Llucky Llama Gazette Issue #1 From: llucky@crl.com (Bob Thomson) Date: Fri, 22 Jul 1994 03:11:25 +0000 The Llucky Llama Gazette Issue 1, June 1994 Welcome to Llucky Llama Games! Thank you for trying You Rule!, our first game here at Llucky Llama Games. We would like to take this opportunity to tell you a little about ourselves. Bob, thirty-six years of age, has been playing play-by-mail games since 1983. His dream for the last ten years has been to write his own PBM game. Debbie, twenty-three, had never heard of PBM until she met Bob in 1992, but she has always wanted to run her own company. We make a perfect match. Bob does the majority of the programming while Debbie handles most of the business aspects of the company. We both have strong backgrounds in computer programming and games. Bob has been programming since 1979, and Debbie began in 1987. We are avid bridge players and also have an extensive library of board games. Bob enjoys strategy and war games of all types while Debbie prefers card games and role playing games. We live in the beautiful and peaceful seaside town of Half Moon Bay, California up near San Francisco with our three cats. Currently we have a business applications consulting business in addition to Llucky Llama Games. We are also eagerly anticipating the birth of our first child in mid-August. When Bob first started programming You Rule! in early 1993, he decided to use the Pick operating system. Since he has been programming in Pick since 1981, he knows the environment extremely well. Since it is a database-oriented operating system, it is perfectly suited to a PBM application. We have all of the game files as well as related programs such as accounting and label printing on our trusty '386-33 who we call Dr. Glitch. Because of the way Pick works, we can hook several terminals up to Dr. Glitch, and different people can be working on different programs or accounts at once with no system speed problems. We at Llucky Llama want you to enjoy playing our games. We are happy to answer any questions you may have. You can reach us at just about any time of the day from 6:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. If we are not available, leave your phone number, and someone will get back to you as soon as possible. If you and a group of friends want to arrange a special private game, let us know. We'll work with you to try to arrange the type of game you want. If you would like to see us offer a certain type of game, contact us. We can advertise it in the Gazette and run it when we get enough people. In conclusion, we'd like to thank you for trying You Rule!. We hope you enjoy the Llucky Llama experience! - Debbie and Bob Thomson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You Rule! Strategy Guide Initially, it is important for you to expand from the starting province. Once a small group of provinces has been taken, the resources must be improved to enable enough troops to be trained to defend the land. Economics must also be considered, as gold seems to be the most limiting resource early on. Castles can be built to protect from enemy attack, but they are expensive. Doctors and accountants are very useful early on, as they are the key to improving income. It is important to think ahead, as commodities must be in a province before troops can be trained there. As the kingdom grows, gold becomes less of a limiting factor. It is possible to train other characters to improve resource production and to build weapons and armor. It is also useful to build a network of roads across the kingdom to facilitate rapid troop movement. Since the center of the kingdom is immune to attack (unless a portal opens up) it should focus on resource and troop production. Border provinces which are the sites of multiple battles are quickly exhausted of their resources and population which can make them hard to defend. It seems that a relatively aggressive style of play works well, provided a few turns are spent primarily improving infrastructure and production. A wide range of terrain types is very important, as each different creature type rules over another. Enemy forces have a much harder time against a creature type which rules over them. -- by Patrick Truman ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ask Llucky Dear Llucky, What the heck is the difference between a standard game and a fast-start game? - Confused Dear Confused, I'm glad you asked that question. In a standard game you discover the other players in the game when you meet them. In a fast-start game you will receive a list of all the players in the game with your first turn. We normally include your address, phone number and email address if we have them. Email games will normally be fast-start and we will only provide names and email addresses. Dear Llucky, Are there many llamas in Half Moon Bay? - Llama Lover Dear Lover, More than you would think. The recent llama race was headline news in the local paper. The winner didn't look so fast to me. I bet I can beat him next year. If you have a question for Llucky, write to the following address: Ask Llucky c/o Llucky Llama Games 80-Q N. Cabrillo Hwy. #226 Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Policy Explanations and Additions This section includes some more information about Llucky Llama Games policies. You may wish to make a note of the changes and additions on your copy of the House Rules. Changing your Code Name If you don't like the way we spelled your codename, or if we put an underline where you'd prefer a period, or if we just made something up for your codename, don't despair! We can change your codename to anything you'd like (4 to 10 characters long) if you tell us right away when you get your first turn. After that, it's impossible. You cannot, by the way, choose a codename for an anonymous game. Error Correction It is our policy to fix all players' Turn One errors if they are obvious. Obvious errors include syntax errors and incorrect force, character, or province names. We will not fix tactical errors such as not giving enough food to your forces before you send them off to battle. After the first turn, you're on your own. Dr. Glitch can fix some errors automatically. There are some things that are easy to fix and others that are impossible. If you say CH for Chain Mail instead of CM, Dr. Glitch will know what you mean. If you forget to mention the force number that you want to give orders to, you're in big trouble. If you receive an error that you think could be auto-fixed, let us know, and we'll see what we can do. Some errors are simply too difficult to auto-fix because of the way the program is written. We can't change the turn results, though, because retroactively fixing your mistake would be unfair to the other players. If we're the ones who made the mistake please let us know immediately so we'll have time to fix it. Running Turns Early If we