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I’ve had a Diplomacy opening sitting there needing 2 players for quite some time. Anyone still play this game? And I only need one to start Eric Brosius’s Discovery variant of Railway Rivals. Seems this sub-szine is going away from Diplomacy as that’s where the interest is. Any non-diplomacy game you’d like me to try, please let me know. Outpost is a lot of fun and the players seem to be enjoying Industrial Waste. Other possibilities are Golden Strider and Sopwith, both of which I’m playing in other szines. I’ll run them to give those GMs a chance to play if anyone is interested. Details in the openings section.

Tinamou appears in every other TAP. The game deadlines are always the Monday before the appropriate TAP deadline, which is always a Saturday. Assuming that TAP remains on schedule, the next deadline will be Monday, January 6, 2003.

Rick’s cards total a whopping 75 points! A full 25 points more than his closet rival, the Black Bottomed Girls, and 51 points more than low team on the totem pole, The Front Men. Getting ready for some sprinting this next turn as there are six riders whose smallest card is in the double digits.

Mark Cutler to Elaine: I'm THE best guitarist of them all, watch me pick!!! I don't do sponges!

BOOB to GM: Does a guitar count as a sharp shiny object? And stay away from Ian.... he's a walking danger zone.

BOOB to Newman: Nah, nah, your team can't catch my team!! You're a bunch of klutzes.

BOOB to Tom: Just for fun, I chose PRECISELY the same cards you started the last TAP game with..... didn't seem to help....

GM to BOOB: No, it didn’t. Let’s see, your current cards total 96, a net gain of 5. Tom’s total 160, a gain of 69. Factor in how far behind the leaders you are and we have 96 – 6 = 90 and 160 – 13 = 147. Seems there must be more than cards to this *grin*.

Tjinder Singh to Bob Marley: Hey, wo, let's get down.... sing Brimful of Asha with me!

Ian Curtis to Homegrown Evil: You're all Republicans, I think you'd just think we were the GREAT Evil if you knew. I don't think you're even allowed to look at Jon's album covers. Go watch my movie 24 Hour Party and get back to me!

HOMEGROWN EVIL: We march in lockstep. We all think correctly (ask the Christian Coalition) so we ride to the same square.

GM – HE: And score a very respectable 48 card points doing it, but I think the strategy might fall down soon!

Kingdoms - Jerry: It's like the Olympics. We all carry the flag.

Dans - B(O)[O](O)B: Don't worry; there's no shortage of Bab(b)le!

Black Bottomed Girls (Brendan Whyte)

Homegrown Evil (Mike Barno)

Thin Bottomed Girls (Tom Howell)

Manager: Edith

The Four Kingdoms of Daniel Chapter Seven (Eric Brosius)

The Front Men (Jim Burgess)

Manager: Ian Curtis

The Team About Nothing (Rick Desper)

Manager: Frank Costanza

Gunboat: Either with or without press, players preference. One signed up so far.

Perestroika Diplomacy: Add an economic twist to the classic game. Centers generate revenue, armies and fleets must be maintained, and treasuries can be sacked! Rules are available on request.

Signed up: Art Schleinkofer, Phil Reynolds, Harold Reynolds

Standard Diplomacy: Nothing new, nothing novel. The only twist to this game is that I strongly encourage players without email to join up. The long deadlines make it easier to get those negotiations in. That is not to say that I do not want people with email joining, but please do not do so unless you are prepared to negotiate fully with those people who don’t have email and rely on the Postal Service.

Signed up: Phil Reynolds, Chris Lockheardt, Bob Dowrey, Hank Alme, John Powers

Just the results please: Don’t really know what to call this one as I just came up with it. Perhaps it’s been tried before. The twist for this variant is that each season only the ending unit positions are published, not the orders. You’ll know who went where, but not who helped whom, or want may have been tried unsuccessfully.

Signed up: Phil Reynolds

Industrial Waste: A new game for 3-4 players. Manager your factory and build your products, but beware, increased production means more waste, and if you aren’t careful you’ll find that working in a sludge pit affects your productivity and the bottom line. The first game is underway, I’ll take signups for a second if anyone is interested.

Railway Rivals: I’m going to open a second game running Eric Brosius’s Transcontinental USA map with his variant rules (cities appear on the map as the game progresses rather than being predetermined). The map is available on the web site. Anyone who wants to play and needs a paper copy let me know.

Game Start!: Eric Brosius, Conrad von Metzke, Mike Barno, Brendan Whyte, Rip Gooch.

Also available, Brendan Whyte’s new Queensland map. Be one of the first to try it out! See it soon on the web site.

Signed up: Brendan Whyte

Outpost: I’ll start taking names now for another game to start when the current one ends or is on its last legs.

Signed up: Eric Brosius

Snowball fighting: Current game is winding down. Anyone interested in another go?

Reader’s Choice: I’m open to anything, just send me the rules and if I think I can run it, I’ll offer it.

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I will be sending out the rules via email again soon. Those who would like a hard copy of the map please let me know and I’ll mail you one. What I need for the first round are your team names and color preference and east coast starting hex. Remember that this starting hex will be a city. You are free to provide names for your cities if you wish. I will assign city names based on geographic location for any that aren’t named. As with Perdix, I will run this game at a pace set by the players, but no slower than one round per Tinamou issue.

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UDR once again pulls an end-run and sneaks into town ahead of the competition. This time the parallel lines offset however so there are no big charges. HANG moves into SPICEBLOW’s territory in the south-west corner and slides into Pala. SBB, UDR and TRAIN all expand their northern lines and SBB moves into the middle as well.

