text:
The title screen establishes Wizard's Crown as a game oriented towards numbers, not graphics.
Wizard's Crown
Strategic Simulations, Inc. (developer and publisher)
Released in 1985 or 1986* for Apple II, Commodore 64, and Atari 8-bit; 1987 for Atari ST and DOS
Date Started: 13 June 2010
Date Ended: 20 July 2017
Total Hours: 51 (includes 10 hours from 2010)
Difficulty: Moderate-Hard (3.5/5), although adjustable on the main screen.
Final Rating: 38
Ranking at Time of Posting: 202/256 (79%)
*The copyright on the game is 1985 but the earliest ads I can find are from very early in 1986. MobyGames says 1986; Wikipedia says 1985. It seems likely it was released very close to the turn of the year. It's remaining on my list as a 1985 game until I find something conclusive.
By 1986, Strategic Simulations had already made a splash in the RPG market by publishing Charles Dougherty's Questron (1984) and Winston Wood's Phantasie (1985), but the company was far better known for its detailed wargames, some based on historical battles (e.g., The Battle of Shiloh, The Battle of the Bulge), some fantastical (e.g., The Warp Factor, The Cosmic Balance). Wizard's Crown was the first major effort to unite the two genres; "a role-playing game with tactical combat," as promised by the box.
(1983's Galactic Adventures technically precedes Wizard's Crown in offering detailed tactical combat in an RPG, but it was only published, not developed, by SSI.)
And, boy, was the combat tactical. RPG players used to Ultima or even Wizardry must have been a little baffled. "Enough options to give a migraine to Sun Tzu" is how one reviewer described it. With battles taking up to an hour--and, of course, no guarantee of victory for all that time--I suspect most players used "quick combat" most of the time. Eventually, SSI realized that while RPG players may want tactical combat, they probably don't want to micro-manage which parts of their bodies their shields are covering, and thus adopted a much simpler system for Shard of Spring (1986). It was this less complicated approach that, coupled with Dungeons & Dragons rules, gave us the superb combat systems in more than a dozen Gold Box titles. Wizard's Crown also directly influenced the excellent tactical combat of Disciples of Steel (1991).
Such an important step in RPG evolution deserved more attention than the three short posts I wrote on the game in 2010 (starting here) before giving up because it was too hard. (Honestly, how did I keep any readers back then?) I tried to revisit it last year but got frustrated when Blogger ate my draft. But I always knew I'd give it another shot before attempting its sequel, The Eternal Dagger (1987). This time, I played it on the Apple II, since Dagger was only published for that platform and the Commodore 64.
Wizard's Crown is far more attuned to its strategy/simulation sources than its RPG sources. (I gather from interviews that lead designers Keith Brors and Paul Murray--both of whom went on to Pool of Radiance--both loved tabletop RPGs but came from more of a wargame programming background.) It is minimalist in graphics and sound and heavy on logistics and numbers. Even the title screen is text-only. Success is heavily dependent on developing a couple dozen magic, combat, and adventuring skills, on which you directly spend experience. Instead of just a pool of hit points, there's an injury system and a bleeding system. There's a morale system, an encumbrance system, an ambush system that is influenced by which character you have "on point." Armor doesn't just have an "armor class"; it has separate defensive ratings against each type of attack. This is, in short, a hard-statistics RPG.
The ability to spend experience directly on skills distinguishes Wizard's Crown from typical "level-based" games.
The backstory concerns the Crown of the Emperor, which grants power and wisdom to whoever wears it. For centuries, the Fellowship of Wizards governed the land of Arghan by passing the crown from wizard to wizard every so often--until Tarmon, Wizard of Thunder, refused to give it up. The resulting civil war left the land leaderless, the wizards exiled, and monsters roaming the land. Tarmon locked himself and the crown in his laboratories and was never seen again. Now, one of the old wizards, Kaitar, has convened a group of adventurers to recover the crown and return peace to the land. [Edit: as Tristan Gall points out below, the story owes a lot to Steve Jackson's Sorcery! gamebooks (1983-1985), where the goal is also to retrieve a crown that bestows leadership abilities.]
Later in the game, you find that Tarmon has a different take on the backstory.
The party consists of 8 members drawn from 5 classes: fighter, ranger, thief, mage, and cleric. Each class requires a minimum intelligence between 3 (ranger and thief) and 11 (sorcerer). You can multi-class, but to do so, the character has to have the combined minimum intelligence for both classes; for instance, a sorcerer-thief would require 14. The manual suggests having a character of each class, that only 1 or 2 characters should be non-fighters (I assume it includes multi-class fighters, too), that you should have 2 priests, and that one of them should be a ranger-priest. I'm not sure what the rationale is for that last bit.
Allocating attributes during character creation.
I dumped the default party (I guess a lot of people loot them for their weapons first) and created a new one, using the long names the game allows to remind myself of the character's profession and chosen weapon:
2 fighters: Marek the Slicer and Axe Thaxler
2 fighter-priests: Lyria the Blunt and Florian the Flailer
1 fighter-sorcerer: Paengo Closecutter
1 ranger-priest: Talonias the Thrower
1 thief: Laeu the Lifter
1 sorcerer: Drachmar the Dark
You start with 20 experience points to spend on skills. At the outset, knowing which skills to prize and which are completely useless is difficult. Since there are separate skills for each weapon type, it makes sense to have each character specialize in only one weapon, or perhaps two if you want to fight a lot of tactical combat and switch between melee and missile weapons. (I basically ignored missile weapons for my playthrough.) The game is frank that "Hunt" isn't used in Wizard's Crown, but it doesn't bother to tell you that neither is "Track" or "Treat Disease." I don't think I ever found more than two traps for "Disarm Trap." I was never quite sure what "Combat Awareness" was doing for me. "Shield" seems like an important skill, but later you find that the best weapons are two-handed. And while I understood the uses of "Scan," "Stealth," and "Alchemy" in tactical combat, I was never sure if they made a difference in quick combat.
One of about 5 places were "Read Ancient Writings" is important.
The game starts off easy enough as you try to clear the town itself. There is one side-quest involving rescuing a maiden from some brigands, after which you can visit her family mansion and get some gold and a broadsword +2. Wandering around the town at night continues to provide battles against brigands and thieves for a while, but eventually you clear all of them and get a gold reward from the mayor. From then on, the town is safe to wander around in, and you only have to enter the small wilderness north of town or the ruins south of town to find enemies to fight.
The town offers a temple, an inn, a tavern, and various shops.
From my experience 7 years ago with the DOS version, I remember an extremely sharp difficulty curve once the characters leave town and start exploring the ruins. It was so hard, in fact, that I stopped playing. I was sick of having to reload after 5 out of 6 combats. I didn't encounter that at all with the Apple II version, making me wonder what the difference is.
The game is quite small geographically. The ruins south of town (about 60 x 90 squares) hold exactly three "dungeons": the old thieves' guild, Gozaroth's Mansion, and Tarmon's castle, which are two, three, and six levels respectively. There's also a "dungeon" of sorts inside the city--the Rusty Nail tavern--but there isn't much to do there unless you want to attack people for no reason. If you just explored the dungeons and hit the quest points, you could complete the game in only a few hours.
Approaching Tarmon's Palace in the outdoor ruins.
But the dungeons--particularly the final one--hold nigh-impossible combats that you have to prepare for, which means a lot of grinding. I'd say that at least 80% of the game is grinding. You spend it running back and forth within the ruins, fighting monsters, gaining experience, collecting gold and items, and returning to town to sell your loot and improve your characters. I spread this process out over several months or I would have gone crazy. Every time I thought my characters were pretty damned powerful, I'd head into the ruins, which get more difficult the further south you travel, and get slaughtered by half a dozen gargoyles or a couple of ancient vampires, and realize I still had a long way to go.
My party, who I thought was powerful, meets a group of dragons who show them what "powerful" is.
Given that grinding is so vital to the game, at least it grinds very well. Character development is constant and rewarding. Every battle imparts a dozen or so experience points that you spend directly on your skills--no need to wait for "leveling" as in most RPGs. If you can save 100 of them, you can increase strength, dexterity, or life points by 1. When I first started the game, I thought I'd never even get my primary skills to their maximums, let alone save enough experience to increase attributes. I was wrong about that. By the end of the game, everyone had hit 250 in their primary weapons, 250 in their spellcasting abilities, even 250 in tertiary skills like "luck," and a couple of them hit the dexterity maximum of 30.
Looting items after a battle. A strong "Evaluate Magic" skill helps identify the important stuff.
The equipment and economy systems also play a vital role in character development. You can't buy most of the best equipment: you have to loot it from slain high-level enemies. Magic armor starts at +1 and goes to +5 and occasionally comes in rare "elven," "dwarven," or "reinforcing" varieties. There are also necklaces, bracelets, crowns, rings, and cloaks at various "+" levels that impart various types of protection. Magic weapons come in three varieties: those that have a "+" (up to +5), those that do extra magic damage (proceeding in order through magic, frost, flaming, lightning, and storm), and those with a draining effect (dark, doom, soul, demon, and death). There's even a rank of non-magic but still-cool weapons that goes fine, very fine, sharp, very sharp. And any item can have some extra random enchantment on it that raises a skill or offers special protection. Almost every expedition brought me a new and useful piece of equipment.
A "flaming" weapon does a lot of magic damage in addition to its normal thrusting damage.
Meanwhile, the economy remains relevant throughout the game for two reasons. (Most of your money comes from sale of looted magic items, and the "Haggling" skill is vital.) First, you can spend money on training skills, up to 100. It's a good way to build lesser-used skills to a minimum baseline. More important, a series of mages' shops will increase the level of your magic gear for 50 gold pieces. This will, for example, take your +3 mace to a +4, or increase your flaming sword to a lightning sword. 50 gold pieces is about as much as you can raise in one day of fighting and looting from random enemies, and with so many inventory slots for 8 characters, you really never run out of things to improve.
50 gold pieces turns a +1 great axe into a +2 great axe.
