The General - Volume 19, Issue 4

8/20/2019 The General - Volume 19, Issue 4

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~ V ON HILLGENERAL

The ame Players MagazineThe Avalon Hill GENERAL is dedicated to the presenta

tion of authoritative articles on the strategy, tactics, andvariation of Avalon Hill wargames. Historical articles are

included only insomuch as they provide useful backgroundinformation on current Avalon Hill t it les. The GENERAL ispublished by the Avalon Hill Game Company solely for thecultural edif ication of the serious game aficionado, in thehopesof improvingthe game owner's proficiency of playandproviding services not otherwise available to the Avalon Hillgame buff. Ava lon Hil l is a d iv is ion o f Monarch Ava lonIndustries. Inc., a wholly owned sUbsidiary of MonarchAvalon, Inc. The shares of Monarch Avalon, Inc. are publiclytraded on the NASDAO System under the symbol MAHI. Forinformation about the company write to Harold Cohen at theexecutive offices of the co mp an y, 4 51 7 Ha rf ord Rd.,Baltimore, MD 21214.

Publication is b i ~ m o n t h l ywith mailings made close tothe end of February. April , June, August, October andDecember. Alleditorialand generalmail should be sentto theAvaton Hill Game Company, 4517 Harford Road, Baltimore,MD 21214. One year sUbscript ions are 9.00. Two yearsubscriptions are 14.00. All domestic subscriptions sentvia bulk permi t. Domes ti c First Class Del ivery and a llsubscriptions to Canada and Mexicomust pay an additional 9.00 per year postage charge. All overseas subscriptionsmust add an additional 12.00 per year postage charge.Send checks or money ordersonly .AH is not responsible forcash lost in transit. Those with a current American Express,VISA, MasterCard or Choice may call BOO-638-9292 tollfree to renew subscnptionsor order merchandise. Absolutelyno complaints or questions will be handled on this number.Any bUSiness o ther than a c redi t ca rd purchase mus t behandled by mail. Address changes must be submittedat least6 weeks inadvance to guarantee delivery. Paid advertising isnot accepted, but news of importance to the gaming o ~munity is sOlicited. Convention announcements must bereceived at least 3 months in advance and contain i n t o r m ~tion pertaining to AH games in use.

Articles from subscribers are considered for publicationat the discret ion of our editorial staff . Art icles should betypewritten, double-spaced, andembracethe tenets of goodEnglish usage. There isno limit to word length. Accompanying examples and diagrams shouldbe neatlydonein black orred ink. Photographs should have caption and credit l inewritten on back. Rejected articleswill be returned wheneverp o s ~ i b l e

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Donald J. GreenwOOdMANAGING EDITOR: Rex A. MartinGRAPHICS: Jean Baer, Dale Sheaffer, Charles Kibler,Rodger MacGowan, Stephanie Czech, David LawrenceCove, Art: Rodger MacGowanMesthead Design: Stephanie CzechAREA Technician: Diana WidenerGENERAL Subscriptions: Gertrude ZombroPurchases Games PBM kits and parts Brenda BrauerFOREIGN DISTRIBUTORS: Overseas readers are urged tomakesubscription arrangements with the appropriate agent,AUSTRALIA: Jedko Games, 18 Fonceca St. , Mordial loc,3195, Victoria; DENMARK: Jorn Eriksen, Sondertoften 209,DK 2630 Taastrup; GREAr BRITAIN: Avalon HiIIIUK) LTD,65 0 High Rd North Finchley, London N. 12, ONL; JAPAN:Post Hobby, 1-38 Yoyogi, Shibura-KU, Tokyo; SINGAPORE:Wong International Entr., 6 Jalan Sinar Bulan; Singapore1750; SOUTH AFA'ICA: Gamma Games Ltd, P O Box2904, Capetown 8000; SWEDEN: Targe t Games ,Skogvaktargatan 2, S-11542 Stockholm.Rules Quest ions : R&D, NOTE: ali quest ions should be

diagrammed. No quest ions can be answered which areunaccompanied by a s e l f ~ a d d r e s s e denvelope. Questionsmust be based on ru les o f p lay (no t h is to ri ca l or designmatters) and bebasedon thecurrent rules edition. Questionsonmorethan one game must be Ilste d on separate pagesandaccompanied by a separate SASE for each 9ame,IFYOU CHANGE YOUR ADDRESS: Inform us immediately,The Post Offi ce des troys magazines even i f you leave aforwarding address. AH ASSUMES NO RESPONSIBILITYFOR ISSUES LOST D UE T O AN INVALID ADDRESS. Pleasestate both your new and old address.

valon ill Philosophy Part

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Thf illAVAL 1V H 1 L L . - 6 o

a m e o mp an y

4517 HarfordRoad f \ ~

Baltimore Md 21214 \

eOver the past fe w months, this editorhas given

some extensive consideration to the previouslymentioned problems with the READERS BUYER'SGUIDE RBG . Spurred by several missives fromreaders in response to Mr. Beard's letter (Vol. 19,No, 1) , I 'd like to appraise you of some o f m y conclusions, Hopefully, this self-evaluation will lead toa better RBG one more representative of the truevalues-the strong points andthe weaknesses-ofour titles,

Even as a casual reader of The GENERAL, I hadnoted the often gross inconsistencies that occur inthe RBG Consider that M GIC RE LM and DUNEhave better Realism ratings than WA TERLOO,W R A TSEA and STALINGRAD, Is PANZERBLITZactually more complicated than SQU D LEADER?Is the b lank IR FORCE m ap an y w or se t ha n theblank boards of TOBRUK or GLADIA TOR Are thecomponents and mapboards for RUSSI N C M-PAIGN actua lly bet te r than those of FORTRESS

LET S GET CIVILIZEDAn Overview of CIVILIZ TION

EXPANDING TRADEVariant Trade Cards for CIVILIZ TION

DESIGN ANALYSISThe Fringes of CIVILIZ TION

CIRCUS MAXIMUS IISecond Edition Changes for CM

TH E COMPLEAT DIPLOM TNegotiations: Plan Those PlotsCOLOSSEUM CAMPAIGN

Combining GL DI TOR & CIRCUS M XIMUS

OH-WAH-REEOldest of Mankind s Games

R MSESII LEX NDER THE GRE T Variant

PELOPONNESIAN WARScenarios for TRIREME

TH E WARS OF MARNONScenarios for WIZ RD S QUEST

SQUAD LEADER CLINICAnswers & Discussion to Quiz, Part II

TH E RUSSIAN CAMPAIGNThe Final Campaign in THIRD REICH

EUROPA? Is ORIGINS OF WORLD W R /I rbetter game than GETTYSBURG 77 7

Perhaps the clearest indication that thesurvey may not show a game's actual acceptanis the oft-remarked difference between ratings othe RBG and those of the S o That's What YBeen Playing chart, Several examples spring tothe eye: MIDW Y a mediocre 35th on the Rthe thirteenth most played game accordingissue's reader survey W R T SEA, GUN UGUST VICTORY IN THE PACIFIC and AKORPSare still other examples of games, debeing lowly rated, which are consistently bplayed, Meanwhile, where are CIRCUS M XI

NZIO and BISMARCK? These are three of tten games produced by Avalon Hill accordingRBG yet t hey are nowhere to be seen amongtop twenty played games, This is no t to sa

ontinued on Page 1 ol

By Stephen W. H

By Mick

By Mick

By Don Greenw

By Rod Wa

By A. Gopin & W, Neum

By Red A. M

By Arnold Blumb

By Rex A. M

By Bill Faw

By Bill Nightin

By Michael Anch


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The Civil War provides a matchless

panorama of the war between thestates, stretching from theeast coast to New Mexico. A

game that stresses leadership andcommand strategy, The Civil War

includes virtually every majorcommander of the war, ratinghim for initiative and combat

capabilities. These leadersmaneuver 520 playing pieces

across two full-color mapsheets.Also includes Federal and

Confederate navies, Indians, and TexasRangers in a simulation tour for e

C O M I N G S O O NT

STORN RY U

An exciting operational levelsimulation of Operation

Market-Garden, Hell sHighway allows players tore-enact scenarios or theentire campaign in elegantdetail. Embodying a gamesystem that emphasizesplayabil ity, Hel l s Highwayfeatures over 250 German,British American andPolish combat unitsamong it s520 playing pieces, two full-colormapsheets replete with detailedterrain and game displays, rulesbooklet, and two player aid cards.

Gulf Strike is intense. Maneuvering on both strategic andoperat ional levels, players mus t make best use of theuncommonly fluid Game-Turn to opt imize their own air,

land, and sea assets in the bitter strugglefor control of the Persian Gulf area. Soviet,US I ranian, Iraqi, and many other uni ts ,dep ic ted in detail among the more than1000 playing pieces , surge across threemapsheets in this dramatic multi-scenario encounter.

r

Solitai re Ambush brings new meaningto the word, as the player commands his squad

of GI s through the WWII French countryside,daring the hidden enemy to do his wors t. A unique

system of paper slide and cartridges gives this programmedparagraph game a virtually limi tl es s number of exciting

scenarios. Includes some400counters, 2 3 maps, slide and cartridges,rules and paragraph booklets, and play-aid screen.


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L T S G T IVILIZED n Overview IVILIZ TIONBy Stephen W. Hall

Simulation games put players into all kinds ofroles: military leaders from platoon to army level,political leaders, managers of national or commercial economies, Indian chiefs, guerrilla captains,even dynast ic houses spanning centuries. Now

along comes a transplanted British game, offered inan American edition, which puts players in the roleof an entire race of people spanning not just cenuries, but millenia. Players who enjoy identifying

with their role in a game will have their imaginationsorely stretched to picture themselves as the soul ofa people, the invisible enl ightened hand whichguides a race through thetriumphs and calamities ofcultural evolution to Civilization .

