HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu (Bruno Wolff III)
Subject: Re: TITAN: non-game-altering house rules
Originator: bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu
Reply-To: bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 23:29:13 GMT

From article <1633@idacrd.UUCP>, by desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins):
> bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu writes:
>>Of course its suicide. But if you don't make a roll that recruits, its also
>>suicide to let the other player attack you and get to bring in his angel.
>>...
>>You have a good chance of either mutualling or killing off most of his units.
> 
> This seems way off to me.  If you literally have no significant chance
> left in the game, then I can understand retaliating against your
> attacker, even if it knocks you out of the game.  But we are not talking
> about such a situation.  At the very least, you can move away from the
> tower; the player who teleported into the tower may get too small a roll
> to be able to attack.  Also, the player may guess wrong as to which
> stack contains your titan.
> 
> Say you have a 50% chance of being wiped out immediately if you run
> away, and that even if you don't you have accrued a mild disadvantage.
> None of this seems to justify an action which will lose the game just
> about 100% of the time.
> 
>                                         David desJardins
It isn't necessarily true that you can run away. If you are on the left side
of the tower you don't get very far from the tower on any roll.
If he really does have a good chance to attack the wrong stack its probably
worth hoping he attacks the wrong one. It may be that the angel stack will
end up too far away to reach.
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: A3R : Canadian Ship Builds
From: bakerj@gtephx.UUCP (Jon Baker)
Date: 4 Sep 92 15:46:28 GMT
Organization: AG Communication Systems, Phoenix, Arizona

I have a simple question about British ships built in Canada.  I don't
have the rules with me, so I can not quote rule #'s.  Basically, UK is
allowed to build 2 factors per turn in Rosyth, and 1 per turn in Canada
(possibly increased to 2 by a variant).  Ships that are reconstructed
are placed on the board immediately.  Obviously, ships built in Rosyth
are placed in Rosyth.  Where are ships built in Canada placed?

J.Baker
enuucp!gtephx!bakerj
From: tw1r+@andrew.cmu.edu (Timothy C. Worsley)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Titan -- non-game-altering house rules
Date: 10 Sep 92 22:38:22 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA


	Here at CMU, we have some simple house rules to avoid stupid random
hoseage early in the game.

1) Rather than rolling for tower and turn randomly, we have a set order
(some towers are better than others.).  Even towers get "extra" marshes
instead of plains, while towers 1 and 4 get one less jungle.  

2 players  
1 then 4
5 then 2  or
3 then 6

3 players
1,5,3
4,2,6

4 players
1,3,4,6
5,3,2,6
1,5,4,2

5 players
4,3,2,1,5

6 players
1,2,3,4,5,6

2) If a player gets the same roll for thier mulligan re-roll, we let
them mulligan again until they get something different.

Are there any such other house rules out there (ie. no extra peices etc.)?

ZZnew guy
From: obrien@netcom.com (Robert O'Brien)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: BTECH: it's own group? <just a comment>
Summary: my killfile's been busy lately 8-}
Date: 8 Sep 92 00:02:36 GMT
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)

To introduce myself, I'm a regular reader of this board who has
"btech" "battletech" and now "b-tech" in my killfile.

Dont turn off to me just yet, though!  I don't object to BTECH in any
significant way.  I just am not interested in it.  

However, I do have to OK my killfile when it gives me a list of what it
wants to kill, and the BTECH volume might justify a group.  I'm no authority
on how much it ought to be, or how well it's working now as part of this
group.  

I have NO PROBLEM with continuing as I have.  I'm just popping in with this
note (which I wont read ;-) to say: if there's a CFV someday, email me
and I'll vote for it. (my killfile would probably kill the CFV! -
maybe it already has???)

	Bob
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: books@fsunuc.physics.fsu.edu (Roger Books)
Subject: WANTED: Ultimatum
Organization: FSU Physics Dept.
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 92 13:49:59 GMT

I'm looking for a copy of the Ultimatum board game.  If anyone has one
they are willing to sell send me a message and let me know what you want for
it.

As the machine in my .sig has a hardware problem and we're waiting on tech
support to fix it, use   books@nucmar.physics.fsu.edu  if you can't get 
through normally.

