I remember that game. Was very impressed with pw's play!

I was Austria and that stab you describe was a big mistake on my part. Even though I took a center off Russia, Italy and Turkey... I miscalculated and Russia still got a build because he gained centers elsewhere, which threw off my expected post stab balance of power. Even then I could probably have held the line, but Germany also jumped in on the anti-Austria bandwagon. This was totally buffoonery on his part. It opened him up to western attacks and he perished pretty quick. I basically agreed to be Italy's Janissary and survived in 5th place.

[quote="Balki Bartokomous" post_id=87894 time=1561394872 user_id=922]
Congrats Wiggin!

(who was France?)
[/quote]

Brad Blitstein

Congrats Wiggin!

(who was France?)

Sounds like a blast!

I have a tip re: declaring yourself to be a strong player. I employed that diplomatic tactic myself the most recent time I played as France.

In my second game of the ODC, I flat out told a player attacking me that I was likely the #1 seed in the match and the strongest player. I was also playing France (important fact). I said that he should switch sides and join up with me, because if he attacked me alone I would easily defend and he would never get any builds. He switched sides and joined me.

It's not at all crazy to intimidate someone by saying that you are a strong player if you have a good defensive power such as France. The credible assertion that their attacks will not net them supply centers can be very discouraging.

[quote="Carl Tuckerson" post_id=87861 time=1561376985 user_id=6415]
France sounds like an idiot. I can't imagine opening a Diplomacy game by telling someone I'm the best player in the game and all the others are idiots so X should ally with me.
[/quote]

France got 2nd place in the tournament and is actually a great player. Don't know why he chose to do that tho.

France sounds like an idiot. I can't imagine opening a Diplomacy game by telling someone I'm the best player in the game and all the others are idiots so X should ally with me.

I can indeed confirm that I played a game against actual people, in real time, in real life. Thanks to Randy and everybody else involved in organizing Massacre for letting me show up for one round. Thanks Aurelin for stealing my +1s.

Some general observations:

[list=1]
[*]ftf is so stressful. I should have done this when I was younger.
[*]It was the whitest, malest, crowd I've been in in a while. For context, I have an engineering PhD and do computer science research.
[*] webDip's order validation has spoiled me. I was always the last one to turn in orders, and even so I misordered twice! I tried to move stp/nc - lvn! I also tried to order nor s den-bal ( didn't even have a fleet in Norway).
[*] I missed negotiating during builds and retreats.
[*] Carnage scoring encourages large and early draws, which I guess is good in ftf when you don't want to be there 2 more hours eliminating a player or so the board leader can grab 2 more centers.
[/list]

Some thoughts on the game:

I drew England, next to a France who I'd been told was a very strong player. Austria spent time in 1901 telling me not to trust France. France spent 1901 telling me that he was the best player there, that Russia and Germany were idiots, and that I should work with him if I wanted a chance a topping the board. Of course, his ideal idea of working with him in 1901 involved me going to Norway and Barents while he took Belgium. We bounced in Belgium, Germany built two armies despite me not being allowed to talk to him during builds, and I decided I should probably not work with France.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the table, Russia had opened by allowing Austria into Galicia in the spring, then in the fall Austria and Turkey both supported Russia from ukr-rum while Russia moved f sev-arm and got bounced out of Sweden. Logically, Russia built... fleet Sevastapol and attacked Germany in 1902. This put me in a position where I could walk into St. Petersburg, but had to hold off on doing so for two years so that Austria couldn't just walk into the rest of the Russian home centers.

In 1902 I convinced Germany to give me Sweden and Belgium so that we could better attack France, who turtled up in his five centers. Italy decided to get involved. France kept telling me that I was doing it all wrong, that I should be in all of Germany's home centers, that he was going to throw to Italy, and that Austria was going to solo (because an E/G is the best way to get an Austrian solo...).

In 1903 Austria stabbed Russia and Italy to get to 9 centers, which allowed France to convince Germany to stop attacking him, so I pulled my fleets away to go take St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, I helped organize an IRT that quickly brought Austria to heel, although perhaps too late for Russia.

In S1905 I stabbed Germany for Holland and Denmark while France walked into Belgium. In the fall, I convinced Germany to put me in Warsaw in return for me not taking Kiel and supporting him to Belgium. France started to become visibly frustrated with me. I was hoping to get Germany to be my janissary the rest of the game, but this is the strategic choice I question the most. I might have been able to do better by letting France keep Belgium and taking both Kiel and Warsaw in F1905, building armies, and quickly reinforcing my position in Russia.

I really wanted to keep working with Germany to get across the line and cut France down, but at this point France showed his chops by turning Germany against me. Unfortunately for Germany, he wasn't very good at lying to me, and so I not only defended against his stab, but actually took more centers. France starts talking about how this is the most incompetently played game he's ever seen, then demonstrates by convincing Germany to support him to Ruhr (instead of forcing Holland from me), from where he takes Munich and eliminates Germany.

I ended on 11, and thought I did ok for my first game. Being between a mix of very strong and very weak players gave me some interesting choices, and I'm not sure I always chose right. Fatigue was also definitely an issue the last couple of years.

It's also important to note that I had to leave to go pick up my kid, and so the TD played the last turn for me.

Congratulations Wiggin!

Congrats to peterwiggin on Best England at the Boston Massacre tournament! Which, might I add, was his first FtF tournament.

He’s also an amazing admin and I love being on the mod team with him.