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. Below are the player's (and GM's) Game End Statements following the end of the game (as published in TWJO 51, January 2005). Follow the link for an introduction to Star Trader.

Previous reports: 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

Game End

TRANS SOLAR TRADING INC: Corporation C, Jerry Elsmore

May I start by offering my congratulations to Martin on getting round to cashing in his assets – my calculations suggest he could have done at any time from Turn 14 – which is why I had a go last turn, only to be foiled by KATKORP, who timed his reneging on a written agreement to a T. <<grr gnashing of teeth! grin >> Well done, Michael.

Since that was the second written agreement to be torn up by my co-signatories – the first being The Culture’s failure to provide News Chit information – I would like to thank Shylocks for restoring my faith in the written deal and Total Transit, NEWBIE, Interstellar Metals, The Universal, Swiss Mercenaries Fleet, Bland & Brass, Tau Ceti Express and Nekekami Corporation for keeping their word. Yes, Trans-Solar Trading Inc had non-aggression agreements with all the other Corporations and cashed in all weapons early on, thus maximising cargo space and hence profit – it nearly worked!

Thanks to Mike for his patience in answering a ream of questions.

Jerry was merely one of you who looked at the game and asked "what if I…" and came up with some excellent ideas which added to the pleasure in running the game. Always ask if you have a bright idea, I may have a problem with the suggestion or you may have found a hole in the rules. There are some anomalies and Paul and I are looking at using the game system in an expansion where you can’t fly to everywhere from each system – some jumps are impossible.

There is a steep learning curve in this game as the rules, although they are all there, aren’t always obvious and the price mechanism takes some understanding. I think I’ve finally got to grips with most of them and there are certainly things I’d have done differently if I knew at the start what I know now, so I’m looking forward to the next game.

A legacy of the SPI rule writing system, the rules cover most eventualities – though I was surprised by the inventiveness of the players and the queries they raised. The easiest way to understand the price mechanism, I have found, is to take a commodity with a supply/demand figure, decide a price to bid to buy/sell relative to a chosen starting price, throw the dice, adjust the supply/demand marker, and see what the result is; what can you buy or sell. Generally if the S/D for a product is -6, -7, -8, then the average roll of 7 will produce no movement on the S/D marker (-7 + 7 = 0). To sell 3 units you will need to bid 1 below the existing price, to sell 6 units, 2 below the existing price, 9 units, 3 below the existing price. (and reduce your price further if you need to undercut other players.) Buying is similar, except you have to bid a higher price than the current – 1 above to buy 3 units, 3 above to buy 9 units, and so on. If the S/D marker is 0, +1, – 1, then the average result with two die rolled is 7 again, 7 + 0 = 7 and the S/D marker drops the price by 2. Here then to sell 3 units you must bid 2 + 1 = 3 below the starting price, to sell 9 bid 2 + 3 = 5 below the starting price. Conversely to buy 6 units you bid the starting price, and to buy 12 units you bid 2 higher then the starting price.

INTERSTELLAR METALS : Corporation D, Pevans

I started this game with a variation on my usual strategy. I decided I would look to trade heavily in all commodities. This would build up market positions, so that I could then take advantage of being a Contractor in lots of places. The Contractor’s position would let me buy or sell (as appropriate) at the market rate, rather than having to bid substantially above/below the market to make sure of making the deal. Okay, the Contractor can only trade a limited amount, but it works really well over several turns. A ship flies in and delivers three turns-worth of goods. Three turns later, when these have been sold, the ship returns with another load. This can be fuelled by another Contractor’s position buying the goods or by factories. And one ship can service several of these.

It kind of worked, too. Unfortunately, the commodity I started in was Isotopes. I built factories to produce them and started buying and selling to develop my market positions. So did everybody else. Fierce competition drove Isotope prices down and down. Not only was my margin disappearing, so was the value of my factories! I did fairly well trading other commodities, but didn’t have anything like the network I’d established in Isotopes. The end result was that Interstellar Metals grew, but grew too slowly. At the end of the game I was generating cash, but still needed 5 or 6 turns to reach the winning post.

One thing I always do at the start of Star Trader games: buy some Agents. The skills they provide suggest which strategy I should follow to take advantage of them. In this case, however, I’d already decided on a trading strategy. So picking up Dwarf (who makes Sabotage easier) was not helpful. And I didn’t even manage to sell him (despite negotiations reaching an advanced stage). Percent (a mobile Contractor, in effect) was much more useful. And Clint (who kills other Agents) might have been useful – I was pleased that he got one kill. At the end of turn 3, my position was looking pretty good – apart from everybody else’s Isotopes factories alongside mine at Tau Ceti.

I took advantage of my special ability (gaining 2 reputation each turn) to off-set things which damaged my Reputation (such as not paying the interest on my loans!). And I capitalised on some of the early Events (such as the one that halved Corporations’ debts!). But then my warehouses were sabotaged, removing several turns’ Isotope production. I missed another Event (the Civil War at Gamma Leporis), which lost me a ship and goods. And then suffered more sabotage. None of this was fatal, but it all served to slow down the Corporation’s growth (as last issue’s chart illustrated).

