BRINKSMANSHIP! [back]

by Jim Digriz

One of the main pleasures of Imperial Wars is the way in which just at the moment I think I have got a handle on the perfect playing style the entire gaming field morphs into something completely different and I have to re-evaluate everything I have learned previously.

For example, when I first started playing this game, that I knew was months long, I was exceptionally careful not to upset anyone. It was a new environment; a new game and I had no idea how it all fit together at first. I was frightened to be too bold in a game that could perhaps cause a veteran player to set about destroying my empire and my gaming experience along with it. So, like most new players, I behaved pleasantly attempting the lowest profile I could maintain. I was polite and friendly to every Starlord I met in my pocket universe and in return they refrained from torching my cities and some even started giving me star systems to manage for them as I proved my trustworthiness as a world manager. This was all well and good because I was playing a Houri/Baron. The Houri character has the ability to mirror the aspects of any of the other six players in the game. I chose the Baron early on since this character makes points for owning worlds, easier to do at the beginning; somehow I never changed again. This style of pleasant play was very fun and marked the most of my experience in the first universe I played in but it only barely scratched the depth of the gaming system. Getting on with everybody is not conducive to learning all aspects of Iwars.

This cautious approach was because I thought Iwars was going to be all about torturous routes of diplomacy and minor skirmishes between empires as Starlords vied for power and crushed the weak without a second thought. It took a while to realise that it was possible to conduct myself militarily as long as I didn’t push my luck. I suppose part of coming to glimpse the subtlety of play, was getting myself sufficiently familiar with the rules and with that added confidence I was willing to be a little more adventurous. In my first game, for example I was scared of attacking my fellow players as I was unsure of the consequences. I would allow scout fleets, from other Starlords, free access to my territory with at most a polite request not to stray any further. Occasionally I would shoot them down if they were blatantly ignoring me but on the whole I was very generous with them so consequently my empire’s borders meant very little.

BRINKSMANSHIP

Since then I’ve discovered that letting neighbors' scout starfleets wander around within my empire is a serious mistake. This isn’t because of the information that they are able to gather but because they can be a valuable source of fleet engines for your campaign! As soon as you see a fleet engine with a couple of scouts on it capture it immediately. Brinkmanship! As the dictionary defines it:

“the art or practice of pushing a dangerous situation or confrontation to the limit of safety especially to force a desired outcome”.

It doesn’t matter if it is one of your allies’ engines as there’s a fair chance that they won’t notice that it’s gone and even if they do they probably won’t pursue the issue so far as to go to war over it. In IWars a full out war means committing to a conflict that could take you both out of the running to win the game (well that’s true unless you run into somebody like me). It’s a little like bluffing in poker. Of course, if you get caught, there is always the excuse that your fortresses fired automatically and then you can give the fleet engine back to the injured party if you so choose. However, unless your fellow Starlords keep track of exactly what went on each turn, unless they religiously check the previous turn summary report at each world there is a chance of missing a few of those little fleet engines being captured out in the back of beyond. If it seems that way to me it stands to reason that this will also apply to my opponents as well.

CAN A STARLORD BE COMPLETELY ELIMINATED FROM A UNIVERSE?

Now within the open forums a particular question has been raised several times. Was it possible to kill another Starlord? Was it possible to remove someone from the game entirely by capturing all their fleets and taking over all their planets? The Galactic Effectuator’s answer was no because if a Starlord ever got into this position he could always be gifted a world by another Starlord or presented with a new fleet. Fair enough but I wasn’t buying it. I wanted to test it. I wanted to see if the system would boot a Starlord if they lost absolutely everything. I already knew that it would be effective to a certain extent because very few people will continue playing in a game where they don’t own anything and can only interact with the universe based on the theoretical generosity of other Starlords.

So I joined my next universe with the sole intention of trying to wipe out another Starlord. I wasn’t interested in winning the game or scoring large amounts of points. I didn’t want a large empire or a heap of Imperial Credits. I just wanted to see the effects of one player going after another.

Let me give you a little more background about it. Imperial Wars is an aberration in terms of the sort of community it has. There are no griefers; there are no flame wars – in fact there is no trouble in the community at all. I think the worst transgression that I have seen is when I first signed up and I found a forum thread from a GE asking the community manager what she should do about a player with a mildly offensive name. I think it was Damien666 or something along those lines. Barely a hiccup in terms of what can go wrong on forums!

So I wanted to see how the community would react to a player going for the throat and whether it was possible to wipe out another player. As a result I learnt a great deal that wasn’t immediately apparent during the few months I was involved in my IWars games.

I really didn’t expect to last very long in this universe. As you may know it takes about four or five turns, while you are setting up your empire, before you meet a neighbor Starlord. In these first turns a player can freely expand and fortify without interference from another player. After a further two or three turns Starlords, on average, will have met at least another 3 fellow Starlords. So, when I do find a target, I may end up taking on a player alliance all by my lonesome. Hmmmm…bit scary!