Still, it gets pretty boring after a while, and I'm glad I spread out the gameplay. If I had played this in my normal sequence, instead of over a few months getting ready for this entry, you would have had a succession of about 14 entries describing how I had done a bunch of grinding, improved my characters a little more, and found a chain mail +3. Most of the 40 hours it took me to win the game involved the same sequence of activity: leave the inn for the ruins; wander around fighting random combats and picking up treasures until my priests' karma was all gone or until my inventory slots were full; return to town and visit the temple to restore karma and get everyone healed; visit the tavern to restore morale; equip new items and sell excess items in the market; visit the magic shop and increase the "+" of one or two items; return to the inn, spend my experience, and rest.
The tactical combat system is both a highlight and key problem with Wizard's Crown. Given all the fighting that you have to do, only an utter lunatic would fight every combat on the tactical screen. Even fairly ordinary battles against half a dozen enemies can easily take 20-30 minutes. I would say that a true master of the tactical combat system is more likely to succeed in a given combat than someone using "quick combat"; among other things, you have to use tactical combat if you want to cast particular spells, use potions, swap weapons, or change fighting styles.
However, the edge offered by tactical combat isn't that high. In the time it takes to fight one battle, you could reload and try "quick combat" about 20 times. Given that, it's hard to justify spending the time on tactical combat unless you just really like it. These same considerations govern Roadwar 2000, released the following year.
Tactical combat outdoors. It's tough to keep all the icons straight.
I'm quite curious what's happening behind that "quick combat" screen. I assume it's not simulating the terrain on the tactical map. I have no idea if it really simulates casting spells or just uses your magic ability as a force multiplier. Similarly, I have no idea if it ever simulates actions like "Fall Prone" or "Shield Bash" or sneaking. It does seem to make effective use of skills like "Turn Undead," but it never has priests heal injured characters. As noted before, it never changes weapons or attack styles even if the defaults are ineffective.
"Quick combat" gives you the results much faster.
It would have been nice to have more defaults and quick-key options. Every time you leave camp, for instance (which includes after every battle), you have to specify who takes point and how far away from the party he'll scout. It's almost enraging that you can't just set this as a default. Post-combat healing could also have really benefited from a Gold Box-style "Fix" command.
Post-combat healing. The game uses a complex system of basic and severe bleeding and injuries, in addition to hit points, with a variety of priest "prayers" that cure different conditions.
I never got used to the movement system, which has you press "1" to go north, "2" for northeast, "3" for east, and so on. I realize the Apple II didn't have a keypad or a full set of arrow keys, so there weren't necessarily any better options. It still sucks.
The movement system becomes more of a problem when characters enter dungeons and become individual icons. You can set each character to act independently or to follow a lead character. But "follow" means "crowd around" more than literally "follow," and I found when I tried to move the party en masse, the active character would routinely get blocked and everyone got hopelessly hung up on corners and in narrow corridors.
Half my party failed to round the corner and ended up getting stuck in the water. Meanwhile, when my thief wants to turn around and head back, he's going to have to get those two fighters out of the way first.
The temptation, then, is to leave everyone behind and just roam around with a single active character. But I found that no one character had all the skills I needed. My thief, with his "search" capabilities, was the obvious choice, but inevitably he'd run into a lock he couldn't pick, and I'd have to call up a sorcerer to cast "Unlock" or to make sense of some ancient writing.
Keeping the party split also makes tactical combat nearly impossible, since everyone starts at his or her actual position in the dungeon level. "Quick combat" seems to assume the party is all together when combat begins, although I was never 100% sure about that.
Tactical combat is tough in a dungeon if one character has been doing all the scouting. Most of my party is trapped in an earlier hallway.
One interesting thing about dungeon exploration is that it all occurs on Disk 2, and the game saves your progress there, yet you can only save the party on Disk 1. The odd result is that you might trigger an encounter on Disk 2, lose, reload from Disk 1, and find the encounter not present when you return to the same area. This is positive if the encounter was a difficult battle you didn't want to fight, but it's negative if you were supposed to get an item or a piece of intelligence. Fortunately, the game's main screen allows you to "reset" a dungeon level. This could be abused to reclaim a nice piece of treasure again and again, except that I never found treasure in dungeons that was notably better than the random stuff I got outside.
The dungeon levels tend to be small and easy to explore without mapping. They have frequent textual descriptions of rooms and textual encounters, possibly inspired by SSI's own experiences with Phantasie.
The game mimics a tabletop session with detailed room descriptions as you enter.
A variety of hints, including some ramblings of an old man in a party and/or an encounter with the thieves' guild master, leads the party first to the old thieves' guild. The dungeon is two levels--you have to use a rope to climb from one to the other--and there isn't much to do there except to find an Emerald Key that you need for the rest of the game. You also find a clue where to find a secret area in the next dungeon.
This thief searches a lot more thoroughly than I would.
Gozaroth's Mansion is opened with the Emerald Key and consists of two regular levels and one small one. You follow clues overheard from ghosts to find the three pieces of the Golem Staff, which I carried for the rest of the game but never found out what it did. Ultimately you find the undead Gozaroth, who tells you the password needed to enter Tarmon's Palace (ROBIN) in exchange for one of your priests praying to release his soul.
Meeting Gozaroth in his library.
Tarmon's Palace is six levels and extraordinarily difficult. I kept thinking I was strong enough to make it this time, only to die repeatedly at one of the mandatory combats with various types of demons. It has one type of enemy--"wardpact demons"--who are immune to all but one attack type (bash, cut, and thrust), determined at random for each group. "Quick combat" doesn't cycle these options, so you have to fight them in tactical combat to survive them.
A typical message in Tarmon's fortress.
Level 3 of the palace has a maze of invisible walls and traps, but you can find a map to navigate it on Level 1.
A map helps you figure out where it's safe to walk on an otherwise-blank screen.
Level 4 has a central room with doors in each cardinal direction. Various combinations of opening and closing these doors allow you to progress through the level; fortunately, there's a code key on a pillar on the previous level, but it takes a while to interpret what it's telling you.
The level also has a key textual encounter with the mummy of Melos the Seer, who magically recorded his voice as he died, to be replayed when someone opened the door. He warned me that attacking Tarmon with any magical weapon would result in that weapon being destroyed, and he suggested that I find non-magic versions of my favorite weapons to use against him. (Fortunately, regular weapons drop frequently from most combats.) He also gave me the password (DORVAL) to the demon who guards the Wizard's Crown, and he told me that I could find it in a secret compartment on the floor of Tarmon's laboratory.
The game doesn't have a lot of text, but it occasionally goes overboard.
Level 5 looks like a maze, and I spent an embarrassingly long time running into dead ends before I realized that you can just walk over the ruined walls. It culminates in a huge battle against demons that I kept failing, resulting in yet another few hours spent on grinding.
Level 6 starts with another huge demon battle, followed by a stream that fully heals the party, followed by a block-and-tackle puzzle where you need at least 150 feet of rope (three individual items) to open a secret door. I must have traipsed back and forth between the entrance to the palace and this level 15 times, at first because I couldn't defeat the demons and needed to go back and grind, and then because I had to get more rope.
At least Tarmon doesn't pretend that we "fell into his trap" or something.
Beyond this door is the big fight with Tarmon and a host of demons. First, Tarmon gives you the opportunity to join him, but if you do, he just immediately poisons you.
You know, I think my characters would have been smarter than to drink that wine.
I figured I'd need to fight the battle tactically, since I'd want my magic weapons to kill the demons and my non-magic ones to attack Tarmon. But I couldn't do it. I spent over two hours on a couple of tactical battles that ended in full-party death.
I aim a "Fireball" at a pack of demons in one of my ill-fated attempts to win the battle tactically.
On a lark, I tried "quick combat," and I won on the first try, albeit with 2/3 of my characters' magic weapons destroyed and most of the characters dead. I assume what happened was that my characters broke their weapons against Tarmon and ended up killing him with their fists.
I was able to raise and heal everyone but I hardly had any karma (priest spell points) left when I was finished. I retrieved the Crown from the next room and had my sorcerer wear it (it has some pretty good stats), and began the long process of retracing my steps through the fortress and to the exit.
My thief finds the crown.
All was fine until I reached the entryway on Level 1, and demons burst out of statues and attacked. Although I was victorious, I didn't have enough karma left to heal everyone. I had to use bandages and my ranger's "First Aid" skill just to stop the bleeding (if you leave camp with characters still bleeding, they automatically die). I hoped my party would be unmolested returning to town.
This was not a nice surprise.
Ha. In fact, once you have the wizard's crown in your possession, there's about a 50/50 chance of a random combat every step through the ruins. I didn't stand a chance. I ultimately had to adopt the strategy of saving with every step that didn't result in a combat and reloading when it did. I eventually made my way to a temple about 40 steps away. (Resting at temples restores karma points to priests.) There, I was able to get everyone healed and mince my way through vampires, dragons, skeletons, demons, hell hounds, goblins, scorpions, bandits, giant spiders, adventurers, and so forth to the exit.
Upon reaching the end, I got a series of screens imparting the following in text only:
As you walk through the gate, Kaitar meets you with a wide smile and watery eyes. He speaks to you with eloquent pride: "You have fared well, mighty adventurers. You have returned with the treasure we have so long awaited."
