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EMPEROR TETRA END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Ally Bain [EGS]
Started: 19th September 2006
Finished: 29th April 2007
Result: Austria-Hungary Wins
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | Result | | Austria-Hungary | Andy Scott | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Wins | | England | John Donnelly (Anarchy) | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 3 | Anarchy | | France | Matthew Jennings | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 | Survived | | Germany | Trygve Leivestad | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 6 | Survived | | Italy | Greg Pierce | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | Russia | Meru Bhanot | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | Turkey | Simon Berry | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Eliminated |
AUSTRIA (Andy Scott) Wow! After all this time (7 years'ish?) I have finally managed to win my first game on dip 2000, I must admit I am very pleased :-))
Austria wasn't my preferred choice for this game but it was my second, you see I have noticed that in numerous games of gunboat that if Austria can get into 1903 with 5 or 6 units it normally does very well from there on in. The problem is that getting there before this time is not really in your control. It must be said I've been trying this theory off and on for at least two years before it worked though :-)) I looked at the board and to my mind the key to Austrian success is getting a good working relationship going with Italy, Russia is the biggest early threat and Turkey a constant threat as it watches for a sign of weakness in it's neighbours. I decided this time to try and signal my good intentions to Italy by being totally aggressive Vs Russia with Vie-Gal and Bud-Rum, add to this Tri-Alb and hopefully a smart player will read my intent. The big danger of course was if he went A Ven-Tri but if he did it would be yet another game I lost, nothing to worry about really! And it worked out wonderfully for me in that Vie bounced in Gal (as I expected), Bud took Rum as Russia went to BLA and whilst Mos-Ukr was a bit tiresome I was happy because Italy signalled friendship with Ven S Tri hold and A Rom-Apu with the obligatory Nap-ION. Not an anti-Austrian opening at all and add to that fact that Turkey whilst he had not bounced the Russian fleet had packed Bul, Con and Ank in case Russia took BLA. Elsewhere England and France went straight at it and Germany opened with the normal lowlands offensive. In short none of them looked like they would come and spoil our party any time soon!
Autumn 1901 was of course crucial A Rum could not do much but I decided to just stand. I could have offered a support to either Russia or Turkey but decided that I would rather leave them guessing, also I didn't want that to send the wrong impression to Italy with regard to my intentions. I also had the comforting reassurance that if Russia forced me out of Rum I was retreating into Sev, not an unpleasant thought! The next issue was what to do with regard Italy itself, I was fairly confident that he would take Tun but I was worried in case having spotted the opening he moved Ven-Tri and Apu-Ven so decided to block Tri with Vie and go for Greece with my Fleet. Downside was that Russia would most likely enter Gal but I hoped that Italy would be smart enough to realise that meant I couldn't build fleets which is always a threat to Italy. I also realised that Turkey, if he was smart would take Ser as it could not be defended, I toyed with ordering Rum-Ser to block but I much preferred the strategic position of Rum as it gave me more opportunity to create mischief between Russia and Turkey. A Priority as the last thing I needed was them getting together. All went pretty much as expected with the added bonus of Italy taking Tunis by convoying A Apu, this meant that he was considering convoy potentials to Turkey at which point I became convinced of his good will towards me. I think it was about this time I started toying with the idea that my old friend JW Omlo was playing Italy. I still have no idea who played Italy, like the rest of you I await the publication of these EGS to find that out! The Turk advanced straight into Ser and replaced A Bul with F Bul, more worryingly though was the fact he choose the South coast. It seemed that the line was being drawn for a straight up AI Vs RT. Over in the West though I was worried by a French NMR and Germany getting a maximum 3 builds, thank god two of them were fleets but I hoped France would come back as I could see England getting a kicking good and early otherwise!
