I feel like I'm just nagging now.

Sorry, guys, more Robots. Will write up something as soon as I can.

Did you guys win?

We came in 2nd in our 2nd district event. Currently ranked 3rd at regional championship

I'm on my phone, so apologies in advance:

Turkey

Not a huge fan of the army build. Maybe you planned a convoy, but a fleet would have been better to secure the Mediterranean. A fleet would have also been better for defense against Russia if it was needed. The army isn't too useful unless you wanted to push through the Balkans, but that gives Russia plenty of time to respond. I would have brought Ion to ADR if you wanted to work with Italy against Russia.

Italy.

Good enough, I think. I don't think I would have guessed about the French fleet move. Hopefully it won't be too much if an issue. VEN is now at risk. Im not convinced turkey is the better ally at this point.

Russia

Solid moves all around. I like the bounce in swe. Keep up the good work.

Germany

Excellent job taking bur. Very well played. Just keep in mind how open Mun is.

France

Sorry, but your fleets seem to be AWOL. Your position is still salvageable, but I sense you are starting to panic. You need to focus on defense and regroup your units. You have two fleets that are nowhere in position to attack or defend.

England

Keep up the awesome diplomacy work. I would seriously consider retaking NTH. I know you're still short on units, but its such and important territory for england to hold.

buuump for moves

Bumping

I have more time now, so I hope this commentary will make up for my more lacking ones as of late.

Fall 1905

Russia

Very strong moves. Most were pretty straight forward this turn. Taking ANK from SEV was clearly the best move as well as securing RUM. An argument could have been made for sacrificing TRIE to take PIE, but I do not think you are any need to rush like that. Holding TRIE was the better move, I think.

I'm also glad to see you continuing to be peaceful with Germany and England. I think you took your earlier lesson at over-expanding to heart and are maintaining your lines much better now. That is well done, as well.

Again, I hope you don't feel offended by my lack of analysis on your moves, but I honestly feel there is not much I can contribute.

Turkey

There was nothing you could do about ANK, but I think you could have prepared yourself for next year a bit better. The chance of Russia not holding TRIE was very low, I think; therefore, moving against TRIE was a waste. I would have liked to see this turn be used to position yourself, rather than attacking with a low chance of success.

I would have suggested an attack on RUM with SER and BUL to prevent him from taking it. This would have given you more freedom next year as there would have been fewer units on your border. I also would have moved ALB to ADR and GRE up to ALB. This would have given you an additional unit on TRIE, giving you a much better chance of taking it next year. Now, I understand that Italy may not have liked you in ADR, but I'm not sure you have the luxury to wait for him to get there. Also, he could have used APU to defend VEN while you used ADR to attack TRIE.

The point I'm trying to make is that straight assaults are not always the best way to proceed. If there isn't much chance of success, it is often better to use a turn to prepare yourself for a stronger attack in the future.

Italy

Your moves were fine, although you seem to have been a bit on the fence about whether or not to trust Turkey. I say this because you moved out of NAP (indicating you trusted Turkey) and yet didn't move out of TUN and (perhaps, I don't know) prevented him from moving to ADR. Your hesitation is understandable; when players become desperate, they sometimes do unexpected things. Turkey very well may have gone for one of your centers.

At this point, though, you don't have the luxury to be in a half-assed alliance. If you didn't trust Turkey, I think you should have thrown your support behind Russia. This would have been a rather extreme option, but better than what you did. Better, I would have liked you to go all in with Turkey. As I mentioned, I would have really liked to see Turkey in ADR. I also would have liked to see something better with TUN. Moving to WMD would have been very good. France is not contributing anything to the anti-Russian campaign. In WMD, you could have started to work with Germany and most likely gotten some of southern France. You need some way of turning Germany against Russian, and help against France could have done that. It would also have given you the units you needed to defend your north.

At this point in the game, if you aren't doing something with every one of you units, there is probably missed opportunities. You are not the only one making this mistake.


France

You now have a serious situation on your hands. There is absolutely no excuse for holding NWG sea. It is just bad play. Here is a list of things you could have done:

Support Russia to NWY so England disbands
Move to NTH so you can take LON
Move to NTH so you can help Germany take back DEN
Move to NAO so you can better negotiate peace with England

I think moving to MAO would have been better than SPA. From MAO, you can still defend SPA, but you also can back up your fleets in the North. It's true that SPA allows you to have support on MAR, but at this point I don't think it's that needed.

