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ARCHER END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Ally Bain [EGS]
Started: 16th July 2003
Finished: 10th April 2004 (Autumn 1906)
Result: England won!
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | Result | | Austria | Derek Scott | 4 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 4 | Survived | | England | Andrew Dodds | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 14 | Won | | France | Doug Livingstone | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | Survived | | Germany | Patrick Groh | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Anarchy | | Italy | Dave Burton | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Survived | | Russia | Pat McDonald | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Survived | | Turkey | Karl Koeller | 4 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 11 | Survived |
AUSTRIA (Derek Scott) This was my first game on Dip2000 and I really enjoyed it. As austria I didn't really expect to last very long, so a survival was better than expected.
Early on I had a good relationship with Germany, Turkey and France. Russia seemed to annoy everyone early one, so Turkey and I agreed to attack him. France suggested a plan for me to take Venice which couldn't seem to fail - but did.
Turkey and I made gains against Russia but Italy invaded me and I had to use too many units to defend. Turkey suggested a 3 way AIT alliance - which I agreed to - I had no choice and Italy retreated - but I still had good relations with Germany.
I felt that if I turned North then I would be vulnerable to a stab from both Turkey and Italy. I also thought that if Italy attacked France, he would fall quickly and Engaland and Germany would make all the gains. So I decided to stab Italy and then sell it to Turkey afterwards. Turkey had Naples there for the taking and Italy would have been out in two moves with Turkish fleets sweeping West along the med, but Turkey didn't like what I had done.
Turkey took it very badly - worse than Italy who kept up pleasant correspondance the whole game , even as I took his homeland - and Karl sent some pretty agressive and unpleasant e-mails. Including "I put up with Derek's pathetic whining paranoia throughout the entire game so far, just because I thought I should honor our agreement against Rus."
I didn't mind karl attacking me - he had said he would. But what annoyed me was that he unilaterally imposed a 3 -way AIT agreement and then made personally abusive comments when I didn't do what he wanted. You can't possibly play diplomacy without stabbing people (or successfully anyway) but Karl seemed to think you could only attack people you had declared war on and anything else was 'dishnorouble'. Dave on the other hand was a perfect gentleman the entire game which is why I tried to ensure he survived later in the game.
From then to the end of the game Turkey tried to eliminate me - but some good defensive play and some help from france helped me gain Italian centres nearly as quickly as I lost Austrian ones.
Meanwhile England had overun Germany - who had anarchied and so I agreed to a French led coalition to stop England winning. I even made it a condition that Italy survived. But the coalition never got going - I assume Turkey refused to join. Anyway Turkey kept attacking me so I revoked my proxy to France (he had it for one move) and voted for the England win and supported myself in Italy.
At least I proved to Turkey that it was easy to take Italy out and had he kept allied with me then we would have easliy got a 3 way draw with England.
When I predicted an England win in 1903 if Turkey attacked me Karl said "I doubt Eng will win. Ger and Eng are now at each other's throats. I predict an I/T victory."
Well Karl - that didn't quite work out did it. Your obsession with attacking me meant an England win.
Thanks to all the players and Ally too - it was a shame Germany dropped out as I thought him a good player and it made life easy for England.
The game took a lot longer than I had thought and I didn't have much time to e-mail as some of the other players so don't know if I will commit to another game.
Derek ScottReturn to Top
ENGLAND (Andrew Dodds) I'll try and do one, I've been extremely busy at work for the past few weeks..
Thanks Everyone anyway.
AndyReturn to Top
FRANCE (Doug Livingstone) Well It was different! Key points about Archer that I will remember
1) Everyone kept declaring war - rather than stabbing in the back. England (twice), Germany and Italy all declared war on France. I think Turkey and Italy also declared war on Austria
2) No one was eliminated - even Russia down to one unit very early on survived
3) Turkey seemed to think he was going to be able to win even when England was well ahead and refused to join the 'stop-the-leader' which lead to a very easy England solo. I hope karl will explain his reasons - it doesn't bother me that he decided this - just interested in knowing why
Quick synopsis
First game as France - lots of new people - decided to pick up my neutrals and see what happened. My preference was a FG to take out England but didn't push it.
