Welcome Comrades to the 58th edition of the Dispatch! I was fairly garrulous in my introduction to the War Games section (below) so I will compensate by being unusually sententious up here in the main introduction. After ten months and four days on the newsletter staff, I have for the first time been trusted with the task of taking a turn as overall publisher. Of course, I repaid the trust of my comrades by devising a technical conundrum that had Leehar and Victor Sullivan up all night pulling their hair out as they tried to fix it. I think after today they'll put me back in my playpen with some nice colouring books and some soft crayons!
This issue is absolutely full of great stuff. Look for a sneak preview of Bra Wars, episode 4, which alone is worth the price of admission. I won't tell you where to look for it; you'll just have to enjoy the process of discovery! Pander88uk answers questions from the visitors' gallery, Isaiah40 has a buoyant interview with Industrial Helix, alt1978 reports on the dramatic rise to stardom of several new clans, thehippo8 provides an almost encyclopedic overview of some copyright precedents relevant to our mapmakers, and the Magister Omnia Banana himself makes a special guest appearance in War Games. Have fun exploring!
[player]Dukasaur[/player] - Newsletter Executive
If you would like to apply to join the news team, please visit the thread below for more details!
Hello again everyone, and welcome again to the Freestyle Section. We have another Insider for your mafia edification, and an interview with [player]Pander88uk[/player] for your reading pleasure.
I've also come up with some nice Halloween themed ideas, free of charge. No need to credit me if you decide to use them, I kept the really good ones to myself .
[spoiler=Interrogation of Pander88uk]Q. Hello Pander88uk!
Hello!
Q. What is so good about english people?
Well the majority of this website will know one of the answers to that, else we wouldn't all be conversing in this wonderful language. But what sets us apart from other nationalities? Well, it's got to be the good old 'stiff upper lip', hasn't it? Other than that, definitely package holidays.
Q. Why did you decide to come back to CC after your last break?
I couldn't really stay away, could I? The nearest CC rehab clinic is on the other side of the Atlantic, and unfortunately I can't get treatment on the NHS! But I have nabafed to keep my gameload down to between 5 and 20 at a time (down from 150-250), so hopefully I can cope with it this time around!
Q. Beer or whiskey?
Well, of course in Britain we spell it 'whisky', but as only the Scots (and possibly the Japanese - try some, it's actually very good) make anything half decent under that name, I'll allow you the spelling faux-pas. But in answer to your question... for getting drunk on, beer. For enjoying, whisk(e)y. I even travelled to Lynchburg a couple of weeks ago for Mr Jack's birthday weekend, which I believe shows my passion for the stuff (but then again could JD be better described as Bourbon? Meh, apples and oranges).
Q. Anony - bogan or the goat? Why?
Anony; while a Brit should never have a fondness for a Jerry, Anonymus was one of the few who actually seemed to notice I'd gone when I had my break (and then came back of course), and has always been polite and courteous! Also, a great profile pic.
Q. Who do you Pander to in the UK?
Few people know that 'to pander' is a term relating to prostitution. From Wikipedia (the font of all knowledge):
Wikipedia wrote:Procuring or pandering is the facilitation or provision of a prostitute in the arrangement of a sex act with a customer. Examples of procuring include:
trafficking a prostitute into a country for the purpose of soliciting sex
operating a prostitution business
transporting a prostitute to the location of their arrangement
But really, I pander to my football team, the mighty Reading FC.
Q. What were your favourite war games before discovering CC?
I always enjoyed a bit of Risk. On the computer, I always played games like Command and Conquer, Age of Empires, Total War, Civilization etc. etc. If I had the time to, I'm sure I still would enjoy playing them all day and night!
Q. What was your favourite thing about O&H before they disbanded?
O&H was a great clan with great people, and we all had tons of fun in the forums (especially when it came to long essays written about which country is the best, USA or UK). Lots of xenophobia going on there... my favourite moment was definitely my 100% record in O&Hs famous win over LOW.
