Ssorenn Gunboat Game 1 - webDiplomacy

taylornottyler, ssorenn, Claesar, chipo, Hamilton Brian, ag7433, Bob Genghiskhan

01 Aug 18 UTC	Spring, 1914: Moderator: (Szpoti): (Szpoti): Dear Players, by request of a player, the match has been paused for 20 hours (till 2pm UTC).
02 Aug 18 UTC	Spring, 1914: Moderator: (Szpoti): The match is now unpaused. Game on!
13 Aug 18 UTC	I’m sorry Sorren. I thought I saw an opening and it backfired big time
13 Aug 18 UTC	Oh my
13 Aug 18 UTC	Good win AG.
13 Aug 18 UTC	gg
13 Aug 18 UTC	Thanks for participating in my experiment, HB! Too bad we still couldn't keep Turkey down..
13 Aug 18 UTC	Gg folks.
13 Aug 18 UTC	Good game, all.
13 Aug 18 UTC	England made it pretty plain he had no desire in having a draw with me participating, despite me spending basically the entire game trying to work with him, so why not open the door for Turkey?
13 Aug 18 UTC	It is sort of my own fault, though; I should have forced the North Sea in 1908 rather than trying for a three person draw with Turkey and England.
13 Aug 18 UTC	Not sure what that bullshit was by England. Especially when i made it clear I’d throw the game to Turkey.
13 Aug 18 UTC	Good victory AG. Claesar, you have to explain to me a little bit more about what you were hoping to accomplish. I felt the initial move to Trieste was tolerable, but I was expecting some follow-through.
13 Aug 18 UTC	If Russia hadn't outguessed you, we could've split Turkey and had a great start. As it was, we were struggling to survive. But that's the plan; a headstart on crushing Turkey. To be honest, this was really just an experiment. I haven't figured out the correct continuation for Gunboat yet, but I think we were already on to something here. Technically I should probably have audibled into stabbing you when Turkey opened with a fleet to Con, but this was much more interesting.
13 Aug 18 UTC	And of course the more optimal way to follow-through involves a move to Budapest by my army in 1901, but I don't think that works in Gunboat either. I need the support on Serbia to convey my message, probably. I doubt the move to Aegean is enough?
13 Aug 18 UTC	I'll have to look at the map again, but I expected you to be moving units south. A Lepanto variant, wouldn't you say? Perhaps Russia was the x-factor, and I didn't play it too brightly.
13 Aug 18 UTC	Yes, this is definitely a (Key) Lepanto variant. I think in hindsight I should've stayed in Trieste a bit more to help you defend against Russia. And I guess I should've sent my unit south a bit more, indeed.
13 Aug 18 UTC	I certainly didn't look at it as hostile as my last few gunboat experiences as either Austria or Italy where my first targets were the other, stasis at best, defeated at worst.
13 Aug 18 UTC	It was lucky to have gotten Greece in 1901; that also cleared Albania for you to continue your southern track. I see I also supported F ION to F Aegean, so we were in synch at that point. I think I played a game of chicken in 1902 when I moved A Bud to A Vie, in which case Russia took Bud. I think I realized A Rum would have been pretty hard to hold on to so I opted to head to Bulgaria with support. That was successful. 1903 was a hard pill to swallow. I regained Bud but you went in and took Serbia so there was no net gain for me. After that year, I think I just felt that the gig wasn't working; any gain I made would have been wiped out with you taking another centre. I think it was at that point I didn't feel like we had mutual goals. I can't believe we kept treading water until 1913.
14 Aug 18 UTC	I really didn't want much to do with the south ; my early game goal was just Romania and pour units into the north, but Italy seemed too supportive of Austria and Austria too unwilling to go after Turkey instead of me for me to really disengage or to press my early advantage on Turkey.
14 Aug 18 UTC	Also, I suppose it's possible to get a worse draw in a three game gunboat tournament than two Russias and an Austria, but it's not easy.
14 Aug 18 UTC	Please don't publically discuss ongoing Gunboats :S
14 Aug 18 UTC	Turkey never really was able to break out until 1906. Looking back, they floundered at 3 centres from 1902 until then. That was some good work.
14 Aug 18 UTC	Oh, and I went to Serbia to bounce Russia out. It was a difficult position and I consistently guessed wrong..