HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bicker@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (The Resource, Poet-Magician of Quality)
Subject: Re: a few questions...
Reply-To: Brian.C.Kohn@att.com (The Resource, Poet-Magician of Quality)
Organization: The Internet
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 18:44:25 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.board.ce

>=fasciano@nil.IRO.UMontreal.CA (Massimo Fasciano)

I'll answer some of these and leave the rest as exercises to the
reader...

>1) In the description of a valid deal, the rulebook says: "The deal
>need not be equitable. The players cannot trade nothing for nothing,
>and no player can gain more than one base as part of a deal." Am i to
>assume that trading something for nothing is valid ...

I don't have my Mayfair rules handy, but if you typed it the way it's
written I'd say something for nothing is a valid deal.

>3) A cosmic zap nullifies the explosion of one of the Terrorist's
>bombs. Does that mean that the bomb stays there (with its location
>revealed) without exploding, or that it explodes without affecting
>anybody?

The latter, sort of.  A Cosmic Zapped bomb cannot go off again...and if
it was the last bomb to be exploded, the Terrorist can plant more.

>4) Zombie is immune to Void, right?

This is a close call...
The Void trashes only opponent's tokens "that are lost to the warp." 
However, the when the Zombie's tokens should be put in the warp they
are "instead ... place[d] ... on any of [his] bases..."  I usulaly read
"are lost to the warp" to mean that the void-ing only happens once the
tokens get to the warp, which never happens for the Zombie.

>5) ...If Sorcerer plays an 08, he might want to switch the cards,
>unless Mirror reverses the digits, which would turn the 08 into an 80.

The Timing Rule still applies even though you don't consider the
effects contradictory, though I certainly do.  The offender gets to
decide whether he's gonna use his power first, then the defender.

>6) Do the timing rules apply when a player plagues you. Suppose i want
>to play a card (my last edict), but before i find it in my hand,
>another player plagues me.

I'd say you're outta luck...you shouldn't be indicating you're gonna
play a card until you've got it on the table.  The Plague may be played
at anytime, except when there is a lien on the Plaguer's hand.

This raises an interesting circumstance.  If I put a lien on your hand
(by playing a compromise) and I know you have a Stellar Gas, I can play
a Plague or Finder on you to get it before you can play it...though I
hate it when SPEED of play becomes important like that.

(Can the Plaguee or Findee play Edict Zap to nullify the effect of the
Plague or Finder, thereby allowing him to play his Stellar Gas?
According to the strict interpretation of the Mayfair rules I'd say
no.  Argument's anyone?)
-- 
Brian Charles Kohn               using !bicker's account
Poet-Magician of "Quality"       E-MAIL: bicker@hoqax.ATT.COM
    'Hope, not fear, is the most positive advocate of action.' - S.R. Lawhead
                   Stamp Out "SO": "RP" = "Romantic Partner"
From: thx1138@angus.mi.org (Scott Abfalter)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
Subject: More CE
Date: 28 Aug 92 16:59:08 GMT
Reply-To: thx1138@angus.mi.org
Organization: North Star BBS

Well, I called Mayfair's 1-800 number and tried to mail order More
CE.  They said 'Wait until the end of September".  So I would imagine
that the More CE people got were playtest kits or preproduction 
version or something.. 

THX

p.s.  ...did order my 84 blank card, tho. 

       First thing I am gonna do is make three new flarezaps, so that
       we can play with permenant flares.  Then I'm gonna double the
       amount of other zaps (I _love_ 'Zap Wars'...)   THEEEEN we'll 
       start adding things.  (I _did_ like the 'COMPRESS' edict someone
       wrote up..) 

p.p.s.  

   There was a fellow in Farmington Hills, MI who played CE I was 
   sharing mail with.  Hey you, I lost your address and such.  We're
   still playing here and there if you are interested! 


--
Scott Abfalter (thx1138@angus.mi.org)
North Star BBS, Royal Oak, MI --------------------------------------------+-
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
From: Alexx@world.std.com (Alexx S Kay)
Subject: Re: a few questions...
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 17:52:08 GMT

bicker@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (The Resource, Poet-Magician of Quality) writes:
[...]

>This raises an interesting circumstance.  If I put a lien on your hand
>(by playing a compromise) and I know you have a Stellar Gas, I can play
>a Plague or Finder on you to get it before you can play it...though I
>hate it when SPEED of play becomes important like that.

I think that the lien on the hand applies to *any* cards leaving his hand by
any means other than the lien; i.e., *no* one may take an action that affects
his hand until the lien is resolved (consolation paid or Stellar Gas played).

