Dip 1057 – Standard

I joined as England after Winter 1907 and won in Fall 1914.

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Players

	Name	Nation	Duration
GM:	Phil Ward		Spring 1901-end
Players:	JD Pierce	Turkey	Spring 1901-end
	Thomas Stephen Worthy	England	Spring 1901-Winter 1907 Spring 1908-end
	Patrick Meehan	France	Spring 1901-end
	Keith Archer	Italy	Spring 1901-Fall 1911
	Darryl Good	Russia	Spring 1901-Fall 1911
	Gordon Park	Austria	Spring 1901-Fall 1909
	Darryl	Germany	Spring 1901-Fall 1908

Map

Final position – Fall 1914	Initial position – Winter 1907
Centres: England 18, Turkey 9, France 7	Centres: England 9, Turkey 9, France 6, Russia 4, Italy 4, Austria 1, Germany 1

My EOG

First of all, I’ve enjoyed this game a great deal. I usually play gunboat games, which are less time-consuming and favour tacticians like myself over diplomats. However the mix of politics and personalities, followed by a quality endgame may have persuaded me to get back into full press.

The situation I encountered on replacing the former England at the start of 1908 was quite strange. England had 6 fleets and 3 armies, a reversal of proper army/fleet balance. Although England was a joint leader with Turkey, this combination of poor building choices and a failed stab on France made England unthreatening and Turkey the obvious danger to everyone. The complex logistics needed to lick the position into shape appealed to me, especially with the safety net of a probable draw. So my initial aim was to make the draw as small as possible at the very least.

Attitudes at the start confused me. Some even favoured a 6 or 7-way draw, a result which hardly justifies playing at all. Italy, France, Russia and Austria pushed me towards a 5-country alliance which would have left 8 English units twiddling their thumbs off the coast of France. It was an untenable situation, but I decided to play along with them as I checked the lie of the land.

The ‘fluffy’ approach of many of the players seems to have been a reaction to JD’s machiavellian start to the game, which saw him grow into the object of mass fear and loathing. I tipped JD the wink that I was looking for a good opportunity to stab France. He may not believe me now, but I did actually revisit the concept every single season. Unfortunately, no opportunity presented itself which would allow me more than two centres. If I couldn’t cripple France within a year of the stab, I’d leave the way clear for Turkey to win. I got one possible opportunity to stab (Spring 1909), but by the time I was convinced it was possible, my safe prelims had been used for the adjudication.

As it happens, Darryl gave me the next good chance of a stab when he let Turkey into St Petersburg, and I capitalised to secure 3 Russian centres. I had to destroy the Turkish army along the way, but I knew JD was far too pragmatic to take it personally. This gave me a window of opportunity to turn my attack on France.

Patrick’s lack of interest in defence made my job a little easy at first. His growth at the expense of a frankly pitiable Italian capitulation (“resignation” might be a better word!) should have allowed him to leave some units at home, but he left France wide open. His mistrust of JD also made him a little slow in bringing his fleets back, letting me take Portugal and Marseilles almost immediately.

But the speedy progress against France meant that my ability to get the solo became obvious earlier than I’d have liked. My units were still out of position, I was weak in Russia and I hadn’t yet crossed the stalemate line into the Mediterranean.

I also made my first mistake, which was to let Turkey into Ukraine unopposed. I had thought opposing the move wouldn’t buy me enough time, so I might as well gamble on JD being slow to attack me. If I’d moved for Ukraine, it might have pi$$ed him off needlessly. As it happens, only JD’s error in failing to take Moscow let me off the hook when he did indeed attack Ukraine at the first opportunity.

The campaign now focussed on five key centres – Moscow, Warsaw, Munich, Marseilles and Spain. I had three and I needed four. My strategy then became to shift my armies eastwards as fast as possible. I knew I’d be able to retake Munich under most circumstances, so I didn’t always need to defend it. Patrick produced a great set of orders – closing out Marseilles as expected and blocking my move to Livonia. At the same time JD surprisingly left Ukraine open, possibly anticipating me repeating my previous year’s moves. I ended up vacating Warsaw when to stay would have given me the game.

This could have been game over, but Patrick passed up the opportunity to retreat behind enemy lines and then ordered A War – Sil, allowing my A Ukr to escape rather than being destroyed. I now had Moscow, Warsaw and Spain sown up and Patrick would have to guess the right option in a 50:50 choice for both Munich and Marseilles. Marseilles happened to fall straight away. The Piedmont army move to Venice made no difference, but it did confuse me – even a weakened attack on Marseilles would have succeeded.