INTO THE BREACH

One of the first Starlords I met was Gryphon Blade the trader. This Starlord became the focus of my wrath. There was going to be much firing of coruscating beams of plasma in the general direction of Gryphon Blade’s worlds and starfleets, odd since Traders are generally such peaceful characters. I also met Rhialto, another trader, so I thought I could make a good case to him for supporting me since I was targeting his competition, possibly elevating him to the position of top trader. Luckily Rhialto agreed and I was optimistic about my chances so I set off to eliminate my chosen prey. Unfortunately it did not go as smoothly as I’d hoped. Just a couple of days after my masterful alliance was concluded with Rhialto I received communications from Gryphon Blade outlining a comprehensive inventory of the various game artifacts that players had and offering to act as a go between in negotiations. Gryphon Blade turned out to be far too organized. He had too many friends and I knew that my experiment would fail horribly if I went up against him and his allies. My search for another victim began.

StationX, please accept my public apologies for picking you as my test subject. You were on the edge of my territory and you didn’t seem to have met anyone of importance.

This universe had begun to mature. I knew that I couldn’t take out StationX alone so I started scheming with my ally Rhialto. We both began stalking our target while we hid our alliance from everybody else. I sent messages to Cilyarome, another nearby Starlord, complaining that my worlds were being attacked and captured by StationX, without provocation. I included comments that Rhialto was having similar problems. He was primed to concur with my complaints if he was queried. I didn’t ask for Cilyarome’s help but I made waves, in terms of StationX’s actions, towards other starlords. This was greatly helped by Cilyarome telling me that she had tried to contact StationX, without luck. She promised me support in terms of materiel after I had introduced her to a couple of traders that I knew and Gryphonblade also got in on the act by supporting my cause.

This was great. I was setting off to destroy another player who had done nothing to me at all and with the backing of at least three other starlords. My luck really held out when both a fleet of mine and one of Rhialto’s fell through a black hole and deposited us at StationX’s homeworld. There was no way for him to protect against attack.

Anyway in the end I had a loose alliance of six or seven starlords all engaged in wiping out StationX. Rhialto took his homeworld and I used my own, and gifted battlestar fleets, to steadily reduce StationX’s empire.

All along I had been in cahoots with Rhialto. We shared map information, equipment and intelligence but made sure that no one else ever knew about it. Towards the end of the game it looked like GryphonBlade was going to run away with U40 and so Rhialto backstabbed him rather spectacularly destroying a number of his fleets. Obviously outraged GB contacted his trusted allies, including me, and outlined various battle plans so that we could all hit him at once. I publicly condemned Rhialto’s actions whilst all along passing him every email and plan that GB made. The two of us even went so far as to fake a war between our two empires with much mudslinging on the forums. The aim of this? Gryphonblade was promising me battlestar fleets to use against Rhialto and so we created this fictional conflict to get him to gift these fleets asap. Once he had, I shot down a load of Gryphonblade's freighters and went after him as well.

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THIS EXPERIMENT

Well U40 taught me that it’s not possible to approach the game from a purely militaristic standpoint. It is impossible to stand alone and try and win the game through conquest because you waste valuable resources defending against the starlords you’re attacking. The only result is that two starlords end up crippling themselves whilst the other starlords get on with the business of scoring points and winning the game. Even if you could rebuild your empire, by the time you’re halfway there, the game is over. This is what happened with StationX. Even with an alliance bent towards a particular task it was impossible to eradicate him because the game was over too quickly. You also have to take into account the fact that it is very unlikely that there are going to be many starlords whose personal victory condition is to just kill another player. They’re going to be out to win or to roleplay. They’re not there to try and commit gaming suicide. Basically Imperial Wars is a game of diplomacy where the art of compromise is the general theme. Force can be used as a tool to achieve certain goals but a player who chooses the path of total war is going to find it very difficult to achieve anything in the time allotted.

This sense of defining a personal limit to conflict changed quite quickly as it became apparent, in U40, that I could lie, cheat and manipulate all those around me for my own ends.

Of course this led naturally into the discovery that I could basically do as I pleased. These days I don’t really take much notice of what other starlords are saying unless it directly benefits me. I ignore general requests to stay out of peoples’ territory and tend to shoot down any fleet that looks like it could be taken and capture any planets that look ripe for the picking. Strategic alliances mean nothing unless they’re directly beneficial to my cause and I have no sense of loyalty to any another player. A universe;s starlords are there to provide me with the ability to conquer, destroy and plunder (a quick note to all you vets out there. I was planning on dropping my tradition of playing anonymously in all games but now I don’t think it’s such a wise idea!).

I apologize if this sounds arrogant but for me the Imperial Wars universe is one where glory is sought, empires are built and heroes are made. There’s no point in creeping around trying not to be noticed by others starlords. If you’ve risen to command a world then you already have certain qualities and these should be exercised to the full.

I'm still learning. I'm sure that the new vets/dev game will give me even more food for thought and there are still three characters that I have yet to play. Because of this new playing strategies will make themselves known as I progress.

These different styles of play are indicative more of a learning curve with all that I have learned contributing to a greater understanding rather than a restarting of the game each time a new style presents itself. The wonderful thing is that all these playing styles combine with the playing styles of all the other starlords to create a cohesive and exciting gaming environment rather than somewhere for me to experiment with new tactics. This is what gives Imperial Wars its lasting appeal. Because, in its very nature it will keep revealing more of the intricacies of the gaming system as people become more and more familiar with it and as each starlord feeds off of the other starlords’ experiences and playing styles.

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