STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://flyingmoose.cjb.net) VOLUME 43 Dec. 4rth, 2000 CONTENTS Feature Article – Anonymous Starweb Games – Character selection by Jack Fulmer Questions – Merchant unloads at worlds with 255 metal SEDG Web Page URL The Captain's Log - The Gift of The Star Web... The Swap Corner - Troubleshooting the Starweb Analyzer by Lee Knirko Correspondence FEATURE ARTICLE Anonymous Starweb Games – Character selection by Jack Fulmer Hi Elliot. I've written the article below for SEDG. Hopefully it will keep the interest going in SEDG. Certainly I'll be happy if it increases the number of anonymous players. I've written this in the form of responses to points you raised in SEDG #37, I think it is important that you leave in your original quotes but you're the editor. ;-)) Jack *********************************************************************** ELLIOT (In SEDG #37): I am by no means the right person to talk about this style of game. Currently I am in my first Anonymous game. Why did I join one finally after so many years? Well, to be honest I've played every position in the game already and have played to win and just for combat. Frankly, I was looking for something new. (BTW, the game is over and I didn't do badly. I was a pirate that took 3rd place and had great success militarily. *********************************************************************** JACK: I'm glad to hear of more players trying the anonymous variants of Starweb. For a long time (15 years or so) I have been playing anonymous games almost exclusively. In addition most of the anonymous games have been multi games. I've been promising Elliot that I will write an update to my old FBQ article on playing multi games. Therefore I'll try to make this commentary about anonymous games in general as much as possible. Why play anonymous games? For me there have been two primary reasons. First, I found that I did not have the time for all of the necessary communications. Much as I like Starweb I do have lots of other things going on in my life. As a number of other articles for SEDG have mentioned not communicating in a regular SW game is essentially the same as painting a target on your chest and carrying a sign saying, "Attack me!" Anonymous games offered the ability to keep playing more than one Starweb game at a time while avoiding communication issues. Secondly I found that in anonymous games it was perfectly clear that my success or failure in each game was the direct result of my own actions and not affected by allies. If I wanted to attack player A and try to cooperate with player B I did not have to consult players C, D and E before deciding. If my attack on player A went well or badly I knew who got the credit or the blame. For most of my Starweb games this is what I want. I do enjoy the interaction with other players in a regular Starweb game. In the early 1980's I played quite a few regular games. But since about the middle of the 1980's I have played a total of only six or eight regular Starweb games as either a single player or in multi games. All of these have been the "slow" variants. The slow games allow more time for the necessary communications plus I get to meet very interesting people from around the world. In fact, although I live in the U.S.A. I have physically met players from Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Great people! I must admit I am happy to have missed all this "grand alliance", "two pole games" and "the merchant race" stuff that has been described in SEDG #23 and elsewhere. It sounds far too much like a repeating formula to be fun for me. For the last 20 years I've had from two to five Starweb games in progress all of the time but it sounds almost as if I've been playing a different game. I think my last regular, single player Starweb game must have been played fifteen years ago. My last *slow*, regular single character Starweb game was played more than five years ago and thus before email was popular enough to be required for success. In that game it was still very difficult to pull together a really big alliance due to global communication lags and expenses. In slow, regular, multi Starweb the relationships settle out very quickly just as in a single player game, possibly even more quickly. However, with only five players in the game a very big alliance is three players. I have seen an alliance of three in a multi game only once. In almost all of my regular multi games there has been a single two-player alliance with the other three players sometimes cooperating but not allied. There are often fairly complex webs of non- aggression pacts in these games. *********************************************************************** ELLIOT: So the first thing I sat down to do was a little thinking. What character did I want to play? Well, as with any Starweb game there is the decision whether you wish to score well, fight a lot or both. Here is what I came up with (and it's all my own darn opinion). *********************************************************************** JACK: Yes, character choice does deserve some analysis. And yes, which is "best" is very much a matter of personal opinion influenced by what your goals as a player happen to be. In my case I always want to win the game while at the same time playing a very active role. This usually means I play an aggressive game no matter what character type I choose. My comments about character types here are for a single player game only. In that promised multi-SW article I'll discuss character choices for multi games. *********************************************************************** ELLIOT: Merchant - Well, they