This is a big fat warehouse issue that would be even fatter if
I could get at the last two issues of Octopus's Garden
which I can't. I will see Peter on Monday as he visits the
area, so we'll get it worked out and issues 42 and 43 of that
will appear next time..... wait, Peter got 42 fixed, so that
is in here this time with the other subszines.
Check out 43 on the web page (see below) or wait until the
next TAP.
[Finally done with this issue, pounded out in record time,
I hope I didn't make too many mistakes!! These are the last
words typed as Midnight and Thanksgiving approaches.
I hope you all had a GREAT Thanksgiving!!]
In the meantime, some other subszine announcements.
Tinamou and Dead Poet's Society are here, right on time!
Tinamou is going to join DPS on the web page.
I had to tell David we had one to get it there..... duh, does
anyone pay attention to the first page of this???
Am I whistling into the wind????
Ah, well, let's go on.
Next, the new stuff.....
I have volunteered subszine space to two additional people,
continuing to make TAP a massive bargain, but if they
both come on, I probably will finally raise the sub fees.
Heath Gardner is ready to do it, now!
His problem always has been the finances of publishing a szine.
I have decided to help him.
Also, the balance of having someone who is a Junior in High School
pubbing in the szine appeals to me STRONGLY.
Heath proposes to abandon his former games and start some new
ones, given that interest in reviving his previously orphaned
games did not exist.
This is the last chance for those players.
If you want Heath to restart your game, doing so is a condition
of entrance here.
Write me, Heath, or both of us.
Heath will GM regular Diplomacy and It Came From Outer Space!
I believe??
Heath will have something official next time.
This came out of dialogue after he dropped the Colonia game.
Lastly, one of my szine mentors, Russ Rusnak is thinking about
guest GMing.
He is of course welcome.
If any of his old friends would like to encourage him, do so.
That one is a little more uncertain at the moment, but I thought
I'd mention it.
There also are a number of people (Mark Kinney and Chris Trent
to name two) looking to start new postal
szines, so the hobby is NOT dead, it lives.
I ignore anyone who tries to argue this point with me.....
by the way, John Boardman continues to go strong, passing
issue #700 recently.
I'll never catch him, but might give him a run for it...
averaging 16 issues a year, I might get where he is in about
thirty years... but who knows how much longer he will go???
THE NEXT TINAMOU DEADLINE WILL BE JANUARY 16, 2000
The postal sub price is a flat
$1.00 per issue in the US and Canada,
a bargain at twice the price.... but
you can double that for other foreign subbers (or $2.00 per
issue sent airmail).
Players in current games and standbys will
continue to get the issues for free, and future game starts
(except for Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy, which is free) cost
$20.00 ($15.00 for a life of the
game subscription and $5 for the NMR Insurance).
Note the price increases for games, with the rates for subbing to the
szine holding fixed for the moment.
After the current series of games, I probably won't
start another until the Modern game ends.
The new game at that point probably will be another Modern game
with the ``Wing'' rule.
There will be options for new games from subszines though, stay tuned.
Check out the connections in the Diplomatic Pouch with all of the information you need to play Diplomacy on the Internet at:
http://devel.diplom.org/DipPouch/
Through Stephen Agar's (who is still in charge here) Postal portion of the Pouch:
http://devel.diplom.org/DipPouch/Postal/Zines/TAP/index.html
the szine resides in html format. Presently, issues from #190 to the current issue are there, and I will be updating the back issues gradually in the near future. Also, check out Stephen's new ``all electronic'' format for Spring Offensive at:
http://www.spoff.demon.co.uk
The most recent issue of TAP also can be accessed through Pete Sullivan's web page and occasionally David Wang's:
1) David has grabbed and reserved the HIGHLY prized name: www.szine.com!! David Wang's site also allows you to follow John Caruso's postal baseball league that I am in. We are currently in the off season bidding for free agents. I look to be very successful, currently with high bids on Roberto Alomar and David Wells. I'm goin' for the World Series next year!
2) For the most recent issue of Pete Sullivan's subszine check out (you can't see 42, but 43 is a big Anniversary issue!):
http://www.manorcon.demon.co.uk/octopus/index.html
Pete is looking for Railway Rivals standbys, but otherwise, he is full with games at the moment.
By electronic mail, through the Internet, subs are free and can be obtained automatically by sending the message: subscribe tap
to majordomo of diplom.org and messages can be sent to the entire electronic mailing list by mailing them to tap of diplom.org which will forward your message to all of the people currently on the list. The message:
unsubscribe tap
sent to majordomo of diplom.org gets you off the list. Please make careful note of that as well since you generally can get yourself off the list a lot easier than I can, and NOBODY likes to see unsubscribe messages sent to the entire list. A big, big thank you for David Kovar for setting this all up!!
Michael has been found and the winner of the prize is Simon Billenness!! See letters below. I am not going to announce a new person until Issue #230. Suggestions are always welcome. There is a very special reason that I might need to search for Brenton Ver Ploeg next..... I might need his special talents to expose a new devastating hobby secret. For those who can put two and two together, they may have be able to figure out what that means. For now, all I have are suspicions...... more juicy details to come, but anyone who gets a jump from all that will be one up on everyone else.
In the meantime, let's get Kevin, Garret, Al, and ESPECIALLY Jerry found too!!! That is, as they say, a hint.
This is a regular continuing feature of the szine and I will be introducing a new ``search for'' every five issues. Moreover, you can win a $25 prize for finding some previous target who went unfound in the original $50 period. That means that if Kevin Tighe or Garret Schenck or Jerry Lucas or Al Pearson is ``found'' from now on it is worth $25. Plus, Steve Emmert will throw in another ten spot for Garret Schenck if you can get Garret to write to him.
Winners will receive credit for Dip hobby activities that I will pay out as requested by the winner. Subscribe to szines here or abroad, run your own contests, publish a szine, finance a web page, or whatever. Spend it all right away or use me as a bank to cover hobby activities for years. What must you do to win? Get me a letter to the editor for TAP from the person we're searching for.
This is very important, just finding them doesn't do it. They have to write me a letter. The final judge as to the winner of any contest will be the target himself and I reserve the right to investigate the winning entry. When you find someone I'm looking for, you should ask him to send me a letter for print that includes a verification of who ``found'' him.
Michael Hopcroft (Tue, 9 Nov 1999 19:52:28 -0800)
Jim, This is Michael Hopcroft. Simon Billenness sent me a note by e-mail telling me you were looking for me. Right now I'm working for Goodwill Industries. My main fannish activities these days involve anime. However, I have written an electronic book, Weird Guy, which is for sale at www.hyperbooks.com. It's a comic fantasy - ``The heart-rending saga of a man, a woman, and an exploding pig." I'm working on the sequel. I've also written a five-episode audio drama, but production has stalled as my time has gone away. I'm curious to see how you guys in the hobby are doing. How has the Internet changed things?
((Michael, well for one thing, TAP is on the Web now, check out:
http://devel.diplom.org/DipPouch/Postal/Zines/TAP
Simon wins the contest in finding you, although Mark Nelson also said he'd spotted your name in the anime discussion groups. Otherwise, the Internet has changed things a lot. We're in the middle of a worldwide E-Mail Diplomacy Tournament right now and Hasbro Interactive is putting their stamp on a new Internet version of Diplomacy, due out next year, so there is LOTS going on. We seem to have lost a bit of the real good fannishness of the hobby in the process, which is not as good. If you want to look at some issues on the web and comment more that would be great. You also, by being found, are entitled to a free postal subscription, what is your current postal address??? If you tell me it is still the same Grand Ave. address.... well, let's just say that I guess you were never really ``lost".))
Michael Hopcroft (Wed, 10 Nov 1999 12:56:06 -0800)
What is replacing it, or dare I ask? I know people aren't publishing postal zines as much, but in the right hands webzines can be quite fannish. Or is the competition the really important thing now? Hasbro Internet Diplomacy. Why does the thought sort of make me shiver a bit? It seems like everything has to benefit a corporation these days for it to be considered worthwhile. Preferably a gigantic, powerful one that already has far more money and power than it knows what to do with. Any word on when Hasbro will be releasing their first computer version of Dip? And what sort of stuff will eb included with it? ((See elsewhere in the szine for some first thoughts on that.))
PS: By the way, if you could encurage your readers to visit Hyperbooks (www.hyperbooks.com) and consider buying my book I'd consider it helpful.
((If you want to write me more detail about your publishing ventures, I'll put it in the szine. Mark Nelson didn't say what newsgroup he spotted you in, but it must have been the last one you used, whenever that was. The Hasbro story is long and deep and still being written. All things considered it doesn't look truly awful, but it could get that way. My szine is still very fannish, but it is extremely lonely out there.))
Michael Hopcroft (Wed, 10 Nov 1999 15:00:45 -0800)
Weird Guy is ``The Heart-Rending Saga of a Man, a Woman and an Exploding Pig". Arthur Random's life was fairly strange already when his new housemate showed up - Hugo the Exploding Pig. Hugo is a bipedal, talking pig who explodes every day.
Of course, there's more to it than that. Work, romance and daily life are all the more complicated when your roommate blows up every day - literally. The book is a small Acrobat file that only costs $4. Again, it's available at www.hyperbooks.com. I also recently published a webzine about sportsgames.
I'll write later about some of my experiences in anime, and feel free to publish my e-mail address.
Mark Nelson (Fri, 22 Oct 1999 17:16:24)
Dear Jim, Sufficiently bored to waste time looking at TAP (which is more complimentary than it sounds).
The last address I had for Michael was: 420SE Grand Ave #215, Portland, OR 97214 USA
I've definitely seen his name on the net and from the context I was certain that it was the same guy, so I guess you should be able to track him down.
((So, you see, Michael only changed his apartment number. You could have had the fifty buck prize, but Simon wins.....))
The British representative is the editor of Mission From God, John Harrington. John may be contacted at 1 Churchbury Close, Enfield, Middlesex EN1 3UW, UK.
E-Mail: fiendish of operamail.com or johnh of fiendishgames.demon.co.uk).
Please include the full name and address of the foreign publisher with your order, if possible, as well as the szine title. Make your check in US dollars out to me personally or in GBP to John if you're doing things from that end. I will conduct business for Canadians as well, if I can, but prefer to deal in US dollars with them if possible, or Canadian dollars cash. To subscribe to American szines, the system works in reverse. There has been some interest in finding a new Australian representative. Should someone Down Under have an interest, or from anywhere else in the world, please contact me.
If you've had your head under a tree, the World's Largest Diplomacy Tournament is currently underway by E-Mail, featuring over 550 players from all around the world. TAP readers who are participating are ENCOURAGED to write in commentaries on games, or teams, or whatever.
I am playing Austria for the TAP team and got placed in a game with the infamous Toby Harris as Turkey. My game has BY far the most web commentary (over 100 postings plus additional discussion on the Usenet group rec.games.diplomacy). Thus, I have declared a moratorium on me commenting on my own game. I'm too busy playing it...... others are welcome to comment here too though. I'm not reading the web page notes any more. Takes too much time.... since Chris Martin has been one of those really active in commenting on my game, this is from the Press of the game I am GMing, that Chris is playing in.....
Chris Martin: Hey, Whoever quoted me last time - good quote! But you missed 2 little things: The title of that section: ``Bold, Honorable Play Pays Off" (dealing with the idea that generally, it is better to be honorable than not) and One Word . . .
``Suffice it to say that while I am far from the least `trustworthy' of the players in the group, I have a bit of a reputation for shading my diplomacy in a light more favorable to me - okay, I lie through my teeth with no compunctions - Occasionally!"
Read the article, I'm proud of it!
http://devel.diplom.org/DipPouch/Zine/S1999R/Martin/how2win.html
Obscure and not-so-obscure ramblings on the state of the hobby and its publications, custodians, events, and individuals with no guarantee of relevance from the fertile keyboard of Jim-Bob, the E-Mail Dip world, and the rest of the postal hobby. My comments are in italics and ((double quotation marks)) like this. Bold face is used to set off each individual speaker. I should also make a note that I do edit for syntax and spelling on occasion.
A VERY light discussion is taking place that will address what stance we (the hobby) should take (proactive in some way for sure) toward Hasbro, the new owners of the rights to Diplomacy. More on this will be forthcoming, but it looks like Hasbro might have its version of Diplomacy on the market for the Christmas season and they actually will be employing ``play-testers''. No word on precisely what this means yet, could it mean that they will offer a series of ``official'' variants? Stay tuned.... If you want to be part of the discussion, send the MESSAGE:
subscribe hasbro
to majordomo of diplom.org, it works just like the tap mailing list described below. Sending messages to hasbro of devel.diplom.org sends the mail to the whole list. The big news this time is the beginning of the breakout of Hasbro into official contact with the hobby. See the two messages below.
