Newsletter Archives
The Schwarze Schrieben and the Remis Velisque
There are two official newsletters for The Spectrum Wars IV: A New Hope. The Schwarze Schrieben (German for "Black Writings") comes out after each Build-and-Move Orders Phase, and the Remis Velisque (Latin for "With Oars and Sails", loosely translated as "Full Speed Ahead") comes out after each Movement-Only Orders Phase. Both chronicle all major game events, including wars, treaties, and anything else you would commonly see in a newspaper that focuses on World Events. Most articles are written by the players themselves, and the Moderators write articles to describe events the players might have missed.
Players write articles for a variety of reasons. Control of the Press is an important part of Propaganda, for example. Players wishing to slander another nation write an article describing those accusations. Players wishing to mend fences with their neighbors will also release statements to the press describing their good intentions. Players wishing to deter enemy attacks can brag about their military power in an article, and players wishing to lure in their enemies can complain about their weakness, inviting an ill-advised attack. Players can announce new alliances, declare their hostilities, and even describe their cultural superiority in the pages of the official newsletters.
Each newsletter is divided into four sections:
Headlines: This section gives a brief one-line summary of some of the most important events. These headlines may refer to articles below, or they may just be one-off commentary on events that may not have merited a full article, but which the players should know about anyway.
In Game Terms: This section gives news that relates to the game as a game, and does not even pretend that this is real life. Each issue of the newsletter will contain an announcement as to the due date of the next set of orders, a "Rules Clarification of the Week", and any other game-related announcements, such as introducing new players, announcing the departure of players who quit, resign, or are expelled. The copy of each issue that is emailed to the players will also include a list of email addresses and contact information for all players, but for privacy and legal concerns, this list will NOT be posted on the web site. Not only are some of the players under 18, but junk-email purveyors have a habit of getting email addresses off of web sites that they later send Spam to.
News In Depth: This is where the actual articles may be found. Each article has a headline, a dateline, and an attribution. The headline is simply the tittle of the Article, such as "DENIM DECLARES WAR ON RED". The dateline is the city the article was written in. For example, a story about a speech by the President of the Denim Democracy would have "WASHINGTON, D.C." as its dateline. The attribution tells which player nation the article originated in. Each player is urged to come up with one or more short acronyms for their national press organizations. For example, the Denim Democracy might have "AP" as their attribution, which stands for the Associated Press, while "TASS" might signify an article by the Malachite Monarchy, and "ANS" might signify the Australian News Service. After all of these, you will find the body of the article. For example, and this is ONLY an example:
DENIM DECLARES WAR ON RED
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) -- Today, the President of the Denim Democracy announced that they have declared war on the Red Republic. President Edward Kennedy stated that the continued border incidents have pushed his patience beyond its limit, and that he had ordered all Denim forces to commence an immediate attack on the Red Republic. Denim forces immediately advanced across the border, and heavy fighting is reported in the valleys of the Potomac and Ohio rivers. A naval battle off the coast of Cape Hatteras is reported as being a bloody but inconclusive draw, with both fleets withdrawing after suffering heavy losses. Air battles were visible in the skies over St. Louis and Cincinnati, and armored columns are reported as having clashed in the Western Deserts.
Advertisements: This section has both Classified ads placed by players, and joke ads placed by the Moderators. The Classified Ads are submitted by players who are seeking to buy (or sell) certain military units, technologies, or even resource points. The Joke ads are, hopefully, obviously jokes, and are simply put up for the amusement of the players. Occasionally the Webmaster will put links on these joke ads to some of his favorite web sites for interested players to discover.
IMPORTANT NOTES: When players submit articles, they are subject to editing and revision by the moderators. Primarily, such editing will only be to correct errors in spelling or grammar. Articles describing combat are subject to correction if the battle does not go as the players expected. Otherwise, articles will not normally be changed. Players are free to lie, distort the truth, and leave out important details as part of their overall propaganda program, so take most articles with a grain of salt. Articles that defame or slander other nations without cause MAY be edited for truth, but if a player also spends espionage points to fake incidents or atrocities, anything is fair game. Players are not REQUIRED to submit articles, but players that submit NO articles give the Moderators Carte Blanche to write whatever articles they see fit. Such articles may reveal secrets you want kept, or present an inaccurate picture of your diplomatic policies to the rest of the world. So write articles! Even if you aren't doing anything worth writing an article about, you can always write the kind of human-interest stories or cultural details that always annoy me when I see them as headlines in real-life papers, while stories about military coups in nuclear-armed nations get buried on Page 47 (true story, don't ask).
Issues Currently Available:
Schwarze Schrieben, January 31st, 2001 (Turn 1)
Remis Velisque, February 28th, 2001 (Turn 1.5)
Schwarze Schrieben, March 31st, 2001 (Turn 2)
Remis Velisque, April 30th, 2001 (Turn 2.5) LATEST NEWSLETTER!
