STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://www.flyingmoose.ca) VOLUME 89 February 2007 - Special Anniversary Issue CONTENTS Feature Article - THE SEDG ANONYMOUS NOT SO BITTER END STARWEB GAME By Elliot Hudes and Lou Sheehan Questions - Are you up for a private game? SEDG Web Page URL The Swap Corner - News on Vista Correspondence FEATURE ARTICLE SW-XM/240 The LYRA/TROY Perspective By Elliot Hudes First I will reiterate the premise of the game and I am going to identify who the characters were. THE SEDG ANONYMOUS NOT SO BITTER END STARWEB GAME Here is the premise of the game. It will be a dual multi game - you get two positions that have met already and can gift to each other from turn 1. Anonymous play - but I am not asking for the anonymous scrambled turnsheets from FBI. (They requested that so we can't compare turnsheets and break their scrambling code). It is up to each player to respect the anonymous nature of the game. Winner is the player who hits 86 worlds owned by ONE of their characters. Yes - you must choose one of your positions to push to the lead (makes the berserker character have to think about robotization). FBI cannot track the victory conditions. If you receive a printout where one of your characters has 86 worlds - EMAIL ME!! I will notify FBI. If more than one player makes the claim on the same turn - the winner is the one with the most worlds. There will be 7 players - 14 HWs. The moderator's printout will go to Leonard J. Schussel who is going to work on a History of the game for the SEDG. He may contact you to discuss your game play. Feel free to share with him - he will keep all information confidential until the game ends. Here are the players - 1) Elliot T. Hudes - LYRA/TROY (Pirate/Merchant) 2) David Jung - APEX/URSA (Berserker/Merchant) 3) Dick Donald - FATE/ZETA (Pirate/Berserker) 4) Louis Sheehan (A.K.A Sven Hassel) - MARS/YETI (Berserker/Berserker) 5) John David Galt - VEGA/STYX (Pirate/Merchant) 6) Gary Schaefers - ISIS/DUNE (Pirate/Merchant) 7) Jeff Calkins - HERA/PAVO (Pirate/Merchant) Turns 1-4 I will spend some extra time with the first contacts since they are critical to the game. I did the usual maximum expansion to gain territory. Each of the HWs were biconnectors that connected two different universes. One was the old reliable three connector hex map (honeycomb appearance) while the other was a simple square grid. I decided on turn 1 to gift 2 keys to LYRA so my pirate could capture more worlds. I wanted the pirate to be the world owner obviously. On turn 2 keys are tight so 2 worlds are given to the pirate. On T4 first contact! I kept a simple diary so I could remember things I was learning - here is an excerpt from T4. I was trying to figure out which characters were partnered together as this was very important intelligence. Met ?FATE/ZETA HERA (Pirate) ISIS/DUNE MARS ?STYX/VEGA(pirate) URSA Things I know. STYX and DUNE - saw both my characters move from same world (The will know they are linked). ?VEGA/STYX partners - STYX worlds separated by a VEGA world (W223/W62/W173) FATE/ZETA?? - close on the map on both levels. ISIS/DUNE - are a pair as ISIS comes to my border from a DUNE world! I wanted no early animosity so I withdrew from any world I encroached on in foreign lands. At neutral worlds I stayed if I was the larger key, left if I was smaller (probing as I left) and where equal forces occurred I would try to divide up half for me and half for the other player I met and hoped he and I had similar strategies. I am still expanding as fast as I can in open waters. T5 Met New Players. YETI, APEX, PAVO Full list ?FATE/ZETA HERA (Pirate)/PAVO ISIS/DUNE MARS (pirate or merchant) STYX/VEGA(pirate) URSA YETI APEX Mars plundered W192 to show himself? But dropped CG at W59? Probably trying to confuse people. (In retrospect - I was right - this was the double berserker team). HERA gifts to PAVO (at W178) - confirms that team. I believe STYX/VEGA is now confirmed - Styx came at peace to reinforce VEGA AT W62 for the capture. ISIS/DUNE - didn't probe me BUT I know their HW W88 or W29 from landing on the R1 5 connector unique to this game. This info did me no good because Gary remained a good neighbour until endgame and I had other targets that were better. First Contacts - Don't worry about the world numbers - I was just trying to get an overview of the players and for the most part it was friendly and equitable. FATE - left me W4, stayed at W63, W172 STYX - we both left W7, left W46, left my W112, he stayed W173 but I left. Did NOT probe my R1 W8. URSA - left me W50 MARS - left me W59 VEGA - stayed W62 (but I left it). ISIS - left my W101 ZETA - W111 we both left. DUNE - W113 - I left to him and he stayed. At this point I'm at 31 worlds, still expanding and starting to haul. T6 A pivotal thing happens here - at the initial 3 worlds where I met FATE I outgunned him at one and had equal forces at 2. He insisted on keeping 2 of the worlds - FATE playing games - keeps sending stuff to W172 and W111. Wasted enough time - I'm blasting him. I have the strength to send reinforcements and to haul fully to the HWs and go out for metal. So the war FATE/APEX war begins NOW! T7 I confirm Confirm - ZETA/FATE alliance - ZETA came to FATE's rescue. Although the forces are small - I capture a key at each of the 2 contested worlds. I also manage to capture a VEGA 3 ship key, which I keep, and my world count is at 33 and I still have some open borders to explore. All other players have respected my borders and I am going to do similarly - only one enemy at a time please!! Since I'm at full hauling all excess ships are sent to invade FATE/ZETA to bring the fight to his area. Another plan I had was to probe all borders with industrial