NYC LW/OB - webDiplomacy

ecoli, Randaly, Mycroft, diplomat_890, GodsFlaw, Zvi, Cosmos

01 Jan 11 UTC	Spring, 1906: Reminder to all: You need to order both the army to move via convoy AND the fleet to convoy the army to its destination for the order to be valid. Either order by itself does nothing.
03 Jan 11 UTC	Autumn, 1906: On being ready: Remember that the game only proceeds if everyone clicks ready, and you can always take it back later. Thus, if you're ready to proceed in the situation where everyone else thinks they too are ready, you can safely click ready. I might well change my orders, but if everyone else doesn't think I need to, then I won't, so I'm ready.
05 Jan 11 UTC	Autumn, 1906: In order to aid in negotiations not being held up: Turkey is building F Smy, A Ank, A Con.
05 Jan 11 UTC	Autumn, 1906: In order to aid in negotiations not being held up: Turkey is building F Smy, A Ank, A Con.
05 Jan 11 UTC	Autumn, 1906: aren't those the only places you CAN build?
05 Jan 11 UTC	Autumn, 1906: Yes, but I have the army/fleet choice so making sure everyone knows.
08 Jan 11 UTC	Autumn, 1907: Thanks for the game guys, I look forward to going over the game and perhaps trying to think of some strategies for G/A/I to stop them getting crushed from all sides in future! Not that I am blaming my defeat upon bad luck in starting country - Germany has strengths in starting near 3 SCs, unlike A/I who are just very weak. Hope to play again soon.
08 Jan 11 UTC	Autumn, 1907: My opinion is that Italy is very weak, but that Austria is fine and Germany is solid. The statistics back this up. Austria is high variance, if not quite as high as Russia; a successful Austria can get very big quickly.
08 Jan 11 UTC	Autumn, 1907: In general, my biggest piece of advice to future players of Germany is: Do not take Belgium. Trade it to France or England, depending on who you want to work with.
08 Jan 11 UTC	Autumn, 1907: My other piece of related advice: F Kiel - Denmark. A fleet in Belgium and an army in Denmark are both out of position and annoying, and neither works out all that often.
08 Jan 11 UTC	Autumn, 1907: I would have thought that Austria is weaker then Italy, as Austria can be attacked by G/I/R/T, while Italy can only be attacked by F/A, neither of whom generally want to attack Italy, and given openings like the lepanto Italy can get off to a good start in the opening. And as I said, Germany's 3 nearby SCs mean Germany can build up a lot of strength quickly if he can avoid being attacked from all sides. The stats I found said that Italy is 7th, Austria is 6th and Germany is 3rd - so you're right about Austria and Italy. Germany isn't a poor starting country, but I'm lumping it in with Austria as a central power which can be attacked from all sides, so perhaps the two countries should be considering similar strategies. The problem with giving Belgium away is that it can make the other country too powerful - for instance France could get 6 SCs in the first year, and once England is defeated Germany can still be attacked by Russia and Austria, or whoever has conquered them and taken their place, while France boarders Italy (the weakest country) and a Russian fleet or two. Basically, I would have thought Germany needs to take more SCs then it's ally to compensate for it's vulnerable flanks.
09 Jan 11 UTC	Autumn, 1907: Italy's problem is that it's hard to get big. You're often stuck at 4 centers, attacking Turkey leaves you exposed to Austria and France while not attacking Turkey leaves you with an ally who has tactical advantage on you and wants to go through you in the midgame. Neither option is fun, and often you do all right but are outpaced by another player. Austria's problem is survival, and for him centers are vital. If you can pick up the entire Balkans, Austria becomes strong, but Turkey is still very hard to work with without giving him the edge and Russia will often outpace you as an ally. Italy should be first choice if you have that option. The issue for Germany is that he's never strong enough to survive an attack by everyone, and if he gets into a 2-on-1 in the west as the strong 1 then what happens this game tends to happen: Eventually Russia or Austria shows up. Many players will see Germany take Belgium and then feel like the German isn't offering enough or is greedy or can't be trusted, whereas once England or France is taken down you can split the centers however you like to make it fair.
10 Jan 11 UTC	Autumn, 1907: gg no re
10 Jan 11 UTC	Spring, 1908: Okay, the moves for this turn are finalized. Russia: StP-Bar, Gal-Ukr, Tyr-Boh, Mun-Sil, Kie-Ber, Hol-Hel, Ruh-Mun, Par H. England: Nor-StP, Den-Bal, Lon-Yor, Eng S Bre-Mid, Gas S Gul-Spa France: Mar-Pie, Bur-Mar, Bel-Pic, Bre-Mid Italy: Gul-Spa
10 Jan 11 UTC	Spring, 1908: Best of luck to you, Turkey!
11 Jan 11 UTC	Spring, 1908: Aw shucks, France really did cooperate! I admit I did not expect that to happen given our previous interactions, but I am glad that the desire to win won out, so to speak. I figured France would defect, Turkey's victory was guaranteed, and that I would get the highest ending score by taking as many SCs as possible this turn. Good game guys. This has been eating my life and I am VERY eager to move on.
11 Jan 11 UTC	...and that's game. Moscow supports Ukr-War, Gal-Vie, Vie-Tri, Rom S Ven, Ion-Nap and the eastern 17 are safe plus Portugal means 18. Good game, everyone!
11 Jan 11 UTC	Reminder to all: I will be publishing my full communication logs at the conclusion of the game, and encourage others to do the same. If there is anything you wish me to censor (so far no one has requested anything) please say so before the conclusion of the game.
11 Jan 11 UTC	Aside from potential center shuffle in Brest, only one question remains: Will Italy survive?
12 Jan 11 UTC	Well done turkey. Are we going to go back over this on LW? I don't think much actual formal game theory was used, but discussing the game could still prove interesting.