Galaxy #223

The ongoing Saga of Galaxy #223 in Galac-Tac

Turn #5

A Noticeable Injection of PI

Well, this time around, I wrote my player blurb for Galaxy #223 first, which now leaves me wondering what to write for this article. But let me take a stab at it, anyway.

According to the Galaxy Statistics for this game, here are some informational tidbits for the first 5 turns of Galaxy #223.

Number Of Combats Per Turn
Turn #1 = 0
Turn #2 = 13
Turn #3 = 21
Turn #4 = 15
Turn #5 = 9
Total Combats Thus Far = 58

Number Of Colony Systems In Existence
Turn #1 = 0
Turn #2 = 0
Turn #3 = 34
Turn #4 = 50
Turn #5 = 58
Total Colony Systems In Existence = 58

Number Of Production Centers Aside From Homeworlds In Existence
Turn #1 = 0
Turn #2 = 0
Turn #3 = 0
Turn #4 = 0
Turn #5 = 0
Total Number Of Production Centers Aside From Homeworlds In Existence = 0

Well, the long-awaited drop in the Empire Valuation of my Yonds of Droon empire finally fell below the 100th percentile. ACK! ACK!

Galac-Tac GM Davin Church's words from the PBM year of 2008 about the percentile figure from Empire Valuation come back to me, again, and they are words always well worth keeping in mind, when trying to figure out how much, if any, that players of Galac-Tac should stress over the percentile that your empire currently has, as determined by the game's program.

So if you're driven to improve your early percentile at all costs, concentrate on economics early in the game. Of course, you can just ignore the early percentile numbers and just take what you want later on. The percentile will stabilize over about the first game year anyway as the whole galaxy becomes colonized and wealth begins to be measured more in possessions than in potential -- that's when you need to look and see how well you've been doing.



- Davin Church

September 23rd, 2008

These percentiles are going to stabilize, anyway, so why stress over them? Plus, the GM, himself, has plainly said that "you can just ignore the early percentile numbers." Again, why stress? Or have relevant things changed since then that I remain oblivious to?

Thus, I choose to keep things in perspective, because right now, what the Empire Valuation is measuring is potential, rather than possessions.

So, while other players in Galaxy #223 may celebrate my empire's decline from 100th percentile to 95th percentile on Turn #5, they really should guard against the temptation to read too much into it. Does anyone else in Galaxy #223 think, even for a minute, that I now find myself in a state of despair, or that I am freaking out over my empire's current diminished percentile rating in the Empire Valuation section of my turn results for Turn #5? Think again, Bucko!

It's all about keeping things in perspective, and maintaining a sense of proportion. Besides, freaking out won't fix any actual problem, and remaining cool, calm, and collected facilitates one's ability to think rationally and objectively about one's empire's current state of strength versus weakness, relative to all other empires in the game. When playing Galac-Tac, you're either thinking clearly or you aren't. Never confuse the propaganda wars for what or how a given player is thinking.



My attempts in Turn #5 to hunt down more Kroji shipping assets has yielded some Saydonian casualties. This will likely result in a shift in Saydonian strategic thinking and strategic policy by her empire towards my empire. Outer space is big - it's vast beyond belief or imagination, in fact, but try explaining that to either Empress Ajwan or her empire, in light of certain events that transpired during Turn #5 of Galaxy #223.



In PBM wargames, once something happens, you can't undo it. In life and in war, shit happens. That's just simple, hard reality rearing its head. You just have to suck it up, hope for the best, and move forward.



Ever forward!



My empire's Mole Men continue to work their economic magic. They toil both night and day for the glory of the Yonds of Droon, but they still need to step things up, because a player in Galac-Tac can never have too much PV nor too many PI. Battles are already raging, even if they do seem to be on the decline, of late, and war requires ongoing investment and expenditure of resources. In their defense, Mole Men don't tend to have the best eyesight out of all species that populate this galaxy. Yet, do any of the other players and empires in this game ever factor that into their considerations of why my empire's valuation score slipped a tad bit, this turn?



This was the first turn of this game where my empire received a noticeable injection of PI, which happened because more PV (resources/raw materials) in sizeable quantities arrived at my shipyard the turn before, and they were automatically converted into spendable PI for use in my turn orders for Turn #5. It's a good feeling to be able to build more, rather than less.



My empire's first Moon Battery came online, this turn. Praise be! Nothing quite like the feeling of bolstering the defenses of one's homeworld star system. Moon Batteries are platforms, not starships, so they don't flit about the galaxy like starships do. One can never have too many defenses guarding their homeworld, as Player Ajwan understands all too well, seeing as how her homeworld in another game of Galac-Tac is currently being invaded. Know, dear Ajwan, that my sympathies lie with you and your endangered empire in that other game of Galac-Tac, even as I sit here smirking at the hilarity of it all. Will the next turn in that other game prove to be Ajwan's finest hour? Or is she and her species and her empire about to be snuffed out?



