THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE #350

July 24, 2014


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. We also are being reproduced in Eternal Sunshine.


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


We continue with Kendo Nagasaki, join ANY time, just send me a guess!!!
This issue continues the szine/subszine inversion. As most of you know, this thing began as a ßubszine" to Terry Tallman's North Sealth, West George, then became its own szine with a host of subszines. The subszines remaining will appear as sub-subszines to our new flipflopped home in Doug Kent's Eternal Sunshine. Doug's incessant nagging is not keeping us on schedule, but will make it so we keep going. I'd like to keep writing and doing some game GMing (note that has been expanding). I'm set on the GMing, and I'm starting to write a bit, hope there might be more. Let's get the new Diplomacy game going. Since Doug may be winding down, I may have to flip that back around again and be the centerpiece for all the subszines, we'll see.
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 subszine (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.
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.


THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE FEATURES SECTION (CONS/LETTERS/MUSIC)
((For upcoming cons around the world: /Face/cons/index.php, but note that some of the Americans have stopped posting the tournaments there. Shame, shame, shame... The Chicago hobby continues on its active track: they had a great CODCon and Weasel Moot is coming up NOW on July 26th and 27th. Although we know that Carnage in Vermont will end off the Nor'Easter sequence of events the first weekend in November, the rest of the year in the Northeast is clarifying slowly. Carnage talk is all about, if you're interested in going, now is the time to make arrangements. Rob Premus hasn't said anything about his tournament though. But expect updates in this space... Tempest will be coming up on Columbus Day weekend as usual too. I think most of you have seen it, but David Hill's article on being smoked at World DipCon (see: http://grantland.com/features/diplomacy-the-board-game-of-the-alpha-nerds/) has been generating lots of commentary. Also, I will be running TempleCon again, February 6-8, 2015, here in Providence. More on that below.))


NEW FEATURE: ROCK AND ROLL BANDS AND MOMENTS THAT MATTER
((If anyone from TAP or ES has ideas for more things to talk about here let me know. I do have five or six ideas lined up here already that I just have to write. The Ossipee Valley Bluegrass Festival is coming up this weekend, and is a couple of miles west of my Maine lake camp, http://www.ossipeevalley.com/ and the lineup is looking great for that. More on that next issue too.))


DIPLOMACY WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT IS ONGOING - YOU CAN STILL JOIN!
This is the latest incarnation of this team based tournament. I am helping to lead the Nor'Easter team for people in the Northeast part of the United States. https://www.facebook.com/groups/123795024327261/ is the Facebook page for the event.
And you can sign up for the Tournament at: http://aqmn.asciiking.com/. Other US regional teams are the ones in the Pacific, Dixie, and Chicago. Its unique aspect, that continues to be distorting, but in interesting ways, is its "solo only" feature. You advance from the preliminaries to the finals only by soloing, and then need solos in the finals against the other soloists. Though this started last January, it probably will be going on for at least another year, and there is PLENTY of time to jump in. As usual, for those who know me well, I screwed up my first game and allowed a solo to someone from team US. And then I could have soloed the second game, but well, I can't exactly say how I did it, but the Canadian player soloed there, with help from me. I still don't have a solo in over three decades, and now I'm waiting for my next game to start, you can join and get more games going!!! You can easily throw games, and in this format you can do it. I wonder why people like to drop the levels of the game in this way. It fascinates me. But in the finals of this tournament, it shouldn't happen, should it? The rules for the finals have been tweaked and the finals SHOULD start in September. But you still can join the qualifiers, openings are there now!!!


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. Since I'm not postal mailing the szine any more, I've dropped back to just reporting the disguised E-Mail addresses. As someone notes, if you need some more contact information, go back to past issues or ask me.
Standby lists:
Dick Martin, Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Steve Emmert, Vince Lutterbie, Paul Rauterberg, Doug Kent, Heath Gardner, Paul Kenny, and Hugh Polley stand by for regular Diplomacy. I've pared down the standby list according ot who I'm actually in touch with. If I removed you and you want to be added back, just say so. Otherwise, just 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 what?
DIPLOMACY: I would love to run Spy Diplomacy again some time, any interest in that? Something else?? Another Regular Diplomacy game? I would like to start one that at least informally is a memorial to Don.
SPY DIPLOMACY: Heath Gardner (not sure if that is still active), need at least six more.
REGULAR DIPLOMACY: need seven, I really want to restart from the game that we had to stop.


