Gentlemen, start your engines

Campaign will go live on Monday evening 23 April 2007.

Practical implications

1. Those of you who haven't notified fleets by then will be presumed to have adopted pacifism for the moment and will defend planets with Inherent Defence Factors, the fleet being mothballed as a relic of a bygone age of violence and insanity. The Savasku are considered to be a) scary and b) aloof from the affairs of others, so we can live with the notion of them not stirring for the moment; however, after a certain amount of time , their civilisation may fall prey to cosmic sniffles or something and their worlds be occupied by more energetic races.

2. It seems only fair that everyone should have some sense of at least what species the neighbours are, so I'd be grateful if people could notify by return their chosen species/affiliation and ally/sponsor. This will go public on the blog.

3. As soon as practical thereafter, notify fleets to me; this will not go public, but the more lead time I have to go over them, the more likely it will be that Monday will be a happy evening of people going "well here's me" and no-one else grumbling about fleet comps, points costs, illegal weapons and all that other stuff which people complain about.

4. The plan is to do a full economic turn on Monday evening. This may, or may not, involve actual battles.

5. Rules changes to the campaign rules;

• Formal version will go up shortly, but the gist of it is that expendable items will be billed at 50% of original build price, over and above my already exorbitant maintenance fees.
• The attention of players is drawn to rule 10.6 concerning interdiction of systems. It is possible, albeit risky, to put a small force into a planetary system and prevent its rightful owner from benefiting from its income. How unsporting that would be. I'm sure the idea would never have occurred to you.
• When constructing new ships, the first week's construction must specify the designed mass of the ship and its vessel type. In subsequent weeks, the building player should notify the umpire what's been built in each ship. Changes to construction already completed will be billed under Rule 16. Thus, you can change your battleship into a carrier or alter the weapons fit of a destroyer at the last minute, but it will cost you.