HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: baldwin@carina.unm.edu (Chris Baldwin)
Subject: Re: Blood Bowl
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 92 16:06:40 GMT
Organization: Atheist for the Development of a Better God

In article <1b1bo1INNjkk@bigboote.WPI.EDU> spectre@wpi.WPI.EDU (Christopher Jachimowicz) writes:
>I too would be interested in seeing and sharing more information about BB on
>this board.  I've been in the Worcester Dervish Football League for two years
>now, and have just finished editing the third edition of our own rules
>compendium.  The Compendium includes clarifications, new spell tables and
>the DFL Marketplace (where coaches may use previously earned income to purchase
>Wizards, Secret Weapons Workshops, etc. to improve their team).

	Our leaue also has just finished its new rule book for the season.
It includes rules for variable stadium sizes, televised games and new
races of Centaurs and Lizardmen. We play without magic. After looking
at the magic rules, we decided that they detracted from how we wanted
the game to play.
	Also, we have changed the Apothecary and Spy rules. Each Apothecary
only knows how to brew 4 different potions and you are allowed to have more 
that one apoth. per team. We did this to encourage more trading between
teams. To allow to the extra apothecaries, each teams is allows 25 slots on
the roster(up from a previous 20) and each apoth after the first takes up
a slot.
	We have changed the spy rules such that spies are bought at the
beginning of each month during the monthly draft. There are a limited
number of spies available, so you have to bid against the rest of the
league for them. We instituted this because we found it to not be cost
effective to bring anything other than spies to the game. We play with
a 10k GC limit on dirty tricks + 10k GC for secret weapons, so a team 
just had to bring 20 spies and they could spy anything else the opposistion
brought.

We have a ton of other rules we are using. If there is any interest,
I will post the league rule book.

>I was talking with one of my local game distributors the other day and was
>suprised to hear him say that Blood Bowl was basically 'dead'.  The good news
>was that his wholesaler has a bunch of Blood Bowl stuff he's looking to unload
>at 20% off.
Shesh! The game might not be dead if they thought about charging a rational
price for it. We have a league of about 10 or so players and we have 2
copies of each the Star Player Book and the companion. We have 3 BB sets
and 1 Dungeon Bowl set. This is for the entire league. The rest of the 
people in the league would probably buy the stuff if it wasn't so expensive.

>Chris.
>Owner of last season's UNDEFEATED Skaven Scramblers AND the Blood Bowl runners-
>up, the Chapel Hill Quickstarts
Chris,
Owner of the league leader in players eaten last year, the Multilator with 8.

-- 
"Hey, Guido! It's all so clear to me now. I'm the keeper of the cheese and
you're the lemon merchant. Getit? And he knows it! That's why he's gonna kill
us. So we gotta beat it. Yeah, before he lets loose the marmosets on us! - Ren
From: lerouxm@prism.CS.ORST.EDU (Mark S. Leroux)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: SFB: preplotted movement?
Keywords: Stir Fry Beetles
Date: 16 Oct 92 19:40:07 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Oregon State University, Computer Science Dept.

In article <Bw865z.H8M@dptspd.sat.datapoint.com> dscharfe@dptspd.sat.datapoint.com (David Scharfe) writes:

>In article <fuhrman-161092133113@litmac13.epfl.ch> fuhrman@litsun.epfl.ch (Cris Fuhrman) writes:

>>For a few years in college, I played my fair share of SFB with a regular
>>group of friends. Surprisingly, I've never played it without pre-plotted
>>movement as the friends with whom I played preferred this method saying
>>that it added a level of complexity to the game which was quite interesting

>I agree with your friends.  I used to play in college (late 1970's) and
>we ALWAYS used pre-plotted movement.  In fact, the trend towards free
>movement has led me to quit playing.

	Ugh! I hate to hear such ultimatums such as "this rule forced me
	to quit playing the game."  but if players wish to be so sensitive
	so be it.  

	Since the late 70's the game has undergone two major revisions.  I 
	beleive that the edition that dscharfe was playing used plotted
	movement only.  This would make an interesting game especially with
	cloaked ships.  Anyway, the rule was made an optional rule in the
	latest "Captain's" edition.  The new 'Free movement' system is the
	standard now which is used in all sanctioned tournaments. 
	
	The Free movement allows more player interaction during the turn 
	and is ALOT easier to run large fleet battles with.  Plotting
	movement for one ship is fine but with two or more forget it.

