I have moved into the Pinnacle Apartment number 87 (Oddly my lucky number - from a time Paul and I returned to school after break expecting a quiet day only to be told to open our French text books to page 87 and start translating!) It is right opposite our last boys weekend haunt.
(Aren't selfies silly!)
Anyway the good news is that I have found a fouth for our next game of Galactic Empires. I showed him the table and he says he is in!
He plays a bit of a friendly game I fear.
I have worn the pattern off my last one (the MI21 - NZ and Back Again one). I can't possible blog without wearing one!
I think we need to incorporate it into our Boys Weekend ritual. Four weekes before, we all submit designs for the tee shirt. Then we number them 1 .. n (as we may submit more than one) and the lowest score wins and is printed for the weekend.
As we did not do that, I think we need to have a competition for a joint Christmas present.
I think I might have impressed Lord Monckton this turn. Look at the Biggles homeland before I started the turn. What might be underneath all those planes? Probably just empty ocean.
Look at it now.
Star Lord's loyal companions were as astonished as the citizens of the Biggles home land. Generally you need two armies for a battle, but in this case, only one turned up.
Even as I write this, the Sultan is being begged by the Kaiser not to surrender, but to fight on. "With what, shall I fight?", cries the Sultan, "with my cities? I have nought else!". "Just a bit longer", begs the Kaiser. "I have almost got him." But alas, there is no truth in the Kaiser's propaganda.
Let us examine Lord Monckton's various fronts. For he boldly wrote on 22 December that his Nuclear Assaults on innocent citizens was winning the war. How is that front going for him? <<Oops. I forgot to screen shot that one. Anyway, he is back to the starting line, maybe two cities up.>>
He laucnhed a spectaular invasion of my island below with at least four transports. Where are they now? The red line shows the high water mark:
Nor did he get this island:
But where Star Lord goes, he stays. The Biggles high water mark is a long way off this screen.
Finishing on Monckton's prize front (he threw everything at this), the front line is far off the high water mark.
So on all of Monkton's invasions, he is near break even, maybe one or two cities up. In the Star Lord invasions, I am 30-40 cities up and I will take a bunch more of Biggles cities next turn.
The game is over, unless Biggles and Monckton want to hone their defensive skills for a while. And sadly, here ends the Post Boys Weekend game. I think it was one of our most exciting!
This must be genuinely frustrating for Monckton, because I think he believed his own propaganda. His coded message on 19 of September brims with confidence. On the 7th of September, he publicly doubted the strength of the Star Lord economy, and to paraphrase Bill Clinton, "Its all about the economy".
I was confident it was my game quite early. I had a great starting homeland. I thought I had crippled Monckton early, but he was very canny and came back strong, destroying some of my attacks with extrordinarily timed counter attacks. When I got the North south connect, I had the benefit of not having flanks on my main lands so could move troops east and west without risk. I thought I could finish the game a week ago, but Biggles got to my pile of neutrals first, so I needed another angle. it came from a production error where I had too many transports built in one place. Biggles has not mastered the art of hunting transports, so the flotilla became a fleet and the fleet became a massive invasion.
Next game, I am going to experiment with a truck strategy. I have an idea that might prove quite effective.
I am planning the official Boys Weekend 2014 t-shirts which will be my treat.
Please send me current t-shirt sizes including for the two junior PRESTAGS.
The last of the PRESTAGS lotteries was drawn, and alas we missed the jackpot.
We won US$4, thanks to the number 9 chariot counter in the Chariot numbers, bringing total winnings to US$24. That will cover a nice bottle of wine, or registration of the .app when we finalize the name.
The boys have decided that the universe lacks a hex based wargame based in the future with star systems, ships, queer technologies, combat and gaming pleasure. Here is a business plan to make it possible.
Working title is "Thygs in Space" until we come up with something better.
The game is going to require rules, "counters", maps, annd, because it is on computer, a user interface. Basically, it needs everything.
