Web and Starship:

Earth Between Two Foes

Review by Michael Davis

Designed by Greg Costikyan
West End Games 251 West 30th Street New York, NY 10001
Released: July, 1984
Catalog No, 11002
Price: $16.00
Complexity, Beginner to Intermediate
Solitaire Suitability, None

While most games which present themselves as space wargames are absurd from a science-fiction and tactical viewpoint, Costikyan has avoided this trap with his latest game. The principle behind Web and Starship goes beyond its title as a space wargame, pitting Earth in a battle between two alien races. An underlying idea is the author~ attempt to create a successful three- player wargame.

The game goes past the normal lines of wargames and uses systems of economic points, of shifting alliances, and of differing technologies to create an interesting science fiction plotline as well as a tactically challenging game.

One of the most interesting ideas behind Web and Stai-ship is Costikyan's vision of war between two completely different races. in the game, Earth finds itself caught in a battle between the Gwynhyfarr, an independent race evolved from avians ' and the Pereen, soil dwellers with a penchant for rules and bureaucracy. While the Gwynhyfarr have a military, based on the might of faster-than-light space armadas, the Pereen base their strategy on the idea of infantry moved between points by web nexi.

The components of Web and Starship consist of the mapsheet, 320 die cut counters, the rule book, two dice, and the counter tray. The artwork on both the cover and the mapsheet is very good with the necessary charts included on the mapsheet for easy access.

Players will probably find that between their political back-stabbing, their interstellar conquest, and the defense of their new empires, there is little time to criticize this game.

Ignoring some of the mundane definitions, the rules for Web and Starship are in two major parts: the economic rules and the warfare rules. The economic phase of the game is controlled by three tracks provided for each player on the mapsheet. These are the Economic Points Total Track, the Maintenance Cost Track, and the Economic Points Remaining Track.

The total number of economic points available to a player is based on the number of star systems he controls. Each player, with the exception of the terran player who owns only Sol, starts the game in control of certain systems. One of the principal goals of the players is to increase their control of the mapboard by settling strategically important and valuable systems. The more systems a player settles, the more his economic point total rises. It seems obvious that such rampant, imperialistic colonization is bound to lead to conflicts when a player becomes too strong. These conflicts and the alliances that go with them are one of the points that makes Web and Starship such an interesting game.

The second part of the game's economic phase is based on the idea that armies and fleets and weapons cost money both to construct and to maintain. Web and Starship makes players pay for their huge armies and armadas of starships. Each turn, players must add up the maintenance costs of their units. These costs are printed on each counter. The resulting sum is then subtracted from the total number of economic points. What remains is the amount the player may spend on economic development for the current turn.

This remainder of economic points is recorded through the use of the Economic Points Remaining track. These points may be used to initiate and develop settlements, to launch probes, to build units, to build web nexi, or for the terran player to increase his technology level. These points may not be saved.

One problem with the economic part of the game is its reliance upon "event chits." At the beginning of each turn, players select a chit which may be played or discarded as long as the player is holding only one chit at any time. The use of such random events certainly adds spice to the game, but it also tends to detract from an otherwise realistic and logical sequence. A weighted probability table would provide one possible solution to this problem.

The war sequence of the game is based on the idea that wars are fought to gain limited objectives, and not sweeping, total victory Total wars are highly unprofitable in Web and Starship since they require large expenditures. The expense, involved in warfare, forces the players to be creative in their deployment of troops and in their use of strategy.

Rather than storming their objective and taking it with brute force, players will find it necessary to circumvent strong points in order to reduce the effectiveness of such forces. The use of this strategy will allow players to make the most of the forces they can afford. This helps the game to strike a balance between strategy and luck.

The combination of economic rules, military strategy, and shifting alliances gives Web and Starship a good suspense rating. This game will be interesting to players who enjoy the concepts of threeplayer games, of space wargames, or of war between two diametrically different races. The ideas in Web and Starship are very interesting. They are built upon a novel scifi plotline and a logical tactical system. The combination of these concepts makes this a game definitely worth playing.

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