ODC 2019 Tournament Start

Find the tournament calendar, sign up for tournaments, track tournament results, and fill out the tournament director questionnaire here.
Message
Author
User avatar
DougJoe
Posts: 991
Joined: Thu Aug 15, 2019 9:02 pm
Location: Alto, MI, USA
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#361 Post by DougJoe » Tue Oct 06, 2020 3:21 am

Napoleon of Oz wrote:
Mon Oct 05, 2020 11:06 pm
It was also a game where the tournament setting changed the outcome - I think in a non-tournament setting this would have been agreed as a 9/9/8/8 draw many years earlier when the traditional stalemate line was hit by a western (FG) and eastern (IR) alliance. I would definitely be willing to contribute to the AAR if we are trying to document some of what happened.
I was very curious while spectating to see what was going to happen after Autumn 1915 when it looked like F/G and I/R were locked in.

Napoleon of Oz
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2018 3:51 pm
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#362 Post by Napoleon of Oz » Tue Oct 06, 2020 5:01 am

I think everyone suspected that Germany both won on countback if we stopped there and could simply snipe enough centres from France at the end to have a clear lead. At least I (as Italy) and teccles (as Russia) held out some slim hope of changing that position if the game kept going - albeit very different ideas of how to 'break' the stalemate and whether we should take action to do that or wait for one of the western partners to 'break'.

teccles
Posts: 237
Joined: Mon Mar 25, 2019 8:10 pm
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#363 Post by teccles » Tue Oct 06, 2020 7:28 am

Napoleon of Oz wrote:
Mon Oct 05, 2020 11:50 pm
PS - also wanted to thank Durga for organising and Captainmeme for continuing to support the tournament subsequently. I appreciate large scale tournaments like this require a lot of time investment to organise.
Absolutely this - thank you for the organisation and attentive moderation!

Brumark
Posts: 37
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2019 10:05 pm
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#364 Post by Brumark » Tue Oct 06, 2020 8:47 am

Totally agree, huge thanks to both and all the other mods that supported too, especially in the early rounds when there were pause requests and players leaving almost every day it seemed

Brumark
Posts: 37
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2019 10:05 pm
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#365 Post by Brumark » Tue Oct 06, 2020 3:17 pm

DougJoe wrote:
Tue Oct 06, 2020 3:21 am
I was very curious while spectating to see what was going to happen after Autumn 1915 when it looked like F/G and I/R were locked in.
As you asked I will drop a few thoughts in response...

This was where I was a little naïve, I was pretty sure I would win on countback so had thought that if we reached a stalemate line between the two alliances which left c2 units for each power to defend against their ally then people might draw worried that any stab of your ally would simply result in the the other alliance sticking together and just rolling across the line. I had played for the stalemate line slowing any advance on Russia rather than taking the opportunity to push hard when I/R where still engaged in a messy border.

In a normal game we would have all clicked draw no problem but especially with a fixed finish the prospect of snipping one or two at the end and stealing the victory was there there and so very reasonably the others chose not to draw when they knew they wouldn't win.

The view I had at the time was that Russia (teccles) was probably in the best tactical position to make a late push although mine was ok too. This all played out in Russia (correct me if I am wrong) being mostly ok to sit and wait so a deal was made with Italy around France pulling back to allow the stab on Russia with Italy realising they were most at risk especially given a one centre deficit.

The 1925 fixed end had quite a big impact on the game play. Especially when combined with the dynamic of four players on even footing (and I have very much realised why there is not a popular four player variant - it is not really a set up that works). Timing became really important especially with the threats of throws become more and more real. For example I stabbed Italy in Fall 1919 as a result of a worry that he would gain the majority of the spoils of Russia and I would not have enough time to rebalance - without the fixed end I would not have stabbed and would have reduced Russia further before hopefully combining with France to peg Italy back. Another example of the fixed end was my attack on France in 1920, I never thought I would be able to make a long lasting major breakthrough but only that I could snatch enough to hold a lead to 1925 (lets not mention the unbelievable mess up of leaving Munich open) - again in a game that had more than five years to run I don't think I would have done that and would have stayed allied my concern was he would have been able to outrace me to 1925 with Italian gains coming easier than my Russian ones.

