GM : Ally Bain
Starting date : 5th June 2008
End date : 8th October 2008
Result : Three-way draw between Germany, Italy & Russia

AUSTRIA	Stefan Nilsson	Eliminated
ENGLAND	Nick Russo	Survived
FRANCE	van Ess Geoff	Anarchy
GERMANY	aidan Slattery	Drew
ITALY	Simon Bridge	Drew
RUSSIA	Ally McKerron	Drew
TURKEY	Julian Wheeler	Anarchy

GM : Ally Bain
One Anarchy is a nightmare but two is just total crap. I do feel very sorry to the remaining five however you did give it a good bash but hopefully soon you'll find a great Gunboat game & maybe the soon to be, 'Admiral' Gunboat Competition IV. You'll get an e-mail when the Waiting List is open whereas between now & then, you can read more about the Competition on www.alb-gsb.com/diplomacy/admiral/admiral.htm.

Going back to this game, I do keep stats & your Opening Move together with its End is shown therefore the following will take you to the Stats I keep; www.alb-gsb.com/diplomacy/stats/stats.htm.

As for your status in Dip2000, if you're not a Regular player but wish to be, let me know.

See you on the boards.

Ally

ENGLAND : Nick Russo
I'd like to thank Ally for doing an excellent job GMing the game and keeping it fun. Great job to everyone, especially Germany, Italy and Russia. Very nice job in getting to a three way draw. I enjoyed playing with you all and hope to meet you in another game.

Thanks, Nick Russo

GERMANY : aidan Slattery
I started quite well whilst the southern players got stuck in with each other. This allowed me to build steadily at the expence of mainly France. France went into anarchy followed shortly afterwards by Turkey. I was very disappointed the game was spoiled by NMR`s and I thought a draw between the remaining players was about right. Thanks to Ally for GMing the game and the other players who stayed in there.

Regards

Aidan

ITALY : Simon Bridge
Playing Italy turned out to be lucky for me because it made me wait and develop slowly without being thrown into immediate conflicts like some countries have to deal with. My opening strategy was to be neutral to Austria-Hungary, with whom I hoped to forge a friendship and to wait and see who fell out with who in case a clear strategy presented itself. Consequently, I was pleased with the open seasons since no country made aggressive moves toward Italy and I was free to start manoeuvring my fleets in an easterly direction.

1902 was the first year I had to make a real decision. Austria-Hungary, who had been neutral to me, signalled an alliance to Turkey with a supporting move against Russia and Turkey reciprocated the next season. Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised by this since Russia and Austria-Hungary were exchanging blows and to have friends close at hand is good. The trouble is, this alliance gave no scope for Italian growth in the east or at least that's how I saw things. I didn't want to turn around and head west so I decided to balance the teams in the eastern square and Italy moved against Austria-Hungary. The following year, with equal aggression from Russian, my neighbour was split in two.

The next two years saw Italy trying to force its fleets into the eastern half of the Med so it could secure some of the Balkan territories. Russia remained friendly but seemed distracted by Germany which I couldn't understand because the two eastern enemies were weakening and seemed easier to conquer. The distraction didn't last long and soon enough, with Russia also fighting around the Black Sea, Austria-Hungary was eliminated and Turkey had nowhere to go. By Fall 1905, Italy had a secure homeland and was gaining supply centres.

It's about now that I noticed Germany was strong. Maybe Russia had spotted this earlier and I was playing catch up but since France was in anarchy, the threat was suddenly very real. In Spring 1906, I had my second real decision to make, namely, press home in the east and surely take Turkish lands or split my not so large forces and send two fleets west to challenge Germany. The latter strategy was employed and I kept my fingers crossed Italy would not be spread too thinly. Russia clearly saw the same threat and moved two armies west, all of which came just in time as Germany set up camp on the Venetian boarder. The season also came with some good luck because Turkey went into anarchy and that took the pressure out of the east.

Autumn 1906 saw Italian fleets and Russian Armies moving west and with Germany pushed back from the Venetian boarder, I was feeling secure again. I couldn’t see Germany breaking through provided the Italian-Russian friendship continued and I saw no chance of that crumbling. But then, as if to say "don't take this friendship for granted" Russia attacked Italy cutting support into Turkish lands and also gave Germany assistance into Sweden. Perhaps Italy spooked Russia with recent moves but suddenly the whole game took on a difference perspective.

My third and final real decision of the game was made the next season. I ignored the Russian aggression and continued advancing my fleets against Germany in the hope Russia had simply been confused the previous Fall and would resume its advance on Germany. It turned out to be a good choice because this is what Russia did. Spring 1907 also saw the offer of a 3 way draw and although there was plenty of fighting left in the game, I was pleased to see it taken.

Reedfish was a good introduction to both Internet diplomacy and gunboat so my thanks go to Ally for his time GMing and for his excellent adjudications. Well done to Germany and Russia for the draw and thanks to all players for an enjoyable game.

Simon

RUSSIA : Ally McKerron
Pretty wild opening for me. Somehow getting three builds. It was a big decision at the time whether to go for 3 sc's and have a target on my back or just play it safe for 2 and leave it at that. Obviously I choose 3, because I thought it is not often that things fall into place like that. And from that point is was pretty much downhill.

From that moment on I was in a bitter struggle with Turkey and Austria. I felt like I could hold my forces against them but after a while Turkey got through.

It wasn't until (what I am going to call) my trust friend Italy, came to the rescue. There wasn't any physical support happening but attacking the same enemy.

First it was Austria. He crumbled fairly soon after Italy starting going for him.

Second it was Turkey. It was a shame he went into anarchy as we were having a good battle in the east.

From then on for me it was all about stopping German. Since he had had a relatively easy time with NMR's over in the west, and England being a little weak.

Having said that I would have counted Germany as an ally, as we both left our backs open to each other and never decided to attack. And in the end all we really did was set up a stalemate line.

And this appeared to be the same for Italy and Germany.

Fun game as always. Shame about the NMR's but these things happen. I did enjoy cooperation from my Italian friend, whoever you are.

A big thanks to Ally Bain, love the commentary with the results, thanks for taking time to run the game for us...

Ally McKerron