Suppose you play Italy in a standard (7-player) game and that Germany is eliminated in Fall of 1903. Then after 1903, the game is really just a six-player game. With fewer minds to work against, the complexity of the game has been reduced by one dimension.
Continuing the example, suppose that Russia and France are eliminated in Fall 1906 and Austria in Fall 1912, when the game is called a three-way draw.
The points available are 3/12 for beating Germany (since he was only a
factor in 3/12 of the game) PLUS 6/12 (for Russia) PLUS 6/12 (for France) PLUS
12/12 (for Austria). This comes to 27/12 or 2.25 points. This is evenly split
among the three winners, giving them .75 points apiece. See
Rating Systems (KW).
Generally applied to childish editor who takes on too many games, is
illiterate, inefficient, and liable to go supernova.
Needless to say, none of this is necessarily true. Two stolid schoolboy editors
were Pete Mearns and Greg Hawes. Failure to carry on usually comes about because
of going to University, when girls/drink/work/social life seem more interesting.
Schoolboy editors, even if still at University, have been rare in the
UK since the late 1980s; the only obvious candidates are James Nelson
and Mark Nelson. Both of these managed to produce a
multitude of zines whilst still at School/University without running too many
games, running their games efficently and neither went supernova.
Otherwise, Dippy might just be duplicated game reports and very boring, too.
Much of the cohesion of the *UK* hobby can be put down to the fact that many
early Diplomacy players in _Bellicus_, _Ethil the Frog_, _War Bulletin_, and
_Grafeti_ (produced by Brian Yare and brought many of the St.
Andrew's crowd into the hobby) were either already members of the SF 'hobby' or
were personal friends. The 'invasion' of the BDC was
successfully absorbed into this 'personal' tradition, rather than into the
style of _BDC Journal_ and _Courier_ from
Don Turnbull.
It began as a sort of live role-playing game in 1969 (to explain would take
a while in itself), and was adapted to Diplomacy in 1972. A map was drawn up
(and expanded several times until it circumnavigated the globe) based around a
local lake in Canada and the 'zine Slobinpolit Zhurnal was created to document
the proceedings. Players could enter at any time, and there was no way to
actually end the game - in fact, there was one supply center entirely
surrounded by impassable mountains that no one ever owned. The real purpose of
the game was to write "press" of the story variety documenting the various
characters in the game and the cultures, sub-cultures, counter-cultures, and
various and sundry institutions, savory and unsavory, that went along with
them. It was a shared "novel" with a game at its core to give it substance. At
its peak there were over 40 players and upwards of 100 pages of press every
month. As players graduated from college and otherwise had to actually earn a
living, it finally broke up in 1984 (it is not still going, as listed).
Here's a link to an article that appeared in the gaming magazine Different
Worlds that Greg Costikyan wrote that gives some background to the game - the
original article was illustrated by me, but those, alas, don't appear here:
http://www.costik.com/slobbovia.html.
Entering a centre in spring only makes it neutral, to take possession you
must also retain it in Fall. Use in regular games very rare, but was seen in
1966F and 1966K.
When used in Diplomacy variants the usual rule
is that SCs can be captured in Spring. See
Variant Jargon (KW).
An early example is the one discovered in 1965 by
Conrad von Metzke, which uses ten units to hold fifteen
supply centres: A(Sev) A(Gal) SA(Ukr), A's(Ukr, Boh Bud) SA(Gal), A(Tyr)SA(Boh),
F(WMS) F(Pie) SF(GoL), F(NAf) & F(GoL) SF(WMS). This amply fulfills the primary
requirement of a successful stalemate line: that it should contain at least as
many supply centres as it requires units to maintain it. In this case, the
player could afford several 'roving' units beyond the line. However, this
remains a 'minority' stalemate line, rather than a 17-centre position from which
it is possible to force a draw: there are countless variations of minority
stalemate lines. Note than many will depend on which countries are still active
- a line established by England to stop Turkey at the mouth of the Mediterranean
would only be secure if France (or Russia or Germany) were not likely or able to
raise a fleet in Brest (or St Petersburg, Kiel or Berlin). Stalemates can, of
course, be achieved by alliances as well as single powers.
