❤️ Acquire 🦐

"Acquire is a multi-player mergers and acquisitions themed board game. It is played with tiles representing hotels that are arranged on the board, play money and stock certificates. The object of the game is to earn the most money by developing and merging hotel chains. When a chain in which a player owns stock is acquired by a larger chain, players earn money based on the size of the acquired chain. At the end of the game, all players liquidate their stock in order to determine which player has the most money. It was one of the most popular games in the 1960s 3M bookshelf game series, and the only one still published in the United States. Components The following components are included in all versions: * A compact game board with 108 square spaces in a rectangular array. * 108 sequenced square tiles corresponding to the spaces on the board * 7 different colored markers, representing different hotel chains * 25 shares of stock for each of the seven hotel chains * A supply of play money, containing approximately (35) $5000 Bills, (25) $1000 Bills, (40) $500 Bills, & (60) $100 Bills * 6 Information cards listing the market prices of shares of the chains at any given point in the game. * An instruction manual History Acquire started life as the Milton Bradley gambling-themed board game Lotto played in childhood by Sid Sackson, who went on to become a game designer. He reworked the game into a wargame he called "Lotto War". Sackson (along with Alex Randolph) was commissioned by 3M to start a new games division in 1962. When he submitted the game to 3M in 1963, he called the game "Vacation". 3M suggested the name change to Acquire, and Sackson agreed. The game was test marketed in several U.S. cities in 1963, and production began in 1964 as a part of the bookshelf games series. The 3M game division was sold to Avalon Hill in 1976 and became part of their bookcase game series. Avalon Hill made Computer Acquire for the PET, Apple II and TRS-80 in 1980. The Avalon brand became part of Hasbro in 1998. Hasbro slightly reworked and reissued the game in 2000, but thereafter discontinued it. In the mid-2000s, the game was transferred to a Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast. Wizards celebrated "50 years of Avalon Hill Games" with the release of the 2008 edition (though the game was not yet 50 years old). In 2016, the game was transferred back to the Hasbro games division and republished in Nov. 2016 under the Avalon label. In most versions, the theme of the game is investing in hotel chains. In the 1990s Hasbro edition, the hotel chains were replaced by fictitious corporations, though the actual gameplay was unchanged. In the current Avalon edition, the companies are once again hotel chains. The components of the game have varied over the years. In particular, the tiles have been made from wood, plastic, and cardboard in various editions of the game. In the 2008 version, the tiles were cardboard. In the 2016 version, the tiles are plastic, but the board size was reduced, from 9x12 to 10x10. Gameplay A short setup precedes play, wherein each player receives play cash and a small random set of playing tiles and becomes the founder of a nascent hotel chain by drawing and placing a tile representing a hotel on the board. Tiles are ordered, and correspond to spaces on the board. Position of the starting tiles determines order of play. Play consists of placing a tile on the board and optionally buying stock. The placed tile may found a new hotel chain, grow an existing one or merge two or more chains. Chains are sets of edge-wise adjacent tiles. Founders receive a share of stock in new chains. A chain can become "safe", immune to acquisition, by attaining a specified size. Following placement of a tile, the player may then buy a limited number of shares of stock in existing chains. Shares have a market value determined by the size and stature of the hotel chain. At the end of his or her turn, the player receives a new tile to replace the one played. When mergers occur, the smaller chain becomes defunct, and its tiles are then part of the acquiring chain. The two largest shareholders in the acquired chain receive cash bonuses; players may sell their shares in the defunct chain, trade them in for shares of the acquiring chain, or keep them. Mergers between 3 or more chains are handled in order from larger to smaller. A player during his turn may declare the game at an end if the largest chain exceeds a specified size (about 40% of the board), or all chains on the board are too large to be acquired. When the game ends, shareholder bonuses are paid to the two largest shareholders of each chain, and players cash out their shares at market price (shares in any defunct chains are worthless). The player with the most money wins. An interesting and optional aspect of gameplay is whether numbers of players' shares is public or private information. This is negotiated before the game starts. Keeping this information private can greatly extend the game: when players are less certain of their status, they are less willing to end the game. Acquire is for 2–6 players, and takes about an hour and a half to play. Reception In the December 1993 edition of Dragon (Issue 200), Allen Varney advised readers to ignore the hotel theme: "Supposedly a game of hotel acquisitions and mergers, this is actually a superb abstract game of strategy and capital." Varney called the game "An early masterpiece from [Sid] Sackson, game historian and one of the great designers of our time." Awards The game was short-listed for the first Spiel des Jahres board game awards in 1979.Spiel des