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I Am Spartacus: Command Magazine

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mwh...@vesta.unm.edu

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Jan 25, 1993, 2:57:21 PM1/25/93
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Greetings: Would anyone care to comment upon the game balance or relate
glorious stories about "I AM SPARTACUS?"

Hannu Pajunen

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Jan 26, 1993, 3:07:16 AM1/26/93
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In article <1k1gn1...@lynx.unm.edu> mwh...@vesta.unm.edu () writes:
>Greetings: Would anyone care to comment upon the game balance or relate
> glorious stories about "I AM SPARTACUS?"

There is no play balance in "I am Spartacus". The rebels win always,
even if they are unlucky. The designer, Mike Markowitz explained in
the CONSIM-L mailing list, that he did not consider the play balance
at all...

After having said that, I must also tell that 'I am Spartacus' is a very
interesting game, per se, and the play balance problem can be
corrected by playing TWO games in succession, once as the Romans, and
once as the rebels, and then comparing how well the Romans did against
the barbarian hordes in each game.


Hannu


Garry Stevens

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Jan 28, 1993, 8:46:45 AM1/28/93
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In article <C1GBw...@polaris.utu.fi>, Hannu wrote:
>
> There is no play balance in "I am Spartacus". The rebels win always,
> even if they are unlucky. The designer, Mike Markowitz explained in
> the CONSIM-L mailing list, that he did not consider the play balance
> at all...

I enjoy Spartacus quite a lot, and its variant, Pyrrhus. However, it seems
culpable for a designer NOT to consider play balance. After all, that is
what victory conditions are for. Surely a designer is meant to juggle the
conditions, via altering VP values and so on, to make a game reasonably
balanced, so that even if the participants in the real conflict would not
consider a particular conclusion a victroy (eg Spartacus would not consider
the annihilation of most of his rebels a success) nonetheless the gamer
can.


Garry Stevens
Dept of Architectural & Design Science
University of Sydney
Australia

Marco Isopi

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Jan 29, 1993, 9:07:34 AM1/29/93
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ga...@archsci.arch.su.edu.au (Garry Stevens) writes:

>I enjoy Spartacus quite a lot, and its variant, Pyrrhus.

^^^^^^^
I missed this one. Where did it appear?

>Garry Stevens

Robert Lindsay

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Jan 29, 1993, 2:23:08 PM1/29/93
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It was included in the Port Arthur issue. It also included a variant for 1918
called 'plan 1919'.

>>Garry Stevens


Garry Stevens

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Feb 3, 1993, 1:43:04 AM2/3/93
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Has anyone any comments on the strategy for Pyrhus (dammitt that spelling
again)? From what I can see, the simple, obvious and guaranteed-to-win move
for Pyrhhus is to move to Rome as quickly as possible and siege it to
death. Apparently, in history, Pyrrhus never entertained serious thought
about his ability to take the city of Rome itself, and hoped it would
submit by his conquest of the rest of Italy.
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