STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG) (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer - http://www.flyingmoose.ca) VOLUME 61 June 3, 2002 CONTENTS Feature Article – 1) The Flying Moose Technologies' Great White North (Canadian) Starweb Tournament by Elliot Hudes 2) Your Reporter from the Front – By Richard Broman Questions – Apostle scoring, migration and kills SEDG Web Page URL The Swap Corner - Index Correspondence FEATURE ARTICLE The Flying Moose Technologies' Great White North (Canadian) Starweb Tournament by Elliot Hudes After months of hyping this event I'm here now to regale you with the tale of the first Starweb Tournament played in Canada's Great White North (Muskoka, part of Northern Ontario) and sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies. The idea was first put forward by Rick Loomis who, in one of his mailings, mentioned that it might be a neat idea to come up and host a convention for Starweb's Canadian fans. This occurred last July and I was immediately taken with the idea. The first thing I had to figure out was how to pull this off without having to put out the cash personally. After all, this convention would house a maximum of 15 players and we had to be able to bring Rick up from scalding Arizona to frosty Canada on our ticket. Rick already forewarned us that conventions were not moneymaking events. I managed to poll all the local Starweb players I knew plus the players who regularly traveled to Arizona for Rick's event and was able to secure 8 players who would commit to a convention. Pricing the convention at the same rate FBI would allow us to cover the expenses (just barely). So we went for it! I found a summer resort in Baysville Ontario that would rent us units with kitchenettes quite cheaply in April. Why did I choose such a remote setting? Well, various reasons – it's the off season between winter where the resort is booked up by snowmobilers and skiers and the summer where it is a fully equipped resort with sailing, water skiing, windsurfing etc. In April we were reasonably assured that we had escaped the snowstorms and wouldn't risk being snowed in (or snowed out). Rick wasn't put off at all when I joked about doing it in February in Northern Ontario but the weather was a real concern as I spent 3 days in March in a cabin when the region lost power for 3 days due to storms. I had fun trekking to the lake with an axe to secure our water and heating with a wood stove but it wouldn't work if we needed computers fired up for a Starweb game. Besides, the Toronto Hotels, used to corporate business, were pricey never dipping below $100.00 per night. Secretly I was amused with the idea of taking Rick up to the desolation of the Canadian Shield, which housed thousands of lakes and rock faces jutting out from the ground at odd angles, created by the glacier that had scraped away the topsoil 10,000 years ago. As it turned out we treated Rick to three days of intermittent snow storms and on the final day of the tournament he asked if we would need to call the game early to ensure our escape. But I get ahead of myself. Before the convention my two boys (Shawn and Jay – ages 17 and 15) and Mike's (Presidente for life of FMT) son Rob (age 16) asked if they could join the tournament too. They had played a game of Starweb before in a Father-Son tournament we had organized and were keen for a weekend of gaming. Mike and I agreed they could join if space permitted (they could even split the coveted 15th position if it was all that was left). I wasn't worried about a pre-game alliance as the previous game had both my sons gunning for me :-). I secured a hotel room for the boys and made sure they had enough junk food to fuel teenage warp engines for a weekend. Two weeks before the Con we managed to secure a total of 11 players with 2 hailing from as far away as Boston and Las Vegas. In the days just before the convention I received a call from a friend who lived in Vancouver. He was coming in on business the following week but would fly in early if there was room left in the convention – Cool! In those final couple weeks we lost the Las Vegas player to real life. Other problems cropped up too. Two of the local players were having real life invade their gaming but they were determined to play. Would we allow a pregame alliance of the two of them because one couldn't come up until Saturday morning (and he needed someone to do his Friday turns)? Similarly his proposed partner needed to drive from Baysville to Ottawa (over 400 kilometers each way) on Saturday afternoon but promised to return that night to do his evening turn and continue on Sunday. I suggested they might be more successful sharing a position but they insisted they wanted to run two positions and would get them done on time while only one of them manned the fort. We allowed this but I'm sure they regretted it when they found themselves doing up to 12 Starweb turns with only a maximum of 2 hours between the longest of the turns. So the Andy-MikeM partnership of Zule-Eyeguy was born. We hovered at 11 players with my kids questioning me every day on the roster hoping they wouldn't be bumped. Those last few days before the convention were hectic and fun. A lot of planning went on behind the scenes. Rick had a full roster of Starweb maps that could house between 5 and 15 players in case of last minute sign ups and cancellations. I had secured a caterer who would supply us with a continental breakfast and lunch each day in the Convention Center. I remembered those days I spent at the FBI Con and the fact that those crazy gamers played from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. without a break for meals and still taking a final printout with them at night due by breakfast. Since we were only going to run 1 game I figured we might be able to get in as many turns without such nonsense. I wanted us to be able to break by 7 p.m. and be able to enjoy going out for dinner with all the players and still have time for the final set of orders that night without encroaching on sleep time. Things are very civilized in Canada! Eyeguy was in charge of the beer and he wasn't coming until Saturday but Zule remembered and supplied some (whew!). On the Wednesday before the Con I was booked on the night shift. I had it all planned. Come home, sleep the day away, pack, then go pick up Rick at the airport at 7 pm and drive two and half hours to the resort. First glitch, I was too excited and couldn't sleep. Lack of sleep seemed to be the theme I was to play to. Oh well. I managed to pick up Rick and that fellow from Vancouver (Joe) met me there to catch a lift as well. I treated Rick to a Canadian hamburger at Wendy's :-) and a snowstorm, the first of many on our way to the Birch Haven. Joe finds out he is the only player arriving without a laptop or even desktop computer (my son Jay dragged his desktop just so he could use FMT's Starweb Analyzer). Already Joe's strategy formed. He was to ally with the player who could get his turns done fastest so he could use the analyzer when he was done. Since I started teasing him by getting in his face on the drive up ("I'm coming for you Joe!") his ally wound up being my partner in FMT – Mike. The drive up was uneventful and I managed to get Joe, Rick and the kids to their rooms by 11 PM. Joe and I meet Paul (from Boston and the Plan for Thursday night took form. Into town for a beer and camaraderie, only problem is we find Baysville locked up tight for the night. I did mention how remote I put the convention, didn't I? Thankfully Zule shows up and we can enjoy a beer anyway. I'm all tucked in by 1 am and guess what --- right, I can't sleep. Friday morning I met Mike and Rick at the convention center at 8 am to set up for the Convention. The caterer was in during the night and a lovely breakfast is awaiting but all I had eyes for was the coffee as I neared 48 hours without sleep. The players trudged in over the next hour and found tables to set up their computers. Each of us informs Rick privately our chosen game name and character. Just about everyone is quite closed mouthed about their choices. I've already decided that as the host of the event it would be unseemly to go for the victory and the first prize plaque. That was a difficult decision but I announce to the crowd that I'm playing Slumber the Pirate and all I need is 1 good target :-). Joe looks a bit uncomfortable. At 9 o'clock we still don't have 2 players – Ray and Dave have not showed up and Zule tells me that Ray was having some difficulty with babysitting as he has custody of his child. By 9:15 we are unable to find Ray at home and figure he is coming up with Dave and will be late. We don't want to start up 2 dummy positions and have them no show – it would be like having 2 dropout players in the game. This is always annoying as it changes the game mechanics to one where players are fighting over the rotting carcass of their empire. Rick happily accepts playing a position in the interim, until Ray and Dave show up and can take it over. Remember, Rick is processing the turns by diskette as we all have computers so he doesn't see our printouts or our orders and is at no advantage as the moderator. My plan for military conquest was sincere. I decided early not to cripple my area by doing plunders. Since the game had settled into a 10-player game (we chose a 200 world map) I decided that I would only accept an alliance with 2 other players (maximum) and I would be careful to choose players that wouldn't demand my ships back at the end of the game to score with. I was not interested in dissolving my war fleets to fuel some berserker win. Here is what the field looked like on Friday morning. Joe – Billgates the Pirate Mike W – Moose the Art Collector Elliot H – Slumber the Pirate Paul – Ra the Empire Builder Jay H – Greyjay the Berserker Shawn H – Confused the Merchant Rob W – Prowler the Apostle Andy – Eyeguy the Art Collector Mike M – Zule the Empire Builder Rick (for Ray and Dave?) – Rom the Apostle It's a pretty even spread of character types but on turn 1 nobody would reveal what they were playing. To avoid confusion I will refer to the players by their game name. This account will obviously be from my viewpoint and I'm afraid I didn't always know what was going on across the web. There is not much to say about turns 1 – 3. Everybody in the room had played at least 1 game before so I presume everyone did the usual rapid expansion. I know I did. By turn 3 I can see a grid like map pattern forming. I have two squares, one containing 5 worlds and the other encompassing 6. I