My EOG
Well it’s finally over and
thank heaven for that. Anyone who wishes
to ask Frank can check that I’ve been voting for the draw for the last
several game years. My guess is that
both Turkey and Denmark have voted against the draw some time in the last few
years, but we’ll see soon.
First of all, a comment on the
variant. This game’s been a long
depressing slog for me, but I’d say that was actually because of the success
of the variant rather than the failures.
The low winning condition forced everyone to continue diploming long
past conversation usually dries up in a normal game. It also caused immense paranoia and
enormous difficulty in building a stalemate of any sort. Personally the neurosis part of diplomacy
is the bit I really hate, but I suspect this was exactly what the Baron and
Jeff Kase had in mind.
The layout of the map worked
well for a tactical battle running through from midgame to endgame, but I’m
still not sure about the mass of neutrals in the middle. For several years at the start, I felt
very isolated in the west, with France and Britain the only people who
affected me directly, while Austria and Turkey affected me only
obliquely. The diplomacy points were
meant to get everyone talking early, but possibly didn’t compensate for that
solid mass separating everyone. I
also feel fairly aggrieved that 2-centre powers only get 2 DP’s to start
with. It means you have to use all
your DP’s to protect yourself, again stopping you speaking to the more
far-flung powers.
To the game, though. My initial progress was slow – Frank duped
France and me into attacking each other, but we soon realised our
position. Britain grew quickly, but
he was always doomed because he couldn’t resist a grab at any centres, until
he finally built up too many enemies.
There was pressure on me to join in the counter-attack, but I was
under too much pressure in the south.
Besides, his late diplomacy was much better, and I valued his
goodwill.
Meanwhile, a misorder in 64
left me vulnerable in the south and Turkey took advantage, reneging on his
promise to stop at Tunisia. We fought
to a complete deadlock until I managed to get him to overextend himself in
Morocco and destroyed his fleet. I
was ready to push him out of North Africa completely when I fell foul of
Lynn.
Austria had been growing
exponentially, but needed an ally to take some of the pressure off him, while
I needed help to gain centres. Lynn
helped me against France, in return for me keeping Turkey busy. However, just then Lynn double-crossed me
in Marseilles. A one-centre stab is
weak at the best of times, especially when that ally is fighting one of your
more dangerous enemies. But to claim
that it was a ‘wake-up call’ beggared belief. As his unrepentant arrogance and self-delusion continued, it
became clear that everyone else felt the same. I made peace with Turkey and France in order to work towards
the destruction of Austria.
That destruction was not long
in coming. Where before Austria had
faced Prussia and half of Turkey’s forces, he now faced the combined forces
of Prussia, Turkey and Spain. 10 centres
became 0 centres in four short years, despite Lynn’s last efforts to spread
dissent in the alliance. It causes me
great satisfaction to note that Austria’s doom was set in motion to some
extent by that pointless attack on Marseilles.
We now entered the prolonged
period of paranoia that was the endgame.
Denmark, Prussia and Turkey were the major powers, while I had been
slowly growing without ever posing a threat to the solo. After a small contretemps with Denmark, I
established peace on my northern frontier, a peace which, despite numerous
disputes over the Mid-Atlantic and Brest, I’m glad to say was never
broken. Ray again overextended
himself and failed to protect his North African position. I took my chance to stab him and establish
myself as a major player.
If I’d been sensible, I’d have followed through on my
attack and scorned the consequences.
But my solo was too remote and Denmark’s solo much closer, so I pulled
back to look for a stalemate. Of
course none emerged and I discovered that Ray and I had absolutely no common
ground. With no balance of power
possible, we both insisted on positions that gave ourselves the slight
advantage. We argued bitterly, but Ray’s
position was as valid as mine, so I hope he didn’t take my vehemence and deception
personally. The only galling moment
was when he dislodged F Tyn and actually expected me to retreat it backwards
instead of into Ionian. I can’t
imagine what possessed him to risk the retreat, since it destroyed his
chances, but I expect he felt he had to gamble that I’d be cautious.
My relations with Patrick were
much simpler. He was so surrounded by
Denmark and Turkey that he would have been mad to hold out for a solo. Yet he played the pivotal role in the game
very well and our brief conversations were generally constructive. If the game had gone on, I would have
launched everything at Turkey in an effort to end the game, and wouldn’t have
minded if Prussia had got the solo as a result.
