Ich habe einen netten, alten Guide für Anfänger gefunden, aber leider auf englisch.
Code:
DARKNESS OF SILVERFALL
a Guide for Players
By : Peter Wheeldon
Introduction
One of the daunting tasks for a new player starting a Play By Mail
(PBM) game is the process of learning AND absorbing the rules that
you receive with your setup. All to often you find that in the
first few turns you fail to recognise some of the more useful
actions that can give you a good start and enable you to keep pace
with the more experienced players.
The purpose of this article is to provide new and old players some
(what I consider) useful actions and hints that may improve your
initial start in a game of Darkness of Silverfall (DOS). Also
included for the beginning player is several turns of one game
that I am playing.
The Turn Sequence
The first step in playing any PBM game is a clear understanding of
the turn sequence. Each turn of DOS is divided into 7 phases. Each
of these phases is described in the Players Manual and NOTE, that
within each phase the order that they are written is the order of
implementation. Irrespective of which way you write down your
orders on your return sheet, they will always be implemented in a
specific sequence.
Phase 0 : Administration and error checking.
Phase 1 : The order of some actions in this phase are important,
mainly for Trading. A Cargo ship in a Transport that has
just Warped to a Trading Planet can Release, Unload it's
ore, Redock (possibly after purchasing fuel) and then the
Transport can Warp back to a planet to get some more ore.
Phase 2 - 4 : Movement and Combat is divided into 3 phases.
FIRE comes first and is the only guaranteed way of
inflicting damage before the opposing ship may move. All
other movement commands (MOVE, ENGAGE, STRAFE, and PURSUE)
will move a maximum of 1/3 their total movement range per
phase, over a small distance this may mean the full
distance in the first phase. Ships with MOVE orders are
moved before any combat commands and can normally get out
of fire range of enemies (unless they move into a new enemy
ships fire range).
For the remaining combat commands it is important to
remember that the smaller faster ships implement their
command first and that the check for an enemy ship within
fire range is done at the start of the command. I.E. If two
ships are on ENGAGE and are outside fire range then the
smaller\faster ship will see no enemy ship and therefore
move. However it's move may bring it into fire range of the
second ship which will detect it and fire. Similarly, two
ships on STRAFE command could have the same result except
the second ship could then move back out of the first ships
fire range. So it is quite possible for an attacking ship
to be constantly hit without being able to return fire.
Finally, Hyperdrive is implemented after FIRE in phase two
so it is a useful command to try and save a ship (even
though you will have no idea where the ship will go).
Warpdrive is dangerous because the ship can be fired at by
any ships on FIRE or ENGAGE command for phases 2 and 3, and
then again in phase 4 at its new location.
Phase 5 : Cloaking, Building of Ships and Planet Defences, and
Alliances take place AFTER combat. The implications of this
are firstly, new ships can not be damaged (though the
Monitor or Battle Station building them may be destroyed in
which case the ships are not built). A Cloaking ship is not
hidden from enemy ships during combat and you can not break
an alliance and attack in the same turn.
Phase 6 : Special abilities that are gained from Points generally
are implemented in this phase. There are a few exceptions
that you will come across and in most cases there is no
difference when the Ability is implemented.
Phase 7 : Another administration phase.
All commands have a validity check on them, and if it can not be
implemented then it is cancelled. E.G. if a ship has a FIRE
command and the enemy ship selected is initially outside fire
range then the command is cancelled EVEN if the enemy ship then
moves into fire range in the next phase.
Economics
As with all Empire style games, this one relies on economic growth
to achieve victory. The economics are simple which means that it
is easy for you to calculate your Income each turn. Credits can be
obtained several ways :
Planets - Each planet has a Population and Industry rating. These
values are in the range 0 to 50,000. The value of Industry
on a planet at the end of a turn is the amount of Credits
that is added to your Empires total. Your Industry value is
affected by several things.
Firstly, the construction of Ships or Planetary Defences
reduces your Industry. Generally there will only be a few
planets where you will construct ships simply because of
the initial cost of Monitors or Battle Stations. Those
planets that are selected need to have a good industry base
(>30,000) to be able to sustain building for several turns.
Secondly, the Industry increases each turn by either 5% or
25% dependant on whether the Population is smaller or
larger. If possible you need to "juggle" your Population,
especially on your ship construction planets, so that you
can occasionally get a larger Population than Industry and
hence boost Industry by 25% (at the cost of course of
loosing 25% of your population). This will require ships
that can collect population from planets where Population
is not really needed.
