| * All Star Fleet Warlord content and images copyright © Franz Games, LLC. |
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The ongoing Saga of Galaxy #223 in Galac-Tac |
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Final Thoughts Before Turn #8 Processes |
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Wednesday, December 17th, 2025 - 3:33 AM I believe that I have finalized my turn orders for Turn #8 of Galaxy #223 of Galac-Tac. Now, whether they are the right set of turn orders or not, that's always debatable. After all, I never really have any way of knowing what my opponents in this game of Galac-Tac will order their respective empires to do. But that sort of thing isn't new to PBM games, nor to many other kinds of games, either. After spending time this morning working on finishing up my turn orders for Turn #8, I felt as if the fog had been lifted. No, not the fog of war, but rather, the brain fog that I was experiencing over the last couple of days, as I was trying to finish up Issue #58 of PBM Chaos. As much as anything else, I think what was likely behind that particular episode of foggy brain was probably me overdosing on writing all of those Galaxy #236 articles for Issue #58. I decided to start writing this section of this article for Galaxy #223 before I begin to undertake to write three more articles for my Galaxy #236 game for this issue. For Turn #8, I am spending all but 2 PI of my available stockpiles of PI. While I've long since gotten used to PI and PV, and the differences between the two in Galac-Tac, Production Inventory (PI) remains a terrible name for the basic "monetary" unit in the game. Who out there calls their money "inventory," for crying out loud? |
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Galac-Tac Rule Book Entry - Page #4 - Production Inventory |
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PRODUCTION INVENTORY (PI): PI is the basic "monetary" unit in the game and all costs are shown in PI. In order to benefit from a Charted or Colony System, you must transport the PV to a Production System so that it can be converted to PI. A Production System automatically converts all of its PV into PI at the rate of 1 PV to 1 PI (i.e. your Home System has a base PV of 10, produces 100 PV and generates 100 PI per fortnight). All PV brought in by cargo ship is also converted to PI at the rate of 1 PI for 1 PV. It takes one fortnight to convert PV to PI. Unlike PV, PI can be accumulated at Production Systems (but not Colonies), and anything that is left over after expenditures is automatically stored and available on the next turn. Note that PI can be moved by cargo ship from one of your Production Centers to another by combining the LOAD, TO, and UNLOAD commands. See the description of these commands for more information. |
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Overall, I feel pretty good about my turn orders for Turn #8, as they presently stand. There were some other things that I ended up wanting to do on Turn #8, but ultimately, it boiled down to competing priorities. Sometimes, you just can't do everything that you want to do in a PBM wargame, and that proved to be the case for me and my Yonds of Droon heading into Turn #8 of Galaxy #223.
Turn #9 should see me to begin to shift certain priorities, though who knows for sure what I'll be thinking, once Turn #8 processes and I have newer information firmly in hand? Just now, I decided to make a few last minute changes to my turn orders, even though when I started writing this article, I really did think that I was done fiddling around with them. It suddenly dawned on me, though, that I wasn't certain (as in 100% certain) about a particular thing, so I decided to remedy that by way of making some slight changes to the orders that I will be sending in for Turn #8. I'm just trying to avoid making some really stupid mistakes. Hey, you can't blame a guy for trying, can you? I'll know soon enough whether I made a wise move, on making these "last minute" changes to my turn orders, since the turn due date is just 2 days away, and the turn will actually process in 3 days from now, on this upcoming Saturday. Oh, and that bit that appeared in Issue #58 of PBM Chaos, wherein I said, "I'll go ahead and go on record, right here and right now, saying that I would not want to be in Player Ajwan's shoes, come Turn #8." That was just me yanking Ajwan's chain. It was just me sowing a little bit of disinformation, in the hope that Ajwan might think that I was about to come after her empire really hard. It goes to the concept of "inducing doubt and/or fear into another player in the same game with you, so as to try and influence them into making some changes to their plans, in a bid on their part to try and help offset against some perceived action(s) by me that were never really going to materialize, anyway." Sorry, Ajwan! It's nothing personal. Rather, its war. Even if she and I, even if her empire and my empire, aren't really locked into full-throated war at the moment, the