worlds each turn. I figured the intelligence was more important than a few ships if I could see an attack force on my border. As it turned out I never needed it because the only attack force I saw was expected from FATE. Worlds of TROY are continuously being gifted to LYRA now that the hauling fleets are set up. Soon TROY won't own any worlds, as it should be. T8 I have captured those 2 contested worlds and now I hit FATE/ZETA at 5 worlds on one side of the universe (hex map) and at my one contact world on the square grid map. At the only world where FATE shows with any force, 20 ships, I have 21. It looks pretty good. The only wrinkle - VEGA fires at my key at a neutral world we met at probably in retaliation for capturing his key. I hoped he wouldn't take offence since it occurred over a contested FATE world. So now I had to worry about VEGA. At all worlds I fire and probe deeper. Full HW builds (about 70 ships) head for the border to reinforce. At one previous FATE world I can send 30 ships even deeper in! My world count creeps to 35 and I believe that I've exhausted all open borders now. I withdraw from a VEGA world and hope he reads this as a peaceful gesture. There are no incursions onto my territory and it's all offence - life is good. T9 - I'm at 8 of the FATE/ZETA worlds. I capture two, a key of 10 ships and I've located a HW. FATE invades a border world of mine with 7 ships. No incursions into my area and VEGA seems to be leaving me alone. All my gifts are to get TROY worlds into LYRA hands. I make the decision to rush the HW. I realize that winning depends on ships so I'm going to make a conscious effort to kill the HWs rather than capture. In this way I can cripple the enemy and grab his worlds. Who knows, if he feels it's hopeless maybe he will drop and I can have the worlds easier. T10 - At the world that FATE came in on me I bring twice his firepower (12 to 6). FATE manages to capture a fleet of 4 ships at a world he anticipated I would move into. In addition FATE moves 71 ships on 6 keys to his ring 1 world but not before my horde of 131 ships on 4 keys hit the ZETA HW (where he has 54 ships on 8 keys and totally suppressed industry). Other problems - HERA comes in on one of my borders with 11 ships on 2 keys and VEGA comes over my border with 19 ships and captures one of my 2 ship keys. Am I being invaded? Do I have to fight a three front war? The die is cast and I decide to fry the ZETA HW and send each of my HWs builds out to greet HERA and VEGA. T11 FATE/ZETA - the ZETA HW - no defence laid so I knock down the HW to 5 industry. I also knocked out 3 keys and mine are all intact. The odds now are my 4 keys with only 113 ships versus 194 ships (including the 5 builds) on 18 keys. I am surely outgunned, outkeyed and there is no strategic purpose to sticking around for a firefight. So I make shuffle ships and make two keys small to go to the ring 1 world (can't survive any ambush) and two keys dive deep thru FATE territory through an unknown world which I hoped only had 1 homefleet ambush to land on a R3 world that will hopefully be on the FATE border. VEGA - although he took my border world he also gifts me back my key to show his good intentions. This means I can use the builds from last turn to redirect into FATE/ZETA and I'm close to the other HW that's still intact. HERA - has withdrawn - now leaving me with 60 ships on 2 keys that are only 2 moves from the same FATE/ZETA border. The plan is now to go fry the FATE HW!! Meanwhile I did manage to take a FATE border world and am threatening two other of his worlds to give him multiple headaches. The small FATE incursion into my area runs away. T12 My plan to run away from the ZETA HW doesn't go too bad. I only lose 1 ship per key at the unknown world and arrive at ring 3 with two keys with 73 ships. I lose the two smaller keys at the HW. Not bad, I managed to frag a HW and only lost 58 ships and 2 keys which is less than half my invasion force. Most of FATE's forces are at the destroyed HW where he stood and fired. Now I must clarify that the majority of my fight is occurring on one side of the HW. On the quiet side is where FATE had modestly invaded me on the square grid. I have repelled him and am exploring him with 2 keys of 21 ships. I captured a world last turn and am positioned for another this turn. My world count has creeped up to 38 with the modest gains I've made from FATE/ZETA. On the other side of the HW (hex grid) I am trying to head to the FATE HW and I took advantage of sending my reinforcements to as many worlds as I could and have landed at 4 new ones and captured a 14 ships ZETA key. At one world I encounter a DUNE (Gary) world. It's ring 4 so I don't know if DUNE has invaded or if I slipped out of FATE country. I decide to leave him unmolested. I don't want multiple enemies. Everywhere I can inside FATE I move in deeper, probe and take the worlds I'm already at. COUNTERATTACK - I see FATE has slipped 2 keys with 43 ships on my hex side ring 2 border. It's likely that his ships at the destroyed HW, with little to do, will follow suit. I send a turn's build to Ring 1 to block. My other HW starts to reinforce my smaller invasion of FATE from the other side on the square grid. Still no signs of other players so I'm free to deal with FATE/ZETA. In fact VEGA now gifts me the world he accidentally took from me to further demonstrate his friendly intent. I gift it back to him to similarly show that I wish to be friendly to him and keep our border safe. T13 FATE COUNTERATTACK - as predicted 185 ships on 4 keys fly from the destroyed ZETA HW landing at Ring 3 of my threatened HW. Surprisingly the 43 ships that were at ring 2 of the same HW withdrew to engage me on his side of the