The user interface will not be too hard to start with. I suspect I can quickly tweak the Moderni Agone interface to give is a game with counters and maps. I have some ideas for simple rules. so that that will be enough to give us a start. I am expecting regular suggestions and test reports from Peter and Paul to keep this part of the ball rolling.
To help me with this stage, I could use help from our children with:
Maybe around Christmas time we will look at what we have and decide if it is worth pursuing. If so, we will look at:
Hard to see, the future is. Hidden by the dark side. Hrrem
The number 6 elephant from the PRESTAGS Spartan game has struck for the third time, and provided a small win of US$4 in the MegaMillions lottery using the PRESTAGS numbers. That brings the total prizes up to $19.
The final lottery with the PRESTAGS numbers is this Saturday US time with a jackpot of US$144 million. Hopefully it is a case of lucky last!
Good wine and good company!
(And this collection was only breakfast).
The famous roast cauliflower with curry and pine nuts tasted even better because it was cooked by someone who had an official PRESTAGS licence and a genuine PRESTAGS era 1970s hair cut.
I forgot where I first found this recipe, but there are many variations of it on the web (from whence I have nicked this picture). I use half a head of cauliflower to feed 3 adults (actually 2 adults + a teenager, but no difference).
Bon appetit!
The 2014 Boys Weekend marked a departure from the dominance of computer wargaming, specifically Empire Enhanced Deluxe Edition (EDEE), and a return to good old-fashioned board wargaming, in this case Space Empires.
Given that EDEE is played by email every week, the return to the 'romance of the map' with giant hexes and hundreds of counters, and lively conversation (with plenty of abuse) was a definite highlight.
What happens at the Boys Weekend stays at the Boys Weekend, but sometimes a story is too good to suppress. I will let Python tell the story of the lady with the tattoo on her neck and the man's trouser zipper because he was far more involved than I ...
Some sadness now enters our hearts as the Boys Weekend has ended, however we are bouyed with the memory of many highlights.
A highlight for me was the wonderful roast lamb and vegetables knocked together by the Python and Thygocanberra. My easy contribution of a bottle of red made me feel quite inadequate.
Python's cooked breakfasts were also a treat, and I believe "in-house cooking" will now become mandatory for many meals at the Boys Weekend.
And, the best meat pie I have ever eaten in my life ... was not at the Boys Weekend.
Thanks you all all boys and patient spouses for a great weekend.
Highlights for me in order were:
Agreements made at the boys weekend
I can't let Python and Thygo do all the cooking, so I'm bringing lunch for three.
If you forget clothes and do not pay for affordable Russian natural gas, you have to hunt bear, like me, to stay warm
Weather:
Photographs:
Flower Arrangements:
Phases of the Moon:
EDEE Turns:
Bike Rides:
I have commenced packing for the Boys Weekend. First, I have chosen the DVDs to bring.
Another little win in the five draws using the PRESTAGS numbers. We won $5, and it was the Spartan numbers again, and that same lucky powerball elephant with the number 6.
The next draw is on during the BOYS WEEKEND on Friday 8 August (US time) which will be sometime on Saturday afternoon Aussie time. This is the one to win: US $115 million which includes a 5 being the number of PRESTAGS games.
How many day to go, Winnie?
This afternoon I ran a full system check on the Empire laptop. I had a slight issue with losing context, and I don't realyy understand why, but I played a powerful turn that will annoy Paul but give Peter no problems. The good news is that the east is not so very red anymore.
Finally, the chapter Paul has been waiting for. After you have explored near and deep space, and expanded with colonies on near by planets, and exploited the resources and technological artefacts there is just one logical behaviour left to a sophisticated, advanced sentient race: the extermination of any other sentient, or near sentient, beings.
The basic game gives you a few avenues to (and the advanced game several more novel methods) to achieve this totally reasonable aim. Essentially, it is very simple. Build a formidible fleet, destroy the alien fleet, and then sail through their empire to take out their home world. The devil is in the detail.
