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CHERRY BARB END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Ally Bain [EGS]
Started: 14th June 2002
Finished: 25th November 2002 (Autumn 1912)
Result: France/Germany/Turkey draw
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Result | | Austria | Tom Craig | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | England | Andy Scott | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | France | Mattias Johansson | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 13 | 13 | 16 | 17 | Drew | | Germany | Kester Bearne | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 4 | Drew | | Italy | Mike Kraft | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | Russia | Klaas Sloots | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | Turkey | Walter De Oude | 4 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 13 | Drew |
AUSTRIA (Tom Craig) Cherry Barb was an immensely frustrating game for me - the whole time I still had units on the board I longed to be able to contact my neighbours and persuade them that allying with Austria would be advantageous to them, really it would. But of course if you signs up for a Gunboat game, that's not an option you gets.
I began the game supporting Italy but he opened to Tyrolia and proceeded to try in vain to support himself into Trieste. For the first three years I was forced to defend against his aggression, fortunate that Russia was being attacked by Turkey and so leaving me alone. Finally Italy was dislodged from Gre in 1903 by Turkey and he saw that we should co-operate.
In S05 Italy for some reason allowed Turkey into ION and I decided the witch of the east needed some pinning back. I concentrated my armies entirely on the Balkans and was promptly stabbed by Italy - but had I not done Turkey would have gunned through the Balkans into my homeland anyway. It was a catch-22 situation. In three years I went from six centres to none, foolishly squandering a chance of survival in my final season by misguidedly moving out of Sev.
From then on I didn't follow the game, but I see it ended in a draw with France on 17 and easily able to take Mun within a year. I guess he forgot to vote against the draw proposal.
I would like finally to thank Ally for being a fine GM. I do think he was right to tighten up his press policy in later seasons, as in its initial form it allowed scope for negotiation which in a Gunboat game is a touchy issue.
Tom CraigReturn to Top
ENGLAND (Andy Scott) I don't know if we do EGS's for gunboat games as this was my first???
In case we do here it is......
I was England. Russia, France and Germany all came after me right from the start??? I was confused as to how they knew to do it!!!!
Still I didn't last very long and it was all I could do to survive as long as I did ending my days in the coffee shops of Amsterdam. By the time the French finally caught up with me I was so wasted I didn't care :-)))
Thanks for the game all, stab you all again soon,
Andy ScottReturn to Top
GERMANY (Kester Bearne) Since I am still astonished (but grateful!) at the game ending as it did, it remains hard to remember back past the final season: I shall therefore begin at the end and see what else comes to mind afterwards. Congratulations to France on a highly successful campaign: obviously I am grateful for being allowed to live (and draw!), but it is obvious that it was really your game. I shall be fascinated to know the rationale for the draw, since we couldn't prevent you reaching 18 by then.
Back to the beginning: I chose to start by heading north-west with a view to taking the three closest neutrals at some risk of offending England but offsetting this with a pro-Russian stance on Scandinavia. I have a theory that R/G is rather a good alliance in gunboat (don't laugh) and is easily arranged with the opening moves. France and England both made neutral openings, with only Italy's move to the Tyrol causing concern, although Russia has moved north in a BIG way, with no fewer than three units: not to bad, provided A (Lvn) didn't become A (Pru). The critical moments arrived in the winter of 1901: Russia built a fleet in Sevastopol and France built a fleet in Brest. This opened the way to an EF conflict in the west, while the Russian centre was exposed, so I should be able to take both Denmark and Warsaw almost guaranteed and moved to do so in the Spring: Russia moved to Baltic in Spring while Italy was stil in Tyrol, creating sparks with Austria: I decided not to cover the home centres but press on for certain builds, on the basis that I could turn back and deal with isolated units behind the lines the following turn: there were too many ways Russia might move to turn down the opportunity fo swift progress wheil Turkey was also geadign north across the Black Sea. It was the wrong choice, since both Italy and Russia guessed correctly and I lost Mun & Ber, which effectively meant the next 3/4 years would be spent tangoing with Russia and trying to get all my builds on the board and keep pace with France.
