Messages - webDiplomacy

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09 Mar 24 UTC	Spring, 1960: Thanks for the invite! This will be my first time on this map, so apologies in advance if my moves are suboptimal. I’ve got some stuff going on this morning, but I’ll spend some time studying the map and considering my first moves this afternoon.
09 Mar 24 UTC	Spring, 1960: Quick questions from just a quick look at the map: 1. Do Len and Nor share a coastline? If I zoom in, it looks like maybe not. 2. Do East and West Germany share a coastline? It appears interrupted by Denmark, but I wanted to be sure.
09 Mar 24 UTC	Spring, 1960: Hey! Okay, so for your first time I suggest you read the description of the map, here: https://webdiplomacy.net/variants.php#ColdWar Len and nor share a coastline, East and West Germany don't, you have to go through denmark with a fleet. Also, north sea borders sweden here. Important to know
09 Mar 24 UTC	Spring, 1960: There isn't a lot of articles about strategy here, but this one helped me quite a bit when I started playing on this map: https://www.diplomacybriefing.com/cold-war-resources Also this one has a nice trick for the USSR, the danish dodge. https://us20.campaign-archive.com/?u=7f96aa626e18757f1f87cd69e&id=714976663c I'm going to be quite busy for the rest of today, so if you have some questions, I can get to it tomorrow. If you think you need some more time to study the map, I have ordered to pause this game. If you want to pause, just click the button and we'll unpause when you're ready. Happy reading!!
09 Mar 24 UTC	Spring, 1960: 23 hours should be enough to do some reading and get some orders in. Thanks for the tips.
09 Mar 24 UTC	Spring, 1960: Ok, I’ve read both articles and analyzed it to death. I’ve readied up. I’m excited to see what mistakes I’ve made. :)
09 Mar 24 UTC	Spring, 1960: Out of curiosity, do you have a favorite power on this map?
09 Mar 24 UTC	Spring, 1960: Alright. Let's see...
09 Mar 24 UTC	Spring, 1960: No, I don't have a favourite. They're both good to play. I don't play duels that much, mostly just the normal 7-player game... Talking to people, the diplomacy, is the most fun part of the game, and you don't have that here in a duel, there's no negotiating. Actually now that I think about it, I like the USSR a bit more. Especially in Europe. In Asia, NATO is more fun, and in North america there usually isn't much going on
09 Mar 24 UTC	Autumn, 1960: Alright, so everything seems fairly normal, you play common openings except for your fleet in the mediterranean. Will you cover Albania, or will you not... we'll see! Similar situation in Leningrad. Good luck guessing!
09 Mar 24 UTC	Autumn, 1960: I've opened to the Indian ocean instead of the usually preferred West pacific. Means we'll bounce in India and will both get one less build. A slower game, I like that. What are your thoughts? It's more fun when we talk about the game and not just play silently, at least in my opinion.
10 Mar 24 UTC	Autumn, 1960: I fully understand why you preferred to open to Norwegian Sea rather than the North Sea. That choice forces me to make much tougher decisions right away. It is also consistent with blocking me from India. Creating the possibility that Sweden remains unclaimed would seem to slow the game down. As for the move to the Ionian, it seemed to have some upside if you opened to Eastern Med. That gamble has not paid off, but it seems to me like your current position in Greece is manageable for me. But, what do I know . . .
10 Mar 24 UTC	Autumn, 1960: I’m pretty proud of my read on E. Germany/Leningrad. I was very apprehensive about leaving Leningrad open, but thought you might try to prevent me from building in Leningrad while swiping E. Germany. I’m also happy I did not get too cute with Albania. I’ll need to think over builds carefully, though I do think I see 1 or 2 obvious choices.
10 Mar 24 UTC	Autumn, 1960: Yeah, the more I look at it, the tougher and tougher it gets to pick 3rd and 4th builds. I could see justifications for going quite a few different directions.
10 Mar 24 UTC	Autumn, 1960: Man, you guessed well... not covering Leningrad was the only thing that worked. You cover with the fleet, you lose the opportunity to build, centres equal. You cover with the army, you also lose the opportunity, but also lose east germany, although you'll probably get it back next year (but not guaranteed!). You cover with both, same result as covering with east Germany. Well done!
10 Mar 24 UTC	Autumn, 1960: Opening to the Norwegian is considered a gambit... might go wrong (as it did now), but if it doesn't, you get a clear advantage in northern europe.
10 Mar 24 UTC	Autumn, 1960: And slowing the game down is often seen as in the US's advantage. Some beg to differ, but I generally agree with this and open to the indian to slow things down.
10 Mar 24 UTC	Autumn, 1960: Overall, you're up a centre due to guessing well in both Leningrad and Albania. Let's see if I'm going to be able to recover from this.
11 Mar 24 UTC	Autumn, 1960: I’m guessing you’ll have opportunities to recover. I’ll be feeling my way through things for a bit, but I’m glad I’ve given myself a bit of a cushion to start.
11 Mar 24 UTC	Autumn, 1960: It's difficult... only three builds really is not much. And 3 against 4 is harder than 4 against 5, so opening to Japan would've been wiser. But couldn't have known that I'd fall behind.