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A place to discuss topics/games with other webDiplomacy players.
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ag7433 (927 D(S))
24 Sep 14 UTC
(+1)
Apologies
I'm in an anon gunboat game and am dreading the end of game revealing when people see that I single handedly screwed it all up by bad play. Sorry in advance folks.
1 reply
Open
nicepete (100 D)
28 Aug 14 UTC
(+1)
Necromancer: LOTR Variant
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/irene.rich/Gary/Diplomacy/Necromancer/

Has anybody played it? Anybody interested in giving it a go? I think we've found a GM, looking for six more player.
5 replies
Open
Crusoe (823 D)
23 Sep 14 UTC
Looking for someone to take over Germany and Austria.
This game (http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=146899) was apparently a mess when I joined. Lots of missing players allowed others to benefit. The currently missing players are Germany and Austria. Having an unbalanced game is much less fun, so I'm wondering if someone would like to join.

Next phase is in 14 hours.
0 replies
Open
NigeeBaby (100 D(G))
23 Sep 14 UTC
Please sign this petition
https://www.change.org/p/david-cameron-hassanrouhani-bring-my-sister-home-freeghonchehghavami?utm_source=action_alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=145780&alert_id=eKNLfbddsc_YupbICgpTRFrnmebWDsc2itqmuoyQVtZfmbK%2BGuCmEE%3D
7 replies
Open
obiwanobiwan (248 D)
20 Sep 14 UTC
NFL Pick 'em Week 3: Fast Starts and False Starts
So...um...we start Week 3 a little late...but as the Falcons just proved everyone who thought the Bucs had even a chance of being good this year 56 kinds of wrong, no harm done. ;) The 2-0 Bills take on the 1-1 Chargers in a game that could be better than it has any right to be, Peyton looks for redemption vs. Richard "Totally Not Exposed" Sherman and the Seahawks, and my Niners attempt to rebound from...ahem...Romo-ing on SNF vs. the Bears. Week 3...Pick 'em!!!
30 replies
Open
ShaolinNinja (341 D)
22 Sep 14 UTC
Play this game with me!
Looking to get a quality PPC game going on the Modern map. Please join if you can.
gameID=147836
password: galiga
1 reply
Open
Al Swearengen (0 DX)
21 Sep 14 UTC
Advice Needed - Taxi Cab Confesional
.
21 replies
Open
Putin33 (111 D)
23 Sep 14 UTC
What to do when people who don't use services take over their administration?
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/534/a-not-so-simple-majority

12 replies
Open
obiwanobiwan (248 D)
19 Sep 14 UTC
All Acquaintance Shant Be Forgot: Scotland Stays in the UK
http://news.yahoo.com/early-results-suggest-scots-reject-042217497.html

We did a thread on this in the lead up to the vote...so, if you live in the UK, or otherwise--thoughts on the 55%/45% win for the No side?
20 replies
Open
secretagreement (100 D)
22 Sep 14 UTC
Moderator Assistance Please - Game set up Info
I checked the FAQs on this but either missed or overlooked how the players get linked to a country. Is this done by random assignment or ? Also I have six players for a game and want the game to kick off with Italy in CD. Did I miss something in the new game set up to make this happen? Game is called "Over the Top!"
14 replies
Open
Mintyboy4 (100 D)
21 Sep 14 UTC
Pausing in Anon Gunboats?
Hello lovely community, it's been years since I've played a gunboat match but I'm craving one again. However I know I'm going to be away a weekend soon, what are the official or unwritten rules so to speak on Gunboat pausing? Is it reliable if I want some time away, or shall I wait until I get back before starting a new game? Advice would be lovely. Thanks :)
6 replies
Open
JamesYanik (548 D)
22 Sep 14 UTC
1 more classic-16 hour phases
0 replies
Open
tendmote (100 D(B))
17 Sep 14 UTC
Smells
What are some good smells? What are some bad smells?
41 replies
Open
ali2542 (752 D(B))
21 Sep 14 UTC
how can you report a game to admins?
how can you report a game to admins? I'm suspicious of a multi account fraud.
1 reply
Open
zultar (4180 DMod(P))
20 Sep 14 UTC
Kid stories
Some fun stories between me and my almost 4 yr-old daughter.
33 replies
Open
Tru Ninja (1016 D(S))
06 Jun 14 UTC
(+3)
Official Thread for the School of War Summer 2014
As always, this thread is reserved only for the School of War found here: gameID=142994 . Anyone involved may bump the thread as needed, however commentary is permitted only by the SoW professors. Anyone not directly involved in the game is welcome to follow along and ask questions of our professorial staff.
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VirtualBob (242 D)
17 Sep 14 UTC
I'd like to hear from anyone else on EOG.
KingCyrus (511 D)
17 Sep 14 UTC
I will write mine up as soon as possible, so probably tonight. (Turkey)
mendax (321 D)
17 Sep 14 UTC
I'm intending to write one also (Austria).
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
18 Sep 14 UTC
I believe I've said this before, but I believe there were several main lessons to learn from this game:

1) Never stop talking to people. France used his relations, especially with the smaller powers, greatly to his advantage.