Turn #5 of Galaxy #223 processed over the weekend, on Saturday morning. Turn #6 won't process until 12 more days from now. ::sigh::

Somebody wanna wake me, when Turn #6 is ready to process? That's a long wait, between now and then. In a way, it seems like a whole eternity for me to wait my way through. Hurry up and wait, as the old saying goes!



The Wyvern Supremacy had it pretty easy on Turn #5, losing only one starship, a small freighter, to the military forces of the Yonds of Droon. Are they mounting a comeback? Or do their species despair and feel as if all is lost?

Freighter  /;;10/20-1 /;;6/20- Destroyed

From the looks of it, this Wyvern freighter sustained the loss of 4 of its 10 cargo holds and it's only inertia engine, before blowing all to smithereens and ending up lost in the freezing cold of outer space's omnipresent vacuum. Sayonara, baby!



The dastardly Kroji Konfederation, by comparison, lost three starships to Yond forces on Turn #5. Here, take a look at them for yourselves, 'O loyal readers of PBM Chaos.

Truck10 1 /;;10/20-1 /;;9/11- Destroyed

Truck15 1 /;;15/16-1 /;;15/4- Destroyed

Truck10 1 /;;10/20-1 /;;6/14- Destroyed

Two small freighters and a medium freighter saddled with those dreadfully boring "Truck" labels. All three of them deserved to be destroyed, for being burdened with dull and boring names, if nothing else.



That first Kroji freighter suffered the loss of 1 of its cargo holds, 9 of its star drive engines, and its only inertia engine. Freighter go boom!



The second Kroji freighter endured the loss of 12 of its star drive engines and its only inertia engine. BOOM!



And that third Kroji freighter didn't truck to good, this turn, losing 4 of its cargo holds, along with 6 of its star drive engines and its sole inertia engine in combat, before giving up the ghost. Bada bing, bada boom!



None of the following Saydonian starships were deliberate targets, this turn, but they did die, so let me go ahead and list them. I would much have preferred that they have been Kroji ship losses, instead, but when one is at war in outer space, beggars can't always be choosy.

Freighter 1 /;;10/20-1 /;;10/17- Destroyed

FXV 1 /;;15/16-1 /;;9/10- Destroyed

My eyes don't always enjoying trying to make out the finer details of combat losses in Galac-Tac, but if I read things right, the first Saydonian small freighter suffered the loss of 3 star drive engines and its only inertia engine, before exploding. Oops! Sorry, Ajwan.



The second Saydonian starship, a medium freighter, lost 6 cargo holds, 6 star drive engines, and it's only inertia engine. Poof! Again, so sorry, Ajwan.



Sometimes, I make mistakes, when looking at what sections, specifically, suffered damage or destruction during battles, so always feel free to write in and correct whatever I get wrong about these post-battle attempts at explanation.



Not as many battles took place during Turn #5 as during some of the previous turns, so perhaps this galaxy is slowly but surely drifting towards a more peaceful state of non-violent coexistence.



Or maybe not.



Let us now recite The Code of the Galac-Tac Elves.

A fun thing to note here is what your enemy is naming their ships. If they have nothing but bland names such as “X”, then your opponent is not being very imaginative and getting into the spirit of the game.



- Davin Church

Galac-Tac: Interpreting Combat Reports

Read those words and weep, my fellow players. Talisman Games' top elf, Davin Church, hit the nail squarely on the head, when he wrote those words.



The Christmas holiday season is not that far away, now, so pardon me as my mind begins to drift to Buddy the Elf. There where you are, recite The Code of the Elves. It just might do you a world of good.



Players can name their starships in Galac-Tac pretty much whatever they want to. Of course, with such a very short character length limit to work with, it isn't as though that aspect of the game's design allows players' imaginations to run wild. It really is much more limiting than one might at first imagine. In designing new ship classes and platform classes in Galaxy #223 already in this game, I have bumped into that attenuated character length limit many times, already. I just kind of shake my head at it. I really should just start writing down ideas for ships and platforms that I come up with, but then can't use, because they exceed the character length limit, and share them with PBM Chaos readers, as Galaxy #223 progresses.



The name of starships, and not their class name, is what appears in combat reports in Galac-Tac. Thus, you never have any danger (nor chance) to face off against starships named Battlestar Galactica or Millennium Falcon. You could end up fighting Galactica or Falcon, but it just doesn't have quite the same ring to it.



It would be better, I think to list the names of ships and platforms on a separate line in the game's different report sections, if that's what it took to increase the character length limit, which has direct bearing upon how far and wide players' imaginations can range, when trying to figure out what to name their empires' starships and platforms.



So, when players revert to just going with shorter generic names for their ships and platforms, it doesn't really surprise me. Of course, if your empire has constructed hundreds of starships over the course of the game, that will naturally play a role in it, also, since if it becomes too much like work, players will tend to find "solutions" of their own to such dilemmas.



