HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ksoutor@unlinfo.unl.edu (kevin soutor)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Eastern Front Poll
Date: 19 Nov 1992 23:02:28 GMT
Organization: University of Nebraska--Lincoln	
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: unlinfo.unl.edu

To all grognards:

What is your favorite game dealing with the Eastern Front during
World War II?  I would like a short review/synopsis; I want to
build my meager collection.

Thanks!

--
       Kevin Soutor        | "Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms!" |
 ksoutor@unlinfo.unl.edu   |               -- Outlaw Josey Wales  |
From: el0g+@andrew.cmu.edu (Erik Lauer)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: A&A - I think the AXIS may be able to :)
Date: 20 Nov 92 14:18:41 GMT
Organization: Doctoral student, Mathematics, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

"Jonathan T. Moore" <jmci+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:

>> [question from Joe]

>Well, I've usually seen Britain do the following:

>Turn 1: Don't buy anything. The reasons for this will become apparent by
> [good advice]

>Turn 2: Buy one of the following sets of stuff:
>
>Set 1: All transports
>Set 2: Aircraft carrier + as many transports as you can afford

Just a while ago, Jon said all good players buy an AC.  Maybe I have him
converted to the all transports plan.  :-)

Gee, if Germany won't attack all transports, why whould I bother with
the other naval units????


Erik
---=
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: Bruce_Harper@mindlink.bc.ca (Bruce Harper)
Subject: (Advanced) Civilization - variant test
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 15:28:45 GMT

I have designed a variant for Advanced Civilization which allows players to
have one or more independent nations, control of which changes from player to
player in the course of play.

Before this appears in the GENERAL, I thought it might be a good idea to test
it.  I would think it could also be used for the basic Civilization game as
well.

Rather than post the draft article on the net, if you're interested please
contact me by e-mail and I'll send you the draft.

No additional units are required.

Please reply only if your group will be playing (Advanced) Civilization
within the next week or two, and are willing to try this out.  I don't want
to send it out to people who are merely curious.

If the response is sufficient, I will post it on the net.

Thanks in advance for any interest.
From: oberland@vax.sonoma.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Games that belong on every gamer's bookshelf
Date: 17 Nov 92 09:36:18 GMT
 <1e1205INN7e1@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> <BxtCCn.32o@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>
Organization: Sonoma State University

In article <BxtCCn.32o@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>, ahabig@bigbang.astro.indiana.edu (Alec Habig) writes:
> In article <1e1205INN7e1@charnel.ecst.csuchico.edu> tdunn@ecst.csuchico.edu (Tim Dunn) writes:
>>Alec Habig writes:
>>>If Wiz-War compares to Planet Busters, I'll have to try to find Wiz-War.
>>
>>How about this, if Planet Busters is so favorably compared to Wiz-War, 
>>I'm *already* looking for it.  Can anyone shed any information on it?
>>Thanks in advance.
> 
> It's been a long time since I played the game, and I don't have it here to look
> at, but I'll give it a feeble shot.
> 
> The game itself has verry low production qualities (after all, it's a magazine
> game), the pieces being cut out of thin cardboard/thick paper.  It is very
> simple, has a page or two of rules at most.
> 
> The gist of it is that each player has some planets and some spaceships.  The
> ships range in power from scout to Zerstor.  You send the ships off to attack
> the other player's ships (which are gaurding his planets).  There are also
> ships called planet busters, which can hose an entire planet if the get past
> the fleet.
> 
> It's a simple, fun game.  It does not have the endless replay value of a
> slightly more complicated beer 'n pretzles game, but is well worth the couple
> bucks a back issue of The Dragon costs.
> 
> Sorry I can't be more specific, but I'm 5000 miles from my games :(
> 
> 	Alec
 
Have it here.
Scout to Deathon(1 to 8)
Planets worth various amounts. CAN BE STOLEN
mines, chaff(blows his turn), comets, torpedos, etc.
Space station and other special pieces. spys.
Pieces can be also played ON the other player, such as spy, sabotage, and 
others(heh)

Pieces placed in waves to protect planets(like stratego-you see it when you
attack it)

object is to be the first to get the most in planets(value) by the time the fun
ends with the peace treaty.

All in all, a simple, fun game :)
Now if I could only finish my game, which is as much fun...
(anyone know how I can get something published without getting reamed?)

