From: kaydin@jarthur.claremont.edu (puck)
Subject: Re: JUNTA - help please
Organization: Forest of Satyrs, City of Vampires, the wilds.
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 19:39:27 GMT

In article <BtLInu.252@acsu.buffalo.edu> v077mdph@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (John of Gaunt) writes:
>
>	Yes and no.  The President can draw more than eight notes.  Even if you
>know how many he keeps, you still don't know how much money that is.  If the
>President stays President, he usually does so by keeping less money than he
>gives to anybody else.  If you're always El Presidente, you should lose.
>

   I must have been playing wrong, then :)  ...the last three games, 
I *won* by being El Presidente for the whole game (or, in the last case,
<almost> the whole game).

   The key comes in *appearing* to give out all the money.  For example,
if you have a couple 1 MP bills in your pocket, a little sleight of hand
may switch them for the 2's and 3's in the budget draw.  Aside from this,
a few presidential strategies:

   1.  Favor one other player at a time.  Give the player lots of money,
overtly or covertly.  Then, at an appropriate time, give the player
*secretly* lots of money.  The player, inevitably, heads for the bank,
thinking no one else knows that he's rich.  Of course, you have sold
the information of his richness to someone else for half the assasination
take.  When the assasination comes, you get half the money, and the player
that did the dirty work get the ire of the other players.  Switch favorites,
and repeat.

   2.  Skim a little bit from every operation, rather than big bunches at 
once.  Make sure everyone considers you poor...1 or 2 MP at most.  Keep 
slipping this in the bank (no one will shoot you for a lousy 1 MP) and, by 
the end, you'll have more than the ones who run to the bank with lots,
and miss.  Especially if, following rule 1, you skim some from every 
successful assasination.

   3.  Use the Lord Julius (aka Groucho Marx) school of management.  Switch
support at a whim.  Reward those who vote against you, and punish those
who favor you...your enemies become your friends, and then you can cheat
them next turn.  If the Admiral shells your palace and misses, give him
money to buy a targeting computer.  If he shells your palace and hits,
give him money for superior marksmanship.  Whatever you do, keep the game
fluid.  You'll have the players, instead of being angry at your
inconsistancy, scrambling for a little bit of your favor.

   4.  Be concerned in a coup...your citizens are unhappy!  Help them 
out...it tears you *so* to see your poor little country in turmoil...
you've tried your best, if only those misguided rebels of the 
Pocketwatch Family had tried to *talk* to you...please, loyal citizens, 
*stop* him from destroying all that we have worked for! 

   5.  A good leader is strong, truthful, concerned for his country,
and sacrifices himself for the good of his country.  If you're good,
hard-working, have what it takes, and skim just a *little bit* from
everything, you'll do just fine.


  -His Royal Supreme Colonal, Defender of Justice, Protector
of the Downtrodden, Magnifiant Bearer of the True Colors and
Supreme General of the Unadulterated Cause,
                                               Stickpin IX.
                                               (Kerim Aydin)


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