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No Sanctuary ENDGAME STATEMENTS
GM : Andy Scott
GM : Andy Scott In terms of players Lawrence certainly didn't play up to his potential but at least had the courtesy to admit it and apologise to everyone for it, real life just gets in the way sometimes! I also have to add to Brian my continued confusion regarding his missing orders. I was convinced I had received them but after an hour's searching my entire system I could not find them and so had to contact him to send me my receipt. Normally I would just mark the nmr and run the turn. However as I was convinced he had sent them and I received them I considered it rude to NMR him and hence why I took this unusual action. I was then amazed by the fact he could not find a receipt. This caused me some issues but he sportingly agreed with my decision that I couldn't accept orders from him at that stage without the receipt despite the damage it did to his position. I know a lot of players that would have been a lot less tolerant in that situation so thank you Brian :-) One other thing I want to make clear here is that whilst he avoided anarchy in this game I found Chun's attitude bewildering. From what I can gather he didn't really communicate with anyone. I got in total from him 6 e-mails none of which even had the courtesy to say hello good by or even use my name. They literally held his orders and nothing more! As a result of this attitude, the way he played this game and the similar comments from the other players (Whom I have not talked to about this in any way!) I have for the first time decided to downgrade a player from regular status to normal. Sorry Chun but you have to raise your game significantly if you want to play with the regulars here! To the rest of you thank you and I look forward to meeting up with you again as either GM or player again on dip2000. Regards, Andy
AUSTRIA : Richard Hucknall Perhaps I was overstretched when in Autumn 1909 Turkey moved against me, so I pulled all my forces back against Morgan, asking Brian and Dirk if they would leave my centres alone so that I could give Morgan a smack in the mouth in retaliation. I had vague notions of hoping that I could hand a solo to Dirk's France in revenge. Finally I made the fatal mistake of omitting to vote and so the game ended as a 3-way draw excluding myself. And that in a nut-shell is the Austrian story of the game. I'm annoyed at myself in forgetting to vote as I make a rule of never accepting any proposal that excludes me from the result. However, if everyone else intended playing on to actually achieve the 3-way draw then there was nothing I could have done about it, but it would have been interesting to actually make them do it. I'm also annoyed at myself for getting into a position that allowed Turkey such an easy stab. I'll try not to let it happen again and put it down to experience. The players. I had an excellent rapport with Lawrence MacDonald as England, although we never did more than exchange information. Nevertheless the emails between us were lengthy and numerous, centred about a fictitious barbeque that I was organising for his Liverpool army in my back garden, as they marched en route to Yor. All very humorous. Unfortunately Lawrence found his time available for the game severely curtailed by real life events, and this co-incided with the F/R attack on him. Dirk (France) I found to be a solid and reliable player. Conflict between us was to be virtually inevitable at some stage if we both reached the middle game as strong powers. We did so, and Mar was mine for a few seasons. Following the stab by Turkey I did all I could to help Dirk towards a solo, and I thought he might have played on a little longer to see if that was possible. Chun Slide as Germany was a little disappointing and I expected more from him having previously GMd him to a solo. His S1902 NMR left him unable to cope with a joint E/R assault which led to his fairly early exit. Similarly I had GMd Aron Bryce to a solo previously and was expecting more. We communicated many times during S1901, but then emails reduced to a trickle and were generally very brief. Aron fell silent after my 1903 stab. Brian (Russia) played a solid game as I had expected. Communication between us understandably dwindled as the A/T alliance pushed on against him. Finally - Morgan as Turkey. Well what can I say? The evil, lying, deceptive,two-faced, untrustworthy, venomous, fork-tongued snake probably did exactly the same as I would have done in his position! The end result was to whittle the final outcome down from a 4-way draw to a 3-way draw and so there is some justification in his decision to move against me. After some initial ..... er ..... misunderstandings (okay then - I admit I wasn't entirely truthful with Turkey in the early days as I was trying to avoid the regular early elimination of Austria), we did have an excellent alliance for the majority of the game. To anyone playing in a future game with Morgan I would recommend him as an ally you can work with, but you need to keep a close watch and not allow him any opportunities. A good friend but one who can be vicious when he wants to be. Although I'm disappointed to be excluded from the result, congratulations to Morgan, Dirk, and Brian who probably deserve their draw as the better players, and who put most effort into the game. I look forward to when our paths cross again. Finally, thanks to Andy for yet another perfect example of how to run an email Diplomacy game. It was superb.
