From the Mouth of Sauron Date: 03-01-97 Issue: E-47 Note: all authors retain exclusive rights to their material. Reprinting is allowed for non-commercial game use only. The Mouth is edited by Brian Mason and Tom Walton. All correspondence can be sent to them at: Brian Mason - mason@chara.gsu.edu Tom Walton - crazymax@rio.com Back issues of "From the Mouth of Sauron" and the general info files are available at chara.gsu.edu via anonymous ftp. First Word ========== Greetings fellow players! Just a couple of brief mentions before we get to the LONG OVERDUE issue #47. 1. I still have people sending me corrections to the general info files (which I encourage and appreciate). Generally, when a new issue comes out a new version of the general info files is made which reflects these changes and additions. The general info files are available at the ftp site (see above). While I often get changes or corrections, I rarely get additions. Take a look at the dragon and regular encounter lists and see if you can fill in any blank spots. I know there are groups and individuals out there who jealously guard their lists. Let's put Free Speech in action here! 2. A policy recently instituted by GSI is email confirmation of turns. This is as good as a return receipt on postal mail, and for the paranoid among us (what's that behind me???) it is a appreciate and welcome bit of customer service. Now, people like me who write out turn reports but forget to hit the "send" button (stupid, stupid, stupid) won't get special serviced. That's it. On with the issue! Brian Mason In Your Ear =========== From Jeff Hyde -------------- I have an interesting twist to your query about how to deal with neutral players and what is fair or not. First, neutral players may not join with more than one other neutral. This is how GSI attempts to avoid neutrals 'ganging-up' on one side or another. Second, if everyone on one side or another comes across as a jerk, there is no reason why they should be forced to play with them. That is unless you agree with my suggestion below. My recent experience is a little different than what you describe in the latest issue of the Mouth. I joined a 2950 game that is now in about Turn 13. Around Turn 9, my side, the Dark Servants, discovered that two of the neutral players were friends with players on the Free People team. Friends through playing together in another game. As you would expect, when they realized they were all in the same game, their choice was made as to which side they would play. (They did not know they would be playing together before the game started.) This gave them a huge advantage. They immediately began downgrading, plotting strategies, coordinating artifact hunts and providing information to the Free Peoples. They got to be a team that starts with 12 players instead of 10! On top of this one of them unscrupulously pretended to be our friend and deceived us into thinking he was going to join our side. We were very stupid and sent him some production. I was quite surprised when one of his armies showed up at my backup capital! His other neutral cohort was more honorable with us and told us from the beginning that he did not know which side he was going to choose and therefore did not attempt to form a friendship with anyone on our team. Fortunately, one of the other neutrals was stupid, insulted both sides by sending a message intended for the Free to the Dark and vice versa, and dropped early. The other two neutrals, upon being told what happened decided to join us. They said they did not want to play with people who play that way. There are enough headaches in the world to worry about. They don't need to add playing a game with people who falsely pretend to be your friend to that list. Anyway, we encountered a situation where the cards were stacked in one sides favor from turn 1. In addition to knowing they had a team of 12 instead of 10 to start the game, they could concentrate their efforts on negotiating with 3 neutral nations instead of 5. They could also sweeten the pot, offering those remaining 3 neutrals a better deal to join their side. Lucky for us that they were jerks and said they would not talk to the neutrals until they joined. Otherwise it's 15 vs. 10. Money and time wasted. Start a new game. The point to this story is that this is a problem that will happen more and more often as time passes. The more people that play MEPBM, the easier it gets to communicate via e-mail, the more people are going to get to know each other through the game. Not everyone will gain satisfaction, like you do, by playing against their friends. Instead the lowest common denominator, greed, will take over and people will realize they have an unfair advantage and exploit it. Perhaps to avoid situations like the one described above, GSI should enforce a 3/2 rule. The first 3 neutrals to choose a side get to play with that side, the remaining 2 are forced to