School of War - Fall 2017

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Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by Octavious » Sun Jan 28, 2018 8:18 pm

Lazy Bones wrote:
Sun Jan 28, 2018 6:38 pm
Sorry about that. In my defense locations 16,313 km away from where i live are quite hard to remember as i never took a class that touched on locations around the world. Plus its not like it's written on the map. Oh wait...... :P
My uncle, who was a proud Scottishman, never let me get away with it, regardless of the the fact it's not pronounced anything like Edinburgh. The only thing that annoyed him more was when I'd say Scottishman instead of Scotsman :).

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by Lazy Bones » Sun Jan 28, 2018 6:38 pm

Octavious wrote:
Sun Jan 28, 2018 10:57 am
A big thank you to all the EOGs that have come in so far. Even the ones from people who can't spell Edinburgh :p.
Sorry about that. In my defense locations 16,313 km away from where i live are quite hard to remember as i never took a class that touched on locations around the world. Plus its not like it's written on the map. Oh wait...... :P

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by PRINCE WILLIAM » Sun Jan 28, 2018 1:53 pm

In this specific game, we were polite because we had as a co-player Kansas who was rude and was calling names enough for a dozen games.

Lazy Bones, I was waiting for your EoG statement, as I was curious about one thing. What was the purpose of the late 1909 -1910. I had the suspicion that it was a last attempt for the solo and so I played for time until Russia was out and we reached the draw.

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by Octavious » Sun Jan 28, 2018 10:57 am

A big thank you to all the EOGs that have come in so far. Even the ones from people who can't spell Edinburgh :p.

One thing I am picking up on is that there seems to be something of an epidemic of niceness amongst newer players. Draws, cooperation, politeness etc all have their place, but don't be afraid of calling someone a blithering idiot and shoving the knife in. The game is made significantly harder if we limit ourselves with etiquette.

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by Lazy Bones » Sun Jan 28, 2018 10:36 am

Hello everyone i am Lazy Bones and I played France in this School of War.
My tutor was Ezio and i leaned on his help throughout the game.
He was an amazing tutor who offered his time and patience to me and hopefully i have become a better player through his efforts however, that is yet to be seen.

Lazy Bones End of Game statement:

Firstly before we begin i must confess that before this game had started i had not played France before. To this end my 1901 moves were not the most efficient but gaining two builds was not bad for me. Throughout 1901 i tried to establish as many relations as i could. This included a Dmz of Piedmont and i also I offered to England Belgium to establish Friendly relations. However he was Belgium by Germany also. This seemed to suggest a Western Triple. Whilst my relations with Germany and England were good at this stage a believed that a western triple would not establish for the simple reason that England was quite threatening towards me in normal chat. I also established communication with Russia who was making aggressive moves northward.

Since he was starting to become aggressive i promptly built the unit to gain naval control in the event that Germany and England turned on me. This was simply because i had not received any guarantee by England that a western triple was forming. He of course was displeased by this as some of us will remember in open chat. Therefore i began my attack on England in 1902. However whilst this attack was happening Italy started to move towards me so Ruhr moved back to defend south. This was a blessing as Italy moved into the Western Mediterranean.

After which i went into a bit of a panic because i had angered England (not hard to do) and Italy was moving towards me i also expected Germany to turn onto me. This would turn my game quite quickly. However through diplomacy both Germany and Italy stated that they were non-aggressive towards me. At this time i believed Germany but not so much Italy mainly because he had a unit in Piedmont as well as West med. So i defended south hoping to stave off attacks from both England and Italy. Luckily Italy was not lying to me and moved back allowing me to continue my attack into England.

After taking some of England i began an attack on Germany to try for a solo. whilst defending myself from Italy. I gave Russia Edinborough so that he could defend from Germany and keep his units east. That left me to attack Germany's shore and start for the solo. Everything was going well until i made a few mistakes. Chief among those that i did not take Munich in 1909 with Berlin attacking Silesia to block the support. After that mistake i lost the chance at a solo and tried to do damage control and get Germany to form a stalemate line with me to stop Italy's expansion. However this is were the game ended. In my personal opinion Italy had me and probably the game. I was lucky that he decided to draw with both me and Germany.

So sorry if that was not informative but i was just giving you a bit of my perspective. Thank you again to Ezio who tutor'd me through this whole process and i hope every other student has learnt as much as i have.

Thank you for allowing me to participate in the School of war and good luck to any future students.

