via http://corewar.co.uk/nw/nw03.txt

                              __       __)
                             (, )  |  /            ,
                __   _  __   _  | /| / _   __  __    _  __
Issue 3         / (_(_(_/ (_(_) |/ |/ (_(_/ (_/ (_(_(_)/    18 November, 2008
________________________________/__|_________________________________________

  "You're not still mad about that nano hill thing are you?"

                         - BARKLEY VOWK, private communication (02 July 2007)

  "nano is surprisingly brutal for such a small hill."

                                    - MIZCU, irc.koth.org (09 September 2008)

The balance of power has changed on the nano hill.  Scanners once ruled
the hill, now they struggle to find a niche.  Paper once lurked in the
background, now it's slowly taking over.

In this issue we investigate the interaction between different strategies
on the nano hill and take an in depth look at nano paper.  Along the way,
we discover some of the fundamental laws of Corewar do not apply to the
nano hill.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Specs for SAL's Nano Hill, http://sal.math.ualberta.ca/hill.php?key=nano

        Hill key:      nano
        Core size:     80
        Max processes: 80
        Max cycles:    800
        Max length:    5
        P-space size:  5

Resources for Nano programmers:

        http://users.ociw.edu/birk/COREWAR/NANO/hill_rec.html

        http://corewar.co.uk/nano.htm
_____________________________________________________________________________

Status of the SAL Nano Hill after 2975 successful challenges:

 #    %W/   %L/   %T                      Name             Author Score   Age
 1  45.2/ 39.5/ 15.3 79cd9f34-c56857e4-d58f8bc              bvowk 151.0   155
 2  47.3/ 45.6/  7.1             spacial event                hwm 149.0    46
 3  42.1/ 35.4/ 22.5         the spiders crept                hwm 148.7    49
 4  41.8/ 35.3/ 22.9                   hemlock       John Metcalf 148.2     5
 5  41.0/ 34.0/ 25.0       another daydream...       John Metcalf 148.0     4
 6  47.4/ 47.0/  5.6               late effect                hwm 147.7    35
 7  46.7/ 45.7/  7.6 RS : Clephmausthmasthrobi           inversed 147.6    21
 8  43.2/ 39.6/ 17.2     ripples in space-time        S.Fernandes 146.8    72
 9  41.7/ 37.1/ 21.2           fields of night                hwm 146.3    75
10  46.3/ 46.5/  7.1                Borg Queen              Retro 146.1   272
11  46.2/ 46.6/  7.2                Left Alone             Fluffy 145.7   668
12  46.1/ 46.5/  7.5 8c09fc1a-37dd0c74-56ddc32              bvowk 145.6   555
13  46.2/ 46.9/  6.9            Fierce Machine         Zul Nadzri 145.6   498
14  46.0/ 46.5/  7.4              Lost & Found             Fluffy 145.5    61
