VOLUME 87 January 2006
CONTENTS
Feature Article - An
article about SW-A1273 by Lou Sheehan
Errata - Correction
to Volume 86 Feature article
Questions - All the
art! How about Keys?
SEDG Web Page URL
The Swap Corner
Correspondence
FEATURE ARTICLE
An article about SW-A1273
Warrior-Merchant vs. Pirate
Gold vs. Gaia
The Battle for W183
Thermopylae II
Or
Should a Pirate Ever Stand and Fight?
By Lou Sheehan
I played this game as
Gold, a 'Warrior-Merchant' i.e., I wasn't at all
concerned about my score.
In fact, I finished 14th out of 14 with 241
points. My opponent,
the Pirate Gaia, finished 10th out of 14 with 2553
points.
It is an old game now.
Perhaps I've revisited this old chestnut
because my games of
late have not been going particularly well? More
likely, I was moved
to write about this game because, for me, it was a
classic.
Reflecting the nature
of Starweb, this article has many numbers and
considerations in it,
but the crux of the matter centered around the
battle for W183.
It was a nail-biter for me, with me trying to balance
my desire to take advantage
of my hauling capacity vs. Gaia's Pirate-
capture ability.
I can be inherently criticized
for playing as a 'Warrior-Merchant' and
perhaps for accumulating
too many metals early (but it was hard to know
what the heck might
be coming at me). On the other hand, perhaps my
strategy more accurately
can be viewed as having lured Gaia into a
trap? I do not
attempt to total the ships/total-ships-lost by each
side; I'm sure at the
time I was calculating estimates/totals and my
current guess is that
I lost more ships at W183 than did my opponent.
I do not directly address
my concern on a turn-by-turn basis about the
limited number of keys
available to conduct operations, but rest
assured this limited
resource added stress to the situation.
In retrospect, the war
might not have been as close as it seemed at the
time (although note
that I was worried about an attack from Opel), but,
again, there is a thick
fog of war in anonymous games. I'm guessing
that if Gaia had not
made a major mistake on PRINTOUT 15 that the war
would have dragged on
longer but, absent the intervention of another
player (when apostle
Cold's converts at Gaia's HW saw me take the Gaia
HW, Cold then started,
sua sponte, attacking me), I think the outcome
in the long run would
have favored me vis-a-vis Gaia.
PRINTOUT 1
I put an ending score
of 10,000. The turn is due 4/14/98. My
homeworld is W71.
PRINTOUT 4
I've met only Gaia albeit
at two places: W183 and W84. Both of these
are third-ring worlds
for me.
W84 has an industry,
the Silver Crown, and an empty key. Gaia has a 9
ship key and I have
a 5 ship key.
W183 has a plastic art
and an empty key. I have a 6 ship key and Gaia
has a 1 ship key.
PRINTOUT 5
I've met Opal, Fang, Pain, Wyrm, Dome, and Gaia.
Yes, I fired at Gaia
at W183 (and thereby destroyed his key) and
captured his key, an
empty key, and the world. I also dropped a
consumer good to indicate
I was a merchant. I can't tell if Gaia did
or did not try to evacuate
W183; obviously, it was my guess he'd
reinforce at W84 before
he would reinforce at W183.
However, I evacuated
W84. Gaia moved a 19 ship key to W84 to augment
the 9 ships he already
had there; ironically, Gaia captured a newly
arrived Dome key at
W84 which showed me Gaia was a Pirate.
My total Worlds (W) =
17, Keys (K) = 19, Ships (S) = 54
PRINTOUT 6
Gaia advances from W84
to my W113 (I had evacuated W84 to W1); W113 is
adjacent to W183 so,
maybe, he's thinking of concentrating his forces?
Gaia captures a newly
arrived Opal key at my W113. There is no activity
at W183.
Part of the calculus
of fighting a war is to have enough keys to haul,
fight, shuttle newly
produced ships to the battle and sometimes fend
off other players as
they enter one's territory. Figuring
simplistically, as a
merchant it takes about 6 keys (and 30 ships) to
maintain full production.
At this juncture that simplistically leaves
me [Total keys 19 -
hauling keys 6 - defensive key 1 =] 12 keys for
fighting and delivering
ships.
W = 16, K = 19, S = 58
PRINTOUT 7
I've now met player Cold.