FRANCE : Dirk Kessler No sanctuary was my comeback on dip2000 after a four – year – retirement and I found myself in a game with three highly reputated gamemasters along with three promising players who - especially Lawrence – had acquired an excellent game record in their first games on the site. Well, I was happy to play France under these circumstances. In S1901 I had good contacts with both neighbours, Chun (Germany) and Lawrence (England). Lawrence wrote lengthy and subtle emails, which showed his abilities. Chun wrote short and straight but always frank. In autumn Russia mentioned that Chun had been very rude in regards of Swe while Lawrence told me that he was now heading for Den and asked me to shot at Mun. A decision had to be made: Should I go with England or should I go with Germany? I contacted Russia instead. Brian (Russia) seemed not to be interested in struggles between three GMs in the South but apparently planned an early invasion of Germany. Thus I suggested a classical RF-alliance. Brian advised me to go with Lawrence as he was the better player than Chun and to take out Lawrence later. To me however, Chun seemed to be a guy you could work with (and what the others told me about Chun’s rudeness encouraged me that he was on my side). I was also not happy about seeing Lawrence already one step ahead of me. So I suggested to Brian that I fought England with Germany while he fought on England’s side, which would Lawrence convince of Russia’s good intentions. I shot at Bel, did not take the 6th build that year and saw myself in a comfortable French position. The next years I started my naval attack on England while my armies supported Germany against the ER-attack from North and East. Chun soon turned out be less reliable than I thought because he NMRed and wrote much less and always very late. Nonetheless, I intended to use his units as a barrier against England as long as possible. My attack on England was slow but I finally found my way into England. It’s interesting to see A Par walking over the board via Bur/Bre/Cly to Edi and later back via Cly to Gas, where it was finally disbanded. The big question about my success in this game was whether Brian held his promise to turn against England or not. It had been a longterm understanding between us but everybody knows that alliances tend to improve relationships between players which might overlap the strategic interest of players. Brian decided absolutely rationally and attacked England at the most vulnerable time. Nevertheless every triumph is also a turning point in a game. In the next year I suggested to Brian a plan giving him Nwy and me Edi. However, my calculation went heavily wrong. Chun had offered to cut off Russian support from Kie so that Russia would not take Den. I agreed but Chun surprisingly NMRed and Russia took also Den reducing England to two units. At the same time Richard had found it useful to move into Pie (against our agreement) and then into Mar, which made him rather untrustworthy in my eyes. I immediately ganged up Aron against Richard . Due to my miscalcuation the threat of a Russian solo became apparent so I decided to work with Lawrence for the next years in order to stop Russia. Nevertheless Lawrence’s commitment to the game totally had changed. I only received little emails short before deadline (and even worse: emails like: I have ordered this and you need to do that and I will not read my emails before deadline anymore – not the kind of diplomacy I like to play). In the meantime Turkey had built two fleets and became a growing threat for my uncovered Iberian supply centers. This was the time when I made myself familiar with the stalemate lines and counted the units I needed. One was missing so I needed a built in the North. Lawrence NMRed which spoiled any EF-plan that gave me that unit. As the threat of a Russian solo had gone with the appearance of the AT-alliance in the Southeast I decided to take up RF cooperation again. Everything was planned but Russia NMRed and I realized that time was alrea dy too short to take out England and stop Turkey in time. I hoped for a Turkish stab on Austria until the end but Morgan did seek for MAO with all naval forces available. Thus Brian and I closed the continental stalemate line, but were not able to take out England anymore. Therefore we suggested Lawrence to hold his units in England so that we would force AT into a 5-way-draw. Lawrence apparently did not understand this plan and moved into NAO giving us the surprising chance to take him out. Morgan reached MAO that turn but all my analyses had shown that we would be able to push him back. As Brian and I had committed to a stalemate plan, the rest of the game was in the hands of Morgan who did not hesitate to stab Richard in order to reach a 3-way-draw. Richard suggested a solo for me but I did not see a chance for it and as said – Brian and I had a stalemate plan and in my opinion it is unwise to break such agreements later in the game. So words to the players: Brian: We found ourselves early in the game and I enjoyed playing with a reliable and rational player. Chun: We had a good cooperation but I was disappointed that you NMRed in crucial points of the game, which lead to your elimination. Lawrence: You were right that EF would have been an excellent alliance. As you see from my EGS I had an even better plan with Russia. Later on I could not built up a stalemate with you, so I could not continue working with you. Your emails are deadly. During 1902 and 1904 I often did not read your emails for several days because they were so convincing! Aron: We were trustful allies but I could never spend any unit to help you. Morgan: You certainly were the player one should not trust in this game so we never became allies. But I was right: we both would be part of a 3-way-draw in the end. Richard: Well, we always had interesting conversation. In my eyes your attack on me was unnecessary and made FA cooperation impossible for the next years. That made it necessary to gang up Italy and Turkey against you. Best regards Dirk