--Xourel
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: rbr@well.sf.ca.us (Bob Rossney)
Subject: Re: Impossible Checker Position
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1992 22:11:08 GMT

In <1992Oct12.100759.9066@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com> sabat@iccgcc.decnet.ab.com writes:

>I know this probably doesn't belong here, but I didn't know where else to post
>it.  My son and his cousin were playing checkers the other day and although I
>don't know how they did it, one of them got into a state where it was his turn
>but all of his pieces were stuck and he could not make a move at all period.
>What is the official ruling when this happens?  Does anyone know?

It's simple.  He loses.

Bob Rossney
rbr@well.sf.ca.us
From: v055nmvy@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (David A Gaidasz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: A Quest...
Keywords: Battle Armour
Date: 7 Oct 92 16:56:00 GMT
Organization: New Avalon: Camelot Corps Command
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41


	Okay folks, here is a question...

	Does anyone out there in netland know of a hard-hitting, fast moving
game of battle armour combat? I'm talking of battle armour ala Starship 
Troopers, Bubble Gum Crisis, Body Armor: 2000, Forever War, etc...
	BattleTech just doesn't cut it, though the Elementals are coming 
fairly close. Living Steel, by Leading Edge, is a little on the slow side, with
armour that waddles into battle at a snail's pace, though the armour levels and
damage are about right. I haven't really seen any others.

	Any responses on games, prices, comments, etc. would be apreciated.
Thank you for your time...
					David Gaidasz 
________________________________________________________________________________
| David Gaidasz  		      | Disclaimer:  I stand alone;	       |
|   (aka White Knight, KnightWalker)  |     	     in ideas and actions,     |
|   v055nmvy@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu     |              thoughts and reactions.   |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| "You'll never see my shade, or hear the sound of my feet,                    |
| While there's a moon, over Bourbon Street." -Sting, Moon Over Bourbon Street |
|______________________________________________________________________________|
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: graham@keystone.arch.unsw.edu.au (Graham Hannah)
Subject: Re: Blood Bowl
Reply-To: graham@keystone.arch.unsw.edu.au
Organization: Faculty of Architecture, University of New South Wales
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 05:01:38 GMT

>Any Blood Bowlers out there?  I have a new race (Leprechauns) that I would like
>to get feedback on...
>
>Andy Lipscomb
>lipscoja@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu

YES YES YES, I have been waiting for the bloodbowl effort to pick up, I would love
to see the Leprechauns posted.

We play a rather oversized league with some 20 teams but only 4 players, which makes
for lots of variety, but the progress can be slow. We use lots of the expansion rules
in the campaign, but have to make lots of modifications to even up some of the workings.
A major problem we still encounter even with some modifications is the potency of the
catchers in the game, they are hard to hit (dodging) yet are great offensively (run
with ball) and defensively (tackles).  One good catcher on his own can take on a poor
team like the Norsemen and win.

All advice welcome,
   cheers, Graham.


---
------------------------------------>
 _--_|\     Graham Hannah           graham@cad10.arch.unsw.EDU.AU        :-)
/      \    School of Architecture, University of New South Wales, Australia
\_.--._/<-------------------------------------------------------------------
      v   "or are we just simply spiraling coils of self-replicating DNA" MP
------------------------------------>
          

Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: eda858xsys@vx24.cc.monash.edu.au
Subject: Re: BTECH: Mechwar 1.01 Fix?????
Organization: Computer Centre, Monash University, Australia
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 06:32:25 GMT

> |>I got the newest version of Mech War 1.01 and am still having all kinds of
> |>trouble with it.  I try to run the mechwar.exe and all the fights barf
> |>ANSI all over the screen in a very ugly way.  I am using a 386/25, Stacker
> |>and SmartDrive if these are possible offenders?  Any hints would be very 
> |>appreciated.  This happens when I go into the weapons screen to select the
> |>weapons to fire.  Thanks.  Mike
> |>
> |>
> 
> I am having the same problem.
> 
> Brian
Have identified the problem it IS MECHWAR.EMS i used the standard one and it
works fine.

Guess we just have to wait for more good stuff and corrections to come.

Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: CS341A002@Husky1.StMarys.Ca (Loki)
Subject: Re: BTECH - no new group?
Organization: The Underground
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 01:13:57 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.13.SMU

phygod72@nic.gac.edu writes:
> There is a CFV for rec.games.abstract out there right now.  BattleTech does  
> fall within the group's charter, which means that you should vote for the  
> group!!!  Here is a copy of the post, but note that you should direct replies  
> to the name in the article (neilb@scs.leeds.ac.uk), and ***NOT*** to me, as it  
> will disqualify your vote!!!

