England’s Retrospective on Game 3: https://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=339888
First I want to say thanks to ColoBoy for organizing these games, and thanks to everybody for playing with such commitment. This was my first time playing vs. humans on WebDip and my fourth game of Diplomacy (not counting bot games). I really enjoyed it and the EOG expectation was the key — it transformed the game for me. Knowing we would discuss the game gave me something to look forward to and made me take it a lot more seriously, and keeping a journal of my thoughts elevated my play massively. Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to take part in another game like this any time soon, because I found it intensely distracting from my real life work and at times a source of stress. I’ll be putting Diplomacy on hiatus for awhile but I love the hobby and the community at WebDip. Thanks again.
Preface: My retrospective focuses almost entirely on England, Germany, France, Italy, and Russia. For most of the game I was not thinking very deeply about Austria or Turkey.
1901: Straightforward. The only point of interest may be my move to Belgium rather than Brest. Once the turn happened and I realized I would have gotten Brest, I was kicking myself for not taking the chance, but with later reflection I now stand by my move. I would do it again in a future game. I ended 1901 with two builds, a good start.
1902: With my builds I decided to commit to fighting France, hoping for Germany to work with me. I didn’t think I would make any quick gains, but it’s just too easy for France to bust England wide open with those two northern fleets. Russia’s army build in StP helped this work well. I played mainly defensively vs. France and Russia for several years from this point, just trying to hold onto the 5 centres I had ended 1901 with. The collab with Germany started to take off, with us following each other’s signals to gain/hold centres.
1903: Continued defensive play. I convoyed the army back to England from Norway to try to decisively shut down France from invading, which worked. France moved back out to MAO in Autumn. Germany and Italy started making serious progress against France this year. I was pretty concerned by Italy taking Mar and Spa and building two fleets.
1904: At this point France was locked down and no longer a threat, and I was becoming very concerned about a German stab. At the same time Germany had continued with constructive signals. I wanted to keep a fleet stationed in North Sea to hold it against Germany, and decided to take up Germany’s invitation to convoy back to Norway and get the campaign against Russia going. I knew I would be up against Italy’s fleets soon but figured I had a year or two to get a build from capturing St. Petersburg.
Autumn, 1904 was my first big success. Got Brest, and by poking Picardy enabled Germany to hold Paris and make the capture. France was down to just the one fleet turtling in Portugal, and I got a build. I was asked about the attempted convoy to Belgium — I’ll paste from my play-by-play journal: “I try the convoy from Edinburgh to Belgium just in case my Belgium fleet moves successfully and Burgundy or Holland move to take Belgium. I want my fleet still in North Sea in Spring to potentially convoy the Army to Norway, hence the convoy order rather than just moving North Sea to Belgium, which would require an extra move to be back in position to convoy. Whether the convoy is successful or bounces, either way I think it's fine with me.”
1905: I wanted to get St. Petersburg and start going after Iberia. I had to rely on the E/G alliance to hold strong. The game continued in this vein from here until 1912 — me contending with Italy for Iberia and the Mediterranean, pushing armies into Russia, and maintaining the E/G.
1906: This was a big decision point for me in E/G. I had seen Germany signal for me to order my army Norway – Finland, which, with my North Sea fleet moving to Norway, could then take down St. Petersburg. I distrusted this, concerned that Germany would stab me at this point, but at the last minute decided to take the risk. It turned out well, with Germany sticking with our alliance and me taking St. Petersburg this year.
In the west, I had no idea how things would end up playing out vs. Italy. I found the positions very complex and I lacked experience with the tactics of breaking into Iberia/the Med. Initially I was depending on Germany to get Mar, but later on I started taking the initiative and intensely sandboxing most moves on Backstabbr to try to outguess Italy.
1907: Basically just getting units in position this year. Germany got Marseilles which put a crack in Iberia. And with my army in Livonia, Germany and I could start working on Warsaw-Moscow.
I was really pleased with Germany’s move to Tyrolia this year. Nice play!
1908: Pushing armies into Russia, lining fleets up vs. Italy. I didn’t actually want my North Sea fleet to move to ENG, I was just insuring that Italy wouldn’t sneak into ENG. This whole part of the game I wanted to keep North Sea blocked vs. Germany, but sometimes moved the fleet out briefly for one reason or another.
I worked hard sandboxing the positions in Iberia/the Med and correctly guessed that I would get into North Africa, which gave me the opening for ultimately taking Iberia and entering the Mediterranean in force.
1909: Continued the pressure on Italy’s fleets, with some success, although I didn’t guess perfectly (could have taken Portugal here). Again I thought Germany was playing well and we were pretty in sync. I was still concerned about a German stab though.
I must say I’m proud of my play this year. I’ll quote from my play-by-play journal:
“My initial order was Western Med to Spain South coast, supported by Mid-Atlantic. My thinking was that Western Med could be blown up by a concerted attack from gulf of Leon or Tyrhennian Sea or and so I'd better get it out of there and try to take Spain. I saw that Gulf of Lyons could potentially hold Spain and so I hope that the Marseille army would also repeat its previous order and support me into Spain. But on sandboxing it I realized that Marseille would have to support Piedmont because Piedmont could get blown up by an attack from Venice, Tuscany, and Gulf of Lyons. And I also realized that Italy could order the fleet in Spain to attack Western Med and support it with any or all of the three fleets, and this would block Western Med moving to Spain and blow it up. I also guessed, correctly, that the fleet in Spain might move to Portugal to bounce me from Portugal. Glad I didn't try that.”