2) Tactics are vital, especially in the end game. Throughout the game, several player continued to make tactical errors and/or not make use of all their units.

Italy:

Your main problem was an inability to choose a direction. This is a very common problem for Italian players. You get to Tunis and then don't know where to go. The worst part is, you can go quite a while without having any actual enemies, so many people don't even realize they're doing poorly. Unfortunately, your lack of expansions was further impacted by some very serious tactical errors early in the game. Leaving ION open and an army in APU in the first year, for instance, severely crippled you.

There are things you should be commended for, though. While your moves were weak, I do think you were actively looking at the board and trying to compensate for changing dynamics. This is a very important skill to have and I'm glad to see you honing it. Too often, a player will pick a direction and hammer away at it no matter how fruitless it becomes. You certainly did not have this issues, although you do need to scale back a bit from the other extreme. You also fought hard to the bitter end, which is also a sign of a good player. Many people in your position would have given up and while in this particular case it didn't work out, you never know when an opportunity to come back may arise.

Turkey:

You got off to a rough start as well, but your early game moves were much more solid. Without seeing your press, it’s hard to say for sure what exactly went wrong, but having no help from Italy meant Austria had a lot more freedom than he otherwise would. If nothing else, I hope you take away the excellent defensive capabilities of Turkey.

Unfortunately, either to spite Austria or because you were swayed by France, you wasted your mid-game revival. By allowing France into ION, you artificially prevented your own expansion and ensured that France would be able to control most of the South. Your continued assault on Austria when France was steadily making ground against him was one of the deciding factors (along with England’s delayed attack) in France’s solo. As I mentioned in my EOG to Italy, it is critical to continually evaluate the board. If a player is rapidly growing uncontested, you must be willing to make amends with past enemies.

Russia:

You fell into a very common Russian trap: expanding too quickly in each direction and ultimately you were unable to hold the line. This, of course, was not helped by some erratic moves and your untimely exit from the game. By far, your largest mistake was attacking Turkey when he clearly had no interest in fighting you and you were currently fighting a 2 front war. This is a learning game and I believe etiquette should be part of that learning. Leaving a game not only does a disservice to yourself (even your dire position could have been salvaged with some expert diplomacy), but it also is very rude to everyone else who devoted so much time to the game and the SoW.

Austria:

You got off to a very strong start and it is not entirely clear what went wrong. You had a bit of bad luck with some erratic neighbors, but you also failed to secure any lasting allies, which is critical to the survival of Austria. By fighting both Russia and Italy without giving Turkey an avenue to expand, you ensured you’d be fighting on all fronts for the entire game.

You also had a bit of an issue seeing how your actions impacted the board at large, which was devastating to the late game. By assisting England against Germany, with no clear benefit to you, you helped the EF alliance fast-track through Europe.

At the end, your plan to hand your centers over to France was the right one and one I would have tried myself in your position. Unfortunately, you weren’t able to put yourself in a position to make yourself needed for the stalemate (or at least you weren’t able to convince Turkey that you were).

Germany:

Like Austria, you seemed to have a problem seeing how your actions were impacting the board at large. You also put much too much trust into the Western Triple, which clearly was not going to last, as England and France slowly surrounded you. As Germany, it is critical to ally with either France or England. Clearly that wasn’t happening this game, which put you in an awkward position. By working with EF, you were able to kick the can down the road, which would have been good if you were able to prepare yourself against their inevitable attack. For this to work, however, you would have needed someone’s help. Russia would have been your best hope, but that opportunity disappeared once you took WAR.

After the initial stab, it was critical you received help from Austria or England (preferably both), but you got neither, which was devastating. I’d really like to heard about why you weren’t able to get Austria’s support into MOS.

Out of anyone, though, I give you the most credit for hanging on in the late game. While most people would have given up, you stuck in there and managed to make it to the end. If Austria and Turkey could have worked together, I think you would have been critical in stopping the French solo.