15  45.7/ 45.9/  8.3  ES : Collowin Delickrity           inversed 145.5   117
16  45.8/ 46.4/  7.8                 spacedust       John Metcalf 145.2    70
17  46.2/ 47.2/  6.7           Nineteen Eleven             Fluffy 145.2    40
18  45.1/ 45.4/  9.4               EvoTrick II           inversed 144.8   109
19  40.9/ 37.5/ 21.6               Chiki chiki          G.Labarga 144.3    18
20  45.8/ 47.4/  6.8           Yellow and Blue             Fluffy 144.2   141
21  45.6/ 47.0/  7.4                    Eugene           EvoBrain 144.1    58
22  46.1/ 48.1/  5.7 90ae3a01-6753123f-ea13510              bvowk 144.1   677
23  45.5/ 47.7/  6.8                White Moon             Fluffy 143.4  1632
24  45.4/ 47.5/  7.1                    static       John Metcalf 143.4    13
25  43.2/ 43.1/ 13.7                Nano'Broda          G.Labarga 143.4    19
26  45.5/ 47.7/  6.9                     Prods       Roy van Rijn 143.2   455
27  45.9/ 48.7/  5.4           RS : Hericknybe           inversed 143.2    15
28  41.4/ 39.7/ 19.0                acid & oil       John Metcalf 143.1    14
29  39.0/ 34.9/ 26.2    RS : Existephall Apris           inversed 143.1    22
30  39.3/ 35.6/ 25.0    RS : Cefaexive Motween           inversed 143.0    17
31  45.2/ 47.5/  7.3         RS : Didurevolk-B           inversed 142.9    92
32  44.5/ 46.2/  9.3 Muddy Mouse (RBv1.6r1.1.2 The MicroGP Corewa 142.8  2275
33  45.6/ 48.4/  6.0 8c09fc1a-3af68f99-f281b04              bvowk 142.8   234
34  45.7/ 48.8/  5.5                   Locutus              Retro 142.6   280
35  45.4/ 48.2/  6.4             Manual Bomber           EvoBrain 142.5    62
36  45.6/ 48.8/  5.6      Resistance Is Futile              Retro 142.4   287
37  44.5/ 46.7/  8.8             silicon beach                hwm 142.2    34
38  45.6/ 49.0/  5.3   a slice of moonbeam pie       John Metcalf 142.2    99
39  36.6/ 31.0/ 32.5   where the dragons sleep       John Metcalf 142.2    33
40  38.6/ 35.0/ 26.4       in the passing rain           inversed 142.1   118
41  45.5/ 49.0/  5.5              *resistance*               gnik 142.0   185
42  45.4/ 49.3/  5.3             Seven Of Nine              Retro 141.5   277
43  44.6/ 47.9/  7.5            Yeah, III know             Fluffy 141.4    66
44  44.0/ 46.9/  9.0                     tiger       John Metcalf 141.2  1901
45  36.5/ 32.0/ 31.5 legend of the ice dragons       John Metcalf 141.0   154
46  44.3/ 47.6/  8.1       RS : Responent Lism           inversed 141.0     7
47  41.5/ 42.2/ 16.3     to fly with phantasms             raptor 140.7    64
48  42.0/ 43.5/ 14.5                   coconut          G.Labarga 140.5     1
49  40.1/ 40.6/ 19.3              at the depth                hwm 139.6    12
50  43.4/ 47.3/  9.3                CLR-pro067          G.Labarga 139.5     3