bottom line is that Galac-Tac is a wargame. In the background, the drumbeats of war are constantly beating. It would not be wise for any of us to forget that. Final count on my turn orders for Turn #8 is now 47 order lines worth of orders. I'll have more to say in this issue, after Turn #8 processes. Saturday, December 20th, 2025 - 4:46 AM We're only several hours away, now, from Turn #8 of Galaxy #223 being processed. I'm not up this early, because I am anxious to learn what my next set of turn results holds in store for me. The getting up early is due to life and real world circumstances, not anything PBM-related. But while I am up and in between other demands upon my time, I figured that I might as well toss a few more words upon the bone pile of this article, however few they end up being. Overall, I feel pretty good about the orders that I have issued for Turn #8. I wonder if my fellow players in this game of Galac-Tac with me feel the same, on their end. One observation that I would make is what a stark difference there is between this particular game of Galac-Tac and a typical organized game of Hyborian War that I have played in, down through the years. Lots of player noise in those organized Hyborian War games, compared to the relative paucity of player noise in Galaxy #223 of Galac-Tac. I know that people get busy in their respective lives, and I also know that the Christmas holiday season is upon up, currently, but if this is the norm for games of Galac-Tac which have multiple players in them, then that makes it all the harder, I think, for the interest of players to be held by the game over the long term. But what can you do about something like that? If players choose to not talk junk and interact by way of communications, particularly public banter and talking junk, things of that nature, then galaxies will simply be very quiet - even silent - places to be and to play in. If one wants to play Galac-Tac in silence, then why not just stick with the solo-player games of Galac-Tac? Those lack the competitiveness of games of Galac-Tac that contain other human players in them. The "robot" players, aka the computer-controlled empires, that populate solo-player games of Galac-Tac simply aren't programmed to emulate human players. Oh, sure, they're "out there," but as my articles about Galaxy #236 are showing, already, unless I send starships to their homeworlds, the computer-controlled positions aren't out and about actively seeking out conflict with my empire. Human players, by comparison, are guided by motives, not programming. Human beings will seek payback. They'll seek revenge. They have ambitions. Not that Galaxy #223 has, thus far, provided many actual examples of that. But give it time, and the other players in Galaxy #223 will begin to show their true colors as human beings. At least, that's my theory. Just imagine, if you will, if you can, if no articles nor any player blurbs had been written, at all, about Galaxy #223. How many of you out there reading this, after this issue of PBM Chaos publishes, would know that Galaxy #223 even exists, at all? Would you know who was playing in it? Would you have learned about any of the numerous battles that have already taken place, or who won and who lost those battles? So, which is better? Player noise or player silence? How does word about Galac-Tac get out, if everyone chooses silence? I'm shouting at the wind, here. I'm talking to the wall. Should I just go ahead and end my coverage of this game? The grand object of me asking these questions aloud is to try and get people to think, to get the readers of PBM Chaos to think. People lack the time to post or to talk about the game. People lack the desire to talk about the game. Perhaps people simply lack the interest to talk about the game. All seem to me to be equally valid possibilities. Should I just pause my own commentaries and articles about Galaxy #223 for a while? Say, maybe pause them for 10 turns or so, and then resume them? If silence is preferable to noise, then that could be quite the blessing for one and all, eh? I wouldn't complain about anything pertaining to Galac-Tac, or to this specific game of Galac-Tac, but neither would I praise anything, if I go that route. There would be no verbal jabs nor pokes at other players. Ah, what peace and quiet! Is that what's actually desired? At the height of play by mail gaming, if anything, there was player noise - and it existed in truly massive amounts! What about now? In places and in PBM games where there's currently a lot of player noise, there's a lot of life. I see this in a variety of different PBM places that I visit. A few that spring immediately to mind are The Road of Kings forum, the Tribe Talk Discord, and the MEPBM Discord. There's a few others out there, also, where lots of noise is generated by "The Interested." The Eressa Discord. The Monster Island Discord. The Phoenix BSE (Unofficial) Discord. The Miskatonic University Alumni Discord. The It's A Crime PBM (Fan Site) Discord. The Green Sun: Rise & Fall Discord. The