border. I must be getting close to and threatening his remaining HW. I was. I had just located it with a key of 33 ships and I was fighting him at R2. In all, I'm at 7 of his worlds and captured 3 of them. My plans - at my R1 I drop 28 homefleet defence and keep all my builds at my threatened HW. Even merchant haulers stay put. At my other HW I start sending my builds via the safer universe (square grid) to reinforce my HW. I'm not sure if FATE will come in slow enough but if he does come in 1 world at a time I have 3 turns to prepare defence. On my offence I manage a small reinforcement at R2 but the majority of my forces rush the FATE HW. Will I be as lucky again and be able to destroy the HW? DUNE fired at me with homefleet and sent a small reinforcement to show me I'm not wanted. I'm glad I left and hope he got the friendly message. Still no other players on my territory and my border probes have all been negative. T14 I land at the FATE HW and see that it's a robotic ZETA HW. Makes me wonder why the one I had destroyed was in the berserker's name. I assumed that the pirate was the better character to collect worlds. I have 145 ships on 5 keys versus 93 ships on 13 keys (includes 6 builds - remaining industry suppressed and 23 homefleet). Despite the homefleet I decide to use the same plan and only 62 of my ships fire AI and the rest fire at random enemy keys. I manage to capture 3 more FATE worlds but I haven't gone to any more new ones as I concentrate on the HW. FATE COUNTERATTACK On my ground - those 185 ships of FATE move in 1 world to R2. Another 41 ships on 2 keys move to another R2 world. I also see 6 ships on 3 keys move into the R3 world. Total is 232 ships on 9 keys moving in. I have 148 ships with builds at the threatened HW this turn. There are another 36 ships in the pipeline from my other HW. In 2 moves I could have more ships than FATE at my HW so I'm still hoping for slow movement. Interestingly I see an incursion of VEGA at one of my border worlds but after the gifts back and forth between us I choose to ignore it and hope he will pull back now that he sees that it's my world. At that square grid FATE border world where I have 33 ships I see APEX/URSA arrive with 70. A world deeper I arrive at an URSA world with 38 ships to his 41. I decide to leave both worlds. I probe everywhere. One key returns to my area and the other wanders around mapping. I hope URSA/APEX realize I just let them have a FATE world as an act of good faith. I'm hoping to get this border mapped better because it appears to me that URSA/APEX were only met because they had invaded FATE also. T15 VERY INTERESTING TURN!!!! FATE/ZETA realize my tactics and the hopelessness of their situation. They decide to switch to offence and abandon the ZETA HW to me. I reinforced it too. I had 188 ships on 7 keys, captured 2 keys and destroyed the industry. They now have no HWs. The bad news - 92 ships on 9 keys land on my ring 3 world to further threaten that HW. What do they have in my area - well, once again they advanced 1 world to my R1 world with 237 ships on 9 keys. They didn't risk the ambush. At ring 2 they left 3 ships to capture the world and the R3 world has 16 ships on 9 keys. The plethora of small keys makes me think I can see the majority of his forces - about 348 ships on 27 keys. I don't think they can all hit the HW this turn because he either has to leave 56 ships to clear my ambush or he has to land the reinforcements at ring 1 to clear it next turn. Still, this leaves a possible 237 to 300 ship range that can hit the HW. If I can manage enough I ships on the ground to preserve building AND leave enough in the air to avoid 3to1 capture I can have 275 ships (with builds and 35 ships in the pipeline coming home). I figure my forces at the ZETA HW can't get home for 2 moves and this assumes there isn't an enemy ambush at ring 1. Next turn will determine the fate of my HW so I decide that I am not going to bring everything home from my war. I send 68 ships back to my area as reinforcements, ships from my safe HW and I send 120 ships throughout the ZETA area to grab as many worlds as I can. Remember, the goal is still to grab 87 worlds and there should be no opposition inside ZETA now. As to APEX/URSA - They left the FATE world closest to me and I left both our contested worlds. In addition I bump into a larger URSA key inside ZETA. It's obvious now that URSA/APEX is invading FATE/ZETA as well. They are reaping the benefits of grabbing worlds while I face the wrath of FATE/ZETA for destroying both their HWs. All my probes reveal that URSA/APEX have a lot of their worlds now. I continue to probe and take keys to unknown worlds but basically I leave whenever I encounter these guys to remain friendly. I get a gift world from HERA. No strategic information from it and it was on my border. I figure HERA is in trouble and trying to give stuff to his friendlier neighbors. T16 SURPRISE!! FATE/ZETA doesn't invade my HW yet. Yes, he takes my Ring 1, brings in a few small reinforcements. The Ring 3 world he was at - he brings his 92 ships to ring 2. I am right behind him at R3 with 68 ships. He is being very cautious and not tempting ambushes. I keep pipelining ships to my HW and from the periphery I follow him in. Inside FATE/ZETA I'm at 13 worlds on both sides of the universe and I've captured 3 of them. I've encountered APEX/URSA at 3 worlds where they were either larger than me or their first and once again I leave. I revisit the first FATE HW where I left 5 industry intact and it's unguarded, ready for capture. A probe of the HERA border shows me that he is being invaded by VEGA at two worlds and he arrives at the world gifted to me. I expect him to take it also but I harbour no