So, a good game, I think. Especially with Nathan demonstrating the fun and the perils of playing the pirate! Congratulations to Martin for winning. Commiserations to those whose Corporation values were up there, but who failed to cash in. Thank you to Mike for running the game and to everybody for making it fun.

SWISS MERCENARY’S FLEET: Corporation F, Martin Jennings – WINNER!

Still under the shock really, I won! I am not sure how many games of Star Trader I have played (5 that I know of. M), but this is the first time I have actually won.

Each time I have played, I have tried a different tactic and this time the tactic paid off. I took the extra connections and started with 9 Political, planning on building up the business ones through trading and, for once, not touching the criminal ones. I was lucky as the Inflation event, which was a P9, happened early and I was the only one who knew about it, so I took advantage of it. From then on it was a matter of just building up my assets, in this case the factories, until I had the cash.

In some respects, I am sorry for ending the game as it seemed that we were actually playing for pleasure. But, looking at Mike’s chart, I am glad I did, because 4 of us could have won – though it seems I had the highest assets. Also the fact that some of you were starting to undermine me; it seemed a good time to bow out.

Thank you to Jerry for being a good ally and for Mike for reffing.

Yes, you can sign me up for the next game, where I am, yet again, going to try another tactic – or maybe this one again to see if it works again ;)

KATKORP: Corporation H, Michael Martinkat

Well, considering I had three free Alloy factories at the beginning I figured I’d start with cornering the Alloy market. But imbecilic traders did not price the markets correctly, and I ended up begin pushed out of that market by TSTI.

I figured then to move to Isotopes, but had to contend with the Nekekami/Tau Ceti Express alliance, and struggled there.

Finally I kept pace with the opposing companies.

The only two military craft in the game – and I lost both of them!!

Michael bought two dagger hulls and had them both blown up by Missiles from TOTAL TRANSIT 2070’s armed merchantmen

Well, it was tough going, but I gave it a run.

Now I know how to play :)

BLAND & BRASS: Corporation J, Colin Parfitt

Briefly, it started badly, and became progressively worse. Just as I was picking up again, someone pinched my ship. (Nathan – M). Then it was all down hill.

After which you went into a bit of a decline. But you didn’t give up.

THE CULTURE: Corporation K, Nathan Richards

This was my first time playing Star Trader and I enjoyed it immensely – even if I didn’t see the game through to the end. Perhaps because I came in with a novice’s eye, I may have taken a slightly novel approach to the game, but it seemed to me that the commodity most worth trading in was ships! I therefore opted for a pirate strategy. However, there is one major difficulty in adopting a pirate strategy and that’s once you suffer an inquiry it’s very difficult not to actually end up with an inquiry every turn because you can’t raise your reputation fast enough to dodge the slings and arrows of outraged competitors.

I hadn’t meant to start pirating quite so early in the game, but the possibility of picking up so many ships so early in the game when they were just sitting outside the Spaceport was too good to miss. After that, pride took hold. I knew that I was way ahead in the early game in terms of assets and decided that rather than trade my way to victory from that point on I would instead take a few more risks and go for broke by trying to win the game in a record time! Alas, it was not to be. Although I reached the point that my assets had outstripped the level required to win the game, the cost of selling those assets in a spaceport was enough to make me uncertain as to whether I would be left on 1999 HTs and looking foolish and I couldn’t jump the ships to better markets for sale as their D class crews probably wouldn’t make the jump and would end up being confiscated. After that, the dizzying spiral of inquiries took hold and the rest, as they say, is history.

Congratulations to the eventual victor and many thanks to Mike, our long-suffering GM, who fielded so many rules clarifications. Count me in for the next one!

Your attempt to win came very close. The end of turn figures for your Corporation are after you had paid the fines, a total of 600 HT, which would have given you the game. I’ve not seen such a determined effort to be a pirate before and it was only luck of the die that eliminated you.

GRAND LARS THENI & HEFT: Corporation L, Ian Whitchurch

It was always a corporate recovery mission at GLT, and I think we did a pretty good job. (Ian took over when Jerry Spencer had to drop out>

Essentially, my plan was to recapitalise the company by liquidating GLT’s non-core assets and taking out a loan, then rebrand it as a Passenger/small cargo concern. A network of warehouses would supplement the ships, allowing us to buy lots of Spice, Monopoles or Liquor and then sell them in small packets to avoid damaging the markets. Our big Monarch class hull would do the heavy lifting, when profits appeared to be available in petroleum, isotopes or alloys. This sort of ‘big hauling’ really needs warehouses to work though – you just can’t be carting heavy goods around space.

The first call on cash flow was new ships; a fully outfitted Phoenix costs about 145 HT (b-crew, AJ pod, 4 passengers, 2 cargo), and should be returning 30 HT a turn minimum in passenger revenue, plus anything from speculative cargos. At game end we were up to 5 ships, out of a total of 35 in the game.

The second call was a cash reserve to fund trading. I’m particularly proud of the off-market deal we did with Bland and Brass for Monopoles – I understand it was the only off-market deal in the game and it made us about 80 HT on a 120 HT investment in one turn (I couldn’t guarantee getting the Monopoles at that price on the market).