Anyway hope that provides a bit of insight into what happened in the slow grind post 1915 and why some of the things occurred that did (from my perspective anyway)

umbletheheep
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2018 5:13 am
Location: detroit, mi
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#366 Post by umbletheheep » Wed Oct 07, 2020 5:29 am

New Austria / umbletheheep (1906-1907)

There’s nothing like getting an opportunity to substitute into a finals when you didn’t even play the tournament. You get all the prestige with 0 of the effort or time commitment. I happily accepted being the trust fund baby of the ODC. Obviously, it was a huge honor to be asked by VI to take over for him during his vacation. We both had played each other in the Nexus final, and I definitely wanted to reward the trust shown to me for this game.

Unfortunately, the position was difficult as he had been jumped after his quick expansion and was at 3 centers (Trieste, Venice, and Rome). Russia had been the real beneficiary from this collapse with I/A/T all staying small and puny while he grew fat with a fortified position.

My understanding of the situation was that he was convinced I/R were going to split him soon and that Italy would be the most opportunistic. So…he had made a visit into the Italian boot and been ripped a new one by Russia. In VI’s defense, both I/R have the ability to never make you feel comfortable. Their bedside manner is a mix between Dr. Kevorkian and Dick Cheney. Sidenote: G/T in my opinion were the better negotiators of the game and were more enjoyable to communicate with.

It was also tough because it was pretty obvious that Italy’s only path to contention was to take back his home centers which would mean me being eliminated. If I stayed the course and kept Venice and Rome, then we’d both be losers. I have a soft spot for Italians that get attacked by Austrians early on so I decided to go all in. It was a high risk play, but my goal was to see if I could get Italy to practice delayed gratification. In Diplomacy, this is as rare as a hunger strike at a hot dog eating contest. Considering Italy probably had the self-restraint of Joey Chestnut (to continue the analogy), it was going to be difficult. The basic pitch was let’s all coordinate to attack Russia and as I take back my home centers you take back yours.

It all hinged on Italy of course, and I consistently worked Germany and Turkey to put pressure on Italy to not attack me. My pitch to them was if he attacks me then I’m giving Russia my centers. I never directly threatened Italy with this because I felt it wouldn’t help. For Italy, it was more a charm offensive and deductive reasoning. Both of these are not that effective when a 300 pound Italian is hungry for hot dogs (personally I don’t like hot dogs, and this is the last food reference).

My basic approach to Russia was to build fear of a grand coalition and that giving me back a home center would grant him an ally. Obviously, a 3 center Austria with an Italian at his back doesn’t have a lot of cachet to work with. I did my best though. I also really worked Germany to take the Russian threat seriously and throw units at Warsaw. He did this a year too late to help me, and I’m convinced if he had done what I wanted he’d probably have soloed…instead he had to settle for a disappointing board top.

It was pretty surprising to me that Italy didn’t backstab in Fall 1906. There was a lot of pressure put on him though so I think that helped. We then had a pretty long game pause and whatever emotional currency I’d worked up was gone when we resumed play. To wrap it up, he stabbed me in Spring 1907, and I made good on my promise and let Russia have Trieste. I gave the game back to VI at 1 center.

It’s hard for me to say how opportunistic Italy really is because I think he did what he had to do. Taking my centers was his path to contention, and I get that. I personally think if there hadn’t been that long delay of game between Fall 1906 and Spring 1907, I might have been able to get Vienna.

In conclusion, it was a great experience to be able to play with each of the participants. I’m also proud to say I have continued my streak of stopping a VI win. Only this time I did it from the inside.

