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AFRICAN BLOCKHEAD END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Ally Bain [EGS]
Started: 26th February 2003
Finished: 05th November 2003
Result: Russia won
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | Result | | Austria | Angel Gonzalo | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Anarchy | | England | Alan Powis | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 6 | Survived | | France | Wesley Joseph | 6 | 8 | 9 | 6 | 4 | Survived | | Germany | Dan Millband | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Anarchy | | Italy | Bill W. Ten Eyck | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | Survived | | Russia | Donagh Long | 6 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 18 | Won | | Turkey | Hans Edlund | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | Anarchy |
ENGLAND (Alan Powis) African Blockhead started extremely well for England and France with Germany playing a weird opening and then dropping out immediately so that both countries could make easy, unopposed gains. Russia was demanding the Scandinavian centres in return for leaving me alone in the future. Yes, I really believed that, so most of my effort was put into the Nor/Den/Swe area and I was too short of armies to consider moving against my trusty ally France. He, however, had a choice to make with all his fleets. To attack Italy, who was struggling, or to attack me. He chose the latter. I managed to convince him that he would only make limited gains against my defence while Russia would benefit greatly by my withdrawal from Scandinavia and he withdrew his forces and moved against Italy. By now, though, Italy was prepared to face him and gains would have been difficult. Still, with the E/F alliance re-established we should have been able to push on through Germany and into Russia and eventually into Italy by land. It was only a matter of time and either the 2-way draw was easy(ish) or one of us would win.
Meanwhile, Russia benefitted by the quick demise of Austria and, with Italy turning to face France, Russia was left to deal with the ailing Turk who, while never growing to threaten too much, was resisting manfully in the South. It was now that France changed tactics once again with an offer to assist Russia against me. I don't know what I said to upset him so badly but I received only one more short, terse communication from France after this. Sadly that is not what this game is all about. I decided that if I was going to have to constantly watch my back against France I might as well settle for second and threw my weight into supporting Russia against France. After that it was simply a matter of arranging things so that Russia reached his 18 centres and Italy and England had the same number of units, as Italy had agreed to a joint 2nd place. We did that as swiftly as possible to end the game as France had ceased all communications by then, as far as I am aware, so any chance of putting up much resistance was none existant.
Thanks to everyone for the game. It was enjoyable to the end. Turkey deserved better and did well to hold out so long. Congrats to Donagh for the win. Apologies to France for ganging up on him at the end. Finally, thanks to Ally for the efficient GMing.
Alan Powis
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FRANCE (Wesley Joseph) Initially working with Russia and England to partition Germany, all went well. Then decided with Russia to take on England, however it soon became clear that neither of them were really interested in working with anyone else. After having every one of my e-mails forwarded around, I finally gave up trying to talk, figuring that I would do just as well, and have more time for my schoolwork.
Wesley.Return to Top
ITALY (Bill W. Ten Eyck) Thanks to ALB for a good job as referee! Congratulations to the three other remaining players. (even perfidious France) I hope for fewer NMR oppponents in my next game.
BillReturn to Top
RUSSIA (Donagh Long) Well as this was the first PBEM game for us all, I guess it's not surprising that we had a few NMR's, disappointing though. It didn't make for a fun game. And while it's always nice to win, this wouldn't count as the most satisfying win ever.
Starting out as Russia is always a challenge, on account of the amount of diploming required. Germany straight away was trouble as he never responded to anything. Everyone else was pretty receptive to approaches, especially Turkey who made sensible suggestions. The juggernaut was on for a while, and Hans supported me into Serbia (in Spring 02 I think). At that point I should have responded in kind, but I betrayed him most foully. Under pressure from my other prospective ally, Italy, I chose to stab instead. It was very, very harsh on Hans, who subsequently NMR'd. I actually made a botch of the stab, Hans should have been dead in two turns, but it dragged on for a while. My fault. In the end, the solid allliance between Italy & I was solid enough to win the game, which did justify my decision to stab Turkey. There were two reasons I jumped for it. One was that Hans was hard to contact, there were long delays between emails. The other was that there seemed a better chance of a solo win by burying Turkey early.
Austria's NMR however satisfied me greatly. Austria annoyed me from day 1. I know his English wasn't great, but there was no excuse for his play. He absolutely would not agree to leave Galicia as DMZ first turn. He insisted we bounce for fear everyone else thought he was a weak player. What crap! That forced me to send more units south than I wanted. The ultimate upshot was that I ended up attacking him & it was his own fault. He really didn't get it though, & sent me a daft email threatening to tell everyone what a betrayer I was. All round, he's no loss to the Dip world in my view.
All this meant my opening was more southerly than I had wanted. That meant when Germany went NMR I was unable to take advantage. A field day for France & England. I had established a presence in Scandinavia, but Britain deviously dispossed me. With France coming through Central Europe, the game was balanced on a knife edge in 1903. Italy & I had a secure southern border which allowed Italy to concentrate on holding France off,-the values of a solid alliance! The game, in my view, hinged on a move I made about Fall 02/Spring 03, moving an army to Liv where it could support Stp. This meant England could go no farther in the North, and this allowed me to undermine the Anglo-French alliance which was looking like winning. France could have rescued the situation by being more communicative, but there wasn't much he could have offered Alan in any case, because Alan had almost no armies.
Once that alliance broke down, it was plain sailing for me after that, and Alan & Bill put forward a sensible suggestion that sped up the final process. I think it's fair to say the outcome was obvious by Fall 04 latest. Just to say, I thought France played a really good opening game & looked the most likely winner for a long time. Having said that, some of the 'tidbits' he was offering me were a bit paper-thin, just a little too obvious. England also played well, doing well to kick me out of Scandinavia, & could have finished better than joint second if he had wanted to drag things out. Nonetheless I'm glad Italy got to share second, I feel he deserved it for persistence alone & for being a steady ally (although telling me he wanted to stab me wasn't a good way to engender trust!) The value of having a secure uncontested border was shown I think by the result, especially the way Italy held off France & the way Russia poured into western europe.
In all, a good game, not a great game. Bill, Alan, & Wesley, I hope to play with you all again, and I wouldn't mind playing with Hans either. Thanks to Ally for running the show. I'm quite sure I'll be playing with him again! Another Russian victory for the stats board.
Donagh Long.Return to Top
GM (Ally Bain) Donagh, you're right. Soon you'll be on the stats that Karl does with the victory score & also Alan, Wesley & Bill will get a small point for playing until the 'fat lady whistles'. On the stats I do, I only use country name's not players & those can be found on http://mysite.freeserve.com/alb_gsb/stats.htm but I don't list anrchy countries.
As for those who did go into anarchy, they have been barred from games on the site.
I know you'll all be thinking how often anarchy happens in regular games, well the answer is very limited. Out of all the ones I've GM only one player went into anarchy.
Either way, see you on the boards.
AllyReturn to Top
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