Currently, players couldn't even name their starships the full names of many American presidents or other famous world leaders or other historical legends. You won't encounter a USS George Washington, HMS Winston Churchill, or Maslama ibn Abd al-Malik. History, and by extension, historical figures, often spark people's and gamers' imaginations. Yet, Galac-Tac closes itself off to a lot of historical-derived imagination, due to such a short naming scheme for starships and platforms.



If you're a Klingon fan, it simply isn't possible in Galac-Tac, at present, to name one of your starships Chancellor Gorkon. In a nutshell, short character length limits tend to stunt players' use of their own imaginations in PBM wargames where naming instances are allowed. Names like Chicken Little, Turkey Lurkey, and Rumpelstiltskin can all be used, since they come in under the character length limit. So, there's that.



It appears that three of my empire's starships went missing, this turn - one at star system 52-50 and two at star system 49-65. If I had to venture a guess, all three of those ships were treated to Kroji "hospitality." Death by fireworks, no doubt!



Damned Krojis! They infest this galaxy, if you ask me. One of their starships was sighted, this turn, as far away as star system 31-46, and another at star system 73-41, to name a couple. Clearly, the Kroji Konfederation is bent on expanding its influence and its reach well beyond its immediate core space. The rest of you out there might not be taking note, but I am.



It was Spacehawk, Kalax, and Jod whose starships ran into trouble, this turn. Hopefully, they're floating alive in escape pods near where their starships met an untimely demise, this turn. Meanwhile, in other news, Space Patrol has arrived!



Nothing quite like the feeling of having a Droon Ship on the scene. If I'm not mistaken, a Star Angel was spotted recently, as well.



Turn #5 really didn't turn out to be a big turn. Some less glamorous details of my empire's inner workings needed a little attention, this turn, but I won't bore you with all of the mundane details. Plus, enemy spies of numerous alien species have a tendency to listen in and nose around, scouring each issue of PBM Chaos for any kind of advantage that they can gain.



Perhaps Turn #6 will bring more interesting news from Galaxy #223 - but even if it does, that's two issues away.

Player Blurb - Ajwan

==Begin==



"Here we go again. 

At this point in the game, we have the luxury (and enough order slots) to reshuffle our shuttles. There are so few colonies at this stage, that our previous small shuttles, which we had quickly assigned shuttling routes to transport PV, can now be reassigned other orders, and in their

place assign the correct freighters which can keep supplying us with those precious PVs we need to manufacture more ships. Ah, the bliss of simply assigning routes, not worrying about xx or yy nibbling away at our systems. 



That taken care of, I now have to revisit every combat ship in all systems. I am giving them PATROL orders, because I now understand (after being clobbered real hard in another game) that impulse engines give a higher % advantage of catching scouting ships on the outskirts of my space. This is especially useful right now as Charles has chosen a disruption tactic. He has sent many ships to disrupt our economies. No one is ready yet to wage any significant battles, but one way to limit the growth of other empires is to keep disrupting the flow of PV by just warping into a system and messing with defenseless freighters. You don't need much firepower to achieve that. Just a stream of very cheap,disposable ships.



One thing about that strategy though is that once the empire grows, and many decisions have to be made, one has a limited number of orders. This game is constantly challenging priorities and forcing players to switch between short-term and long-term. But what cannot be changed is the

need for more PV, and that's why Charles is disrupting them. However, if that is his sole strategy, I am betting his economy is suffering because of it. Creative chaos is really nice when you're "US Secretary of State" destroying the peace in the global south, because other actors will further create chaos, and you sit back - unscratched - and reap the rewards. In Galatac, you pay for the chaos you create, one way or another."



==End==

Player Blurb - Brendan

No player blurb received.

Player Blurb - Djinny

Oops, or "The Cost of Distractions and Lack of Sleep." I made a few clerical errors in my last turn, not serious, but all resulting in setbacks and delays in my neatly conceived plan to Rule The Galaxy.



I neglected to unload freighters before sending them off with different orders, and failed to send one ship on the mission I had already written down. GTac catches many things for me when I Check Orders, but it's not smart enough to say "You didn't type in what you wrote on that page

of your report!" Such is the fate of an overworked and underslept minion trying to be a Galactic Overlord (Overlady?).



My omissions didn't help my percentile, which continues to fall. I still have hopes that I will survive and rebound from early hostilities and find my way back to the top of the heap, or at least in shooting range. Other news is, overall, actually pretty decent. Like everyone else, I'm starting to have some PI arrive in my coffers, and I'm doing my best to spend it wisely. One never knows how one's plans will come out, when clashing with the plans of Others out there in the stars.

I have now, in one way or another, encountered all the other empires in the game. (You may not know I visited... or you may have been very much aware!) In a "real game," of course, I wouldn't know how many contenders were out there to be found, which is part of the fun. Since this game is special and intended for entertainment and education of fairly new players, a little open information has "set the stage," so we aren't all wondering who's over there somewhere we haven't yet explored. I'm happy to meet y'all out there. I still want to win, but I certainly don't want to wipe out a newbie player in the first game year.