Averages:

28  43.0/ 42.4/ 14.6    27 hand-coded warriors          8 authors 143.7   153
23  45.1/ 45.7/  9.2       23 evolved warriors          7 authors 144.3   342

    44.0/ 44.0/ 12.0              all warriors         14 authors 144.0   242

131 successful challenges have passed since last issue, with 17 warriors
surviving the duration.

Inversed and Metcalf both have 9 warriors on the hill, each with an average
rank of 27.  Fluffy and hwm have 6 warriors each.  Fluffy's average rank is
21, hwm's is 18.  Bvowk, Retro and Labarga all have 4 warriors.  Of the
three, bvowk has the highest average rank, 17.
_____________________________________________________________________________

The SAL Nano Hall of Fame:  * indicates the warrior is still active.

Pos Name                   Author             Age    Strategy
 1  Muddy Mouse (RBv1.6r1. The MicroGP Corew 2275 *  evolved
 2  Foggy Maus (beta)      The MicroGP Corew 1968    evolved
 3  tiger                  John Metcalf      1901 *  clear
 4  Core Painter           Zul Nadzri        1896    evolved
 5  Petro "I'm Old" Warrio Zul Nadzri        1787    evolved
 6  White Moon             Fluffy            1632 *  evolved
 7  Mellisuga helenae (RBv The MicroGP Corewa 970    evolved
 8  34cf7eac-40fea321-52d3 bvowk              805    evolved
 9  rumpelstiltskin        gnik               797    imp rings
10  the last of the dragon John Metcalf       793    qscan
11  Bacillus anthracis     Fluffy             782    evolved
12  Millionaire Landlord   Zul Nadzri         781    evolved
13  Shutting Down Evolver  Roy van Rijn       768    evolved
14  cre_387.red            Loren Jamison      729    evolved
15  Polarization 05        Zul Nadzri         691    evolved
16  Paedocypris horridus ( The MicroGP Corewa 690    evolved
17  90ae3a01-6753123f-ea13 bvowk              677 *  evolved
18  Left Alone             Fluffy             668 *  evolved
19  deadbeef-deadbeef-dead gnik               667    evolved
20  rdrc: Delicate Crowbai Dave Hillis        651    evolved
21  34cf7eac-b6b64199-b366 bvowk              650    evolved
22  8c09fc1a-b0a315d8-c00a bvowk              647    evolved
23  terrafirma.4           hwm                628    oneshot
24  rdrc: Blanch Autoclave Dave Hillis        625    evolved
25  rdrc: Repent Linemen   Dave Hillis        612    evolved
26  8c09fc1a-852cb1ba-575a bvowk              599    evolved
27  cre_85.red             Loren Jamison      598    evolved
 =  34cf7eac-a3b71483-e067 bvowk              598    evolved
29  Man&Machine            Roy van Rijn       592    evolved
30  Bombus Sylvestris      S.Fernandes        591    oneshot
31  My nano Qscan III      G.L                590    qscan
32  rdrc: Laundry OSHA     Dave Hillis        585    evolved
33  rdrc: Revere Gimmickry Dave Hillis        577    evolved
34  riddle of the treefolk John Metcalf       576    clear
35  rdrc: Borneo Birdie    Dave Hillis        572    evolved
36  8c09fc1a-fb0a7607-1854 bvowk              557    evolved
37  8c09fc1a-37dd0c74-56dd bvowk              555 *  evolved
 =  From The Ritz To The R Roy van Rijn       555    evolved
39  rdrc: Alcoholism Malt  Dave Hillis        554    evolved
40  79cd9f34-82dbc531-5a6e bvowk              550    evolved
41  Go on!                 Roy van Rijn       549    evolved
42  on-speed               brx                533    clear
43  79cd9f34-d6f5e302-9ba3 bvowk              519    evolved
44  79cd9f34-3b84408a-9447 bvowk              509    evolved
45  Stray Cosmic Ray       jm/sf/f            500    paper
46  Fierce Machine         Zul Nadzri         498 *  evolved
47  Polarization 04        Zul Nadzri         496    evolved
48  79cd9f34-7d7f3dad-91a2 bvowk              493    evolved
49  Bombus Nasutus         S.Fernandes        490    qscan
50  The Seed I             Fluffy             467    evolved

Only 10 warriors in the Hall of Fame are hand-coded.  Prods is just a few
challenges away from entering.  325 warriors have reached age 100 on the
nano hill, the full list is available at http://corewar.co.uk/nanohof.txt
_____________________________________________________________________________

The All Time Hall of Fame:  * indicates the warrior is still active.

Pos Name                   Author             Age    Hill
 1  Son of Vain            Oversby/Pihlaja   2573    94nop
 2  Muddy Mouse (RBv1.6r1. The MicroGP Corew 2275 *  nano
 3  Thermite II            Robert Macrae     2262    94
 4  Sphinx v2.8            W. Mintardjo      2102    88
 5  Impfinity v4g1         Planar            1993    94

Muddy Mouse climbs another position to become the second oldest warrior
ever.  With Son of Vain in sight, can Muddy Mouse survive another 299
challenges?
_____________________________________________________________________________

Status of the corewar.co.uk Infinano Hill:

