SUSAN Manual

T H E G A M E O F S U S A N (tm) --------------------------------- An Introduction To Strategy Copyright 1994 by Stephen Linhart An Enigmatic(tm) Production THE FINE PRINT -------------- The board game SUSAN and this manual are protected under international copyright conventions and all rights are reserved. However, you are encouraged to copy and distribute this manual freely, as long as you do not modify it in any way and you do not charge money for it. SUSAN, Enigma and Enigmatic are trademarks of Enigma Games. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders. ABOUT SUSAN ----------- SUSAN is a quick and subtle board game for two players. It was invented by Stephen Linhart (that's me) in 1991. In addition to the traditional board game, SUSAN is also available as a computer game for Macintosh. You can get the Macintosh version on AOL or GEnie, or from the info-mac ftp site at sumex-aim.stanford.edu on the Internet. The Macintosh version of SUSAN features an intelligent computer opponent that uses a simulated neural- network to actually learn by playing. Send comments and questions about SUSAN to: ENIGMA GAMES, P.O. Box 199, Amherst, MA 01004, USA Stephen123 on AOL - stephen123@aol.com on Internet "SO WHY CALL A BOARD GAME SUSAN?" (an advertising blurb) Well, I'll tell you. One day, me and my friend Michael were having lunch at our favorite cafe. We were playing my new game and I asked him what he thought I should call it. Just then, the waitress came over and Michael asked her name. She said 'Susan', and he turned to me and said 'Susan'. So I said 'Ah... Susan'. Anyway, the name stuck, and it must be a good one because everybody asks "So why call a board game SUSAN?" THIS MANUAL ----------- This manual includes an introduction to the game of SUSAN, plus basic and intermediate strategy tips. I created it in ASCII (plain text) so that it can travel freely in the electronic world. Please pass this manual along to your friends! To see the diagrams correctly you need to use a fixed-width font such as Courier or Monaco, not a proportionally spaced font like Times or Helvetica. Most modem software uses a fixed-width font. I've tried to give a good, basic introduction to strategy. But SUSAN is a new game, and I am still new at SUSAN. I'm sure there is much more to learn, and it's possible that some of the tips I give in this manual will become outdated. If you discover something new and exciting that I haven't discussed in the manual, please let me know. THE RULES --------- SUSAN is played on a hexagonal board with 61 spaces, using two sets of playing stones. Here is a diagram of a SUSAN board. Each star is a space where a stone can be placed. Most spaces have six neighbors. The edge spaces have four neighbors and the corners have three. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To begin the game, p…