happen to have everyone's turn in our hot little hands before the date the turn is due, we will run your game early. The next turn would be due two weeks from the day we ran the turn. A turn will never be due on Sunday or a postal holiday, however. An Irritating Disclaimer Llucky Llama Games reserves the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time. $105 for $100 Several players have taken advantage of our offer for $105 in game credit when you send us $100. When you think about it, it's a better rate of interest than your checking account! Capturing Provinces - A Clarification The most misunderstood set of rules in the playtest had to be the rules about capturing provinces. Capturing provinces also happens to be one of the most important aspects of the game, so we thought it was important to discuss it further. This is how it works: It will take either one or two turns of successful battle to gain owner- ship of a province. A neutral province only takes one turn to conquer. A province belonging to another player takes one turn to conquer if there are no defending forces. If there are one or more forces defending, no matter how small, the province will be driven neutral instead of being captured. This means, among other things, that if you leave a force with one troop in a province, you deny that province to your enemy for one extra turn. On the other hand, if you let the population defend you might well have a good chance of maintaining control of the province, especially later in the game when populations are large. This is a very important tactical decision and not one that you should make accidentally. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You Rule! Game Two Results Are Here! The first official game of You Rule! to finish was Game Two of the playtest. The winning alliance was Dave Saville and David Ondzes. They outlasted the opposition alliance of David desJardins and Brett Bakke despite having a lower score. The final scores of the game appear in the next column. Starkaad and Trenchant stopped playing early. Toughy was severely handicapped by a loss of net access for several turns. This left the Cicero- desJ alliance to conquer the north while Drax, Oscar and Seidl took over the south. The first major battle of the war occurred in the Organic Hills, a province with a castle and the Shrine of Doom. Oscar opened a portal from the Universal Hills while desJ swept down the east coast. The battle between the alliances raged back and forth, mostly over Seidl's territory. In the north, Cicero grabbed neutral province after neutral province while desJ bore the brunt of the battle. Finally, after Seidl had been driven out of the game, desJ and Cicero surrendered the battlefield to Drax and Oscar. Congratulations to Dave Saville and David Ondzes! Ranking CodeName Player Score 1 Cicero Brett Bakke 256 2 Drax Dave Saville 223 3 desJ David desJardins 200 4 Oscar David Ondzes 153 5 Seidl Matthew Seidl 134 6 Toughy John LeLange 45 7 Starkaad Gary Pizl 42 8 Trenchant Mitch Gunzler 32 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We Need You! The purpose of this newsletter is to provide useful, interesting, or just plain fun information to You Rule! players. We need all of you to send in your articles, essays, thoughts, stories, magic item ideas, etc. We will make an effort to publish everything, but don't be discouraged if you don't see your submission in the next Gazette. It probably means there was not enough room. We will keep all submissions unless you send them with a self-addressed stamped envelope. Submissions by electronic mail are especially appreciated because it means we'll have to do less typing. Submissions will be edited for space considerations and may be edited for content. Send your brilliant treatises to the following address: Llucky Llama Gazette 80-Q North Cabrillo Hwy. #226 Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 Internet: llucky@crl.com CompuServe: 74044,325 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You Rule! Help Programs Available One of our playtesters, David Ondzes, has written some useful utilities for You Rule! The following is his announcement for his product: Attention mathematically challenged, motivationally challenged, and charter members of You Rule! Anonymous. I have developed some utility programs to maximize your You Rule! enjoyment. In addition, they will give you an advantage over your opponents. All the utilities that follow are targeted for the PC platform. If you desire the programs for other platforms (SunOS, Solaris, Ultrix, etc.) then maybe we can work something out. Battle Simulator This program will let you simulate You Rule! battles and will produce the exact same results! Have you ever wondered if it was better to make fifty shields instead of twenty-five swords but were too lazy or didn't have the time to figure out all the math? If so, then this is the ideal tool for you. A fellow playtester, David Saville, called it "an invaluable and wonderful tool." It is available in both MS-DOS and MS Windows formats. The MS-DOS program works off the command-line and prompts the user for all of the battle components. Its advantages are that you can run it on any MS-DOS machine and do not need to load Windows. It is especially good for those of us with outdated PCs. The MS Windows version features radio button choices and mouse control. The advantage here is that you can run multiple battles quickly since all surviving forces will be displayed on the screen. Turn Parser This program requires an ASCII version of your You Rule! turn. I would suggest getting an email copy from Llucky Llama instead of typing in your turn from the paper copy. The Turn Parser will read over your turn and store important information for use in the following programs. *** Accountant - This program will read an ASCII file that contains your orders for the following You Rule! turn, and it will figure out how much gold you have spent. It also has the side-effect of checking the syntax of your orders. *** other programs are possible, like commodity projections and displaying a province's maximum stockpiles after drops and saving up to date terrain info in one file. Please contact me for pricing and availability. Use email if possible since it is much faster. Bug fixes and minor upgrades are free if I can email them to you, or there might be a small charge to pay the cost of shipping. David Ondzes 4 Aspen Lane Merrimack, NH 03054 603-429-0281 dao@scribe.mitre.org These programs are completely owned by David Ondzes. Llucky Llama Games provides no warranty and is not responsible for any errors that may result from using the utilities. -- Llucky Llama Games Bob and Debbie Thomson 80-Q North Cabrillo Hwy. P.O. Box 226 (415) 712-0283 Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 llucky@crl.com Ask about You Rule!, the cool new strategy Play-By-Mail game. Up