England:

In a lot of ways, I think you played a very strong game. Unfortunately, this was overshadowed because you were the largest factor in France’s solo. It can be hard to stab a long-time ally with whom you’ve worked closely with, so I can sympathize with your position. Perhaps and argument can be made for drawing with a loyal ally instead of stabbing for the solo. No argument, however, can be made for sitting back and letting someone take the board.

Around 1906-1907, you were looking good. You had Russia locked down and Germany was all but destroyed. France was rapidly expanding uncontested in the south, though, and you were quickly running out of centers to take. There was a brief opportunity when you could have stabbed France and we may have been congratulating you on an English solo. Unfortunately, by the time you did decided to go after France, your units were trapped in Russia and you simply weren’t able to hold your line.

France:

You played and excellent game and it can be hard to criticize someone who soloed, but no one gets better by being told how great they are, so I want to comment on a few things that I think would have not worked so well for you if you were playing with a more experienced board.

I think leaving an army in BUR for so long would have been a dead giveaway to a more experienced Germany that you planned to stab him. I doubt you would have so easily gotten into RUH, which helped you a great deal. I also don’t think Austria and Turkey would have continued fighting once you had consumed Italy, which means you probably would have been stuck in VEN. Most importantly, though, I think you left your north a bit weak and a less friendly England would have easily taken advantage of that.

None of the above matters all that much, though, as you were playing on the board you were playing, not some fantasy board of perfect players. You played a great game, but it’s important to remember the same tricks don’t work in ally circumstances.




If anyone has any specific questions, I’d be happy to answer them.

I hope my commentary has been helpful, but if you have suggestions on what I could do better (besides being more timely) I’d be happy to hear about that as well.

Good game, all. Thanks to everyone who participated.
mendax (321 D)
18 Sep 14 UTC
Damn, half-way through writing an EoG and I see that Abge has covered most of it. At least it makes the rest easier to write:

(Austria player EoG)

For quite a while, I thought that other powers were shortly going to attack France, notably England and Turkey. I helped England against Germany in the belief that this would speed up the inevitable E/F conflict (it didn't), and I didn't think that Turkey would be determined to attack me, because that would lead to the inevitable French gains in the south (he was). At the point that I made these decisions, I had in mind a potential 4-way AEFT draw, and so was trying to reach that balance. I remain unsure where my solo chances went, because I definitely had a very good start.

Perhaps my press was not up to scratch, but I still feel from a tactical perspective that those were the right calls, and the fact that the other powers were drawn in by France was largely an error of their judgement rather than mine. Having said this, there is no way to win without creating, or at least taking advantage of, errors of judgement, and this is something that France did much better than me.

Everything else I had to say has been already covered by Abge.
tvrocks (388 D)
18 Sep 14 UTC
I was germany in this game (prepare for a very long post by the way) and am goijg to try to go in depth through some of the things on this game. I'm going to devote the first part of it to sharing and trying to explain what the game seemed like from my perspective. I will then devote another part to talk about some major mistakes that i think i made and then i'll have the last part for anything else that i feel like saying.
Starting this game i did not have very high hopes after the first year considering that the original france had sent me a message saying that because I had "belligerent rhetoric" he would rather ally with england against me. My negotiations with england were going better but not great. The new france coming in seemed like really good news. The western triple then formed and was going reasonably well (despite the fact that france did not move out of burgundy so that we could dmz our borders.) for a few years. I saw that england was running out of places to expand to so tried making an alliance with France against them. That did not go as planned for me. I tried reestablishing the alliance with france temporarily while also trying to get england to go against france, austria to help me into moscow (their reason for not that year was this: 11 Jul 2014 (To: You, from Austria) - Spring, 1904: I need to use Sev to hold onto everything I have in the south atm, so won't be able to support you.) the next season (autum 1904) I started trying to coordinate a 3 way alliance (agt) against the ef. I was also still trying to convince england to attack france. (It was basically going in a pattern: they agree to attack france and then don't. It followed this path of turkey saying that they're willing while i'm trying to convince austria to join a 3 way and england to turn on france for a while. Here are 2 messages that i sent that proved to be true:
(To: England, from you) - Autumn, 1905: I honestly don't understand why you're continuing the alliance with france. If you continue the alliance then you are done expanding. The best you could get is either a 3 way draw or a survive. You probably won't get a defeat, however, that's not likely to happen no matter what you do. If you do stab france though you open up the possibility of a solo, while still keeping all other options. even if you do lose the war with france, you will get a survive. If you continue the alliance with france, they will be free to take the solo while you're doing basically nothing except for defending and maybe trying to get another center or 2. no matter what happens though, you will not get a solo. Please discuss it with your ta.
19 Jul 2014 (To: Austria, from you) - Autumn, 1905: If we do not work together to try to stop the ef, one of them is just going to take the win while if you continue to help them it will only result in either your elimination or a survive. You cannot defeat turkey, you don't have the fleets to do so. I have already talked to turkey and they're willing to enter an alliance to try to stop the ef. Currently if you do not join an alliance to stop it it will just result in you at best getting a survive while if you enter the alliance with us you could possibly get a draw or even the win. Think about it. Even if england stabs france or france stabs england it will just result in them getting a solo. Unless there is an alliance to stop them this game will just end up as a 3 way draw between the ef and turkey, a 2 way between the ef, or a solo by e or f. No matter what happens you would not be included.

