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Mission of Gravity

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

Sections: Report, Corporations Table, News, Press, GM Notes, Star map (separate page)

Previous reports: Turn 24 Turn 23 Turn 22 Turn 21 Turn 20 Turn 19 Turn 18 Turn 17 Turn 16 Turn 15 Turn 14 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

Turn 25

It was an unexpected tax imposed by the authorities that hit many Corporations. 1 HT for each Warehouse, 2 HTs for each Factory, and 5 HTs for each ship left large, three-figure bills for some.

Epsilon Eridani saw ZWILLINGE selling 2 Alloys for 7 HTs each. Then ISKANDER FIRE & ACCIDENT sold 2 Isotopes for 1 HT each, while TRANSURRANIC bought 3 at the same price. SWISS MERCENARY FLEET sold 12 Monopoles for 13 HTs apiece to gain the Market Managership, as SOLAR SPICE, LIQUOR & MONOPOLES sold 5 on Contracts.

Delta Toucanis saw SOLAR WINDS TRADING COMPANY sell 3 Isotopes for 5 HTs each and ISKANDER buy 5 Petroleum on Contracts.

TRANSURANIC sold 5 Alloys on Contract at Tau Ceti. ZWILLINGE bought 5 Isotopes on Contract as ISNOT-ISTOO failed to sell at 1 HT. Then ZWILLINGE and ISKANDER each sold 5 Petroleum on Contract.

ZWILLINGE sold 6 Alloys at Mu Herculis using Percent and CAESAR WHOLESALE sold 5 on Contracts. ZWILLINGE sold 5 Isotopes on Contract as well as ISKANDER sold 12 for 4 HTs each to take the Market Managership, TRANSURANIC sold 1 Isotopes for 4 HTs and VOGON failed to sell at 6 HTs. TRANS SOLAR TRADING INC sold 6 Liquors for 2 HTs each, leaving SWISS MERCENARY, SOLAR WINDS and VOGON unable to sell. CAESAR WHOLESALE bought 6 Petroleum for 6 HTs apiece. SOLAR SPICE, LIQUORS & MONOPOLES wanted to buy Monopoles for 10 HTs, but was outmanoeuvred by ISKANDER FIRE & ACCIDENT who bought 8 units at that price and then sold 5 back to the Market using their Market Managership.

Sigma Draconis saw ZWILLINGE and TRANSURANIC buying 5 Isotopes each on Contract, and VOGON INDUSTRIES selling 5 on Contract. TRANS SOLAR TRADING INC was buying Spice, 25 units at 18 HTs each, bringing the price up by 7. They cannot have been amused as first ISNOT-ISTOO sold 4 Spice at 8 HTs, then TRADEWINDS sold 5 Spice at 8 HTs and, finally, TRANSURANIC sold 2 Spice for 8 HTs, bringing the price back down to 14. They would have been even less amused had the other Corporations with stockpiles also chosen to dump them onto the Market.

TRANSURANIC sold 3 Alloys for 5 HTs each at Alpha Centauri and followed this by selling 5 Isotopes on Contract. ISNOT-ISTOO's bid to sell relied on a ship arriving with the goods on board. TSTI sold 5 Liquors on Contract, joined by SWISS MERCENARY. ZWILLINGE wanted to sell Spice at 11 HTs but TRANS SOLAR TRADING INC sold 8 Spice at 7 HTs each and gained a Dealership.

ZWILLINGE was undercut by CAESAR WHOLESALE bidding 5 to sell 10 Alloys at Beta Hydri and gaining a Dealership as a result. ISNOT-ISTOO bid 1 and sold 5 Isotopes, leaving ZWILLINGE's bid of 3 up in the air. ISNOT-ISTOO also sold 4 Monopoles for 8 HTs apiece, leaving a lot of profit on the table. ZWILLINGE did get into the action, selling 5 Petroleum on Contract, but lost out again to ISNOT-ISTOO who sold 20 Spice at 8 HTs each and took a Contractorship. TRADEWINDS sold 1 unit for 8 HTs, but TSTI and ZWILLINGE's bids of 11 were too high.

