Gobsmack — gunboat journal — DISCUSSION
Posted: 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.
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.