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CHOCOLATE GOURAMI END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Ally Bain [EGS]
Started: 22th August 2003
Finished: 8th September 2004
Result: France & Germany, two-way draw
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | Result | | Austria | Graham Foster | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | England | Keith Lewis | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | France | Bruce Spurr | 5 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 17 | Draw | | Germany | Manfred Pade | 6 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 16 | 17 | 17 | Draw | | Italy | Ian Scott | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | Russia | Stuart Danby | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | Turkey | Justin Sadler | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 11 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | Eliminated |
GERMANY (Manfred Pade) Closing Thoughts on Chocolate Gourami - Germany
Well, it's been a great game, made even better by the fact that I am one of only two nations left standing at the end of it. I'll take a few minutes to discuss my thoughts on the game, how things progressed, and my thoughts on the various players. But first, thanks to everyone for playing and making this game work out so well. I think everyone was quite dedicated to this game and it's amazing that after a full year, we only had 1 NMR in the entire game. Thanks to everyone, and especially Ally for GMing such a great game.
OPENING STAGES
My initial strategy as Germany was simple. First, don't piss anyone off too early. Try to gauge all the different players in the game and their goals and adapt a strategy that is appropriate. Second, grab as much of the neighbouring neutral centers as possible early on, and finally, make as many good allies as possible.
I guess that's pretty obvious stuff for any player in the game, but in my case, I wanted to make sure I would have at least 2 solid allies. I figured that Austria would probably be someone who I could count on, and so put my trust in a G/A alliance. I expected Austria to be tied up in the southeast, and I would be tied up in the North and West. After that, I was trying to make sure that I would have 1 more solid ally who I could work with in the North.
Initially, I sent out very friendly communications to everyone, but I was favouring a E/G alliance. As it turned out though, England's first communications in 1901 made me suspicious, and I was never able to fully trust him. Although I had been seriously considering carving up France, it turned out that the French were very friendly, and trustworthy. I found out later
that the French were also suspicious of the English, and so our alliance was born. Russia meanwhile was clamouring for a F/G/R alliance against England, and so things were looking good. The czar was a little less than reliable though, often writing communiques only at the last minute, and so it was that my primary alliance with France continued to strengthen.
Although Russia was supposedly on board with the F/G/R alliance, his continued inconsistancies led to the fateful decisions of Spring 1902. After a remarkable opening year, I found myself in posession of 6 SC's, and had to decide who my opening target would be. Confident that France was on my side, and Italy would remain neutral for the moment, my two choices were England and Russia. I had tried to convince both players that I was on their side, and therefore whoever I moved against would see my attack as a blatant backstab. In the end, I chose to move east against Russia, in the hope of quickly expanding my lebensraum in the east before moving in full force against England.
MIDDLE STAGES
By the end of 1902, I had made gains in the east, while the Russians and English continued to fight one another in utter disarray up North. Things could not be better. The Austrians were still holding off both Russia and Turkey, and Italy was remarkably peaceful. But at this point, the game was up, both Russia and England were fully aware of my treachery, and tried desperately to hold back the onrushing French and German tides. It was too little too late. They fought valiantly, and gave up ground only inch by inch, but by the end of 1903, it was clear that their fate was sealed.
The F/G alliance continued to strengthen during all this time. somewhere at this stage, we began to consider the possibility of a F/G victory. I'm not sure exactly when, but slowly as the game progressed, our alliance continued to get stronger until by the
end of the game, both of us had passed on so many opportunities to stab one another that it only made sense to pursue a combined F/G victory.
But back in 1903, things began to turn badly for my Austrian friends. The Turks began to make inroads, and the Italians chose the same moment to make a stab from the other side. Naturally, my support went to my Germanic cousins in the south, but it was clear that any victory in the game would still be a long while in the making. I needed to mop up the Northern regions
quickly and solidify my frontier to face the new threat from the Turkish and Italian empires that was coalescing in the South.
Alas, mopping up the English and Russians took far longer than I ever expected it to. This allowed the Turk to grow immensly, mostly at the expense of my Austrian cousins. Once France joined the fight, attacking from Italy's rear, the momentum began to
shift, but when German armies finally marched into Moscow and St. Pete, Austria was down to only a couple SC's.