Similarly I’m glad Stephen
survived to the conclusion. The
growing dangers of Denmark, Austria and Turkey forced an alliance with France
on me, but he was very pragmatic and a gracious diplomat. The ‘Bourbon Alliance’ was never equal in
centre count, but I would have been pleased if France had recovered his
position. I proposed a five-way draw
at one point in case he was the only nay-sayer, and was rather disappointed
by the negative response from the others.
He never got started, but showed plenty of diplomatic and tactical skill
in an unglamorous position.
A final word on my own
performance. For most of the game I
was forced to be extremely cautious, which doesn’t sit well with me. I had a couple of pleasing tactical
victories, but a win based mostly on diplomatic manouevring is sadly beyond
me, so I never really rated my chances.
I’ve never been the best at being inscrutable and I apologise if I
ruffled any feathers. My part in the
draw therefore was a satisfactory end to an exhausting game.
Thanks to everyone for sticking
with the game, including Frank, who did well to fill in as GM despite the
delays. Now, who was the @#*!ing
hold-out!?!
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Ray’s EOG
Frankly, this game has gone on
so long, I don't remember much. But
here is what I do remember: My place
in the draw was due entirely to Lynn Mercer playing about the worst game of
diplomacy I've ever seen. I'd copy
this EOG to him, but he blocks all e-mails from me.
I started off in an A/T (Lynn
was Austria). I got myself into a
completely untenable position with my forces spread all over the place,
nothing held back to protect the centers I owned, at war with both Spain and
Russia, and no allies other than Austria.
For getting myself into this terrible position, I have no one to blame
but myself.
Then Lynn stabbed me. By rights I was dead. But Lynn then went on a crusade to insult
EVERY other player on the board.
Virtually all of them came to me and offered me help to kill him. I didn't have to beg. I didn't even have to ask. Plus, everyone was willing to let me have
all of Lynn's dots they were helping me into just to be rid of him. I said thank you very much and lived. Lynn died.
Shortly thereafter the game
bogged down as the big powers eliminated the little powers. French Steve showed great skill in surviving
this whittling down.
Robert (Denmark), Patrick (Prussia) and I toyed with the
idea of trying for a three way, but there wasn't sufficient trust among us to
make it work. Each of the four
remaining powers clearly toyed with the idea of a solo, but it wasn't there
for any of us, least of all for me.
Frankly, I'm both surprised and
delighted that I made it into the draw given how badly I played the opening
seasons. Thank you, Lynn.
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Lynn’s EOG
Well A&E 040921 is apparently finally over, ending
in a four way draw. I congratulate
the draw participants for achieving what I think most observers would agree
was their best possible outcome, given their pedestrian play and general lack
of anything resembling (non-verbal) aggressiveness. Thanks to the GMs, Baron and Frank, for organizing and
overseeing the game.
When I received my power
assignment, I was unpleasantly surprised to find that for the third time in
three games Baron had assigned me to a central power. I had just previously played Germany in
1900 and Prussia in another A&E game.
I prefer to play naval powers.
I was also not happy to have Austria, in particular, since there had
already been several Austrian solos and who needs that? As a result I decided to play Austria as
an appendage of Venice. Naturally it
was not too difficult to discern that I was writing the Venetian press. Nobody else wrote any public press, that I
can recall, which would not have been an embarrassment to acknowledge authorship.
I have already made my various
complaints about the way the game plays so I am not going to dwell on those
points. I will say, however, how
annoying I find the fact that neutral sea powers cannot contest control of
even their home waters. It hurt me to
eliminate the Venetian fleet and I was sorry in the end that I hadn't just
said "screw Austria" and built at least one fleet regardless of the
Hapsburgs' other, seemingly more pressing, needs.
From looking at the accounts of
the various prior A&E games I decided that, hard as it was to believe
from any reasonable historical perspective, Poland-Saxony was the greatest
long term threat to Austria so I eliminated Wayne. I think it highly likely that if Wayne had been left to his own
devices that he would have won this game handily. (At least Ray seemed to have bladder control problems every
time Wayne's name came up.)
Regardless of that, I think in retrospect that the elimination of
Prussia might have been a better initial goal. Prussia's rather minimal press should have been a clue.