P.S. - If you too would like to sub into high profile tournaments and be eliminated like me, I suggest you subscribe to my zine the Diplomacy Briefing.

Napoleon of Oz
Posts: 45
Joined: Thu Jul 05, 2018 3:51 pm
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#367 Post by Napoleon of Oz » Wed Oct 07, 2020 8:25 am

To add a little bit of colour to the above - VI/Austrovid's stab was a devastating one for me (look at the map in Autumn 1903 to appreciate the full horror - bits of Italy are covered in appropriate red blood!). You can't expect an Italian refugee clinging to Tunis/Greece/Naples to be overly generous to their Austrian stabber. It would be fair to say I was not in a particularly diplomatic mood. New Austria appeared after I had dedicated a lot of effort to mending bridges with Russia and Turkey and Austria was basically on its knees bleeding out.
Having said that I (as the Italian) tried to initially give New Austria a chance. It ended up not working for three key reasons
1) New Austria was evidently playing both sides (no blame to umbleheep - the position he took over was nearly untenable)
2) The Austrian positioning was actually getting in the way of a combined attack on Russia, not helping (having a unit in Tri that you don't want to risk disbanding, but really needs to be used as an attacking unit as well to make headway back into Austria is difficult), and coordinating a 4 way alliance is much harder than a 3 way one.
3) While I would have loved a fairer split of Austria and tried negotiating that with Russia - I was confident in the view that if Austria's death left a strong Russia that was a problem that could be overcome - because it was in both Germany and Turkey's interest to make sure Russia didn't get oversized and the west still looked like an unsettled hot mess so it looked like we had time. That is roughly how it played out.

What I would say is that the Austrovid stab of 1903, the Austrian elimination that followed and the Russian reduction that followed that cost the eastern powers the chance to win the race to the stalemate line. I suspect our friend Brumark strategically intervened in the east as needed to ensure the Austrian and then Russian board leaders got hurt but that the fight remained messy enough and slow enough to resolve that the Germanic/French alliance had the headstart.

captainmeme
Posts: 619
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:06 pm
Location: Manchester, UK
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#368 Post by captainmeme » Wed Oct 07, 2020 11:11 am

Congratulations to Brumark, the 2019/20 Online Diplomacy Champion!

Also congratulations to the other podium finishers; teccles in 2nd, and Napoleon of Oz in 3rd! Prize points have been distributed to all three of you.

You can find the Finals game here. Special thanks to Umbletheheep for filling in for VillageIdiot for a time, and Ogion for taking over from Belgian Bulldog. And thanks to all the players, finalists and non-finalists, for making this a fantastic tournament throughout!

captainmeme
Posts: 619
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:06 pm
Location: Manchester, UK
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#369 Post by captainmeme » Wed Oct 07, 2020 11:18 am

Two asides:

The Online Diplomacy Championship is considered a qualifying event for the Diplomacy Broadcast Network Invitational in February 2021. This means that all seven finalists (Brumark, Teccles, Napoleon of Oz, Your Humble Narrator, Swordsman0303, Ogion and VillageIdiot) will receive ranking points towards qualification, and Brumark has earned an automatic qualification spot as tournament victor. Note that this is a Virtual Face to Face tournament, so will be live and use voice comms - even if you qualify whether you accept the invitation is entirely up to you!

Second, The Belgian Bulldog completely dropped off the radar during the finals game - I tried every way I could to contact him but got no response anywhere. If anyone has any info on that front, please PM me.

captainmeme
Posts: 619
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 3:06 pm
Location: Manchester, UK
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#370 Post by captainmeme » Wed Oct 07, 2020 11:21 am

Lastly - Brumark, you'll get a site banner announcing the result soon (read, as soon as the mods who can change that wake up :D ). Durga will also apparently buy you a drink at the next ftf tournament you're both at!

