  We study quark-gluon plasma (QGP) and hadronic gas (HG) models of the central
fireball presumed to be the source of abundantly produced strange
(anti-)baryons in S -> W collisions at 200 GeV A. We consider how multi-strange
(anti-)baryon multiplicities depend on strangeness conservation and compare the
HG and QGP fireball scenarios. We argue that the total particle multiplicity
emerging from the central rapidity region as well as the variation of
production rates with changes in the beam energy allows to distinguish between
the two reaction scenarios.
