THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE #322

February 20, 2010

Jim Burgess, 664 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02908-4327 USA, (401)351-0287, jfburgess of gmail.com

E-MAIL/WEB ONLY ISSUE! PDF will be available on the website incorporating all subszines.

Web Page Address: /Postal/Zines/TAP/index.html

Some of you are still not on the E-Mail list for this szine, I keep trying to sign you up, please accept the offer!

Peter Sullivan's Octopus' Garden needs Railway Rivals players!!! He now has three names for the France map opening (Bill McKinley has joined Geoff Challinger and William Whyte). So we now have just two slots left to fill before we have ourselves a gamestart. Make Peter's day and E-Mail him at: peter of burdonvale.co.uk and say you'll play!!!

We will have four subszines going forward, from Dave Partridge, Doug Kent, Andy York, and Peter Sullivan. Dave Partridge still is trying to finish Tinamou but the others are on track. There was a short delay here, but just because I didn't want to NMR some long time players when we're just getting back used to being on schedule. I am NOT delaying the next deadline over it.

For production, in addition to the HTML's of each separate product on the web page, I will also have a PDF that you can print of the entire szine (including my famous handdrawn maps!). You can just print the maps if you like, but remember maps are for pikers anyway, you don't need no steenkin' maps, keep them up in your head where they belong. I don't think there are very many people I owe money, but if you think I owe you money, just ask and I will pay. ONE GROUP that is definitely owed money is the players with NMR insurance. NMR insurance still continues, I will still call you for it, and when your game ends, I will refund the money. The PDF is still a work in progress, this one should be better than the last one.

I have now tried to sign up all the players, some multiple times, but please check. THIS IS A PROBLEM, sign up now if you're playing so you get proper notification!!! General information about the mailing list is at: /mailman/listinfo/tap

You can sign up from there, or send E-Mails to: Tap-request of diplom.org; with the word `help' in the subject or body (don't include the quotes), and you will get back a message with instructions. You must know your password to change your options (including changing the password, itself) or to unsubscribe. Normally, Mailman will remind you of your diplom.org mailing list passwords once every month, although you can disable this if you prefer. This reminder will also include instructions on how to unsubscribe or change your account options. There is also a button on your options page that will email your current password to you.

THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE LETTERS SECTION

((I want to go back to encouraging more letters again, right now I'm going to focus on just pumping issues out, but I hope to start writing more again too as the year progresses. This issue we have my TempleCon report!))

TEMPLECON 2010 Report (First Round of Four Tournament Nor'Easter)

We had 23 players in total playing nine games in four rounds, three with two each, and three boards on the daytime game on Saturday. It's still a fight to actually get gamers at a general gaming convention in the room at the right time to play. But we again did really well attracting those new players as 10 out of those 23 were playing in their VERY first Diplomacy tournament. Unlike last year, I did have to play to fill out boards, a total of four times, including on two boards at a time in the Saturday day round. My scores, of course, do not count toward tournament scoring (though I do include them below).

We got a lot of people excited about games in the future though, which will pay Massacre, HuskyCon, and Carnage dividends to come, as well as house games. Most of the newcomer players are from Boston/Gloucester already, so they'll be close to Massacre and other events. The roughly 50-50 ratio of newbies and veterans for the second straight year continues to meet my goals. Let me repeat that.... THAT RATIO SEEMED GOOD! I think we all should be shooting to bring in an equal number of newcomers at tournaments, I know others disagree, I worked hard for them and it paid off in the end. Some of the newcomers had played long ago, some were in their first FTF games. None of them managed a best country award, but they all played better as they went along. And I gave out lots of game awards which I don't list below.

Here's the results (more on the slightly tweaked Detour09 scoring system and other comments at the bottom, total points in the scoring system are in parentheses - I can send anyone the Excel attachment to see the numbers in columns better, I just popped it in in text):

NAME

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

RawTot

Adj.