Anyway it was a fun game and a fun endgame. Those crucial 5 centres changed ownership 12 times in the last 3 years and I suspect all the manoeuvring will stand me in good stead for a game just behind this one in which I’ve just made the crucial solo-beginning stab. I’m always reassured in these endgames that my fellow players are absolutely unpredictable, despite all of my planning. Otherwise it would be boring! Thanks to all, especially Phil, who had to put up with my constant vacillations again.

GM’s EOG

This game was a pleasure to run apart from some late orders in the earlier years and was made even more pleasurable by the copied correspondence to me from Austria and Russia.

From my side of the fence I saw Turkey make some quick gains, unfortunately upsetting all his neighbours while nothing very much happened in the west apart from some slight gains at Germany's expense made by England which I felt was perhaps due more to luck than judgment..

England’s resignation brought a new King to the throne who appeared to benefit from trust worthy of a saint. It was only a matter of time before a stab against France occurred and although England appeared to be unsure of final victory I felt it was always within his grasp.

Many thanks to all the players who took part and who made the game so enjoyable for me.

JD’s EOG

actually came to this game from one where a Turkey had tried to pair with an Austria and had eventually been smothered in the process. Still, Austria was clearly the best ally for me early, both from a communication and a tactical sense, and we joined together against Russia -- but this thought was lingering as we marched forward. Soon Austria began putting forward plans and strategies that would more or less put an Austrian ring around Turkey -- at least from a growth standpoint. Moreover, an I/T had been in discussion since early on, which provided some hope that a solid ally was out there.

Well, Russia proved to be remarkably capable and dancing around and protecting Moscow -- which took a few turns to even figure out. And Italy was -- sincerely or disingenuously, I have no idea -- worried about allying with me, alternatively breaking disagreements and then accusing me of being untrustworthy (who me?). So I had to let Italy get into a bad spot with England in hopes of bringing him over to the side of purity and light (mine of course) if only because he had no other choice. However, he never really made that choice, so there I sat, surrounded by small enemies content to allow E and F to do what they wanted (which is not fair regarding Russia as he put up a valiant fight on all fronts all game long).

Finally, I was the proverbial Turkish diplomat, stuck in the corner with decent but not overwhelming size, watching as others decided my fate. Congrats should definitely go to England, who played some textbook Diplomacy.

Patrick’s EOG

Well, I loved this game, though I am dissapointed that half of my total centres I ever managed to get were gained in year one!

Well, way back in the beginning, I pulled off a doubling of my centres in the first year, which was sorta helpful I suppose.

The original England was OBSESSED with taking over Scandinavia. And the German became quickly convinced that the Brit and I were on cahoots, since the Brit never sent him any messages. The fun part was that ME and hte brit barely ever said two words to each other. The extent of our dealings were me emailing him every season that he pulled off a build saying "Hey, so that build there isnt going into the Channel right?" and him replying with a "no." Quite the healthy relationship there.

Right off, I decided to slam the German. I was paranoid that the German would come in against me alongside the Brit (yes, I was also convinced that the German was with the brit, turns out the brit was all on his own). So I made a pre-emptive strike.

Poor Darryl, I shouldnt have attacked you, you played the game stand up and honest and I stabbed you in year two!

There was a border dispute with Italy, he moved into Piedmont so I jumped my fleets down his throat. I had jumped in on the Italian with both fleets for the simple reason that A) I was worried he was going to do something stupid like play to Marseilles and B) The Turk (scoundrel) had promised me that he would send his fleets out to fight the Italian on the other side. The Turk then begged off my repeated requests for him to follow through on his word,

guess that was too much to ask. Oh well, Turkish lies aside (I do believe I was by far not the only one to buy into his lies) my wars bad by 05.

Darryl was slamming through me, I had lost Holland and was worried likely to lose Belgium, the Italian by fluke had managed to swipe Marseilles away from me (I didnt beat funaly beat him out for a loooong time) and the Brit had just finished conquering Scandinavia and was looking for somewhere else to toss his forces.

Then came my year of glory.

I wiped out the Italian army that had been ravaging Marseilles in a great move, forcing him to disband. The Brit came in against the German I managed to out guess the Italian utterly in the Med, sheer luck, and held him in place (despite his 4 fleets to my 2)

So Ive got the German completely preoccupied with a British invasion, the Italian who has just lost Venice and Spain, with more falls coming.

Unfortunately, both the Brit and the Turk were growing faster than I. I finally got to the point where I could look past the thought of being destroyed next turn, cast a glance over to the balkans and noticed they were a Turkish holding, and the Black see a Turkish lake. The Russian was reeling, the Austrian was basicaly dead and I had at this point removed the Italian from being able to do anything against the Turk.

So I made a deal with the Italian who was sore at the way Turkey was playing. Somehow the fact that Turkey outlied and outstabbed everyone else in the balkans offended the Italian. I thought it was quite impressive actualy. So the Italian forces joined mine, and I pushed an army into place to prop up the Austrian.