The game Diplomacy is a copyrighted product owned by Hasbro and all reproductions or other use of that material in this szine is intended to be personal use and not infringe on those rights in any way. All reproductions are done at a heavy financial loss to the editor and thus are without the remotest possibility of commercial intent, except to promote THE game, the Game of Diplomacy, which you all should purchase from Hasbro or other duly licensed distributors.
Bruce Geryk (Sat, 13 Nov 1999 18:44:49 -0600)
Hi Jim-Boob,
Read the most recent TAP as well as some others that had stacked up but which I had only flipped through, previously. I noticed some babble from Fred Davis about ``Silecia" possibly being the Polish spelling of ``Silesia" or something. Silesia in Polish is Slask (with a slash over the S and a reverse cedilla under the A). Shows what that wide-ruled paper shortage can do to a person's mind.
In other news, I got a gold master of Hasbro's computer Diplomacy the other day from Computer Gaming World so the game should be in stores in a couple weeks at the most. I'll be doing their review but it'll probably be in the February issue (out in January) since my deadline isn't until after Thanksgiving. I could be wrong, though, as I don't know what their turn-around is like. (I've only done one review for them previously.)
Oh, and in response to a question you penned on an old issue from July, yes, I was the KGO Zine Directory editor for one issue, back in May 1988. I recall because after reading your note this summer I mentioned it to Steve Clark and he informed me that he still had a copy somewhere. Next time I saw him we found it and had a good laugh. Comedic genius, truly.
((Here is some of the latest comment from r.g.d on the new Computer Diplomacy......))
Johnny Bravo (Wed, 17 Nov 1999 03:13:45 GMT)
1) Graphics - Fair, it would be nice to have a choice of units. As it is you have metallic looking ``stars" and ``anchors", mounted on bases. It seems a variation of the plastic pieces from the latest AH release. An option for the original wooden blocks would have been great. Even better would have been an open format so players could use whatever pieces that suit them. You have one zoom level that shows about a quarter of the board, one intermediate level would have been nice.
2) Variations - The following are supported Standard, 1898, Shift Left, Shift Right, Fleet Rome, and Variants for 3-6 players. 6-player, Italy just holds, 5-player, Germany and Italy just hold. 4 players, it's combined powers (England vs Austria/France vs Italy/Russia vs Turkey/Germany), for 3-players its (England/Germany/Austria vs Russia/Italy vs France/Turkey), each combined power plays as a single country. Gunboat is an option for all variants but supposedly cripples the AI (it would be hard to tell the effect of this, since the AI is lobotomized already). In short, only variants you can play on the standard map are supported.
3) Time Control - Each Phase has its own timer. Defaults are 2 Negotiation Phases with 30 mins for the first one and 15 mins for all others, with 5 mins to issue orders and another 5 to view them. The summary phase is 5 mins long. A pretty long default for an online game. The problem is that if you get someone who is losing, might start using every second of the available time rather than quitting, and each year ends up taking an hour to play.
4) Interface - I don't know if it is just my system, but I meet the requirements (P200 and 32MB RAM), but every time I click on a button it takes about three seconds to get a response. This makes the game more work than fun. It got worse as the game went on, around 1910 it was taking more than a minute to order a couple of units as it took over 10 seconds to process each click and many times the order just wouldn't take so I'd have to repeat it. Luckily for me the game was over in 1911.
Gripes:
1) Gunboat is useless, you cannot enter an order you can't perform, so much for convoying your opponent to switzerland to indicate peace offerings and such. In this it fails badly, as the game specifically allows you to make invalid (but legal) orders.
2) AI is worse than expected, it is non-existant, leaving centers open, stranding units (Italy convoyed an army to Tunis and spent the entire game moving it back and forth to North Africa). I played one game as England (with all AI set to high), in 1901 I took Brest, in 1902 I started a fight with Russia in the north, in 1904 I attacked Germany as well. The AI powers did not gain more than 2-3 centers each the entire game, they just kept making the same bouncing moves over and over. I soloed in 1911, it could have been quicker but I built too many fleets. I never lost a center to enemy moves, even when I deserved it. I had one unsupported fleet in Brest, France kept ordering Gascony-Brest and Burgundy-Munich, rather than Burgundy-Paris and kicking me out of Brest the next season, France made these orders for more than 4 game years without changing them. Random legal moves would have been more of a challenge.
3) Negotiation with the AI - I never got to make any demands, the AI would rush into the room, make a list of demands and if I didn't start accepting them it would just leave within seconds, if I dealt with the AI demands it would leave seconds later. By the time I looked at the map and decided exactly what I wanted from the AI, I was standing in an empty room. And for the AI completely unnecessary as you can kill the best AI even if they are all against you.
3a) Negotiation with the Players - There are 4 chat rooms and you can only be in one of them at a time. This makes it a bit cumbersome to negotiate with 6 other people. I think a better solution would be everyone in the same room, you have a map, 6 buttons for the other powers, you just click the power(s) you want to send to and type away. This would speed things up as you can negotiate with everyone at once. I think time is of serious consideration for online games, any speedups would be very welcome, even if they aren't quite the same as face to face play.
4) Display of turn results, it takes about 2 seconds to display each move that was made during the turn and you have to sit there and watch them play out one by one. I wish I could set an option to display all the moves on the map at once rather than wait for 60 seconds for the same info. This game is long enough as it is without needlessly adding to the delays. After 1902 I just stopped looking, just hit next and went on to make my moves on the updated map, it was just too much trouble trying to determine what moves the AI made.
Bottom Line - I'd rather play face to face or use the Judge, this program fails in all the wrong places. It looks pretty, that's the only thing going for it, there is no AI to speak of and multiplayer just isn't up to Judge standards (no Judge support in the game). To run real time diplomacy, you would be 100% better off using ICQ, Realpolitik and a GM who would just upload a current picture of the position to a web page for the players. Save your money, this isn't worth $40 just so you can play online at the zone in games that are even more likely than the Judge to see massive dropouts, and the quality of play will be much worse if those dropouts are replaced by computer players.
Keith Ammann (Wed, 17 Nov 1999 01:26:38 -0500)
Well, I found it at a local store today. NAB!
First thoughts:
The interface is pretty nice, but it takes a bit to get used to the iconic negotiations, and a lot of the time the other diplomats will leave the room before you can bang out a proposal! (This gets easier with practice.) The graphics are gorgeous, and entering moves is fairly intuitive.
At least on Low, the AI opponents don't work well together and tend to fall into an ``I love everybody and won't go on a rampage - oh, but I'll keep making opportunistic grabs at your supply centers" mode. I'm hoping for better from the Medium and High AIs. Interestingly, even the Low AI will act ``smarter" if you give it explicit recommendations on, say, how to conduct an invasion (``Move this unit here, that one there, etc."). Also, one fairly significant bug: The AI will occasionally ask for - and even order - convoys by fleets in coastal provinces, which of course is against the rules. (It doesn't actually EXECUTE those convoys, but it does order them.)
The computer players are better at defending themselves than they are at attacking. And they WILL make promises they don't intend to keep! Sometimes they keep 'em, sometimes they don't. Keeps you on your toes.
Biggest disappointment: When I won the game against the Low AIs, I was rewarded for my victory by ... a hung computer and a blank screen. This is a bug in dire need of fixing.
Can't wait to try network play!
Bruce McIntyre (Wed, 17 Nov 1999 09:19:09 GMT)
Bought it yesterday and have played with it for a bit. I'll update as I know more.
GOOD POINTS
The graphics and artwork are first-class. There is an atmosphere of the period kept up throughout, from the vintage flags to the uniforms of the other players, to the opening graphics and short interspersed pictures each new game year. It FEELS like a hundred years ago. This is an accomplishment that has been missing from other versions of the game-even the best written ``period" press doesn't come close. You can be a hard-core gamer and ignore it, but don't knock it, it does add something to the game for the people who will be introduced to it in this form.
The rulebook is essentially recreated in the game documentation and I suspect in the tutorial, in a more easy to read format that that of the sometimes-imposing rulebook. Nowhere in the documentation are there sentences like ``If a convoyed army attacks a fleet which is supporting a fleet which is attacking one of the convoying fleets, that support is not cut" (which I remember from the 1971 rules, and which has since been changed to something even more complex for the newbie reading the rules of this ``simple" game for the first time). Instead there is a detailed look at each rule with examples, and a nicely written summary at the end.
There are enough versions of the map to satisfy everyone, whether you prefer to see elevation contours or political boundaries.
Entering orders graphically is actually quite easy once you get the hang of it. No serious problems on my P233. It appears the problem some people have experienced is that you have a rather small space to click on for each unit to get an order started.
BAD POINTS
What Hasbro has done to facilitate Judge play has eluded me. It looks like they have concentrated on Gaming Zone play and e-mail play, neither of which I have tried. I'd have liked to see a Judge Game Manager module included, but a couple of times through the documentation seems to indicate that it ain't here.
What I have seen of the AI has two problems. First, it is difficult, if not impossible, to get the multiple clicks in the right order to make a proposal to somebody in the negotiation room, before they give up on you and leave in disgust, usually adding that they are ``ready to proceed to the next stage", which is the program's way of saying ``I tried to talk with him, but he appears to be mute." When you go into a room, the computer players issue their proposals and wait for you to accept or decline. They usually give you about 30 seconds to look over 2-5 proposals. By the time you've done so, you have maybe 5 left to click three or four buttons to suggest a move. Perhaps this gets easier with time, but I haven't succeeded yet.
The second problem with the AI is that the computer player's moves are awful. I took France in my first game and in Fall 1901, England was apparently so confused by my non-negotiation that he ordered F Nth-Nwy, F Nrg-Nwy-no chance of Russia getting the centre. There's really no excuse for this whatever the AI level, and anyhow I think I had it on high. I hope that this is not what happens if a friendly ally asks you to make both moves. I'd rather play with lapdogs.
There are 4 different map styles-would it be so hard to offer different types of ways to represent units? Blocks, Realpolitik style squares, even circles and squares would be nice. I don't much mind the stars and anchors, but others do.
BY THE WAY:
I've been out of the Dip hobby for a while, just now getting pummeled in my first Judge game, but what happened with the 1983 rule changes? It seems that both the Judge software and the Hasbro game have adopted the changes to XII 4. and XII 5. XII 6, the new rule requiring that the route taken by an army experiencing an unwanted or unnecessary convoy be divined based on the ``intent as shown by the totality of the orders written by the player governing the army," seems to be part of the Judge (since we have to specify routes for convoys) but discarded by Hasbro in favour of the old rule that says nothing and assumes any convoy order that fits the army move order to be through water. On page 49 of the documentation there is a clear example that shows that unwanted convoys are part of the Hasbro game. ((There is a big argument starting up over this.....))
Me, I'm an old-timer that hated 1983's new Rule 6 AND the flip in Rule 4, and was not sure I liked the change in Rule 5 either. (Yes, this is bait, and I have 10-year old postal zines to quote from if you take it!) I always suspected that the new rules in 1983 were forced upon Calhamer in order to let A-H create the first Diplomacy commercial software without getting bogged down in difficult positions, and I thought that they were unnecessary even ten years ago when a 286 was a dream machine.
Johnny Bravo (Thu, 18 Nov 1999 13:21:19 GMT)
The real problem is that only one possible best set of orders is generated. Given an identical setup, the computer will make exactly the same moves over and over. Just for laughs I started a second game and never issued any orders to my units the entire game. I never lost a center, and after 1908 no centers changed hands, the computer quickly settled into a pattern of issuing identical bouncing orders year after year. The computer spent time negotiating with itself, but I never saw anything come of it. I terminated the experiment in 1917 as a 7 way draw.
Brce McIntyre (Sat, 20 Nov 1999 06:41:17 GMT)
I think that the AI built in to Hasbro's Diplomacy software is-considering the complexity of the problem, a good start. Yes, it is still bad enough that anyone having played a dozen games lifetime will have no trouble winning easily and probably quickly. But that sort of judgment is based on the hopes of the Diplomacy community that the software would provide a decent solitaire game, one that, like Civilization for example, would be winnable but would require some effort. I think we need to get real here. The sort of people who would be able to produce AI as good as we want have tenures at universities or real world jobs with salaries that are not in Hasbro's budget for a game that is unlikely to ever make the bestseller lists.
Now, for the interested newbie who has heard about Dip but never played, winning will not be all that easy at first. He'll have to learn the tactics of the game before it gets easy. In doing so, he'll realize the limitations of the software and before too long start looking for human opponents. This has to be a long-term good for the Diplomacy community.
But for the rest of us, we remain disappointed at this so called AI that plays so badly we can usually win by 1908 or earlier. Will Hasbro listen? Unlikely if we concentrate on slamming them and complaining about the price.