Spring 1902 Time to take the fight to Russia, I have often thought that Austria needs to be more aggressive then other countries and that by doing so can really improve it's chances. That said it can so easily backfire on you! With that in mind and the realisation I couldn't hold Rum I decided instead to attack Russia in his week central landmass as he had chosen to build a second Northern fleet instead of an Army. Accordingly A Bud liberated Gal with support from Vie whilst A Rum struck into the Ukraine. I didn't really expect to get it but I really wanted to stop the two Russian Armies linking up. Now looking back I fail to understand why I didn't order A Tri-Ser and F Gre S Italian F ION-AEG. It seems so obvious now but I guess then I still had hopes Turkey would help with Russia? Unsurprisingly though Turkey kicked my fleet out of Greece while also occupying the AEG and bouncing with Italy in EMS. The Naval war was now very much on! However a small mention must be made of the fact that in the first S1902 adjudication Italy NMR'd which caused me not a little despair as my intended ally failed to show up! Then thankfully a readjudication with Italian moves turned up. Ok those moves didn't improve thins on the board vastly but I was sure a hell of a lot happier! I was also happy that not only had I retaken Gal forcing him to withdraw into War I had Austria as well! I rued the missed chance with Ser though but was pleased to see England had positioned himself to nick StP and that France was back in the game.
Autumn 1902 was sadly a low point of the game for me, England made the wrong choice and didn't take StP, I took War which could not be stopped but tried to support the Italian Army from Tun to Gre it failed and because I messed up my disbands lost my fleet. Italy thankfully made better choices and kept the Turkish fleets contained but Russia grabbed Rum and Norway which allowed him to build two armies plugging the gap I had sought to exploit!
Spring 1903 opened then with me working out whether my priority was to retake Rum or invade Ser I could do either successfully but not both in the same turn! In the end I choose to retake Rum as it cleared things for a better retreat from War which I knew to be coming but also because it was obvious to me and I hoped Italy, that he needed to get his army out of Tun and doing something useful. The only viable option that I could see was a convoy to Alb so I supported that with A Tri with the hope of a success or failing that suggesting the idea to him for the Autumn! It all came off wonderfully with not only the Italian A landing in Alb but A Ven-Tyr as well. This reassured me that he intended no ill will for if he attacked me I would retreat to Ven from Tri. Sure I considered the possibilities of an Italian stab but he seemed to intelligent for that currently. He was I am sure aware that stabbing me would ultimately allow Russia and Turkey to roll over me and him!
Autumn 1903 was great season I guessed perfectly with my moves of Rum-Ser and Gal to Rum, really solidifying my position but more importantly as I had hoped the Italian A Tyr moved to Boh meaning we had the Russian at a disadvantage again. I must say the see-saw battle across the Austrian/Russian Border was hugely entertaining with both of us desperately seeking for the upper hand. Also with my invasion of Ser Turkey lost a unit, surprisingly at this stage I felt he made a mistake choosing to disband F Bul so I was for the first time optimistic about both fronts. I also have to say that the Northern Battle was fascinating! After three years England was still on 4 dots, Germany who got a maximum three in 01 was back down to 5 and France who NMR'd in A01 was up to 5 as well. I have to say that I am immensely grateful for their intense rivalry as otherwise I think either Italy or myself would have seen some unwanted intervention which would have altered the outcome of the whole game!
Spring 1904 was another set of tough decisions, I decide to play it smart and ordered Bud-Gal Supported by Vie whilst I used Rum to hit Ser in the vain attempt to stop the Turk. Ser Supported the Italian A Alb-Gre. Well Italy and I are thinking remarkably alike here as he ordered A Boh to support my army Bud-Gal as well ensuring that success. However the Russian A Gal had invade Rum forcing my retreat to Ukr and whilst Italy did indeed take Gre it was with a fleet not the Army although it did destroy the Turkish army in the process. Ally made a comment this turn about the fact it was hard to see which alliance had the edge, actually I disagreed with him although I didn't say as such. For the first time I felt we had the edge in the South, whilst technically Russia was the larger country he had two fleets stuck in Nwy and Swe so only had four units in the South, one of which was a fleet that was not great as Turkey was his ally, all it could really do was support Rum. Turkey and Italy were both down to four units and I had five which gave us a slight numerical superiority but far more importantly Italy and I were working together well. Predicting each other's moves and supporting well. Russia and Turkey however were just not fighting each other, there was no sign between them of any help and I think that was the big difference. A big thank you is owed to Italy by me, he was a great gunboat ally.