SBB is Schweizer Bundesbahnen (Red) HANG is Highly Automated Narrow Gauge (Blue)

UDR is Useless Desert Rails, Ltd. (Green) TRAIN is This Rail Association is Nameless (Orange)

SPICEBLOW is Saharan Partnership Internationally Concealing Evidence for Bereaved Loaded Online Widows (Purple)

The rolls for round 4 are: 3, 4, 4

Some different strategies shaping up as Eric downsizes and stays small while everyone else grows and goes green by reducing waste.

2.2.a Andy plays his Innovation and Advisor cards, spending $10M to move his Waste Reduction peg two spaces to the right (3/6).
         Harold plays his Order, using 5 RM and selling for $14M. He generates 5 waste.
         Eric plays his Innovation and spends $5M to move his Rationalization peg one space to the right (4/3).
         Richard discards his Order Card

2.2.b Andy plays his Order card, using 5RM and selling for $14M. He generates 3 waste.
         Harold plays Waste Disposal, moving his cylinder left 3 spaces to the 2 hole.
         Eric now plays Hiring/Firing to lay off his extra worker
         Richard plays Waste Removal, moving his waste marker one to the left and all other players markers one to the right.

2.2.c Andy passes
         Harold plays Waste Disposal, moving his cylinder left 3 spaces to the 0 hole.
         Eric discards his Bribery card
         Richard passes

2.2.d End of turn costs:
         Andy: pays $5M in end of turn costs.
         Harold pays $5M in end of turn costs.
         Eric pays $4M in end of turn costs.
         Richard pays $5M in end of turn costs.

Discard Pile

Order | Order | Order | Order | Raw Materials | Innovation | Innovation | Waste Disposal | Waste Disposal

Advisor | Hiring/Firing | Hiring/Firing | Waste Removal | Waste Removal | Bribery | Bribery

Card Set Preferences:
Harold:   Set 3
Eric:       Set 3, Set 5
Richard: Set 4, Set 1, Set 5
Andy:     Set 4, Set 3, Set 2, Set 1

Press:
Eric-Fellow Polluters: Now this game is starting to get interesting! Each of us is in a different position. What set of cards is best? That depends on what the other players are going to do!

3.2.a Harold plays growth and moves his factory to the 15 column
         Eric offers up his Raw Materials for bid. Richard bids $8M, Andy bids $9M, Harold and Eric pass, so Andy wins them.
         Richard plays his Advisor and Raw Materials for a double set. Andy bids $2M. Harold passes. Eric raises it to $9M and
         Richard buys the set for $10M.
         Andy plays Waste Disposal and moves his token three to the left to the 3 hole

3.2.b Harold plays his Innovation and Advisor cards paying $10M and moving Waste Reduction and Raw Materials each one hole to
         the right to 4/3.
         Eric plays his Innovation card and pays $5M to move his Rationalization one hole to the right to 3/6.
         Richard plays his Growth card and moves his factory to the 16 column.
         Andy plays Waste Removal, moving his token one to the left to 2 and everyone else's tokens one to the right.

3.2.c Harold plays his Order card, using 4 of his 10 Raw Materials. He receives $15M and generates 4 waste.
         Eric "Bane of the Unions" Brosius plays his Hiring/Firing card to lay off another worker, bringing his co-workers down to 3.
         Richard plays his Order card, using 5 of his 10 Raw Materials. He receives $16M and generates 4 waste.
         Andy plays Growth moving his factory to the 15 column.
        

3.2.d End turn costs:
         Harold pays $5M in end of turn costs.
         Eric pays $3M in end of turn costs.
         Richard pays $5M in end of turn costs.
         Andy pays $5M in end of turn costs.

Rick continues to hold onto his lead, but the STL trade hasn’t helped. Phil is making a strong surge here at the end, but unfortunately for him, both Vick has looked rather ordinary the last two games. With two weeks to go, he could still pull it out though, which Dave and Steve vie for last place.

And the yard gets emptier as Snowman With Balls goes in to thaw them out after being pasted from both sides. With just the two of them left on the field, Shrek and the Hare both go for the big one, scooping up a dirigible and sending it on the way. Neither of them connects however, and the Dalton Brothers and the Aboobable Snowman will be back at the start of the next turn. Snowman With Balls will return for the third segment, but it might be all over by then. It’s a close race with 15 points needed for a win and several contenders only a dirigible or two away.

Duelin'Daltons - If you play in Texas boy, you gotta have a fiddle in the band and a snowball in each hand! Notice the rhyme Mr. Kung Tie Foo Hi Koo!

BOOB to SM: I am ruining everyone's fun by identifying all of the players, aren't I? Harry is of course, in his game fantasy, the Snowman WITH Balls. Rick and Richard already are identified. Who else is playing? Must be Chris or Phil.... I'd guess Chris for the Hare.

SM – BOOB: You only ruin the fun if you are right. Are you? Only the SM knows!

BOOB to Shrek: I got my way with the Dalton Brothers BEFORE following him into the kitchen....

GM to BOOB: Now that’s a mental image I’d rather not have!!

BOOB to Dalton Brothers: Hey, that's no way to regain hit points! No fair that there are TWO of you depantsing me!! Those aren't my boobs!!!

BOOB to HARE: Come'n GIT me!!!

BOOB to YARD: Ain't nobody gonna bring the roof down on Shrek? You know you can do that!

BOOB to BALLLESS: If I have to lose to anyone, I'd rather it be YOU, not the rest of these ninnies!

BOOB to Dalton Brothers: Damn, those ice cubes are cold, how am I supposed to regenerate and win this thing with YOU mucking up the works?? You can't win anyway!