That's no fun (for me or the victim), even if I could do it this early. Everyone needs to learn about economics and defenses, best learned by experience. I just hope to survive well enough to share my own experiences along the way, and have fun doing it.



Djinni

Player Blurb - Hammer

I ended up submitting 18 orders (instead of 15 orders) for the Fifth Turn of this Learning Game.



Those Orders apparently worked in my favor, because the Scroids of Misraw are currently listed in the 100th Percentile for Empire Valuation!



At an Unknown Star located at 61-79, the Misraw War with the Kroji Konfederation tipped slightly in the favor of Misraw, as a Scroid Skirmisher destroyed a Kroji Skirmisher and damaged a Kroji Truck15 (but only reduced its Cargo Holds from 15 to 14 and its Star Drives from 16 to 7) for what amounts to be a Minor Victory.



Hammer, Minister of War

Player Blurb - Richard

Player Blurb - GrimFinger

Saturday - November 8th, 2025

The time is 7:41 AM, and I've been awake for a bit, already. I'm waiting for Turn #5 of Galaxy #223 of Galac-Tac to process at the Talisman Games Turn Processing Lair. Not quite an hour and a half of expected wait time left, until Talisman Games GM Davin Church presses the big button, and this game of Galac-Tac fires to life anew, spewing out fresh turn results that hold the fate of entire interstellar empires within its digital printouts.

Last night, my wife returned home from the grocery store, depositing a bag of Brim's fried pork rinds on my desk. What a pleasant little surprise!

I deem them suitable for a celebratory feast, as I await my empire's turn results. We Yonds of Droon think it best to not devour turn results and the outcome of pending battles on an empty stomach.

Be the forthcoming news for Galaxy #223 good or bad for we of the Droon persuasion, we will continue to press forward against these alien heathen from distant stars. None of them hold any monopoly upon expanding throughout the galaxy. Verily, we will have what is ours!

Much thought went into the turn orders that I issued for Turn #5. Hopefully, this investment of time will not prove to have been a waste, when at long last our pending reports arrive. Rest assured, we will pore over them, time and time again. We will see what these star devils have been up to. We do not expect to learn everything about their doings, their coming and their goings, their mischief and their evil intents, but we will learn something. Of this, I have extreme confidence!

My favorite brand of pork rinds is, of course, Hogs Heaven. My favorite flavor of their bunch, thus far, is the BAR-B-Q flavored ones. Their pork rinds come in eight different flavors, and some of them I couldn't - or wouldn't - even dare try. Hot and Extreme Hot, I would stay away from, at all costs. They have a Salted Caramel Brownie flavored, but that doesn't appeal to me. I do like brownies, but I don't want to confuse a pork rind for a brownie. That's way too much tampering with my taste buds.

The clock on my computer says 7:59 AM. Where's that Davin at? Up and at 'em, Atom Ant! Davin must have never watched that cartoon when he was young. I sure do hope that my turn results don't whack me in the head, Quickdraw McGraw style. I could really use some good news for the Yonds of Droon in my Turn #5 results.

Rumor has it that in another game of Galac-Tac (sorry, I don't have that game number handy, right now), Player Ajwan (who plays the empire of Saydonia in Galaxy #223) is now faced with an invasion of her homeworld star system. It really couldn't have happened to a nicer Galactic Granny!

In Galaxy #223, all of our empires are still at Tech Level 1. In that game, Ajwan is trying to fend off an invasion from a Tech Level 3 empire. I'll bet that she's as nervous as can be. Her homeworld, her empire, her entire game is on the line. All those many turns in that game to prepare, and it appears that the invading aliens may have caught Ajwan sleeping. Poor Ajwan!

She might prevail, but this attempt at an invasion of her homeworld might not yet be over. No doubt, she'll be sweating bullets. If she's got fingernails, now might be a good time for her to start biting them. This other empire, whatever they call themselves in that game, have put a real pounding on Ajwan's defending forces.

But that game of Galac-Tac is not this game of Galac-Tac. I have enough to worry about in Galaxy #223, without allowing myself to get distracted by Ajwan's failure to adequately prepare in that other galaxy far, far away. If Player Ajwan is so peaceful, then why are empires chasing her around multiple galaxies trying to wage war upon her?

Galactic spies recently overheard Player Djinni of the Kroji Konfederation say, "I just uploaded 43 orders. If I have any time and energy before I go to bed Friday night, I may review stuff, but I've spent pretty much my whole day off on this and my brain is fried. Game 223 is COMPLICATED!"

Ah, music to my ears! On the one hand, Djinni is tired. She doesn't really have time for any of this. She's a busy, busy, busy bee. Bee that as it may (pardon the pun), the fact that life is busy and hectic and tiring doesn't mean that she gets a free pass in Galaxy #223. Her remarks pay Galac-Tac a high compliment. In spite of how tired and how busy she is in real life, she still buckled down and pressed her nose to the Galac-Tac grindstone. Her empire can't afford for her to whisk right through her turn results and her turn orders. If her Krojis are to survive as a species in Galaxy #223, someone has to pay the iron price. If she doesn't rise to the occasion, then the Kroji Konfederation will fall before the blade of war.