		Roger
		books@fsunuc.physics.fsu.edu
From: fred_s@earwax.pei.com (Fred Scott)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Diplomacy Rules Query
Date: 6 Sep 92 06:07:06 GMT
Organization: Protocol Engines Incorporated

In article <185tehINNf9k@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu> bz556@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Joshua E. Randall) writes:
>The question is: can you support a unit which is supporting another unit,
>such the the latter unit's support will not be cut by an unsupported
>attack?  For example, 
>
>	Player 1:  A RUM-BUD, A SER S A RUM-BUD, A BUL S A SER
>
>	Player 2:  A GRE-BUL, A BUD H
>
>(I admit this example is somewhat unrealistic, but bear with me.)
>
>So, is Player 1's  support from Ser cut by the unsupported attack by Player
>2?  Or is Player 1's support intact because of the sub-support from Bul?

May I point out that the example you give does not seem to match the question
you asked.  If you mean, "can you support a unit which is supporting
another unit, such that the latter unit's support will not be cut by an
unsupported attack?", then the example you want to give is:

	Player 1:  A RUM-BUD, A SER S A RUM-BUD, A BUL S A SER

	Player 2:  A GRE-SER, A BUD H
                         ^^^

...and the answer is *no*...no matter how much support the army in Serbia
has, it's support is still cut by even the most completely, ridulously,
absurd, miserable failure of an attack *into* Serbia.  The only exception,
of course, is if it is supporting an attack into (in this case Greece) the
province which is attacking it.

Fred
From: Bruce_Harper@mindlink.bc.ca (Bruce Harper)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Hostility in Gamers toward Certain Games
Date: 6 Sep 92 18:53:20 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

Some interesting postings on this topic.  I think what some are referring as
prejudice or closed-mindedness really has a more rational basis, though.  I
think for quite a few games, the more you play and learn the game, the more you
enjoy it.  Since there are only 24 hours in a day, this limits the number of
games one can really learn and appreciate.

Even within the genre of board-games, this is surely a common phenomenon.  I
have probably played 20 to 30 boardgames, but within the last five years have
probably played more like 5 different ones only.  (My estimate of 20 to 30 is
likely very low, now that I think about it).  Having been more or less forced
to pass up some interesting boardgames for lack of time and energy, it's
understandable I wouldn't make the larger jump miniatures or role-playing
games.

This compartmentalization of the hobby is a fact of life, and quite natural,
given the wide selection of games and types of games available.  I think people
are often better off learning one game well and fully appreciating it rather
than dabbling in many games and not really understanding any of them.
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: cleggp@aix.rpi.edu (Paul Jason Clegg)
Subject: Stellar Conquest
Organization: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 00:40:03 GMT

Does anyone still play Stellar Conquest from AH?  Anyone still have the
original MetaGaming copy from who-knows-when?  I was disappointed they
changed the "Dreadnought" to the "Death Star"...

...Paul


Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: caraher@pn32.petnet.med.umich.edu
Subject: Re: Latest WiF Errata and some Rambling
Organization: pet/cyclotron
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 1992 17:26:26 GMT

Just thought I'd mention that these errata from CWJ also appear in the
Planes in Flames module...
From: v077mdph@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Snoopy)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Diplomacy Rules Query
Date: 7 Sep 92 19:41:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <185tehINNf9k@usenet.INS.CWRU.Edu>, bz556@cleveland.Freenet.Edu
(Joshua E. Randall) writes...

>This question involved everyone's favorite subject, Support.
> 
>The question is: can you support a unit which is supporting another unit,
>such the the latter unit's support will not be cut by an unsupported
>attack?  For example, 
> 
>	Player 1:  A RUM-BUD, A SER S A RUM-BUD, A BUL S A SER
> 
>	Player 2:  A GRE-BUL, A BUD H
> 
>(I admit this example is somewhat unrealistic, but bear with me.)
> 
>So, is Player 1's  support from Ser cut by the unsupported attack by Player
>2?  Or is Player 1's support intact because of the sub-support from Bul?

	The unit supporting the attack on Budapest is in Serbia.  To break its
support, you need to attack it from somewhere other than Budapest, or dislodge
it from Budapest.  Since there is no attack at all on Serbia, its support is not
broken.  I assume you made a mistake in presenting this example, since it does
not involve the point you seem to be interested in.


>Thanks in advance to all who can help.
> 
>-- 
>Joshua E. Randall
>bz556@cleveland.freenet.edu
>My motto:  "So little time, so little to do."  --Oscar Levant

Snoopy
From: schamber@envy.Reed.Edu (Seth Chamberlin)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: WH40K--The Avatar
Date: 14 Sep 92 03:30:12 GMT
Article-I.D.: reed.1992Sep14.033012.9186
Organization: Reed College, Portland, OR

Jason Braddy writes
> 
> I asked awhile back about the Avatar's weapon, specifically, what it's  
stats
> (a lot deleted)

We play the Avatar can throw the spear 12" with his str value
It does 1 wound only though and -5 save.  The 1 wound comes from the fact  
in hand-to-hand he only does 1 wound per attack.  The doom-that-wails will  
come back just like the singing spear.