There are three things to consider when building a formidable fleet.
First things first. Combat is quite simple in Space Empires. Each ship gets a turn to shoot (provided it is not destroyed first). When it is its turn, it subtracts the defense strength of the target from its attack strength and then you need to roll a (10 sided die) euqal or lower than that number (and a 1 always hits). If you do, the target takes a hit. When the hits equal the hull strength, it is destroyed.
The Soviet approach to the cold war was the threaten the US technology with weight of numbers, and you can do that here. You can just build masses of Scouts at 6 CP per ship, and overwhelm the opposition with die rolls. What will hurt is the maintenance cost and the limit of 24 scouts.
This is similar to the Japanese approach to naval warfare in WW1 and 2. The best ships in the games are Dreadnaughts, and they cost 4 times as much as a scout, are twice as likely to score a hit, shoot first take three hits to kill. The down side is the technology cost of 100 points before you can begin to build them.
This is probably the German WW2 approach. (I think you would argue that the Americans and British in WW 1 and 2 could afford all three: size, strength and technology). The game lets you purchase attack technology (adds to the ship's attack), defense technology, adds to the ships defense, tactics technology (allows the ship to shoot first) and movement technology (allows the ship to outmaneuver the enemy). In the advanced game, you can get into mine technology, fighter technology, cloaking and scanning and point defense, but I won't discuss those here.
Lets see what we can do with a budget of 150 CPs. (This would be twice the annual income of a large empire.)
The Bigs can build 24 scouts and have 6 CP change. The Strongs can buy 2 dreadnaughts and have 2 CP change. The Technicals spend 25 on ship size to get cruisers, 20 on attack and 20 on defense and then buy 7 cruisers (at 12 * 7 = 84) and have 1 CP left.
The Dreadnaughts shoot first and need 6 or less. They get a 9 and a 5. One scout is destroyed. The scouts retaliate but need a 1. They roll 23 die, but get three 1s, so a dreadnaught is destroyed. Next round (while a sane admiral would withdraw) the dreadnaught rolls and three and another scout goes down. The scouts roll 22 die but only score one hit. The dreadnaught survives to roll a 4 and destroys another scout. The scouts roll 21 die and get one more hit. (Their luck us running low.) The dreadnaught rolls 8 and misses. The scouts roll two more ones and win the battle decisively.
The cruises have an attack of 4 + 1 and a defense of 1 + 1. They attack the scouts first and get four numbers 5 of less, and already outperform the dreadnaughts. The scouts attack, but get a plus one as they have the bigger fleet, so a 1-2 gives a hit. In 20 rolls, they get 5 hits and destroy two cruisers. In the second round the cruisers get two hits with 5 dice. The scouts are down to 18. They are lucky and get 4 hits so their are three cruisers left, one damaged. In the thrid round, the cruisers get two more scouts. The scouts come up trumps with 5 hits and wipe out the cruisers. They were lucky to have 15 scouts left, but victory was always certain.
The Technicals get a bonus against the Strongs as they have twice as many ships. The Dreadnaughts shoot first though but get no hits (they needed 1-4). The cruisers respond and get four hits (1-3) in 7 rolls (very lucky) and destroy a dreadnaught and damage the other. In the second round, the dreadnaught still does not get a hit and the cruisers get one more leaving the dreadnaught with one hull point left. The dreadnuaght finally gets a hit now, but the cruiser has two null points so survives. The cruisers will certainly get a 1-3 with the next seven rolls, and should consider themselves luck not to lose a ship.
In the above experiment, the Bigs clearly lead the field with the Technicals a distant second. Let's see who chooses what next weekend.
We play!!!
I have Space Empires, Empire enabled laptop, DVD on War Themes, some relaxing reading, so good music to play listen to and my tickets.