imagine that the map will wind up being a basic shape comprised of squares and rectangles that will ultimately wrap from east to west and top to bottom. This turns out to be correct. It's a simple map quite appropriate for a convention game where you don't have much time between turns to sort it out. As it turns out many players needed every minute to complete their orders and their maps often remained in a spaghetti pattern with connections that looped around and across each other. I use the extra time between turns to bate Joe. Once I find out he is the other pirate it seems destined that we should butt heads so why not make it fun. Turn 4 – first contact. I have met my son Shawn/Confused, Ra and Prowler. It appears to me that having a merchant early in the game would promote my shipbuilding and early invasion of my target. I take Confused aside and tell him I want an alliance. In fact, I tell him that I want his hauling in return for ships from his HW. Confused wants to win the game and tells me that his game plan is to haul for everyone in the game who will hire him. I didn't have a problem with that but I wanted a close ally who would trade turnsheets and give me his ships. Confused agrees to this as long as I don't object to him hauling for my enemies. I also ask that he keep my turnsheet and his own private, as they will give away my map. He agrees. This turns out to be quite a coup, as Confused's other clients didn't demand his turnsheet nor tell him not to trade his out. This is one of the risks of dealing with merchants. If one doesn't agree to haul only for one alliance you should make sure he doesn't leak information. Prowler seeks me out for an alliance. We had made a great team in the Father-Son game and survived the onslaught of twice the number of players while propelling Rob to the win as a berserker. I turn him down flat, as I don't wish to concede ships to his Jihad late in the game. I did secure a nonaggression pact with him and promise him that he will not be my target as long as he doesn't ally with my enemies. This he agrees to and I find that soon he has created an alliance with my other son – Jay playing as Greyjay the berserker. I have lots of open borders to explore and I was still hoping to find Billgates. When I speak to Ra he is a bit standoffish. I wasn't looking for an ally but he didn't seem too anxious to do more than settle the border worlds we met at. Ra was keeping his options open. This didn't bother me because he would make a good ally, only requiring worlds and I didn't think of an Empire Builder as much of a threat. What I hadn't known is that he was sandwiched between Billgates and myself and hadn't figured out what to do yet. Turn 5-6. True to form Confused gifts me his HW. This ensures that I have control over his shipbuilding and he can start scoring right away. I have now met Zule and Moose on my border on T5 and finally meet Billgates on T6 as I see him scoot thru a ring 4 Ra world to a world that is clearly ring 5 to me. Billgates my primary target lies 3 turns from my HW. Keeping with my plan to target Billgates I enter into a trading agreement with Zule. Remember, Zule is allied to Eyeguy. I promised Zule my HW (he must build to my orders and keep it's location secret) and give my art to Eyeguy in return for an undecided amount of ships. I am trading free and loose. I don't need art and I don't have to own my HW so any ships they free up for me will help and I'm hoping they won't be added to my enemies camp. Now I have to figure out what is going on with Billgates. He as now obviously allied to Moose since they are sitting at the same table and sharing a laptop (sure, sure, Billgates could be borrowing it but I don't think so). This means my decision to give Eyeguy my art is a good one, as I don't want Moose to get it. Besides, Moose fired at me while leaving his world. He claimed that his 3 ships couldn't harm my 1 ship if I kept my promise to leave. Still, I didn't enjoy it and I'm happy he is in the Billgates camp. I deal with Ra next. He claims he is trading for worlds with both Billgates as well as myself. A neutral Empire Builder? It could happen and I didn't want to push things with him too far and possibly force him into the enemy camp. I make an agreement with Ra that our border will be impassable. I won't come over to him and vise versa even if we wind up in different camps and go to war with each other elsewhere in the web. I did this to have a secure border and only have to worry about my sole Moose border. Ra agrees to this so I go on further to invite him to a ring 5 world on this border and will allow him to take it from me. I told him that he could pay me with whatever number of ships he thought was fair once his HW was up to full builds (No interest, pay nothing until 2003 :-)!. I was trying to make it as easy as possible to keep him neutral but I did imply that I wouldn't cry if he joined me versus Billgates. Ra decides to stay neutral but takes me up on the idea of taking border worlds for ships. Around the web I notice Rom talking to Greyjay and Prowler so the Apostles and Berserkers were making agreements. That made sense as they can multiply their scoring by the number of them that participates. It was 7:30 pm on the first day when we get the turn 7 printout and everyone agrees that we would turn in these orders in the morning. Somehow during T5-7 Confused has managed a hauling contract for my enemy Billgates. He also starts hauling for Zule, Eyeguy, Greyjay and Prowler. Ra, Rom and Moose do their own hauling. As it stood then there were 4 camps forming. I was allied to Confused the Merchant. There was an alliance of Greyjay/Prowler loosely tied to Rom. Moose/Billgates allied and Zule/Eyeguy were as well. Ra appeared neutral. I had a ton of side deals for ships with Zule, Eyeguy and Ra but had not allied with any of them. T7 and T8 were turning points in the game. A lot happened through this game that made it interesting and the many Starweb newbies involved didn't have the usual Starweb phobia for backstabs as I found out the hard way. On T6 Zule owns my HW. Confused gifts me a key with 7 ships. I wasn't expecting this so early so I send it to an unowned ring 3 world on his border. Confused said he had no idea who was there. On T7 I land and take an undefended Billgates world. Since I don't feel the need to explain to my prey details I just say that I'm exploring my borders and will withdraw. Billgates who has heard me boast all day long tells me that he doesn't buy it and that this is the thin wedge of my invasion force. Actually, I was telling a limited version of the truth. I was exploring the Confused border with the key and I would never have started an invasion with a paltry 7 ships. Why give away where I'm going with so small a force? I didn't reveal that I was getting the ships from Confused but they must have known. I think Confused must have met Billgates there and forgot to put it on his map. Apparently during T7 Confused also messed up a hauling order for Billgates and there was a confrontation between them where Billgates accused Confused of sabotage and conspiring to invade him via Slumber. Billgates considers blowing his merchant, Confused, out of the game but demands proof of his loyalty. Again, I get ahead of myself. Friday night we drove into beautiful downtown Baysville, population 400 to dine in a restaurant by the dam. The food was homemade and the camaraderie was excellent. By 10 pm we returned to the resort and met up with the newly arrived Andy/Eyeguy. Zule was relieved as now they could each do a turn and he promised to stay on Saturday for a couple turns before his cross province trek. We had a couple beers and chewed the fat before retiring to do our Starweb turns. As I passed the kids room I noticed them playing a game of Overpower cards. True Gamers! Back at my room I have a message from Ray that he and Dave would not make it up. It looks like Rick Loomis is an official player in the tournament as Rom the Apostle. I managed to turn in by 1 am and get 5 hours sleep. Saturday morning – Billgates demands proof of Confused's loyalty and says if he wasn't trying to backstab he shouldn't have a problem showing him his merchant orders. Confused agrees and all the hauling orders for Billgates are there ready for submission. Confused refuses the demand for his turnsheet stating that he would give away the HW locations of most of the players. In fact, by securing a tight alliance with Confused I was the only player who could see all those HWs including Billgates. I remained Confused's only ally. T8 arrives – and the brown stuff hits the fan. Since the night before Billgates had accused me of invasion with my huge armada of 7 ships. So I decided to make his dream come true and I advanced my small key to ring 2 and brought another 30 ships (from the Confused HW) to his ring 3. Meanwhile I placed 45 ships on the Moose border. In my mind I reasoned that we were fighting 2 HWs vs 2 HWs. But there are a few glitches. Ra does not take that ring 5 world but instead moves 2 keys into my worlds that are ring 3 and ring 2 on opposite sides of my HW. What is going on here? I take Ra aside and talk. He claims that he was taking me up on my offer to take border worlds in return for ships. But the actual agreement was for him to take 1 world last turn and I would tell him which worlds to come to. I ask bluntly if this is an invasion. He claims to be doing what we planned. I don't buy this for a minute. I tell Ra that we had an agreement precluding unauthorized crossing of our border and that I would not let him take those worlds. I do the calculations and I have enough ships collected from small industry worlds to meet his invasion force with equal sized keys and still place my 30 builds on the Moose border. I reason I can still do the Moose invasion with 75 ships and if a full invasion comes from Ra I would commit further builds to defense. I don't give up on my plans for invasion cuzz I believe that defensive wars are hard to win in Starweb. Ra finally confesses that he has joined the Billgates/Moose camp and has broken our agreement. I smile, the Ra border is only 1 turn from my Moose invasion fleet. I tell Ra to expect to be repelled and counter invaded. I hate backstabs. (Later in the game Ra reveals that he thought the jig was up, as I would probably see that he owned worlds in Billgates area and vise versa. Actually, I probably would not have been as suspicious of that cuzz a neutral Empire Builder would own worlds in everyone's territory). While I was mulling over this unpleasant turn of