I'm sure that my opponents will
have their own opinions on how I handled Austria. If a four way draw is the best they could do, what are their
opinions worth? My take is that I
grew to encompass the neutrals which were both Catholic and generally
pro-Austrian (or historically in the Austrian sphere) while not harming any
actual power very much (except France of course, and I would have done him
considerably more harm if the opportunity had presented itself). An Austrian puppet on the throne of France
would have been a nice touch. If I
had bothered to control my rather visceral distaste for several of my
neighbors I might have delayed my decline for a time, but really life is too
short to waste the occasional opportunity to vent. My compliments to the next Austrian who can now point to
another Austrian elimination as a good reason why his growth should not be
too urgently contested :>).
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Rob’s EOG
This was my first A&E game,
and I was quite interested to play a game with so many powers and interesting
rules like armed neutrals and diplomacy points. Unfortunatley I was given a small power to start, and one
without any realistic access to any of those neutrals. Still I was not
completely dissapointed with my assignment. I always enjoy playing naval
powers, and I thought Denmark had some things going for it. It seemed to me
most people have portrayed Sweden as a more interesting and potent power than
Denmark, but I really disagreed with this analysis. I think Denmark has
basically the same access to the Baltic or Russia, but far more access to the
North Sea and Helgoland regions.
Of course, with only two
starting units, I could not go to all those places at once. I decided my best
strategy would be to knock out Sweden as quickly as possible, while
attempting to keep as much peace in the North Sea region as possible. I
figured this would allow me to take control of the Baltic centers, after
which I'd have a strong enough base to confront either Britain or Russia.
Russia agreed to the partition of Sweden, and Britain seemed very open to
demilitarized North Sea and an alliance with Denmark. Once I knew this I
began talking with Britain about having a central power as a third partner in
our longer term alliance. I
preferred Austria to Prussia or Poland because of its inablity to build a
Baltic fleet. Britain and Austria
both agreed this triple would make an effective alliance.
As far as I was concerned BAD
was on. I talked Sweden into opening Sto-Bot rather than Sto-Bal, and I made
orders that would set me up to take Sto in the Fall, while keeping my fleet in Bal so as to start attacking
Mec/Ber the next year. I also lent diplomatic point support to the Austrian
attack on HeW, as part of BAD's plan to take control of Germany, Prussia, and
the Baltic region.
I was pretty pleased with the
Spring 1763 results. Fall was another
matter. Though things went well enough for Austria and Britain, rather than
ordering Nov-Abo and eliminating Sweden, Russia stabbed for Christiania. At
the time I was rather dissapointed, but looking back I believe this may
actually have been very fortunate. I was forced to vacate Bal in order to
reclaim my home center. As I never actually attacked Prussia, I could
legitimately say I had only been in Bal to help take Sto, thus it was very
easy to make peace with Prussia. Baltic was demilitarized for quite some
time, and I believe this was a primary reason both Prussia and I experienced
success. Fortunately Russia agreed that he had been mistaken to stab me, and
returned Chr without a fight. Still it took a whole year to get there, and by
the time I did, a continued alliance with Britain and Austria did not seem so
much in my best interest.
It had become very clear that
Austria and Turkey were allied, and I believe had I tried again to occupy Bal
and attack Prussia, as Austria urged, I would be signing death warrants for
both Prussia and Russia, and have little way to defend myself should Turkey
and Britain attack me once Russia was eliminated. Around this time Britain sent a press to Prussia, Russia,
Sweden, and myself asking that we use our DPs to halt Austro-Turkish
expansion. Perhaps Britain was sincerely against AT, but I thought it was a
deception. I thought Britain was still allied with Austria and Turkey was the
real third partner, and wrote a letter to all the other powers saying as
much. An alliance was formed that
would allow Sweden and Russia to halt Turkey's advance, Spain, France and
Prussia, Austria's, while I would do my part by attacking Britain in
cooperation with Prussia.
In the first year of this
alliance(1765), Turkey and Austria were able to continue taking neutrals, but
at least Prussia and I made advances on Britain, allowing me to build the
first ever Danish/Norwegian army. In the spring of the next year, Austria
stabbed Turkey, apparantly with Spain's assistance, and things became quite
confusing in the center of the board. It seemed Prussia danced with Austria
and Turkey for a few years, consistently changing allegiance. At least
Prussia and I were able to continue working against Britain, and Turkey's
withdrawel from Russia allowed us to finally eliminate Sweden, with an
agreement made to allow me to take Abo which at the time was Russian.
