Turn Five The first thing I noticed when my Turn Five printout arrived was an accompanying note marked "To PZFST from EEKER." It read: My fleet had a fire-if-fired-on order this turn. I hope you did not fire either. W56 is very important to me. I know now that it completes a useful series of systems, that could save travel time for my fleets. I suggest that we divide the area up. W46 is the one I came from. I would also like to have W56 and W76. You would get W83, W11, and W113, plus free passage through W56 and its RMP! We could also agree on limiting the number of ships on W56 for mutual security. If you have any comments or suggestions please write or call (Monday and Wednesday nights are best). P.S. I'm a collector with 195 points. I wish I knew if that was good or bad. He also gave me his address and his phone number. I was relieved to learn from the printout that I had not yet met any other players besides EEKFR, so I could continue to concentrate on my relationship with him. His score was now 375, and mine was 331. Because of the necessity of preparing for a possible war with EEKER I had, on the previous turn, only been able to explore two worlds: W-130 and W-158. The former was a valuable find as it had two industries, as well as two RMP and four population. Unfortunately, it also had an I ship and my 1-ship fleet there was insufficient to destroy that or even to pick up the loose key found there, so I'd have to waste a turn sending in a bigger fleet. W130 connected to only one world not already known to me: W2. W158 turned out to be valueless in itself, with no industry or RMP but that made it a prime target for plundering. It also had a loose key - which I couldn't pick up with my 1-ship fleet - and some interesting connections. Of primary interest was that it connected to W11, which I already knew connected to W56, the one where I'd met EEKER. From EEKER's letter I knew that he did not own W11, or W83 either, but did own W46. I also learned of another, new world connected to W158: W82. From the fact that EEKER had now only put half as many ships into W56 as I had, and his admission to being a collector - and because as yet I had no other neighbors to worry about - I concluded that I probably had an edge in military power. My ability, as a pirate, to capture any fleets I outnumbered by over 3-1 certainly gave me an edge he'd have to reckon with. Therefore I decided to be fair but firm with EEKER and immediately sent the following letter to him at his home address: Your note came with my computer printout. I assume mine to you was with yours. Actually, I sent that note in right after getting the last printout, but it has since occurred to me that they would not forward it until they sent the printouts. Since you have been so kind as to inform me that you are a collector (and an analysis of your point totals for last turn and this turn supports that contention), I will let you know that I am a "pirate." You are the only other player I have contact with, so far. I expect to run into more at any time. In fact, I was surprised not to do so this time. It is my assumption that there are 15 players in this game. If this is so, I already control more than my "share'' of the 225 systems in the game. Note to the question of ownership of W56: I believe I have the military strength to take it, if I wanted to. However, at this point I would prefer to deal instead of fight, provided I can get a fair deal and quickly. If you are a collector, as you say you are, ownership of the planet is not really necessary, all you need is free passage through it. And. of course, those two artifacts would be very valuable to you, at 30 points/turn each! So here's my proposition: First, I will control W56, plus W76 and W113 (which I already have) and will take W11 (I've just discovered that it lies between W56 and another world I've just captured). You can keep W46 and have W83 if you really want it. I will allow you free passage through W56 and W76 (with some reservations on the latter - I don't mind you moving into it, but might mind where you go from here) so long as you declare any ships stopping at those worlds to be "at peace." I may, as we get to know each other better, allow you free passage through other worlds I control, or even be willing to declare you an ally. We'll see. Incidentally, I was planning to move into W48 this turn, but it occurs to me that it might be yours. If so, let me know, and prove it by indicating what it connects with. I think, once we establish mutual trust, we can also help each other by exchanging information on worlds we explore and the geography of this "universe." For instance, here's a bit of free information that may come in handy. W99 is a BLACK HOLE! I lost a key and two ships finding that out. You are not very far from it right now. I happen to control a number of artifacts, and a desire to do some trading is one of my main motivations for not to