Actually, the AI, weak as it is, has one very good point. The Hasbro programmers have quantified the negotiational phase into a scheme of proposals and attitudes. I believe that their AI's priorities in ordering units are far more based on offers than on tactics. A better AI might begin by having each computer player review the attitudes seen and try to work out an initial order set that will work best-then proceed with negotiation and compute whether offers from other players that conflict with the initial order set are reasonable or not. Or perhaps each AI player should come up with a list of possible order sets, discarding ones which are obviously bad and see which is likely to be favourable to allies.
For example, in the admittedly few games I've played, AI England seems to take forever to capture Norway. It opens to Nth and Nwg, then attempts to move both fleets in for several turns, never learning from its mistake. This should never happen: any decent AI will immediately see that this will lead to no builds and is certainly non-tactical. Fall 1901 order sets like A Yor-Edi, F Nth-Nwy, F Nwg-Nwy should be labeled ``irrational" as quickly as possible by the AI. That the program persists in this tactic says that the AI needs a better set of priorities.
But since the proposals and attitudes are finite, anyone with a knack for AI can use Hasbro's scheme to create an AI of their own within the Hasbro constraints. Perhaps a group of us can work on an improved AI, test it against the Hasbro AI, and when it wins as often as we ``experts" do, we can ask Hasbro to incorporate it, perhaps as a new AI level, in a future version. Why not?
The Hasbro formula for proposals is this:
POWER [requests|asks|would like|demands|orders (depending on the current attitude towards the power receiving the proposal) ] POWER to...
...[DON'T] ATTACK POWER
...[DON'T] ATTACK PROVINCE
...[DON'T] ALLY WITH POWER
...MOVE UNIT to PROVINCE
...HOLD UNIT
...SUPPORT SOURCEPROVINCE DESTINATIONPROVINCE
...SUPPORT PROVINCE (holding)
...CONVOY SOURCEPROVINCE DESTINATIONPROVINCE with FLEETLOCATION
...BOUNCE (agree to a standoff in) PROVINCE with UNIT and UNIT
...NEUTRALZONE PROVINCE
Any complete proposal may also be phrased as ``hearsay," such as HEARSAY ITALY CONVOY APULIA SMYRNA with EASTERNMED.
While perhaps not as complete as we might prefer, I think this is a fine framework within which to create a decent Diplomacy AI. I suspect there are several people who could do a good job. Go to it! Hasbro's a big company, no telling how they might reward you.
(Let us know how you're progressing, BTW.)
Mark Kinney (Sat, 13 Nov 1999 21:42:21 -0500 (EST))
Might as well mention it while I'm here...
I have decided to take the plunge and try a pbm zine again. I won't begin publishing until after the holidays, in part because of that and in part to see if this Y2K thing really is going to be a big deal. At the moment, I plan at least one basic Dip game, and possibly even one of the latest version of John Armstrong's Global Diplomacy variant (for those interested, the rules are on the web at http://www.armstronglab.com/globaldip.htm). As yet I have no name, cost, or other details available; I mainly want to see what interest there is for the moment. More than likely I'll do something similar to how I ran League of Nations, with a major overhaul of the house rules. Given the last zine's eventual fate, I will not use that name again. :-)
If you could mention this in TAP and have whoever is interested in a small game in a small zine contact me, I'd appreciate it.
((Consider it mentioned. Good luck!! Next up is some things from a joint exchange between Nick Parish, Mark Stretch and myself that strayed into issues TAP and then Mark got TAP and TAZ confused.....))
Nick Parish (Sat, 13 Nov 1999 22:42:28 -0500 (EST))
TAZ is Tony Dicko's zine, Mark. Wake up! But I have now worked out how to get TAP on the web - cheers for the write-up Jim! I am sorry I stabbed you. ((I am appalled if you are sorry you stabbed me, you played a good game, I had a good time, I pulled my BEST move to get a three way, and failed to get where I needed to get by one game year. If I had properly established myself, I think I could have talked you two into the three way. It was well played. Hey, and TAZ is a great little szine!!))
I think I may even have worked out how to esub to TAP. Fingers crossed. Anyway, it was a great Con and I will be writing it up for Quality Turbo. Mark, do you want to see the last issue? Geoff put the wrong copy in Serendipity, and there is a later version of it with chat and stuff I can send you. ((Great, Nick, you can postal sub if you like..... you can get the szine for free if you agree to standby for replacement positions (the US way, not the old fashioned Brit way that doesn't permit replacements).))
Jim, how do you feel about Toby Harris now??? ((Precisely the same. I blew it. I made a way too quick decision and made the wrong build. I paid for it and I knew I would pay for it - ummm, I said I wouldn't be commenting on this, didn't I.... Anyway, I much prefer to play with people like Toby than your average lazy Diplomacy player. It is interesting how MANY people are watching this one little game though.....))
Nick Parish (Sun, 14 Nov 1999 16:50:10 EST)
I know stabbing you was the right thing to do, but I am no Toby Harris - I always feel a little guilty when I stab a nice guy. Not that it stops me from doing it again, of course!
I don't think it's at all surprising how many people are following your game. After all, how often do you see Turkey on 12 centres by 1903 when Austria is competent???
Mark Stretch (Sun, 14 Nov 1999 17:46:02)
What, Nick play a good game? You must be joking... TAZ is great, it could just do with being a little more frequent.
Nick Parish (Sun, 14 Nov 1999 16:59:36 EST)
Listen, cheeky, I played my best ever FTF game to get a 17-17. Hooray!
Now I need to figure out some timings and get together to actually make a master tape. Then I'll find a commercial service to copy them for me. Once I find the cost of that, I will let people know the cost. I am leaning toward a five dollar fee, so the people I've chosen below for five dollar awards automatically get them for free. There are a few other selected individuals who've been sending me tapes and CD's and things who also will get them for free.
To encourage voting early, I picked five voters at random to receive five US dollars from me (either in cash or paid to someone for Dip stuff or to get a free tape). Tony Dickinson won the Round 5 prize, so we had three of the six Round 1 voters won and one of the three Round 2 postal voters who also got five chances to win. That showed the value of getting in early!! Voters in Round 1 were Mike Barno($5), Rick Desper ($5), Tony Dickinson ($5), Drew James, Heath Gardner, and John Harrington. Round 2 postal voters were John Schultz ($5) Ian Moore, and Stan Johnson. Round 2 E-Mail voters got four chances and were Scott Morris, Warren Goesle, Peter Sullivan, and Michael Lowrey. Round 3 voters were Dick Martin, Richard Weiss, and Rip Gooch; they got three chances to win. Round 4 voters were Roland Sasseville, Jr. ($5), Don Williams, Brent McKee (2 votes left), and Andy York; they got two chances. Round 5 voters were Mark Larzelere, Al Tabor, Jody McCullough, and that's it.
We'll end up with a monster party tape at the end of it that I plan to segue and sequence and copy for distribution. The result will be a great New Millenium party tape - we're going for 90 minutes. I've also been thinking that I should put this out on CD as truly emblematic of the new millenium. I don't have the capability to do that quite yet, but I think I might by then. Any suggestions (or especially volunteers) on this front will be cheerfully accepted and could receive monetary payments! The CD way may still occur if someone steps forward and actually does it for me.
So far, we have ``I Melt With You'' by Modern English; George Gershwin's ``I got Plenty O' Nuttin' '' from Porgy and Bess in the 1957 concert recording with Ella Fitzgerald finishing off the vocals after Louis Armstrong blows and sings through the tune; Duke Ellington performing Billy Strayhorn's ``Take the A Train''; Frank Sinatra's ``New York, New York''; something from the B-52's; the original Van Morrison and Them version of ``Gloria''; The (English) Beat's 12 inch version of ``Save It for Later'' ratchets things up to the next level (wherever you put it!); Buster Poindexter's ``Hot, Hot, Hot'' keeps you there; ``Atomic Dog'' by George Clinton blows the doors off, and Koko Taylor cleans up singing Willie Dixon's ``Wang Dang Doodle''. After I get timings down, I'll choose exactly which songs below make the list.
EXTRA SPECIAL B-52'S BULLPEN: (7) ``Love Shack''; ``Rock Lobster". ((A tie, a tie!!!!))
BULLPEN: (9) Nirvana - ``Smells Like Teen Spirit"; ``Cumberland Blues'' - the Grateful Dead. (8) ``Twistin the Night Away" - Sam Cooke; ``In Between Days'' - The Cure; ``Mannish Boy" - Muddy Waters; ``Shake, Rattle, & Roll" - Big Joe Turner; ``Proud Mary'' - Ike and Tina Turner. (7) ``I Wanna Be Sedated" - Ramones; ``Twist & Shout" - Beatles. (6) ``Magic Carpet Ride" - Steppenwolf; ``Crossroads'' - Eric Clapton; ``Play That Funky Music'' - Wild Cherry; ``I Feel Good" - James Brown; ``Radar Love'' - Golden Earring; Devo - ``Whip It"; ``Echo Beach'' - Martha and The Muffins. (5) ``Sing Sing Sing'' - Benny Goodman; ``Rocking the Casbah'' - The Clash; Squeeze - ``If I Didn't Love You"; ``Roadrunner'' - Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers.
SPECIAL ROLLING STONES BULLPEN: (6) ``Paint It Black''.
SPECIAL TALKING HEADS BULLPEN: (9) ``Take me to the River". (4) the entire Speaking in Tongues record (special call for ``Road to Nowhere'').
SPECIAL ALPHABET SONG BULLPEN: (6) ``YMCA" - Village People.
SPECIAL DRUG MUSIC BULLPEN: (8) ``Red, Red Wine'' - UB40. (6) ``Don't Bogart that Joint'' - Fraternity of Man; ``The Old Dope Peddler'' - Tom Lehrer. (5) ``Cocaine'' - Eric Clapton's version; ``Casey Jones'' - the Grateful Dead. (4) ``White Rabbit'' - Jefferson Airplane; ``Love Is the Drug'' - Roxy Music.
((First up, Eric sent me a copy of a review he sent to his brother, Kurt.))
Eric Ozog (Mon, 28 Sep 1998 00:56:45 -0700)
Kurt-THE CHURCH RULES!
Here's a report on the concert- we had to suffer through not one but two opening bands before the Church came on. The Fenix Underground just did that, I believe, to sell more drinks. The first band, Black Atmosphere, was death gothic glam rock, they were Grim Reaper wannabes complete with weird makeup. Their sound is like a poor man's Mission UK or Sisters of Mercy. They're a local band which I had bought their first album a couple years ago based on a review I read, which was a big mistake and I sold it- way too hard but their newer songs are more listenable and seem to have mellowed a bit. So ironically, I and poor Cathy were inadvertently sucked in to see/hear them live anyway. There was this guy who looked like Mick Jagger who sang with the band on one song (and he couldn't sing either). Next up was Pilot, a six member ensemble also out of Seattle, who started out good, kind of like REM (Cathy said the lead singer looks like Bruce Willis), but the music went downhill after the third song or so. By this time our eardrums were getting trashed out, although the sound system is very clear. The Fenix is a very small club and we were on the right balcony about 50 feet from the stage with a very good view. The Church came on stage at about 11:30 pm and let me tell you, are they awesome! Their sound was literally a wall of guitars. Kilbey, Wilson-Piper and Koppes were terrific. I won't tell you what songs they played right now because I don't want to spoil the surprise in the event they play the same arrangement in Chicago as they did in Seattle. We can compare notes on which songs they played after you see them. I'll say this much, I was pleasantly surprised at the song they opened with- it was unexpected and awesome. All in all it was a great show- I'm really glad we saw them as they are a totally cool band live- no gimmicks, just great songs. They played several of Cathy's and my favorite songs. The only downside of the show was they got too self-indulgent during the encore, they played too long of a repetitive jam (with the same chords over and over again played really fast for several minutes until your eardrums burst) on the seond song in the first encore, and the final (and unfortunately only) song in the second encore. This wasted time, when they could have played 3 shorter songs in each encore instead. They also didn't play Anaesthesia, which was a disappointment- they could have easily made this one of the encore songs. Oh well, they did play two or three other good songs off the new album- Steve Kilbey told the audience he wasn't sure if Hologram of Baal had been released in the States yet, so that's probably why they didn't play more than two- they focused mostly on songs from the albums Blurred Crusade through Priest Aura, and nothing earlier than Blurred Crusade. I think they may have played one song from Heyday but you'll have to tell me which one. The Church played for 1 hour and 45 minutes, with the show ending about 1:15 am. I wonder if they would have played longer had it not been so late. We didn't get home until 2:30! My eardrums have recovered, but it took a few hours. Rock n Roll keeps you young. That was our concert for 1998. Let me know how the Chicago show goes and what songs they play over there. Thanks for the tip, Kurt, that the Church was coming to Seattle- it was well worth seeing them live and especially in such a small club (which was packed, by the way, we had to give up our stools and stand near the front railing of the balcony so our view would not get obstructed by others). Ten years ago (during the Starfish tour) I bet they probably played in a much larger hall and it wouldn't have been as intimate. And $16 per ticket was a bargain. Gues what- there will be new R.E.M. and Midnight Oil albums coming out this fall, sometime later in October.