> Any inputs?
> 
> Jason Braddy
> Iowa State University

Seth
schamber@reed.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: caraher@pn32.petnet.med.umich.edu
Subject: Re: Civil War Strategic games
Organization: pet/cyclotron
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 16:12:45 GMT

>There is a new game out from Clash of Arms:  War for the Union (???)
>
>Anybody played this one yet?  Impressions?
>
>--
>Donald Stone (stone@cs.unc.edu)
>
I saw it at Origins, but haven't played it. Yes, the title is War for the
Union, and what I've heard has been generally positive (the biggest gripe being
that the rulebook pages aren't numbered). I'm sure it's light-years ahead of
whatever kit FGA offers.
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: carlton@apollo.hp.com (Carl Hommel)
Subject: Re: Battle tech nitty gritty mech designs
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 15:35:02 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Corporation, Chelmsford, MA

NAME              Tons Pow W/R/J Arm H  Cen  Side Arm Leg HS Weapons
DEV-91 Devistator 100* 300 3/5/0 304 9 46/15 31/11 34 41 28* PPC+ PPC+ GR GR C3S
>That sounds pretty good.  I've never been a big fan of erppc or
>massive heat build up.  I like to fire most of my weapons all the time
>to increase my chance of hitting the target.
I've never been a big fan of exploding ammo, ever since I lost my first
two Stalkers...  It all depends on your playing style.  I prefer plinking
away with PPC+ at range 10+.  If the other mechs in your lance are slowing the
opponents down, you should be able to peel away several 10pt sections of armor
before they can start using their shorter range weapons.

>> > Great Missile Mech
>> NAME       Tons Pow  W/R/J Arm H  Cen  Side Arm Leg HS Weapons
>> MissleMech  85* 255X 3/5/3 259 9 36/18 26/10 28 34 22* LL ML(4) LRM-15(4) C3S
>> 
>I realy think you nedd a new version of this mechedit thing.
I wouldn't be suprised.  It has been revised several times already, especially
in how it deals with double heat sinks and crit locations.

>Tonage:  Armor=16.25(259 points)
Aha!  You are allocating a .25 ton of armor!  Is this legal?  The mecheditor
is upping this to 16.5 tons.

>Space:  A normal mech has 47 free spaces available.
>XL engine=+6  4LRM15s=+8  10tons ammo=+10  Douple heat sink=+3
>large lazer=+2  4med lazers=+4  C3=+1  Endo=+14  No hand&lower arm=-4
>This yields a grand total of 44 spaces used, 3 short of total 
>avalable.
Counting spaces isn't enough.  For example, I assume you are putting
one Jump Jet in each leg.  Where is the third one going?  It can't go into
the CT or HD, so it will not be symmetrical.  While this may be within the
letter of the law, I would hesitate to design a mech this way.

Also, where are you placing the ammo bins?

Please don't think I'm being too adversarial,
Carl Hommel
carlton@apollo.hp.com
From: desj@ccr-p.ida.org (David desJardins)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: Re: Hostility in Gamers toward Certain Games
Date: 7 Sep 92 22:16:33 GMT
Organization: IDA Center for Communications Research, Princeton

Dave Lockwood <bsrae@warwick.ac.uk> writes:
>I am hostile to a small number of games which either 

>b) games which rely on mechanisms which many potential players cannot
>   absorb intuitively, e.g., exponential growth as used in
>   Hartland Trefoil games such as Civilisation and 1829

It seems incredible to me that exponential growth falls into this
category.  Exponential growth is a direct consequence of investment and
return on investment.  It is impossible to have a game of investment---
and this includes such elementary games as Monopoly---which does not
require a basic understanding of exponential growth.

Or are you commenting on a particular implementation or realization of
exponential growth?  If so, I would be interested in hearing more about
exactly what you object to.

                                        David desJardins
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: m91kgh@tdb.uu.se (Karl-Gunnar Hultland)
Subject: Re: Btech/Mechwarrior
Organization: Dept. of Scientific Computing, Uppsala Univ.
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1992 07:34:35 GMT

dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly) writes:
: Has anyone worked out a good Mech assignment system for Clan
: characters in MechWarrior? Using the current system, the 
: best warriors (Front Line Mechwarrior) has no points left
: if he/she takes the Racial Advantage and Mechwarrior
: Skill package, except that one point used to raise the Edge
: score. This winds up with the best Clan pilots driving real light
: 'Mechs.  Any ideas folks?