Thise messages were sent in Autumn 1905 which was an extremely important year, for me at least. During this year i tried again getting england to go against france. I also tried getting austria and turkey to work together, amd tried getting austria to support me to moscow. (Here's their reason for not doing it during that turn:
20 Jul 2014 (To: You, from Austria) - Autumn, 1905: I don't want to do that, as I want England to be as strong as France.
20 Jul 2014 (To: Austria, from you) - Autumn, 1905: also, is there any chance that you would support me into moscow? if you don't want to i guess that would be ok.)

Austria and turkey were having problems between each other that i was trying to help resolve. (austria was trying to get turkey to join but wasn't giving them any way or reason to expamd somewhere else). i also need to clear something up about this game: france did not originally offer me a survive in exchange for helping them get the solo, i offered to help them get the solo in exchange for a survive. This also haplened during autumn 1905 here's the message: 19 Jul 2014 (To: France, from you) - Autumn, 1905: hel just seemed more useful. so... any chance that you'd be willing to stab england? If you did I would support you and make sure that you get the win as currently i'm mainly playing for a survive. So autumn 1905 was the yeat that i also started going with france. At the end of 1905 i was extremely annoyed and, for some reason that i can't remember considering that they had stabbed me very early on, decided to trust france. None of the plans that i had tried coordinating went through so I'm sad to say that i kind of gave up on stoppimg france, which was a major shame considering that england sent me a message, that they might have been truthful about, in which they were tying ti get me tk join them against france the next season in spring 1906. I also stopped talking with my ta as much during this year.
During the following years I went with france's plans and only talked to turkey and france until autumn 1908. I'm also sad to say that i was being extremely uncooperative towards turkey and once england sent me a message in 1908 towards them too. I treated basically all offers with extreme skepticis,m because for some reason not clear to me i viewed france as trustworthy, and with a lot of gratitude because they could have killed me but didn't. That is until i remembered something: france is the main person (besides possibly my own actions) who screwed me over in this game. After that i tried working with the et and trying to figure out france's plans, though was not able to help much because of the fact that france didn't trust me. In the end j went with france again because i didn't see basically any chance of a draw. The game then progressed and france had gained the solo.


Looking back at the game I found a lot of mistakes that i made. One of the first major mistakes that i made was mismoves. I actually had several during this game which was very annoying, and really messed up the game for me.another even bigger one was trusting france, there were so many red flags about their behavior such as the unwillingness to move out of bur or holland, the sometimes very short messages, and the lack of action for going alomg with the plan including "mismoves". Looking back
at it i realize that i was extremely gullible during the start at least of this game. Perhaps my biggest mistake was the fact that i kind of gave up on trying to organize an alliance against the ef after autumn 1905. It seems like i was really close to getting people to turn on france, i also helped france against England, the main threat to them, and am probably the main nonfrench person responsible for the french solo, I'm very sorry about that. Another major one was stopping discussing with my ta. There wouldn't have been much to discuss after i agreed to go with france but it still probably would have helped. My press was also usually not of very high quality and I think that the two fleet build was a very very very bad idea.