Kaitar turns and shouts to the air. "Behold! The crown has returned, bought through the skill and courage of these adventurers!" From nowhere, the wizards of the fellowship appear and gather in a circle about Kaitar. The crystal in the crown glows brightly. "These gallant souls have rescued the crown from evil and chaos. Its power will once again guide the fellowship in wisdom and truth. Such a gift cannot be matched, but we must attempt to show our gratitude to these honored friends. Therefore, let us join hands and cast the enchantment of champions!"
With that, the wizards form a circle around your party. As they link hands, they begin to chant. The light from the crown pulses with the rhythm. Almost, you can understand the words. Visions of great deeds fill your mind and you see yourself performing these deeds. A sense of power comes to you. Nothing can stop you! Finally the chant stops and the visions fade...but the sense of power remains.
Kaitar takes the crown from you and gently, slowly places it on his head. As he rejoins the circle, he looks at you and says, "I see many more adventures for you and your companions. For myself and the fellowship, we thank you once more. Now we must begin the rebuilding of Arghan."
Once more, the fellowship begins to chant. Slowly, the circle fades. The last thing seen is the crown of the emperor, then all is gone. You and your friends turn and enter the inn.
The "enchantment of champions" raised everyone's strength and dexterity by 6 and life by 30. The game saved the party for use with The Eternal Dagger and allowed me to continue playing. I feel like the party members are so overpowered at this point that I can only expect that the sequel will find a way to take them down a notch.
You don't have many screens in the typical RPG where the developers speak directly to the players.
In 2010, not having played much beyond the town, I gave it a GIMLET of 32. Let's see how it does today:
3 points for the game world. The setup is decent enough and the world, though small, shows an internal consistency. There just isn't much in it.
6 points for character creation and development. This is clearly the high point of the game. The game gives you a lot of leeway with party composition and the way you develop their skills and abilities.
2 points for NPC interaction. There are only a handful of them, and they're more "encounters" than NPCs, but they do tell you important things about the game world.
An old man who tells hint-filled stories in the park sort-of serves as an NPC.
4 points for encounters and foes. The game's bestiary is just D&D standard, but it still does a good job with their special attacks and defenses. One of my criteria here is "areas respawn," allowing for grinding, and that's certainly true. Unfortunately, there are only a couple of puzzles and no role-playing encounters.
5 points for magic and combat. Wizard's Crown errs on the side of making tactical combat too complicated, while quick combat is mostly just boring. The spell list isn't very long or impressive, with almost nothing except light spells and "Unlock" useful out of combat.
Fighting tactical combat as rarely as I did, I didn't really explore the nuances of all these spells.
6 points for equipment. With so many characters and so many different options per character (weapons, shields, armor, headgear, bracelets, necklaces, cloaks, potions), you're constantly finding item upgrades. The best stuff is randomly distributed, and you can pay to improve it.
My fighter's equipment list towards the end of the game.
6 points for economy. It's not very complicated, but there's an extraordinarily useful money sink.
3 points for the quest. There's one main quest and a quasi-side quest early in the game. No options or role-playing choices, though.
An early "side quest." It's too bad there aren't more of these.
1 point for graphics, sound, and interface. Easily the lowest point of the game. They didn't even try on graphics--no title screen graphic, no winning graphic, and bland icons and environments along the way. The Apple II version doesn't even have sound. And I covered issues with the interface above. (The Atari ST version, released in 1987, does have a title graphic, better iconography, and some in-game sound effects and would get another 2 points here.)
2 points for gameplay. Despite its strengths, in the end the game is a bit too long, too linear, and too hard, requiring far too much grinding. I should add, though, that I didn't experiment with the difficulty slider on the main screen. Perhaps "4" or "5" would have produced a shorter, less grindy game.
This gives us a final score of 38, 6 points higher than I rated it in 2010. This feels better. It still ranks lower than Phantasie, which it should, but a notch above The Bard's Tale. It would be a nominee for "Game of the Year," but this was the same year as Ultima IV, so it didn't really stand a chance there. I did, however, correct a longstanding deficiency by adding Wizard's Crown to my "must play" list. You absolutely need to experience this game to understand the SSI games that followed, including the Gold Box series.
An early promotion advertises Wizard's Crown next to Rings of Zilfin (1986). The two games couldn't be more different in their approaches to role-playing, character development, and combat.
Scorpia's review from the September-October 1986 Computer Gaming World concludes that it is "recommended, although a little less hack and a little more puzzle would have been better." She also notes the lack of meaningful NPC interaction, and she has some of the same comments that I do about tactical combat versus "quick combat." Still, I was surprised that she didn't make more of the sheer complexity of the tactical combat; then again, she does mention the earlier Galactic Adventures (1983), and perhaps she was more versed than I am in the strategy side of SSI's portfolio.
The August 1986 Compute! called Wizard's Crown "the most unusual fantasy game to hit the market in some time," and warned that it was much more difficult than SSI's other offerings, coming "very close in flavor to the actual Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game." You couldn't imagine a better review for SSI to have in hand when, hoping to acquire the license to design D&D games, they pitched themselves to TSR the following year.
Resting at the inn, my party prepares to enter the sequel.
I'm glad to finally convert this to a "Y" in the "Won?" column, but I mostly did all this to set the stage for the sequel, The Eternal Dagger, which I understand plays mostly the same but keeps the party to one icon, even in dungeons. I was going to jump right to it, but I probably need a few days off from this kind of gameplay, so let's get started on MegaTraveller II first.
Further reading: Read about the titles directly influenced by Wizard's Crown, including Shard of Spring (1986), Roadwar 2000 (1986), Pool of Radiance (1988; the first Gold Box game), Disciples of Steel (1991), and of course its own sequel, The Eternal Dagger (1987).
Labels: Wizard's Crown
Mag Wielki i Szelki July 28, 2017 at 2:54 AM
Great entry and great game it seems. It looks very advanced for its time I think.
Also I like this "twist" in room description that goes "You open the door on a huge room, empty except for a horde of demons". Yeah, the plains were empty except for an emperors army, one million strong.
Dave July 28, 2017 at 4:07 AM
The game seems cool, not much to look at graphically, but it´s got the real deal manner of a true rpg.
Commentman July 28, 2017 at 8:05 AM
IIRC MegaTraveller II is the one where you have to stop alien slime from covering an entire planet or something? Maybe it's better than MegaTraveller I...
Tristan Gall July 28, 2017 at 9:50 AM
The backstory is cribbed from the 'Steve Jackson's Sorcery' gamebooks, published a couple years prior.
I think this game demonstrates some of the consequences of placing deep tactical battle systems within the context of an RPGs. Such battles take a long time and are only interesting when there's a reasonable chance that you might win or lose. In a fight you're certain to win, the depth of the combat system is irrelevant. All the added complexity does is slow things down. I think this is part of the reason strategy games and RPGs have remained quite distinct genres. Lengthy tactical combat demands curated encounters, trying to combine it with grinding and/or highly varying party power levels just doesn't really work.
Coffeedragon July 28, 2017 at 11:26 AM
Lenghty, complex tactical combat doesn´t even go well with a 4X, for that very reason. Most tactical encounters in a 4X will be either too easy or impossible. That´s why early great 4X like Empire Deluxe (New World Computing, 1993) had intentionally very limited tactical complexity.
A truely tactical game must really be an in-depth treatment of individual engagements -Kampfgruppe (SSI, 1985) and Battles of Napoleon (SSI, 1988) are probably the best examples for the 80s!
David Ainsworth July 29, 2017 at 12:04 AM
The Wizard's Crown solution was either punishing increases in difficulty, or the standard attrition approach, where individual combats cost resources that make future fights increasingly dangerous. The main mechanism was the wound and bleeding system, which could turn fatal rapidly if your priests ran out of karma.
In practice, that merely extends the grind.
The combat system is sufficiently deadly in certain circumstances, though, as a lucky hit can drop even a skilled and well-equipped warrior. Naturally, that's only going to show itself if you're fighting all the combats in the tactical system and not in quick combat.
CRPG Addict July 29, 2017 at 2:30 AM
"The backstory is cribbed from the 'Steve Jackson's Sorcery' gamebooks, published a couple years prior." Thanks for pointing that out. It's almost pathetic that the developers couldn't come up with something original.
GregT July 30, 2017 at 8:02 PM
The backstory as you describe it doesn't sound close enough to Sorcery to be an obvious lift, although there might be aspects you're not covering. For me it called to mind more 1984's Lords of Midnight, although there you're trying to destroy the crown rather than recover it, in an obvious pastiche of Lord of the Rings.
Speaking of which I'm eternally sad Lords of Midnight fell outside the scope of your project...
AdvancedHero July 28, 2017 at 11:18 AM
Very interesting read. Seems actually quite involved for a 1985 game; if you're a fan of tactical simulation RPGs I can see this being quite fun.
Also, there is a typo at the end of paragraph 4 I believe. "attach" instead of attack?
PetrusOctavianus July 28, 2017 at 11:48 AM
Congratulations on another notch on your desktop.
I completed the town part of this game myself, but the rest was just too frustrating.
Just about every second step in the ruins you face armies of enemies, and with the Atari 8 bit version that I played I couldn't be sure which way enemies were facing, nor keep track of them all.
The combat system was just too complex for its own good, and it's highly ironic that the "best" way to play the game is to use Quick Combat, which I think is a design flaw.
To me Nahlakh (1994) was the game that did Wizard's Crown right, and with Disciples of Steel these two low budget/indie games are IMO better than 99% of all AAA CRPGs. But then the last thing I play CRPGs for is "for the story".
Mag Wielki i Szelki July 28, 2017 at 12:32 PM
Of COURSE it is not for the story, it is always for gold and glory! :)
PetrusOctavianus July 28, 2017 at 4:23 PM
Too many gamers these days seem to be people who never read books, but play video games "for the story".
And the result is too many games that are more like interactive movies than games.