Autumn 1904 was a crunch decision season for me, I had a lot of options open to me but the Army stuck in the Ukr was stuck out like a sore thumb and I could see it being amputated! I reluctantly cam to the conclusion that my best move was to throw everything I had into an A Ukr attack on Rum with three supports. Add to this A Vie S A Gal hold to ensure he doesn't fight his way out and it meant that whilst I got no builds I destroyed his Southern most army which meant he would keep F Sev and isolate his two remaining armies against Italy and myself. It worked a treat and I think with the advantage of hindsight was the decision that put me on the road to victory. Add to this that Italy finally got his fifth unit and also moved A Boh-Sil and we were sitting pretty. the only fly in the ointment was the Turkish Fleet in ION!
Spring 1905 was a good turn for me, I spotted that Turkey would probably destroy the Italian F Gre and could order A Rum-Bul with a fair chance of success while appearing to be trying to help the Italian. What I should have done was support the Italian F with A Ser but I figured this way gave me two possible outcomes: 1) rip open the Turkish defence because once I had Bul the only way they could get me out was to force me into Con and 2) I expected the Turkish Fleet ION to retreat to Tun. I think Italy did to but he surprised us both by retreating to Apu instead and whilst at first I was disappointed it actually turned out to lead into the turning point of the game. Else where we bounced on War and nothing much happened on the Russian border. Although it was now more and more obvious that the Russian saw the writing on the wall and his moves were eve more defensive. That's not a criticism though, he had played very well but was now well on that slippery slope that we all know so well!
So Autumn 1905 dawned and with it an idea. I fancied that in the not too distant future an opportunity was going to present it self as I reckoned Turkish fleet F Apu was destined for Ven as the only guaranteed dot, this could potentially be used as an excuse for me to attack Italian soil without attacking Italy per se! However to make this work I had to perform a very delicate balancing act as I did not want either of them building any more units, so I orders A Bul-Con as I didn't think turkey would force me out. I also wanted to provide a retreat for the Turkish A Gre as I supported the Italian A Alb-Gre. As well as balancing the books between them I still got my build AND blocked a Turkish building spot if I miscalculated. Based upon the previous turns defensive moves I decided to play for position Vs Russia and ordered Bul-Rum to protect or replace and Gal-Ukr , Vie-Gal to give me position to crack the nut of Warsaw. Sadly I underestimated the bear and he blocked both moves which was frustrating for me and a compliment for him. However the Turkish/Italian balancing act worked perfectly, I was however unhappy with the fact I had to build an A Tri. I desperately wanted a fleet as after all I was contemplating taking on the sea power in the med in the terms of Italy without any fleets! I was also acutely aware however that building a fleet would send Italy a warning I could not afford so I stuck with an Army. It worked out in the end but the frustration I went through trying to build a fleet stems from this time and at points it was infuriating!
Spring 1906 saw me move Vie-Tyr supported by Tri to contain the Turkish threat there, A Gal supported A Bud-Rum whilst A Ser and A Con tried to combine in Bul. The last failed to take Bul but did save Con so not all was lost. Tyr was occupied without issue and so was Rum. Two things that did happen unexpectedly for me though was the Italian convoy of A Gre-Apu to trap the Turkish Fleet and the Russian Fleet finally sailed into the BLA. In the west England and France were both on 6 with Germany who had NMR'd the previous turn on 4. But with France and England fighting it still looked fairly balanced which suited me fine.
