01-11-2002 11:31									#1
	Alien Dip II Sign-up sheet Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

Alien dip is a rules-based variant that is an enourmous amount of fun since everyone starts out on an even playing field no matter what map it is played on (since everyone starts with three armies in a space ship that are then beamed down wherever you want) and the use of colonization and the beaming of units up and down leads to a lot of interesting strategy that isn't present in the standard game.

Here's the rules:
http://devel.diplom.org/Zine/S1996M/Shoham/ICFOS.html
(house rules: spaces remain colonized even when the power that colonized them is eliminated, I never allow countries to go into civil disorder this means either replacing players or having a dip-playing friend make up orders for a NMRed country on a provisional basis and I'm lenient with misorders when the intent is clear)

Here's an EOG from the winner of the first game of this variant:
http://devel.diplom.org/Zine/S1996M/Shoham/Jedi.html

Some things I learned about It Came From Outer Space strategy by GMing Alien Dip I:
-If the map is relatively crowded separating your units out far enough that they can't immediately help each other is a very bad idea (it got Imran killed quickly) but landing your units close by but not in adjacent SCs can help a lot with early-game growth (this helped Victor G and SnowFire become dominant). Also trying to land your armies in the same place as someone else in the first turn and/or not adapting your tactics to the variant rules will make you dead fast.

I'll keep this open for a week or two and then pick a map that's an appropriate size for the number of people who sign up.

when you sign up place give me the name of your alien empire and a color pref list (for the map)

	03-11-2002 00:38									#2
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Ooh, ooh, me!

	03-11-2002 06:28									#3
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations: Deluxe Edition

great
you're the sixth, empire name and color?

	03-11-2002 08:11									#4
	Support Apolyton or Terrorists Win

Um...

"Fireflies", Blue

	03-11-2002 13:49									#5
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

I'm pretty tempted to join in, although I'm going to be pretty busy the next two weeks. *slaps hand away from keyboard, hand reaches forward anyway*

Crap, Ok the Hive and Dark Green.

	04-11-2002 00:10									#6
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

don't worry it won't start for about a week and the first two turn as pretty low-key in this variant (just have to negotiate an uncontested landing place).

	05-11-2002 05:23									#7
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

I've got nine people signed up now (mix of cgn, apolyton and cat23 people) the game will be starting fairly soon.