CIVILIZA TION t akes place in what the gamebox tells us is the Heroic Age , from the dawn ofhistory (circa 8000 Be up to the Late Iron Age (circa5 Be . Why stop there? Aside from the fact thathe game as designed takes up to ten hours to com

plete, thesystems in the game work wellin depictingelatively disorganized racial groupings but do notend themselves to t he e st ab li sh me nt an d

maintenance of far-flung empires such as theRomans were to forge in the period which followedhe final era of the game.

The campaign game is meant to be played by sixor seven players, although there are special rules for

ccommodating fewer players. Two scenarios arencluded which are intended to be learning exercisesn the game s mechanics. hardly needs to bemenioned that it is a game of strategy, given the scale;

but CIVILIZA TION is remarkable in its ability tonclude military, polit ical , economic and diplo

mat ic ac tivi ty in a format which is easy t o comrehend. For a game of such scope, the rules areleasantly short and concise. Thegame can becomared favorably to DIPLOMACY another multilayer game in which the level of abstraction doesot detract from the strategic opportunities or from

he appreciation players gain for the subtleties oflay.

CIVILIZA TION at the same time, manages toavoid the twin flaws of a contrived mechanism forconflict an d a sure-fire strategy for winning whichcan lead to a dull, mechanistic game. Theprocedurefor reso lving confl ic t is e legantly simple and

reasonable. Since different players have differingrequirementsfor victory, there is no perfectplan forsuccess. CIVILIZA TION also includes a randomelement simulating natural and political calamitiesthat is missing from DIPLOMA CY In other ways,notably in avoid ing dice a ltogether and in interweaving off-board activities with on-board movement and development, these two popular gamesshare many strongpoints of design.

The omponents IVILIZ TIONThe physical components of CIVILIZA TION

start with a map of t he a re a s ur ro un di ng the

Mediterranean. The map is divided into areas, inland and coastal and a small number of open seaareas. The land areas each contain a number from 1 to 5 indicating the maximum number ofpopulat ion counters which the area can support ,based on the agricultural potential of that area. Thearea boundaries also regulate the movement of thepopulation counters, since each counter can moveo ver lan d on ly t o a n a dj ac en t ar ea. T he c oun ter sincluded in the game come in three varieties: eachplayer gets up to 55 population tokens (whichdouble as taxat ion tokens) , four sh ip tokens andnine city tokens.

The progress of players toward their goal of themost civilized race is charted on the ArcheologicalSuccession Table (AST). This table is divided intonine tracks for the nine peoples represented-thoseof Afr ican , I ta lian , I llyr ian , Thrac ian, Cre tan,Asian, Assyrian, Babylonian and Egyptian blood.

Much of the genius of CIVILIZA TIONs designapparent in the AST. The t racks are divided intofive d istinct epo ch s. En tr y in to t he successiveepochs is based on varying achievements, but movement along the tracks is a steady one step per game

turn unti l the next epoch is encountered, at whichpoint progress is arrested only if the player has notyet satisfied the requirements to break into the newage. The ent ry point for the var ious epochs diffe rfrom culture to culture, providing a built-in balancing to the natural advantages and disadvantages theplayers encounter due to the nature of the originaplacement.

The major game components come in the formof two types of cards. The first represent the commodities which f or me d the basis f or t rad e in t heancient world. There are eleven different kinds otrade goods, ranging from Hides and Ochrethrough Grain and Salt to the luxuries of BronzeGems an d Gold. Similar in size and appearance tthe Trade cards are the Calamities. There are eightof these in all, scattered among the Tradecarddeck,

and they have a majorrole in thecourse of thegame.More on these later.

The other type of card, an d the one with themost direct bearing upon ultimate victory, is thCivilization card. These represent the trappings oan advancing race. The cards are color-coded intofour classes: Crafts which include ta lents likeClothmaking, Pottery an d Metalworking; Sciencessuch as Astronomy and Medicine; Music andD ra ma a nd other Arts; and the Civics whichembrace the practices of Law, Philosophy andDemocracy. Several cards represent multi-talentskills (such as Engineering, which is b oth a Crafa nd a Science or Literacy, which spans the Arts andthe Civics . The Civil ization cards serve a doublefunction by also conferring special capabilities onthe players who possess them, as well as providing

the means to advance from epoch to epoch on theAST.


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6

The Play CIVILIZATIONThe game is played in rounds which are divided

into thirteen phases. Not all phases are applied during the course of each round, par ticu larly in theearly turns. A description of play could follow the

.sequence of play, but a much more useful descrip

tion begins with the goals of thegame and proceedsbackward to determine the means for accomplishing the ult imate, and the necessary intermediary,goals.

Victory in IVILIZ TION requires arrival atthe end of the player' s speci fic t rack on the AST.Since the various steps along the way to the end ofthe track set differing requirements for progression,the actions of a player are geared toward satisfyingthose condi tions as they arise-or hindering theothers from satisfying theirs. Most of these conditions aremeasured in terms of the Civilization cardst ha t a p layer h as g ar ner ed . E ac h c ar d has a valueprinted on it which is an indication both of its purchase price and its value in totaling up theassets of agiven culture.

Entry into the first epoch is free. The second requires the establishment of at least two cities on themapboard. The third epoch demands that a playerhold Civil ization cards from at least three of thefour classes described above. (This obviously placesa premium on those cards which span two classes,since such may be counted twice towards th is requirement.) The fourth epoch requires the player tohold seven Civilization .cards, regardless of theclasses or the total assets. This suggests to novicestha t p layers should buy lower cos t cards to morerapidly build up their collection. Unfortunately, toen ter t he fif th ep och , o ne needs a specified t ot alvalue in Civil ization cards held, so here high valuecards are prized. Thisis even more true in that thereis a limi t in the number of each type of Civilizationcard which may bein playand a limit to the number

of ~ r s

anyone player may hold (eleven).Moveover, onceacquired, Civilization cardscannotbe t raded or sur rendered . The tempt ingly cheapMysticism card which doubles as a Science and an r t can come back to haunt the player who is tryingto reach a total asset of 300 or 1400with just elevencards. Victorious strategy demands careful planning to avoid being caught short at th e end. T heeleven most valuable l;ards add u p to a 1460 t ot al .Although a player can augment his final asset countwith Trade cards and the holdings of his treasury,retention of these items is also limited; hence, thereis a com pelling need fo r care in t he selection ofCivilization card acquisitions. Many's the time thata player, who has otherwise conducted a brill iantstrategy and holds a vast onboardempire, finds thathe c an no t possibly win due t o poor purchases of

Civilization cards in the early part of the game.How does one acquire these Civilization cards?

Quite simply, one mu st p urchase them, usingabstract and arbitrary funds . T he re a re t hr eesources for these which can be applied individually,or in concert, to q ~ i r ethe Civil ization cards aplayer needs. T he first is inherent in the cardsthemselves. Each card (except the three high valueCivics cards) confer a bonus value toward purchasing other cards of thesame class. Thus, if oneholds Coinage, a Science card, onecan deduct up totwenty from the price of another Science card,such as Medicine. The second source of value is taxa tion . Cities are the sole source of taxation; eachturn, a player's cities on the board may contributean amount that can be used (or saved) toward thepurchase of any Civi liza tion card. Obviously, apremium is placed o n h old in g as m an y cities aspossible. This is ever more evident once one realizes

MUSIC

Counts 3 towardsPHILOSOPHY

- ' • • ' ' ' ::. C.- ..

METALWORKING

Gives n advantage n battle

8

MEDICINE

Reduces the effects ofEPIDEMIC

4

that these selfsame cities determine the amounTra de cards one has to deal with an d thatTradecards arethe most significant source offor acquiring Civilization cards.

Players initially obtain Trade cards based onumber of cities they have on the mapboard. Thare nine piles of Trade cards placed to the sideAST. Players may draw one card f rom each pilcommencing with the lowest, up to the numbercities they possess. The value of these commodrange from' ' I , for Hides and Ochre to 9 Go/d A player with five cities would thus pickfive c om mod iti es a mo un tin g, ind ividually, 15 . This does notsound likemuch and, indeed,not going to allow one to purchase the Civilizaticards needed. But the real value of the commodlies in the accumulation of l ike Trade cards.value of several cards of the same type is determby squaring the number of cards held and multiing th is resu lt by the face value of the card. Tfour cards of value 4 are n ot wo rth a merethey equal instead a mighty 64. Collect all ninecards (face value of 3 ) and one has a total vof 43 to purchase one or more Civil ization carwith.

So how does one collect sets when all the playear e d raw in g card s f ro m the same piles? Trad[Whatelsewould Trade cards be for?] In simulatio

terms, the cards represent excess production ththe culture is willing t o b ar te r away in hopesobtaining those goods it t reasures more highlEach round of play includes a Trading Phase duriwhich players offer sets of three or morecards inchange for other sets. There are some opportunitiefor skulduggery in the trading, as players are onrequired to tell the t ru th about a por tion of tthey are offering (namely the number of cardtotal value of the set, and theidentity of onecardoesn't pay to be too nasty in the trading, howevebecause no onecan afford to losethe ability to tradfor more valuable sets, and reasonable honestynecessary to continue to attract trading partners

Usually a time limit must be set on the TraPhase, five minutes generally sufficing. Immediateafter trading halts, players take turns purchasin

Civilization cards using their Trade cards, treasurand bonuses. b ot h taxes and Tra de cardsobtained on the basis of cities, it follows that cs truc ting and maintaining cities is one oprimary tasks for the would-be civ ilizer. Whicbrings us to the point of consideration of theplthe mapboard.

