HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: stevek@providence (Steven Klitzing)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Flat Top
Date: 26 Aug 92 14:34:21 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.

I played this game about ten years ago.  It took a long time to wade  
through all the rules.  It took about a day to play one scenario...the  
battle of Santa Cruz, I think.  The record keeping is complicated.  The  
way you keep track of things is time consuming.  It would be better if it  
was a computer game.  However, the game playing pieces and game boards are  
pretty good.  VITP is more interesting and faster to play.  Flat Top is  
more realistic in its mechanics but slow and clunky.  The Flat Top game  
box is a lot more interesting than the game itself.
From: watsonb@alcohol.ecn.purdue.edu (Bradley S Watson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Castle Risk
Date: 25 Aug 92 19:14:45 GMT
Organization: Purdue University Engineering Computer Network

>        Any one out there ever play the game Castle Risk?
>        I was playing it with a few friends, when we found that with an
>admiral card, we could defeat any seaborne capital on the first turn.  The
>game tended to be rather non-interesting, since most of us prefered seacoast
>capitals (like the instructions recommend), and with an admiral card in the
>beginning, whoever went first simply used the armies on his capital,
>transport them by sea, and defeat another's capital before they even had a
>chance to take a turn..  Am I the only one that has this kind of problem, or
>is there a rule that I'm forgetting about?
>
>        Dennis


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
Xref: sparky rec.games.board:8217 news.groups:17151
From: jmedway@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (johnjmedway)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board,news.groups
Subject: Re: rec.games.strategic
Date: 26 Aug 92 00:32:33 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.board
Organization: The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX

In article <dxb105-240892092946@theophys1.anu.edu.au> dxb105@phys.anu.edu.au (David Bofinger) writes:

>The big difference between games like go and games like World in Flames is
>that the former is abstract whle the latter is a simulation. That is, WiF
>asks the players to make the same sorts of decisions as someone in history
>would have, while go has no real connection to anything "real". Both games
>have strategic (and tactical, for that matter) aspects.
>
>Call it rec.games.abstract or rec.games.board.abstract.
>


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 )
	rec.games.wargames	( axis & allies, battle tech, spqr )
	rec.games.miniatures	( ancient empires, stars & bars, challenger )

It may be that the last group generates too little traffic, if so
merge it with wargames. Not a perfect fit, but a reasonable compromise.

----------------------------------------------------------------
john j medway                         jmedway@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu
							
"It's either spectacular unbelievable success,	
 or crushing, hopeless defeat! There is no middle ground!
 OK, there is a middle gound, but it's for sissy weasels."
 - Bill Watterson through Calvin			
----------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: saint@emma.dei.unipd.it (Gian_Uberto Lauri 228495)
Subject: Re: BTECH: Mech Editor available for ftp (honest!)
Organization: Universita' di Padova, Italia
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 07:38:20 GMT

In article <=0#nlw-.hchong@netcom.com> hchong@netcom.com (Hoi Chong) writes:

>When I read the above, I assumed (and probably a few others too) that it is
>like the graphics editor they allegedly have for Sparc stations.  It is
>not.

A mech editor for Sparcstation ??

o   oooooo	Gian Uberto Lauri	
      o    o	saint@alessia.dei.unipd.it
     o o
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: philipd@cs.kuleuven.ac.be (Philip Dutre)
Subject: Re: 1rst draft of the FAQ/introduction to the group
Keywords: FAQ
Organization: Dept. Computerwetenschappen
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 16:53:27 GMT

> FAQ's :
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> [Is it worth doing FAQ's, what with so many games that get talked about?  I can
> easily see this one getting entirely out of hand and unreadable.]

I think everyone agrees a general FAQ containing game specific questions would
rapidly grow into a huge mass of info, in which nobody would ever find its
way.
Therefore, I suggest the following:
If there are games that require a specific FAQ (I can imagine there are), a
gamer/reader should stand up and make one. His name and e-mail adress
will be in the rgb general FAQ. This way, everyone who wants a game-specific
FAQ can ask it directly to the FAQ maintainer. In addition to this, the 
keepers of the game specific FAQS should post them on a regular basis (bimontly?).