Alexx

Alexx@world.std.com
"The queen is the small woman in the big hat. When in Britain, call her ma'am.
 When in America, treat her, according to her spokesman, with the normal rules
 of common courtesy. Babe Ruth said "Hiya, King" to George VI, and lived to
 tell the tale."
		-- From "A Guide for the Bewildered", in The Economist
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
From: carterk@cgsvax.claremont.edu
Subject: Re: More sucky combos
Organization: The Claremont Graduate School
Date: 1 Sep 92 01:29:15 PST

In article <1992Aug31.220356.3745@ils.nwu.edu>, lopez@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu (Chris &) writes:
> George W. Harris (gharris@jade.tufts.edu) wrote:
> : 
> : 	Zombie-Vacuum.
> : 
> : 	Void-Fungus-Vampire, or any two of those.
> : 
> : --
> : "If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce, they taste more like
> : prunes than rhubarb does."              -Groucho Marx 
> : 
> : gharris@jade.tufts.edu        George Harris, Tufts Univ. Dept. of Mathematics
> 
> Void / Fungus is a great pair.
> 
> When you win a challenge, Fungus takes precedence over Void since it takes 
> effect before the tokens go to the warp.  When you lose a challenge with a 
> fungus stack any of the captured tokens that belong to your opponent or any 
> of his allies go to the Void.
> 
> The trick is that Void does not require that you win the challenge.  Any
> of your opponents (or his allies') tokens that are lost to the warp from an 
> attack or unwillingness to make a deal get 'voided'.
> 
> I don't have the Mayfair version so I don't know if the same type of
> interaction would occur between Void / Vampire.

Also, re: Void, it's fun to enter into a deal with one of your opponent's
larger planets and then refuse to agree on a deal. "Oh, by the way, did I
mention that I'm Void?"

I don't thing the same would work with Void/Vampire, because according to
Vampire, the non-Vamp player can only reclaim their tokens by taking them out
of the warp, therefore while they're in the warp, they can be taken out by the
Vampire if he beats the player to them. Thus, when they go to the warp, they're
still Vampire's tokens, and hence won't be voided.

------
Douglass Barre -- carterk@cgsvax.claremont.edu
"It'll be out at the end of this week." -- Game store employee, 8/14/92
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
From: gkatz@csws4.ic.sunysb.edu (Gerald W Katz)
Subject: Re: More sucky combos
Organization: State University of New York at Stony Brook
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 03:37:56 GMT

In article <RATINOX.92Aug31105758@splinter.coe.northeastern.edu> ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu writes:
>>>>>> "c" == carterk <carterk@cgsvax.claremont.edu> writes:
>
>c> AntiMatter/Deuce: Well, I could play another card, but why would I want
>c> to?
>
>This is like the Anti-matter/Macron combo; wouldn't you *subtract* both
>cards instead of adding?

No, tokens are subtracted from the attack card as Anti-Matter.
Deuce forces you to have two challenge cards.  If both are Attacks,
Anti-Matter subtracts from their total.

>
>--Rat
>
>||||| | | | |  |  |  |   |   |    |    |    |   |   |  |  |  |  | | | | | |||||
>                                                   __        ___ 
>Richard Pieri, Northeastern's Stainless Steel Rat/   | /| / /   | The Worlds
>Internet: ratinox@meceng.coe.northeastern.edu   /__  |/ |/ / /| | Welfare Works
>    UUCP: ...!northeastern.edu!meceng!ratinox  /   | /| / / / | | Association:
>  BITNET: UA_RLP@NUHUB{.BITNET}               /__  |/ |/ / /  | | I will solve
>  USNail: 14 Westdale RD  Holbrook, MA 02343 /   | /| / / /___| | any problem
> ICBMnet: 42 deg 1 min N, 71 deg 0 min W    /    |/ |/ /_//_____| for you.

Don't forget to tip the Butler!
					gkatz

Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
From: bicker@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (The Resource, Poet-Magician of Quality)
Subject: Re: a few questions...
Reply-To: Brian.C.Kohn@att.com (The Resource, Poet-Magician of Quality)
Organization: The Internet
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 12:19:46 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.board.ce

:
>>But then a Cosmic Zap would be a very easy way to nullify the
>>Terrorist's power for the rest of the game...and that's not in keeping
>>with the spirit of the game, where you actully have to lose poorly in
>>order to lose your power.