ill will. We established our friendly borders with gifts and I'm sure he won't encroach. I have no idea what ISIS/DUNE the eventual winner is doing at this point. My continued probes never show me more than a small hauling fleet at our border. Similarly YETI/MARS are a mystery to me. It occurs to me that they may be busy with each other since I can account for the other 4 teams. T17 THE BIG INVASION. FATE/ZETA bring it all to my HW. They leave no ambush at R1. I have about 86 ships on various keys out at R2 and R3 worlds that can fly in but at the HW he has 340 ships on 27 keys. This is everything he owns and is his last stand. I have enough Iships to preserve builds and enough in the air that I avoided capture. I have a total of 365 ships on 16 keys. Although I appear to have more firepower, I am severely outkeyed and in a firefight I could easily hit 16 keys of 1 ships and the next round would finnd me with as few as 200 ships versus his 324. Even worse, if I dropped 170 Iships to protect my industry, my firepower drops to 280 ships which is inferior to the enemy forces. Even if I hit nothing and he achieved full hits I could take my remaining 195 orbiting ships and have them reduced to as low as 20. What this means is that to drop this many Ishps leaves me very vulnerable to a pirate capture if he shifts his ships to the pirate and my survivors drop below 100 in orbit. Another problem with this scenario is that if he decides that he wants my HW to try and stay in the game he can do a large R attack and capture my homefleet. So, in essence I surmised that I couldn't safely defend the industry without risk of pirate capture and loss of the homefleet. To defend successfully against a force of 340 ships you need equal shots, no risk of pirate capture and you must ensure that you can target all the berserker keys so they can't successfully robot attack. The latter is easy if there are only 1 or 2 keys but in this case I faced 8 berserker keys. My plan was to lift the Iships into orbit and firefight. In case the enemy was studying my fleet deployment I decide consciously NOT to transfer ships between keys. A smart player might anticipate a veteran might make smaller keys large and vice versa. Trying to get around the think and double think of whether you should make transfers or not, I often opt to flip a coin and vary it turn to turn so that I can't be anticipated. I do bring in all my reinforcements because it's a high priority to kill as many enemy ships while I know where they are. And they will be at my HW until it's either captured or killed. As to the rest of my territory, no incursions and FATE/ZETA is only at my HW. On offence - I've captured 7 more FATE/ZETA worlds, am occupying 4 others and at a FATE R3 I encounter an ISIS world so I withdraw. I did capture that ZETA 5 industry HW remnant. I continue to fan out in the conquered lands and spread myself thin, risking pirate capture by other opportunistic players, but hoping for more worlds. My world count is now 54. HERA gifts me another world T18 My HW - well, FATE/ZETA wanted to make sure my HW died. They fired all 340 shots AI and succeeded. They also put a majority of their ships (247) onto one FATE key to preserve their ships. In all they lost 10 keys leaving them with 17 keys and 301 ships. They only lost 39 ships. I didn't lose any firepower or keys and brought reinforcements. At this point I have 456 ships on 23 keys. I figure that he has no reason to stay now and building on the success he's had here today he will now try to find my 2nd HW. The fleet pipelining from my other HW drops 10 Ishps as ambush and moves one world in - it's a laying down a minefield. Meanwhile I have the advantage of more keys and 50% more firepower so with luck I could potentially destroy 116 fleeing ships and I decide to inflict some damage. I send one lonely key out towards my HERA border. Since he was kind enough to gift to me while under fire perhaps he won't mind if I grab worlds. At this point I'm more concerned about keeping my remaining HW alive and killing off the enemy in my midst than worrying about Victory Conditions. In another annoying move, FATE manages to find a key of 17 ships to visit his 5 industry ex-HW and capture two of my small refuelling keys. He could take this world back and I have to come rescue it rather then allow him the ability to build any ships. I capture back 6 enemy worlds (one being my lost R1 world) and am at two more uncontested. I also manage to slip over the ISIS border again at R4 of the conquered realm and I leave to show that I'm not a threat. I can't afford to be a threat while under heavy fire. Nobody enters my airspace. T19 Things get tricky. FATE/ZETA make their move with only 2 of their keys containing 255 ships - a pirate and berserker key to the R1 world on the square grid universe where the HWs are closer together. Clearly they intend to take a slow cautious look for my other HW, trying to avoid ambushes. They have lost another 46 ships in the run and 15 keys. At their HW remnant they use 12 ships to AI and destroy the remaining industry. That's OK as I capture their key. Their remaining small keys run to my border to give me more grief. Here's the new wrinkle. URSA slips over my border again with 54 ships on 2 keys where we both backed off only a few turns ago. He knows I live here so I figure this is a new invasion. What's worse is that this border is for my surviving HW. And ISIS/DUNE comes in on 4 worlds, capturing 1 in the old FATE/ZETA territory. I can't fight URSA/APEX and FATE/ZETA's 255 ships together from my surviving HW and mount a third war with ISIS/DUNE in my new area that lacks industry. I probably can't survive this but I make my plans. My plans At my dead