The most complete collection ever published is in
_DD_ #10/11. See also
Dynamic Stalemate Line,
Holcomb Line and
Static Stalemate Line.
There have been many hundreds of subzines over the years, perhaps as
many titles as actual full-fledged zines. While the first subzine
may have been contained in John Koning's sTab,
subzine did not become widespread until the advent of cheap photographic
reproduction in the late 1970s. The 1980s saw a proliferation of subzines (often
several to a zine, and often one title roaming from zine to zine), as it was an
easy way for a budding publisher to get his feet wet and discover if publishing
was a venture for him.
Super-nations are found in many Tolkien variants, in particular there is
a class of Tolkien variant known as "Super-Sauron" which features Mordor
as an extremely super super-nation. See Variant
Jargon (KW).
Points are awarded as follows:
a) moving units to obviously "irrelevant places", e.g. Turkey opening A Smy-Syr
b) failing to move units to obviously "relevant places", e.g. Turkey
failing to move a unit to Bul in spring 1901.
See also
dumb mistake
long term strategical mistake,
tactical mistake.
This classification of mistakes was devised by Robert Rehbold.
"When about to accept a draw proposal, a solo-centric asks himself what is
the downside of trying one more time to break whatever the deadlock that makes a
draw seems plausible? The answer is usually fear of being eliminated (the answer
for a non-solo-centric may be the fear of wasting time, but that's never a
concern for the solo- centric). When asking what's the upside? the answer is a
chance for a higher-scoring smaller draw. Unless the solo-centric is one of the
smaller powers in the draw, the upside would almost always outweigh the
downside." Dan Shoham, RGD post. 10th January 1995.
F(StPsc)-Fin (Southern Defense, Finnish Variation)
F(StPsc)-GoB (Southern Defense),
F(StPsc) H (Southern Defense, Houseboat Variation),
F(StPsc)-Lvn (Southern Defense, Livonian Variation).
See Russian Openings (KW).
F(StPsc)-Fin (Squid, Finnish Variation),
F(StPsc)-GoB (Squid),
F(StPsc)H (Squid, Houseboat Variation),
F(StPsc)-Lvn (Squid, Livonian Variation).
See Russian Openings (KW).
Year # Voters # Subzines Subzine (Editor, Zines)
1993 32 29 1st Holgate's Happy Hour (Paul Holgate, Bloodstock)
2nd The Blue Nose Special (John Colledge,
Arfle Barfle Gloop and Smodnoc)
3rd Novelty (David Tittle, Smodnoc)
See also Hobby Awards (KW).
Place: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
R1 10 7 5 4 3 2 1
R2 15 11 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
R3 20 16 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
R4 25 21 17 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4
The system was designed and run by Per Westling (1990-1992).
It was updated and run by Roland Isaksson (1993-95). From 1996
the custodian will be Joakim Spangberg.
1990: Roland Isaksson, 1991: Ulf Jireton, 1992: Nils Lindeberg,
1993: Dan Horning, 1994: Thomas Andersson.
See also Open Swedish Championships, Rating Systems (KW) and
Super Tournament Rating System.
Year Voters First Second Third Fourth
1994 26 Avalonia Mu Red Dwarf Lepanto 4-Ever
1993 24 Avalonia Mu Gr{nslandet Dipsosis
1992 40 Gr{nslandet Rosten fran Avgunden Dipsosis
In 1991/1992 the Poll was known as the Scandinavian PBM Poll as the
one/two Norwegian Zine(s) in existance were included. The 1992 Poll used
a Marco Poll system whilst the 1993 and 1994
Polls used a one-thirds average and two-thirds preference matrix method. The
deadline for the Poll is the end of the year. See also
Hobby Awards (KW).
The whole A-Z, in pdf format, is HERE
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