Final Total

Adam Sigal

37.50

110.00

19.23

166.73

171.73

Peter McNamara

28.57

29.63

21.05

48.39

127.64

Christian Pedone

48.39

41.07

12.28

0.75

102.49

Alex Amann

2.00

8.93

41.38

1.5

53.81

Carl Ellis

5.36

1.50

21.05

52.91

David Burgess

12.90

18.52

19.23

51.65

Jim Burgess (TD)

17.86

12.50

16.13

46.49

51.49

Colden Rouleau

10.71

9.26

44.97

49.97

Steve Cooley

32.14

47.14

Brendan Hickey

1.25

31.58

32.83

42.83

Jesse Parnell

20.69

11.54

32.23

42.23

Melissa Call

16.13

0.00

16.13

32.26

37.26

Bob Holt

24.07

1.25

25.32

35.32

Alex Kara

1.5

18.52

11.29

33.31

Greg Harise

1.25

20.69

21.94

31.94

Ben Teixeira

16.13

31.13

Alex Maslow

6.45

1.75

12.07

20.27

25.27

John Dellisola

0.5

1.25

21.05

1.5

24.30

Rafael Buckentin

8.77

23.77

Anne Fletcher

5.36

20.36

Jeremy O'Brien

2.00

5.26

8.06

15.32

20.32

Mike Bodem

1.75

16.75

Dale Miller (Trell)

0.75

15.75

Jim Burgess 2 (TD)

0.00

15.00

Robert Rousse

0.5

0.00

0.50

10.50

Thanks to everyone and to the great TempleCon hosts, I reserved one crash room and we ended up with three rooms, I think. I didn't spend any time in the rooms, but I think they worked out OK.

Here are the board results with detour09 basic points in parentheses)

Round 1, Board 1

Austria (Robert Rousse):

(0.50)

England (David Burgess):

(12.90)

France (Mel Call):

(16.13)

Germany (Alex Maslow):

(6.45)

Italy (Christian Pedone):

(48.39) BEST ITALY

Russia (Ben Teixeira):

(16.13)

Turkey (Alex Kara):

(1.50)

Round 1, Board 2

Austria (Alex Amann):

(2.00)

England (Peter McNamara):

(28.57)

France (Carl Ellis):

(5.36)

Germany (Jim Burgess-TD):

(17.86)

Italy (Colden Rouleau):

(10.71)

Russia (Adam Sigal):

(10.91)

Turkey (John Dellisola):

(0.50)

Round 2, Board 1

Austria (John Dellisola):

(1.25)

England (Christian Pedone):

(41.07) BEST ENGLAND

France (Alex Amann):

(8.93)

Germany (Anne Fletcher):

(5.36)

Italy (Jim Burgess-TD):

(12.50)

Russia (Alex Maslow):

(1.75)

Turkey (Steve Cooley):

(32.14)

Round 2, Board 2

Austria (Carl Ellis):

(1.50)

England (Dale Miller):

(0.75)

France (Jim Burgess2-TD):

(0.00)

Germany (Robert Rousse):

(0.00)

Italy (Jeremy O'Brien):

(2.00)

Russia (Melissa Call):

(0.00)

Turkey (Adam Sigal):

13*

(110.00) BEST TURKEY

Round 2, Board 3

Austria (Bob Holt):

(24.07) BEST AUSTRIA

England (Alex Kara):

(18.52)

France (David Burgess):

(18.52)

Germany (Colden Rouleau):

(9.26)

Italy (Greg Harise):

(1.25)

Russia (Peter McNamara):

(29.63)

Turkey (Brendan Hickey):

(1.25)

Round 3, Board 1

Austria (Jesse Parnell):

(20.69)

England (Mike Bodem):

(1.75)

France (Greg Harise):

9**

(20.69)

Germany (Carl Ellis):

(5.17)

Italy (Alex Kara):

(2.00)

Russia (Alex Amann):

13*

(41.38) BEST RUSSIA

Turkey (Alex Maslow):

(28.30)

Round 3, Board 2

Austria (Peter McNamara):

(21.05)

England (Brendan Hickey):

(31.58)

France (Rafael Buckentin):

(8.77)

Germany (Jeremy O'Brien):

(5.26)

Italy (John Dellisola):

(21.05)

Russia (David Burgess):

(1.00)

Turkey (Christian Pedone):

(12.28)