Q. Why the heck would you join FOED?
Goodness knows! Well, as the majority of my regular teammates were joining at the time, it only seemed right and sensible, and I haven't regretted it once! Oh, by the way... FOED
Q. Who are your favourite Quads partners now?
Got a great one off team outside of clan wars with [player]DJ Teflon[/player], [player]JNash[/player] & [player]Natascha[/player]... we welcome any challenges on Wales - pretty decent record on there! Within my clan, the likes of [player]nippersean[/player], [player]danryan[/player], [player]L M S[/player] & [player]Deli[/player] I play the most games with and seem to have a good understanding with (even if they are all rude SOBs at times ), but everyone in FOED is a great teammate!
Q. Are you obsessed with Panda Bears?
Yes, yes I am.
Q. What is your favorite alcoholic beverage my dear?
Probably already answered above, but a bit of whisk(e)y certainly can't go amiss. Otherwise, I do love drinking real ale and cider (the latter can often get me mashed pretty quickly).
Q. When you are not on CC what three things do you enjoy doing the most? Now that's a direct question, Dazey! Surely you know my frequent trips to Austin to visit you are the highlights of my life? When I can't see you though, I love travelling all over the place, sometimes just to watch sport (I've visited South Africa for the express purpose of watching a cricket match before - also went for footy world cup, and I've been on overnight trips to Spain and Belgium just to watch 90 minutes of football - yet I've still never visited Prenton Park )
Q. You're from the UK, have you met LFAW, JoshyBoy, Eddie2 or DJ Teflon in real life. If not who would be top of the list and why?
Aren't Eddie and Joshy actually Ant & Dec in real life? No, I've not met any of them. DJ would definitely be top of that list. 539 games played with him speaks volumes, and we're even so sad as to text each other when turns are up on rare occasions!
Q. Is it true you drink fermented camels milk with a friend we have in common?
Ah so you know Borat as well? I enjoy a good tipple of Chal with the old fella on a regular basis.
Q. Why is America better than England at everything?
That's a tough one. Possibly it could be due to that substance they put in the water over there that makes all your heads that slightly bit larger than ours?
Q. Do you ever wake up and just feel slightly ashamed about being English? Is that like a bad hair day only worse?
We call them bad teeth days over here.
Q. You have an uncanny resemblance to Prime Minister David "Dave" Cameron. Do you share his political views?
Dave's a good friend of mine; we often pop down together to Windsor Castle for tea with the Queen (as is customary for every English person at least twice a month). Dave's views are very Liberal for someone who calls himself a Conservative, so I don't particularly mind him. I'm in fact pretty sure that he, Blair and Clegg are actually all products from George 'Gideon' Osborne's "Cloning Under Neath Towels" machine.
Q. How do you feel about being a member of the sexiest clan on CC?
I've never felt harder.
Q. Does that help you with the Ladieees? Do you get free tickets for concerts and shows because of it?
I get free tickets to everything, not least because of the amazing clan I'm a part of. I'm actually having to hire some extra help to keep the ladies off (it eventually gets tiresome being so sexy).
Q. How did you come to be on the Entertainment Team?
I applied with the rest of the folk (way back when I had time on my hands to handle it) and was approached by Sam asking for a hand.
Q. What did you do on the Entertainment Team?
My main project was helping to run the singles tournament of the World Cup 2010 Official CC tournament. Damn, that was a tough task, required a lot of time from myself and Gilligan to sort out all the games. Over 1000 in total; maybe not in the same league at HA's current tournament, but it was a lot for me! I also helped with a couple of the chat quizzes that were really very enjoyable.
Q. Why did you leave?
Just too much going on with work to be able to offer the time required to be a good Entertainment volunteer. I definitely came to the realisation that all of Team CC work their asses off, and I'm very grateful for all of them spending their time to help make this site worth coming back to!
Q. Thanks for your time Pander.[/spoiler]
Hello again my friends, and welcome to your favorite part of the Newsletter, "War Games", where you can find information about CC Tournaments! I am really thrilled with the way our section is developing. We now have four excellent writers on board (you could stretch it to five if you wanted to be generous to me.) In theory I am their editor, but in practice my "editing" is limited to a few (infrequent) suggestions for improvement and cleaning up an occasional missed underline. These guys never require any hard editing of the kind one is used to doing with volunteer publications. They are just so good, and so professional, and reading the stuff they produce is an absolute delight.
