Really fun game guys. Interesting to see who everyone is.
I definitely played out of style for a lot of it. I came in having never soloed so I tried to play aggressively off the bat and I just never got anywhere. Also, that spiel about people never stabbing each other was clearly a bit tongue in cheak considering my draw rate.

England and I spent a while just chatting while we were setting up our border with Italy and I actually figured out that it was Lando. Pretty funny coincidence.

Very well played by Austria. I really thought that Italy and Russia were going to act too late so all I could do was push us as close to the brink as possible and hope that we didn't go over it.

I didn't keep notes and I'm not my phone so I cant give a more detailed summary but that's my rambling EOG

Also, wouldn't have been against eliminating Russia at the end there - sorry. But I'm not upset that we all made it to the end.

I usually do detailed monster EOG statements. I'll put one up later this week.

@Yonni: pretty funny, last time we played you were austria, me france :) I had no clue who you were though. I actually had no clue who anyone was. You lot dont have a lot of tells ;) i also played with Balaran before, but had no clue he was Germany, did you figure out who i was B?

Interesting game guys!

I'd be very curious to hear Austria's and Italy's stories. It seems Austria didn't have all of his home SCs while still expanding, very curious how that is a sustainable way of warfare (which apparently it is, 17SCs at the end lol)

It's not unheard of for two allies to agree that one will occupy the "threatening" home center of the other in order to go forward with stability: an AI with Italy parking a fleet in Trieste, or an RT with Turkey parking a fleet in Sev, or an EF with an English fleet in Brest. It doesn't happen a lot, but with good communication and vision it can serve as the basis for a strong alliance.

Must... get back... to work...

Thanks for the great game, everyone. It was very fluid and dynamic, making for a lot of interesting diplomacy. Glad we got to experiment quite a bit and very happy that I made it to the draw.

I think its really close to my first draw..Where I was Austria and The mistake was Not being able to build fleets..

gameID=82649

I really enjoyed the start of this game. Everything was really interesting and things were moving really fast in all kinds of directions. None of F/G/or myself (E) could get on the same page for long enough to get the other out. Germany was a player, and he fooled both F and me at different times. Ultimately, F and myself figured we needed to stick together, and we did and made it through to the end of the game. I was surprised that Germany was so committed to the CT for so long, far after it became clear that it was an I/A that he was a lapdog of. He pretended to understand but kept moving against me and France. It got to the point where I became very frustrated.

Fortunately, it seemed Russia had a good head on his shoulders and would be able to work with F and me to stop the allied attack. He worked every well to kick Germany out of the game but then got the idea he might do the same to me. He was close, but Austria took full advantage. In the end, I am not particularly happy that a player who was so averse to acting in his own self-interests was able to be a part of the draw. But such is diplomacy. And I suppose Russia's plan did pay off in the end. He did a very good job to draw that game as he was overcame more than most in the early stages.

I was frustrated with I/A as well for being so firmly committed and not veering. They both tried to get me to move on France, and likely vuce versa. I was fortunate that France held strong and played smart right through to the end. He was a great ally and I regret not realizing this much sooner.

Yonni- a word of advice, send more messages in the early going. In this specific game, I think that played a large role in me ultimately siding with Germany in the early stages.

But I/A - obviously that strategy worked for you both. Austria had a chance to win and Italy had a a strong position to defend him. I think if Austria had been more conservative about his growth, the two of you could have worked towards a 17-17 stalemate, considering the Trieste position and Austria's lack of fleets. Switzerland makes possible some "inner and outer" stalemates, but I have never seen them in practice. Would have been neat.

thanks for setting this all up Marx, I had no idea who anyone was until Yonni "guessed" me after I accidentally talked about my job in the late stages.

ITALIAN EOG:

Early negotiations: E asks if I want to hit F quickly, I respond not unless it's an EGI vs. F dogpile. F and I agree to no early hostilities. G wants a CPA (does any G ever say no?). T proposes IT alliance where down the road I convoy yellow armies into France. Very little press with R. Lots of press with A, who is sending me links of stalemate lines and saying if we stick together we can be part of the draw (yes, in pre-S01!).

I have no intention of ferrying Turkish troops into France, but I'm inclined to go IT vs. A at the outset. I'm turned off by A's stated intention at the very beginning of the game to shoot for a draw. Screw that, I want to solo! Who aims for a draw in 1901? The problem is the total lack of intel about R. I'm convinced that AT are not allied against R, and I want to hit whichever of A or T that R does so we don't bog down in a 2 on 2.

S01: AI do a prearranged bounce in Tri, and I spread conflicting misinformation to all the other powers to muddy up what happened. The rest of the board looks vanilla, except Par-Bur. T offers to support me into Gre.