Well the same goes for the inner spherers, the best pilots have the
lightests 'mechs and in my opinion that's a grave error in the system.
What I did was to let the players chose their own 'mechs and if I
found the mech acceptable they got it. The range of 'mechs tended to
be a bit on the high end though , between 35 to 90 tons which in a way
surprised me , no one even tried to get a 100 tonner!

One of the reasons for them not selecting a 100 tonner is probably
that I run a campaign that started at 3015 and the Atlas was not
considered being such a good mech among them.

The suggestion for you is to create some tables looking something like this:

Gunnery roll +
Piloting roll            Maximum mech weight 
==================================================
1 or less                   100
2                            80
3                            60
4                            50
5                            40
6 or more                    30


Mech availability chart

Weight    Target roll
==============================
20-30        3+
35-40        5+
45-60        7+
65-80        8+
85-100       9+

If they roll less than the target roll that particular
mech type is not available.

If you want you can also give them a maximum number of tries
on that table before they are assigned to a mech.
And you should point out to them that what mech they get at
start don't really matter because if they perform good they
will eventually get a better mech.


			Karl

-- 

Karl-Gunnar Hultland              Vox Dei, Vox Populi
m91kgh@bellatrix.tdb.uu.se
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: kabreuer@cip.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Klaus Breuer)
Subject: BattleTech game for MS-DOS Beta Release ready
Organization: Student Pool, CSD, University of Erlangen, Germany
Distribution: rec.games.board
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 14:33:07 GMT

Hi everyone!

For all those who are interested, I have released the Beta Version
of MechWar 0.1b, available via ftp at 131.188.1.43 (that's 
medusa.informatik.uni-erlangen.de, I think) in the directory
/pub/pc/incoming as mech01b.arJ

This is a straight translation of the board game - let me know
what you think.
Most importantly, it includes a Mech editor as well...

Ciao,
KlauS
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: Dominik Zemmler <dz@lysator.LiU.SE>
Subject: REPUBLIC OF ROME question
Reply-To: Dominik Zemmler <dz@Lysator.LiU.Se>
Organization: Dept of EE, University of Linkoping
Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1992 18:05:14 GMT

A question about Republic of Rome:
What happens with a non-victorious Dictator?
Can he become a Proconsul and continue the battle next year?
What happens with his Master of Horse in that case?
Or do they have to return to Rome and be reappointed before
continuing the war (thus gaining additional influence)?


Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: m91kgh@tdb.uu.se (Karl-Gunnar Hultland)
Subject: Re: BTECH: After GenCON92 Report ... sorta
Organization: Dept. of Scientific Computing, Uppsala Univ.
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 21:41:11 GMT

dv52151@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Axly) writes:
: m91kgh@tdb.uu.se (Karl-Gunnar Hultland) writes:
: 
: 
: >I guess an adventure where the only plot was to kill innocent
: >relatives of a traitor just to be allowed to form your own
: >bloodname irritates some people...
: 
: 
: It made sense from what else has been written of the Clans. After
: all, denying one the opportunity to see one's genetic material
: continue is the big punishment in Clan ideology. Admittedly, it
: may have been distasteful from an Inner Sphere standpoint, but
: that was to be expected given the different culture of the
: Clans.

I could have understood the annhilation of those genes if they were
DIRECT descendants to the traitor but they were descendants to the
part of the family that NEVER left with Kerensky.


			Karl

-- 

Karl-Gunnar Hultland              Vox Dei, Vox Populi
m91kgh@bellatrix.tdb.uu.se
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: dpipes@spica.srg (Dave Pipes x4552)
Subject: Re: Civil War Strategic games
Organization: just me
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 92 16:04:29 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.board

In article <1992Sep11.161826.424@HQ.Ileaf.COM> jdarnold@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Jonathan Arnold) writes:
>In article <1992Sep10.142955.16712@srg.srg.af.mil> dpipes@spica.srg (Dave Pipes x4552) writes:
>>In article <1992Sep9.121440.737@HQ.Ileaf.COM> jdarnold@HQ.Ileaf.COM (Jonathan Arnold) writes:
>>>In article <STONE.92Sep8090434@gershwin.cs.unc.edu> stone@gershwin.cs.unc.edu (Donald Stone) writes:
>>>>
>>>>In article <8SEP199210203026@vxcrna.cern.ch> casper@vxcrna.cern.ch (CASPER,DAVI./PPE) writes:
>>>>There is a new game out from Clash of Arms:  War for the Union (???)
>>>>Anybody played this one yet?  Impressions?
>>>
>>>I have it but haven't played it yet.  The map is beautiful, if a
>>>don't really see the connection.  Of course, the previous paragraph
>>>had an example, but this one didn't.  And some Basic Rules confusions
>>>were cleared up by looking at the Advanced Rules.
>>Which rules bothered you?  We could hash it out here (or in email) before
>>you play, if you like.  Sort of what the group is for :-).
>
>Well, let's see - off the top of my head, I can only remember one.
>First they talk about the morale of a stack, which means you use the
>highest morale that's not higher than the majority of the units.  It's
>not quite said that way, but it was confusingly spelled out.  It was
>cleared up by the example.

