Oh, I see now. Well here's mine anyways:

I had a horrendous opening, facing a strong Anglo-German assault. From Fall 1901, I thought I was done for - but I managed to survive the storm. Unfortunately, by that time Italy was rushing at me for a precious 18th SC. Russia, I know you've already acknowledged your mistake, but the move to Brest killed our stalemate. If you had the English Channel support the Mid-Atlantic we would have had a stalemate there. If you had held 3 centers (Norway, Sweden, and St Pete), and repeatedly entered the right orders (Eng sup Mid, Fin sup StP) we would have had a stalemate. However, I suppose the blame should really fall on England, since his attacks would have made it impossible for us to hold that line. I'd like to thank Germany for supporting my effort, but without the other two it was in vain.

http://phpdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=8411
I played Germany - survived with 5 SCs.

I had a very solid start as Germany, gambling that with Italy in Piedmont in the spring.... that France would have to move Burgundy back to cover Marseille in Autumn 1901 which would mean Ruhr could try for Belgium instead of covering Munich. (Downside was not too large anyway as I could easily regain Munich later on).

So I'm well positioned with 6 SCs after 1901, without anyone attacking me and England seemingly at war with both France and Russia. Nice!!

After France's aggressive start towards me in 1901 and given England was in MAO, I decided to launch my 4 armies in that direction. And to manouvre my fleets to try and pick off Sweden. Unfortunately I made mistake of ordering fleet Heli to North Sea instead of Denmark in 1902, which upset England!! So by time is was in position with 2 fleets on Sweden, England/Russia had made peace........ bugger!!

At this point I started to note with alarm that Italy was on the rise.... he had 7 SCs by end of 1903, but more important was also mid-Lepanto against Turkey and poised to conquer the rest of the Balkans.

So I decided to make peace with France - who would have otherwise fallen to England and send units south against Italy. Leaving 2 fleets in the North to hold off Russia/England. I luckily managed to get into the North Sea, so figured I'd convoy to Yokrshire and quickly try and finish off England to create more units to fight Italy. Unfortunately Russia didn't see it that way and decided to attack me by Sea and Land and also join Italy in attacking Turkey.

For me this was the key point in the game - due to the pressure Russia put on Turkey, Italy was able to finish off the Sultan super quick and grab all the spoils herself (including a clever manouvre in 1906 to acually support hold Turkey in Ankara to prevent Russia picking it up).

So by Autumn 1906 - Italy is on 12 SCs; I'm looking strong against England... who is surviving after guessing correctly as to whther I'd cover Belgium or Holland that turn. At this point Russia finally seems to realise that she is about to be engulfed by Italy... but inexplicable continues to attack me in the North (and help England attack me). This prevented me from confronting Italy as I had to concentrate on survival.

The rest of the game consisted of Italy quickly wrapping up the rest of the board. I don't blame England for attacking as he was on the bring of being wiped out at one point, but I had hoped England would stop attacking when it became evident Italy was on the verge on winning.

I will psot my biggie tommorow, I gotta go to bed right now.

I'd generally note that I found myself caught in two minds again in a no press game - which seems to be fatal. Once you commit to a front I think you have to do so with all your might and commit to it fully, or you end up with forces split and not able to make an impact anywhere. Unfortunately as Germany it can be quite difficult given your surrounded.

copy/pasted EOG's

my biggie due laterzzz

Italy aka me Well my main EOG statement is luck, thankgod for luck and paranoia. I must thank russia though for the most help in doing all of that. Because you attacked gunnagiveit2 ya at the end, he got leery of germany which ultimaitely caused him to lose 2SC's.

I messed up lol and meant to hold marsielles with pie and if you had attacked that with gascony I would still be at 17.

Look dudes, it doesn't matter how many SC's you have if its a WTA game... Once someone has about 15+ itsd time for a nonverbal agreement to take them out. It was Englihs, russia, and german bickering amongst yourselves that I was able to expand. If you see that france has the game winning SC's... Don't attack france lol. That last destroy was crucial. Germany got this but england I think didn't care much. So yeah, that's about it. Luck and anti alliances on the northerns countries part.



06:49 PM Germany

The writing was on the wall about 2 years ago when Italy was on 12 SCs and everyone else on 5/6 max. At this point I am desperate to head south, but England shows no interest in stopping a solo win and Russia is also helping England. Nitish... it wasn't just the move to Brest, but the continued attack of Berlin (which was ridiculous considering you were prepared to let Italy engulf your Southern front). And then also supporting England into Kiel!!

