From: barich@bach.udel.edu (Dewey H Barich)
Subject: Re: A&A e-mail game request
Organization: University of Delaware
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 15:05:27 GMT

In article <1992Nov14.020914.1@adcalc.fnal.gov> standeven@adcalc.fnal.gov writes:
>I am new to this list so forgive me for asking, does anyone know how to play Axis& Allies by e-mail? Im sure a post to the list
>would be welcome by many, other wise direct e-mail to me would be appreciated.

>	Jedi Jack


Well, here is how I do it.  It works fine for either a group of players
or you can have a moderator (slower, more secure).  I personally prefer
to go without a moderator if only 2 or 3 people are playing, otherwise
it's nice to have some administrative assistance.  Honesty is an issue
that must be discussed, but every player I have ever played with agrees
that cheating via e-mail (or at all) is silly, stupid, and nullifies the
purpose, which is to see how other people play (cheating would alter the
course of the game, making the rest of the decisions during the game
moot as they are not what actually, honestly happened in that game).
But, I digress.

The toughest thing is rolls.  There are a few options.  First, you can
have the attacker roll for both sides, and make casualty choices for
both.  You would first, of course, agree on order of lost units for the
defender.  This is usually not too hard (infantry, armor, fighters --
the most common units in defensive battles).  But, if there is a
situation that seems questionable, simply ask.   Or, you can have each
player roll for themselves and report the results (much slower).  As
long as you check for the correct order of units to lose, there's no
reason to not go with the first, except honesty, which we've accepted as
given by this point of the e-mail game).  Third, if you have a
moderator, the moderator rolls the dice for both sides, finding out the
order (usually before the battle starts, you can always ask to be told
what's happening).  

Some of the people I've played with wanted to use a program to mail the
results to all players (it was a random-number generator and a mailer
combined).  This worked out great, but I no longer have that program.
Again, based on the honesy argument above, there's no need for this.

Well, this should take care of how to handle dice.  The next issue is
keeping track of the board (Imagine 5 boards spread over Norway,
Delaware, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington state.  One unit gets moved
on one board and the game could be toast).  The best thing that I ahave
found for this is to forward a "State Check" after each players move
(possibly a little too frequent -- once per round is probably enough,
but it's not that much effort).  Here is a form I've developed (with
help from several others) to keep track of the board.  It is a little
burdensome, but all youever have to do is modify is each turn, so it's
not too bad.  Feel free to make use of it, or modify it or whatever...
For rule 4 of the form, feel free to use something other than a blank to
label...
Also, for rule 5, there is also a list that identifies every sea zone on
the board, but since I'm lazy I try to avoid it...





Rules for the form:
1)	Land and air units use lower case letters, naval use upper case.

2)	An asterisk indicates a fighter on a carrier.  Also, those
	fighters are listed under the naval units, not on land.

3)	Technologies can be listed under the IPC information line.

4)	If a country has units in a territory that it doesn't control,
	then list those units with the rest of that nation's units.  For
	example, there are 2 UK fighters in USSR-controlled Karelia.
	Under the UK heading, include the following line:

	Karelia 			2f		

	By leaving the IPC column blank (as opposed to 0), you indicate
	that the territory is NOT controlled by the UK.

5)	As for sea zones, many of them can be uniquely identified by an
	adjacent land territory, and in the manual there are 4 marked A,B,C,
	and D, which can be used.  The rest are seldom used, and can 
	most likely (and easily) be ignored until needed.



USSR		24 IPCs		Control 24 IPCs worth of territory
----

On land:

Russia		4i	2a	1f		 8	AA	Complex
Karelia		3i	1a	1f		 3	AA	Complex
Caucasus	5i				 3
Kazakh						 2
Novosibirsk					 2
Evenki		2i				 2
Yakut		3i				 2
Far East	2i	1a			 2

On sea:

Karelia		1S	1T



Germany		32 IPCs		Control 32 IPCs worth of territory
-------

On land:

Germany		4i	2a	1f	1b	10	AA	Complex
West Europe	2i	2a	1f		 6	AA
South Europe	2i	1a			 6	AA	Complex
East Europe	3i	1a	1f		 3
Ukraine		3i	2a	1f		 3
Norway		3i	1a	1f		 2
Algeria		1i				 1
Libya		1i	1a			 1

On sea:

Germany		1S	1T
West Europe	1S
South Europe	1T	1B



UK		30 IPCs		Control 30 IPCs worth of territory
--

On land:

UK		2i	1a	2f	1b	 8	AA	Complex
East Canada		1a			 3
West Canada	1i				 1
Egypt		1i	1a			 2
South Africa	1i				 2
Syria		1i				 1
India		2i		1f		 3
Australia	2i				 2
West Africa					 1
Eqtl Africa					 1
East Africa					 1
Kenya						 1
Congo						 1
Persia						 1
Madagascar					 1
New Zealand					 1
Gibraltar					 0

On sea:

UK		1B	1T
East Canada	1T
Syria		1S
Gibraltar	1B
India		1T



Japan		25 IPCs		25 IPCs worth of territory
-----

On land:

Japan		3i	1a	1f	1b	 8	AA	Complex
Manchuria	3i		1f		 3
Kwangtung	2i				 3
Indo-China	2i		1f		 3
Wake Island	1i				 0
Okinawa		1i				 1
Phillipines	2i		1f		 3
Borneo-Celebes	1i				 1
Caroline	1i				 0
East Indes	1i				 2
Solomon		1i				 0
New Guinea	1i				 1

On sea:

Japan		1T	1B
Phillipines	1T
Caroline	1C	1B	1f*
Solomon		1S


US		36 IPCs		Control 36 IPCs worth of territory
--

On land:

East US		2i	1a	1f	1b	12	AA	Complex
West US		2i		1f		10	AA	Complex
China		2i		1f		 2
Sinkiang	2i				 2
Alaska		1i				 2
Hawaii		1i				 1
Midway		1i				 0
Mexico						 2
West Indes					 1
Panama						 1 
Brazil						 3

On sea:

East US		1T
West US		1T	1B
Hawaii		1S	1C	1f*

-------------end form------------


Well, this is it, guys.  By modifying the form and agreeing on a
dice-rolling scheme (moderators are probably the best way to go,
especially for if/when you get into rules disputes), you can play by
e-mail.  It's a little burdensome, but so is anything via e-mail.  Here
are a few other problems that have come up.

Time delays -- It is inevitable that a player's machine will go down at
some point, and you will have no means of knowing whether you are being
ignored or if the machine is down.  Patience is about the only thing
that solves this.  I'd thought about taking some IPCs from the missing
player's country as a punishment for delays, but I personally have
trouble holding someone responsible for the hardware breaking down.  I
just live with it.

Level of enthusiasm -- The game will mean more to some than others.  I
log in several times a day regularly, so I can almost always respond
quite quickly.  Some players are more patient than I in getting the
latest info, and may take more than a day (or whatever) to get it back
out.  The only thing you can do here is try to screen players, or just
live with it.  I live with it, trying to teach myself patience.  :-)

Rules problems -- Actually, somewhat surprisingly, there are quite a few
of these.  I expect some, of course, but few of the ones I've seen
really surprised me.  Moderators work best for these, as well (Since hey
would, by definiton, have the final say).

I think that's about all.  The form above is for the beginning of the
game, if you make use of it.

Well, let me know what you think.   I'll talk to you later!

Dewey