The Alamaze Oracle XII

Spring 1992

 

 

Eye of the Oracle

Russ McDowell

Well, it happened. We fell off our quarterly cycle. But look at the issue we bring you: fat, replete with statistics, illustrated, swarming with advice, and here for you. Thanks to our new contributors, and a reminder to all readers. The oracle is a fanzine, a magazine dependent on voluntary submission of articles, news, requests, illustrations. Variations in publication dates usually reflects an insufficient number of these items. Articles and illustrations can come anytime; maybe a brief bio. Let's have a treasure hoard of them. News from the Front, to be most relevant, should come close to publication date. Please submit them by July 15 for the next issue.

As requested by several players, we are reinstituting a Player Response sheet that can be mailed in for your convenience. One purpose for this sheet is for you to choose the best article of the issue. Since we have not done this for the last three issues, please vote for all you are able to. Then I raise the flag of format change to see which way the wind blows. Additionally, there is an inquiry as to how the least successful kingdoms can improve their chances. This very issue offers some advice to the Gnome; what else can be done?

A generalized piece of thinking. Often kings recruit special brigade types, either through special powers or the mages. However, often these types are strictly infantry, a serious consideration when fighting an enemy whose misslers are myriad. Infantry fight last, so a force of misslers and cavalry should never close with an equal or superior infantry at tactics level 3; why lose your advantage? Again, this illustrates the role that careful reading can play. Read your set up sheet carefully to understand what your forces are capable of. It is not merely raw numbers, but where and how those numbers are used. So while the skeletons and ogres are cheap, they come with limitations. PC's may quickly bow their defeated heads, but the Dragons and Elves just snicker. Just one thing to consider for the welfare of your kingdom.

This month's cover comes from Angela Gustafsson, an avid reader of fantasy and an artist of ever-expanding horizons and interests. She also happens to be a coworker of mine in the non-Alamaze world (Yes, Virginia, there is such a one). Thank you, Angela. Additional art comes from Whitewolf (a magazine devoted to fantasy game playing of all sorts) and will appear in future rule books; other diverse sources provide the rest.

 

Intelligence in Alamaze

Joey Browning

INTELLIGENCE: information concerning an enemy or possible enemy or an area.

Everyone recognizes the usefulness of a timely agent report, be it the recon of an enemy city or the trailing of an enemy group. However, this is only a small part of good intelligence use in Alamaze. I find that most players seriously under-utilize the mass of useful data that each turn produces, thus blinding them to both dangers and opportunities. The purpose of this article is to help illustrate the use of this valuable information to the detriment of your enemies.

There are two primary means of intelligence collection in Alamaze: that data gained from game mechanisms such as agent and priestess reports, and that gained from player interaction, such as rumors and "slips" of the tongue. Both of these sources are vital to long term success against all but the most naive opponents.

I. Game Mechanisms
Everyone realizes that it's a good idea to trail an enemy group in or near your region, or to recon an enemy city prior to attacking it, but few people seem to look beyond the immediate turn. An historical com-pilation or "database" of everything you have learned about opposing armies and emissaries can be invaluable in keeping track of patterns, strategies, and threats. It is often quite useful on Turn 10 to know the name of a prince that you observed back on Turn 2. To this end, I have formulated several loose rules to follow.

1. Keep a number of agent 1's around to gather intelligence, and try to use 2 or more of them each turn, influence permitting. Of course, this won't always be practical, but, at 500 gold each, Agent 1's are good for those times when you have more orders available than gold. Power 1 wizards are an even cheaper alternative, if you get Raven Familiar at Power 1.

2. Keep a record of all emissar-ies: their location, affiliation, and turn you last saw them--for EVERYONE. Remember, good intelligence gatherers deal in potentials, and you never know who may turn out to be an enemy in future turns.

3. Likewise, keep a record of all military groups, including leaders and wizards. While personnel will often be shuffled between groups, just knowing that "as of 2 turns ago the WA had a Power 5 and two Power 3's" can be useful in determining just how tough that WA group you're facing NOW is.

4. Don't ever underestimate the value of Palantirs. If you start with one, make sure to use it every turn. If you don't have one, try to buy, steal, or capture one whenever practical. One of the best uses of Palantirs is to keep an eye on major cities (to determine ownership), or other players' capitals (to determine what the king is doing). Plus, the 300 status points aren't bad either. All of the above applies moreso for the Crystal of Seeing.

5. Early in the game, you'll probably want to use your agents to look at close neighbors. Later on, you'll want to move an agent or two into the central areas of the map (Amberland and Synisvania) so that they can have as much "reach" as possible.

6. Priestesses aren't just useful in the early game. Later on, they can be used to pinpoint all of an enemy's towns or villages, or to look for artifacts that an enemy is known to have. This option can often find the enemy's main army or his capital. Having a couple of priestesses around is a good idea from the midgame on, if you can at all afford it.

7. Pay attention to your entire turn report. Useful data can often be gleaned in unlooked for places. Close examination of the "Emissary Status and Results" section will often reveal when a pop center has changed hands (even though you had only an agent or an emissary in the pc).

8. Artifacts will always show up on an agent report (unless they're still in an encounter). This has allowed me to locate an invisible or ambushing group more than once.

9. Keep as accurate a list as possible of ALL the pc's, including their population. It's always a good idea to know what the defense and production values of a pc are, and the population figure allows you to more accurately determine when regional control will occur. (Note the when a pc is taken militarily its defense will drop 30% and its productions and population by 10% each.)

10. Keep an eye on others' capitals. It's a good idea to know what an enemy king is doing. Similarly, you can often sell information thus gained. For example, say you are the DA. On Turn 6 you recon Meridon and discover that the WE king enamored Amberland last turn. This could be worth a bit of gold or political assistance from the PA, or even as blackmail material for extorting concessions from the WE.

11. Agents are good to use with standing orders. A standing order to recon the enemy capital or a nearby city is a good idea and very cost effective.

12. While you shouldn't do it very often, you may want to occasionally recon one of your own pc's, especially those at sea. It is often a favorite tactic to put high-ranking agents in another's pc where they will be unlikely to be detected.

II. Player Interactions

Truly, the key to winning (or just surviving) any game of Alamaze isn't amassing huge economic bases, powerful mages, or mighty armies. No, the key is effective inter-player diplomacy. Virtually no kingdom, no matter how strong, can withstand a coordinated attack by two or three other kingdoms without some kind of help from its own allies. Thus, it is vital to always know what is going on with each and every player in the game.

Talking even briefly to each of your allies every turn is a must. You should also plan to speak to every position that isn't obviously an enemy as well. As for your enemies, there are two schools of thought on speaking with them. Some advocate it in the hopes of gleaning some odd bit of useful data from them through a slip of the tongue, or even because they can't help bragging about their position. (Believe it or not, this isn't all that infrequent an event.) The other side of the coin is that YOU may be the one to make the mistake, thus tipping your hand to your enemy. Generally, I don't bother to contact enemies (defined as those folks with real reason to hate me), as I really have little to say to them. Why spend the long distance charges just to threaten someone who wants your position dead anyway? Besides, actions speak louder than words. But it's a matter of personal preference here, and some people are quite effective when talking with their foes.

Regardless, you should make note of every bit of concrete information that other players give you, then carefully check that info against your database, as well as against other players' statements. This will allow you to determine just who is lying to you, and perhaps why. Divide all this intelligence into four categories: confirmed, probable, rumors, and lies. Keep these classification in mind when evaluating what orders to issue.

I have use these techniques to good effect in all of my Alamaze games (save my first), and hope that you too will find them useful in your drive to conquer all of Alamaze.

 

Might vs. Magic

Craig Brown

I want to examine the popular theories about who should win: the magic kingdoms (Warlock, Witchlord, Sorcerer) or the major military powers (Paladin, Ranger, Urik, Nomad, Dwarves).

First, let's look at the relative powers and weaknesses of the magic kingdoms. The Witchlord, located in the Southern Sands and lower Synisvania, has the best starting position. His Power 4 wizard and his well equipped military--the best of any magic kingdom--make his kingdom well prepared against any immediate attack. The problem is that most of his magi are adepts and the cost of raising his magi is very high; this leaves him with an incredible need for gold. Furthermore, his military expense is among the highest, making still more demands. The Warlock, located centrally in Arcania, is pretty much uncontested in that area, which is good because his military is quite pitiful and his highest wizard is Power 2. Nevertheless, the Warlock has the best chance of being a major power throughout the game. His uncontested location means he should gain the region by Turn 3; a full treasury rapidly advances those wizards making him a major power. But since everyone else knows this, the Rangers, Dragons, and Darkelves make frequent intrusions into the region. The Sorcerer has to have the most disgusting military in the game. He cannot hope to gain any territory without offending another kingdom, and he might have trouble holding his own possessions from the Barbarians. His wizards are along the lines of the Warlock's in strength and magic cost. He must try to raise them as quickly as possible, perhaps trying for another city (Avalon?) for a quick source of gold.

Now I will look at the military kingdoms. You may wonder at the absence of the Elves, Westmen, Barbarians. Although these kingdoms have good military abilities, they fall short of being super powers in military, ranking more as regional powers. The Paladins are well known for their military power and will probably gain quick control of Amberland simply by taking Zarathon, thus quickly gaining a region. This steady income will allow him to build his power. However, a capture of the city by another kingdom can throw the Paladin's plans of a fast advance completely around. The Ranger is more of a balanced kingdom; his potential is quite wide and diverse, but his military power ranks very high so I have included him in this category. He begins with options on Synisvania or Arcania. If he goes for Synisvania, he will more than likely meet the Witchlord; in Arcania he will clash with the Warlock. Thus, his best bet lies in sending his count to Triesa while enamoring the region and sending his prince and governor to Almaren. With the military he can raise his power 2 or send the group to Almaren to parlay, then use the governor to maintain status quo. The Urik and Nomad are in the same boat. They both have ample capabilities to gain their regions without difficulties. Their military is not special in the assortment of troops but rather in the quantity and the reinforcement schedule. This helps in battle to absorb the blunt of the attack and then counter with amazing strength. They also save money having rarely to recruit. Lastly, the Dwarves, semi-isolationists in the Talking Mountains. They fight in the mountains with a bonus similar to the Paladins on the plains. As all magical kingdoms know, the Dwarves are resistant to magic, with a percentage of about 50%. They also start with the Axe of Farin. They should have no problem taking their region; they may have to barter a bit, but nothing major.

