DWPrep Players: The game is ready to begin.
Player assignments are above. Overall, it was a quite fortuitous draw, with only two players unable to get their first choice. Good luck to all!
Here are the rules:
1) The first deadline (Spring 1501) will be Thursday, January 8th at 10 pm USA eastern time. That is 10 days from now.
2) The game will have one week seasons. All orders are due at 10 pm USA eastern time. Here is the schedule:
Movement Phase (Fall/Spring): Thursday night
Retreat Phase (if necessary): Friday night
Adjustment Phase (Winter): Monday night
Confirmation/Reminder E-mail: Tuesday or Wednesday night
I will adjudicate orders the same night, and will let you know if that's not possible for some reason (missing orders, I won't be home, etc). My goal is that a consistent schedule will make it to easy to remember the deadline - if it's Thursday, orders are due!
3) I encourage players to send in preliminary orders ("prelims") as early as possible. This helps to avoid missing a deadline by accident. One or two days before the deadline, I will send either an "orders confirmation" or a "gentle reminder" to each player, depending on whether I have a set of orders or not. When I have time, I will also check to confirm the legality or logic of your moves, and will ask you to resolve any possible ambiguities. However, ultimate responsibility for the orders lies with the player.
4) This game will follow strict deadlines. Here is the system for dealing with players missing deadlines:
1st time: 24-hour grace period. Other players can continue diplomacy and send in new orders during this grace period. After this, civil disorder rules are applied (all units hold). If the player still has not been heard from, they must re-establish contact with me before the end of the weekend, or a replacement will be found.
2nd time: Civil disorder rules are used immediately. The player again must contact me before the end of the weekend in order to remain in the game.
3rd time: The player is immediately removed from the game.
There is no 24-hour grace period for missing a retreat or adjustment deadline. For a retreat phase, all retreating units disband. For an adjustment deadline, either all builds are waived, or the unit(s) farthest from the greatest number of home SCs are disbanded (this gets slightly complicated with chaos builds).
I really don't anticipate any problems with this group of dedicated veterans, but I will strictly apply these rules if necessary.
5) When sending e-mails related to this game, please include "DWPrep" in your subject line. If we receive a different game name, then we will switch to that instead (e.g. DC229). If you are sending in orders, please also include the word "orders" or "prelims" in your subject line. I use filters to organize my e-mail, and this ensures that I can easily find your orders.
6) The Known World 901 variant follows the Standard rules fairly closely. The major exception is that there are chaos builds (you can build in any SC that you own). There is one special rule that involves the Pharaonic Canal, which is especially pertinent for Egypt, and can be found in the upper right hand corner of the map. I have attached a map to this e-mail, and the website for the variant is below:
http://diplomiscellany.tripod.com/id20.html
7) I use a program called the GameEngine to adjudicate games. When I adjudicate a season, I will send a History file, the map, and the adjudication written out in the e-mail. You do not need to have Excel to play in the game. I am not sure if the game will be updated on the Diplomatic Corps website due to the situation of having private commentators, and hopefully somebody else can let me know more about that.
8) With the GameEngine, it is helpful if orders are written using the following format (caps are not relevant):
A Lon H
F Lon S F Nth
F Nth C A Lon - Bel
a lon - bel
A London - Belgium
While this makes life a bit easier for your GM, orders written in any reasonable format will be valid.
9) Order Interpretation: Because this is a variant with unusual province names, I will interpret the orders very liberally, and make reasonable assumptions when it comes to misspelling, abbreviations, or other uncertainty. Normally I will send you an e-mail telling you how I will interpret the order, and request confirmation of my interpretation. If I don't hear back before the deadline, I will use my interpretation. This has the downside of basically eliminating a player's ability to "intentionally misorder", but overall this is better than the alternative of repeated unintentional misorders, which are inevitable in a huge variant like this.
10) The victory condition is ownership of a majority of the supply centers (54 of 107 total). The game can also end in a concession, DIAS, or draw (excluding some survivors). Any player can make an endgame proposal, and then that proposal must be accepted by all surviving players.
11) I cannot access personal e-mail accounts during the day while at work (10am-7pm US eastern time). If there is something urgent during that time period, please send me an e-mail at my work address: nicholas.higgins@sentry.com. Generally speaking though, please send all e-mail to this Yahoo account.
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but that's it for now. Happy Stabbing! GM Nick
|