Paul Rauterberg (Thu, 28 Oct 1999 04:03:10 -0500)
Jim: I would imagine that you, like most of us, have gazed at the lists of electronic equipment used in making rock albums which are found amidst the credits of most albums; it seemed like so much ``alphabet soup" to me, being electronically illiterate as I am! There is a new site:
http://www.synthmuseum.com/dir.html
which helps to distinguish amongst these marvels. I only wish that they listed albums where samples of the sounds of each could be distinguished, since there is no place on the site for hearing what the equipment can do.
Richard Weiss (Mon, 15 Nov 1999 09:25:52 PST)
Jim; I found a number of nuggets of gold in the last issue. Thank you.
One, you mentioned ``Family Business" as ``one of" your favorite card games. As someone always looking for the next new fun thing to play at housecons and with friends/kids I will be getting this in the near future. I don't believe it's made it into this particular West Coast crowd. ((Really?? I learned it in the back alley with Linda Courtemanche (don't ask!!) and it is very popular in all of the various East Coast and Midwest groups. You probably don't have enough mobsters on the west coast.))
However, this game is also only ``one of." What, pray tell, are the others? I'd say ``Mama Mia" a pizza making game is one of the lighter games we've been playing recently. No one liked Pokemon when I brought that in. Magic is gone. Hockey we don't play anymore. ``Off with their heads" is fun. ((Mama Mia was the other one I was thinking of when I said that, but you were the one who taught me that! Didn't we also play Off with their heads??))
Chris Trent wrote eloquently about Oakland sports and of starting a new zine. Scurry like a bunny and I see he lives in Northern CA. Your hobby net interconnectivity is appreciated. I will be contacting him so that the Northern CA gaming family (we used to presume to call ourselves the Bay Area Gamers Group since we were really a bunch of bag ladies/dudes) has opportunity/awareness of at least one other. Next potential time for gaming is T-Day weekend, when Papa Pete Gaughan relocates. ((Good deal....))
Edi Birsan thank you. Thank you for all your work for Dip over the years and the new Diplomatic Corps. All should review last TAP and consider joining the Corps to spread the hobby even a tad more - maybe a major leap more. HASBRO deserves quite a thank you as well for realizing what we've known for quite a while - DIP rules.
Beware music annuals - Counting Crows has come out with a new CD. I shall let you know next issue if even two months of release will put it into my top 10 listened to for the year. Which will be easier this year, because my music was boxed for so long. And a big PS, BBKing is playing in a not-too-big venue, the historic Paramount Theater in Oakland 11/22. I'll be in the first row of the mezzanine. First time I saw him was in Mobile, in a small movie theater in a typically poor part of town, about the 8th row, on the aisle. That was his first tour with Bobbie Blue Bland. Bobbie has gotten older and more snorty while BB has stayed the same and I enjoy his music even more.
and finally, you put in a word for World DipCon in Baltimore in August, 2000. I have it penciled in my day planner. Would it be that we all did. ((Yeah, I'm really going this time and I'm going to play the tournament game better. I usually stink in tournaments unless I design the scoring system (which I did once, played in my own tournament, and won it.))
My World Masters Tournament game is going well enough as Austria. This is my first email game and I'm totally swept away by the communication, skulduggery, and pure fun of playing. A great game for me, no matter the outcome. I have the typical 5 units at this point and am waiting impatiently for the Fall 1903 results. ((No comment, enough of that elsewhere.))
I also GM a game and that is clicking along finally. Most of the games I've reviewed have F/G taking out England, typically by A-PIC-WAL, and some combination of others taking on/out Turkey. Maybe I'm glad I didn't take one of the big, corner powers. Others perspectives - since I've not reviewed a representative sample. ((The scoring system, in my opinion, stinks. And once everyone gets the hang of what it is, and starts playing to it, there will be lots of other complaints. I hate scoring systems which put LOTS of weight on center counts. This mandates cutthroat tactical play at the expense of alliance strategic play. Our game was playing the scoring system from 1901, since one of the designers is in my game.....))
Chris Trent (Wednesday, November 10, 1999)
Jim, I couldn't help but get into the discussion between you and John about inventors.
As I've heard it told in my television production classes, the electronic television (there were earlier versions) was invented by a potato farmer in Idaho. His brother created the vacuum tubes according to a recent episode of ``Sports Night''. He came up with the idea of a ``scanned image'' while plowing his field. This concept is responsible for all random image display screens we use. More important is that RCA and General Electric essentially - and for the most part legally - stole his idea. He later appeared on an old 20 Questions style game show where a panel of judges tried to guess a person's secret. They couldn't guess that he was the inventor of the electronic television and he won the prize - $20 and a pack of Winston cigarettes. In the end this was all he ever received for his idea that revolutionized human communications. ((Yes, that was the story I'd heard parts of and was struggling to remember as John was telling me the Logie-Baird story. I believe the program was ``I've Got A Secret'', at least that was the story I heard in Schenectady, NY, where I grew up and where the GE engineers took the idea and designed electronic televisions for the first time.))
For the Internet, I can't find any reference to a particular person, but according to The Internet for Dummies, the Internet is a combination of IP (Internet Protocol) and dynamic routing. Both were brainchilds (or brainchildren?) of the US Dept. of Defense. ((Well, sort of, there IS a gigantic debate about how all this got started. As I remember at the time (being VERY loosely connected to people who used the initial Internet and going to high school with people who hacked into it regularly), the connection between the Universities and the DOD facilities and how the whole thing worked was much more controlled by the universities, right from the beginning.... and DOD seldom innovates, they just grab onto technology created by others; but let me let you go on, you do talk about some of this....)) IP, the ``language'' all computers speak on the Internet, lets traffic from one computer network flow onto another (thus the need for a universal language). ((And right from the beginning there were different operating systems to be linked - at that time, I recall the main difference being between IBM computers and Sperry Univac computers. Later in the decade, the most commone difference was between DEC and IBM operating systems.))
This was used when the DOD created ARPANET to connect its military research facilities. ARPANET became wildly popular with Universities and so ARPANET's military sites were separated into MILNET. IP was created so that people could move from the non-military ARPANET to the MILNET. ((Again, that's not really how I remember it in 1972 or so when I first became aware of MILNET/ARPANET. IP was talked about then as the way to get IBM computers to talk to other kinds of computers. The military/university distinction was not crucial for this, I don't think.)) Another important aspect of IP is that each workstation (the predecessor of the PC) speaks the language, eliminating the huge supercomputer servers. This created the Internet's fantastic ability to let individual computers talk with each other, instead of just with a central computer. Dynamic routing is another concept used in Internet addressing. It lets information find any route from its source to its destination instead of being forced along assigned routes. DOD created this so that it would be difficult to knock out the networks by enemy attack. This was proven when the Allied forces had a hard time eliminating Iraq's command networks because they were using commercially available routers.
((Well, perhaps. This issue is partly a matter of dispute as well. What dynamic routing REALLY does, is split all Internet information into little packets, so any one message itself can be split up and go in different directions to get to the destination, where it is reassembled into a whole. If you think about it, having a part of the network go down while a part of the message is going that way MAY mean the entire message never reaches its destination (though parts of it might). I believe that is the way (rare, but it happens) most E-Mail gets ``lost''. The magic of the Internet is the way this process spreads the load of messages across the entire network and prevents bottlenecks. Even though no one at the time contemplated the idea of ``E-Mail attachments'' (which are really huge and tie up lots of bandwidth at times), this prevented people who were sending large messages from tying up whole segments of the network. There are also some neat aspects of the priority systems that, designed early, held up well in the exponential growth periods of later decades, but I won't bore people with such nitty gritty.... looking at maps of the architecture of the Internet from the 1970's through.... well, the last one I saw was for the Northeast US in about 1990 or so, I'm not sure if anyone bothers to produce them any more; but looking at the maps illustrated the growth really well.))
Eventually, ARPANET couldn't handle any more traffic, so the National Science Foundation created NSFNET, offering researchers the service of using several supercomputers over the Internet. The supercomputers turned out to be a bust but the NSFNET continued as an Internet server. Meanwhile, private network servers were connected to the Internet by various companies like IBM and Sprint and eventually serviers were built commercially for the sole purpose of providing access to the Internet. ((Initially, these connections were done via ``Gateways" that sometimes you had to specify precisely when sending E-Mail. Things are a lot easier since what we think of as the ``Internet domain number/name" system was fully implemented in.... what was that, 1989 or so? That was the step that made the World Wide Web possible and killed much of a need to carry maps around that told you where Gateways were....))
Thus, if you must have labels, the Internet was invented by the US DOD, but in reality, it doesn't exist. It's just the newfound ability for people to move from one network to another. The Internet is a sort of living thing that has grown on its own. As a matter of fact, I recently read a book (but can't remember the damn title!) that took place entirely in the form of e-mails between an intelligent Internet program and its creator. Scary.
How Al Gore figures himself into all of this is anybody's guess. ((Weakly, admittedly, but he claims to be an early advocate in Congress of adding money to develop ARPANET into the Internet. I don't think anyone takes that especially seriously, even him.))
((Good luck with your new szine project and thanks for the cartoon idea which just fills up the bottom of the page!!))
``So I called up George and he called up Jim, I said let's make a deal.
He said he'd talk to him. Gonna start a church where you can save yourself,
You can make some noise, When you've got no choice...
You told me useful things, what people think of me, I guess I should thank you.
It's true, then I agree... I'm all alone, I've got no choice,
I'm all alone, I've got no choice."
From ``Got No Choice" by the incomparable Mark Cutler, from the CD Mark Cutler and Useful Things.
If you want to submit orders, press, or letters by E-Mail, you can find me through the Internet system at ``burgess of world.std.com''. If anyone has an interest in having an E-Mail address listed so people can negotiate with you by computer, just let me know. FAX orders to (401) 277-9904.
Standby lists:
Mike Barno, Dick Martin, Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Glenn Petroski, Steve Emmert, Mark Kinney, Vince Lutterbie, Eric Brosius, Paul Rauterberg, Stan Johnson, Randy Ellis, Heath Gardner, Phil Reynolds, Paul Kenny, Sean O'Donnell Dan Gorham, and John Schultz stand by for regular Diplomacy.
Phil Reynolds, Sean O'Donnell, and Jim Sayers stand by for the Colonial Diplomacy game.
Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Phil Reynolds, Jim Sayers, and Kurt Ozog stand by for the Modern Diplomacy game.
Sean O'Donnell and David Partridge stand by for Colonia. I still need standbys for the Colonia game!
Let me know if you want on or off these lists, especially OFF. Standbies get the szine for free and receive my personal thanks.
The only Diplomacy oriented opening left is an opening for a game of Star Trek Diplomacy! These will be the last Diplomacy game openings until more games end. See Stephen Agar's rules on his web page at:
http://www.spoff.demon.co.uk/variants/startrek.htm
There are two changes I am looking at when I start the game. First, I really want to name all the star systems after Star Trek locations. I have begun to do this already, but if someone wants to contribute significantly, or even volunteer to do it all, I will offer a free game start in the game. Second, after naming all of the systems, I think I want to nix the ``revolving rings'' rule. I am open to suggestions on the latter, though I want to print maps and ***I*** don't know how to make the rings rotate easily. The game start is open now, and since I want to STRONGLY encourage press, you can sign up and ``claim'' a race. Chris Trent claims the Ferengi, Stephen Agar claims the Borg, and Jody McCullough claims the Romulans. Buddy Tretick and Roland Sasseville, Jr., also are set to play. I'm expanding my net and hope to fill this very soon. This game also has the $20 game fee ($5 of that refundable for NMR insurance).
I suppose I have to admit that no one is requesting Pontevedria, the North American game opening flyer, from Conrad von Metzke any more. You can contact Conrad by E-Mail at metzke of san.rr.com if you want to ask him about it. I'd be pleased to help anyone find other game openings on a personal basis too. The longer run solution might come out of the efforts of the Brits, on which we might be able to piggyback. If you are interested, contact Stephen Agar at stephen of spoff.demon.co.uk who still heads up The Diplomatic Pouch postal section or or join the Brit hobby mailing list at: http://www.spoff.demon.co.uk/ukpbmlist.htm
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1901 IS DECEMBER 11TH, 1999
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1901 IS JANUARY 22ND, 2000
Spring 1901
AUSTRIA (Gorham): f TRI h, a vie-GAL, a bud-SER.
ENGLAND (Biehl): f lon-ENG, f edi-NTH, a lvp-YOR.
FRANCE (O'Donnell): f bre-MID, a par-PIC, a MAR-bur.
GERMANY (Shreve): f kie-DEN, a MUN-bur, a ber-KIE.
ITALY (Tallman): f nap-ION, a rom-VEN, a ven-TYO.
RUSSIA (Tretick): f stp(sc)-GOB, f sev-RUM, a mos-SEV, a war-UKR.