ZWILLINGE took OP7, buying 10 units of Tempus, and sold 3 cargo pods from the Twosome. They wanted to buy 3 passenger pods to replace them, but lack of funds meant they could only buy 1 and then failed to make their interest payment.

ISKANDER FIRE & ACCIDENT paid to increase their Reputation and then went to the bankers; firstly to repay their loan and then to take out a new loan for 300 HTs over 4 Quarters.

TRANS SOLAR TRADING INC. tried to load Passengers but, as the remainder of their actions would have made any attempt to deliver them impossible, none took passage. All of the Spice Factories were sold, followed by 9 Warehouses, a Cargo Pod that had been sitting in store for some years and all 10 of the Phoenix Class ships. This was more than enough to raise their cash holdings to over 2000 HTs.

ISNOT-ISTOO loaded Passengers onto 5 ships and repaid their loan before refinancing with the maximum loan that they could raise: 1340 HTs for 8 Quarters, at 130 HTs a Quarter interest. They laid down a new Corco Zeta Hull MAKEME at Beta Hydri with 4 Passenger Pods.

ALSAFI-TOLIMAN ACQUISITIONS LTD bought a Warehouse at Gamma Leporis.

SWISS MERCENARY FLEET paid to increase their Reputation slightly.

TRANSURANIC loaded Passengers in quantity.

SOLAR WINDS loaded a small quantity of Passengers.

CAESAR WHOLESALE sold the Weapons of OP17 for the maximum return and were pleased with this.

VOGON INDUSTRIES increased their Reputation and bought an Augmented Jump pod and 4 Passenger pods for their new ship, the Famine, which was loading with Passengers as the Quarter ended.

SOLAR SPICE MONOPOLES & LIQUORS sold its Monopole Factories at Mu Herculis and its two ships, as well as all its empty Warehouses, also breaking the 2000 HTs cash barrier, but a way behind TSTI who achieved the Victory Conditions and brought the trading conflict to a successful conclusion.

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Corporations Table

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News

ZWILLINGE took OP7 from Turn 26.

EV 13 - special tax - took place this turn.

Remaining News chits:
    Turn 27 P6 - EV 5
    Turn 28 B4 - OP 10

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GM Notes

After a much longer game than usual we have a winner: congratulations to Jerry Elsmore. Commiserations to Paul Evans who also met the victory condition (2000 HTs) in cash, but was beaten by Jerry.

I have kept a chart of approximate Corporation value each turn (below). This is based on the assumption of selling everything at that point and values ships at 100% of value and goods at the value in the system they are at. Some Corporation's values will fluctuate as their Factories and Goods values are inflated in another Corporation's pump and dump scheme, of course, and very few Corporations could always dispose of all of their goods in the current system. But with those qualifiers, it's a reasonable tool to see how the Corporations fared.

The first attempt to be a pure pirate failed when the Inquiry eliminated Alex Everard's Corporation. ZWILLINGE was doing well until it became the target of the saboteur. Various Corporations were not doing badly until their owners stopped sending in orders; to those players who stepped in and took over Corporations, my thanks. I hope that you enjoyed the experience.

I would like to see some sort of comment on the game from as many players as possible. If it isn't for publication, please make that clear. If you feel that there are things than can be done better, you wish to know or say who you thought the saboteur was, why you were robbed...

Pump and dump - the buying of Factories, then buying the commodity to raise the price of the factories before selling the factories back, leaving you with a profit on the factories and commodities to sell for further profit is best met by selling the relevant goods, making yourself a profit, and reducing or removing the profit from the factories. This happened at least twice this game.

The activities of the Saboteur had a lot of influence in pegging back players but, apart from one Quarter when every Warehouse on Sigma Draconis was sabotaged, TSTI didn't suffer from his activities; whether there was collusion or the Saboteur didn't realize the strength of TSTI's position is not clear.

There was a lot of Passenger carrying, but few attempts to disrupt this by pirating passenger ships. Perhaps ships jumping between the high port class systems, which usually had good Patrol values, is a reason for this.

I shall comment more with the Game End Statements next issue.

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