At this pointin the discussion, we can profireturn to the verydawning of thegame, forit isthis first turn that the culturesexpand to the staconstructing cit ies. Each player begins the gamwith a single population unit (one counter) on thboard. Starting locations for the different cultureare appropr ia te areas bordering the edges omap, except for Crete which starts the game onof the two regions of that isle. Each round, plaare allowed to expand their population by adone counter to each area containing onecounter otwo to each area con taining two o r more. Oncounters are on the mapboard, they may be movto an adjacent land area in a s imulat ion of mti on . T hu s, c ultu re s e xp an d o ut wa rd from thepoint of origin an d begin to define a regiond omi na nce . A well-m an aged cu ltu re will thudouble in population each turn. Players must takcare, however, not to exceed the population limit oan area. Excess populat ion in an area is seliminated.

Before this process of starvation takes itsplayers are given the opportunity to gather poption together to found cities. Dotted across theare natural city sites, represented by a small squarin the area. By bringing together six populacounters in such a region, the player can convethose units into one city counter. Areas whichn at ur al sites c an still h ol d a city, b ut th e cost


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higher; twelve counters are required to found a cityin the wilderness. Ci ties do produce taxes andtrading commodities, but no population growth.Thus, a new city established means foregoing the sixnew units of population growth in succeeding turnsthat would otherwise result. Citiesmust also besupported by an agricultural hinterland. or each cityon the board, the player must have two populationunits occupying some other area, tilling the fields.Areas with cities cannotsupport additional population, although the city itself is unaffected by themaximum population limit. f however, the playercannot maintain the necessary agricultural supportfor all his cities, the unsupported cities (chosen byhim must be reduced. In effec t, the populat ionscatters and the excess starve, down to the level ofthe area holding the doomed city.

Given that the cities survive these requirements,they then generate the Trade cards, which in turnlead to the Civilization cards and all the rich diversitythat these cards provide. Two other features remainto be described in this survey of play: conflictbetween the players forces on the mapboard andcalamities, which cut across all cultures inan impartial wave of devastation.

A game of this scale an d diversity needs a simple, effective mechanism for resolving conflictbetween players. CIVILIZA TION has a rare jewel

of a system. D ur ing the m ove me nt phase, eachplayer in turn, commencing with the one with thelargest population, can move his units from area toadjacent area. Playerscan purchaseships which cancarry up to five population counters across the seasor along the coasts. t the end of the MovementPhase, each area containing units of more than oneplayer is examined to see i f t he sum of all unitstherein exceeds the maximum level the area cansupport. When this is so, players must remove units,one a t a time, s ta rt ing with the player having thefewest units there. players have equal numbers ofunits, they remove units simultaneously. When thenumber of units remaining equals the support levelo f the region, conflict ends. Units of differentplayers can co-exist in any area so long as the support level is not exceeded. If a player is forced to

remove his last piece, his opponent need notsacrifice any further units and conflict ends. Conflict is thus a simple matter of attrition.

Cities can be attacked in a similar fashion, butthe aggressor must bring in at least seven units to beable to force a conflict. The city is then replaced bysix population counters, and the usual attr i tion isresolved. The Conflict Phase takes place betweenthe Movement and theCity Building phases; thus, aplayer who was planning to const ruct a city tha tturn may discover that conflict has left him with insufficient p opul at io n. In t ha t case, the excesspopulation, if any, is lost (adding insult to injury).

Conflict plays a significant but not determiningpart in play, partly because it is an expensive proposition for both attacker and defender, and partly

because another feature of CIVILIZA TION promises a more effective and assured form of destruction. The whims of the Gods blow the best laid plansawry. Calamities arrive in the form of Trade cards.Each pile of commodities, except the lowest valued,contains one Calamity card. The eight varieties ofdisaster are divided into two types. The firstfour Earthquake F am in e Ci vi l War andFlood are on cards with red backs. The receipient,and everyone else, knows exactlywho is the unluckypeople fortune has turned against. These calamitiescan be truly devastating. or example, the playerdrawing the Famine card must lose nine unitshimself, and can direct other players to lose a totalof twenty more units. (For this purpose, cit ies areequal to five units.) Floods similarly wipe ou t up to27 units in flood plains. losses in population leave

oo few units to support a player s cities, the excessmust be immediately reduced.

MYSTICISM

3

Strengthens city defensesand reduces the effects

~ r D

PHILOSOPHY

Reduces the effects ofICONOCLASM HERESY

and modifiesCIVIL WAR

4 0

The other type of calamity is more insidiouThese c ar ds l ook j us t like r egular Tra de ca rds.Player s who dr aw them d o n ot s uf fe r the consequences of them; rather, they may be traded awaywith the commodi ties dur ing the course ofTrading Phase. These calamities Epidemic CDisorder Iconoclasm Heresy and Piracy aretrue horrors of CIVILIZA TION Epidemics ccause the loss of as many as 4 units of populatiamong the players. And the culture who passed theplague is immune to its effects The other threethis deadly quartet specify the loss of cities raththan unit counters. Recipients of these cards mnot trade them further; they are stuck with consequences of their dealings. As slight consolation, anyone player cannot be the victim of more than twcalamities in anyone turn. Yet even with this, theprice of offending one s neighbors is high.

The Strategy CIVILIZATIONWhen a large group of people gather to pla

game like DIPLOMACY or KINGMAKER thcan be a tendency to treat the experience as morea social event t ha n a competitive contest. Thisdepends on the nature of thegroup and the attitudof the players of course, but in such groups winninis by implicit consent often subordinated to maintaining a cooperative approach which aims to provide mutual enjoyment for everyone. Unfortunately,with the aforementioned games, this takes the edgefrom the pleasure of the ruthless competition thesegames a re based u po n. In c ont ra st , CIVILIZATION lends itself well to such social play. The firstfew playings will f ind everyone feeling their wayforward along the AST, reluctant to rock the boatby launching a military campaign and taking inordinate care not to deeply offend any other playereither through deceitful trading or by metingsevere calamities to the players in the weakest positions. The players are in competition as much withthe system as with each other.

Games played in this manner can indeed be trenjoyable; but the winner of the game generallybe the culture with the greatest natural advantages.Thestrongest position on the board initially must bethat of Egypt . P layed with reasonable care, theEgyptian player can progress comfortab ly andsteadily along the AST with no fear that any otherplayer can outdistance him. The only culture thatcan even maintain this pace is Babylon. Tstrength of these two cultures derives from thedis tance between them and the ir neighbors . Theother cultures must contend for citysitesand arableland, while Egypt and Babylon have both in abundance. Careful selection of Civilization cards tward of f the more hazardous calamities will reducethe possibi lity tha t a troc ious luck in the drawTrading cards will not retard progress to anygreater

degree than the other players are experiencing. your group consists of wargamers rather thsocial gamers, the strategic options of CIVILIZATION can produce a hard-fought, close game withthe winner not determined until the last roundplay. As an obvious difference in attitude, a singleexample . In a socia l game, it is unlikely that anplayer will be completely wiped from the board. Amore cutthroat group will pounce on a weakenedplayer and send his culture into oblivion by a cobination of conflict and calamity.

However, the player of a lost civilization is neventirely eliminated from the game. The Civil Wcard, which results in the fracturing of a playeforces, specifies that any player currently withoutuni ts on the mapboard shall have the r ight to takecontrol of the rebel units. Such a player may be

behind in progressing on the AST, but like theItalian player in DIPLOMACY he can play


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8

deciding role in the course of the game. may notbe immediately evident in a game with so manyacets , but many of the skills necessary to good

DIPLOMACY play are also required of a competent CIVILIZA TION player.

When playing with wargamers(as I suspect mostf the readers to be), the cultures blessed withatural advantages should be threa tened firs t.

While Egypt and Babylon have lit tle to fear fromgreeable neighbors, their Achilles heel is theeed to const ruct cities very early in the game to

maintain progress on the AST. Any losses whatoever that these cultures suffer from conflict oralami ty early in the game will mean they will benable to fulfill the condi tions for ent ry into theecond epoch. Thus it can pay richly for Africa and

Assyria or Asia to worry these two powers in thearly game to hold back their progress.

As in DIPLOMACY it is best to haveonly onenemy on the board at anyone t ime. One shouldake care to be on relatively good terms withveryone else before embarking on a serious path ofonquest. Since the tools of battle are also thetoolsf progress, even a seriously pressed campaign mustot beallowed to retard a reasonable pace of urbanevelopment or normal commerce. In attacking,emember that cities can be attacked indirectly by

educing the outlying population to a level insuffiient to support the appetites of the city-dwellers.ometimes a successful campaign can be launchedn the heels of a calamity passed on the previous

urn. Even the residual effects of natural disastersan be used to commence an attack, particularly ifne s culture holds the assets necessary to minimize

he damage to your own people.

One of the most difficult tasks in CIVILIZA-ION is managing the fine balance between taxevenues and population. In a six playergame, eachlayer s tart s with but population tokens. Asities arebuilt, these begin to contribute taxes to thelayer s treasury. Tax revenues are denominated onhe obverse of the population counters. If a playert arts a r ound with insuffi ci ent count ers t o re

resent the taxes levied (Taxation being the firsthase in each turn), his cit ies will revolt. The endesult is tha t those cities which cannot pay taxesecome the property of another player. is aoolish way to lose cities.

Managing resources becomes a par ticularlyothersome problem when a cul ture bui lds up toight or nine cities. It takes a hinterland of eighteennits to support nine cities, plus another eighteen

okens to pay the taxes each ttfrn. This leaves a slackf only to 9 tokens to cover the carryoverreasury funds, ext ra p op ul at io n to absorbalamities and engage in conflicts, and sufficienttock to assure population growth. Novice playersend to build cities at every reasonable opportunity

without fully comprehending the strain this pace ofrbanization can put on scarcepopulation/taxation

esources.One way to maintain a large stock of counters is

o spend the treasury funds at every opportunity.Buy ships, even i f there is no need. Buy old if

ighteen taxation counters are available. old ishe only commodity t hat can be bought in this

manner.) Finally, arrange your Civilization cardurchases to use up as much treasury as possible.

This is not always convenient, as one is not allowedo spend treasury tokens unnecessarily.