Round 4, Board 1

Austria (Adam Sigal):

(19.23)

England (Carl Ellis):

(25.00)

France (John Dellisola):

(1.50)

Germany (David Burgess):

(19.23) BEST GERMANY

Italy (Bob Holt):

(1.25)

Russia (Jesse Parnell):

(11.54)

Turkey (Colden Rouleau):

(25.00)

Round 4, Board 2

Austria (Alex Kara):

(11.29)

England (Jeremy O'Brien):

(8.06)

France (Peter McNamara):

(48.39) BEST FRANCE

Germany (Christian Pedone):

(0.75)

Italy (Alex Amann):

(1.50)

Russia (Jim Burgess-TD):

(16.13)

Turkey (Melissa Call):

(16.13)

* = Played One Short

** = Played Two Short

Since we did make the seven boards in the first three rounds, and nine in the whole tournament, we easily qualify for the Grand Prix. I want to salute Jim O'Kelley and the whole Grand Prix team for running this event, and as the FIRST tournament of the year, we have the leaders for a few months. I must say that our champion does not change the trend from last year though, Adam Sigal still gets off the starting line with the lead. Yeah, I guess it really was Adam Sigal, wasn't it? This is also the first tournament in the regional sub-Grand Prix tournament that is in its second year that we've dubbed the "Nor'Easter". The next tournament in that group is Boston Massacre in Cambridge in June; HuskyCon in July; and Carnage, November 5-7 in Vermont. We will again have a First Place Nor'Easter prize to be awarded and with more help from Robert Rousse (Carnage co-organizer) we should have Second and Third Place prizes as well. More on that to come. Most of our TempleCon players were from Boston, so I'm hoping we can get almost all of them to Massacre and build on that tournament again as well with its new Tournament Director, Alex Amann. Come on out and support Alex taking over from Mel Call who will be moving to Melbourne. We also passed out ads for Whipping, which is North American DipCon this year, was that REALLY Edi Birsan's face in that picture, what sort of bears do they have out there in California anyway?

Drop Dead Time Deadlines: These worked like a charm again, this is the way to play tournament dip, you're always moving, no waiting around while people write orders. The games really moved along, I again used my loud voice with reminders to people out of the room, and people respected other players' space with need for order writing time. And the atmosphere was great. I ended up going again with the 17 minute spring, 15 minute fall continually running clock that Melissa has been using at Boston Massacre for some time. There were NO time draws (though potential for a time draw may have ended a few games), we did have a Saturday night game go until 3AM and still had four rounds in the weekend. This could be a New England style, but we liked it. We also like detour. I used and liked a new wrinkle of Peter McNamara's that gave more positive scores for eliminated players, taking them out of the main raw score translation system. Peter says I may not have actually calculated it the way he intended. If he would like to write me an Excel macro for next year, I'd be happy to use it.

Ante System for Running a Tournament in a General Gaming Convention: Five out of 23 players played ONLY one round. This was a general gaming convention with all the usual board game, role playing, video gaming, card gaming, miniatures, etc. gaming going on 24 hours straight. The ante system where people anted up 5 points and got 20 points for entering the tournament gave less weight to the ante this time and I think that was better. Comments on this are welcome, but I think you WANT people to try a game. Some newcomers, like John Dellisola, ended up playing in every round, while others just played one. That was OK with me. I'm going to shoot (realistically I think) for at least three boards per round next year. I fully support the Grand Prix approach and I hope it helps all of the rest of the tournaments get more players as well. Lastly, more experience on selling Diplomacy on site: I was still not as successful as I would like to be here. I was very careful to post notes on the game forums on the web site so that people knew we were there. I posted additional notes on the board at the Registration Deck at TempleCon. We moved the Noon round to 10AM to get done earlier, and I announced it there. Again, about half a dozen of the players either saw the inviting sounding notes or were grabbed from around. I tried direct E-Mails to Judge players and other players I could identify as being in the area, this again was not very successful, but I will keep trying again. Alex Maslow was the only person I got this way. I didn't try walking around the Con playing Edi Birsan's Teaching Videos from You Tube again like I did last year.... don't believe me, yes, I really, really did this last year, but it didn't really gain anything but laughs, so I didn't do that this time around. TempleCon again was the best we've had yet, and I look forward to even better next year,

THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE GAMES SECTION

I am continuing to note cut or failed support orders with a small "s" instead of a capital "S". This will make it easier on the E-Mailed version of the szine to see what happened, since the italics don't show there. The italics DO show on the web page just fine.

