STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://www.accessv.com/~wulkan/fmt.html) VOL 8 June 7, 1999 TITLE - The Nonscoring Warmongering Pirate By Elliot Hudes (somnos@compuserve.com) You thrill to the sound of battle. To engage the enemy, vanquish and hear the lamentations of their women and children (or their men and children ) is a goal worthy in itself. Certainly it's more interesting and fun than counting such piddly little things like points - right? Well, then all you have to do is gather up similar like-minded individuals and march off to war. Unfortunately it isn't as easy as that. Sure, there are going to be others with similar attitudes but very likely they will wind up being the other pirates. That won't be a good mix for an alliance since you both need exactly the same thing - SHIPS - and plenty of them. A like-minded Berserker, merchant or Apostle would work out to be ideal allies as they can add their hauling ability (merchant) or unique warlike gifts to your own. In fact, most of the players will be more concerned with playing the game to do well and that means scoring in addition to being interested in meeting people, allying, trading and supporting a fun little war. The appearance on the scene of a bloody faced pirate who has nothing to offer except aggression could mean the demise of the warmonger - a legend in his own mind :-).I guess I'm saying that even though you don't want to score and so, by definition, aren't playing the game well, you can still play this position properly to attain your own self designed goals. So what do you need? Well, obviously you don't need worlds to plunder and you will need ships to carry out your wars and optimize your 3to1 capture abilities. You still do require a fair bit of the same stuff other players gather to use as barter to gain you those ships. So, you need worlds, industry, art and I guess what I'm trying to say is you need your empire and good allies. After all, the paltry 30 ships/turn you can build at one HW won't be good for much in a fight against even 1 player who can produce as much as you. Even if you use surprise to jump him and capture some initial ships he won't let you do that again. DIPLOMACY The need for allies goes beyond just having players who will fuel your desire for ships. You can't fight everyone. Well, not simultaneously. Making some allies will produce some safe borders for you so that you won't have to worry about enemy incursions. When you start your unprovoked attack (and it may have to be unprovoked unless you are lucky enough to be beside someone who shoots you on first contact) the injured party will bring his resources and those of his allies to bear on you. Not only that but he will fish around for others on your border to help him out. There are many who will ally with your prey because he is the maligned player, the underdog or just for self defense because after all, once your prey falls who will be next? It's better if you have already signed some of them up as allies or at least have some sort of nonaggression pact. Of course this is the bully sort of tactic and I've seen many a warmongering pirate achieve success as a mercenary. At first contact you reveal your revulsion and loathing of points to everyone and offer your services for hire by any that need a good military. This often works because the unmentioned implied threat is that if they don't join 'em they had better beat 'em. Obviously if you can secure a group of crossallied characters with similar goals you will do very well. It is up to you to determine which of your neighbors are the best as allies and targets but keep the lines of communication open. In this game information and intelligence are power. Just because you want to fight doesn't mean you will be able to sit back mute and hand pick your allies to your liking. You must be aware of which groups are forming, who is being belligerent, uncommunicative or playing badly. Then you can make an informed choice of whether you want to join a group of players, form your own group and who the target(s) will be. It pays to know if your intended target has 4 other allies willing to take you on. THE PITCH How do you sell yourself to potential allies? Well, you shouldn't have to hit them over the head with the knowledge that to ally with you means they won't have to worry about you as their opponent. You have additional attractive qualities that make you a better choice than the Pirate who wishes to score. GENERAL The strength of your empire and those of your allies is much better than can be hoped for allied with the scoring pirate. By virtue of the fact that you will never plunder a world you have ensured that all mines and industry will be working throughout the game. This is no small point. Your opponents may counter invade you or one of your allies. If you only have a few key worlds unplundered and producing metal they may put you into a very precarious position in regards to your HW production of ships. They may capture or cut you off from one of your very few mining worldds or large metal stockpiles. Indeed, your security and ability to produce ships is more precarious than if you have a full empire of unplundered worlds. Let's examine other selling points according to character types. Empire Builder There