Trading - All planets can have any or all of 5 ores on them.
These will either be in a stockpiled form (available
immediately) or in resource form (stockpiled by mining).
If you have a Planet with a reasonable population and good
resource values, build mines. You only need 2 or 3 planets
with 2 mines on them at any time to be able to keep a good
supply of saleable ore. Each of the 5 trading Planets will
each pay a certain value of Credits for each type of ore.
Each Trading Planets price will vary between turns
dependant on how much was sold the turn before and how much
is currently in stockpile. Select planets to trade at that
have the best price and the least number of ships above it
so that you maximise your return.
Points - The amount of damage a ship does in combat is
multiplied by either 250 (damaging other players ships) or
500 (damaging DLS ships). This value is then added to your
Points total. At the end of each turn your total Points are
added to your Credits. Apart from the points being useful
to obtain special abilities, they are also a constant
source of income.
Combat - DLS will pay 500 credits for each point of damage you
inflict on another player (as well as the 250 points). This
is probably the least effective income collection
mechanism.
Trading income is added to the players budget during phase 1 and
the combat credits are added during phases 2,3 and 4. Planets and
Points income is not added until the end of the turn. Orders that
require income (Build Ship, Purchase Interceptors, Scan Player,
Start Mine, Build Planet Defences) will not work if you do not
have enough credits.
All building, apart from Build Mine which takes place in phase 1,
are implemented in phase 5 so credits you obtain from Trading and
Combat can be used in your calculations for the current turn.
Tactics
Part of the enjoyment of any game is figuring out the little
bonuses that you can get for using the rules to their best
advantage. Some techniques become obvious as you play the game,
others you may find out from other players and some you will
stumble upon by mistake.
Not giving too much away, here are some things that may help you
in your game. This list is nowhere complete (I like to keep a few
of my tactics up my sleeve), and I'm sure some players may
question their relative advantages, but they may be of some use.
There are two ways to win the game. Both require the player to be
the first to hold, at the end of a turn, 15% (around 150) of all
planets. Secondly, either all of the DLS Battle Stations need to
have been destroyed or the Player with the 150 planets also has a
Total Score of 5,000,000. The obvious conclusion from this is that
the number of planets that you control dictates whether you win
the game or not. So grab as many as you can each turn (of course
without loosing to many to DLS or other players in the process).
Secondly after turn 14 EVERYONE is going to start to be pulled
towards the Black Hole, unless DLS's battle stations have been
destroyed. So try and find them and if you do it is worthwhile
telling the other players by use of the comments section in your
returns so as a concerted effort can be made to destroy them.
Points you receive for damaging other ships are important, but try
to avoid attacking other players (it can be detrimental to your
health) until it is necessary. Besides, you only get half the
points you do for damage against DLS ships. Most DLS ships act
independently, so it is easy to take them on. One tactic is to
purposely plan not to totally destroy them, only damage them.
DLS's actions (as controlled by the computer) are to defend ANY
ship that is being attacked, so by not destroying them, others
will come to their aid. MORE POINTS. Be careful, you might bight
off more than you can chew.
The advantage of points is obvious. More points, more income and
more special abilities, some of which are exceptionally useful
like Automatic Refueling of ALL ships each turn, increased Attack
and Defence, increased Fire Range, Cloaking or Short and Long
Range Missiles. Others tend not to be as useful but generally you
will use all of them at least once in a game.
Fuel is one of the biggest restraints in the game. Until you get
the Special Ability, conserve your fuel. Only move a ship if you
need to. Those ships you do move, make sure you have enough fuel
left to get them back. There is nothing more infuriating as to go
to a planet, find it has no fuel on it and not have enough to get
to a fuel source. Bang, one ship out of action, paying 5000
credits fleet cost plus its maintenance cost each turn. When you
do move to a planet that does have fuel, fill your ship up even if
its only a small amount. It may make a difference later.
Your Battle Station and Monitors (later in the game) build your
ships. But new ships are built with NO FUEL. So the planets they
are on will need good reserves. A possible tactic is to send
Transports and Cargos WITH NO FUEL to Trading Planets so that they
can buy it and bring it back. Besides, you don't need fuel for
Warping.
One of the biggest arguments that players have is "which ship is
better", and unfortunately there is no easy answer. Each of them
have their specific uses and each player tends to find different
uses that may not have originally been what they where intended
for. I have my favorites and tend to stick with them. The main
combat ships I buy are Small Cruisers (good attack and defence for
the cost) or Super Battles (can dish it out and take a fair
amount).