Germany

Nice moves from you, as well. Like Russia, your commentary will be short because there isn't much I would change. Taking BEL was great and I thinking MAR/PAR was a pretty solid 50/50 so no criticism there. My advice is the same as it has been for a while now: keep a close watch on your surrounding and make sure you're preparing yourself to defend (not necessarily attacking) from any direction.

England

Not much to say other than to keep doing what you're doing. I hope that you are taking the time to talk to everyone on the board, though. When you are in the spot that you are, it is critical not to let your diplomacy lapse. Even if you can't influence much directly, you can still greatly influence the board with your words alone. Don't forget that. For instance, you are directly impacted by France's build. Even though you two are still fighting, you should try to work something out so that his disband works for both of you.

A player will be without internet till Friday; I have asked for the game to be paused now, and I will ask the game be unpaused then. I apologize for any inconvenience. In the future, one should not hesitate to tell me and your fellow players when a pause is needed. While one should avoid pauses unless necessary, especially for short, well-defined pauses it's more respectful to ask and receive one then just hope you don't NMR too badly. Emphasis on the "short, well-defined", which is the instance here.

Valis2501
SOW Channcelor

*[former] rather thAn [latter]

The pausing player said they would be back today. The game will be unpaused no sooner than 4 P.M. UTC to give everyone a little warning of the last 8 hours. Thank you everyone for your patience. You should be checking this thread for learning, but also make sure to check it for these types of announcements.

We're live.

Bump for phase change.

Bump for moves

Bumpty McBump.

Spring 1906

I would like to preface my commentary by reminding everyone that at this point they need to be counting centers if they haven't already. If you do not have a solid plan of how to draw a stalemate line, you are doing something very wrong (unless you are Russia, who should be figuring out how to get past the stalemate line). You don't need to stop what you're doing, but you do need to make sure you aren't over-committing yourself to other activities.


France

While I am very pleased to see NWG finally move, I'm not overwhelmingly happy with where it moved to. Last year, I gave you some suggestions, all of which I think would have been better than BAR. At this point, you really need to be consolidating your forces against England. Even if this were a deal offered by England, I'm honestly not sure I would have taken it. I think you still would have been better at the very least falling back through NAO. There really isn't anything you can do in BAR that you couldn't do in NWG (except take STP, but it's not like Russia will let you have it) and it is much worse for a wide variety of reasons (which I've already discussed).

I think your attempted defense of PIC was fine, but I'm not so sure about the bounce in MAR. It's true that BUR could have moved into GAS, but I think that would have been unlikely. I would have rather seen a bounce in WMD or even perhaps moving to MAO. Not a terrible play, but I think other moves would have been better.

P.S.

After writing the above, I realized you disbanded IRI instead of NWG. I realize this is unbecoming of a teacher, but honestly words fail me. There is absolutely no deal England could have offered you that would have made that a good decision, especially since the chance of England following through on any deal is extremely low. I truly do hope whatever deal you made does work out, I just honestly don't see it happening.

England

Despite your rough start, you've played an excellent defensive game and it is finally starting to pay off. I'm very glad to see you finally retake NTH; risking LON was worth it, imho. I'm also glad to see you recapture IRI. Barring some very unexpected turn of events, I would say you are unlikely to be eliminated (although anything can happen) so you should really start some long-term planning at this point.

Germany

A strong set of moves by you. I particularly like the move to PIC because it had so many ways to succeed. France would have had to hold in PIC and hit BEL with EC for it to fail, which was very unlikely. You are getting yourself in position to make serious gains in France. I encourage you to coordinate with both England and Italy to speed things a long. As a center power, though, make sure you keep yourself strong enough that you remain central to the draw. Like England, you too should be thinking of your long-term plans.

Italy

I'll admit I was pretty worried when I first saw that army build; I though you had made a pretty bad mistake. Shifting your armies up and moving into ADR was a very good plan. You took advantage of the fact that Russia would assume at least one of your units would hold VEN. Well played.

Turkey

It's a shame that after such a good defense against the Lepanto you get back doored so hard by Russia. Such is life, though. Considering your position, I think you're putting up a decent defense. You're playing a tad conservative, though. Your home centers are being ravaged, so there really isn't much point in playing it safe in the Balkans. I would have used the spring move to get into ALB, giving 4 units on TRIE. Be sure you are still talking to everyone in the game, including Russia; tactics are not going to save you here.