events (three on two with me being smaller), I was approached by Eyeguy and Zule. Apparently Eyeguy has been invaded in force by Billgates, 25 ships on 11 keys. It doesn't sound like much but remember it's turn 8, Eyeguy just hired the merchant and is only at half builds while Billgates has a merchant hauling and it makes sense to invade the other art collector if he is trying to promote Moose's win. Obviously Billgates reasoned that I couldn't reach him being 3 turns from his border worlds (and didn't realize that Confused would supply me ships to invade him while hauling for him). Zule/Eyeguy asked for a military alliance vs Billgates. The plan was that Zule/Eyeguy would first and foremost get Confused to full hauling status and any ships left from both their empires would be used to repel the Billgates hordes. I would continue to pump Confused builds into the Billgates area so that he would not be able to reinforce. Meanwhile my home Slumber area would take on Ra. The big question was where Moose would put his ships. So, despite the Backstab from Ra and thanks to Billgates invasion things weren't looking too bad for me. While all this is going on Prowler, Greyjay and Rom remained isolated working on shipbuilding and hauling metal. Apparently Greyjay and Prowler had poled many of the players about deals to allow conversions and kills in their areas but nobody was interested since they couldn't spare the ships with the big war shaping up. T9 – Zule manages to get to full builds, Eyeguy is still only half building but the Billgates invasion has disappeared. He has decided to defend his area rather than push into Eyeguy. I think this is a bad military move because now he would have to worry about Eyeguy ships being added to my forces. Inside Billgates my small key was destroyed by his forces at ring 2 but I brought in another key of 30 and outgun his 13 ships. I bring 36 ships from the Confused HW and take an undefended ring 3. Billgates has brought ships to 2 of his ring 1 worlds for defense against the Eyeguy invasion at one world and 30 ships to the one just beside my battle force. Meanwhile the Ra invasion of me is being repelled on one front. I capture one of the invasion forces while the other has been reinforced by Billgates. They have 20 ships to my 10. I had positioned various forces at my ring 1 worlds in case Ra had moved in closer. Since he has not – he still doesn't know where my HW is and I have many ships free to defend against Billgates. My Moose invasion force arrives at the Ra border. Prowler asks me if he can bring some ships into my area to convert stuff. I don't see any reason to tick him off so I agree. In the alliance of Greyjay and Prowler they both seem to want to win the game. T10 – Zule drives to Ottawa and leaves Eyeguy in charge of their dual empires. The turns are taking 2 hours now. Eyeguy has given me 22 ships which I have placed ring 3 to Billgates. I leapfrog my ring 3 key thru ring 2 to ring 1. Billgates manages a 13 ship ambush and cackles triumphantly. He has 48 ships at ring 1 to my 22 survivors. They know me too well from previous games and my penchant for running ambushes. My plans to secure ring 1 and take a fast run at the HW are dashed and he knows it. I still have 30 ships at his ring 2. I decide that I must move all I have to ring 1. Eyeguy finally gets to full builds and that means as of T12 I can shower Billgates with 60 ships/turn. Inside Ra I did the same gambit – rushed the border taking a 2 ship ambush to land on ring 2 and make a surprising capture of a Moose key with 7 art! I only have 28 ships inside Ra so far. The only battlefront inside my territory is on the Ra front so I stopped here with my 43 reinforcements. Ra and Billgates decided to stand and fire without reinforcing so I capture 15 ships and 3 keys and have completely cleaned the enemy from my area. I have 69 ships available now for offense. The Zule HW is too far from Billgates and are no longer needed to defend Eyeguy. Zule places 30 ships on his side of the Ra border. The big question – where are the Moose ships? So far all I have seen inside Billgates and Ra are what they could have produced for themselves. Confused moves into first place with 2600 points, 500 more than the next player in line. Nobody notices. He is still hauling for 7 HWs. Prowler arrives at my border with 40 ships and 2 keys to start some conversions and perhaps Jihad attacks. Greyjay stands at 180 points in dead last! T11 – Billgates area – Billyboy fries my key of 22 ships at ring 1 as predicted. He has 55 ships and 12 keys here now defending. Next door, I have consolidated 82 ships and captured 2 keys for a total of 5 keys. I have 50 more ships at two other ring 3 worlds. Eyeguy has moved into some peripheral Billgates worlds and is capturing them, as they lay undefended because I am so much closer to the HW. At the HW unknown to me laid 67 ships, 30 builds and many keys. I certainly didn't have overwhelming force. I plan to bring whatever I can scrape together to ring 1 for T12. Ra invasion – I gift Eyeguy the captured art at ring 2 and it's up to him to escape with it. I move 26 ships to ring 1. My defense force of 60 ships and 5 keys moves into a ring 3 Ra world. At another ring 3 Ra world my 23 ships/3 keys encounter 56 ships/4keys of Billgates/Ra (Ouch, that's gonna hurt). Zule has moved 30 ships to ring 2 and reinforced with 30 at ring 3. We decide to fight where we encountered resistance and to move in elsewhere except at ring 1. I don't know where the HW is and I don't want to stumble on it with 26 ships as they would be wiped out (looking over Ra's turnsheet now I see he had 70+ ships and another 30 build so I was correct). I decide to sit still and probe. At least I might ambush a hauling fleet. Slumber (my area) – there is a new Billgates invasion at a ring 4 world. It's the furthest Ra border I have and somewhat closer to Moose. Are the dreaded Moose armadas about to mount a counter strike? I am outgunned 42 ships to 18. WHO IS WINNING THIS WAR? Greyjay/Prowler ask if they can do some kills in my area. I decide that I will acquiesce to any requests that don't use up my ships. I offer to let their keys stay over small industry worlds and to R attacks and AP. And if they robotize some worlds would that slow down a Billgates invasion? Confusion is now at 3400 points, an increase of 800 points and is ahead of Eyeguy by 600. Has anyone noticed? It's now 6 pm and everyone is tired. Eyeguy can't face another double turn and we decide to take the T12 printout to our rooms and go to the booming town of Huntsville (population 13,000 – a big city in these parts) for dinner. I should tell you that when you are in close quarters with all these players you start to get to know some of there quirks. Rick can guzzle diet soda all day long. I lived on coffee. After receiving a turnsheet a booming laugh from Billgates that deafened the room usually meant the demise of one of my war fleets. Meanwhile, I noticed some short terse words between my sons Shawn (Confused) and Jay (Greyjay). After a lovely dinner overlooking a serene lake we raced back to the resort to start our turns around 10 PM. Zule still hadn't arrived so Eyeguy started delving into both their turns. T12 – That evening I find out that Prowler had fired Confused as his merchant and all the hauling keys had been returned. Similarly Greyjay has asked Confused to dump his last metal. There was some sort of dispute over the disposition of the keys and Confused says that Greyjay threatened to shoot him out of the sky. Tensions mount. Eyeguy and I enjoyed a couple beers waiting for the return of Zule. Eyeguy reveals that he thinks he can take first place with his museums and he wants to win the game. When Zule finally shows up he tells us that he took the Highway 60 route through Algonquin Park and almost hit a moose on the Highway. Was this Moose/Billgates plan too :-). Billgates area – no further ships from Eyeguy. I'm not sure what Eyeguy is doing now other than picking off some worlds out at ring 3. He certainly isn't helping me. I bring another 29 ships from the Confused HW but Confused is starting to balk at gifting a key to me each turn because he wants to maximize his hauling of metal. I politely inform him that if I fall fighting Billgates he will surely come for him since he financed my fight. At ring 1 I arrive with 129 ships/7 keys. Billgates stayed with 55 ships/11 keys. I'm sure glad I didn't rush his ambush again. I have another 49 ships in his area. Billgates has 60 ships (with builds) at the HW and another 67 ships at a ring 1 world I couldn't see. I confer with my allies. The choices are to stay and fight or take the hits and move to the HW. I choose to move with a PBB. There is not enough time in this game to capture a HW and make it useful so I figure that destroying my enemies HWs will be my victory. I've also decided that I must keep my area intact to be the military victor. Ra area – Eyeguy takes the captured art to a world I own but Moose is too smart and arrives with 31 ships to our 2. Moose is ecstatic since the key is dead in the sky. I tell Eyeguy to drop the art to the ground since Moose can only target 1 thing and it will be the key. I send reinforcements. We have probed the HW and it has 68 ships with builds. I have only taken 1 ring 3 world. That ring 3 world where I was under attack by superior forces receives 60 ships worth of reinforcements. I have lost keys here but now I have 85 ships to the enemy 44 which didn't receive reinforcements. Slumber area – The ring 3 world where Billgates outgunned me now has 64 ships/3 keys but Billgates didn't stay – he has pushed to my ring 2 world. I don't see any further reinforcements. Prowler/Greyjay have combined their ships in my area and created a PBB which hovers over a high population world in my area. Greyjay has successfully robotized one of my industry worlds and I notice his score jumped from 75 points to 1352 in 2 turns. It appears that the berserker/apostle alliance lacking any enemies to fight was about to turn on their scoring push. Big bonus for me as I manage 5 hours sleep and arrive in the convention center with my bloodshot eyes and craving caffeine and a few more shots at Billgates. As we turn in our orders on the final day – Sunday, we vote on how many turns to do. Tournament games run until the final due time and the highest score wins. Unlike regular games that have an unknown Victory Point Limit this game has a set number of turns. Billgates wants only 2 turns while all other players ask for 3 full turns plus a 'point turn'. At 2 hours per turn and 