As posted last week, I'm looking for players of Anacreon to join us in a play-by-email game. If you want to try the game out, go to http://www.neurohack.com/ and find the Anacreon link.
Shane Davidson has also posted a copy of a tutorial I wrote for using Anacreon with a screen reader. We have since discovered that with a little tweaking of the custom highlight colors, one can have greatly improved access to the info presented on screen. I am looking for up to six other players as I already have one who has declared his interest. Once I know how many players we have, we'll select a scenario that seems appropriate and the fun will begin. As a teaser, here is a narrative of the last few years of a game I'm playing solo in a scenario I created, in which the massive but fragile Galactic Empire faces three upstart empires (player empires). **************************************** His Imperial Majesty, Claudius VII awoke from his year long sleep and stretched in the hybernaculum. His devoted assistants helped him from the coffin-shaped cryo-pod and gave him water and nutritional supplements. Gradually his head cleared and he saw the somber expression on the faces of his military commanders. "All right, normally we'd wait until I was a bit stronger, but there's something wrong and I'd best know it." "Your Majesty," began Admiral Okata in a stern tone. "The Corelian Empire has been suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and ground forces from the Empire of the Chosen. They struck in a well-coordinated assault that destroyed nearly all our merchant shipping in the Delta Aquarii V and Zeta Omicron 6 systems, as well as successfully invading those worlds. Our naval forces in system were insufficient to save the situation, and, while ship production on Zeta Omicron 6 was gearing up, we had little in reserve, once the fleets we dispatched to counter the thrust were in turn defeated. We lost both worlds, sire. I take full responsibility." "No Admiral," the sovereign replied wearily. "You warned me that the religious fanatics were arming for war, but I had hoped the idea of the Galactic Empire striking out of the center would keep them quiescent while we built up our defenses. I am responsible. I take it our new star ships were less successful than anticipated?" "They performed brilliantly, nearly destroying the entire penetrator force from Eden, but there weren't enough of them." "Damn!," Claudius sighed. "There goes a third of our military naval production and 80% of our raw materials production." "We can take the worlds back," interjected General Martelle, the commandant of Royal Marines. "My sources on planet say that we bled them white and they can't hold the worlds." "Is there any news from Atlantis or any word of the Galactic Empire." The Foreign Minister spoke up. "We have received condolences from Lady Katrina of Atlantis, but she has stated that she has Imperial problems, having had to muster a major naval force to beat back an incursion from the center to destroy her trillum production. Our intelligence service suggests that the Galactic Empire is busy with suppressing rebellions. Cleon II has his hands full." "We did clear the Imperial mine field that stands between us and Eden, so we have an open avenue for our jump-capable craft to mount a counterattack against the Chosen,:" the admiral went on. "However, the last scout mission dispatched to Eden showed that the Grand Hierarch has enough planetary defenses to hold off anything I could assemble quickly. Our raw materials situation is already critical; Corelia, Scheat 6, Eta Rigil, all are short of either metals or chemicals." "All right, assemble a task force to retake the two lost worlds quickly, before they can reinforce. We need Delta Aquarii badly. And arm our merchant convoys in future." "My liege, it will be done." . . . The Grand Hierarch awoke to the news of the stunning double victory. Immediately he prayed in thanksgiving and prepared for his own staff meeting. "The biggest problem we have, your Holiness," said Admiral Lianades, "is that we are overextended. In choosing to attack both worlds simultaneously, we had to dangerously divide our fleet. I'm not sure we can hold either world against a concerted counterattack. Also, our commander on the scene at Zeta Omicron 6 reported encountering a large new class of vessel that he'd never fought before. They played havoc among our medium forces until the Faithful rallied and martyred themselves in suicide attacks against them. If the Corelian dogs have developed this craft in quantity, they could represent a major advantage for them." "My son, you know full well that God orders all things in his own time. He has given us this victory, even after the disastrous invasion attempt ten years ago. He will provide." "But Your Holiness,. . ." "Hush. Now, how goes the relief mission?"" Your Holiness. . . Both w8064 and HB216 have been resupplied so that the famines that swept them in the last two years have been alleviated. There are still indications of a massive rebellion on HB216 though." "Then we shall reinforce HB216 with our soldier missionaries and stamp out the heretics who dare flout God's will." "And Corelia?" "Will crumple under God's Divine Will." "And the Galactic Empire?" "Doesn't exist anymore. It has disintegrated for its rulers have gone dreadfully astray.." "As you say, Sire." . . . Lady Katrina of Atlantis looked at the dispatches from Corelia and sighed. "We must play a waiting game," she said. "We're weaker than either the Chosen or Corelia. We must concentrate on setting up our internal links so that when the Galactics come out of the core, we're ready to deal with them. Are you sure about that intel report?" "My Lady, our scouts saw a fortress, with a functioning gate and easily 150,000 ships in its fleet. They have also found worlds addicted to Ambrosia that are churning out ships by the thousands. Clearly, Cleon intends to retake the worlds he has lost. It's only due to political dissension that we've been ignored for so long." "On the brighter side," her minister of trade spoke up, "Trillum production on Sinai IV has finally reached significant levels, and our trade fleet will be bringing in a record haul next year, which should kick-start our economy." "And we've kept them well fed?" "My reports show a populace with a five year surplus of food, even though all the agricultural land has been converted to trillum mining." "And any news of Imperial fleets?" "Presently no, my lady." "Then over then next few years, we need to build an outpost at the minimum, possibly a command base so we have a mobile fleet reserve and early warning." "We could take the Imperial outpost." "You know my views on that, it would draw unwelcome attention to us. We've already weathered one attack from the core, let's keep under their radar for a bit longer. We still have the smallest ship production of all the powers." "Yes my lady." . . . And so another year began, filled with uncertainty and conflict. Hundreds of millions would die in the Corelia-Chosen war, while Atlantis looked on, waiting for the day when the Galactic emperor would come storming out of the core to retake what had been lost. _______________________________________________ Gamers mailing list .. [email protected] To unsubscribe send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can visit http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org to make any subscription changes via the web.
