Ok here goes, it was a very long game so I’m sorry if I missed things out or have forgotten anything and again I’m very, very sorry for the stupidly long delay in me writing this. Not sure if it’ll be worth the wait but I’ll try.

http://www.webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=10755#gamePanel

I started of the game really badly, even to my usual standards; my communication wasn’t very good at all except with Onar who was very communicative with me. I think I felt slightly uneasy talking to the experienced players (not wanting to try and use tactics and then fail miserably and be really obvious) so I just didn’t, thankfully this improved later on in the game.

Spring 02 was very very scary for me, as you can see from the full on France movement, we’d already been tipped of about the triple though so Turkey was already moving to come and support me. Although everyone was suggesting Russia, Me, Turkey and Austria all work together I needed builds to put up the stalemate and Austria wasn’t very communicative anyway. At least point I think I had a little give up phase and almost planned to give up my units to Russia and Turkey but both Onar and gjdip talked me round and once the stalemate started to come into place it started to work out.

I loved the stalemate and that was the best bit for me, the constant comms between me, Russia and turkey and how we sorted it all out was a lot of fun. I think a large part of why it worked so well was because we were communicating all the time and because there was a lot of trust there because we had the same goal for the moment so I was completely willing to let gjdip to put units all around me.

Thankfully France decided to stop attacking me, with I think a lot of influence from me and gjdip (turkey) pointing out how weak he was if eng/ger decided to attack him. France left Tus there so I could destroy it and he could build elsewhere to attack eng faster.

Now I was stuck with Turkish units pretty much surrounding me and me being incredibly vulnerable. He was constantly assuring me he wanted to continue the alliance with both me and Russia and yet I couldn’t see how he could progress by moving so slowly through the north through the tiny gap he had. Lots of discussion with Onar following, mostly about how he didn’t trust gjdip and lots of reassurance from turkey including allowing me to destroy his adr fleet which was in truth the only possible solution if he wanted an alliance with me.

Whilst I was still working with France I moved to Munich and was set to work with him to destroy ger, however by Autumn 04 I was pretty blocked and realised me only option really was to turn on France instead (although I’ll admit I felt really bad about this and was a difficult decision to make), I also started speaking to ger more as I knew I’d lose Mun and wanted to get Ger on side when I attacked France, worked brilliantly although a little confusing when he was in Bur.

Then I moved on to England and no real problems etc, except England asking me to support him back to London once France moved there which I think was silly, so much easier to defeat Frances 1 lonely little unit than 1 unit out of 4 with support etc. I knew it wasn’t going to be long until Turkey stabbed as he was stuck, part of me wanted him to be stuck but part of me didn’t as I knew he turn eventually. I kinda wanted him to have the hope of moving through Germany without actually getting there. 1 specific move I remember I was trying to move to Ruhr so I could cut support from Kiel and help turkey take Berlin and I was so tempted just to send Germany a message to ask him to bounce me and hold turkey back but I wasn’t sure whether he’d tell Turkey if I wrote it so I kept my mouth and Germany ended up just bouncing me in Ruhr anyway which was helpful :)

Then the stab!!

Obviously the stab was going to happen and I’d started to prepare for it at least, but I must say I wasn’t actually expecting it that move (even though I’d been pretty much expecting it every over move since we started the game). Thankfully it was too late and I still had a build (after speaking to Marek and trying to sort it all out up there). Me and gjdip were still friendly throughout; in fact the communication didn’t really drop off that much til the last couple of turns. By the end of the game I had set up my stalemate (and one of things I’ve learnt the most out the game is how to set up a stalemate, sacrificing some countries etc to ensure the stalemate) and still had units to take eng out so I’m pretty happy with the ending, I was never going to win and would never have agreed to try for a two way draw as I just didn’t trust turkey enough. For the last few years my main goal was just to get rid of England so we could finally draw.

Sorry if I’ve missed anything it was a while ago or likewise sorry if I’ve rambled on and bored you all.

Ok I’m also going to do the same as gjdip did as well and comment on my communication with everyone;

Alderian (France) – Not much communication at the beginning but we started talking more once the triple appeared and even throughout the stab etc we still spoke, was always friendly and offered me great advice towards the end even when he was out.

Marek (England) – Didn’t really speak to him that much all game until the end and even then we didn’t communicate that much. I’m sure he would have offered me advice if I’d asked for it and he spoke to me early in the game saying if I needed any help just to ask, but again I didn’t really use this as wasn’t sure how much information to give him etc.

Onar (Russia) – I spoke more to Onar during the beginning of the game than anyone else and would have loved to see him stay until the end, we were both very suspicious of gjdip and were communicating a lot to try and figure him out but it was inevitable that one of us would be stabbed and unfortunately he had nowhere to move to really to get more scs.

Chris (Germany) – Limited communication from me towards the beginning (same situation as Marek really I’m sure he would have offered advice if I’d asked) but once the choice of stab Germany or France came up I started talking to him a bit more and he helped me with France although we were never really an alliance until turkey stabbed as was still hoping to attack him later.

Gjdip (Turkey) - Was a hell of a lot of fun to play in the game with, once we started talking about the initial stalemate we never really stopped communicating throughout the game and we both updated each other almost every day. He was very friendly but also a real head-fuck. Really good player and kept me on my toes by doing kinda random things or never quite being trustworthy enough to put me at ease but doing just enough to keep me going haha, by far the best communication I had all game and probably learnt the most just from our chats. Oh and he was also very good at earning my trust by making me feel more comfortable by letting me do certain things like move to slightly offensive/defensive places, I think he always knew that I probably wouldn’t stab him and I knew he would stab me eventually in fact he stabbed at probably the moment I was least expecting it.

Austria – No idea, I can’t even remember who it was.

My experience with SOW was really good, I don’t think I made the most of it by talking to the experienced players enough but the forum commenting was definitely interesting and helped me see how different moves could be interpreted (for example I didn’t see the triple coming at all really). As I said before my communication with gjdip probably taught me the most about trusting people, and backing up defences etc and I learnt a lot about stalemate lines. The phase length was too long for me and the game really did end up dragging, I think we were all happy when it finally ended but definitely a good game.

Worth it then gjdip? Alderian?

Biddis, that was excellent! What the heck is this about people not trusting me, though? I'm a friendly guy, you know. :-)

I don't think I realized how much you and Onar were communicating but obviously there should be mutual interest when I couldn't have gone anywhere except through one or both of you.

I agree with you that I could have learned more by talking more to the vets and asking them for advice. My recommendation to the rookies in SoW V is that they do that.