Alamaze forum. That [email protected] discussion group. The DungeonWorld PBM Discord. The Godstar Games: THE LAND Discord. The Science City Discord. The SuperNova Discord. The Atlantis New Origins Discord. The Duel2 forum. And in other places, also. There's PBM life out there. It's scattered all over the place. There's more PBM life in some places than there are in other places. And the PRIMARY indicators of PBM life are the NOISE, not the silence. Enough of this drifting in space. Back to Galaxy #223. While I am waiting, here at 8:53 AM on this Saturday morning, for Turn #8 to process, let's take a quick look back at the turn processing for Galaxy #223, thus far. I'll add today's turn processing for Turn #8 to this short list, as soon as I receive the turn processed announcement from Talisman Games. |
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No player blurb received.Galac-Tac galaxy #223 has processed the current turn and the turn results are ready for your review. |
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Game Created - 8/30/2025, 9:00 AM Turn #1 - 9/13/2025, 9:02 AM Turn #2 - 9/27/2025, 9:01 AM Turn #3 - 10/11/2025, 9:01 AM Turn #4 - 10/25/2025, 9:02 AM Turn #5 - 11/8/2025, 9:03 AM Turn #6 - 11/22/2025, 9:01 AM Turn #7 - 12/6/2025, 9:42 AM Turn #8 - 12/20/2025, 9:00 AM |
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Every turn for Galaxy #223 has, thus far, processed on the day that it was supposed to process, and with a reliability rate of 100%. There's been no deviation, whatsoever, from the scheduled days of processing for any reason, at all, once Galaxy #223 was first generated back on August 30th, 2025. I provided the date stamps and time stamps from the e-mails that I received from Talisman Games for each of the turn processed announcements, so that PBM Chaos readers could judge the reliability of Talisman Games' turn processing for yourselves. Now, with that said, I'm gonna download my new turn results for Turn #8, and see what fate held in store for the Yonds of Droon. |
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Sunday, December 21st, 2025 - 5:43 AM All things considered, I count Turn #8 as a good turn for the Yonds of Droon. I've been looking at my turn results, on and off, ever since the turn processed, yesterday morning. I've just been letting the results and the implications sink in. I'm trying to absorb it all.
There were several battles that took place during Turn #8. There were 11 of them scattered all across the galaxy, in total. My empire wasn't involved in all of them, though. The Yonds of Droon only took part in 8 of them. However, not all of those 8 battles were intended as battles. My forces attacked in some of them, whereas enemy forces attacked in the others. 3 of my empire's starships ended up being listed as missing in action. Damned hostile space aliens!
Apparently, not all space-faring species in Galaxy #223 are as naturally peace-loving as the Yonds of Droon.
Those testy Saydonians were apparently in no mood to parley, for they blew up a diplomatic mission that I had sent to their homeworld on Turn #8. It was an unarmed ship. The Saydonians appeared to be on edge, for some reason. No doubt, they are a bloodthirsty species. This unwarranted hostility on their part will not soon be forgotten. No point in dispatching a trade mission there, I reckon. The Saydonian Empress, Ajwan the Cruel (as she shall henceforth be known), busies herself with exploiting the resources of star system after star system. Is there any satisfying her voracious appetite, I wonder?
In retaliation, I commanded Droon forces to attack two Saydonian freighters in star system 53-50, resulting in the complete destruction of a small Saydonian Freighter (/;;10/20-1 reduced to /;;9/11- before destruction) and in the damaging a larger FXV class Freighter (/;;15/16-1 reduced to /;;14/4-). Jod was the star captain of the Droon Empire who avenged the death of our diplomatic mission. His name be praised! |
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Saydonian aggression at the Saydonian Homeworld and Droon retaliation at Star System 52-50. |
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Meanwhile, in star system 48-42, another Droon starship came under attack. There were no Droon survivors, as near as can be ascertained at this time, so I have no specific details from that battle to report. Star system 48-42, as it turns out, is claimed as a Saydonian colony, so that fact alone leaves little doubt as to who the responsible party is for the destruction of the Droon starship in question. These Saydonians are starting to persuade me that they are a ruthless species. Is galactic domination of all other species in Galaxy #223 their ultimate objective? Saydonians remind me more and more of Klingons from the Star Trek universe, the more that I encounter them in Galaxy #223 of Galac-Tac. Clearly, we Droons must begin to increase the rate at which we arm ourselves against threats, such as these Saydonians represent. |