Standby lists:

Mike Barno, Dick Martin, Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Glenn Petroski, Steve Emmert, Mark Kinney, Vince Lutterbie, Eric Brosius, Paul Rauterberg, Bob Osuch, Doug Kent, Sean O'Donnell, Heath Gardner, Paul Kenny, and Jeff O'Donnell stand by for regular Diplomacy. Let me know if you want on or off these lists, especially OFF given the new policies.

GAME OPENING INFORMATION

I'm going to start the game opening list over. Under the new regime, who wants to play? First off, another regular Diplomacy game is open. Doug Kent, Fred Wiedemeyer, Brad Wilson, and Shaun Thompson were interested, but they have to let me know they're still interested (with reserved slots if they do).

THE PHIL REYNOLDS MEMORIAL: 2006B, Regular Diplomacy

THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1904 IS MARCH 6TH, 2010

Summer 1904

AUSTRIA (Burgess): has a TRI, a VIE, a VEN, f ION, a SMY, a ALB, f EAS.

ENGLAND (James): has f ENG, f NAO, a BEL, f IRI, f NWY.

FRANCE (Williams): has f MID, a BRE, f POR, a PIC, a MUN.

GERMANY (Ellinger): has a KIE, a RUH, a BER, f HOL, a FIN.

ITALY (Crow): has a TYO, f WES, a SIL, a BUR, f NAF.

RUSSIA (Barno): has f BLA, a LVN, f BUL(EC), a ARM, f STP(SC).

TURKEY (Wiedemeyer): R a arm-ANK, a smy-SYR; has a ANK, a SYR.

Addresses of the Participants

AUSTRIA: David Burgess, 101 Laurel Lane, Queensbury, NY 12804

(518) 761-6687, burgesscd of roadrunner.com or dburgess of glensfallshosp.org

ENGLAND: Drew James, 3644 Whispering Woods Terrace, Baldwinsville, NY 13027

(315) 652-1956, kjames01 of twcny.rr.com

FRANCE: Don Williams, 27505 Artine Drive, Saugus, CA 91350, (661) 297-3947,

wllmsfmly of earthlink.net or dwilliams of fontana.org ($5)

GERMANY: Marc Ellinger, 751 Turnberry Drive, Jefferson City, MO 65109

mellinger of blitzbardgett.com

ITALY: John Crow, 946 S. Medalist Circle Plano, TX 75023-2851,

(214) 532-1418, johnny.crow of hotmail.com

RUSSIA: Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883, (607) 589-4906

mpbarno of gmail.com

TURKEY: Fred Wiedemeyer, Box 92010-Meadowbrook RPO, Edmonton, ALBERTA

CANADA T6T 1N1, (780) 465-6432, wiedem of telus.net or wiedem of shaw.ca

Game Notes:

1) Note that Marc Ellinger wants us to use only his blitzbargett E-Mail from now on. What a cool name for a firm...

2) I retreated Fred's units on the board rather than replacing him, he is still not responding to me.

SPIRALS OF PARANOIA: 2005A, Regular Diplomacy

THE NEW DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1908 IS MARCH 6TH, 2009

Spring 1908

AUSTRIA (Rauterberg): a NAP-tun (imp), f gol-WES.

ENGLAND (Wiedemeyer): f POR h.

FRANCE (Tretick): a BRE h, f SPA(SC) S f mar-gol, a GAS S f spa(sc), f mar-GOL,

f eng-MID, a bur-MAR, f IRI S f eng-mid.

GERMANY (Ozog for Tallman): a kie-MUN, a tyo-PIE, a BUD S ITALIAN a ser, a VIE S a bud,

a mun-TYO, a ROM h, f SKA h, a TUS S a rom, a BEL h, f NAO-mid.