Joe
From: rpfaff@umiacs.umd.edu (Ray Pfaff)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: BTECH-BAD night of rolling
Date: 19 Nov 92 20:38:41 GMT
Organization: UMIACS, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

My fav has to be something that happened to another player.
He went from level 1 to level 2 water and failed his piloting
roll.  He fell and managed a critical head to the head.  Then
managed to roll a "pilot killed" on the critical hit.  This 
was on the second move, hehehe...
From: parkhill@email.sp.paramax.com (parkhill)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Aufwful Green Things Fro
Date: 17 Nov 92 16:32:08 GMT
Organization: Paramax -  Eagan, MN
NNTP-Posting-Host: email.sp.paramax.com

In the Grow Phase of the Green Things turn, do all green things
grow or just one type of green thing?  Of course, not counting
the stunned creatures.

Thanks
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: woodc@aix.rpi.edu (Christopher A. Wood)
Subject: Republic of Rome Wars...
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 05:36:11 GMT

  We were playing RoR last month, and one thing that we found was the
effects of winning wars had on the winning general.  The resulting 
infulance and popularity made them minor gods!  Especially if if was 
some major sort of action.   Is this the same sort of impression that
other people got, or did we stray somewhere along the line.  If not,
we might start thinking about halfing (or more ) the positive effects
of wars.  (Just so the ex-generals don't clean everything up when
they get back...That seems unfair...)

  Hope to hear from those who were talking about this game shortly
before we began playing it (so I missed most of the conversations..)

  Thanks...


-- 
 Chris Wood
  woodc@rpi.edu
   "All Men Are Equal in the Eyes of Fish" - Herbert Hoover  

Organization: Doctoral student, Mathematics, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
From: LIPSCOJA@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu (Andy Lipscomb)
Subject: Re: Blood Bowl -- Vampires
Organization: Vanderbilt University 
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 01:42:57 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.21

> Every turn after the tackle was made, at the time the player would 
> normally roll over or stand up, the downed opponent makes a stregth 
> check against the vampire. The vampire and his victim each roll 1d6 
> and add their strengths. Any friendly players adjacent to the victim 
> may choose to add their strength to the roll as their action for the 
> turn. If the downed opponent wins, he rolls over or stands up normally 
> and nothing else happens. On a tie, the victim does not get to roll 
> over, but his stregth is not drained. If the vampire wins, he reduces 
> one random stat of the victim by 1 and adds one to 1 stat of his 
> choice. No stat may be reduced below 0 (choose another random stat) 
> and the vampire may not raise any stat above the maximums listed 
> below:
> 
> 	MA:6	SP:5	ST:8	AG:5	TS:2	CL:2	AV:12
> 
> A victim will regain one lost point after ever TD. Also, the Vampire 
> will loose one of the points gained after each TD. 

First, it's a bad idea to allow AV to reach 12 (can never be injured).

Second, since it is "life-force" that is being drained, how about a 1 in 6
chance that a drained player dies?  In addition, such a player should become a
Vampire, available as a freebooter/free agent/whatever.


Andy Lipscomb
lipscoja@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu (Bitnet: lipscoja@vuctrvax)
Don't blame me, I voted Libertarian.
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: randy@ms.uky.edu (Randy Appleton)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: EiA Statagy
Date: 16 Nov 92 08:45:49 GMT
Organization: University Of Kentucky, Dept. of Math Sciences

I've just discovered Empire in Arms, and am looking for helpful
stratagy tips.  What I'd like is a list of reasonable starting
objectives for each nation.

For instance, should Turkey go for the Ottoman Empire, or just expand
as opportunaty warents?

How about Spain?  Try to expand into Italy or North Africa, or Portugal.

Russia.  Russia seems like it could go for Scandanavia, the Balkans,
or Poland.

Austria can expand into Germany or Italy.  Which is best?

Anyway, what's a good opening stratagy for each nation?

-Thanks
-Randy
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: hooverb@h.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu (Bruce Hoover,Armstrong)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Games that belong on every gamer's shelf...
Date: 17 Nov 92 05:22:33 GMT
Distribution: na
Originator: hooverb@a.cs.wvu.wvnet.edu


 In article <1992Nov12.012510.11984@sol.UVic.CA>, rleroux1@sol.UVic.CA (Roger
 Leroux) says:
>
>
>If you could keep only 10 games on your shelf, what would you pick?
>
 
 Here's my 10--in no particular order!

 1) Scrabble
 2) Civilization (not the new one)
 3) Big Boggle
 4) Original RuneQuest (from Chaosium)
 5) Melee (the original, non-advanced, from Steve Jackson)
 6) go
 7) Speculation (out of print, from a defunct company?)
 8) Diplomacy                 
 9) backgammon set
10) a deck of ordinary cards (is this just one game?)