I just need to chuck my toothbrush in.
days to go
I saw the following omen in the sky tonight on the dog walk. The Moon was between Mars and Saturn and was a quarter waxing. The meaning is clear! In a weeks time, there will be great warfare and a little wisdom (or perhaps insanity).
There are many great games here. We need to choose one and support it. If you don;t like any, we need to propose our own!
https://www.kickstarter.com/discover/categories/games
When you find things in Space Empires, you need to exploit them. We have spoke about exploiting planets by colonisation and hiding the asteroids or nebulae is your fleet is inferior to the enemies. There are two other areas of exploitation that need covering: minerals and space wrecks.
Space is big, but in terms of this game, not that big. When you find minerals, they can be extracted and exploited in the same time as it takes to fly through the space. It is a game mechanic that encourages a quick game, I suppose. To exploit minerals, you need to move a miner into the hex, load it (no cost) and move the miner to any colony. Next economic phase you get that many points: 5 for inner space minerals and 10 for deep space. A couple of deep space mineral can buy you a battle ship, so it is worth getting.
You need a bit of management to get the minerals efficiently. There are only two miners and you start the game with one of the map. You need to purchase the other pretty quickly and then keep them relaying between your colonies and the resources and plan ahead so they are not journeying to far without a load.
Space wrecks are abandoned alien technology and are pretty rare, but can be worth up top 40 points, so should be taken seriously. Like minerals, a space wreck must be picked up by a miner and carried to a colony for exploitation in the next economic stage. It is random what you get, but always welcome.
Miners are always visible, and die really easily. When they die, the mineral or space wreck are destroyed too. Similarly, if the colony they are dropped off at is destroyed, the resource is destroyed. So you really want to get to the resource first with your miner, even as a denial tactic.
A big frontier for exploitation is the science game. Whether you are a sceptic of proven science or a welcomer of creativity, in this game you must have a technology strategy. Probably the first two turns are the only turns you will not have a technology spend; after that, you will find yourselves studying the charts to work out the next value proposition.
When you buy a ship, it gets all your latest technology built in for free. As it sails around the map, its technology gets more and more arcane. You can bring it back to any star base for a refit, or just scuttle if it is too far away. (Why scuttle? When the ship will continue to cost its hull size in maintenance, even if antiquated.)
I could say a lot about technology, but the game chart is pretty well laid out. I'll let you study it in FIVE DAYS TIME!
Ship yars are the facilities that build and upgrade your ships. Almost every asset needs a shipyard to be built. You start with 4 ship yards on your home planet and they can build 4 hull points per economic phase. (That is not four dreadnaughts, that is one dreadnaught and one destroyer.) You will need to build some more during the game, and you will want them near the action, but not so near that you cannot defend them. You will probably be advised to build a base in the same system to protect from surprise attack. Also, do not neglect technology - if you get your ship yards to technology level 3, your home base can churn out two dreadnaughts and a battle cruiser every economic phase.
Space combat
The first of the five "PRESTAGS Draws" has taken place. The bad news is that we did not win the jackpot, although nobody else did. The new jackpot is US $100 million which is a nice round number. Four more draws to go as the Boys weekend gets closer.
The good news is that we won US$10 - enough for a drinkable bottle of Charddy or Cab Sav.
The credit goes to our numbers in game 2, the Spartan numbers. We got a 37 and the powerball 6. Therefore it is thanks to the Ballista and the Elephant.
We can drink to the Ballista and the Elephant at the Boys Weekend!
To celebrate the fact that it is only one week until the Boys Weekend, I have decided to purchase a Boys Weekend lottery ticket. This is strictly on me, my treat, but any winnings will be shared in equal thirds with the Python and ThygoCanberra.
I wanted something special, so I chose the US MegaMillions lottery which has a current jackpot of US $87 million. I'm going for 5 games (because there are five PRESTAGS wargames) running for five draws on 2 August, 6 August, 9 August, 13 August and 16 August (Australian time). This covers the Boys Weekend and the days around it.