30 minutes for the point turn we would be done by 3:30 in the afternoon and can get on the road for Toronto before sundown. A fairly large snowstorm has covered the resort and Rick is getting nervous about the weather. The Canucks in the game don't worry until the snow is ankle deep :-). A point turn is run quickly and you can only do orders that get you points or denies your enemy points. For example as a merchant you can drop your metal but there is no point bringing any more to the HW. T13 – things really start happening. Confused – his score at 5305 is 1300 points ahead of Eyeguy who is unsure if he can make more than 3 museums. Eyeguy/Zule have taken Confused off loader status and so he arrives at their HW without metal effectively firing him from his job. At the Greyjay HW, tired of threats, Confused fires AH neutralizing the Greyjay HW for several turns. Confused is hauling for myself and my arch foe Billgates. Greyjay pushes his score by 1000 points to about 2000. The war – Billgates – I'm at the HW with a PBB, 104 ships and many keys. Billgates has abandoned the HW and plundered it. I cannot see any of his keys in the area and I presume they are either going to reinforce Ra or will appear on my border soon. Confused asks me not to destroy the HW as he wishes to continue hauling. Since this is contrary to my military plans I can't agree. I want the HW dead and my fleets free to pursue Billgates – not protecting a plundered HW that won't produce any worthwhile ships. Ra – At the art world as expected Moose fires on Eyeguy. His key is toast but the art is on the ground of my world. I have arrived with 30 ships and Moose reinforces. He has 60 ships but I can load the art and run and only loose 15 ships. So the art is not going to fall to Moose. I have taken some ships and met Zule at a second ring 1 world. Mostly it's firefights as I take some of Ra's worlds from him so he can't score. Slumber area – Billgates doesn't engage me anywhere. Instead he moves in and is at two of my ring 2 worlds. At one I outgun him 38 to 15. At the other he has 48 ships and captures a killing pair of Prowler/Greyjay keys as well 7 of my ships. My ring 1 worlds are completely undefended. It's now that I see about 70 of Billgates ships arriving from his area. They are still 3 turns from my HW but I can see that he can arrive the turn before the end of the game and smoke my HW. I cannot allow that. I decide to put as much as I can on ring 1 so that if he arrives I can fight and drop homefleet as ambush for his reinforcements. I hear Rom, Prowler and Greyjay plotting their PBB strategies. The Apostles decide they cannot win and will push Greyjay. Greyjay asks for ships for his PBBs but I am cold to the idea. I promise help if my HW is safe. T14 - Confused reacts to being fired by shooting AH and AI at the Zule/Eyeguy HWs. Zule had enough homefleet to survive. Eyeguy didn't. Eyeguy's HW goes neutral and only has 28 industry left. He did the same at Greyjay taking his industry to 26 and keeping it neutral but Greyjay manages to clear Confused from his skies. Confused is losing his scoring base. While he can bring about 40 metal to his HW, I am his last client and I never had many mines. Now half my territory is under Billgates siege and inaccessible and at worlds where Prowler/Greyjay are scoring points they either ambush him or take potshots at the Confused hauling keys. He only manages to bring me 17 metal but I have enough for 3 turns and can survive until game end. As for score, Confused is at 5800 and only rose by 500 points. Eyeguy is behind by 1100 points and Greyjay seems to have only increase by 1000 points to the mid 3000s. At this rate he won't catch Confused in 3 turns. Billgates – his HW dies. I don't see how his map connects to Ra or my own area so my ships are not useful until game end. I gift Greyjay a PBB and fan out hoping to find my way to Ra as reinforcements. Ra – I rushed the HW with Zule. We arrive with 190 ships and a PBB. I love that trick. The defenders are there with 167 ships and we all have lots of keys. There are only 2 sets of orders left after this turn so I decide to make sure the PBB key will survive and I plan to smoke the HW of my backstabbing neighbor. DEATH TO BACKSTABBERS! Also, my run with the art has successfully kept it from Moose – now to rendezvous with Eyeguy. Slumber – Billgates arrives at both ring 1 worlds with a total of 80 ships and multiple keys. Just 3 rings away is a Billgates armada of 160 ships and more keys than I can count. It's a run for my HW before the game ends. T15 – How is the scoring battle going? Confused can't find any metal in my area. Besides you can't send out keys on T15 and unload them if T17 is the final turnsheet. I load a key of 34 ships with my surplus metal and gift it to Confused to unload next turn. What the heck, the ships need to be there on defense. Confused has 6248 points and only brought in another 400 points this turn. He only has an 800 point lead on Eyeguy who assures me he has 3 museums. I think he might have a 4rth museum so I make plans. Greyjay must have dropped a ton of PBBs as his score jumps by 2500 points to 6061 only a couple hundred off the leader. I ask Greyjay if he can do that again or has he gotten rid of all his ships. I figure with 3 HWs building for him he could bring in another 1000 points per turn. If so, he could hit 8000-9000 points. Eyeguy with 4 museums and getting 600 points per turn could bring in 8800. I predict Confused will limp in with close to 7500 points and so it's between the Berserker Greyjay and Eyeguy the Art Collector. Since my ships in Billgates and now Ra are pretty useless I decide to gift 2 PBBs to Greyjay. Billgates – a slew of little key inundate the Confused area including two ring 1 worlds. It certainly isn't the bulk of Billyboy's retreating armadas but it looks like he has decided to take vengeance on Confused for supplying me with ships. Ra – The HW is gone! They decide to firefight me in the air. I lose a key as does Ra and everyone loses a ton of ships. Slumber Area – Billgates misses my HW!!! He didn't know he was at my ring 1 worlds and tried to fly thru my HW. The key didn't survive the flight but now he knows my HW location. The problem for BG is I was successful setting up my ambushes. At one ring 1 world I have 25 I ships. Moose is beside it with 60 ships. The other one has 41 ships in ambush. I counted over 240 enemy ships on many keys at so many worlds that the best of them (70 ships at one world) could get only 30 thru my 40 ship ambush to hit the HW. Remember, we only have 1 more set of orders. Billgates cannot get to my HW with enough force to take out my HW. At one world he loses 11 keys in an ambush by 1 lone homefleet. I found out later that many of my worlds thru either capture without homefleet or gifts didn't give the enemy a proper turns owned count to help them find my HW. Previously in the game when Ra encroached to ring 2 he failed to probe me. T16 – I made a bold move. I overheard Moose offer Eyeguy all his art with museums last turn. This could swing the game heavily into Eyeguy's favor. I saw a nascent Eyeguy museum with 9 art in reach of the key that has the 7 art I liberated from Moose. Should I go and have the power to transfer my art or blow his museum away? I decide to go and I declare Eyeguy a nonally. I arrive and capture the 1 ship key with the 10th piece of art. Eyeguy is peeved and asks if I am going to drop the art for his 4rth museum. I look at the scores first. Will it be worth my while to become backstabbing scum . My only tight ally was Confused. He has 6775 points, another 500 point increase. Meanwhile Greyjey has 9092 and eyeguy is at 6133. Even with 4 museums and 600 points he will trail Greyjay by hundreds of points. Eyeguy tells me he turned down Moose's offer. I believe him so there is no need to sully my reputation and I drop the art to Eyeguy. I have no idea how Greyjay managed this with only 2 allies even though I supplied a couple of PBBs. As a sidebar I noticed in the final turns that Billgates score was rising above my own. Obviously he wanted to brag that he was the ranking pirate. I plunder everything I own but it won't be enough. I decide that my reign of terror, killing 2 enemy HWs while successfully defending my own will have to determine who really was the reigning pirate. As for the battles, Ra/Billgates decide to fight me over the smoking ruins of the Ra HW. Lots of keys get neutralized and our forces are pretty evenly matched. I've captured some Ra and Billgates worlds I intend to plunder but in my own home area Billgates and Moose take my ring 2 worlds and move into ring 1 not risking my sizeable ambushes. This is the scoring turn where we only run orders to gather points or deny our enemy points and so they cannot successfully take my HW from me. Billgates takes a bunch of Confused worlds to promote his score and foul up Confused hauling. He set up a ring 1 ambush for Confused's keys but despite killing 32 ships on 8 keys he manages to arrive at the HW with 81 metal. I had the foresight to leave all the builds last turn as I ships since they couldn't reach a battle front by game's end. Billgates may be able to take some more worlds for plunder but he won't take the HW nor slow down Confused's scoring further. I transfer ships to a Greyjay key at my HW so he can robotize while letting Zule build industry there. I notice that Zule has gifted a PBB to Greyjay. That was strange since he was tightly allied to Eyeguy who still intended to win. I'm not sure what deal was happening between those two camps but suddenly I understand how Greyjay managed to catch up so quickly. He finagled PBBs from Zule and myself in addition to his allies. I suppose Zule didn't think Eyeguy could pass Confused and after their fallout with their merchant decided to help promote the berserker win. This game had a lot of convolutions, many different camps and lots of doublecrosses! Turn 17 arrives – Greyjay smokes everyone to the win! My HW remains uninvaded and fully robotic in Greyjay's hands. I note that Confused and I managed to get him a final 750 points at our 2 HWs by my gift of ships laden with metal. Greyjay had an impressive 6000 point lead on Eyeguy in second place. This was quite the win as Greyjay's alliance with Prowler and Rom quietly sat back from the wars and racked up his score in the final 3 turns of the game. I hear that Eyeguy, Confused and others actively hunted down PBBs in the final 2 turns but that didn't slow Greyjay down by much. In the end there were 3 main alliances and the one that didn't engage in