Complicated? If she thinks that things are complicated in Galaxy #223, right now, then what's she gonna be like when things really do get complicated? As I recall, she was the one who injected the word "fireworks" into the galactic dialogue. If Player Hammer isn't careful, it is he who will end up having to wash Djinni's dishes, instead of Davin. Wake up, Hammer!

If Hammer doesn't wake up, then Djinni will drop the hammer on him and his Scroids of Misraw. My empire carried out a few strikes against Kroji assets, last turn, to try and relieve some of the pressure on the Scroids, an honorable race of warrior beings. Those greedy Krojis have committed several affronts against the minions of Misraw, plus they don't seem inclined to listen to Emperor Droon of the Yonds of Droon. In sympathy and solidarity with Davin's cruel life sentence of dishwashing duties, the Yonds of Droon have struck across multiple star systems that suffer beneath the yoke of Kroji tyranny.

Of course, when you're forced to wait for your empire's turn results to process and become
available to you, you've still got to write something, if there are to be any player blurbs, at all. It's all for a higher cause, people.

I've got at least one new Galac-Tac article planned for Issue #3 of PBM Zombies magazine. There may even be two that make it into that next issue of PBM Zombies. Be sure to tune in, when it publishes a few short weeks from now.

The time is now 8:33AM, my time. The galactic clock continues to tick, as it counts down to the very moment that Turn #5 processes. This ain't the old days. Turns of Galac-Tac process swiftly, here in the current era.

While I continue to wait for my Turn #5 results, I am browsing portions of turn results from an old game of Galac-Tac that appeared in Issue #41 of Paper Mayhem magazine. That was the March/April 1990 issue of that old PBM magazine. Some thirty-five years have passed, since then. Chris Milliken was the author of the article that contained these old portions of turn results in an article titled A REVIEW OF GALAC-TAC.

In his review of Galac-Tac, Chris said that he believed Ship Design to be the true strength of Galac-Tac. He may well have been right. Already in Galaxy #223, I have designed dozens - literally dozens - of different kinds of starships. My empire can't afford to build them, yet, but maybe one day it will be able to construct entire fleets of them. In Turn #5 alone, my empire will be using the Declassify order to eliminate several blueprints for various ship classes that I designed earlier, but have already determined to be obsolete.

If your empire has the PI (cash) to build them, you can actually construct big and powerful starships early on, though it may take your shipyard multiple turns to build them. And in the meantime, what do you do for ships? Galac-Tac's game design doesn't afford players the luxury of having nothing important to do, until larger classes of starships complete their construction at your shipyard.

It's 8:48 AM, now, and the hour of reckoning for Turn #5 is almost upon us. Tick. . .tick. . .tick. . .

For Turn #5, I issued four new Classify orders, in order to create new designs for starships and/or platforms. Again, platforms have no engines, in case you didn't know or didn't remember.

Player Djinni of the Krojis was overheard saying, "you know I'll be hovering by the printer at 8:02!" In her time zone, that's currently only a mere 10 minutes away. It's 8:52 AM by my clock. I'm shifting in my computer chair, trying to get comfortable. Hopefully, fate smiles upon the Yonds of Droon.



I need something to drink. I think that I'll pause long enough to fix myself a tall glass of whole milk with some Hershey's chocolate syrup mixed in. I'll be right back in a few minutes. Dammit, Davin, where's my turn!



Ah, 8:59 AM! My e-mail in-box still awaits an announcement from Talisman Games that Turn #5 for Galaxy #223 has been processed. Worries, fears, hopes, and dreams culminate. It's too late, now, to rethink anything that you ordered. Hammer had better pray that those 18 measly turn orders that he issued turn out to have been enough.



The sound of a new e-mail arriving! Hah! Yet, it wasn't from Talisman Games. Such cruelty!



I hope that nothing bad has happened to Davin. I need my turn.



There it is! 9:03 AM. Galac-Tac galaxy #223 has processed the current turn and the turn results are ready for your review.

Pardon me now, as I indulge myself with a new set of turn results.

Well, the turn results for Turn #5 for the Yonds of Droon in Galaxy #223 turned out to be a mixed bag. On a sad note, my empire dropped from 100th percentile in Empire Valuation down to 95th percentile. However, this was a calculated gamble, and a not entirely unexpected result. My guess is that Player Ajwan has managed to snag the 100th percentile all to herself, at the moment. A feather in her cap, but a warning to everyone else.

Building Colony Systems, developing Production Systems, and Charting all likely play a prominent role in the calculation methodology of the Empire Valuation mechanism. However, there's more to playing Galac-Tac than just one's Empire Valuation. It is an indicator, but part of what it measures and takes into account is potential, if I'm not mistaken.



