CTF 2187
Various authors wrote works of fiction about the game in the 1980s to the 2000s in publications such as Paper Mayhem and Sabledrake magazine.
[4][a] Chris Harvey started commercial PBM play afterward in the United Kingdom with a company called ICBM through an agreement with Loomis and Flying Buffalo.
[6] For approximately five years, Flying Buffalo was the single dominant company in the US PBM industry until Schubel & Son entered the field in about 1976 with the human-moderated The Tribes of Crane.
[8] In 1981, some PBM players started another company, Adventures by Mail, with the "immensely popular" Beyond the Stellar Empire.
[4][c] The proliferation of PBM companies in the 1980s supported the publication of a number of newsletters from individual play-by-mail companies as well as independent publications which focused solely on the play-by-mail gaming industry such as the relatively short-lived The Nuts & Bolts of PBM and Gaming Universal.
[15] New players, or cadets, could distribute fifteen points among the following six characteristics: intelligence, intuition, precision, reflexes, constitution, and luck.
[15] Pilots operated bots, which were armed robotic fighting vehicles of varying capabilities and three varieties: light, medium, and heavy.
[13] An example was the Devastator—a Heavy Battle Bot—which weighed 80 tons and was heavily armored and armed, making it challenging to face directly by other bots.
Advanced Gaming Enterprises described gameplay as follows: You assume the role of a mercenary pilot in command of a huge robotic war machine know[n] as a Battle Bot.
These machines weigh in at an average of 60 tons and feature the latest in hi-tech weapons, and gadetry including Battle Computers, Lasers, Sensors, Mini Missiles, Particle Beam Cannons and much, much more!
[21]Reviewer Robert Woodard stated that CTF 2187 was a "complex, chesslike game" with six factors that players needed to monitor while playing.
[23] Reviewer Mark Weseman stated in 1988 that a drawback was an apparent incentive to focus on attacking the enemy CP.
[24] In 1991, Craig G. Mills stated that CTF 2187 "effectively combines ease of learning with a subtle chess-like strategy.
"[25] In the November–December 1993 issue of Paper Mayhem, James Penrod stated that "If you like tactical combat with a five phase turn that simulates the fog of war, polite insults in the newsletter and not too many choices to make, you will like this game.
"[26] In the March–April 1997 issue of Paper Mayhem, Robert R. Woodard stated that "if you're after a game with intense action and skillful play from start to finish, CTF 2187 is it!
"[27] In 1990, Paper Mayhem rated CTF 2187 #4 in its list of the Best Play-By-Mail Games of 1989 as voted by its readers.