combat garnered the win. BTW, Eyeguy got his 4rth museum, Confused managed to limp to third place with only 1 client and Billgates roared with laughter that he beat my score. I knew he would do that. When it was all over we had the awards ceremony where everyone picked their prize from the prize table (pictures on the Flying Moose Technology web site – www.flyingmoose.ca). Here are the standings. Final Results (1) Jay Hudes [GREYJAY]: Berserker (Score=14807,Worlds=30,Keys=55,Ships=178, Industry=64,Mines=65,People=85,Robots=231,Artifacts=6) (2) Andy Budning [EYEGUY]: Artifact-Collector (Score=8808,Worlds=12,Keys=20,Ships=164, Industry=3,Mines=51,People=982,Artifacts=40,Bonus=2000) (3) Shawn Hudes [CONFUSED]: Merchant(Score=7511,Worlds=10,Keys=19,Ships=142,Industry=2, Mines=44,People=705,Artifacts=4) (4) Mike Wulkan [MOOSE]: Artifact-Collector (Score=6460,Worlds=4,Keys=19,Ships=188, Industry=1,Mines=14,People=252,Artifacts=32,Bonus=1000) (5) Rob Wulkan [PROWLER]: Apostle (Score=6110,Worlds=11,Keys=9,Ships=59,Industry=3, Mines=49,People=46,Converts=896) (6) Mike McCaffrey [ZULE]: Empire-Builder (Score=4938,Worlds=33,Keys=21,Ships=192, Industry=72,Mines=147,People=2755) (7) Rick Loomis [ROM]: Apostle (Score=4525,Worlds=21,Keys=15,Ships=79,Industry=3, Mines=85,People=172,Converts=1419) (8) Paul Morganthall [RA]: Empire-Builder(Score=4021,Worlds=16,Keys=5,Ships=189,Industry=40, Mines=76,People=1308) (9) Jozef Hubburmin [BILLGATES]: Pirate(Score=3799,Worlds=26,Keys=21,Ships=286,Industry=14, Mines=100,People=1499,Artifacts=1) (10) Elliot Hudes [SLUMBER]: Pirate (Score=2211,Worlds=18,Keys=27,Ships=286,Industry=38, Mines=64,People=1193,Artifacts=7) The convention complete, we packed up quickly and enjoyed a three hour drive through wet snow back to Toronto. Rick – it doesn't usually snow at the end of April. Really and truly this was unusual weather and in past years I've been known to water ski by the end of the next week. Really! The next day Jozef (Billgates) and I took Rick to Niagara Falls to show him more water in 10 minutes than Arizona sees in 10 months (a quote from Rick himself). We enjoyed a terrific lunch at a window table in a restaurant poised over the edge of the Horse Shoe Falls. That night those conventioneers that were still available – Moose (and girlfriend Brenda who still hasn't played Starweb), myself (and lovely wife Maureen – A.K.A. Fortisimo the Art Collector), Eyeguy, Billgates and Rick (Rom) enjoyed a steak dinner at the Canyon Creek Chop house in Mississauga. Someone said something about making this an annual event. I'm not sure about that. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun and Flying Moose Technologies will certainly host one again as soon as we manage to forget the long hours of gaming (let's see from 8 am to 7:30 pm plus a night turn that took an hour and a half – comes to a day with 13 hours of Starweb). Besides, I would like to see our group of Canadian players make a trek to Arizona to participate in FBI's Convention in the future. We shall call it the Canadian Invasion! The hardest thing to face after returning from such an intense 3 days of gaming were the 3 Starweb turns that were waiting in my email inbox. I couldn't look at them for two days. When I did finally get to them I finished them off in 75 minutes. That's one side effect of the Con – you get incredibly fast at doing turns. You don't agonize over moves. There will certainly be a 2nd Flying Moose Technologies Great White North (Canadian) Starweb Tournament. Perhaps we shall look to the Spring of 2004. Anyone ready to sign up? FEATURE #2 – Your Reporter from the Front by Richard Broman THE IMAGE Two figures raced across the corridor, perpendicular to its length, bolting from one hatch to its counterpart on the opposite side. There was always an impossibly painful wait while the mechanisms of the station operated their opening subroutines and opened the door. One figure, clothed in splendid fabrics and furs, was so anxious that he pounded on the hatch, hoping it would open. Another, in stark contrast to his partner, clothed in simple sackcloth-like garments, furrowed his brow in consternation. This one's thoughts sounded like, "go with the flow, it's the only way to succeed..." but he said nothing. They both knew who would be on the other side of the hatch. Meeting with the Imperial Magistrate and his partners was essential if they were to survive this brawling infight. Laser blasts and stun grenades were being fired all over this station, and their concussions could be felt in the corridor, and their sounds were everywhere. Both partners thought well of their Third, the computer-mind representative who had spread his program throughout the station and was now usurping as many functions as it could manage. Once through the hatch, they breathed a sigh of relief. Inside the room was the Magistrate, with his own computer-mind robot, and their Operations Exec who at this very moment were peering aghast at a vid monitor portraying the activity in The Web. The two entering from the corridor approached the vid, and their expression mirrored the Magistrate's. What they saw were symbolic representations of whole worlds falling under the sword of piracy. The Apostle brought forth his writing stylus, and touching the monitor, checked at several of the world reports. One after another, many of the worlds' status reports were showing seizure, when the only report that could get through was by sub-space telecommunications from the Converts. The Apostle heaved a heavy sigh of grief. It meant that many of the worlds would no longer give full military support in the Jihad. Many Home Fleets would be lost to the oblivion of marauding pirates. With a flex of his brow muscles, the Apostle quickly clicked several operations into the vid screen controller, and commands were sent out to the fleets in space. He continued at this with a frenetic energy brought on by being a Jihadin. Death awaits those who do not act. Then a smile curled across his face. He clicked in more orders. One order gave a loud beep in response, indicating a local effect. The others in the room approached the vid to look closer. The Apostle had given a Deep Command Subroutine to the station, but who knew what it was, only the Apostle. He stepped back and smiled with a flickeringly brief expression. Then he immediately barked orders to his richly clad partner in a cryptic foreign tongue. The only word the other people could understand was "Home" and "Library". With guns fully loaded and a few spare power packs for reloading (as many as they could cram into their belts) they leapt into the corridor, darting and dashing between laser bolts that flooded through the air thick like rain... In the present, the Apostle speaks with his Imperial ally. "I'm sure you remember the time we first met in the station? After the firefight began and we had to scatter? Once we were able to combine forces, we managed to escape the station, which allowed us to continue the fight in our ships. You remember the Deep Command Subroutine I entered into the station's system?" "Yes, I remember. You looked so steeled; I was surprised to see you smile. Then you spoke to your Collector partner in your own battlespeak. I assumed you were talking about his Libraries." "Look at the Webmap." The Apostle clicked on several worlds, all recent seizures of the Pirates. "Here. Here... The Command Subroutine I entered was a mirror. I made it look like fleet movements were being issued from this world..." the stylus touched one world image on the screen, "when you know for a fact they are not. To meet our opponents in a neutral station during war is unprecedented. I counted on the possibility that they might not expect misdirection coming from the station, or at least that they'd have no protocol to fall back on to take that possibility into account..." The ramifications sunk into the Imperial Magistrate and a wry smile crossed his face. "You made a decoy." "Yes, in a manner of speaking. Look at the map. Everywhere you look, Pirates. They've infested space like insects. One after another, marauding armadas are taking our worlds. You yourself have lost two Primary Industrial Centers. They haven't appeared on mine, yet... This will be no easy war, and I had to use every trick at my disposal. It's bought us a little time, but I'm sure they won't be misled a second time. The moment has come for a conflagration of battle, my friend. Tell your ship commanders to gather in strength, we'll have no Piracy if we can avoid it." "You know my Berzerker companion won't stand still for a fight over keys." "Yes, I suspect it won't. Mine neither. I've allowed it to execute its Prime Directive because Pirates can't capture metallic populations. Better those souls fall to our ally than to the enemy." "My Berzerker has plans for a huge migration onto Pirate-captured worlds. I'll meet you where I can to avoid being boarded by the Pirates, but I think you understand, there'll be metal in my region's populations too..." The two exchange a wicked smile. THE NUMBERS Rbts Drp'd Cnvts GAINS | LOSSES Industry TURN Drp'd PBBS /Ppl Wrlds Keys Arts | Wrlds Keys Arts DESTROYED 12 250 0 1827/1903 16 4 9(1)| 0 0 1 0 13 293 0 2103/1233 4 0 0 | 6 2 3(2) 9 14 102 1 2328/1054 2(3) 1 0 | 7 6 0 38 15 96 1 2534/783 5 1 3(4) | 3 4(5) 0! 97!! 16 36 0 2729/777 5(6) 0 3 | 7 3 0! 