The other, better manner to manage your stocknd treasury is to acquire the Coinage card. Thisard may be the single most useful card in the

Civilization deck (followed closely by Agriculture).The Coinage card allows a player the choice to taxhis cities at a rate o f 1 , 2 or 3 tokens per cityather than the mandatory two. A player witha conistently large stock of counters is always in a strong

position in this game.

Another s tr ong Civi lizat ion ca rd is thatrepresenting Astronomy. Most cultures will findthemselves established on a seacoast eventually.Astronomy allows passage of open sea areas.(Without it , ship movement is rest ricted to thecoastal areas.) This card results in a much greaterrange of movement as the open sea areas eachborder on a great many coastal areas. For example,an Egypt ian fleet with Ast ronomy can be on theDalmatian coast in one m ove. If you have expansionist plans in mind and find yourself with strong

coastal holdings on the Mediterranean, consideracquring an Astronomy card.Considering that Famine is a calamity tha t

occurs with disturbing frequency, it can be useful tohold Pot tery. With Grain cards from the Tradedeck, it reduces the losses incurred. Players whohold Pottery areloath to trade Grain; or even spendit. This, of course, also makes these cards extremelyvaluable to those players; remember this whentrading. All the hoarding of Grain makes the stackof cards that can be drawn from chronically small,and the incidence of Civil War is coincidentally increased. Players may wish to add a spare deck ofGrain cards or require thata Grain card used to offset Famine be surrendered to offset the effect thiscan have on play.

In general, one should pick the Civilization cardaquisitions carefully to match the needs of the particular culture being played. Egypt can certainlyprofit from Engineering, for instance, because of itsprotection from f loods-a chronic threa t for theNile basin dwellers. Beware of too many low valuecards, unless your Late Iron Age requirements arel o w - a luxury which only Africa and Crete share.

There is littleone cangive in the way of guidancefor behavior during the Trading Phase, other thanto borrow again from g oo d t ec hn iq ue inDIPLOMACY Be honest nearly all the time.Success at trading demands cooperation among theplayers. Listen carefully to what other players areoffering. Don t consistently favor a few tradingpartners over therest. Insist on fair bargains; do notbetalked into trades that obviously benefit the other

trading partner. All this means that one must try tokeep track of what commodities other players arebuilding up. Ideally, one wants to obtain large setswhile keeping other players from doing so. In practice, this cannot be done consis tent ly, for a commanding lead in Civilization cards willsoon becomeapparen t and lead to being os tracized from thetrading community. Strive to out-trade the mainrivals , but try to be jus t a face in the crowd .

Be aware of the relative posit ion in the TradeCard Acquistion Phase. Cards are distributed starting with the players holding the fewest cities. Ties

are broken based on the order found on the AST.one is playing Babylon or Egypt, at the bottomthe AST, there is cold comfort in the knowledgehaving nine cities, since by the t ime they can pTrade cards there may well be no Salt GrainCloth left. A wise player wants to position himseto get at least six or seven cards each turn; this msometimes mean that city building is restrained ewhen the culture could comfortably expand.

Location of cities can make a difference alsDon t build cities in particularly exposed position

where enemy forces can mass against them. Inlocales where there is a l imi ted abi li ty topopulation, put cities in regions that can hold onlyone unit. Don t waste fertile land by placing a citan area t hat can hold three or four populationcounters. may even be worthwhile to bring in thtwelve counters together that are required to builcity in the wilderness. Africa, especially, can findthis approach useful. In a six player game, there areplenty of city sites to satisfy everyone. The seveplayer game and short games for five players (whea section of the mapboard is not inplay)put a stron the available sites, making building cities in thewilds an attractive option.

There is no perfect s trategy for CIVILIZTION The scope of the game, and thecareful intelocking of sophisticated systems, puts a premium oa number of diverse skills. Few players, or peopleshave all these skills in abundance. Unlike the Godsof Olympus, human frailty often dictates the affairsof these cardboard cultures. But, this very diversityleads to a variety of playing styles and makes forrich and continuously intriguing contest.

Summation IVILIZ TION

Perhaps it is too soon to predict classic sfor CIVILIZA TION; but if ever a game had allnecessary ingredients t o become an enduringfavorite among multi-playergame aficionados, this

is it. Thegamemechanicsdo not adapt well to pplay, so it may not attract the following enjoyedother games. But there is enough subtlety in the pand enough challenge in combining the skillsdiplomacy, military strategy and trading savvy thatCIVILIZA TION could spawn whole boodevoted to the play of the different cultures and tstrategies for optimizing progress. takesMysticism card to predic t tha t this is one mplayer game you will continue to hear about.


9/52

EXPANDING TRADE y Mick Uhl

4 54 96

~.. v rVV IV I

SILVER

15 1 I I

X6

X 8

OIL

On this page, the reader will find illustrations ofnew Trade cards. These cards are added to the cur-rent deck provided in CIVILIZ TION in thenumbers indi cated below each type. These a reshuffled into the appropr ia te Trade card s tack .Note than an additional Iron and Ochre have beenadded to the existing number to create an expandedvalue for a complete set of these. The rest representother valuable commodities of the time.

Most of these commoditiesshould be familiar tothe players; t hr ee m ay be u nk no wn to c ont em -porary re ader s, so a br ie f descr ipti on of thesefollows. Oil This is not the modern usage of theterm, which popularly refers to petroleum. Oil inCIVILIZ TION is most commonly olive oil , butmay represent any kind of oil extracted from plants.Resin These were different types of tree saps usedfor a wide variety of purposes incense perfume,salves, etc. T he y were very valuable and muc hsought after. The Frankincense and Myrrh of thethree wise men were resins. D y e n y type of clothdye was much in de ma nd. T he m ost p op ul ar a ndvaluablecame from the rare indigoplant and from abreed of Mediterranean shellfish.

The addition of these cards changes the game inthree fundamental ways. First, because of the in-creased number of Trade cards, calamities willoccur with lesser frequency. Secondly, the increasednumber of cards will mean that empty stacks willoccur far less often; players with a large number ofcities will not be inadver tent ly penal ized by theexhaustion of lowervalue stacks as theother playersdraw first. Third, it will bemore difficult to build upsets of the same card type . This rule has been de-signed to work with Variable Trade Hand and itscorollary, Trade Loss

VARIABLE TR E H N

The maximum number of Trade cards a playermay hold is based upon the number of cities he hasin play. T hus , each player m ay r eta in up to nineTra de /C al am it y cards in his hand for the nextr ound . A player with only f ou r cities in play c anhold a maximum of four cards; a player with ninemay hold nine cards a def in ite advantage intrading.

COROLLARY: TR E LOSS X7 X6 XS

The number of cit ies a player has, of course,fluctuates during the game. Normally, the loss of acity does not affec t a p layer s t rade hand. Not sonow. If, as the result of calamities, revolts, combat,or reductions, a player has fewer cities than he hascards in his hand, he must immediately returnenough cards of his choice) to return his hand toequali ty. However, a p layer is never f or ced t oreduce his trade hand under three cards even if hehas fewer than three cities in play.

the loss of a city because of conflict forces aplayer to lose a t rade card, it is no t returned to theTrade stacks. Instead, the victor randomly choosesone Trade card from the player s hand. If his handisn t at the maximum level allowed, he may keepthis card outright. his hand is at thelimit, he mustchoose anyone card in his hand augmented by thecard hejust took from his opponent)and return ittothe Trade stacks.

X4 X

9I

6

J ~ ~II I I j

i

\ I \ \ \ Ii iii \X


10/52

10

S I G N

It certainly appears that the Back to Basicsmovement has arrived to stay. Aftera tenyear trendof bigger is better , the classic style of gameprevalent in the fifties and sixties is returning to theadu lt gaming field. I , for one , am no t displeasedwith this turn of events. Those big monster gamesare impressive to look at and beautiful to own:butjust the .thought of getting one started-much lessplaying it to conclusion-gives mechills. Myfriendsand I much prefer to sit down to a few good gamesof ACQUIRE than spend the afternoon admiringthe latest in wargaming sophistication. That s why Iam so plea:;ed that CIVILIZA TION is receivingsuch good reviews in thehobby press. t uses a wellconceived, straightforward game system unhin-·dered by loads of detail to make some very elegantstatements about mankind s journey from StoneAge to Iron Age. t can run long, bu t it is fun toplay; and in the end, isn t that what's important?

I don t intend this preface to be a self-servingtestimonial for CIVILIZA TION. I like the gameand believe it deserves the best presentation possible. Yet I also recognize certain disquieting aspectswhich I think can be improved. CIVILIZATIONsuffers from a commonmultiplayer game flaw I liketo cal l the Hearts Syndrome (players of Heartsshould recognize this ploy right away)-as soon asoneplayer looks like he isabout to win, all theotherplayers coordinate their efforts and drive him backinto thecommonpack. Whatmakes it so noticeablein CIVILIZATION is the inability of the leader to

defend himself against this collective activity. Theconsequences are two-fold-a sudden lag in thetempo of play and great increases of frustration.The need for a var iant of some kind to address thisproblem becomes apparent. Such was the motivation for this brief column. I did not stop herethough. I st ill have a few other ideas that I want totryout. Be warned; none of these changes have hadextensive testing so don t consider this an officialaddendum to the game. That s not to say thatsometime in the future some or all of these rulesmight not make their way to official status.

Tryout whichever of these new rules appeal toyou. You might have to handmake some new components, bu t that shouldn t betoo tough for peopleas inventive as wargamers. we get strong, supportive feedback on these proposals, considerationwill be given to printingan expansion kit. you likethe changes or have any ideas of your own, pleasewrite.

R M POETRY MODIFICATION

Change the DRAMA AND POETR Y Civilizationcard to providea specialcredit of 2 0 towardsLITERACY and 2 0 towards DEMOCRACY.

(The original British version of this game onlyprovided a special credit of 2 0 towardsLITERACY. There was no credit whatsoever giventowards DEMOCRACY.

