Hey Gang,

I must confess that I was pulling for Denmark-Norway to be part of the win, if not to solo outright. Once again, however, the purple clad Danes came up short. I'll take solace in the fact that they were very competitive and that they demonstrated that a partnership between Britain & Hanover and Denmark-Norway can work to the benefit of both parties.

I know I should have been pulling for Britain & Hanover to win given that it was the lowest ranked Power in the game. I have never felt, however, that its abysmal record reflected a design flaw. I simply thought that its poor record was the result of a small sample, bad play by many BH players, and good play by many non-BH players. Of course, as game after game was completed with Britain & Hanover being eliminated or reduced to a straggling minor power despite some inspired leadership in some cases, I was finding this conviction harder to maintain. Now I feel vindicated, although as Warren points out, it is still far too soon to tell.

I do want to congratulate Frank on a game well played. Obviously, the other players don't know you quite as well as I do or they would have organized a "Let's kill Frank" coalition right at game-start.

In answer to Warren's question, there have been two documented instances of the same player playing the same Power AND taking that Power to a solo or draw. As Chris McInerney mentioned, he played France in back to back games and earned two draws. Wayne Baily also played Turkey to two draws. If anyone else has played the same Power more than once, I don't recall them and would have to do some research to find them.

Also, I do want to point out the I am only a co-designer of this variant. Jeff Kase has had every bit as much impact on the current state of the variant as I have. In fact, the variant has truly been a collaborative effort and I'm extremely pleased with how well Jeff and I have worked together to resolve issues, react to feedback, make changes, etc. Of course, I would be remiss if I did not mention the support and ideas Jeff and I have received from many different people, several of whom are on the distribution for this message. A&E would never have gotten as far as it has without their contributions.

Like Jeff, I want to thank everyone who participated in this game. I hope you enjoyed the experience and will try A&E again. I look forward to Nick's next game.

BTW... Look for A&E to make an appearance on DPJudge in the "near" future. I think all we're waiting for is Mario to design the ship icons. Mario/Manus... any updates on how this is coming along?

Happy Stabbing,

Baron
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In a message dated 6/7/2009 11:16:39 AM Pacific Daylight Time, warren_k_ball(at)yahoo.com writes:

Subj:Re: A&E 090205 / DC240: Game Over - Congratulation to Frank Martin, our British winner
Date:6/7/2009 11:16:39 AM Pacific Daylight Time
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16 or so games is not a good statistical sample. This excellent variant of Baron's hasn't been around long enough to get a good feel for country strength. 25-30 trials is a fairly well recognized minimum statistical sample. I'm sure England will do better by then.

I'm also curious as to 2 other things. (1) Has the skill level of the various players been about the same in all trials or have some of the players been much more experienced in Dip variants than others? (2) Has the same player played the same country more than once?

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