ITALY (Kent): a APU S a rom, a SER S a alb-gre, a alb-GRE.

RUSSIA (Sundstrom): f sev-RUM, a rum-UKR, a BUL S f sev-rum, a arm-SYR, a mos-SEV.

TURKEY (Biehl): a ANK-con, f SMY-con, f BLA-ank, f TYH s a apu-nap (nso).

Addresses of the Participants

AUSTRIA: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221,

(414) 281-2339 (E-Mail) paul.rauterberg of att.net

ENGLAND: Fred Wiedemeyer, Box 92010-Meadowbrook RPO, Edmonton, ALBERTA CANADA T6T 1N1,

(780) 465-6432, wiedem of telus.net or wiedem of shaw.ca

FRANCE: Buddy Tretick, 5023 Sewell's Pointe Way, Fredericksburg, VA 22407,

cell (540) 226-5571 (E-Mail) berniebuddy33 of aol.com

GERMANY: Terry Tallman, PO Box 782, Clinton, WA 98236, (360) 331-5698 ($2)

terryt of whidbey.net

GERMANY: Temporary Standby is Eric Ozog, PO Box 1138, Granite Falls, WA 98252-1138,

(360) 691-4264, ElfEric of Juno.com

ITALY: Doug Kent, 11111 Woodmeadow Pkwy #2327, Dallas, TX 75228

dougray30 of yahoo.com

RUSSIA: Matt Sundstrom, 1760 Robincrest Lane South, Glenview, IL 60025, (847) 729-1882,

Matt.Sundstrom of bbdoch.com or mattandzoe of earthlink.net

TURKEY: John Biehl, #8 - 11530 84th Avenue, Delta, BRITISH COLUMBIA, V4C 2M1 CANADA,

(604) 816-0460 (cell) ($7); jrb of dccnet.com

Game Notes:

1) Note that Paul Rauterberg has a new E-Mail address.

2) We have a proposal for an FGR draw. Please vote with your Summer orders, if you fail to vote it vetoes the proposal.

Press:

(BERLIN-WORLD): Jim's been asleep for a long time. He must have eaten a poison apple or something. Welcome back, Jim, to the living!

(SOMEWHERE, SOMETIME): ...... hurling through space and/or time .... sensors on Earth recorded the following transmission ..... "Borgism imminent ...... last experiment ........ mutation ........ rainbow coalition ........."

(BERLIN-ALL): Our embassies in all the major powers' capital cities have reopened for business. And any business with the Germans is bad business (ha ha!).

FLIP FLOP: 2003G, Regular Diplomacy

THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1911 IS MARCH 6TH, 2010

THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1912 IS MARCH 27TH, 2010

Fall 1911

AUSTRIA (Wilson): a BUD-tri, a TYO s a bud-tri, a WAR S a mos, a MOS s a war, a VIE S a bud-tri.

ENGLAND (Kent): f IRI S FRENCH f mid, f nth-NWY, a DEN S f swe,

a KIE s FRENCH a mun-ber (nso), f ENG S FRENCH f mid, f SWE s f nth-nwy, f HEL S a kie.

FRANCE (McHugh): f MID C a por-gas, f MAR S f spa(sc)-gol, a MUN S GERMAN a ber,

a BUR S a mun, f SPA(SC)-gol, a por-GAS.

GERMANY (Sundstrom): f BAL-kie, a BER S a bal-kie, f GOB-swe, a STP s ENGLISH f swe-nwy (nso).

TURKEY (Levinson): a SEV-mos, a VEN S a tri, f aeg-ION, a UKR S a sev-mos,

f WES S f gol, a PIE-tyo, f ion-ADR, f GOL s f wes,

a TRI s a pie-tyo, f tyh-TUS, a RUM S a ukr, a SER S a tri.

