which one of the requirements would be you had to have played your first game, say. Over a decade ago? Or, what say you to at least compiling a list of us who played their first game over a decade ago? Maybe even trying to identify the currently active player that had played their first game the most years ago??? Can you say a Stan Lee No-Prize!?! That's it for now. Shai Dorsai ! Nemo Editor's note - my first game started in 1977 (I think). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE Editor's note: Concerning Volume 9 - The FBI Convention - Phoenix, July 1998. The account I wrote was purely from my point of view especially concerning the BACKSTAB BY PROTOS. Because of this I used only character names because I don't want to use this forum as a vehicle to espouse my personal views especially regarding other gamers. (If we happen to be in a game together I would be happy to tell you my feelings about individual gamers :-). In this issue I have a note sent to me by PROTOS THE ART COLLECTOR explaining a few things from his perspective. I will resist the urge to write a rebuttal (and it's taking all my will power ). Protos said: This was some game. A thrill every hour. Protos joined the alliance with the expectation that he would be supported for a win. Nonetheless it was a foolish idea to pick art collector if I wanted to win in a large close alliance. >Unknown to me was that part of our team didn't share our team's plans!< No effort was made to help Protos. Protos noticed at this point that he was not going to win. He went to bed and slept on it. It occurred to me that there was only two art collectors and the other collector had the most art and was out scoring me. Playing my position Protos made a deal with Artbell that if it appeared that Somnos was going to run away with the game and I did not have a chance at the win, I would hand him all my art on the last turn to see whether a collector can out score a berserker if he has all the art. Protos wanted to keep the game interesting and competive down to the very end. Artbell tells me about the splits in there alliance. (This move fails.) >Uncleslam invades Protos and Fortran decides to invade Lamers. We >shall see about that!< Note Protos was invaded and little effort was made to aid my defense. Also I gave all my ships to Somnos and Moose. My art worlds were threatened. My small defensive force was inadequate. It is already clear to me that Somnos was going to win by a landslide. >Lamers is still fighting off incursions while now Somnos is invaded >and Moose HW is jumped by the enemy. The war effort had collapsed. Two museum worlds get captured. I make a deal with the invaders that will allow me to hand all my art to Artbell to give a challenge to Somnos. I make sure that Somnos has no option except to attempt to outscore Artbell. >Just how many bonus points and art points does 100 pieces of art >bring? Remember I only have 15 minutes to write the orders for my last >turn and I don't have time to figure it out. Moose and Lamers try to >calculate it BUT UNTIL RICK CAME IN TO ANNOUNCE THE RESULTS WE DIDN'T >KNOW. Note Gunrunner is out of the running. Only Artbell is left to challenge Somnos and our alliance. I knew Somnos was up to the challenge. I tell you if you cannot win. There is nothing like being able to decide the first and second place finishers at the convention. This game a testament to how unstoppable a united berserker led alliance is. In 18 turns Somnos scores 21,000+ points. The starweb analyzer helped a lot to make the win possible. Note that the art collector still lost by a resounding 1,700 points. Collectors cannot win against this kind of well-organized alliance. >5) Why didn't their merchant score more than 1000 points/turn or they >push their berserker more? Well, apparently there was a small split in >their alliance. Three characters felt they were able to win the game >and so close coordination wasn't possible. For example Artbell was >approached by Protos over the art transfer and limited his support to >his merchant and berserker so they wouldn't pass him. There was no >plan to push one character forward in the enemy alliance. Artbell was doing this anyway. It was not a done deal until Protos had no chance at the win or even second place. Their berserker was getting only limited support because he was unreliable. >Moose and I return to Phoenix July 23, 1999 to defend our title. I >hope to see some of you there. It should make for an interesting >article for the SEDG I hope. Good Luck. I am only sorry I am not going to be able to be there to defeat you. Protos Editor's (Elliot's) final comment - Thanks for the feedback. I look forward to being your opponent in the future. Better watch your back Protos :-)! Paul Balsamo writes: >> I just read two of "your" articles about the apostle postion, and I found it rather disturbing that you used a healthy amount of actual text from my article from a past FBQ. I do appreciate what you added (and that I got you thinking), but most of what you based it on was my startegy and tactics. I don't mind if you quote what others have written, but you really should mark the text as a quote and give the source. << You are correct and I apologize. This venture started out when I wrote a note "On being metallic" and found myself emailing it out several times in a short period of time. I got the idea of circulating articles and discussions and it evolved into the SEDG. When I sat down to do the Apostle articles I did have your articles in front of me. While I added something to them I certainly leaned on them mostly. While I could have written it myself I guess I got lazy . To repair the harm I have done I will put a note in the corresponce section of the next SEDG giving you credit and I am going to go to the web page and revise the Feature article from Vol. 5 as being written by Paul Balsamo and Vol. 3 being written by us both (I did add a significant amount to this one and make reference to a game where as an apostle I attacked 2 apostles). I hope these are adequate reparations Brian Lease said: I'm glad to see somebody outside of FBI discussing their game. I like FBI a lot but it's always good to get a more impartial viewpoint. Are you guys aware of any discussion groups for Battle Plan? Brian - blease@wgp.com Editor's note: I am unaware of any such groups but I'm not a Battle Plan fan. If anyone can help Brian please send him an email (We won't be following up nonSW stuff in the SEDG). Kim Lightfoot said: Hiya Elliot: As a newcomer to the game,I just wanted to say thanks for the newsletters. This one was particularly interesting and funny. My 2bits, when are you not involved in the planning of wars and diplomacy? e2eg. WHERE do you find the time? Kim - Sleep is highly overrated (Don't let my Somnos gamer alterego hear that :-). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Articles - I am still interested in any submissions especially on the topics below. For the Black Box or Diplos you can just send me what you have and I will add it to the pool I am collecting. Tales of the Black Box How about a joint article by the leaders of two opposing alliances from the same game on how things went? Backstabbers, Spoilers and brats. Multi games - call for articles - best character mix, strategies, alliances.(Just received one describing the Pirate/Apostle/Berserker combination in the Anonymous Multi format - still room for further articles) Anonymous games - call for articles - strategies, how to form alliances and get help in war without communication. Bitter end games - call for articles - character types, alliances, strategies. Interesting Diplos! Map pages of the SEDG! Well, that's it for Volume 10. Don't be afraid to submit articles or suggestions. They don't have to be long. Address your correspondence to Elliot Hudes at somnos@compuserve.com