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by AttiWoolf » Sun Jan 28, 2018 3:17 am

Hey folks, I was the player for Turkey. I had an ongoing document that I was gonna post for this, but unfortunately I lost that computer during the game, so I'll do what I can here. Sorry for the late response.

Pre-Game & 1901:
I started out wanting to work with Italy, as I am unreasonably afraid of the Lepanto and had never played Turkey before, but mostly wanted to be that one person in game who is openly communicative. I wasn't at all a fan of the idea of working with Russia. Italy was out for Russia from the get go, so the black sea bounce was organised, and I was hoping to get Russia's help taking out Austria while I build up my fleets and then turn back on Russia. At least, that was my idea going in. I was hoping to move up and then make a fairly standard stalemate through the middle of the map.
I'd established tenuous contact with most of the players, KansasBoyd seemed super keen to talk, Italy seemed willing to work together and Germany was non-noncommittally open to the idea of working together. Hopes were high.

1902:
I wanted Greece and a fleet almost as much as I wanted to be good at Diplomacy, and that was a lot. By 1902 I thought I knew Russia and France were going after England, that Italy wanted to blitz Austria, and that I had the pick of the south-easterly states to get some space from Russia and move into Austria. Around this point, Russia pointed me to a previous game he'd played as Turkey with a Turkey/Russia draw that he wanted to recreate. I have to admit, the idea of a game-long partner and a beautifully tied SoW appealed to me a lot, so I decided to go for it (largely against the recommendations of my TA). I messaged Austria trying to get him off my back, as I'd heard he was trying to solicit an alliance against me. I am desperate to be liked so when he backpedaled I was pretty ready to use Austria and Russia as my meat-shields while I took to the seas to take on Italy... until Austria said he couldn't take me seriously at the start of the game and couldn't believe that Italy outright lied to him, so I decided he was probably the riskiest ally to have. I also misordered spectacularly in the autumn of this year, so instead of having a fleet in the aegean and a fleet in the eastern med by autumn 1903 I was very landlocked with Italy in a prime position to Lepanto me, very quickly. I was, to put it in past tense, Wi(e)ll I was Shook, Speared. (please find me funny the past tense of william shakespeare is my only good joke)

1903:
I was boned, my friends. With italy and Austria about to make a deal (from what it seemed to me) and Italy looping around, it seemed I was either going to have to take a deal with italy or wait for Russia to take a deal with them. So I took the deal.
http://bit.ly/2siNDGk
I think this is also around the point KansasBoyd started going apeshit in global and on the forums - up until this point I'd been trying to be chill with him and get along nicely - he was still pretty polite to me in private chat, and I was hoping to talk him off the ledge so to speak. Pretty awkward, all things considered. I'm a commie, so i'm pretty sure if he knew I would have copped it. Alas, he didn't, and I continued to quietly cheer him on and assure him that he wasn't boned and that there was a more than 0 chance anyone would work with him.

1904:
Italy was still helping Austria and I was freaking out my pals, my beautiful plans were in tatters. I will admit, I was on the verge of begging. Except then Italy got me back into Greece, and I had a deep, deep hope that I could bounce back from this, even if I had to turn on my friend (Russia).
It's worth noting that my TA at this point, I'm almost sure, was desperately pounding his keyboard wishing I wouldn't trust anyone half so much as I did.


1905:
1905 was gonna be my year. I'd been talking to Germany, and we'd organised to effectively wipe Russia off the map by 1907. It was a grand plan. That immediately messed up, and I was almost certain Germany was fucking with me. Italy was absolutely fucking me, and I was quickly losing centers. I was hoping that France would be able to help, but I was pretty screwed as soon as Italy got the Greece/Ionian hold. At that point, I was just trying to be the most annoyingly insistently surviving country I could be.

1906:
I figured by this point I was royally screwed between italy and germany, so instead I just figured I'd do my best to make both of their lives slightly more difficult in hopes that France would get the edge on them. I went from 6SCs at the start of this year to 4 at the end, and Russia moving in on me.

Dying:
After that, i was basically shit outta luck. I tried a last minut ploy to get Russia to just piss off Italy, but that was a no-go.

In Retrospect:
Honestly, I think the main thing is I should have probably just stuck to one plan/ally. I had a lot of chopping and changing trying to work with too many people at once, and basically as soon as I turned on Russia (who, in retrospect, was the most steadfast and honest ally I had all game), most everything went down the shitter. I know I'm pretty much only in this game because I love the social aspect of it, and I love planning, but being able to work with other people is really my jam. Also, to always use that little checkbox to make sure my moves make sense. That misorder in 1902 and subsequent fuckups meant i really never got my dreams of a fleet and a plot of land in the western med off paper.

