STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://www.accessv.com/~wulkan/fmt.html) VOL 7 - May 24, 1999 First a plug, why don't you forward this to some of your friends, allies and enemies who play Starweb. I would love to increase the readership of this discussion group. So hit FORWARD now and send it :-). (Distribution list has been unblinded for this reason and issue). Pre-Diplomacy Starweb (First appeared in FBQ #73) By John Shannonhouse (JohnShannonhouse@compuserve.com). This is not really an article about the "good old days" when Starweb did not allow diplomacy (Yes sonny, I can remember back when there was no diplomacy in Starweb. Not only that, but we had to deliver our turns personally, on foot, hundreds of miles, through 12 foot high snowdrifts, up hill both ways.) Diplomacy is and always was the single most important part of the game. However, the first four or five turns of the game, before you have had the opportunity to learn about the other players, are extremely important. They determine how powerful a force you will be in the game. Each of the first five turns has it's own unique problems and possibilities. The basic strategy is to explore as much as possible, capture all the worlds that are not nailed down, learn about your neighbors to prepare for possible attacks, and still get to full production as rapidly as possible. If your home world is not at or close to full production by turn eight, then you made some serious mistakes in those early turns. It will be hard to recover. I have found that even some experienced players are missing some of the small but crucial steps that give a major advantage in the critical early stages. Turn 1 looks pretty simple and straightforward, but it is not. The problem is compounded because the example given in the rules results in a relatively poor position by turn 3. The goal at turn one is to prepare for the later turns. You do not want to show up at a world with a 1-ship key on turn 4, unable to keep the key you discovered, and leaving the world you left undefended. The normal startup point is a home world with three connectors, 30 metal, 30 industry, one ISHP and one PSHP. The optimal setup is to build eight ships on three keys, and build the other two up to four ships each. This requires transferring the ISHP and PSHP to keys. Move the three 8 ship keys to the worlds next to the home world. Try to move one of the four ship keys through one of the worlds to another world you do *not* see. Take the other 4 ship key through another connecting world to the *same* alternate world. Example: "F123W137W15 F145W212W15" This is almost certain not to work, but if it does, you have a *major* advantage in the game. Using the same world as the ending spot makes it more than twice as likely to succeed than it would to use two different ending worlds. If it does not work, both ships will still be waiting at the home world, just as if you gave no orders, so this chance costs nothing. If your wild card move succeeded, I will leave you on your own to take advantage of it. You already have more than you deserve. Turn 2 has two points of interest which are not obvious. First, do *not* leave any ships on the ground to protect any of these worlds. You are going to need all the ships you have on turn 3. No-one will land on those worlds next turn , even if the player next to you *succeeded* in that wild-card extra move on turn 1. Second, pick up all available metal even if you are not moving back to the home world. On the average, you will pick up one new key on each world, so you will then have an average of 4 ships on each key, 5 if you capture industry. It rarely works out exactly like this, but it is the closest you can get. The two keys moving out from the home world, at 5 ships each, will be the same size as your average key. Move a key to each available new connection. If you have any keys left over, carry the most possible metal back to the home world while still making sure that each key moving to a new location has at least three ships. At this point any key can move to any other open connector by moving through the home world, so your choice of keys is very flexible. At turn 3 the plan finally comes together. Now is the time to prepare to meet other players. Every new world has a key with at least three ships on it. That means that you can drop a ship to protect the world and still transfer one to the other key to capture it (don't forget to unload any surplus metal first). If you are a merchant, drop one consumer good so that any player crossing over will know that you are a merchant. Move the largest keys possible to all unexplored worlds, and you are ready to meet the other players. On turn 4 you will usually meet two to four other players. Some will cross over to the world you just left, others will meet you at the new world. You will also be capturing some new worlds. If you capture an undefended world from another player, you might be friendly and return it. An undefended world is a sign of a poorly developed player, so you might make that person the target of any future wars -- a good reason to make sure that *your* crossover worlds are all defended. Etiquette for newly met players is fairly standard at this point at worlds where you just met. Not following the proper rules is usually regarded as an act of war. If the other player outnumbers you, leave the world to him and do not provide reinforcements. If you have the same number of ships on your keys, it becomes more complex. If you outnumber the other player at more worlds than he does you, let him have an extra "even" world to make up for your advantage. If you are an artifact collector (and no art is on the world) or a merchant, let the other player capture the world as you send a DM pointing out that you are doing this as a token of your good intentions. If there is art, the collector remains there at peace asking the other player to transfer up the art in exchange for the uncontested world. If you met the same player at multiple worlds with equal forces, try and work out which worlds are most valuable to the different players, using the following rules: A "rock" is most valuable to a pirate. A high population/mines world is most valuable to an EB. An industrial world is most valuable to a berserker. A high limit/medium pop world is most valuable to an apostle. Merchants and collectors need worlds primarily for trading purposes. The most valuable for them are high mines worlds for production, especially for the merchant. Split the worlds as evenly as possible, leaving half and reinforcing the other half. Be willing to give up some worlds for good will, but do not let the other player take advantage of you. Unless you are a merchant or collector, it is bad form to move deeper into what you *know* is another player's territory. A collector or merchant *should* put