RUSSIA : Brian Frew Initial diplomacy was promising in the north as Dirk made it clear he was not well inclined towards the dangerous Lawrence - this had to be good news. Germany was more of an enigma. In the south things were, predictably, less clear. I wanted an alliance with Austria (I have good experience of A/R alliances from both ends) but Richard was wary. Turkey was sweetness and light. After the Spring '01 turn the vibes from Germany were very unpromising. That being the case I hatched up a plot with Lawrence to pull off an old stunt, more common in face-to-face games, whereby I forego the move to Swe (since I was 95% that I wasn't getting it anyway) and ordered to BLA with the boat and Sil with A(War). Meanwhile Lawrence convoyed his army to Den, leaving the German unit in Swe and therefor isolated. (Note to Germany: It's not a good idea to make it too obvious that Russia isn't getting Swe in 1901). Germany promptly NMRed which made the whole thing easier. Meanwhile in the South I had taken Rum with the fleet to show non-hostility towards Austria. Anglo-Russian progress against Germany was good but Lawrence was seriously distracted by a heavy French invasion force that suddenly appeared on his borders - great from my point of view as it meant that Lawrence was in no position to stab me. Turkey was full of plans for attacking Austria, but they never quite seemed to materialise. I did agree to let the southern fleet go, which was a mistake. (I wasn't to make any more mistakes involving trusting Morgan!). Meanwhile Richard had turned his attentions to Italy, which didn't surprise me as he wasn't making much of a diplomatic impact. In the north Lawrence was fully engaged in fending off the French, while I mopped up bits of Germany. I had a clear choice now between siding with England or France. Since it was a lot easier to make progress against England, that's the way I jumped and Lawrence was quickly in trouble. At this point, from my perspective, things were helped by an Austrian move into Mar. Once again I had an ally who had worries other than my expansion. Austria / Turkey is not a Diplomacy alliance made in heaven so I had hoped they wouldn't unite against me but sadly this proved not to be the case. Meanwhile Lawrence had promised to help me against France, but renaged on this and turned the tide against my nothern position. OK I thought. I'll just hole up for a while and await developments. However somehow my orders for a crucial season went missing (Andy thought he'd had them too, but couldn't find them; nor I a receipt). So a crucial NMR and my southern front was in tatters against the Austro-Turkish hoards. At this point my position looked desperate - France and England had the upper hand in the north against me and Austria and Turkey were carving up my homeland. However the A/T advance in the Med worried Dirk (as well it might) and I was able to demonstrate a clear stalemate line that we could set up between us. We agreed on that and moved accordingly. At one point we thought we might have to include Lawrence, but he didn't seem to spot the opportunity to use his position behind our stalemate line as leverage and we were able to take him out. Morgan was working all the while to try to get Dirk and I to attack each other, which we both stoutly resisted. I have no great faith in offers of "2 way draws". In my experience they tend to hide an attempt to solo and I was sure that I couldn't achieve that from this position. Eventually Morgan finally did what he had been telling me he was going to do all the way through the game and attacked Richard. Richard was totally vulnerable to this and had no real defence. Dirk and I expanded out of our laager as a result of this and the three way was inevitable from that point as Dirk and I were not going to stab each other. A good cut and thrust sort of game. Richard may be well named "Ole Slippery" but I don't think he's as slippery as Morgan! Many thanks to Andy for his efficient GMing throughout (though I've still no idea how I NMRed - only my 2nd in 20+ years - misorders yes I do them, but NMR's not usually). All the best Brian
TURKEY : Morgan Phillips After looking through everything I decided the best way for me to get a positive result was to try and work with both Richard (AH) and Brian (Russia) toward a possible Eastern Triple or at least until I was able to choose between the two of them for the end game. Little did I know the movement between these two individuals was going to be the theme through much of the game for me. 1901 - I think I managed to get Chun (Germany) and Brian (Russia) ticked enough at each other that they will be fighting for a while. If only I could have gotten Austria-Hungary to move WEST and fight the non-communicative ITALY I think that the Eastern Powers might have rolled right along. Richard had other ideas though. He obviously was very concerned about the possibility that I might get two builds and then after telling me that I could have Greece blocks me out of Bulgaria. Then I get the "well I never told you that I was going to let you have Bulgaria too!" story. BTW - I really hate when people do that. In my opinion (obviously not shared by all) taking advantage of others is not a good way to show friendship even if you never promised not to abuse them. Anyway, Richard right away shifted me to wanting to help Russia. 