CIVIL WAR NOMINEE

The recipient of the Civil War calamityno longerselects the nominee. Instead, the nominee must betheplayer with themost tokens instock. there is atie, the recipient of the calamity may then choosethe nominee from among those tied.

By Mick Uhl

hesitate to make any change to the gamesystemas it is. I reluctantlyalter this part of the CivilWar procedure only to eliminate a ploy the consequences of which are so devastating that it is totallyunfair. Experience has taught players that they canturn their civil war into a powerful offensive tool.Simply stated, a player who gets the Civil War picksas his nominee another player who currently has asmall stock. In replacing the tokens ofthe dissidentfaction, the nominee finds he must use up his stock.Next turn, the boom falls. He has no tokens to paytaxes and every city he has in play is lost to revolt.This small rule change prevents this fromoccurring.)

CITY/RURAL CO HABITATIONTokens may permanently occupy the same area

as a city. In effect, the city does no t count towardthe population limit of any area. For example, anarea with, say, a population limit of five and with acitycan support up to five tokens of any nationalityjust as if there were no city there at all.

The status of thetokens inhabitingthe sameareaas the city now becomes a factor. A token of thecity's nationality may be designated a defender ofthecity bystacking itwith thecity during theMovement Phase . These tokens do not count againstpopulation level and must be removed from theboard in the Remove Surplus Population Phase.Tokens not designated as city defenders (this mustinclude all foreign tokens) are kept in the area awayfrom thecity. Theycannot participate in the defenseof a city bu t can be used to support the city (see14.0 .

When using this rule, an invader o ft en has achoice of attacking a city and its defenders (if any)or tokens in the a rea. Who he a tt acks first is hischoice. The conflict must continue, though, untilthe population limit is no longer exceeded.

could no t find any historic reasons for a citypreventing the occupation of the surroundingcountryside by the rural populations.)

Delete N O T j i ~ K - f o l l o w i n g6.3.3. describes a situation that cannot possibly occur.2. A player mus t complet e his gold purchasebefore he may look at his trade cards.

3. When using the Pottery card to reducefamine loss, a player must reveal thegrain tradecards he intends to apply.4 La w must be acqui red before (not wi th) Democracy and Philosophy5. A player canot sur rende r t rade cards if itwoV.Id reduce his hand below six cards.6. Players cannotexamine thetrade card stacks.7. There is some confusion concerning the formation of the two factions in a Civil WarHopeful ly, th is will c lari fy the problem. Thefirst faction is chosen by the player whoreceivedthe Civil War and his nominee. The player firstturns over exactly uni t po in ts wor th. Hisnominee then turns over exactly 20 unit pointsworth. These upside down units form the first

faction. Whatever units of the nation remainsface-up form the second faction. The playe rthen proceeds as described in the rules.

COPIESIf you need a copy of an art ic le from

of-stock back issue Avalon Hill does provphotocopying service. The charge for this sis 1.00per page with a minimum order ofSpecify the art ic le , volume and numberissue it is in, and the pages on which it cfound as listed in t he index. In cert ainrulebooks and other game parts from

continued games can also be photocopied fsame per page price: again a 5.00 minimum oappl ies. Standard Avalon Hil l postage rat10070 of the dollar amount of the order mpaid for domestic orders. Canadian and Meorders must add 20% for postage costsoverseas customers must add 30070. GENpostage coupons do not apply. Send your(check or money OIlder only-no cash pleAvalon Hill, 4517 Harford Rd., Baltimor

AH Philosophy Con dfrom Page 2these-and others-are not good games.joyed many hours spent playing all three, btitles seem to appeal to a fairly narrow audi

It was questions such as these tha t broto doubt the validity and utility of the RBG asfor this readership. The problem is complex,insoluble. In essence, t he re a re a number olocking faults to beaddressed which, with bumodifications to the system and a reader-gereevaluation of the data base, will lead torepresentative and realistic survey of our ga

First, while the current categories of thcontain relevant and interesting informatiomethod of evaluation is vague in many insinsignificant in others. This often leads toancies even in related categories (for ex Physical Quality , Mapboard , Componor confusion in imprecisely defined categorie

Game Length or Rea li sm ) . Thus aconsideration of the categories themselvedeemed necessary.

I have a lways found cur ious the usunweighted Cumulative value to rate theon th e list when available wa s the respoow n carefully considered Overall Value rWhat better to rank the games for considerapotential buyers? A game with t he b es tponents can still be a terrible beast to playthe fine rating for Components determinextent the placing on ourchart? I(while Imathe minority as usual) think not. Henceforrespondents' Overall Value result will determorder in which th e games are listed. Thisbring an immediate reshuffling of titles (onemore representat ive of our readers ' colltaste); considering this issue s list in this lighresult in t he top t engames on th e RBG beinse COl, PB 0), TRC and FE and EWS IM, FT, and finally tied for th e tenth sand 3R.

The original system (which premiered iNo.3) never defined th e categories satisfaWhat is the qualitative difference betweenponents and Physical Quality ; what exthe Ease of Understanding rating meareflect? If a clear and concise review for thetial buyer is to be the final goal of this exsome changes are demanded.

Thus, Physical Quality and Mapboard Components are consolidated into one catComponents. While I doubt that many rushpurchase any game because its Comporating is 1.00, or refuse to buy a game wit Components rating, it is an aspect of pupreference that both th e producer and th


11/52

must be aware of. However, the developers andartists of Avalon Hill, who expenda greatdeal of toiland worry on these, are intensely interested in thepurchasers' response to the individual physicalcomponents. Thus, during the initial rating of a ne wrelease as well as those to be rerated in this issue).the readers will be asked to rate the MapboardCounters and Players Aids. Note that these, otherthan in the commentary in the appropriate issue onthe specific game reviewed, will no t be reflected onthe continuing RBG ..

Ease of Understanding is completely subjective; agame which to me is simple may be the mostcomplex undertaking imaginable for my daughter.This category is replaced by A H s C om pl ex it yRating as determined by t he designers anddevelopers-the experts-intimately involved withthe game. Again though, the players' own evaluation of this intangible would be of immeasurableworth to those of us w h o m us t make such a determination. Therefore, as with the Componentsrating, I am going to ask the readers for theirjudgement on t he Complexity of a title. As with theabove, it will bereported bu t once, and no t reflectedin theactual ongoing chart. I expect the relationshipbetween the AH evaluation of this aspect and thereader evaluation of the same to provide somefascinating insights for those of uson this Olympian Hill .

A case can be made for eliminating thecategory C om pl et en es s o f Rules from oursurvey-the argument being that, through the offices of The GENERAL errata corrects such afterpublication. But, with the v i ew t ha t this is to be aBuyer s Guide th e shortcomings (if any) of the included rules should be indicated. Where better thanhere-Completeness of Rules remains a category inour updated RBG.

Likewise, the ratings for Excitement Level andPlay Balance represent important feedback fromthe purchasers. Yet, efficiency would be bet te rserved by a single category. The readers wil l beasked to rate these as before and the results will berecorded in t he b oxed RBG commentary on a

specific ne w title. But a third category, Playability,will be the only reflection retained on the continualupdate ofthe RBG.ln essence, this category servesto indicate the respondents' evaluation of how wellthe t it le serves as a game . As subjective as thismust be, this rat ing will serve as a guide to thoseentering the hobby or considering the purchase of agame outside their normal field of interest.

Realism poses a problem of definition. Somany of the games were never intended as simulations that the ratings for this category canbe ludicrous at times. NAPOLEON i s a f ine game,but a less-than-perfect reflect ion of the bat tl e.When consider ing the sc ience f ic tion or fan tasytitles, the Realism rating is devoid of all meaning.Even am ong t ho se games that profess to be historical simulations , what is being simulated

the events, the decisions, the feel ? Rather thanignore all this, a simple redefining is adequate. Thene w category, Authenticity, will represent th ereaders' judgement o f h ow well a game capturesthe flavor and mood of the subject of the game. Inessence, this is the readers' judgement on ho w wellthe title serves as a simulation , a counterpart tothe rating for Playability. DUNE may recreate theHerbert novel superbly; this would be reflected by arating of 1 .00. Conversely, AFRIKA KORPS may betotal ly adr if t in s imulat ing the dec isions and problems of the desert w a r- a rating of 9.00. Withouta doubt, this must by nature be the most subjectiveof all the categories. However, it should serve wellas a general guide to what can be expected in termsof realism for the specific title.

Finally, Game Length exemplifies the prob

lems of the current RBG. What are the criteria bywhich Game Length is determined? What does itmean for a scenario-oriented game? Does one in-

clude advanced and/or optional rules? The inabilityto insure conformity among the respondents 'answers is daunting. Therefore, there now wil l betw o categories- Bas ic /Shortes t Scenario andAdvanced/Longest Scenario. These should be selfexplanatory. With WAR PEACE as an example,the shortest scenario with o nl y t he basic ruleswould be evaluated for t he f ir st , and t he GrandCampaign Game with all optional rules fo r the latter.Obviously, the readers must make a judgement onwhich specific version of a game is the quickest or

most time-consuming to play, bu t the f inal tal lyshould eliminate the slight variations that will occuramong these. In thi s manner, the prospec tiveplayer has a fair conception of the time-span rangehe wil l face when he commences play.

A no th er d if fi cu l ty, more troublesome tor eme dy t ha n t he d efi ni ng of the categories, isrev iewer bias. Obvious ly, gamers wil l buy thatproduct which appeals to their particular interest;adherents of the Napoleonic period would generallycompr ise the major ity of the respondents to asurvey of a game on Waterloo. This is unavoidable.The bias, though, is reflected in th e actual samplesize itself, and can strongly skew the ratings fo r aspecific game. Statistically, the larger the samplesize, t he mor e ac cur at el y t he mean r esult s w il lreflect the character of the game. An increasingly

dwindling sample size (i.e.: number of responses fora review) of loyal followers of the SQUAD LEADERgamettes, for example, place these games consistently in higher pos it ions than non-gamet teoriented publications. Conversely, a small samplerepresentative of a fe w dissatisfied players cannegatively reflect the ratings of a game-MAGICREALM is indicative of this.