It seems odd that my list has no "hard" war games, although my shelf has
several humdred! Probably their omission represents the difficulty I
have finding opponents, or something.

Bruce Hoover
From: tw1r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Timothy C. Worsley)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Stratego
Date: 23 Nov 92 03:08:16 GMT
	<1epcivINN2of@gap.caltech.edu>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.board: 23-Nov-92 Re: Stratego Keith A.
Schneider@cco.c (1074)

> >	Sometimes I have so many fake flags that I end up putting the flag
> >somewhere weird.  I've actually done quite well with the flag in the
> >front row next to a lake.

> Of course, you don't want someone to *accidently* capture your flag...


	True enough.  Most of the time, I can gaurd it with high power peices
without giving away where it it.  It makes the game more interesting,
that's for sure.

ZZnew guy
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: ahabig@bigbang.astro.indiana.edu (Alec Habig)
Subject: Re: Republic of Rome Wars...
Organization: Indiana University Astrophysics, Bloomington, IN
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 15:18:03 GMT

In article <sn3177l@rpi.edu> woodc@aix.rpi.edu (Christopher A. Wood) writes:
>  We were playing RoR last month, and one thing that we found was the
>effects of winning wars had on the winning general.  The resulting 
>infulance and popularity made them minor gods!  Especially if if was 
>some major sort of action.   Is this the same sort of impression that
>other people got, or did we stray somewhere along the line.  If not,
>we might start thinking about halfing (or more ) the positive effects
>of wars.  (Just so the ex-generals don't clean everything up when
>they get back...That seems unfair...)

Yes, this is true - winning a big war makes the general a major player
overnight.  I think this is intentional, because it's always been a historical
fact that a victorious general is looked on this way.  Most of the figures in
RoR had this happen to them (and Ceaser carried all the way to Empire).

More recent types:
U.S. Grant
Charles DeGaulle
Eisenhower

And less deserving types almost (but not quite) got elected into positions of
great power, notably Adm. Dewey (Spanish/American war) and most recently, Gen.
Schwarzkopf (well, not quite, but for a while there there was a push to get him
to run).  Oh, and MacArthur was bandied about as a candidate in the 50's.

	Alec
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: books@fsunuc.physics.fsu.edu (Roger Books)
Subject: Re: BloodBowl: Suggestion for Magic
Organization: FSU nuclear physics
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 13:56:36 GMT

In article <1992Nov16.023155.3889@usage.csd.unsw.OZ.AU> graham@keystone.arch.unsw.edu.au (Graham Hannah) writes:

>We play a rather casual game here and one thing we were looking for in a new
>magic system was only the smallest increase in 'during game' complexity.  There
>are already piles of things to remember, record, maintain, strategize, etc while
>playing, so having an easily tracked system would be nice.
>
>There is talk of having a wizard or mage on the roster, we had this for a bit. So
>will PLAYERS still be able to cast spells, what about the throwers out there with
>Spellcaster and VeryIntelligent.
>

I'm working on a new magic system now.  As soon as I complete it I'll
post it to the net.  It looks like the spellcaster will need to be part
of the starting team.  Having a spellcasting player should be no problem.
Very Intelligent?  Something may need to be made to replace that one.  Maybe
even spellcaster.  I'm trying to work it so the undead creation problem
(not enough MP) can be solved with the same rules.


>Cheers, Graham.

Roger
books@fsunuc.physics.fsu.edu
From: phd87@keele.ac.uk (V.S. Kumaraswamy)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Air Force Gamette
Date: 16 Nov 92 13:36:28 GMT
Organization: Keele University, England

Was the second expansion set of the Air Force system, `STURMOVIK'
ever released. I bought an old copy of the general that said it
was due out in 1986. What happened to this game.

Thanks 

Sagar
--

Oh lord no more film scanning please!!
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: elm4252@zeus.tamu.edu (MOORE, ERIC LEE)
Subject: BTECH-BAD night of rolling
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: Texas A&M University, Academic Computing Services
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 18:34:00 GMT


Well, last night was the worst case of dice hatred i have 
seen in a long time.

situation-i was in my lovely,wonderful,beautiful, etc.,etc.,
          thunderbolt.  i had my dice from h*ll with me.

in 10 rounds of combat.

i won initiative only 3 times.

i hit with the lrm 15 only twice.

i hit with the lar laser only twice.

out of 12 shots with the med lasers, i hit only 3 times.

i missed both times i fired the srm 2's.

i dodged away from partial cover because i had already taken
5 points to the head.  a catapult was shooting its lrm15s at
me.

both launchers hit.  first group of 5 to the head possible crit.
roll for crits, a 12.  head comes off in a flaming fireball.
dead warrior.

not only did the dice fail me, some rounds i had 5 weapons fire
and i did not hit with any of them.  but the fabulous thunderbolt
magic was not there.  my thunder bolt took less than 50 points of
damage when the head was blown off.  