THE PHIL REYNOLDS MEMORIAL: 2006B, Regular Diplomacy
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1910 IS AUGUST 16TH, 2014
Pre-Fall 1910
AUSTRIA (Burgess): has a BUD, f BUL(SC), a VIE, a TRI, a SER.
ENGLAND (James): has f NWG, a DEN, f BAR, a FIN, a PRU, a STP, f NTH, f ION, f GOB, a KIE,
f APU, f BAL.
FRANCE (Holley): has f TYH, f GOL, a MAR, a MUN, a VEN,
f ADR, a BER, f TUN, a TYO.
ITALY (Crow): has a GRE.
RUSSIA (Kent): has a MOS, a SIL, a WAR, a BOH, f EAS, f LVN.


Last Supply Center Chart from Winter 1909 for Reference
AUSTRIA (Burgess): VIE,BUD,TRI,ser,rum,bul (has 4, bld 1 (PLAYS ONE SHORT))
ENGLAND (James): EDI,LVP,LON,nwy,bel,swe,hol, (has 12, even)
den,kie,rom,nap,stp
FRANCE (Williams): PAR,BRE,spa,por,mun,MAR, (has 8 or 9, bld 1(r:otb) or even)
ven,tun,ber
ITALY (Crow): gre (has 1, even)
RUSSIA (Gardner): WAR,SEV,MOS,con,ank,smy (has 7, rem 1)
Neutral: none (Total=34)


E-Mail Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: David Burgess, burgesscd of roadrunner.com or dburgess of glensfallshosp.org
ENGLAND: Drew James, kjames01 of twcny.rr.com or karelanddrew of gmail.com
FRANCE: New Player is Melinda Holley, genea5613 of aol.com
GERMANY: Marc Ellinger, mellinger of blitzbardgett.com
ITALY: John Crow, johnny.crow of hotmail.com
RUSSIA: New Player is Doug Kent, dougray30 of yahoo.com
TURKEY: Fred Wiedemeyer, wiedem of telus.net or wiedem of shaw.ca


Game Notes:
1) The DIAS game ending proposal failed and is reproposed. Send all good thoughts to Heath Gardner, who has just been having a terrible time on all fronts. He did decide he has to drop this game, and I've asked Doug Kent to step in. He agreed. I have orders and votes on file for everyone except Russia. You can change either orders or votes. If you fail to vote on the DIAS, it is rejected.


FOR THE MEKONS ET AL.: Breaking Away, Designer's Rules
THE DUE DATE FOR TURN 8 IS AUGUST 16, 2014!!
Turn 7: The pack, what there is of it, is a mess...
75 (replenish with a 3) Peeta Mellark, Katniss Everdeen
74 (no replenishment) None
73 (replenish with a 3) Haymitch Abernathy
72 (no replenishment) None
71 (no replenishment) None
70 (no replenishment) None
69 (replenish with a 3) Larry Csonka, Ernie Davis
68 (no replenishment) None
67 (no replenishment) None
66 (no replenishment) None
65 (no replenishment) None
64 (replenish with a 3) Travis
63 (replenish with a 4) Bowie
62 (replenish with a 5) Dziewulski
61 (no replenishment) None
60 (replenish with a 3) Houston
59 (no replenishment) None
58 (replenish with a 3) Moist von Lipwig, Mustrum Ridcully
57 (no replenishment) None
56 (replenish with a 3) Sam Vimes, CMOT Dibbler
55 (replenish with a 5) Sylvester Carmouche,
54 (replenish with a 6) Effie Trinket, Arciszewski, Roberto Rojas,
53 (no replenishment) None
52 (replenish with a 3) Ryan Leaf, Jean Van de Velde, Floyd Little, Cwierczakiewiczowa, Jim Brown
51 (no replenishment) None
50 (no replenishment) None
49 (no replenishment) None
48 (no replenishment) None
47 (replenish with a 3) Crockett
46 (no replenishment) None
45 (no replenishment) None
44 (no replenishment) None
43 (no replenishment) None
42 (replenish with a 3) Barszczewski


