I run the WBC (ex-Avaloncon) Merchant of Venus Tournament. We never use the combat rules and I'd be lynched if I tried to add them. (So much for the core audience theory--I would like to point out that the solitaire rules require combat against an evil alien foe.) What happens is the game proceeds as normal until someone (usually someone losing) starts to buy weapons. Then all of the other players have to buy them, too--keep even in the arms race. (But since they are ahead, they are more likely to be able to afford them.) Pretty soon the game returns to about normal, but with everyone carrying around non-profitable assets. Usually the same leader wins anyway. Merchant of Venus for 4 players (without Combat) plays in about 2 hours to $2000 and 2.5 hours to $3000--not excessively long. It drags a bit with 5 or 6 (and is less well balanced--the last moving players usually won't have anywhere to explore and can't get as many IOU's.) The problem is there are 4 relatively easy to reach systems at the start: Colony World (left), Insterstallar Biosphere (Up), Cloud (Right), M-G Ship. The other 4 systems that can be reached by entering the Cloud are require a somewhat difficult roll to make: Poison planet: Need a 5 with total of total of 12+ (49/216 22.7%). Desert World: Need a 3 with a total of 11+ (39/216, 18.1%). Inhabited Moon: Need a 4 with a total of 15+ (9/216, 4.2%). Water World: Need a 6 with a total of 12+. (61/216, 28.2%). (Note it also possible to reach Water World with a 4 and a total of 15--but all of those combinations must include a 6, so you could use the shorter route.) There are 124/216 (57.4%) combinations that won't hit any of these planets! The IOU's are just too valuable. Each one gives you an average $92 additional starting capital (though a few can't be used that way early (The Dell for instance.)) An "early jump" on trading doesn't help much because the player who found the planet where you start trading can also trade and he has more capital to work with. In a 6 player game, getting 3 IOU's gets almost twice the starting capital (3*92+120= $396) of someone who finds only 1 ($212), at the time of the game when cash is tightest. It just too large a disadvantage to come back from without extreme luck. Back to Table of Contents -- Game! # 13 To Game! List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2005 by George Phillies. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com