After about a year or so of experimentation of a new style of game play, ive decided to go back to a different more old fashioned playing style. unfortunately its rather boring but im realizing that the aggressive style i have been experiementing with just isnt me. So i appologize for any future uneventful games you may play vs me. =(

There was a guy who played a lot of mini sabotage on IYT. when you played him he would write to Patrick Chu to for you to make the game a draw when the game got to drawn out. i really hated playing him. we would move fast but the games woud go over 200 moves at a minimum everytime. He was not however a guy who would move slow on purpose. but that is an example of a player that was unhappy with certain aspects of game play.

yes its a large espionage touney with 4 sections, all of which are nearly done. Is this a spiteful thing... probably not, people do have lives. but some players are spiteful. some will intentionally move at the last possible moment b/c you do not agree to a setting in particular game. this would be a cause to a slow moving issue.

i was just searching through my current tourneys and noticed that there is a game that is only on move 10 and the tourney started on Dec30. so basically they have moved 2x per month. WOW.. at that rate this round wont be over for another year or two.

Many years ago there was a proposal made to the sabotage members to organize a league. i think that with the current members here we can organize. but perhaps with a twist. there is an option hre for team vs teams. perhaps we can have a team of 3 or 4 players and have a leauge. We can use the fellowships to make these challenges. We can have a draft lottery by a number of captains and. choose up teams . this i feel can spawn interest here just like it did on IYT.

?????????? your serious!!! it would be like going on a first date and then your date saying im going to the bathroom, ill be right back. he stays away for an hour...... in the bathroom. i guess you would stay and wait. or would you leave? then he blames you the next day and says why did you leave?

ironically the fischer clock is great...its the moving 1-2x per week without the clock. the clock i feel helps move things along and eventually it will time out the person who is moving slowly.I never get upset if they move fast unless its an unually low amount of time. such as 1 hour and they make 10 moves in a short time. then they go away, then,i go away. then when i come back game is over and i lose., when someone commits to that time limit they should make the effort to stay online and finish that game. if i play you in a game that you created with a 1 hour limit and bonus and you move 8x right way and i have no games going on i will go offline ( b/c i have no games to play now) then you come back and move then the next day i time out. that hurts

it is fair if i have buit up enough bank to do so using the fischer clock. other wise in a game that has vacation and weekends i can abuse this and think as long as i want. especially brain rooks since they have tons of vacation time. but i will be rewarded for the fast moves that i made easrly in the game. im in a game now with an opponent that is using Fischer clock he has 1 day and a few hours left and i have about 9 days. this is with a 24hour bonus. i will never time out no matter what. but he is close. i really dont want to win that way.

some players do not move for days at a time then they will be on and play a few moves in a row for like 10 minutes. then there gone for over a week! this happens ALL THE TIME in game of espionage. i even have to do this in times of great concentration. i will think about a move for 4-5 days. sometimes its a psychological tactic. To lure an opponent into thinking that im weak when im really not. " he tought about that too long he must be bluffing" etc...then after the 5-6 days away ill move then the second he moves i try and respond immediately and put them on the defensive "why did he respond immediately" "im in trouble better take a few days to think this through."

b/c we are not moving 3x a day only 3x in one day then not moving at all for 3 days.. so its still 150 moves in 150 days. which is 5-6 months. if the game ends that early

i work a typical time schedule. and i will have no problems playing vs a person from europe or Asia. if i play 3 moves per day i jsut ahdded 3 days to my limit. with only three moves i can then not mave for 3 days again! thus it equals out to 1 move per day in a 150 move-200 move game like most open versions or 200-300 moves in many smaller versions. his very difficult to finish a game in a reasonable amount of time. and you then must double that number for days b/c if each person takes that long it is now twice as long of a game. i move on monday you move on thursday i move again on thursday you move on Saturday then i move on monday again. and just keep that pattern it will take forever to finish i have been in a game now for over two years with tenuki we are on move 170 or so... with no end in sight. and i just finished a game with Sandoz in 300 moves but we moved quick and it lasted only a few weeks to a month. with a 28 hour fischer clock and moving once a day we would nto finish for a loooong time.

hmmm i can see that neither of you have played much espionage. with a 1 day bonus the game will take appx 3 years to complete. here is a devils advocate way of looking at it. 7 days to start. 1 day bonus and lets say the bank is 10 days. first day i move 10x. i now have a limit of 10 days. i dont make another move for 9 days. then move 10x again. then take another 9 days off my bank drops to 1 day then gets built back up again. with another 10x per day move. im already over a month and the game has just started,. most espionage games among great players is anywhere from 100-200 moves. with a 200 move game at 30 moves per month. 7 months for the game at that is being generous. x that by 3 rounds of a tourney and we are looking at 2 years to complete a tourney, IF your lucky. your bank i feel is the key and keeping the bank at 3 days may speed things up. keep the 24 hour per-move bonus, just lower the over game time. and add weekends.