>No, The Cosmic Zap only affects that one bomb.  The others are still
>viable to exploding.  Besides, if it's the last bomb, once the challenge
>is over and the zap is no longer in affect, Terrorist may plant more bombs.

We don't disagree Gerald: My posting was in reference to some people's
assumption that a Cosmic Zap not only keeps the bomb from going off,
but also keeps it alive and in play, with everyone knowing where it is,
for the rest of the game.  That's where my comment about "not in the
spirit of the game" came from.

-- 
Brian Charles Kohn               using !bicker's account
Poet-Magician of "Quality"       E-MAIL: bicker@hoqax.ATT.COM
    'Hope, not fear, is the most positive advocate of action.' - S.R. Lawhead
                   Stamp Out "SO": "RP" = "Romantic Partner"
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
From: gkatz@csws4.ic.sunysb.edu (Gerald W Katz)
Subject: Re: a few questions...
Organization: State University of New York at Stony Brook
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 03:46:28 GMT

In article <1992Aug31.184425.22224@cbnewsi.cb.att.com> Brian.C.Kohn@att.com (The Resource, Poet-Magician of Quality) writes:


>
>(Can the Plaguee or Findee play Edict Zap to nullify the effect of the
>Plague or Finder, thereby allowing him to play his Stellar Gas?
>According to the strict interpretation of the Mayfair rules I'd say
>no.  Argument's anyone?)
>-- 
>Brian Charles Kohn               using !bicker's account
>Poet-Magician of "Quality"       E-MAIL: bicker@hoqax.ATT.COM
>    'Hope, not fear, is the most positive advocate of action.' - S.R. Lawhead
>                   Stamp Out "SO": "RP" = "Romantic Partner"

Of course one could!  An Edict Zaps zaps any non-zap edict when it's
attempted to be played, just like a Flare Zap for flares and a Cosmic
Zap for powers.

Don't forget to tip the Butler!
						gkatz

Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
From:  (jthorpe1@cc.swarthmore.edu)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
Subject: A (possibly old) evil thought
Date: 4 Sep 92 14:57:47 GMT
Organization: Swarthmore College


	I don't know if people have already brought this up (I've been away all
summer, y'see) but isn't Terrorist/Healer pretty damn powerful?  If you
bomb all planets somebody has tokens on, and then heal each set as it
explodes, it would be simplicity itself to get a player entirely into the
warp, assuming they had less than six bases (including those in their
system).  Furthermore, you could then plant bombs for the next player, then
again, and again...  Granted, you'd have to watch for Cosmic Zaps and, say,
the Wild Reincarnator flare, but it still seems like a pretty powerful
combo.  (It turns every other player into Zombie if you want them to be,
and you know how Zombie gets along with Terrorist...)

	Seeker:  Are you going to play a card higher than an 8 and answer no to
this question?

																																																										----jere7my
tho?rpe
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
From: bicker@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (The Resource, Poet-Magician of Quality)
Subject: Re: a few questions...
Reply-To: Brian.C.Kohn@att.com (The Resource, Poet-Magician of Quality)
Organization: The Internet
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 14:53:50 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.board.ce

In article <2SEP199212513173@zeus.tamu.edu> dwr2560@zeus.tamu.edu (RING, DAVID WAYNE) writes:
>Brian.C.Kohn@att.com (The Resource, Poet-Magician of Quality) writes...
>>It sounds like some of y'all are interpreting the rule book incorrectly
>>and looking at the words "conflictory powers" too narrowly.  Anytime
>>you have two people wanting to do something after the other person has
>>done something, and no explicit timing is called for by the rules or
>>powers, the Timing Rule comes into play.
>Once again, a timing conflict is "when two players invoke contradictory
>special effects simultaneously." I admit this is inadequate if one
>player is very stubborn, and doesn't know this rule. :-)
>But the rule is not ambiguous at all.

Obviously it is ambiguous because I say that anytime two players want
to do something after the other player has done what they can do the
timing rule is called for by the exact rule you quote.  Executing
powers, edicts, flares, moons, ... are all "special effects" so in the
case of Mirror and Sorceror the Timing Rule is called for.