Yonni
Silver Donator
Silver Donator
Posts: 408
Joined: Thu Oct 19, 2017 6:55 pm
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#371 Post by Yonni » Wed Oct 07, 2020 11:31 am

What sites were the finalists representing?

swordsman3003
Gold Donator
Gold Donator
Posts: 264
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2018 2:51 pm
Location: Texas
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#372 Post by swordsman3003 » Wed Oct 07, 2020 3:14 pm

I represented webDip. Home field home team!!

I would like to learn more about DBN invitational.

My AAR will be fairly limited. I'm working on a discussion of my unusual opening moves. And maybe I can write about how I did manage to come back a bit from 2 centers. That's something!

Very fun match, very fun tournament. Would play again any time.

VillageIdiot
Posts: 715
Joined: Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:55 am
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#373 Post by VillageIdiot » Wed Oct 07, 2020 5:58 pm

I believe Brumark was waving the PlayDiplomacy banner, as was i just since i play both sites and felt they were under-represented. Pretty sure the rest were all on Team WebDip.

I'll try to add to the AAR soon as I get some time.

Brumark
Posts: 37
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2019 10:05 pm
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#374 Post by Brumark » Wed Oct 07, 2020 6:35 pm

I was indeed representing PlayDiplomacy, however once the shock of not having group messages available wore off (and my goodness does that make a difference) I decided I preferred this site so will be making it my home going forwards.

Thanks CaptainMeme - you are a hero
swordsman3003 wrote:
Wed Oct 07, 2020 3:14 pm


Very fun match, very fun tournament. Would play again any time.
Only if you can guarantee it goes on even longer...

VillageIdiot
Posts: 715
Joined: Sun Dec 31, 2017 3:55 am
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#375 Post by VillageIdiot » Wed Oct 07, 2020 7:47 pm

Brumark wrote:
Wed Oct 07, 2020 6:35 pm
Only if you can guarantee it goes on even longer...
2012 World Cup Finals: Public Press participants say "Hold my Beer".

http://www.webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=93086

Game duration: July 2012 - Oct 2016 (1,574 days)

* Does not include time spend in qualifying games before the finals.

teccles
Posts: 237
Joined: Mon Mar 25, 2019 8:10 pm
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#376 Post by teccles » Wed Oct 07, 2020 7:51 pm

Here's my AAR. Sorry it's a bit short.

1901 was a simple time; Austria, Italy and I agreed to attack Turkey, and played moves entirely consistent with this. Germany agreed to let me take Sweden on the condition that I open North; I was very happy to accept, because I think opening North with a Galicia DMZ is a very sensible Russian opening. There was a rude shock of Armenia in Autumn; Turkey told me that this was the result of an intense campaign of Austrian manipulation, which made me wonder if Austria was sandbagging me, and suspect that Austria viewed Italy as their main ally.

1902 saw a disastrous collapse in the North. In Spring, I thought Germany would take my side. Partly this was because I didn’t think they would trust England to work with them; but also based on my semifinal experience with them and our press up to that point in the game, I thought Germany saw me as a serious alliance prospect.

In Autumn, I tried to persuade Germany to turn things around and attack England, arguing that with France dead set against Germany England would dominate. By Germany’s account (and I’m interested to know whether this is true), I almost succeeded; they sent me a “are you still awake” message minutes after I’d gone to bed, and claimed the next day that this was to attack England. If true, this was a massive turning point in the game.

Meanwhile in the South, not terribly much changed. AIR carried on attacking Turkey. I wasn’t at all sure of Austria’s intent in this period; they weren’t very forthcoming with me about longer term plans, and I was a bit worried that Italy was their primary ally (or even that I was about to get stabbed by a strange A/T).

In the retreats for Autumn 1902, Germany and I had a long chat and agreed to work together, with Germany attacking England and me getting Norway. I disbanded my retreat; this predictably annoyed Austria, but forgiveness seemed better than permission in this case.

In Spring 1903, I was really Turkey’s last hope for an ally. But I did not see that we could win against the A/I that was bound to form in response, so I talked up our alliance and then stabbed them. My big worry at this point was an attack from Austria (in either Spring or Autumn), and I tried hard to give them confidence that I was their ally.