Jahres page for Acquire in German GAMES magazine has inducted Acquire into their buyers' guide Hall of Fame.GAMES Magazine Hall of Fame . Retrieved 2010-07-26 The magazine's stated criteria for the Hall of Fame encompasses "games that have met or exceeded the highest standards of quality and play value and have been continuously in production for at least 10 years; i.e., classics." It was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming Arts & Design's Hall of Fame, along with Sackson, in 2011.Origins Awards Hall of Fame for Acquire Academy Hall of Fame Acquire is one of the Mind Sports Olympiad games. See also *Monopoly, a plausibly similar game of acquiring and merging houses/hotels References External links Acquire Wizards of the Coast page * Acquire Webnoir page * "History of the game of ACQUIRE" Acquisition Games page * "Lloyd's Rules of ACQUIRE" Acquisition Games Page * "Review of 2016 Hasbro Game of ACQUIRE" Acquisition Games Page Category:3M Bookshelf games Category:Avalon Hill games Category:Board games introduced in 1964 Category:Economic simulation board games Category:Multiplayer games Category:Sid Sackson games Category:Tile-laying board games "

❤️ Ambush 🦐

"The Bắc Lệ ambush: French marine infantry deploy beneath the Nui Đồng Nai cliffs in 1884 Braddock's troops ambushed and decimated by the French and Indians in 1755 Zulu attack on a Boer camp in February 1838 Massacre of Elphinstone's army during the First Anglo-Afghan War in 1842 partisans during the January Uprising An ambush is a long-established military tactic in which combatants take advantage of concealment and the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbrush or behind hilltops. Ambushes have been used consistently throughout history, from ancient to modern warfare. In the 20th century, an ambush might involve thousands of soldiers on a large scale, such as over a choke point such as a mountain pass, or a small irregular band or insurgent group attacking a regular armed force patrol. Theoretically, a single well-armed and concealed soldier could ambush other troops in a surprise attack. Sometimes an ambush can involve the exclusive or combined use of improvised explosive devices, that allow the attackers to hit enemy convoys or patrols while minimizing the risk of being exposed to return fire. History The use by early humans of the ambush may date as far back as two million years when anthropologists have recently suggested that ambush techniques were used to hunt large game. One example from ancient times is the Battle of the Trebia river. Hannibal encamped within striking distance of the Romans with the Trebia River between them, and placed a strong force of cavalry and infantry in concealment, near the battle zone. He had noticed, says Polybius, a "place between the two camps, flat indeed and treeless, but well adapted for an ambuscade, as it was traversed by a water-course with steep banks, densely overgrown with brambles and other thorny plants, and here he proposed to lay a stratagem to surprise the enemy". When the Roman infantry became entangled in combat with his army, the hidden ambush force attacked the legionnaires in the rear. The result was slaughter and defeat for the Romans. Nevertheless, the battle also displays the effects of good tactical discipline on the part of the ambushed force. Although most of the legions were lost, about 10,000 Romans cut their way through to safety, maintaining unit cohesion. This ability to maintain discipline and break out or maneuver away from a kill zone is a hallmark of good troops and training in any ambush situation. (See Ranger reference below). Ambushes were widely utilized by the Lusitanians, in particular by their chieftain Viriathus. Their usual tactic, called concursare, involved repeatedly charging and retreating, forcing the enemy to eventually give them chase, in order to set up ambushes in difficult terrain where allied forces would be awaiting. In his first victory, he eluded the siege of Roman praetor Gaius Vetilius and attracted him to a narrow pass next to the Barbesuda river, where he destroyed his army and killed the praetor. Viriathus's ability to turn chases into ambushes would grant him victories over a number of Roman generals. Another famous Lusitanian ambush was performed by Curius and Apuleius on Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus Servilianus, who led a numerically superior army complete with war elephants and Numidian cavalry. The ambush allowed Curius and Apuleius to steal Servilianus's loot train, although a tactic error in their retreat led to the Romans retaking the train and putting the Lusitanians to flight. Viriathus later defeated Servilianus with a surprise attack. Possibly the most famous ambush in ancient warfare was that sprung by Germanic warchief Arminius against the Romans at Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. This particular ambush was to affect the course of Western history. The Germanic forces demonstrated several principles needed for a successful ambush. They took cover in difficult forested terrain, allowing the warriors time and space to mass without detection. They had the element of surprise, and this was also aided by the defection of Arminius from Roman ranks prior to the battle. They sprang the attack when the Romans were most vulnerable; when they had left their fortified camp, and were on the march in a pounding rainstorm. The Germans did not dawdle at the hour of decision but attacked quickly, using a massive series of short, rapid, vicious charges against the length of the whole Roman line, with charging units sometimes