certainly score well. And in games where you have a lot of allies they become boring unless you are active doing the strategy and diplomacy. For an anonymous game I figured you would have a lot less allies and the scoring inequality wouldn't be so bad. But did I want to just haul metal for those few players who could figure out what I was? This didn't have much appeal. *********************************************************************** JACK: I've played a merchant exactly once and it was in a slow, regular game in about 1982. Bor-r-r-ring! Probably the easiest win I ever had in a regular SW game and I have no intention of ever playing a merchant as a single character again. The correspondence with people around the world was fun but the play was not. In an anonymous game? Quadruple bor-r-r-ring! But having said that it is true that anonymous merchants do win fairly often. Obviously to win you need to get two or more players to allow you to haul metal for them. Also you need to give your HW to someone. Best tactic is to move one or two-ship keys at peace and fully loaded into all of your neighbors' territories as soon as you meet them. Keep dropping CG's and attempting to load metal at their worlds but don't move in too deeply toward their HW. You don't want them to think you are aggressive. Once you have two or more players who realize you are a merchant and allow you to haul you are a possible winner. In anonymous Starweb merchants typically score either very well or very badly. It all depends on finding cooperative suckers. When I meet a merchant I rarely allow him to haul for me. If I do it is only a small amount and only long enough for me to find his HW. Once I've done that I either destroy the industry at his HW or, if possible, take it over and kick the merchant out of his own empire. Why do I do this? Because a successful merchant is too big a threat to win the game. Most players who allow a merchant to haul for them permit it to continue for much too long. Merchants and berserkers are the two characters who can most easily score thousands of points quickly. If you permit a merchant to haul 30 metal for you for three turns or more you have little chance to win the game. Chances are he is doing it for others too. Will they cut him off in time? Do you want to depend on the others cutting him off? *********************************************************************** ELLIOT: Apostle - In a regular game they are hard put to compete without a large infusion of ships and a friendly Jihad against an ally. In an Anonymous game I figure you had half a chance to score if you could find a friendly berserker to martyr your converts. But I know the key to Apostle success tends to be via Jihad over martyrs. Besides, here again your success would be gauged by how well you did recruiting an ally to help you. *********************************************************************** JACK: An anonymous apostle is a real challenge. I've tried it twice because of that challenge and have been only moderately successful with a 645 rating. I agree with Elliot that if you want to win with an anonymous apostle you will need help from a friendly berserker to win. You will also need to be successfully attack at least one and possibly two Jihad victims. As with any character you should explore aggressively. You need those world ownership points, convert points and the potential to give a high population world to a future Jihad target. Many of the usual apostle point strategies are valid such as to fully convert low population worlds quickly, get a berserker to kill controlled quantities of your converts for martyr points, join a berserker in attacking a third player (your Jihad target), etc. Your problem is to get a berserker to cooperate but not wipe you out. If you find a willing berserker you will probably let him know where your homeworld is. That makes you vulnerable to attack. Maybe he will help you but what is his incentive? You may appear to be more useful as a victim than as a partner. If you want to beat the berserker you will also need to outpoint him with your world and convert points versus his 200 point PBB bonuses. That is not easy in the long run. How do you assure that the berserker attacks your Jihad victim? In both of my games I never found a berserker partner. Merchants ended both games while I was in the process of Jihad attacks on a neighbor. Winning as an anonymous apostle will take large amounts of good luck. *********************************************************************** ELLIOT: Empire Builder - they bore me in regular games. I guess you would have a lot more ships to use to build up industry since you wouldn't have to give them all to your allies for war BUT what if you are attacked. Using your resources for defense would certainly blunt your scoring. Militarily you have no advantages over such creatures as Pirates and Berserkers. *********************************************************************** JACK: The EB doesn't bore me because I play it aggressively but an anonymous EB certainly has little chance to win. To score well you need to conquer at least one neighbor. To win you need to defeat at least two neighbors plus you need a long game without successful merchants or berserkers. As Elliot says you have no military advantages. You cannot rely upon your neighbors dropping out of the game so you will have to conquer them. Who knows, maybe you will be surrounded by incompetent artifact collectors who you can conquer. You will need that level of luck to win with this character. On the other hand you can have fun with it and will almost certainly have a respectable score unless you are