Austria seemed very nervous and in desperate need of a friend so I came up with an anti-Italian plan. I would promise to bounce Italy in Piedmont and then forget to change my orders. Italy goes to Piedmont and Austria sails into Venice.
Unfortunately Italy covered Venice from Rome so I had an angry Italian in Piedmont - whoops.
All 3 of the western got 2 builds in 1901 - Russia looked like an early victim. Austria and Turkey ganging up on him in Rumania. England builds in Liverpool - oh dear.
The next couple of years saw a steady advance by EG against me with some rather ineffective Italian help - who had also tried to invade Austria. Turkey meanwhile made good progress against Russia. I tried in vain to split the EG - but without much help.
Italy withdrew from Austria who promptly walked into Italy. I had reasonable relations with Austria so thought that Austrian neighbours had to be better than Italian. At this stage it looked like EG versus AT, with me and Italy caught in the middle, Russia was down to one unit in Berlin and he looked out of it.
In 1904 all change - I had been offered assistance by England but felt it was a ruse, but he attacked Germany anyway. And Turkey attacked Austria - supposedly because Austria had broken a 3 way AIT alliance. Anyway looked for the first time like I might make some headway. Then in the Autumn Germany NMR's and both England and Turkey make gains against there former allies.
Now I thought I had a real a chance of a draw - with both England and Turkey gaining, all I needed to do was sit over the stalemate line and grab a share of the draw. When Germany anarchied it was obvious England was going to make quicker progress so I tried to pursuade Derek to withdraw from Austria and take over Italy - on the grounds it was easier to defend.
This would mean quick gains for Turkey and be a check against an English solo.
Unfortunately Karl's (Turkey) grasp of tactics worried me - he explained that an England solo wouldn't happen as he could prevent it by taking StP. When I asked him to explain how Turkey could take StP from England - he never replied.
In 1905 I made a real mess - I went for Munich as a crucial centre - but Russia - was he still playing? Helped England to dislodge me. Now my two armies were split. So England made 3 gains and was looking well placed. I tried to rally a 'stop the
leader' campaign It would - I think - have been fairly easy to stop England on 16 or so SC's, but it needed Austria and Turkey to stop fighting. Austria agreed and proxied to me to allow easy co-ordination of moves, Italy also agreed, he had little choice - but Turkey flat out refused - saying he was going for the win. I don't know what Derek had done to upset karl so much!
1906 saw France, Italy and Russia all support England - while Austria and Turkey carried on fighting - hence 1906 saw 3 England gains. He had gained 6 SC's in two years v Turkey's 2. I tried again to get Turkey to stop England - but he only responded hours before the deadline - blaming me for being allied with England.
Anyway thankfully the England win was voted for - I wonder if Karl voted for it or merely forgot?
Anyway - some thoughts.
England/Andy - played well - good alliance with Germany and stabbed him at an opportune time. Did well to offer me Munich because your progress in France had been very slow before that. Kept talking to everyone including your enemies - good tactics.
Russia/Patrick - did well to survive when on one unit for so long. Never had much contact before that.
Austria/Derek - seemed very nervous - didn't say very much or very often. had a good start but was always going to struggle once Turkey stabbed. Probably made sense to go to Italy.
Italy/Dave - typical Italy - never got beyond 4 units - couldn't seem to decide what to do, early on attacked both France and Austria without ever taking an SC from either of them.
Turkey/Karl - great start allying with Austria against Russia. Didn't understand why you didn't keep that alliance going and send fleets against Italy. One e-mail made me laugh you said you were going to ally with Dave over Derek because Dave was a
better tactician even though Dave never got past 4 SC's and Derek had just taken Venice. I have already commented on the end game so hope you will explain your motivation.
Ally - as ever the best - adjudications on time and accurate with nicely coloured maps some GM's could learn a lot from you (Kester! - only kidding - honest)
I think of this not as a mere survival - but as a bronze medal on Paul's rankings!
DougReturn to Top
ITALY (Dave Burton) First of all, thanks to Ally. No Ally, no game. Ally, we all appreciate your services.