Supply Center Chart

AUSTRIA (Wilson):

VIE,BUD,mos,war

(has 5, rem 1)

ENGLAND (Kent):

EDI,LVP,LON,por,den,kie,

(has 7, bld 1)

nwy,swe

FRANCE (McHugh):

PAR,MAR,BRE,spa,bel,hol,mun

(has 6, bld 1)

GERMANY (Sundstrom):

BER,stp

(has 4, rem 2)

TURKEY (Levinson):

ANK,SMY,CON,bul,sev,ser,gre,

(has 12, bld 1)

tun,rom,rum,nap,ven,tri

Neutral:

none

(Total=34)

Addresses of the Participants

AUSTRIA: New Player is Brad Wilson, 713 Tasker St. #1, Philadelphia, PA 19148-1237

bwdolphin146 of yahoo.com

ENGLAND: Doug Kent, 11111 Woodmeadow Pkwy #2327, Dallas, TX 75228

dougray30 of yahoo.com

FRANCE: Jack McHugh, 810 School Lane, Folcroft, PA 19032, (856) 456-5984,

jwmchughjr of gmail.com

GERMANY: Matt Sundstrom, 1760 Robincrest Lane South, Glenview, IL 60025, (847) 729-1882,

Matt.Sundstrom of bbdoch.com or mattandzoe of earthlink.net

ITALY: Don Williams, 27505 Artine Drive, Saugus, CA 91350, (661) 297-3947,

wllmsfmly of earthlink.net or dwilliams of fontana.org

RUSSIA: Sean O'Donnell, 1044 Wellfleet Drive, Grafton, OH 44044, (440) 926-0230,

sean_o_donnell of hotmail.com

TURKEY: Alexandre Levinson, Beeklaan 504, 2562BP Den Haag THE NETHERLANDS, don't need phone,

al of tolkin.nl ($5)

Game Notes:

1) Nothing much to say here, except we move on to 1912.

SECRETS: 1999D, Regular Diplomacy

THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1925 IS MARCH 6TH, 2010

THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1926 IS MARCH 27TH, 2010

Fall 1925

ENGLAND (Kent): f wal-lon (d ann).

FRANCE (Sasseville): f gas s TURKISH f mid (otm, d r:spa(nc),otb), f ion-EAS,

a par s TURKISH a pic (d ann).

GERMANY (Barno): a BUL h.

RUSSIA (Osuch): f lvn-BAL, a WAR h, f NAO S f iri, a LON S f lvp-wal, f lvp-WAL,

f IRI S f lvp-wal, a ukr-SEV, a KIE S a ber, a BEL h, f ENG S f iri, a HOL S a bel, a BER S a kie.

TURKEY (Linsey): a ARM-sev, f BLA S RUSSIAN a ukr-sev, a RUM-ukr, a GAL-ukr, f TYH h,

a SER-bul, a bur-PAR, a SIL S a mun, f wes-MID, a MUN S a sil, f gol-WES, a BRE S a bur-par,

a TYO S a mun, f mid-GAS, a MAR S f mid-gas, f spa(sc)-POR, a PIC S a bur-par.

Supply Center Chart

ENGLAND (Kent):

none

(out)

FRANCE (Sasseville):

spa,tun

(has 1(r:otb) or 2, PLAYS ONE SHORT or even)

GERMANY (Barno):

bul

(has 1, even)

RUSSIA (Osuch):

MOS,STP,nwy,swe,den,ber,WAR,

(has 12, bld 2)

kie,edi,hol,lvp,lon,SEV,bel

TURKEY (Linsey):

CON,ANK,SMY,rum,gre,ser,bud,

(has 17, even)

nap,ven,rom,tri,vie,mun,bre,mar,por,par

Neutral:

none

(Total=34)

Addresses of the Participants

ENGLAND: Doug Kent, 11111 Woodmeadow Pkwy #2327, Dallas, TX 75228

dougray30 of yahoo.com

FRANCE: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 481-4280 ($0)

rolands6 of verizon.net

GERMANY: Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883-9712, (607) 589-4906

mpbarno of gmail.com

RUSSIA: Bob Osuch, 19137 Midland Avenue, Mokena, IL 60448, (708) 478-3885

ROsuch4082 of aol.com

TURKEY: Bruce Linsey, PO Box 234, Kinderhook, NY 12106

GonzoHQ of aol.com

Game Notes:

1) Note that Mike Barno has changed his E-Mail address. There currently are no game ending proposals.

