From: tafrakes@athena.mit.edu (T. Andy Frakes)
Subject: Re: Euro^3 and NON-US Empire Greats?
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 14:06:33 GMT


In article <36989@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu>, kb@thedog.cis.ufl.edu (Ken Bukauski) writes:

|> Ultima describes the Macedon situation in the Euro^3 game quite well.
|> Macedon was attacked by Egypt, Urartu, Ukraine, Romania, Czechers,
|> and Denmark at last czech :)  All in all, Macedon was about to become
|> completely dominant and was pre-empted.  It is important to note that this
|> country followed no traits established by Ultima or Redline.
|> 
|> The game itself was an interesting idea, however the very concept is flawed
|> to a certain degree.  Sure Macedon pointed out some bugs and was penalized as
|> a result, but from a Redline point of view the game isn't worth winning.
|> Therefore the Ultima and Redline tag-team gave threw the royal wrench into
|> the machine (as permitted by the code) after making this determination.
|> 
|> Things to consider when playing Euro empire:
|> 1)  All map-border countries have a huge advantage.
|> 2)  The market is buggy and does not work at 100% predictability.
|> 3)  Trade behaves like the market, except when it doesn't....
|> 4)  The game has start areas of unequal sizes 10-25 sectors.
|> 5)  Tech is oddly skewed.
|> 6)  It is a fodder's kind of game...
|> 7)  It has a good deity though (Thanks Pat).

   8)  The game is also too largely dependent upon how many FODDERs or
       quitters you have next to you.  If you don't have plenty of food
       around to grow with, it makes the game much more difficult and
       time consuming than it is for more fortunate players.  This is
       the same problem you have with any game that is mostly land, though.
   9)  The map is tilted clockwise at about a 45-90 degree angle.  If you
       don't know this, you end up mowing down the wrong countries en route
       to some FODDER only to find out that you're nowhere near the FODDER.
       It took almost two weeks for me to figure out what was what.

|> What I would like to know is where have all the really good games gone?
|> Harvard, Kent, Beach, and others were the sites of GREAT games!  If someone
|> puts up a game that caters to US players and is *worth* winning then call

   Definitely!  I can't remember the last really good game, it was so long
ago!  I can say one thing, though:  the next really good game could be a
REALLY good one.  I know there are a few people out there that are looking
for one more really good game and want to make it count.  One more good
Harvard game would really be the icing on the cake.

|> us....(these games that wimp-out in some way to help the non-US players
|> are a waste of time.  Besides, have any non-US players even proven themselves
|> to be among the best of the community?  I'd like to hear some discussions on
|> this topic).

   I'd like to hear something about this, too (if there's anything to hear).


|> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|>  _Made in Redline_  "When you've beaten the best, who cares about the rest..."
|> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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T. Andy Frakes (tafrakes@athena.mit.edu)
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