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Suspected Saydonian aggression at Star System 58-42. |
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Elsewhere, in star system 41-61, an old Skirmisher class ship of the Yonds of Droon happened upon a couple of unsuspecting Kroji starships. Without hesitation, this Droon starship initiated an attack, outright destroying a Kroji Security vessel (2P//20-1 reduced down to 2P//17-1 prior to complete destruction), while the Droon starships sustained only minor damage. Also, a Kroji Truck15 class Freighter (/;;15/16-1) was damaged during this battle (reduced to /;;12/10-). |
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One Kroji starship destroyed and another damaged during a battle at Star System 41-61. |
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A sizeable battle erupted in star system 91-84 between Droon forces and forces of the Wyvern Supremacy. This battle resulted in the complete annihilation of the entire Wyvern fleet. The Droon force of multiple ships, however, sustained relatively minor damage, all of which will be easily repairable. Three more Wyvern starships ceased to be in what was described as a very short battle. This decisive Droon victory sends a strong message of deterrence to the Wyvern Supremacy. Their feeble tactics have, thus far, proven to be no match for superior Droon mastery of the art of space warfare in Galaxy #223. |
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Forces of the Wyvern Supremacy and the Yonds of Droon clashed violently at Star System 91-84. |
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In an unexpected development, a Scroid starship wandered into the path of a Droon expeditionary force, resulting in the obliteration of the small, antiquated vessel flying the flag of Misraw. This battle took place at star system 28-54. No Scroid survivors were reported to have been found, in the search and rescue operation that was launched in the immediate aftermath of the battle. Ever since Kroji forces were sighted in this star system long ago, Droon forces have maintained a heightened state of alert, which accounted for these particular Scroids' misfortune, after they wandered into a Droon Death Zone, totally unaware. |
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An aging and decrepit Scroid starship met its demise at Star System 28-54. |
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The history of Galaxy #223 has never before recorded a space battle as big as the one that took place, recently, in star system 49-65. Unsurprisingly, forces of the Kroji Konfederation and the Yonds of Droon opened fire upon one another, after poorly-led Kroji forces severely underestimated the strength of Droon imperial star forces in this star system. This Kroji boondoggle resulted in the loss of no less than five Kroji starships, including a capital ship in the form of a Kroji carrier. Having apparently learned nothing from all of their prior clashes with Droon forces, to date, the Kroji admiralty suffered a crushing defeat that won't sit well with the corrupt Kroji monarchy. Still seemingly bent on waging war on the cheap, the dastardly Krojis, a species of interstellar con men notorious for ripping off space merchants across the cosmos and for tiring easily, this most recent in a growing string of embarrassing Kroji defeats likely proved to be devastating news, when word of yet another decisive Droon victory reached the nearby Kroji homeworld of Taberna Suprema in star system 55-67. Fully, five ships destroyed outright, and their remaining 5 ships rendered impotent and marked for destruction (should the Krojis fail to learn and heed the basic lessons of space warfare, which can never be conned). Here's a detailed report on what was left of the Kroji fleet, leaving the Kroji feasting on crow, once more.
Baskart2 1 /;2;/29-1 (//23-1) Damaged (No Hangars Left) (6 of its Star Drive Engines out of action)
Baskart2 1 /;2;/29-1 (//23-1) Damaged (No Hangars Left) (6 of its Star Drive Engines out of action)
Baskart2 1 /;2;/29-1 (//29-1) Damaged (No Hangars Left)
Cleanup1 1 4P/1;;/-16 (//-10) Damaged (No Phasers nor Shields left) (6 of its Inertia Engines out of action)
Cleanup1 1 4P/1;;/-16 (//-16) Damaged (No Phasers nor Shields left) |
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Defeat and the loss of a carrier came quickly to the Kroji Konfederation in Star System 49-65. |
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Prior to the crushing Kroji military defeat in star system 49-65, here is what the Kroji Konfederation's fleet looked like. On a side note, Kroji morale must be plummeting in the aftermath of this terrible defeat. |
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Pay particular attention to the fact that no Kroji ship escaped this battle unscathed. Damaged or destroyed were the only outcomes for the unprepared Kroji ships that were foolishly assigned to this battle by a Kroji military leadership that seems to grow more and more clueless with each passing battle.