The MegaMillions has ridiculous odds of 1 in 259,000,000 to win the jackpot, and involves selecting five main numbers (from 1-75) and a Mega or Power Ball (from 1-15) for each game. Even with a total of 25 games the odds are still an insane 1 in 10,360,000. There is more chance of being struck by lightning, or of Thygo being abducted by aliens during the Boys Weekend, than winning this jackpot.
Having chosen the lottery, my next task was to choose the numbers. Of course, these numbers needed to be related in some way to PRESTAGS, so I gave it my best shot.
Game #1 is the Chariot numbers. PRESTAGS was published in 1975, and Chariot is the first of the five games, so 19 and 75 were obvious choices. I then got some iconic Chariot game units, and derived 4 from the movement allowance of the class 6 leader (only Chariot has class 6 leaders), 22 from the fire strength and range allowance of the bowman, 33 from the melee strength and movement allowance of militia spearmen, and a powerball number of 9 being the unique movement allowance of the chariot unit. The number 22 is also of PRESTAGS fame thanks to the adventures of MI 22.
Game #2 is the Spartan numbers. The cover of Spartan carries the subtitle "The time is: Summer 202 BC". This provides 20 and 2. Looking at some iconic Spartan game units, we derive 37 from fire strength and range allowance of the ballista, 43 from the melee strength and movement allowance of professional spearmen, and then 64 from the melee strength and movement allowance of the big boys, the professional pikemen. Last but not least is a nice powerball 6 from the movement allowance of elephants.
Game #3 is the Legion numbers. The cover of Legion also has a subtitle: "The time is: December 50 BC". This is great, a 12 and especially a 50. The 50 is a must for the PRESTAGS rantings of the over 50 year old wargamers. Turning to some iconic Legion game units we have a 39 from the melee strength and movement allowance of Byzantine cataphracts, a 44 from the melee strength and movement allowance of the classic swordsmen, and a 65 from the melee strength and movement allowance of barbarian infantry. To give Python another cavalry unit, we derive a powerball 2 from the melee strength of oriental cavalry.
Game #4 is the Viking numbers. Vikings means Thygo and something distinctive is required. The Viking game includes special rules [3.6] for viking ferocity, and the first viking attack odds can be accelerated up to 6-1. This gives a 36 and a 61. The iconic Viking game units include third class leaders with a movement allowance of 9, the crossbowmen with a fire strength of 2 and a range allowance of 3 producing 23, and the axemen with a melee strength of 3 and a movement allowance of 4 producing 34. For the powerball number we can't go past the viking ship with its lengthy unique movement allowance of 15.
Game #5 is the Yeoman numbers. The cover of Yeoman has a very precise subtitle: "The time is: Morning 24 June 1314". Perfect. A 24 (which is also the fire strength and range allowance of the late arquebusiers) and a 13. To these numbers Yeoman can add a 30 from the combat bonus and movement control radius of a 4th class leader, a 47 from the melee strength and movement allowance of heavy cavalry, and a 73 from the huge range allowance and fire strength (using this order) of the heavy artillery. And what about the last powerball? I like the simple 4, the range allowance of the unique Yeoman late arquebusiers. Plenty of gunpowder in Yeoman: hopefully enough to blow the MegaMillions towards PRESTAGS!
There we have it, the unique PRESTAGS lottery numbers. Having selected these deeply meaningful numbers, yesterday I proceeded to purchase the 5 games x 5 draws. After a wait in Australia (mostly while I slept) a trusty agent in the United States purchased a MegaMillions ticket with the PRESTAGS numbers, and sent me a scanned copy. This is for the first draw, the following draws will be the same:
Win or lose, the PRESTAGS numbers have now been used, and PRESTAGS boys are happy. Good luck for the Boys Weekend.