Russia was able in the next
year (1767) to take Bak, and begin to grow. At this point he wanted to move
against Prussia. I was not oppossed to that, but I also did not want to
directly participate until Britain was eliminated. I felt if I turned on
Prussia before Britain was crippled, Prussia and Britain would unite and it
would not turn out very well for me. On the other hand, my "allies"
in the war against Spain and Austria, namely Prussia and Turkey, but most
particularly Turkey, put a lot of pressure on me to invade Russia. I
certainly did not want to do this either, as I still believed that a strong
Russia was essential to me not being invaded by Turkish armies. For a while I tried to satisfy P&T
that I was fighting Russia by continually ordering Abo-Kar yet knowing Russia
would just bounce. I tried to maintain a good relationship with S&A so
that after Britain was eliminated, Russia and I might attack Prussia and be
able to count on A&S to contain Turkey.
Two things happened in Fall
1768 which forced me to abandon that strategy. First Austria stabbed Spain
and took Marseilles, which I believe was the single poorest decision by any
power in this game. It gave two game long enemies, Spain and Turkey, a common
cause, and pretty much sealed Austria's doom. Closer to home, Russia did not order Stp-Kar, and I occupied
Kar. This began a chain of events which lead to the downfall of Russia. I
tried to prevent it by holding Kar in
S 1769, but Prussia and Turkey demanded I order Kar-Stp in the fall. I begged
Russia to bounce me in Stp rather than order Cou-Kon which I knew would fail. Taking Stp did not help me, as I would
already be gaining Lon and Ane and with only two home centers could not use a
third build. I knew if Russia bounced me in Stp, with Britain down to just
Brest, I'd finally be able to stab Prussia without having to worry to much
about a BP counter-attack. I knew I could occupy Bal the next spring, and
offered to support the Russian to Kon in the fall. Russia though said he
could wait no longer to attack Pru and made the futile order to Kon while I
took Stp.
From that point on, I believe
there were only four powers that mattered, Prussia, Turkey, Spain, and
myself. I knew Russia would retaliate, so I really had little choice but to
finally aide Turkey in his quest to eliminate Russia. Around this time
Prussia, Turkey, and I agreed to settle for a three way draw. Turkey very
much wanted me to attack Spain. I did begin moving forces towards the MAO,
but I would only actually attack Spain in conjunction with Turkey. When
Turkey began growing again, and chose to build armies rather than fleets, I
became very skeptical. He said he needed to do it to prevent a Prussian solo,
but I suspected he wanted me to get entangled with Spain so that he might be
able to take the centers he needed from Prussia and Russia to solo. I refused
to do so.
Eventually though, Turkey and
Spain lead me to believe Prussia might solo. In Fall 1772 I finally made a
move against my game long ally, Prussia. Contrary to popular belief I never saw this as a solo attempt. I merely
wanted to stop Prussia from winning. Once it became clear Prussia was not
going to solo, I did my best to again make peace with Prussia. Unfortunately
by this time Ray had convinced everyone I was the solo threat, and suddenly I
was being attacked from all
directions. I tried my best to broker a deal that would see Spain take Brest
and Prussia Paris so the game could end as quickly as possible, unfortunately
it seemed Spain didn't like the deal. For a moment I suspected Spain might
try for a solo, but now I think he may merely have been persuaded by Ray that
the deal was just a Danish ploy to win the game. I tried to put out this fire
by giving Turkey Kiev, but it did not seem to help, at least immediately.
When Turkey used this build to again construct an army, rather than move
against Spain as promised, I became convinced he was trying for a solo.
Eventually I believe the others came to see this as well, and the collective
forces turned away from me and towards Turkey. Still the game dragged on, but
eventually we all accepted the draw. I am convinced it was Turkey who was holding
out, and it was only when he lost Sof while at the same time I positioned
myself to defend Nov even if I should have lost Mos, that he accepted the
draw.
All in all I really enjoyed
this game, even if it seemed to take forever to end. I don't know if there
will be any more games of A&E, but if there are, i'd like to participate.
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Baron’s EOG
As is always the case, I get to
this point in the EoGR and find myself wondering what to say. Like I have done many times in the past, I'll
rattle off subjects as they occur to me.
Austria: I know Lynn to be a skillful player and I
personally believe he writes the best press I've ever read. Though some find it stuffy, I view it as
topical, witty, and immensely interesting.