HW - I send 123 ships to towards the surviving HW as defence. I build I ships at this surviving HW so if the enemy arrives in 3 turns (he likes coming 1 world at a time) he will be greeted by 120 Iships and 123 ships and so there will be at least equal forces. Meanwhile I send 181 ships to R1 to fight him. If he stays to capture I have a chance at a firefight. Any chance to fight him even with less forces is good as he can't build replacement ships. I also leave 101 ships behind to claim neutral keys. It can't be less in case he tries a crafty move and doubles back to the dead HW to attempt to capture the keys also. I can't risk pirate capture. I also manage to move 50 ships to between URSA/APEX and my HW to put up a defence. At two worlds I accidentally slipped into their territory I back off. Inside FATE/ZETA I have lots of forces to rally and send to wherever ISIS/DUNE has encroached but I withdraw at a world that I wandered to that ISIS owned. So I'm still trying to be polite by not firing on their holdings in the hope that there may be a way to avoid an altercation. This proves to be a good plan actually. MARS is moving on HERA worlds gifted to me. Gives me intelligence that those two teams are still at war. T20 INCREDIBLE GOOD LUCK!!!!! Politeness as a strategy works. I backed off of URSA/APEX and ISIS/DUNE and they withdrew from 6 worlds too. So the only team I'm fighting this turn is still FATE/ZETA. FATE/ZETA do the unimaginable. They actually crossed an ambush of 3 ships to land at a R3 world with 248 ships on 2 keys(now putting them R2 to my surviving HW). Their other small keys - 24 ships on 3 keys move next door to R3. My Plan. The 181 ships I was pursuing with will move to my R1 world in case the enemy moves here this turn. I capture 25 neutral keys at my old HW and I was planning to move the 103 ships to the FATE/ZETA armada in pursuit. With a total of 28 keys I figured that he wouldn't be able to target the large keys and I could whittle down his forces while he couldn't pirate capture me. HERE'S WHERE I MADE MY BIG MISTAKE!!! See T21. In all my repositioning to fight off 3 teams I don't capture any new worlds and my only exploration puts me on yet another ISIS border world which I will back off of. T21 THE BLUNDER. I guess FATE/ZETA got tired and dropped. They gifted their two keys with 248 ships to URSA. I send in my 28 keys but the one with the most ships I send to the wrong world, which is only different in number by one digit. Did I screw up the number, get confused or change some orders without realizing the consequences? I'm not sure in retrospect but I remember being appalled by the capture of 28 keys and 57 ships by a player that quite obviously was dropping. I had intended on sending a force that couldn't be captured. FATE also brought some loose small keys in for a grand total of 32 keys and 312 ships. Now I had to worry if FATE/ZETA might run another move with these keys or would URSA be so happy with their windfall that they would continue to attack me with these ships. So far we had both withdrawn from each other. The good news, ISIS crosses my border with a small 7 ship key which I'm sure will retreat. The bad news, VEGA also comes over my border with 54 ships and it's in my home area where we settled borders at T4. This was no mistake. So in addition to my blunder I still have the spectre of fighting FATE/ZETA, URSA/APEX and now VEGA/STYX. My plan - all my ships go to 3 worlds. I am no longer keeping even defence forces inside the FATE/ZETA. I go to protect my remaining HW, to my R1 world and to the world where the key fiasco occurred and I pray. World collecting comes to a halt but I have 63 worlds and am more than two thirds to Victory. Is anyone else this close? T22 Three things happen. First, VEGA fires on me at our border taking the world and declaring that we are now at war, second FATE/ZETA do not move and they remain a dropped player. Interestingly, URSA gifts one of his keys to APEX and transfers ships so he owns the two in each of his names in almost equal forces. Why didn't he leave or fire? I'm mystified by this action but I have brought 277 ships on 10 keys. He should have a clear idea that I was fighting FATE, that I'm an idiot who loses 28 keys AND I'm prepared to get them back. All those border probes finally pay off and I see URSA/APEX at two worlds on their side of our border with 210 ships between them. Finally, once again, ISIS comes over a border with a small key again but I'm not too worried because YETI gifts me a world under fire by ISIS and I probe another MARS world gifted away to try and avoid ISIS. He looks busy but It still doesn't look good with me facing two teams. I decide to fire over 200 shots at URSA and take the remaining ships to the closest VEGA front. Meanwhile VEGA has pushed into me on multiple fronts at from both sides of the universe (hex and grid) and at both HWs. Obviously I have little left defending the area centred on my dead HW but there was a moderate size key on the old FATE border that could be brought in to defend. In all, he is at 4 worlds with fleet sizes of 28, 85, 54 and 56 ships. I concentrate on bringing the largest keys I can to the three worlds hoping for a pirate capture scenario while he takes the worlds. T23 URSA/APEX retreats from my area to his border! An incredibly friendly thing to do since he had 250+ ships deep in my area (gifted from FATE). He didn't invade me with those armadas on our border. In fact he transferred his ships mostly to the 1 key I didn't target and only lost 30 ships leaving him with 214. I only neutralized one key. Why was he doing this? As far as I knew they were the only team without a target Were they under fire? I needed to encourage URSA