conquered. *********************************************************************** ELLIOT: Art Collector - This position seemed the most hopeless. How would you be able to show anyone what you are? Unless you flew around with two keys and passed art back and forth between them. Considering the shortage of keys one has while expanding I didn't place much hope in this behavior. So, you would be dependent on players trying to shift art to your key. Again, I don't like my position in the game relying on how bright my neighbors are. *********************************************************************** JACK: This is the only character that I have never played in a regular Starweb game. It appeals to me even less than a merchant. I have played it a few times in multi-SW games just so that I could try out the character type and for the obvious challenge it presents even in an anonymous multi game. I agree with Elliot. An anonymous artifact collector is probably the worst choice for scoring. Your neighbors not only have to be bright enough to recognize you they also have to want to trade. If I am playing my typical pirate or berserker choice my reaction is likely to be "A collector! I'll move him high on my target list." *********************************************************************** ELLIOT: Berserker - Well, if you saved up all your ships you might be able to compete for the win in a final all out PBB drop. And it shouldn't be hard to show anyone what you are - just do an R attack. If combat is your style this character has unique abilities and is very good versus Apostles. This position appealed to me. I'll bet the Anonymous games have a lot of Berserkers in them. *********************************************************************** JACK: Combat is definitely my style. Berserker is one of my favorite characters. It is also a character that can win games given reasonably competent play. No good luck required but simply a lack of bad luck. In a previous issue of SEDG John Shannonhouse said that a berserker with two homeworlds is a very dangerous beast. I could not agree more. When I am playing a berserker one of my objectives is to be robot attacking someone else's homeworld by turn 10 or 11. If that is successful I will have an excellent chance of winning if the game continues until at least turn 16 or 17. For the player who likes combat and wants to score well the berserker is the best choice. Just be sure to pick a high ending score. A low ending score may be your biggest enemy. *********************************************************************** ELLIOT: Pirate - Scoring is rarely their forte so let's forget about this. It would be easy to show players what you are if you manage to plunder border worlds. I figure the limitation of cooperation will mean that your capture abilities are just as good as in a regular game. Sure you can't put together an armada as large but neither can your opponent. *********************************************************************** JACK: Ah! My favorite character is the pirate. You are correct Elliot a pirate is unlikely to win a game but you certainly can have fun while trying. Here are the keys to doing well and maybe even having a chance to win as an anonymous pirate. First you must explore, explore and keep on exploring. The fact that you need every world that you can get is obvious. It is also true that many times neutral worlds are available beyond your third ring. This may be due to the particular web configuration of a game, slow exploration by a neighbor or even due to a dropout. The reason doesn't matter. Get those neutral worlds! Wherever you find neutral worlds keep exploring in that direction until some other player stops you. Second you must pick a victim early in the game. To keep scoring well you need to be attacking a neighbor by turn 9 or 10 at the latest. Besides, it's fun and you don't have to explain yourself to anybody. Victim selection is critical. Give priority to anyone who misses a turn of course. Artifact collectors are high on the list of potential targets. They have no special advantages and if they have given away some worlds, keys or ships will have fewer resources with which to fight back. Merchants are high on the list too. Sure, they may have more ships than you for a few early turns. But if a merchant wants to be successful in scoring he must give away his homeworld. Once he has done that in an anonymous game he is much more vulnerable to a pirate attack because he can cooperate poorly if at all with the owner of the world. The Empire Builder is desirable as a victim also. He'll be hanging onto his worlds and probably his keys so he may be able to put up stiff resistance. However, he has no special advantages in a fight. Best of all he will have all those lovely unplundered worlds scattered around. Attacking another pirate, unless it is an early dropout, makes almost no sense. If you are going after an apostle you must do so early in the game before there are too many converts around. If you attack a berserker go after him early. This is to avoid the wasted effort of conquering him only to find he has robotized or bombed much of his empire. When attacking a berserker be alert for a possible kamikaze attack on your empire by his remaining forces once you are clearly winning the war. Finally, plunder aggressively but with careful planning to be sure to follow "Fulmer's Rule of 27". This rule states that as a pirate you should identify the smallest number of worlds in your empire whose metal production equals 27 and plunder all other worlds except for your homeworld. Usually this is 6 to 8 worlds each of which produces 3 or more metal per turn. Plunder