This issue, we launch our newest feature, Meet the Tournament Organisers, which will complement and parallel our existing series, Meet the Tournament Winners. This issue, [player]WorldCup4James[/player] has produced the former, while I have produced the latter, but this is not intended to be a fixed division of labour: we both intend to produce interviews of both kinds, and mix and match as we go to keep it fresh. I hope you really enjoy the interviews, the former with [player]fuzzy316[/player] and the latter with [player]EBConquer[/player].
We could hardly avoid mention of CC's new supertournament, the Conquer Cup. In this issue, [player]AndyDufresne[/player] makes a special guest appearance to begin our coverage. We will have more in every issue.
Our newest recruit is [player]DaveH[/player], who has come on board to write a series on the nuts-and-bolts of tournament organizing. Like all our other reporters, Dave is an experienced Tournament Organiser himself. And like [player]sonicsteve[/player], he is from Devonshire. Do you suppose there's a conspiracy afoot? Ha! If these guys have half the chutzpah that Sir Francis Drake brought to the table, they will have us conquered (or should I say Conquered) in no time! Dave's first column will be fairly basic, but he will soon be delving into more advanced and complicated issues of tournament organisation. If you have a question about tournaments that you think he should be covering, by all means send him a message.
[player]Angola[/player] is on leave; he will have another TPA Update for us in the next issue. [player]Sonicsteve[/player] has produced another Join This? Or Not! column. Those keep getting bigger and better; there are just so many exciting new tournaments being launched.
[player]Dukasaur[/player] Tournament Executive
Continuing Coverage of the Conquer Cup: 1by AndyDufresne
Meet the Tournament Organisers!by WorldCup4James [spoiler=interview with Fuzzy316]The CC Tournament world has always been one of the high-points of Conquer Club; there have been over 600,000 games and nearly 6000 exhilarating tournaments that have drawn players willing to make that leap from the casual exhibition match to the fiercely competitive realm of tournament play. Triumphing in a tournament is no easy feat; the elation of victory has been experienced by 1,712 players, only around 10% of all active CC members.
But only about 5% of all CC members have volunteered and hosted tournaments. Unlike tournament winners, they often do not take in their fair share of the limelight and recognition. Just as we have interviewed tournament winners, it's time to recognize some impressive feats of creativity and organization from our tournament organizers.
In only 6 short months, [player]Fuzzy316[/player] has hosted 26 tournaments. At the moment, he's hosting 12 tournaments, and three are open for signups. His impressive streak of creative and well-run tournaments has earned him a feature in our new series of "Meet the Tournament Organizers."
As I will mention with all featured tournament organizers, hosting tournaments is very time-consuming, particularly in writing the rules, creating games, and posting updates, not to mention the hours pacing around playing with a genuinely unique concept that maybe you thought of from talking with a friend, watching TV, or reading a book, and then connecting all the dots to make everything just right.
Why go through all the trouble? What motivates you to host tournaments?
Well, to begin with why I go through all the trouble...I entered myself in a number of other player's tournaments and only recently won my first. (Currently hosting a "My First Tourney Win Tourney" as a result). I find it a fun and exciting way to add a different dimension to the overall gameplay of ConquerClub. Yes it is time consuming and sometimes difficult to do, but hey, people like variety in their life. I have found hosting tournaments an exciting challenge to myself to continually try to come up with unique themes and rules/stipulations of tournaments. Once I started my first few, I quickly actually became addicted to running them and keep trying to run a variety of tourneys at once, instead of the same ones over and over, in order to keep things fresh for those players I host.
Also, in many ways you have the chance of playing a variety of players, some who you would not normally play. For example: A cook has very little chance of getting to play a high ranked opponent... say Lieutenant or higher, in a regular game, unless they are invited specifically. However, in tournament play, especially those with seeded tourneys, those low ranked players will tend to start against those players. I know I personally feel some satisfaction when I am able to beat someone who is say... 750+ points higher in rank than me.