The best way for the military kingdoms to deal with the magic ones is to attack quickly, giving them no time to raise their wizards or recruit skeletons or other magical brigades. If it's the Witchlord you wish to eliminate, you may be in for a tough time. The Nomad or Ranger should contact each other and work out a beneficial deal to eliminate him together. The Warlock and Sorcerer do not have the military power the Witchlord has and can be easily destroyed by a good military power that pursues him relentlessly. If you are the Ranger or Paladin, take their resources away from them. Send a group to Viperhead; send emissaries into Arcania. If the Ranger sends the 1RA to Almaren it can parley even if your prince has been slept. Thus, you will get production and he will not. And his prince will have to overcome your governor's "Status Quo" or he will end up in your dungeon. As the Paladin, move your group to Viperhead. Don't waste your time laying siege, attack it straight out. This will be such a blow that the Sorcerer will never recover. But don't stop there; pursue his groups until they are totally destroyed.

Now, you might think life as magical powers looks pretty grim, but not so. If you look at Valhalla, you will notice magic powers finishing in the top three quite often. How? If you are one of the three magic kingdoms you must utilize your diplomacy skills quite often and be quite persuasive at that. This is not at all as hard as it seems. All magic kingdoms should have a Power 4 by Turn 2, making them all basically equal; this should intimidate even the most battle-hardened enemy. If you are being invaded, you can turn your wizards into wraiths at Power 5, greatly enhancing the power of your groups. You no longer have to worry about your wizard being slain and your spells are limited to guarded attack in battle.

To this point neither side is favored dramatically. Let's look at the later stages of the game. We'll assume both kingdom types have prospered and grown strong--the magical kingdoms have a Power 7 and the military a 12 brigade group. It looks pretty grim for the military. The spell power of a Power 7 is immense. But remember, a wizard can cast only one spell per turn. So if you divide your military among your groups. Send them to a large town or city owned by the mage. More than likely he will send his top group to that location. On the next turn hide your troops in ambush. This will more than likely destroy his army and slay his wizard. Even on even terms and with the mage group aware of your presence, multiple attacks will subdue the wizard's group, even if one of your groups is totally wiped out, it's worth the price. On the other hand, as a high level wizard can magically recruit brigades of very powerful creatures which could enhance his military greatly, giving him an advantage at this later stage.

As you can see at certain stages the scale tips in favor of one kingdom or another, but they are very much evenly matched throughout the campaign. So whether warlord or wizard, the best advantage is to have a good plan. In fact, you should have a couple and try to anticipate all that will happen. May your deeds exist in the legends of Alamaze.

 

The Tally

James Cianci

 

With an upward kick, Larius flung the troll off his chest. Springing to his feet, Larius harried the scrambling enemy until he could straddle it with both feet. The troll rolled onto his back exposing his scaled belly, slick with dirty sweat, it's arms spread wide in surrender. It was in the front of Larius' mind today that he must always kill his enemy. For trolls were known to regenerate from their wounds, even entire limbs, and this frightened Larius. But this one seemed different, yes, he wore a greenish blue sash with the symbol of leadership pinned at the top. Its face was clean and shaven and its hair was carefully cut. Almost human. Larius paused for a second to wonder if they were more civilized than was generally accepted. The troll smiled broadly and squinting its light green eyes hissed, "Do it." Larius quickly raised his gleaming weapon above the helpless troll leader, perhaps a moment too late...

Mitchell poked his head through the crease in the tent. The air was thick with swirling sand. He spit and tried to blink the dust away from his eyes. It was midday and he knew that if they didn't start the rounds soon there wouldn't be enough time. Usually Warlord Arik would be out at the first light of day or even sooner with his aide stumbling behind in the dusk. Mitchell could never understand his anxiousness but guessed that perhaps the Warlord just wanted to get it over early, before he had time to think on it. Maybe it was to show respect for Odan's souls. Either way, Mitchell could never sleep the night before, after the battle of course. Even if he could, there was always some self-important scout or recently promoted lieutenant barging into the grand tent with news of another victory in the field. Arik, his mappers and expert scouts would crowd around the map table and quietly mark the earth with heavy and thin lines. They always won. Even back when Arik and Mitchell were grunting together in the swamps of the 'Steppes their brigade would rout the enemy every time. Maybe because they were too young and ignorant to fear defeat. Eventually the ambitious Arik climbed through the ranks. For a while it seemed that they were forever attending some military honoring at the capitol.

Although the Warlord was quite proud of his status, the toll of leadership wore sharply into his face. Now, when Mitchell ducked in from the sandstorm he noticed just how much his leader's hair had grayed.

"High up, sir," Mitchell reported.

Arik slowly got up from his cot and quietly laced his platinum breast plate.

"We took 'em good this time huh," Mitchell offered, "If this doesn't make 'em back off the city, they're as dumb as they look," he smiled to a nonresponding face. "Boy if I could get just one gold for every Troll skin, I'd have enough to be a politician...and wouldn't really have to work at all!" To this, Arik grinned politely and turned toward the tent flap. He looked tired with his shoulders slumped and his muscular neck craning downward.

"Shall we, sir?" Arik, looking at the dirt floor, didn't answer. "Sir?" Mitchell pressed.

The decorated leader straightened up and met Mitchell's eyes for the first time that day and nodded.

After a few minutes, Mitchell got used to squinting through the abrasive sand and could easily follow the determined march of his leader. First, they surveyed the longbowmen camp. Only seven here. Mitchell estimated a great victory was at hand. Mitchell now heard a faint dragging noise, almost like that of bodies being pulled toward burial carts. But none were in sight. He hurriedly scratched down the seven names and jogged to catch up with Arik. The rest of the archer camps showed comparably light losses and Mitchell was glad. "Looking good, sir," he offered as the two scampered down a rocky outcropping toward the sight of yet another skirmish. Here they found 67 expert cavalrymen laid silent. Still, the overall percentage of losses was negligible.

They hurried through the remaining cavalry ranks and Arik barked the totals, "Eleven! Zero! Fifteen!". Again Mitchell heard the light scraping sound. It seemed nearby.

The two continued to the front infantry lines where they expected to find the greatest losses. "Thirty-One! Twelve!...". Mitchell could again hear the scraping noise and looked back to see a lone figure trotting toward them. The dragging sound was now mixed with the rattle of metal, but the approaching scout wore no armor. Mitchell had no time to ponder this further and sprinted to catch up. "...Eighty-Three! Sixty-even!"

Mitchell interjected, "Sir, a messenger." Arik stopped and faced the approaching messenger for a long moment. They could plainly see that he was dragging something behind him. "We've got work to do," he concluded and turned back to his counting with increased urgency. Puzzled, Mitchell followed.

The light infantrymen had suffered the highest losses but remained well intact.

"Warlord! Arik!....Sir!" the approaching messenger called.

Mitchell saw that the boy was struggling to lift a heavy golden mace. He nodded, permitting the messenger to approach Arik.

Turning away from the others to reference the conquered plains with his arms spread wide, "A crushing victory."

"I'm from the Fourth Division, sir."

"That's Larius' group. I thought I recognized your insignia. What a great leader he's become. Don't you think?"

"Yessir. But..." queried the messenger.

Arik spun around and grabbed the boy's leather vesture with his huge muscular hands and pulled it up around his neck. "Don't you think!" he growled. The boy fearfully nodded. "His group did well, didn't it?!" releasing his grip from the boy, "That's what you've come to tell me," he informed the boy.

"Sir, we did, but..." he held out the mace. Even dented and bloodied like this it was beautiful, and also unmistakable.

"That's a nice one," Arik commented, "Did you ever see my son's? Oh it's a real treasure. Forged by the ancient High Elves, it has a core of mithril coated with the purest strain of gold and finally blessed by a Wraithlord. It offers great protection. The poor grunt who wore that one could have used it." Arik turned back to the plains. "What a view. What do you think of a castle on that hill over there, Mitch."

"Fine idea. Done with the boy, sir?"

"Oh...yes...if he's got nothing of value to say."

"But sir...", the scout offered in vain.

Mitchell touched the messenger's arm and whispered, "I'll take it."

The boy, his forehead wrinkled in confusion, handed the heavy mace to Mitchell and slowly backed away. He was soon trotting back to his group. Mitchell stepped next to Arik's right shoulder. "He was a fine son, sir."

"Yeah, that kid's got a proud father somewhere."

"It was meant to be." Mitchell offered.

"A complete victory. A great day," Arik agreed as a tear rolled off his chin and quietly splashed onto his breast plate.

"We all must accept our losses."

"Those poor parents, I've always hated that part." Off in the distance the sun set with streaks of violet.

"All our losses," Mitchell pursued, knowing that ignorance was gentle but blinding to the heart.

"I won't take this. I have conquered greater...I'm so tired", his eyes fixed on the distant horizon.

Mitchell handed Arik the blood-stained mace. The Warlord slipped his hand into it's mithril glove and held it tightly against his heart. He watched the distant sunset through wet eyes. The cool breezes of nighttime blew gently. Mitchell consoled,"He serves Odan on a greater battlefield." He wrapped his left arm around his leader's shoulders and the two noiselessly wept.

Arik wondered how he could wage his next battle; order sons to their death. But for what else was he suited? His dilemma would have to wait, for now he must bury his son. Arik's powerful frame could not support its grief and he accepted his friend's shoulder in silence.

 

Strategic Advice

Theron Martin

Most of the article that appear in The Oracle concern specific kingdoms or aspects of the game. Recent articles have concerned military might, political powers, and artifacts, among other subjects. I intend to do something a little different: I offer general advice usable by most or all kingdoms in a variety of different situation, both in First and Second Cycle games. All of this advice is based on my own observations and experiences; little is purely theoretical. Beginning players should benefit tremendously from this advice, and even old pros may learn a few new tricks.

Espionage The world of agents is one area that many players underestimate. Although I have never personally played the Underworld, I have seen and participated in the collapse of many grand schemes that were taken down through espionage. More significantly, espionage is one of the very few areas where the most powerful kingdoms--Giants, Rangers, Red Dragons, et. al.--are truly vulnerable.

Agents are more important to some kingdoms than others, but all kingdoms need them. If you do not have a palantir, it is essential to devote two level 1 agents to reconnaissance. These agents should be spread as far apart as possible, preferably so that their ranges barely intersect, thus covering the greatest amount of board. Also, it is essential for ALL kingdoms to get at least one, and preferably two or more, level 4 agents as soon as possible. Agents of this level actually have a decent chance of succeeding at many missions, but more importantly, they can bribe emissaries and in Second Cycle games use special reconnaissance and tracking orders. If you do not start with a level 4, train your best agent on Turn 1. A smart Underworld player will immedi-ately raise the cost of agent training, but that will not take effect until Turn 2, so the costs will still be low. If you can still handle the gold costs and don't have a level 4 on Turn 2, train the agent again. By the later stages of the game (Turn 18+) I advise that everyone have at least one level 10+ agent.