withdrawing to the forest to regroup while others took their place. The Germans also used blocking obstacles, erecting a trench and earthen wall to hinder Roman movement along the route of the killing zone. The result was mass slaughter of the Romans, and the destruction of three legions. The Germanic victory caused a limit on Roman expansion in the West. Ultimately, it established the Rhine as the boundary of the Roman Empire for the next four hundred years, until the decline of the Roman influence in the West. The Roman Empire made no further concerted attempts to conquer Germania beyond the Rhine. There are many notable examples of ambushes during the Roman-Persian Wars. A year after their victory at Carrhae, the Parthians invaded Syria but were driven back after a Roman ambush near Antigonia. Roman Emperor Julian was mortally wounded in an ambush near Samarra in 363 during the retreat from his Persian campaign. A Byzantine invasion of Persian Armenia was repelled by a small force at Anglon who performed a meticulous ambush by using the rough terrain as force multiplier and concealing in houses. Heraclius' discovery of a planned ambush by Shahrbaraz in 622 was a decisive factor in his campaign. Arabia during Muhammad's era According to Muslim tradition, Islamic Prophet Muhammad used ambush tactics in his military campaigns. His first such use was during the Caravan raids. In the Kharrar caravan raid, Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas was ordered to lead a raid against the Quraysh. His group consisted of about twenty Muhajirs. This raid was about a month after the previous one. Sa'd, with his soldiers, set up an ambush in the valley of Kharrar on the road to Mecca and waited to raid a Meccan caravan returning from Syria. However, the caravan had already passed and the Muslims returned to Medina without any loot.Mubarakpuri, The Sealed Nectar (Free Version), p. 127. Arab tribes during Muhammad's era also used ambush tactics. One example retold in Muslim tradition is said to have taken place during the First Raid on Banu Thalabah. The Banu Thalabah tribe were already aware of the impending attack; so they lay in wait for the Muslims, and when Muhammad ibn Maslama arrived at the site, the Banu Thalabah with 100 men ambushed the Muslims while they were making preparation to sleep and, after a brief resistance, killed them all except for Muhammad ibn Maslama, who feigned death. A Muslim who happened to pass that way found him and assisted him to return to Medina. The raid was unsuccessful. Procedure In modern warfare, an ambush is most often employed by ground troops up to platoon size against enemy targets, which may be other ground troops, or possibly vehicles. However, in some situations, especially when deep behind enemy lines, the actual attack will be carried out by a platoon, a company-sized unit will be deployed to support the attack group, setting up and maintaining a forward patrol harbour from which the attacking force will deploy, and to which they will retire after the attack. Planning US Army idealised linear ambush plan US Army idealised L-shaped ambush plan Ambushes are complex multi-phase operations and are therefore usually planned in some detail. First, a suitable killing zone is identified. This is the place where the ambush will be laid. It is generally a place where enemy units are expected to pass, and which gives reasonable cover for the deployment, execution and extraction phases of the ambush patrol. A path along a wooded valley floor would be a typical example. Ambush can be described geometrically as: * Linear, when a number of firing units are equally distant from the linear kill zone. * L-shaped, when a short leg of firing units are placed to enfilade (fire the length of) the sides of the linear kill zone. * V-shaped, when the firing units are distant from the kill zone at the end where the enemy enters, so the firing units lay down bands of intersecting and interlocking fire. This ambush is normally triggered only when the enemy is well into the kill zone. The intersecting bands of fire prevent any attempt of moving out of the kill zone.FM 7-85 Chapter 6 Special Light Infantry Operations Viet Cong ambush techniques The VC/NVA prepared the battlefield carefully. Siting automatic weapons at treetop level for example helped shoot down several US helicopters during the Battle of Dak To, 1967 Terrence Maitland, A CONTAGION OF WAR: THE VIETNAM EXPERIENCE SERIES, (Boston Publishing Company), 1983, p. 180 Ambush criteria: The terrain for the ambush had to meet strict criteria: * provide concealment to prevent detection from the ground or air * enable ambush force to deploy, encircle and divide the enemy * allow for heavy weapons emplacements to provide sustained fire * enable the ambush force to set up observation posts for early detection of the enemy * permit the secret movement of troops to the ambush position and the dispersal of troops during withdrawal One important feature of the ambush was that the target units should 'pile up' after being attacked, thus preventing them any easy means of withdrawal from the kill zone and hindering their use of heavy weapons and supporting fire. Terrain was usually selected which would facilitate this and slow down the enemy. Any terrain around the ambush site which was not favorable to the ambushing force, or which offered some protection to the target, was heavily mined and booby trapped or pre-registered for mortars. Ambush units: The NVA/VC ambush formations consisted of: * lead-blocking element * main-assault element * rear-blocking element * observation posts * command post Other