Yeah...This way, if you stack one high-morale unit with several fair ones,
the high morale guys don't automatically "transfer" their rating to the 
others.  So "stack morale" is different from "unit morale".
>
>Then, the rules talk about the battle ratings for the leaders, and
>they said to do it just like the morale.  Do they mean to count
>leaders, or SP's under leaders or both?

I'll look this up.  It implies that the battle rating used is that of
the leader closest to the mean of the value of the available leaders.  I
am confused in my recollection by recently playing Stonewall Jackson's Way,
so I can't say for sure.

David Pipes
robear@digex.com

Newsgroups: rec.games.board
From: mab@wdl39.wdl.loral.com (Mark A Biggar)
Subject: Re: Speed Circuit
Organization: Loral Western Development Labs
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 20:53:34 GMT

In article <1992Sep8.132224.18010@cbnewsh.cb.att.com> alr@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (andrew.l.reibman) writes:
>We've recently been playing Speed Circuit (the AH version
>- can anyone say if this is changed since the 3M version.)
>Its an excellent short game that can accomodate a large number of
>players  (6 easily, more possible).
>
>Two questions have arisen: 
>
>A car can use a slipstream bonus through a curve, provided
>both cars involved start in a straightaway, and the bonus
>is not the only reason the car enters the curve.
>What is the car's speed when it travels through the curve
>(for determining wear) - is it the written speed or the distance
>traveled. We've argued this back and forth for some time.
>

we have always played this as tire wear is determined by your plotted speed
ignoring the extra space slip bonus.


>Do cars begin the game at their start speed (which is
>also there maximum allowable speed at the start of the game)
>or at 0? If its 0, a car with porr acceleration doesn't get
>much benefit from a good start speed.


Your first turn is plotted at your starting speed (or lower if you chose)
this rule simulates the use of a pace car (i.e. the cars are already moving
when they cross the starting line).

--
Mark Biggar
mab@wdl1.wdl.loral.com
From: bicker@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (The Resource, Poet-Magician of Quality)
Subject: WRACKed Completely Off the Cone  (was Re: a few more questions...)
Reply-To: Brian.C.Kohn@att.com (The Resource, Poet-Magician of Quality)
Organization: The Internet
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 1992 13:03:26 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.board.ce

[A request...instead of posting articles with many unrelated questions
in them, please post separate articles for each with a question-
relevant Subject: line.  IMHO, the small overhead of extra articles is
worth the clarity of the subject line.  Now back to our program...]

In article <FASCIANO.92Sep4112912@nil.IRO.UMontreal.CA> fasciano@nil.IRO.UMontreal.CA (Massimo Fasciano) writes:
[We join Nick explaining what happens when the Wrack wracks his
opponent completely off the cone...]
>NJS> He plays a challenge card normally.  If it is an Attack card his
>NJS> total is the value of the Attack card since he has no tokens to
>NJS> add to it.  If it is a Compromise he gets no consolation if he
>NJS> loses because he lost no tokens.  It's roughly the same as
>NJS> attacking the defensive player on a planet in his system where he
>NJS> has no tokens.  If you ever get in this situation yourself, it is
>NJS> a great time to pitch a low Attack card as you have no tokens to
>NJS> lose to the warp (although if you are the offensive player and it
>NJS> is your first challenge you won't get a second).
>
>What happens if he wins with no tokens in the cone and no allies? With
>allies in the cone? (see question b). Does he get the base? Does the
>defender lose it?

The attacker gets nothing.  The defender goes to the warp.  Allies get
what they would get the same rewards as if he did have tokens in the cone.


-- 
Brian Charles Kohn               using !bicker's account
Poet-Magician of "Quality"       E-MAIL: bicker@hoqax.ATT.COM
    'Hope, not fear, is the most positive advocate of action.' - S.R. Lawhead
                   Stamp Out "SO": "RP" = "Romantic Partner"
Newsgroups: rec.games.board.ce