Autumn 1906 was decision making time for me. The Russian fleet in BLA was an irritation but no real threat, long term Russia was doomed, yes he still had the two linking armies but I had the forces in place to deal with them. Turkey was now undone, his fleet in Ven was about to be ejected and I was sure he would disband it, more importantly his remaining three units were split and I was confident that I could deal with them too. However I could easily foresee a situation where Italy was going to gain quicker then me and without Russia and Turkey it could cause issues. After some good hard thought I decided to be bold, it had served me well so far! I tried to combine A Ser and A Con to conquer Bul but thanks to the damned Russian fleet I failed. Not only that but the two Turkish fleets combined to push me out of Con and into Ank. I had expected the fleet to return to Sev but had settled on A Rum-Sev anyway so luckily it got in. Sadly for Russia England also choose that turn to kick in his Northern door and so the last of the Russian fleets disappeared. I tried to support the Italian A Sil-War as last time I had tried to move instead and Russia read it. Fair play to him, he read it this time as well and again Warsaw stayed in Russian hands. However my most important move of the turn was A Tri-Ven supported by A Tyr which was successful but left Tri undefended as I choose to build in Vie and Bud. This for the first time gave me top spot with 8 as England was on 7. One other incident occurred at this time, in the real world it was just before Christmas and I was preparing to go away for 10 days for a family holiday when Matt Jennings copied me in on his e-mail to Ally whom he was having trouble contacting, (I think it might have been the cause of one of his NMR's although I'm not sure?) So I discovered through no fault of my own who was playing France and what their orders would be before the deadline! Obviously I passed it straight on to Ally who can also confirm that my orders were already in and that I didn't change them although it did make me feel awkward. I told Matt that whilst I was always happy to help to confirm orders to fellow GM's that I was going away and would have unreliable e-mail during that time. I think I suggested he used Pete Smith instead with the desperate hope Pete wasn't in this game either! A weird situation that has certainly never happened to me before but I suppose it is a slight risk to being a GM? To be fair to Matt though he has to try and get another GM involved who can confirm his orders were in on time but doesn't know who he can trust, I was GM'ing Matt in another game at the time and normally I would help any one out in his predicament so I'm glad he felt able to turn to me however.....
1907 was a hugely important year for me as it saw what I considered my best move of the game but also allowed me to get the upper hand in the East. It started with the situation of a Russia reduced to two armies in Mos and War while Turkey was three units but all chasing back to my Army in Ank. In short I felt I had the beating of both of them. The problem however was Italy it was obvious after I had taken Ven last turn from the Turk he would see the writing on the wall, he was after all back down to four units to my eight which meant if he suddenly changed sides that IRT would have the numbers. More importantly whilst I felt I could contain his southern forces and Turkey and Russia I knew it would be hard to advance against all three. Finally the real fly in my ointment so to speak was the Italian A Sil that had been so useful before, that would move South and cause me chaos behind my lines which would force me to pull units away from other jobs inevitably leading to my collapse. So I went instead for a con job that relied heavily upon my reading of my former Italian Ally, I left Ven for Pie and supported the Italian A Apu there in my place, I also supported the Italian A Sil-War whilst cutting the support from Mos. In other words I was trying to give him two units and to all intents and purposes showing that I wanted our alliance to continue. Now you might consider this optimistic but I was confident from our earlier working together it would work, I have been in that situation myself and whilst it is always tricky you are loath to give up such a good relationship. I apologise to Italy but I think this con was what won me the game. In the South I built up forces around Bul and waited for the Adjudication with not a small amount of apprehension that I had read Italy right!
The Autumn came in and as I expected the Italian had reacted by attacking Ven supported by F ADS and moving South from Sil to Boh whilst F ION went to Gre as I think he expected me to move a Ser-Gre which I hadn't. Now for the killer move when I had the units in position to take certainly one and possibly two Turkish dots as well as Ven back. the key however was would Italy fall for the con and move A Boh back to Sil. He did in a major league way, but as an added bonus he moved F ADS-ION so whilst the fight was now on his forces were so separated that he would never really recover, add to that the fact in this year I had reduced Turkey down to one I now had the numbers to deal with IRT especially as they had three fleets amongst their combined seven units. I would have liked some fleets but building them before this had been impossible. If I had I'm sure Italy would not have fallen for the trick, that said that is a lot of coastline to defend! Still I had 9 well positioned armies and a build in reserve so I was confident especially as the North seemed no clearer!