The general FAQ could be posted on biweekly basis, so everyone has access
to the most recent information.

I know they are already some game specific FAQS out there, and it seems 
plausible to maintain these.

I agreed with Alec (who posted the 1st draft of the general FAQ), that I would
collect adresses of potential FAQ keepers and redirect them to him. I suggest
that FAQ keepers of game specific FAQS should:

- play the game themselves
- have an e-mail adress that isn't liable to regular modifications
- have access to magazines/published material relating to the game
- if at all possible, have contacts with the game manufacturer

I know this is an ideal image of the ideal FAQ keeper, but I think you all got
the point here...

So, before you start sending me your e-mail adresses, I first want to know what
you think about it.

Secondly, we ought to have some agreement about who is going to maintain these 
FAQS. What if two or more candidates show up? There's no problem for
existing FAQS, of course.

Phil


-- 
| Phil Dutre                            Dept. Computer Science              |
| philipd@cs.kuleuven.ac.be             Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL)|
| Phone: (32) 16 201015 x3094/3552      Celestijnenlaan 200A                |
| Fax:   (32) 16 205308                 B-3001 Heverlee, BELGIUM            |
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: faigin@aero.org (Daniel P. Faigin)
Subject: Re: Machiavelli
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation, El Segundo, CA
	<1992Aug25.193030.1@cc.newcastle.edu.au>
	<1992Aug26.165557.22457@cis.ohio-state.edu>
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 19:52:01 GMT

On Wed, 26 Aug 1992 16:55:57 GMT, farrell@anaconda.cis.ohio-state.edu
(christopher k farrell) said: 

> 	I've played Machiavelli a couple times and I'm not real sure it adds
> anything meaningful over Dip.  There are two real problems:  1)  The Garrison
> rules make it impossible to actually get anything done in a reasonable amount
> of time.  Those lighting stabs from Diplomacy (did I ever tell you about by
> 7-centre stab?) are right out.  2) The geography has some problems. There are
> sever situations (like Naples, Papacy, and Lombardy, I believe) where there is
> a cluster of three powers and it is obviously more advantageous for one 
> alliance.  Milan has serious expansion problems; and it's very difficult for
> there to be cross-over between "sectors" of the mapboard.  

I'm not fully sure on this. I tend to like to play with money and
assasination, but not with famine or revolts. I tend to not play with the
money lenders either. In any case, I'd agree that Milan is weak -- so it
Florance, and the Venetians are strong. The other countries seem to be a bit
better balanced, and you have some interesting alliances develop: France and
Austria, for example.

As for lightning stabs -- they surely exist. They're called bribes. It's
really annoying when my armies turn out to be taking orders from someone else!

P.S. Remember that the most useful expenditure in Machiavelli is payment to
revolt. It can't be counterbribed, and counts as an implicit support into the
country to liberate the rebellion. It's just good politics.

Daniel
--
[W]:The Aerospace Corp. M1/055 * POB 92957 * LA, CA 90009-2957 * 310/336-8228
[Email]:faigin@aerospace.aero.org              [Vmail]:310/336-5454 Box#13149
   "You can't be a rationalist in an irrational world. It isn't rational!"
	       Dr. Rance, in Joe Orton's "What the Butler Saw"
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: ahabig@bigbang.astro.indiana.edu (Alec Habig)
Subject: Re: Tactica: Wheeling
Organization: Indiana University Astrophysics, Bloomington, IN
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 12:28:41 GMT

In article <1992Aug23.171549.28195@math.ufl.edu> bss@math.ufl.edu (Bob Slaughter) writes:
>I now have both the Ancients and Medieval rule books for Tactica.  In
>Ancients, wheeling can only be done the first two turns by Massed
>infantry, whereas in the Medieval rules units can wheel all game long
>(albeit in both games wheeling is a real slow process). Has there been
>arule change here?

I don't know for sure, but think this might reflect a change in tactics between
the two ages in question.  Ancient armies were noted for their lack of manuever
once in combat - my guess would be that the first rule tries to reflect this.

	Alec


Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: mrh0631@zeus.tamu.edu (Mark Hesidence)
Subject: Axis and Allies
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 18:52:00 GMT


    These questions have probably been discussed at length before, but
  I'm new to this news group and I've scanned all the old articles
  and didn't find them.


