Vassal games

The rule VASSAL_DUMMIES (http://www.floc.net/dpjudge/?page=showRule&rule=VASSAL_DUMMIES) has been around for a while now, but AFAIK apart from a test game it hasn't been used in any real game in a useful way, and that for a number of reasons.

It was used in a couple of games as an alternative way to cope with abandoned powers made dummies mid-game, until we put a stop to that. That was done both because the current implementation requires that in order to turn a dummy into a vassal, all home centers must be occupied by the same power at the end of a Fall season (not trivial when the dummy power has 4+ hc's); and second, because the transfer of home centers back to the abandoned power that is required to make the vassal concept work, could be exploited in all kinds of unfair ways.

Indeed, vassals is primarily intended to be used with one center powers, and there aren't that many maps that offer that. It may also not be obvious how to make a good number of powers dummies from the get-go. To remedy that I have created a vassal map (http://www.floc.net/dpjudge/?page=about_vassal), which uses the minorpower map, turning every minor power (that is every country containing a neutral SC on the standard map) into a dummy. Capture a neutral SC and you get yourself a vassal. 

Sounds easy? Well, it isn't. In minorpower the first season is Winter 1900, but only the (now dummy) minor powers get to build, the major powers (the players) starting with their usual starting units. That makes it pretty hard for some players to capture their first neutral. How is Italy going to take Tunis or Greece with just one fleet? Can Turkey take Bulgaria if Russia bounces him out of the Black Sea? How is Russia going to break through in the North? As such first year stabs become very attractive, and if the other powers have to defend against that, the game will get bottled up even further.

There are a number of ways to make the opening smoother, including the vassal author's proposal to use payola bidding to bribe and move the dummies. I have set up a few games that explore a few alternatives, which I will explain and promote in the dpjgames group. See you there.

Mario.