The many uses for espionage have been dealt with before, so I will only comment on a couple of cases. First, the issue of kidnapping vs. assassination. Although assassination is a very impressive order, it is difficult to do against the higher ranking emissaries, even if you have a high-level agent. That is why I advocate kidnapping emissaries above ambassador rank instead of attempting to kill them. Kidnapping offers anywhere from a slightly improved to greatly improved chance of success, and if combined with a standing order to execute hostages, can be just as effective as assassination in most cases. Demon Princes have resistance to assassina-tion, but not to kidnapping; you should be able to kidnap them as easily as any other prince. Even though they can still escape, at the worst, you have taken a Demon Prince out of action for a turn or two, and at the best you will kill it. Also, kings can be kidnapped; I have only tried this once (without success, due to guarding agents), but this seems to be a much safer option than attempted to assassinate them.

Second, a suggestion for those of you who love irony. An interesting trick is to locate your enemy's capi-tal and base one of your best agents out of it. It's one of the few population centers he will probably never think to reconnoiter.

Economic

I have two pieces of advice to offer about economic issues. First, if you are a martial kingdom particularly vulnerable to food shortages (Dwarves, Giants, all Dragons, and Trolls), you must be careful about the food production of any cities you own or intend to capture. It is a must for you to increase the food production of any city you control to at least 0 before winter (or summer in the South) strikes. If you are on the High Council, raise an issue to increase food production in cities. If you are opposing one of these kingdoms and are on the High Council, decrease food production; it will devastate your enemy's group morale. Also, food-vulnerable kingdoms must be careful about timing the capture of cities; if you capture a city during the region's low production season, you will immediately get its gold production, but you will also immediately inherit the food deficit.

Second, if you intend to increase the gold production in a population center, fine, but spread it out among more than one pc if the increase is intended to be dramatic. This way, your overall gold production is less vulnerable to singular military or political loss.

Political

One of the most frequent and devastating mistakes that I have seen players make is collecting too many emissaries into one population center, even if (or rather, particularly if) it is their capital. Remember, if that pc is attacked, each emissary has a 50% chance of being captured, so a kingdom with 5 emissaries in a city that is taken militarily could expect to lose at least two, and probably three. (In a recent turn I captured 6 enemy emissaries in a military attack!) Dispersing your emissaries to several different population centers at some point before Turn 10 is highly advisable. As a rule, no population center should have more than two of your emissaries in it at any one time; this includes agents and kings but excludes high priestesses. Two of your better emissaries should only be in the same population center for as long as necessary to take the population center. This diffusion not only makes a kingdom less vulnerable to losing emissaries in military attacks, but it also makes defense of a large number of population centers against enemy political incursions much easier to carry out.

I have made three other observations concerning political power that may be of interest to many players. First, emissaries in pc's taken by mil-itary or magical diplomacy can take the pc back in the same turn. Second, the special order that allows demon princes to temporarily increase regional reactions all the way to friendly (this results in interesting messages in the Political Events listing on your turn sheet, by the way) works even in regions controlled by declared enemies. This is a useful tip for Demon Princes players and is an important consideration for other Second Cycle players when debating their vulnerability to a Demon Princes political assault. Third, for those among you who don't already know, the Demon Princes and the Ancient Ones don't have skeletons, so bribing their emissaries is a waste of time and gold.

Military

Military maneuvers seem to be the favorite activities of many kingdoms in Alamaze. Unfortunately, this is also the game aspect where some of the worst strategic miscues happen. Many players (surprisingly including many players of the martial kingdoms) don't use their kingdom's military to its full potential. Here are some suggestions that I offer for proper use of military forces.

Recruiting Brigades. If you have a kingdom that can summon special brigade types, do so as early as possible. These special brigade types are the quickest way to increase your military's size and potency. They offer special advantages in combat and are the best way to insulate valuable kingdom-named brigades against heavy losses. Although you are limited in the number of brigades you can summon into one group, you can exceed that limit by transferring your special brigade types from other groups. For fast recruitment, try placing a patrol and a group with only kingdom-named brigades in a recruitable area. Recruit special brigade types into both groups, then transfer all but one brigade out of the former patrol and into the main group. This can be done in the same turn in most cases. Continue to summon and transfer brigades on ensuing turns until you have a group of acceptable size.

As a rule, any kingdom can summon special brigade types (other than the Demon Princes which is a special case) should at least double the initial size of their military by Turn 5; if resources and time allow, triple or quadruple it by Turn 10. This should not be done at the compete expense of keeping the groups out of action, however. If you are playing a magic-oriented kingdom or the Demon Princes, only summon special brigade types as necessary or if you have nothing else to do with the wizard or demon prince. Although several brig-ades or wights are impressive, you can probably find better uses for Power 6 and Power 7 spells.

Resting Groups. If you have extra orders at the beginning of the game, establish standing orders to "Rest Group" for some or all of your groups. This way, they will rest whenever they have the opportunity, and you won't have to worry about figuring out whether or not the group is eligible to rest.

Stationary Groups. DO NOT LEAVE A GROUP SITTING ON YOUR CAPITAL! Unless you are receiving reinforcements, this is a potentially devastating mistake. This makes your capital much easier to find--a sharp player with "Locate Group" can do it. If the enemy visits your capital invisibly, it becomes considerably easier for your enemy to sabotage your military. In one game I lost 4 low level wizards this way. The only exception to this rule is if your capital is located on water, in which case it is essential that you keep at least a single brigade located there.

Seapower. If you intend to transport a group across water, make sure that you have more fleets than necessary and that your naval quality is not less than 12--unless you know for a fact that there will be no unfriendly opposition to your crossing. If you intend to patrol a sea, defend a sea-based population center, or punch through a defending sea blockade, a naval quality of less than 15 is a joke. If your capital is in a sea, I would suggest building a force of not less than 6 15+ quality fleets as soon as possible and keeping it on patrol when not in use transporting.

Don't forget that any group-group engagement fought on water takes place between fleets, not groups. Thus, a single fleet could sink an army. Since fleets transporting groups away from seabound pc's can also be attacked by sea patrols, two or more sea battles in the same turn are possible, although you can rebuild your fleet between battles.

I have participated in several large sea battles and can attest that these conflicts are seldom one-sided affairs. Unless one side has an overwhelming advantage in number or quality, large fleet engagements (involving 10+ fleets) are rarely conclusive. If a fleet transporting troops is not completely destroyed, it will press on with any remaining brigades to its intended location. Even an inconclusive battle against a transporting navy can result in brig-ades of losses.

Attacking Population Centers: As a rule don't do this unless you have a group value of at least 1.5x the pc's defensive value or equal military coupled with wizard spells. This won't guarantee success--rumor has it that groups with 5x have failed --but it will greatly improve your chances. For those who are not aware of this fact, the exact damage done to a pc by attack is a 30% reduction in defense value and a 10% drop in population and production.

Magic: For heavily martial kingdoms, the only level of magic necessary is "Raven Familiar", "Learn Artifact Power", "Mask", "Sleep", "Ward", "Locate", "Chaos", and pc improvement spells. Once you gain these, don't advance your magic. These kingdoms should devote their resources to summoning brigades rather than raising wizards. Other kingdoms should increase their magic capability to the level necessary to cast "Wall of Fire" as quickly as possible. also, don't underrate the value of "Dispel Magic"; it cancels "Wall of Fire", among other things. Relative Group Values: Based on my personal experiences and observations, I have rated the Second Cycle kingdoms in order of military prowess. These rankings place heaviest emphasis on kingdom-named brigade values, movement capabilities, and leaders, but also consider number of brigades, recruitment schedule, brigade costs (both food and gold), combat bonuses penalties, special military orders and bonuses, vulnerabilities, brigade composition, quality of recruitable brigade types, and quality and size of naval power. Magic potential in not considered as it will usually not have a dramatic effect on these rankings until late in the game.

The rankings: (1) Red Dragons, (1) Giants, (3) Trolls, (4) Rangers, (5) Black Dragons, (6) Dwarves, (7) Elves, (8) Darkelves, (9) Witchlord, (10) Ancient Ones, (11) Demon Prin-ces, (12) Warlock, (13) Sorcerer, (14) Gnomes, (15) Underworld.

These rankings are open to dispute since my knowledge of a couple of these kingdoms is based only on hearsay; if anyone reading this thinks they can make a more accurate list, send it in the next Oracle and have it published!

For those who are interested, the approximate values for summoned types:

Brigade TypeUnits
Wights3800
Ghouls3200
Skeletons2200
Monsters1600
Ogres2960
Wingbeasts2800-2900*
* (I am open to correction on this one.)

ARTIFACTS

Much has already been said about artifacts, so I will not say much here. For Second Cycle players, once your kingdom has level 4 agents, thoroughly search your home regions and the borders of surrounding regions for unusual sightings; mountains seem to be particularly popular places. Also, determine early on what kind of artifact you need or would be most beneficial to your kingdom and concentrate your efforts on recovering those above all others. For example, the most important artifacts to the Troll kingdom are The Gem of the Planes, The Orb of Anti-Magic, and any 400+ point weapon artifact (particularly Trollslayer and Giantslayer). On the other hand, The Staff of the Great Orator, The Crown of Tiriak, and Demon Death are the most important to the Demon Princes. GENERAL ADVICE

In closing, I will offer two final pieces of advice. Play to your kingdom's strength, but not exclusively so. Even the Red Dragon has emissaries that can be used to take population centers; even the Underworld has a military. Second, pay careful attention to the wording and numbering of your orders; you may discover that there are some things you can do that you wouldn't have thought possible--like joining two groups and then teleporting the combined group in the same turn.

Have fun!

 

Beginning Gnome

Patrick Vanbeek

Through the first six months as the Gnome king, I have seen mistakes which could have caused my downfall; I hope to insure the same doesn't happen to you.

