The Cold Equations

This is the fourth postal (PBM/PBeM) game of Star Trader GMed by Mike Dommett and published by Pevans in my postal games 'zine, To Win Just Once. This is the web version of the turn. Follow the link for an introduction to Star Trader.

Turn 14

Previous reports: Turn 13 Turn 12 Turn 11 Turn 10 Turn 9 Turn 8 Turn 7 Turn 6 Turn 5 Turn 4 Turn 3 Turn 2 Turn 1 Start-up

Sections: Report, Corporations Table, Press, GM Notes, Star map (separate page) PDF map (22k)

    “You have the Weapons?”
    “Yes, we have half a light armoured division of hover tanks.”
    “We only need a company.”
    “A company?”
The man was silenced as he came in sight of the ship. The hull still had patched holes and voids open to space.

At Gamma Leporis HOUSTON FEARLESS bought 6 Alloys for 3 HTs each, to add to its production.

ARCHANGEL sold an Isotope for 1 HT at Epsilon Eridani, as all prices rose.

Tau Ceti saw HOUSTON selling 9 Alloys for 12 HTs each and blocking EON FLASHCORP’s attempt to sell at the same price.

Spice rose at Sigma Draconis as HOUSTON bought 9 Spice for 11 HTs apiece and were awarded a Contractorship.

HOUSTON failed to sell Isotopes at Beta Hydri, but did sell 10 Monopoles at 13 HTs to gain a Dealership. MONOGRAM INDUSTRIES used its Contractorship and Agents to sell 11 more at the closing price.

And at Mu Herculis, ARCHANGEL sold 2 Isotopes for 6 HTs each and HOUSTON sold 5 on Contract. EON was pleasantly surprised when he went to sell a Monopole on Contract, as MONOGRAM bought 20 Monopoles for 19 HTs. MONOGRAM became Market Manager again.

ARCHANGEL sold the Light Weapons pod from their Sigma Draconis warehouse and then laid off all their local storage agents as they closed all their warehouses round the systems. Passengers were loaded this Quarter and their three armed Merchantmen went up for auction, Asmodai realising 110% at Gamma Leporis, Gabriel realising 90% at Mu Herculis while Jophiel raised 160% at Sigma Draconis.

MONOGRAM sold all of their Monopole Factories at Mu Herculis, and sold Trump Change at Beta Hydri for 60% of list price to push their cash holdings.

EON FLASHCORP took OP 25, buying 1 unit of Weapons, then laid down a Piccolo hull, launching the Flute hulls ‘Flash in the Pan 1’ and ‘Flash in the Pan 2’.

HOUSTON sold 3 Isotope Factories at Tau Ceti, paid off their loan with the Federation banks, then took out a further 500 HT loan over 4 Quarters and bought 4 more Alloy Factories at Gamma Leporis.

Corporations Table

Corporation letter & name		Conn'n Levels Bus/Crim/Pol			Init Bid	Turn Order	Cash	Rep'n	Player
A	Archangel Lines	8	0	2	0	4th	1186	40	Jerry Elsmore
B	Eon Flashcorp	7	9	9	0	3rd	42	40	Paul Evans
D	Gates-Learjet	9	6	5	0	5th	174	29	Dominic Howlett
E	McRadie’s Crew	5	10	0	N		39	0	Martin Jennings
F	Monogram Industries	10	0	7	0+5	2nd	1759	40	Michael Martinkat
G	Houston Fearless	10	0	5	15	1st	464	40	Przemyslaw Orwat
H	GamLepCo	5	0	4	N		144	26	Player wanted
'N' under Initiative Bid indicates No Move Received; ‘F’ indicates the Corp was floated

GM Notes

A replacement player for GamLepCo would be welcome—it’s a chance to learn the game.

Eon Flashcorp took OP 25 from turn 15.

There are two new News chits this turn (in bold):
    Turn 15 P8
    Turn 16 C4, B1, C5
    Turn 17 P5