is no competition for world ownership in your area or any of your allies. You are the ideal ally for this world hungry player. Merchant The fact that you won't be plundering opens up more metal reserves for the merchant to haul with. The other bonus is that many people find the merchant position a bit boring if played strictly for points. It is easy for a merchant to score. Because of this jaded attitude you will find many merchants ready and willing to haul metal for just one set of allies and willing to help in a war. The fact that a merchant can haul with half the ships you can and will be the first player at full ship production makes him a very valuable ally. As a merchant I have been able to get 30 ships available for war a full 1-2 turns before the other players. The truth is that in the very early game the merchant is the only one with surplus ships available and therefore the most powerful warrior. Explaining this to them (especially if they are new to the game) often appeals to their pride and gives them a sense of purpose. The fact is, you need them more than they need you. Apostle Similar to the Empire Builder you don't compete for the worlds that help this player score. Art Collector In return for ships you get the art. You now have more worlds available for trade with others. Also you can get the pirate art. The Pirate position scores so poorly that those playing the scoring pirate will often take pirate art to help boost their scores. Berserker This one is tricky. The scoring Berserker also has a great need for ships to finance his scoring by population kills. This usually happens in the latter half of the game as time is needed for worlds to achieve their population limits and for players to build the number of ships required. But the investment in a pirate can lead to more ships than initially loaned. The pirate may be able to make better use of the ships earlier in the game. First an agreement that the pirate will return those ships (plus more) when it is the correct time for the Berserker to score may alleviate any anxiety for the metallic one about to give up his lively hood. The pirate MUST follow through with this type of promise or forever give up his good name. Many nonscoring pirates have had to completely dissolve a successful invasion armada to allow our berserker brethren to score. The time limit this imposes means you will need to be quite aggressive and successful early in your offensive push. But if you are successful - you may find yourself able to capture enemy HWs intact and increase your alliances ships by increased industry production as well as pirate captures. This leads to a discussion of military tactics. Military Tactics (in General) 1) You don't need worlds for plunder so don't get caught up in sitting at peripheral worlds and fighting a prolonged firefight. 2) Make use of your 3to1 potential. Quick surprise strikes deep into the heart of enemy territory give you better success at capturing opponent fleets. Prolonged fights over a world will gain you nothing. A smart player can see if he will have enough ships to avoid 3to1 capture. If he can't survive he will run leaving the world to you. What did I say about worlds - you don't need them. 3) So, what do you target? The HW's or strategically important worlds like the ring 1 worlds!!! If you can get there and overwhelm them quickly you can capture many ships. There is nothing nicer than being over an enemy HW and capturing everything in the air! Don't forget to use other sound military strategies. Don't rely just on being bigger and meaner. I mean, bring a small berserker key along wherever you travel so if you need his talents at robotization you can feed him ships. 4) All those worlds you left behind - let your allies come in with smaller keys on clean up duty. Once you have dominated the HW that opponent is dead - even if he doesn't drop out right away. 5) Since the keys to success are ships - you must get keys to all your allies HWs ASAP. Have them gifted or you can fly there, or even have your allies rendezvous with you in flight to transfer the ships. But try to avoid letting allies bring their 30 ship builds to you at a firefight. You may need these ships but you have just spoiled your chances of a 3to1 capture. What was the point of choosing to be the pirate if you don't get to capture? 6) Stay bunched up! Since the key to 3to1 capture is having more ships than the opponent it makes no sense for you to hit 10 worlds with 200 ships. It would be more successful to have 200 ships in one place making up to 66 ships unsafe from capture. Since you must stay bunched up you will have to choose your targets carefully. Well, playing the nonscoring Warmongering Pirate can be a lot of fun and rewarding. I personally find it even more satisfying while pursuing my goal of galactic conquest if I also helped my allies achieve high rankings and of course provide the game with the winner from my ranks. Elliot Hudes ----------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS: 1)Ken Cassady asked: Anomymous Games - Making deals without talking - Has anyone come up with a non-verbal way to make deals in and Anomymous Games? What could you do to let the other person know what Charactor you are? Is there any hope to playing a Artifact Collector in this type of game? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP - is now available on the web. http://www.accessv.com/~somnos/sedg.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW FEATURE - THE CAPTAIN'S LOG By Walter Schmidt walts@dorsai.org Captain's Log - 99/05/30 You know, the Admiralty can be a real pain in the ass (can I say ass in this damn thing -- gonna have to ask Them about that - when I get around to it - I mean, it is my journal). Just because they found out that I was around near the beginning - and had the lack of presence of mind (what could I have been thinking) to suggest I wouldn't mind getting back into the game...now they want my Captain's Log to be made public...sheesh! But rules are rules...so for the time being I guess I might as well comply (like I have a choice!). And first things first...they asked for some proof of my history, as it seems that the official records are "unavailable right now," whatever that means. I'm gonna have to talk to my First-Mate (I can say that here as I know she doesn't read this journal. I mean, even though we've been together now for over 28 years, and even though I might be the Captain, I know who the real BOSS is...but I digress) about the last time we held a bow-to-stern field-day. Seems some of my records have been moved! But, what I did find was... Rules for StarWeb version 1 (1976): looks like a 5 1/2 by 8 1/2, mimeograph job to me...and if you who might be reading this don't know what a mimeograph is...look it up yourself! Damn Youngsters... In any event, blue cover-stock, non-glossy. Second Edition (1977): now on blue glossy cover-stock. Third Edition (1977): now on white glossy cover-stock - guess that's how Rick told them apart in those days. The hand-drawn covers, with the character-types, were done by someone known as "Anthony-76." And I always wonder which type was left off, and why. It's obvious who the Artifact Collector, the Berserker and the Apostle (but why draw three Apostles?) were - but that other figure, which one was he. From the smoking glove my guess was always the Pirate. Sixth Edition (August 1981): the cover art was by Michael Carroll, the interior illustrations by Steve Crompton, and it's now full-size, printed, and with a price increase from $1 to $2.50. So much for history, leastwise so much for now. I've some duties to attend to, so I'll be putting the journal away for the nonce. Go look that one up too, you young turks - I cann't wait 'til I whip a few of your asses in a game or two. I really gotta ask about how this is gonna be printed and what will or won't offend some youngun's ears. But a salty-dog, is a salty-dog... Nemo ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE - Regarding Volume 6 (The Scoring Pirate) >David Benepe said: >> 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. Robert Easton: I would carry it even further and Plunder every world with less than 4 metal and/or 2 industry within 3 rings of the homeworld. You get the merchant to shuttle metal into your area from his neighboring area with a 4 key loop. Also all allies would be requested to supply you with ships and worlds. Also pray for some neighbors to drop for easy capture to build up your forces. Roberts other comments: Robert Easton: You have to assume you will be able ally with any non- dropped player. You won't have enough ships to defend yourself anyway. You can afford to have only one non-dropped neighbor enemy to use for a massive attack where you spread out your forces instead of concentrating on the homeworld. You are shooting for worlds to plunder and hope to capture some of his smaller hauling fleets. If well supported you can win by cutting off the homeworld from any metal. If lucky you could end up capturing his main fleet at his homeworld that has been sitting there waiting for you to arrive while you seize everything he owns. You gather strength and come in last minute. Editor's note: In other correspondence in SW Z1283 I am playing a merchant with too many clients and I started a discussion on how to limit my score without limiting hauling. Here was an interesting note by Joe Taormina on how to handle hauling (and not scoring)as a merchant for an Apostle. Joe said: In order for a merchant to score points, he must not own the industry world either at the beginning OR the end of the turn. You will NOT score the turn a world is gifted to you. Nor will you score the turn you gift it away, or it reverts back to the apostle. Therefore you do NOT have to set up your fleets to haul on only one turn. As long as you're gifted the world on one turn and it goes back to the Apostle the next, you will not score any points. Thanks Joe - as bizarre as it sounds an article on how to maximize using your merchant abilities without overscoring might be interesting (and a little strange). ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Still looking for articles on the following topics Tales of the Black Box 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! If anyone has experience with the Multi/Anonymous or Bitter end variants take a stab at it. I will collect any diplos you've enjoyed or descriptions of black box types and put something together. Well, that's it for Volume 8. 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