I’m starting this thread for Gunboat game devotees and those who are interested in learning more about the Gunboat variant of ME PBM.
The hope is that this thread will serve as a “meeting place” for players who already enjoy the Gunboat variant. Here Gunboat players can share experiences, insights and ideas. The hope also is that through this thread more players will be encouraged to give the Gunboat variant a try.
The Gunboat variant has three main rules.
Each player controls 2 nations of the same allegiance. No neutrals; 12 nations per allegiance.
No diplomacy or communication between players in the same Gunboat game is allowed. Players implicitly give their word to obey this rule when they sign up for a Gunboat game. Gunboat players are honor-bound not to attempt to communicate with other players in the same Gunboat game. Please do not try to use this thread to try to undermine or circumvent this rule.
Players may not perform hostile actions against other nations or characters of the same allegiance.
Here are a few of the topics I would like to throw out for discussion on this thread.
What makes Gunboat an attractive and engaging ME PBM variant?
What are your favorite nation combinations in Gunboat?
What are some common pitfalls to avoid in Gunboat?
What winning strategies have you used?
What unique or unusual Gunboat experiences have you had (I.e., experiences that you normally would not have in the standard game)?
What are the main differences between 1650 Gunboat and 2950 Gunboat?
OK, let’s hear from all you Gunboat players – past, present and future!
Jeppe,
Glad to see your post on this thread. And glad to hear you say you’re on board for the next 1650 GB game.
But I must disagree with you: you do have something intelligent to add. Why did you sign up GB? What do excpect and hope to get out of the GB experience?
One thing that I did not know is that the setup fee is $32 US. The setup fees are doubled because of the manual corrections and you are playing 2 nations. Was not a big deal but some may find this unfavorable.
I like the non-diplomacy aspect. Playing with good teammates is tedious and more like work. Also there is no mystery as to what is going in the game since generally all pdfs will be posted to a website within hours of the game running. I was fortunate to play with some very good players back under GSI and one group of exceptional players now. However one game of 85 emails per week is all I care to undertake.
Gunboat strategy is different to a degree and not a lot has been written about it. One does not feel like he/she needs to move from point A to point B to point C on turns x, x+1 and so on. Your 2 nations need to be self sufficient also.
The character war is weakened a bit or least delayed. The CL does not have the QA or Dragon Lord scouting for him/her. All the start-up agent artifacts do not automatically go to the CL. All the startup mage artifacts do not automatically go to the big mages to form a curse company in the early game. NG can’t count on the back-line nations supporting his mad recruiting efforts. No neutrals to deal with and so on.
There is also the one-on-one aspect and the feeling that you need to develop your own sound strategy to help your team win. I feel lots more pressure on GB turn day because I am hoping I made some good choices that benefit the whole team even though they may never know of them.
It pays to know the pairings when engaging a foe as your opponent has the resources of 2 different nations to oppose you with. You can also create a domino effect. If my 2 nations hammer x then x’s other nation is busy supporting x and hence may not be able to do as he/she normally would. This may well help an allied nation that would otherwise be under more duress. Effectively you can wield some influence in 2 different theaters if you are able to hammer a single nation, IMO.
No one person that perhaps has many hours per week invested in the game can swing the balance of the game since he/she can only influence 2 nations not 10.
Having played most of my games in clockwork fashion, I find it quite refreshing. If more people decide to play these, I would eventually migrate solely to these since I sort of have the “been there, done that” mindset.
Hey, great thread! Good idea; spread the word about Gunboat games. I really like GB myself. I’m currently playing in a 1650 GB game. So I hope this thread works out well for all GB fans!
Hey, Jeppe! I signed up for the 2950 GB with Celebion and saw your post about signing up for the next 1650 GB. Well, you talked me into it. I’ve signed up for the next 1650 GB as well! But that will have to be my limit for awhile. Man, I can’t wait to get started!
Well-said, Celebion. I agree wholeheartedly with your comments.
The standard game had become tedious for me in several ways. The enormous amount of email that was sent to me each day eventually became annoying. The forwarding of turnsheets each turn to every other team member became burdensome – and it definitely detracted from the “mystery” of the game, as you put it. I’m one of those who likes to role-play a bit while playing this fantastic game; so for me the element of mystery and wonder is important.
Team planning had also become burdensome and tedious. Sometimes it seemed mechanical and wooden to me with the consequence that there was little joy in victory and too often a feeling of great bitterness in defeat (“that jackass didn’t execute the army maneuver correctly,” etc.).
Like you, I am considering making GB the only ME PBM game I will play (I might make an exception for 4th Age Limited Agent games). I love the “edge” of planning and ordering my nations on my own and trying to assist my fellow allegiance nations without knowing what their plans and needs are. The excitement and thrill of GB surprised me. I joined GB just to see what it was like. I got hooked on it in a big way. GB has breathed new life into ME PBM for me.
I hope to write a GB strategy article or a GB game analysis for “News from Bree” sometime in the future. But until that time, I welcome any strategy ideas or insights from other GB devotees.
Someone wrote a dairy type account of a 1650 GB game that was published in “News for Bree” I believe. The account was published when I was still retired so I don’t have the edition number (to lazy to look at archives) to give the authors proper credit. Generally I am very disinterested when other players recount their games but I found these accounts extremely interesting, read them 2-3 times in fact. Corsair/DL was one account and QA was another. Those articles and suddenly remembering how burdensome giving your “A” effort in every team-first game becomes over time convinced me to try GB.