play the other. This would force the neutrals to take a more active role in deciding which way to go. They could not just sit back and wait. If they wait too long, they get stuck playing with the jerks. And who wants that? Any comments or suggestions? From Jeffrey Combes ------------------- Brian, I just finished reading "The Last Word" and here what happened in my first game (ME 1650 #232, a team game, I was alone). I was Harad and at the beginning of the game I let both sides know I wanted to stay neutral as long as I could, at least till turn 10. I would be making my decision based on which side communicated and cooperated the best. I started talking with the Corsairs and Rhudaur almost immediately and established good dialogue with them. I entered a non-aggression pact with the Corsairs. The Duns went FP on turn 1 and after some negotiations Rhudaur and the Corsairs followed on turn 3. Then everyone found out that the Easterlings had dropped. I stood by my stand to stay neutral, still hoping to get more familiar with the ME rules and orders. I even left several ports, so as not to give the impression that I was going DS. But never the less the Corsairs, Noldo, Cardolan, Sinda, and SG decided that it would be a better game if I was DS, so they attacked on turn 7. Rather then a good game I m pretty sure they just wanted to increase their victory points and taking my PC s would be easy. Sounds familiar doesn't it? Scott and I had planned the same thing for the Harad if they didn't go FP. The difference being we basically gave Harad an ultimatum, where the FP in game 232 just decided to attack. My initial inclination was to go FP, cut a deal with the DS to leave me alone, in exchange for Harad gold, supplies, and information. Then I would use my characters and small armies to annoy and disrupt the FP at every opportunity. Without the FP ability to militarily move against me and the DS agreeing not to, I believe I could have easily finished in the top 3 of the Free if they won or been the last Free if the DS managed to win. But this was my first game and I wanted to gain experience in all aspects including military battles. Do you know of anyone ever trying this tactic before? If so did it work? The point of this message being, I think that unprovoked attacks on a neutral "just to make the game more even" is sickening. Granted an even game is a better game, but to attack a potential ally just to make it so is too illogical for me. When Scott and I were planning our attack on Harad I thought about the benefits of taking the 8 Harad PC s north of the river. With that economic boost I would have been a good bet to finish in the top 3. But I won't do what happened to me just to win the game. Jeff of SG From Gian Giacoppe ------------------ Brian, I was faced with a very similar situation in an earlier game, as the Harad player, the DS team was making all kinds of tactical errors (this was a grudge game) and not coordinating their efforts. I was in contact with both sides, and eventually (well turn 7 or 8) changed my icon to the lightbulb. (I however, sent $$ to BOTH sides before declaring) The freeps made better contact etc. with me throughout the turns 3-5. However, in game 251, my main complaint from the start has been the lack of a LR player, I happen to think that GSI has an obligation to fill both sides with players before starting a game. The LR address was unfunctional (is that a word ?) from turn 1 - hence GSI SHOULD HAVE KNOWN or at least had a duty to inquire as to the existence of a player. This is my basic problem with the game (GSI matched sides equally - many of our players used winner's certs for the positions). The upshot? I have not proposed that any neutral go DS for play balance, (despite my prior experience as the Harad - in fact, they DS team sent me copies of there turnsheets) I have said that minus a LR player, and with 1 of 4 neutrals on our side, we will lose. 14-10 is given the fact that you know how to play, losing odds, and given those odds, I'd rather waste my money on beer or a new game. (and would therefore drop) 14-11 is highly unlikely, but since you have agreed to give the LR player a breather (OK a standing 8 count - imagine his tax rate after 5 turns of SS ) We have decided to pretty much stick it out. Our team has begun serious efforts to talk to neutrals, (rather than the elect a team member to talk to each one individually- a plan which does not work) but I for one have received no response whatsoever from either the Duns or Eaterlings, and and this early in the game I am personally amazed at the ability of you to command such a loyalty from them. (as Sartre would say "hats off") I have sent what I figure are info-filled notes worthy of at least a "thank you". (I've even received no response to a "what would it take?" kind of message - geez what did you promise? - vital organs for transplant?) If we were interested in being "poor sports" we could all drop, and transfer enough cash and PC's to someone to finish in the top three, but that couldn't be a neutral... b/c they have to declare to win, and the GSI program has the all drop flaw. (heck we considered dropping over the LR position, but b/c WE not GSI screwed up with the neutrals, WE take responsibility - GSI didn't even say "sorry" about the LR) And yes I started the whole scream at GSI mess... From Brian Lowrey ----------------- Hi Brian, Leaving town soon (Australia) so I will not be around for a while stirring things up. I will be monitoring the email but having Steve/Russ run my turns. I tell you this assuming it does not matter (The three of coordinate each and every turn completely anyway...) I enjoyed reading your closing comments in mouth_46. My frustration that recently came out in the flurry of e-mail to GSI I think primarily influenced by most if not all of my games since 97 having an incredible lack of competition or games decided by missing or dropped positions. From your closing comments it sounds like you may have been experiencing the same type of games. To bad this can be a great game, it just seems to be the exception anymore (At least for me). I will not drop 251 until I see it as completely hopeless. I think the next few turns will tell a lot. Our team is working together better than we have for the first five turns I hope we have an opportunity to continue. To bad it could not be done sooner. I think a lot of the bad things that are happening to Mordor could have definitely been prevented with better communication. Hope 251 is still going when I return. Miscellaneous ============= From Ludicrous Wack ------------------- We have tried to set up a Middle Earth Chat channel, but to no avail. Our list of netheads is too short to reach a good portion of people on IRC. Do you know of any chat sessions concerning Middle Earth Play By Mail? You can catch us on stlouis.mo.us.dal.net; port 7000; #Wack OR warnerbros.com; port 6667; #babylon5 Have a bot that I am retooling again and want to put it up for a fileserve and riddle/encounter/general info purposes. Any comments can be directed to: Reverend Ludicrous Wack azalan@hargray.com From Andrew Jones ----------------- All, Anyone out there in ME1650-257? Know anyone who is? Has anyone ever reliably determined which army a dragon joins when it is recruited? Largest? Highest morale? Highest command rank? Combination of the above? I've looked several places and cannot find a definitive answer. From Henning Rindbeak --------------------- I am a new player in mepbm (ca.40 turns) and i have been using your info file for the 1650 scenario heavily. I have some minor corrections for the 1650 info file. In section 1.17 the QA armies have a morale of 30 (all of them) In Section 2.03 Starting pop.center summary 0811 Zagrragathol Village Tower owned by the dwarves is missing. In the sections of encounters at the Vampire encounter (i think it is 4.23): The free people option flee did not lead to the escape of my noldo commander emissary and she was sucked dry by Celgor (it was at Minas Ithil). I now that you has written that it often leads to the character surviving with one wound. But not always. I don't now if it is because Celgor cant stand to leave a noldo beauty alive or it was just a coincident. 1.07 Southern Gondor Baranor is a 30 mage not commander. 1.14 Cloud Lord Ji Indur has a base challenge of 52 not 62 (but it is better with a to high challenge than a to low :-)). 3.07 Neutral Combat Artifacts 85 Navron +500 belongs to Southern Gondor and not the northern tyrants (guess who i am playing :-)) These data is from a rather old issue (about one year) so they may not be valid anymore. From Scott ? ------------ I can't stress enough the importance of the uncover order. Among other things, it reveal the SNAs a nation purchased. Encounters ========== From Fred Young --------------- I recently started ME-PBM, one year ago. I have been recently reading the back issues of the Mouth. In Mouth 15, you stated that graveyard encounters do not affect dark servant armies. This is just not true. In a game I am currently in as the Long Rider, I had the below encounter. As we crossed an ancient graveyard last night, the ground seemed to erupt with the dead! Rotting bodies, Skeletons, and Ghosts streamed out of their graves and attacked the troops. Cries of pain were echoed by the haunting cries of anguish emitted by these Spirits as they cleaved and swung and grappled with our ranks. Just as we thought we had driven them off, a new onslaught of rotting bodies climbed out of our baggage train and renewed the fight. It was long into the night before we were able to cease the battle and count our losses. Not only did we lose troops, but our food supplies were totally destroyed! This happened to an army that did not move or have anyone join it. All I did this turn was recruit troops. The