One of the tactics I use in the middle to end of the game (mainly
because of the cost of the ships) is to pick a central base that
can protect a large number of planets, put some Cruisers, Battles
and Repair Robots on it as reserves and then send out marauding
fleets of 2-4 ships. If any of the marauders are damaged then I
return them to my base (while sending out a replacement) and
repair it. This way there is generally at least 1 ship able to
continue the fight each turn. The combat points quickly rack up.
Mobile fleets I make using Cruisers and Battles (for the same
reason as above) and one or two Destroyers carrying Repair Robots.
Suicidals are great one shot wonders and can be very useful when
placed in Transports and Warped to specific points (like Battle
Stations, where they can use the Fire command). But their main
disadvantage is their Fire range, 15. Most other combat ships can
blow them up without the suicidals being able to return fire. They
become more useful when you receive the special ability that
improves all your combat ships Fire Range. The ships that you can
"customise" I tend to not use as they CAN NOT be repaired. But
they still have advantages in some situations.
Taking planets raises another problem with ships. Any ship can
take a planet (as long as it is not cloaked), but experience has
shown that there is no point in using your combat ships. One of
the most useful commands is the Find Planet (FP) especially if
there is no obvious planet within Comm Range. The FP command looks
AT ALL planets within the ships movement/fuel range and then
selects one of them to move to. The disadvantage however is that
the ship will not fire at ANYTHING. This is a bit of a waste of a
combat ship except if it will have nothing to fire at. Use your
combat ships to take planets you KNOW of and use non combat ships
on FP. Probes can be exceptionally useful because they are not
limited in their movement range, they can Warp anywhere (and it
doesn't use any fuel).
After the first couple of turns build some probes to take planets
that are to far away for your normal ships. They can Warp 5 times
before they need to be repaired (assuming they do not get hit) so
they should be able to take 4 planets and then come back to a
Repair Robot.
AN EXAMPLE START
Setup
After submitting my Player Details, several weeks later I receive
a Setup. It contains the following information.
Standings - Game hasn't started so they are no use.
Trading Planets - Prices of Ores and Fuel are displayed.
Planet Review - Owned Planets, Population and Industry.
Fleet Review - None Listed
Ship Review - Fleet 1
Super Battle, Light Cruiser, Corsair, Small Fighter,
Small Tanker (not very useful) Small Transport,
2 Small Cargos and a Battle Station.
Origin Planet and report of three other planets within
communications range.
First Turn
I've got 9 available ships to use and can see 3 planets within
range.
First thoughts :
1. I want to take as many planets in the first turn as possible.
2. Try and start some trading going, it's good income.
3. I want to see more so I'll build a ship with good
Communications.
4. I build ships at my home planet so I'll need fuel for them.
5. REMEMBER to uncloak any ships I want to take Planets with.
Generally most player's Origin planets are about 150-200 units
from the closest Trading Planet. For most ships this will take at
least 6 moves for a return trip (and lots of fuel). If you use
Warping it only takes 2 turns. To get Trading income every turn
therefore will require 2 fleets (a Transport and several Cargo
Ships). However at the start of the game there are more useful
ships that you need. Combat ships are always useful and you will
need something to repair them. So my construction is :
3 Small Cruisers (good combat/cost ratio)
Communications Box (good comm radius)
Repair Robot (just in case)
Because I've built 5 ships, the industry on my Home Planet will
drop by 6700 (3 Small Cruisers at 1500 each, Comm Box at 1100, and
Repair Robot at 1100). This will mean that my population will die
off at 25% at the end of the turn. This in itself is not a bad
thing because if the population is bigger than the industry at the
end of the turn then the industry will go up by 25% instead of 5%
but lets try and minimise the damage, so I'll load 6699 population
into my Battle Station this turn and put them back on the planet
next turn. The net effect of this is that the 6699 population will
not be subject to the 25% loss so I will save approximately 1670
from dying.
My 2 Cargos will Load Ore, Dock into the Transport and then the
Transport will Warp to a Trading Planet, but since I will only be
warping, none of the ships need fuel, so I'll unload it all to my
planet (that's an extra 850 available, plus I can also buy some at
the trading planet and bring it back).