For facing, you needed to cursor over the enemy in question and see which numbers on the compass were highlighted (visible in the outdoor combat picture above, with the highlights indicating a South facing for the character). Both graphics and interfaces would soon get much better, though.
It is remarkable that Wizard's Crown managed complex combats with only 48K of memory to work with.
I don't know why it has to be either/or. We have plenty of examples of games that offer great stories AND great gameplay.
It sounds like: "If more people had similar preferences to mine, more products would be targeted at people like me". Which is certainly a true statement.
I don't think that video game production is zero sum though - The fact that Telltale games do well doesn't mean there will be less tactics-heavy RPGs or strategy games.
PetrusOctavianus July 29, 2017 at 5:01 AM
"We have plenty of examples of games that offer great stories AND great gameplay."
Which ones?
The only one I can think of is Betrayal at Krondor and Planescape: Torment.
Mostly the "stories" in games are cringeworthy, and if you want a good story your time can be better spent watching a movie or (heaven forbid) read a book.
GamerAIm July 29, 2017 at 8:02 AM
For the sake of pointless argument: Fallout, Mass Effect, Baldur's Gate, Army of Two TFD, Spec Ops: The Line, Morrowind, KOTOR, and probably others.
I agree that lots games these days, and days before, aren't targeted at me, nor are most written with great stories, or even stories that work as well within a game as they could. Though you couldn't argue most novels or films (old or new) are masterpieces either.
It sounds like another case of "most games don't exist as an intersection between two of my personal tastes, therefore they are invalid due to my personal taste or lack of exposure to many games." It's like a variant of the No True Scottsman, IMO.
Sloth July 29, 2017 at 8:24 AM
If the story for Betrayal at Krondor was the same as the novelization I would not include that as a good let alone great story.
As far as stories in games just off the top for non-RPG's I can think of the Bioshock games and Red Dead Redemption as having very good and immersive main stories and decent game play. As far as RPG's, again off the top of my head, The Witcher series and Undertale both have very good stories and gameplay.
There are so many games being made, AAA and indie, with so much focus on story that there is no way that stories in games were better 30 years ago. Planescape Torment was great, no doubt, but without rose colored glasses the entire games landscape is much better today when it comes to quality stories and gameplay coming together.
Prior to playing BaK I read the four Riftwar books by Raymond Feist and found them to be juvenile/entry level fantasy. I liked the first book - Magician - as a kid but 20 years later I found it rather trite. I was very pleasantly surprised by the game, though. I found the writing by Neal Halford to be more mature and superior to that of Feist, and it integrated very well with the game, a game that even managed to have excellent game mechanics and a semi-open world. Truly a unique game. Feist did the novelization of the game, BTW.
And as you say the stories of todays games are better than of those 30 years ago. But that's because the focus is too much on story IMO. But a good movie or book is still far superior to your average game story IMO, and better mediums and sources for good stories than games are.
Joet88 July 29, 2017 at 9:05 PM
Video games simply tell stories in a way that's different than in a book or movie. Doesn't make them better or worse. Fallout is a great game because of the unique way it tells its story- if you took a transcript of it and compared it to Stephen King it obviously wouldn't hold up. And when people try to translate Stephen King novels into movies, more often than not they don't work very well, because part of what makes his books so entertaining is his style of writing. It's not Books>Movies>Games. The best video game story is going to be better than the worst story in a novel- the medium doesn't affect the quality, it's the people writing it, and video games are doing pretty well considering they've only been around for about 50 years, and are much more technically complicated and difficult to produce than a novel or even a film.
Although I don't know how interested y'all are in games outside the RPG genre, I was blown away by the storytelling and characters in The Last of Us. I'm personally more interested in RPG's b/c they play less like movies, are a little more unique of an experience, but Last of Us is just really engaging. Fun too!
Arthegall July 30, 2017 at 5:35 AM
Story has always been a critical aspect of my enjoyment of video games, but by "story" I don't mean "fully-fledged narrative", I mean "consistent narrative context in which I can inhabit a role I like."
Sid Meier's Pirates! (Mac version, 1987) is still one of the best examples for me of a "role-playing game" that allowed me to play a role in an imaginatively fulfilling way and in a manner that would have been nigh impossible without a computer. And there's hardly any "story" at all.
But some games have done a fantastic job for me of telling a compelling story through the medium of compelling gameplay.
Bungie's pre-cursor to Halo, Marathon (Mac original, 1994) blew my mind in how it told the story. You're a lone security officer whose station has been overrun by aliens, and your only source of information is computer terminals at which you periodically receive updates and instructions from the station's (competing) AIs. Fragging aliens in an FPS was new and mesmerizing, but those terminals are what made the game amazing and forever ruined for me less articulate shooters like Castle Wolfenstein and Doom.
Fallout 3 is the best Bethesda game in my opinion in that regard. The loneliness of the FPS gameplay makes sense in that context. In the Elder Scrolls series, I've always been disappointed by the emptiness of the towns and cities. I want the interactions of the Elder Scrolls with the quantity and urban character of Assassin's Creed II. Fallout 4 just had me asking, "If I can build these cool bases, why isn't the world fixed already? It's been 200 years since the war."
But for me the single greatest example of a CRPG that fused perfect gameplay with a compelling story was the original Deus Ex. Despite the thousands of hours I've sunk into World of Warcraft, Deus Ex remains the best game I've ever played.
Sam July 30, 2017 at 10:12 AM
There are certainly differences. Video games (at least CRPGs and adventure games) must, at least to some degree, have a "choose your own adventure" aspect to it lest they be critiqued as too linear. Books do not have this restriction--they can focus on telling one storyline extremely well (other than books like Choose Your Own Adventure, Zork, Lone Wolf, and the Escape series that deliberately have you flipping pages). Movies likewise do not have this restriction (The movie Clue as an exception but that is the exception not the rule).
So, what makes a story great in a video game? Some depth and multiple paths that affect the outcome? Lots of depth but fairly linear? Lots of depth but multiple paths (and thus a hefty price tag that would leave people screaming it is unreasonable to pay $100 for a game, and a long development)? I suspect if you ask 10 different people, you will get 10 different shades of these dimensions. (The sample here is probably biased toward a balance of gameplay and nonlinearity since that is a lot of how Chet grades...rightfully so in my opinion...and how the articles are written, but if you ask 10 different people in the market to buy video games I suspect some would be fine with a completely linear game with deep story and some would want a completely open game and don't care if it is full of worn tropes with superficial reasons. The hits are when you can go just far enough in both realms to satisfy the widest variety of gamers in the market...or do one of them so exceedingly well as to stand out to that niche.)
PS: Shout-out for the mention of Tex Murphy, my favorite adventure game series! I wish I could find a good argument for Chet to have to play those, but alas I must admit they are adventure games and not CRPGs under his definition. Tex deserves a shout-out mostly due to story, although there is some flexibility in number of paths. I think Mean Streets/Overseer has the best story, Pandora Directive the best gameplay, although I really enjoy Tesla Effect and Under a Killing Moon as well (the latter for being extremely campy even for a Tex game).
Oliver August 2, 2017 at 4:01 PM
A Late entry to an interesting discussion. I would agree that "good Story" in a game for me mostly boils down to: does it work within the context? Does it help me to immerse myself in the experience? Or does the nonsene break the immersion? In the 2000s I went into a bit of hiatus regrading gaming. One of the last big games and the last crpg I played until 2014 was Kotor. I really thought it had a rather childish story and that i was becoming too old for this. Of modern crpgs I played the grand total of 2, perhaps 3 if you count nwn 2 bought on gog this year: FNW and witcher 3. witcher is a fun game but both main story and most side quests do not really touch me. Fallout was excellent and there were several moments I was really moved. The end gave me a lot to think about me and my behavior in the world. Good experience. That was exceptional. But mostly I am totally happy if stories just work within their context like e.g. In bg.
Kenny McCormick August 4, 2017 at 2:53 AM
As much as i like Undertale and to risk being spoilery, it's not an RPG if you don't want it to be. And speaking of Stephen King, The Dark Tower series would make a bitchin' RPG.
Tsudhonimh July 28, 2017 at 11:55 AM
I have fond memories of this game from my childhood, but it is definitely one of those games that plays much better when you have plenty of time on your hands. I think I spent between 80 and 100 hours on the game, but I spent a lot more time doing tactical combat than quick combat, especially in the mid-game when some encounters are much easier in tactical combat, especially golems, which can be quickly dispatched by hitting them with the golem staff. Spells are very important in tactical combat, but in the end, I pretty much used the same spell sequence in most combats: countermagic, fireball, and a few more targeted spells if there were a few big monsters or a nasty caster. The Eternal Dagger is more of the same but with an improved magic system and several continents to explore.
Thanks for clearing up what the golem staff was for! I guess that should have been obvious.
Trukk July 28, 2017 at 12:22 PM
You mentioned Roadwar 2000. That game had a few things going for it in regards to tactical combat:
1) There was a reason to use tactical. When you start out I think you could have a maximum of 3 to 5 cars (can't recall). You would get access to an additional car slot for each tactical combat you completed.
2) It had three levels of comabt: Tactical, Quick (made some decisions about how to fight, but it wasn't turn based tactical), and abstract (which was a one liner type thing: you won/lost, car damage and soldiers lost.) Tactical is fun a few time through, but then gets old. This happens about the same time you have enough car slots. If you are very impatient you can do Abstract, but you are gonna lose a lot of men and cars. Quick is just about perfect.
It would have been nice if they had worked in something between the full tactical combat and the quick you describe, and make it more like the 3 choices detailed above from RW2K. Also, have some sort of "reward" for executing tactical, would have been, well rewarding.