BattleTech does not fall in the proposed charter of rec.games.abstract; see
later in this message for why

> Charter
> -------
> 
> 	The newsgroup would be for discussion of abstract games where
> 	strategy, tactics and player skill are paramount.  This includes
> 	the major category of perfect information, pure-strategy
> 	(deterministic) games, i.e. those with no element of chance (e.g.
> 	no dice), and where all information is available (unlike card games
> 	and Scrabble, for example, where players' hands are hidden).  The
> 	games under consideration are characterised by a simple board and
> 	pieces, with a small number of rules.  The cliche `a minute to
> 	learn, a lifetime to master' is often applied.

Battletech is not a perfect information, diceless game. :) I seem to
remember rolling 2d6 a whole lot of times... ;) And - in most player
groups, a player hides his 'Mech heat levels from his opponent. *Plus* it
has rules for hidden movement.

It does not have a simple board. What's more, it doesn't even have a fixed
board.

It does not have simple pieces. What's more, it doesn't even have fixed
pieces... 'Mech design is possible.

It does not have a small number of rules. The BattleTech Compendium is a
pretty thick book.

IE: BattleTech is a tactical simulation game. Not an abstract game. :)

 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 |Most commonly known as Loki, occasionally sysop of TWWOL                  |
 |SCA: Brynjolfr Myrkjartanarson, founder of the Compaignie Mercurie, in the|
 |Canton of Seashire, Barony of Ruantallan, Laurel Kingdom of the East      |
 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 |    The Net: cs341a002@husky1.stmarys.ca, cs341a002@stmarys.bitnet        |
 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Random Quote of the Day:
I am running for governor of the United States.

                 --- Richard Nixon, running for governor of California
From: jayhawk@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (ryan.moats)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: sort of FREE Counter trays need new home
Keywords: Counter trays, FREE (sort of)
Date: 9 Oct 92 01:19:42 GMT
Article-I.D.: cbnewsh.1992Oct9.011942.28915
Organization: AT&T

Folks, I have 20 counter trays of various sizes and denominations
that I HAVE NO USE FOR (i.e. my wife has declared that they have to
go to make room for some other games)!  Now, given that current prices
for counter trays are so high ;-), I'm offering these FCFS to anyone
interested.  The only catch is that you get to pay shipping! (and you
thought there was no strings to this)

So, if your interested, or feeling green (I hope to have some takers,
I'd hate to think what the degrading time for one of these nice,
used-pertroleum products is), send me your address, both s- and e-mail
and number desired to jayhawk@cygni.att.com, I'll return the cost and
see if we can do business.

Ryan Moats
jayhawk@cygni.att.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: baldwin@carina.unm.edu (Chris Baldwin)
Subject: Re: blood bowl
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 23:19:14 GMT
Organization: Atheist for the Development of a Better God

In article <1bdl83INN1t5@matt.ksu.ksu.edu> jimfost@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (Jim Foster) writes:
>mcs52867@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Mike) writes:
>
>>i've seen a lot of talk recently on this group about blood bowl. i've wanted
>>to get it for awhile, but the cost kind of discouraged me. i saw something
	Yeah, it is really expensive. I bought it all at GenCon year before
last and it ran ~$130 or so, but I think that was worth it. Anyway, if you
want to get started just get the boxed set. that is only(!) about $50. you
can get started there. After that get the Star Player book if you want star
rules, or just make up your own. As for the Companion, I am glad that I
bought it since having predone rules for leagues helped us get started faster,
but I don't think I would buy it if I had played before, since most of it
would have come from our leagues tendancy to add rules(We have 4 players
in our league who have never played a game without rewriting the rules and
changing things. The mutation of Rolemaster this same group plays is barely
recognizable, except we do carry around the RM books:-)

>At one time, GW made a game set called _Keeerunch!_ which was an entry-level 
>(I.e. lower cost) version of the BB rules.
	Do to its lower price, I looked at Keeerunch!, but if you wanna
play BB it has some real problems. First off, as I remember, the Keerunch
field is not the same size as the BB field. Also, the rules are incredibly
simple. One thing that I have noticed about this game is that once we have
added a rule, playing without it is annoying. We tried to go back to the
"basic" game to get a friend started and I kept trying to push, leap, etc.
The only exception to this was the magic and magic item rules. They just 
seemed a bit too arbitrary to us, so we threw them out. Has anyone redone
the magic rules?

