GM : Andy Scott
Starting date : 18th January 2008
End date : 18th September 2008
Result : Player voted Austrian Solo

AUSTRIA	Lars Topholm	Won
ENGLAND	John Satterfield	Survived
FRANCE	John-Paul Buck	Anarchy
GERMANY	Steve Day	Survived
ITALY	Chris Henderson	Survived
RUSSIA	Teemu Leivo	Survived
TURKEY	Martin Maier	Survived

GM : Andy Scott
First off despite Lars lavish praise I must apologise for how long it has taken me to get this EGS up on the site. Getting the EGS up are often the part I find hard to get around to doing and my recent frantic life has certainly not helped that! However here they now are :-)

As to the game well to be honest it was a disappointment, the French anarchy had a huge impact upon the outcome of the game and bizarrely played right into Austria's hands as it shifted people attention from Lars at his arguably most vulnerable stage. That said from my perspective Lars dominated the game and to be honest I don't think he had to even work at it terribly hard. That's not to say the other players are without talent and guile, I've GM'd most of them in other games and played against some as a player in others. Simply put the only person who was never moaned about to me by someone else for being uncommunicative was Lars. Guys, I simply don't see the point of playing diplomacy of your not going to talk to everyone at least once a turn. If you don't want to do it then play gunboat. Some of you mentioned a lack of time, well then if you don't have the time to play....

At the end of the day it's up to each of us, we get out what we put in and communication and the frequency of it is key, that I think is the big lesson to all in this game. Oh and never let Lars get behind you :-)))

Congratulations to Lars and thank you to the rest for playing.

Andy

AUSTRIA : Lars Topholm
First of all, thanks to you, Andy for GM’ing this game. You are among the very best of GM’s you can get, on the Dip2000-site and elsewhere, and Indefatigable was certainly no exception to that rule, I’ve stated it before but it can not be stated enough: Excellent GM’s such as yourself are what make Dip2000 stand out as the best of a couple of good diplomacy sites and I am always happy when I have signed up on the waiting list and see your name on top, because I just know it means that the processing of the game will be smooth as silk.

And now to the game. I requested to play Austria, which I normally don’t because I have completely crap results as Austria; on the other hand, it isn’t fun to always play France (with which I have outstanding results).

The fact that my Austrian track record is so lousy made me willing to try something risky and out of the ordinary (as I counted on losing anyway); and since Chris/Italy proved to be an excellent communicator early on, we decided to stage a Lepanto including letting Italy into Trieste in S1901. I then assumed I could talk my way out of it by saying Chris simply stabbed me; I don’t think anybody really bought that, but our hopes of blitzing the lower Eastern corner remained high as Russia moved to BLA in S1901.

Unfortunately, R/T got their act together and the early years lead to an interesting stand-off between A/I on one side and R/T on the other (the dark) side, the guys on the dark side playing as well as us on the good side.

Elsewhere, however, things were less fun, with France NMR’ing the first time in S1902 and then two more times in 1903 to go into anarchy, after having sent one (!) mail to me throughout the game. England did little better; he didn’t NMR, but also didn’t correspond at all - I think until 1903 I had one e-mail from him, stating that he was in four games so he had little time to communicate. Excuse me, what is the point in signing up for so many games and then not bother?

Anyway, the behavior of E and F had a big impact on the game. The two sides were stalemating each other in the Balkans, France anarchized, and Teemu (Russia) and I decided that something had to happen in A1903, and we agreed to stab our respective allies, Italy and Turkey. I could simply move into Venice, and at the same time isolate an Italian army in Bud, while Russia completely stunned Turkey by taking Ankara - Chris didn’t even act too upset, although I think he kind of lost interest in the game from that point onwards.

England ordered well, I once again tried to chat him up, and finally got a response. Unfortunately, when we then got the dialogue running, he immediately forwarded my mails to both Russia and Germany, and when I pointed out to him that this is (in my view) bad behavior, total silence again, not as much as an apology. At this stage I gave up England completely, and found a good ally in Steve/Germany who were under pressure but more than keen to work with me.

Meanwhile, Russia focused on Austria, we played an A/G/R which I think was more of an A/G combined with an A/R. The silent Englishman ordered his units well and put Teemu under severe pressure from the North, which created a golden stab opportunity for me, allowing me to stab Russia for two centers by A1905 – at this time, my alliance with Steve made me reasonably comfortable that England would be unable to solo in his Gunboat game (he would never be able to find an ally).