TURKEY (Ellis): f ank-BLA, a smy-CON, a con-BUL.
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Dan Gorham, PO Box 279, Belmopan, BELIZE, CENTRAL AMERICA ($5)
Frdan of BTL.NET
ENGLAND: John Biehl, 8809 Delwood Drive, Delta, BRITISH COLUMBIA, V4C 4A1 CANADA,
(604) 589-9124 ($10); biehldunai of bc.sympatico.ca
FRANCE: Sean O'Donnell, 126 S. Park, Oberlin, OH 44074, (440) 774-2928 (E-Mail)
sean_o_donnell of hotmail.com, seanside of snap.com
GERMANY: Dwayne Shreve, 739 Union Church Road, Elkton, MD 21921 ($5)
dwayneshreve of yahoo.com
ITALY: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0386 ($5)
terryt of sinclair.net
RUSSIA: Buddy Tretick, 9607 Conaty Circle, Spotsylvania, VA 22553, (540) 582-2356 (E-Mail)
BATretick2 of AOL.com
TURKEY: Randy Ellis, 1005 Kentucky #2N, Lawrence, KS 66044, (785) 838-9687 ($10)
randye of kc.net
Game Notes:
1) Note that Randy Ellis has changed his E-Mail address. I think most of you already were aware of this.
2) Conrad, please stop whining about not giving out enough Boardman numbers and give us one, please??? Thanks for your efforts to keep this going!!!
Press:
(GM to FATHER DAN): At one point I commented to you that I didn't have your orders and you sent me another set. I just wanted to make a public apology. I did have your orders, but since the two sets were the same, I did not have a problem. I state this just because Buddy had a similar fate strike him in another game and his GM handled his error very badly. I want Buddy and the rest of you to know that if I make an error, I will do everything I can to correct it as quickly as possible and with the least damage to YOU, my players.
(ITALY to RUSSIA): Trust me! This will work!
(THE POPE'S PARLOR): Scantily clad nuns run giggling from the room as the Pope allows his War Cardinal College lay out the maps and wooden blocks on the really big table. ``So," he growled, ``dis important?"
(ITALY to AUSTRIA): Trust me! This won't hurt!
(TURKEY to ALL): To a good game, everyone! Good Luck!
(ITALY to GERMANY): Trust me! This isn't what it appears! ((Yes, Kathy.... or Don.... or Jim-Bob..... anyone here read my comments on r.g.d about Italy? I thought not. Never mind....))
(FRANCE): Let's find out what happens.
(ITALY to FRANCE): Trust me! I am the only one you can!
(LONDON, MAR 21, 1901): The Ambassador to France has been recalled in protest over the lack of effort on the part of France to come to an agreement over the lack of effort on the part of France to come to an agreement over the English Channel. Prime Minister John Beale rose in Parliament to say ``Three times our Ambassador presented our proposal to the French government and each time our proposal went unanswered. This rebuff is as good as an insult and cannot be tolerated." The leader of his majesty's loyal opposition asked why the Prime Minister had not declared war. The Prime Minister replied that the government saw no reason for such drastic action.
(ITALY to TURKEY): Trust me! This is what was foretold!
(SOFIA, BULGARIA): Leaving the cheers and flower throwing crowds behind them in Constantinople, the Turkish first division marched into the capital of Bulgaria today. The army encountered little resistance from this small Balkan nation though a few soldiers were lost to sniper fire. The Turkish navy appears to be headed west, following the first division's path while the Ottoman Empire's second division moved to Ankara to guard against any possible Russian incursions. The Sultan has sought to quell the rumors of a crumbling Ottoman Empire by expanding Westward. Praise Allah! Death to any infidel who dares stand in our way!
(ITALY to ENGLAND): Trust me! My blade isn't long enough!
(ANKARA to ROME): Lepanto is a poor choice for an empire wishing rapid expansion.
(ITALY to GM): So there! ((OK, so is it a Lepanto or not..... I don't think so!!!))
(PORTSMOUTH, APR 1, 1901): The First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, Samuel Oen Barfer (S.O.B.) finished his drink, ``Well, bottoms up and down the hatch, hey wot!'' Shortly afterward, First Sea Lord Barfer was escorted aboard HMCS Kipper (the Royal Navy's newest vessel). As the Kipper put to sea, Barfer glanced out a porthole and was startled to observe the surface of the sea rise past it. ``By God, Captain Hood, we're in over our heads.'' ``Aye sir, we are proceeding on a submarine voyage.''
(ANKARA to MOSCOW): As you can see, I, too, can play with honor despite being a bit of a nervous type.
(SMYRNA to GM): This could be interesting.
(WHITEHALL, APR 13, 1901): The conference of the Sea Lords began. ``Gentlemen, what is our duty?" asked First Sea Lord Barfer. ``Our duty, sir, is to protect the seas around our island. If the dastardly French think they can do as they please they are sadly mistaken,'' replied Sir Edward Seaward, Second Sea Lord. ``Hear, hear!'' ``Bravo!'' chimed the rest of the Lords.
(CONSTANTINOPLE to VIENNA): Stay in touch.
(Levkovychi, A Small Village South of Kiev, Ukraine, Formerly White Russia, Circa 1800: Potato Eyes and Bean Strings Press): Mother Russia has received so many conflicting messages that she now lies in state in the outer offices of her shrink. She was heard muttering: ``England is convoying to Norway"! ``England is not convoying to Norway"! ``Turkey is moving into the Black Sea"! ``Turkey is not moving into the Black Sea"! Her son, the Tzar, and her lover [same Tzar] rushed into the room exclaiming, ``Mother, they all said that they never lie and that they always tell the truth. So, if they lied when they said they always tell the truth then they always lie. And, if they always lie, then when they say they never lie they mean they always lie. I think that is the truth!" Mother Russia got up and ran into the Ladies Room.
(VIENNA): Within the Chamber of Deputies a strange stillness fell. For rising to speak was an old and feared man of the people, who spoke thus:
Again I say I rise for Austria, and its peoples.
The man who fears war and squats opposing
My words for stour, hath no blood of crimson
But is fit only to rot in womanish peace
Far from where worth's won and the swords clash
For the death of such sluts I go rejoicing;
Yea, I fill the air with my music.
Peoples, Peoples, to the music!
There's no sound like to swords swords opposing,
No cry like the battle's rejoicing
When our elbows and swords drip the crimson.
May God damn for ever all who cry ``Peace!"
And let the music of the swords make them crimson!
Hell grant soon we hear again the swords clash!
Hell blot the thought ``Peace!"
The stillness continued as he sat down, and none other dared to speak.
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1752 IS DECEMBER 11TH, 1999
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1752 IS JANUARY 22ND, 2000
Spring 1752
AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): a budapest-SILESIA, a vienna-SWISSE, f trieste-ADRIATIC SEA,
a surinam-VENEZUELA, f tahiti-BISMARCK SEA, a VENICE S a vienna-swisse,
a BAVARIA S a vienna-swisse, a belem-MANAUS, f NAPLES h, f samoa-SOUTH PACIFIC.
CHINA (Acheson): a wuhan-PEKING, f amoy-YELLOW SEA, a XIAN-jehol,
a tibet-WUHAN, a NEPAL h, a chinghai-SINKIANG, f taiwan-EAST CHINA SEA.
ENGLAND (Power): f london-ENGLISH CHANNEL, f edinburgh-NORTH SEA, f malaya-MALAY SEA,
a ecuador-COLOMBIA, a nigeria-FEZAN, a PERU-bolivia, a kameron-GABON,
f siam(wc)-ANDAMAN SEA, f NORWAY-helgoland bight, f IRELAND-east atlantic ocean.
FRANCE (Gamble): f bordeaux-BAY OF BISCAY, f toulon-LIGURIAN SEA, a quebec-ONTARIO,
f DAKAR-mid-atlantic ocean, a savoy-TOULON, f PAPAL STATES(WC)-western mediterranean sea,
a taureg-SAHARA, a OHIO S a quebec-ontario, a leon-BORDEAUX.
NETHERLANDS (Schuetz): f florida-SARGASSO SEA, a ANGOLA-zambia, a HAGUE h,
f melbourne-TASMAN SEA, a RHINE h, a louisiana-VIRGINIA, a gabon-CONGO,
f DENMARK-helgoland bight, f fiji-CORAL SEA.
OTTOMAN (Johnson): a ismir-ARMENIA, a jerusalem-SUEZ, f baghdad-PERSIAN GULF,
f istanbul-BULGARIA(EC), f hawaii-CENTRAL PACIFIC OCEAN, a persia-KAZAKSTAN,
a EGYPT-sudan, a afghanistan-UZBEK, f bulgaria(sc)-GREECE, f guam-SOLOMON SEA.
PORTUGAL (Stimmel): a goa-NIZAM, f BRAZIL-mid-atlantic ocean, f LAGOS-huelvas,
a alaska-VANCOUVER, a lisbon-LEON, a manitoba-MISSOURI, a MAHRATTA-nepal,
a ARGENTINA-bolivia, f AZORES-east atlantic ocean.
RUSSIA (Rauterberg): f cape colony-SOUTH INDIAN OCEAN, f st.pete(sc)-BALTIC SEA,
f vladivostok-KOREA, a moscow-URAL, a kiev-CAUCASUS, a omsk-TURKESTAN,
a crimea-ROMANIA, a poland-PRUSSIA, a mongolia-GOBI DESERT, a MOZAMBIQUE-zambia,
f SWEDEN S f st.pete(sc)-baltic sea, f MANCHURIA-jehol.
SPAIN (Partridge): f manila-ARAFURA SEA, a somalia-KENYA, a MEXICO S a california-texas,
a VALENCIA-huelvas, a MADRID-huelvas, a california-TEXAS, a SUDAN S OTTOMAN a egypt,
f TUNIS-western mediterranean sea, f raboul-PHILIPPINE SEA.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): | BUD,VIE,SUR,TRI,TAH,ven,bav, | (has 10) |
| bel,nap,sam |
| CHINA (Acheson): | PEK,WUH,XIA,AMO,tib,nep, | (has 7) |
| tai |
| ENGLAND (Power): | ECU,NIG,MAL,EDI,LON,kam,peru, | (has 10) |
| sia,nor,ire |
| FRANCE (Gamble): | PAR,DAK,TOU,QUE,BOR,sav, | (has 9) |
| pap,tau,ohi |
| NETHERLANDS (Schuetz): | ANT,FLO,ANG,HAG,MEL,lou, | (has 9) |
| gab,den,fij |
| OTTOMAN (Johnson): | ISM,JER,BAG,IST,HAW,persia, | (has 10) |
| egy,afg,bul,gua |
| PORTUGAL (Stimmel): | LAG,ALA,GOA,BRA,LIS,man, | (has 9) |
| mah,arg,azo |
| RUSSIA (Rauterberg): | MOS,KIE,OMS,CAP,STP,VLA,cri, | (has 12) |
| pol,mon,moz,swe,man |
| SPAIN (Partridge): | MAD,MEX,SOM,VAL,MAN,cal, | (has 9) |
| sud,tun,rab |
| Neutral: | many | (Total=???) |
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Gene Prosnitz, 2600 Netherland Ave., Apt. 1116, Riverdale, NY 10463, (718) 601-8131 ($5)
CHINA: Bob Acheson, 304-556 Laurier Ave., Ottawa, ONTARIO K1R 7X2, CANADA ($5)
racheson of intranet.ca
ENGLAND: John Power, 5043 Lymbar Dr., Houston, TX 77096, (713) 283-8962 ($5)
nat-john of swbell.net
FRANCE: Terry Gamble, 201 Kenney Ave., Barksdale AFB, LA 71110, (318) 752-1787 ($5)
velobus of shreve.net
NETHERLANDS: Karl Schuetz, 20 Toledo Lane, Willingboro, NJ 08046, (609) 871-9058
cschuetz of bellatlantic.net
OTTOMAN: Stan Johnson, 2401 W. Southern Ave. #56, Tempe, AZ 85282, (602) 454-9356 ($5)
PORTUGAL: Robert Stimmel, Apt. #57, Casa de Sherry Apts., 2462 North Sycamore Blvd.,
Tucson, AZ 85712-2541, (520) 326-8369 ($5)
RUSSIA: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 (E-Mail)
prosit of execpc.com
SPAIN: Dave Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033
rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
Game Notes:
1) Note that John Power has changed his E-Mail address.
2) Somehow the French build in Quebec ended up in Montreal, a province that isn't even on our map.... that has been corrected and presumably didn't fool anyone.
3) I am shooting for a NO MISTAKE adjudication this time..... can I do it??? No retreats, it is a press only Summer season coming up, so you have plenty of time to correct me, but I would really like to get the hang of this map. I think you are all about to clash in ways that will challenge me further ;-)
Press:
(CHINA-OTTOMAN): I've reached my western extent at Nepal. We need to talk.
