Hitler's brain in a Swiss bank account
Aug. 15th, 2003 05:54 pmBefore I get to the Illuminati game referred to by the title of this entry, I should probably say a bit about today.
Today is the last real day, the last lecture. Glenn proved Minkowski's theorem, which he then used to prove that any prime ≡1 (mod 4) is a sum of two squares. We also got the Open-Door Problem Set. Actually, it is only the very last question on it that it is unsolved, and the first few are supposed to be pretty easy. Tonight we'll get the book with all the problem sets.
One of the problems is about finite fields; the first thing it states is that the number of elements in a finite field is pn (p prime). I'm glad I didn't waste any time on CounselorJosh's challenge to find a field of 6 elements.
Now, as for that Illuminati game last night...
The final power structures are illutree7.txt, or will be. But I should definitely explain a bit...
4 players. I was The Network, Pasha was Discordia, Chris was Assassins (but Bob later took over for him), and Mung was AISB.
At first things went rather normally; my being Network and Assassins' taking of Vampires increased the number of groups out. When enough powerful groups came out, we split them. There was, though, an excess of weird groups. We thought of destroying them, but very few had power. We eventually ended up splitting them to prevent Discordia from getting them.
Skip, skip, skip...
OK, later in the game. People are considerably more powerful. A small arm of Discordia's power structure has been neutralized to reduce them from 3 to 1 weird groups. People now have on the order of 7, 8, or 9 groups. Remember, it's 12 to win.
I have Office Temps. (Spend 10 from them or your Illuminati to get an extra action that turn.)
I have a lot of money.
Unfortunately, so does everyone else.
I also didn't have my money in the right places.
I try to make 3 attacks and win. Bad idea #1. I discard Gremlins for privilege. Discordia discards Red Scare and Flower Power to abolish. I don't spend, I just let the attack fail. I was really just trying to draw out those specials. Bad idea #2. I continue, discarding White Collar Crime for privilege. Nobody abolishes, so I go ahead and take the Recording Industry. I attack *again* (remember the Office Temps!), discarding Mob Influence for privilege. Assassins discards May Day and Whispering Campaign to abolish. I go on ahead anyway. Bad idea #3. I have, however, used enough of my power structure that I can't aid very much at this point, and I wasted an action (ie 10 MB) moving a group so I'd have an open control arrow I could attack with.
Bidding war begins.
Perhaps I would have won if I had just transferred those insane amounts of money I had on Lawyers and such onto Network (I should have played White Collar Crime!), but a much better idea would have been to get an *ally* or two. With the collective might of the Society of Assassins, the Bavarian Illuminati, and the Discordians against me, I drain myself and fail. I play Swiss Bank Account, but it gets Secretsed. Not that it would have helped much anyway.
My neutralization begins.
Well, they just go on neutralizing my groups for the next few turns - taking out two whole arms of my power structure - and not taking any, so the number of uncontrolled groups goes up /fast/.
Well, I'm now down to 4 groups, with everyone else still having at least 7. And no, I no longer have Office Temps. Don't even *mention* my transferable power.
Now Bavaria attempts to win.
Being Bavaria, he spends 5 for privilege, and wins the attack. He makes another attack, discarding Emergency Powers to make it privileged. He raises the attack power to 10; if he makes this roll, he wins, as he already has 11 groups. Which is exactly the same number he rolled.
The neutralization of the AISB begins.
Unfortunately, it doesn't continue very long.
Given his enormous power, we began trying to destroy powerful groups. We figured we'd get a few more turns to do so when Discordia played Senate Investigating Committee on him. Unfortunately, he had _another_ Secrets. He plans to win by power, and realizes, in our drained state, he can get the necessary power from one of *us*. Dropping NASA to get the necessary room on his power structure, he discarded the 3rd and last Secrets in the deck to make the attack privileged. He was going for the CFL-AIO, which was controlled directly by Discordia.
He didn't even bother with a bidding war.
He immediately spends all the money he can to jack up the power to 42. Discordia responds in kind - or rather, decides not to, as he can only reduce it to 12, and decides, in the case that the AISB don't win, that he'd rather keep the money.
That case does not happen.
And so ends one of the craziest games of Illuminati I have played in quite a while.
-Sniffnoy
--
"Illuminomic: The completion of the goals of Illuminomic is
imminent. Your Nomic has already been infiltrated. It will be
subverted and assimilated soon.
Contact: Do not attempt to contact us. We will contact you.