While there is no method to obtain an unbiasedsample, and systems to dilute this effect are complex and questionable, the prospective buyer wouldbe aided if he knew the number of respondentswhich brought about the ratings for a specific title.Large numbers will tend to nullify the effects of biasas well as indicatethe popularity of ati t le . To makethe RBG a more effective compara tive too l, acategory ne w to the system isintroduced- Sample

Base. Elementary, it is but a listing of the number ofrespondents f rom which the other ratings were obtained. However, the re i s a min imum point belowwhich I would question that any worth appends tothe publication of our results. Having tossed aboutvarious views about what would constitute a validsample base, Ihave decided that, unless a minimumof fifty respond to the survey of a game, the resultswill be reported in the RBG commentary but will no tappear on the continuing chart . At a future t ime,after morepurchases of thetitle havebeen made byour readership, we will tr y again to obtain a validresponse.

This, of course, leads to the problem of relativecomparisons. The fact that each survey hasdifferent respondents is one aspect, b ut w hencoupled with the fa ct th at games have been

surveyed at different stages in the evolution of thegaming hobby poses numerous disc repancies .How can one hope to compar e t he E as e ofUnderstanding or Mapboard rat ings of, say,SQUAD LEADER to those of STALINGRAD?Systems which were innovative in 1 96 5 m ay beantiquated or worse in 1982. Basedon the information contained in the current RBG a gamer n ew t othe hobby can never hope to adequately comparegames published a decadeapartunless hehas themphysically present. (In which case, what role doesthe RBG serve?) Both PANZERBLITZ and G.I.:ANVIL OF VICTORY were advanced games on thedate of their release, but to put PB and GI in t hesame class today would seem farcical-yet thisoccurs in the RBG. To help alleviate this problem,the RBG will list the Year of Publication. At least the

reader can then make his decision to purchase onthe basi s of a game s chronological placementwithin the evolving state-of-the-art .

And of course, the games are not rated atsame time under the same state-of-the-artpec ta tions by the readers. Times change, and amor e sophi st icat ed audience results; t his isespecially true of our readership, as evidenced btheir subscription to thi s per iodical . Presencustomers will expect more from a game than thecounterparts of the 70s did. These greater expect at io ns are evidenced by lower RBG rati(witness the ratings for THIRD REICH in Vol .No.5 and inVol . 12, No.1). This is not to say t

the ne w games are not superior to the old gamenor that the readers are more cri ti cal . Rather, i treflects the fact that many of us have grown withe hobby and are much more knowledgeable thanonce we were. Too, i t ma y require years to coprehend the subtleties of a game completely andacknowledge t ha t i t is truly a classic . Quitereverse isalsotrue: a game that appears impressivafter only a fe w playings may lose i ts gli t ter upocontinued analysis. Little can be done to delay trating of ne w games. Buta periodic re-survey oflist iswarranted, I believe. Thus, I hope to institutregular revision (rerating) of our t it le s every f iyears.

Finally, a RBG-related problem for the editorsthis magazine has been brewingon the sidelinessome time. Once obsolete titles are removed, w

next is to be dropped to allow our self-imposed (fspace reasons) limit of f i fty titles to be maintainedI f cur rent tities-science-fiction, fantasy, adventure, least-popular or whatever negative critis applied-are to be removed, will not new readand ne w gamers be missing information of interto them? While sucha loss ma y becheered by som purists , it seems ridiculous to remove a curretitle that even one reader may wish to enjoy. Gamsuch as DUNE SOURCE OF T NILECIVILIZA TlON have their own intrinsic value, andwould be appalled should such be forced fromlist for mere layout reasons. After some thoughI 've decided that tw o l is ts are in order: oneWARGAME lis t and one an ADVENTURE GAMElist. Each game will be assigned, based upon subject matter, to one orthe other and the relevant cur

ren t l ist wil l be publi shed (Le.: whichever l is tgame being considered in the issue relates to withe list published a t t ha t time).

So, t her e yo u have it. The ne w system, cotained in tw o distinct lists, will have ten categoriesto provide as much concentrated informationthe potential buyer as possible given the limitationsof any such survey:

Overall Value (reader rated)Components (reader rated)Complexity (developer rated)Completeness of Rules (reader rated)Playability (reader rated)Authenticity (reader rated)Game Length (reader rated)

Basic/Shortest ScenarioAdvancedlLongest Scenario

Year of Publication (copyright date)Sample Base (number of readers responding)

In addition, at the time of rating these, the readerswill be asked to include their judgement of Mboard Counters Players Aids ComplexityExcitement Level and Play Balance. These willprinted but once, in the RBG commentary devoto the specific t i tle, and will be available to thw ho w is h to further investigate a potential purchase or how other players perceive their favorite.

In the inser t of this issue is the form to begeneration of the WARGAME RBG. I urge evreader familiar with a game to respond. Anneedless-to-say, your comments on our projectimprove the RBG and the information it can prov

are welcomed. Feel free to write in the margins.


12/52

12

IR US M XIMUS IISecond Edition hanges

By Donald Greenwood

The following are the changes which appear inthe upcoming second edition rules. These arepresented here to provide current players with theopportunity to immediately implement them-boththose that are merely cosmetic and those which arequite important. Note that changes are indicated byitalics. For readers who desire to order the latestedi-tion, copies are available fo r 3.00 plus normalshipping and handling costs from A valon Hill.6.521 Voluntary straining is p ro hi bi te d i f thechariot has no endurance remaining, or the CDM isnegative see Jostle, 7.33), or the driver willattempt to cut a horsefree 9.53).6.7 SIDESLIP-Sideslip moves ar e allowed only ifcalled for by one of th e combat table results o r i f allother means of movement ar e blocked, or thedriver can demonstrate that by notmakingasideslipmoveat thatpoint that he wouldbeforcedto enterablocked position (not a potentially blocked posi-tion) later during that same turn.7.22 the chariot changes to a n ew corner lane ontheinside, with a lower safemaximum speed, a new,updated chariot flip check with an increasednumber of strain/flip points is instantly made, evenif on e has already been made that movement phase.However, if th e chariot changes lanes to th e outside,to a lanewi th a h igher safe maximum speed, no newcheck is required because of it during that movement phase even i f t h e c h ar i ot is still exceeding th esafe maximum speed in i ts new lane.

8.41 Th e chario t may no t use straining for th e restof the race. must takeall cornersquares at the safemaximum speed fo r its lane, or automatically flip.However, team speed reductions 8.43-.44) arecalculated first prior to determining the chariotmay be exceeding the safe corner speed.8.43 Th e chariot s current maximum team speed isreduced by one at the start of every subsequentgame turn for the rest of th e race. Thus, if a chariotu se d its l as t e nd ur a nc e f ac to r d ur in g turn 15, onturn its maximum team speed would be reducedby three p lus any injur ies th e horses ma y have sustained u p t o that point. This reduction of team maximum speed is no t t rea ted as a horse injury.

9.22 Example Th e attacker r ed) is no t directlybeside th e black chariot an d therefore cannotattack. However, if black were t he a tt a ck er, hec oul d a tt ac k r ed s c ar or driver. Furthermore, black s horses were in square A [where his ca r isposi t ioned in the il lustrat ion), red could sti ll notattack because he is behind black s horses and notbeside black s car-red s car space not overlapping

with black due to the parallel corner space.9.311 Depending on thelanechange to inside or tooutside), on e or two movement factors ar e used.These a re s ub tr a ct ed f ro m t h e t e a m speed available(but not necessarily its written move) fo r th eevading chariot s next movement phase.

9.41 An attack against the horse team is resolved bycomparing theattacker s die rolla nd his CDM totalto the die rolland CDM total o f the defender. I f thedefender s total is equal to or greater than theattacker s total, the defender loses one endurancefactor andgains (at his option) one MF during hiscoming movement phase. However, theattacker s total is greater than the defender s total,the defender loses endurance factors equal to thedifference between the two totals andmust gain the

same number o f MFs during his next movementphase.

9.43 M M ovement Loss. The defenderimmediately rolls a die, an d reduces his teammaximum speed (not necessarily his written turnspeed) by that amount for hisnext movement phase.9.52 When all damageboxes for a horse are checkedoff, th e horse falls t o t he track. Th e chariot cannotmove again unt il the horse is cut free. Even mandatory movement effects asa result of combat) areignored although any endurance or injury penaltiesthat would normally apply f rom such an attack ar estill applied as applicable, except that the team canno t be a tt ac ke d f r om t h e side where th e horse hasfal len unt il the dead horse is cu t free. Th e charioth as n o m ov em en t factors an d thus cannot a t tack,brake or evade on the turn i t a tt em pt s t o c ut itsh or se s f ree even after a successful attempt). Achariot which attempts an attack on such a target isstill subject to any an d all negative results whichaccrue. The CD M of a ny c ha r io t which must att empt to cu t a horse loose before i tcan move again is

always 0 unless already negative) for purposes ofresolving attacks. When a horse is killed, the teamloses a fourth o f its remaining endurance factors(fractions rounded down). I f the team loses asecond horse, it loses a third o f its remainingendurance factors; and if it loses a third horse, i tloses half o f its remaining endurance factors.9.53 A horse can be cut free at the start of th echariot s movement phase by rol ling one die f oreach remaining horse, subtractingthe driver s CD Mf r om t h e total, an d subtracting the remainder f romtha t turn s written turn speed. Th e char io tmay thenuse an y remaining movement factors to move during t he s am e m ov em en t phase. th e result is anegative number, th e attempt to cu t the horse freefailed an d must be attempted again in th e followingturn. Only one c ut free dice roll is allowed perplayer turn. The driver may not voluntarily strainhis horses while cutting a horsefree.9.61 If just a chariot s team is forced into anothercar, it receives a ra m attack as if th e opposing car attacked the team. Use the procedure in 9.5 to resolveinjury to the horse team. This includes adding threeto the dice roll if the opposing chariot has scytheblades, or subtracting three if the opposing chariotislight. I f the attack isfrom a chariot directly aheado f the team 6. 74), the owner o f the team may selectwhich horses suffer any injury.12.4 the char io t wreck lands on another chariot,the falling wreck causes an immediate ra m attack onthe chario t team or car, as appropria te . Th e fallingwreckage ha s no driver, an d therefore no driver smodifier is applied. The chariot being hi t by the faIling wreckage ma y attempt to b ra k e o r evade normally (i f possible) to avoid t he r am a tt ac k. I f thewreck remains in the same square with a chariot,that chariot at the start o f its move mustchance theRunning Over Wrecks Chart unless it is attackedprior to that and successfully brakes or evades offthe wreck.14.2 A chario t may ru n over a wreck by choice ordue to lack of an y other recourse. Th e chariot ismoved over th e wreck square at th e normal movement cost, bu t should does no t have to) deduct endurance factors equal to the roll of one die. When itc le ar s t he w re ck ag e an d appears in the squarebeyond, rol l three dice, deduct the CDM from thetotal, an d consult the Running Over Wrecks Chart.I f achariot is unableto cleara wreck during its move

(i.e.: i t does not haveenough MFs to move beyondthe wreck), itflips.

