[Septimius Severus]

Recently, I had a chance to sit down with the famous/infamous Chris Pedersen, veteran Captain of ACGHHS whose maverick machinations have been the subject of some controversy. Chris was kind enough to take some time from his busy schedule to answer a few questions for us.

SS: Chris, some of the other teams have poked fun at your team, particularly your team's name, calling it variously ACHOO, AARGGHHH, ABCDEFGH, and other things. Others have wondered about your perhaps unorthodox style of leadership and strategems. What is your response to such criticisms?

CP: Gesundheit?

Well, I really buy into the whole team concept, and I want to try to encourage forming a team identity.

To this end, all of our teams turns are sent to a common mailbox - as are our proposed turns. Each player can review any others players turns and orders. Each turn we make a manifest of what we hope to accomplish - and all players are invited to make suggestions, critics etc. Additionally, we use the chat room here to conduct team meetings where faster turn around is needed.
Periodically we create a jpg reflecting the current gamestate.

I have to give a lot of credit to our team members. Shard made a fantastic catch just this turn that will have a big impact on the rest of the game; squirrel made two last turn.

Playing with these two guys has been great. But what has really been gratifying has been showing Grudge some of the ropes in the game, and how much he has picked up on it. Thats been really fantastic.

SS: Have you found the position of team Captain difficult or challenging in any way? And if so how?

CP: Well the most difficult part was the turnover we had in the early going. I really hate losing friends and players. I know my style can be difficult, and I really hated losing Hoplosternum. He was a classy gentlemen, and a great player.

Other than that, my style requries a lot of communication and feed back - so we are usually among the last team to get turns in - and we are spread across 19 time zones so it can be challenging - but all of us have been really good about checking our turns and schedules - and squirrel especially has been good about being our enforcer- holding out until our entire team is confirmed ready.

On top of these were technical difficulties, but we worked those out with the help of KO and Gandalf.

SS: On a scale of 1-10, (10 being most likely) how likely do you rate your team's chances at winning?

CP: 2-3: Don't get me wrong - I think we are doing a great job as a team, and outperforming our individual nations. But the combination of Hinnom, Niefle, Caelum, and Ulm in the hands of Dr. P

Hinnom's early game is real strong - but its end game is *terrifying*. And we are getting into the mid game with no signs that the devas really *can't* do whatever they want.

SS: Thanks for your time, you are a wonderful asset to the community and I am sure everyone appreciates your efforts.