In Autumn, things got fascinating in the South, with tensions erupting all over A/I/R now that Turkey was in serious trouble. My plan with Italy was to attack Austria, which was a move we had been cultivating from the outset of the game. Then Austria contacted me a couple of hours before deadline, and we had a very serious chat with rapid responses. My guess is that before that conversation A/I were attacking me. Anyway, after it Austria attacked Italy with some help from me. Their success was absurd - most notably taking Venice with an unprotected Rome.

Meanwhile in the North, Spring went to plan. But Autumn saw Germany change sides *again*, reuniting with England to stab me. At this point I realised that Brumark really was a different player to the fluffy carebear I’d met in the semis. Perhaps too late...

1904 saw Austria fall victim to their own success. Rightly or wrongly, I thought that the lack of external threats to Austria meant an alliance between us could not succeed, and I sided with Italy and Turkey. I now question my wisdom here; one thing I have learned in this game is that strong powers need strong allies, and I think Austria might have had to make me strong (though they had the alternative of Germany). At any rate, Austria probably needed to bet on me - if all their neighbours attacked, they were in trouble - and I used this advantage to launch a pretty effective attack.

In 1905, I continued to press my attack against Austria; I don’t think there was much choice here. Crucially, I persuaded Germany to attack England in Spring, with the promise that I would attack St P. Their other option was attacking me, which would have put me in a very difficult position indeed. I decided not to follow through on this promise - I think doing so might have led to England losing ground very fast, because France may well have been tempted to attack them as well.

In this period, my main aim was to get Italy (who was very weak) to play second fiddle in the Med. I wonder now whether I would have done better to side with Turkey - most notably by vacating BLA in Autumn 1905. Perhaps that would have given them the confidence to build a fleet and focus on the Med - if so, I should have done it. My thinking was certainly coloured by press here; Italy seemed plausibly so desperate that they would accept being a junior partner, I had long known that Turkey was swordsman, an even more ruthless winning machine than most other players.

In 1906, Italy and Turkey turned on me to side with Austria. I wondered whether the replacement of Austria had something to do with this; Italy had seemed genuinely enraged with the old one. I am sorry I made a poor impression on umbletheheep; honestly, I saw no real opportunity to work with them during their two years in the game. Anyway, I set to thinking about how to break up the alliance. I thought the most plausible route was turning Italy against Austria, and then get Italy/Turkey fighting; Turkey and Austria had little reason to defect as long as Italy played ball.

However, in Spring 1907 Italy turned to my side, saying they would attack Austria and we would attack Turkey together. This lasted all of one phase; they stabbed me in Autumn, and then built an army, making it clear that they were siding with Turkey.

1908 saw me attacked by Italy and Turkey with a little help from Germany. In Spring 1909, Turkey made an interesting proposal to launch an attack on Italy. I agreed, hoping to pivot to RT; with a strong Germany, I thought this a plausible plan for Turkey.

In Autumn, I thought Turkey might stab me, because Italy seemed to have know their stab was coming. I played a line that was safe against Turkey attacking me and good if they went through with attacking Italy. Alas, they attacked me; I think this was the last time cooperation with Turkey seemed like a real option to me, because they had turned down a pretty viable route to attack Italy and told me relatively petty lies.

Meanwhile on the Italian side, diplomacy was rocky in 1908-1909. Italy had a lot of demands from me, but would quite never tell me what would be enough for them to attack Turkey. This gave me the impression that they were not at all serious about working with me; they said they had the same impression about me. The discussions got quite toxic, and I took a bit of a step back so that we could work together when we had more interests in common. This was the first of my clear failures to communicate well with Italy which are perhaps my biggest regrets of the game. I don’t know whether we could have agreed on anything here, but I didn’t even feel we managed to reach a concrete disagreement.