Also, your TA is probably always more right than you are. Listen.

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by Peregrine Falcon » Fri Jan 26, 2018 7:04 am

qtkat wrote:
Fri Jan 26, 2018 3:53 am
Will there be another of these coming for Winter 2018?
Some years, two are run per year, once in the spring, and once in the fall. Some years, only one is run per year.
It depends on how interested people are. It can't really be done without players, but especially profs and TAs can be hard to find.

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by Durga » Fri Jan 26, 2018 4:21 am

While you wait, we could arrange something with the mentor program

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by bo_sox48 » Fri Jan 26, 2018 4:05 am

qtkat wrote:
Fri Jan 26, 2018 3:53 am
Will there be another of these coming for Winter 2018?
Definitely. Might even be before.

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by bo_sox48 » Fri Jan 26, 2018 4:05 am

I was England for like two phases.

It would have been really funny if I managed to solo. Shockingly, I didn't.

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by qtkat » Fri Jan 26, 2018 3:53 am

Will there be another of these coming for Winter 2018?

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by SuperMario0727 » Fri Jan 26, 2018 3:28 am

Nice analysis, guys! I really like all this talk about strategy and insight.

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by Ezio » Thu Jan 25, 2018 5:43 am

I was TA for France.

I suck at press and at longterm strategy (my strategy is usually to stab everyone immediately) so I generally tried to give advice on tactics and move possibilities. I let him say what he was trying to accomplish and I'd help him figure out the most efficient way to accomplish his objective.

Furthermore, strategically this game felt flat as there was a clear enemy to target in England and his insane press/play, so it seemed like tactics were all that mattered.

I'm quite sad with the 3 way draw as I thought we were in a solid position to solo, or at least 2 way draw, but a few tactical mistakes near the end cost it.

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by ItsHosuke » Wed Jan 24, 2018 1:23 am

Sorry for the long wait...

My email didn't work and thus can't communicate with my TA. He had nice long-term strategy but I didn't understand most of it...

I am more of a beginner so there was some comms barrier

Shoutout to my TA Yoak though, I took most of his advice although the replies were rushed...

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by yoak » Tue Jan 23, 2018 7:54 pm

My EOG. I was the TA for Italy.

The credit for the performance goes to the student. I wasn't as influential as I would have liked to have been. I strongly suspect a language barrier with my student and that kept things terse to be most effective. This is something that should be carefully considered in the future, though it is entirely possible that it was already carefully considered and this was the best that could be done with resources available. But it was a limitation here.

I think, because of the above, rather than a lack of interest on the part of ItsHosuke, there was very limited ability to discuss strategy, press and long-term aspects of the game. The aspects where I might have been helpful were very short-term and tactical, which aren't even my strengths in the game.

For example, I tried writing essays on diplomatic and strategic considerations early. I doubt they were read, and what came back, when anything did, was very short term in consideration. To take an example, I drafted long pieces on strategy for Italy and asked many questions about the state of press. What came back was the question (that I'm not looking up for an exact quote), "What is the most aggressively anti-Austria opening that I could make. I explained the Bohemian Crusher, all the while suggesting that it was probably not a good idea and it ended up happening. It was an insight into a move combination that my player may not have found on his own, and the results were certainly interesting, but I would have liked a deeper communication on the advisability of it, but that would have required a sort of engagement that he and I never achieved.

I have nothing but praise for ItsHosuke. He ended the largest power in a 3wd. The play that got him there is completely to his own credit, and he did it with what we hope (I think) were players of comparable skill, and I suspect he got less effective help from his TA than others might have received. I congratulate him and hope to see him at the table in the future.

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by Lazy Bones » Tue Jan 23, 2018 9:23 am

Now that i have my internet back i will post a Eog soon. Sorry for the delay.

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by ghug » Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:37 pm

A short EoG is better than no EoG.

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by ItsHosuke » Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:31 pm

I still can't find the time to...

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by Octavious » Fri Jan 19, 2018 11:01 pm

No more?

Re: School of War - Fall 2017

by Octavious » Sun Jan 14, 2018 10:06 pm

Ha! Once we break you out of that unfortunate playing for the draw habit you've got the potential to be a fine player.

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