What do you think sets your tournaments apart, and what concept do you think helps make your tournaments enjoyable?
I think that the uniqueness of the tournaments and what I do with them sets them apart. For example, I have the Fast and Furious series, which is almost complete, resulting in a Finale tourney. I also have the American Odyssey tourney, going through American history through our maps. Then there is the Super Series which is similar to some already run, but unique in its own way.
I also try to take some real life occurrences and bring them here, such as the "Well Smurf me Silly" tournament that I started since Smurfs came to the Big Screen, and my 3k-3play tourney when I completed 3000 games.
I really do try and at least look at the other tourneys in action, if not join them, and either take some of those ideas, and change them, or look for different ways than what they have gone with. The tourney series' I run are played generally the same, but I try to come up with something new with other, newer tourneys I run.
Creativity is definitely key! That's what keeps the wheels rolling and keeps up the excitement and entertainment level.
Not to leave behind any other tournament hosts:
Out of all the tournaments who have joined and taken part in, which was the most unique, exciting, and well-executed, and who hosted it?
I would have to say none fit that bill exactly. However, I feel the most unique to be the Gods, Devils, and Everything in Between tournament run by deantursx. That one I kept crawling back in. I would say the most exciting has been the Official 2011 CC World Cup - Singles hosted by MrGlassB. At this particular moment I am actually rooting for two of my opponents to beat out one other one, which would advance me to the final stage. I have had a lot of success on this map, which of course, until they released it I had never played. For the best executed though, I'm gonna be a suck up and say your 2011 World Cup of Risk tournament is the best executed. The number of players, combined with the brackets, not to mention the way you have laid it all out and made it fun to follow, not sure if I could top it.
CERTAINLY agree with that last choice there So do you bring in any any real-world tournament-organising skills to CC?
I used to run No Limit Hold'em Poker poker at local area bars for The Poker Pub for about 2 years. It was lots of fun and made a number of friends.
Very cool! So enough about tournaments for now . Based on your profile, it looks like you're an aspiring writer? How's that going?
Not so well... As much time as I spend on the PC you would think that I would be able to sit down and actually write stuff down. I have stories up in my head, just cannot figure out how to get em to paper. I try every now and then, go good for a few days, but then things just kinda go... so perhaps, I can get to college or just get my butt in gear and write!!!
Keep looking for that moment of inspiration! Maybe feature some allusions to Conquer Club in your novels Do you have a word of advice for any aspiring TOs who want to make a name for themselves in the tournament world? Follow through!
For those that are now trying to make a name in the tournament world, I must say that following through with a tourney you start is definitely a must. Tourneys can take some time to run and be completed, so make sure you are willing to complete them.
Any goals or anything that you're aiming to accomplish here at CC? Anything interesting you'd like to share about the real life?
To have lots of fun playing games and help make the site more enjoyable for others as a TO. As for real life...well, there was this one time at band camp....
It's been great talking with you! Looking forward to joining some more of your tournaments in the future! Until then, good luck in your CC endeavors! [/spoiler]
Meet the Tournament Winners!by Dukasaur [spoiler=interview with ebconquer]There are a number of ways someone can end up getting interviewed about their tourney win. Some people send me a message volunteering for an interview. Some are randomly chosen by me while prowling the Completed Tournaments forum. Some are recommended by their TOs. One of the most reliable methods of all is to impress me by kicking my &^% in a tournament final. In this case, we are talking about the KISS Tamriel tournament, part of [player]greenoaks[/player]' KISS series. This tourney was first posted on July 12th 2011, and was wrapped up within six weeks, with [player]EBConquer[/player] beating me very convincingly (I had great luck the first two turns and really thought I had it won, but starting with turn 3 he managed to turn it around) in the final on August 23rd.
So, what attracted you to this particular tournament?
Well to be frank I had never played a 1v1 tournament, the map looked pretty basic, and I figured I have as much of a chance as anybody. What really set it off was I saw Commander9 post the link on dazerazer's wall... i clicked through and said "ehhh, let's get nasty". Dice were good the first few rounds then eased off the booze as the tourney went on. jk.. errrr.... sorta.