1.  How do you handle new industrial complexes?  Captured complexes?

2.  It seems kind of pointless for Japan to do any thing but attack
    Russia.  (exept for the inital pearl harbor attack to kill the
    U.S. fleet)   Is this what most players do?

3.  Is there any PBeM A&A games?


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| You have reached an imaginary number, please  | Mark R. Hesidence     |
| rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again.   | mrh0631@zeus.tamu.edu |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: pmwg1641@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Peter M. White)
Subject: Re: Castle Risk
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 03:02:08 GMT

melissa@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Melissa C Merrill) writes:

>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

Very true.  However, (all) Risk games are woefully boring without lots
of players.  Often a couple of these players will be inexperienced
wargamers; it has simple rules to learn, after all.  But one or two
poor players seem to poison the game: the first real shark to get
the opportunity to pounce on a poorly defended castle gets a major
& permenant advantage, the extra flag, until defeated.  My personal
strategy in Risk is to usually just how many kills I can make, which
has resulted in my winning about half the games in which I played
(usually with 6 players); you cannot overestimate my chagrin over
not getting first crack at one of those minnows.

Castle Risk is based on a nice premise: take a fun game like Risk,
include castles to add some "needed" stability, and snazz it up with
some cute other cards.  Unfortunately, the game ends being fairly
unsatisfying.  Overall, I found Castle Risk games to be consistently
less stragically (such as there is) interesting than any Risk game
I have participated in.

--Peter


______________________________________________________________________________
						|
     "Guards!  Let me draw their fire!"		|	p-white@uiuc.edu
		   --Scapegoat,_Marshal Law_	|
______________________________________________________________________________

Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: melissa@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Melissa C Merrill)
Subject: Supremacy Suppliments/Minatures
Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 13:44:02 GMT


Hi, just got Sup. and wondered if anyone had any suppliments/minatures
for sale. I'm interested in getting the tank/boomer suppliments, but
more interested in the mini's. Thanks.

						Mark Gresbach

Organization: Freshman, CIT general, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Date: Wed,  2 Sep 1992 21:24:47 -0400 
From: Robert Everett Brunskill <rb6t+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Mac Mechedit ?

HELP!
I remember seeing a post on a mecheditor someone had for mac and now I
can't find the note!!! Please contact me about it, I am interested (it
might make my compiled listing of all the 'Mechs I have ever seen
easier).
While I'm at it, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MUSE????(Btech)

Rob Brunskill
"It works therefore I am" - netter philosophy.
From: kgnome@cs.concordia.ca (MATIS stephane)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: BTECH: Mecha*Press reviewers
Date: 27 Aug 92 13:07:54 GMT
Organization: Computer Science, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec

Hello Folks!

I have been wondering if all the people who agreed to review Mecha*Press
have received them ? 

If you have, and have also sent mail concerning FEEDBACK, then I
apologise, the univeristy did modify our mailing addresses, and that may
have caused your E-Mail to got to Timbuktu.

The correct address is below ...

If you have not received the magazins, give me a E-Buzz. 

BTW ... Sam Lewis from FASA has put all BTECH and SHADOWRUN magazine
contracts on hold for a year. Bummer. 

Other than that, GENCON92 was fun and exhausting. I will reply to all of
your querries once I recuperate ...


Sai O nara. {sp?}


+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 From     : Stephane I. Matis                "It Just Works..." 
 Internet : kgnome@cs.concordia.ca           - Steve Paul Jobs, CEO NeXT
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: rday@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Robert E Day)
Subject: Re: mecheditor -where is it
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 14:04:08 GMT

In article <1992Aug28.090233.1@cc.newcastle.edu.au> c9036991@cc.newcastle.edu.a
u (UNFORGETTABLE ... IN EVERY WAY . AND FOREVERMORE .. THATS HOW WELL STAY) wri
tes:
>
>         Just incase you missed my last post .. and i know there
>    is some pretty heavy traffic in this group, could anyone who
>    actually found the mecheditor at umich please tell me what the
>    directory path to it was, i couldnt find it and would like a copy
>    of it ...
>
it's location is msdos/games/strategy/battletech

meched32.zip is the only thing there.