Russia


Like in Chess, it's important you are planning your moves several in advance; otherwise, you're going to find yourself stonewalled against a stalemate line. Rapid expansion is not always the best course of action, although at some point it will certainly be needed. As the West finally calms down, you will find expansion harder and harder. Already you are going to need to dedicate more units to the North and you may not have enough Southern gains to do so.

Your attack on Turkey Proper is going very well. I may have risked simply taking CON with ANK this turn, but your way is fine, too. You need to break through the Balkans, though, or you will quickly find your Austrian holdings surrounded. I'm not too sure what the hit on SER was for. Perhaps you were hoping BUL would hold CON and you could take SER? You may have been better off sneaking into ALB. Either way, though, I'm not sure you can afford giving away TYR; you can't let Italy behind your line.

(\/) (°,,,°) (\/)
Why not ally with loyal Zoidberg?

Bump fo' mo' moves!

Bumpity bumperump for moves.

Bump

Autumn 1906:
Big picture thoughts:
Russia:
You've tried to convince E and G and I that you just want Turkey gone, and all three of them, whether they believe you or not, have made moves against you. You are now in a position where claiming ignorance/innocence as you eat powers 1 by 1 is shown to be nonviable (for now). Are you going to simply take on everyone with your double digit SC? Are you going to make diplomatic, and probably materialistic/tactical concessions to 1, 2, or all 3 of E/G/I/(T?!)? These are the things both you and everyone else need to think about.

France:
You have one job, and it is to thrash, talk, and outsmart everyone around you until they are forced to admit, diplomatically or tactically, that there is simply Too. Much. Cost to eliminating you. There's multiple ways to go about this, some major camps would be:
A) Insert yourself in an important Theatre and be generous with support. You've tried this in the North
B) Become a defensive ball and try to weather the storm until they can't afford to attack you as a side project
C) Actively go out and help Russia or counter-attack until they NEED you either to stop him or NEED you to stop actively distracting them

Depending on personality and past feelings towards other player will influence which one you gravitate towards; messaging every single person with convincing arguments seems like a silly piece of advice since theoretically it should be done every turn, but you need to do that more than anyone. Especially Russia. Even if you don't go with B/C.

Everyone else:
Russia is at 12 SC. Abge made a very important point about understanding stalemate lines and SC counts. There's another side of that too:
How can I stop the solo without resigning myself of my own solo aspirations? The solo is the goal and heart of the game; don't let Russia solo, but don't deprive yourself of one unless absolutely necessary.
___________________________________________________________________

Homework:
************************************************
DO NOT POST YOUR ANSWERS HERE
************************************************
Email them to me, by the end of Spring 1907. Consult your TA first with your answer.

1)
a) What 18 dots are most likely for a Russian solo?
b) What would a reasonable stalemate line look like to stop it?

2 - Russia)
If you were to drop one theatre, which would be best?

2 - E/F/G/I/T)
Given the stalemate proposed in question 1 you gave, what moves, diplomatically and tactically, would be required to break up the game into Neutral again, where you have build your own solo shot? If you find your answer particularly lacking, can you revise your answer to question 1b such that it's still reasonable, but better in this regard?

Back from my trip. Will write up commentary today.

And a big thanks to the Chancellor for filling in while I was away.

I would like to simply say that this SoW has been fantastic. Usually by now (and the others that have participated in previous years can attest) we would have had at least one player CD. The fact that this has NOT happened is a testament to those involved and their dedication to the spirit of the game.

That said, I would like to offer a big THANKS to the players in this game for creating a positive atmosphere.

Fall/Winter 1906



England



Your play continues to be strong. Getting France's support into NWY (which I presume was strong-armed by your fleet in IRI) was very good. It appears as though you are working closely with Germany as well. Again, excellent. Now that you're truly back in the game, I hope to start being able to offer you more elaborate commentary in the future.



France



You are in a very difficult position. I'm sure England is threatening you with elimination if you don't help against Russia. The reality, though, is that Germany and Italy are going to eliminate you no matter what. Do you risk the wrath of England as well or do you hope he'll be merciful and repay your you for your help against Russia? I would not count on England's generosity for your survival.



First let's talk about your Southern moves and then get back to Russia. Your defense of PAR was good, but I do not like how you prioritized MAR over SPA. Iberia is a key area to hold because it is very hard to route out if you defend it properly. By losing SPA, you've also lost POR. MAR is doomed anyway, so defending it was a waste. If you kept SPA, it would have taken at least a year for Germany and Italy to threaten Iberia. All that time, you could be causing havoc in the North (more on that later). For a while now, your problem has been that you refuse to arrange your units in a defensive position; you are still making these mistakes.