1908 dawned with me determined to get aggressive, I knew I had limited time before the North reacted to me so I had to make ground and fast. I ordered A Ven-Apu, A Tri-Ven, A Pie S A Tri-Ven, A Bud-Gal, A Vie S A Bud-Gal, A Sev stands and A Rum-Ser with A Bul-Gre & A Con-Smy. This would allow me to dominate in the Italian peninsula and a good chance of grabbing Gre with a developed position for the Russian front. A small problem was that Ally never got the damn things :-(( After a long chase I found that for some unknown reason they never left my ISP mail server. I was gutted although to be fair it is my fault as I should have realised that I never got a receipt and should have followed it up. Damn but it made life harder as I missed the opportunity to press my advantage. Italy retreated from Tus-Rom as expected but surprised me with F ION-AEG. A Sil- Boh however was no surprise. Russia I feel made his only real mistake here, he had the opportunity to signal Italy a willingness to work together and instead settled for yet another mutual support between War and Mos.
The Autumn came with me in a bad mood as I realised the Italian move to AEG was very smart as I now had to defend Bul and no real way to defend Con and what's more no real chance to grab another SC as I had to get in position having NMR'd the previous turn. As I suspected Turkey got Con and therefore a build in Smy. I could see this game slipping away from me because of that damned NMR!
Spring 1909 saw me quite desperate to repair the damage, I was confident Russia would self bounce in Ukr but with Gal and Sev supporting Rum still moved there easily which would guarantee me a Russian dot in the Autumn, this worked out exactly as I expected. In Turkey I was convinced he would come after Ank and I was right but managed to stall him although I didn't understand why F Con stands? The Italian though was the threat, I decide to self bounce Armies Ven and Vie in Tri whilst Tus went for Rom with support from Apu. The downside was that A Bul was exposed but I had to take a risk somewhere? As it turned out A Bul survived as Turkey didn't support the Italian fleet to Bul as expected and this was a missed opportunity on that front. Also whilst I got Rome Italy had been very clever and used Tyr to support Ven-Tri and then took Ven with A Rom. Good move, it caught me completely flat footed and worse left Tri exposed as well!
The Autumn left me with some stark choices again, The Russian front was the easiest as I tapped Mos with Sev and supported Ukr into War with Gal. I did it this way in case I needed to send Gal back into Austria to help with Italy! A Apu-Nap was also easy as it could not be blocked and I decided that in Turkey I would go for Con with Bul for two reasons, one I was sure Turkey would get greedy and attack Ank instead of supporting the Italian into Bul and two if either of Italy or Turkey were to get a build I would prefer Italy as I was more confident of blocking his ability to build a unit. The headache was what to do with Tri and the surrounding Italian forces? I reasoned that Italy would use A Tyr to tap Vie so the only reasonable defence was to return the favour and order Tri-Ven with support from Rom. This worked a treat so whilst I had lost Ank, Bul and Ven that year I had gained Rom, Nap, War and Con for a build which had to be A Bud. I felt a lot happier now especially as England NMR'd and dropped down to 6 with Germany climbing back to 7. There fight seemed a right see-saw battle that was just perfect from my point of view as none of them could afford to interfere with what was happening in the East. That is apart from England who in the spring had moved into WMS, I had hoped he would grab Tun but his NMR prevented that!