wanting to shoot it out with you. If you will go along with all of the above I will bring to W56, and give to you, the Plastic Pyramid. This is worth 30 points/turn to you, while its costing me 10/turn. In return, you must also accept the Plastic Stardust, which is worthless to you, but is also costing me 10/turn. Further I will take the Slippers of Venus, now at W56, which is worth 10/turn to me. Thus we will both make a net gain of 30/turn. I am willing to let you have the Ancient Sword, which is worthless to me but worth 30/turn to you, in return for you letting me have W56, W48 and W11 (which I could probably take by force anyway). You would have free passage through W48 also. For future trading I have the Arcturian Moonstone, which is worthless to me but worth 15/turn to you, and Vol. 5 of the Nebula Scrolls, without which you cannot complete the set! What am I bid? Assuming you agree to all of the above, how do we go about it? The two plastic artifacts are not now aboard any ships, so it’ll take me one turn to go after them and then another to bring them to W56. We could keep W56 neutral until then by each keeping one fleet there, not at peace, of one ship each, and conduct the entire exchange at one time. Or, if you're anxious to start using your free passage through W56 and W76, either move out of W56 or declare your fleet(s) there to be "at peace." I'll remove the Slippers of Venus and RMs, transfer the Ancient Sword to you and plunder the planet, and you'll be free to move through W56, W76 and W48. When I get there with the plastic artifacts I'll transfer them to your fleet(s) to complete the deal. We can do it either way; it’s up to you. Here's hoping this is the beginning of a long, profitable relationship for both of us. I also gave him my phone number (which I realized I should have done in my first letter) and asked him to reply by phone as there would not be time for him to write before the deadline. While I have no record of our conversation he did call and evidently agreed substantially with my proposals. I learned that he now owned W168 (bordering my W166), which had two industries (sure wished I hadn't passed that one up!) and which also connected with W48 (next to my W76), which had five RMP, and further that he owned a W33 that also connected to W48, and that he also bordered on W51, which on my map was a long way from W56. He would move into W166 to pick up the Plastic Stardust and pick up the artifacts at W56, and I would bring the Plastic Pyramid there for him. He also straightened out some misconceptions I had about the value of artifacts to a collector: he'd get nothing for any plastic artifacts, even the Pyramid, but they wouldn’t cost him anything either. On Turn Five I was able to unload 14 RMs at my home world (W44), and I brought in 10 more from W133 and three more from W208 for unloading next turn. Twelve ships were sent from W44 to W61 to be ready to pick up 12 RMs there next turn, and 15 ships were sent to W204 for the same kind of duty. Six ships were sent to W130 from W56 to pick up the loose key and to blast away the offending I ship there. One-ship fleets were sent to W194 and W187 to pick up the ships being built by those worlds this turn and next. Four ships were sent from W56 to W158 (via tire unexplored W11) to pick up the loose key there and provide a couple of 2-ship fleets for future explorations in that corner of the Web. I had learned that one-ship fleets were inadequate for exploring because they could not make a captured loose key operational since they had no ship(s) to transfer to it, nor could they destroy a P ship or I ship to gain control of a protected world. However, I found it necessary to use only one-ship fleets for my exploring again this turn. One was sent to W11, one to W82 and one was sent to W2. I chose the latter for two reasons: ownership of it would protect the valuable 2-industry W130; and I noticed I had a string of industrial worlds going in W187, W194 and W130, so I wanted to see if the string continued through W2. By now I was getting used to the pattern of RM transport: unload at my home world, load RMs at worlds with high RMS and transport them to the home world for unloading next time, and send out other fleets with the proper numbers of ships to worlds that will have sufficient RMS for loading next turn. Meanwhile, those worlds not producing ships or RMs or whose RMs will not be needed for the next three turns (and this requires some careful planning) can be plundered. Oil this turn I plundered W208 and W158 for 50 points each. STARWEB Part III: Introduction STARWEB Part III: Turn 5 STARWEB Part III: Turn 6 STARWEB Part III: Turn 7 STARWEB Part III: Turn 8 STARWEB Part III: Turn 9 STARWEB Part III: Turn 10 Back to Campaign #92 Table of Contents Back to Campaign List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1979 by Donald S. Lowry This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com