direct result was a loss of 156 of my 500HC in ST/ST. I only had 1 food in the army. Tom's reply: please note that you referred to the encounter information in Mouth 15 (!) which was published a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. GSI sometimes tinkers with and changes the encounters, hence our plea for updates when you see something that doesn't jive with the information files. It could very well be that the encounter info was right on target when Mouth 15 was produced, but that the encounter itself has been altered since that time. From Fred Young --------------- Most people have never even seen the dragon GOSTIR. I have had this encounter 3 out of 4 consecutive turns. I can't shed any light as to how to recruit it yet. I have only had the encounter with characters I can't afford to lose at this time in the game. I plan to move expendable characters in the same areas that I encountered him to try to learn more on recruiting. I acted MEEK in all three circumstances and walked away completely healthy. I had this encounter in rows 4 and 7 in the Iron Hills area in 3 separate hexes. And Another from Fred --------------------- For readers of the Mouth and Fourth Age Fanatics in Particular. I had the following random encounter with a 73 Mage with a 113 Challenge rank, I was not looking for an artifact in this hex. Pukel-creature Encounter: Character was hastening to take cover from a sudden and unseasonal storm when he came across an overgrown (or perhaps hidden!) path. Daring the unexpected opportunity as a welcome respite from the foul weather, he followed the path, finding it to be both narrow and broken. After a brief but difficult trek, he was relieved to enter the small, hidden cave found at the path's end. To his surprise, the cave provided not only shelter from the weather but also an interesting discovery. In the center of the cave was an oblong block of dark stone, engulfed in a faint transparent blue light that covered the entire surface. Upon the stone lay something that did not shine, but attracted his attention nonetheless. The cave seamed almost to be calling him. He couldn't tell what it was, and certainly the item there was a powerful artifact, he thought, but how might one breach the possible protections? attack PHYSICALLY to drive off any guardians attack MAGICALLY to dispel any wards Creep forward silently and REMOVE the item from the stone block Leap forward and STEAL the item from the stone block WAIT and see if the shimmering light goes out Declare your ALLEGIANCE Say___________(only one word) FLEE How will character react? (Choose any reaction shown in all CAPS or provide info requested in parenthesis. If no reaction is given, he will be assumed to have chosen "FLEE".) I stated one word (COLBRAN), this is the type of Pukel creature from the Creatures book in Middle Earth Role Playing. The outcome was combat, i.e. wrong answer. In the presence of the intimidating magical power, Character stood forth and proclaimed, "Colbran." Suddenly the chamber trembled, and the light went out, and he felt that he was ill- equipped to carry out his original plan of action. He stumbled, indecisively, and then slowly he became aware that the light was returning and he found himself a mere handswidth from the stone block. As he was just about to reach the valuable artifact and hail the lack of any apparent guardian, Character suddenly realized that where the stone block used to be, standing between himself and the artifact, was a towering Pukel-creature, originally the creation of the Druedain and the Daen Coentis. Only his lightning-like reflexes, reflected in a backward leap, saved him from the first swift and deadly attack - a ball of lightning aimed at his head! If that had landed, the fight would already be over. He reviewed his tactics quickly, circling the enchanted creature and casting spell after spell that seemed to have no effect. But it seemed that the creature was likewise unable to injure him. Finally, he realized that the glow of the creature was beginning to dim. Suddenly, he cast an inspired spell which surrounded the weakened manlike being. He watched in awe as the dim glow finally extinguished - the sign of its final death. I got a whopping ONE point to mage rank, no artifact!!! As a side note: One week prior in a different Fourth Age game I had same encounter with a 45 Emmy, I stated ELBERETH, which is a holy word. This response went to combat also, character died. I don't know of anyone winning against this and thought everyone would like to know this encounter may not be worth the effort, at least when you defeat the Werewolf Caran-carach or some other creature encounter you get a bonus to one rank and some gold. I can prentice magery and do as well as this without the possibility of dying. From Scott ? ------------ One of my characters, upon receiving the results of the first turn, has stumbled across the Ruins of