Up untill that point, I had been seriously worried that the Turk would just keep on going and pull off a solo.

Then the Italian stabbed me. Which was rather dumb, apparently the Turk whispered in his ear and he decided I was going to attack him. So I decimated him. Dropped him to one unit and he threw his lot back in with me against the Turk.

By now, Russia, Austria and Italy were all very minor powers. The big hitters were me, Turkey and England, England being the smaller of the three who was poorly placed to do much.

So me and England teamed up against the Turk for a short while. I fought in the med and the Balkans, he fought on the Russians old turf.

At around this point, the ridiculous number of draw proposals and solo proposals started to flood the game. We had 1-4 proposals PER TURN.

I had Italy as my vassal against the Turk, England had Russia. We finished both vassals off at the same time, which marked the true change in the game.

The Turk by now was fully contained, and I had in my mind the plan of stabbing the Brit come the following Spring.

He beat me to it.

And was in a much better place than I had thought to stab.

I waited a turn too long to turn away from the Turk. As soon as the stab came down I should have rushed right back to stop it, but I was unsure of the Turks intentions.

By the time I had fled it was far too late.

Very well played by our replacement England I must say, congratulations on the win, I was much impressed by the way he came into France from all sides and forced disbands wherever possible.

Great game everyone.

Darryl’s EOG

Let me open with a little about myself. I am a Civil Engineer working for the US Bureau of Reclamation in Farmington, New Mexico. My wife and I are middle-aged and recently married (approaching 2 yrs). I have played Diplomacy real-time about half-a-dozen times or so; yet, this is my second game by e-mail and my wife’s introduction. She, however, caught on quickly and begged me not to leave St. Petersburg open in the fall of 1908. She eventually relented when I insisted it was worth the risk, which allowed Turkey to take the province.

I enjoy the diplomatic angle of the game more than the strategic and view the changing of the seasons as a necessity to bring on new diplomatic angles and discussions. I think, however, I have demonstrated that I am not incompetent with the strategic angle. Most of you met and dealt with my competent senior diplomat persona, Count Andropov Yurpanska (pun intended). Others had the misfortune of meeting my overbearing, incompetent junior diplomat persona, Colonel Ivan Yurkinov, or the fortune of dealing directly with my leader persona, the consummate strategist himself, Tsar Vladimir Rasputin.

In the spring of 1901, we believed we were allied with Turkey and had a non-aggression pact with Germany. Russia would have settled for no more that two of Austria’s supplies until Turkey was ready to deal with Italy and we were prepared to move against Germany. Russia’s initial effort, therefore, was to be against England. Turkey’s occupation of the Black Sea and Armenia made it clear that the alliance was not there.

Since we had been careful not to permanently damage relations with Austria, we had hoped to continue our efforts against England and convince Austria to assist us against Turkey. Austria’s support of Turkey against Rumania made it clear that was not to be either.

At this point Russia’s efforts were expended on just maintaining our resource level and attempting to convince either Austria to support us against Turkey or Germany to support us against England. I might be overly bold in saying; Russia was instrumental in convincing France to bring pressure against Italy so that Austria could focus on Turkey. Turkey’s stab of Austria in the fall of 1902 may have been the fist nail in Austria’s coffin, but it gave Russia the ally we were looking for.

Until Austria’s failed orders of spring 1903. It seemed to us that the orders were intentionally written to fail and emotionally upset us. Russia, once again, attempted to ally with Turkey, precipitating the second stab from Turkey in the fall of 1903. Survival now became the objective.

By spring 1905, we had gotten over being upset about Austria’s failed orders and began working with Austria for survival and Turkey’s demise. Russia was shocked when our diplomatic efforts in the fall of 1905 proved fruitful and Italy supported Austria into Budapest; despite Italy’s loss of Venice to France in the same season. Between us, Russia and Austria now had five units to deal with Turkey.

Unfortunately it was too little, too late. In attempting to contain Turkey, we let a couple of his units through our line. It was now clear that Russia and Austria needed help. Russia increased efforts to convince anyone (England, France, German, or Italy) to come to our aid. This proved fruitful in France and later in the new King of England. However, bringing France into the fray proved to be Austria’s undoing; while, bring England into the fray proved to be Russia’s

We feel that possible turning points in the game were lost by France’s failed orders to occupy the Tyrrhenian Sea (fall 1902) and Austria’s failed orders (spring 1903). We are proud, despite a repeated stab; Russia did not fall to Turkey.

I learnt in this game; there is no such thing as alliance where there is no common goal. We appreciate the camaraderie we eventually found in Austria; and, understanding that deceit and treachery are integral pats of the game, we feel Turkey has taken them to a whole new level. We congratulate the survivors; England, France AND Turkey, and wish everyone the best in future games.