Now, back to Russia. You aren't needed for the draw and so you won't be in the draw unless everyone gets bored or there is a real carebear in the game. These are not good things to count on. If you want to be in the draw, you need to make yourself needed. At this point, the only way to do that is to make Russia as powerful as possible, so that England, Germany, and Italy are forced to use every unit they have to stop the solo. By helping England against Russia, you are putting the nails in your own coffin twofold because you are making a hostile neighbor stronger and a potential ally weaker. Have you heard the expression "the enemy of my enemy is my friend"? Because Russia should be your friend. I would have loved to see you support *Russia* into NWY, causing England and Germany both to move East instead of West. While Russia is still a concern, they have much less to worry about and have the time to kill you, so why wouldn't they?



Your disband is another mistake. Do you think Germany and England are going to let you keep BRE? Why would they? And what is BAR even going to do? Take STP? How long will you last there? For years now you have spread your units thinner and thinner. All you needed to do was regroup and you likely would have been fine.



Germany



I hope you, Italy, and England are working very closely together, because you are spending a bit too much time in France for how large Russia is. The move to HEL was good, as it prevents Russia from cutting support. Maybe BAL would have been good too to confuse the issue, but ultimately I think you picked the better way. Supporting PIC to PAR was also good. It had a smaller chance of success (but not by much) and it keeps you in BUR to defend MUN. Overall solid tactical moves; just make sure you're paying very close attention to the bigger picture.



Italy



Very nice job supporting SPA to MAR. It's those sneaky moves that start to separate better players. You now can go for MAR and have free access to POR any time you want it. Well done. Keeping pressure on TRI is also good as it locks down a lot of Russian units. Your build was good. Maybe an army in ROM to lock down VEN, but this gives you many more options to work with. Like Germany, make sure you don't spend so much time taking out France that you lose to Russia.



Turkey



The end is slowly coming. While you should *never* give up, I'll admit I don't have much good advice for you. Your units are poorly positioned and you are surrounded by Russia. Even if England breaks through the North, that won't affect Russia's southern campaign. In fact, it may make it even worse for you; as Italy may be less willing to help you defend if Russia is no longer a solo threat. I'm not sure why SER is the one that is supporting Italy to TRI. The chance of that support breaking is very high and, honestly, you are risking a lot more than he is. It cost you BUL and now your forces are split. BUL had to have been held by something. If not SER than GRE, as the chance of a support attack on SER was small, I think. Like France, you simply aren't needed for the draw, so take that into consideration while making your plans.



Russia



The capture of BUL was well played. Splitting Turkey down the middle will help you a lot. I'm surprised, though, that you didn't see the convoy coming. What did you think France was going to do with that fleet? Surely not just sit there (although given how long it sat in NWS, it wouldn't be completely unexpected). France was either going to help you or England. If he was going to help England, than why not support SWE to NWY? There would be a bounce and you'd have been safely in SWE to hold DEN. If France was going to help you then you *still* should have supported SWE to NWY so you weren't relying solely on France's support. Yes, you would have lost DEN, but you're now losing that anyway and at least you would have had NWY. No matter how you cut it, you should have supported to SWE. You've been playing excellently, but this was a very poor read of the board and one that could very well cost you the solo. I'm also not too sure what you're doing in Austria Proper. You're using a lot of units to defend not that many centers. VIE really needs to start heading North against Germany. Maybe you'd lose TRIE, but I honestly don't think it's as important as you think it is. I'd prioritize getting the rest of the Balkans, to be honest.



Your build was fine but again I'm worried about how many units you have in the South and how few you have in the North. Your moves I can understand because you couldn't be sure Germany would attack you and you didn't want to needlessly make a new enemy. But now with him in HEL, I think you really need to get some units over there.

I'm very surprised to see this turn - fully three of the powers are doing the opposite of what I was expecting them to do.

Could the professors comment a little on the likely long term results of each power's moves?

Could you be a bit more specific with your question?

I dunno exactly what ATC is asking, but my question would be:

What can France achieve by just holding units in France? Mind you, French StP is pretty wild, I do have to say.

Italy, England, and Germany's move set I think I understand, especially if we assume they're working together.

I'm curious what the thoughts are about the likely outcome of Russia vs Turkey though. :-)

All excellent questions. I'll happily answer them in my next commentary.