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Chris’s EOG
Well, to be honest, this game was screwy from the
very beginning, when I had no choice but to become a functioning Turkey.
After securing the area around the black sea, all of the strange Balkan
colors had been disbanded except for that one crazy red army, which helped me
fend of the pink beast for a while. The bottom line was, we needed everybody
and their sister to distract pink for me to have a shot, and it just didn't
happen. I saw the black stab in Sevastapol happening years in advance, but if
I couldn't get his support against pink, there was no shot at victory, and by
killing me, black must have known it was eventual suicide.
Pink played well, he used his forces correctly- and the purple and yellow war
took just long enough in the early stages, that pink boxed me in and slowly
advanced. my strategy of tangoing with pink until he had too many enemies
just took too long to develop.
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Andrew’s
EOG
I love seeing the player lists after a game of blind,
perhaps one of the best parts of the game. Thanks to you all, it was a
priveledge.
First up Jamie, thanks for the game, I've really enjoyed our correspondance through
the game, it's been great. The game was efficient and effective and I don't
remember any errors so it must have been a good game.
I alwyas like to comment on the variant first, and I'll say I really enjoyed it.
I didn't do well but I enjoyed the difference in map positions. Perhaps the angles
and the battles are the same as in regular dip but they are ones you rarely
see. To my mind the play of this variant allows many interesting board positions
to ponder over and I have enjoyed it. The escalation aspect with
eight players was also fabulous intrique and i think the snaking draft was
the way to go.
The game itself I don't remember as well as others, I apologise. I remember the
decision of wether to make sevasterpol a home centres was a big decision and in
the end I didn't to secure a better relationship with green. My intial years were
aimed at securing scandanavia and convincing the purple or grey player to work
with me. With purple this did not work at first, nor did it work at second,
nor even at third did it work, but just to show that perserverance works
it worked on the fourth attempt. I regret my squabblings with grey. In hindsight
perhaps it was unreasonable to beleive that he would work with me, this being
gunboat and all and so we may have been doomed from the start. With this in mind
I might ahev been better to focus completely on grey. But you live and learn.
The biggest dissapointment of the game is that I was fighting for the small side
of a draw from very early on. The satisfying bit is that I got a part of the draw
in teh end after trying in vain for quite soem time to secure support. I was
the king of duplicity in this game as the support I hoped for never came to the
fore. I hope you will all forgive me for next time.
In general I think Pink did a great job, well done Stephen, I'd give you my 3
points for play. I can't possibly give Rodolphe any credit because he was the
main reason I didn't get off the ground (darn you and darn you), but I will grundingly
admit that maybe just maybe you did play alright (since you do have ten more
centres than I :) ) well done to you. Christiano, I am surprised is still
here, I was sure one of the big powers sandwhiching you would've gone
after you in the early to mid game. You seemed such a lucrative haul of centres
and I felt you were always defending both sides. Still you continued to balance
the two powers and sucessfully discourage any attck, nice job.
Jorge must be sick of seeing the site of me, I can't wait to play a press game
with you. Chris hard luck, we worked well together and it was a shame I was so
distracted in the north adn could not give you more support. Alex, theres a small
satisfaction knowing that I got at least a little more than you in this one
after you thrased me in your 950 solo. And I can bet jacob won't get into a bidding
war in future :)
Well done all. I really enjoyed this game even if my result was not great.
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My EOG
Ah well, it
wasn't to be. The solo generally needs errors from other players and there
simply weren't any weak players. Neither Yellow or Black lost interest and
Purple wasn't blinded by his own quest for the solo. I needed one or the
other, although I'd be interested to know if anyone thought I could have got
the solo by striking earlier or later.
I've recently run a couple of games of Escalation because it suited me very well.
It allows a variable number of players, which means you don't have to hang on
waiting for a full complement at the start of the game. It also gives a huge
advantage to those who understand the dynamics of the diplomacy map and the
strategies of the solo. Those who don't fully think through their strategy
right from the start are dead men walking even before the escalation phase is
finished. Those who fail to adapt to the threats of other placements find the
advantages of their previous placements have vanished.
I ran both
of my games by allowing placements in strict rotation and, like many players
I suspect, I protested vigorously at the running order when Jamie published
it. However, having observed my opponents' tactical abilities throughout the
game, I'm content that justice was done in Escalation.