Addresses of the Participants - Their Team and Their Cards
TEAM 1 (Hank Alme): cobblers of gmail.com (0 points)
Team Name: Vetinari's Terriers; TEAM CAPTAIN: Sam Vimes
A: Moist von Lipwig (4) 9, 7, 3
B: Mustrum Ridcully (3) 10, 3, 3
C: Sam Vimes (3) 5, 6, 3
D: CMOT Dibbler (3) 3, 6, 3
Total Replenishments: 47 + 32 + 30 + 42 + 16 + 19 + 12 = 198
TEAM 2 (Andy Bate): andydbate of gmail.com (0 points)
Team Name: Racing Froggy; TEAM CAPTAIN: Jean Van de Velde
A: Jean Van de Velde (6) 14, 10, 3
B: Roberto Rojas (7) 7, 5, 6
C: Sylvester Carmouche (3) 6, 8, 5
D: Ryan Leaf (4) 12, 7, 3
Total Replenishments: 18 + 29 + 42 + 52 + 21 + 29 + 17 = 208
TEAM 3 (David Burgess): burgesscd of roadrunner.com or dburgess of glensfallshosp.org (19 points)
Team Name: Syracuse Orangemen
A: Ernie Davis (3) 3, 5, 3, 3
B: Jim Brown (3) 12, 6, 3
C: Floyd Little (4) 16, 7, 3
D: Larry Csonka (4) 6, 4, 3
Total Replenishments: 79 + 55 + 19 + 29 + 17 + 14 + 12 = 225
TEAM 4 (Rick Desper): rick_desper of yahoo.com (19 points)
Team Name: District 12
A: Katniss Everdeen (18) 7, 7, 5, 3
B: Haymitch Abernathy (21) 3, 8, 3
C: Peeta Mellark (23) 3, 8, 3
D: Effie Trinket (7) 24, 3, 6
Total Replenishments: 92 + 90 + 16 + 12 + 16 + 28 + 15 = 269
TEAM 5 (Brendan Whyte): BWHYTE of nla.gov.au (1 point)
Team Name: The Reverse Polish Notationists (a.k.a. The Unpronounceables)
A: Arciszewski (7) 9, 3, 3, 6
B: Barszczewski (3) 3, 3, 3
C: Cwierczakiewiczowa (4) 4, 6, 3
D: Dziewulski (3) 3, 3, 5
Total Replenishments: 50 + 46 + 14 + 14 + 15 + 17 + 17 = 173
TEAM 6 (Andy York): (0 points)
Team Name: Team Alamo
A: Travis (10) 12, 9, 4, 3
B: Crockett (3) 3, 3, 3
C: Bowie (5) 6, 4, 4
D: Houston (8) 3, 7, 3
Total Replenishments: 44 + 65 + 20 + 31 + 15 + 19 + 13 = 207


Game Notes:
1) The rules are on the TAP website in the Tinamou section. Ask if you have any questions. Rules at:
/Postal/Zines/TAP/Tinamou/rules/BreakingAway.htm
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 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 (40/80) and final (120) 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 based on doing this before, about half the players will get scores below 5% and getting better than a 10% score will be really tremendous for this measure.
2) Wow, no one replenished above a total of 17, and two of you had the minimum replenishment of 12. When will the pack reform, or will it? Remember that the next Sprint Line is at 80 (getting to 81 to score).


Press:
(BOOB to RIDERS): But no press...