elements might also be included if the situation demanded, such as a sniper screen along a nearby avenue of approach to delay enemy reinforcements. Command posts: When deploying into an ambush site, the NVA first occupied several observation posts, placed to detect the enemy as early as possible and to report on the formation it was using, its strength and firepower, as well as to provide early warning to the unit commander. Usually one main OP and several secondary OP's were established. Runners and occasionally radios were used to communicate between the OP's and the main command post. The OP's were located so that they could observe enemy movement into the ambush and often they would remain in position throughout the ambush in order to report routes of reinforcement and withdrawal by the enemy as well as his maneuver options. Frequently the OP's were reinforced to squad size and served as flank security. The command post was situated in a central location, often on terrain which afforded it a vantage point overlooking the ambush site. Recon methods: Reconnaissance elements observing a potential ambush target on the move generally stayed 300–500 meters away. Sometimes a "leapfrogging" recon technique was used. Surveillance units were echeloned one behind the other. As the enemy drew close to the first, it fell back behind the last recon team, leaving an advance group in its place. This one in turn fell back as the enemy again closed the gap, and the cycle rotated. This method helped keep the enemy under continuous observation from a variety of vantage points, and allowed the recon groups to cover one another.RAND Corp, "Insurgent Organization and Operations: A Case Study of the Viet Cong in the Delta, 1964–1966", (Santa Monica: August 1967) See also * Ambush predator * Viet Cong and PAVN battle tactics * Flanking maneuver * Flypaper theory (strategy) * List of military tactics * Sniper References *Extract from Lt Col Anthony B. Herbert's Soldiers handbook *US Army Ranger Handbook section 5-14 for ambushes and 6-11 for reaction to ambushes External links Category:Assault tactics Category:Military tactics Category:Guerrilla warfare tactics Category:Military operations by type "

❤️ Abzyme 🦐

"An abzyme (from antibody and enzyme), also called catmab (from catalytic monoclonal antibody), and most often called catalytic antibody, is a monoclonal antibody with catalytic activity. Abzymes are usually raised in lab animals immunized against synthetic haptens, but some natural abzymes can be found in normal humans (anti-vasoactive intestinal peptide autoantibodies) and in patients with autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, where they can bind to and hydrolyze DNA. To date abzymes display only weak, modest catalytic activity and have not proved to be of any practical use. They are, however, subjects of considerable academic interest. Studying them has yielded important insights into reaction mechanisms, enzyme structure and function, catalysis, and the immune system itself. Enzymes function by lowering the activation energy of the transition state of a chemical reaction, thereby enabling the formation of an otherwise less-favorable molecular intermediate between the reactant(s) and the product(s). If an antibody is developed to bind to a molecule that is structurally and electronically similar to the transition state of a given chemical reaction, the developed antibody will bind to, and stabilize, the transition state, just like a natural enzyme, lowering the activation energy of the reaction, and thus catalyzing the reaction. By raising an antibody to bind to a stable transition-state analog, a new and unique type of enzyme is produced. So far, all catalytic antibodies produced have displayed only modest, weak catalytic activity. The reasons for low catalytic activity for these molecules have been widely discussed. Possibilities indicate that factors beyond the binding site may play an important, in particular through protein dynamics. Some abzymes have been engineered to use metal ions and other cofactors to improve their catalytic activity. History The possibility of catalyzing a reaction by means of an antibody which binds the transition state was first suggested by William P. Jencks in 1969. In 1994 Peter G. Schultz and Richard A. Lerner received the prestigious Wolf Prize in Chemistry for developing catalytic antibodies for many reactions and popularizing their study into a significant sub-field of enzymology. Potential HIV treatment In a June 2008 issue of the journal Autoimmunity Review, researchers S Planque, Sudhir Paul, Ph.D, and Yasuhiro Nishiyama, Ph.D of the University Of Texas Medical School at Houston announced that they have engineered an abzyme that degrades the superantigenic region of the gp120 CD4 binding site. This is the one part of the HIV virus outer coating that does not change, because it is the attachment point to T lymphocytes, the key cell in cell-mediated immunity. Once infected by HIV, patients produce antibodies to the more changeable parts of the viral coat. The antibodies are ineffective because of the virus' ability to change their coats rapidly. Because this protein gp120 is necessary for HIV to attach, it does not change across different strains and is a point of vulnerability across the entire range of the HIV variant population. The abzyme does more than bind to the site: it catalytically destroys the site, rendering the virus inert, and then can attack other HIV viruses. A single abzyme molecule can destroy thousands of HIV viruses. References Category:Monoclonal antibodies Category:Immune system Category:Enzymes "