Congrats to the authors of the aforementioned articles.
Celebion, thanks for the note about the articles. I read the GB game account from the player who had the Dragon Lord/Corsairs duo. It was an excellent bit of writing and analysis. I highly recommend it. Anyone who hasn’t played GB and is wondering what it’s like can get a good feel for the GB variant from that article.
I haven’t come across the other one. You said it was the QA. That would have to be the QA/Dog Lord duo. I’ll browse around in the “News from Bree” to see if I come across it.
What I’ll try to do is look up both articles andpost the volume numbers and authors’ names here for others to reference.
Oh, and welcome to Nic F. Glad to see you on board with GB.
I wrote the article on Gunboat from the view of my Dragon Lord/Corsair positions. It appeared in Bree 23 (June 2003). An article from Bryn Lloyd who played QA/Fire King appeared immeadiately after mine in the same issue.
Did you guys exchange pdfs after the game ended or how does that work ? Will you know the names and addresses of all 12 player (FP and DS) when game ends ?
The feeling of mystery and suspense as oppsed to clockwork evoked in a previous post has got me thinking a bit more about this type of game.
Is there a reason why gunboat games have 2 nations per player as opposed to 1? Why not Gunboat with one nation (maybe pre selcting neutral allegeances in this case).
Howabout as I read a while back gunboat with 1 nation and 1 email allowed per 10 turns to another Nation: Turn 0, turn 10 etc… that way before you start, maybe BS would say to WK "Hey I plan on building a base in Angmar and will be helping you out etc. But the BS may change plans during next 10 turns and WK has a lot to guesstimate.
(A more mundane reason for this line of thought is that Gunboats cost a lot…)
Gunboat format is fantastic and I agree with almost all the sentiments regarding tension, communication and strategy expressed above. Rumors, mage scrying and other information gathering methods become much more important in GB, since you have to keep an eye on events outside your own sphere of influence.
I currently play in 2 GB games and feel much more independent regarding nation plans, whereas in a regular team game focused on winning, sacrifices need to be made for the greater good. Therefore victories and defeats become much more personal since the team responsibility is reduced so much.
I still enjoy regular team games, but the time I can allocate to a few high volume email games decreases each year.
We didn’t get the names of who was in the game at the outset but did at the end. I did swap final pdfs with many of the players at the end. I still have my final DrL and Corsair pdfs so if you or anyone else reading the article in Bree want to see a copy you can e-mail me off list at mikesankey@ntlworld.com.
Pallando, I sympathize with your concern about the cost. Everyone has his own budget limit for ME PBM. I regularly exceed mine (if my wife were to find out, I’d be toast). But for me the enjoyment of the GB game makes it well worth the extra expense, although I recognize that exceeding the budget is not an option for everyone.
The problem with a 1-nation GB game is that the appeal would be too narrow, I think. The benefit of controlling 2 nations in GB is that it helps to compensate for the lack of diplomacy: if one of your nations gets hit hard, at least you have the second nation to fall back on.
I suggest you really try to fit a GB game into your ME PBM budget. I’d be delighted to see you in a GB game; and I think you’d feel it was money well spent.
I went ahead and created a second thread called “Read About the Gunboat Experience” in which I encourage players to Read Sankey’s and Lloyd’s articles about the first GB game. I also gave a link to “News from Bree” Vol. 23.
They are fine accounts of an exciting GB game.
By the way, Sankey and Lloyd, how about signing up for the 1650 or 2959 GB games (or both!) that just began filling. I think ME Games is at about 4 or 5 signed-up for the 1650 GB and about 3 or 4 signed-up for the 2950 GB. It would be an honor to play with you two GB “pioneers.”
Geez, you guys have me wanting to sign up for a 2950 GB! I usually only see this much enthusiasm with new players. Budget is no problem but TIME is. I couldn’t handle 2 turns on top of my 3 games. Heck, I can barely handle my 3 games. ::sigh::
RKFloyd, don’t worry overmuch about the time factor. That is one of the attractive aspects of the GB game: the time required to play the game is about 1/5 (or sometimes more like 1/10) the time required by many standard team/ally games.
In fact, that was what originally interested me about GB games. The time commitment of standard games had become way too burdensome for me. Moreover, I felt that much of the time was not being spent “playing” the game but haggling with allies (even cooperative haggling talkes alot of time), coordinating moves with allies and responding to numerous emails.
In GB I’m able to mull over my moves, roleplay a bit (even if it’s just private roleplay) and enjoy playing the game – at MY pace and according to MY plans and wishes. If I’m rushed for time, I just do my orders and send them in. Normally, I carry my turnsheets around with me for 10 days or so and glance at them when I get 10 or 15 free minutes. Often I jot down orders and revise them 2 or 3 times before submitting – all at my pace, with whatever time I have available.
That is truly one of the attractive features of the GB variant.
So come on, Russ! Sign up for the 2950 Gb (or the 1650 GB, if you prefer). We’d love to have you and your skull and crossbones banner on board!
Oh, by the way, I have no idea where or how the name “Gunboat” originated. Anyone else know?