15.23 The team cannot make any at tacks (Extion: 16.5) or be braked.15.25 A runaway team m ay b e attacked, but

no car an d driver exist, only t he team caattacked, by lash o r r a m as the attacker desires.t eam could evade automatically. I f a horse is kthe team must remain in that square wheretreated as a wreck henceforth except that anychto run over the wreck must add 3 to the die 14.2 . An y horse injuries are applied to bothjumping team andthe wreck team.16.2 Th e dragged driver ca n attempt t o c ut himfree at the conclusion of t h e m ov em en t phawhich his chariot is f lipped before rolling fojuriessustained in that turn. He rolls two dice, stracts his driver modifier, an d i f the total islessor equal to his current number of unchecked drhit boxes, he is free. Even if freed, however,d river is dragged a number of squares equal toadjusted f reeing dice rol l (u p to , b ut n ot grthan the distance actually moved by the teamth e point of th e flip).

16.5 A dragged driver can be subjected t o r amtacks by the team portion of an attacking chariotplacing the attacking team on the samesquare adragged driver. The dragged driver cannot brakevade-he must accep t t he a tt ac k. Th e drad ri ve r a ut om at ic al ly c ou nt s as h av in g a d ri ve rmodifier of A n a tt ac ke r c a nn ot s uf f er w hedamage during a r a m a t ta ck vs a dragged driAn y w h ee l d am ag e su ff er ed by t he dragdriver is instead converted to double the numbeinjury points. This is the only type of attack wca n be made on a dragged driver, an d is thet im e a t ea m c an make a r am a t ta ck of an y kThere is no modif ica tionto the diceroll fo r heav

lightcars as it is the team which attacks, even thothe a t tack is resolved on th e Wheel Damage EChart with th e amount of wheel damage specbeing turned i nt o a n equivalent number ofhits.

16.6 I f a runaway team carries a dragged drivover a wreck, the driver is automatically killed.16.7 When a driver is dragged from his carcritical hit, his dragged driver counter is placethe car counter. The team continues as a runateam except thatit has to checkforchariotflipexceeding a safe corner lane speed. The draggedriver is still subject to ram attack by an oppoteam 16.5) except tha t the team at tacks f romsquaredirectly behind theempty chariot, insteadfrom the dragged driver s square.

17.2 An individual driver on the t rack ca n mone square for each two remaining unmarked dh it b ox es (fractions rounded up) pe r turn.driver may not move diagonally, although he mmove in any direction.17.4 An individual driver on the track c an bedown by an y chariot during normal chariot mment. a chariot hitsa driver, the chariot losesequal t o t he roll of on e die when the team entersquare. Th is loss a pp li es o nl y f or that turn,represents speed loss caused by hit t ing th e drShould t hi s s pe ed loss r es ul t i n t he chariot bu na bl e t o reach the dr iver s square, i t is deduf ro m t he next turn s maximum speed instead.driver on foot is instantly killed an d removed fplay.


13/52

By Rod Walker

Ro d Walker is the editor of DIPLOMACWORLD and author of Avalon Hill s TG A M E R S GUIDE TO D I P L O M A C YDIPLOMACY WORLD is a quarterly publicatfeaturing articles on the game, hobby newratings, a demonstration game and numerous othetidbits. has been the central DIPLOMAChobby publication since its founding in Subscriptions are 6.00 per year; a sample issue,

2.00. Order by contacting Mr. Walker,Crest Drive, Encinitas, CA 92024.

beneficial to your attack. He will build tw o unitsp la ns , in 1901 for D en ma rk a nd Holland:armies. He suggests two fleets for your build.

Which of these proposa ls would you consideth e more attract ive? Which player sounds likebetter ally? Most readers would probably prefermore precise, careful German player to the vaFrench player, who simply does no t seem as wit . A detailed plan is simply more credible thanamorphous one, an d it will almost always sell-evif a total fabrication.

The other advantage to planning is effectiveof t ime. Except for t he h al f- ho u r b ef or e themove, negotiating periods ar e only fifteen minuin length. If two all ies plan ahead, they ca n betremely effective. During Spring negotiations, thshould also discuss what orders they will probamake in th e Fal l. Dur ing Fal l negot ia tions, theneed to decide what builds and/or disbandmethey plan to make, ret reat s for uni ts l ikely todislodged, an d so on th e things for which tcannot normally negotiate. A carefully laid overaplan will make these season-by-season negotiationquicker an d easier.

In DIPLOMACY there is n o s ub st it ut ep lann ing. Get ting the r ight locat ion an d suppwill make th e overa ll game more pleasan teveryone. Get ting your thoughts together r iaway, an d get ting a detai led understandingyour neighbors, wil l make th e p at h t o victorymuch s mo ot he r a nd m or e certain. You ll beprised how much more of a convincing negotiayo u become when you have speci fic proposa lspresent (and alternatives in mind if your firstgestions don t m ee t wi th t he i ns ta nt acceptawhich they obviously deserve).

An d ofcourse, you

shouldbe

preparedreverses an d ill fortune. No player is successfulth e time. But ca ref ul pl an ni ng will make ysuccess more likely an d your reverses easier to(since yo u will have contingency plans ready).your k ni fe m ay n eve r g ro w du ll or miss th e magain.

\ rut Compleatlltp omat

l.

NEGOTIATIONS:PL N THOS PLOTS

I s up po se that there ar e t ho se w ho a re j us tnatural-born Metternichs. they should be consignedto a lifetime of playing Fish . Fo r th e rest of us,plotting is an a rt which must be l ea rn ed an dperfected through trial an d error. Numerous knivesare soon b lu nt ed t hi s way. Su cce ssf ul p lo tt in grequires a good deal of advance planning. It is important for somebody to bring a DIPLOMACY setfor instance. But t he m os t important planning youwill face will be on the plots themselves.

T he m om en t y ou h av e drawn a country in afriendly game of DIPLOMACY yo u should havespecific schemes ready to propose an d work on. Itshould no t b e t h e same schemeevery time yo u drawa given country, since you ll be predictable thatway. But you should have a specific an d detailedplan of opera tions in your mind the moment youstart negotiating. There are two advantages to this:credibility an d effective use of time.

Credibility is important. People have to believeyou ar e sincere an d that you will make a good ally.Otherwise , they have no rea l reason not to makealliances against yo u an d to attack you.

Many players tend to adopt a rather passiveat ti tude toward negotiat ions, especially in 1901.They ma y deal in generalized expressions of friendship ( I think we ca n work together, so let s see howi t goes thi s year an d talk more in 1902, O K? ) . O rt hey m ay t ry to g o as f ar as a n on -a gg re ss io n pact( I won t move to the Channel if you won t ). Theymight even devise a limited tactical plan ( an dt he n I ll support you into Rumania in th e Fall ).And there are proposals for generalized long-termalliances ( let s have a game-long two-way pact ).A ny o ne o f these approaches might w or k t o m ak efriends an d even do well in a g am e, bu t they are

essentially shallow an d unconvincing. They wouldbe hard-pressed to succeed in th e face of superiorcompetition.