Gaia moves from W113
to my W127 (Gaia saw a fleet movement of mine on
the last printout; I
had moved to W127 to throw Gaia off-track inasmuch
as W127 isn't a second
ring world). At W183, Gaia appears with 3 keys
and 29 ships whereas
I have one homefleet.
W = 16, K = 19, S = 71
PRINTOUT 8
I have 37 metals on my
homeworld and from this PRINTOUT forward I plan
to be at full production.
Gaia moves a 4 ship key
to W113. Gaia stays at W127 shooting off the
homefleet. Gaia
now has 3 keys and 49 ships at W183 and Gaia also
shoots off the homefleet
at W183.
W = 15, K = 19, S = 82
PRINTOUT 9
Even as I have concerns
on the side (Opal, for example), obviously I'm
concentrating on Pirate
Gaia. I have to balance my production vis-…-
vis Gaia's capture ability
at W183; the more he throws into the war in
the short-term the less
hauling he'll be able to do and thus the fewer
ships he'll have to
fight me down the road assuming Gaia does not
otherwise have a successful
Pirate capture of anyone's - but
particularly my own
- ships and keys.
Obviously, I have to
hope no other player launches a full-scale assault
on me, that Gaia doesn't
have another merchant hauling for him, etc.
I've moved 4 keys and
56 ships to W113. Gaia leaves 3 one-ship keys at
W127; W127 is only a
one mine world so . what is Gaia up to? Hauling,
or .? His main
force previously at W127 flies back over W113 to at
least W84 (I can not
see if this force moves beyond W84).
Gaia has only his 4 ship key at W113; W113 is now neutral.
I have 70 metals at my homeworld.
W = 14, K = 19, S = 115
PRINTOUT 10
Gaia moves 34 ships on
8 keys to my W17 (still not a second ring world,
but, rather, a fourth-ring
world!) and captures it from me.
Wyrm has gifted me a one-ship key at Wyrm's homeworld to haul for him.
At W113 I've taken the Gaia key and recaptured the world. At W183
W183
Gold
Gaia
Have
62 ships, 3 keys
93 ships, 8 keys
Lost
--
--
Metals at my HW: 119
Obviously, that Gaia
has more keys at W183 means my fighting will
likely be less efficient
than Gaia's. All of Gaia's shots have a
higher likelihood of
doing damage to me. For example, say I allocate
my ships 20, 20, 22
and I end up shooting at 3 of his keys which -
because players can
shuffle their ships around before firing - end up
with 8 ships per, then
I'll have destroyed only 24 ships rather than
the optimum of 31 ships.
In contrast, his 93 ships have a high
likelihood of destroying
46 ships. My higher losses might lead
directly and quickly
to a more than 3:1 ratio of Gaia ships:Gold ships
and thus might lead
to a disastrous Pirate capture . of me.
W = 14, K = 21, S = 148
PRINTOUT 11
W183
Gold
Gaia
Have (including Arrived)
68 ships, 6 keys 134 ships, 16 keys
Arrived
30 ships, 1 key 53 ships, 10
keys
Lost
1 key
2 keys
Metals at my HW: 113
At this juncture, I have
a grand total of 20 keys. Gaia has 16 keys at
W183 alone! How
many more keys might Gaia realistically have? I have
a grand total of 139
ships and Gaia has 134 ships at W183! How many
more ships can he bring
to W183?
Obviously, we're at the critical juncture of our game.
W = 13, K = 20, S = 139
PRINTOUT 12
W183
Gold
Gaia
Have (including Arrived)
56 ships, 8 keys 108 ships, 11 keys
Arrived
30 ships, 1 key
Lost (Cumulative)
2 keys
7 keys
Metals at my HW: 126
W = 14, K = 19, S = 113
PRINTOUT 13
W183
Gold
Gaia
Have (including Arrived)
78 ships, 6 keys 81 ships, 11 keys
Arrived
61 ships, 2 keys
Lost (Cumulative)
6 keys
7 keys
Metals at my HW: 105
I shot 'AH' as shown
on this printout to deprive Gaia the possibility
of fleeing and taking
away the metals (16 at this point and
accumulating for Gaia
at 4 per turn). I was guessing Gaia's homeworld
was now starved for
metals whereas my homeworld was at full production.
The AH effort cost me
a key. I note Gaia has brought no reinforcements
to W183 on the last
two PRINTOUTs.
W = 13, K = 15, S = 107
PRINTOUT 14
W183
Gold
Gaia
Have (including Arrived)
70 ships, 7 keys 46 ships, 9 keys
Arrived
30 ships, one key
Lost (Cumulative)
6 keys
8 keys
Metals at my HW: 86
On this printout, Gaia
removed one of his keys via W163 to, I assumed,
go to his homeworld.
W = 12, K = 15, S = 104
PRINTOUT 15
Wyrm's gifted fleet has
been cut off from hauling for Wyrm by large
Opal forces; I had been
concerned about Opel myself. I decide to re-
route the 'Wyrm key'
to haul for me and to return to help Wyrm against
Opel when Gaia is under
control.
W183
Gaia abandoned W183!
He left . with just one key! Gaia transferred
one ship to an empty
key seemingly hoping his transfer would keep all
of the unowned keys
neutral, but that's not how it works.
Aggressively, Gaia moved
to W113 where he moved one 42 ship key from
W183 and moved in a
new/additional 5 ship key; I assumed Gaia was
guessing he was on his
way to my homeworld.
I now own W183 and the
21 empty keys at W183. This PRINTOUT I had 8
keys and 100 ships on
W183, and 66 metals on my homeworld.
How differently might
the remainder of this game have played in the
Gold vs. Gaia War if
Gaia had not made the above-described mistake?
It subsequently becomes
clear to me that Gaia and Cold were cooperating
at least to a limited
extent. What if Gaia had gifted a key to Cold at
W183 a few turns ago?
W = 13, K = 36, S = 141
PRINTOUT 16
The War moves to W113
I was hoping when Gaia
saw all of my captures at W183 that he'd be
demoralized and drop
out of the game. However, at W113 Gaia shot off
my homefleet and otherwise
sat there. Perhaps Gaia was hoping for a
massive-miracle-ambush?
I arrived at W113 with 46 ships on 7 keys
whereas Gaia had 47
ships on 2 keys. W113 is now neutral.
W113
Gold
Gaia
Ships/Keys
46/7
47/2
I also moved 44 ships
with 3 keys to W163, i.e., toward Gaia's HW.
Gaia had 3 homefleets
at W163. Thanks to information gathered earlier
in the game, I was able
to conclude W163 was a second-ring world for
Gaia. That information
had also allowed me to see Gaia move from W163
to W140, which suggested
my upcoming invasion route.
W = 13, K = 36, S = 170
PRINTOUT 17
W113
Gold
Gaia
Have
49 ships, 7 keys 30 ships, 1 key
Lost
1 key
1 key
W163
I have 71 ships and 5
keys. I shot off the homefleets and captured the
world.
PRINTOUT 18
W113
Gold
Gaia
Have
55 ships, 7 keys 7 ships, 1 key
Lost (Cumulative)
2 keys
1 key
W163
My forces moved on to
W140 with 73 ships and 6 keys. Gaia has 4
homefleets at W140.
PRINTOUT 19
W113
I have 53 ships, 7 keys
(4 empty keys captured). Gaia is eliminated at
W113.
W140
I captured W140 and moved
in force (93 ships and 6 keys) to W226 where
Gaia has 5 homefleets.
It turns out, however, that I guessed
incorrectly and W226
was not Gaia's HW. However, I did splurge and
probe W39 and discovered
W39 to be the Gaia HW with Cold converts.
PRINTOUT 20
I arrived in force on
W39, i.e., Gaia's homeworld. I arrived with 114
ships on 6 keys.
Gaia has one 2 ship key and 35 I-ships; I have Gaia's
industry fully suppressed.
I am not fully certain
as to which turn Gaia dropped inasmuch as FBI's
computer will play 'dropped'
players to a limited extent. I am certain
Gaia was still moving
at least as of PRINTOUT 16.
I have one key and 29 ships at W140.
On this printout, Pain
does a limited yet unauthorized robot attack on
one of my worlds.
Cold unexpectedly appears at W163 with an 11 ship
key. Opal takes
one of my worlds.
PRINTOUT 21
SW-A1273 ended with PRINTOUT
21, which arrived 2/18/99. In my
experience, this was
an atypically short anonymous game.
I had taken Gaia's HW
and I was ready to roll. Capturing an intact
homeworld doesn't happen
often for me!
I was moving on Opal.
Cold shot at my homefleet at W163 but I showed
up in force.; I also
encountered a large Cold force at W219.
As it turns out, Wyrm
was played by Rick Loomis; that's the first time
that I'm aware of that
I've been in a game with Rick.
I'm curious as to how
many readers struggled through this article to
this point. But
I'm even more curious to read if other Pirates would
have counseled Gaia
to abandon W183 early on and keep moving? Is there
a rule of thumb that
Pirates should not 'stand and fight'?
After the end of the
game, I had the below e-mail exchange with Rick
(excerpted). It
can be intriguing to think about how differently the
same anonymous game
can be experienced by the other players.
Among my other thoughts,
in a nutshell, mega-alliances don't exist in
anonymous games.
Me to Rick:
"I see we were both in
SW A-1273. Indeed, we both cooperated to some
extent (you were the
apostle Wyrm on my printout). *** In the event I
was in a tooth-and-nail
struggle with a pirate ***. Eventually, my
superior hauling allowed
me a few more resources and I prevailed to the
point of capturing his
homeworld (tee hee). I was on my way back to
take on [Opel] who I
assumed was fighting you and, indeed, at the word
{sic} I had as world
42 I showed up to begin to tangle with him with 80
ships on 7 keys and
I was going to gift you an empty key to let you
know help was on the
way. ***"
Rick to me:
"Yeah, that was a frustrating
game. I was in full-scale war with
[Opel]. We both
showed up at a world with an industry, but I had a
bigger fleet.
The typical thing is for the smaller fleet to leave, or
go to peace and let
the other guy have it. If there is a key or
artifact, courtesy dictates
that the guy who gets the world, gives that
to the other guy.
Anyway, we both sat there and he didn't go away for
two turns, so finally
I blew away his fleet, and then on the following
turn after I captured
the world, gave him his key back. He used that
as an excuse to attack
me. It was no problem, I probably could have
beaten him, as I had
two merchants helping me and a berserker had just
given me a key at his
homeworld and obviously wanted to help, and was
right in the best spot
to help me fight the pirate. All I had to do
was give him a key in
the middle of the battle, and we would make short
work of this obnoxious
pirate. Of course, the berserker and one of the
two merchants {not me}
both dropped out right then. *** Was really
irritating, as both
the pirate and I could have done VERY well taking
all the worlds these
two left - but he was busy attacking me so I had
to plunder all of my
worlds so he wouldn't get too many points.
I let him wipe out my
home industry as I was being careful not to let
him capture my keys,
and I was taking worlds like crazy in [the
berserker's and merchant's]
territories.
Too bad the game ended
so soon - I was about to take the berserker
homeworld and it had
a couple of my artifacts on it. I never even saw
the winning player,
[a berserker named 'Pain'] until the last turn of
the game."
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Errata:
Hi
El, I just noticed that I typed something incorrectly in my
article regarding turn
1 fleet movement.
In
the section regarding "Single Position Starweb", "3-connector
Homeworlds" the text
as currently published reads as follows:
"This homeworld configuration
is the most likely to result in balanced
numbers of ships per
fleet on turn 2."
Unfortunately
this is the exact opposite of what I intended to say.
That sentence should
have read this way:
REVISED SENTENCE
"This homeworld configuration
is the most likely to result in
unbalanced numbers of
ships per fleet on turn 2."
Isn't
it amazing how two missing letters can change the entire
meaning? It was my mistake
for not proof reading carefully enough and a
great example that neither
a spell checker nor a grammar checker can
catch all mistakes.
Anyway could you please correct the text in the
online article and/or
publish this correction in the SEDG?
Thanks...
Jack
----------------------------------------------------------------------
QUESTIONS - Can anyone
answer these?
Last Issue's question
"Can anyone claim they have finished the game
with all the art?"
Looks like Gary Schaefers
who claimed the bragging rights for the
largest pirate capture
in issue 86 can claim this prize also. Look at
his accomplishment as
BUTTERFLY in SW-CH/1 on T28 when the game ends.
[BUTTERFLY]: Artifact-Collector
(Score=20901,Worlds=23,Keys=24,Ships=374,
Industry=17,Mines=124,People=1403,Robots=42,Artifacts=100,
Bonus=4000)
W182 (31,233,235,255)
[BUTTERFLY]
(Industry=2,Metal=18,Mines=3,Population=14R,
Limit=42,Turns=2,I-Ships=5,P-Ships=20) V1:Nebula Scrolls, Vol. I
V2:Nebula Scrolls, Vol. II V3:Nebula Scrolls, Vol. III
V4:Nebula Scrolls, Vol. IV V5:Nebula Scrolls, Vol. V
V6:Slippers of Venus V7:Lesser of Two Evils V8:Treasure of
Polaris
V9:Radioactive Isotope V10:Plastic Crown V11:Platinum Crown
V12:Ancient Crown V13:Silver Crown V14:Golden Crown
V15:Titanium Crown V16:Blessed Crown V17:Vegan Crown
V18:Arcturian Crown V19:Radiant Crown V20:Plastic Pyramid
V21:Platinum Pyramid V22:Ancient Pyramid V23:Silver Pyramid
V24:Golden Pyramid V25:Titanium Pyramid V26:Blessed Pyramid
V27:Vegan Pyramid V28:Arcturian Pyramid V29:Radiant Pyramid
V30:Plastic Lodestar V31:Platinum Lodestar V32:Ancient Lodestar
V33:Silver Lodestar V34:Golden Lodestar V35:Titanium Lodestar
V36:Blessed Lodestar V37:Vegan Lodestar V38:Arcturian Lodestar
V39:Radiant Lodestar V40:Plastic Shekel V41:Platinum Shekel
V42:Ancient Shekel V43:Silver Shekel V44:Golden Shekel
V45:Titanium Shekel V46:Blessed Shekel V47:Vegan Shekel
V48:Arcturian Shekel V49:Radiant Shekel V50:Plastic Sword
V51:Platinum Sword V52:Ancient Sword V53:Silver Sword
V54:Golden Sword V55:Titanium Sword V56:Blessed Sword
V57:Vegan Sword V58:Arcturian Sword V59:Radiant Sword
V60:Plastic Sepulchre V61:Platinum Sepulchre V62:Ancient
Sepulchre
V63:Silver Sepulchre V64:Golden Sepulchre V65:Titanium
Sepulchre
V66:Blessed Sepulchre V67:Vegan Sepulchre V68:Arcturian
Sepulchre
V69:Radiant Sepulchre V70:Plastic Moonstone V71:Platinum
Moonstone
V72:Ancient Moonstone V73:Silver Moonstone V74:Golden Moonstone
V75:Titanium Moonstone V76:Blessed Moonstone V77:Vegan
Moonstone
V78:Arcturian Moonstone V79:Radiant Moonstone V80:Plastic
Stardust
V81:Platinum Stardust V82:Ancient Stardust V83:Silver Stardust
V84:Golden Stardust V85:Titanium Stardust V86:Blessed Stardust
V87:Vegan Stardust V88:Arcturian Stardust V89:Radiant Stardust
V90:Plastic Sphinx V91:Platinum Sphinx V92:Ancient Sphinx
V93:Silver Sphinx V94:Golden Sphinx V95:Titanium Sphinx
V96:Blessed Sphinx V97:Vegan Sphinx V98:Arcturian Sphinx
V99:Radiant Sphinx V100:The BLACK BOX
F14[BUTTERFLY]=7
F51[BUTTERFLY]=41
F246[BUTTERFLY]=8
(At-Peace)
F136[SVENGALI]=1
F179[SVENGALI]=1
Gary also comments: I
thought it would be a good idea to publish the
Bonus Calculations I
made.
Here is what I think
an ARTIFACT COLLECTOR should score if he owns all
100 ARTIFACTS, on one
world. Also if it is the last turn of the game I
am figuring out the
BONUSES. Please let me know if you agree, or more
importantly, if you
can see an error.
There are 90 "standard"
ART. 9 are plastics, 8 are ANCIENTS, 8 are
PYRAMIDS, plus 1, the
ANCIENT PYRAMID. That leaves 64 standard ART, not
of the COLLECTOR category,
nor plastics.
There are 10 "Special"
ART.
SCORING
64 standard ART
@ 15 ========================================== 960
16 ANCIENT or PYRAMID
@ 30 ===================================== 480
1 - the ANCIENT PYRAMID
@ 90 =================================== 90
9 PLASTICS @ 0 (ZERO)
========================================== 0
5 NEBULA SCROLLS @ 0
(ZERO) ==================================== 0
5 - TREASURE, SLIPPERS,
ISOTOPE, LESSER, BLACK BOX @ 30 ======== 150
TOTAL (per turn) =========================================== 1,680
BONUSES
ALL 9 ANCIENTS or all
9 PYRAMIDS ====@ 1,000 per set ========= 2,000
5 NEBULA SCROLLS
============================================ 1,500
1 MUSEUM (all on 1 world)
=================================== 500
TOTAL BONUSES ================================================ 4,000
TOTAL POINTS FOR THE LAST TURN =============================== 5,680
Editor's note: And if
you had the 100 art on 10 museums you could have
scored an additional
4500 points enabling a final turn worth 10,180
points.
NEW QUESTION
What is the largest
number of keys anyone has owned at one time? I
fully expect an email
from Gary on this one :-). To get the ball
rolling I will state
for the record that in a recent Extra-Long SW
variant I managed to
capture as a pirate a large number of keys by T27
out of 40 turns. After
this turn I gave many to my allies so I never
again had so many. But
with 152 keys I could get 456 points per turn
just from keys.
Game SW-L/31, Turn 27, [ENIGMA]
[ENIGMA]: Pirate
(Score=9079,Gifts=2,Worlds=109,Keys=152,Ships=3520.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
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 no longer a Beta!
Go get it! As before
- registered clients of any previous V1.x version
can upgrade for free.
www.flyingmoose.ca
Currently the StarGame
Analyzer is being prepped for Starcon (another
game). V2.0 which handles
both Starcon and Starweb won't be ready for
the Starweb audience
for a while.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CORRESPONDENCE
John Gault writes:
> Turn 1 Fleet Movement
in Starweb
>
By Jack Fulmer
>[snip]
>
In a single position Starweb game of course we all get five keys
> and thirty-two ships
to work with on turn 1. How we deploy them on
> turn 1 can have a
lasting effect on our success in the game. The key
> uncertainty affecting
fleet movement on turn 1 is of course "How many
> connections exist
to my homeworld?" My key strategic principle
> guiding fleet deployment
is to simultaneously maximize the number of
> worlds and keys captured
while balancing the number of ships on my
> exploration fleets.
I agree with this goal,
but in my experience the fleets WILL come out
uneven no matter how
evenly you distribute your starting ships, because
your ring-1 worlds (and
for that matter, your ring-2 worlds) will have
unequal numbers of empty
keys, and/or some will have homefleets so you
have to fight for the
world before you capture the keys.
As I see it, the best
way to cope with this problem is to keep part of
your force home so that
on T2, you can send it where it's needed to
balance the size of
your fleets and to explore all your ring-2 worlds.
Thus my T1 orders for
a single-position game will be to distribute my
32 ships evenly among
all five fleets (7,7,6,6,6); send one fleet to
each ring-1 world, largest
fleets first; and attempt blind two-world
moves (to different
destinations) with all my remaining fleets.
The destinations of the
blind moves are not random. If (for instance)
my ring-1 worlds are
68 and 129, I will probably try something like
F1W68W168
F2W129W128
F3W129W229
on the theory that these
"similar" numbers are more likely to be
neighboring worlds than
random chance would indicate. I only hope the
guy creating the maps
won't see this and stop creating these patterns.
Editor's note: I believe
FBI has software that takes the same map and
randomly shifts the
numbers so the same shape can be used in different
games with changed connections.
For this reason I don't think that
there will be any patterns
for worlds to connect.
For a multi-position
game my starting orders will be similar, except
that the position I
don't want owning worlds (typically the merchant)
will gift one fleet,
plus its homeworld, to the other position. (If
that position is a berserker
it will gift two fleets, since its HW is
robotized and can't
be gifted.) The gifted fleet(s) still get the
normal number of ships,
since the strategy of moving them out on T2
still holds. Of
course when T2 comes around, the non-gifted fleets
of that position which
stayed put (because their two-world moves
didn't work) will be
stripped down to one ship and gifted, while the
ones that were gifted
T1 go out on T2.
> 5+ or 1-connector Homeworlds:
>
I suppose it may have happened but I've never seen a homeworld
> with more than
five connectors or with only one connector.
I've seen both.
One map had all the homeworlds as dead ends with a
huge hub (6-connector
IIRC) at ring-1. This effectively meant that
everybody was closer
together.
> Last issue I asked
"This one is directed at FBI - If I start a game
> under one of my account
numbers can I transfer it to another one part
> way through?"
>
> Rick answered:
> Absolutely not. So,
if it looks like you will lose the game, transfer
> it to the account
where you don't care about the rating?
I wasn't aware that FBI
allowed anybody to have more than one account.
Why is this permitted?
Certainly if there is
a reason to allow it, the reason is financial or
administrative and not
related to game play. Thus I would recommend
that such a transfer
be allowed, but that all accounts of one person be
combined for purposes
of ratings. Otherwise the ratings are bogus.
> Stephen Moore:
[snip]
> Also, I had
a question about one of your old SEDG articles. In "On
> Being Metallic" in
SEDG #1, you offer this tip:
>
> "4)When deciding whether
to R attack vs PBB - breakeven is 100
> population. To kill
100 takes an R25 and gives 400 points. To PBB a
> world 0f 100 takes
25 ships also and gives 400 points."
>
> Wouldn't an R25 kill
200 population (25 ships = 50 robots = 200 dead
> population)?
I'm sure I'm missing something simple here, but I'm
> thinking about trying
a Berserker and want to get my facts straight.
The above agrees with
my experience. One robot does kill 4 humans.
I'm pretty sure you
are wrong on this one.
Also, the original comment
about balancing points is silly. A
berserker who drops
a PBB gets full points for the population it kills,
just as if he killed
them by firing from ships or dropping robots --
PLUS the points for
the PBB itself. So a PBB will always score more
points than a robot
attack, unless it is used on a world that has
already been PBBed and
then somehow repopulated.
Editor's Note: OK - I
dropped the ball on this one. I guess my math
skills are a little
rusty. Both you and Stephen are correct. Every R1
takes 1 ship, creates
2 robots who each will kill 4 humanoids (8 in
total) and get 2 points
for each for a total of 16 points per R1. And
yes, a PBB will get
the same points for the kills plus the PBB bonus
over a R attack alone.
But what I was trying to convey is the cost.
Where is the best return
in terms of destroying your ships? For example
if you had a world with
48 pop an R6 will depopulate it completely and
get you the 96 points.
A PBB will cost you 25 ships and get you 296
points. If you chose
to do an R25 on various worlds (same cost in ships
as a PBB) you could
depopulate 200 for 400 points. So the decision you
make on how to score
as a berserker may be different if your resources
are different e.g. you
don't own many ships or have few high population
worlds. I would suggest
that if you have many high population worlds
(over 100) then PBBs
make more sense. A pop of 160 that is cleared by
R20 gets you 320 points.
The PBB only costs 5 more ships and gets you
520 points.
Gary Schaefers writes:
A long time back, there
was a variant called SW-BH/1 - BLACK HOLE/1. To
gain entry into this
variant, if you had a key swallowed up by a BH in
a regular game of SW,
it had a chance of appearing in SW-BH/1. It was
an ongoing game, with
players joining at any time. There were NO HW's.
There were connectors,
as usual. You entered with only the one key.
You entered with the
# of ships you had on that key. You entered as
the type you were. My
entry was a 7 ship PIRATE key. Wiht a PIR
capture, I soon expanded
my assets (doubling my Keys to 2!).
I then was able to scrap some ships to build an IND, once I was
sure I was in a safe
place with no immediate invaders coming. I made a
couple allies.
They secured my borders a bit. When they dropped out,
they alerted me and
I captured their small keys as well. Soon I had
about 7 keys, and found
a couple IND worlds to help boost my strength.
Rick never revealed
the Victory Conditions of the game. He said we had
to figure it out for
ourselves.
Soon I had a vast empire, about 30 worlds. The map was simple to
plot. I eventually came
upon one world in particular far in the center
of the map. As I talked
to players, I noticed they all started on the
fringes of the map.
In this center, the world in question had 255
ISHIPS, 255 PSHIPS,
and all 100 ART!!!
Obviously this was the key to the game - capture the world. Time
and effort prevailed,
and eventually I was able to capture the world,
thus gaining all 100
ART, all on 1 world, and ending SW-BH/1.
Gary
Editor:
I would love to play
in that blackhole variant if Rick ever did
something like that
again - that was cool.
Mike Wulkan (CEO of Flying
Moose Technologies) writes:
Awesome!
A good read and I can't believe you are still keeping this going.
Two thumbs up!
Mike
Editor: Thanks. It's
fun to put together the newsletter and mostly I
rely on submissions
like in this past issue.
Well, that's it for Volume
87. 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