What would be the optimal time setting for an espionage tourney that woudl promote fast play yet would not punish people for being average movers. i thought about a 10 day limit with 6-8 hours bonus plus a 5 day bank. and no vacation enabled. What does everyone think or suggest?

open small = small fast yes

Pedro Martínez: that is the fellowship that i started a while back.

vote on the espionage freaks stie... for your favorite espionage version

I achieved my 1,100 win the other day.. wow....ithink i had close to 1500 on IYT

or we could use the grey areas to either boost or demote generals. like in jungle. you are vulnerable while your in these areas. regardless of rank. but i would prefer a one rank demotion/promotion.

lukulus: if you wnat to amase an attack you must either take the chance and reveal or go around. there is always the option of eliminating the move list for this game so that tracking is more difficult. so that the switch strategy from iyt is back in place again.

there is the option of having a specific spot being a "vision area" if you move into this GREY area you will be exposed then vanish once you leave that spot. the game would be played on a open board with GREY areas that are in designated locations (volcano like spots). then it depends on your memory or your tracking ability. So you are not limited in your movement but there is that danger that you have to reveal your pieces. but here is the catch... you have to play with one less spy than normal. Play this on a 10Vx11H board with 4 GREY areas. If the Spy comes into a GREY area he can have SUPER VISION but he is destroyed at the end of your opponents move and any piece that it sees is permanently visible. All other pieces that go into this area will not be destroyed but are just temporarily visble to your opponent. Your pieces will be as follows Two 5s, Two 4s, Three 3s, Four 2s, Six 1s, Four Sapp, and Four Spys. Four bombs, 1 flag. The game is played on a 10x11 board and the grey areas are in the middle on the 2-5-7-10 squares horizontally.

Dark prince has a very excellent idea with the erupting volcano. i like that!

how about a super spy that can see two spaces around it

happy hermit: you could also just give that road creating power to an existing piece. everytime a 2 moves he creates a road and when ever an enemy 2 moves into that road that road is destroyed. the 2 is the forgotten piece. but when you are on the road you are vulnerable to attack or perhaps you will be able to lose to a sab regardless of the rank. perhaps the road give you scout abilities from stratego.

happy hermit: wow that was hard work lol

To all those entering the brain prize tourney. read the tourney explanation carefully. if you are only going to move once a day this may not be the tourney for you.

i also feel that there are certain rules that cannot be tweeked. That is one of the baseline rules. it would be like allowing a pawn in chess to move backwards. it would totally change chess theory as it is.

Justaminute: This was discussed many years ago. the majority of the players wanted a more aggresive version of espionage\sabotage. Allowing the move back and forth to the same spot could equate to many more draws. Also it creates a more defensive style ( which i prefer) but being realistic it makes the game bit dull. The game already prefers the aggressor by allowing ties to go to the attacker and not like the original game of stratego where both pieces are removed. This is also an issue with small espionage. the game is broken, more so on IYT, the random volcano fixed that problem to some point. Many other players can comment on this better than i could and with examples...hint hint....

Sandoz: lol i dont think that the committee exists anymore either but probably shoudl be reinputted once we get the ball rolling again on this site.

How are we progressing on the new game proposal? i am working a proposal myself which i will present to the SL commitee soon.

the move here was basically the move that lost me the game. i could nto see what was attacning and i was afriad of further penetration. i guess that the piece attacking the three was a sab and i was wrong. and it was all downhill from here.

Small Fast Espionage (Nothingness vs. Varazslo)

Here is a game vs Varsalo i recently completed. the purpose of the post is to show how important vision is and to show how leaving unproductive pieces deep in your opponents territory can be deadly especially while playing partially blind.

I have a fast open tourney starting in a few weeks 200 brains to the winner. good luck!

how is everyone making out with the mentoring? Is the beginners tourney moving along at a nice speed?

Ruth's page... what happened to it. please tell me the stats were saved? Chaos?!!?

For many years we have been trying to implement a 4 player (team version) on IYT and since then Patrick has shot it down saying that it is not feesable. i think that it can happen now. If Fencer feels that it too is not possible then I would agree to take it off the board. In no other game on either site is this a game. I think it would be a great learning tool . accepting a random opp in the waiting room to be partners with.

Sandoz: we need an explanation as to which version is what. i forget half the proposals.

How is everyone progressing in the latest tourney? By the lack of posts lately I'm assuming that everyone is deep in thought in their games.

heck why not just add in exposed base espionage where you can see where you opp base is located from the start position

i'm against the corner version.. i couldn't stand it. I would love to have something ground breaking and new for a new game. Let take our times on this...

SL-Mark: I think that could get frustrating and too much like Risk. All the skill in the world wont help you if its 3 on 1.. uggg

there is also the stratego rule where ties remove both pieces from the board. samegames but that one rule change . I side with Chaos for the 2 on 2 thing.

I was wondering if perhaps it is time for a new version of espionage? Perhaps some suggestions as to what people would like to see. Fencer is very good at listening to his members and ALL users on his site. So if it is reasonable, I'm certain he would "consider" it or at least give it good thought... I think that New colors was suggested at one time.. I know we suggested it on IYT but it never materialized. Let hear some suggestions.

right now its looking like 8 sections. Yowzer!

Nothingness: There will be plenty of time to register for this tourney do not rush to enter i will change the date if needed. The start date isnt till march.

sounds good to me..! as for the variant that i will create for brains i'm not sure yet but more than likely it will NOT be a volcano variant.

i was thinking if perhaps we should wait until the rookies tourney is over. This way they too can be eligible for the Brain Prize tourney. So i would suggest for you to just start the tourney and ill hold off on the prize tourney till later in the year.

is there a prize being offered? This will attract more people. if I start the tourney i will offer up my 200 brains.

if there is anyone who has any ideas for a new tourney i would be willing to put up some of my brains to the winner. Probably all 200 of them. i have lifetime membership and virtually no restrictions and can create any tourney.

if there is anyone who has any ideas for a new tourney i would be willing to put up some of my brains to the winner. Probably all 200 of them. i have lifetime membership and virtually no restrictions and can create any tourney.