From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!npoiv!alice!sjb
Newsgroups: net.games.emp
Title: Re: dollar charge for sectors
Article-I.D.: alice.809
Posted: Sat Jul 24 22:10:52 1982
Received: Tue Jul 27 01:20:40 1982
References: sri-unix.2268

I do not like that idea.  In 'real' life (now, please no flames
that Empire is real life and everything else is imaginary!), does
a country pay a fee for taking over land?  That is, aside from
the cost of weapons, military, etc. does, for example, Iran or
Iraq pay for land that they obtain.  Besides, where would the
money go?  To the country conquered, to the DEITY, dropped on
the floor?  And, even if you triple the initial $5000, that means
that only 15 sectors could be taken before you ran out of money,
considering that it is very hard to make money at first.  15
sectors is pretty measly.  In general, the big countries have
their share of problems as well.  They generally have more plague,
since they have to increase their technology to fight effectively
and usually do not have the time to increase their research.
Small countries usually have the benefit of being looked over during
wars (assuming the big countries go after each other), giving them
time to fortify themselves.  And since they have less to defend,
they can put more into their defense.  It is this balance between
big and small countries that makes Empire interesting.  Why make
everyone small?  It is not practical to try and balance everything
out completely fairly (grammar takes a rest while school is out!)
Hell, next step along that road is to outlaw wars!