everything else as soon as you own it and as often as you can. This means for example that if your turn 2 printout shows that you have captured four worlds and three of them produce less than 3 metal per turn each then you should plunder all three immediately on turn 2. You must assume that you will capture better metal worlds among your ring 2 and ring 3 worlds. Include worlds with 1 or 2 industry in this plunder strategy. Worlds with 3 or more industry take some more analysis but you shouldn't automatically exclude them from plundering. If the game lasts long enough you may be able to stop plundering one world which has been plundered 2 or 3 times and start plundering a "virgin" metal production world. An example of this might be where both worlds produce 3 metal per turn. *********************************************************************** Lots more could be said about anonymous games. They certainly are lots of fun. If you have ideas of opinions that differ from mine about how to play anonymously lets hear about them. Better yet try an anonymous game. You may even find as I have that you can play more Starweb games when you don't have to worry about finding time for diplomatic correspondence in all of them. I'll be out there somewhere. Jack Fulmer ---------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these? Last issue I asked: Here is a new question. If you are a merchant hovering over an industry world with 255 metal already present will you get point credit for any metal you drop? I actually see this scenario in a game I'm in and I'm concerned that being at the maximum metal possible may affect the merchant scoring. Ken Kohn (the merchant in the above game) asked FBI. The answer: As far as I know, it doesn't matter how much metal is on the world, only who owns the world and how much industry is there. Rick Anyone else have a new question? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 001202.1024-5 - The Gift of The Star Web... By Walt Schmidt walts@dorsai.org "O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi." - The Gift of The Magi - by O. Henry IN DAYS PAST... In April of this year, and in keeping with our April First tradition, I announced StarWeb 2000. Included in this version of a new StarWeb were two ideas that were well received: Transfer-Portals - that have as their destination a world that is many worlds away from the current world. Pirate Traps - that do not destroy the keys and ships that blunder upon them, but rather captures them. To implement these changes would have required extensive re- programming, and while the ideas might be worthy, it was never my intent for them to have been implemented. A dream perhaps, but not my intent. IN KEEPING WITH THE SITUATION... It's that time of year again, when our thoughts turn to gifts – both given and received. And that got me thinking [YOU THINKING, Nemo – now there's a novel idea!] [...and happy holidays to you, too, Alter]. Whether it's in a regular game or in a multi, the limit of two gifts per character, per turn, to only players you have already met, is one royal pain in the tush. Now wouldn't it be nice if that limit either didn't exist or existed differently. Maybe something that could only be changed in private games. THE EASY... So, let's change the limit. Make 4, 8 or even unlimited gifts per turn. Excessive you might say. But remember - on the turn gifted, there are only a limited number of things one can do with the gifted object. And if I should happen to know [in a non-anonymous game of course] the game name of another player - let me gift to that player regardless of whether or not our character's paths have crossed. I can see it now, gift 14 zero-ship keys at a world I own to all the other players. Can you say keep-track-of... THE EASY, BUT REQUIRES PER TURN MAINTENANCE... Think unlimited gifts are excessive - can't decide on how many more than two gifts is a good number. Then let's say we all agree that somewhere between two and fourteen is a good number. We could: 1 - pick a number on the first turn that is used throughout the game, or 2 - have Loomis randomly change the number each turn to something between two and fourteen. Also, we might decide to not tell us what the number is - and therefore need to experiment. Or, maybe the Black Box could now pull added duty. THE NOT-SO-EASY... Where to begin...to name a half-dozen. The Gifter - like a loader can load, the Gifter can use your gifts. This would help resolve one of the problems I hate in a multi game. When one of your characters has unused gifts, but there is nothing worthy – and another of your character has given the two gifts, but could use more. Excess Gift Penalty - let's say we're using the average of a first-turn gift pick in a game, but we haven't told ourselves what that limit is. Now what should we do when someone tries to gift more than the correct number? BLACK HOLE! And for those non-mobile gifts (world related) that are above the limit - their ownership would revert, randomly, to another character. Non-Ally Gifts - don't want someone to gift anything to you (the zero- ship key trick), set your settings to refuse all non-ally gifts. The Magi - a new special artifact that, like its O. Henry name-sake, provides a gift but at a cost. Each turn it gives you a gift, but in reality exchanges this gift for something you already own. And yes, Home Worlds can be gained and lost this way. The Trojan - a new special artifact that provides a gift but like its name-sake could do this at a greater cost. Abandonment - an unlimited gift of all your remaining properties to "null" ownership. All ships remain. Control, which must be obtained following normal