"The Hunters and The Hunted"
"The Hunters and The Hunted"
Public Player Scores turned OFF - too easy to tell exactly how powerful your prey is!
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Each player may submit a race of their choosing. At the game's outset, every player will be randomly assigned a Prey race, who they must hunt down and destroy. No one will know who is hunting whom. No player will have more than one hunter and one prey. It is not possible to be hunting your hunter...
Game files will be sent out and the players may set their production and research. I will then force-generate for a ten-year period to kick-start things. After this initial period, turns will be run one-yearly, as normal.
All races are limited to a total of five colony worlds (their 'colony limit') at the outset of the game. These colonies may be moved, in their entirety by lots of freighters if the player wishes, but they may never exceed their colony limit (see also the bombing exception, below). Anyone exceeding their colony limit, at any time in the game, will be punished by the Host (loss of turns, minerals, worlds...).
Players may interact with each other as much as they wish, giving details of their prey, conquering each other, doing whatever they wish. No player will know who another player is hunting, unless this information is divulged in-game. Communication outside of the game is fine, although email addresses will not be divulged at game start - you must encounter an Empire before sending Emissaries!
If a hunter destroys one of their prey's colonies, the prey's colony limit is reduced by one. That is, they may now only hold four worlds. Destruction of your prey's worlds slowly reduces their limit until their last planet. When this colony is destroyed, the prey is eradicated and the hunter wins the game.
If a hunter destroys a colony that does not belong to their prey, no colony limits are affected. That race may colonise another planet, with no great loss. Of course, destroying non-prey worlds simply helps another hunter move closer to winning the game.
If a prey's planet is being bombed by their hunter, the prey may depopulate that colony, but will still be considered to have lost the world - their colony limit will be reduced by one. If, however, there are no bombers in orbit, the prey may move the colony without loss of a world.
Should a bomber arrive while the prey are still lifting colonists off the planet, continuing to depopulate will still be considered a loss of a colony, and the prey's colony limit will drop by one accordingly.
Players may combine forces to wipe out a world, but the Hunter *must* have at least one bomber in orbit, or pop-drop the planet (maximum for the hunter is still five planets!) to class as a 'kill'. Of course, helping another hunter is effectively cutting your own throat...
If a player loses colony worlds to their Hunter and still has fewer colonies than their limit allows, they may colonise other worlds (within their now reduced colony limit) if they have colony vessels in transit.
E.g. A prey race has 1 world colonised, with two colony vessels making their ways towards other worlds. Along comes their hunter and trashes their homeworld. Their colony limit drops to 4. This does not eradicate the prey, as they have colonists in transit and they can colonise other worlds.
However, if they have colonised and lost four worlds, the next colony they set up *must* be their *FINAL* colony. This last homeworld cannot be moved. This is to stop unscrupulous players having a 'Nomadic Colony Fleet' which moves planets all the time and makes it virtually impossible to destroy them. Choose your planets carefully!
The winner will be the first player to destroy all five of their hunted race's colonies.
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Please, only interested and dedicated players (of any level) in this game - I have *no* idea how long it will run, but I don't really want people dropping out.
You will need to send me an unprotected race file and you should not password protect any of your turns (no other player will see them, anyway!).
Play will begin when sixteen people are registered. Dropouts will be switched to my control and sent on to a replacement player when I find one.
Game standings will be available on the Web.
Only one player can win the game. Scores will be taken into account if two players happen to kill their prey on the same game year.
With a million thanks to Dave Johnston, who helped me set up the Universe, and to Alistair who spotted the rules loophole!!!
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