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Their dated and archaic approach to waging interstellar warfare in the modern era is in dire need of replacement. Are they winning, anywhere? Have they even proven themselves unable to handle the Scroids of Misraw? The Krojis, having failed to learn the lessons that their own history would teach them (if only they would listen and heed), may well be doomed to repeat their past mistakes for the foreseeable future. Their attempts-to-adapt on display in this most recent battle, where the outcome was nothing short of catastrophic, has proved to be woefully lacking.
Sunday, December 28th, 2025 - 11:39 AM The Christmas holiday season brought with it one less issue of PBM Chaos, so I am going to have to decide whether to continue writing this article (and making it even longer than it already is), or skip on to my Player Blurb for Turn #8 of Galaxy #223. So far, only Player Hammer has bothered with sending in a Player Blurb for this turn. Maybe that will change between now and when I publish this issue of PBM Chaos (which should be tomorrow, sometime, if all goes well, and my pain-wracked shoulder cooperates).
Curse Player Hammer and his empire that is Misraw, and their fancy-pants Empire Valuation score of 100th Percentile, this turn! My own empire has dropped back down, once again, and currently finds its own Empire Valuation score at only the 90th Percentile. This makes me glad that his lost sheep of a ship met an untimely demise at Droon hands, this turn.
On the one hand, he always seems to be claiming that he's issuing relatively few turn orders, each turn, yet he simultaneously lays claim to being in the 100th Percentile for Empire Valuation scoring purposes. Pah! Something about this strikes me as being sorely amiss.
My suspicions grow. |
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A quick comparison of the Galactic Statistics for both the current turn, Turn #8, and for the previous turn, Turn #7, reveal that somewhere in Galaxy #223, 6 more colonies and 1 more production center came online.
My best guess would be that Ajwan's Saydonians built their first production center, this turn Ajwan knows what she's doing. She knows how to play. She would be naturally averse, I think, to falling behind, so I think that makes her the most likely candidate for a new production center, this turn.
As for those new colonies that finished construction, this turn, I'm just not sure. They ought to be ashamed of themselves for trying to hog so many of the galaxy's resources. Clearly, these other players are expanding their empire's economies, as they gird for all out war. I probably need to start growing my own empire's economy more, way more, but these interstellar whippersnappers keep on conducting themselves in such a way that I have to keep on focusing on not allowing my empire's military to fall behind.
For all that I know, though, it already could have.
And there's the rub, you see. There can be a rather sizeable difference between what you think you know and what you actually know.
And these other players in Galaxy #223, they prefer to keep details of what they're up to all hush-hush. Secretive fools!
Even still, they no doubt gobble down every last word that I type about this Galaxy #223 game of Galac-Tac. No doubt about it, I place my empire at unnecessary risk by playing so loose with details. However, details are what give you, the PBM Chaos reader, more stuff to read.
Right now, I am at 49 order lines of orders for my empire's turn orders for Turn #9. |
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Galaxy #223 Player Blurbs |
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No player blurb received. |
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No player blurb received. |
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No player blurb received. |
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Misraw currently has zero order lines filled, as of the Sunday before the Monday PBM Chaos Issue 59 Publication Date. I have not even opened my GTac App to look at the updated map. Fortunately, my Raw Missers did not miss a rare opportunity to exterminate a couple of ships belonging to those pesky Konvoluted Kringers where two of my Misraw ships had gone missing. Misraw still currently maintains an Empire Valuation in the 100th Percentile. The Big Question is whether or not to concentrate more on the Economic Phase of this Learning Game, or to consider building any Misraw War Ships? We shall see how many Order Lines I have filled when you read Issue 60 of PBM Chaos. Hammer, Minister of War d. |
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No player blurb received. |
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Player Blurb - GrimFinger |
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* All Galac-Tac content and images copyright © Talisman Games. |
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This remains a "Learning Game" of Galac-Tac, even after all these turns. For this Player Blurb of mine, let's talk a little bit about the propaganda end of a PBM game. This issue of PBM Chaos is as good as any other, to touch upon propaganda, and how it can be wielded like a weapon or as a distraction.
Propaganda tends to be a part of real wars, and likewise, propaganda tends to also find its ways into PBM wargames. Propaganda in PBM wargames can add lots of color and flavor to a PBM game. The one thing that you always have to keep in mind about propaganda in PBM games is that you should never be quick to swallow it all - hook, line, and sinker!