At this stage I was extremely tired of the game, the only one communicating was Germany, and I pretty much just wanted the game to end, presumably with a draw including myself and Germany and possibly Russia. And then Russia NMR’ed in S1906 and I couldn’t be bothered at all and stabbed Germany in A1906, more or less expecting a Russian anarchy (which didn’t happen). The stab went well, at this stage I have little doubt I could have soloed, by A1906 I was at 13 dots, I would be able to tap Portugal, Tunis, Smyrrna and Constantinople in three seasons regardless of what the others ordered, and I don’t think Russia could have kept me away from Sev/Ank after that. In any case, I proposed an Austrian solo at S1907, which went through unopposed, as both England and Italy NMR’ed and presumably because the other players were as tired of the game as I was.

As to the players:

John/England, to be honest you ordered your units extremely well, but completely and utterly spoiled the game, by not talking and by forwarding mails to other players. I hope I will never ever have to play with you again and I hope for the sake of other people that in the future, you only sign up to games if you can be bothered to actually participate, instead of ruining things for people who will be spending months on playing.

France: Well, happily I won’t have to fear playing you again because you won’t be able to get another game at this site.

And then to those of you who did make an effort:

Steve/Germany, thanks for communicating well to the end; I am sorry for stabbing you but the game was horrible and had to come to an end. I think you are both a good diplomat and a good player and would love to play again, hopefully with a more dedicated crowd.

Chris/Italy, I really liked our early alliance, you were an excellent communicator and open to the untraditional alternatives. Thanks for not taking advantage of me early on – and for not being upset when I took advantage of you later on, when our Lepanto was dead and we were in a deadlock with R/T. Let us play again some other time.

Teemu/Russia, likewise, you communicated well and was open to new ideas; unfortunately you were not quite as gullible as I would have liked to see, which brought our Lepanto to a standstill; credit for that, it is tempting to hit Turkey after successfully entering BLA in S1901, but you managed to create R/T and when we the corner deadlocked, you were open for a change of horse. Strangely, had it not been for England putting you under pressure, I would never have been able to stab you. Next time we will work together, okay?

Martin/Turkey, good job in patching up with Russia early on; unfortunately you stopped talking altogether early on, but at least you participated and the battle between the four of us was actually intriguing and you ordered well. Hope to meet you again.

It is strange, sometimes you lose a game big time but still regard that game highly, while at other occasions, you can have a splendid result but still consider that game mediocre. Unfortunately, Indatagifible belongs to the last category despite the fact that I finally got a godo result as Austria.

GERMANY : Steve Day
This was a game in which the reason Lars Topholm is near the top of the Eagle points table was revealed!

I had played with Lars before in DERFEL in which I was playing Italy and Lars played France. I remembered from this that Lars always seemed believable, but that, at an inopportune moment early on he double crossed me, causing me to side with Russia and Austria. So in this game I decided to ally with Lars from the start and try to benefit from his superior Diplomacy skills, and see what happened.

I started off fairly brightly, getting 5 bases in Autumn 1901. I was wary of Lars at the start, despite wanting an alliance, but his opening seemed to put him in conflict with Italy and Russia, so I trusted him more and more. I started to liaise with France and England independently and was getting on quite well with both. John (England) revealed himself to be one of these players who would be loyal until crossed. I hoped to persuade England to move on France, but felt that he was looking for an alliance with France. France was always unreliable, so I was not really surprised when he NMRed, but it meant that I had allies on all sides, and therefore could not expand. Which meant I had to double-cross someone. England, being always loyal, was the obvious one as he would be unprepared for an attack and he had limited his options by building too many fleets, so I took Belgium. I got the timing of this wrong- too early! I pedalled some silly excuses to John, but I meant to do it. I got the expected indignant silence from England. Meanwhile Lars was double-crossing Italy and dealt with them fairly briskly, always letting me know what he was doing, so my trust built. I left my Southern borders open, and there was no threat. I planned to take on England and Lars agreed to support me in France. But then the move towards my borders followed, and I realised I had trusted him too much, and could do nothing about it. Predictably England wanted me to grovel to get him to help me repulse Lars, which I was prepared to do, pretty much. This is a game to me, not a long term relationship! I did not mean for the game to terminate as abruptly as it did. Presumably Lars proposed an Austrian solo, and I forgot to vote against it, and did not anticipate the mass NMR. I felt that England and myself could have held him off, and that maybe a three way would eventually have transpired- but having said that, John was not being very friendly and Lars would probably have talked him into dispatching me. So perhaps survival was the best I could hope for.

So, Lars position in the Eagle table is due to his very pursuasive nature and his ability to time the stab precisely. But always expect the stab!

Well done Lars! And thanks to Andy for GMing

Steve