Finally, i'd like to thank everyone involved. Thanks to the professors, I have learned a lot during this game from your commentary, thanks to the players, the game was fun and was of higher quality than most, and lastly, thanks to emfries. Your counsel was great, and i'm sorry for not talking to you as much. Again, i have learned a lot from this game and despite the fact that in my personal opinion i did not play very well during it, it was interesting at least. If anyone has any other questions about the press that was going on pm me, and i'll do my best to help if possible.
Note:beware of spelling errors, written on my ipad screen keyboard.
tvrocks (388 D)
18 Sep 14 UTC
Note written while having very little sleep, and i think i might have overeatimated my poaition.
Tru Ninja (1016 D(S))
18 Sep 14 UTC
Alright, here's my commentary. Each player had some highlights and low points. I will talk about each player's best and worst in alphabetical order.

Austria:
You were by far at your best in 1904. You got off to a shaky start, but a big kudos to you for turning that around into what was a VERY playable position. If you had gone into CD at this point, I'd have no problem picking up your game, and there would be no worry that I would go into destruction without the ability to keep momentum going. I felt you fell apart when you supported England into Moscow instead of Germany. Things after that fell apart. I don't think that that *one* move was so critical that it ruined your game, but you certainly needed the ally that you didn't have. I also think that continuously attacking Italy was going to be a mistake.

When you're Austria, you really have to play the long-term game more than anyone. Seeing the downfall of Italy and Russia are usually really good things, but in your situation in 1904, you had France headed your direction from the west and Turkey from the east. This was creating a sandwich that you couldn't possibly expect to see turn out in your favor. This goes back to my regular comments about checks-and-balances. Germany could have been that guy. After 1904, it was really just a series of inevitable circumstance as opposed to bad play. I will say that the moment France had 3 builds hit the map that put him over 10 centers is the time I'd have started to take notice as a board. If no one was looking at France, then you would need to direct their attention. Even if France wasn't stabbing the 8 center England, the fact that there was a combined 20 centers between two powers, both of which were listed as allies should have raised some flags. The only person NOT directly affected by such a situation was Turkey.

I'm not sure what the press was behind the scenes, but I would have loved to have some insight. Here are some questions for you directly:

--At the peak of your power in 1904, what were your plans? What was the press that you were receiving that could confirm these plans?

--What made you choose to help England over Germany?

--by 1908, you were still receiving support from France against Turkey. Why not work with the Turk to stop France?



England
Your peak moment was the fall of 1905. You just took your 9th center, had a (tentative) French ally, and saw two builds. You had Moscow locked down (but not with any real strength) and Germany was on the decline. Spring 06, you made a decent play against France and could have forced yourself into the MAO. Then, in the fall, you backed off. This was your moment. At this stage, I really felt you should have pursued France and gotten German aid. Germany would have helped you without question. If you could have gained a leg up on France at that point, you could have soloed. If England has control of Moscow and Warsaw, all he needs is to push to take Germany and nearly all of France for the win.

I felt that this was your mistake because you had little to gain left from Germany. You needed a new target to see future gains, and continuing a Russian campaign was not in the stars with your abundance of fleets and lack of armies that could have really done anything. If you look at your unit count, you had 5 armies and 4 fleets. That's a 45-55 split in favor of armies. That's too many fleets. In 06, your build was an army meaning before 06 it was a 50-50 split. Way too many fleets. England needs to run about a 60-40 until about 10-12 centers and then move to a 70-30 in favor of armies if at all possible. This value may change a little if you're going to attack Tunis for your 18th center instead of Moscow/Warsaw (keep it closer to the 60-40) because of the higher need for fleets and greater availability of sea zones. Remember that NONE of the centers are sea zones. This means that every center is accessible by army (sometimes with the need of a convoy), but it cannot be said that every center is accessible by fleet. As England, this is more true because the only center not accessible by army without naval assistance is Tunis. The rest can be hit by armies. Finally, you're NOT going to get to Venice, Trieste, Budapest, Vienna, Munich, Warsaw, Moscow, Sevastopol, Serbia, any of the Balkans and any Turkish center by use of a fleet because of the extensive man-power needed to push a fleet there. (You're not really going to get armies into Turkey, either, so just count those out).

Here are some questions for you:
--At your peak, what caused you to back off of France? This move leads me to believe that you didn't want the war to begin with, so what caused you to attack?

--Where did you expect to see additional gains if it wasn't through France?

--While you were still attacking France, what was it about Germany that you simply refused to seek aid from him?

I will get to the rest as I get time. France and Germany are next.
VirtualBob (242 D)
20 Sep 14 UTC
Bump
mendax (321 D)
20 Sep 14 UTC
In answer to the questions Tru asked of me:

In 1904 my goal was a 4-way draw, with possibilities of bringing it down to 3 if I was given a free hand to work against Turkey. It was not so much helping England over Germany, as helping England over France, with Germany the unfortunate nation stuck in the middle. My plan was that once England had taken out Germany, he would have to fight France, and this would slow down France enough for me to neutralise Turkey. Unfortunately, England did not fight France, and therefore it all fell apart and France solo'd.