Vamag. Some spirits attacked her, and she got away with wounds. So, tip for Free players: Stay away from old DS ruins until we get more info. Yes, Brian, it specifically mentioned the Ruins of Vamag by name. And to answer the unspoken question, no, there were no abandoned forts there. Just an encounter at 2135. [Also from Scott....] I had this encounter in a 2950 game. He has found the terrain difficult for the past few days. This area is known as the Dead Marshes and for good reason. It seems as if nothing could live in the fetid atmosphere which surrounds him day after day. During one of his night's wet camps, the hair on his body suddenly stood erect as ghostly Spirits and vague and nebulous shapes entered his camp. He began to ready himself for battle, but something soothing calmed his nerves. Now that he thought about it, the Spirits were beckoning more than threatening. He cautiously began to follow until a quagmire stopped him. As the Spirits continued to prompt him, he fought down his fear and began to dig. Soon he uncovered a small box which held precious jewels and gems. As he retrieved the treasure, the Spirits seemed to smile and to fade away. Later, the jewels and gems were appraised at 10000 gold pieces. It was sent to the capital. [The character is question was a Dark Servant.] From Lawrence Tilley -------------------- Brian, this message from Mike Sankey may be of interest for the Mouth. ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Laurence - I seem to remember some time ago you were doing some research into what army a recruited Dragon will join. Did you ever come to any conclusion? I have just had a Dragon (Smaug) recruited in game 86 - it did not join the army I expected. It joined an army that had the lowest number of troops, the worst equipment, the second highest command rank, the lowest morale? The only thing I can put my finger on is that the army had the most food! Any ideas? Here's more: Laurence: Have done some more checking on the Dragon encounter I told you about. The army commander who got the Dragon wasn't the highest command rank but he did have the highest total of net ranks (in this case command + agent). Could this throw any more light on it? And yet more: This is Kim Andersen quoting me: ================================ Dear Laurence and others >Try this formula: The recruited dragon goes to the commander >with the highest net ranks, so it would go to a C40 A15 rather >than a C50. Yes, Amazingly....The Rhd commander, which Lomaw >joined had the highest overall skill, but NOT the best command >rank !!! >Does this fit your experience? Well, David Williams once told me that Dragons either join: 1) The capital army 2) The largest army (in size) or 3) The best commander But it looks like we have to alter that rule, now doesn't it !!! Instead of best commander it should be best overall commander. Im quite sure Dragons does not always join the best overall commander. So Williams formula seems quite realistic. WKs two dragons joined both the best overall commander and the largest army. =============================== From Bill Mahan --------------- I am currently playing in a 2950 scenario/Game #56 for the Free Peoples. A character of mine had an encounter with Angurth the dragon. All information that I could find indicated that a result would be combat. My character's challenge rank is 132, but most likely not high enough to kill a dragon. I decided to offer him ONE artifact, since no one seemed to know what the result would be, and received the following result: Looking up at the Dragon, he posed his words carefully. "Angurth, I have come to ask you, the noblest of Dragons, to join our battle. As incentive, I offer to you any artifact I own!" Angurth looked up as he heard the offer, and his words were almost lost in laughter. "An artifact! You dare to offer ME a measly artifact! You deserve to die...!" Angurth looked sneeringly down at the warrior before him. It would be fun to slaughter this puny warrior, he thought. The Dragon watched as the warrior launched an all out attack against what he believed to be the Dragon's weakest points. Suddenly, a fiery breath hit the warrior with stunning force. Giant talons spun him around and the whipping tail struck him again and again. Angurth laughed as his opponent fell to the ground gasping for breath and writhing in pain. "So fall all of my enemies," he whispered and flaming lances of fire pierced the warrior's body. As his enemy fell, Angurth turned with satisfaction and left the scene. It was only some hours later that the warrior regained consciousness and, although gravely wounded, he was able to flee the scene. I would assume that this might fall into a result of injured/killed. Hopefully this will help your records. From Todd Stewart ----------------- For the Generic Dragon Lair encounter. My dwarf emissary was killed when she CLAIM ed the treasure. Perceived Problems with the 4th age scenario ============================================ By Darrell Shimel This title is entitled perceived problems, because I've never actually played this scenario. I am however, trying to put together a team as I write. I have noted several possible problems, and would love to have people tell me I'm wrong. Of course, the 4-8 month waiting list for good teams would tend to confirm my first two points. 