“Now this was a complex scenario to game out: a lot of units in play, and a lot of guesswork. But I concluded that my best chance would be to order the Mid-Atlantic fleet to Spain supported by Western Med and to order the North Africa fleet to attack Tunis. I figured the fleet in Spain would either move to Portugal and let me into Spain or would attack Western Med with enough to support to succeed, again vacating Spain and letting me in. But if Italy ordered one of its fleets to attack Western Med, it would either be Spain or Gulf of Lyons, because Tunis needed to hold with support from Tyrhennian Sea, or risk me taking Tunis. I figured by ordering my North Africa fleet to attack Tunis, I would cut the support for any attack on my fleet in Western Med and decrease the chances of it getting dislodged. Finally, if I did get into Spain from Mid-Atlantic Ocean and my Western Mediterranean fleet was successfully attacked and dislodged, it could then just retreat to Mid-Atlantic ocean rather than getting blown up.”
“I guessed right by not ordering the fleet to Portugal. I guessed right by attacking Tunis, thereby saving my fleet in Western Mediterranean. And I did get into Spain.”
I moved North Sea to Belgium because I still wanted to guard against the German backstab, especially now that Germany appeared to be reaching the limits of its expansion. There were six English centers just sitting there behind him with only two units guarding them. I figured this might be the turn for a backstab with Holland moving to Belgium, Sweden moving to Norway, and maybe Denmark moving to North Sea. By ordering my fleet to Belgium I insured that if Holland tried to take Belgium it would bounce, and my fleet standing in North Sea would also bounce a move from Denmark.
In actual fact Germany was absolutely calm and reliable this whole time, but still I had six centres guarded by two units, I thought it was wise to at least show that I'm watching them and keeping them guarded, perhaps with slightly unpredictable moves.
1910: This was another big decision point. Initially my intention was to convoy my newly-built army to Portugal, and I set up for that in Spring. But with Germany taking Trieste (which impressed me BTW) I became very anxious about a German backstab. I counted Germany’s centres and saw that it might be possible for Germany to get up to 12 from here, then backstab me for 6 centres very swiftly since I was leaving myself so wide open.
In Autumn I decided to reverse course and pull all my fleets backwards to cover Brest and North Sea. I repositioned the army to convoy it to Norway, and instead took Portugal with a fleet.
Autumn, 1910 is the turn when I most expected Germany to turn on me and seize Belgium and Norway, move into North Sea, maybe attack Spain, etc. I was hugely relieved when it didn’t happen but I resolved to keep North Sea garrisoned, with a second fleet in ENG or Bel to support-hold.
1911: I made another good guess here which got me into Gulf of Lyons. Germany supported me into Moscow which really reassured me about our alliance. Here I was becoming concerned that Austria and Turkey might start cooperating to block E/G definitively.
In the Autumn turn I made what I consider my biggest mistake of the game. I miscalculated that Trieste would support Venice, so I was sure that my fleet in Gulf of Lyons poking Tuscany would not make enough difference to let Germany capture Venice. I was incorrect. Here’s my reaction from my journal: “ARGH! M*****! Ah man. I'm so frustrated with my mistake last turn. If I had poked Tuscany, Germany would’ve gotten Venice, and that would be the beginning of the end for Italy. Germany would’ve gotten a build which could defend Warsaw. Now with Turkey coming to help against us I don’t know if Germany will be able to get anymore builds, and Italy might become impregnable. So mad that I screwed that up.”
Apart from that failure, I still made progress against Italy.
1912: My only note on the Spring turn is that I signalled Germany that he could take Belgium from me, because I judged that my newly-built army was not of much benefit and that Germany getting a build would be of more use. I was strongly committed to E/G at this point and I wanted to signal my spirit of cooperation, and try to keep our momentum going after my failure to get Germany into Venice last year.
Obviously Germany stabbed me in Autumn. Had it not been for that, I think this would’ve been a breakthrough for E/G vs. A/I/T. I was really pleased with my Autumn, 1912 attack on Tyrrhenian Sea. I thought a lot about the psychology of my opponents, especially Turkey, and made the right guess. From here I was set up to take Tunis next year, force a disband on Italy, and probably we would’ve been on the way to eliminating Italy entirely.
One big error I made here was not having my army in Norway hold position. Because of that, Germany got 3 centres with the stab.
As soon as the turn rolled and I saw that Germany had stabbed me, I put up my Draw vote. Up to that point my endgame plan wasn’t too clear, I just knew I wanted to see how far we could take E/G: eliminate Italy? eliminate Austria? go all the way to 17-17? Probably ridiculous, I presumed Germany would stab me before then, but in any case I wasn’t ready for a draw. But once Germany stabbed I wanted to signal to A/I/T that I would form a stalemate line with them to block a German solo attempt. Hence I disbanded units that faced Italy/Turkey and set myself to form a line.
1913: I just wanted to take back as many centres as I could to offset additional losses, and to make it as laborious and annoying as possible for Germany to get my home centres. I had expected Turkey to take Moscow and then support-hold it from Sev perpetually.
And that was it! Later on I’ll try to sketch out a few thoughts on the E/G alliance in this game from my point of view and my take-aways.