Fellow Audacious Diplomats of Hope, welcome to DC238!

I apologize for the delay in kicking this off. We had a last minute change in the roster and I needed to get firm confirmations before we could get things rolling. But with that now in-hand and the hope of millions as our tailwind, we are ready to begin our journey of reconciliation, renewal, peace and...ok, sorry, more like destruction, mayhem and lies. Lots of lies...just thought an "inaugural" theme would work given recent events.

Hyperbole side, I'm looking forward to a good game with you all. Here are your country assignments. Not everyone got what they asked for this time:

Name: Karl Vondran
Email : kdv1224(at)yahoo.com
Ctry: Austria

Name: Jeremiah Lee
Email: dadidea(at)gmail.com
Cnty: Germany

Name: Steve Chase
Email: Slyder111(at)gmail.com
Cnty: Russia

Name: Joey Pedicin
Email: bobbarkerfan1ped(at)yahoo.com
Cnty: Italy

Name: Josh Mayo
Email: zauberlichneo(at)hotmail.com
Cnty: England

Name: Catya Steen
Email: catya_ds(at)yahoo.com
Cnty: France

Name: Gareth Griffiths
Email: gareth.griffiths(at)magd.ox.ac.uk
Cnty: Turkey

Here are some general guidelines to assist you:

I follow the DC House Rules which you can download from the DC web site and view. If you have any questions about them, please let me know. If I say anything different than the house rules, below, please follow my rules.

As far as turnaround times are concerned, I will begin with an approximate five day negotiation period between each major turn, ie Spring to Fall. I try and get retreats back within 24 hours and builds/disbands within 48 hours. Often I will either retreat on behalf of a player if there is only one choice, or an equally obvious choice, and then allow the player the option of changing that within the allocated time period. I will also sometimes ask for retreats and builds/disbands in the same time frame. In other words, I am generally aiming at a total seven-day turn around for a complete turn, although holidays, weekends (possibly, depending on particular limits players may have) can cause this to shift from time to time.

I stick to my deadlines once they are set, but try and remain as flexible as possible in setting those deadlines should a player need more time. If people are consistently getting orders into me on-time or early, I may pick up the pace. Conversely, I will slow it down if I get a lot of requests for extensions or last minute orders.

Changes in orders are accepted until I publish the results of the turn, ie, until I physically adjudicate by sending out the email to you with the results.

If you have press--and I very much encourage it--make sure you tell if it is anonymous or not. I will ASSUME it is attributable unless you state otherwise. Also, tell me when you want it to go out--specifically. It otherwise will go to all players and the DC message board with my next email to all players.

Questions? Bring them on! We have a few first timers here and I really want this to be a great experience for them as well as everyone. So ask away. I will try and answer back immediately. If I don't know the answer, I send it to our resident experts who you will find Cc'd on this note.

BUT (!!!!!!), don't look for me to provide advice on your moves or your orders. So please, please, please review your orders before you send them to me! Use the standard abbreviations found in the rule book, or just spell it out completely, and you'll be fine. I will NOT under any circumstances, however, change the orders you send to me or tell you there's a problem. So if your orders are ambiguous, misspelled or otherwise messed up to the point that the RP (the software program used to adjudicate turns) doesn't recognize it or accept it, you will get a no move received for that unit or an error message. Don't let it happen to you (unless you want it to for some reason, of course)!

In your emails to me, please include game number, season/year and country. Thus all should look something like: dc238, Spring 1901, Canada

Ok, I think that's it for now! Let's go.

First deadline will be Spring 1901 orders due to me on Wed, January 28 at 2359 GMT.

Good luck!

Your Ambassador of Hope in the Far East,

Bruce



NEXT DEADLINE: SPRING 1901 ORDERS DUE WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 28, 2009, 2359 GMT.