As far as the Gnome's strengths and weaknesses are concerned, he has a military that rivals the Halfling's with leaders that make you wonder if you even have any. The only thing that is even close to being a plus is the 400 slinger/archers that are in each brigade. Your military gets a boost from the wizards that accompany each brigade. These wizards are on a par with the Elf, Darkelf, and Ranger's. Apparently, you're supposed to be an economic power, but the only thing that allows your economy to grow is from the numerous wizards and the "Hidden Ore" spell you get at Power 2. By the way, don't expect your army to move across the map of Alamaze; you'll be lucky if they can transverse Runnimede. Other than your wizards, the only other positive point about the Gnome is political power; excepting the Westmen, you should be able to hold your own against any kingdom politically.

Now, how to survive with the Gnomes. There are two possible enemies which could destroy you before you even get started: the Giant and the Ranger. Both start with their capitals in your region.

The Giant kingdom has a division that could show up on Cradia on Turn 1, so to protect yourself from total destruction, I suggest that you bring the 2nd and 1st Gnome groups together and recruit twice from the city. The great thing about recruiting from your capital is that it doesn't lower the defensive value of the pc. As far as your wizards are concerned, put the Power 1 into a patrol, then raise him to a Power 2. This will give you a chance to kill his general should the Giant land on Cradia. I must stress the importance of using "Kill Leader" against him, for the Giant needs at least a gen-eral in the group to recruit his ogres. You have to use Determined Attack so as to do enough damage that he won't be able to take the city. Also, declare him an enemy; this will give you a bonus against his troops and also make it harder for him to take the region, which is almost given to you on a silver platter. You should need a town or two villages, but since you recruited you will need a town and a village. Don't spend money on a priestess for this; just use your agents, palantir, and wizards to find the pcs. Please remember to send a card to the Giant, telling him you declared him an enemy in case he should show up at Cradia, and that you would like to make an alliance with him. By the way, should you go to war with the Giant, ask the Westman and Warlock for help since a Giant alliance will surely go in one of their directions.

The other worry is the Ranger. I wouldn't expect him to show up at Cradia on Turn 1, and if you aren't at war with the Giant, guard against the Ranger. The main priority for you now should be taking the region. There should be a town around YC; be sure to recon the town the same turn that you send an emissary to it; if any other emissaries show up, then sleep them and take it. You need to start making preparations for war with the Ranger early in the game because it is almost impossible to work with him, especially if the Urik and Swampmen are fighting, which they usually are.

You have three main things to do. (1) Try to raise at least one wizard to Power 3 and have a couple of Power 2's as well. (2) Trail the Ranger groups--this will not only tell you where they are and what they're made of, but it also has the possibility of showing you where Ranger pc's are. (3) Watch his capital, which is located in the forests of Runnimede. As soon as you see that there are no groups at his capital, take your 1GN, train recruits, put your wizard from the 4GN in it, and move to his capital. Keep trailing his groups, for after taking his capital, you'll want to pick on his smaller groups--any with a single brigade.

While your military is dong all of this, you'll want to use your emissaries to take his pc's. I would suggest sending a count and a duke to his other town and your two barons to his village in Torvale. Use Orders 320 and 330 on the same turn that your group shows up on his capital. You will want to move back to Cradia after taking his capital and wait for his group to show up; I'm sure he will want revenge. Raise your wizards some more, for you'll need all you can to take on the Ranger. If you get to Power 5 before the Ranger tires to enact his revenge, change that wizard to a Wraith with a little spell you'll have at that level. It won't hurt you since your maximum level is 5, and you have enough wizards that you can use any special arti-facts that raise it above Level 5 with them. With your unkillable wizard, you should be abe to defeat the rest of the Ranger groups.

With the Ranger or the Giant neatly out of the way, start raising your wizards and political powers. If you need help on how to raise your political power, read David Kuykendall's "The Ultimate Weapon" in Oracle 9. I feel it is the best example of how to raise your political power. Build up until around Turn 16, and then start looking for that second region.

I hope this article will protect all future Gnomes and allow them a chance at survival. Good luck and good hunting.  

Standing Orders

David Kuykendall

Way back when, there was an article on how to use standing or-ders. That article brought up some good points and showed some good uses for standing orders. However, in my experience I have come across more good and clever uses for standing orders. With the Second Cycle, where more standing orders are allowed, the possible applications have grown considerably.

To start, let us go over the orders that should not be put into a standing slot. Order 91, Self-Invisible, is one I see being done, even in Second Cycle. Think about it. You will nearly always have warning of combat and will always know when the wizard is going into an unusual encounter. In my opinion, if all you do with that adept or wizard is cast Self-Invisible, then why have him? The order to siege (190) is another that I've seen used before. When you siege you do it for three turns, so it does save one order over the three turns, but it also occupies one of the SO slots. Execute hostages (430) is a standing order sin. What if you capture someone's prince and then kill him the same turn?--you've lost a perfect opportunity for easy skeletons. And, believe it or not, you can ransom prisoners back for large sums. Any divinations that are put on a standing order are similarly a crime. It may work fine for the first few turns, but then what if the priestess dies? You have to scrap the old standing order and establish a new one.

Now that you know what not to do, here are some things you should do. Maintaining status quo with "guardian" emissaries is usually a good move. Some people make a case for using their standing orders for their SO's for their guys to usurp each turn. The effect is that the order costs no gold until the pc is no longer controlled, then the emissary attempts to usurp. The bad side of this is what if your guy cannot usurp a controlled pc or what if the enemy's usurp order comes after yours? In the latter case, he could status quo the next turn and possibly catch your emissary who is trying to usurp.

Having an envoy or ambassador on a standing order to determine regional reaction is an excellent choice for the defensively minded player. The only bad point is that this order comes before the order to enamor, so a kingdom could possibly have a better reaction level than the order reports. a standing order to raise influence is a standard move in all my games, and should be the same for you. The order works out because the order to raise influence comes after all other king orders, except the one to sell influence, and how may of us do that anyway?

Some basic standing orders include training an agent, increasing production or defense, increasing seapower, sea patrol. Training an agent should be an automatic first turn order in the First Cycle. For the Second Cycle, however, I advise against it, for the training cost can go real high, real fast.

Increasing production, especially gold, is a classic example of a standing order. Raising defenses is not usually a good idea, for the defenses can never really be high enough; besides, most people just diplomacize your 50,000 defense fortress rather than attack it. Still, it does have its uses. The Urik will probably never take anything with diplomacy, so raising your defenses against him would work. In the Second Cycle, you can raise production or defense three times with a single order, so it is quicker and easier. Unfortunately, Second Cycle also makes these orders cost food, so be sure to calculate the extra food expenditure.

Increasing sea power is usually only a good idea for a few kingdoms, though it proves useful to defend your capital at sea. Before using this order, first raise the quality to 16, then start buying fleets at 6000 each. Sea patrol is also useful for only a few kingdoms; and remember, when doing sea patrol you cannot use those navies to move troops.

Ambush is useful as a standing order for those kingdoms that are protecting their capital or some other important pc. It is also useful for those kingdoms that wish to raise wizards without the group sitting out in the open. Another good point is that whenever your group stops a turn, it will be hidden, making it harder to find. there are really no bad points to using this for only the rest order is precluded by ambush. Remember that artifacts still show up on a recon report even though the group is hidden or invisible.

Counter-espionage is another classic example of a standing order. Be sure to use a fanatic as the CE will be 10% more effective and there is no chance of getting caught. CE is more effective than most people realize as it will guard against every type of agent mission except for assassination, when a guard is needed. Even kidnapping is challenged. If there is a group in the same square as the CE, it too will be covered. Setting up a standing order to recon a capital and trailing a king's major group are both good uses of SO's. Even trailing your own group as it moves into enemy territory is not a bad idea; you will always know what you are up against. In the Second Cycle the trailing works differently, so it is not feasible. Never use your palantir as a standing order as it can recon anywhere.

Effective uses of standing orders can greatly aid a kingdom: raise production, patrol, keep tabs, protect. SO's are basically "maintenance" orders for a kingdom that need to be done for long periods. In the long run, they save orders that can be sued for more important items.

 

Ranger Strategy and Guerrilla Warfare

John LaTemple

Atop the highest tower in the legendary city of Avalon, Minastir, King of the Rangers, stood upon a parapet gazing across the reaches of the Sea of Foreboding. The great king's thoughts speared from southeast to southwest as he pondered the campaign to date.

After over a year of bloodletting, the once proud nation of the Gnome had finally come to an end at the hands of the vile Giants. Minastir was bitter over this loss, which he himself had tried to prevent, but there was nothing left now but to strike a blow of vengeance when the opportunity utterly presented itself.

As monarch of a small but heroic kingdom, he had learned some priceless bits of wisdom. The greatest of all wisdom, however, could be found in one single virtue--Patience....

Patience. This is key to any new player finding himself at the reigns of the great Ranger kingdom. The king who masters himself may ultimately find that his enemies have become somewhat soft and unaware of him. Resist the urge to ply your trade in the field. This may be hard at first, especially when you realize your leaders are unmatched in Alamaze (though they are almost equaled by the Paladin), and your brigades possess the greatest numbers of elite troops next to the Giant. But trust me: it pays to wait.

The Rangers are the "sleeping giants" of Alamaze. Why is this? Well, besides having excellent troops, well disciplined and battle-hardened warriors of supra-human courage, the Rangers have outstanding magical ability, and anyone who knows magic can easily see where this will make the difference of arms.

It is a commonly held belief of most Alamaze players that the military power starts with the Giants, followed closely by the Paladins. Most place the Rangers third in troop quality, but because of the small size of the military and their less than average reinforcements, other kingdoms (Uriks, Barbarians, Westmen, Elves) are close behind.

I believe these ideas to be a bit uneducated. The Rangers may not start the race in front, but boy oh boy, can they ever finish! By utilizing guerrilla tactics and staying out of early contests of strength with other kingdoms, the Rangers should be a force to fear in later parts of the campaign.

Of course, it does not pay to let your enemies thrive unhindered. Whenever prudent, strike at your foes with surprise. A Power 2 (or greater) in a patrol can "Slay Leader" against your foe and he is powerless to prevent it. Against someone like the Giant, knocking off a general, or especially a marshal, can impede his growth tremendously, while putting your forces at little risk. But how is this accomplished, you ask? My friend, patience is the key.

When I first examined my situation, seeing my pop centers spread evenly throughout four separate regions and my capital uncomfortably close to an immediate outbreak of violence between the Giants and Gnomes, I promptly came to the conclusion that if my future as a monarch was to burn long and brightly, then my capital and fair court would have to be safeguarded from enemies. If this could be done effectively, my slow rise to power could be practically guaranteed. If I did nothing, I felt sure that once the Giant had squashed the Gnome, he most surely would not miss the opportunity to strike at me.