I spent the next 3/4 years trying to keep pace with France and tangoing with Russia. The former kindly lent some support to a fruitless siege of Munich - which served him by keeping both Italy and I tied up while he swallowed England a bit at a time - but I knew I had to aim to finish Russia before he ruled the seas: moderately hopeless, unless Italy attacked in the southwest, which also looked unlikely, since Italy and Turkley were soon assaulting Austria from both sides: I wasn't particularly aware of it at the
time, but the two made short work of a once-powerful Archduchy once they gathered momentum.
In 1905, I had retaken my home centres and there was cause for a little optimism, since France had a fleet in the Med; it was quickly offset by another fleet in Brest, unnecessary to deal with England, and an ostentatious withdrawal to Gascony. I left the Low Countries exposed to England's retreating survivor and threw everything at Russia, since I doubted very much we could cooperate effectively to protect the North Sea. I apologise to the Tsar (and the Doors) for the press: it got in my head and
wouldn't go away. Besides which, singing at the French seemed the best defence.
By 1906, Russia was confined to Scandinavia but France had slid an army through northern Italy and E/F had half of the Low Countries each. The English were more welcome than the French, since they had a fleet that I lacked. I doubted I could hold indefinitely, but started to encourage the Russians that I would leave them alone if they would hold on, while trying to get Italy and Turkey to drop their private war and look across the water: it was really necessary for Italy to defend his homeland so that I could hold Munich and Berlin while Turkey sent naval support in the south: it wasn't realy happening.
1908 brought a chance to remove an army from Tyrol, where it was doubtless worrying the Italian, and relaunch it as a second fleet in the north. It still seemed to me that Turkey was advancing too slowly while Italy was ambivalent: supportingn me one season, France the next: I needed an Italian in Tyrol and wasn't getting one: I prepared an evacuation route to the Russian steppe so that I might survive in War/Mos. Scandinavia became a guessing game: could I take a Russian centre in any given Autumn turn to unist the defence that bit more? Accoridng to Ally, the Tsar was skiiing and I though he might not mind to much Aways the danger fo a French support and Russia then turning, or me cutting a support just as France attacked himself.
I also wanted a fleet in NWG/NAO but never quite got the chance.
By 1909, irritated by Italy's lack of resistance in the west and unreliability as a neighbour, I concluded that I needed to help Turkey move swiftly in and went for Vienna myself: it was a fourth army to defend Munich, and the end to resistance to the Sultan: 1910, I move to Gal to ensure that Italy wouldn't move into Russia behind me but left a support soemwheer for Turkey so that he wouldn't misinterpret my intention, strange as that would have been.
For the next two years, we put up some kind of resistance but a French win looked inevitable: to the extent, apparently, that Turkey and I both neglected to vote in the last turn but France accepted the often-proposed draw. On that subject, I did have a difference of opinion with Ally over draw-proposals when at least one set that I wanted to out forward in the midgame was suppressed as potential negotation, whereas several similar had already been put forward by other players before then; I was also a bit disappointed on principle at specific attention being drawn to voting (rather than just to deadlines) also at around that time, even though forgetfulness would be after all a rather curious and unsatisfactory way to get a result.
A final note on my last turn's moves: while Turkey had moved north into Russia in the previous season, I wasn't too concerned as it looked a sensible way to prepare a defensive line for later; when he also moved into War and Mos, I just intended to survive and so moved to ensure at least two/three SCs would survive German under French rule.
Cherry Barb was fast-changing and often hard-fought game with several intriguing individual battles. From my recollection of the player-list which appeared inadvertently before the country-allocations and game-start, that was very much to be expected: not surprising that my mistake in A1902 cost me so much trouble!
