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FLYING FOX END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Ally Bain [EGS]
Started: 15th February 2006
Finished: 13th September 2006
Result: Austria, Germany & Italy three-way draw
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | Result | | Austria | James Pawley | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 12 | Drawn | | England | Felix Kamchung | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | France | Steve Hanich | 5 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | Germany | Yousuf Shaikh | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 7 | Drawn | | Italy | Ryan Kenny | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 15 | Drawn | | Russia | Gavin Nochomovitz | 6 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | Turkey | Ken Boucher | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated |
AUSTRIA (James Pawley) I decided to go with a variant on a classic AH Opening, attacking the Balkans. The only real bad news would be if either Germany or both Italy & Russia attacked. Italy and Russia naturally both attacked. I was on the defensive very quickly with two home bases threatened in the first year. Turkey NMRing gave me some hope, as is too often the case with AH, a war on 3 fronts may well have meant an early exit. My hopes for relief from the French were soon dashed as they became bogged down in the lowlands.
Italy turning into a real ally was the turning point in my game, leaving me free to exploit Russia’s inevitable collapse notwithstanding an extremely embarrassing mis-order that delayed my advance! Steady progress through the middle was slowing down so I quickly redirected the attack into Germany who was being stalled on the western front. This move was fairly decisive and saw me take Munich fairly rapidly, followed by Berlin and Kiel in turn.
My fronts were then effectively stalemated with Germany. My only hopes for advancement came from Italian fleet support – unfortunately Germany put up a pretty efficient naval defence. I had been concerned for a while that Italy might be tempted to go for a solo win as my advance was stagnant and he was steadily gaining supply centres. I believed at this point that a three way draw or a solo Italian win is inevitable. I agreed the 3-way and sent some fleets to snatch a base or two from Italy and establish a defence against “reprisals” that prevented the solo. As it happened Italy also agreed the 3-way and I avoided coming to ‘blows’ with an extremely long-serving and effective ally.
Kind Regards,
JamesReturn to Top
ENGLAND (Felix Kamchung) First!
Thanks to Ally for Gming a tight ship! As this was my first game in the forum, I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it as much as I did. Suffice to say, I started the game with the intention of hitting Russia...hoping to my dismay that france would see my strategy and move accordingly against germany....well low and behold he did not and i suffered dearly for that....somewhere in the first season, i failed to submit my builds with a retreat or with fall, and that made me die even sooner!!
About mid game I ended up getting an odd break where france made some strategic flaws and i ended up in the Iberian Peninsula...that was fun...but short lived as i started to loose SC left and right.
Overall, I was completely disappointed at my play and thought I could repeat my historic win as England in a gunboat several months ago...sigh...guess i'll have to try again!
Hope to see you all in the future and if you all know of any other games I'll be happy to join!
FReturn to Top
FRANCE (Steve Hanich) Flying Fox was my first game of Diplomacy via email and I found it quite interesting and a lot of fun. Firstly a big thanks to Ally Bain who was our GM. He did a great job guiding me through my first game and answering queries I had along the way. The game was run very professionally. Deadlines, moves and procedures were all clearly articulated so I always knew exactly what was required.
This was my first Gunboat game ever and it took a while to get used to not communicating with the other players in the usual sense. I did start to realise that communication was possible through certain moves, but probably did not appreciate this enough. I look forward to playing Gunboat again and applying some of the techniques (tricks) I learnt in this game.
As for the game itself, I found it quite frustrating. Being France, I was mainly concerned with England and Germany at the start. I tried to play a very conservative game (as this was my first) and not make too many enemies, but I don't think the strategy worked as I was unable to get friendly with either England or Germany.
England played a very confusing game for me as they moved East to attack Russia and were doing reasonably well only to vacate their supply centres and head West leaving them vacant for Germany to simply step into. They even ended up leaving their own English supply centres vacant as they attacked Spain and Portugal (two of my supply centres). I still cannot fathom what their strategy was.
Germany, I also found difficult to play against. I tried a couple of times to form an alliance with them, but either I was not communicating it to Germany or they weren't interested (even later in the game when the Austria/Italy alliance were in a strong position after mopping up both Turkey and Russia). I thought Germany played a good game and was very solid in its defence. Clearly Germany was a clever, experienced player as they made some very good moves. But given this, I don't understand why it tried to go it alone when it must have seen that the Austria/Italy alliance was too strong to be defeated by any one nation. Either Germany must have thought that they could win on their own or were happy playing for a three-way-draw (which they got).
In the end I was eliminated 4th, after Turkey, Russia and England, feeling that I never really got into the game.
Kind regards
Stephen HanichReturn to Top
GERMANY (Yousuf Shaikh) Well, this really was an action packed game for me. It commenced with a swash-buckling start but then turned into a desperate defence as I fought a persistent Austro-Italian pincer to a standstill and a draw. However, don't be fooled into thinking this was just a 3 player game; every country's moves had a real effect on Germany's fate.
By mid-game when it was obvious that there was a rock-solid alliance between Austria and Italy and they were trying for a 2 way draw, every single move of mine was a race against time as I tried to engineer an orderly retreat and defence. My basic strategy was to get Italy so tantilisingly close to a Solo that Austria and Italy would turn against each other and either that would give me a chance to recover or leave no option but a 3 way draw. It ended in a 3 way draw ..... but only just.