Seems like a interesting game overall though, and fills in how we got to Gold Box.
Tactical combat could give more XP, so always choosing quick combat in the same time wouldn't yield much better results, as seems to be the case if combats are random, i.e. enemies are different each time.
If you weren't aware, I covered RW2000 earlier this year:
http://crpgaddict.blogspot.com/2017/02/game-242-roadwar-2000-1986.html
I agree that the game offered more rationale for tactical combat. Truth be told, I think I liked it better in RW2000 than WC.
Note that The Eternal Dagger was not only released for Atari 8-bit computers, but that both games were originally coded for that system (and IMO have somewhat better graphics).
As someone who completed the game three times (at age range between 12 and 15), including twice with the same party (as it's possible to reset the final dungeon after winning and therefore both return and keep the Crown), I can say that I mostly played for the tactical combats: "grinding" was the point of the game, the content, and the quest was a way to register your victory in that mid-80s bad design sort of way that screws you over multiple times. First you find out you need lots of different types of weapons, then non-magical ones, then hit the difficulty increase once exiting the dungeon.
Wizard's Crown was definitely aimed at players who learned RPGs from the oldest of old-school, the ones which had too many weapons, too many modifiers, too many combat rules and often took a whole session to play out a single fight. Anyone familiar with MERPS, Runequest or even AD&D would probably see the tactical combat as the point: for other RPG elements you couldn't turn to computers at all in that era. From the perspective of these systems, the tactical fights aren't that complex. And those who played lots of SSI wargames would have already been forced to get used to the 1-8 cursor movement as that was standard in their games.
I rarely used quick combat unless a fight was dead easy, because I couldn't tolerate the level of wounds produced through doing that. I admit to doing most of my actual grinding on the second screen below the gate to the ruins, near the temple there: at night, you typically encounter tough undead groups but with several good priests you can destroy the majority of enemies via turning. A short run to the temple to restore and you're ready to fight again until daylight and you can return to cash out your loot.
Because tactical combat is the point of the game, slow and careful positioning was key, especially in dungeon exploration (which typically meant moving each member of the party individually a few squares at a time: not fun). Setting up a front line with spear-users or missile weapons backing them up mattered; being able to deal with shield users was often key. Bows and crossbows allowed you to weaken or even kill enemies on the approach; your front line then switched to weapons while the rear continued missile weapons. IIRC, sharp weapons and the various life drainers or element weapons were best for the missile attacks, as even a parried bolt from such a weapon would still apply its drain or element damage and weakened enemies would often get cut down by a guarding front-line fighter before getting to attack.
I believe it was possible to drastically reduce the encounter frequency on a given screen by having lots of battles there: by endgame, the first screen of the ruins typically entailed no encounters at all for my groups. As you found, the later screens are too dangerous to be practically cleared before you win.
Post-game content included fights outside the walls of the ruins (one screen left or right from the entrance and then outside the outer ruin wall) against other high-powered adventuring bands as tough or tougher than your characters. Fighting adventurers earlier (easiest found on the road north of town at night) was often the best way to get really good equipment.
Perhaps because (understandably) you skipped much of the tactical combats, you missed some of the depths of the items and spells. Priest spells in-combat aren't very significant beyond Turn Undead, but IIRC you could substantially improve survival by Blessing the characters multiple times. Sorcerers and items able to case sorcerer spells were vitally important, allowing you to see enemies at night, revealing invisible foes, creating protections, anchoring your battle line with created terrain and blasting foes with lightning and life drain as well as fireballs. Life drain, especially late game, was amazing as the sorcerer would gain life from casting it and could sometimes solo a fight after draining enough.
Definitely a game of its time and best aimed at either younger min/maxers or grognards. Today, I can still enjoy a game of Phantasie or Ultima IV but almost certainly wouldn't be willing to assay Wizard's Crown again.
Thanks, David, for a fantastic pair of comments that offers a supplementary take on the game. I admit that I'm liable to miss a lot of nuances in doing things "the long way" when a game offers shortcuts; it's an unavoidable byproduct of this project and its long, long list.
Still, even if WC was my only game, I'm not sure I'd spend that much time on tactical combat--which leads me to reevaluate my overall preferences. I've been saying that I like tactical combat for 7 years, but in reality I guess I don't like it much more complicated than the Gold Box games.
Oliver August 5, 2017 at 10:34 AM
@David: True, MERPs was hardcore and we could spent whole evenings just with one or tavern brawl. But wasn't it already a dumbed down version of an even more complex system. Overall games like wc really try to simulate a pen & paper session of that era....
Trypticon July 29, 2017 at 8:02 AM
Re: 1985 or 1986. The evidence is stronger for the latter.
The Wikipedia entry uses Matt Barton's article as a source, but after checking it I can't see why this should be more credible than Jimmy Maher's, the source that is cited for the precise sales figure (47,676. Maher gives February 1986 as a date and has access to internal SSI documents.
1986 is consistent with the game scans you find over at mocagh.org - the Apple II disk has a 1986 copyright, the spring 1986 SSI catalog lists the game as "available now" and announces the C64 version for April.
Finally, here's a quote from the Computer Entertainer newsletter, March 1986 issue:
"Strategic Simulations, long known for excellent wargames, is out to make a name for itself in fantasy gaming, too. Brand-new
titles for 1986 include WIZARD'S CROWN, RINGS OF
ZILFIN, and PHANTASIE II (all for Apple and C64)".
Rangerous the Second August 1, 2017 at 12:10 AM
Another great review inspires my own toe-dip in the water. I chose the Atari ST version, which seems very similar but with one very nice exception: the numeric keypad directions really work as expected!
Tristan Gall August 1, 2017 at 4:19 AM
I think you want a handful of important decisions per combat, and a minimum of unimportant decisions. For instance, if correct combat 'facing' is obvious 95 times out of 100, then it doesn't warrant inclusion in a system, given the extra clicks required.
Most rogue likes do this well. Mostly, all you do is move in one of 9 directions, but each move is very important against dangerous things, and combat is over very quickly against irrelevant things.
Adam August 1, 2017 at 2:32 PM
I am trying to play through but the emerald key is missing from every copy I have found. Does anyone have a complete copy?
Rangerous August 22, 2017 at 9:25 PM
The Atari ST version, running under STEEM emulator (steem.atari.st), worked for me. At the opening screen, I reset the old thieves guild level 2, and the emerald key was there.
On any version, when you first boot the game, you quickly see an introductory screen that offers 5 choices:
(S)OUND: ON / OFF
PLAY (D)IFFICULTY 1 2 3 4 5
(C)REATE DISK FOR PLAY
(R)ESET DUNGEON LEVEL
(P)LAY THE GAME
If you select (R)ESET DUNGEON LEVEL, on the ST anyway, you're invited to a disk swapping exercise that sets the selected dungeon to like-new condition. Selecting:
C) OLD THIEVE'S GUILD 2ND LEVEL
and swapping disks as directed restores the emerald key to it's rightful place. Even if you are carrying an emerald key (from before the dungeon restore), you'll still find one in the fifth cell.
Rangerous the Second August 12, 2017 at 3:24 AM
The game commingles items which are worn or wielded, and items which are otherwise carried. Even the marketplace makes no distinction, beyond a label, for worn or wielded items. This is important because you won't succeed in this game unless you sell scavenged items. This must happen hundreds or thousands of times in a game, which "programs" you into a kind of mind-numbed autopilot mode in the marketplace.
One slip of the keys and you've accidentally sold a unique and very precious piece of kit, which you were wearing.
It sure would have been nice if the designers had foreseen this and thrown in a last-ditch "Do you really want to take that item off of your body and sell it?" only for those items that are currently worn.
As you noted in The Eternal Dagger, it sure would be nice to have a "heal all" option. Similarly, in the marketplace, it would have been nice if each character had a special sack or container to store all items they wished to sell, then have a "sell all" option in the marketplace.
Some complexity is interesting, but extensive repetition is just boring. After you've accidentally sold that irreplaceable heirloom, you try to muster up the strength to pay more attention through the mind-numbing parts.
Rangerous the Second August 23, 2017 at 7:45 PM
It's very obvious, and somewhat dismaying, that different teams programmed the town/outdoor portions vs the dungeon/indoor portions. I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, so it adds a bit of a cognitive burden to use different keys for the same actions indoors and outdoors. (E)xamine vs (S)earch is my most frequent wrong key. (press--press--press hmm why doesn't the doggone thing work?!!)
Nate August 26, 2017 at 10:54 AM
It's rather hilarious to me that your heroes achieved victory by the expedient of delivering a savage mob-beating to the villain with their bare hands, rather than artful wizardry or finesse with weaponry. Somehow an appropriate follow up to Conan.
Davy White September 5, 2017 at 1:03 AM
I just started playing Wizard's Crown and while searching for a copy of the manual and tips came across this site. What a fantastic undertaking.
I'm having a lot of old-school nostalgia and always wanted to play the game after reading the review in a Dragon magazine back in the eighties. I did finish Pools of Radiance when it came out and can certainly see the influence. That said I'm finding this game a bit of a blast and playing it mostly for the tactical combats, almost like sessions of Final Fantasy Tactics but because the story is so stripped down I've been able really create some personalities for my little pixel warriors.
A few things things I'm appreciating, at least right now are:
Injuries - non HP wounds that make skill checks harder. I like that there are some other nuances to watch rather than a straight up >0 perfect health. <0 Dead (or unconscious)
The bleeding rules are an added bonus but not a new, especially for a game of this era.
Morale - again, neat to see this have any sort of reference in a game from this time.
Thanks for the awesome blog and what a great community. Cheers all!
CCG_Cncfreak July 19, 2019 at 3:30 PM
SOO glad you went back and replayed the game. With 3000+ games in my personal collection, this is still my favorite game of all time. The first RPG game I played as a teen and the first i completed.