a key at peace and move into the other player's territory to simplify the process of getting art/hauling metal without the other player using valuable resources and gift orders for that purpose. Try to determine the player types. A dropped consumer good means you have met a merchant. A plundered world means a pirate. Converts mean an Apostle. A score that is a multiple of 15 implies an artifact collector. A high score means a pirate or empire builder. A medium score means an apostle or pirate. A low score at a multiple of 5 means merchant or berserker. A negative score means a non-collector with "bad" artifacts. At this point you can probably work out two gift orders which will provide maximum advantage to the other player at minimal cost to yourself. Gift a fleet to a merchant or berserker. Gift a "rock" to a pirate for plunder. Gift art (especially bad art) to a collector. An early gift in conjunction with your friendly DM is very likely to start a good alliance rolling, even before real contact has been made. You should still have unexplored territory, which might not belong to other players. Go ahead and move in. This is your best chance to meet more players. Haul as much metal as possible to your home world. If you met players at neutral worlds, you are now very happy that you loaded metal at every opportunity, because now you can run back to the home world with your load. Do this even if you outnumber the other player. Move a smaller key without metal to the contested world to capture it. Do not fire at another player at this point unless you are ready for war. Conditional fire orders are fine if you decide to stay at the world. On turn 5 you should receive your first DM's from other players, and should have met other players. Diplomacy has started, and so this article ends. John Shannonhouse ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Articles - I would like someone to write these for inclusion into the SEDGE! Tales of the Black Box - I still need more. Backstabbers, Spoilers and brats. Multi games - call for articles - best character mix, strategies, alliances. 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 or Signs! Please note - I have now got articles on Homeworld defence, the nonscoring warcrazed pirate, and playing the Art Collector. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP - is now available on the web. http://www.accessv.com/~somnos/sedg.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE I have a lot for you this time. Apparently John Gault (jdg@rahul.net) has some dissenting views on the play of the Scoring Pirate (Vol. #6)! David Benepe said in Volume #6: > ... The first > three turns, the pirate needs to decide between a HW Production Strategy and an > Early Plunder strategy. [snip] > ... And -- not for the feint > at heart -- plunder the HW on T1! People have called me crazy, but consider > that the HW will produce only 2 ships on T1 and T2. Normal T3 production may > be about 6-10 and T4 is 15-25. Missing these ships would kill a non-allied > pirate, so this strategy will doom the pirate who fails to find good allies. John Gault responds: Actually it's not even that bad. First, plunder occurs at the end of the turn you do it (after gifts!), so you will still build 30 ships with your 30 starting metal on T1. And on T5 the world is back in full production. Second, it's physically impossible to build more than 2 ships on T2 or T3. (Fastest possible scenario for bringing metal back is that you capture ring 1 world(s) without a fight on Turn 1, load the ships and send them home T2, and spend T3 unloading so you won't get to use the new metal until T4.) Third, even on T4 you probably won't have even one brought-back metal to build with, because on T3 every key you can possibly scrape up is (or should be) out exploring third ring worlds. Otherwise your neighbors grab them all and you may as well quit the game. (This may not be entirely true for a Merchant or Berserker because they don't need to own worlds, but you sure do!) I have yet to be able to build more than 10 ships on a turn before turn 6 in any game, and I assume that anyone who tells me he does is just blowing smoke. Conclusion: Plundering the HW turn 1 costs you only six ships (= the 6 metal that aren't produced there turns 2-4). Granted, the loss occurs early when every ship helps, but you're not in combat yet so it probably won't matter. David Benepe: > Plunder any R1 > world with less than 2 Industry and less than 4 mines on T2. Plunder any R2 > world with no industry and less than 3 mines on T3. John Gault: This is where I disagree. You need to make up your production loss now, unless you are already allied with a merchant. I'd also like to object to your last point (the "need" to vote for a high ending score so your partner can win also). First off, every game has at least two or three Pirates in it, and at least some players are always going to lie about their votes, so it's unlikely you will be caught if you vote for a low score. Second (and I think this is the main reason the Pirate character type sucks even more than the Apostle), you absolutely need a low end score. Even if multiple allies give you worlds to plunder over the course of a long game (up to the limit of two gifts per turn, which can be exceeded but it's difficult), it's next to impossible for a Pirate to score more than about 2500 in a game. Unlike all other character types, your scoring opportunities decrease with time, because all the worlds you own and can afford to plunder have already been plundered. And of course, you're not going to have first crack at new worlds your allies take, because EBs and Apostles get more points for them. In short, the Pirate character is designed for the newbie who cares more about action than scoring. It's no good for the serious player. Editors note: Now before anyone starts sending me a ton of reprisals for these comments I will state for the record that I've seen many a pirate score over 2500 points. Especially pirates that get into alliances without an EB or Apostle character. In fact, SW 1280 was just won by a pirate on T13 with 5700 points. He found 2 dropout characters and 3 allies willing to ply him with worlds. Final comment - the low endscore is often used by pirates to give themselves a better shot at winning or ranking. From Rick Loomis: Elliot OK, I've added the SEDG ad to the Starweb page on the web (www.flyingbuffalo.com and go to the Starweb link), plus to the next fbq, and plan to announce it in the PBM news release I am going to send out shortly. I'm also putting the Starweb ratings online today and announcing that. Hopefully we will generate some renewed interest in SW. Rick ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, that's it for Volume 7. 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 Email From Elliot T. Hudes 23-May-99