2) Thanks to Doug Kent for playing this out in a diligent manner! We go on for at least one more game year. Will 1926 be the last? How will this game end?? Someone knows but isn't saying...

CAST NO SHADOWS: Breaking Away, Designer's Rules

Rules at: /Postal/Zines/TAP/Tinamou/rules/BreakingAway.htm

DUE DATE FOR TURN 12 IS MARCH 6TH, 2010

Turn 11

83 (replenish with a 3)

Rincewind (10 points)

82 (no replenishment)

Empty

81 (no replenishment)

Empty

-S-P-R-I-N-T- -F-I-N-I-S-H- -L-I-N-E-

80 (no replenishment)

Empty

79 (replenish with a 3)

Gloria

78 (replenish with a 4)

Mideast, Zorro

77 (replenish with a 6)

Agnus

76 (no replenishment)

Empty

75 (replenish with a 3)

Kyoto

74 (replenish with a 4)

Drugs, Sanctus, Kyrie

73 (replenish with a 7)

Water

72 (no replenishment)

Empty

71 (replenish with a 3)

Xavier, Krstajic

70 (replenish with a 5)

Vidic, Granny, Wally

69 (no replenishment)

Empty

68 (replenish with a 3)

Dragutinovic

67 (replenish with a 4)

Travis

66 (replenish with a 5)

Bowie, Carrot

65 (no replenishment)

Empty

64 (replenish with a 3)

Gavrancic, Crockett

63 (replenish with a 5)

Bonham

62 (no replenishment)

Empty

61 (replenish with a 3)

Yorick, Death

Addresses of the Participants - Their Team and Their Cards

TEAM 1 (Rick Desper): rick_desper of yahoo.com (15 points)

Team Name: The Turtle Moves; Captained by Cut-My-Own-Throat Dibbler

A: Rincewind the Wizzard

8 8 9 3 (3)

B: Granny Weatherwax

11 10 5 (9)

C: Captain Carrot

15 9 5 (4)

D: Death

3 3 3 (3)

(Rincewind with the Luggage, Granny on Her Broom, Carrot of the City Watch, and Death is just DEATH!)

Total Replenishments: 12+58+18+15+33+33+18+28+19+31+16 = 281

TEAM 2 (Tom Howell): off-the-shelf of olympus.net (4 points)

Team Name: Never Ending Worry Source; Manager: Rumour; Team Captain: Ye Olde Manager

A: Water

15 4 5 7 (10)

B: Kyoto

3 3 3 (17)

C: Mideast

6 10 4 (17)

D: Drugs

13 5 4 (11)

Total Replenishments: 12+35+37+44+30+22+16+30+24+23+18 = 291

TEAM 3 ((David Partridge): rebhuhn of rocketmail.com (0 points)

Team Name: Famous Four

A: Krstajic

16 3 8 3 (15)

B: Vidic

3 6 5 (13)

C: Gavrancic

3 5 3 (9)

D: Dragutinovic

7 6 3 (11)

Total Replenishments: 12+35+40+28+13+18+16+28+20+29+14 = 253

TEAM 4 (Brendan Whyte): obiwonfive of hotmail.com (3 points)

Team Name: The Reverse Alphabeticists

A: Zorro

6 4 3 4 (7)

B: Yorick

3 3 3 (3)

C: Xavier

5 7 3 (10)

D: Wally

3 3 5 (3)

Total Replenishments: 12+26+24+28+28+38+17+18+16+19+15 = 241

TEAM 5 (Alexander Woo): aswoo of yahoo.com (10 points)

Team Name: Just Ordinary; Manager: Credo

A: Agnus

7 5 3 6 (12)

B: Sanctus

4 4 4 (10)

C: Kyrie

7 14 4 (14)

D: Gloria

3 5 3 (16)

Total Replenishments: 12+44+22+17+22+42+28+25+27+26+17 = 282

TEAM 6 (Andy York): wandrew88 of gmail.com (17 points)

Team Name: Alamo

A: Crockett

15 4 5 3 (9)

B: Travis

4 5 4 (4)

C: Bowie

3 10 5 (5)

