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EARTH END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Andy Scott [EGS]
Started: 16th February, 2003
Finished: 21st November, 2003 (Autumn 1920)
Result: solo win for France
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | Result | | Austria | Alexandres Santos | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated (A07) | | England | Jos Van Acker | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated (A13) | | France | Thomas Frommelt | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 11 | 15 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 17 | 18 | WON | | Germany | Matthew Varsava | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Anarchy (S08) | | Italy | Conor Kositch | 3 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Anarchy (S10) | | Russia | Chris Goddard | 5 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 5 | survived | | Turkey | John Worrell | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 11 | survived |
AUSTRIA (Alexandres Santos) Congrats to France! This one went for an awfully long time. So long ago was I eliminated that barely remember how it happened. Ah well, the perils of playing Austria in a gunboat game. Always fun to see who's who, and a pleasure as always.
Cheers Alex
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RUSSIA (Chris Goddard) Wow; even after 19 years of relentless battle, it's sad to see such a fun game come to a wrap with the same old gunboat result: a French Solo. Now that's nothing to take away from the French player, because he was obviously a very skilled one; but I think just because of the way the board works, and the ineptitude of Turkey ( I will get into this later...), his fate was sealed, long before the officail victory which didn't take place until A1919.
But this was not one of those games that spends 5-10 years for people to outmuscle one another, and then spends a good 5-10 with every power but one trying with all their might just to survive and prevent a solo. Earth was a great game, because at one point or another; I feel almost all of us had a good shot at a solo (of course discluding Austria; however from what I can remember he was also a formidable player without much luck).
Early on, Germany emerged as the power of the continent. When this took place, I'd already taken Vie and Bud from Austria, and I hoped that I'd be able to keep Turkey and Italy at bay while I threw everything I had against Germany, in one of the funnest battles I'd ever been a part of. But just as I was tightening the noose on Germany, my southern flank collapsed, with an Italian, then Turkish invasion. Just as it seemed I was doomed, Germany went into anarchy (1 of 2 that would really help me in the game).
But I could not stop the relentless Italian invasion. After years of my over-guessing the Italian player, he finally stole from me Warsaw, and with an anarchist German fleet in StP and Turkey in Sev, it looked like the end. But for a reason that I will never understand, that season when I forced myself into Warsaw, Italy chose not to flee to a wide-open Moscow. This was the beginning of my comeback.
By this point, Germany and Italy had had equally good chances with running away with the game, but both went into anarchy. Now it was England's turn for dominance: Germany's anarchy helped England much more than France, and England as a result grew very large, at which point I needed to head north once again. This was another very exciting battle, with each of us jockeying for position in Scandinavia, however the combined forces of France and I out-worked him, and I believe Andy put it best in saying "he opened up like a tin can". Maybe was going to lose internet access and was afraid of going into anarchy, but this little stunt of his had huge significance. Sure, it helped me in that the Baltic Sea area, but Turkey was finally waking up as a manner of speaking, and taking the offensive in the south. And given his manpower at the time after Italy's anarchy, he had very poor results.
But why was England's sort-of anarchy so huge? Well, in just 1 season, France absolutely devoured the entire English homeland, and thrust him way ahead of Turkey and I for tops among the powers. So despite years of dragging France out of the dirt, he was finally back, and with no choice but to make agressions towards me. Luckily, Turkey eventually caught on to the fact that France was nearing a solo, so he stopped the agressions, and headed for Italy; tripping over his own shoelaces a few times in the process. Another key factor was that he failed to de- militarize Sev, so my valuable army had the task of defending Moscow instead of being used against France.
The following set of years were the ones in which the tempo of the game really slowed down, and not much moved during that time. I managed to convoy to Belgium in S1914, however I used it to take Hol, rather than sneak it into Pic behind French lines. Once I pushed into Ruhr the following year, I had the final chance to pierce the French defenses and take Burgundy - however the turning point never came because that same year, France was able to place in Paris because of Turkey's incompetence in the south. The tide of the war turned.
I realized shortly after that my one chance was with my fleets - I had two in the north, that would be able to swing around French-occupied England, and maybe start a front on the English mainland. This last ditch-attempt started well when in that I'd be gaining one in Lvp, and it appeared that finally I would be able to finally be able to drink from the cup of power, except GOOD OLD TURKEY CHOSE THAT EXACT SEASON TO INVADE ME. That move to Ukraine, after so many years of faithful cooperation and increased pressure on France, without any doubt handed the win to France on a silver platter. And that was that. When he invaded me way earlier in the game and took Sev because he was bored, that was justified. But he waited until the absolute worst time, then told himself "I'm bored. I should attack Russia" After all, what had I done for him recently!!!
Anyway, I could go on and on, but I'll leave it there. Obviously in the next few turns, France decimated my forces one by one, helped by a couple of botched disband orders in Austria. By the end, because I knew I'd survive, my objective was to end with the wackiest depots possible. After all, I didn't want such a previously exciting game to end on a sour note. So how's this; I ended with: Bre, Por, Bud, Rum, and my one home depot; StP. If I had taken Swe in the last year I would have pushed the game to a 1920 decision, but there was no stopping France at that point.
Many thanks to Andy Scott for being an awesome GM, and staying devoted to the game till the bitter end. And of course way to go France for a well-earned victory. Hope to see almost all of you in another game.
ChrisReturn to Top
GM (Andy Scott) This was by far the longest running game I've ever GM in terms of date it reached, and I freely admit that at times it was a bit of a strain!
Two Anarchy's does not normally recommend a game and England's sudden decision to abdicate and hand everything over to France was also strange, Don't get me wrong England had his reasons and it was far better then going into Anarchy but it did rather hand the solo to Thomas on a plate! That said their alliance was rock solid up until that point and I don't think it would have broken down but there's a big difference between a 2 way draw and a solo.
Both John Worrell and Chris Goddard merit special thanks for the way they stuck to their thankless task of trying to resist the French onslaught but in the end the French simply overan them through superior numbers. I must say that I'm very disappointed with the number of you that didn't send in an EGS, especially the winner! If you read this and want to send me one then I will add it to the rest.
AndyReturn to Top
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