STARWEB EMAIL DISCUSSION GROUP (THE SEDG)
   (Sponsored by Flying Moose Technologies' Starweb Analyzer
   - http://www.flyingmoose.ca)

VOLUME 71 April 17, 2003

CONTENTS
Feature Article – SW-A1324 Chronicles of an Anonymous Berserker Part 1
Questions – Pirate HW plunders
SEDG Web Page URL
The Swap Corner
Correspondence

FEATURE ARTICLE

SW-A1324 Chronicles of an Anonymous Berserker Part 1 by Jack Fulmer

This month's Feature article is being presented in a slightly different
fashion. Jack did such a great job formatting the article with
accompanying graphics that I felt it would be a shame to reduce it to a
text file and eliminate the touches that added so much.

You will find the feature article as an attachment to this email. As
usual my ISP, Compuserve, will separate out this text and the
attachment into two separate emails. The attachment will be a file
entitled SEDG71.zip. It is a winzip file that you need to
double click. The contents will be unzipped and deposited on your hard
drive.  You should receive 6 files. Five of them will be graphics and
the fifth will be SWA1324 Chronicles Part1.htm. If you double click on
this HTML file your default web browser should open and present this
months feature article to you. If you have any difficulties please
email me at somnos@flyingmoose.ca and let me know. I can send you the
feature article as a Word or text file.

If you don't have winzip or you are viewing the SEDG online - click on
this URL to get to the feature article.

http://www.flyingmoose.ca/SEDG/SWA1324.htm

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QUESTIONS - Can anyone answer these?

New Question:
You can't find the answer in the rulebook and I certainly have a strong
opinion about this strategy. So I'm hoping to generate some discussion
about this idea I've heard thrown about. It has been opined by some
that to augment a pirate's score it is a good idea to plunder it on
turn 1. Your thoughts?

Answer:
I haven't heard back from anyone so I will give you my slant on this. I
would never plunder my HW as a pirate on T1. It gives you 50 points but
the downside makes this not worth it. First, a pirate's ability to win
or rank is never dependent on 50 points. Second – losing the ability to
build for 3 turns at this point in the game can be crucial. You have to
remember that you only start with 32 ships. Losing 6 represents a loss
of 20%. If you are a reasonable player you will drop homefleet on turn
3 to protect against incoming players. This can represent a reduction
of 5 to 10 ships. If you start hauling metal without a merchant to help
you will need to send out 28 ships and bring in 28 ships loaded with
metal every turn. Having only 20-30 ships free on T4 makes getting to
full hauling difficult. Those 6 extra ships can make a big difference.

Anyone disagree? Great – send me your thoughts for the SEDG.
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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
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FEATURE - THE SWAP CORNER

STARWEB ANALYZER V1.5 - It's on the web site and it's no longer a Beta!
Go get it! As before - registered clients of any previous V1.x version
can upgrade for free. www.flyingmoose.ca

Tidbits regarding the Starweb Analyzer V2.0 (written under the .net
framework). Mike has been busy recreating the analyzer and upgrading
it. It's not ready yet to call a beta (heck, I would hesitate to call
it an alpha :-). One feature I would like to tease you with – the fleet
icons that you see at the bottom of the worlds (allied and opponent)
are way cooler in V2.0 and you can see them charge their weapons and
fire on each other or the world if a homefleet attack occurs. PBBed
worlds go up in a mushroom cloud regularly while you view your turn
too. As soon as it progresses a little further we shall invite some of
you to beta test it.

El
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CORRESPONDENCE

There wasn't any :-). C'mon guys – lets get some infield chatter going!

Well, that's it for Volume 71. 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