I definitely want to take the 3 planets, so to maximise the chance
I'll use Strafe commands for my 3 combat ships (Light Cruiser,
Fighter, Corsair) The Super Battle I want to keep in case any DLS
ships are in the area. I'll put Find Planet (FP) commands on the
Scout and Small Tanker (hoping they wont go to the planets that
I've already targeted and that there are no DLS ships about). This
has an added advantage. With the FP command it will randomly
select any planet in Movement Range. The Scout and Tanker have BIG
movement ranges so there is more chance they will not go to one of
the planets I've already targeted.
I'll build two mines on my home planet since I'll be trading and
I'll need resources. My Battle Station will use an Engage command
just in case anything comes within range and the Scout and Small
Tanker Both need to be UNCLOAKED.
That's about it for the first turn, apart from the Scan Ship (SS)
and Scan Planet (SP) commands. Since they don't cost anything I
may as well use them. They can be very useful because you may
happen to find the location of a Battle Station or a Origin Planet
(DLS or Player). So I'll just pick random numbers for both.
The Messages Section can also be a lot of fun, you can say
anything you like (well almost!) but be careful not to give to
much information to other players, like you Home Planets location
or your Player Number (they may try and scan you). Always remember
"Anything you say will be taken down AND definitely will be used
against you, eventually".
Turn Two
Standings - Simply shows me my value compared to the Best
and Worst.
Trading Planets - Shows the number of ships currently there.
Planet Review - I own four planets.
Fleet Review - Five Fleets with their Total Attack and Defence
Factors.
Ship Review - Detailing each of my 5 fleets and their
vicinity.
In the standings I'm not doing that well. My current Credits is
about 1/3 the best, only 4 planets compared to a best of 8, I do
have the same number of ships (15), and only 500 points (one of my
ships Strafed a DLS Tanker) compared to 8000. From past experience
however these figures are not really important at the start of the
game.
Unfortunately events did not occur as I had anticipated. Both the
Scout and Tanker went to the same planet (which is highly unlikely
?), and one of the 3 planets I went for was also occupied by a DLS
Small Tanker, so neither of us got it. My communications box has
also revealed another 10 planets within a radius of 65 units, the
problem being that there are also many DLS ships, 2 Dreadnoughts,
a Battle Cruiser, 2 Super Destroyers and sundry other small ships.
This presents a problem because any ships that I want to move this
turn will have to be careful not to come within fire range of the
DLS ships (especially the BIG ones).
My tactics now will have to change. I can't afford to simply send
single ships to planets because they will be blown to pieces. The
3 Small Cruisers I will send out to a planet (after loading fuel)
while moving the Light Cruiser to another. The Super Battle will
join up with the Fighter and Corsair at the planet DLS and I share
(the Fighter already being there). The Scout and Small Tanker will
both move to individual planets (hoping that they don't come
within range of anything)! All my ships (including the Battle
Station but excluding the Scout and Tanker) will have Engage
Commands.
The five ships I'll buy this time are a second Trading Fleet to
help boost my income.
1 Small Tanker (can hold up to size 5)
4 Small Cargo (the 5th I'll buy later)
I'll reload the Population back onto my Home Planet, my Cargos at
the Trading Planet will Release, Unload Ore, Load Fuel, Dock and
then the Transport will Warp back Home.
Turn 3
Standings - Simply shows me my value compared to the Best
and Worst.
Trading Planets - Shows the number of ships currently there.
Planet Review - I own five planets.
Fleet Review - Five Fleets with their Total Attack and Defence
Factors.
Ship Review - Detailing each of my 5 fleets and their
vicinity.
Again not very promising. My Scout and Small Tanker were both
destroyed. I put down the wrong planet number for my 3 Small
Cruisers so they have wandered off in the wrong direction and
another player has ships within my vicinity. My new Tactic will be
PANIC.
Conclusion
The main reason that I got drawn into the game is highlighted by
the introductory Story in the players manual. Unlike most games
this one is not totally oriented towards all players vining
against each other from the outset. There is significant merit in
all players concentrating on DLS, and trying not to impose on each
other. DLS has a huge advantage at the start in the number of
ships at his command and HE HAS TO BE DEALT WITH. Space is Big,
VERY BIG. There is plenty to do without stepping on anyones toes
until the very endgame, and there is a good satisfaction in making
use of the main advantage of PBM games in interaction with a
number of players that you've never met.
In conclusion, I rate this game very highly. It can provide the
novice player great enjoyment by giving them sufficient time to
absorb the rules before it starts to become complicated. It
provides enough complexity to keep even the more experienced
players on their toes. And it also caters to the more Militarily
oriented Wargamer by being a tactical challenge.
But don't take my word for it, TRY IT!