HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: njs@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (nicholas.j.sauer)
Subject: Re: Mayfair Rings system -- do they really mean THAT?
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 14:49:04 GMT

In article <1992Jul30.035528.26203@wuecl.wustl.edu>, kcc@wucs1.wustl.edu (Ken Cox) writes:
>We were playing with Mayfair special hexes.  The Rings player
>flipped his own color.  He decided to challenge another player's
>base on a ring, and wanted to know how the defensive bonus was
>handled.  We read the card carefully:
>
> [Example of typical Mayfair "quality control" deleted]
>
>Is this really what was meant?  It seems a little extreme, that
>Rings is so good both when he defends and when he attacks in his
>system.  We decided to play it as written this time, but in future
>games we may play that the bonus is used only when the Rings player
>is defending.

You have it correct in your last sentance.  The original design intent
was that the Rings system player ONLY gets the bonuses as a defensive
player.  Yet another thing to add to the list of "corrections" to be made 
if CE ever gets a second print run.

I guess it is pretty obvious if you think about it.  None of the other
system hexes allow a player other than the hex owner to use the hex ability.
Thanks to Mike Arms for providing the above answer.

Nick Sauer





Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 00:07:38 -0400 
From: Elliott Conan Evans <ee0r+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Save Sheet

daves@vtucs.cc.vt.edu (Dave Sisson) writes:
> I'm looking for a save game sheet for Cosmic Encounter.  I just finished
> our regular Tuesday CE Lunch Hour and of course, we didn't finish.  We just
> tossed the game.  Has anybody spent the time to design a save sheet?

The closest thing I have is a sheet for terrorist to mark bombs on.

I can send this to anybody who requests it.

Formats are limited to PostScript and FrameMaker or, I guess if
somebody insists they can have an xwd version (why?).

(For yinz what say "What a waste of paper!" I coated this with clear
Con-tact sheeting and use an overhead marker.)

------
Eeyore
"Hey baby, wanna see my Codex Seraphinianus?"
From: daves@vtucs.cc.vt.edu (Dave Sisson)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
Subject: Save Sheet
Date: 21 Jul 92 17:07:43 GMT
Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA


      I'm looking for a save game sheet for Cosmic Encounter.  I just finished
our regular Tuesday CE Lunch Hour and of course, we didn't finish.  We just
tossed the game.  Has anybody spent the time to design a save sheet?
From: jlb@ccs.itd.umich.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
Subject: Re: Zombie
Summary: I don't think so
Keywords: zombie base
Date: 31 Jul 92 13:10:49 GMT
Organization: Campus Computing Sites, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Originator: jlb@diddley.ccs.itd.umich.edu

I think the question that would elicit the answer you want is What happens
to a no-based player during a Mobius Tubes play?  And the answer is, that
player swears a lot while everybody else gets their tokens back.  You have
to have a base to place tokens.  And what does everybody think of the double
power Gambler/Seeker?

-- 
-- Jeff Bailey, jlb@ccs.itd.umich.edu (Open 24 Hours a Day!)
Standard disclaimer - If you wanted U/M's views, you came to the wrong place. 
"The owner of the game deals and plays first." -- Nuclear War/Escalation
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
From: haefner@IASTATE.EDU (Ralph I Haefner)
Subject: Re: Flea Market
Reply-To: haefner@IASTATE.EDU (Ralph I Haefner)
Organization: Iowa State University
Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 20:59:30 GMT

In article <5224@transfer.stratus.com>, hship@sw.stratus.com (Howard Ship)
writes:
> In article <QeRT8WS00asVAfLlEy@andrew.cmu.edu>, ap1i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Andrew
C. Plotkin) writes:
> > Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.board.ce: 28-Jul-92 Re: Flea Market Phil
> > Hill@miracle.com (835)
> > 
> > > hship@sw.stratus.com (Howard Ship) writes:
> > > >My expert Flea Market friend found a copy of the original CE (from
> > > >1978?) at a flea market.  It was in mint shape -- it was not even
> > > >fully punched.  Many of the alien power cards were still attached to
> > > >each other.  No expansion sets, just the game.  He bought it for
> > > >ONE DOLLAR.  Any ideas how much it is worth?
> > 
> > > Humm... I'd guess ONE DOLLAR.
> > 
> > More than that, I'm sure, if only to completists. Of which there are some.
> > 
> > Heck, let's find out. I'll pay $15 for it -- I'd like more token sets,
> > stardisks, Eon-style hexes.
> > 
> > Anyone better that? (Assuming Mr. Ship's mysterious Friend wants to sell
> > to some random.net.stranger and not keep it for himself.)
> > 
> 
> Actually, Warren is a big Star Trek dealer (BTW that how dealers work,
> they buy stuff real cheap at yard sales, used book stores and flea
> markets from people who don't know what something is worth or how to
> sell it, then sell it at a huge profit.  The markup is basically for
> their time, sharp eyes and expertise, and because they can get away
> with it)  anyway, he just threw it in his catalog (for $50 !).
> 
> -- 
> "Is that real blood?" 
> Howard_Ship@vos.stratus.com