1) Character imbalance toward the Good. I well coordinated Freep team can easily start the game with better characters then the DS or Neutral. If one nation is elves, one dwarves, and one men the team can start with good (cheaper) commanders, mages and emissaries. The DS can only get agents and emissaries. It may seem only slightly unfair that the Freeps can get a discount on three character types but DS only get 2. If you examine training issues, this problem is much worse than initial impression. Mages are hard to train at any time of the game. The difference between a 50 and a 60 mage is about 5 prentice magery orders. That is an eternity in MEPBM. Add on the extra starting spell, and this is very significant. In the early game, commanders will likely be preforming orders which do not receive training. Relation change, recon, tax rate change, Post Camp, fortify pop. are all going to be very important in the early game. While the 50 commander is as good as a 60 for most of these orders, the extra 10 points will really help the Post Camp. This could have a long lasting effect on the game. The difference between a 50 agent and a 60 agent is one and a half steal gold orders from a nearby neutral camp or village. Remember, in this game, they won't know that agent "John Smith" who stole gold form their camp is from Nation X. It would take some work to find out who to be angry at. All alliances have access to cheap 60 emissaries, so no imbalance there. Actually, there is a slight disadvantage to the Freeps. Since they will have fewer nations selecting human, they will have fewer nations with 60 emissaries. The difference between a 50 and a 60 emissary is 2 create camps. Since this is something you will likely be doing anyway, the disadvantage is very small. 2) Artifact hunting imbalance toward the good. Since the Freeps have better Mages, they have better locates. Better Commanders and Mages means better challenge ranks to defeat those encounters which protect many of the artifacts. If the Dwarves or Elves save SNA's for artifacts, they'll most likely get a combat artifact. This would practically ensure a challenge rank sufficient to hunt artifacts. 3) Pop. Center conflicts A recent WotW article, now posted on GSI's web pages, discusses capital placement. Before reading this article, I spent some time studying the map. I identified about 7 places I'd like to put a capital. The article listed 10 locations, and 5 of my 7 were included. I'm sure others could see the same advantage to my locations that I saw. If I list only three locations and they're all taken, where does my capital go? Certainly, more than 5 or 10 good locations exist, but there are not an abundance of "Very Good" locations. Let's say that experience shows that 10 sites are "very good". We are a pretty well connected bunch. The word of these locations will spread quickly, and the requests for these locations will skyrocket. If I only list three "very good" sites, it becomes very likely they'll all be taken by others. Example: If 5 people select the woods on the Rhun sea (Defensible, map skewing, mountain island, decent weather, etc.), four will be bumped to their secondary choices. Certainly a couple of them would have selected the mountains near 4435 for similar reasons. That location will most likely be taken by nations that selected it as their primary choice. Do you always put a third choice as an average location, that nobody is likely to want, so that you don't "randomly" get a really sucky location. In a team game, it would be nice to place your capital in relation to your teammates. Everyone lists their primary choice. If anyone gets bumped to their secondary choice, then everyone gets bumped. The current process is sucks. Let's say that we're selecting the Rhun sea as our home area. If I get bumped from my primary choice, my secondary would have to be 10 hexes away. The third location would have to be 10 hexes from both of the first two. Try finding three good sites, each 10 hexes apart, in an area that small. Now imagine a team of 4 people all trying to select 3 locations 10 hexes apart, and 4 hexes from each of other's. If I don't get my primary location, it was because someone from outside the team got into the area. Because we all selected sites close to each other, it is likely several sites will be bumped. Several teammates could find themselves randomly assigned, if that is how GSI does it. Like I said, these are just my impressions. I hope to be proved wrong. Reply from Brian