As GM Davin previously said, "In the early game, when player's total values are small, the percentiles aren't that important. But it's usually a matter of pride any time during the game. By mid-game, those valuations will start representing much more about significant power differences." We're not at the mid-game phase, yet. That's still a good bit away.



Pride appeals to the emotional side of people, and pride doesn't tend to lend itself well to objective analysis of the big picture. For me, the real question is, "Would I trade my empire's current position for any other empire's current position in Galaxy #223?" The answer to that for me is a resounding, "Hell, no!"



There were still battles, this turn, but not as many.

There were only nine combats, total, that took place during Turn #5, and that was for the entire galaxy, all participating empires included. A decline in battles for my empire for Turn #5 was anticipated, but what I did not anticipate is that several of my empire's battles, this turn, would turn out to be against Player Ajwan's Saydonian forces. Go figure!

Well, as near as I can tell, now, that "line" that Saydonia and the Kroji Konfederation agreed to runs along a certain line not dictated by star clusters. Nothing quite like other empires publicly announcing that they have reached an agreement, but then leaving out the most important details of it. How are the remaining empires in the game supposed to know where the dividing line is? And players wonder, at times, how their empires stumble their way into unwanted wars.

Ah, well, it is what it is, so I will now prepare for Saydonian retaliation. The damage that my empire's warships inflicted against Saydonian assets wasn't all that much, in the grand scheme and calculation of things, but Ajwan won't like it, as she is likely guided by principles, and my empire just crossed a red line in her thinking.

Saydonia's lack of clarity in its strategic policy is a vulnerability all its own. If I had wanted to carry out a broad strike against Saydonian assets, I already knew that there was a line, somewhere, in the vastness of space agreed upon between the Saydonians and the Krojis. The easy way to go after Saydonian assets deliberately would have been for me to just attack star systems well to the left of the Kroji homeworld system.

But it's too late to shut the gate on the barn, once the horse is already out. War is frequently an imprecise thing. It appears without notice or warning, often times, whether you want it or not, and whether you intend it or not. Sometimes, a little clarity can go a long way, where the avoidance of unintended headaches is concerned.



Ah, just now, Player Ajwan sent in her player blurb for Galaxy #225. Her player blurb has now been copied and pasted into this issue, the day after Turn #5's results were processed for Galaxy #223 of Galac-Tac. I think that I'll go ahead and make a few comments relating to her empire's latest player blurb.



Wherein Ajwan says, "He has sent many ships to disrupt our economies," except for the inadvertent attacks on Saydonian ships that took place in Turn #5 (again, due to a lack of actually knowing where the mysterious and elusive Kroji-Saydonia line is (which emanates, in part, from a shortcoming in Saydonian strategic policy), if memory serves me correctly off the top of my head, there has only been a grand total of just one attack on a Saydonian ship by Yond forces in the previous four turns of this game of Galac-Tac. Thus, my empire hasn't actually carried out a disruption campaign against the empire that is Ajwan's Saydonia. Her lamentation about me disrupting "our economics" strains credulity.



Any damage to the Saydonia economy has been, at worst, minimal. The true reality is that Ajwan's empire, Saydonia, hasn't suffered the rather extensive damage to her economic lifeline that is her empire's shipping network of freighters that the empires of the Wyvern Supremacy and the Kroji Konfederation have. Thus, her attempt to try and lump her empire in with those two empires is immediately suspect.



All that one has to do is count the actual ships lost in battles. As the old saying goes, the devil is in the details. The truth lies in the great disparity in shipping losses, when one bothers to actually count the losses. Have I not been sharing combat reports and expounding upon my empire's record in battles that have been taking place since the beginning of this game of Galac-Tac?



Ajwan is certainly free to bet that my empire's economy is suffering. It certainly could be significantly bigger than it is, at present, but the strength of an empire isn't measured only by its economy or its Empire Valuation. All six empires in Galaxy #223 are still relatively weak, both economically and militarily, all things considered. Yet, relative to one another, some of our empires are noticeably stronger or weaker than are others of our empires.



Instead of going after the Wyvern Supremcy right out of the starting gate, I could have went after Saydonia. Instead of designating the Kroji Konfederation as a secondary threat, I could have begun blowing up Saydonian ships left and right. Player Ajwan has benefited greatly, especially economically, by simple virtue of the fact that the Yonds of Droon have largely left her empire in peace.



Where Ajwan speaks of "creating chaos," I publish issues of PBM Chaos, do I not? So, I am certainly no stranger to the whole notion and concept of chaos. When the two Galactic Grannies in Galaxy #223 reached their "agreement" so early in the game, that sowed seeds of chaos, also. In pursuit of greater certainty for Saydonia and the Kroji Konfederation, one byproduct generated from such a strategic gambit was that it altered the balance of power by way of altering the status quo. Ajwan doesn't have clean hands, where the blood of chaos is concerned. And isn't she the exact, same individual who previously openly asserted that she intends to win this game? Much chaos will the pursuit of that bring.