The third call was our warehouse network, which was pretty much complete at game end.

Starting at an exceedingly cash- and asset-poor position (one ship, probably 100 HT worth of cargo and factories at a generous valuation and 49 HT cash), we doubled the value of the Corporation from turn 10 to turn 17, a rate of increase that matched anyone else in the game.

Actually, I think that valuation understates our financial health; we were pulling in 100 HT a turn in passenger revenue, and that was going to go up by another 35 once our latest ship got established on the Tau Ceti run. Passengers are cash flow in Star Trader; 4 passenger pods equals 35 HT a turn, assuming you are making a run between two ‘core’ worlds. Unlike speculative cargoes, you don’t need masses of cash to float the purchase and they just keep delivering revenue – generally speaking, with cargo you have to take a ship from a ‘destination’ world back to a ‘source’ world, so you only make profits one turn in two, but passengers deliver every turn.

Of course the passengers need to be shipped between high value worlds that will provide 3 or 4 passenger groups a turn. Not many passengers come from Mu Herculis. Passengers are abundant between worlds without many natural resources. Both you and TAU CETI XPRESS concentrated on the passenger line, but TCX lost 3 ships to Piracy, bought replacement ships and then never sent another order in. Any player pursuing an option without competition – be it volume trading, piracy, illegal goods, or small volume goods – does tend to have an advantage. On the last two turns you were competing for passengers and whoever had the initiative took most of the passengers. Another problem that can arise is that regular passenger shuttles are obvious – TCX lost his ships when someone put an armed ship in Tau Ceti System Space. Deciding not to risk interception will cost you twice the money that the passengers made for you in fines and will take you a turn’s carrying for no gain to get back to a level position.

I enjoyed the game, and I hope I had other players looking over their shoulder as we rapidly gained on the leaders in the game. If it had continued another 3-4 turns, then people would have to start worrying if GLT could possibly win ...

General comments: both Reputation and Business Connection levels are too easy to get. The ‘factory pump and dump’ is almost impossible to stop, and delivers profits with regularity – selling more than one factory should drop the price as per the normal S/D track.

This refers to the practice of buying factories – say 10 – in one commodity. Then bidding to raise the price, selling the factories at a profit and pocketing the difference. For example, buying 10 Spice factories when the price is 10 costs 600 HTs. Next turn the player bids 17 to buy Spice, buying 18 to raise the price by +7 to 17 HTs. This costs 306 HTs. Total Spend is thus 906 HTs. Next turn he sells the factories with the price at 17 HTs, raising 850 HTs. He also has 10 units of Spice from production and 18 units he bought, for a total of 28 to sell. Provided he can sell them for more than 2 HTs he has a profit. And if sold for half their purchase cost he will have over 200 HTs profit and market positions as well.

The more factories he buys, the bigger the potential profit. 14 factories would make 84 HTs profit and leave him with 32 units of Spice. If the commodity price is lower, say the starting price is 4 and he buys 10 factories, and bidding 11 to buy isotopes, he spends 498 HTs and makes 550 HTs – a profit of 52 HTs – and has 28 units of Isotopes to sell. It can be blocked by people selling goods, if they think a player is about to ramp the share price – as KATKORP did to TSTI on one turn. You must have a fair amount of cash to be able to start doing it as well – none of the backmarkers was in a position to use the tactic. It also isn’t a tactic anyone can really use early on in the game, as no one has the funds. Dropping the price for sales of factories? I see the logic and I may think about it. But then shouldn’t the price go up when you buy factories?

GM Notes

A keenly fought game, and quite close among several Corporations. TAU CETI XPRESS was doing very well, until real world problems caused them to stop sending in orders. INTERSTELLAR METALS suffered from losing ships to Piracy and from misfortune from events. BLAND & BRASS and SHYLOCKS both suffered from losing laden ships at an early stage and never quite got back into the game, but continued playing.

NEKEKAMI went spectacularly bust. Realising that there was no way that they could meet their loan repayment at the due time, they liquidated all of their assets and revenged themselves on their tormentors, real and imagined with a sabotage campaign that affected INTERSTELLAR METALS and KATKORP quite badly.

THE UNIVERSAL seemed to have problems in trading, often buying only small lots and then failing to Hyperjump because of the poor quality of their crews. It is still worth buying where a product is cheap and selling where it is dear. The competition in Isotopes did drive the prices really down though and the cut-throat nature kept prices and profits very low. Not many people shifted to trading in other commodities to the same intensity.

There wasn’t much use of illegal commodities from Opportunity Chits. Slave and Weapons weren’t bought and sold, even though a Corporation with the smuggling bonus and a Battle Comm pod could have made low risk profits. Nor was there much inter-player trading. With the growth of e-mail it is possible to ask questions and get replies quickly, but the player interaction didn’t extend to private sales. As usual, someone had a way of trading news amongst players, setting up an agreement between players with high Criminal, Political and Business Connections to trade information about News Chits. I refuse to organise the transfer of information between players and no one so far has apparently thought of feeding false information to the other players…

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