*sigh*  the next night has to be better.


					Mok

a.k.a.  Mjr Kessel
        CMDR 537th Reinforced Heavy Company
        CMDR 369th Heavy Company
        Mercs now employed by Snakes

	How can you expect to outwit a maniacal genius on an
	empty tummy?   
					-Eve
					 Mann and Machine


Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: spz@fys.ruu.nl (Portegies Zwart)
Subject: SFB in Princeton?
Summary: Opponents wanted
Keywords: SFB
Organization: Physics Department, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 13:44:34 GMT

SFB opponents are rare in Holland, very rare!
Not much to play here. 

But i'll be in Princeton next month.
This is my opportumity to beat you Americans in SFB.
Anyone who dares and lives near, or in Princeton NJ. 
Please mail me and show your guts. I'll be there from November 20th till mid.
December, and waiting....

Greetings my victim,
Simon Portegies Zwart

Shoot first; whatever you hit, call it the target!
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: badorion@watyew.uwaterloo.ca (Brian A. Dorion)
Subject: Re: Hitler's War
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 14:18:47 GMT

In article <1992Nov22.222327.6868@csd.uch.gr> kermits@ikaros.cc.uch.gr (Aggelos Keromyths) writes:
>I have just bought this Avalon Hill game and only played the first scenario
> provided (Operation Barbarossa) a couple of times. What i want to ask (if 
> anyone out there has played this) is if there is even the slightest 
> possibility for the German army to win.I mean, if Russia just builds armies
> with infantry only strength points and tries to keep Stalingrad-Moscow-Lenin
> grad, he can just wait there and let German mechanized armies get losses.And
> then in winter he can even attack and have almost no fear for casualties,
> because of the penalties in German die rolls (-4,-2,-1).The only possibility
> would be to have three mechanized only armies break into Russia behind Russian
> lines and go for the three cities and only for them.But then the -1 penalty on
> each successive advance makes this almost impossible.
>Any opinions on this ?
>Aggelos
>
It's been ages (3-4 years) since I played Hitler's War, but as I recall, YES
Germany can beat Russian and yes the key is to capture Russia's three major 
cities.  For better details maybe someone who has played this within the half
life of their memory could answer the question.

Brian


Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: dunger@lamar.ColoState.EDU (Dallace Unger)
Subject: Re: tactical solution II
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 22:23:18 GMT
Organization: Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO  80523

In article <1992Nov16.102328.1@eagle.wesleyan.edu> rwilley@eagle.wesleyan.edu (Hrothgar) writes:
>In this case, I think a force consisting of a battleship, three scouts, and
>nine King Eagles would probably work best.

If you're using the rules for patrol scenarios you can't have 9 King Eagles
since they're command ships.  The rule says something to the effect that
for every command variant you must have 2 non-command variants.

Also I believe you're limited on the number of scouts (1?) that you can
have.

Dallace Unger
From: woods@colossal.Eng.Sun.COM (Don Woods)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Wizards [was Re: Classic Games]
Date: 17 Nov 1992 07:33:13 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems
NNTP-Posting-Host: colossal

On the subject of searching for a Group Cooperative Game, Doug Gibson writes:
| Let me take this opportunity to point out AH's "Wizards."  It's certainly not
| for everyone (and can be somewhat frustrating early in the game), but it
| more-or-less falls in this category.  While it is a race to save the world,
| essentially, methods of advancement include helping other players out of tight
| spots.  There is a not-insignificant chance that nobody will win if people
| don't cooperate... there is a built in time limit, but the times at which bad
| things happen can be delayed by performing certain tasks... and EVERYONE is
| trying to perform those tasks, so if someone is held up for a while, everyone
| can suffer for it.

One of the players in my gaming group has a copy of Wizards, and we play it
fairly often.  However, we had to whack the rules around quite a bit before
we felt it was playable.  Like Doug, we found it "frustrating early in the
game", because it was easy for a single player to get into a position so
screwed that they could never catch up, despite other players possibly wanting
to help them out.  So we added a few tweaks to give players more of a chance to
avoid falling behind in the early game.  We also juggled around the lists of
spells that the difference schools can cast, until we felt the three lines of
advancement were reasonably well balanced.