You have to resist the temptation to read too much into propaganda. Propaganda is a tool, and it is routinely utilized to deceive, and deception can take many different forms and shapes and sizes.
Also, propaganda tends to run the gamut. It can range from one extreme to the other, or land anywhere in between. Propaganda is ever and always pointing the finger of blame. It can rile people up. It stokes conflict and throws up all kinds of different smoke screens.
In truth, propaganda is its own war, its own form of warfare.
Propaganda confuses. It misleads. It lures. It entices. It distracts. And one of the best tools in propaganda's bottomless pit of tricks is something called "the truth."
Propaganda is routinely used to belittle, berate, and bedevil others. Poke them. Prod them. Even sucker punch them with it! It's one of the tools whereby your enemies' own emotions can be weaponized against them and the position that they play.
One of the surest ways to throw one's enemies off-balance is by way of subjecting them to propaganda. The more the better!
You want to distract your enemies. You want them to focus upon what you want them to focus upon, not upon whatever they want or prefer to focus upon. Use propaganda to drag them away from their plan, their tactics, their strategies.
With propaganda, you can mitigate your empire's losses, or you can overstate them. Propaganda is like a story that never ends, albeit a Medusa in the role of Sleeping Beauty.
Mix enough of the truth in with it, and it can become a cauldron of opportunity that never stops boiling. Boil and bubble, cause some trouble!
A well-oiled propaganda machine never stops running. It should also be capable of turning on a dime, with little or no notice or warning in advance. And what are some of the base ingredients of well-cooked propaganda? Information. Facts. Fabrications. Communications. Utility value. Timeliness. And, of course, as I already said before, the truth.
Propaganda isn't just about winning battles or wars. It is its own thing. It is sui generis, something entirely of its own sort. You don't have to use it just to beat the enemy. It's quite useful in only impeding the enemy. Stir the pot of propaganda enough, and it can emulate an orchestra where all of the bad notes fall right on your enemies' heads.
It can be wielded proportionately or disproportionately. However, disregard it at risk to whatever PBM position that you are playing. Taking propaganda personally will likely only serve to amuse whomever is pouring it over your head like water.
Propaganda can be utilized to instill doubt, and to nurture despair. This is why it is best to always be on guard against propaganda, in all of its assorted forms, be they overt or subtle. It is up to you, the PBM player, to sift through propaganda that you encounter, in order to glean the useful from that which has no real use of substance to your position in whatever PBM game that you are in.
Do not think of propaganda in PBM games as having as its primary purpose facilitating a game win for whomever is churning out the propaganda. Having very narrow tunnel vision, like that, can impair your ability to think clearly. Propaganda directed at your game position can have as its aim facilitating helping you to lose, or to get off to a slow start (thus, acting as an impeding force). It can also be aimed at your game position to draw attention unto you and your position, and away from something - or someone - else. And of course, propaganda is as many times as not resorted to purely for entertainment's sake, or simply to help stave off boredom.
Propaganda is also a tool of learning. Much can often be learned, simply by listening to PBM propaganda. In a nutshell, propaganda is another facet of PBM games, a staple of play by mail entertainment as old as PBM, itself.
When you play PBM wargames, there's not just one narrative about the game that is ongoing. PBM propaganda affords to PBM players opportunities to craft new narratives, as the story of the game plays itself out before all of the players party to the PBM game in question.
Self-discipline is one of the best tools available to you to mitigate the effectiveness of propaganda being bandied about. Always keep your eye on the ball of what has been said. The devil is in the details, same as always.
Oh, and by the way, propaganda is not used only by "the bad guys." History in the real world can teach you as much. |
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Davin — 12/26/2025 8:16 PM Oh, and yes, I can confirm that the galaxy now has 4 players signed up. |
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Galac-Tac GM Davin Church has decided to try something new for Galaxy #228. He has decided to reveal how many players are currently signed up for this particular game of Galac-Tac. He has not yet decided to reveal how many players are signed up in other, future games of Galac-Tac (well, not yet, anyway - and perhaps never).
But I will give him credit for trying it for this particular game of Galac-Tac. Hopefully, others will choose to sign up for it, also. Consider signing up for Galaxy #228, if you will.
I signed up for it, after Davin announced that he was gonna try announcing manually how many players have already signed up for it. So, I invite you to sign up for it, and you can hunt my empire down and destroy it.