(CHINA-PORTUGAL): Note the above.
(SPAIN - OTTOMAN): Sorry the letter was late, hope you got it in time.
(PORT to SP/FR): Get the French out of Iberia!
(SPAIN - NETHERLANDS): Sent a couple of emails, did you get them?
(TOULON): Admiral Dartagne is quiet pleased with the state of the French navy. We know have four strong fleets to defend our native soil, and to further our colonization efforts. Lets see if I can break historic tradition and be the first French ruler to have a decent navy.
(CHINA-RUSSIA): I thought that you didn't have a problem with borders. At least not when you and your Austrian ally we're asking for Korea and Manchuria.
(MONTREAL): French trappers and explorers are doing well in Neuveaux France. The Great Marcel Marceau Wilderness is just across the LaSalle River and hopefully soon a grand city will be founded in the name of the King. St. Nicolas sounds like a good name for a city along the banks of the LaSalle River. (As if I would name it after that pompous King Louis).
(PONTIAC): It is reported that some neanderthal looking Portuguese are making their way eastward from the Yukon. Hopefully they will have the sense to avoid interfering with French objectives in Neuveaux France. Our native allies, the Mohicans and Huron don't take kindly to anyone messing with us. The Mohicans Nathaniel, Chingachgook, and Uncas will be on my side in this one, since the anglais haven't arrived in the new world (yet?).
(SPAIN to WORLD): If anyone has any comments on the map Jim is using please let me know as I'd like to continue improving it. So far I've noticed that the Siam/Malay border is rather confusing, and the center dot on NWG is hard to see, as is the one in Ifni.
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1902 IS DECEMBER 11TH, 1999
Summer 1902
AUSTRIA (Zarr): R a rum-SER; has a VIE, a BUD, f GRE, a SER, a TRI.
ENGLAND (Sayers): has f LON, a STP, f NTH, f NWG.
FRANCE (Sasseville): has a BUR, f GOL, f MID, a PIC, a MAR.
GERMANY (Johnson): has a MUN, f HOL, f DEN, a RUH, a BEL.
ITALY (Schultz): R a vie-GAL; has f ION, a TYO, f TUN, a VEN, a GAL.
RUSSIA (Trent): has a MOS, f SWE, a FIN, a SEV.
TURKEY (Munson): has f AEG, a SMY, f BLA, a RUM, a BUL.
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Harold Zarr, 215 Glen Drive, Iowa Falls, IA 50126-1957, (515) 648-2821 ($5)
hdzarr of dmacc.cc.ia.us
ENGLAND: Jim Sayers, 15 Holdsworth Street, Woollahra 2025, AUSTRALIA ($10)
100233.513 of compuserve.com
FRANCE: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 722-4029 ($5)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
GERMANY: Stan Johnson, 2401 W. Southern Ave. #56, Tempe, AZ 85282, (602) 454-9356
ITALY: John Schultz, #19390, MCF POB900, D331, Bunker Hill, IN 46914
RUSSIA: Chris Trent, 8553 Banff Vista Dr., Elk Grove, CA 95624-1746, (916) 685-7772 ($5)
chrisimaus98 of hotmail.com
TURKEY: Scott Munson, 562 West 31st, Erie, PA 16508 ($5)
samunson71 of hotmail.com
Game Notes:
1) Note that John Schultz has moved. Some of his mail may not be forwarded if you had sent things to the old address.
2) Scott is in Pennsylvania for the holidays and then is off to unknown parts. I don't have a phone number there. He isn't sure how he will access the hotmail account from there either, so use it at your own risk.
Press:
(ITALY to ALL): Please forgive me if I haven't written. I moved again. Write to new address. Old letters probably lost in the ether.
(G - F): What agreements do you refer to?
(ITALY-FRANCE): Okay! I can hold you off for awhile. Stalemating France in the Med has been my specialty for years. I'll guarantee Austria and Turkey will get more than you. Let's have at it.
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1904 IS DECEMBER 11TH, 1999
Winter 1903
AUSTRIA (Schultz): has a VIE, a BUD, f TRI, and 5 nukes.
ENGLAND (Gardner): has f LON, f EDI, a LVP, and 5 nukes.
FRANCE (Barno): has f BRE, a PAR, a MAR, and 5 nukes.
GERMANY (S. Kenny): has f KIE, a MUN, a BER, and 5 nukes.
ITALY (McCullough): has f NAP, a ROM, a VEN, and 5 nukes.
RUSSIA (Weiss): has f STP(SC), a MOS, a WAR, f SEV, and 4 nukes.
TURKEY (Reichert): has f ANK, a CON, a SMY, and 5 nukes.
Addresses of the Participants
Sandy Kenny, 23 East Coulter Avenue, Collingswood, NJ 08108-1208
Jody McCullough, 1071 Brown Avenue, Lafayette, CA 94549-3153
jodym of sprintmail.com
Richard Weiss, 2777 Northtowne Lane, Apt V 1105, Reno, NV 89512
rcw of sirius.com (preferred) or rcw23 of hotmail.com
Sara Reichert, 20805 Margaret, Carson, CA 90745-1224
John Schultz, #19390, MCF POB900, D331, Bunker Hill, IN 46914
Heath Gardner, 3017 Mayview Road, Raleigh, NC 27607, (919) 834-4832
hgardner of prodigy.net
Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883
mpbarno of lightlink.com
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | TOTAL |
| SANDY KENNY | 4 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
| JODY MCCULLOUGH | 3 | 1 | 6 | 10 |
| RICHARD WEISS | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 |
| SARA REICHERT | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| JOHN SCHULTZ | 0 | 6 | 2 | 8 |
| HEATH GARDNER | 5 | 0 | 3 | 8 |
| MIKE BARNO | 0 | 5 | 4 | 9 |
| Black Holed | 15 | 15 | 16 | 46 |
| Neutral | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Total | 34 | 34 | 34 | 102 |
| Times GM Nuked | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| Greenland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Iceland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kurt Ozog | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Beale St., SF | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Ind. Prison Off. | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Game Notes:
1) Note John Schultz' new address.
Press:
(ITALY - INDIANA ST. PRISON SYSTEM): Are you still reading this far into the szine? ((I'm not so how anyone else possibly could be is beyond me. We ***KNOW*** Don Williams is not reading this far, so we can call him a good for nothing liar (translation: a Diplomacy Player) with impunity!! Warning, read the press in this game at your own risk..... Let me start with something nice before.... well, you read it.))
(SARA to WORLD): My thanks to all who wrote or phoned after the 7.1 earthquake struck southern California. The apartment building I live in swayed back and forth and back and forth for about two minutes, but no real damage was done. The cats, however, were thoroughly spooked. Had to bribe them with tuna to get them out of their hiding places. This time we lucked out, as the epicenter was way out in the middle of the desert. Next time?
(NEW-CZAR to TSARINAS): Blow me, babies. Blow me, up, up and away!
(DR. LAURA to BOOB): Considerations of good taste make it desirable to use a prop (a banana) instead of the human anatomy to demonstrate the proper use of a condom.
(JODY - SARAH): You deserve a double dose this time for what you have done. ((Sic, sic, sic....))
(DOCTOR RICHARD WEISS >> > DOCTOR LAURA): I have nothing to say, and I am only going to say it just once.
(SANDY - JOHN): When the spring rains come on little cat feet, the mighty winds of feminism will reveal the vast chasm of obliteration perpetrated upon you by your gender peers.
(JODY to DR. LAURA): My previous message was meant as a wry comment on the way people's attitudes change as their circumstances change. It sounds like you HALF got the joke. BTW, I'm a guy. ((Hyork, hyork, hyork, and yes, you are..... I will attest to it.))
(DR. R. WEISS - DR. LAURA): I appreciate your NLP approach. Is that ``Nuking the Leaders Plan?"
(ITALY): Italy would like to note that it is not building this time, no builds are needed, and that is rather pissy from the others in this game. I mean ``pissy" in both the modern colloquial and the 50's, ``don't eat the yellow snow, the Russians have been rather pissy with their nuclear testing" sort of meaning. If y'all thunderheads notice, I'm only one above ``neutrals" in this game. If yah wahnt to be pissy, go pissy on the neutrals. And, don't forget, we change countries each time, so next time I'm Russia, Sara isn't. But, since Sara and I are both doing so poorly, maybe cross-gender confusion and cross-country domination confusion would not hurt me. Don't bomb Russia next time. Let me put that in a way which will more likely enter into your sumbliminal perceptions and influence your conscious and your cretin subconciousnesses DONT BOMB RUSSIA! And one more time, this is YOUR MOTHER speaking, ``Don't bomb that poor little starving fellow in Russia." Forget Chechnya. Love the Russians. Nuking Russian SC's is not ``sharing your toys," Love, Mom.
(WAS ENGLAND to WAS RUSSIA): ``Anxietyship"??
(POPE-MIKE): Quit complaining about no fun moves, no wondrous paths of black holes to traverse. At least you have something to move. All mine got chopped off after the bombings. I don't get to put em in anywhere anymore. No movement. No wondrous black holes to traverse. No life. Little conversation or press. So, meditate today on the relative abundance and goodness of your life. As Baba Rum Raisin said, ``Stop and smell the black holes."
(BOOB to POPE or CZAR or WHOEVER YOU ARE): Smell the black holes, sure, but be sure you know how many black holes you can create!! You seem to be producing more than your quota.
(CZAR WHITE to BOOB): You earned that name for a reason. I keep ordering 5 nukes from Russia because I am sure that you will eventually forget and let me fire 5. Put that in the press as f/u to your comment.
(BOOB to CZAR WHITE): And you are lucky that I have more decorum than to sink into your hog wallow.....
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1904 IS DECEMBER 11TH, 1999
Winter 1903
AUSTRIA (Pollard): rem a gal, a sil; has a UKR, a BUD, a SER, f AEG, a WAR, a RUM.
ENGLAND (Tallman): has f NTH, f SWE, f NWY.
FRANCE (Morris): bld a par; has a PAR, f ENG, a BEL, f MID, a MAR, a PIC.
GERMANY (Sayers): has f DEN, a BER, f HOL, a MUN, a RUH.
ITALY (Munson): bld f nap; has f NAP, f GRE, f WES, f LVP, a PIE, a TYO.
RUSSIA (Reynolds): rem f bal; has f EDI, a MOS, a STP.
TURKEY (Barno): bld f smy; has f SMY, a BUL, a CON, f BLA, a SEV.
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Kent Pollard, 1541 W. San Jose, Fresno, CA 93711 ($4)
ENGLAND: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0386 ($4)
terryt of sinclair.net
FRANCE: Scott Morris, 12110 Shelbyville Rd., Louisville, KY 40243, (502) 893-8260 ($5)
Scottm221 of aol.com
GERMANY: Jim Sayers, 15 Holdsworth Street, Woollahra 2025, AUSTRALIA ($10)
100233.513 of compuserve.com
ITALY: Scott Munson, 562 West 31st, Erie, PA 16508 ($5)
samunson71 of hotmail.com
RUSSIA: Phil Reynolds, 2896 Oak Street, Sarasota, FL 34237, (813) 953-6952
preyno of yahoo.com
TURKEY: Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883 ($5)
mpbarno of lightlink.com
Game Notes:
1) Note that Scott Munson is at a new address for the holidays and then off to ``he doesn't know where''. He isn't sure how he will access the hotmail account.
Press:
(FRANCE to GM): Hey! when you have pure genious ((sic)) pouring out of the keyboard, spelling and punctuation just have to wait. I have to get this stuff down quickly before I forget it. Otherwise I may deprive you of the wonder of my writing!!!
(RUSSIA to ENGLAND): Why should we have to fight over your home dots? Italy and I are in perfect agreement, and France doesn't seem interested. You're no better off than me now. Maybe you should rethink your strategy?
(ENGLAND to WORLD): Ouch.
(AUSTRIAN PRESS RELEASE [api]): Ambassador Pollard has remanded himself to the tower of solitude of the courtyards within the Embassy of Vienna, where he has not been seen for months. Aides were reported to hear his Excellency mutter, ``Zis iz noht goot, Zis iz noht goot at ahll. . . . . . . . . . . " Due to the treacherous Italians, the nation is now in a flurry of reorganization to commit its full efforts and resources to winning this great World War.
(ENGLAND to WORLD): I really mean it. Ouch.
(TURKEY to FRANCE): Don't believe the wild rumors about conspiracies involving Mike Barno's hair. The Ancient Arcane Order of Barbers refutes all such stories, calling them propaganda instigated by the Illuminated Mystic Hairstylists' Guild.
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1904 IS DECEMBER 11TH, 1999
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1904 IS JANUARY 22ND, 2000
Spring 1904
AUSTRIA (K. Ozog): a bud-GAL, a VIE S a bud-gal, f bul(sc)-CON, a tri-TYO, a ser-BUL.