WHERE IN THE WORLD IS KENDO NAGASAKI
THE DUE DATE FOR TURN 7 IS AUGUST 16, 2014!!
Kendo Nagasaki games in Eternal Sunshine continue to multiply like weeds... I'd like to get more people engaged here, not just the usual suspects from Doug's games. The full rules for Where in the World is Kendo Nagasaki are in: http://www.whiningkentpigs.com/DW/es58.pdf. The player who was closest for Turn 6 has been notified by E-Mail. Note that the official rules say you're supposed to get this by TURN 10, time to get a bit closer on WHO Kendo is. My clue this time is supposed to push you back closer to figuring out who it really is. I thought I was saying too much in my clues, but maybe I'm not saying enough. I will be surprised if we don't get closer now.

TURN 6
Brendan Whyte: Tom Howell:
Mrs. Bill Clinton in Sucre, Bolivia Sonny Bono in Jesus de Machaca Municipality, Bolivia

Heath Gardner: Doug Kent:
No Guess This Time George Will in Toledo, Bolivia

Rick Desper: Kevin Wilson:
Rush Limbaugh in Potosi, Bolivia No Guess This Time

Hank Alme: Mike Ruttinger
George Clooney in Sucre, Bolivia Jane Fonda in Arica, Chile

Steen Alme: Edi Birsan
No Guess This Time John Boehner in Honolulu, Hawaii

HINT to the Person with the Closest Geographic Guess: My appearances on TV are still for entirely different reasons than yours have been, I have referred to something in which you appeared on my show though.

TURN 5
Brendan Whyte: Tom Howell:
No Guess this Time Jimmy Carter in Cochabamba, Bolivia

Heath Gardner: Doug Kent:
No Guess this Time Harry Reid in Oruro, Bolivia

Rick Desper: Kevin Wilson:
John Boehner in Antofagasta, Chile Angela Merkel in Managua, Nicaragua

Hank Alme: Mike Ruttinger
John McCain in La Paz, Bolivia Nancy Pelosi in La Paz, Bolivia

Steen Alme: Edi Birsan
Michelle Obama in Trujillo, Peru No Guess this Time

HINT to the Person with the Closest Geographic Guess: Although I have discussed the possibility of running for some much, much lesser office someday, it's likely you have never heard of those statements of interest of mine; I much more famously have labeled as an "idiot" a person in a similar specific elected position as you have.

TURN 4
Brendan Whyte: Tom Howell:
Mrs. Al Gore in Ascención, Paraguay Michelle Obama's husband in Cochabamba, Bolivia

Heath Gardner: Doug Kent:
No Guess this Time Bob Barker in Santiago, Chile

Rick Desper: Kevin Wilson:
Hillary Clinton in Lima, Peru No Guess this Time

Hank Alme: Mike Ruttinger
Katie Couric in Sao Paulo, Brazil Dennis Rodman in Bogotá, Colombia

Steen Alme: Edi Birsan
Hillary Clinton in Bogotá, Colombia President Obama in Honolulu, Hawaii

HINT to the Person with the Closest Geographic Guess: OK, but I am part of a larger group than that. ((CLARIFICATION: I am a member of a larger group than the group you imply by your guess.))

TURN 3
Brendan Whyte: Tom Howell:
Diana Rigg in Anchorage, Alaska Michelle Obama in Valparaiso, Chile

Heath Gardner: Doug Kent:
Gov. Chris Christie in Hamhung, North Korea Mark David Chapman in San Francisco, CA

Rick Desper: Kevin Wilson:
Stephen Colbert in Brasilia, Brazil Stephen Colbert in Santiago, Chile

Hank Alme: Mike Ruttinger
Landon Donovan in Quito, Ecuador Tom Brokaw in Caracas, Venezuela

Steen Alme:
Al Gore in Buenos Aires, Argentina

HINT to the Person with the Closest Geographic Guess: Oooh, I think you have the wrong gender, try again.