I hope that this helps.
-- 
If the price that I must pay to obtain my *  Robert E. Day/Syr Otto von    *
freedom, is to acknowledge that the Gov-  *  Schwartzkatz, Shire Mugmort   *
ernmet was granted the power to infringe  *  Barony Middle Marches,        *
on them, then I am not free. Paul Anderson*  Middle Kingdom                *
From: viau@wm.estec.esa.nl (Pierre "play-soccer-not-football" Viau)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Any board game about Baseball out there ?
Date: 1 Sep 92 16:31:21 GMT
Reply-To: viau@wm.estec.esa.nl
Organization: ESA/Estec/WMS, Noordwijk, The Netherlands

Does anybody know about a (preferably good) board game about
the great game of BaseBall ?

I'm also interested to know about any miniatures representing
baseball players in action (in lead or whatever).

Thanks.

---


Pierre Viau

ESTEC - WMS
European Space Agency
Keplerlaan, 1
2200 AG Noordwijk
The Netherlands

Fax:	(31) [0]1719-85420
                     17400
Phone:	(31) [0]1719-84357
		     83816

INTERNET/UUCP:	viau@wm.estec.esa.nl
BITNET:		pviau@estec.bitnet
From: canders@isr.harvard.edu (Carl E. Anderson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: BattleTech--What should I get next?
Date: 2 Sep 92 15:21:36 GMT
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

In article <1SEP199210382761@rosie.uh.edu> chem7l@rosie.uh.edu writes:
>In article <1992Aug29.165322.13730@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, cmeadows@nyx.cs.du.edu (Chris Meadows) writes...
>>Okay.  My little b(r)others and I are just now getting into BattleTech.
>>We have the BattleTech boxed game, MechWarrior 1st. Ed., the BattleTech
>>Compendium, the Clans novels, the ComStar Clan mech blueprints, and
>>that's it.  My question is, what should I get next, like for a Christmas
>>present for them?
>
>Well, to play BattleTech at all, you have to have maps and counters.  If I were
>you,I'd get Reinforcements II and some of the map sheets.  You really need some
>variety in your terrain, and the basic set doesn't give you much.  The counters
>in Reinforcements II are pretty helpful, but you could do without them if you
>have to.

	Actually, the GM for my BattleTech campaign came up with a great
alternative to the BattleTech cardboard counters.  He got some modeling
clay and had us players shape little Mech models out of it.  We call it
"Claymation BattleTech" for no particularly good reason.  The great things
is that when we destroy some Mech or part thereof we can go and mangle the
little clay figure, which is great fun.  And when something's arm gets
ripped off you can pick it up and actually stick it onto your Mech's hand.
	We also use a 4'x3' markerboard hex map, with I think I" hexes
(slightly smaller than regular BTech hexes but who cares?).  Gives us
freedom from the Incredible Clonable Terrain of the BTech mapsheets, as we
can design our own terrain.  Very handy.

Cheers,
Carl

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carl Edlund Anderson	            	"Hefi ek ok aldri sva reitt vapn
canders@isr.harvard.edu			at manni at eigi hafi vidh kommit."
OR
anderso2@husc.harvard.edu			- Skarphedhinn Njalsson 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: Steve.Zwanger@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Steve Zwanger)
Subject: Re: Titan
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 18:35:20 GMT

In article <5326@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP> demented+@pitt.edu (Scott E Berry) writes:
>somone will be very unlucky early in the game and lose their Titan.  This
>will give somebody a quick boost in points.

Using a lord stack to wipe out another lord stack early on in a multi-player
game is more likely to hurt you than help you. Sure you get points (big deal)
but you're going to end up way behind in building capacity; you've basically
lost half of your building potential (more or less, you may have a couple
of tiny stacks), even if two or three of your creatures survive.

>Do not play Titan plus it just doesn't work.

You're so right! Titan plus loses a lot of its complexity. No decisions
about whether to build that third centuar, or go for the lion, and there's
only one path to warbears. It's much more boring.