ENGLAND (James): f lvp-IRI, f mid-WES, f NWY-stp(nc), f wes-GOL, f eng-MID,
f swe-FIN, a bre-GAS.
FRANCE (Kinney): a spa-MAR, a por-SPA.
GERMANY (Goesle): a BER S a mun, a gal-ukr (d ann), a MUN S AUSTRIAN a vie-tyo, f bal-PRU,
f den-SWE, a par-BUR, a mar-PIE.
ITALY (Rauterberg): f nap-TYH, a tyo-BOH, f ION-aeg, a boh-SIL,
a GRE S AUSTRIAN a ser-bul.
RUSSIA (Rusnak): a SEV-ukr, a lvn-WAR, f GOB-stp(sc), f BLA S AUSTRIAN f bul(sc)-con,
a RUM-ukr.
TURKEY (Emmert): a ARM-ank, f AEG-ion, f con-ank (d r:smy,otb).
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Kurt Ozog, 391 Wilmington Drive, Bartlett, IL 60103, (630) 837-2813
heyday6 of yahoo.com
ENGLAND: Drew James, 8356 Radian Path, Baldwinsville, NY 13027-9357, (315) 652-1956 ($5)
dkbn of msn.com
FRANCE: Mark Kinney, 4820 Westmar Terrace #6, Louisville, KY 40222, (502) 412-3079
alberich of iglou.com
GERMANY: Warren Goesle, 3907 Cedar Ridge, #1B, Indianapolis, IN 46235 ($5)
gozcorp of iquest.net
ITALY: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 ($5)
prosit of execpc.com
RUSSIA: Russ Rusnak, 1551 Highridge Avenue, Westchester, IL 60154-3428 ($5)
RRRRRUSNAK of aol.com
TURKEY: Steve Emmert, 1752 Grey Friars Chase, Virginia Beach, VA 23456-5436, (757) 471-1842 ($4)
Lse of SykesCarnes.com or semmert of mindspring.com
Game Notes:
1) Note Kurt Ozog's new new E-Mail address.
Press:
(GM to THE SO GOOD THAT ***I*** AM HURTING): Hey, what moves were these??? It looks like everyone had a deal with everyone.... well almost.... it didn't look like anyone had a deal WITH Steve, only deals ABOUT Steve, well, and I guess Russia bounced a lot too. But these other moves..... well, no more commentary from me. An interesting Fall season coming up, I'd say. I say all this with the hurting ignorance of the GM.
(PAUL to KURT): Are you going to stick with this email address for a while?
(ENGLAND to FRANCE): I know you probably want us to put you out of your misery, but it won't be long now.
(FROM PARI- er, I mean MADRID): I've lost track of my copy of the last zine, so I'll have to be general about my messages, but you know who you are. The original French player should still be around, so feel free to go ahead and chide him. Yes, this is something of a Hermit reunion; always a fun thing. And finally, next time I'm in a hopeless position, I'll be sure to get your help, you. (all that seems really odd put into one sentence. So what, eh?)
(GERMANY to AUSTRIA): Hello?
(ENGLAND to TURKEY): Is that nasty fleet Ionian heading your way or mine? If I didn't have F WES, I bet you would be looking at F EAS. Hold on for awhile longer.
(LONDON to ROME): Don't worry about anything. I'll stay on my side of the Med and move right out once I root out France.
(GOZ to BOOB, PART I): Death. Taxes. The curse.
(JAMES to WORLD): No, no, no! It can't by true! Syracuse University loses to Rutgers! If you lose to the worst team in Div I football, what does that make you? Forget football, bring on the hoops! ((How about going back to baseball some more instead???))
(GOZ to BOOB, PART II): Ok, I said I wouldn't comment on the baseball season anymore, but this is Diplomacy, isn't it? Besides, I have new data. The 10 November Indianapolis Star Sports Section had a chart that gives the payrolls of all 30 MLB teams. The 8 playoff teams for this year were all in the top 10 in payroll. The only exceptions were the Dodgers (#4) and the Orioles (#5). The Yankees were #1, and the Braves were #3. The Yankees had a payroll of $90.9M, and the Marlins had a payroll of $14.6M.
And Bud Selig STILL hasn't called me to fix things.
(BIEHL to EMMERT): I noticed your comment to James in TAP 225 about the best football players being in the NFL and only second best players being out of organized football. You mention arena football but you fail to take account of the CFL (an older league than the NFL) nor NFL Europe. Admittedly the NFL has 95% of the best football players but they don't have all of them. Witness Kurt Warner from NFL Europe and Doug Flutie from a six year stint in the CFL. Let us not forget the incomparable Warren Moon and his five (count em five) consecutive Grey Cups with the Edmonton Eskimoes before the NFL would start a black quarterback. There are players moving from the CFL to the NFL (and vice versa) every year. Also, as a little known bit of football trivia there have been seven CFL-NFL exhibition games. These were played in the early 60's. The American teams won six of these meetings, a Canadian team only once (unfortunately I do not recollect the exact match-ups). It is also unfortunate that the CFL expansion into the United States failed as the Canadian game is an exciting game. Look what the Baltimore Stallions were able to accomplish in just two years of existence (they are now the old Montreal Alouettes franchise of the CFL). Anyway, what a surprising NFL season this year with all last year's front runners struggling (except Jacksonville) and some new teams doing exceptionally well (like my old time personal favorite the Rams).
THE DUE DATE FOR TURN 16 IS DECEMBER 11TH, 1999
| - F - I - N - A - L - - F - I - N - I - S - H - - L - I - N - E - |
| 120 (no replenishment): | Empty |
| 119 (no replenishment): | Empty |
| 118 (no replenishment): | Empty |
| 117 (no replenishment): | Empty |
| 116 (replenish with a 4): | Mopsy (Breaking Away!) |
| 115 (no replenishment): | Empty |
| 114 (no replenishment): | Empty |
| 113 (no replenishment): | Empty |
| 112 (replenish with a 3): | Alessandro Cyclotron, Stan Marsh |
| 111 (replenish with a 5): | Eric Cartman, Christoph Wheelhub, Shane the Chain |
| 110 (replenish with a 8): | Kyle Broslofski |
| 109 (replenish with a 10): | John Logie-Baird |
| 108 (no replenishment): | Empty |
| 107 (replenish with a 3): | Moe, Cottontail, Flopsy, Shemp |
| 106 (replenish with a 7): | Alfred the Great |
| 105 (replenish with a 8): | Bernard Spoke, Curly, Larry |
| 104 (no replenishment): | Empty |
| 103 (no replenishment): | Empty |
| 102 (replenish with a 3): | Peter |
| 90 (replenish with a 3): | Broke Leg Meg |
| 89 (replenish with a 4): | Sir Isaac Newton, Chasin' Jason |
| 74 (replenish with a 3): | Barkin' Larkin' |
| 73 (replenish with a 4): | Damon Velodrome |
| 60 (replenish with a 3): | Will Shakespeare |
Addresses of the Participants - Their Team and Their Cards
TEAM 1 (Farmer McGregor's Dinner): Eric Brosius, 53 Bird Street, Needham MA 02492
(8 points) 72060.1540 of CompuServe.COM
| A: Flopsy | 15 3 3 3 |
| B: Mopsy | 4 4 4 |
| C: Cottontail | 3 15 4 |
| D: Peter | 4 3 13 |
TEAM 2 (Chef's Crackers): Rick Desper, Bergheimer Strasse 114, 69115 Heidelberg, GERMANY
(37 points) rick_desper of yahoo.com or desper of math.rutgers.edu
| Coach is, of course, Chef |
| A: Stan Marsh (aka the Star Quarterback) | 3 7 8 8 |
| B: Kyle Broslofski (aka the Lonely Jew) | 8 8 5 |
| C: Kenny McCormick (aka the Pov) | Watching Dad's porn videos |
| D: Eric Cartman (aka the FatAss) | 5 8 4 |
TEAM 3 (Goz Transportation Co.): Warren Goesle, 3907 Cedar Ridge, #1B, Indianapolis, IN 46235
(9 points) gozcorp of iquest.net
| A: Alessandro Cyclotron | 3 7 3 7 |
| B: Bernard Spoke | 8 4 4 |
| C: Christoph Wheelhub | 3 5 8 |
| D: Damon Velodrome | 3 4 3 |
TEAM 4 (Brit Pack): John Harrington, 1 Churchbury Close, Enfield, Middlesex, EN1 3UW UK
(17 points) johnh of fiendishgames.demon.co.uk, fiendish of operamail.com
| A: Alfred the Great | 3 7 3 3 |
| B: Sir Isaac Newton | 18 4 3 |
| C: Will Shakespeare | 3 3 3 |
| D: John Logie-Baird | 4 4 10 |
TEAM 5 (The Stoogecycles): David Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033
(23 points) rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
| A: Curly | 8 4 4 |
| B: Larry | 3 8 3 |
| C: Moe | 3 3 3 |
| D: Shemp | 3 5 3 |
TEAM 6 (The Flat Wheel Society): John Schultz, #19390, MCF POB900, D331, Bunker Hill, IN 46914
(4 points)
| A: Broke Leg Meg | 3 3 5 |
| B: Shane the Chain | 4 5 4 |
| C: Barkin' Larkin' | 3 3 3 |
| D: Chasin' Jason | 5 4 3 |
Game Notes:
1) David Partridge, John Schultz, Tom Howell, Harry Andruschak, Eric Brosius, and John Harrington will be in the new game here. I have orders from all of you. Running late getting the szine out, so this game will get started next time. First moves will be due in the first issue in 2000. Then the new game will begin just about the same time as this one ends. We'll be playing Version 2.3 of the rules as published a few issues back.
2) Note John Schultz' address change.
Press:
(STOOGES): The Stooges' Team Doctor announced that he is in the market for some new steroids. The current batch seems to work very well, but has no staying power. ((Damn, can't you read the name of the game here? If you tell me this, I'm going to have to have your riders killed....))
(Goz Transportation Co., quarterly report to the parent company, Goz & Co., Inc): Profits off $1M this quarter, somewhat better than expected. The CEO's 7-year-old niece has proved to be a better prognosticator than any of her predecessors, and has been given a raise in her allowance and 2 packs of Pokemon cards. The call has gone out to all divisions to make as many acquisitions as possible before filing for Chapter 11 reorganization.
(CHEF - KIDS): Light the afterburners! Time to make the final sprint! Remember to stay in formation.
(VEGAS - NEWTON): For staying with Meg and Jason, your check is in the mail. The Goz Corporation is quite irate.
(DATELINE LA): The baseball season is over for the Dodgers and the Angels. They had the kind of season that makes us Angelenos really excited about our professional football team. And we DO feel sorry for Pete Rose, banned from baseball for gambling. He should have done what the rest of the players do and stuck with alcohol, drugs, and prostitutes.
(CHEF - ALL RIDERS): You are all cordially invited to the victory party at the South Park City Hall. The Mayor will make a pointless speech, and we will all feast merrily to celebrate the victory of the South Park Cows in the bike race. I will personally prepare the main dish on the barbecue: harsenpfeffer!
(``WELL, DUH!'' DEPARTMENT): My usually reliable sources have privately informed me that some people are upset at Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura because, as published in the recent issue of Playboy magazine, he made what they regard as... are you ready for this?... several outrageous statements. Meanwhile, Pat Buchanan has left the Republican Party for the Reform Party, which should raise the intelligence level of both groups.
(PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE PAT BUCHANAN - WORLD): I am calling for an immediate boycott of Taco Bell. Their use of Mexican chihuahuas is taking jobs away from poor, hard working American dogs.
(CHEF - MCGREGOR): I figured you would try to get Flopsy a big card so I dropped Stan back to join in. Good job wrapping up the 2nd and 3rd spots.
(DR. SHACK ye QUACK-BOOB): ``ERAT ABHINE VIGINTI ANNIS HODIE, CENTURIO PIPER CATERVAM CANERE DOCEBAT." Translation: It was 20 years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play.
(STAN - MOPSY): Move over, Rover. Let Stan Marsh take over!
(TEMPERANCE PREACHER #1): If I had all the beer in the world, I'd take it and throw it into the river!
(CHEF - SALLY STRUTHERS): Time to start singing! (I know, that's mean, but, really, is she going to read TAP?)
(TEMPERANCE PREACHER #2): If I had all the whiskey in the world, I'd take it and throw it into the river!
(CHEF - BOOB): Why did you have that long letter from Harry Andruschak published in this game? (('Cause that's where he asked me to put it. Guest press always is allowed in ANY game. I presume it is because he is fixin' to get into the next bike race in this slot as soon as you guys clear the track.... he's back this time, obviously....))
(TEMPERANCE PREACHER #3): If I had all the wine in the world, I'd take it and throw it into the river!
(CHEF - HARRY): We won't serve any dog or cat at the celebration party. But perhaps some tasty barbecued rabbit! :)
(TEMPERANCE PREACHER #4): Let us now all stand and sing hymn #234, ``We Shall Gather At The River.''