In Spring 1910, I proposed a plan for Italy and I attack Turkey. They agreed; I thought it was more likely than not that they were lying, but the risk-reward tradeoff was clear. Italy reneged on this, though interestingly the moves implied they hadn’t leaked the deal to Turkey. I was confused by Turkey’s play at this point; they didn’t seem interested in alliance with me, but simultaneously weren’t *really* going after BLA, which was surely the first step towards actually taking territory off me. I decided their strategy must be to stay solid and take me down, not worrying that Italy would come out stronger from that war. Then they could pivot to attacking Italy alongside France. This made me hope that, with the West moving towards a decisive FG, the IT alliance would become untenable; with France threatening to move East, Italy could no longer afford it.

In 1911, Italy said that indeed developments in the West had changed the dynamics, and this time they were serious about attacking Turkey. We agreed a plan, and destroyed two Turkish armies with a Spring attack.

From 1912-S1916, the board was entirely East vs West. Italy and I made a tactical error that could have cost us Tunis, but in the end secured it. And there, in any other game, this would have ended; there was no sensible stab for either alliance. The remaining 10 years was a different, strange and not entirely fun game. That’s not to detract from Germany’s victory - they played this period, and the rest of the game, extremely well. But the amount of the game that got into threats of throwing and kingmaking got truly absurd.

In this period, I thought that Italy and I could reasonably wait for FG to break up. I thought Italy believed the same thing. However, in Autumn 1916 Italy attacked me. In Spring 1917, I didn’t react, hopeful that Italy’s story about trying to get France to move was true. I didn’t think it was likely - Italy hadn’t warned me properly about the move - but it didn’t cost me lots to believe it, and if it had been true attacking Italy was a disastrous decision. I think I was too hopeful here - Italy’s intentions really were clear, and as soon as the Spring moves went through I realised I’d completely known what was coming. Still, I didn’t have great options here - it’s not obviously better than defending against Germany would have been better.

And indeed, Italy attacked me in 1917, and by the end of 1918 things were extremely grim, with me down to 6 and on the point of losing more. Only a series of brilliant/lucky guesses over WAR/MOS saved me from being in an even worse position. In this period, I prioritised defense against Germany, hoping (and succeeding) in making Italy an extremely serious victory threat if I died.

In 1919, I forged a desperate deal with Germany; we would aim to keep me on 6 centres, with them taking MOS and WAR as I attacked Italy. My plan was for this to happen, and then to turn back on Germany with Italy’s help. This went well, with Italy being caught out in Autumn by a surprise German attack. Meanwhile, France’s attack on Italy intensified. However, in Autumn 1919 France was angered by Germany’s failure to yield Belgium.

In 1920, France, Italy and I put our heads together. Italy’s position, if France and I attacked them, was extremely weak; and even an immediate stab on me didn’t help. France had just been stabbed by Germany. So it was natural for us all to agree to bring down the leader. As part of this, Italy agreed to yield me a centre. And so it went in 1920; with further good guessing, I held onto MOS while Italy yielded SMY.

1920-1922 were an extremely tense alliance with Italy. I know they see it very differently from me. From my side - our stated goal was giving us both an endgame shot of winning, and I was serious about this; I saw it as by far my best hope to win. This needed Italy to give me a great deal of safety, because I would be doing the heavy lifting against Germany. They moved a long way in this direction - most notably yielding SMY to me - but I think Italy was always set on keeping a position to stab me if I had any success against Germany. There are two main examples here. The first was keeping a fleet in BLA. The second was in Autumn 1921 - when I said I didn’t want to leave them a 2-centre stab available, Italy exploded, and ultimately convoyed to Albania for reasons that made little sense to me.

In this period I felt unable to negotiate honestly with Italy. Their reaction to my suggestions that they back off were strongly negative, to the extent that I thought if I laid out what I really thought was necessary they alliance would collapse. I took the strategy of insisting on just enough that the alliance made sense for me.