capture rules, can not be undertaking until the turn after a player has Abandoned their position. HAPPY HOLIDAYS... Oh well, while I can't promise you any of the gifts of The Star Web, I can offer you the following four holiday thoughts... "Not by strength, not by power, but by spirit..." (Prophecy of Zechariah) Unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith - Dr. Maulana Karenga "But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law..." "I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, and compassion" (TAO 67) 'Til next log - Shai Dorsai ! Nemo ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE SWAP CORNER Troubleshooting the Starweb Analyzer by Lee Knirko (with some Editorializing by Yours Truly). When it works, the Analyzer is great for enhancing playing StarWeb. But when you run into problems, it takes some skill to fix things. The main problem is when the Analyzer either doesn't accept a turnsheet at all, conditionally accepts it with a litany of problems on given lines, or accepts it but locks up your computer when you try to save the composite. Been to all three places! The main problem seems to be where the T/S is not accepted at all or reports problems. This usually results from T/S being sent through the Internet, which louses it up. The problems may be unwanted spaces, hard returns on some or most lines, and/or those pesky single "<" or double "<<" marks at the beginning of each line. Editor's note: Actually the quote marks of '>', '>>' and '>> ' are all tolerated in V1.3 of the Starweb analyzer. So if you are experiencing some of the quotation problems Lee alludes to below and are using an older version of the Analyzer – go to the web site NOW and download a modern version (no upgrade fee for registered users). Lee: Been told that the "marks" are best eliminated by putting the turn into a word processor, and ordering replacing the marks with "nothing" (blank). The Analyzer seems to accept one or the other, but if both single and double marks are there, it is no go. Editor's note: The analyzer will figure out the quotation style by looking at the game identifier line. Game SW-L/30, Turn 19, [SOMNOS] Or > Game SW-L/30, Turn 19, [SOMNOS] or >> Game SW-L/30, Turn 19, [SOMNOS] It cannot cope with different quotes on different lines. I have seen some turns that came from hotmail addresses where the world lines had a strict '>' quote but the lines with the fleets had a space after the bracket '> '. The analyzer looks for the fleet info to start in column 4 and with the '>' it should be in column 5. Having the '> ' put it at column 6 and the turn will process all the world info and leave out all the fleet info. This is a very subtle change in formatting that is not tolerating by the software. Back to Lee. It is not clear whether the hard returns affect acceptability. One player worked hard to delete the marks and clear the hard returns, but the Analyzer wouldn't accept. A computer proficient ally examined the T/S and found that he had to eliminate all the cargo to make it acceptable. Sure enough, the Analyzer accepted the T/S, but when I saved the composite, the computer locked up. Had to close down and reboot to try again. After many, many tries, I found that the previous turn processed properly, so the trouble had to be in the current turn. Then I remembered about deleting the cargo, and deleted that player's T/S. The composite saved nicely! Editor: This is evidence that somehow the turnsheet may have acquired invisible characters in the data during it's travels through the internet (especially if the cargo info looked normal). The turnsheet must be a text file and not any sort of word processor or email file. HARD RETURNS – will put an empty line into the printout. All world info is separated by an empty line. This is how the Analyzer knows that one world's info has ended and the next is to be looked for. We have used this empty line that FBI put in for the analyzer to know when to start a new set of world info (including keys, cargo, art etc). I have seen extra empty lines (line wraps) in the middle of a set of world info – such as when the world wraps after the industry or metal etc. The Analyzer will think that world info has ended and the next line it analyzes will be info on metal or population. Not a world number. The Analyzer will not recognize this as the beginning of world information and crash. These worlds must be repaired. Lee: It has been suggested that if T/S are sent as text "attachments", most if not all of the problems might be avoided. Editor: File attachments rather than sending turns in the body of email will eliminate these problems since file attachments are not altered by transit over the internet. Lee: A tremendous improvement in the Analyzer software would be an error message, which would explain how to fix the T/S. My experience with software help areas is that they are great for telling you how to do things, but lacking in information on how to fix things that go wrong. Editor: Well, if there are errors in the world information that are fatal to processing, the Analyzer usually tells you which line is the offending one. Lee: Perhaps more sharing of information by users would be helpful. If we had a list of fixings, it would save us a lot of time experimenting. Editor: Thank you very much Lee for your thoughts. Here is one more thing I think will be helpful. The Starweb analyzer uses one key line to figure out where the data begins. This allows us to ignore all that internet routing garbage info at the top of a turnsheet sent by email. This line is called the game identifier. Game SW-L/30, Turn 19, [SOMNOS] If your ally sends you his turn and cuts off this line the Analyzer will read your whole turnsheet as not containing data and will even suggest to you that perhaps it's an unusual quote style problem. We should probably remove the comment about quote styles because this error is more often due to the game identifier being missing. