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GOLDEN CICHLID END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Ally Bain [EGS]
Started: 5th October 2002
Finished: 14th July 2003 (Spring 1906)
Result: France won!
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | Result | | Austria | Michael van Wynsberg | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | Survived | | England | Brett Ulrich | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | Anarchy | | France | Patrick Horne | 4 | 7 | 9 | 12 | 12 | Won | | Germany | Takaki Chiuchi | 6 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Anarchy | | Italy | Peter Kirkey | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Anarchy | | Russia | Matthew Schmitz | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | Survived | | Turkey | Thomas Schindler | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | Survived |
AUSTRIA (Michael van Wynsberg) Not sure what to say. How about "It would have been nice if everyone had stayed in the game. I would have also liked to work with Russia and done what could be done against France, but it really wasn't possible with Turkey at my back. Austro-Russo-Turkish allience. Ha!"
Michael Van Wynsberg, AustriaReturn to Top
FRANCE (Patrick Horne) France EGS
What can I say? This is a victory I won't brag about because I don't feel I truly earned it. Every single single empire that bordered me went AWOL. Every one. The person who can't win when that happens has big problems.
My original plan was to take England out. I've played too many games as France where England suddenly comes raving out of the North like a horde of Blue-faced Vikings. I enlisted the support of Germany...but I was a little nervous because I could tell language was going to be a problem. With that taken care of, all I needed was Italy to lay off...but I heard nothing from that guy. At first I thought it was because he was going to come after me...only later did I determine that he just didn't care.
My initial communiques with England were cordial and it's lucky they were! When Spring 02 rolled around and Germany and Italy had fallen off the face of the erath, I did a complete about face. I promised a non-agression pact with Britain in order to snap up the centers of the abandoned nations. From that point on I slowly but surely began taking the centers that traditionally belong to Italy as well as Munich. I let Britain have the Bel-Hol nations thinking that I could stab him later if necessary. But my primary goal was to seal the Med before Austria and Russia could finish destroying Turkey. I seriously thought that Turkey was doomed. A-R had more units and a perfect opportunity to crack the Turkish nut. I was spriniting to set up stalemate lines in the Med when the unexpected happened....
...Russia and Austria flubbed a turn where they didn't coordinate their attacks, then they started fighting each other! From that point on it was pretty much academic. I kept building fleets despite Britain's protests. When I put fleets in the MAO, Irish Sea and English Channel, he went AWOL too.
Russia was my best friend during the game though he probably didn't know it. He fought with every other power on the board except me in the early years and kept attention focused east. My chief fear was that when Germany went AWOL, he would make peace with Austria and Turkey and beat me to the wide-open German centers.
Austria was the best diplomat of any of the players this game. I kept my army in Piedmont for pretty much the entire game to prevent any sort of Austrian end-run around the Alps. My fleet's support of the Turks into Greece and then the Austrians back into it was done out of sheer boredom; but if I hadn't received such a prompt and intelligent letter from Austria...I would still have backed Turkey.
Turkey deserves a nod for hanging on. Russia and Austria couldn't destroy him but they never gave him any room to DO anything either. I feel for Turkey...that would have been an agonizing six months.
I hope to see all eligible members in another game soon....one where I can show you all what a crummy player I really am.Return to Top
RUSSIA (Matthew Schmitz) Russia’s Ramblings
This was a good game up until the entire western half of Europe, France excluded, NMR’d. Not to take away from France’s win, he did have England and Germany on the ropes anyway.
Well since Patrick (France) was brought up I’ll start with him. Patrick, in the spirit of Diplomacy I never trusted you from the get go and I have a good feeling you knew this. I started the game trying to get Brett (England) and Takai, that’s probably spelled wrong my apologies, (Germany) to take you out. Again I bet you knew that too. The two of them just would not put aside their differences to whap you. Even to the mid/end game when you said after your mistaken e-mail, don’t know if that was genuinely sent incorrectly or trying to make me second guess my orders, that you wouldn’t attack me I knew it was bogus. I enjoyed it all immensely.
Continuing in the west… England and Germany!!! Talk about giving me fits. England I trusted that he would leave Scandinavia. After seeing him sit in Sweden for two seasons my replies to him were a bit agitated. When He NMR’d it sealed the fate of the game. I would like to know what honey Patrick was pouring into his ear to get him to dance the way he did. Bravo to you sir!
Takai (Germany) was very cordial and helpful, but talk about the major brain farts about not building. It was a shame to see him NMR.
Italy, I don’t remember who played or what my conversations with him were like. He NMR’d so quickly that he has faded into oblivion.
Now to my area of the board… As Russia I never trust Turkey. The start of this game seemed well founded when in the first bit of correspondence Thomas declared war on me. Couldn’t figure out why, although he was very polite about it. As such I turned the way I was going to anyway and allied with Van (Austria). For several turns Van, Thomas, and I danced around with both Thomas and I trying to crack the Turkish nut. When Germany and Italy NMR’d I made the switch to ally with Thomas for the reason that Van, who seemed to be on good terms with France, had no one knocking on his back door to put any pressure on him. I soon learned that Van was a much better tactician than I was. Coupled with the fact that Thomas, a great guy don’t get me wrong, continually forgot to order builds and retreats!!! Had my tactics been better and Thomas remembered that stuff I know we would still be playing the game trying to stop a runaway Frenchman. But life is full of “What ifs…”
In all this was a wonderful game GM’d by a great GM, Ally. I have the pleasure of being in another one of his games again. The only sad part was all of the NMRs. Those killed the game. I hope to see Thomas, Van, and Patrick around in the games soon.
Regards,
MattReturn to Top
TURKEY (Thomas Schindler) EGS Turkey: I'm a second time Diplomacy player and therefore thought choosing Turkey would be a good idea, because of the safe corner position, and because in my first game (alos playing Turkey), i did quite well (because of a weak Austria) until we broke the game up in 1905. Now i know better. But playing Turkey was not the most annoying part of the game. England, Italy and Germany dropped out of the game quite early so that France had a free run. Additionally Austria did not want to ally with Russia and me against France to stop him, but rather went for a second place and fought against us with the help of France. Therefore the game was quite boring. I don't like playing for second place, because i think it spoils the game, and i severly question the rankings on this site, where second places and so on are also awarded with points, and not one winner, others loosers. Well anyway, since in Diplomacy everything is allowed, I think I have to deal with this. Other thing worth mentioning is that i came up with the brilliant plan to declare open war against Russia before the game started in the hope that austria follows me, with the result that Russia opened anti-Turkish and Austria joined him. ;) Greetings TomReturn to Top
GM (Ally Bain) Let's face it, who likes so many anarchies? Not me as I can't stand one unless there is a very good reason.
Either way to the four who continued, see you on the board & thanks for playing.
AllyReturn to Top
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