By 1908, I had no real faith in the rest of the board. I had warned Turkey that if they continued to attack me, I would have no choice but to fight them and leave myself open to France. Turkey chose not to heed this warning, so I followed through. Turkey had shown absolutely no indication that he was willing to work with me, having taken Rum and Ser, so I didn't really have any opportunity to work with him against France..
tvrocks (388 D)
20 Sep 14 UTC
I was germany in this game, and from what i heard from them you had never offered something that wiuld give them any gain or even a way out of their corner.
tvrocks (388 D)
20 Sep 14 UTC
The them i referred to is turkey.
KingCyrus (511 D)
20 Sep 14 UTC
(Turkey)

Wow, I am catching a lot of flak! Surviving the first couple of years was definitely tricky, especially with multiple Russian players who changed the dynamic. Once I had established myself against Austria though, we had a good time going at it :) The reason for my continued fight against Austria was that I clearly saw that he did not have the strength to fend off France. So, rather than let France take all of him, I wanted a piece of the pie. Now, once he only had Serbia, I DID see his importance in the draw. The draw was pretty locked up in the south, but absolutely not in the north. I saw stalemate lines being drawn in the south, with nothing I could do to help my ally, England. My only course of action other than sitting and waiting was taking Austria. Did it hurt the overall board? Yes. Would it have mattered in the end? I think not. France was making too much headway in the north for me to trust actual stalemate lines. In the end, I just wanted to make sure I ended in the best situation possible.
Tru Ninja (1016 D(S))
20 Sep 14 UTC
France:
I started this, and my wife closed the tab :( here goes.
It's obvious that the height of your game came in the last season when you soloed. Therefore, I will spend the bulk of my time highlighting some things that helped you solo.
The first one that I will highlight is this: Spring 1902 and Spring 1906 saw two different people attacking you. The following Fall season saw both of those attackers turn back. This identifies the press that was going on behind the scene. You clearly talked them out of their actions, and it wasn't just a sentence or two that got them to do it. Some might chalk this up to luck, and sometimes it is. Most times, however, it's the effort and diplomacy a player puts into their own position.

Next, Spring 1908 saw you working with Germany to hurt England. This gave you the ability to progress. In many solos, the soloing player does these things (a) uses smaller powers to advance his own position. When a guy is close to the end of his game, many great players will take the opportunity to use a small power their own ends. Sure, the small power gets something out of it, but so does the larger power. This trade-off can allow a big power to get places that he could not do otherwise. Here, it had the ability to cause England to disband. Your flaw was that you didn't support Germany long enough to see it happen, so England rebuilt on the Island. (b) Soloing players work to keep the opposition fractured. In many games that end in a solo, the opponents will have 4 powers still on the board trying to stop the soloer. The more players that are on the map, the more chances there are for things like miscommunication, errors in movement, faulty or low communication, more opportunities to turn a player against another, and, equally important, there are often players that are working together that have a checkered past.

This type of mix adds that extra stress and instability that can cause a soloing party to win. Things were clearly fractured when players simply couldn't or wouldn't work together. There was likely a lack of press that allowed you to continue your campaign to its completion.

Now, with this solo, there was some element of fortune beyond your control--namely the fact that Turkey failed to assault the southern sea zones. Had he done that, then your game would have fallen flat because you never had that extra fleet nearby to ensure that Turkey couldn't force himself into the ION.

Here are some questions for you:
--What sorts of things were you telling the board that kept them off-balance?
--In all SoW games, there are times that we professors simply "have it wrong" because we can't see the press behind the scenes. What was one of those moments for you?


Germany:
You had it hard right out of the gate. I can't say I see a single season where you weren't under fire from more than one opponent. You really handled the fight well and even started to pull through a little bit. Your peak season was Fall 1903 when you just took Sweden from England and showed him that you were a force to be reckoned with. I really thought England was going to be the guy booted from the game first. Then came the builds. As soon as I saw 2 fleets hit the map, I thought "oh, man. This is going to be bad". You had no defense and were putting everything you had into an attack against England. This allowed France to slip in through the undefended south, and the rest was history.