The reality for games of Galac-Tac, including Galaxy #223 but not limited thereto, is that each of them are wargames, and much like that Highlander movie, ultimately, there can be only one. Ajwan grows her economy in the empire that is Saydonia with the full intent of waging of war and sowing of chaos of her own. I am no different than her, in that regard. If we differ anywhere, we differ on the timing and the underlying purpose of particular instances of chaos as instruments of our respective empires' foreign policies. It does not escape my notice that Ajwan's empire is no inherent instrument of peace. Rather, she has been biding her time and trying to maintain a low profile, relatively speaking, in order to buy time for her empire's economy to grow, that it might become all the more capable of funding the Saydonian war machine that she undoubtedly intends to wield against the rest of us.



If Ajwan has been paying very close attention all along, then perhaps she may have already begun to discern the rather subtle changes in Yond strategies and tactics. I don't live in a vacuum, where strategy and tactics are concerned. I am adaptive, by nature. There will often manifest nuances or degrees of difference, where strategy and tactics are concerned. Currently, no less than 33 different sets of blueprints can be called upon by my empire's shipyard, in response to adapting to the changing threats posed by my empire's enemies.



Does Ajwan think that her fellow Galactic Granny in Galaxy #223 would care in the least, if I suddenly shifted my empire's gaze and military assets from harassing Kroji shipping to paying visits to Saydfonian assets? Perhaps Ajwan's recent growth in her empire's economic base now emboldens the power behind the empire (namely, the player, Ajwan). Has Ajwan grown lonely in the coldness of outer space, that she now craves to be the apple of my empire's eye and the darling of my military's affection?



Poor Ajwan! She lacks the benefit of a full and comprehensive understanding and appreciation for how I wage war in PBM wargames. That she even ponders that I have only a sole strategy underscores just how far afield from actual reality that her strategic thinking is.



For all of her new-found affinity for talking, what has she actually shared about her empire, thus far, 'O readers of PBM Chaos? Indeed, I may well pay for the chaos that my empire creates in Galaxy #223, but if she is not careful, Ajwan may well pay for the chaos that I create, as well. She would be well-served to go back and read everything that I've written about Galaxy #223, to date, in multiple different issues of PBM Chaos.



Player Ajwan is currently sweating bullets over the prospect that the fate of her homeworld in another game of Galac-Tac is currently hanging by a mere thread. Yet, even in the midst of that showcasing of her lack of focus and strategic thinking, she now rises and comes forth with this bouquet of verbal flowers to taunt me with. Tsk. . .tsk. . .tsk. . .



That Ajwan now speaks about how I have chosen a "disruption tactic' - have I not already plainly explained my early embrace of disruption in Galaxy #223? If she thinks it is but only a disruption tactic, then she is sorely mistaken. I don't choose her words for her, but perhaps I should, if accuracy is still valued anywhere in this galaxy.



In Galac-Tac, to grow your empire's economy to the maximum degree, you have to sacrifice military capability and military readiness, and likewise, to grow your empire's military capability and/or military readiness to the maximum degree early on, you have to sacrifice economic growth and economic potential. The real trick is to navigate all considerations, not just one or the other, and try to strike the right overall balance - a process that should be repeated for each and every single turn in the game.



Five turns in, and already, there have been a slew of enemy ships that have fallen prey to the obsolete strategic thinking of those very same enemies. Now, this does not mean that my own empire has not suffered the loss of starships of its own, for it has, but comparatively speaking, the lion's share of starship losses, thus far, have been suffered by empires other than my own.



Granted, that could change, going forward, but we all live in the present, not the future, and between now and the future, an awful lot of things could happen. It doesn't escape my notice that Player Ajwan failed, in totality, to even mention military forces held in reserve.



From turn to turn to turn, I stand prepared to deal with and respond to whatever the current reality on the star map proves itself to be. The spending of an empire's available PI is a matter of HOW and WHEN, and whether to spend all of one's available PI each and every turn is an issue that revisits me each and every turn for consideration anew. For five straight turns, now, I have invested in my empire's military capability. Thus far, I feel that it has served my empire's best interests very well. What I have not done is turn a blind eye to the growth of my empire's economic base. Is it the right balance? So far, it seems to have been a rather good balance that I have struck between the two important and competing considerations at stake.



Hopefully, Player Ajwan will keep talking, as it gives PBM Chaos' readers more to read. Perhaps Ajwan's trigger finger is itching. When she finally decides to unleash the Saydonian war machine, she had best pray that she picks the right target and chooses the right timing. Otherwise, things could go South for her and her empire really, really quickly.



If Ajwan prefers to keep the details of where that "line" is that she agreed upon with her fellow Galactic Granny, Djinni, then she will simply have to resign herself to the occasional attack on Saydonian assets, as I continue my hunt for Kroji assets. My empire's active avoidance, to date, of Saydonian assets may perhaps have been of no value to Empress Ajwan. It has been a courtesy that my empire has extended unto Saydonia, unilaterally, as a gesture of Yond goodwill towards Saydonia and its Empress.