Yellow, Purple and Black placed themselves with great potential to expand, but
also a defensible position. Grey was this game's adventurer, with his isolated
army in Paris soon extinguished. Red and Blue went for the honeypots of the
Balkans and Austria. I'll confess I still don't understand Green's decision
to emulate Turkey, especially with the weakness of a fleet
in Ankara, but perhaps like me he sensed an advantage in waiting on the sidelines
while the battle for the Balkans raged.
I say advantage because it became clear to me very soon that the area would be
highly prized and that the 'spare' eighth nation would aim for it, leading to
self-destructive early combat. While countries' placements soon emulated
France, England, Russia, Turkey, Germany and Italy, Red and Blue became
entangled in the Balkans. Neither had a hope of surviving, destined as they
were to fight each other to the death as the predators circled.
I positioned myself as a predator, knowing that Red would be distracted by Blue,
and took all of Austria in 1901. I left Rome and Tunis as safe gains when
times were harder, but for the present there were easy pickings. With Red and
Blue in disarray, Green and I started the meat grinder and didn't stop until
they were both finished. Red put up a good show, but Blue's NMR
was an unfair advantage to Green that certainly gave him a leg-up at a point when
I could have dominated the region very early.
Perhaps it was for the best, because I would undoubtedly have fallen prey to early
leader syndrome. I've become convinced that the best way of achieving a solo
is to make sure another power is just as successful as you right into double
figures, but with a worse position to cross the stalemate line. Grey and
Black's similarly entangled position was allowing Purple to expand as fast as
I was, and that suited me fine. Purple played the game very much as I tried
to - efficiently taking advantage of the confusion inherent in a crowded map
and a no-press game.
Yellow made some very intelligent moves, but his gameplay confused me somewhat.
He appeared content to wait between two growing powers and try and slow their
growth by needling them enough to distract several units, but not enough to
provoke a full invasion. A reasonable theory, but lacking in growth
prospects. He got nowhere in the Med, but if he had kept up a full assault on
Purple, perhaps Grey and Black could have joined a three-nation
assault, leaving Yellow with most of the West. The simultaneous attacks on both
the major powers at a couple of points could also have backfired badly.
That takes us up to 1910, when Purple was on 11 and I on 12. We hadn't so much
as clashed, and I was content simply to race him for the 18 centres. I was
trusting to Green's stubborn resistance and Black's defensive solidity to
convince Purple and Yellow that I wasn't in the lead. However, I had three
centres surrounded and I believed I could get my fleets to bear on the
crucial Mid Atlantic Ocean faster than Purple.
My suspicion was that I wouldn't be able to get either Warsaw or Moscow, so I
resolved to move into position and be ready to support Black to hold, denying
Purple the centres. This left me needing Portugal, Marseilles and Spain.
Therefore I needed to grab the Mid Atlantic Ocean decisively. If Purple got
there first, my chances of taking Portugal were virtually nil and I'd be
forced into a probably impossible assault on Munich or Warsaw.
So I made orders in Spring 1910 which actually attacked all four of the other
nations, pushing deep into Russia, hoping to drive back the Yellow fleet and
grab Marseilles, and continuing my slow subjugation of Green. That season
would give a very clear indication of how successful I would be.
As it happened only one of my worst-case scenarios emerged. Unfortunately, that
was a doozy. I had hoped Yellow would decide he'd need as much force as
possible to defend his homelands from Purple, who was clearly attacking him,
and gamble on my possible desire to keep Purple's enemies strong. However,
his Fleet Mid-Atlantic Ocean did not block the move to the Irish Sea that
seemed obvious and suddenly Purple had two fleets adjacent to the Mid
Atlantic Ocean, while I had one. Another loomed in the Norwegian Sea and I
realised I'd never take the Mid-Atlantic. I'd have to pile into Russia and
hope to get the breaks. As it happened Black and Purple combined nicely to
build the necessary stalemate line, which ended my prospects. I
believe I made the right decision, given that Purple pulled out of his attack
on Yellow and warned him of my move to Marseilles a turn too late.
I was a little disappointed by Green. He had managed to produce my worst case
scenario set of moves twice in a row, and I was looking forward to a tricky
finishing flourish against him. His NMR saw him tarred with the same brush as
Blue, while otherwise he contributed strongly to my failure to secure the
solo.
Anyway, solid play by all. Rodolphe and I are about to play a game of intimate
diplomacy, so it was amusing to discover we had already been jousting against
each other. I know enough not to expect any mistakes from him. Everyone else,
thanks for the game, see you in the next one!
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