Consider that you have taken the role ofEngland . France has just suggested that you bothstay ou t of th e Channel an d then think about jointlya tt ac ki ng G er ma ny in 1902. Germany nowapproaches you an d proposes an alliance. He suggest s you , as England , t ry for Norway an d Belgium( wi th his support from Holland) in 1901. Heout lines a joint campaign against France and/orRussia in 1902. He proposes that he concentrate onland forces a nd o n Central Europe, while yo u concentrate on naval forces an d carve your empire fromScandinavia, Iberia, Italy. He has p lans for bringing Tur ke y a n d A us tr ia in a ga in st Ru ss ia , I ta lyaga inst France. He has ideas for diplomatic

approaches to th e other Powers, to encourage themto move in cer ta in ways dur ing 1901 which will be

AREA TOP 50 LISTTimes Previous

Rank Name ---- On LisL Rating RankI. K. Combs 29 2598YOT I2. B. Dobson 4 2392RJQ 23. B. Sinigaglio 14 2135GHI 34. D. Burdick 28 2134GFM 4

. n. OaJ:QutJ ? 7 ?126FHM 56. P. Siragusa 23 209lOFH 15

7. F. Preissle 26 2027KMW 78. J. Kreuz 23 2016FGK 89. T. Oleson 38 2009WXZ 6

10. J. Zajicek 32 2004HJO 9II. M. Sincavage 18 1991OEI 1012. P. Ford 9 I 984FCL II13. B. Remsburg 12 1951FHN 1214. J. Beard 18 1940GHN 1315. .F Freeman 3 1924EE£ 1416. L Kelly 22 I896VWZ 1717. W. Scott 25 I894IHS 1618. J. Anderson 5 1876DDE 2119. R. Leach 31 1874HLR 1920. D. Munsell 24 I860GFJ 2021. P. Flory 5 I858CEH 2222. R. Phelphs 10 I858GHN 2723. J. Sunde 4 I 858JKR 1824. S. Martin 22 1853GIL 325. R.BeY l a 4 1836COE 28

26. F. Reese 9 1834GDF 2327. C. Wannall 5 1834GKO 2428. N. Cromartie 14 1823GGN 3329. P. Landry 3 1823GHL 2930. H. Newbv I 1808GEC -31. B. Schoose 9 1802FHK 3032. E. Miller 15 180IGJP 3433. R. Hoffman 15 I798EGL 3234. J. Baker I 1789COH -35. J. Wirt 2 1788CEE 3536. F. Ornstein 12 1784FGL 3637. G. Charbonneau 3 1780DFI 1638. D. Greenwood 29 1779FFJ 3739. Olson 12 1778DEJ 3940. R. Jones 5 1775GIM 4141. B. Armstrong I 1761EFK 42. F. Sebastian 24 1758FHN 4043. G. Smith 3 I7490EJ 4944. B. Downing 18 I749FHK 4445. R. Rowlev 1747EHM. 3846. B. Salvatore 6 1747FIM 4247. D. Kopp I I739EHK 48. L Carpenter I 1737CEE -49. I LeBouef 17 I730JKT 2550. J. Hunter 4 1721DFH 45

MEET THE 50 • • •Mr. William B. Scott, is 35 married, father 0

two and owner /d i rec tor of a p ri vat e n ur ser yschool/day care center in Lovingston, Virginia.

Fayorlle Game: ANZIO, AK, VITPAREA Raled Games:AK, STAL, WAT, TRC, BB, DDAREA W-LRecord: 35·19·1 Time PBM: 95Gaming Time/Week: J I hr•. Play Preference: NoneHobbies: Ballet Dancing, Semi-Pro Boxing, PrevaricatingPel Peeve: Poorly written and/or organized rules people who

don t play wargames for FUNMr . Scott elucidates the trai ts he desires in a

PBM opponent and makes a s trong casefor th ePBM honor system .

I joined AREA because I fel t it contributedto th e goal of increasing th e pool of reliable PB Mgarners Th e t ra it s I look for in a PBM oppo-n en t a re: f ri en dl y m an ne rs , r eg ul ar r es po ns e,either some knowledge of t he g am e we p la y or avery.good ability to learn, an d finally, th e will-ingness to use th e honor system (roll y ou r o wndice) in PBM. I feel that having to use the s tockmarket o r a n AHIKS random number is too time-consuming for many simple games an d interfereswith th e friendly spirit I like to PBM with. All myP BM g am es h av e u se d th e honor system an d I

have h ad n o problems with it .


14/52

By Alan Gopin and Bill Neumann

COLOSSEUM CAMPAIGNCOMBINING GLADIATOR N CIRCUS MAXIMUS

Two o f A valon Hill s most exciting new releaseshave been CIRCUS M XIMUS andGL DI TOR.Bot h games deal with the f uri ous acti on· in theRoman Colosseum and both games feature cam-a ig n f or ma ts . Developed by the Holmdel

Wargamers Club this article presents a system fo rombining the two games into a grand campaign.

Each player represents a wealthy Roman patricianwith his s table o f gladiators an d chariots. Theobject is simple: to have the mostmoney a t the en d

f the campaign. For aficionados o f the ques-ionable glories o f ancient Roman society this is the

ultimate expression.

1. INTRODUCTIONIn the vast Colosseum greater than Yankee

tadium the death struggles of the gladiators, thepeed and skill of the charioteers, whet ted the

people s appetite for thril ls and vicarious excitement. The E mp ir e was dying, and the RomanGames were t he emot ional outlet for thediscontented mob. And, for the great families ofhe fabulous city, the games were the ir s teppingtone to ever greater wealth and even to political

power. But it was a dangerous game, the pursuit ofhe laurel, for more than one great name in Roman

history squandered its resources and was leftdestitute. This is the role you will take that of areat and powerful family in ancient Rome, conrolling the destiny of your gladiators and teams

with a grip unknown then, striving to become thewealthiest in the richest city in the known world.

. PREPARATION FOR PLAYEach player will s ta rt the campaign with fourgladiators, three chariots, and 10000 sesterces. Thegladiators should be rolled up using the standardGL DI TOR procedure. Each player will startwith a light, a medium, a heavy and a retarius. The

hariots, drivers and teams should be created usinghe standard CIRCUS M XIMUS rules. Each

player must devise some convenient method ofbookkeeping for his funds.

3. SEQUENCE OF PLAYA campaign turn will consist of one o r more

gladiator combats, followed by one or more chariotaces, and be concluded byan administrativephase.

The sequence of play in a cmpaign turn is asollows:

3.1 EMPEROR S INVIT TION L COMB TPH SE

Each player selects gladiators to compete in aGL DI TOR free-for-all; surviving gladiatorsplit the prize money supplied by the Emperor of

Rome.3.2 DUELS PH SE

ndividual players may challenge other players togladiatorial duels. Each player may challenge onceand be challenged once. Several combat s mayoccur simultaneously during this phase, if desired,o speed play.)

.3 EMPEROR S INVIT TION L CH RIOTR C E P H SE

A single gameof CIRCUS M XIMUS

is played towhich all players may commit chariots. TheEmperor awards prize money to the finishers.

3.4 M T C H R C E PH SE

Players may challenge each other to chariot matchraces. Each player may challenge once and bechallenged once. Several races may occursimultaneously to speed play.)

3.5 DMINISTR TIVE PH SEThis phase is composed of a number of segments,during which va rious bookkeeping and administrative functions are performed:

3.51 Recovery Segment: All injured horses anddrivers regain one wound point, and all gladiatorsare healed. Roll for possible loss of gladiatorattributes now. Note that recovery does no t takeplace between combats or races dur ing the campaign turn. A player who suffers wounds in eitherE mper or s Invitational may n ot recover thembefore entering a duel or a match race. However,damaged or lost weapons and shields may be replaced before a duel and wheels and whips may bereplaced before a match race.3.52 Experience Segment: Experience points maybe spent now to increase abilities. Again, note thatexperience points may not be spent after theEmperor s Invitationals.

3.53 Maintenance Segment: For each gladiatortha t did not par ticipa te in the Emperor s Invi tational or a duel during the current campaign turn,the owning player must pay 1000s for maintenance.For each chariot team that did not participatein theEmperor s Invitational or a match race during thecurrent campaignturn, the owning player must pay2000s for maintenance. The maintenance costs ofall teams and gladiators who are providing entertainment for the masses are assumed to have beenpaid by the Emperor.

3.54 Gladiator uction Segment: Honest Abdul s

Gladiator Market opens its doorsand

holds anauction to allow the players to purchase newgladiators.

3.55 Chariot Purchase Segment : Playerspurchase chariots, horses and drivers in thisegment. The rules of CIRCUS M XIMUSused for this purpose.

4. EMPEROR S INVITATIONAL COMBATThe first gladiatorial contest is the Emper

Invitational. This match is a free-for-all in wheach player may participate. The players decidemutual agreement majority vote) the maximumsize of each team sent to the arena. Oncethe size othe teams has been decided, each player commitsthe chosen members of his team to the board onea time, starting with the player with the mossesterces and continuing in descending order, untall gl adi ators desired are commi tt ed. Once theteams are committed to the arena, combat proceedsfor a specified time. In our experience, two howorks well. Use an alarm clock as a timer; when thealarm goes off, any combat in progress is compland the contes t ends with the conclus ion ofcurrent turn.)

The Emperor puts up prize money ofsesterces pergladiator for this contest; thesurvivorsamong the gladiators split the po t evenly. nois killed within the time limit, no prize monepaid. After all, the crowd came to see blood.) Anygladiator that does no t make an attack within ttime limit will be executed upon completion oInvitational. Cowardice is not tolerated inarena. His l000s are forfeited. Any gladiator thattakes more than two minutes to plot a moveincur the wrath of the bored crowd; such a gladiatowill su ffer a one column shi ft to the left onmissus table for each offense, should he everrequire its use.

Players may makeany side bets they wish during

this contest. t

is not manda to ry to accept aduring the Emperor s Invitational, and there ipenalty for declining one.


15/52

7. MATCH RACESAny player may challenge any other player to a

ma tch race. I n a ma tch race, the two players willompete head-to-head, with each player fieldingetween one and three chariots. Challenge order

5. DUELSAfter the Emperor s Invitat ional, any player

may challenge anot he r to a duel. The orde r ofprecedence for challenging is decided by the wealthof each player at the end of the Emperor s Invitational. The right to challenge starts with the playerwith the least amount and goes in order of ascending wealth. Changes in financial status resultingfrom duels do not affec t the or de r of challenge.Each player may participate in as ma ny as twoduels: one as the challenger a nd one as the challenged. Note that a player that issues a challenge is

considered to have engaged in a duel, bu t a playerwho declines to accept a direct challenge is not.The challenged player decides the size of the

team maximum of three men) he wishes to commit.The players then commit their chosen gladiators tothe arena-alternating placement, with the playerwho issued the challenge placing one of his firstuntil all are ready for combat.

The player making the challenge must also offera bet of at least 100 sesterces. GL DI TOR rules 22.5) are in effect concerning the size of bets andthe offering of odds. A player that declines a directchallenge automatically forfeits lOOs but none ofhis gladiators need engage in combat.

Duels are totally optional among the players. n

The General - Volume 19, Issue 4

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Transcript of The General - Volume 19, Issue 4