text:
Q: How to pass array of values from multiselect into jquery ajax call? I'm using jQuery multiSelect and want to pass the selections to my update script.
Here's my ajax call
var newnotesecurity = $("#nt_newnotesecurity").serializeArray();

$.ajax({
  url: 'notes-savenewnote.php',
  method: 'POST',
  data: {
    cache: false,
    companyid: companyid,
    entitytype: entitytype,
    entityid: entityid,
    noteinitials: newnoteinitials,
    notetext: newnotetext,
    notetags: newnotetags,
    notesecurity: newnotesecurity
  },
  success: function() {
    // blah
  },
  error: function(){
    // blah
  }
});

nt_newnotesecurity is the multiselect object.  Obviously serializeArray is not working for me.  It's just my latest attempt to get this working.
I end up passing in this:
notesecurity[0][name]=nt_newnotesecurity&
notesecurity[0][value]=2&
notesecurity[1][name]=nt_newnotesecurity&
notesecurity[1][value]=14

but I'd like to pass in this
nt_newnotesecurity=2&nt_newnotesecurity=14

or I'd be just as content to pass in a single value that I can explode later on, like this
notesecurity=2-14

A: According to the documentation for the multiselect plugin, just calling val() should get you all the values
var newnotesecurity = $("#nt_newnotesecurity").val();

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


At Investment Magazine's Retirement conference, Cooper suggested the flaws in the country's $2.8 trillion superannuation system could be partially fixed by folding the Retirement Income Covenant into the government's still pending Superannuation (Objective) Bill 2016.
"The politicians couldn't agree on wording so it is stuck," he said referring to the Objective Bill as something of "a stranded asset".
"It [The Bill] was a worthwhile exercise that came from the Murray Enquiry which aimed to define the objective of superannuation," added the retirement specialist who reviewed the superannuation system for Canberra in 2009.
Speaking at the conference, Cooper, who is a long-time critic of the nation's accumulation-centric view of the sector, lamented that leadership is not engaged with the retirement income phase.
"The way to quickly move this forward is to put the Retirement Income Covenant into the Purpose of Super Bill," he argued.
Put simply, the trustees have the duty to look after retirees and the covenant would help them understand this responsibility a lot more once the purpose of super is defined.
The industry is also still waiting on legislation relating to the Retirement Income Covenant and comprehensive income products for retirement (CIPR).
Cooper pointed out that just 31 per cent of people retiring now are getting the full aged pension and this percentage is declining.
A further problem according to Cooper is that when the industry talks about retirement income, it is referring to aged pension entitlement and income streams from investments such as rent, dividends and bank interest on deposits.
"We think solely in term of asset allocation and investment income and are not focused on the consumption phase of retirement" he said.
Cooper blames excess dividend franking credits for this mentality calling them the "canary in the coalmine".
For franking credits to mean anything, people need to have between $600,000 and $1.6 million in high dividend yielding equities, he told delegates to the conference.
He finds it odd that people are complaining they are going to miss out on $10,000 worth of accounting income each year when in fact they could spend $10,000 from their capital in perpetuity and never run out of money.
Excess franking credits have become very controversial as Federal Labor has promised to abolish franking credit refunds to non-tax payers in a move that it has predicted will save the budget $11.4 billion over four years.
challenger, CIPRs, Retirement Income Covenant, Superannuation (Objective) Bill 2016.


Molecular mimicry: A variety of microorganisms produce markers (antigens) in the body which are unique to one type of blood group or another. Depending on the blood grouping, these antigens are given different advantages unique to one of the different blood types. In just the same way, these markers can also be a source of trouble in their own right, according to a blood type grouping (i.e. working for or against your body according to your blood type grouping).
Energy source: Bacteria appears to have a preference for certain blood type groupings and consumes blood type antigens as a source for energy. By-products of this may or may not be beneficial to the digestive tract of a particular person (depending on their blood type).
Adhesion: Blood type antigens found in cells and in the mucus of the digestive lining, can be used by microorganisms, attaching themselves to tissues and cells throughout the body. In this way, it is believed that certain infections and conditions are directly linked with specific blood type groups (i.e. your blood type may make your more susceptible to certain conditions and ailments). Symptom ranges may vary, however from mild to severe.
Inappropriate responses: Unexpected immune system responses may be triggered by certain microorganisms and directly relates to individual blood type groups (i.e. responses are different for each group). Infections (viral or bacterial) may affect different blood type groups in an excessive manner (i.e. leading to high levels of inflammation, and compromising the body's response to combatting the infection) or generate additional shock or increased levels of stress.
When it comes to the blood type diet, much of the debate centres around lectins, which are protein compounds in foods that react with the molecules (binding themselves to sugar molecules) in the body.
Dr D'Adamo's theory is that most human blood types evolved as the availability of different foods (i.e. food sources) changed over the course of history. Our ability to digest and metabolise lectins, in particular, changed through time and according to the blood types which developed.
The thinking ties in with the idea that our ancestral blood type is the fundamental factor that determines what we should be eating. The blood type O is labelled as 'the hunter' and is, according to Dr D'Adamo, classified as the oldest of the four main groups. 'The hunter' requires a diet that is rich in protein. Others disagree and feel strongly that Type A was actually the first blood group to evolve in prehistoric human history. Type A's tolerate veggie diets better and are thought to have come about as a blood group with the development of agriculture, which in turn influenced eating habits.
Type B is classified as 'the nomad' and developed when society had a need for increased tolerance for a variety of different food types (when societies began consuming more dairy products). AB blood groups led to the need for combination dietary requirements (i.e. a combination of the requirements of both A and B blood types).
Dr D'Adamo makes the argument that the effect of lectins (chemical reaction) based on foods we eat and our individual blood type groups is inherently part of our genetic make-up. Our digestive and immune systems effectively maintain a 'favouritism' for foodstuffs that our blood group ancestors ate (due to their agglutinating properties).
These proteins act like super glue by attaching themselves to cells in the liver's bile ducts and the mucus linings throughout the body. If you eat food containing lectins that are believed to be incompatible with your blood type (antigens), the protein then targets the bodily systems (organs like your liver, kidneys, stomach and gut).
Interactions with tissues can have a distressing effect on the body (i.e. leading to the development of a health concern or medical condition). Type A individuals could consume a bowl of butter beans (a legume also known as lima beans). The beans would normally digest through an acid hydrolysis process. Lectin proteins are resistant to this process in a type A group and as such, don't effectively digest in the stomach, rather staying intact or with some nutrients being absorbed in the bloodstream. The intact protein then settles somewhere inside the body and becomes something like a magnet for the cells in that area. This causes clumping, which in turn has a negative effect for the area of the body this occurs in. This can lead to conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or cirrhosis of the liver, food allergies or perhaps problems with the kidneys if a blockage of blood flow occurs.
Other signs of a lectin problem in the digestive system can include things such as flatulence or bloating following a meal, bowel habit changes, hormonal fluctuations, skin breakouts, achy joints or muscles, or fatigue.
Dr D'Adamo explains that approximately 95% of the immune system in the human body protects us from lectin proteins, with much of these being absorbed from the food we consume. The remaining 5% filters through the bloodstream and have the aforementioned types of reactions, effectively destroying white and red blood cells.
Lectins, as part of the debate, are seemingly a complex issue, as the nature of these proteins varies widely. It all comes down to their source. Lectins found in wheat are different from those found in soy foodstuffs. Thus, they attach differently to various cells/areas in the body, and by extension will have different effects on the bodies of different blood types. According to the doctor, the effect of this is beneficial to one type group but destructive for another. Hence the need for completely different and structured diet plans. For instance, he suggests that lectins in soy are beneficial for the immune system of a blood type A person, guarding against cellular changes, which would otherwise be problematic in the body for those with other blood groups.
To date, the diet disagreement centres around the notion that lectin reactions in the body are solely responsible for poor health and body disruptions, and are directly related to different blood type groups. Dr D'Adomo takes the stand that type O blood groups are wheat and dairy intolerant and thus have systems that cannot handle these foodstuffs very well, making them more prone to gluten intolerance or suffering wheat allergies.
Counteracting arguments take the stance that the effects are not solely due to blood type groupings alone. Lectins are considered antinutrients and the small percentage that has any agglutinating activity (i.e. elicit the clumping of red blood cells) affects all ABO blood types, not just one specific group. Thus, it is argued that the effects can't be specific to one blood group and not another.
Negative effects are also specifically attached to the consumption of raw legumes, but is argued that this carries little weight as most are hardly ever eaten in this state, and are rather soaked and cooked before being consumed. Thus, any small percentage of lectins are destroyed anyway.
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Home Sports Amelie Mauresmo issues apology for her comments
Amelie Mauresmo issues apology for her comments
Sports Desk
Amelie Mauresmo, the French Open tournament director, has apologized for comments which stated that women's tennis was not as appealing as the men's game.
She also went on to add that her comments were taken out of context.
Mauresmo made the remarks as she answered questions about the scheduling of matches with the men's bracket taking all the night slots except one.
One night match has been on the program of the claycourt Grand Slam every day at 2100 local time (1900GMT) from the first Monday until the quarter-finals.
Nine out of the ten games scheduled as a night session have been men's matches, raising questions about how women have been getting the short end of the stick at major tournaments.
In response to questions about scheduling, Mauresmo said men's matches have more "appeal."
"First of all the comments that I made were taken out of the wider picture, out of the context," former Grand Slam champion Mauresmo told Tennis Channel on Thursday.
"And I want to say sorry to the players that really felt bad about what I said.
"Again, I think the people who know me, who've known me on and off the court, throughout my career, throughout everything that I've done, know that I'm a big fighter for equal rights and women's tennis, women in general."
Amelie Mauresmo, a former player herself, drew the ire of many for her comments including the world no.1 Iga Swiatek.
But Mauresmo maintained that it was difficult to put women's only matches on the schedule for spectators with a single ticket for the evening but added that the tournament would look into tweaking the format next year.
"Concerning the scheduling, specifically for the night matches, my say was that because we have one match only, it's really tougher to schedule a woman's match because we have to take into consideration the length," Mauresmo said.
"It's the fair thing to do for the ticketholders.
"Next year to be more fair to the women's players it would be good to maybe have the possibility to put two matches or maybe a women's match plus a doubles match."
Amelie Mauresmo
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Original post: In the first official finding of responsibility for the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe—the worst oil spill in U.S. history—the presidential commission investigating the accident found that both Halliburton and BP knew before the explosion on April 20 that the cement mixture that was meant to seal the Macondo well was unstable. Despite that fact, they still went ahead with the work, setting the stage for the accident. The staff found that Halliburton—in charge of cementing the Macondo well—had conducted four laboratory tests that indicated the cement mixture standards wasn't up to industry standards. The results of at least one of those tests was given to BP on March 8, yet BP failed to act on it. Another Halliburton cement test was carried out about a week before the Deepwater Horizon blowout—and the test also found the cement was unstable—yet the results were never sent to BP.