to ignore my aggressive behaviour and continue out of my area so I decided to gift URSA/APEX his key back and give him a way out (cancel ambushes) to show him I'm friendly even though I shot at him. VEGA/STYX - Things are going pretty well. Now that I feel URSA is leaving my area I notice that I haven't lost many ships in the wars and they are all clustered near my HW. Actually in ideal position to defend, pirate capture or start a push outward. VEGA- fires at all the worlds he was at and only pushes to one new one of mine with 53 ships. At the worlds where I engaged him - I will kill him 242 to 85 ships at one, 149 ships to 56 at another and takes the one I couldn't defend. I decide to fire on him and start my push into his area. With only 1 HW I need to stay concentrated to try for pirate captures. I will concentrate on military and if I win - then consider grabbing the other 26 worlds I need. My thoughts about the other teams: ISIS/DUNE fighting YETI/MARS HERA/PAVO - ?dead - were fighting VEGA/STYX who now seem to have time for me. FATE/ZETA - dead T24 URSA - he leaves my territory with that 214 ships key. He sees my gifted key and all worlds leading from this world to his border have their ambushes turned off. I see more evidence on probe as all the YETI/MARS worlds on my border come under fire from ISIS. At least they are busy. VEGA/STYX - we both push into each other this turn but I think I got the better of him. Defence - at one world I effect a 71 ship/2 key capture with over 200 of my pirate ships. One of these keys were the survivors of my overwhelming forces next door. The other world where I outgunned VEGA he moved deeper into my area only to meet my next outward wave. He brings a fresh 64 ships to a new world and in my area with the dead HW I finally meet up with his first wave where we are squaring off 27 ships to my 20. He also brings another 14 ship key into this area. In summary he has come into 3 new worlds and only 1 harbours a moderate size key of 64 ships within reach of my 200 ship armada. My counter attack lands on his R2 with 45 ships on 3 keys and I manage to land on R1 with 129 ships on 2 keys and I can now see that 2 of the connections are potentially the HW. On the other grid I enter 2 border worlds and capture another 25 ships on 1 key. Plan - I fight off the invaders I can see but I push out very hard while I have the advantage and make a guess at the HW. During all this fighting my world count has fallen to 60 but I'm feeling that I will not be defending much longer and my VEGA offensive will get me the worlds I need. T25 VEGA/STYX misses his turn. Offence - my 149 ships/4 keys go to the wrong world but my probe sees the VEGA HW with only 5 keys of 1 ship in the air and 30 Ishps. On the other grid I land 25 ships at the other (STYX) R1 and can probe the two worlds that are candidates for the HW. I've captured 5 of VEGA worlds and my world count jumps to 65. My plan is to Keep fanning out in their territory to grab worlds but I'm also thinking of grabbing the HWs if they are not defended well. Defense - I manage to capture 56 ships/ 3 keys and I'm making up for my lack of a HW quite nicely with my pirate abilities. There is only 1 world left with a VEGA force of 64 ships and I can spare 144 ships to go destroy it. ISIS sends two keys over my border - this time I know he is not lost because one is 79 ships and the other is 50 ships. I send 174 ships to the world with 50 ships with the intent to capture and prepare to fight another war. T26 - first iteration - before declaring the winner. I've achieved my highest world number at 66. I am at 13 worlds with intent to capture. At my present expansion I would bet that in two turns I could exceed the Victory conditions. VEGA HW - I have 168 ships on 10 keys, have captured all the enemy keys in the air and can take the HW intact. At the other VEGA HW I have 128 ships on 13 keys, captured all the enemy keys in the air but will need 2 turns to capture because of the 60 Iships and 19 builds left. I managed to capture that key of 50 ships from ISIS/DUNE while that large key of 79 takes one of my worlds. THE ONLY PROBLEM IS - ISIS/DUNE is at 5 worlds of mine, not always in much force but the intent is obvious. He has already fanned out tremendously and captured enough territory to win the game. I don't think I could have gone any faster. At many points I was on the verge of fighting 2 or 3 teams. Surviving the counterattack of FATE/ZETA was time consuming but important. Having my ships all close to each other because of this probably helped me defeat VEGA but again, I needed time to do this before I could go after his worlds. I wonder if my agenda would have accelerated at all if I hadn't lost control of those 28 keys? The big problem - ISIS/DUNE (Gary Schaefers) wins the game with a resounding 93 worlds! I'm not sure who he fought as he hasn't sent out a narrative but obviously he was successful. Great game. It was always interesting and I often felt that I was facing extinction mixed in at the end with a feeling that perhaps I could be the winner. Elliot The MARS/YETI Perspective By Lou Sheehan I have been asked to supply a narrative about 1. what I was doing, 2. my plans, 3. my motivations and 4. my successes without too many references to specific worlds or key numbers. I previously had played in one private game in the late '70's but at that time I was still learning "the ropes." In this game I played two Berserker positions: Mars and Yeti. In retrospect, the crucial events in my game were: 1. my choice of player types, 2. my early expansion/Hera's attacking me, 3. perhaps signaling Hera's attack on me to other players, 4. perhaps retaking a few worlds from Isis, and 5. several careless