But the biggest thing we changed was the endgame.  In the original game, you
first advance to 4th rank, then you have to go talk to all the High Wizards to
see which Secret Gem each of them has, except one of the Wizards is nasty and
if you talk to him you have to start over talking to the others.  Since
finding specific Wizards is a pain in the first place, this stage of the game
can last a LONG time, and it's pretty boring.  So we said instead that you
have to reach 5th rank, and finish all your "mandatory" tasks (tasks assigned
by the mentors of your school), and that's victory.  We nudged down the points
needed for ranks 3 and 4 and set 100/75/50 for rank 5.  This one change alone
made the game at least marginally playable, even without the modified spell
lists and other tweaks we added later.

If anyone's interested, I can mail them a PostScript file that produces a
modified version of the reference sheet that comes on the back of the score
pad sheets.  The modifications incorporate all our changes, plus it includes
some useful info from the rules so you don't have to refer to the rulesbook
as often.  (E.g., it gives the table for the Types of Random Encounter, it
has brief summaries of the effects of various Animals, etc.)




--
--	-- Don Woods.				[*** Generic Disclaimer ***]
--				    ...!sun!woods.eng -or- Woods@Eng.Sun.com
From: gsnow@clark.edu (Gary Snow)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Centurion ground vehicles
Date: 16 Nov 92 21:15:03 GMT
Article-I.D.: clark.1992Nov16.211503.15670
Organization: Clark College, Vancouver, Wa.  USA

In article <1992Nov15.224306.29718@leland.Stanford.EDU> gyugyi@leland.Stanford.EDU (Paul Gyugyi) writes:
>I'm using some ground vehicles in a centurion game.
>Are there any data sheets for non-grav tanks?
>If not, what do you think I should do about the
>"shields" and "grav drive" sections on the data sheets:
>1) treat them as balistic protection
>2) mark them off as destroyed before the game starts
>3) create my own data sheet with the internal boxes
>re-arranged without the grav-specific parts.

I don't know about YOUR copy of Centurion, but my came with
data sheets for use with non-grav tanks. Didn't yours?

Gary

-- 
-----
Gary Snow
uunet!clark!gsnow  or  gsnow@clark.edu
Organization: Freshman, CIT general, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 13:37:09 -0500 
From: Robert Everett Brunskill <rb6t+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: MercHndBk2ndEd

Ok people, here's what I had to resort to:
First of all pkzip (as far as I know) is a zip program for IBM.  UnZip
for the mac is not about to work because it doesn't handle passwords,
wether there is any incompatibility between the two zip's I don't know. 
Well, I don't have an IBM, but my roommate does.  He also has pkzip.  I
fortunately have access to Soft PC and PC exchange, so I formatted an
MS-DOS disk, copied pkzip to it, then copied the merc file to it.  I ran
pkzip from Soft PC, gave it the pword and low and behold it worked. 
Almost.  The main file cameout intact, but the intro file is mostly
garbage.  I'm not really concerned because I figured that the intro
isn't a part of the published book anyways, is it?

That's what I did.  Hope it helps.  Although considering the unique
circumstances I doubt that it will.  Can anyone with a more normal
process post it?  Not just "hey fools it's encrypted".  WE KNOW THAT
FOOL!  Try telling us something helpful, like what programs work, and
where to find them.

Rob Brunskill
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: meierdalepau@bvc.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Looking for Used B'tech stuff
Date: 19 Nov 92 15:24:10 CDT
Organization: Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, IA

	I'm looking for used Battletech materials.  They must be in good 
shape with all pieces (or dice, pages and/or sheets) intact and the owner 
must be willing to part with the materials for a VERY low price (I've got 
an extremely limited budget).  Here's what I'm looking for:

Battletech (boxed, 2nd ed)
Aerotech (boxed)
Citytech (boxed)
Technical Readouts 2750, 3025, 3026, 3050, 3055 (maybe)
Mechwarrior (1st and 2nd edition rulebooks)
The Battletech Compendium
Jumpships and Dropships (sourcebook)
Mercenary's Handbook (1st ed.)
Mapsets 2-4 (no obstacles stickers stuck to map PLEASE!)
Reinforcements (Any sets--must be in very good condition)
Any and all form packs that are pre-Clan or deal with vehicles

Dale Meier
Newsgroups: rec.games.board