1(7) Numbers are not cumulative. Artifacts are listed as multiples of 15 points. (1) I also gained a Nebula Scroll for no points, but at least it's not in the sweaty mitts of any Pirate! Gained Worlds includes 2 HWs from the dropped player. At this point the war against the active Pirates was just beginning. The loss of 1 Artifact was due to battle at the Home World and my gross miscalculation but I also voluntarily loaded the Radioactive Isotope on my rival PCM1 fleet. This was a gesture meant to motivate my enemy to declare war. (2) Here I made a horrible mistake when I tried to robotize a world with two Artifacts (Pyramid & standard) that PCM2 had made neutral. I dropped robots and left ships on the key instead of making extra robots to take the losses in combat! I didn't understand the rule: losses are taken from robotizing ships before ships remaining on the key. (3) At the neutral's third HW, My ally Berzerker and I had 3 fleets of 58 vs. 2 fleets of 64 and the robot attack succeeds. Three PCM1 HWs have also become robotized, but PCM1 has captured one of my BEM ally's HWs. (4) Three Arts gained by trade with BEM; 1 neutral lost from the dropped PCM's Homeworld to PCM1. The Ancient Pyramid is still on a neutral key. PCM1 take a heavy loss when I destroy a fleet with TEN Artifacts on it, now neutral. (5) Keys lost counting 2 of BEM's working in my region. At this point, several of the lost keys are being captured from being neutral. The battles are concentrating on specific worlds instead of being everywhere. (6) One world gained was the world with the Pyramid and Standard! I'm sure PCM1 assumed I would arrive with Collector fleets AND Berzerker fleets, which would mutually cancel capture, so on the off chance, I declared all non-Collector fleets at peace, and it worked, when PCM1 moved off! You can imagine my sigh of relief... (7) When I saw the Pirates making AI targets, I started to transfer my Iships to Pships, and let the industry be destroyed on the outworlds, but kept a world! This worked, so now they're making AH targeting... And the Ancient Pyramid is STILL on a neutral key... These numbers paint a bloody picture. Gains and losses occur on "both" sides each turn. "Both sides" doesn't really apply, since the battle is tightly 3-D and each triad is intertwined with each other triad. But there is a sense of position to the map. One advantage I've been able to capitalize on is that I didn't share my turnsheet info with them earlier in the game. They did share turnsheets with the BEM player, but then stabbed him. In my book, if you're gonna stab someone, don't exchange turnsheet info. The Pirates have had to make slow advances into my region, but I am probably not the Primary target in their strategy: BEM has taken severe losses, and since I'm not including the figures in his region it should be noted that PCM1 and PCM2 are making huge gains in BEM's region. PCM1 has captured one of BEM's Homeworlds, and PCM2 has captured another and destroyed the industry on BEM's third, the Berzerker Homeworld. A very interesting event turn 16 was recapturing the world PCM2 forced neutral that held a Pyramid and a standard Artifact. I reinforced it on turn 13, and met PCM1 & 2 in fleet-to-fleet battle. I made an error in robotizing calculations so the world remained neutral, and then mysteriously, PCM1 moved off. I never would have expected that, except that the PCM1 world with 10 Artifacts was near, and he may have wanted to reinforce it. I don't think it's that straightforward. PCM1 is a sly player, and he may have wanted me to capture the Art so I'd load them onto a fleet, which can potentially be captured by the swarms of Pirate fleets in the region. So far I have been able to avoid some really important Pirate captures. At one world, PCM1 appears with 163 ships, and I have 56! Eking through by 5 ships! But as you can see by the chart, I've used a lot of ships making robots. Even though I've been able to permanently prevent many worlds from becoming plunder fodder, it comes at a price. PCM1 may not have as much Industry as I do, but he keeps capturing BEM fleets, and hasn't lost that many in combat. So the Pirates permeate everywhere, and captures have to be prevented by massing forces. BEM and I have cooperated very well on that point. STRATEGY At this stage in the game, all three Collectors are making serious plans for museums. It could well be the determining factor in the final placement. The scores are really close between PCM1 and me. PCM2, the leader, has a Collector's score of 5555, and is getting 495 points a turn, if my calculations are correct. PCM1's Collector almost certainly has a score of 4494 or 4533, while my Collector has a score of 4380 getting 555 points per turn. I'm scratching and clawing to get a score higher than PCM1's, and with his loss of 10 Artifacts, it might happen. My museums are "set up"--that is, I know where I want them, but I have to get the Artifacts there. They're been moved around a lot in this war. PCM1 wrote an interesting letter to Elliot (see the correspondence section) where he says, "it's possible that Rich can robotize 6 enemy Homeworlds (so far) and still lose..." to which I stoically agree. In fact, those 6 worlds are at this point almost entirely devoid of Industry... the Pirates have adopted "scorched earth" in a big way. But there IS one HW I captured from PCM1 that still has its full inventory of Industry, but it's so deep in his territory that I can't safely get there anymore. It sits there, dumbly building 3 Iships each turn, the robots calculating the value of pi or something... That may change. I have one tiny little Berzerker fleet in the region, and one not too much further away. The idea of sending reinforcements to my captured and still useful HW is tempting to say the least, but there are at least two other very important goals: capturing PCM1's museums and capturing PCM2's museums. BEM wrote me one very amusing email where he sarcastically quotes Jim, "I am the lizard king, I can do anything..." when I told him some of my plans. Dang right I'm going to TRY everything! This has been one of the most enjoyable Starweb games I've ever played, and I want to use every trick in the book (and some not IN the book, but at this very moment are being written into the book...) One thing I've done may have given me perhaps one turn's reprieve from the inevitable showdown at one of my Homeworlds. I take a deep gulp as I write this. In last issue's installment, I wrote of hauling strategies, and I described some of my ring 1 worlds in a way that would let the players know which worlds I was talking about. But they are in fact my ring 3 worlds. The same strategy applies to the hauling process, but it did give a slight misdirection. PCM1 appeared at my "fake" ring 0 world ("Homeworld") with 120 ships. RIGEL, when we "meet at the club as two retired Generals" for the post-mortem, I expect to hear some creative invectives from you! ;0) (Earlier in the war he and I exchanged civil taunts and spoke of the game-end postmortem with that metaphor.) He's almost certainly looking for my HW but each turn I can stall him gives me another build cycle... And I'm not robotizing anymore... With so many worlds having high-industry, there are lots of homefleets at all the outworlds, except where the Pirates have plundered them! One comment PCM1 made to me early was his frustration that in order for a Pirate to score, he has to ruin his production. (I smiled wryly when I read that note, thinking that it balances the "high" of automatic Pirate capture: another player in another game has coined a phrase that I have to write here--"unchecked, an orgy of snowballing Pirate capture can turn into a real obnoxious uninvited house guest!") But even notwithstanding so many homefleets everywhere, I have generally adopted a risk taking posture and have been willing to take ambushes in order to make fast long-range movements. This has turned out to my advantage, since on this turn (16) I sent one small fleet deep into PCM1 territory and FOUND ANOTHER LIBRARY! Oh glee. Since PCM1 lost 10 Artifacts on turn 15, that second group of ten makes for a very tempting target. Unfortunately, he outnumbers me (by exactly 3:1 heh heh) so I can't capture the world, and he has a Collector fleet there. But it does give him one more vulnerability... I also sent a very large Apostle fleet deep into PCM2 territory. I've been sending out conversion fleets wherever possible, and it Makes for useful spies, but if possible, I'd like to find some of PCM2's Art stockpiles to give HIM something to worry about too! Especially since he's starting to make serious advances into my territory. If I were making a "State of The Union" address, I would say that the state of The State is strong, but that would be partly posturing. I am solid, but defending franticly. My Apostle on Jihad has scored more than 6000, and my Berzerker too, so the question of scoring comes right down to our Collectors, as we knew it would. Just with worlds, my Berzerker gets 130 per turn, and if it comes down to it, there are plenty of 250-population worlds that a PBB would look pretty on. So I can use all my ships for combat. I still do some robotizing, but mostly for the tactical necessities, like keeping lines open between BEM and me. I've been willing to lose some worlds, but almost all are either robots or fully converted now. My biggest worry is keeping those few not fully converted for my Collector to make museums. But to give you some sense of scale, let me toss out a couple of numbers: just what I can SEE, PCM1 has in my region 55 fleets totalling 891 ships! And PCM2 has 23 fleets of 478 ships. My ally BEM has taken heavy losses, and in his region he can see this turn 23 PCM1 fleets with 218 ships, and 18 PCM2 fleets with 373 ships. BEM has already lost many of his worlds, and he's fighting his final stand. He's a tough guy, holding on, but enjoying some revenge... He has made some interesting moves, like migrating much of his population from his Berzerker Homeworld to kill neighboring population! I was impressed when we first made our alliance, when he decided to take on the "scorched earth" strategy for himself. He plundered many of his worlds, just to slow the Pirates' score. That takes guts. THE PLAYERS When the previous issue was published, I got some feedback from a couple of the players. You can find some comments in the correspondence section I'm sure. But one comment was from the BEM player, who got stabbed by the PCMs. I'd like to quote him here, just to give his side of the story. "the Bug Eyed Monster's response- Aiding and abetting the enemy...harsh words...strong allegations (especially during war, probably a capital crime). The alliance with PCM1 was apparently just for his benefit. From the start it was gimme this, gimme that, go there, do that. There was no com- munication beyond what I could do for him (at least it seemed that way to me). He sent a message about the war: 'I have launched an attack against XYZ. [the dropped PCM -ed] Feel free to join in if you would like...' I sent a reply begging off the attack for one turn which PCM1 agreed to, saying that I had better hurry because the other players were in on the attack. This told me he was plan- ning an allied strategy without consulting his ally. At this time I started hearing rumors about PCM1 attacking someone that he had traded turnsheets with. He also allied with PCM2 at that time. The alliance was a bust... BEM" This article isn't meant to be a platform for inter-player flame, but you can imagine that there is no contact between BEM and PCM1 or 2 anymore, so here's his one place to say his say. My personal feelings are that trading turnsheets is done ONLY among tight allies, and should never be done with someone you're planning to stab! The information BEM gave me once the stab occurred has proved to be invaluable, and gave me the opportunity to robotize all three of PCM1's original HWs. Nah, Rich. No moral of the story here. War is risk. PCM1 took a risk exchanging his turnsheet info, and I take a risk every time I fly over worlds with potential homefleets. I think my risk-taking brings better rewards... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these? Last issue I posed the following: Let's test your mathematical scoring skills. Here is the scenario. Both Finnian and Snacker are Apostles. W18 (9,41,107,166,186,248) [FINNIAN] C[FINNIAN] (Metal=106,Mines=7, Population=76C,Limit=164,Turns=5,P-Ships=1) F232[SNACKER]=24 (Moved,Cargo=24,PLANET-BUSTER(Built)) Can you figure out how many points Snacker can get at this world by executing different sets of orders? Remember, this can be complicated so think about the orders you would execute. Please state the orders you would write for each scenario and how many points you can expect to get. a) If Snacker goes for the AH. b) If he tries to AP. c) If he drops the bomb. Answer: A lot hinges on whether Snacker has declared a Jihad on Finnian and if he uses the F232Q order. a) This is a complex issue with both players being Apostles. If Snacker only fired F232AH three things may happen. i) Snacker has not declared Jihad on Finnian and loses 24 points. ii) Snacker has declared Jihad on Finnian but will be unsuccessful capturing Finnian's fully converted world. 0 points. iii) Because Snacker fails to order F232Q and go to peace he successfully converts the worlds populations to his own religion and gains control. Again, he would be firing on a nonJihad target and loses 24 points but he would capture a fully converted world worth 10 points for ownership plus 7.6 points for the converts present (I'm unsure if the Starweb program rounds up or down these partial points). The net effect would be a loss of 6.4 points. If Snacker was on Jihad when this total conversion happens then the 24 point loss will not occur and he will net 17.6 points for the world. b) In the AP scenario the above situation is similar. i) In the non Jihad scenario Snacker loses 24 points for firing and after clearing out the P ship will kill 11 population for a loss of 11 more points. Total points lost would be 35. ii) Snacker has declared Jihad on Finnian so that he no longer loses points for firing. He will not take control of the fully converted world but manages to kill 11 population of Finnian for 22 points gained. iii) If F232Q is ordered then scenario i) and ii) are assured but in the case where F232Q isn't used and the world totally converts you will capture a totally converted world with 65 converts surviving worth 16.5 points and you lose 11 points for firing at your own converts. Net effect of a 5.5 point gain. If this was a world with a mix of Finnian normal population and converts it would be even more complex. You would gain points for shooting the normal population (they must be owned by Finnian either at the beginning or end of the turn cycle) and lose points for shooting your own converts (you owned them at the end of the turn cycle). c) You drop the PBB. i) If you do not declare Jihad you will lose 50 points for the bomb and 76 points for the population killed. A loss of 126 points. ii) If you do declare Jihad. You will not lose points for the bomb and will kill 76 Finnians worth 152 points. iii) If you neglect to go to peace AND convert the world to your religion. I believe you will still get the 126 points as Finnian owned the converts at the beginning of the turn cycle. The thing I'm uncertain about is whether the Starweb program will register that they were your converts before the bomb explodes and therefore dock you 76 points for these kills. Anyone know the answer to this one? This is why you cannot gift a world to your Jihad target the same turn you drop a PBB on him. Since the world was not owned by your Jihad target at the beginning or end of the turns cycle (it's neutral at the end and devoid of life) you wind up losing points. Jeff Calkins asked: >>Say that we have a world with a full population of 50. If two fleets of 20 ships each do an AP and a third fleet does an R10 how many robots end up on the world? 7? 12? If the AP's happen first then each 20 ship attack kills 10 for a total of 20 dead and a remaining population of 30. The R10 then drops 20 robots, 8 are eliminated by the 30 population that is being killed. So we end with 12? If the AP and the R10 all happen at once do the 20 robots dropped fight all 50 population with 13 robots being eliminated? So the result is 7 robots on the world?<< John Shannonhouse replies: The robot attacks occur (almost) last. They come after all standard attacks; so all robots would get through. That is easy. Want a complicated version of the question? Robot migration arrivals ALSO occur after the attacks, so if you migrated robots to the world, there would be robots after the AP's and after the PBBs. Robot migrations and robot attacks also occur after population migrations, so they kill off migrated population. But when do regular population migrations occur? If you AP and kill off all population (which occurs after population growth) do you ALSO get points for migrated population? Do they get killed, or show up afterwards? If they show up afterwards, do they show up before or after the PBB? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 SWAP CORNER I have listed the many features this utility provides for Starweb gamers almost in its entirety. All you have to do is go to the web site (www.flyingmoose.ca) and look up a back issue of the SEDG to find what you need. In this issue I will provide an index so you can find it all. Topic Volume Dummy Turnsheet 16 Adding Map Data 16 Defining Teams 17 Sound Hooks 17 Ring Functions 18 Order Editor I 19 The Order Editor II- Meta-orders/Other 20 Player's Orders The Order Editor III-Direct order entry 21 Locating Orders-Map The Order Editor IV-Checking Orders 22 THE ORDER EDITOR V Preferences 23 HOW DO I Biggest metal stockpile-1 turn of a HW 24 Best PBB target within 1 or 2 turns 24 Show all keys within 1 turn of a world 24 The SW Analyzer for Dummies by Lee Knirko 25 Finding fleets (yours, allies, pirate) 26 Color Control 27 Art Stuff (Show it, find it) 28 Find specific key/world and EB gift 29 Starweb Analyzer for Starweb 2000 30 Filtering concepts 31 Ring functions, Sorting 32 The List View 33 Profile Manager 34 Mapping by Lee Knirko 35 Multigame support 36 Sharing Maps 37 The Combined Turnsheet 38 Where is the turns stuff 39 Reading the Map 40 Troubleshooting - Errors in the 41 processing window Creating the map 42 Trouble shooting by Lee Knirco 43 SWAP Flier 44 SWAP Overview 45 Troublshooting 46 Starweb Analyzer V1.4 beta 47 Starweb Analyzer Email Functions 48 Examples – Reports, filters, Order editor 49 Starweb Analyzer Overview – a plug! 50 FMT Canadian Starweb Tournament – musings 51 FMT Canadian Starweb Tournament info 52-59 Starweb Analyzer V1.4 beta 53 Starweb Analyzer V1.5 beta – Overview 55 Starweb Analyzer V1.5 beta Dec.30 release 56 Starweb Analyzer V1.5 beta March release 58 FMT – new domain, products and plug 60 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CORRESPONDENCE John Shannonhouse writes (in response to Brian Lease) >>Elliot: Gee, a handicap to the veterans – that might be interesting<< OK. Here is one I personally like, but would require a program change. Add up everyone's (composite ratings+5*number of games played). For someone who has not played before, give a composite of 500. Work a percentage for each player based upon (composite ratings+5*number of games played). Divvy up basic resources (mines, beyond 30 industry) based upon that percentage. Bottom third get 1 extra key on average, middle third get average number of keys, top third get average minus 1 key. >>there is almost always a "General" in the mega-alliance situation and it is a dictatorship. The experienced players pick and choose by turn 4 or 5 who will be on the in and who will be rolled over. Failure to conform to the General's thinking and you find yourself "purged".<< As the original author of the mega-alliance, I guess I should apologize to everyone. However "general" and "dictator" have not been part of my approach if I could help it. Or perhaps I didn't notice as a "general", sort of like a fish does not notice water. When I form alliances, I try for the most part to let others make the decisions and plans, though I certainly do step in if I feel it is necessary. Occasionally an overall plan is necessary for a war effort, or to get those final artifacts to people for their character bonus. Usually I try pointing out the need and a logical method, then ask for ideas. I have found that a joint effort has worked better than a dictatorship, because with a dictatorship you are only as good as the dictator. I have also based my alliances primarily upon who is next to me on the web, NOT who I have allied with in the past. I have sometimes been stung by that decision, but that is my personal approach. I agree the alliances have grown too large. My own preference is to allow each player to have only three A= orders in effect at once, and to have them be mutual. The other player must give the A= order the same turn you do. If you drop the ally order, the other player is automatically not YOUR ally the same turn. The A= order should also include loader automatically. Again that is a program change, which will probably not happen, but I think it would give the result people are looking for, or at least make it much easier. Perhaps I should also take the time to explain why I personally am no longer playing, which has nothing to do with mega-alliances. This is one I think cannot be helped, unfortunately, and is due primarily to my own thin skin. That is the idea of going out to "get" a high-ranked player by any means possible and, if possible, destroy his rating, even if you are not in the game with him, by encouraging others to "get" him. That's a bit too personal for me, and is not terribly enjoyable. Not because of being attacked, but for the very idea of the reason for the attack. IMHO that is not something that should be part of the game. I also preferred the personal interactions, which is why the anonymous variants are not that interesting to me. Or perhaps I am just getting too old and cranky for the game . John Shannonhouse Jeff Calkins said: Elliot and Rich, Nice job Rich! I enjoyed reading your first installment and I look forward to the second. As the PCM1 in the game that Rich is writing about, I'd love to put in a