(GOZ COMMENTS ON THE UPCOMING ENDGAME): Based on the way I read the tea leaves and the tie-breakers, it looks like the bunnies will make a huge sprint for the finish and come up just short. I see them getting 2nd, 3rd and 4th, but Chef, besides his 1st, will get 5th and 7th to win 49-46. GTCo salvages 6th and 8th to get enough points to tie Brit Pack for 4th overall, behind the Stooges and ahead of TFWS. Sheesh! Ya tie the game designer and still wind up in the dust.
TFWS-DAMON: My gift to you: a six. Never say I gave you nothin', ol' bud.
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 2000 IS DECEMBER 11TH, 1999
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 2001 IS JANUARY 22ND, 2000
Fall 2000
BRITAIN (Schultz): f NTH S f lap-nor, f lap-NOR, a STP h, f MUR h, a nav-bar (d r:auv,otb),
f GOB S a stp, f SAO h, f BIS-bor, f MAO S f sao.
EGYPT (J. O'Donnell): f red-ARA, a ale-SYR, a alg-MOR, f tun-WME, a mac-ALB,
a irn-KAZ, f SOG S a alg-mor, a kaz-SIB, f EME C a ale-syr.
GERMANY (Rauterberg): a MUN-aus, a fra-RUH, a ruh-BEL, f BHM S a lit-swe, a swi-MIL,
a aus-cro (d r:sax,swi,otb), a mos S UKRAINIAN a vol-gor (d r:lat,otb), a lit-SWE,
a CZE S a mun-aus, a bie S a mos (d r:lat,lit,war,kra,otb), a SLO S a pod-hun,
a PAR S SPANISH a auv-bor, a PIE S a swi-mil, f pru-BER, a LYO-mar, f BAL C a lit-swe,
a pod-hun (d r:kra,otb).
ITALY (Ozog): a TUS-mil, a apu-ROM, a CRO S a hun-aus, f LIG S f gol-mar,
a VEN S a hun-aus, f ion-ADR, a mar-MON, f gol-MAR, a hun-AUS, f GRE h.
RUSSIA (Ellis): a GOR S UKRAINIAN a vol-mos, a EST-stp, a nor-swe (d ann).
SPAIN (S. O'Donnell): a MAD S a por-nav, a sve-POR, a por-NAV, f GIB-sao,
a auv-BOR, a BAR S a por-nav.
UKRAINE (Partridge): a ode-POD, a MOL S a ode-pod, a crp-BIE, f EBS h, a vol-MOS,
a KIE S a crp-bie, f IST h, a GEO h, a RUM S a ser-hun, a ser-HUN.
Supply Center Chart
| BRITAIN (Schultz): | EDI,LIV,LON,ire,nor,mur,stp | (has 8 or 9, rem 1(r:otb) or 2) |
| EGYPT (J. O'Donnell): | ALE,ASW,CAI,isr,sau,lib,mor, | (has 9, even) |
| ada,irn |
| GERMANY (Rauterberg): | BER,FRA,HAM,MUN,den,hol,cze | (has 13 to 17, bld for any r:otb) |
| swi,par,lyo,gda,kra,war,lit,mil,swe,bel |
| ITALY (Ozog): | NAP,ROM,VEN,cro,ser,mon, | (has 10, even) |
| mar,gre,izm,aus |
| RUSSIA (Ellis): | GOR | (has 2, rem 1) |
| SPAIN (S. O'Donnell): | SVE,MAD,BAR,gib,tun,por,bor | (has 6, bld 1) |
| UKRAINE (Partridge): | KHA,KIE,ODE,SEV,ros,rum,bul, | (has 10, bld 3) |
| geo,ist,ank,mos,bie,hun |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=64) |
Addresses of the Participants
BRITAIN: John Schultz, #19390, MCF POB900, D331, Bunker Hill, IN 46914
EGYPT: Jeff O'Donnell, 402 Middle Ave., Elyria, OH 44035-5728, (440) 322-2920 ($4)
FRANCE: Harry Andruschak, PO Box 5309, Torrance, CA 90510-5309, (310) 835-9202 ($5)
GERMANY: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 (E-Mail)
prosit of execpc.com
ITALY: Eric Ozog, PO Box 1138, Granite Falls, WA 98252-1138, (360) 691-4264 ($4)
ElfEric of Juno.com
POLAND: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 722-4029 ($5)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
RUSSIA: Randy Ellis, 1005 Kentucky #2N, Lawrence, KS 66044, (785) 838-9687
Randy1964 of aol.com
SPAIN: Sean O'Donnell, 126 S. Park, Oberlin, OH 44074, (440) 774-2928 ($5)
sean_o_donnell of hotmail.com, seanside of snap.com
TURKEY: Kent Pollard, 1541 W. San Jose, Fresno, CA 93711, (209) 225-0957 ($10)
UKRAINE: Dave Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033 ($8)
rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
Game Notes:
1) Check out the Modern Dip web page at: http://www.dragonfire.net/~ Cyberia/modern.htm
2) Note John Schultz' address change.
Press:
(THE MEKONS QUOTE OF THE MONTH): ``You'll all have known the feeling that sometimes makes you sad... lying all day all night only knowing the feel of skin or sheets never opening the shutters to the sunlight.'' From the liner notes off of Fear and Whiskey.
(BRITAIN-WORLD): My apologies to those who didn't hear from me. Unexpected move. See my COA and trust I'll answer next time.
(SPAIN-WORLD): Ok, I've been thinking that when all you die is that only Heath Gardner is (This is his last name, right?) on the standby list for Modern Diplomacy. As long as it's not then I'll win. Though we could go for a dual monarchy. ((Uhhh, right.... there are five people on the Modern standby list, Sean, am I missing something??))
(THE GREATER REICH to THE LESSER BEINGS IN SPAIN): Get your asses out of Auv, and feed on somebody lower on the food chain. It will do wonders for your bowel movements.
(ROME-BERLIN): Eat worms, Lesser German Reich!
(UKR - GERMANY): Congratulations, it's my guess that you just held your own with the entire world against you. Not a bad showing! ((Just about right....))
(UKR - GM): I sure hope the whole world was against him, or I'm probably in trouble! ((To all practical purpose.... there were small exceptions.))
(ROME-LONDON): There is still time to renounce Darkness and choose the path to The Light, my son.
(UKRAINE - ENGLAND): Hi John. You signed up for the snowball game in Tinamou, but I never got orders. You're still there if you want to play. Sorry I didn't write myself, but things have been far too busy lately. ((Sometimes there is an advantage to staying quiet at the beginning..... glad we found you again.))
(PAUL to ERIC): How's your guesswork this time? ((I think he had help....))
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1907 IS DECEMBER 11TH, 1999
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1908 IS JANUARY 22ND, 2000
Fall 1907
BRITAIN (York): a del-PUN, a BEN S f bob-u.bur, f ADEN S f rs-mec,
a kag S a sik (d r:tib,otb), a KAR S a del-pun, f rs-mec (d r:eri,goa),
f HK S f can, f MAL-gos, a sik-ass (d r:tib,yun,otb), f pg-ARA(NC), f BOB-u.bur,
a KAM S a del-pun, f CAN S f hk, f ban(ec) S f mal-gos (d ann).
FRANCE (Sasseville): f ANN S f ton, a U.BUR S a ass-ben, f gos-mal (d r:coc,otb),
f CAM S a n.sam-ban, f TON S f ann, a MAY-ran, a n.sam-BAN, a BOM h, a ASS-ben.
HOLLAND (Desper): f scs-GOS, f AS S a ran, f FOR S f ls-scs, f sio-WIO, f MP S f for,
a RAN S f ban, f SUN.S S f scs-gos, f ls-SCS.
JAPAN (K. Ozog): f OS S f up, a KYO h, a SHA-nan, a VLA-mac, f ECS-for, f NAN-can,
a MAC-sha, f UP S f ecs-for, f YS-ecs, f SOJ-ys, a SEO h.
RUSSIA (Williams): a bok-AFG, a MON S a pek, a TAS S a kir-kag, a pun-kam (d r:raj,nep,tib,otb),
a URU S a lan-sik, a PER S a bok-afg, f EGY S f mec-rs, a bag-SYR, a lan-SIK, a SHI S a per,
a PEK h, a kir-KAG, a CHU S a lan-sik, f mec-RS.
TURKEY (Tallman): a ara-BAG, f SUD S RUSSIAN f mec-rs.
Supply Center Chart
| BRITAIN (York): | DEL,MAD,HK,SIN,mal,cey,kar, | (has 10 or more, bld 1(all r:otb) or rem to 11) |
| ben,kam,can,aden |
| FRANCE (Sasseville): | TON,COC,ANN,may,u.bur,ass, | (has 8 or 9, even(r:otb) or rem 1) |
| bom,ban |
| HOLLAND (Desper): | BOR,SUM,JAVA,SAR,new,dav, | (has 8, bld 2) |
| mna,cebu,ran,for |
| JAPAN (K. Ozog): | TOK,KYU,OTA,KYO,vla,fus,sak, | (has 11, even) |
| p.art,seo,sha,mac |
| RUSSIA (Williams): | MOS,OMSK,ODE,rum,mon,ang,tab, | (has 13 or 14, bld 3(r:otb) or 2) |
| pek,con,chu,shi,egy,per,tas,kag,sik |
| TURKEY (Tallman): | sud,bag | (has 2, even) |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=58) |
Addresses of the Participants
BRITAIN: Andy York, PO Box 201117, Austin, TX 78720-1117
wandrew of compuserve.com
CHINA: Rich Goranson, 4351 Chestnut Ridge Road, #7 Amherst, NY, 14228-3227 ($5)
ForlornH of aol.com
FRANCE: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 722-4029 ($7)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
HOLLAND: Rick Desper, Bergheimer Strasse 114, 69115 Heidelberg, GERMANY (E-Mail)
rick_desper of yahoo.com or desper of math.rutgers.edu
JAPAN: Kurt Ozog, 391 Wilmington Drive, Bartlett, IL 60103, 630-837-2813
heyday6 of yahoo.com
RUSSIA: Don Williams, 27505 Artine Drive, Saugus, CA 91350, (661) 297-3947 ($5)
wllmsfmly of earthlink.net
TURKEY: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0386 ($0)
terryt of sinclair.net
GM: Jim-Bob Burgess, 664 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02908-4327, (401) 351-0287
Game Notes:
1) The Russian concession is rejected again. A BHJFT draw and a BHRJ draw are proposed. One of the reasons that this particular variant annoys me is that the draw proposal names are so ugly...... Anyway, vote with your next set of orders, if you do not vote, they cannot pass.
2) Note Kurt Ozog's new E-Mail address!
Press:
(H - J): I don't understand why you joined this game. If you want to play a game where you don't communicate with anybody, I suggest Gunboat. I can accept that you join the game and ruin all the plans I made with Luke. I can even accept that you feel the need to make pointless attacks South. I cannot accept a complete refusal to communicate. You have yet to acknowledge my existence, even after being in the game for a couple months now. If you don't have the time to play this game properly, don't volunteer to standby.
(H - M): Let's get Luke back. ((Feel free to go try to track him down.))
(H - R): Pop quiz. Which of us can get more fleets to Arabia more quickly?
(TURKEY to all regarding draws, concessions and garage sales): SUFFAHHHHHH BITCH!!!! (Turkish for ``At this time we are not able to support any situations that are not favorable to the peaceful peoples of Turkey")
(H - F): Hi Roland. Remember, it's business, not personal.
(H - M): Reading about ``Doc Boob" and ``Boob Doc" reminds me of a doll I saw advertised here in Germany called ``Baby Doc". No joke. Probably not a big seller in Haiti.
(RANDOM DUTCH SPORTS RANT): Pudge Rodriguez as MVP?? Baseball writers need to stop taking themselves so seriously. This choice is so bad it devalues the award. ((You do know that BOTH Texas beat writers voted Pudge 4th (I think it was, or perhaps even lower!). One of the guys who left Pedro off their ballot is conveniently on vacation and unavailable for two weeks..... a coincidence? No way!! The other has been on talk show after talk show after talk show. I've heard him a couple of times now. He is waffling quite a bit, saying that he talked around to people and thought that MANY more people said they weren't going to vote for Martinez, but when the voting came out he was shocked that there were just two. Anyway, the implication was that lots of other people agreed with him but were unwilling to vote their conscience, largely because the vote is public. It should be secret!)) Or...they could have an explicit policy about who to vote for. The way things stand, the criteria are totally undefined, so we don`t know what it it supposed to be for.
I'm not upset merely because Pedro lost - I expected that. I expected Manny Ramirez or Derek Jeter to win. They both had much better seasons than Ivan Rodriguez did. It's pretty pathetic to give the award to somebody who only had 6 first place votes.
Personal Note to You: