First, a big welcome to Zero Sum II, Tinamou’s first subzine. The family tree is growing! Zero Sum II is a subzine of Tinamou which is a subzine of The Abyssinian Prince, which is itself a subzine of Stealth West!

Gunboat with press: One signed up so far.

Perestroika Diplomacy: Add an economic twist to the classic game. Centers generate revenue, armies and fleets must be maintained, and treasuries can be sacked! Rules are available on request.

Signed up: Art Schleinkofer, Phil Reynolds, Harold Reynolds

Standard Diplomacy: That’s it, the one and only original

Signed up: Fred Wiedermeyer, Hank Alme

Just the results please: Don’t really know what to call this one as I just came up with it. Perhaps it’s been tried before. The twist for this variant is that each season only the ending unit positions are published, not the orders. You’ll know who went where, but not who helped whom, or want may have been tried unsuccessfully.

Signed up: Phil Reynolds

A new game for 3-4 players. Manager your factory and build your products, but beware, increased production means more waste, and if you aren’t careful you’ll find that working in a sludge pit affects your productivity and the bottom line.

Game Opening: Signed up: Richard Weiss, Andy York,

Railway Rivals: Be the first to try out Brendan Whyte’s new Queensland map.

Signed up: Brendan Whyte, Rip Gooch

Outpost:

Sign up for the next game to start when the current one finishes.

Snowball fighting: Current game is over. Anyone interested in another go?

Signed up: Tom Howell

Signed up: Brendan Whyte, Robert Dowrey

Reader’s Choice: I’m open to anything, just send me the rules and if I think I can run it, I’ll offer it.

Tinamou appears in every other TAP. The game deadlines are always the Monday before the appropriate TAP deadline, which is always a Saturday. Assuming that TAP remains on schedule, the next deadline will be Monday, July 7.

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And we are off. The players in this game have pledged to use only postal communications. In the spirit of allowing as long as possible to negotiate, the GM will accept orders by email. A couple of notes for those of you who haven’t played here before. If there’s a discrepancy between the map and printed moves, besides letting me know that I screwed up, remember that the printed moves take precedence. The final position of a unit will be in BOLD. Failed moves will be underlined. Retreating units will be in italics. Press is encouraged, I don’t mind typing it in at all.

We have a bit of a traffic jam on the Autobahn as there are some problems clearing customs at the French border. Viennese generals sup in the opera houses while the Russians occupy Galacia and the Turks occupy Armenia while the quarrel over fishing rights in the Black Sea goes on.

La Gazzetta di Roma: A somewhat confused King of Italy surrendered the country yesterday when he read the headline, "Beatles Invade".

Italy-All: The silence is deafening!

Italy-England: Sorry I haven't written. I will correct that ASAP.

(AUSTRIAN PLAYER to ALL):
1) I have decided to play as "Smiley". The written signature for that is a smiley face.
2) Geez - the GM is making fun of us for playing by post already!
3) I am sure that I will write more letters in the first two years of this game than I have written previously in my life.

GM – Austria: No, the bit about Vienna in the intro, that’s making fun of you J .

FRONT MEN TAKE UP THE REAR: Ian says get to the back and they get to the back! Hey, Barone, where are those bongo drums coming from?? Get back here!!

GM – Front Men: Barone went to try and get some points, well, at least one point anyway. Someone on the team has to do it!

BOOB to GLACIERS: Where did the ice and snow come from? Send those Canadians back to Canada! What do you think this is, Snowball Fighting?

NUMBERS AND CUSTODIANS COURTESY OF JIM-BOB: Wasn't that silly Custodian business tied up with the Hobby Small Fry Protection League? That was a creation of Pete Gaughan, who also happens to be a champion of Snowball Fighting. He is, after all, THE master! Sure, let's have Breaking Away numbers.....

Tom to GM & Mike: This number custodian thing is cracked up to more than it is.

BOOB to EDITH AND BABETTE: I hope your note last time meant that you DID NOT play large to take the last point and left it to Richard Barone! You may say my strategy is poor, but I have a plan.... a plan, my kingdom for a plan.

Pelaton to Dans: Play them cards! We smell some points coming on for you.

Edith to GM: Not me. Abigail, maybe. Did ol' GEORGE run out of gas his turn? If he did, it's his own fault.

George -> field: eat dust, suckers! (scooter coughs and dies)

ARRGH!

Edith to GM: Nobody surprised me. Yes, I figured on Barbarella, and the place I figured her for was the one she grabbed. This turn I figure two of the twelve riders who could cross the first sprint line actually will. The question is, "Which two?"

GM to Edith: Kramer Rome and Persia Barone I believe.

Tom to GM & Canada: I second that motion. Can I help pay for the plane ticket?

ATTORNEY GENERAL ASHCROFT to MISTER DESPER: Now YOU are on the List, sir. Please come with us right now; don't touch that computer, we'll take care of it. What niche of porn images are in your browser cache, sir? (Diplomat B&D?) Do you know which terrorist threats to national security use that niche to communicate via steganographificationized picture files? Do you know any of these people, sir? Do you know anyone from these countries, sir? Yann Clouet? Oh yes, we know about him. Charismatic, sly agent provocateur, currently on a propaganda assignment for our enemy France. And you know him? Come along with us, sir. Now.

Mike to Tom: Don't forget, von Neumann wasn't only big in game theory, he also made important contributions to computing theory. So I've been basing my orders on a different text than you're using: chaos theory!

YANN: "Political asylium available in exchange of informations and contract for weapon trade. Baguette and beret provided. Even freedom (at least freedom fries)."

GM: And how’s that for some cross gaming, cross border press? You know, I think I like this renaming thing. The French stood up for freedom of thought and refused to be bullied (doesn’t matter if you agree with them, but they undeniably had the right to their own position) so we’re calling them "freedom" now. Do you think the idea will catch on? Anyway, that’s it for press in this game, I’m heading out to the garden to trim my rose moron.

Black Bottomed Girls (Brendan Whyte) 5 points

Homegrown Evil (Mike Barno) 0 points

Thin Bottomed Girls (Tom Howell) 6 points

Manager: Edith

The Four Kingdoms of Daniel Chapter Seven (Eric Brosius) 5 points

The Front Men (Jim Burgess) 1 points

Manager: Ian Curtis

The Team About Nothing (Rick Desper) 22 points

Manager: Frank Costanza

For those who are interested, the maps can be seen on the web. They don’t reproduce well here unfortunately as there is a lot of detail and it really needs color to differentiate the different rail lines. Towns in uppercase denote the first player to connect the town (6 point bonus).

Brendan's builds along the coast give him the inside track on the races. Eric joins in for a couple and the dice favor him this time, although Brendan makes solid gains on each race as well. COB continues his run for the west coast. TURN drives up to the north to cut COB off, but there should be room for both in the passes. HUBRIS links up some cities for the races, which should pay off well for him this round, and starts his own run west. Happy with the payoffs, ARAB and SPIKE both continue building their east coast routes.

TURN is Transcontinental Urbanising Rail Network     ARAB is American Railway Agglomeration of Baghdad
HUBRIS is Have U Been Railroading In Snow?    SPIKE is Special Purpose Industrial Kartage Enterprise    COB is Cambria or Bust

(HUBRIS): This isn't my long-term strategy. I intended to go straight west as quickly as possible, detouring only for cities. But the Transcontinental rules say an unentered race gets reoffered once right away and then dropped if not entered. So I want to score the (probably unopposed) Baltimore-to-Oswego race while I can.

(CLEVELAND): As HUBRIS builds railroad corridors into Ohio, the HUBRIS Board of Directors would like to offer a salute to the USA's largest Chief Justice, famed Ohioan William Howard Taft. Anyone know whether he was also our largest President?

ARAB - GM: What crappy build rolls.

GM - ARAB: The dice gods take pity on your plea this round.

     3) Baltimore (4) - Charlotte (9)
      ARAB (9) = 10 -3 [SPIKE] +6 = 13
      SPIKE (9) = 20 -6 [ARAB] +3 = 17

     4) Wilmington (6) - East Cambria (3)
      ARAB (13) = 10 -2 [HUBRIS] -3 [SPIKE] +8 = 13
      SPIKE (13) = 20 -2 [HUBRIS] -8 [ARAB] +3 = 13

     2) Winchester (7) - Al Quodo d' Utopia (1) (held over from round 2)
     5) Baltimore (5) - Oswego (10) (held over from round 2)
     6) Gainesville (12) - Oswego (10)
     7) Dinwiddie (11) - Baltimore (4)
     8) Cleveland (13) - Richmond (8)
     9) Charlotte (9) - Al Quodo d'Utopia (2)
     10) Wilmington (6) - Baltimore (5)

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Things are getting really busy down in the south. HANG recoups some of the payments he made to UDR earlier and the neutrals get hooked up.

SBB is Schweizer Bundesbahnen (Red)    HANG is Highly Automated Narrow Gauge (Blue)
UDR is Useless Desert Rails, Ltd. (Green)    TRAIN is This Rail Association is Nameless (Orange)
SPICEBLOW is Saharan Partnership Internationally Concealing Evidence for Bereaved Loaded Online Widows (Purple)

Build up to 15 points of track

Eric takes Set #2. Richard takes Set #5 (second choice was 3). Andy asks for 1 (with 2 and 3 as backups). Harold tries for set #5, then 2 and settles for 3 (set 1 was his final choice).

Couldn’t entice any new players, so we are off with the same 5 as last game. Apparently fearful that their interstellar dotcoms might quickly go bust, most of the companies are currently unnamed.

• Plundercorp opens the bidding on a DL and wins it for 15 (Wa8, Wa5, Or2).
• Bartertown buys yet another Water factory (Wa9, Wa6, Wa6) and transfers pop to man it.
• Eric buys a pop (Wa5, Or5) and mans his ore factory
• Kevin buys a pop (Wa7, Or2, Or1) and mans his ore factory
• Michael buys a Water factory (Wa9, Wa9, Wa4) and transfers pop to man it.

Zero Sum II

Number 3

916.485.4899 Home/Answer Machine

A Sub-sub-subzine to Stealth West with due genuflections to the Toad Father.

White press and gray press are allowed. Any press or letters submitted electronically will be cut and pasted. Feel free to submit.

The rules and format of the game are at Chris Hassler’s SOB website. I will be following the general format and house rules of Tinamou unless otherwise noted.

Hopefully each and all had a grrreat Mother’s Day. I treated myself the day before to going to San Francisco to see the person who I think puts on the best live blues performance by a woman – Susan Tedeschi. Despite the show being at 5:30, outdoors, and in the sunlight without many people dancing, I had a great time and thought she again lived up to my labeling of her. Motherhood has been good to her.

Time moves on story. Susan Tedeschi is married to Derek Trucks, who has his own blues band, is the lead guitar player for the Allman Brothers, and is the son of Butch Trucks, drummer for the Allmans. Sean Lennon, Jacob Dylan, James Taylor’s son, Derek Trucks – who will be the first of the third generation of rock and rollers?

The man responsible for the most babies in the world – the current Pope (always the right answer). The man responsible for the most deaths in the world, at over 12,000,000 (per some leftists and journalists) and counting – Henry Kissinger. The new chief administrator to Iraq who so quickly ousted the old military regime (strange how that all happened, eh?) – Paul Bremer. Connected to Dr. K by having been employed/COO of Kissinger and Associates for many years. Ugh. The smell of napalm is so good in the morning. Makes for a pollution scene worthy of:

Turn 1.1

Players/Company Names/CEOs/Colors:

PRESS:

Chemicals ‘R US Chris Hassler

Guess 2nd was the popular place to want to start, huh?

I'll go for Set 2, Set 3, Set 5

Obtains: Set #3

My preferences are as follows:

Set 2

Set 4

Set 5

Set 3

Obtains: Set #4

Discarded Cards During Deal

Accident

Innovation

Innovation

Waste Reduction

Because of the Accident card coming up, all cards not held over will be reshuffled.

ORDERS DUE

Each of you need to indicate what order you will play your cards in. One cannot pass one round and then re-enter the play. One can discard a card on a round. One can hold up to one card over to next turn.

Please include the conditional orders necessary as to how much you want to bid for any given set of raw materials, whether you are bidding a fixed price or want to raise the previous bid by some amount up to a limit, etc. I reserve the right to enact your orders as I interpret them, believe I am good at interpretation, but all-around it is better that you make your orders explicitly clear. I will cut-and-paste all orders into the zine.

After each submits orders for card play, I will disseminate the results and the first segment of round two will be next with new sets of cards to choose from.