Lol, dazey's wall is a happenin' place. (It wasn't a big deal, but I like to be thorough in these interviews, so I decided to go look at the post you mention. I had to go back 75 pages on her wall from the time you told me about it to the link you mentioned. That means she receives an average of almost 8 wall posts per day. Anyway, back to the tournament )
So, at the time you signed up for KISS Tamriel, you actually had not played a single game on Tamriel, ever. But a couple days later you joined a trips game on that map with the aforementioned dazey. Was that intended as a practise for your tourney games?
Yes, Dazey's wall is quite the happenin place... just the way she likes it
I believe that game was a coincidence. Daze loves that map and I was glad for the invite because I did pick up a few pointers that game!
Tell me something that about the map that you found noteworthy.
Well of course, the colors are delicious but whats really cool are the embassies. It's nice to know that there's a little buddy terit over yonder that if you can get a hold of in the same turn you take the terit... it's usually an eye opening experience for your opponents. especially if you wait long enough to build and make sure you hold it. don't want to sound like a d-bag but it's nice when it happens. Certainly is! And I love maps that reward you for paying attention!
At what point did you start to feel you might win the tourney?
Well, there wasn't a point where I really felt like I was going to win the tourney except at the last game at about round 3. wait, need to take a look at that really quick.... indeed, it was about round 3 or 4 where things started to get weird and the confidence in the tourney started to take place. I still can't tell if it the entire competition was luck of the dice or strategy! That's the way it goes in this game I guess.
Okay, you finally have your first Tournament Victory Cup. How does it feel?
Winning my first tourney felt fabulous. Funny because i never actually thought I was going to win it nor had any preconceived notions that it was going to happen until that last game. For a second there i thought i pulled the rug out but nah, it was good. What's next? Are you getting close in any other tournies? Are you chasing any medals?
It didn't even occur to me that the medal thing was cool or that that was something people sought after till just a few weeks ago. So indeed, I just chased and conquered my rating medal. (silver edition) No seriously though, I'm not really looking at medals right now and just playing the game. As far as tourneys go, i did join another KISS one but started poorly and just about to pick up on a few more. I'm born, bred, and a fan of 1v1's or 1vMulti's but looking toward learning/perfecting the trips/quads game.
Anything and everything: this is your chance to make any comment you want, about tournaments, about CC in general, etc. Basically your personal soapbox for a paragraph or two...
So, yeah, about a year ago my buddy was like, "dude, i know you like to play RISK. There's a cool site I found. You should check it out". Thought twice about it because I'm not much of a computer-type gamer but decided to login to play a couple matches. Figured out I had to create a login and EBConquer was born. Yep, didn't think I was going to be playing for a year, and came to find out it's very hard to change your name.
I'm really diggin' my time here and within that time have gained a lot of new friends and recently hooked up the Imperial Dragoons. I'm into it and you'll see me around!
Thank you very much for your time, and good luck in all your future endeavours![/spoiler]
Tournament Tips:by DaveH[spoiler=getting started]OK, so you had an idea for your first tournament; you looked at other tournaments; read up on the procedure and published your tournament thread. Shortly afterwards, eager medal hunters filled all the available spaces and you are up and running with tournament privileges. Now you begin to invite the players into the games and realise just how tedious this is – and sometimes difficult to keep track – and wish you had thought this bit through a bit better.
Then, as the games get under way and results start coming in, you keep the tournament thread up-to-date and you wished you had thought of a less complex tournament and wonder how best to manage the updates with a minimum of effort.
That was my experience anyway. So, this series is about different tournament types and techniques of managing them, and, since I am still learning, I’m sure that there are many others out there who have far better methods; if so let me know and I will publish them.
So, let’s start by recapping the steps you needed in beginning your first tournament:
Scroll down to the bottom for the “Organising Your Thread” and “Tournament Tools” for the tags and tools to make your tournament invitation thread attractive and organised. There is also a very good set of articles by rdsrds2120 called "The Forum Tips Thread" that gives additional information. http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=17807.
