Gobsmack — gunboat journal — DISCUSSION

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Amwidkle
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Gobsmack — gunboat journal — DISCUSSION

#1 Post by Amwidkle » Wed Jan 26, 2022 1:49 am

For discussion so the main journal thread doesn’t get cluttered. Got questions for me or any of the other players in this match? Fire away!

Main thread: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3848

“Gobsmack” Game for reference: https://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=387345

At this point, my gunboat journal runs through 1908, hoping to finish it up pretty soon. (The game went though Spring 1917.)

Biggest decision I expect people will be interested for me (as Germany) is: why did you stab Austria? Doesn’t that violate a cardinal principle of Diplomacy?!

Well? It worked, didn’t it? :)

While Richard Sharpe’s “Game of Diplomacy” is a brilliant primer, and my go-to whenever I reference the idea of “Diplomacy orthodoxy,” I find his commentary to have a distinct pro-Austrian bias (his admitted favorite nation). The “Anchluss” strategy (German-Austrian alliance) is sound but incomplete. Yes, Germany should absolutely aim to have a secure border and an immediate friend in the East early on, but does it need to be with Austria? Why not Russia?

It’s true that an early German-Russian war in the Prussia/Silesia area can be catastrophic for both, and that is based upon the exact same logic that supports Germany and Austria not warring early on in Tyrolia/Bohemia. Too many other more critical fronts.

Russia has one distinct advantage over Austria as a partner for Germany — the ability to build fleets in the North to help tip the scales in the Western conflict, as we saw in this game. Of course, those same northern Russian fleets can be turned on Germany, so that is also an additional threat to be managed.

I’ll also add that it’s been observed that Germany and Turkey are good long-range allies, and since the latter is often at odds with Austria, that calls the assumption of an automatic German/Austrian pact into question.

Germany and Turkey had no direct interactions in this gunboat game, but the German-Turkish connection is one reason I felt I had to stab Russia in Spring 1909 after Russia finally moved on Turkey. Russia eventually defeated Turkey, but after having his western wings clipped by myself and France so that he was no longer a solo threat.
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teccles
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Re: Gobsmack — gunboat journal — DISCUSSION

#2 Post by teccles » Wed Jan 26, 2022 9:09 am

Russia here.

I have thoughts/comments on three decisions you made in the game:

1. Letting Russia into Sweden, and forging an early alliance

As Russia, I'm obviously very, very pleased to be let into Sweden. I'm even more delighted if Germany follows up as they did here, by letting me keep it and attacking England together. I think this is a good play for any Germany who (by choice or otherwise) doesn't expect to ally with England. Personally, that EG alliance crushing France and Russia is my favourite way to play Germany, but when it's not available you want a strong Russia to work with against England. Here, I think you made that call right; England hadn't gone hard enough after either France or me in 1901 to be sure of them as an ally, and if you attack Sweden it's quite uncertain what they will do; maybe ally with a fairly desperate France and attack you. That was my thinking when I built F STP (nc) - that if I was obviously on board with the anti-England alliance, it was your best option as well.

2. Attacking Austria

I think that this was a huge decision. The reasons you gave for it in the journal were largely to keep me on side - which it very much did. If you hadn't attacked Austria, I would certainly have been looking seriously for opportunities to stab much earlier. However, I do think it made it almost inevitable that I would become stronger than you; I played very nicely in Austria (overjoyed to have you there), and still ended up gaining much more than you on that front. IMO, attacking Austria here gave you a much better chance of being in a small draw - in much the way that happened - but it also mostly closed the door to a solo.

3. Stabbing Russia

Good decision :)

At this point in the game, I had my eye on a solo. The first time I seriously gamed out a stab was in Autumn 1908 (one season before you acted). My conclusion was that I wouldn't get a solo out of it; it was too easy to lock me out of Turkey, France could get into England too fast, and I had little chance of racing to 18. So, I decided to hold on until Autumn 1909 - knowing full well that you must be nervous and might move first. At that point, I'd probably have a position where I had at least some prospect of cracking Turkey and/or getting into the Med, and so get over the line. I hoped you'd make a mistake here, and you didn't.

The main problem with my position there was not holding Turkey already - I should have fixed that earlier in the game.
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