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SIAMESE FIGHTING FISH END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Ally Bain [EGS]
Started: 7th October 2002
Finished: 10th June 2003 (Autumn 1907)
Result: Germany won!
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | Result | | Austria | James Kinman | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 1 | Survived | | England | Helmut Strauss | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | France | Matthew Cullen | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 2 | Survived | | Germany | Pieter De Wilde | 5 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 20 | Won | | Italy | Matt Macdougall | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Survived | | Russia | Sven Kalbitzer | 5 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated | | Turkey | Ted Shannon | 4 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 10 | Survived |
FRANCE (Matthew Cullen) Well, the game began as all games begin with much bowing, greeting and general chit chat about mutual respect. I think I spoke to most people in that opening move and the announcement from England that he and Italy knew each other set alarm bells ringing. From that moment I stepped up efforts to court Germany and Austria into an alliance which worked well to begin with. So the first move came and went and suddenly, surprise surprise I find myself with England and Italy knocking at the door. Austria thankfully came to the rescue by distracting Italy and left me to concentrate on convincing Germany we had to get rid of England.
After a harsh outburst from Ally about being boring in Autumn 1902 Germany and I had neutralised the English to a couple of units, but Germany had come out of the fray with most of the SCs.
Whilst trying to mop up England I then turned to helping my Austrian collegue (after all I owed him one). He was really under the cosh with Turkey and Russia beating up on him whilst he tried to take out the Italian. After surviving the school boy error of forgeting to build in Autumn 1903 I had high hopes about this game. Sure Germany was ahead by a couple of SCs but we had a good understanding. We talked lots and shared ideas and everything looked good. Then came the mistakes. Convoying both my available armies into England and heading south with the other units left a huge gap which must have been just too good for Germany to pass up. If I had finished England more quickly and if Italy hadn't guessed very well I might have got back intime, but by Autumn 1905 it was all over.
Germany rampaged into Burgundy, cut any chance of getting my English troops back and cleared me out. I tried one futile attempt to convince everyone we should get together to get rid of him but there was a mole in the grass and Germany got wind. At least Germany honoured their last promise to me.
Many thanks to Ally for running a tight ship and many congrats to Pieter. A good game by all I feel.
Matt the vanquishedReturn to Top
GERMANY (Pieter De Wilde) I played Germany in this game. A country with high potential but also in danger of being attacked from multiple sides. The last thing never happened to me in this game which is why I won. In fact nobody attacked me. They only defended after I attacked them. Winning a game in which you are not attacked is easy as long as the others don't unite to force a draw. They didn't.
Naturally, the first thing I did was ally with Austria and agree to the natural dmz. He didn't ask me to threaten Russia, so I didn't. Russia was willing to agree to a dmz as well so I could focus all efforts west.
My first goal was to attack France together with England and Italy. The thing I feared most was a strong France that would seek it's natural alliance with Russia. Whenever that happens, Germany is doomed. I managed to convince England and Italy to join me. I was even able to have them attack France without commiting myself. So, with one neighbour left who wasn't openly hostile, France sought an alliance with me. It was around this time that I learned that England and Italy were close personal friends in real life. I figured that after France was dead they would come for me together instead of attacking each other for the control of Iberia as I figured they would before.
Time for a new strategy. I took France's offer, he seemed genuine, and created an opening in Englands defenses. I lobbied Russia's support in the north to create a staggering fast Blitz against England. We had him defeated in one year. After that, we only had to mop up the remnants. This still left me in danger of being attacked by both France and Russia. Also, it was clear that Austria and France had an alliance. I didn't want to face them both, so I joined them in our own proclamed "Central Alliance". I took a guess, trusted France and attacked Russia. Luckely for me this happened at the time Russia stabbed Austria so I could fully pose it as an act of friendship towards Austria. France proved faithfull and I could send all my forces east. Russia must have begged France to attack me, but it obviously proved futile. I think many other players would have attack me, but Matt was a real ally.
Meanwhile Austria was kept busy by Turkey. This meant I could conquer Russia without having to share it with anybody. Now I had created a safe defendable corner position. I waited for the rest to start fearing me and attack me, but nobody did. Now I was thinking about going for the solo. I could do this by rolling south east with France, or by stabbing France. Except for Russia and England, the others were still in the game. I figured I had the most chance of winning if I managed to keep both Austria and Italy alive. Once the game is down to three players it becomes very hard to win.
I thus kept my alliance with Austria, stalled a bit, and then attacked Turkey. Meanwhile I unleased my forces against France who NMR'd twice (without going into anarchy). This allowed me to roll rather quickly and without any real opposition towards a grand victory with 20 supply centres. Because of the lack of coordinated opposition, the game didn't last very long compaired to most games that end in a Win for one player.
All in all, I attacked the most talkative players. They are the ones most likely to organise an alliance against you. I think the most talkative players are the most dangerous on average. That meant first England and then Russia.
I thank all players and the GM for making this a very fun game! Better luck to you all in other games. You now know what to do if you ever face me again in a game...
Regards,
PieterReturn to Top
TURKEY (Ted Shannon) It certainly was an enjoyable game. Thank-you all. I do have a couple of observation, comments etc. At the start of the game I proposed a Russian-Turkish alliance that I think would have been very successful. I guess my powers of persuasion were not good enough. It turns out that Austria and Russia had ganged up on me. I really thought my time in the game would be very short after the first few moves. At that point my goal for the game became - out last the Austrians and the Russians. Sven and I finally got together and started to pick apart Austria (James got too big too fast and I think Sven was getting worried). Pieter made a good move in attacking Russia when he did and I felt compelled to join in after Sven forgot to put in a retreat order and lost a key army when it had to retreat from Ser. Sorry Sven, I think we could have done well if we had worked together from the start.
Matthew made a last ditch effort to build an any one but Germany alliance after he was stabbed. I was ready to go along with it but no one (James I think) could trust me. Oh well no hard feelings.
Once again thanks to all for helping pass the time through what turned out to be one our longest winters on record. 6+ months of snow. I'll take a short break from Diplomacy to enjoy our too short summer, relaxing on the beach, playing golf (too bad I have to work for a living). I'll sign up for another game (maybe two) come September. Perhaps we'll meet again.
Ted Shannon
PS: Thanks Ally for the good job as GM. Your order confirmations and adjudications were always prompt even when I disagreed with them.Return to Top
GM (Ally Bain) I like reading EGS & certain comments said by you were interesting. One thing was very interesting & it was Pieter's comments about those he wanted to attack. I've never read that before & having done so, thanks for writing it.
From a neutral, I think the game was good & I enjoyed GMing it. To Germany, well done & to you all, you were part of it so equally well done.
I hope to see you on the boards soon.
AllyReturn to Top
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