1902 - Spent the year rearranging my units to make it difficult for Richard to get much from me while screaming for Russia and Italy to please attack AH! 1903 - With everyone stuck in the corner now while England and France were working on Germany it became clear we needed to do something. I got Richard to agree to leave me alone (and tried to get him to sic Italy but that didn’t work right away) if I would attack Russia. I got Brian to agree to let me kill off his southern fleet and even take Rumania in exchange for future action against Richard when the time was right. 1904 - Germany is Gone, England and Italy are now in bad shape. Richard has been spending the whole year telling me how I need to move my units away from the Balkaans and Aegean (and open up a path for him to come get me again). I keep trying to get him to finish off Italy. 1905 - Richard and I are finally able to cooperate at least a little. Ever move has to be ultra-scripted at this point because I am afraid he is going to attack me again and he has always been afraid of me attacking him (at least that is the way he acts). I am still trying to get someone to do something bold and reckless so I can throw in with them to charge to a glorious victory (well at least a nice two-way draw). Regrettably, cautious and plodding more accurately describes the leaders in this alternate reality. 1906 - Pretty much an entire year of people sitting around – if not NMRing. 1907 - Fronts are formed up between FR and AT that will make it very difficult for either of us to advance much. 1908 - Richard and I make minimal gains against FR. I am still not able to convince anyone to step out and do something that might move the game along. 1909 - Richard decides that the game is really over and is ready to call it a draw. I try to convince him to hang on for a few more turns while I try to get Dirk or Brian one to do something to break the stalemate. He tells me that he doesn’t think that it is likely so he is going to pull his units back from the front to defend against me. Well, with the almost no likelihood anything was going to happen before this news was going to make it impossible for me to even do anything so I decided that I would go ahead and attack on my own (knowing I might very likely face all three powers in the next turn). I told Richard that I was going to attack him, gave him my specific moves and the I would be willing to still work with him to get a good result for us both once the FR line broke one way or another. He said that he wouldn’t cooperate and would rather die giving the game to one of the other powers. Oh Well, I did it anyway. 1910 - I pummel AH while pulling back from France and Russia attempting to see if I could get either of them to agree to attack the other for a potential two-way draw. I thought we could have had a really good chance either way as both powers could have grabbed the centers on the Western half of the board while I held the East and fought against the other but no one was brave enough to join in with me. Dirk worked with Richard a little while coming against me while Brian left me alone as I gave centers back to him but both told me that they just weren’t up for trying for a two-way draw. With that I finally surrendered since I had no way to fight both of them at once. Lawrence: I was really hoping you would do well over there. A strong England usually means a strong Turkey. I think your strength at the beginning of the game helped me and my weakness may have been part of what finished you. Chun: Secure your lands, find one way you want to go and be nice to other people. Ending up fighting everyone almost always is bad. Aron: I had to look up your name on the game start. The total of all messages (3) I received from you in the game… "What course of action against AH would you propose?" "Would you need the support of F(ION)?" "What exactly are AH's moves?" You can’t do well in a game with Regular players unless you talk to them. Dirk: Welcome back, great job for your first game in a while here. I wish we could have went for more but I understand that sometimes you just want to lock in your winnings. Brian: Thanks for a good game. It felt like you were actually my best ally throughout the game even when I or AH was occupying most of your centers. I know you likely never believed that I would be teaming up with you at the end game but it happened didn’t it. I wish you had been willing to smack Dirk around a bit. It would have been fun and I really, really would have let you have part of a 17-17. Richard: Boy, oh boy! You are one of the sharpest Diplomacy players on this site. I can’t imagine anyone else that I would want to have in a fight with me more. (either fighting with me or against me) It is like sleeping with a porcupine though. It always felt like just when things were working nice all the quills would come up. If you had plugged away with me a couple of years against FR while I tried to talk to them instead of running back to cover I would have gave up and went for the four-way draw. I do think I learned enough about you in this game though that in the future I should be able to predict what you are doing a little better and hopefully work with you to a positive outcome. Andy - Thanks much for picking up this game. You did a great job - even when you were trying to kill me off. ;-)
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