All that said, I have to wonder what Lynn was up to. Based on his play, I actually do believe
he said "screw Austria" and decided to see how far he could go
after he insulted and stabbed just about everyone. I cannot explain how such a good player could make such a horrific
stab as the attack on Marseilles unless he simply didn't care what the
consequences were. If my guess is on
the mark, I find it unfortunate.
Negative play is almost always self-defeating in the long run. I believe that deliberately making enemies
of people by insulting their intelligence, ability, or character isn't fun
for anyone and takes much of the enjoyment out of any contest. I was dismayed that this negativity
continued in the EoG comments, but I hold out hope that Lynn's view of his
opponents will change over time and his joy of playing will return.
B/D Alliance: I disagree with
Frank on this point. I believe that
with the proper checks and balances B/D can be a very effective
alliance. Unfortunately for Frank,
those checks and balances were not in place.
Instead, the British Isles became a target too tempting to ignore.
The Holdout: I honestly have no
idea who was vetoing the draw. Like
Stephen W, my money would be on Ray or Robert, but Frank will have to let us
know.
Frank: Speaking of Frank, I
want to thank him again for bailing me out.
Given my schedule since I started working full time, I know it was a
wise decision to turn over the reins to another GM, though I'm disappointed
that I had to do so.
Denmark & Norway: I'd be
lying if I said I wasn't pulling for DN to do well. After Robert himself, I don't think any was more disappointed
than I was to see a Russian unit in Christiania in Fall 1763. I feared this would be a short game for
the Danes. I needed have worried,
however. Like my friend and
co-designer, Jeff Kase, did in the very first A&E game, Robert had
Denmark looking like a power to be reckoned with. I actually thought we might see a DN solo. While that didn't happen, just the notion
that many players feared such a result was satisfying in a way.
France: Stephen M has long been
one of my favorite players. I've
always admired his strategic skill and his usually rational diplomatic style
reminded me of my own negotiating practices.
I must say, though, that this game was most certainly not one of
Stephen's better efforts. From where
I sat, he never seemed to get into the flow of the game and was far too quiet
and passive. In truth, he seemed
disinterested for much of the contest.
This apparently continued after I left the game as France had an NMR
on the last turn. Stephen M
NMRing! It was unthinkable. To top things off, I didn't receive any French
comments. I've discovered that the
Dip life of most players averages about 3 years. Stephen lasted a little longer, but he now appears to be a
former Dip players in every sense of the term. I hope I'm wrong. His
commentary will be sorely missed.
Russia: I'm not sure what Brian
was doing throughout this game. I
wonder if he knew. Russia would move
north, then south, then back north, then south again, then west, then east,
and on and on. The wonder to me is
that Russia lasted as long as it did without anything approaching a coherent
plan or an attempt to build solid alliances.
Poland: Wayne's heart was never
in this game. Pity. I thought he had established a strong X/P
at game-start, but absolutely nothing came of it. Instead, he wasted what little time he had left trying to
negotiate with Lynn. Since Lynn,
egged on by Bruce, was bent on his destruction, Wayne never had a chance
(Lynn doesn't seem to like Poland & Saxony very much, having crushed it
as Prussia in an earlier game).
Sweden: Mike, we hardly knew
you. Life as the Swede can be tough
if things get off to a bad start.
We'll see how it goes next time.
Turkey: Ray's Ottoman Empire
was a house of cards. I was
absolutely astounded that it survived and even thrived given the fact that
Ray's hyper-aggressive style constantly left Turkey subject to peril. In the end, I do believe Austria's
misguided arrogance and Russia's confused muddling allowed Ray to recover
again and again. Turkish life was
certainly never dull.
Prussia and Spain: I lump these
two powers together because, in the end, I found their play very similar: solid,
cautious, steady, generally risk averse, and unspectacular overall. I mean these things in a positive
way. Both powers came to enjoy
tremendous success. How they came
about it was just rather dull, particularly in Prussia's case. Still, it's hard to be too critical with a
well-deserved place in a hard fought draw.
A&E: I don't think Jeff
will mind my mentioning that A&E is undergoing a major
transformation. Jeff and I have been
busily tinkering with both the rules and map. Many of our changes are based entirely on feedback we've gotten
from players in this and other games.
We hope the end product enhances historical feel, player interaction,
and tactical options, while not detracting from play balance. Much work, mostly on my part, remains to
be done, however. Look for something
more in the future.
Thanks to everyone involved in
this contest. I hope you found it
enjoyable.
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