Jimmer
Posts: 1968
Joined: 12/5/2007
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OK, we have seven. Now, I have to figure out how to host without playing. Unless I can't count, in which case we only have six. :)
Anyhow, the first thing to do is download the GAP (Game Assistance Program). It's available from the thread that's in the "pinned" threads section titled "Download the Game Assistance Program (GAP)". At last check, it was the bottom one. Erik Rutins started the thread.
Everybody grab a copy of that and install it. We'll do a couple of practice bidding rounds.
Before that, though, since this IS a tutorial, I'll explain how the bids work. Well, first, Victory Points (VPs) need explanation (get used to a spiderweb of rules layers -- it's what makes the game fun!)
VPs are earned once each quarter, in the economic phase. The number of VP earned is based upon the major power's current position in the Political Status Display (PSD). The attached picture shows the PSD at the start of the game. Look at Frances bar.
It shows that (were the econ phase happening right now), France would earn 9 VP.
The Political Status Adjustment (PSA) for France is -2. THis means that, after collecting VP, France will move two spaces to the left on the PSD.
Her Economic Loss Number is zero. This means there is no die to be rolled for potential loss of minor country control.
Finally, Frances current position is 31. You may notice the that table is numbered from zero through 39. The first group of 10 (zero through 9) are called the "Fiasco" zone. It has a red background, signifying a power in this zone is in big trouble. The next zone, numbers 10 through 19, is the "Instability" zone. A power in this zone can lose conquered minors. The "Normal" zone is next. The "Dominant" zone is the last one. The normal and dominant zones have no chance of losing minors. In fact, dominant status adds to the minor country control rolls that occur when someone declares war on a minor.
You may notice that the PSA numbers in the dominant zone are all negative numbers, and the PSA numbers in the fiasco and instability zones are all positive. This has the effect of migrating every power a little closer to the middle every turn. Of course, things never stay the same, but you can see that, if they DID stay the same, every power would end up in the middle area of the normal zone, collecting 7 VP per quarter.
Pay close attention to this display. Good players check it every turn. Excellent players check it nearly every phase, and they know what to do with the information. This is the heart and soul of the game.
Anyhow, all that was stated so you would know how VPs are collected (0 to 15 each quarter). Take a quick peek at the Victory Point Status display. The button for this is in the top row of small square buttons, 11th from the left. It shows that France needs 400 VP to win, GB 370, etc., down to Turkey needing only 315. To this is added the player's bid that was made for that nation.
So, if I had bid, say, 10 for Russia, then Russia would need 345 VP to win (335 normally, plus my bid of 10).
The game imposes a limit of 30 points to any bid. Furthermore, it is required that every bid made by a player is different from all the rest.
Typical bids among experts would be around 30 for France, 20 for GB and Russia, 10-15 for Austria, 5 for Spain, 2-3 for Prussia, and 1-2 for Turkey. At these levels any nation can win. For less experienced players, France, GB, and Russia should carry lower bids, as these nations are difficult to play, with a lot of opportunity to make mistakes that cost VP.
What the GAP program does is create a "bid file". You load the program, tell it you're a client (I'm going to be the host for these "games"), and enter your bids. To start with, just pick random numbers between 1 and 30, with none of them equalling any other. Or, pick 7,6,5,4,3,2,1 (although, don't EVERYBODY pick those, or the results will be quite boring). We'll all dump our bid files up to the TheArtOfWar google group, and then I'll run the compare routine. We'll do this a couple of times, so you can see how different bids stack up. It's straightforward in how it works, but it's like the rest of the game: Complex beyond what it appears to be at first glance.
For example, let's say you want to play France. Well, just bid 30, right? Sort of. IF you bid 30 for France, then the compare is done. BUT, remember that the bid for GB is resolved FIRST. So, what if you get GB instead, because you happened to bid high enough? Or, alternately, what if someone else has the same idea? (There's a roll-off.)
Nothing is guaranteed. Well, almost nothing. If you bid 30 for Prussia, you will almost certianly get it. But, you won't win the game. For ANY nation, bidding too high can cripple your chances of winning, simply because it increases the number of VP you must average in order to win.
In the board game, at the end of the game (when one major power crossed the "finish line" of VP), then all other MPs added in their current manpower totals (home nation and conquered minors only) to their VP total. This would sometimes cause them to also cross THEIR finish line. Thus, more than one player was likely to win.
The computer game does not work the same way. In the computer version, it's straight VPs all the way. In my games, though, I like to add in a house rule to match the original game rules, so that more than one or two players can win. It's a LONG game. Too long, in my opinion, to have six losers.
Anyhow, we'll do some bids, track the results, and see what that means for the various powers' ability to win. A good way to measure this is "average VPs needed per quarter to win". Using France as an example, and assuming the game goes the full 11 years, there are 44 economic phases. Let's say France's bid was 18. This means France needs 418 VPs to win, or 9.5 VPs per turn. Basically, France has to stay in the dominant zone the whole game (on average) in order to win.
Compare that to a bid for Turkey of, say, 1 point. Turkey needs 315+1=316 VPs to win, or ~7.2 per turn. Turkey can win the game just by staying in the middle of the PSD for the whole game, and also scores 8 8-pt turns! That's over 2 less than what France needed.
So, pick some numbers, enter them into the gap program, and let's see how they work (I'll post the results here). Post your bid files up to the group's files location.
 Attachment (1)
< Message edited by Jimmer -- 2/10/2008 8:36:51 PM >
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At LAST! The greatest campaign board game of all time is finally available for the PC. Can my old heart stand the strain?
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