From: cs161feu@sdcc10.ucsd.edu (Anthony Minkoff)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
Subject: Two-player game
Date: 9 Nov 92 18:25:40 GMT
Article-I.D.: sdcc12.40774
Organization: University of California, San Diego

In article <uL7yTB2w165w@angus.mi.org> thx1138@angus.mi.org writes:
>It was also a much more well-written rulebook.  Easier to read. 

Yeah, it's a well-written rulebook, except for the fact that the
rules for the two-player game are full of contradictions, and have
never been playtested-- until now.

I played a two-player game with a friend yesterday.  It actually
works!

First, we had to settle a couple of contradictions in the rules.  In
one place, the rules state that Regeneration counts as a successful
challenge; in another, it states that it doesn't count as a
challenge at all.  We ruled the latter.  We resolved another
contradiction in the rules by ruling that Diplomacy tokens could
only come from bases, not the warp.

Feeling that there is really no room for negotiation in a two-player
game, we decided to spell out beforehand what the deals would be in
any Compromise-Compromise situation.  This is what we decided:

Superpower vs. Neutral Power:  Base for a base.
Superpower vs. other Superpower, or vs. Power controlled or
conquered by other Superpower:  Arms treaty.  Each side discards his
highest Attack card, if he has one.  (Yes, I *know* this is not a
deal normally allowed by the rules.  For this game, though, we made
it not only allowed, but mandatory.)

We also made another rule regarding conquest:  When you conquer
another power and receive its hand, you may discard any or all of it.
You shouldn't be penalized for conquering a power with a pathetic
hand.

Furthermore, we ruled that certain powers could not be used in the
two-player game.  We didn't make a list of these powers, but rather
decided to rule on each power as it came up.  When we dealt the
powers, on of the neutral powers received Parasite, which we decided
to discard and replace.

Other powers that would be rejected are powers that function only
when not main players (e.g., Prophet, Demon, Cavalry).  Also, things
like Assassin and Bully would be rejected.  (Far too powerful in
this game.  You need eight foreign bases to win.  Assuming you hold
on to your home bases and have three diplomacy stacks, that leaves
you with 17 tokens holding 13 bases.)  Also, any powers involving
"secret information" (e.g., Schizoid, Terrorist) could be used by a
Superpower, but not by a Neutral power.  (Come to think of it, how
many bombs would Terrorist plant?  There are only two players, but
six hexes in play.  I would say six; it would kinda stink to be able
to booby-trap only two planets out of 30.)

I got Vacuum; he got Negator.  The neutral powers were Vulch,
Philanthropist, Worm, and Delegator.

On his first turn, he challenged the Worm.  I defended on behalf of
the Worm, played a Compromise, and Wormed the cone over to a planet
with seven tokens.  I took seven cards in consolation, and then
played the Diplomat flare (on Worm's behalf, of course, as I was
still "proxy defender"), charging that I had offended the Worm by
doing such a deliberately poor job of defense.  Base for a base.
Then I left my five worst cards with the Worm, and kept the rest of
the hand for myself.  Neat.  :-)

We battled along pretty evenly for a while.  My opponent conquered
the Worm, which I pretty much allowed to happen, since the Worm did
not seem such a significant power, and I knew it had an utterly
pathetic hand.

Meanwhile, the Vulch was collecting an enormous stack of Edicts.
Neither of us dared challenge the Vulch, since the other player
would then get all those Edicts.  So we took turns playing Attack
cards into Diplomacy stacks for Vulch, but neither of us could make
significant headway.

Finally, I colonized my way to conquest of the Philanthropist.  The
Philanthropist's hand had three compromises.  (Neither of us had
known this, since the Philanthropist had not been directly
challenged.  For some reason, nobody ever challenged Delegator over
the course of the entire game.)  On my next turn, I
drew three of the Vulch's Destiny cards, and I very quickly
controlled the Vulch.  I then colonized my way to victory.

During the game, there was only one direct Superpower vs. Superpower
challenge.  Each of us had to play "proxy defender" for the Worm a
few times, resulting in the Worm having a really awful hand.

The game worked, though the ending was a bit anti-climactic.  We
considered making a rule that the game could not be won on a
colonization, but made no decision on that rule.  (We'll have to
decide next time we play.)

Oh, one other thing I just remembered-- we had to rule regarding
placement of Neutral's tokens-- e.g., Worm's tokens at the beginning
of the game, all Neutral tokens when a Mobius Tubes was played.  We
decided in both of these situations to take turns placing tokens,
one at a time.

One of these days, we'll playtest this more thoroughly, and write up
an article on our conclusions.
 
Tony