Dip 1043 Standard

Dip 1043 Standard Black Press Gunboat

Black Press gunboat. Turkey won in Fall 1911

Click on the hyperlinked names for the EOG

Players

	Name	Nation	Duration
GM:	Sandford O’Donnell Peter Richardson		Spring 1901-Spring 1909 Fall 1909-end
Players:	Alex Amann	Italy	Spring 1901-Winter 1908
	? Luke Scandrett	Russia	Spring 1901-Spring 1909 Fall 1909-end
	? ? Dave Watson	Germany	Spring 1901-Fall 1903 Winter 1903-Spring 1909\| Fall 1909-end
	Adam Kuehn	Turkey	Spring 1901-end
	Michael Pendleton	France	Spring 1901-Winter 1908
	? Mark Hancock	England	Spring 1901-Winter 1904 Spring 1905-end
	Stephen Worthy	Austria	Spring 1901-Winter 1908

Adam’s EOG

First, a big thanks to everyone for sticking it out, even through GM abandonment, especially to England who by my reckoning is the only other original game member left. An equally big thanks to Peter for stepping in and giving us the chance to play it out

As for the game, I began by getting Turkey, which I normally regard as a home-hum choice. Turkey is very hard to eliminate, but also very hard to win with. At least, that's just what I normally think. In a limited exchange format like black-press gunboat, though, the stalemate lines are a bit easier to get around or punch through. So I felt pretty good about my chances at the outset.

The key in the opening couple of turns in a gunboat game is to establish who is who and see which players are greedy. Russia obliged me right off the bat by aggressively invading Austria. This gave me the immediate opportunity to develop ties with the wronged party in Vienna. My main goal at this point was just to establish a firm center base and build a unit or two. If Russia wanted to be the victim, I was OK with that. Accordingly, I got Austrian help and took Rumania.
Meanwhile, though, Italy was doing the Lepanto, and I needed to keep a wary eye to the defensive. With an obvious two-front situation developing, I did what any self-respecting diplomat would do: I switched sides. In an effort to keep my units all facing in a single direction, I outright stabbed the Austrian. I felt badly about it, since he was one of the more vocal players and would have made a good ally. Unfortunately, that would have left my back exposed to a player clearly out to get me. While I understand Italy's desire to take out the Turk, it cost him his ally and made Russia a force to be reckoned with.

I aware of Russia's growth potential though, and in a black press gunboat game was surprised and pleased to find Russia completely exposing himself to me. Maybe he felt the it would be impossible for me to stab him effectively and still hold off the Italians and Austrians. Certainly I wasn't making too many friends in the East. But Austria conveniently attacked me in Trieste, allowing me to "retreat" to Russian-held Budapest without risk of causing suspicion, and the stab was on again.
Russia had left himself so open in his haste to rush west that he guaranteed me at least three centers. Meanwhile, England had turned into the Med, providing the threat which finally got Italy off my case. With my hands thus freed, I had no choice but to reverse course for the second time and expand at Russian expense. I doubt I'd have done this in a non-gunboat game, but with limited opportunities to talk, there are also limited opportunities to trust.

Italy now recognized that my growth was inevitable, and that the English were going to put him between the anvil and the hammer, so he simply ceased to defend against me and all but invited me to take his centers. I did. My country grew as fast as any I've ever played. I built two, three, and three in consecutive years, and still had a build in the bank. While gridlock seemed likely, I was obviously in the lead and had a legitimate chance to win outright (as well as a decent chance to lose the line myself).

At which point, Sanford dropped off the face of the earth.

After a month, I trolled the Cat23 boards for a replacement, and Peter (and several others) graciously volunteered to act as replacement GM. The game progressed relatively routinely from that point on, as a solid and unbreakable stalemate line was effectively reached in Fall of 1909. I miscalculated a bit, and thought I saw an opening in Germany when in fact his line was impenetrable, but still, I noticed a dangerous (for them) tendency toward movement on the part of some of my erstwhile captors, and thought I might go a few rounds to see if any cracks appeared. After missing chances in Autumn of 1910 and again in Spring of 1911 to crack the stalemate line, I finally hit the mark this last turn. Note to Russia, whoever you are: when you've reached a stalemate line against a 17-center power, HOLD STILL!

Anyway, thanks again to everyone for an enjoyable game.

Addendum on tracking Austria down: Thanks for the detective work, guys. Well-played, Stephen. You and I might have had a good alliance in this one. I was all set to be your faithful companion and carry out the unusual A/T alliance, when I realized that Italy was coming after me with guns blazing. You were vocal and gave a good impression, which is hard to do in a black press gunboat. Had this been a completely open game of Dip, I think you and I might have pulled it off. I hope to meet you again sometime. You strike me as a ...um ...worthwhile opponent.

My EOG

Cheers Adam, and all - should've known one of my regular players (Alex) had scuppered my chances :-)

Alex’s EOG

Hey, I wanted to work with you - but you're the one who retreated to Venice! :)

David’s EOG

Thanks to Peter for bringing the game home and congrats to Adam, well played. I recognized all those bogus 'black press' postings from -ahem- Germany at the end...;^)

Not much to say on strategem, came in late to play and realized real quick there wasn't much left but to stop the solo. The trick was how Russia(the first one) seemed to have a bad case of the NMR's and Turkey had him reeling. I did feel a 'twang' of guilt coming into this in the late replacement position to help stop the solo and actually DID think about throwing it.

As luck would have it it seems we got an inexperienced player as replacement Russia so I don't have to feel bad in any case. I'm not trying to denegrate the Russian player, I'm sure he's learned a valuable lesson like we've all had in beginning the long stretch to learning Diplomacy. Sometimes that lone dot you’re holding becomes the most valuable SC in the game.

I would like to hear an end-game statement from him on his thoughts at the time. Did he really fall for all the black press that was obviously coming via Turkey?