 #    %w   %l   %t  Name                     Author                  Score
 1  50.2 23.8 26.0  the spiders crept        hwm                    176.63
 2  50.4 25.9 23.7  Chiki Chiki              G.Labarga              174.97
 3  54.9 36.9  8.2  Foggy Maus (beta)        The MicroGP Corewars C 172.92
 4  55.3 37.9  6.8  Red Moon                 Fluffy                 172.77
 5  50.5 28.6 20.9  ripples 22               S.Fernandes            172.42
 6  54.3 36.9  8.8  8c09fc1a-4799259f-174724 bvowk                  171.76
 7  54.0 36.6  9.4  c82f15b5-85011fd8-5a969d bvowk                  171.49
 8  50.5 30.5 19.1  flight by day & night    hwm                    170.48
 9  54.0 38.7  7.3  a slice of moonbeam pie  John Metcalf           169.27
10  49.7 30.3 20.0  ripples in space-time    S.Fernandes            169.06
11  47.0 25.7 27.3  Cosmic Horror            Miz                    168.39
12  50.1 32.0 17.9  Black Sun III            Fluffy                 168.27
13  48.4 30.3 21.4  Dodecadence              G.Labarga              166.47
14  52.4 38.5  9.1  Escherichia coli         Fluffy                 166.29
15  49.5 33.0 17.5  Nano'Powa                G.Labarga              166.10
16  52.4 39.0  8.6  Left Alone               Fluffy                 165.85
17  52.2 38.7  9.1  rdrc: Laundry OSHA       Dave Hillis            165.72
18  48.7 31.8 19.5  Staphylococcus aureus    Fluffy                 165.60
19  52.4 39.2  8.4  rdrc: Repent Linemen     Dave Hillis            165.59
20  51.9 38.6  9.6  rdrc: Borneo Birdie      Dave Hillis            165.13
21  49.6 34.2 16.3  Nano'Broda               G.Labarga              164.95
22  51.7 38.6  9.7  rdrc: Delicate Crowbait  Dave Hillis            164.75
23  51.8 38.9  9.3  rdrc: Sportsmen Momentar Dave Hillis            164.70
24  51.4 38.6  9.9  rdrc: Aborning Chute     Dave Hillis            164.28
25  50.5 36.8 12.8  Muddy Mouse (RBv1.6r1.1. The MicroGP Corewars C 164.15
26  50.8 37.4 11.8  Shutting Down Evolver No Roy van Rijn           164.10
27  52.3 40.5  7.2  Old Lamplights Blink     hwm                    164.06
28  50.7 37.5 11.8  Man&Machine              Roy van Rijn           163.87
29  51.5 39.2  9.3  Leishmania deanei        Fluffy                 163.77
30  51.1 38.5 10.4  h1_3.red                 Dave Hillis            163.71
31  44.2 25.1 30.6  digestive biscuits and t hwm                    163.35
32  51.4 39.6  9.0  rdrc: Effluvia Verbosity Dave Hillis            163.30
33  52.6 42.0  5.5  early morning view       Neogryzor/FatalC       163.11
34  50.6 38.1 11.4  Bacillus anthracis       Fluffy                 163.08
35  42.6 22.7 34.6  legend of the ice dragon John Metcalf           162.53
36  51.1 39.8  9.1  Yersinia pestis          Fluffy                 162.49
37  50.6 39.3 10.0  rdrc: Blanch Autoclave   Dave Hillis            161.96
38  51.1 40.4  8.5  Taking Over Nano IX      Jens Gutzeit           161.74
39  50.6 39.5 10.0  h1_36.red                Dave Hillis            161.73
40  51.0 40.3  8.7  Obsidian peasoup         Miz                    161.72
41  39.5 17.3 43.2  path of the mountain har John Metcalf           161.71
42  48.0 34.4 17.6  listen to the rain       John Metcalf           161.69
43  44.5 27.4 28.1  Stray Cosmic Ray         jm/sf/f                161.58
44  50.5 39.8  9.7  rdrc: Silhouette Ulcer   Dave Hillis            161.24
45  50.6 40.4  9.0  around the core in 80 cy John Metcalf           160.87
46  46.6 32.2 21.2  rdrc: Strychnine Banshee Dave Hillis            160.87
47  50.2 39.5 10.3  rdrc: Alcoholism Malt    Dave Hillis            160.82
48  50.5 40.2  9.2  Vera City I              Fluffy                 160.79
49  46.6 32.6 20.7  shades of amber grey     John Metcalf           160.66
50  50.1 39.6 10.4  rdrc: Hexadecimal Bunny  Dave Hillis            160.58

43 nano warriors have been published since last issue, bringing the total
on Infinano to 282.  17 of the new warriors entered the top 50, 11 papers,
4 clears/streams and 2 imp rings.  18 of the top 50 warriors are written
by hand.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Exploring the Dynamics of the Corewar Nano Hill by John Metcalf

The History of the Nano Hill
----------------------------

To understand the balance of the nano hill, it's important to look how
the hill evolved over time.  The early hill quickly became dominated by
two strategies, evolved streams and clears.  The streams held a slight
advantage.

Next to make an impression were the scanners, oneshots and quickscanners.
They scored well against clears, but lost points to evolved streams.
Clears were losing on all fronts and started to fall from the hill.

Clears were soon replaced by clear/imps at the expense of the scanners.
Scanner/imps appeared, but too late - scanners would never again dominate
the nano hill.

All this time papers had been lurking in the background.  They'd always
achieved reasonable scores, but they didn't have an opportunity to expand
their presence until scanners appeared.  The number of papers on the hill
began to slowly creep up.