I am not at all sure to what extent the failure of this alliance was due to a) different reads on the board, b) poor communication and c) Italy trying to maintain a position to stab me after Germany went down a peg. But one way or the other, I failed to make this alliance work.

Meanwhile, I told Germany that I would go after Italy if they backed off me. This worked.

But in the end, what killed the alliance was not our border, but tensions between Italy and France. In 1922, France demanded Italy move away from Tunis; Italy refused and attacked them. Italy’s pitch to me was to turn France back around; to me this seemed unrealistic from everything I’d heard from France. So I launched a final, desperate plan. I secured Germany’s promise not to attack, with the threat that I would throw to Italy if they did; and then I attacked Italy. My hope was to make excellent progress there, and that Germany’s move against me would come too late. Along with France securing a reprieve for Edinburgh from Germany - again, with threats to throw to Italy otherwise - I thought this could just be enough.

However, my Autumn 1922 guessing went very badly indeed; with perfect play, I’d have been up to 10 and a real threat, since Germany had indeed not taken Edinburgh. That made 1923 pretty desperate. I guessed well in Spring, but badly in Autumn. More importantly, Germany attacked me - my hope was that they would be more afraid of Italy than me (I thought it was rather finely balanced), and that their reticence would annoy Italy.

=========

Reflecting on my own performance in this game, my two major regrets are diplomatic. Firstly, as in the blow-by-blow above, I failed to coordinate with Italy in situations where we could both have benefitted. And secondly, I failed to influence the West to any great effect. Particularly France; until very late on, I don’t think I managed to influence their play much, or do much to improve their position despite genuinely rooting for them at almost every point. I think that we could have worked together more effectively; this might not have directly helped me, but simply having a stronger position for France at various points would have been extremely helpful.

=========

This was a great game and a great tournament - it was a pleasure to play with such great players. Thank you again to Durga, CaptainMeme, and all the people who help make this a great website to play diplomacy on. When I substituted into a random R1 game, just looking for some high-quality play, I could never have dreamed of reaching the final. I think it is also the end of my press diplomacy career - it simply takes too much of my time to play the game well.

=========

If anyone wants the loooooong version of this, written in real time, do get in touch.

Ogion
Posts: 229
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 7:21 pm
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#377 Post by Ogion » Wed Oct 07, 2020 8:58 pm

My AAR is "Jumped into game halfway through when Germany and France had already decided to slice me up, desperately tried to break up the alliance, suffered same fate as Poland in WWII, and heckled from the afterlife."

Also, I ALWAYS play for WebDip, not those filthy PlayDip scum.

teccles
Posts: 237
Joined: Mon Mar 25, 2019 8:10 pm
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#378 Post by teccles » Wed Oct 07, 2020 9:01 pm

Oh, and I was playing for the silent majority who have never played Diplomacy before.

umbletheheep
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2018 5:13 am
Location: detroit, mi
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#379 Post by umbletheheep » Wed Oct 07, 2020 9:22 pm

Teccles - You didn't make a poor impression on me at all. Quite the contrary. I was very impressed by your handiwork. I was just making a comment on the press side with my limited information. Also, I definitely understand why you wouldn't want to waste a lot of mental energy on me.

Durga
Posts: 9486
Joined: Fri Sep 29, 2017 6:01 pm
Location: Canada
Contact:

Re: ODC 2019 Tournament Start

#380 Post by Durga » Wed Oct 07, 2020 9:39 pm

Brumark wrote:
Wed Oct 07, 2020 6:35 pm
I was indeed representing PlayDiplomacy, however once the shock of not having group messages available wore off (and my goodness does that make a difference) I decided I preferred this site so will be making it my home going forwards.

Thanks CaptainMeme - you are a hero
swordsman3003 wrote:
Wed Oct 07, 2020 3:14 pm


Very fun match, very fun tournament. Would play again any time.
Only if you can guarantee it goes on even longer...
Well, looks like the plan worked. Also congrats!!

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users