Laura @Trips Down Imagination Road and Michelle @Because Reading are once again hosting the Bookish Resolutions Challenge in 2016. I participated in this challenge last year and it was a good way to keep me motivated in certain areas, so I decided to do it again this year.
My rating is still at 22% but I have a few reviews to post so it'll be higher next month!
I didn't get any of my Kids' Recs List read in August. Alice in Wonderland is up next though.
I'm still struggling...gosh, I sound like a broken record!! I have started back to exercising. And I've been working at writing. I have two WIPs going right now and I've enjoyed being able to switch between them. I say this like I've spent so much time at it...I haven't. But I'm working at it. Also, after a chat with Lexxie, I think I'm going to do NaNoWriMo this year. I was inspired on our vacation to the Southeast and want to get to work on that. ;) Band season is upon us so between competitions with my two younger kids and visiting/getting visits from my older kid, it's gonna be a busy fall!


Abstract: Ekaterinoslav: One Family's Passage to America is a one-act dramatic musical composition based on a 2012 collection of poems by the critically acclaimed, bestselling author Jane Yolen, who suggested the project to me based on our previous collaboration. Scored for singers with a chamber orchestra of strings, clarinet, keyboard, and percussion, the composition lyrically recounts the story of the Yolen's family's emigration from a small Ukrainian Jewish village to Ellis Island in 1910-1914. Her story of rediscovering a family history and heritage evokes broader issues of truth and lies, and how a cultural identity can be found or lost through stories people tell about themselves. It movingly depicts a noteworthy period in twentieth-century Jewish, American, and European history, shedding both factual and emotional light on the struggles, fears, and hopes of the immigrant experience. Ekaterinoslav is the poetry of displacement, and of self-constructed identities. My musical setting accentuates the poems' lyrical appeal, incorporating some ethnomusicological research into early 20th-century Jewish and Ukrainian traditional melodies. The resulting work is an innovative hybrid of musical theatre, opera, monologue, and memoir. Minimalistic staging is combined with projected digital and archival images to portray the idea of reconstructed history, while singers take on multiple roles and interpretations of characters as their stories are told and untold.


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The e-volution of digital readers
December 22nd, 2009 Books & Publishing, The West Australian
The biggest revolution since the printing press. The tipping point of text. Call it what you will, history will remember 2009 and 2010 as the years digital books finally captured our imaginations.
As the name suggests, an ebook is an electronic book, a computer file whose pages you turn virtually on an electronic device, anything from a dedicated ebook machine to a mobile phone.
Even since the web took hold we've been hearing about the end of paper-based books. Early ebook readers failed to catch on and publishers mostly ignored the phenomenon. What ebooks needed was an iPod for books, a tool to bring them into the mainstream the way Apple's music player did for music.
2009 saw the first serious contenders. The first was the Kindle, Amazon.com's hit e-reader that was released around the world in October. Barnes and Noble released their effort, the Nook, soon after. Along with the astounding success of the iPhone around the world, one of the most popular applications is Stanza, special ebook reading software that had enjoyed two million downloads worldwide by July 2009, leaving sales of the Kindle and its competitors in the dust.
In the same way that artists can upload music or movies for mass consumption through YouTube or the iTunes store, the ebook completely removes the barrier to entry and bypasses traditional production and distribution. Although the big media conglomerate-owned publishers are starting to take notice, authors have been taking advantage of the possibilities for a long time.
"It means you can publish yourself online right away," says James Swanwick, an Australian celebrity journalist based in LA. Swanwick's ebook, How to Become a Celebrity Journalist, is available on the web. Upon deciding on the venture, there was nobody to tell him the world authors hear most — 'no'. "You don't have to pitch an endless line of publishers to convince them to publish you. Once you make the decision to publish yourself online, you can do it straight away."
Swanwick estimates he spent no more than $500 on the entire project, which included outsourcing the design of the website to sell the book and generating the social media campaign to market it. It took him three days to write and about 10 hours to manage the production, marketing and distribution. "Once I'd sold 33 copies I'd pretty much broken even. If the website becomes particularly popular I can make revenue via click through advertising, so there's is definite return on the investment."
Swanwick is on the crest of a wave that's now building quickly. Aussie author Bryce Courtenay prophetically told publishing trade magazine Bookseller and Publisher in 2004 ebooks were going to reach critical mass and take off in 'three, four or five years'. He saw the cult underground that had accepted them and the growing numbers that would transfer the movement from early adopters to the general public.
Right now we're in the grip of demand and supply driving each other. As more people come to enjoy reading on electronic screens, electronics vendors and publishers will invest more effort into making them available. And with more sexy new devices on the market to read ebooks on, the more people want them.
But just as TV didn't kill cinema, ebooks won't mean the end of curling up in bed with a good book. New technologies catch on and find their place, living comfortably side by side with older methods. As ebooks take off, it'll mean more than just a new way of reading a book, it will open your world to ideas and writing you've never had access to before.
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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 at 12:11 pm	and is filed under Books & Publishing, The West Australian. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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wide range of musical tastes including........... sabbath, floyd, stone temple pilots, the cult, tears for fears, all sorts really, rock, blues, funk and never rule out anything, dont get the country thing though.
mapex v series 6 piece with paiste pst3 n dream cymbals, great sound and looks even better.
yamaha dtexpress4 electric kit, used mainly for practice.


We already shared how Munich's 2016 Oktoberfest stacked up in this blog post. Now the question is how did Hofbrauhaus Las Vegas compare?
Our 13th Oktoberfest ran from September 16-October 31 for six glorious weeks of brews, food, live entertainment, games and much more!
Let's start with the brews…and other beverages.
Of course, all of our beers got love this Oktoberfest, but it should come as no surprise that our Oktoberfestbier was by far the best-selling brew of the Fest.
Our celebrity keg tappers helped us pour on the fun by tapping into our famous brew…but it's not as easy as it looks. Rich Little, the Crazy Girls and Carla Pellegrino needed the most strokes to get the beer flowing. Carla tried so hard she smashed a stein while one of our partners, Tony, wanted to start pouring the beer!
Even though Oktoberfestbier was a hit (literally!) we have to point out that the most popular beer cocktail was the Bananenweizen (Banana Weizen), a delicious combo of our Hefeweizen and Crème de Banana.
Guests also enjoyed our Apfelschnaps (Apple Schnapps) the most of our Schnapps selection (read more about what beer pairs with this liqueur here).
One of the things that sets our Haus apart from the rest (other than the world-class brews, of course) is the way we serve up shots! We're talking about the spankings. Our servers spanked a whopping 4,500 guests during this season's Oktoberfest. That's a lot of whacks!
How did the fare, well, fare?
With their fresh-baked goodness and array of dipping options, our Jumbo Completes (jumbo pretzels) were a giant success among the appetizers. They were our number one seller by far, but our Paniertes Jägerschnitzel, aka Breaded Schnitzel "Hunter Style" was our best-selling dinner item. Our Pork Shank was the favorite among the daily Oktoberfest specials. Now we're getting hungry.
Our band helped the crowd burn off the beer and food with their energetic renditions of international and popular hits. We started each night with the National Anthem, which means it was played 46 times throughout Oktoberfest. But the jam that really got the crowd going was Sweet Caroline. It was the biggest hit of the Fest!
Whew! What a whirlwind Oktoberfest 2016 has been. We dare say it was our best yet!
What was your favorite part? Share in the comments?


The mission of the LTSA is to deliver responsive and trusted expertise and reliable land title and survey systems, which are an essential foundation to economic and social prosperity.
The LTSA's vision is to provide exceptional service and innovative solutions as the trusted source of land registry and land information services in British Columbia.
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These objectives reflect the LTSA's commitment to maintaining and protecting the integrity and reliability of BC's land title and survey systems. The LTSA continues to pursue business improvements in the public interest and meet customer needs through enhancements to ParcelMap BC and myLTSA Search and Filing services.