Players in PBM wargames will always tend to see things from their perspective. no matter WHAT happens and no matter WHY it happens. This is quite natural. The other players aren't you, and vice versa. Players are always free to accept what I say, in my bids to explain things, and they are equally free to reject any or all of what I say. And that applies equally to myself with regard to the things that they say. Undergirding all of our words and reasons is the never-changing fact that Galac-Tac is a wargame. In the back of our minds, that unchanging constant is always present.



At the processing rate of one turn every two weeks, if this game ended up running 80 to 90 turns, it could end up lasting more than three years. Talk about some old school play by mail gaming!



How hard of a sell is that, in this day and age? It's not that a game of that duration doesn't still have a place in the realm of gaming, for some games are of the open-ended, unending variety. Galac-Tac, however, isn't one of them. And for a game that one plays online, how much harder of a sell is that, in this day and age? No one has time for all kinds of different things, yet they will have years - literal years - to devote to a single game of Galac-Tac? Just some food for thought, as we now head towards Turn #6 of Galaxy #223.



One final comment, though, and that deals with Hammer's new claim that his Scroids of Misraw

are currently listed in the 100th Percentile for Empire Valuation. Can this truly be? Have my Yonds of Droon now fallen behind the minions of Misraw on the Empire Valuation scale? Perhaps the time has now come for Player Hammer to teach me how to play this game.

The artistic inspiration of Basil Wolverton.

* All Galac-Tac content and images copyright © Talisman Games.

It feels like the closing moments of The Carol Burnette Show, as I begin writing this closing article for issue #53 of PBM Chaos. If you're not familiar with that old television show, then just know that you're all the poorer for having missed out on it.

The last minute (last hours' worth of) tinkering with this issue hasn't made me tired, at all. I don't feel pressed. It's not hectic. I'm just casually sliding towards the finish line of this issue. Hopefully, when at long last you grip it in your digital fingers, you'll fine something of value in it.

If not, then you're just shit out of luck until the next issue, at which point perhaps it can deliver a better, more enjoyable reading experience for you than this one was able to bring to your PBM table of reading material.

You know, a brand new year really isn't all that far away, as the thought of the forthcoming PBM year of 2026 crosses my mind while typing Until Next Issue. Anybody out there have any idea what this new PBM year will bring? If you do, write in and share it with us, one and all.

Change is one of the few constants in life, so I'm sure that the new year will bring some changes with it. But changes also tend to happen during the current year, whatever year it might be at any given moment, so what's an editor of a small scale PBM mailing to do? Changes will typically find you, no matter where you are, and no matter what your personal preferences for everything might be.

It's starting to get cold, here where I am. Winter is coming, as they liked to say in those old Game of Thrones advertisements and memes.



For those of you out there enduring aches, pains, and suffering, know that I hope that relief finds its way to you. Life can be a really tiring and grueling trek, at times. I don't think that any of us make it though unscathed. We get afflicted with diseases and all kinds of other physical, mental, and emotional maladies. Some never have it easy, but all of us go through all manner of different things that try us and test us and afflict us. Our length of time upon this Earth varies. Young, old, middle-aged, there are no guarantees that we will get to experience every range of age.



I'm not really sure what the right balance of art-to-text is, so my experimentation with that continues. I hope that our readers are enjoying my approach to populating issues of PBM Chaos with art. Some of it turns out better than others, but the same thing can be said for our text-based articles.



Ultimately, it's all one never-ending experiment for me. Eventually, it will all come to an end, but I don't have any idea when, exactly, that might be. Things still look good for the foreseeable future, as far as I can peer beyond the horizon of our tomorrows. My desire to continue publishing issues of PBM Chaos remains intact. It isn't fragile. It isn't hanging on by a mere thread.



It's 6:45 PM, right now. Lots of pit stops between when I first began working on this issue, this morning, and now. 



At the height of play by mail gaming, many hundreds of different PBM games came and went. Yet, even still, there were so many possibilities and settings for PBM gaming to explore that have never even been touched. The surface hasn't even been scratched, yet. You know that you want to play that Bigfoot PBM game!



With the advent of Galvidiere and the hopefully soon to be Dutchman, maybe I need to get in on the action of launching a new PBM game played via the postal service (though for those in foreign countries, it would probably have to be limited to playing via e-mail).



Maybe I'm just dreaming, because I've been sitting in front of my computer way too many hours, today. But even if I am, what of it? I could shut down PBM Chaos and PBM Zombies, and focus solely and only on running Bigfoot PBM. Of course, then I would have less ways to advertise it to the PBM masses.



And so it goes, in the realm of play by mail gaming.



Take care of yourselves, and happy PBM gaming to one and all, both short and tall!



Charles Mosteller

Editor of PBM Chaos

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