A01: I try to steer A toward bouncing himself in Bud while Ven-Apu and Alb tries for Gre. Instead, I take a shot at Tri and T supports my attack on Gre. A totally anticipates it and blocks me all around so that I get no builds. T is encouraged by anti-A action. A is willing to forgive me if I shape up. F looks really strong.

S02: I tell T that I will be supporting A into Gre because I have no choice. Here comes F. R is hands-off in the south, surprisingly attacking G.

A02: F advances to Tyr with my blessing (it beats Pie-Tus) and also tries to hit E. I pick up Tun. RA now working together against T.

S03: Everyone's fighting, but nobody's fighting me. I'm going to get a chance to recover from my no-builds in 1901.

A03: The beginning of a strong AI alliance. With A's blessing, I take Tri and shift my fleets east. We try to spin this as a stab. Meanwhile, T takes Sev and A takes Rum so R is on the run.

S04: To T's dismay, my shift east was against him, not A. I support A into Con. EF are still fighting, and RG are still fighting, leaving AI free to beat up on T.

A05: T is dead, EF are reconciled. I'm ready to move west.

1906: AI set up a standing arrangement in Con/Bul. The lines are drawn: Italy vs. France, Austria vs. Germany/England.

1907: Except that hey, A didn't kill off R like was supposed to. The reason is clear -- A's solo hopes are doomed if he has no proxy northern fleet power. I have to play along because if A's solo hopes are doomed, then so are mine. My only chance of solo is to get A overcommitted to the north and west so I can swoop in on his home centers and the Balkans.

1908-S11: Boring and standard. I bang my head against F, R is A's pawn, A expands outward, leaving himself vulnerable.

A11: I stab A. This is a crucial point in the game. EF are happy and want me to go to town on A. I won't do it without stability on my western front. I propose to F an arrangment where we can hold the line against each other but free up more units. F isn't interested. Consequently, I end up negotiating with A to return to a state of cooperation.

1912-1913: A gets stronger and stronger again. I take Tri because I feel I need to to prevent his solo. He keeps saying that he is no solo threat, which is annoying because he obviously is.

S14: I'm very worried about A making a move now, and actively discuss it with F and R (E seems to have lost interest). I don't think A can pull off the solo yet, so I think we still have time. I'm angling for a 3-way AIR draw. I think I had my chance at a solo in A11 if I could have put together an agreement with F, but he wouldn't play ball so I'll settle for the draw.

A14: A makes his move anyway. We successfully rally to stop him. There is some discussion about minimizing the draw, and even about killing off A. A casts the final draw vote and we end with a 5-way draw.

All in all, it was an enjoyable game. I think we could have done better than a 5-way draw, but so be it. AI had a strong alliance for most of the game. EF wanted me to turn on A, but never were willing to concede anything as part of the deal. I was not at all firmly committed to A, but I saw no reason to back off a favorable position vs. F. I think my proposal in A11 to set up a new stalemate line with F and free up our units was a good one, but F wasn't interested and that killed my solo hopes.

Thanks to MadMarx for setting up the blind invitational.

I don't remember the proposal that clearly, but I remember
Countering with what I thought was a reasonable suggestion.

Care to refresh my memory?

In A11, I had just stabbed Austria. You and I had been making no progress against each other, in a near-stalemate position with minor movement each turn: me with armies in Pie/Mar/Spa and fleets in GoL/Wes/NAf (6 total); and you with armies in Par/Gas and fleets in Por/MAO and receiving a support hold from an E fleet in NAO (5 total). You had a build from capturing Munich. You encouraged me to continue attacking Austria so that we could do an EFI 3-way draw, and asked if that sounded good to me.

I responded: "conceptually yes, but i need to get a more detailed sequence of how to accomplish that for me to evaluate whether i want to pull the trigger. i'm just speaking candidly here, but i am affirming my willingness to knock out austria. i'm not saying you need to come up with the sequence, just that i need to figure out this turn whether i am fishing or cutting bait on the present attack against austria. he's willing to reconcile if i pull back and i either need to pull back or push forward. i don't want to push forward just winging it, i want a concrete plan in my own mind (subject to the usual acknowledgment that plans get blown up in diplomacy)."

I then proposed that you build a fleet in Bre and move it to Gas. I would replace my army in Mar with a fleet in Mar, and we could maintain a stalemate with you having your fleets in Por and Gas SH MAO. That would taken up 3 units on your side, freeing up your two armies and the English fleet to fight GRA. The proposed arrangement would have taken up 4 of my units if we kept Bur empty (5 if Bur were occupied), freeing up my other 1-2 toward the attack on Austria. You were protected because I could not break through MAO/Gas/Bur. I was protected because you could not break through Spa/Mar or Gibraltar.