Being somewhat daring, I saw a chance to possess the fairest of all cities for my capital--Avalon! It would take a little diplomacy and luck, but what better place to harbor a capital than the Isle of Avalon in the Sea of Foreboding?

To attain Avalon you must move without hesitation, for it will almost assuredly be sought by the Paladin. On Turn 1 you must do all of the following:

Now on Turn 2 you should find yourself in position to take Avalon. The tricky part is that if the Paladin also moved his prince or duke to Avalon, and he almost always will, then you've got a little problem. But this is nothing a little diplomacy and gold can't take care of. You see, the wizard kingdoms are very greedy at this point, and if you offer to pay for the service of a "Sleep" on the offending Paladin emissary, you will undoubtedly get what you want. Luckily both the Sorcerer and Warlock contacted me immediately. The Sorcerer was more than happy to help me out for just the price of a Power 2 "Create Gold": 4000 gold. Nighty night, Prince Renfall.

Unfortunately, the chance of succeeding at usurping control is still only around 50% at this point. If you can convince your allies to help yo fight the Paladin, it might be wise to enamor Amberland to Friendly and use your emissaries to help take control of the region. After taking Avalon you will find your influence within Amberland at Significant. A quick multiple assault against Evanon may just give you control and and destroy the Paladin simultaneously! However, you must weight this rash idea versus your relations and foreseen dealings with the Paladin in your own game. In #175 I saw the Paladin building his own problems and my own greater danger coming from the Giants. It did not seem wise to place myself between the two, so I maintained a neutral, if somewhat shaky relationship with the Paladins.

Now, if Avalon is unattainable, place your capital in a sea area and use sea patrol often.

Once you've settled, you should find one huge advantage apparent immediately--you can utilize all your groups to seek out pc's and unusual sightings! Homebase is well protected, so why waste a group at home in the early stages? But I recommend one possibility: place a patrol with a wizard there. Not only does this allow the mage to rise in prowess through magical research, but in the unfortunate event that a hostile group does land at your capital, you can at least "Slay" his best leader for his trouble! And this may even prove the difference in his success and failure.

Early on I mentioned the magical advantage the Rangers has over the other "military" kingdoms. Use it! Research this single wizard as often as possible. He will become the key to your future success. And don't forget to raise all your other wizards as opportunity presents itself. Ranger Power 1's have more spells than Warlock or Sorcerer Power 1's!

Another great advantage the Rangers have are their powerful leaders. And these leaders, along with some Power 1 wizards, make excellent adventuring groups, seeking out the unknown and fighting twisted undead and claiming untold riches for their king! They will lead their troops to victory after victory over villages, thereby increasing their own abilities and gaining yet more captains. Once you find yourself the proud commander of several marshals and warlords, place them strategically in an army and smite your foes!

Your allies, especially the Elves, should be able to help you in your search for artifacts. Naturally, you should concern yourself with attaining the Last Herd of Winged Stallions right away. They will allow you to fly throughout the leagues of Alamaze with little difficulty.

And if you are lucky enough to capture Elan or the Axe of Hurblind, you will find your leaders truly unmatched. And your allies will never balk at the idea of you find the Stone of Allminds or the Ring of Spells. These items are best traded amongst you and your allies for the best benefit of all, and this cooperation will more than pay back your friends for their aid of recons and divinations! Indeed, if the RA/EL/SW alliance acquires the Stone, all your enemies should cower in terror! This item places you on a par with the Sorcerer and Warlock; combine this with the Ring of Power and you are quite a formidable threat, to say the least.

Your main purpose through the first 10 turns should be the capturing of artifacts and villages, the strengthening of your leaders, the increase of your troop morale, the researching of your primary wizard or wizards, and the safeguarding of your Ranger brigades and your capital. By accomplishing these things you will find that your patience may finally be shed.

At some point, probably around Turns 11-15, you realize that you are ready to mount your military campaign. I recommend forming all your brigades into a single group and placing your marshals and warlords at the command. Teleport or transfer your mighty wizard into this group and arm your commanders with the greatest weapons at your disposal.

Land you army at your enemy's capital, while at the same time moving all your available emissaries into his other pc's in the region. Crush his capital and seek out his military. Cause his other pc's to rebel and move your army against still other towns and villages while you hunt him down. The kill must be lightning quick and final, or you risk allowing him to recover.

As you take cities and towns, recruit brigades and reorganize to preserve your elite Rangers, who in combination with powerful magic and some wit, should be able to dismember even the Giants.

As a final note: if you are anything of a mind like me, then you will undoubtedly find the relatively low influence (12) to be an annoyance. Whenever possible I recommend expanding your influence. If you can convince an ally to sell you a High Council seat, this will obviously provide you with another cheap influence point. Otherwise, try to have the Elf raise your influence via the council and a standing order. This need not be a huge sum and being a standing order, you will be pleased to see the issue "sneak up" every so often. If you have followed my advice, the rest of Alamaze may be so indifferent or friendly towards you that the issue will usually pass easily.

I truly hope that some noble heir to the Ranger throne benefits from this advice. In the meantime, the rest is up to yo, for I must rejoin my forces and oversee the destruction of my Giant enemies! May the light of Elan shine brightly on your future, and eternal victories be yours.

 

Letters to the Editor

"I find the The Oracle quite informative, and it adds measurably to my enjoy-ment of Alamaze. Keep up the good work!"

Joey Browning

"Before I get on my plane and take off for Subic Bay, Phillipines, I would like to send congrats to you for producing The Oracle. I love it!"

Art Mobley

"It was nice to see a Letters to the Editor section showing us that people really do write in. As for the average status points controversy, cast my vote for averages. I really don't care much to see how many status points a person has earned over twenty+ games. Another option is to keep the status points as is and assign "victory" points to the players: 5 for first, 3 for second, two for third, and 1 for finishing. I believe this would help show the quality of players and would probably be easier to figure than an average status points. The problem with average status points is what do you count as a game? finished ones only? past Turn 12? Turn 18? I'm sure you see the problem.

Things I would like to see in the oracle include a best stat table: best city, biggest group, highest agent, most influence, etc. Another item is a comic strip of some sort; I'm sure there is someone out there somewhere who can pen a strip. As I said before, I like the letters to the editor, but I would also like to see a Players' Forum, where players can write in on different subjects. This would be much like the old "High Council", but there would be no tallying of votes and the best responses would be there for all to read. Issues of play balance, artifacts, drops, errors, and other items could be discussed. Who knows? Maybe the game designer could pick up a few ideas from the Forum.

One final thing before I go. To help with the flow of material, how about giving a free oracle to anyone who gets an article (not news) printed? And the person voted with best article should get some prize, perhaps game credit (gasp, not money!), or a free setup in the second cycle, or maybe a setup in a game with the evil and decadent McDowells.

David Kuykendall

"I recently read through some issues lent to me by John Moe and was sufficiently impressed to sit down and type up this article. I've been "spreading the gospel" about Alamaze since by first game (159).... Alamaze is an incredible game, and I am having the time of my life playing. Keep up the good work...."

John LaTemple

 

Company News

Please remember the following about articles in this magazine:

(1) they express a person's opinions, frequently representing a particular point of view; (2) they can be misleading; and (3) they do not contain the secret formula to certain victory. It is likewise true that they (1) are often quite helpful, (2) are frequently well written, (3) give good ideas and basic strategy, (4) help players avoid common mistakes, and (5) can be quite amusing. Articles are always appreciated. Have you contributed to The Oracle lately?

In the last issue both David Kuykendall and Damian Staron made mention of players' having lists of artifact locations and being able to gather up these precious items very early due to this careful compilation. If you talk to anyone who has entered a game since autumn you will indeed learn that there are many surprises in this regard.

The active soliciting and participation of that great economic value, the standby position, continues to improve the quality of the games and reflect the viability of the idea with continued wins by players who venture forth and take up the challenge.

As we have advised through the results, we are looking forward to receiving the NEW AND IMPROVED program in April. If all goes as the programmer has advised, then perhaps by the end of May we will make the conversion and players will start receiving results from the new program. There will be no immediate change in anything that the players are doing with their orders sheet. Again, we continue to extend our appreciation to all our players for their advice and suggestions.

We continue to be very pleased with the data we compile on the Second Cycle completed games (see Valhalla). It is an ongoing opinion that nowhere in PBM gaming can you find greater play balance and prospects for winning then in Alamaze and with Pegasus Productions.

The First Anniversary promotion was very successful and a gesture we were happy to make for a terrific group of people, our players.

May adventure, excitement, and good rewards fill your every result; may your enemy never find you unprepared; and may you enjoy this Oracle.

 

What's Next for Pegasus Productions?

Rick McDowell

Travel, if you will, back in time. It is 1986, and the Game Earthwood, By GSI, is the best in the genre of play by mail fantasy wargames. Also noteworthy for reasons complementary to Earthwood is Feudal Lords, by Graff Simulations. Both of these games were very popular, having more than a thousand loyal players. At the time, the players of these games, and the players of generally inferior rival products, did not consider their chosen game to be overly simplistic, illogical, or unimaginative.

Prior to 1987, the best personal computer was the original IBM PC. For about $6000, you could buy a computer that could run with a 8088 processor, at a clock speed of 4.87 megahertz, about 256k of RAM, and a 20 megabyte hard drive. Software of the day was not very intuitive. Thus, there were significant practical constraints on a designer's imagination.

I grew up a great fan of Avalon Hill board games, became a fairly accomplished chess player, and was an enthusiastic participant in AD&D when it was new during my college days in the late 70's.

I continued my AD&D after college, and discovered PBM in early 1985. My "real" work provided me with the aforementioned IBM PC. I began to tinker with a more complete PBM gaming environment than was afforded by the exist-ing products of the day. Encouraged by the enthusiastic response of my friends that helped me enhance the game that was already called Alamaze (after the setting I developed for my AD&D campaigns), I began learning a programming language sufficiently well to attempt to completely computer moderate the game. The game grew and was improved all along its long development path. By now it was late 1986, and in the nick of time, the IBM AT computer came out, virtually the month that it became apparent that previously existing hardware could not accommodate the game I wanted to produce. Alamaze programming and development continued, and the game was available to the public in early 1987.

Alamaze went far beyond what was previously available to people interested in fantasy setting play by mail (or pc) games. Political actions, intricate covert possibilities, an elaborate magic system, a playable and plausible economic system, a straight-forward and intuitive order entry and turn processing system, unique kingdoms, secret victory conditions, complete sentence and full paragraph results rather than straight numeric and isolated phrase results: all were advances first seen in Alamaze.