So how do we get a copy of his catalog?
From: kcc@wucs1.wustl.edu (Ken Cox)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
Subject: Mayfair Rings system -- do they really mean THAT?
Date: 30 Jul 92 03:55:28 GMT
Organization: Washington University, St. Louis MO

We were playing with Mayfair special hexes.  The Rings player
flipped his own color.  He decided to challenge another player's
base on a ring, and wanted to know how the defensive bonus was
handled.  We read the card carefully:

	The rings and central planet have special defensive
	characteristics, namely, the outer ring adds two to
	the defense, ... and the central planet adds ten.

Clear enough, the bonus modifies the DEFENSE, so when Rings is
challenging another player in his system the number modifies the
defensive player's total.  Ah, but the next paragraph:

	The Rings player can subtract these values instead
	of adding them at his option.

This made the Rings player very happy, since it says he can reduce
the defensive player's total.  He pointed the cone at ring 6, where
the defensive player had only one token, meaning that the defense
effectively started off at -5.

Is this really what was meant?  It seems a little extreme, that
Rings is so good both when he defends and when he attacks in his
system.  We decided to play it as written this time, but in future
games we may play that the bonus is used only when the Rings player
is defending.

For comparison, Eon's Rings gave the defensive bonus only when the
Rings player was defending, and also gave that player a bonus of
one for each token on the ring regardless of owner.  This was better
defensively than Mayfair's (because of the token bonus) but gave
neither the Rings player nor his opponent an advantage when Rings
challenged his own system.

Ken Cox
kcc@wucs1.wustl.edu
From: hship@sw.stratus.com (Howard Ship)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
Subject: Re: Flea Market
Date: 29 Jul 92 12:52:58 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc.

In article <QeRT8WS00asVAfLlEy@andrew.cmu.edu>, ap1i+@andrew.cmu.edu (Andrew C. Plotkin) writes:
> Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.board.ce: 28-Jul-92 Re: Flea Market Phil
> Hill@miracle.com (835)
> 
> > hship@sw.stratus.com (Howard Ship) writes:
> > >My expert Flea Market friend found a copy of the original CE (from
> > >1978?) at a flea market.  It was in mint shape -- it was not even
> > >fully punched.  Many of the alien power cards were still attached to
> > >each other.  No expansion sets, just the game.  He bought it for
> > >ONE DOLLAR.  Any ideas how much it is worth?
> 
> > Humm... I'd guess ONE DOLLAR.
> 
> More than that, I'm sure, if only to completists. Of which there are some.
> 
> Heck, let's find out. I'll pay $15 for it -- I'd like more token sets,
> stardisks, Eon-style hexes.
> 
> Anyone better that? (Assuming Mr. Ship's mysterious Friend wants to sell
> to some random.net.stranger and not keep it for himself.)
> 

Actually, Warren is a big Star Trek dealer (BTW that how dealers work,
they buy stuff real cheap at yard sales, used book stores and flea
markets from people who don't know what something is worth or how to
sell it, then sell it at a huge profit.  The markup is basically for
their time, sharp eyes and expertise, and because they can get away
with it)  anyway, he just threw it in his catalog (for $50 !).

-- 
"Is that real blood?" 
Howard_Ship@vos.stratus.com
From: hship@sw.stratus.com (Howard Ship)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce
Subject: Flea Market
Date: 28 Jul 92 13:21:00 GMT
Organization: Stratus Computer, Inc.

My expert Flea Market friend found a copy of the original CE (from
1978?) at a flea market.  It was in mint shape -- it was not even
fully punched.  Many of the alien power cards were still attached to
each other.  No expansion sets, just the game.  He bought it for
ONE DOLLAR.  Any ideas how much it is worth?