mistakes. CHOICE OF PLAYER TYPES Years ago (in the early 90's) I had a discussion with Rick Loomis about Bitter End Starweb games. As I recall, I expressed my opinion that the Merchant position would be best in that context (I often play the Merchant position) but Rick countered that almost all of the Bitter End games were won by either a Pirate or a Berserker. As of late I've been playing the Berserker position rather than the Merchant position in standard games. As such, I'm becoming increasingly aware of the power of the Berserker position in standard games. In retrospect, SW -XM/240 was not a Bitter End game. The victory conditions were different AND we each were playing two positions. (However, I was VERY surprised the game ended after only 26 turns.) Arguably, I didn't have the courage of my convictions as I chose to play two Berserker positions. At the end of the game I learned that 5 of the 7 players - including the winner - chose the Merchant position as one of their player-types. In my next game like this, at least one of my positions will be a Merchant. I often and sorely missed the enhanced hauling capability of the Merchant position. EARLY EXPANSION/HERA'S ATTACKING ME I normally "keep my head down" when I play Starweb. I decided to play a little differently -- for the sake of variety - in this game. Nevertheless, I didn't play so aggressively as to start or cause a war. Clearly, by Turn 6 the Hera/Pavo player had chosen me as his target. In time, the Hera/Pavo player drove my Yeti homeworld neutral. I can only imagine he was thrilled (sarcasm) to find out the Yeti homeworld was populated by robots as he was playing Pirate/Merchant. Perhaps I made a mistake by plundering worlds and dropping consumer goods in an effort to confuse the other players? By Turn 16 Hera had been driven (or retreated) from the Yeti homeworld; my Mars position now owned both homeworlds. As is standard in these situations, Hera left behind many empty keys. Of course both Hera and I lost many ships due to Hera's unequivocally unprovoked aggression. SIGNALING TO OTHERS Perhaps what saved my (damaged) Yeti position was my gifting worlds being attacked by Hera to other players in the game. Obviously, the intent was to inform other players that Hera was attacking me. This type of move carries appreciable risk. I was also signaling that I as well as Hera were probably weak due to losses. The giftees could just as well have chosen to attack me rather than Hera or in addition to Hera. Whatever was the result of this effort, if any, in a few turns I could find no evidence of the Hera/Pavo position. In fact, I determined that at least one of his homeworlds had been PBB'd. RETAKING A FEW WORLDS FROM ISIS With Hera's retreat/evacuation, I was free to rethink my strategy. I started to build many more industry at my homeworlds. I also engaged in a limited reconquista in the Yeti area of a few worlds that I had previously owned and had been taken by Hera and that were subsequently taken by Isis. I was guessing Isis was fighting Hera and so my reconquista would be only a small irritation to Isis. Shortly, Isis was all over me. I don't know if he attacked me because I retook some worlds from him or he knew I was weak. I tried to signal my dilemma to other players via gifting attacked worlds but, as best I could tell, that effort had no effect. Where did Isis get all of those ships?!? The ratio of Isis ships IN MY AREA to ALL of my ships was 1530 (plus a PBB) to 625 on turn 24 and I had quickly lost the Yeti homeworld several turns ago. My best guess was that Isis must have had some very successful Pirate captures. As an example, on Turn 23 in his effort to attack me, Vega inadvertently stumbled into an Isis Pirate capture with his 131 ship key! (Vega lost 131 ships.) But then, why was Vega attacking me when it was obvious I wouldn't win the game? CARELESS MISTAKES My personal life was busy which resulted in some careless errors. None of the errors were critical but at least every other turn I would do something along these lines: several times I moved BOTH a Yeti and a Mars key to a world and thus couldn't capture the world. CONCLUSION I look forward to playing more private games with twists to the rules and mechanics. Lou Addendum: I would love to hear from some of the other players of SW-XM240 to fill in some of our blanks. El ---------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these? Are you ready for a private game? I'm ready for another Private game. Here is the one I have in mind (again). If you are interested - email me at somnos@accessv.com. RESOURCE LIMITED SCORING SW GAME 1) Limited resource map (High pop worlds will have low mines). (Industry=0-6,mines=10-20,population=2-40,population limit=50) If FBI can - I will make sure the HW has 20 industry. 2) All competitors will agree that they will initially play to score and win. (I realize that later in the game players may need to support others to win when their position sours BUT I want players who will try to play to win in all the player types). 3) Minimum of 4 merchants. If I don't get enough signups I will coerce players to take this position. Failing this - no merchants at all. 4) Limited alliances. You can't declare anyone an ally so the 'A=' is not allowed. It is more cumbersome - but by using the 'Z' order you will allow merchants or others to fly through your area unmolested by ambush and merchants 'at peace' will not suppress your industry. I'm not trying to eliminate alliances - just make them harder to function. 