Topic: PBEM Diplomacy: Sigmar. Postgame comments.

[valmir]

Well, after almost two decades of chaos, Europe has achieved Peace under the beneficent joint rule of the Kaiser and the Sultan (who, in another time, could have pursued long and successful careers as comic book villains or pro wrestlers, with names like those ).

The game started out quite well for Germany. This was my first ever Diplomacy game, and for the first few turns I spent hours on end (a) reading strategy articles, and (b) just staring at the map, wondering what I would do if I were everybody else. To allow for this kind of time expenditure, I changed my Massters degree to Part-Time . Italy and I had a deal to take down France. It was going to be AWESOME. But then Austria invaded Italy and, despite my already being in Marseilles, the masterful diplomat Cisse was able to force me back to within my own borders.

I was forced back to four centres, at which point I sued for peace with France. The deal was that he would leave me alone and go after other game if I would give him Belgium. And I did.

This was 1904. And it was at this point that Turkey and I decided to take part in a two-way draw.

Over the next six years or so, fortunes rose and fell. England was eliminated, but noone else seemed to be immediately up for grabs. France, however, was much larger than anyone else. And so the 'Stop The Leader' alliance began. Germany, Turkey, Austria, and Russia. The idea was that the former three would battle France, while Russia kept us honest in the backfield. In return, upon France's elimination, Russia would get a centre from each of us. Turkey and I remained circumspect about our existing alliance.

As Russia got more and more cantankerous, however, Turkey and I hatched a Cunning Plan. I would 'betray' the alliance. I would claim that I had heard rumours about his evil intent, and this, combined with his continued demands, would provide my motive for stabbing him. I would 'ally' with France, meaning that I would cease attacking him (but would certainly help him in no way). The challenge was going to be to convince Austria to remain neutral.

Fortunately, it turned out that Russia did, indeed, stab me that very turn. Austria did more than agree to remain neutral - he offered two units to help slap down the Russian dog. It didn't take long.

Soon afterwards, we resumed the attack on France. As the three remaining members of the alliance were all sharing France's press, he did extremely well to hold on as long as he did.

Turkey and I stabbed Austria shortly before France was to be eliminated. I hit a year after Turkey did, so that we could reap the rewards of having one of us in Austria's confidence as an 'ally'.

So, that is how two 'down and out' Powers made good in a World Gone Mad.

My nomination for best player goes to Cisse. Who repeatedly turned things around for his beleagured nation.

[Guvnor]

My thoughts: Turned up, eveyone was out to get me.

Oh dear.

I decided to ally with Germany, as he could get rid of me more easily than France, and he had started out more friendly than cisse.

I fluffed my first moves, and lost a fleet, revealing Germany as a foe to russia, and perhaps endangering my own interests.

However, I moved round the north and got my second centre, but as I offered a helpful suggestiong to my big ally that I could move to wales to cut support there for london from france, he took me out. Both centres went, and so did I.

Valmir then sent me a nice message saying he had stabbed me.

[Rathis Darkwielder]

It's finally finished then. Being the first one to drop out, I only followed the game for a short while before my attention was needed at the other two games I was playing at the same time. (student/ulric at first, ulric/morr later).

At the start of this game I decided that it would be fun to try and win with italy. As such, I put italy at the top of my preference list and was counting on everyone else to put italy at the bottom of theirs. Of course, they all decided that italy was too hard and chose another country. I suppose they were right considering the win record of italy during these w-e games...

Anyway, as part of my grand strategy I decided to try something quite surprising: a full out attack on France as soon as possible. To achieve this, I contacted the Kaiser and the Prime Minister with the offer of a combined attack against the Président. After some negotiating (sorry, I can't remember all the details), it was decided that me and the Kaiser would launch an attack on France in 1902. All went well and although some smart moves from the Président made it hard for me to capture Marseilles, we both thought it would only be a minor delay.

However, with the arrival of cisse as the Président all went wrong. He supposedly allied with Austria to put some pressure on me and from there it went quickly downhill. My forces were out of position to stop the Austrian advance and very quickly all my home centres had been converted to red dots.

I'll try to have a look at the history of the rest of the game when I find some spare time. It will certainly be interesting to see how this continued...

[Konrad von Richtmark]

Well then, the first game to be GMed by me has come to an end.

Humm ho, I wonder, did the Sultan realize that he could have won?

F Mar-Spa, F Wes S F Mar-Spa would have met the German attack 2-on-2, and preserved Marseilles in Ottoman hands. Valmir and Rorrak, didn't anyone of you realize it was a guessing game between GT draw and solo win to the Turks?

[Rorrak]

Humm ho, I wonder, did the Sultan realize that he could have won?

I did indeed know it.  It seemed fitting however to play the draw.

Turkey was beaten by the time I approached Germany who was also just about on his way out. It was fairly obvious to us that at that point an alliance between our nations was the only way we had a chance and we agreed to go for the draw.

Now it may be an odd thing to do but I decided to "Role Play" my first game of Diplomacy. The Sultan would never directly do something that contradicted what he would say. Don't get me wrong, there was still plenty of room for trickery, deceit etc. Its just that if I told you directly that something would happen then thats exactly what would happen. (See Draw agreement)

Russia started out immediately upset with Turkey for some indiscretion or other and this would set the stage for the east for quite a few turns.

Solid diplomacy from Italy kept that going (and kept Turkey out of the med). A very uneasy alliance formed with Austria to sort out the bear, but my trust was low. If I remember correctly Germany had a lot to do with my suspicions of Austria.

Russia was starting to feel the heat but I could see that I was getting more and more exposed to an Austrian stab. I offered Russia a truce and a turn around to against Austria. A deal that the bear took and (I think) passed on the plans to Austria because the stab was perfectly countered. Russia gained an ally in Austria and my goose was cooked.

This struggle gave the new President just about carte Blanche in the west, he grew rapidly. I decided to go for a gambit. I would go after Austria one more turn to keep his forces occupied. This would give the Frenchman 1 more turn of growth, and put him close to the win. Dangerous I know but I was out of the game anyway.

Then I approached Germany with the Draw offer, and the suggestion that we needed to get Russia, Austria involved to stop France.  Germany then was part of forming the bigger alliance.

This is where I think Russia lost out. He had the perfect opportunity to take the game from that point but just needed to be a tad more patient. He was understandably a little pushy with his diplomacy but the stab against Germany before it was really ready sealed his fate.

The president kept trying to pull me into an alliance and I ducked and dived on that issue. I wanted to keep his hopes of such a possibility up but without actually doing it. I always managed to find something that I just had to do to survive in my missives to him and most of the time my reasons could have passed for plausible. I was hedging my bets.

In the endgame I went for 2 oddball moves. Austria was very astute at predicting moves and countering them, the best way to get the upper hand was going to be a lack of predictability. That and my Ace of the Germany/Turkish alliance up my sleeve.

[cisse]

I'll add my tale as quickly as possible, rather busy at the moment though.

[kk14]

Sounds like fun! Where did this happen?

[gnomehunter01]

looking for four more players for pbem dip. sends me an email if any one is intrested.