One thing I felt was unfortunate was that there were a series of times that you should have had an ally, but the right people weren't picking you up and using you to the potential that you had. Austria and England really stood by and let you flounder. I felt that you had a decent game and under normal circumstances, things would have gone better for you. My guess is that there was a lack of press going on from your end that gave others the impression that you were simply going to try to go it alone. Without that inside information, it's hard to say.

Questions for you:
--What made you decide on dub fleets that fateful year?
--What sort of press were you sending to others when you were on your downward spiral?



Italy: You had a sour game yourself, very similar to Germany. Things never really got off the ground for you. Your highlight was Spring 1902. I really liked the idea of pushing at France as soon as you saw that Marseilles fleet build. My guess is that he sold you on the idea that it was headed toward England, and you had bigger fish to fry in the east which made you pull back. After that season, things continued to go downhill. Fortunately for you, you didn't have to live long enough to worry about dealing with stopping the solo. I often believe that in a solo game, it's better to be a casualty of war than a survivor. If you're defeated early on, it could mean one of two things. Either you lacked the right press that allowed you to stay in the game, or it was simply one of those games where your defeat was decided ahead of time. If you're a survivor when someone solos, it only means that you lacked the ability to stop the soloing party because either you or the board as a whole failed to recognize it for what it was and gather the opposition to stop it.

Questions for you:
--If you could do one thing over again, what would that ONE thing be?
--Fall 1903: the French were pushing against you and the board looked like a Western Triple. What caused you to continue to attack Austria instead of turn and face the French?


Nothing for Russia since he didn't finish the game.


Turkey: You fought a bitter battle for the first four years. Then, fortune smiled on you and you saw growth that was paralleled only by the French, doubling in size over the next 3 years. The height of your kingdom was a very promising 8 centers in F07. After that, it was an endless battle against Austria that allowed France to slip into the south and establish himself. For a while, I really felt you had a great solo opportunity if you used the right connections. Unfortunately, you chose to continue to attack Austria instead of ally with him and push back the French. This cost you ground. There was then a series of 3-4 years prior to the end of the game that you had the ability to stop France from winning but you never got your fleet out of the BLA enough to hit the ION. I did have the time to read some of your EoG and you mentioned that you felt the south was locked up and it came down to the north stopping France. The problem with this philosophy is that it doesn't recognize how fragile the north is. The southern part of the board has far more stalemate lines running through it than the north. Once France crosses into Germany and makes it into the northern seas, it's just a matter of time before he solos. The only chance anyone has of stopping a player at that stage is to get units behind his line and hit him from the back.

Questions:
--Why did you refuse to move the BLA south to hit the ION?
--What was your press like with Austria around 1906-07. France had nearly double your centers and Austria was being hamstrung by the combined force of you and France. Was there press? What was he saying? What were you saying? What caused you to continue to decide to hit him?
VirtualBob (242 D)
21 Sep 14 UTC
Response to questions (France)
My press: The "Western Triple" was always more of a figment than a reality, though we did all talk about it. I saw Germany's many "miss-moves" around RUH/HOL early as an unwillingness to move east, which explains (a) my refusal to move back from BUR and (b) my strong lobbying for two fleet builds by Germany. I then delayed my commitment to attack England with Germany as an ally, partly because I was still trying to establish my position in the south, and partly because I did not want Germany to be able to build an army again. I was also lobbying England during that time to attack Germany, and I used my TA as an excuse for putting my fleet in MAO where England did not want it. When the profs started talking about my solo potential, I took every opportunity with the smaller powers to get them to support me in return for survival, while constantly telling Turkey & England that my goal was a three-way draw. England & I discussed briefly the question of whether Turkey or Austria was a better draw partner, but I saw Austria as more of a potential threat to my solo (as well as having a greater potential to force a four-way draw). If England had moved aggressively against Germany, he might even have convinced me to make it a three-way, though I gave Germany just enough support to make that difficult. England woke up to the problem sooner than Turkey, but by then I was too close to 18 to consider the draw anyway.

As to where the profs got it wrong, there were a couple of turns when I was still supporting or keeping units in HOL or HOL/BEL when the profs told me I was wasting their power, and that I should trust England. With England's wariness already, though, I was concerned that he would stab me first. The profs were also already telling everyone how dangerous I was, so I thought it was a bit disingenuous to ask me to trust the powers you were also asking to stab me.
tvrocks (388 D)
21 Sep 14 UTC
Response to questions (germany)
--What made you decide on dub fleets that fateful year?
--What sort of press were you sending to others when you were on your downward spiral?

The reason why i built dub fleets was that i trusted france a lot, and i wanted to make sure that i could make progress against england.