Alamaze went on to win Paper Mayhem's reader's poll as best play by mail game the first year it was eligible, 1987. We went to Origins in 1988 when it was combined with GenCon, and so became the largest gaming convention ever, and won the award for Best Play by Mail Game, as voted by game designers.

Alamaze has not been criticized for what its design affords. Early criticism centered around turnaround delays, and other aspects of servicing. As you know, after unsuccessfully trying to overcome these hurdles for quite some time, the decision was made to transfer management for the processing of Alamaze to North Carolina Pegasus Productions, where again, a good reputation has been established: this time, for set-your-watch-by-it turnaround, new services (such as fax) and courteous and timely customer service responses to questions.

What is the gaming environment like now, back to the present? Computer costs have shrunk, while the capabilities of the machines have increased at a phenomenal pace. Alamaze has enjoyed two years of fun and intrigue with the Second Cycle of Magic, a game that surveyed players on average rated greater than 50% better than First Cycle Alamaze--a seeming paradox since First Cycle Alamaze was rated by these same people an 8.1 on a scale of 1-9.

There now are a flood of PBM fantasy roleplaying/wargames. Many of these have borrowed freely from Alamaze. Others have taken a new tact. Most prominent among the newer products is Legends from Midnight Games. In the following brief discussion of Legends, I will assume you have familiarity with the game system they offer.

When I first saw the rules to Legends, I didn't know whether to be impressed or dismayed. Jim Landis, the designer, offered a myriad of possibilities. But the rules themselves are a shambles: impossible to decipher and fraught with errata. The mechanics of the game are nightmarish. A large position requires at least twenty hours to complete a single turn. An important distinction needs to be made here. It is not necessarily bad in itself to spend twenty hours on a turn, if you enjoy the game and are entertained by the time you spend to advance your position. In fact, the more time you can spend enjoying each turn, the better the value of the turn fees (and Legends is not cheap, running $16 a turn for a developed position). The problem lies in that those twenty hours are necessary, not because you enjoy what you are doing, but because the game system requires that level of detailed involvement. From my perspective, I can't believe that players of an escapist diversion are interested in going through the tiresome detail required in this game. Consider, to build your castle walls, you as a player must:

To accomplish the above undertaking would take you in the neighborhood of 10 turns, or five months of real time. All this, to increase the wall size of a castle? To me, this seems like a giant step backwards in game mechanics from what Alamaze offered. Trading items between positions requires the similarly tiresome approach of issuing detailed orders to load each specific provision on "legions", and moving legions physically to their destinations in order to accommodate a simple economic exchange: a throw back to Earthwood, circa 1985. Is this enjoyment?

The above serves to illustrate fundamental design differences in what I believe players prefer in a game, with what generally is provided to them by other companies. Should players be forced to instruct each of his soldiers on what equipment to put on that day, or give detailed and time consuming instructions on the logistics of building a stone wall? I don't think such are the "features" that entice a person into spending his attentions and dollars in PBM gaming. Based on the success of Legends, not everyone agrees with me. It is important to state my own viewpoint, so you know what to expect of me in the next game from Pegasus Productions.

Yes, work is well underway on the new game. I am excited by the promise this new design brings. I think it can be to Alamaze what Alamaze was to Earthwood. Present plans are that I will design the game, but the programming will be left to a professional in that field. We hope that the other changes we have made in organization and delivery will ensure that the new game will, in addition to being a breakthrough product, not be saddled with the service weaknesses that Alamaze customers endured in the early years.

What can I tell you about the new game? It will be set in a medieval/fantasy world, with many more players per game than Alamaze. Character oriented, it will retain the magic of Alamaze, and add breakthroughs in military and political aspects of play. Economics will be enhanced, but not at the expense of playability. It will enable you to completely develop and customize your personally designed position, which will force devilishly difficult decisions from you. It will allow you to set your own style, and reach several intermediate objectives along the way to ultimate victory. It will be your favorite play by mail game. The bad news: don't expect it until this time in '93.

 

News From the Front

 

Game 175, Giant
Doug Bierbower

10/91

The sleeping Giant? Nay! Ask the Gnome, ask the Warlock, ask the Ranger, ask the Westmen. Ask them all who controls their original capitals. Ask the Westmen why they left Torvale unprotected.

The Sorcerer is now the supreme mage in Alamaze. Beware our enemies; you cannot guard yourselves from his dark magic.

The Nomad welcomes you, Ranger! He mocks your petty annoyances as I did. You boast much but accomplish naught. The desert is hot; soon you will fly north to the motherly arms of your allies.

Barbarians, Westmen, Swampmen--all in Amberland to defeat the Paladin, but is king in the region? It seems the Queen of the Northern Mists is mightiest.

The Paladins, Dwarves, and Halflings have all retired, defeated by the coalition in the east. But who will you fight now? Inevitably, each other. The first blow is mightiest and the victor will deliver it.

Trust the Swampmen, mighty kings. Honesty, loyalty, trickery are his names.

Elf, you are unscathed. Having spent your time in the forest, are you prepared? Will you venture forth with armies and middling wizards? Where will you go? I am here; come to me and offer battle. I am the Peacebringer.

 

Game 175, Swampmen
John Moe

Last Turn 4/5

The glorious rule of Grolig the Mighty is now complete. Together with the unpredictable Elves and the stoic Rangers, Grolig of the Unending Fragrance has declared ultimate victory, but I jump ahead.

Shortly after I last wrote of the magnificent accomplishments of Grolig and his deformed followers, the bloated wizard MaClar received the renowned Stone of Allminds. MaClar the Glutton has since aided in the retrieval of the august Pennant of Valor, the imposing Altar of the Holy Ancients, the reclaiming of the exalted city of Cradia, while also surpassing the radiant achievements of any of his water soaked predecessors by attaining the seventh level of magic.

Meanwhile, the freakish nobility of the staggering Grolig were putting their deformed tongues to good use by enlightening the dense inhabitants of the Mountains that Talk and the cool shaded areas called Synisvania. The determined or foolish regent of the Darkelves managed to continuously slip through traps and survived till the end of our needless conflict, as a result the Darkelven kingdom shall live to see what inspired leadership can bring to the world. The bullies and nominds were not able to remain active through the long arduous campaign so shall rest in peace rather than live in prosperity. The mangy Barbarians were never able to control more than their initial region. Apparently, their noble emissaries were not eloquent enough to overcome the stench and lice that accompany them wherever they travel.

With a little work maybe they can improve their powers of persuasion; if not, Grolig the Benevolent may invite the Barbaric King and his court to the murky swamps and introduce the nation to the concept of bathing. It is unknown to even Grolig the Wise as to the final status of the Vulture King and his Westmen flunkies. If he wishes to live in prosperity he need simply ask Grolig the Forgiving and he shall be granted a place in the coming utopia. The Sorcerer King finally revealed himself in the final months of conflict. The Sorcerer's wizards managed to take the tree lined city of Lorethane and even our fabulous and moldy city of Gurisek. The crime that most needs answering is the plague that festering in and finally killed 20% of the peaceful and soggy inhabitants of our beloved Eastern Steppes. Grolig the Compassionate offered early and often to assume the mantle of leadership before more suffering and death further haunted the fair lands of Alamaze but his noble offer was ignored or laughed at by the other Kings, so evil kingdoms like the Sorcerer were able to further injure the persecuted peoples of the world. The Sorcerer has yet to answer for his actions but after serving whatever punishment that Grolig the Fair decides on, I am certain that even the crazy Sorcerer King and his vile wizards shall have the opportunity the live in the glorious world that is to be.

The final month of conflict resulted in the Talking Mountains, Eastern Steppes, Runnimede and Synisvania being directly controlled by Grolig the Great. The emaciated Elves controlled Oakendell and Torvale. The militant Rangers had lordship over Arcania and the horrid deserts of the Southern Sands. As previously alluded to, the slovenly Barbarian held sway over the Northern Mists and alas poor Amberland had no one to look to for leadership in the final bloody months of the conflict. Perhaps Grolig the Kind will take pity on the poor souls and offer his wholesome guidance to the residents of that fair region.

Prosperity and happiness are in the future for Alamaze as Grolig the Enormous and his renowned allies begin to lead the world towards paradise

 

Game 181, Westmen
Derrell Morgan, II

Turn 16

Boy, oh boy, what a game! I had just accomplished an exodus from Kuwait City, and as soon as I reached the States, "Hello, Pegasus. Please set me up with whatever you have and make it fast." Well, after playing the Nomad til Turn 8 and the Dragon til Turn 12, both of which I had to drop because of Iraq--may he burn in the flaming pits of Mephisto--I found myself holding a setup with a relatively weak military, fewer wizards than either the Nomad or the Dragon, the Elf to my north, Paladin to my east, and, it seemed at the time, a strong alliance of Darkelf, Halfling, and Underworld to my south.

It wasn't visions of sugar plumbs that were dancing in my head;it was good, old-fashioned paranoia. I called everyone I had received cards from and it didn't soothe the fear wailing up inside me but fanned it to a roaring flame which soon caused me to stay up nights in an attempt to be ready to fend off the other 14 kingdoms which I knew didn't want their regions but were all sprinting for Torvale.

Turn 3 found the Dwarven kingdom gaining control of the Talking Mts. and me missing a turn. The Dwarf was attacked in the mountains by the Urik--bad move, and an offer came from the Dwarf and Dragon to form a trio of very bad dudes. Having to think it over very carefully, I immediately said "Yes!" I had already heard rumors of a Dragon army running around and didn't really want to make him mad.

Turn 4 found the Westmen (Torvale), Sorcerer (Mists), and Elf (Oakendell) gaining control of their regions. The Paladin issued a request for border neutrality. Boy, where had all that paranoia gone now? The Halfling & Underworld were gearing up to take on the Darkelf and the Elf wanted only to search for artifacts til around Turn 10, so I found myself in a womb of security. Man, was I feeling better now.

Turn 5 found the Nomad gaining the Sands. Everyone began to fear the mighty Dragon & Dwarf alliance. It somehow remained a secret, although we never tried to cover it up, that I was helping the Dwarf finance the mighty Dragon hordes.

Turns 6 and 7 found me gearing up to do a combined assault on the Sorcerer. During these two turns I built one of the mightiest political machines seen on the face of Alamaze: prince, duke, count, 2 barons, 7 governors, 8 agents. I had an influence of 20 to use them all.

