Anybody up for a game of stock SE4 at PBW?

[Possum]

Hehe, 1920's attitudes toward race. Have you ever read Huckleberry Finn?

You know, that is actually a two-edged sword. On the one hand, when reading old authors their racist attitudes sometimes grate on our modern sensibilities. On the other hand, because they were so utterly indifferent to modern sensibilities, older authors were free to make observations that no modern author would dare.

As a case in point, back in the late 80's, I was doing some serious research on the punic wars. One of the best authors on the subject did his work in the 1930's. As part of his introduction to the subject of the punic wars, the author did some exploration of the ethnic origins of the carthaginians, tracing them back to the "proto-semitic" ethnic group which also gave rise to the ancient hebrews (and many of their most bitter enemies). Some of his observations would simply not have been comfortable to modern academia, lest they be misconstrued as anti-semitic.

A fifth player, you say?

/me rubs hands together and cackles in evil laughter

[capnq]

No, I haven't. Checking his bibliography, it looks like the only Twain I've read is _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_.

There are too many "classics" to read more than a fraction of them. I've been buying omnibuses from the Science Fiction Book Club faster than I can read them.

[Possum]

capnq said:There are too many "classics" to read more than a fraction of them. I've been buying omnibuses from the Science Fiction Book Club faster than I can read them.

That's a big, big 10-4, good buddy.

And some of that so-called classic stuff is trash, too.

I plowed through all 1300+ pages of War & Peace, thinking "We must be getting to the good part soon, the part that made Tolstoy famous, right?"

Nope, the whole book was utter crap. Nothing but the clumsy machinations of a bunch of arrogant, selfish, small-minded aristocrats, and Tolstoy raving on about his laughably ridiculous theories of socio-military dynamics.

I think part of what made it so awful was the utter dearth of any sympathetic characters. My profoundly egalitarian sensibilities made the main characters all objects of scorn for me. Frankly, I felt they deserved the misfortunes that befell them.

OTOH, Silas Marner (of all unlikely things!), which we read in high school, was an absolute gem. Obscure as it may be among those books reckoned "classics", I enjoyed it enormously.

Almost anything by Charles Dickens is well worth the reader's time.

[Possum]

Cap, I am requesting a re-start.

There are non-stock AI empires, in what's supposed to be a totally stock game, and I drew two of them in my starting sectors.

Please see posts in the game forum

[capnq]

Yeah, I know. I have PBW set as my homepage, so I check those forums far more often than these.

The restart improved my initial position, but put one of the neutrals in my home system. I don't think I've ever played a game with "can start in same system" set before.

[Phoenix-D]

Neutral in home system + troops = free second homeworld. Though one system over would have been best.

[Possum]

Yeah, what Phoenix said. You got lucky

That's why I usually play with no AI empires or neuts when I play MP.