I will give a general idea of On my downward spiral i
Russia: i did not talk to them for very long but made a deal that they would support hold Sweden in exchange for me moving to mos to bounce england in spring 1904. They went inactive after that.
France: the general message was i'll help you get the solo in exchange for a survive.
England: wth are you still attacking me? You are basically done expanding and france is going to get the solo. You need to attack them. I'm getting weaker, france is getting stronger, and you're staying about the same. Lets kill france.
Turkey and austria: it doesn't seem like the ef is going to break any time soon. I've been trying ti break it fir years. We meed to make a 3 way in order ti try stopping it.
tvrocks (388 D)
21 Sep 14 UTC
Add the words 'the press' between of and on.


317 replies
Jamiet99uk (1307 D)
17 Sep 14 UTC
Draugnar
Draugnar is strutting around the VDip forum claiming he has been un-banned here on webdip. A quick look on here using "find a user" indicates otherwise. How odd.
5 replies
Open
zultar (4180 DMod(P))
19 Sep 14 UTC
(+8)
Welcome back Putin
Putin and I have resolved all our differences and misunderstandings. Please welcome him back to the site.
62 replies
Open
Kofi1066 (796 D)
20 Sep 14 UTC
Join quick game please. yo.
Last minute beginning in 10 minutes Quick Anonymous game, public press only.
http://www.webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=147738
Cheers
3 replies
Open
Kofi1066 (796 D)
20 Sep 14 UTC
Fancy a quick game beginning in 15 mins? Please sign up.
Anonymous game, public press only.
http://www.webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=147738
Cheers
0 replies
Open
Ruisdael (1529 D)
18 Sep 14 UTC
Training Game!
Hey Diplomats,

I'm a teacher and I'm currently introducing one of my favorite students to Diplomacy. To avoid metagaming, I'd like to start a Classic game in which all the players are just starting out and want a place to feel free to ask questions and generally be a little less intense than usual. The game link is here: http://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=147658
The password is "new".
15 replies
Open
kasimax (243 D)
20 Sep 14 UTC
turkey needed in modern gunboat, game hasn't started yet
gameID=147632

game is still in spring 94, so everything's still possible!
4 replies
Open
krellin (80 DX)
20 Sep 14 UTC
Facebook and Death
So, my cousin, who is about 5 years younger than me, dropped dead today....literally. Shocking, horrible...I'm a bit traumatized. I have vilified Facebook in the past for various reasons...and yet today found comfort in the ability to share his life, to explore his life through his page, and grieve instantly with friends and family near and far.
So what are your thoughts about Facebook in this respect?
23 replies
Open
pjmansfield99 (100 D)
02 Sep 14 UTC
PJM Gunboat
As we're getting to results I thought I'd put up a thread for the final scores. Frankly as it wasn't really intended to be serious, I never thought about putting a scoring system together across the 7 games, but if anyone is that bothered, they're welcome to do so!
54 replies
Open
abgemacht (1076 D(G))
16 Sep 14 UTC
(+1)
Diplomacy Territory Quiz
With The Boroughs Face to Face less than a month away (have you registered?) I thought it would be fun to see how well people know the Diplomacy board. Post your results here. No cheating! http://www.sporcle.com/games/g/diplomacyprovinces
43 replies
Open
ILN (100 D)
19 Sep 14 UTC
(+1)
Alex Salmond advice
I loled

http://i.imgur.com/QIMvfr8.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/YQwP37l.jpg
27 replies
Open
zultar (4180 DMod(P))
17 Sep 14 UTC
(+9)
Site philosophy and forum moderation
Please read.
122 replies
Open
Nikola Maric Eto (24945 D)
19 Sep 14 UTC
(+1)
What is happening with this site???
Some 2 years ago when I joined Webdiplomacy you could play 3 games in a row during one night. Now, you cant get players for even one game. Everyone is just typing on forum. Maybe if we type about it, we can overcome this problem somehow?! Play people, play.
8 replies
Open
steephie22 (182 D(S))
17 Sep 14 UTC
Can you get into legal trouble for simply sitting next to a guy using illegal drugs?
Just checking.
18 replies
Open
Jamiet99uk (1307 D)
09 Sep 14 UTC
Please sign this petition
The UK's Cuntservative-led government is murdering the poor and the vulnerable. It must stop.

http://www.change.org/p/david-cameron-hold-an-inquiry-into-benefit-sanctions-that-killed-my-brother
114 replies
Open
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