>Dungeon bowl is an expansion set for BB which allows players to slug it out 
>on fileds that are pulled straight from your stereotypical fantsy dungeon: 
>pit traps, tresure chests, lack of light, etc. I don't think you can use it 
>w/o BB, but don't quote me on that.

	No, you can not. We don't use it much at all, except for the
extra playing pieces. It is nice to have a bunch of elves and dwarves
to go along with the ocrs and humans from the BB set.

-- 
"Hey, Guido! It's all so clear to me now. I'm the keeper of the cheese and
you're the lemon merchant. Getit? And he knows it! That's why he's gonna kill
us. So we gotta beat it. Yeah, before he lets loose the marmosets on us! - Ren
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 12:25:23 -0400 
From: Mustafa Unlu <mustafa+@CMU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Empires in Arms
	<1992Oct13.064455.24989@pei.com>

>In short, I'm not nearly as optimistic about Spain's negotiating power
>vis-a-vis France as Eric is.

His name is Eiji. (Thought I would correct that before he did).

There is sense in what both Fred and Eiji are saying. Spain can thumb
her nose at the French *as long as* there is the possibility of a
belligerent power to the east of France..  (Note that this does not
have to be Prussia/Austria, Russia usually serves this purpose quite
well.

In a game we played (not to the finish, of course) it took a whole
year and 12 corps for France to subjugate all Spanish capitals with
manpower. Note that at the beginning we had thought *all* capitals had
to be taken. The Spaniard was veeeery comfy, looking at Majorca and
thinking: 1) Their navy is now decorating the bottom of Brest harbor.
2) They can't swim. But the rule says all capitals with manpower... So
novices beware!

I estimate that France needs about 100-120 points if they want to
crush Spain totally, (which is what they eventually used).

While the French army was vacationing in Spain, the Russians built up
a *huge* force somewhere to the east of the Rhein and then at the
moment Spain fell, they attacked France. There was a battle of Grande
Armee vs Kutusov's horde and the Russians won by weight of their
numbers, assisted somewhat by a good chit pick. France had to sue.

We stopped playing shortly thereafter, but it was apparent to all that
Russia was way in the lead.

Of course, this is all moot if France and Spain ally, which they
should, at least at the early game stage. They need to do this before
England runs away with the naval thing and becomes untouchable. This
perhaps the only convenient time when a triple alliance of
Russia-France-Spain will be able to exercise naval superiority. (note
this is harder with the new naval rules, more on that) After that it
becomes really hard to convince France-Russia to build ships, while
the British will need no urging.. Playing Britain, I aim for at least
3.5 ships/quarter. Once you have enough mass, you can even force some
harbor defences to get at the Continental fleets and ensure Fortress
Britannia.

The triple alliance have a harder time with the new naval rules (from
the Genaral) because there depend less on numbers. The side that loses
is usually the side that breaks, unless both sides chose Linear
Defense, a chit that you won't see Britain picking often. But the new
rules are so good that one simply *has* to use them.

So to emphasize the effect of numbers more, we came up with additional
combat modifiers:

2-1 superiority gets +1
3-1 gets +2
4-1 gets +3

etc..

We also stipulated that you could use some or all of the positive
modifier above as a negative modifier to your opponent's dice roll.
Neither side can be more than +/- 1 of course. We think this reflects
better the advantage that one could gain from sheer numbers.

M.
From: davidw@yang.earlham.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Blood Bowl:  General Questions
Date: 14 Oct 92 19:34:34 GMT
Organization: Earlham College, Richmond, Indiana

In article <1992Oct14.100907.1224@ccsun.strath.ac.uk>, craa27@ccsun.strath.ac.uk ( Steve Holmes, Computer Centre ) writes:
> 
> Am I alone in thinking that "Basic" Blood bowl is a reasonable game
> but that the reams of rule amendments have the structure of
> spaghetti

No!  You most certainly are not.  I have run/been involved in 3 BB 
tournaments 1 using modified basic rules (my first experience) and 2 with 
the advanced rules.  We played 3 hour games with the advanced rules and still
had barely enough time to score more than 2 or 3 TD's _TOTAL_.  I find the 
additional book-keeping, stat-checking, and book-thumbing that star 
players, secret weapons, spies, assassins, potions, fans, and referees to 
be extremely tedious and irriatating.