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wbbFlashes
an unofficial blog about the Kent State Women's Basketball Team
2018 MAC schedule has Kent opening against EMU, which should be much improved
The Mid-American Conference released the 2018 league schedule today, and it has Kent State opening at Eastern Michigan Saturday, Dec. 30.
Each year MAC teams play everyone in their own division twice. They play two games against two teams in the other division.
KSU will play Eastern and Northern Illinois of the MAC West home and away.
Eastern finished 1-17 and last in the conference a year ago but should be greatly improved.
The Eagles bring in a freshman class ranked highest in the MAC and 51st in the country by ProspectsNation. It includes three three-star and one four-star recruit. Their top recruit last season — an all-state guard from Cleveland New Tech East -— missed the whole year with an injury but will play this season.
EMU also has graduate transfers from Michigan and Fordham, neither of whom were big contributors there but who were highly ranked out of high school. Both will be eligible right away. Second-year coach Fred Castro, a former assistant at Washington, didn't have much to start with after former coach Tory Verdi left for Massachusetts and two key players transferred. He's since built the roster.
Northern Illinois was the fifth highest scoring team in the country last year and beat KSU in a memorable 98-97 game in Kent last January. The Huskies, 21-12 a year ago, lost Ali Lehman — perhaps the best player in school history — to graduation, along with third-leading scorer Cassidy Glenn. But they have three other double-figure scorers back and a solid incoming freshman class.
Kent State has its first home MAC game Saturday, Jan. 6, against Western Michigan. Its first MAC East game is at Bowling Green Wednesday, Jan. 17.
Though they were picked to finish last in the conference last season, the Flashes put together an amazing 19-13 season under new coach Todd Starkey and won the MAC East. They won more games last season than in the previous four years combined.
But they graduated MAC player of the year Larissa Lurken, who broke KSU's season-scoring record and broke the NCAA record for free throws made last year.
Because of Lurken's graduation, I'd guess the Flashes would be picked between second and fourth in the MAC East. Buffalo likely will be the preseason favorite.
KSU's full schedule is due out any day. It includes only two pre-MAC home games (Detroit and Wright State), a Thanksgiving tournament in Las Vegas and a pair of November games against non-conference teams at the University of Akron, which will play the same two teams. The next year a similar event will be held at Kent.
Here's the full MAC schedule.
Written by Carl Schierhorn Posted in Uncategorized
September 11, 2017 - 7:10 am Pingback: Flashes open at Northern Kentucky in road-heavy non-conference schedule | wbbFlashes
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DraftKings Daily Fantasy Soccer Helper for Champions League 10/27/20
Nick Vazquez — @nickvaz Oct 27th, 2020
Luis Suarez has a new club, but he's been up to his old goal-scoring habits. Who else can we target on Tuesday's Champions League slate?
The Champions League games are coming thick and fast this season with a modified schedule due to the late start to the season. That's exciting for those of us who love to play DFS during the group stage of the competition, so let's look at the teams on this slate with odds coming from FanDuel Sportsbook:
Atalanta (-130) +330 Ajax (+300)
Marseille (+650) +420 Manchester City (-270)
Liverpool (-950) +900 Midtjylland (+2700)
Porto (-160) +290 Olympiakos (+470)
Mönchengladbach (+270) +300 Real Madrid (-115)
Atlético Madrid (-165) +300 Red Bull Salzburg (+460)
Forwards to Target
Mohamed Salah ($8,700): Salah has a lower salary than expected given the circumstances for this match. Liverpool are giant favorites at home, as their odds dwarf all other favorites on this slate. They are playing Danish club FC Midtjylland, who lost the opening game of the group stage 4-0 at home to Atalanta. This will be a tough task for them, going to Anfield to take on the English champions.
Salah has anytime goal scoring odds of -320, something we don't see for a player at $8,700. Usually if a player is that likely to score, their salary is around $10,000. The only risk with Salah is that we saw Jürgen Klopp substitute Salah and his other teammates in the front three together at the 60 minute mark of the last Champions League match. However, Salah could score two goals before being taken off, given the matchup. That makes him a very good play and worth the salary you'll have to use on him.
Luis Suárez ($7,200): Suárez moved from Bareclona to Atlético Madrid in the offseason and has been solid for his new club. He has four goals in five league matches to start the season. He also has been shooting like crazy, averaging 5.31 shots per 90 minutes so far in La Liga. He would have disappointed fantasy managers in the last Champions League game, but that was away to the reigning champions Bayern Munich.
In this game, the matchup is much easier against Red Bull Salzburg at home. Atlético are favored to win and get back on track in this group. Suárez has their best goal scoring odds of -140, making him a good play in any format if he is going to shoot as much as he has been to start the season. His $7,200 salary is fairly low for a player who has been scoring goals in the league and is odds on to score.
Lassina Traoré ($4,200): Traoré is a deep punt play who most people probably won't know about but is an intriguing option should he get the start for Ajax. In a wild league game on Saturday in which his team 13-0, the 19-year-old Traoré scored five goals and added three assists for good measure. Now, we can't expect an eruption like that, but Atalanta are known for playing open, attacking, soccer and haven't been exactly good at keeping the ball out their net in recent Serie A games. They have allowed seven goals in their last two league matches, including three to Sampdoria at home on Saturday. Traoré is far from a safe play, but is worth considering at just $4,200 in a match that should see a lot of goals.
Midfielders to Target
Alejandro Gómez ($9,300): Gómez worked out for us on the last slate but now has seen an increase in salary to $9,300. He's still worth considering with how much he does for this attacking Atalanta side. He is currently averaging over five shots per 90 minutes and has four goals and two assists in five league matches. Gómez has also seen his competition for corner kicks shrink with Ruslan Malinovskyi recently out of the starting lineup. With the way Atalanta play, you'll usually want to get a piece of them into your lineup, and Gómez would be the best floor option for them, with also a lot of upside for goals and assists. The good news about paying up for Gómez is that he can make his value in a number of different ways, so he is definitely worth considering on this slate.
Toni Kroos ($7,400): Kroos returns to his home nation of Germany as Real Madrid travel to play Borussia Mönchengladbach. Kroos did not start in the last Champions League match but started in Madrid's El Clásico win over hated rivals Barcelona. In that game, Kroos scored 20 DraftKings points without scoring or assisting on a goal. He does this by being an accumulator of crosses through corner kicks, which also leads to creating chances. Kroos is creating a whopping 4.46 chances per 90 minutes this season in the league. He'll also throw in a few shots and fouls drawn to give him one of the best floors on the slate. If he could add a goal or an assist, he'll be one of the best midfield plays on the board.
Sérgio Oliveira ($4,200): Oliveira is a solid value play in midfield. He's playing for a favored team that is at home and should be able to dominate the ball against Olympiakos. Oliveira at least has some role for Porto on set pieces, though it's not abundantly clear how things will shake out there following Alex Telles' departure. Regardless, Oliveira is decent play if he gets some of the corner kicks, and has also shown attacking intent with two goals in just five league appearances this season. He's one of the best value options at the position, being a salary saver that you'll need to fit in some of the best plays.
Defenders to Target
Andrew Robertson ($6,500): Robertson is becoming a lock play nearly every time Liverpool are on a slate. In this match that sees Liverpool as big favorites, he's very difficult to get away from in any lineup build. In the first Champions League game against Ajax last week, Robertson had six crosses and five shot assists, reaching 15 DraftKings points without a goal or an assist. He continues to lead the Premier League in crosses, with a 57-45 lead over teammate Trent Alexander-Arnold. We liked Robertson at $7,300 on the Premier League slate, so now as a bigger favorite getting him at $6,500 feels like a good discount.
Kieran Trippier ($5,600): An old Premier League DFS favorite is back in play in this Champions League slate. It's always fun to roster Kieran Trippier at defender because he loves crossing a lot. He even got five crosses in Atlético Madrid's last Champions League match against Bayern Munich, in which they lost 4-0. Now, with teammate Yannick Carrasco missing this game, there is less competition for corner kicks for Trippier to have to deal with. Atlético should be in control in this match, which would allow Trippier to get forward and get his crosses towards the box. He's one of the better plays at defender in this game which could see Atlético keep a clean sheet given the matchup.
Sergio Ramos ($4,400): Ramos is the rare center back who is actually a viable play and not just a punt to save salary. Ramos has been on penalty duty for Real Madrid since last season, which helped him get 11 goals in La Liga last season. He also is a threat on set pieces, being good in the air. He's a similar play to a goal-dependent midfielder who you would take a punt on but also comes with the added potential of a three-point bonus for the clean sheet. That gives him good upside for tournament lineups.
Goalkeepers to Target
Alisson ($5,800): Alisson was a surprise return from injury for Liverpool's match on Saturday. So much so that DraftKings left his salary as if he's a backup to Adrián. So this gives us a discount on a keeper playing for a huge favorite. With Liverpool being -850 to win this game, it makes sense to spend the extra $100 to get Alisson instead of Ederson for Manchester City, who are only -280 favorites. Liverpool are also -110 to keep a clean sheet, so Alisson is a solid option to spend up at goalkeeper.
José Sá ($4,000): Sá has been in terrific form, keeping a clean sheet in six straight matches for Olympiakos. That includes a win against Marseille last week in the UCL. He'll face a tough test in Porto in this game, but he could have some knowledge about some of the players he will face. Sá played for Porto from 2016-2018, so this is a revenge game for him. How much revenge he will exact on his former club remains to be seen, but if you need to spend up at other positions, Sá will work at goalkeeper in your lineups.
Nicholas Vazquez is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Nicholas Vazquez also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username hbyanksman. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his/her personal views, he/she may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his/her personal account. The views expressed in his/her articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.
FanDuel Soccer: EPL DFS Helper for 1/15/22
DraftKings Soccer: EPL DFS Helper for 1/15/22
FanDuel Soccer: EPL DFS Under-the-Radar Plays for 1/15/22
Zack Bussiere	—