Game History from the Italian Viewpoint
Before Spring '01, I could see that Karl, Patrick and Derek (Turkey, Russia, Austria) would never get on together. On this basis, I tried to set up an EGI alliance, so that we could take out France, and then overpower the squabbling powers in the east. As it turned out, the eastern powers were always at war with each other, but unfortunately the EGI did not hold, and my best chance of a draw disappeared when Germany stabbed England.
At this point, I tried to establish a relationship with Russia. I agreed to support Patrick in an attack on Austria. We both manoeuvered into position, and I ordered the support as agreed. Unfortunately, Patrick preferred a doomed attempt to hang on to Rumania (under attack by Turkey), instead of accepting the support which would have allowed him to take Vienna. This was
a turning point in the entire game. Russia was left with too few units to mount any defence against Turkey's onslaught and retreated to Berlin. Austria remained sufficiently powerful that he could give me a chasing into the bargain.
Thereafter, I was left to survive as best I could, not easy when both France and Austria were repeatedly, if subtly, supporting each other in their attacks on me. After his blitzkrieg dismissal of Russia, Karl found the going tough against Austria, and never made real headway.
Finally, when the England solo became a real possibility, Doug tried to organise a four-way anti-English alliance. By this stage, I could hope for survival at best, and a swift English victory looked the safest route to that end, so I did my best to put the kybosh on the FATI alliance. Whether as a result of my efforts or not, the alliance never took off and the English solo was agreed two turns later.
In the end, I was pleased to survive in this game. An English solo with survival for all players who didn't go into anarchy was a fair result.
The Players
Andy fully deserved his win. He found a very flexible strategy, one which kept France permanently on the back foot, but still allowed England to take full advantage when his former German ally NMRed. Andy's tactics were always spot on and he was always the most serious diplomat. On top of all this, he was the funniest correspondent: he made me chuckle from his first mail onwards; his declaration of war on France was hilarious.
Karl, who finished a strong second, played very well in stages. He destroyed Russia, and ordered beautifully while we worked out what Derek was up to. As compared with Andy, though, I think he came up short in two regards. First, strategically. He built too many fleets, and some of these were still bottled up in home waters at a time when England had started rampaging through his undefended northern SCs. Second, cooperation with allies. For all that I was ostensibly allied with Karl for much of the game, we never managed to support each other in a single move. Against this, Andy ordered successful joint-power moves with Italy, Germany and Russia. I think these two shortcomings meant that Karl could not demolish Austria as rapidly as he had done Russia, and for this reason he failed to feature in a draw.
Doug did well to survive early EGI attacks, but couldn't ramp up after that. I think this game is not a good benchmark of his ability. He got unlucky early on, and there wasn't time to recover thereafter.
Patrick (Russia) has plenty of good ideas but didn't seem able to trust me - don't know if that's my fault or his. He failed to accept my support into Vie in Autumn '02, which left him with two armies and no ally instead of three armies and the prospect of further gains in Austria. His cooperation with England and France in later moves shows that he can work with other players, but, by that stage, it was no more than a rearguard action for him.
Pat (Germany) was easy to talk to, but he preferred a telegraphed stab on England to easy gains in France. His NMR and subsequent anarchy unbalanced the game, especially as he was still on five SCs at the time. All credit to Andy for taking full advantage though.
Derek was comfortably the worst player on show. He plays Itchy and Scratchy Diplomacy, where only the stab exists. That said, he never actually stabs, because he can't build an alliance in the first place. Karl made some strongly worded remarks during the game, and these were right on the money. Despite Derek's cartoon diplomacy, his tactics are those of a much better player.
The Future
This was my first PBEM Dip. Despite a poor showing, I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to playing Italy again as soon as possible. In future though, I'll sign up for two week deadlines, as the three week turnaround frequently had me champing at the bit.
DaveReturn to Top
GM (Ally Bain) Well done England on the win but also to the rest of you for playing.
The endings have been added to the stats I'm doing & the address is http://mysite.freeserve.com/alb_gsb/diplomacy/stats/normalendings.htm
To those who haven't asked, this game has ended therefore I'm able to update your status but you'll have to mention it to me.
See you on the boards
AllyReturn to Top
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