few comments of my own, but I don't want to steal Rich's thunder since the article was his idea. Use if you want. The copied text is from Rich's article, with my comments following: > PCM2 and I had very little interaction, but the plan was to >"orchestrate a three-way finish" so that PCM1, PCM2 and me (ABC) could >have nice ratings. I liked that idea, but with each passing turn that >had almost no detail in that plan discussed, I began to suspect that >the Pirates weren't exactly ....um, forthcoming. Hi. PCM1 here. I've enjoyed reading Rich's account of the game so far and thought I'd interject a comment or too. While we did have some discussions of a split, I think we all felt that a three-way split in a five person game was a little too "kiss your sister" for any of our tastes and not at the top of anyone's list. Let's just say that none of us were particularly...."forthcoming." But the three of us did agree explicitly on one point: > > three Collectors dividing up a limited supply of Artifacts. Tight > indeed. Since it's the low score that determines the game's finish, >we felt it was a serious possibility that the Collectors among us >would be the determining factor in who would finish the game. Art is the key to this game. It is the cause of wars, and the key to victory. Remember that originally there were four collectors in the game. > Well, PCM1 decides to stab BEM. With Michael Corleone references, >his action was swift and deadly. BEM was in a heap of trouble. Not that I can't every stab someone for no reason (figure that one out), in this case it was justified. I found out that my "ally" was giving art, precious art, to the dropped player (prior to his dropping) even while we were actively engaged in war against him. Without a doubt, he was giving aid to the enemy and needed to be punished. Did it help that he had me declared as an ally so I reached his HW unscathed? No doubt, but he had it coming. >That's when he and I started talking seriously. It's turn 10 and I've >just invaded two of the dropped player's HWs. At this point a very >interesting coincidence occurred between PCM1 and me. We had all those >Artifacts on the HWs, and three Collectors to "orchestrate". PCM1 told >me that PCM2 wasn't very hungry for the Art, and I honestly believe >that's possible (you reading this, RIGEL??) after all, PCM2 was and >still is the leader in score. But PCM1 disagreed with my proposal to >divide the Art, some of which would be on neutral keys (the Ancient >Pyramid for one). We disagreed amicably, and we agreed that once the >Art was non-neutral, we'd have to come to some agreement. We kind of >agreed to disagree. Kind of, sort of.....whatever. The diplomatic highwater mark was definitely reached in discussions about what to do with the captured art as we both tried to gain an advantage while sitting on the knife- edge of war/peace. I had not been able to prevent him from reaching the HWs ahead of me (think Monty and Patton in WWII), so he was in a stronger bargaining position. Nonetheless, I pushed very hard for fully half the captured art. He kept saying that he wanted to cut in PCM2 for a share (and only he knows whether he was sincere or not), but in any event, this was the key to victory without war. If he kept most of the art, he would win because the Pirates' scoring rate could not keep up with the Berserker/Apostle combo. The only possible way for me to win was to keep his collector score low. He, rightly, had no reason to agree to that. I realized that war was eventually inevitable, my big mistake was not recognizing that he realized it too. >But I could feel it coming. There were rumblings. So I spent turn 10 > positioning my ships just in case PCM1 decided to call out his dogs. > Meanwhile BEM and I are starting to talk seriously about mutual > defense. The last days of turn 10 were extremely active >diplomatically. By turn 11, PCM1 made his decision. To his greater >glory as a gamesman, he openly declared war. Call me a dirty lowdown stabber, but don't make me out to be a naive rube! To be clear here: Turn 10 negotiations were about the art and I thought we had reached an agreement. When I received my Turn 11 turnsheet, I saw that he didn't follow through on what he said and this was tantamount to a declaration of war. My error was not realizing that he has made war preparations with his Turn 10 orders. Basically, I underestimated him....a decision that I would soon regret. >At this point I had to "hold my cards close to m> y chest" (and hence >the Image at the article's start) because PCM1 and BEM had been >trading turnsheets until the stab. And BEM and I had exchanged this >information when PCM1 made his stab. And I was in position with about >250 ships to within 3 hops of PCM1's Homeworlds! When we received our >turn 12 sheets, it was the morning of my day off. I wake up, check me >email, and see that about 15 minutes ago I received my turn from FBI. >Yippie! Sitting there with my pipe and coffee, reading over the juicy >details of my successful invasion. I had one very large Berzerker and >1 large Jihad key on each of his HWs. Sweet. One of my Berzerker keys >made it past the ambushes with only 3 ships to spare!! Oh sweet. And >within 10 minutes of reading my turnsheet, I get an email from PCM1. >His 1-line email message is best kept between him and me. That's okay. It was: "Hmmm....I'm really fucked." Anyway Rich/Elliot, use any or none of the above as you see fit. I look forward to reading another installment. This continues to be a fun game with the winner up in the air. Since art control is everything, it is possible that Rich can robotize 6 enemy HWs (so far) and still lose. When this is all over, we should have a map exchange and see if we can sort out the rat's nest. Talk to you later, Jeff Richard responds: In real life I'm a bit of a stormchaser, not metaphorically, and I have to admit thunder can't be anyone's personal property. It strikes every- where. Jeff, I really enjoyed reading your comments. As I told you in one chat, "we'll discuss gozintoos later" and it might happen that we could do that in this venue. But I hope we can focus on the game tactics and strategy. In my second installment I'm certain to make some references to this note, but Elliot: feel free to include it in toto. Where did "in toto" come from? Jeez, a wierd phrase. Anyhoo, if I can avoid any more Latin, Jeff - Keep up the comments! When Elliot gave the OK for this article, my thoughts were that it might just start such discussion! I envision a lightning-storm of banter, flame, what-have-u, even misdirection, if the occasion permits. In a way, it "raises the diplomatic high-water mark", to use your colorful phrase... Rich T. Worthington said: It may surprise you to know that there are "lurkers" on the SEDG who not only had read all 60 volumes but do not play StarWeb. Well, I'm one! My business partner and my brother were both regular SWUK players some years ago and the former won several games. Back in the mists of time I even reverse-engineered the code for the game on a BBC Model-B for our private amusement. I started reading the mailing list collections some time ago with the intent of either entering a game or re-writing the code for Linux and I wanted to get a feel for how the world of SW was going. Suffice to say, the alliances issue has put me off the idea of playing the "real" game. Many people have discussed the alliances aspect and I thought I might drop in the view of an outsider as to why it would be something, which would prevent me playing. It's psychology, really. In the gaming groups I've been a member of (board games, this is) the idea of an alliance winning has always been regarded as pretty pathetic, with "joint-wins" being the subject of much ribbing and scorn. That's in the games where a joint-win is recognized by the rules. In StarWeb, which has no such recognition, the idea that "our man won" is nonsense. You either won or you lost. The fact that you helped the winner get to the top of the pile only shows you to have been a mug! This is implied in descriptions of the character classes: a Berserker who allows goodlife to win the game isn't worthy of the name; an apostle that helps heathens to attain their goals is a poor excuse for a messiah/demagogue, and so forth. So why does it seem to happen in EVERY normal game (I'm judging from what I've read in SEDG so this might be an overstatement)? The answer is in the scoring and rating systems. Put simply: a player's rating should be (# games won) divided by (number of games played) to two or three places. I think this might have the psychological effect needed to break up those alliances since it seems that getting a good rating is one of the chief motivations for people being content to lose. Once that's done, perhaps some thought will be put into balancing the game better so that a lone Pirate can win! Another way to look at it is this: each "normal" game is an extract of a "last man standing" game but, instead of playing right to the end, the game is cut off and a system applied (the scoring) to estimate who would have won. Thus, the idea of an alliance victory is nonsensical. Alliances should be temporary groupings with each side judging how long they can risk not stabbing the other before they get stabbed themselves. The ultimate stab, of course, is that the other person wins the game! Do any of the regulars play "Diplomacy"? I'd hate to think how dull that would be if everyone played the way SW seems to be played today. So: think of pre-WWI diplomacy or Dune, if you want a science-fiction empire setting. Get the knives out and remember: the difference between second place and last place is NOTHING AT ALL. T. Worthington Elliot replies: Thanks for your note! I think you get a skewed look at Starweb by reading the rantings of disgruntled players who post in the discussion group. There are many players who only ally with one or two others as well as loners who do well. I liked your comments about changing the way things are ranked to offset the tendency to larger alliances. If it came down just to games won I believe you would see a lot more independent play. Rick (the moderator) often says there are non-victory point conditions that many gamers play for and that score is not often important. So there may still be players who will gang up. Please read this issue - where the story of the Canadian Convention is told. There were so many factions and stabs that you might find this an entertaining game to have participated in. Well, that's it for Volume 61. 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