Turn 8 we almost completely destroyed the Sorcerer. After spotting the Elf enamoring my region, I prepared an invasion into Oakendell. Turn 9 I relocated 11 emissaries into Oakendell. A phone call from the Elven King Rick Clinton, who, caught with his pants down, began to order me out of his region. When I got off the phone I was shaking and immediately began to plot the most hideous turn I believe any elven king could never hope to receive.

Turn 10 my dreadnoughts caught two Elven galleys in the Sea of Foreboding, easily sinking them. Drown were two brigades of Elven elite, Marshall Glorin, Capts. Edrahil and Elros, Power 4 Keldimar and Power 3 Arioch. I ripped control of Oakendell from the Elf and claimed the mighty Golden Spear and Sword of Alvinitar.

For the next two turns I pressed my attack until the starving Elven military disappeared. I began to recall my emissaries, planning the next target. I found that with everyone looking toward the northeast, I could build and plot without interruption. The Dragon had descended upon the mighty Paladin who took it as her cue to move south. The Halfling, Underworld, and Warlock dropped from the face of Alamaze, never to be seen again.

On Turn 13 I began to move my military into position to capture the Stone of Allminds and the Horn of the Intrepid; I made an attempt to steal the Armor of Anon from the Darkelf.

Turns 14 and 15 I recon Runnimede and hire emissaries to cover my two regions and politically assault Runnimede. The Dragon, feeling that the Paladin was no longer a threat, responded to some rude correspondence from the Witchlord by moving into Synisvania, making it uncontrolled on Turn 15.

Next my military seized the artifacts and my political attack began on Runnimede. But alas, it was all for nought. The Dwarf, badly beaten from his skirmishes with the Sorcerer, allowed the Dragon to claim the Northern Mists and Talking Mountains from him. Coupled with his control of the Eastern Steppes and Amberland and the recently acquired Southern Sands, he claimed standard victory, leaving me second though I had led since Turn 10.

I believe the fates were stacked against me from the start, allowing me just enough luck to hope, but not enough to clench the golden ring. The twenty-two emissaries and 16 agents, although by far the best on the board, were not quite enough to claim victory. Maybe that was what drove my father to name me Ramses the Damned....

 

Game 196, Dragon
Leo Mortimer

Turn 11

This game is frightening. A third of the players were initially inactive or dropped relatively early. The Urik and Ranger are brothers in this individual game and both have been at war with the Dwarf since Turn 2, and the Underworld shortly afterwards. I doubt if they can hold out much longer. The Elf, a stand-by player, is friends with the Darkelf in another game and they appear to be cooperating against the Westmen, who is at war with the Darkelf after he eliminated the Halfling. The Barbarian has eliminated the sorcerer. However, the elf has just declared the Barbarian an enemy, and he doesn't even control a region. The Dragon has eliminated the Warlock. The Witchlord took uncontested control of the Sands after both the original and stand-by player dropped, though neither had been molested by the him.

 

Game 197, Ranger
Leo Mortimer

Turn 10

It appears that at least three cheaters have gotten into this individual game. Three roommates have gotten into the game as the Westmen, Paladin, and Urik. It was found out that the Halfling and Underworld were good friends from another game, plus lived close enough to each other to meet periodically. To my surprise, it turned out that the Dwarf also live in the "neighborhood" with them. The Nomad and the Warlock were also close friends from a previous game and also live relatively close to each other. This alliance later proved to be faithless.

The Westmen/Paladin/Urik team quickly decided that they were going to support the Sorcerer against the Barbarian. They made a mistake though when the Westmen supposedly took an Elven village in Oakendell, capturing his governor. Now the Elf and Barbarian were working together against these four kingdoms.

The Halfling and Darkelf made an alliance putting the Halfling in charge. Their thoughts of expanding into Torvale were quickly discourages by the WE/PA/UR/SO team. The Halfling and Darkelf quickly turned the attack to the Warlock, who apparently didn't even contest them. The Warlock quickly dropped due to a lack of support from his ally, the Nomad.

At first the Witchlord tried to make war on me, but he was quickly discouraged. He dropped the game a few turns later and a stand -by was put in. After some intense negotiations, we became allies. Then a combination of the Dwarf, Ranger, Witchlord, and Dragon (also a stand-by) launched a lightning attack against the Urik and have severely crippled him. Shortly after, both the Nomad and Witchlord dropped for various reasons.

The lines are now drawn. There are three major alliances in the game: WE/PA/UR/SO; HA/DA/UN/DW; and EL/RA/BA/DR.

It appears that the Halfling will win this game. Presently he has control of Runnimede, has substantial holdings in Arcania, and is quickly absorbing the Sands uncontested. Furthermore, he has supposedly started an full-scale emissary invasion of Torvale. Meanwhile, the HA has been moving other emissaries into Synisvania and has even managed to steal an artifact from me. The turn before I had agreed to sell it to him but he is an honorless coward. Appropriate retribution will be taken. The Halfling will win this game over my dead and broken body! I spit in his face and curse him to my last dying breath.

 

Game 206, Demon Princes
Philip McDowell

Game's End, 4/2

My congratulations to the Red Dragon on his victory in this game. What a military power he became and not entirely shabby with his politicals either. There were some very interesting battles that I hope either the Trolls or the Red Dragon relate.

The Gnome (I believe), or some one or combination (that would make me feel better) chewed up my Demon Princes position to a fine fare-thee-well. Very active agents with unbelievable luck (never once did I catch an agent or even learn what kingdom he worked for) impacted on my politicals and wizards. I had one of my Princes get captured when a PC fell to a group and he never appeared again.

There were many special events that took place in this game and numerous examples of team and ally cooperation. Battles were stopped, artifacts played an important role (being used, being stolen, being restolen, raising wizards, killing wizards and more), very large groups battled, traps with three kingdoms hoping to lure the mighty Red Dragon to his demise were set (but not always successful), and much more.

The game found itself to have the Secret Society and the Guardians of Light working closely together after the demise of the Order of Justice. The Sinister League was never able to impact enough on this combined force after expending its efforts on eliminating part of their adversaries.

 

Game 208, Underworld
Philip McDowell

Turn 23, 4/2

What is a poor lowly Underworld King to do against such powerful military, wizard, and political enemies? Should my meager divisions attack the Giant army group? Should my highest level wizards seek out their adversarial counterparts and challenge them to a duel of arcane might and prowess? Should my mere human politicals attempt to match the marvelous discourse of the Ancient Ones or the elusive Elves? Surly there is something that can be done against these formidable foes that are played by persons of such renown in the world of Alamaze.

Yes, it is also true that I have never controlled a region, never recruited a single brigade, never lost the first single soldier in battle, have only had a political visit a single city; I ask you am I having fun? The answer is yes!

While I will admit it took me a while to get adjusted to playing the Underworld and that I did not have the best of luck early it has been a lot of fun and I have become a force that other kingdoms dread. Many skeletons were released in timely fashion forcing some of the kings to choose to release their own to avoid removal from the High Council at a time of my choosing. Non-allied kingdom's wizards have been eliminated. Opposing kings have lost many politicals. Gold and food frequently disappear causing both production problems for my adversaries and a steady of production for me and my allies (all members of the Sinister League have received aid from me). Artifacts were sought out by my agents from both the wild and other kings and are drawn as by a magnet into my possession for use by me and my allies. Rival politicals overflow my dungeons and keep my executioner quite busy. I control several seas and have sunk enemy ships containing troops. Having achieved my ESO and entitled worthy nobles my political core has grown and become very effective. My agents and High Priestesses have gather data of PC's, groups, figures, and artifacts that has provided me and my allies with the information leading to their destruction and/or capture. With the upcoming turn my large fleet, with the necessary troops, will capture the Warlock island capital after my agents have greatly reduced its defenses. My status points continue to grow. Now I ask you, does this sound like I am having an impact and fun?

If we can just get the reluctant Secret Society to help impact on the Realms of Light (who continue controlling the most regions), it is very possible that within three turns of their active participation (and on turn 27 or 28) that only three regions will be controlled (only five are now, some indication of the fierceness of the campaign), one by each of the Epic sides.

 

Game 214, Giants
John Moe

Turn 16, 4/6

Blood, Blood and more Blood!! As predicted in the last update the Underworld Kingdom has suffered for his actions. His capital has fallen twice along with all but a single town, which should be receiving eviction notice shortly.

The Kingdoms of Good are in a dominant position at this time with all players still in the game. The Kingdoms of Evil seem to have only two active players in the Underworld and Black Dragon. All three of the Neutral Kingdoms are still active. With the exception of the Red Dragons ten+ turn war on the Dwarf, the Neutral Kingdoms have been exactly that-- neutral.

Currently, the Elf controls Oakendell and should gain Torvale on turn 17; the Red Dragon controls Northern Mists; despite the long war the Talking Mountains have never been out of the Dwarf's control; the Sorcerer controls the Eastern Steppes; Runnimede is controlled by the Gnomes; I control the Southern Sands and could possibly pick up either Amberland or Arcania on turn 17.

Recently after the last update, the impressive Giant military suffered its first and to date only major defeat. A Giant division with no leaders fought a Black Dragon army with very high morale and outstanding leaders. Only one of the four Giant brigades left the battle field that day. With that one notable exception the Giant war machine has rolled over any and all obstacles in its way. Meridon, Avalon and Triesa have all fallen to the might of our military. The Troll capital has fallen twice, the Demon Princes lost theirs once, same with the Black Dragon and as I previously stated the Underworld has lost his twice.

Along the way many other villages and towns have fallen to our mighty groups. At present, we have two active groups, both led by three Warlords, over 140% morale and both over 100,000 strength army groups. With the fall of the evil alliance close things are looking promising for the Giant hordes and our excellent allies.

 

Game 216, Giants
Theron Martin

Turn 11, 2/28

As the end of the year approaches, the Giant kingdom--through a combination of luck and skilled leadership--has risen to a position of potential dominance of Alamaze. With 22 brigades in three groups, a balanced emissary corps, and 4 weapon-class artifacts, no one has yet been able to even seriously challenge me.

The luck of Giant began on Turn 1 when a Red Dragon division accidentally landed on the capital of my arch-rival, the evil Witchlord. In the ensuing three turns, the impressive might of the Red Dragon ridded the land of the vile scourge of black magic as the Witchlord's military was systematically destroyed and his capital taken. It is believed that the reincarnated Witchlord may have fled soon after the init-ial conflicts, leaving his kingdom to its fate. To fulfill terms earlier agreed upon, my giants repaid the valiant Red Dragon by making a sortie deep into the Southern Sands to attack the Black Dragon capital; as a bonus eliminating most of a Black Dragon army while leaving the region. Although the Black Dragon declared a war "to the death" after losing his capital, no reprisals have yet been made.