FINAL STAGES
Relations between Germany and Turkey were never good. I admit that since we did not share a common border for so long, I used Turkey as my verbal whipping boy for all sorts of rants, tirades, and verbal abuse. My dislike grew stronger as he continued to decimate what was left of Austria. I also learned of several plots he tried to hatch to bring other players into some
kind of grand alliance against me. I don't fault him for trying, but it was clear that things would come to a head with Turkey.
The Turkish tide was finally stemmed when he reached 11 SC's, more than either Germany or France at the time. Yet together we already controlled more than half the board and Turkey was a few key SC's away from creating a stalemate line. Several times I offered up a F/G 2 way victory, with Turkey surviving out the game, but he constantly refused. It was clear that the only way the game could end would be through the total destruction of Turkey.
THE 'POUND TURKEY TO OBLIVION' ENDING
Turkey had a decent defensive line against the German armies. Several large russian territories limited the number of armies I could bring to bear against him, so I could not take full advantage of numerical superiority. But Turkey desperately lacked in Naval power, and he still did not have a solid stalemate line. Slowly, inexorably, he was pushed back bit by bit. When Constantinople finally burned, there were jubilant celebrations in Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. When the last Turkish navy finally came to rest at the bottom of the Mediterranian sea, Europe finally breathed a deep sigh of relief, and accepting of the
overwhelming show of force displayed by both the German Wehrmacht and the French royal navies. May the Germans and French rule Europe for the next 1000 years!
My thoughts on the players
ENGLAND
If only you could have been more friendly at the start of the game, things might have been so different. You played a good game though, and fought to the bitter end like a cornered badger. Too bad about the NMR, but I don't think it made much of a difference as France and I were already too powerful at that point.
RUSSIA
I never really could quite figure you out. When you talked, you seemed like a very solid and useful ally. The trouble was, half the time you were never there. I did stab you, but you left me no choice (heheh). I'm sure if you had been responsive to everyone more quickly, you would have been one of the most dangerous players in the game.
ITALY
Were you really in this game? Honestly, I think I got 1 or 2 e-mails from you in the first turn and then nothing for the rest of the game. I know at some point you proxied all your units to Turkey, but sometimes I wonder when that happened. 1902 or 1903? It didn't really seem like you were in this game after 1901. I guess we never had much reason to talk anyways, perhaps France, Austria, and Turkey have a better idea what happened to you.
AUSTRIA
I think you were just unlucky. You started off so strong, I guess Turkey and Russia felt they had no choice but to team against you. By the time I was able to help, it was too late. I'd like to play another game with you sometime, you were a very solid
ally.
TURKEY
You were a strong player, both diplomatically, and tactically. By the time I was facing you though, it just didn't seem possible for me to make a stab against France. I wish you had said yes to the F/G victory proposals I made, we could have avoided you
final agonizing death. Good luck in your next game.
FRANCE
We kicked ass. At the end of the game, I could have made a huge stab on you, and probably won the game with 21 or 22 SC's, but I just couldn't do it. You had saved my butt many times, and had not stabbed me before when you could have. How could I turn against our alliance, which brought us to the very end of the game? The best thing I am taking from this game is
the fact that I found an ally who I could continue to trust to the very end of the game. Although the solo victory was within my grasp, it was not worth the price. I'd rather end the game keeping my word with an ally then end up breaking my word to everyone to win the game. I left enough broken promises out there as it was. I guess you must have felt the same way. Best of luck in your next game.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Again, thanks to everyone for playing this game, and especially to Ally for hosting such a terrific game. I look forward to reading all your thoughts as well.
ManfredReturn to Top
TURKEY (Justin Sadler) This was my first ever email game of diplomacy and boy oh boy did I learn a lot. NMRs, drop-outs, vendettas and poor communication - wow! However, the most consistent and steady player won, of which I am glad, but I think its a shame he decided to share the glory with France.
In 1901, I decided to ally with Russia against Austria, but Russia did not move Moscow to StP as agreed and I had naively given up the BLACK SEA. I had also annoyed Italy who didn't communicate with me until a few days before the first deadline. Not a good start.