Current Players: You are already playing the game. You will be told
when it is your turn.
Status: Fnord"
-The Nomic Wiki
Today is the last real day, the last lecture. Glenn proved Minkowski's theorem, which he then used to prove that any prime ≡1 (mod 4) is a sum of two squares. We also got the Open-Door Problem Set. Actually, it is only the very last question on it that it is unsolved, and the first few are supposed to be pretty easy. Tonight we'll get the book with all the problem sets.
One of the problems is about finite fields; the first thing it states is that the number of elements in a finite field is pn (p prime). I'm glad I didn't waste any time on CounselorJosh's challenge to find a field of 6 elements.
Now, as for that Illuminati game last night...
The final power structures are illutree7.txt, or will be. But I should definitely explain a bit...
4 players. I was The Network, Pasha was Discordia, Chris was Assassins (but Bob later took over for him), and Mung was AISB.
At first things went rather normally; my being Network and Assassins' taking of Vampires increased the number of groups out. When enough powerful groups came out, we split them. There was, though, an excess of weird groups. We thought of destroying them, but very few had power. We eventually ended up splitting them to prevent Discordia from getting them.
Skip, skip, skip...
OK, later in the game. People are considerably more powerful. A small arm of Discordia's power structure has been neutralized to reduce them from 3 to 1 weird groups. People now have on the order of 7, 8, or 9 groups. Remember, it's 12 to win.
I have Office Temps. (Spend 10 from them or your Illuminati to get an extra action that turn.)
I have a lot of money.
Unfortunately, so does everyone else.
I also didn't have my money in the right places.
I try to make 3 attacks and win. Bad idea #1. I discard Gremlins for privilege. Discordia discards Red Scare and Flower Power to abolish. I don't spend, I just let the attack fail. I was really just trying to draw out those specials. Bad idea #2. I continue, discarding White Collar Crime for privilege. Nobody abolishes, so I go ahead and take the Recording Industry. I attack *again* (remember the Office Temps!), discarding Mob Influence for privilege. Assassins discards May Day and Whispering Campaign to abolish. I go on ahead anyway. Bad idea #3. I have, however, used enough of my power structure that I can't aid very much at this point, and I wasted an action (ie 10 MB) moving a group so I'd have an open control arrow I could attack with.
Bidding war begins.
Perhaps I would have won if I had just transferred those insane amounts of money I had on Lawyers and such onto Network (I should have played White Collar Crime!), but a much better idea would have been to get an *ally* or two. With the collective might of the Society of Assassins, the Bavarian Illuminati, and the Discordians against me, I drain myself and fail. I play Swiss Bank Account, but it gets Secretsed. Not that it would have helped much anyway.
My neutralization begins.
Well, they just go on neutralizing my groups for the next few turns - taking out two whole arms of my power structure - and not taking any, so the number of uncontrolled groups goes up /fast/.
Well, I'm now down to 4 groups, with everyone else still having at least 7. And no, I no longer have Office Temps. Don't even *mention* my transferable power.
Now Bavaria attempts to win.
Being Bavaria, he spends 5 for privilege, and wins the attack. He makes another attack, discarding Emergency Powers to make it privileged. He raises the attack power to 10; if he makes this roll, he wins, as he already has 11 groups. Which is exactly the same number he rolled.
The neutralization of the AISB begins.
Unfortunately, it doesn't continue very long.
Given his enormous power, we began trying to destroy powerful groups. We figured we'd get a few more turns to do so when Discordia played Senate Investigating Committee on him. Unfortunately, he had _another_ Secrets. He plans to win by power, and realizes, in our drained state, he can get the necessary power from one of *us*. Dropping NASA to get the necessary room on his power structure, he discarded the 3rd and last Secrets in the deck to make the attack privileged. He was going for the CFL-AIO, which was controlled directly by Discordia.
He didn't even bother with a bidding war.
He immediately spends all the money he can to jack up the power to 42. Discordia responds in kind - or rather, decides not to, as he can only reduce it to 12, and decides, in the case that the AISB don't win, that he'd rather keep the money.
That case does not happen.
And so ends one of the craziest games of Illuminati I have played in quite a while.
-Sniffnoy
--
"Illuminomic: The completion of the goals of Illuminomic is
imminent. Your Nomic has already been infiltrated. It will be
subverted and assimilated soon.
Contact: Do not attempt to contact us. We will contact you.
Current Players: You are already playing the game. You will be told
when it is your turn.
Status: Fnord"
-The Nomic Wiki