Thanks again to Ally for presiding and keeping us moving at a good rate.
Regards, Kester / GermanyReturn to Top
TURKEY (Walter De Oude) Well, this was the second gunboat game I have ever played, and the only one I have ever survived. I am surprised at the 3 way draw outcome, since I made enough silly mistakes to hand the game to France, but then I can't say I'm disappointed...
Here's how it was for me.
Standard opening for Turkey, but with some bizarre behaviour from Russia making me get all excited. Austria would have been able to capitalise on Russia's nothern opening but for Italy's offensive from the starting blocks.
O2 saw me helping italy against Austria, with the hope that I would be able to form an alliance with him going forward. This was my hope, but it was not really to be, as my help seemed to go unnoticed. Germany capitalised on Russia's early "creativity" allowing me into Sev, which was a useful centre to have. With Austria doing well against Italy, I helped myself to Gre, not to get left out of things...
However, the fight that Austria then put up against me was worthy of praise. I somehow lost Gre and Rum, and Austria supported Italy in Ion, blocking the door for me. Italy's stab of Austria then opened the door for me to step in in 05, and by 06, Austria was all but gone.
I had hoped that the frenchman would start to apply pressure to the Italian at this point, but he did not - a tactially sound move. France cunningly allowed Italy to focus on defending against an advancing Turk. With a deadlock in the Balkans from 06 to 08, with no help from France at all, France lined up his troops in the North for his attack on Germany.
By the time France did move against Italy, I was in no position to make real gains, since Italy felt it more important to defend against me than against France. A very well timed move in 09 gave France western italy, with not too much gain for me. I then had no choice but to see it through with my attack on Italy, and hope to block France before he controlled too much..
1910 was good for me. I made a bit of ground against Italy, and had a working relationship with Germany. My mistake was in 1911 when I took Ven with a fleet to secure it rather than use an army. That changed the balance of power in the triangle in France's advantage. Also, misordering Bud in 1911 meant that France's unit in Tyr didn't disband as originally intended.
I couldn't see how France could lose from that position, but it seem that luck was on our side. A1912 worked too well, and France joined the ranks in voting for the 3 way. All a bit lucky really.
As for the players:
France: Superb game. Pity about A1912 - you should have won it. Your tactics in the Med were fantastic.
Germany - Your tenacity in holding France out was awesome. Don't know if I could have done that...
Austria - You almost had me against the wall, and would have done pretty well if Italy had had other options...
Italy - Very strong in the beginning. But some silly moves in the end made your collapse faster than I was expecting.
Overall, a great game.
GREAT THANKS TO ALLY FOR ADJUDICATING. I know the amount of time that goes into these adjudications and I am really thankful for your time. Hope I can do the same for you sometime...
WaltReturn to Top
GM (Ally Bain) As some of you know, this game had four GMs in it, so my view is, if you're going to screw up GMing it better not try this game. :-)
Certain comments are said in the EGS & also in e-mails from you within the game. As said I'll reply in the EGS so hence I think I should have covered them all.
I can't remember the season but Turkey failed to submit orders. Knowing his holiday was mentioned on the home page of Dip2000 & the fact some, if not all, knew the names of the players, I decided not to call it an NMR on the adj. just in case.
As for the remarks about EGP, I feel they can & were being used as negotiation. Equally I knew the reason given by the players turning down the vote. Hence my reasoning for not submitting some of them. As for 'press' I've moved from one view to another. I now no longer submit 'press' in Gunboats. Some of you may dis-agree but that's my view.
As for EGP in the last two moves, France agreed to both. The game could have ended the season before but seeing a possibly win I decided to carry on. This may be wrong & if so, let me know, but as you know, France agreed with the last EGP so I ended the game.
As a final subject, I've compiled Gunboat Openings, if you look at Game Ratings, you'll see a link to it.
Either way, thanks for playing & see you on the board.
AllyReturn to Top
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