For instance: The above was created using the following tools and tags:
Note that the image was uploaded to a free hosting site; Photobucket or, in this case, ImageShack. You don't have to have a picture, but you could include your banner or, as greenoaks' series of Watch and Learn or KISS, he has a special banner to identify the particular series. If you don't have an appropriate banner, then a copy of the map used in the tournament can always be inserted if required.
OK, so now you have a tournament thread that can be posted to attract players. As you get postings from players you can edit your thread to incude their names and update your title to indicate the number of players already included: "My Fantastic First Tournament (5 of 16)". Then post a thread to say that you have included "up to here" - communication to your players is always good practice!
When you have your full complement of players and perhaps one or two additional reserves, you change the title to "My Fantastic First Tournament (Full)" and magically, it seems, within a day or two you have a pm giving you tournament rights and allowing you to create your games.
Let's say you invite your players rather than send pm's (I'll write about a few short cuts for pm'ing in a future article) and you decide to keep track of your games using Challonge (challonge.com). This is a useful (free!) site that allows you to select the type of tournament; say a single elimination, then you copy in your list of players; you can even randomise them using Challonge. There is a link adress on the site that you can paste into your tournament thread that gives a picture of the tournament progress. The following is from one of my completed tournaments. Remember that you still need to occasionally post progress notes onto your tournament thread, as updating Challonge does not affect the thread directly.
So - there is your first tournament set up and under way - it is so easy there is no reason why you should not start right away![/spoiler]
EXCITEMENT!!! A new mapmaker, [player]nrds[/player], recently won the Papua New Guinea contest and a new map is available for play only in Game 10000000 by our own [player]samuelc812[/player]! Though we have just three articles for you, I think you'll enjoy them to the fullest, especially [player]isaiah40[/player]'s Interview with the recently re-inducted [player]Industrial Helix[/player], regarding what happened to him and beyond!
Happy Halloween, Victor Sullivan Foundry Executive
This Issue the inimitable Alt comes up with an enticing view of the spate of upsets traversing through the clan scene, primarily in the ACC arena. The main outlier of course being the continued unbeaten charge of The Pack, who extend their unbeaten run to 7 challenges, getting close to the 8/9 and 11/12 benchmarks of Tofu and Thota respectively. In other news the Final Foursome in the Conquerors Cup seems to be as close as ever. While Kort seem to have eked out a win against Empire, the Tsm-Thota seems to be locked in a dead heat that can only perhaps be resolved in extra time. All eyes eagerly await the outcome. [player]Leehar[/player] Clan Executive
Stay Tuned for the next issue of the ConquerClub Dispatch for an interrogation of [player]squishyg[/player]. Post any questions you may have for them here --> Interrogation with squishyg
Submitting Your Own Articles
If you have a story you think the ConquerClub Community would find interesting, you can submit your articles to [player]safariguy5[/player] and you may just see your article published in the Newsletter!
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“In the beginning God said, the four-dimensional divergence of an antisymmetric, second rank tensor equals zero, and there was light, and it was good. And on the seventh day he rested.”- Michio Kaku
squishyg wrote:my name is improperly capitalized. what kind of an operation are you running here?
Just checking if you're awake..
I'm very awake! It's still miscapitalized in the link Thanks for actually changing it! I couldn't even get natty to do that during the sig contest. Lol!
There is no fog rule and I am no gentleman.
Robinette wrote:
Kaskavel wrote:Seriously. Who is the female conqueror of CC?
Depends on what metric you use... The coolest is [player]squishyg[/player]
.
)
. Based on your profile, it looks like you're an aspiring writer? How's that going? 
As much time as I spend on the PC you would think that I would be able to sit down and actually write stuff down. I have stories up in my head, just cannot figure out how to get em to paper. I try every now and then, go good for a few days, but then things just kinda go... 
so perhaps, I can get to college or just get my butt in gear and write!!!
)
Remember that you still need to occasionally post progress notes onto your tournament thread, as updating Challonge does not affect the thread directly.