The Giant, meanwhile, has been proving their might in both military and political theaters, despite the absence of both my teammates. {The Ancient Ones and Elves both collapsed early on due to disputes with the gods; strangely the Elves still control Oakendell and a High Council seat, even after 5 months of inactivity.} After easily capturing Amberland, Torvale and Arcania were invaded almost simultaneously. Both Meridon and Avalon now belong to us; the region is soon to follow. The vile Troll king was captured during the second consecutive fall of his capital. The Trolls have also lost their duke to incarceration and 4 brigades at the hands of a stomping by the 1GI army group. I now seek to locate the remaining Troll military, rumored to be an army group, and will use Trollslayer to crush it.

In the Southern Sands the Demon Princes have fared poorly. In taking his capital, I eliminated most of a division and captured 6 emissaries, including 2 demon princes and his king! (This happened in the same month I bagged the Troll king; is this a record?) The Demon Princes are now missing seven of their top eight emissaries and their best agent (level 12), who was kidnapped. With their remaining military, in the form of a warlord led group, being engaged this month at Triesa by a Giant army led by a warlord with the Great Axe of Hurblind, the Demon Princes cannot hold out much longer.

To the west, in Runnimede, the Warlock and Underworld contest for control of the power vacuum left by the Gnome's absence. Though crippled early on by Troll attacks, the Warlock has isolated all Underworld military on his seabound capital and appears to be winning. To the east in the Sands a Ranger invasion seems to be going well.

After many months of tensions concerning a questionable Red Dragon presence in the Talking Mountains, the Dwarves are declaring war and launching a full-scale political assault against the Red Dragon. Only time will tell how successful this may be. Even the Red Dragons, who have had a long-standing cordial relationship with my Giants are not a threat to the awesome might of the Giant kingdom, though. Only the Darkelves, who eliminated the Sorcerer kingdom early one, remain as a viable, engaged foe. They have been suspiciously quiet of late, and speculation is that they are preparing for a full-scale assault on some good kingdom. Of course, they could just be intimidated by their home region of the Eastern Steppes being virtually surrounded by good-aligned powers, but I don't think this is likely. Perhaps the Darkelves will soon have to feel the might of the giant Kingdom.

 

Game 217, Ancient Ones
John Moe

Turn 11, 4/5

This is the first individual 2nd Cycle game. Peace broke out early throughout Alamaze and continued until around turn five. I have had no direct opposition so far but rumors have been flying that I am about to become a target.

The majority of my effort to date has been solving my gold production, which has been limited due to very few PCs. As a result my initial town in the Southern Sands is currently producing over 110,000 gold and until the last couple of turns had also been taxed and retaken every turn.

Recently, my effort has been directed more towards defense as the location and production have become common knowledge. The town currently has over 30,000 defense and is increasing over 10,000 a turn, although that rate is about to increase as more wizards arrive to aid in Strengthening Walls.

My kingdom has been in the eye of the storm for the last few turns. The Giant initiated a war with the Demon Prince then dropped it in favor of a war against the Black Dragon. The next turn he stopped fighting the Black Dragon and began a war against the Sorcerer with the help of the Demon Prince and the Black Dragon. My consuls and priestesses have aided in their campaign. My military has also assisted with the capturing of two Sorcerer villages, which also helps my problem of too few PCs. The Warlock and Troll have been taking on the Gnome in Runnimede during the recent months. Conflict has been all around but until now the Ancient Ones have been unmolested. With 11 turns of peace I am hopeful that this peace will continue but if fate brings war my way I feel prepared after almost a year of preparation.

 

Game 303, Elf
Philip McDowell

Turn 10, 4/2

I will readily admit I was somewhat surprised and dismayed when asked (or perhaps told) that I needed to take over a standby position, in a challenge game of first through third place finishers, and that my turn was needed in two hours.

After the initial shock, my ever observant son enticed me with: "Well, Dad, you always said that the Elf was a favorite position, here is your opportunity of playing it again". Thus began my entry into Game 303.

Within two turns I discovered that three other kingdoms had developed a great desire for forest areas and Oakendell. Welcome to the fast paced action of Alamaze!

The first kingdom (who will remain nameless for the present time) within the traditional Elven domain decide it wasn't going to work as he hoped and withdrew. The Barbarian and Sorcerer (working together and splitting the Northern Mists between them without conflict) were not so persuaded. The Barbarian marched undetected (I did not have regional control) and early (turn 4) to the beautiful capital of Lorethane where he combined and had an army led by General Beowulf. Wielding the powerful and compelling Sword of Alvinitar the fearless Barbarian leader ordered his eight brigades (7 naturals) to attack the two brigades of Elven defenders led by Marshall Glorin on turn #5. Uncaring or unknowing about the Elven wizards supporting Marshall Glorin and perhaps informed about the First Elven group who was in ambush he issued the standard battle plan and combat began. Out numbered four to one the brave Elven soldiers fought courageously and wisely and the Elven wizards added to the effort with their spells. Avoiding the fierce Barbarian infantry the Elven group withdrew early suffering about 400 losses; the loathsome invaders lost approximately 3,800 troops and their meager adept. Such is the lot for those who would challenge the archers and cavalry of the Elven in the forest. Having already decided to risk all, Beowulf order the attack on Lorethane where the gallant city garrison inflicted major damage on these vile invaders. The battle report indicated additional Barbarian losses of 3 brigades. Though the loss of the Elven capital Lorethane was deeply felt, there was some joy in the 5 brigades of unbathed and hated Barbarian dead. The loss of the Elven Prince Lorsus, 7th level agent Delta and 1st level agent Farsee will be mourned.

Turn #6 reflected the recapture of Lorethane (the loathsome Barbarians had fled), the acquisition of Oakendell by the Elves, the denigration of the Elves in Oakendell by the Barbarian, and continued activity in support of the Barbarian by the Sorcerer politicals.

Turn #7 had the Sorcerer denigrate us the Oakendell and declare us an enemy, more of my PC's lost to Barbarian groups and both Barbarian and Sorcerer politicals. The Barbarian lost control of the Northern Mists.

Turn #8: more PC's lost, the arrival of the persistent First Barbarian at my new island capital, and the arrival of the newly combined Fourth Elven Army at the Sorcerer capital of Viperhead where the Sorcerer had the 1st Sorcerer with 4 brigades and three wizards plus the 3rd Sorcerer with a single brigade. Surely he did not think he would go unpunished?

Turn #9: the Barbarian again took my capital (undefended except for the town garrison) which relocated to Lorethane and lost two brigades in the effort (making a total of 7 brigades taking my capitals plus losses at other PC's). I lost one more political and yet another agent. He will certainly soon gain my full attention. My Fourth Elven destroyed the 3rd Sorcerer while the 1st Sorcerer avoided combat due to poor communications on my leaders' part. My controlled PC's continue to dwindle and I lost control of Oakendell.

Turn #10: Marshall Glorin led the Fourth Elven to glorious victory against the 1st Sorcerer destroying the group with its three wizards and began the siege of Viperhead. The Barbarian took yet another of my towns and lost yet another brigade.

As we await Turn #11 perhaps we can muse over the mixed results. I have lost many emissaries, twice lost my capital, have lost many PC's plus the region twice, yet have the best troops and wizards in the two region area. The Barbarian has lost over 9 brigades, his region, leaders, and his adept. The Sorcerer has lost his highest level agent (a 10th), some emissaries, 5 brigades, at least 3 wizards and soon his capital. Did I mention that there is a lot of action that has taken place in the 7 turns I have played and there is much activity elsewhere in Alamaze that I will leave to others to report.

 

Game 306, Gnome
Patrick Vanbeek

Turn 6, 3/1

With six turns completed only regions remain uncontrolled: 5 and 9. Otherwise, it's Elf in 1 (Turn 3), Barbarian in 2 (5), Dwarf in 3 (6), Westman in 4 (5), Urik in 6 (2), Gnome in 7 (3), Giant in 8 (3), and Nomad in 10 (3). The Giant, with a little help from me, has almost completely destroyed the Warlock, though 3 of his wizards still survive. All of his wizards were in groups when they were de-stroyed yet he did not cast "Self Invisible" or "Guarded Attack". The Darkelf is in the same desperate situation as his teammate, hammered by the Paladin alliance. The Urik has decided that the Swampmen are a menace and have almost eliminated them. That is not all the Urik is up to; he has taken it upon himself to decimate the Halfling and the Dwarf, but with 22 brigades it shouldn't be tough. It appears that the Elf and the Barbarian are about to go to war. The Ranger and I are currently after the Westman. As far as Status Points are concerned, the current leaders are UR first and GN and NO tied for second. The artifacts have stayed relatively hidden so far. It appears that the urik team is doing well for being underdogs. In fact, we control the High Council with three members on it. The team to watch for seems to be the Giant team as they grow stronger with each turn. I would like to thank the Westman for all the colorful cards he has been sending me.

 

Oracle Reviews

The intent here is to bring to light books, magazines, etc. that may be of interest to our gaming community. This column is not the exclusive province of the editor; any one of you have read useful, fun, or entertaining material that pertain to the worlds of fantasy. Computer game reviews are also sought.

In a used bookstore I once found Warriors and Weapons of Early Times, by Niels M. Saxtorph. This color-plated, copiously illustrated delight covers from Egypt of 3000 BC to Europe of the 17th C. The 130 pages of colored illustrations of the armour and weapons on soldiers and leaders (not combat scenes) provides a real sense of size and design. The remaining 110 pages of text, with some ink illustrations, attempts a basic discussion of history, tactics, and strategy. With such a broad sweep this is not a detailed analysis of battles or techniques, but rather an overview showing development toward the mechanized warfare of guns and machines. For example, in his description of the Macedonians, he writes, "This army used the tactics of combined operations. The phalanx was always placed in the middle to threaten and contain the enemy's centre, while the heavy cavalry attacked on both flanks. It was usually the king himself who led the left wing of the horse." Mr. Saxtorph presents a more than creditable introduction to the complex topic. For those of you who yearn for more details of military strategy and tactics, try the famous Fifteen Decisive Battles in the History of Mankind, by the 19th C. historian Edward S. Creasy.