Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 09:18:23 +0100
From: Tournament Headquarters  (by way of Robert F. Heeter)
Subject: W2WT: Maximizing Tournament Fun 

Greetings, Warlords!

This message conveys some *very* useful tips for playing
tournament-style Warlords more efficiently, so that you can have
the most fun.  We are working hard to make sure everyone has as
much fun as possible, so if you have additional concerns that aren't
answered here, email me and we'll figure things out!

But first I want to say a couple of things about the state of the tournament:

The Practice Round is going quite well!  We have sorted out the
last of the vacation/missing player problems, and all games are
moving.  Some games are way ahead of schedule and already on Turn 7!

If you want to play in an additional "Quick Game" (or two!) starting next
week, email  by this time tomorrow!
About 1/3 of our players are already waiting for these new games,
including those players who were on vacation or still being certified
at the start of the Practice Round.


*** Maximizing the Fun of the Tournament ***

We have been learning from experience during the Practice Round,
and I have some important announcements which should help many of
you enjoy the Tournament to the fullest:

(1) It's easiest to play if you can run Warlords, WarBOT, and your email
    software or a text editor all at once. That way you can play, analyze
    battles, and do diplomacy / turn reporting all at the same time.

   * If you have Windows '95, this *is* possible (see notes below).

   * If you have an older version of Windows, or DOS, it is
     not possible - but we now have a working beta version of the
     DOS WarBOT, so you can at least avoid having to load and exit Windows!
     Email Gary Best, gsb@compupick.com, if you would like to try it.

   * On a Mac, it should be no problem if you have sufficient memory.
     (Note: On new-vintage Macs you can reduce the memory requirements
      by turning the sounds off in Warlords and then turning on virtual
      memory, setting the virtual memory to just over your installed RAM.
      Warlords is a tad slower, but apparently not too bad.)

(2) For future rounds, we will be adjusting the gold limits for the
    ruins, so that you do not need to revert so much to get the allowed
    amount of gold.

(3) We recommend that you create a custom "turn report template" of your
    own, one that works for you, and use that to make it as easy as
    possible to fill out your turn reports.

(4) We will be using some special variants of the Tournament Rules
    in Round A, which will make it more interesting than the Practice Round.
    For instance, everyone will start with two heroes.

(5) We kept the Practice Round Map simple and elegant-looking so that
    you could focus on the rules.  The Round A scenario will be more
    interesting strategically. :)

(6) Finally, I just want to mention that here in the Practice Round is
    when things are the *least* fun.  The rules are still new and confusing,
    we are all still developing the best system for playing games with the
    most fun, and the games themselves aren't meaningful yet.  But now
    that you have all figured out the Remailer, and now that you are
    getting experience with the rules and with WarBOT and the turn reports,
    it all gets easier and more fun from here!

   -- Bob Heeter, on behalf of the Moderators

*** How to Run Warlords and WarBOT simultaneously in Win '95 ***

>From: "Barry W. Brook" 
>Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 11:09:41 GMT+1000
>Subject: WcMod: Win '95 issues...
>
>Okay guys, I it can be done (I know, I do it...).
>
>1) Firstly, if you've got one of those nasty Pentium Pros or MMX machines
>(like me..), disable the internal L1 cache. Crashes if you don't.
>
>2) Create a DOS prompt shortcut, then select "properties"
>
>a) Memory: switch everything to "auto"....this is especially important for
>Expanded memory.
>
>b) Screen: Use "full screen", and uncheck all other boxes
>
>c) Misc: uncheck all boxes *except* "Background" - "Always suspend" box, and
>the Windows shortcut key "Ctrl-Esc" (pulls up Start menu)...these must be
>checked.
>
>3) Then run DOS prompt, and you should be able to run Warlords, and switch
>back
>to WarBOT and a text editor at any time.
>
>I don't know how much memory this would use, but Warlords only needs about
>3-4MB, so I imagine a total of 8 MB RAM is enough...
>
>Cheers,
>Bazza
>
>Barry W. Brook
>Key Centre for Biodiversity and Bioresources, Macquarie University
>N.S.W. 2109  Australia. Ph: 612 9850-9266; Fax: 612 9850-8245
>e-mail: bbrook@rna.bio.mq.edu.au