-- 
"Is that real blood?" 
Howard_Ship@vos.stratus.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Organization: Penn $tate Univer$ity
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 09:12:38 EDT
From: Brian Panulla, MooCow <BJP108@psuvm.psu.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Aerotech: Yeck!

In article <ajross.711674813@husc9>, ajross@husc9.harvard.edu (Andrew Ross)
says:
>
>Granted, the system sucks.  The time and distance scales, though, are
>almost identical to Air Superiority, which is a pretty good (if overly
>complex) game.  I've often thought of trying to derive a simplified
>version of the AS rules for use in Aerotech games.  Anyone else try
>anything similar?
>

I've never played Air Superiority, but my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles RPG
game master adapted the rules from Avalon Hill's Air Force to handle combat
between Vertitech Fighters and Invid (granted it was a highly modified TMNT
game...anything from a Palladium book was fair game...).

It worked out pretty well for those of us who had played Air Force before.
The rest of the group fell asleep. Luckily, they weren't flying the VFs.

>Andy Ross
>ajross @husc.harvard.edu
______
Brian Panulla                                              Hail Sinfonia!
bjp108 @ psuvm.psu.edu / ender @ vivaldi.psu.edu / panulla @ math.psu.edu
"Oops.  (BOOM!)" - The battlecry of the Heroes of Tasmania
(The opinions expressed above are mine alone, and do not reflect those of)
(Penn State University, or the Center for Academic Computing, so there!  )
From: Bruce_Harper@mindlink.bc.ca (Bruce Harper)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Playing (Advanced) Civilization properly
Date: 21 Jul 92 23:50:29 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

There's an interesting discussion developing here, but I think a clear
distinction has to be made between the old Civilization (where aggression was
more or less pointless) and Advanced Civilization (where aggression is, at the
very least, one of a number of viable strategies).

There isn't much point to discussing the old game.  In Advanced Civilization, a
combination of Military and Metalworking (and a few others) can wreak havoc on
the other players, although if everyone has Military it is purely a
disadvantage.  The same logic applies to Monotheism - if no one else has it,
it's great (despite its drawbacks), but if everyone has it or Theology, it's a
liability.

During playtesting, there were some groups where more than one nation obtained
every civilization card (!), because no one attacked anyone.  In other groups,
war was the normal order of things and no nation really became highly
civilized.  I don't think anyone can say which way of playing is "correct" -
I'm only comfortable saying that anyone who thinks there's an obvious best
strategy is wrong.

Because of these differences in games, I think the best way to measure success
is the % of victory points each nation obtains of the total in a given game.
From: lwood@landau.ucdavis.edu (Lynn Scott Wood)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Star Trek Anniversary Game
Keywords: star trek
Date: 28 Jul 92 18:48:17 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: Physics, UC Davis


To be honest, the game itself isn't any good.  The rules are vague and seem to
skip important things, and it seems that they tried to put things on the board
that serve no real purpose (my friend and I plan on rewriting/creating our own
rules using the available parts).  What IS good about the game is the set of 
trivia cards.  Five groups of increasing difficulty - my friend and I could 
answer all "Warp 1" cards and most of the "Warp 2", but were getting stuck with
the higher levels.  So, if you feel that a set of trivia cards is worth ~$50, 
go for it.  Otherwise, well, I COULD be considered an investment...
From: Ordania-DM@cup.portal.com (Charles K Hughes)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: 'Protecting' playing pieces...
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 15:15:01 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)

  I just bought a new game of Titan (my old one is, well, old. :) and I want
to protect the pieces a bit.  Has anyone tried some sort of spray covering,
or something of the sort to protect cardboard playing pieces?

Charles_K_Hughes@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: nishiha@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu (Gregory Nishihara)
Subject: Axis & Allies: Strategy
Organization: University of Engineering, College of Engineering
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 23:04:42 GMT


Ok, I just tried this game out this past weekend...and found it to be
quite fun! But I need ALOT of work on my strategy...so... I have a few
questions:

	1. What is the best combo of forces to use in an overland assualt?
	   Where the objective is to drive for the capital or the factories.
	   I'm thinking of  a fighter, 2 tanks and 3 infantry as a "division"
	   and using groups of these for the offensive. Expensive?

	2. What set of forces should be used for an adeqaute defense?
	   I'm not too sure on this one but I guess a bunch of infantry
	   and a fighter or two will do it.

	3. Also, how should one conduct an amphibious assualt? How many ships
	   is too many? What should a fleet be comprised of?