>The one thing I realy dislike about Titan is the fact that players can get 
>knocked completly out of the game.  Who wants to sit around while other people
>play just because someone got lucky and killed your titan early in the game. 

The obvious solution is to play only two-player games :-)

Steve

--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80
From: darragh@maths.tcd.ie (Darragh J. Delany)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: A3R - Naval Rules
Date: 31 Aug 92 20:02:30 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Maths, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.

thornley@nano.cs.umn.edu (David H. Thornley) writes:

>In article <14336@mindlink.bc.ca> Bruce_Harper@mindlink.bc.ca (Bruce Harper) writes:
>>The naval rules in Advanced Third Reich are quite different from those in 3R,
>>although if someone didn't like the old rules, it's hard to know if they will
>>be satisfied with the new rules without knowing why they didn't like the old
>>ones.
>>
>Do you really think these are adequate rules for a naval game?  Naval
>actions in Europe were sideshows, while naval actions in the Pacific were
>what it was all about.  Sounds like a dull game.

On the basis of my play of A3R I'd say that the new naval rules are basically
a sound basis on which to build any WWII naval strategic level game. The
vital difference lies in the air/sea interaction and as a result of this I
think a successful pacific theatre game can be constructed although I'm curious
about how large the map will have to be. 
-- 
Dj.

ESS students don't have plans, silly 
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: c9036991@cc.newcastle.edu.au (UNFORGETTABLE ... IN EVERY WAY . AND FOREVERMORE .. THATS HOW WELL STAY)
Subject: BTECH - editor question
Organization: University of Newcastle, AUSTRALIA
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 22:21:21 GMT


	Just a simple question ... i tried to FTP to the umich site 
	to get the mech editor .. but couldnt find what directory it was 
	under .. could somone please tell me the directory path or even 
	just the name of the mecheditor file so that i can have another 
	look for about the fifth time ....
			
				Regards,
					Mathew.
	
-- 


	This is just a test .sig
	I suppose i should make it bigger, but i cant be bothred.
	All th ideas expressed are mine and therefore MUST be correct
	I will allow you to be wrong in your ignorance however.

	C9036991@wombat.newcastle.edu.au 
	C9036991@cc.newcasl.edu.au
From: duelge@schaefer.math.wisc.edu (Jason Duelge)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Conquest of the Empire
Date: 31 Aug 92 20:58:43 GMT
Reply-To: duelge@schaefer.UUCP (Jason Duelge)
Organization: Univ. of Wisconsin Dept. of Mathematics

In article <1992Aug31.193856.13840@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> bz556@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Joshua E. Randall) writes:
>
>Anybody play this game?  I find it a good break from more serious games
>like CE and Diplomacy.  It does, however, suffer from the usual lack of
>balance.  But as a "beer and pretzles" game it is a good one.
>
>-- 
>Joshua E. Randall
>bz556@cleveland.freenet.edu
>My motto:  "So little time, so little to do."  --Oscar Levant

I have had this game for over four years.  Don't play it too much.
Last week at GenCon i saw a copy of it at Crazy Egor's.  It was priced
at $375.  WOW!  I couldn't believe it ...
I'm reluctant to play my copy now, and am curious why it would be so
expensive.  Its not *that* good a game.
I've got Broadsides, Fortress America, Shogun and A&A.  I guess A&A is
the only one still in print?

Jason
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: kabreuer@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Klaus Breuer)
Subject: BattleTech game conversion for the IBM-PC
Organization: Student Pool, CSD, University of Erlangen, Germany
Distribution: rec.games.board
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 13:30:04 GMT

Hi everyone!

I'm writing a BTech game for MS-DOS (straight conversion of the
board game), and am nearly finished. 
See rec.games.frp.misc for more info.

Ciao,
Klaus

PS: All replys via email, please, we're having trouble with 'nn' here
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: wlh04953@elp.aero.org (William L. Hayden)
Subject: dragonchess
Summary: request for rules
Organization: The Aerospace Corporation
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 21:18:41 GMT

I don't seem to be able to get a rise from the chess group (original
post location), so maybe some luck here.
Could someone please (please,please) repost the complete set of rules
for DRAGONCHESS.
Newsgroups: rec.games.board