You declined because you wanted to keep our stalemate line "as tense as possible." You feared that otherwise, you might become disposable to E. You told me that I needed to keep the line there or you would pounce on an opportunity to move against me. You proceeded to build an army instead of a fleet, and the opportunity passed.

I decided that without an arrangement to free up more units, I had little chance of a solo by continuing to attack Austria. I concluded that my best chance was to reconcile with A and likely do an AIR 3-way, while still hoping I might be able to swoop in for a solo by besting the Russian fleets for the English territories at endgame.

Ah. I do remember that. I was worried that England would e given enough room to take me out if I wast necessary to the draw.
I'd like to take some time to look back at it and see how I could have played it differently. Lando, perhaps you can comment of you were in a position to take me out or not at the time.

Also, THM, even if for the EOG alone. I'd love to play another game with you. I really enjoy the thoroughness of a good EOG. I always feel a little guilty for not putting enough into mine.

There was no way I was going to stab you at that point or after, regardless of what happened.

Hmm, just looked at the position a bit and I guess my response was a little indicative of my (overly?) cautious approach to diplomacy. I was comfortable with the status quo and couldn't see much to gain from upsetting it.

Your proposal does seem reasonable but, from my perspective, how much was there for me to gain from it?

I wasn't really in a position to solo nor did I have the confidence to attempt for it at that point so my objective had to be to minimize the draw. However, a modest goal only warrants modest risks so, all in all, I dont think it was a terrible idea to insist that we kept a fairly static border.

Once I backed off from attacking A starting in S12, I think the outcome probably *
"should" have been a 3-way AIR draw unless we managed to pull off a 2-way AI. I think the 2-way would have been difficult, and we probably would not have trusted each other to execute it. I don't think A should have made his solo run because it wasn't there (our defense was a lock, not a correct guess on a 50/50), but I can see it's hard to pass up on a shot to get to "at least" 17. After A made his solo shot and failed, I still think it should have ended up a 3-way, with AIE as the most likely outcome since A had no fleets and F would be hard-pressed to assault the island.

Because of that, in my opinion it was better for France in A11 to take the deal to encourage me to fully commit to an attack on Austria. With AI fighting and the extra EF units (one E fleet, two F armies) freed up, EF could have knocked out GR easily and then positioned themselves to pick A or I for a 3-way draw. If AI made up fast enough, maybe a 4-way. That would be a better outcome for France than what I think should have been exclusion from the draw, not to mention a really slow and boring death.

But what do I know? Diplomacy is unpredictable, and you still got to be part of the draw.

FYI - This was the actual championship game. I created two games, ABIC-G1 and ABIC-G2, but rather than mix the "winners" of round one with others, to keep the anonymity up, I just created two games in an attempt to mask this as the actual championship game.

Congrats to those in the draw, but more importantly, congrats to MrcsAurelius, the Champion of my inaugural Anonymous Blind Invitational, well played!!

Not the best game for me. France was quiet in the early stages, so I worked with England, but was swayed back to work with France when his communication improved and a opportunity was there. However France's communication again dropped off to a very low level and it was difficult to work with him. I let England off the hook when he was almost dead and gave him some builds instead. Austria was very chatty and i liked his style of play.

Changing sides too many times was always going to get me in trouble and when France and England worked it out I was in dire straights. Things got very heated between England and I later in the game because I refused to trust him. Some things were said by him which I don't feel are of any value in a game of Dip, and I didn't send him anymore messages. Austria was willing to work with me and although his progress was alarming, I needed some hope. However he didn't kill the Russian off, and the one Russian fleet made himself very much a nuisance, preventing me from mobilizing fleets to move against England. In the end I made a misorder at just the wrong time and realized straight away that my position was then hopeless.

In my opinion the mark of a good diplomacy player is someone who can take your centres whilst making you happy that he got them, and not another player. I dislike players who resort to personal abuse, when their diplomacy isn't good enough to dictate the play the way they want. I do however accept that this tactic is effective with other players.

Many thanks for the game to all, and to MM for organizing it. Congratulations to MrcsAurelius, you were (as always) a pleasure to play dip with.

I'm gonna blame my sporadic communication in weekends. And varying levels of interest in the game I guess.
Auto pauses on weekends would be high in my priority list for this site.

Some people would probably prefer auto pauses on weekdays. :)

Work is clearly the most appropriate place to play diplomacy.

Hey, I still would like to read more EoG's, and hear how people liked the game and the anonymity the came along with it...