1910 came with me in good hopes of getting the upper hand, I decided to have War and Sev bounce in Ukr as I didn't want to force the Russian into Ukr and then be unable to defend Rum. Con and Arm combined to attack Smy. Armies Gal and Bud were sent to help by moving to Rum and Ser respectively. Whilst an all out attack on Ven from Tri was ordered with Nap to Apu to stop any messing around there with Vie tapping Tyr again. This was a great turn for me as it separated opponents out the Italian A Ven was forced back to Tus, Smy fell to me and Tyr took Tri but had no hope of holding it. To add insult to injury England woke up and relieved Italy of the need to govern Tun as well! I must admit I felt sorry for Italy, I expect he was hoping that the English fleet was going to come and help him instead given the ever intense battle in the North it really sealed the Italian fate and for the first time I started to confidently think about winning the game. The Autumn of 1910 saw me consolidate on the spring with the final removal of Russia which must be said was the first player to be eliminated and to be blunt I think he played a lot better then that statement deserves I also reduced Turkey to his remaining fleet and Italy decided to keep his two fleet which were currently in Alb and Gre. I had 13 centres and not enough home sc's as Tri was still Italian so still no fleets and at least another year before I got any! In the North they had evened out again with France regaining control of it's country and Germany invading Scotland.
1911 and I saw my time was now I retook Tri also assaulted Gre in the hope of being lucky which I was as the Italian F Greece moved to ION. My two armies in Turkey set up to retake Ank and with the exception of A Nap on defence the rest sprinted for the Northern borders allowing me Pie, Tyr, Boh and Lvn. England must like me because he had left StP the previous turn and had now guaranteed me possession of it. Autumn saw me eliminate my former ally Italy from the game, I must say that he was a great ally and a great opponent. he couldn't have done more to slow me down and he always picked the worst option from my point of view. Italy I salute you! The Turkish fleet I largely ignored, I had all his home SC's so all he could do was survive, I was really keeping him in my pocket until I needed that SC. Ally made the comment about whether I could sort him out but as I explained above I didn't have to! I realised that I was not going to build a fleet until next year so to get my 18 I would need Ber and Mun reasonably as Tun was beyond my reach so instead of assaulting Germany I serpentined my units from South to North. in preparation for the end game and then to my surprise both England and Germany NMR'd in Spring 1912. That sealed the game as I got into a position I knew I would win from, I just need three more turns to get there.
I am surprised looking back at how many NMR's there were throughout the game. Now I'm not being judgemental because one of them was mine and although it was a technical problem I should still have spotted it. That said I was disappointed England anarchied at the end of the game. I am really looking forward to seeing who my opponents were and I apologise for the length of this but as it's my first solo I hope you can forgive me :-)) I am also pleased to say that I felt I was up against good opposition here, certainly there were no weak players from what I can see and that will always make victory a little sweeter :-)))
My final thanks go to Ally Bain for an as ever excellent job of GM'ing, especially since he went through some really rough times during running this game including running the Dublin Marathon even though he was injured.
Thanks to you all and once again sorry to Italy :-))
Regards,
Andy ScottReturn to Top
GERMANY (Trygve Leivestad) I can't remember ever playing Germany before, so it was exiting to try a new country, even though Germany isn't the easiest country to play.
I decided to watch what was happening on the board before I decided where to move, but chose the offencive variant going for 3 centers. It gives you a good start, but I guess it'll easily make both England and France a bit worried. Anyway, I got my 3 builds, and chose to build two fleets. I can't really remember why, since France had moved to Bur in the spring, but any way I did it. When I saw that France NMR'ed fall 01, I decided to go for England. It was always a chance that France would go into anarchy, and thus England was pretty obvious.
Well, it looked like France decided to join England, and thus I had to hope for Russia. In addition I hoped that France would see that I was moving just against England, and didn't intend to be a threat to him.
Autumn 03 I made my first big mistake. I should have defended Den, but used all my units to try to force myself into NTH. I got in, but I lost Den and wouldn't be able to keep NTH. I decided to try to go around England, ECH-IRI-Lvp which worked except for the fact that when I was going to enter Lvp I NMR'ed. At the same time France took Bel and England managed to kick Russia out of Scandinavia. The future definitely didn't look bright, but what really annoyed me was my NMR.