The average temperature for Sydney in July is 16.5. Today, the car themometer read 25 degrees, and I had a most pleasant dog walk in Glebe. Of course the car themometer is not as signifiant as a satellite reading, but it makes you think. I went tothe BOM site to check average temperatures and noticed that our monthly rainfall is less than 25% of the July average of 98 mm.
We should be having the Boys Weekend in Sydney. We want as many BBQs as possible before other things, like sea levels, change.
Ref http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/dwo/IDCJDW2124.latest.shtml
It is so good, I am wearing it for the rest of the week. I'm just off to the bank now...
It is surely necessary to publish live posts from the Boys Weekend. Thygo in particular needs to catch up on his tardiness.
For those who maintain internet anonymity I think we may need some masks.
Since a lot of webpages describe how to do casting quite thoroughly, this page is not an attempt to do so. It's simply a quick tour through the process. Also, a heartfelt thank-you is in order: I would have had no clue how to begin making Hobbit ears without the help and expertise of Ed Martinez, who also worked extensively on O.R.C.'s orc costume and makeup and assisted with our Gimli's facial prosthetic. Thank you, Ed! He can be emailed here.)
In the Lord of the Rings movies, Hobbits, like elves, have pointed ears. (Actually, contrary to the popular image, Elves in Tolkien are never mentioned as having pointed ears, but Hobbits are!) However, Hobbits are a sturdier, earthier people, and their anatomy reflects this, from their big hairy feet to their stocky frames. Their ears, too, are less refined than those of the Fair Folk. While an Elf's ears sweep upward to graceful, recurved points, a Hobbit's ears are wider, flatter, and the point angles backward.Originally, I used a brand called Woochie's small "alien ears." They worked pretty well, and show up in all the earlier photos, but are very "Elfy." I painted them with stage make-up by hand and that was that. However, these darned people I'm doing the Baycon skit with had higher ambitions, and so the group of us took casts of our ears (and in the Dwarf's case, nose and cheekbones) in order to sculpt our own.
In this picture, Kel (who is our Merry in another life) has fitted a margarine tub with a hole cut in the bottom over my ear. Before this, I put my hair into a swim cap, stuffed a silicon ear plug in my ear canal, and commended my soul to the Valar. She and Judy poured alginate into the margarine tub, and Kel is busily tapping out air bubbles so we get a clean cast. When the alginate hardens (which it does quickly), the tub is carefully worked off and there is a negative impression of my (teeny weeny) ear.
via www.scendan.com
This is a must for the boys weekend!
The next "X" in Space Empires stands for expand. As you discover planets, you need to colonise them.
Unlike Empire, the only way to turn your discoveries into members of your republic is to land a colony ship on them. This requires three things:
Colony ships are easy to build and require no technology. It costs 8 resource points to build one and next turn it can move. When it gets to a suitable planet, it lands and waits for the next economic phase. During that phase, it becomes a Level 1 colony. During the next economic phase, it becomes a Level 3 colony, and the last it becomes Level 5, or a full colony. At the start of each economic phase, you receive the level in income (so the first phase you get nothing, the second you get 1, the third you get 3 and the fourth and thereafter you get 5. So, assuming you can get from your ship yards to the planet in the first phase, it takes four economic phases to pay off the initial investment.
This is trickier than it sounds. A colony ship does not need technology, neither does it benefit from it. It can never move more than one hex per turn, and threre are three turns per phase, so you need either need a chain of ship yards, or you have a long way to walk and your empire grows. (You actually need a chain of ship yards, but we will cover those later.) Don't travel with the explorers though, or you could see your colony ship die, and that increases the payoff period to 6 economic periods.
It costs 25 points to research terraforming. You will need it eventual, like we will need it in 100 years if we do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, getting it at the right time is what matters. If you have a barren planet near your home world (there is one in near space), you need it sooner. Otherwising , when you are ready to take on deep space you get it.