BTW please E-mail any help and thanx in advance!


-- 
================================================
Greg Nishihara   (nishiha@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu)
From: rbr@well.sf.ca.us (Bob Rossney)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Thanks to Robert Rossney + ????'s
Keywords: stockmarket
Date: 27 Jul 92 05:04:32 GMT
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link


I don't know Gamescape's address, but they're in the SF phonebook.  They're
just a game store--no catalog, no toll-free number, nothing fancy.  They
just have a big used games section--mostly wargames, mostly quite expensive.
($50 for your very own copy of 3M's Speed Circuit, frinstance.)

Robert Rossney
rbr@well.sf.ca.us
From: erwinrd@sumax.seattleu.edu (Richard D. Erwin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Looking for People that haven't paid for purchased games
Date: 26 Jul 92 01:28:32 GMT
Article-I.D.: sumax.4794
Organization: Seattle University, Seattle WA

The following people have been tough to reach of late:

Andy Latto:  WarpWar

Kelly Ferguson:  Ogre

Gary McGammon:  Sticks and Stones

Jay Luo:  Barbarian Prince
 
And there was another gent that asked to have Valkenberg Castle and Battlefleet
Mars whose name at present escapes me.

If you fit the description of any of the above, please get in contact with me
so I can clear the decks on this game sale.
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Diplomacy duplicity...
From: jjfink@skcla.monsanto.com
Date: 29 Jul 92 12:15:57 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.board
Distribution: na
Organization: Searle, Skokie, IL
Nntp-Posting-User: kgpowe

In article <1992Jul28.193547.3810@sol.UVic.CA>, rleroux1@sol.UVic.CA (Roger Leroux) writes:

> Is this indicative of the major differences between face-to-face vs email
> Diplomacy?
[Referring to short-term outlook rather than long, respectively]

I have only been playing the judge for a couple of months, and the biggest
factor I miss from face-to-face is knowing who is talking to whom.

As Austria in game I am currently involved in on the judge, I gave firm
commitments to both Italy and Turkey, knowing I was going to have to lie to one
or the other, and living in constant fear that they weren't dividing me up
between themselves.  It went the way I wanted, but that's no guarantee of the
next game.  In face to face, you have an idea who your enemies are.

Joel
-- 
jjfink@skcla.monsanto.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Portions of the preceding were recorded.  As for the rest, I quite fear that
 it was all in your mind" -- Alfred Hitchcock
From: tedrick@triangle.Berkeley.EDU (Tom Tedrick)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: SUMMARY OF ANCIENT MILITARY REFERENCES
Date: 22 Jul 1992 03:58:14 GMT
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: triangle.berkeley.edu

Three books I recommend that weren't mentioned:

1). "The Persian Wars" (Herodotus)
2). "The Generalship of Alexander the Great" (J.F.C.Fuller)
3). Volume 1 of "A Military History of the Western World" (Fuller)

Two other books I read many years ago may be worth mentioning also
("Julius Caesar" by Fuller, and "Scipio Africanus" by Liddell-Hart)

-- 
"In 1757 the Russians advanced into Prussia. They hung innocent inhabitants from
trees, ripped open their bodies and tore out their hearts, cut off their noses
and ears, broke their legs, fired villages, drove villagers into the flames,
stripped clergy naked and laid them on blazing fires, opened the graves ..."
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: silber@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Ami A. Silberman)
Subject: Re: SPI's WWII
Organization: University of Illinois, Dept. of Comp. Sci., Urbana, IL
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 1992 20:24:26 GMT

Is there a problem with the production points (or whatever they call them)
in PTO? When I played it, I noticed that the American was really, really
pushed to build even most of his force pool. In ETO, the allies seem able
to build all their land forces and most of their air, or vice versa.
Since, in PTO, I recognize all but about four capitol ships as being
historical, and know we had a fair number of land forces involved, I think
that the production rate is skewed. (For example, the force pool for 1942
is only about 20 pts less than the entire income for 42, not addressing
questions of airbases, repairs, transport units and offensives.
-- 
ami silberman - janitor of lunacy
	silber@cs.uiuc.edu
From: u8901744@cs.uow.edu.au (Daniel Robert Farnan)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: BTECH: What's new?
Date: 29 Jul 92 06:25:30 GMT
Organization: Dept of Computer Science, Wollongong University, Australia

kgnome@concour.cs.concordia.ca (MATIS stephane) writes:


>Ok. Comstar is not ready yet... I have a pre-preint, and it's descent
>book. Jade Falcon should be out in days ... Bloodright is out, but I for
>one can't recommend it. Natural Slection is boring. Important for my
>work, but other than that ... it's bogus. In fact, if anyone can explain
>to me why Kai Allard-Liao became a Solaris champion , I'll send you
>beer. Makes no sense to me.