TURN 2
Brendan Whyte: Tom Howell:
Diana Rigg in Pyongyang, North Korea Jennifer Jones in New York, New York

Heath Gardner: Doug Kent:
Henry Kissinger in Sao Paulo, Brazil Harrison Ford in Mexico City, Mexico

Rick Desper: Kevin Wilson:
Zsa Zsa Gabor in Beverly Hills, CA Dennis Rodman in La Paz, Bolivia

Hank Alme: Mike Ruttinger
Stephen Ambrose in Seattle, WA Scarlett Johansson in Havana, Cuba

Steen Alme:
Kim Jong-Un in Sevastopol, Ukraine

HINT to the Person with the Closest Geographic Guess: While I also have appeared on television in some form, I have done so for different reasons than you.

TURN 1
Brendan Whyte: Tom Howell:
Diana Rigg in Anchorage, Alaska Rex Roberts in Alexandria, Egypt

Heath Gardner: Doug Kent:
Jimmy "the Greek" in Las Vegas, NV Charlton Heston in Rome, Italy

Rick Desper: Kevin Wilson:
Eddie "the Eagle" Edwards in Sochi, Russia Pierre Trudeau in Montevideo, Uruguay

Hank Alme: Mike Ruttinger
Ian Fleming in Tegucigalpa, Honduras George McArthur in Seoul, South Korea

HINT to the Person with the Closest Geographic Guess: Unfortunately, you are very much dead, while I am very much alive.


LAST WORD: OK, so the last word is some more on details for TempleCon 2015, which as noted will be February 6-8, again the weekend AFTER the Super Bowl, for people who care about that. I still want to build TempleCon up to bid for a North American DipCon sometime, but even I fully admit that Christian Pedone's July 4th Philly Massacres are blowing me out of the water. I really liked Christian's Team Fantasy event that he ran in conjunction with Philly Massacre, though I really didn't like the scoring model. So if I get enough pre-registration for TempleCon, I'm going to do my own event, with different rules. To me, the key is picking the winner, not scoring the most points, and I don't think you quite need to do the draft the way Christian did it, so I have some ideas about some major differences. More about that if enough people sign up for coming to make it worthwhile.
TempleCon has always been an event that brings new people into the FTF hobby, we had some new players last year, who I think I'll be able to entice back. I also know that the "hotel rooms" issue has been important to people. ATTENTION: IF you want an on-site hotel room, the block is opening up THIS Monday, July 28th. The general site is http://www.templecon.org/15/ and the Hotel Room URL is:
www.templecon.org/15/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89&Itemid=111
The Crowne Plaza near the airport (for REAL easy fly-in/fly-out) is again the venue, and I'm going to try to book two rooms on Monday myself to rent out as usual at pay-what-you-can rates. You can call the Crowne Plaza, Warwick, RI at: 1-877-2-CROWNE (1-877-227-6963) and TMP is the Group Rate code, or you can book on-line at:
http://www.ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/us/en/reservation
and make sure you enter that TMP Corporate Group code to get the TempleCon rate. As before there also will be rooms at the nearby Holiday Inn Express where I've been getting rooms in recent years for being late. But this year I plan to get some Crowne Plaza rooms.
The Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/TempleCon where you can get a good sense of the Retro-Futurist backdrop for the con, which is a lot of fun. I really like the people who run TempleCon and they make it ridiculously easy for me to do my part of the Convention. We also can only hope that the divine Maxine from Western Cranston will be waitressing in the bar again.
What about the tournament itself? We continue to use the modified Detour scoring system, originally developed in New Zealand and adapted by various other people with Down Under roots. This is also the first tournament in the regional sub-Grand Prix tournament that is in its seventh year that we've dubbed the "Nor'Easter". We also continue to use Drop Dead Time Deadlines and these continue to work like a charm. This is the way to play tournament dip, you're always moving, no waiting around while people write orders. The games really move along, I am an engaged Tournament Director with my loud voice with reminders to people as needed, and people respect other players' space with need for order writing time. We also will be going again with the 17 minute spring, 15 minute fall continually running clock that gives more time for beer after the games.
Please start letting me know you're interested in coming now, once I get some rooms set, I'll take reservations for the spots (up to four in a room possible) and making the announcement earlier will help YOU get your own rooms if you want. See you in February!


File translated from TEX by TTH, version 3.85.
On 25 Jul 2014, 21:41.