You cannot wait until 15SCs to confront a common enemy in a gunboat game, as your defense is never going to be totally co-ordinated without press and Italy is going to be at a massive advantage as his forces all move in synch!!

Congrats to your Zcurly but I'm slighty dissappointed that it was so easy for you given it was a WTA game; 350 points is a decent pot and given Nitish/Tetra have a decent amount of points I was hoping for a better game/defense. An Italian win was clearly on the cards from about 1904.
06:49 PM Apologies for the Rant... GG!!


:14 PM Russia

Braveheart, you're right, which is why I said "a couple of errors"; my taking Brest was only the last and most egregious of my mistakes. This was my first gunboat game, and I was a little disappointed with my play.

Autumn 1904 was probably one of the turning points, though Italy had been doing well even before then. I had tried to indicate my support to both Austria and Turkey, but they persisted in attacking me even after Italy began to encroach on their territory from the east. That was probably the first collective mistake. I actually wanted a stable northern frontier from 1903 onwards (when Italy started doing well), and tried to indicate this by supporting England and Germany. Unfortunately, the message didn't seem to get across, and this may be my fault; I'm not aware of the best way to convey information through orders in a gunboat game. With the Mun-Sil move in Spring 1904, I figured that I should move to Silesia again in the Autumn for defense. That was the turn when it seemed that Germany began to go after Italy, which was a rather unfortunate coincidence. I probably should have moved Sil-Bohemia instead of Berlin (my first serious mistake), but Italy still hadn't attacked me. I think that Braveheart should have ignored the possible loss of Berlin and continued an attack against Italy, though; the only reason his move wasn't an error was because my mistake was worse. :-) But if he had moved to Bohemia or supported Sil-Boh, I would have called off the German attack and moved against Italy. Basically, my problem was that I wasn't sure anyone was going to join me against Italy, and it would have been suicidal to attack him myself. (Note also that he still hadn't directly threatened me.)

After that point, it probably wouldn't have made too much of a difference, but it was definitely a mistake for me to keep pounding on Berlin. The fleet build in Kiel completely confused me, though; I thought that if Germany wanted to go after Italy, he would have built an army, which would have been more useful. (The Bel and Kiel fleets stayed idle until the end.)
After that, there was the Brest stupidity, which was absolutely inexcusable, and I apologize to everyone for that, and the other mistakes. I think that Germany should have moved Mun-Sil and Ber-Prussia, though; we would have recaptured Warsaw and held Italy to 17 even with the loss of Marseilles. The only potential problem would have been the loss of the MAO, and my fleet in Brest was meant to help with that. If England had moved to the NAO or Channel or Irish Sea, it would have been a stalemate.

Anyway, I don't mean to blame the others for a loss; like I said, I think the worst mistakes were mine. Congratulations again to xcurlyfries for a good game, and capitalizing on our mistakes!


11:58 PM Germany Only just saw this... perhaps worth posting on the forum as it's easier to track new posts on there. Definitely worth a discussion about how to communicate better in No press games.

I was hoping this wasn't going to be posted in the global forum.... I apologies for the outburst Nitish, was nothing personal.... was just slightly frustrated. I made plenty of errors myself.

Absolutely no offense taken, Braveheart; I think I'm more frustrated with myself than you could be with me. :-)

As for my putting pressure on the Sultan, I _kept_ trying to support him, while he went on attacking me long after it became apparent that he would be Italy's next target. Since it seemed that he didn't want any help, I figured that I might as well try to take a couple of his centers myself, in case xcurlyfries was willing to accept a typical R/I alliance.

Yay, my EoG!!

Well first off, my first year, was very abnormal. I usually play VERY defensive on a gunboat opening but heck, since I was italy I tried something new. I had never seen someone go for a pied opening either so I tried it, figureing austria would think alliance if I did.

I lucked out that a new guy was playing austria and he didn't have the normal paranoia. I feel kinda bad about it but not really. I was suprised when he kept attacking you though (Russia) Of course you taking Romania and supporting my budapest army into serbia (trying) I imagine didn't bode well with the turk.

I didn't even look at france after my pie move, just because I figured germany and england were preoccupied with him. Frankly I only focused on Russia and Turkey lol. I literally had no clue what was going on on your side of the board.

When it was clear at least to me, that turkey was dead, I didn't want to have to make a bunch of fleets and go vrs france since naval battles are rather boring to me, so I decided to lay the stab down.

It worked pretty well vrs russia and I was able to have 3 I think consecutive 2 SC gain years. After yonder, it was just about out playing russia.

Overall fun game! Lepanto was awesomeness even if I didn't do it right xD and again luck was my biggest friend. Thats the good thing about Gunboats, less skill more guessing.