Germany-Austria
Up until 1905, Austria was of little immediate interest to me. Squabbling in the Balkans was fine by me, but hey, an Austrian Unit in Warsaw was another matter. Austria gradually expanded and cemented a rock steady alliance with Italy (curses). By mid-game the dastardly Austrians were yomping north through Russia, threatening to sweep into Scandinavia and wipe me off the board. I only just managed to get a defence in place in StP stopping the advance in its tracks. The hand-to-hand fighting however carried on on German soil and I was forced to evacuate from Mun, Ber and then Kie, leaving me with a defensive wall at Den. By this time I was an exile, but in full control of England. Without a navy, Austria could not get past Den or StP. Unfortunately Austria worked that out as well and with the connivance of Italy managed to get a fleet to NAO. It gave my admirals great pleasure to have sunk the Austrian fleet with NRP in the North Atlantic.
Germany-Russia
I think Russia was a bit unfortunate with its initial strategy and being set upon by all your neighbours (Austria, Turkey, England and umm... Germany ... well taking Sweden was really an act of liberation) must have been disheartening. In the final throes of existence, when any good Russian would have been causing maximum disruption to it's enemies, I was dismayed to see the Russian Units being ordered to 'Stand' against Austria and Italy. Those one or two turns of extra combat in the East was what I desperately needed to delay the inevitable Austrian march North. So no medals for valour from me for the lazy Czar.
Germany-France
France ... my arch -enemy. Well what do you expect if someone conquers your conquest (i.e. Belgium). Needless to say, I wrested it back and then proceeded to gain the French conquests in England. We really should have patched up our differences when Italy attacked France but by then I think we were too far set in our ways. A pity really as I'm sure that we could have held back the Austro-Italian advance. A poor reflection on me as much as on anyone else. Just as with Italy and Austria, it gave me great pleasure to scuttle the last French fleet, in Liverpool.
Germany-England
I supported England initially but was sorry to have to act against England when I did. Being a gunboat game you make assumptions, and maybe I made the wrong assumptions. England had an adventurous opening against Russia, a couple of questionable moves but Bravo nevertheless. Later on, even though I had just about subjugated the British Isles (taking over from France), England kept a fleet at play in the South thus stretching French forces. It was a strategy that nearly worked and had I the opportunity, I would in return have helped England survive. A marked difference in approach to Russia and Turkey.
Germany-Turkey
Turkey was a bit like Russia, the Units being ordered to 'Stand' in the latter stages as well as an NMR. This was a big disappointment to me and it allowed Austria and Italy to shorten their campaign in the East and start their assault in the North and West.
Germany-Italy
Italy came so very close to a Solo. After some initial muddles with Austria, she overran Turkey and headed West. France fell before her. The main threat for Germany were the Italian fleets..... how soon would it be before they sailed into the Atlantic waters. Italy was smart, she knew that was also critical and the armadas were never ending (8 Italian fleets by game end all heading to the West). However Italy just failed to gain the extra advantage ..... though it was a close run thing. Sinking the Italian flagship on the Clyde was a great morale booster for the German sailors and maybe just saved the day.
Finally:
My thanks to my worthy opponents, whose identity I have yet to discover. Last but by no means least, my thanks also to Ally for acting as the GM and for the smooth running of the game.
YousufReturn to Top
ITALY (Ryan Kenny) Before I give my perspectives on the game I just wanted to thank Ally Bain for an extremely well-run game. It lasted until A1912 so there was a lot of hard work put into the game by Ally and I want to thank him for that.
I feel I owe an apology to the Austrian player too. My moves at the beginning of the game left a lot to be desired and I don't know whether he knew if I was coming or going. Still, we managed to string together a good alliance which lasted to the end (ish).
After I took Greece in 02 I felt I needed a friend on the mainland otherwise I would be caught on the wrong end of a 2v1. I didn't like the idea of an alliance with Turkey, because we both have a mutual interest in naval power, and whilst in normal Diplomacy it would be possible for such an alliance, I didn't think so in Gunboat.
As it turned out, myself and Austria put together a very strong alliance and I want to congratulate the Austrian player for that. After effectively dispatching the Turk I mounted a western offensive in A06 while Austria concentrated on maximising his gains from Russia and Germany continued to make gains in the west.
I took Spain and Marseilles without any major problems and felt I had a secure base in the west. This is where the temptation to stab Austria came in. A08 could have seen me take Bul, Tri and Ser, giving me three builds and Austria a couple of disbands. I deliberated for hours over this decision but finally came to the conclusion it was not a solo-winning stab, and might only succeed in uniting the board against me.
I committed myself to the alliance with Austria and we proceeded to roll on through the rest of Europe's mainland. Germany made a very good tactical retreat and thus we were in a position where Austria couldn't grow without stabbing me, and I didn't have the resources to break the German fleet defence. Therefore it was inevitable that Austria would move to take my Turkish gains in the penultimate turn.
I would like to feel that I did well for Italy, and would also like to give my thanks to everyone who played, especially to Austria for a strong alliance, to Germany for a well-worked defence and to Ally again for taking the time to run the game with the precision he did.
Regards
Ryan KennyReturn to Top
GM (Ally Bain) Thank you for thanking me as that was pleasant reading them. :-)
I've GMd a good number of games, 81 currently, & some of them have been good games & some were total crap. This game was a very good game!
You should know that I GM more Gunboat games than others & that I organised ‘Admiral’ Gunboat Competition. The Waiting List for ‘Admiral’ III will start in the New Year & you will be told about it. To read more about ‘Admiral’, the Web site’s address is;
http://mysite.orange.co.uk/alb_gsb/diplomacy/admiral/admiral.htm
Going back to this game, the results have been added to the Stats I write. The Web address is;
http://mysite.orange.co.uk/alb_gsb/diplomacy/stats/normalendings.htm
Soon you’ll get another e-mail from me about Dublin Marathon but as for this game, good game & I’ll see you on the boards.
Ally
PS, if you wish to be upgraded, let me know.Return to Top
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