What are you scared of? Being fresh meat?
PBMer Hammer was the very first one to sign up for this game, and he's been waiting a while for people to sign up to play it with him.
Going by that Empire Count of 8 to 10, we need least 4 more players to sign up, before this game can start. Step right up and sign right up! Live a little. Try something different, for a change.
I'll be playing a new empire in this one. Turns will be processing once per week, like the Galaxies Filling box above plainly states.
Surely to goodness, there's some science fiction fans out there. Crawl out from whatever rock you are hiding under, and come and face the Galac-Tac music.
If. . .you. . .dare! |
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This is the very last issue of PBM Chaos for PBM year 2025. Sayonara!
And now, attention turns fully to the new and forthcoming PBM year of 2026. We've only two more days left to journey through in the current year, but that will be gone before you know it. It will be gone in a flash, and at that point, it begins to get buried beneath the sands of time. Indeed, the vast bulk of 2025 has already disappeared there, with the small fragments that remain soon to join the rest of it.
What does PBM year 2026 hold in store for you? Anything? Nothing at all? Will you be starting to play a PBM game that you've never tried, before? Do you have an idea for a PBM game design that you'd like to try your hand at developing? Or has PBM become relegated solely and only to the Realm of Memories and Nostalgia, where you, yourself, are concerned?
If pain is a sign that you're alive, then today, I am very alive - albeit not very lively. I am hopeful that this newly acquired pain of mine departs me soon, and at a bare minimum, that it changes to a more manageable - and hence, tolerable - level. It costs no more to wish big than it does to wish small, after all.
Whether you have any new and exciting PBM plans or not, I do hope that the new PBM year of 2026 is kind and merciful to you and yours.
I would be remiss if I failed to mention that I did find a nice holiday card from PBMer Olorin waiting on me in my post office box, the day after Christmas. Thank you, David! He even included a recipe for Rum Cookies. No rum was included, and since none of us, here at home, have ever tried rum, nor ever bought a bottle of rum, I may now find myself at an impasse, where these Rum Cookies are concerned. Nonetheless, I thank Olorin for the recipe. Apparently, if I read right, these particular cookies require no baking.
Olorin is a rather brilliant fellow. He's very well endowed in the brain and intelligence departments. He hangs out, among other places, in the Hyborian War and Alamaze PBM player communities. He's also been participating in my little Twelve Days of Christmas adventure. He's definitely a busy beaver of a fellow, and a nicer person you're not likely to find in all of PBM.
If you paid attention when you first started reading or browsing this issue of PBM Chaos, you may well have discovered that I eliminated the Coming In Next Issue section. Especially with this shoulder pain that has chosen to begin keeping company with me, I felt it best for me to eliminate it, as I am in no position, at present, to hamstring myself further than is already the case, by committing to particular articles during this ongoing Festival of Sharp Pains.
I did try to proofread this issue earlier this afternoon. Hopefully, I didn't miss too many errors and mistakes. I'll be proofreading this final article in it, as soon as I'm done typing it.
Behind me, our Christmas tree's lights blink, as I go about my business of typing this missive to you. And wonder of wonders, my son has just now returned home. Truly, I love my son!
I see that Brigitte Bardot has died, and that an article over on the Popular Mechanics website titled Gravity May Be Key Evidence That Our Universe Is a Simulation, Groundbreaking New Research Suggests isn't going to let me finish reading it. And to think, I had only just begun to read it. If we are in a simulation, though, then what was that bit that I did manage to read about us having a duty to publish results and ideas? We're not real, yet we have duties? And if we're not real, how is it that Popular Mechanics is real? I guess that also means that PBM isn't real, and that nothing that I've ever read or written is real, either.
And if PBM isn't real, then it never died, nor did it ever live. So, does that mean that I should bother publishing Issue #60 of PBM Chaos, once the new year arrives? But then again, how can a year which doesn't exist ever arrive?
Since this is the final issue of PBM Chaos for the PBM year of 2025, I kind of feel as if I should say something important. But what that might be, I haven't a clue.
And so, PBM Chaos will close out the PBM year of 2025 on a soft, quiet note. May you enjoy this issue, Issue #59, whether it exists or not!
God bless us everyone!
Charles Mosteller Editor of PBM Chaos |
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