D: Bonham

3 14 5 (3)

Total Replenishments: 12+12+12+60+20+22+21+19+16+38+17 = 249

Game Notes:

1) The rules are on the TAP website in the Tinamou section. Ask if you have any questions. Up above in parentheses is the card you played to get to where you are in the field. The replenishment card is the last card in your list. Be careful to note that the card you played (the one in parentheses) is not available for you, for next turn. Just for fun, I'm going to keep track of total replenishment, by turn, which is a rough measure of how the teams are doing. Of course, it is lining up to get across the sprint and final lines in the right places that really counts. We can calculate an "efficiency score" later, which will be the ratio of scoring points per replenishment. If I'm predicting how the future of this will come out, a 10% score will be really tremendous for this measure.

2) Yorick and Death ride along, dropped from the pack, in an eternal dance of sorrow. "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him... he hath borne me on his back a thousand times..." I could not think of a better outcome. The rest of the pack splits at some particularly inopportune places. One six and one seven about do it for "big replenishments".

Press:

(CREDO): I hope Rumour comes to the same conclusion I did.

(A MATHEMATICIAN SPEAKS): ((We have a few of them here, I'll let you guess which one it is.)) Calculating "efficiency" by score as a percentage of total replenishments feels dodgy to me. In the ridiculous extreme, if you keep counting each rider's replenishments up until he/she/it crosses the finish line and stop counting after he/she/it crosses the finish line, then each rider will have 120 replenishments (minus his/her/its starting cards, which are fixed by the rules, plus his/her/its ending cards, which will always be about 10). At that extreme, every team will end up with basically the same replenishment totals at the end and "efficiency" won't measure anything different from the final score. However, I don't yet have a better proposed alternative.

LAST WORD: We're done with this issue, keeping things more or less on track. This issue the delay was mostly in players who didn't have orders in and I did not want to NMR or replace them. Let's understand now that I really ***am*** back on schedule and get those orders in. Then we'll also try to start mixing some letters and other things back into the szine. The NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament is coming up again, and I'm preparing some commentary on that. And Spring Training in baseball has started. I like the choices that the Red Sox made, so I'm excited by what promises to be another one of those "whoever wins the AL East goes to the World Series" battles.

A few other random thoughts to fill out this last page:

1) Thanks again to subszine editor Doug Kent who has been doing these issue covers for me.

2) If you haven't been following what Doug has been doing with Diplomacy World, check out:

http://www.diplomacyworld.net. We're redesigning that whiningkentpiggish cover page and organization so that should be up soon. Remember that the whole history of DW is there.

3) Speaking of that history, remember that Doug also has been slowly putting the whole postal hobby history up on his page as well. Check it out through Doug's Diplomacy page at:

http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/index.HTM and Doug also runs a Yahoo group that updates you on what's up there. Find that at: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/postalzine/

4) Play Diplomacy FTF somewhere this year. Yes, I really mean it. Ask me for help if you don't know where or how. If you can't think of anything else to do, go to Europe or Australia and play. Try Paris at the end of August, or think Sydney, Australia at the end of September, 2011. Check out the Tournament page at: /Face/cons/index.php.

5) President Obama is finally forcing a health care reform bill to pass, which needs to pass even though it is a mess and poorly written, so we can move to the next stages of the debate. Otherwise, we will have a series of disasters in the states, notably this weekend the governors (regardless of party) were very worried.

6) I was missing Benzene today, Mark Lew hasn't written anything there since his brilliant post on Exogamy in November (http://radio-weblogs.com/0134204/) where he postulates on why sex in faraway places might be genetically wired. I also wish, since he loves Megan McArdle so much (and I thought I did too), that he would comment on her MAJOR misstep in The Atlantic Monthly recently on health insurance (http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201003/insurance-coverage-mortality) where (among many other things) she misses the fact that insurance really is not mostly about mortality. I'd like to hear Mark Lew's opinion of the controversy.... why? Well, just because.

I'm close enough to the bottom of the page now, wish everyone health and happiness, which we all need right now!

File translated from T_EX by T_TH, version 3.85.
On 23 Feb 2010, 06:35.