Mason ---------------------- Darrell, Thanks for the article. This will be for issue #47 which Tom and I have scheduled for just after xmas. [Tom's note: okay, so it's almost Easter. Close enough.] Just a couple of comments. I've played in one FA game (playtest) and am starting another. Point 1: I've always felt agents and emmies were the best two character classes, so, IMHO, the DS are getting discounts on the two "primo" classes while the FP only get one and the two lesser classes. Also, it is relatively easy to "ramp up" a commanders skill rank fast. Just have him as subcommander in an army and have the army commander issue ArmyMan while he/she does TrpsMan. I think mages are the bigger issue as they are so hard to train. Remember, though. the various nations are not PREVENTED from having a 60 rank character of any type - it just cost more. I think the agent factor makes this a bit of a wash. Point 2: No argument here. Point 3: I've selected "not as good" sites, simply so I can be in a not so busy area. I've often considered developing in the top couple of rows (promise, didn't do it in 251), just to get away from everybody (despite the hit you take in production). However, in every "mock" nation I've designed for the 4th age I've included Capital Insurance. It's expensive, but what sort of nation you design is often part of your location. Where you are is too important for random chance. Thanks for the submission and your thoughts! In regards 251: Quite frankly, I'm glad that certain members of my team (who shall remain nameless) managed to botch diplomacy and a few crucial orders (esp w/ respect to you). We had a pretty good advantage for a bit, but this has leveled the playing field. Rookie Mistakes to be Avoided in MEPBM ====================================== by Darrell Shimel I'm quite disappointed with the lack of content in recent issues of the Mouth. In a past article, I tried to start some controversy over "Determining Winners in MEPBM." Unfortunately, this effort was sabotaged by an editor who wrote a supplementary article. The person playing SG in 2950-48 would do well to read this article. [Tom's note: sabotaging efforts is one of the substitutes for actual pay when doing the editorial gig.] Now I'll try to solicit input on a topic that I could really use. Here is a list of rookie mistakes that I have made (or seen made). I hope others will add items, so that I can avoid them. I'm not talking about the simple, "missed a mailing date", "wrote a number incorrectly", or "missed a required information". These are concept errors. 1) Troops eat after they transfer armies. 1st army 3000 troops, 5000 food. 2nd army 6000 troops, 17000 food. I transferred 5900 troops form army 2 to army 1, then tried to execute full movement. The army didn't arrive at its expected location, because the troops transferred before eating. When time came for movement, they had no food. 2) I'm not sure how many times I saw this stressed, but I still misunderstood it. Artifacts effect the chance of success, but not the result. A 20(35) commander will NamComm a 20 commander, not a 30. 3) This one is almost too stupid to include, but I actually did it. NatTrans can only be done to one of your pop. centers. Don't try to NatTran directly to an allies pop. center. 4) Gold transfers come at the end of the turn, but costs must be paid up front. Don't expect a gold transfer from an ally, to pay your bills on the turn that it is made. You'll be bankrupt with gold in the bank. 5) Don't assume that a powerful enemy character in your capital has something better to do than challenge that emissary you just named. You'll end up with an empty character slot, and Cirdan will get some cheap training that will come back to bite you later. 6) If you have overwhelming force on an enemies capital, are about to take them out of the game, and they have a small army with a commander better than yours, expect a challenge. Refusing might even be a good idea. 7) The converse of this is also true. When an enemy has a coupe of powerful armies on your capital, and you have an army with a potential challenger, don't assume they'll refuse and attack. They may attack and move to your backup, causing the situation described in 6) above. All for me this time, I hope to see items I can learn from. Last Word ========= From Tom Walton This Mouth is *late* - so late, in fact, that a good many people thought it had up and died. In a sense I guess it did for awhile, as, quite frankly, I had little interest in publishing it. Well, after something of a break the interest has been rekindled and the Mouth will go back to a two-week schedule (I know, I know, I've said that before; but this time I mean it - trust me!). If there's an obvious lack of material, a note will go out telling the subscribers that there isn't enough stuff to warrant a new Mouth and that that issue will be skipped. That's all I have this time round.