When imp rings arrived, they entered a hill ruled by streams and carved
their own niche.  Scanners suffered further losses.  Finally, paper/clear
arrived, claiming a strong position on the hill.

Nano Hill Score Matrix
----------------------

To further investigate how the strategies interact on the nano hill,
I took up to 10 representatives of each and entered them into a round
robin tournament.  The scores have been grouped by strategy:

     | pclr  str  pap cimp impr  clr simp  qsc shot scan  stn |   avg
-----+--------------------------------------------------------+------
pclr |  134  144  146  145  138  150  142  208  207  211  197 | 165.6
str  |  144  149  150  148  128  158  150  161  162  158  197 | 154.9
pap  |  127  140  138  123  122  138  141  183  194  193  187 | 153.3
cimp |  108  126  138  124  121  135  143  171  166  170  164 | 142.4
impr |  108  146  131  108  108  141  127  185  179  180  139 | 141.1
clr  |  132  137  148  137  126  148  107  138  133  140  199 | 140.5
simp |   94  131  117   94   96  161  126  163  178  178  145 | 134.8
qsc  |   81  136  110  114  103  160  123  150  140  167  161 | 131.4
shot |   75  134   96  113   95  161  109  149  148  146  159 | 125.9
scan |   74  139   99  114   99  158  104  130  148  147  145 | 123.4
stn  |   87   95   97  111  129   91  142  137  135  154  141 | 119.9

Key
---

pclr = paper/clear,     e.g. "the spiders crept"
str  = evolved streams, e.g. "Foggy Maus (beta)"
pap  = paper,           e.g. "ripples in space-time"
cimp = clear/imp,       e.g. "the kraken awakes"
impr = imp rings,       e.g. "legend of the ice dragons"
clr  = clear,           e.g. "around the core in 80 cycles"
simp = scanner/imp,     e.g. "Xinyl"
qsc  = quick-scanner,   e.g. "wreath of thistles"
shot = oneshot,         e.g. "victim of the night"
scan = scanner,         e.g. "girl from the underworld"
stn  = stone,           e.g. "nano nano mork calling orson"

Performance
-----------

Paper/clear beats every class of opponent.  If an ultimate warrior is
ever discovered for the nano hill, chances are it'll be a paper/clear.
Both paper/clear and paper receive impressive scores against scanners.
Paper/clear has a slight advantage over paper.

Evolved streams (a.k.a. mad mad bombers) beat almost every strategy -
imp rings being their one weakness.  Evolved streams typically score
better against non-scanning opponents than any other class.

Clears have mediocre performance, not achieving a strong score against
any strategy.  Their greatest weakness is versus scanner/imps.  Adding
an imp improves the score against scanners, but weakens the score
against other strategies.

Imp rings score well against scanners and fairly well against evolved
streams and clears.  Their score against paper/clear and clear/imp is
poor.

Scanners, oneshots, quick-scanners and scanner/imps generally have poor
scores against most strategies.  However, they receive reasonable scores
from evolved streams and clears.  Scanner/imps have a slight advantage
against other types of scanner.

The Future of the Nano Hill
---------------------------

Paper/clear and evolved streams will soon dominate the nano hill.  A
small number of papers will remain on the hill.  A few imprings, clears
and clear/imps will come and go as the balance of the hill changes.

That is, until the next big discovery to shake up nano...
_____________________________________________________________________________

Strategy: Paper/Clear on the Nano Hill by German Labarga

After lurking in the background since the beginning of the nano hill, paper
took advantage of the abundant presence of scanners and finally showed up
on the nano hill in numbers, taking a strong position alongside the evolved
clears.  On the nano hill, paper beats scanner.

Lets see how these creatures have found their way onto the hill.

The classic silk structure barely fit into the extremely reduced size of the
nano settings and against most opponents becomes damaged before spreading
properly.

Using copy loops like limited process paper faces similar problems.

A third method was also tested early on with limited success, but this was
the seed for modern nano papers.

The idea was to use the same method seen in evolved papers on bigger hills.
That is to make the copy in a self-splitting loop, which finally jumps to
the copy instead of closing the loop.

"More mutated beast" used a spl instruction to activate the copy while the
copy loop acts as a clear.