Well, France seemed to be more dangerous to me than England at that moment, so I had to concentrate on defending, and got lucky. The French NMR in A06 allowed me into Bur, and a sure capture of Mar in 07. I got both that and Bel, but at the same time England had secured Scandinavia and was sailing south. I could choose between loosing Kie and Ber, and lost Kie.
Austria was doing too well for comfort, but I decided that just had to focus on keeping England out of my home centers.
Then I managed to NMR again, which cost me Ber. The only positive thing was that France supported my unit and by that told me that he considered England to be a bigger threat than me.
Then England and France NMR'ed, which allowed me to retake Kie in A08, and in A09 England NMR'ed again, and I was up on 7.
S10, and I was back into NTH. England had spread out to much, so I managed to sneak in when he had to defend Lon. In the fall I got Edi, and France decided to retake Mar, which I'd left open for him quite a while. I was just glad that he waited until I was able to get a little on top.
The situation looked more and more like I should send a unit south to make some trouble for Austria, but I just didn't feel like I had any to spare.
Then in A11 I had to decide what to defend. I considered the Austrian threat bigger than the English, but was mistaken and lost Bel.
Then I made my third NMR. It's just too embarrassing. Luckily England did as well, but I'd put myself in a position where I no longer could defend Mun, which I of course lost in the fall, when England went into anarchy. I supposed that Austria would try to pick an easy center in the north, and decided to regroup to be able to stop the Scandinavian progress. I got Swe, and were able to support Nwy in the fall, but of course Austria could just secure the final Turkish center, and there was nothing more to be done.
I guess, looking back I was more or less responsible for all my problems myself. Not defending Den in A02 was the first, and then my 3 NMRs.
I'm truly sorry and embarrassed about that. I checked my mail, and prior to game start I actually wrote the following to Ally : "I'll do my best in this game, but my main target is to ensure that if 6 out of 7 players NMR's during the game I'm the one who doesn't. If I'm able to win, draw or survive that's a bonus."
Well, I survived, but I failed, big time, on the NMR. The only explanation I can give is that I got involved in too many games, and started to mix up the deadlines. The easy way to solve this is of course to enter a set of preliminaries immediately, but I had to think it over first, and then suddenly I'd forgotten it. The worst thing is that I didn't learn the first time.
Well, thanks to everybody for an interesting game, and especially thanks to Ally, who did a great job GM'ing it. He definitely got more NMRs than he deserved.
Finally, congratulations to Austria.
Regards
TrygveReturn to Top
ITALY (Greg Pierce) First off a bit thanks to Ally for a fairly smooth game. One small hiccup with my orders in one season, but it all worked out... : )
Well, this game started out quite nicely for me. I offered support to Austria and we quickly started to move east. Unfortunately, a couple of missteps and Austria ends up losing their fleet and Turkey has us out matched.
Eventually, Turkey sneaks past our net and ends up in Venice. Austria takes it back from Turkey (I'm assuming for me to take back), but I think that was the beginning of the end for our nice little arrangement. Austria allowed me to take Venice back, but another season of stumbling, and Austria decided that it would be best if he had what I had! ; )
I spent the rest of my life in this game trying to prolong Austria's irritation with me while the west organized and came to my rescue... Unfortunately, England had other ideas and took Tunis from me. That was my doom, as I was not able to keep that one fleet to pester Austria. England followed this up with Anarchy (such a shame!) and the Austrian solo was pretty much sealed!