I then decided to switch sides and ally with a very talkative Austrian who promptly stabbed me. This time it was Russia's turn to get in touch just days before the deadline despite two or three emails from me.
Things did not look good and I assumed that I was heading for an early bath. However, rather unexpectedly, communication with Russia suddenly improved and we managed to sneak a couple of SCs back from Austria. I also had long conversations with Germany persuading him to attack Russia rather than France. The most bizarre move of the entire game must surely have been when a Russian unit with two supports and an Austrian unit with two supports both tried to take Rumania and bounced each other in the process leaving it to me! Russia then disbanded the BLACK SEA fleet and suddenly things looked decidedly better.
Italy had been hanging around non-committal for a while so I persuaded him to attack Austria. I continued to attack Austria and then tried to organise some kind of alliance with England and Russia who were both getting battered by France and Germany respectively. Unfortunately, despite several four way emails from me, England NMRed and Russia misordered, ruining both of their positions.
At this point Russia decided to give up and proxied his units to me as did Italy, both saying it was due to pressure of work. Italy seemed a nice chap but with one email every three weeks usually just a few days before the deadline it was difficult to tell. Suddenly, I was a player with great potential and I set about the destruction of Austria whilst attempting to play France and Germany off against each other. For some reason, Austria developed a serious grudge against me. He had stabbed me once and I had then guessed correctly three times in a row that he would stab me again. His diplomacy consisted of telling me how ridiculous my proposed moves were and then later how boring the game was and that I should give up because I didn't have a chance anyway. My personal favourite was when I asked him for clarification (he'd said you go south and I'll go east or some such vagueness) to which he didn't reply. When he later got in touch again, to tell me that I really ought to just agree to a F/G draw and give up, I asked him why he didn't reply to my earlier email and he said that he thought I was deliberately misunderstanding him!
Germany made it clear from the beginning that he was not interested in allying with me, but France suckered me in and I fell for his sweet talk. I agreed to share Italy with him on the basis that he would join me in attacking Germany, but instead I misordered and France stabbed me messing up my position down south.
After carefully analysis, I could see a stalemate position with Austria's remaining two units. I explained all this to Austria who seemed keen on ending the game quickly and I suggested a four way draw FGAT, but surprise surprise, Austria stabbed me again! I slowly fell back and tried desperately to separate the German and French alliance.
France never sent me another email and Germany told me that he had both Austria's and France's proxies. I offered Germany the solo, but he said he had assured France that he would take a two way draw. I wasn't very keen on accepting that as I was still playing the game whereas France had given up, but what could I do? I manoeuvred to try and force Germany to solo and we exchanged some feisty emails.
At times, I didn't really enjoy the game but it was a huge learning curve and congratulations to Germany on a good solid performance. Well done to France, a good stab but no follow up. I think you were lucky that Germany allowed you to draw with him. Thanks to England, for your communication. Thanks to Italy and Russia for your proxies.
The biggest thanks must be to the long suffering GM, Ally Bain, who has stuck with the game despite the NMRs, drop-outs and proxies and the gunboat style ending, as well as a raft of ridiculous draw proposals followed by a dearth just when they were needed - a heartfelt thank you.
Kind regards, JustinReturn to Top
GM (Ally Bain) Well done Manfred & Bruce but equally to those all for playing.
The comment, 'to those all for playing' doesn't mean anything about the number of proxies this game had. France gave Germany his proxy with Italy & Russia gave Turkey their proxy. Perhaps it's hard to say how good or poor the game was due to the proxies but one thing I can say was Bruce submitting his votes.
Nearly all players, who proxy to another, don't vote however he did & I had to re-read to make sure he didn't cancel the proxy. His e-mail has his vote but also his thought on what he thought Manfred would submit. Perhaps it doesn't sound odd but there again, you weren't GMing. :-)
Perhaps the down side is that I've only received two EGS. Very poor! Doesn't take that long to write a very wee sentance.
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 anarchy countries.
As you might know, I run an 'Admiral' Gunboat Competition & 'Admiral' II is likely to start soon. When the Waiting List is open, I'll mention it to you.
Either way, see you on the boards.
AllyReturn to Top
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