I must admit that some of these rules are fun (especially referees and 
CHAINSAWS }:>), but the end result (especially due to the star players) is 
a game that bogs down in details.

The BB Companion is worth the investment.  It contains rules for official 
NAF Blood Bowl.  This variant plays alot more like real football:  there 
are blitzes, downs, quarters, safetys, etc.  Tactically, the game is alot 
more interesting--all of a sudden, a Halfling team can totally blow a 
Dwarf team away!

I think the home-brew rules can be alot of fun.  In the first tournament I 
played in, nearly every team had some special power.  Nurgle's Rotters had 
a disease that tended to kill opposing players who got injured, Vynhyme 
Valkyries could go beserk, and the Chaos All Stars could activate a chaos 
power once per turn.  The Chaos power was the best, a non-partisan third 
party would create a table of wierd events unique to each game.  When the 
chaos power was activated, a die was rolled, and the table consulted.  
Random events included:  levitated players, multiplying footballs, 
exploding footballs, extra players allowed on field, invisible players, 
etc.  The great part was that the table was different for each game and 
neither player knew what could happen.

> and while including the odd amusing gimmick, tend to
> be marketing ploys aimed at separating the fool and his/her money.
> 

Unfortunately bussinesses exist to make money according to our 
profit-oriented paradigm.  GW or any other game company can't just sit 
back and wait for people's Blood Bowl sets to require replacement.  In 
order to stay in business in this rather limited market, they need to 
produce new merchandise that BB owners will purchase.  I don't like it 
either, but it's the nature of the beast.

> Steve

David Weis
davidw@yang.earlham.edu
From: barich@bach.udel.edu (Dewey H Barich)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: A&A - Tricky bomber strategy.
Date: 14 Oct 92 04:40:53 GMT
Organization: University of Delaware

In article <1bg25dINNffb@gap.caltech.edu> keith@cco.caltech.edu (Keith Allan Schneider) writes:
>josh@gacvx2.gac.edu writes:
>
>>More on the tricky bomber stragegy:
>
>>A close examination of the rules will reveal that all the countries combined
>>can only purchase a total of 4 Industrial Complexes and 3 AA guns.  So if you
>
>Oh?

>keith

Yes.  There are 12 Industrial Complexes included in the game.  Eight are
used for original set-up.  Ergo, only 4 new complexes can be built.

Likewise, there are 12 AA guns included in the game.  Nine of these are
used for set-up.  Thus, only 3 new ones can be purchased.  While there
are no exceptions in the case of complexes, there is a possible
exception here.  That is if one of the originals is destroyed (by
sinking on a transport).  Still, though, there can only be 12 at any
given time....

Dewey
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: lunatic@netcom.com (Lunatic Johnathan Bruce E'Sex)
Subject: YES, new group! (Was: Re: BTECH - no new group?)
Organization: Netcom; Renegade User
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1992 03:25:01 GMT

.
    ][ have just exchanged messages with the person who posted the
 Request For Discussion (RFD) for rec.games.frp.board, and it turns out
 that she is not pursuing a Call For Votes (CFV) for the creation of that
 group.  As a result, I will be posting an RFD for the creation of a group
 named rec.games.mecha in the relevant newsgroups shortly.

-- 
   _______________________________________________________
  /         -= Lunatic Johnathan Bruce E'Sex     (:      /
 /  lunatic@netcom.com  GEnie: LUNATIC  CI$: 76170,672  /
/______________________________________________________/
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: hirai@cc.swarthmore.edu (Eiji Hirai)
Subject: Re: Civilization: article in The Gen ARRGH!
Organization: Information Services, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA, USA
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 07:00:13 GMT

If you see a badly written article, mentioning it's flaws is a good thing.

However, a better form of criticism is to write a better article and submit
it to the _General_.  You can say, "hey, if an article like that can get
published, I can certainly try submitting an IMHO better article."

[ Hmm, maybe I should collect my not-so-subtle opinions on EIA play and
  submit it to the _General_... :-) ]

--
hirai@cc.swarthmore.edu (Eiji Hirai)    :     :    :   :  : :: ::: :::: :::::
Unix Geek for Swarthmore College        :     :    :   :  : :: ::: :::: :::::
Information Services, Swarthmore, PA, US.       Copyright 1992 by Eiji Hirai.
I don't speak for Swarthmore College.                    All Rights Reserved.