Anyway, it was a fun game and hopefully I can manage a better showing in my next outing (I'm in a bit of a slump lately... : ( ; )
Later,
Greg.Return to Top
RUSSIA (Meru Bhanot) This game started out quite well for me, because I was able to pick up two builds the first season and looked fairly strong for a small portion of the game. My attack stalled fairly early, however, because of a very strong English fleet attack in the north that not only took many troops to delay but which also left me vulnerable in the south. I was never able to reconcile my differences with Austria, but was glad to find a good ally in Turkey. Had he been against me, the game would have been much more difficult. Congratulations to Austria on an amazing victory. All I can say is "I'm glad he's the one who conquered the motherland, so at least my people can be proud that they fell to a formidable foe!" Thank you to all the rest of you for making the game interesting, and thanks to Ally, as always, for GMing!
MeruReturn to Top
TURKEY (Simon Berry) Hi Ally
It's a bit short, but after 1905 there really was not much to comment on.
Thanks for running the game.
Cheers
Simon
EGS for Emperor Tetra Turkey
I started the game with the intention of avoiding conflict with Russia. Unfortunately, Russia had other ideas and 1901S saw Russia occupy BLA. Things improved in 1902 and I temporarily held Gre and Ser. This was to be the high water mark for the Turkish empire. 1903 saw no progress being made. In contrast Austria had focused his efforts on Russia and made enough progress to extablish what would ultimately prove to be a winning platform. 1904 saw Italy deprive me of Gre and I only held on to Ser by luck.
At the start of 1905, with Austrian forces now outnumbering me in the Balkans my choice was to either defend and hope that someone would attack Austria from another front or throw caution to the wind and gamble on out guessing both Austria and Italy. Looking across the board, I saw little prospect of anyone attacking Austria in the near future. Italy was in no better position than I was (and was co-operating with Austria). None of the western trio were likely to be able to launch an attack on Austria and Russia was back to his original 4 home SCs and under pressure. I decided to gamble and did so badly. Sure, I managed to hold Bul and gained Ven but there was no prospect of holding either of them. I also managed to let an Austria unit onto Turkish home soil. There would be no recovery from this position.
The rest of the game was essentially a matter of waiting for Austria to reach the necessary 18SCs for victory.
Many apologies for the NMR in the final season.
Congratulations to Austria for a well deserved victory. Lastly, many thanks to Ally for running the game.
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GM (Ally Bain) I guess many players know that in Gunboat games, Austria-Hungary has my soft spot. The reason is fairly obvious & can be seen in the Stats I produce (details shown below) but to those that don't know, even though Austria-Hungary isn't the worse country for winning games, it's top of the tables for being eliminated. When playing Austria-Hungary, I managed to get a two-way draw & that to me was one of the more pleasurable outcomes I've had in all forms of Diplomacy. Andy, being Austria-Hungary & winning a Gunboat game MUST & WILL be the best effort you'll ever do, other than doing it again...mind you, do that again & NMR twice would be good. :-)
A couple of comments about things written by some.
Andy, no it wasn't JW but was another GM. :-)
Trygve, I'm not too sure that Germany is a hard country to play. If you go to the 'Admiral' games that are currently being played, Germany is doing very well, http://mysite.orange.co.uk/alb_gsb/diplomacy/games/games.htm. As for 3SC in A01, more often than not, E/F will be against you.
Greg, yep, one hiccup caused by me & together with what Andy said (about his NMRd), ALL players MUST keep check of the confirmation e-mails from their GMs. If you don't get it, re-send & Cc another GM. If, like Greg, you know the GM cocked-up, send his confirmation e-mail. Needless to say, don't delete his confirmation e-mail.
Simon, I just has to add the wee line you gave me, which had the EGS below. :-)
Yes, the game did have a few NMRs & sadly an Anarchy. I was very surprised that John did go into Anarchy & even more surprised I didn't get a reason from him. As 'no reason', I grey-listed him.
As for GMing on Dip2000, I'm not going to for quite a while as currently I'm GMing 16 games (15 once I've e-mailed you players that the EGS are shown) & only four of them aren't one-week Deadlines.
As for the Stats I do, this game has been added & can be found by using; http://mysite.orange.co.uk/alb_gsb/diplomacy/stats/gunboatendings.htm.
Take care,
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