	1. The planet Kestrel, Allard family holding. If you can get extra
		money coming into the planet's economy, the indigs are going
		to think well of you (in theory ;>)

	2. The Federated Commonwealth. Having the Champion of Solaris as a
		fully-recognized citizen/noble of _your_ House has got to be
		a major morale boost for the rest of your citizens ("my dad
		can beat up your dad"?)

	3. He had to do SOMEthing!


	qn: the only thing I cannot figure out is why Kai would resign his
		commission with the AFFC - surely he'd stay on to serve his
		Prince and friend, Victor? Or does he just have enough long-
		service leave accrued to spend years away from the army? The
		Allard-Liao family has always been heavy on duty, and Victor
		isn't too keen on favouritism (except, it seems, in the case
		of Kai and Galen).



>Roll!       ___      +---------------------------------------------------+
>Over!   __ ( . )      From        : Stephane I. Matis
>      _/__\(___)      Internet    : kgnome@concour.cs.concordia.ca
>    / /\\[==]//\ \    Working for : Monenco Systems Group 
>   /_/  |THOR|  \_\   Working  at : Newfoundland Offshore Contractors 
>  [00] _//==\\_ [00]  Writing for : Mecha*Press and FASA's BattleTech
>      / _/--\_ \      Studying at : Concordia University, Montreal
>     |__|    |__|     "It Just Works... " - Steve Paul Jobs, CEO NeXT
>     (__]    [__)     "Clam Warships are landing on Toycod !" - Anonymous
>    [_=_]    [_=_]   +---------------------------------------------------+



-------------------------------------------------------
Daniel Farnan,	InterNet: u8901744@wraith.cs.uow.edu.au
Wollongong Uni

"Don't ask me why I did it...
I must have been lonely, stupid or blind...
But I know that it seemed like a good idea at the time"

Mike Batt, "It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time"
-------------------------------------------------------
From: rleroux1@sol.UVic.CA (Roger Leroux)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Canadian Wargames Journal
Date: 24 Jul 92 00:27:38 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University of Victoria

In <23JUL199214563184@mars.lerc.nasa.gov> smpod@mars.lerc.nasa.gov (Stefan) writes:
>>IMHO, it's the best independent game magazine around. Note: They do *not*
>What do you mean by 'independent game magazine'?

Exactly what I said. Independent: 1. Not affiliated with a larger
controlling unit. (Merriam-Webster dictionary)

Roger

-- 
Roger Leroux          | "Climate is what we expect; weather is what we get." Me
rleroux1@sol.uvic.ca  |	"Everybody lies about sex." Lazarus Long
----------------------+ "Six of one, half a dozen of the other." Number 2.
rec.motorcycles DoD#43| Be seeing you...
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: thom@mapthom.b17a.ingr.com (Thom)
Subject: Star Trek Anniversary Game
Keywords: star trek
Reply-To: thom@mapthom.b17a.ingr.com
Organization: "Mapping Sciences Division, Intergraph Corp, Huntsville AL"
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 1992 03:04:11 GMT


I noticed a Star Trek Anniversary game at Toys R Us the other day.  It
appeared to be a strategy/trivia game.  It also seemed to be a collector's
edition which was numbered.  It was pretty costly $39.95.  Of course, the
inevitable question:

Is the game any good?



-thom

--
Email: thom@mapthom.b17a.ingr.com
Voice: (205)730-7117

"I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards.  I got a full
house and four people died."
                -- Steven Wright
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: gyugyi@leland.Stanford.EDU (Paul Gyugyi)
Subject: Re: mounting maps on boards
Organization: DSG, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 21:57:52 GMT

The local engineering supply store at Stanford sells 3/16" plexiglass
for $30 a sheet (one arm wide, two arms long).  You can probably find
it cheaper elsewhere.  I use it for sealing off shelves from our
8 month old.

-- 
Paul J. Gyugyi
Grad student, control systems, Stanford University
(and an avid LEGO collector)
gyugyi@earthsea.Stanford.EDU