For the past year or so, many of us who love playing Warlords by email have mused about the problem of cheating in PBEM games. As Web site maintainer I have received numerous reports of PBEM cheating, and felt victimized myself at times, wondering whether one of my opponents was playing by the same ethical rules that I was! As a result there has been a fair amount of discussion in various Warlords circles about the possibility of fixing up Warlords to create a cheatproof play-by-email game, which could be played without any fear of a dishonest opponent. Numerous ideas have been sent to the Web site here with ways to make this possible by adding security measures to the data files, altering the game software, and so on. This will require substantial work on the part of SSG, and while they are moving in the right direction, I don't think we'll see a really cheatproof game engine until Warlords III, if then. Thus, rather than rewrite the game engine to eliminate reverts, Chesslike Warlords has been set up to eliminate luck and thus the ability to manipulate luck by reverting, allowing for an interesting and verifiably cheat-free game.

While the rules require eliminating some of the best features of Warlords, and change the game style substantially by eliminating most of the randomness involved, the playtesting we have done to date shows that it does make for a fair and uniquely challenging game which requires a tremendous amount of thought and deep Warlords expertise!

The core philosophy behind the Chesslike rules proposal is given below. I recommend that you first read about the experience with the Experiment game, involving John Harrison, Jim Panagos, myself, and some other players who were eliminated early on, to see where the core nucleus of ideas originates. I hope you will find the possibilities intriguing enough to send in feedback and ideas of your own!

The fundamental core principle is that a PBEM game must be cheat-resistant and as fair as possible, so that the winner can truly say "I am the Greatest", and those who do not win will not feel they may have been cheated upon.

The ability to revert in Warlords makes it possible for players to secretly cheat, by manipulating any random game elements to their advantage. Because it's often impossible to tell the difference between cheating and luck, it's possible for players to cheat a little to get "lucky" and gain an advantage in winning. While in casual PBEM play it's usually possible for people to resist the temptation, it's also the case that a single person who cheats can ruin the game for everyone. If you can't prevent cheating, and you can't tell the difference between luck and cheating, then you have to play with rules that allow what is normally considered cheating, so that all players can manipulate luck equally, to keep the game fair. Since it's not possible to keep players from reverting, the only way to make the game fair is to give all players equal opportunity to revert (and thus manipulate luck as much as they like). Similarly, since it's not possible to keep players from peeking at the map or peeking at other countries, these actions must also be allowed.

Thus, the fundamental rule of Chesslike Warlords:

Everyone is allowed to use any feature of the Warlords application to their advantage.

This includes peeking at other players' countries and reverting as much as one likes, but excludes use of anything other than the Warlords game program to manipulate the game files.

The Experiment game was organized by John Harrison to test the playability of this rule. As we discovered, one consequence of the above principle is that players who want to win must revert over and over again to achieve exactly the results they want. Attackers must revert for hours to win battles against incredible odds; defenders must stay clear of any enemy attackers. (This is what makes this variant of Warlords similar in flavor to chess; hence the name!) To compete successfully, a player must make a huge effort to ensure that heroes always appear in the strategically ideal location, with three of the most useful allies, as soon as the player has enough gold.

Experience to date is that games where reverting is allowed can be enjoyable, but only if the rules are adjusted to minimize the need to revert, because otherwise each turn requires several hours of very tedious reverting if one wishes to remain competitive in the game.

Hence, the second fundamental rule of Chesslike Warlords:

Rules and settings must be chosen to reduce the need to revert.

This is so that turns can be played in a reasonable amount of time, keeping the game enjoyable and playable.

For chesslike Warlords this means that additional heroes and allies are eliminated from the game, so that players do not revert for hours in order to receive heroes and allies in critical places at critical times. Quests are likewise eliminated; otherwise players will revert for hours to receive simple quests and ideal rewards. Also, the army set should be balanced so that all units are roughly equal in strength, so that in typical one-on-one battles, the attacker can win (as he inevitably will with reverting) with a minimum overall average number of reverts. Other rules settings follow from the same sort of need to minimize reverts.

Not everyone who has seen these ideas has been happy with them. Allowing reverts is anathema to many players used to the traditional PBEM ethics; throwing out many of the fun game features of Warlords, such as heroes, allies, and quests, to minimize the need for reverts is like rubbing salt into a sore wound. However, with these features stripped away the strategic core of Warlords is exposed: Chesslike Warlords is fundamentally about taking cities, optimizing their production, and building units with the appropriate mobility to defend the surrounding terrain. In addition to being interesting it makes for great training in studying the movement rules and how to exploit them! So it seems like a worthy variant of Warlords, despite the features that have been discarded. Try it yourself and let me know what you think!