Colonies, like home worlds are noisy places, and can't really hide. Yes, you may leave a ship on top of them at all times, but everyone knows there is a planet there and everyone knows you would colonise it and everyone knows it will grow to Level 5, so I just assume that your enemies will be counting your wealth for themselves. When your enemies successes get too much to bear, you need to cut him back to size. But you cannot capture a colony. Instead, you destroy it and land your own colony ship on the empty planet.
Can you capture a home world in the same way? Theortically yes, but in practice no. As soon as a home world is destroyed, the destroyer is declared the winner, even if the other player has been peaceful biding his time keeping his terrain safe and launching occasional random probes. Thus you get this odd behaviour that once someone starts loosing everyone gangs up on him in "a race to get to Berlin first". I suspect there will be a spectacular battle near the loser's home world between the two other players to see who has the honour of finishing.
How to exploit resources
Space Empires is called a "four ex" (or Liza Minnelli) game, as you will both soon discover. The first X stands for exploration.
Being EEDE fans, we know something of exploration. It means that you really out to check out every place on the map, and preferably before the other side does. The goal in Space Empires is similar, except that anything you discover is immediately known to other players (so don't go exploring near their empire, or you do them a big favour).
Near space is pretty benign. It has your home world,
20 good markers (9 planets and 11 minerals),
4 bad markers (2 asteroids and two nebula) and one ugly (black hole)
Exploring is really simple: move a combat ship into an unexplored hex. At the end of the turn, flip over the counter to see what you have found.
The key thing you want to find when exploring is planets, and when you find them you want to colonise them, so you need to have colony ships near your explorers. The next best thing to find are minerals or space wrecks. I'll explain how awesome they are in two articles time, but for now believe me when I say you want some miners near your explorers.
You might find asteroids and nebula. Economically, these are useless, but like the moutains and forests in EEDE, they will channel action around them.
Some things you will find are really bad:
Only combat ships can explore; no miners, colony ships or decoys, though they may be escorted in. However, you would be a loony to use a Dreadnaught to explore.
Things you find in deep space:
better and worse
This is the challenge of our generation facing climate change. It is also the two possible strategies for exploring in Space Empires.
The suicide approach is to explore with scouts. They are cheap to build and always let you know what they find as they die. Then there is the science approach. If you research Exploration, then each cruiser you build (you also need ship size 3 researched for cruisers, but I can't see anyone winning the game without at least this level of research) can flip over an adjacent unexplored marker.
Quality or quantity?
At first glance, the cruiser approach is economic madness. For the cost of 12 for a cruiser and 15 for Exploration technology, you can afford 4 scouts and have change left over. The four scouts could probably explore 16 hexes in the time the cruiser has looked at 4-5. However, on reflection, you realise that each time a scout is destroyed, the replacement has a long trip back to the front, all the while EATING BAKED BEANS. Further, in the end game, you can bring your cruisers back to a base, upgrade them and have quite a reasonable war fleet.
I think this is something you would just try.
In the next article, I will discuss eXpansion.
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J.R.R. Tolkien: The Fall of Arthur
This book is recommended by Thygocanberra. I have a copy and will read with interest.
J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings
What can I say. My favourite book. I think I have at least four different editions.
R. G. Grant: Battle: A Visual Journey Through 5,000 Years of Combat
This is the dream book for wargamers. Literally hundreds of battles. Over 350 pages of full colour illustrations. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
John Gibson Warry: Warfare in the Classical World: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Weapons, Warriors, and Warfare in the Ancient Civilizations of Greece and Rome
We all have a wonderful book with fantastic illustrations, that amazed us in childhood, and followed us to our grown up bookshelf. This is one of those books. (*****)
Antony Beevor: Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943
In school we were taught such an English view of World War II. Now I have discovered the epic battles on the Eastern Front, truly gargantuan conflicts. This book is a great introduction to the Eastern Front and a brilliant history book. (*****)
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