-- 
Brian Charles Kohn               using !bicker's account
Poet-Magician of "Quality"       E-MAIL: bicker@hoqax.ATT.COM
    'Hope, not fear, is the most positive advocate of action.' - S.R. Lawhead
                   Stamp Out "SO": "RP" = "Romantic Partner"
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
From: GC.SUL@forsythe.stanford.edu (Sullivan)
Subject: For Sale: Divine Right(update)
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 18:17:18 GMT


here are the responses I have received to date with the high bid.
If you mailed to me and are not on this list, let me know pretty
soon.  You should have rec'd a one line acknowledgement.  The high
bid is $50 and the bidders know which one it is.

                    pacifier!michael@m2xenix.psg.com
                    john@psych.toronto.edu
                    irilyth@FENRIS.CLAREMONT.EDU
                    leopard@spud.hyperion.com
                    rbernard@aal.itd.umich.edu
                    wasserroth@fokus.gmd.de
|
| Divine Right game for sale
|
| This game has never been punched or played.  The box is bent up and
| faded but not torn.  Some of the counters must have fallen out of
| the counter sheet as former owner(not me) stuck them back in with
| scotch tape on the back, but counter sheets are all there and in
| great shape.  The rules, and uncut player cards are in new condition
| as is map.
|
| This is a later edition of the game that has the corrected
| army count for Shucassam.
|
| Sale mechanics:
|
| Price:        open bid plus shipping.
| How:          email requests only please unless we have difficulties
|               linking up.  If that is the case, I can provide a
|               phone number that you can leave a bid on voice mail.
|
|               I'll post hi bid every day.
|
|               I'll accept open bids until September 1 or until there
|               is a 24 hour period with no bids, whichever comes last.
|
|               At that point, I'll post a message with the high bid,
|               bidder, and begin another 24 hour period.
|
|               When I get a 24 hour period with no new bids, the
|               previous bidder will get a note from me.
|
|
| Mike
From: fred_s@earwax.pei.com (Fred Scott)
Subject: Re: rec.games.strategic
Organization: Protocol Engines Incorporated
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 00:57:46 GMT

In article <78404@ut-emx.uucp> jmedway@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (johnjmedway) writes:
>Another difference is that go, pente, chess, etc., are 'classic' games.
>
>Why not:
>
>	rec.games.classic	( not chess & go which have their own groups )
>	rec.games.parlor	( scrabble, monopoly, eurorails, civilization )

Aack!  Civilization is a *parlor* game?  That makes it sound like a simple,
informal game you play with your kids and neighbors, etc. for a couple of hours
on a weekday night....no, I don't think so.  Unless you're determined to
define a "parlor" game as "a board game which isn't a wargame nor a classic
game".  If so, why not rec.games.whatevers.left.over?

>	rec.games.wargames	( axis & allies, battle tech, spqr )

I've stated my objections to this before.  Particularly that the dividing
line between some of the wargames and some of johnjmedway's "parlor games"
is thin and the most who read one will wind up subscribing to rec.games.parlor
(as it's configured) just because they're interested in those, too.  So why
have two groups?  Wargames is just not a good dividing line.

>	rec.games.miniatures	( ancient empires, stars & bars, challenger )

This I have no objections to.  I've always wondered why it didn't already
exist - except maybe because it simply doesn't generate sufficient traffic.
But certainly, if rec.games.[classic|abstract|or whatever] splits off,
so should rec.games.minitures...a clearly defined interest group with at
least as many posts.  (At least, I think so.)

Fred
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: melissa@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Melissa C Merrill)
Subject: Re: Castle Risk
Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 20:26:17 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.191445.957@noose.ecn.purdue.edu> watsonb@alcohol.ecn.purdue.edu (Bradley S Watson) writes:
>
   [...Info about how easy it is deleted...]
>
>Well, did you remember the rule that says that when attacking a castle
>country, the attacker can't use more than 2 dice?  With this rule,
>the attacker needs at least a 2:1 superiority for the attack to work.
>Pretty tough to do that early in the game unless someone leaves their
>castle woefully undefended.
>
>Bradley

	Also, dont forget hidden armies. Plus allies supporting cards,
	like the marshall card and such. It is not impossible to take
	a castle in the first turn, but very difficult, if you are
	playing a compatent opponet.

							Mark Gresbach


Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: james@wrs.com (James Moore)
Subject: Re: SFB: Alternate Damage Allocation Methods
Reply-To: james@wrs.com
Organization: Wind River Systems
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 21:17:32 GMT

ahabig@bigbang.astro.indiana.edu (Alec Habig) writes:

>The best thing for this sort of thing was a program I saw once where someone
>had the ships in a database (ship a has 30 warp, 4 impulse, 3 PIII LS), etc,
>and had the dac built in.  This would whip up a damage report to the letter of
>the rules in a second.  Wish I knew where to get this program!

It's a pretty straightforward thing to write.  It's got a couple 
drawbacks:

    You need a complete description for every ship that takes damage.
    This can be very time-consuming, and prone to error.

    It's hard to switch between it and rolling dice.  If a damaged
    ship takes fifty internals on turn one and two internals on turn
    two, you'd like to be able to just roll twice and get on with
    life.  Problem is, you need to tell the computer the result of the
    die rolls, so you might as well do everything on the computer.

    You've got to play next to a computer.  Not so bad if you've got a
    laptop, but otherwise it could be pretty inconvenient.

I've been thinking about another way that uses the computer to
generate damage tables, but you don't need the computer to play.
What do you think of this:

Generate a table of random die rolls (say 1000).  Print out the
lines of the DAC that correspond to the rolls, and number the
lines.  To actually generate the damage, use three 20-sided dice
to determine your starting point in the table, and just call off the
hits from that point.  This at least
avoids rolling the dice and cross-indexing into the DAC chart, and
should be random enough to not change the game at all.

Thoughts?

-- 
James Moore                            /|\                        james@wrs.com
Wind River Systems                     \|/                  Alameda, California
	 "Half of what he said meant something else, and the other half
			  didn't mean anything at all"
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: caraher@pn32.petnet.med.umich.edu
Subject: World in Flames/Planes in Flames
Organization: pet/cyclotron
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 14:20:11 GMT

Does anyone out there play Australian Design Groups's World in Flames?   I
picked up the Planes in Flames expansion rules about 2 weeks ago, and while I
like most of the changes I wonder whether what effect the new stuff will have
on play balance. So... has anyone actually played WiF using PiF yet, and if so,
how was play balance affected? Also, did the additional rules slow play
significantly?
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: umlepine@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Bryan Lepine)
Subject: Conquest of the Empire
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 19:09:01 GMT

	Hi! I posted here about a month ago looking for someone to sell their
copy of conquest of the empire. I had a few unsuccessful offers and I
would like to try again.
	So, anybody interested in selling a new or used copy ( in good
condition with all pieces) please email at umlepine@ccu.umanitoba.ca
	Please send a valid email address and a phone number as my mailer
seems a bit wacky at times. Please styate your asking price with your mail.
	I mentioned a new copy as I would be willing to purchase one
because I cannot get any place here in town to try and get it. They give
me blank looks when I mention the game and I'm at the end of my rope :^)


-- 
============================================================================
"For a successful technology, reality must take |Bryan C. Lepine           |
 precedence over public relations, for nature   |umlepine@ccu.umanitoba.ca |
 cannot be fooled."	 -Richard Feynman       ============================
From: gdavis@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Grant R. Davis)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Orbit War
Keywords: Orbit War
Date: 2 Sep 92 14:28:11 GMT
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

In article <BtvDB2.KG0@news.cso.uiuc.edu> daniels@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Daniel R. Sawyer) writes:

>I saw Steve Jackson Games' ORBIT WAR in the store today.  The game is about
>superpower conflict in space circa 2020.  The blurb on the back sounded good
>and I like the idea of a space conflict game between superpowers.  However,
>I would like the opinions of people who have bought/played/read about
>ORBIT WAR before I go out and buy it.

Apparently, it came out in Space Gamer in 1983, and was very popular. I 
wouldn't know much about that, since I was still floundering in AD&D in 1983.
Anyway, it's an OK game. The counters limit the game to 2 players, although
the rules make it easy to have more. As an aerospace engineer, I dislike the
'optional movement' and 'gravity movement', but it's a good compromise for
playability. Combat is easy to learn and hard to master, although it uses 
combat differentials rather than combat odds. 
	One thing that I would definitely change; missiles can be fired from
earth into other hexes (note: I'm not talking about ELRs, which carry nukes).
It's unrealistic, because the missiles wouldn't have the fuel to escape
earth's hex, and it messes up game balance, because you can't destroy the 
launcher. Also, you can take those missiles and instantly (turns are 1 hour)
load them into an ELR to take to a weapon platform. ABMs and 'resupply' 
missiles should be kept track of separately.
	Finally, there's no geosynchronous orbit; the game really needs one,
and it would have been easy to do. Fortunately, GEO is an easy fix, as long
as the players agree beforehand.
	Important note: remember that your space stations can move.
	Like I said, it's OK, but they could have given you more for $25. 
Steve Jackson is giving us 'big box', but he's still thinking 'pocket box'.

Grant Davis
gdavis@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu

"This is good[beer]. Remind me to take this world."-Lost Destiny