;redcode-nano
;name More mutated beast
;author Neo
;assert CORESIZE==80
;strategy 5-line evolved-style clearing paper

        dest equ 24

start:  spl #0,<-5
        spl dest,<-1
        mov.i }-2,}-1
        mov.i }-3,}-2
        djn.f -2,<-15

        end start

Despite some early failures, this strategy would later show its
effectiveness.

Fluffy's Black Sun III is a typical evolved paper that works as described
above.  We can say it is simply a clear wich has evolved to make a copy of
itself and send processes to the copy.  It remained on the hill for a few
days.

;redcode-nano verbose
;date Sun Jan 21 01:11:55 UTC 2007
;name Black Sun III
;author Fluffy
;strategy Watch the Sun!
;assert CORESIZE == 80

        ORG start

start   spl.x   # 0, > 21
        mov.i   } 79, > 79
        mov.i   < 73, < 37
        mov.i   < 36, < 72
        djn.i   } 18, < 49

        END

The door was open for the next generation of papers.  Actually nano papers
are already paper/clear, copying and clearing in the same loop.  There
are two main variants.

"ripples in space-time", whose optimization is explained later in this
issue, activates the copy via the final DJN instruction, (comments added):

;redcode-nano
;name ripples in space-time
;author S.Fernandes
;strategy paper
;assert CORESIZE == 80

pstep   equ     -17
ipos    equ     10
cpos    equ     -33
dpos    equ     36

        mov     >-39        ,    25     ; <-- qbomb
paper   spl     #0          ,    paper ; <-- paper copy and clear
        mov     >ipos       ,         -16 ; <--- split to copy
clr:  mov    *   31, <      -8 ; <--- clear
      djn.f  $  clr, <      46 ; <--- djn trail and loop to clear

end

Notice in the first variant the processes are sent to the SPL head of the
copy, seriously increasing the number of processes and slowing down the
paper.  This one creates new processes and sends them all along the copy.
Once the copy is completed newly created processes die on empty core, thus
making the SPL useless.  Though this could be seen as a means to increase
its life expectancy by executing opponent code or other paper copies.  The
first seems to be more a robust and compact code while the second spreads
faster and looks more aggressive.

Lets compare a few of these papers with a benchmark.

The following benchmark should be adequate:

clr\8C094799.RED
clr\C82F8501.RED
clr\EARLYMOR.RED
clr\ERE.RED
clr\FOGGYMAU.RED
clr\GOON.RED
clr\MOONBEAM.RED
clr\OIXAZZO.RED
clr\ONSPEED.RED
clr\REDMOON.RED
clr\REPENTLI.RED
cwi\BOMBUSMO.RED
cwi\ICEDRAGO.RED
cwi\PATH.RED
cwi\RITZ2.RED
cwi\RUMPELST.RED
one\BOMBUSSY.RED
one\NAOSV2.RED
one\QOPT3193.RED
one\SNIP6.RED
one\VICTIMOF.RED
qsc\DRAGONS.RED
qsc\MUDDY.RED
qsc\MYQS3.RED
qsc\TOYSOLDIER.RED
qsc\WOLVES.RED
scn\NANOOM.RED
scn\NZOOOM.RED
scn\ROCKETPR.RED
scn\RULE.RED
scn\TYPE-1.RED
stn\AFTERBUR.RED
stn\LITTLESC.RED
stn\NANONANO.RED
stn\PHILNANO.RED

Results with Corewin, 500 rounds per matchup:

Warrior               Author             Length  Score  Given    W%    L%    T%
-------               ------             ------  -----  -----  ----  ----  ----
ripples in space-time S.Fernandes       0.27678  187.8   96.6  57.4  27.0  15.6
Chiki Chiki           G.Labarga         0.35058  186.7   93.5  55.6  24.5  19.8
the spiders crept     hwm               0.36317  185.2   93.5  54.6  24.1  21.3
flight by day & night hwm               0.26279  184.9  100.2  56.7  28.4  14.9
Dodecadence           G.Labarga         0.29828  183.3  100.2  55.6  27.9  16.6
ripples 22            S.Fernandes       0.27280  182.7  101.3  55.5  28.4  16.1
Black Sun III         Fluffy            0.25111  180.3  106.1  55.6  30.8  13.6
Nano'Powa             G.Labarga         0.26727  178.8  106.7  54.7  30.7  14.6
Cosmic Horror         Miz               0.36555  178.4   99.8  52.2  26.0  21.8
Nano'Broda            G.Labarga         0.25541  176.8  109.3  54.3  31.8  13.9
listen to the rain    John Metcalf      0.24358  172.7  114.3  53.2  33.8  13.0
Wall of spikes        Glabarga          0.25962  172.3  113.0  52.5  32.8  14.7
Stray Cosmic Ray      jm/sf/f           0.35650  172.2  104.8  49.8  27.3  22.9
Staphylococcus aureus Fluffy            0.27901  171.4  113.9  52.2  33.0  14.7
More mutated beast    Neo               0.44891  154.5  117.7  42.3  30.0  27.7
Harl Projections 0.4  Roy van Rijn      0.43427  153.4  117.0  41.3  29.1  29.6
Nano Silk             Christian Schmidt 0.52297  133.9  127.2  31.7  29.4  38.9

listen to the rain, Black sun III, Nano'Powa and Wall of spikes all use the
first paper variant and get the fastest results, though both variants show
their effectiveness with the most modern papers coming out on top.  All
papers had more average wins than losses.

And now a round-robin with all the papers:

Warrior               Author             Length  Score  Given    W%    L%    T%
-------               ------             ------  -----  -----  ----  ----  ----
Black Sun III         Fluffy            0.44285  154.0  118.9  42.3  30.6  27.1
Staphylococcus aureus Fluffy            0.47239  151.2  120.5  41.0  30.7  28.3
flight by day & night hwm               0.46348  148.3  123.3  40.0  31.6  28.4
Chiki Chiki           G.Labarga         0.50641  147.4  123.2  39.3  31.3  29.4
the spiders crept     hwm               0.54014  147.1  120.7  38.3  29.5  32.2
Cosmic Horror         Miz               0.53343  142.5  124.8  36.6  30.7  32.7
Nano'Broda            G.Labarga         0.43387  141.4  135.6  39.5  37.5  23.0
listen to the rain    John Metcalf      0.40995  141.0  137.5  39.8  38.6  21.5
Nano'Powa             G.Labarga         0.46551  139.3  133.9  37.5  35.7  26.8
ripples 22            S.Fernandes       0.50333  138.1  129.4  35.2  32.3  32.5
Stray Cosmic Ray      jm/sf/f           0.57622  134.5  124.7  31.2  28.0  40.8
Wall of spikes        Glabarga          0.47012  130.8  139.5  33.7  36.6  29.7
ripples in space-time S.Fernandes       0.48540  128.7  142.1  33.1  37.6  29.3
Dodecadence           G.Labarga         0.50803  128.2  140.6  32.3  36.5  31.2
More mutated beast    Neo               0.61303  108.8  151.8  23.2  37.5  39.3
Harl Projections 0.4  Roy van Rijn      0.61575  105.0  150.5  20.2  35.3  44.5
Nano Silk             Christian Schmidt 0.66080   90.0  159.3  13.1  36.2  50.7

When it's about facing other papers, things change a bit, but most modern
paper/clear give good results.  Their aggressiveness is clear, showing
quite a low tie rate for a paper.  The only silk appears at the bottom in
both tests.

More detailed results are available on demand.
The code of all the warriors used in this test has been made public.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Optimizing Ripples in Space-Time by S.Fernandes

While looking through the breakdown of nano warriors by strategy I
noticed the absence of a decent 4 line paper, despite the success of
5-liners like Fluffy's Black Sun III.  I quickly hacked something up
and added a quick-bomb to the beginning.

I tested with some hand-picked constants against Metcalf's nano
benchmark.  It scored 139.2, or 129.8 with the quick-bomb removed.

;redcode-nano
;name hand coded paper
;author S.Fernandes
;strategy paper
;assert CORESIZE == 80

pstep   equ     15
ipos    equ     40
cpos    equ     -5
dpos    equ     35

        mov     >60         ,    10
paper   spl     #0          ,    paper
        mov     >ipos       ,    27         ,    54
paper   spl     #0          ,    paper
        mov     >ipos       ,    -39        ,    25
paper   spl     #0          ,    paper
        mov     >ipos       ,    -38        ,    25
paper   spl     #0          ,    paper
        mov     >ipos       ,    
German Labarga 
John Metcalf