5) The game runs until T20. Why? Because I want there to be enough time that combat can be utilized for neutralizing competitors. I dislike games that end on T14. Neutralizing a competitor is a legitimate way for a player to ensure a high scorer stops and for you to grab more resources and points. I realize that this means the berserkers will know when to drop their bombs so I'm also open to making the end score 14,000 so that we can get 20 turns in and still have an element of surprise over when it ends. If you sign up - let me know if you want T20 or VPT 14,000. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP - is now available on the web. Look for our MAPPER'S SECTION on the SEDG Web Page. http://www.accessv.com/~somnos/sedg.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FEATURE - THE SWAP CORNER STARWEB ANALYZER V1.5 - It's on the web site and it's the final V1.x. We have said that registered clients of any previous V1.x version can upgrade for free at www.flyingmoose.ca so if you have earlier versions you can continue to do so. Unfortunately the programming environment it was created in no longer exists and our next version will be in the StarGame Analyzer which handles both StarCon and StarWeb. The good news is V1.5 is Windows Vista compatible!!!! Currently the StarGame Analyzer is fully functionaly for Starcon (Strategyguild.com). It is still free to try but it lacks help files. It is similar enough to Starweb that seasoned Analyzer users should not have a problem. The Starweb module is not as advanced as Starweb Analyzer V1.5 so we recommend you stick with V1.5 for SW. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE (Yah - these letters are up to a year old now) From Brian Lease Elliot Having read the number of ships and keys ENIGMA ended the game with in your article it occurred to me what a shame that there are no winner's tournaments so players can continue on with their game in to another web. Put that in your correspondence folder! Best regards, Brian Editor: I think the FBI pool of players is so small that most are die hard fans that have won many games already. From Jack Fulmer: Hi El! I wish that I had another article itching to flow from my typing fingers (two, both index ones) but I don't. I too would like to see more issues of SEDG. If you know anyone who plays multi games reasonably often give them a nudge. Since multis are my most frequent type I would be interested in seeing articles about them by someone else. How about one by someone who has played several games as an MBA character combination? That's one that I seldom play but is a very common, probably the most common, combination in multi-SW. Surely someone out there thinks that they are the expert on MBA play. Regards... Jack Editor: I would welcome further articles of any sort. Sadly, I think interest in SW is waning. As to unique multigames - I think our readers would be interested in our present game. Jack is currently holding 6 positions and playing my team of 3 players with 6 positions (2 each) with the goal of having all our players exceed the VPT. We are on T7 and looks to be a lot of fun. John Galt wrote: This is primarily a personal reply to the invitation to join the variant games, but feel free to publish my comments on their merits. Right now I have only limited net access (1-2 times/week), so will only attempt a game if it is slow and preferably anonymous as well. That said, most of your ideas interest me but with some reservations. Elliot T. Hudes wrote: > SW Variants I Would Play In > A) RESOURCE LIMITED SCORING SW GAME I like this variant as written, except for the no-Ally-order rule which is a deal-killer for me. If you want to prevent or limit alliances, make it an anonymous game or filter all messages through a GM who will limit the cooperation among players in some neutral way (and prevent players from discovering each other's identity so he can't be circumvented). My earlier article proposing a set of WWBP-like messages for anonymous Starweb was an attempt to achieve that same end, in order to stop the common unfair practice of people automatically allying (if not quite "pre-allying") because they know each other from previous games. If I were playing this variant, I would suggest neither ending at VPT 14000 nor T20, but something random such as Turn (18 + 2d6). > B) BERSERKER/APOSTLE UNIVERSE. This is interesting as is. I suspect the Apostles will have no chance because it is much easier to robotize or nuke a world than to make it human-populated again once either has occurred. > C) HIGH RESOURCE UNIVERSE > > My goals here are to have a game that is richer in resources so that > the first 8-10 turns, which are usually dedicated to exploration and > build up, may be concentrated into fewer turns. Hang on a minute. I like this goal, but I don't think anything in your variant will help to achieve it. So I propose a new variant that will, which I call the Quick Start Variant: 1) Each player is given a starting printout that shows all worlds within 3 jumps (one maximum move) of his homeworld. 2) Each also starts with enough fleets at the homeworld to send one to each (but only the usual 32 ships). The expected result is that every player meets all of his neighbors on Turn 2. That said, your HIGH RESOURCE UNIVERSE variant would be worth a try, but I would add another handicap - double all Pirates' scores. > D) PIRATE ANONYMOUS BITTER END KEY GAME It seems to me that this is exactly how the existing Bitter End variant already works. I once played a Berserker in one and got absolutely nowhere; a Pirate won that game by capturing gobs of keys, and I believe that that always happens. John Editor: Thanks for the comments - and it's nice to republish the names of these variants I proposed again. They didn't get much interest nor signups but who knows - maybe this year... Well, that's it for Volume 89. 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