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE In response to The Captain's nicknames for the players in his Challenge multi Starweb Game: Editor's note: I took a stab at identifying the players since I've played with so many of them. I got 2 wrong. Here are the players of this private game – can anyone identify who is who? They are myself, Walter Schmidt, Ken Cassady, Mic Hammerschmitt, John Muije, Herb Diehr and Sharon Wyatt. Phil Boyd said: 2 are gimmes - Sharon and you as the Ancient. If John Shannonhouse had been playing with us - he easily would have been the ancient ;-). I'm guessing Mic is either the Speaker or The Young One/Player (?). Although some of the notes I've gotten from Sharon - she could be the Speaker in Tongues too Editor: Sorry Phil – I'm not the Ancient (even though I feel it sometimes ?. Craig Steele took a crack at it: OK, here's my stab at id'ing the secret players: Chronicler - obviously you She - Obviously Sharon (and I'll give myself a bonus point for getting the old Marvel comics "auric" reference) Those are the only two I know for sure. I think the duality reference in Luca's description is a pass at "Alter", so I'll guess that's Walter. A peek at the StarWeb ratings page labels Player (youngest in Loomis years) as Ken Cassady. For Speaker, I'll go with Mic and assume that the "speaking in tongues" is a reference to his being German. John simply has to be the Ancient One. So, that leaves Herb as Fighter. I'm guessing if I got any wrong, it's that Fighter and Player should be switched. So, how'd I do? Editor – bang on! Rick Loomis wrote (the stuff after the quotes '>' are excerpts from last months SEDG): >EMPIRE BUILDER > > I have yet to see an Empire Builder win the game by outpacing the > opposition. Rick: I have officially only played one (non-standby) position as an Empire Builder, and I won it. And I didn't do any diplomacy at all - it was an anonymous game! Turns out everyone I met either gave me their homeworld when they figured out I was an EB, or dropped out, or was defeated by my masterful strategy! (grin). I actually captured one homeworld and was on my way to capturing a second when the game ended, but did have several given to me by my AC and Merchant neighbors. It was quite a surprising game! >MERCHANT > > It's very mathematical - 8 points/metal dropped to a maximum of 60 at > a HW. With just one ally (and you gift him your own HW) you could > potentially drop 120 metal/turn for 960 points. FBI's feeling is > that the position is so boring that if they didn't have the advantage > nobody would play them. I disagree but this is an entirely different > rant . Rick: Well, if 5 of the 15 players waiting for a new game listed Merchant as their first or 2nd choice, we would happily put that many in a game. What most players don't realize is that we have already lowered the merchants points. Originally I believe they got 16 points per metal. We cut that in HALF to 8 points, because merchants were winning too many games, and it didn't make any difference. The fewer points merchants get with their hauling, the less "dangerous" they are viewed as by their allies & neighbors. The reason they win so much is because of human nature. Everyone wants to let the merchant haul a few more metal for HIM, and expects his NEIGHBORS to cut the merchants off early enough to keep them from winning. The double hauling is very useful early in the game, but isn't really needed in the midgame, but everyone keeps letting them do it! Editor: Speaking of merchants – Paul Balsamo said: Elliot, You Wrote: "This means that any merchant hauling only 30 metal/turn to a HW requires 2 allies to be able to score 720 points/turn (90 metal). With this kind of scoring advantage you would need at least 5 merchants in the game for there to be adequate competition for them. I have never seen these many but it might be a good idea as it could very well slow the trend to mega-alliances." 5 merchants don't necessarily have to compete with each other, they can actually score a ton of points by allying (and they don't need anyone else). The ONLY game that I ever played as a merchant had 5 merchants. What happened here was the largest mega-alliance I've ever seen (or been a part of) - 10 players, which included 3 of the merchants. The idea was to actually try and get all of us to tie (pretty lofty as one player was an apostle). What eventually happened was one of the merchants decided to win by himself - and did so. I have not played a merchant since. You Wrote: "Probably FBI should limit how many points they can bring in to keep the other positions competitive." Berserkers can be limited by the pops and pop limits in teh game. While I have won at berserker 3 times, the last game I played I was stymied by the low population on the worlds. Very few worlds had pop over 90, even though there were large limits that the pop would never hit. I had a couple of allies giving me ships and keys, but I just couldn't PBB enough high pop worlds to get the win. Lost to a merchant that teh opposing alliance let run rampant. Paul Elliot: Thanks for you comments Paul. They will be in the next SEDG. I've said it before - I wish FBI would only allow 4 pts/metal for the merchant. It would improve things. You are correct about the low pop worlds limiting the berserker. Well, that's it for Volume 43. 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