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GOBLIN_HEWER END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Andy Scott [EGS]
Started: 13th June, 2006
Finished: 31st October, 2006 (Autumn 1908)
Result: Solo win for Turkey
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | Result | | Austria | Greg Pierce | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated (A03) | | England | Scotty Dickey - Anarchy | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Anarchy | | France | Cory Caouette | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 9 | 11 | Survived | | Germany | Luke Watson | 5 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Survived | | Italy | Mike Peck | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 0 | Eliminated (A08) | | Russia | Tim Lomas | 5 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Survived | | Turkey | Gary Rolfe | 5 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 16 | 18 | WON |
AUSTRIA (Greg Pierce) Well, this was the typical Austrian Implosion that happens in most Gunboat games. I tried to get Turkey to fight with Russia, but they decided to work together. This, coupled with Italian movement east, spelled disaster... Ah well, there's always the next game! ; )
Later,
Greg.
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FRANCE (Cory Caouette) With apologies for not being able to complete the EGS to the extent I would hope, I congratulate Turkey on a force majeur win, pushing through the Balkans with reckless abandon and making up ground at a rate rarely seen in Gunboat games. To Germany, I think you could have been a real force had you not taken the odd turn off. For England, remember to get a purpose in the game and stick to it or you'll suffer from eternal whiplash. Austria -- no thanks for making this a six power game. Russia -- the Motherland is tough to defend in the best of circumstances, but with an Austria rolling over like a submissive puppy, you truly were at sixes and sevens. Italy -- I respect the attempt at greatness, but sadly your overcommitment handed the victory to the Sultan. To that you might say that I am no better off in the end than you. In my very best French I say "touche." It was fun, lads, see you next time.
Cory C. CaouetteReturn to Top
ITALY (Mike Peck) Firstly, thanks to Andy for consistently timely GM-ing, it seems without necessary full cooperation from us players !!
I can't say I particularly got much out of this game. Playing Italy is pretty difficult in normal diplomacy - tho I did win once - but in gunboat is pretty ghastly unless France/Austria leave you alone & Turkey goes north.
This game was characterised by the usual Italy staying on 4 for the early stages.
However, Austria's early demise allowed me an opportunity, & also Munich was open so i stepped in & got to 6.
I suppose 04 was the key year. Turkey was then clearly the strongest power; however, he had been friendly towards me and I felt that if I applied all my forces against him, he'd turn out the winner in our battle, & everyone else would benefit as a result.
So i decided to risk going north & west - just at the time Turkey decided to attack me. A perfect cock-up. Poor judgement on my part.
The end-game was attritional. It was particularly symbolic I felt that my colour printer was failing at this point so green was becoming yellow.
I felt France could maybe have done more to slow turkey down but in the event you have to hand it to Turkey for a comprehensive win. Well played !!
MikeReturn to Top
RUSSIA (Tim Lomas) Those paying attention may have noticed why I run occasional gamesof Sopwith rather than playing Diplomacy :-)
I used to play of a lot of games during the 80s and 90s (not Diplomacy) and having played very little in the last few years I thought I'd have a go at a game of Dip, more out of curiosity than anything else. In all those years I've never actually played the game.
Gunboat seemed a good idea in case Pete Smith was about and decided to get his own back for the clouds that seem to chase him around the Sopwith board (paranoid? Moi?)
So having got Russia, I made the first mistake of trying to move North and South at the same time, well, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
The result was that I really didn't do either properly, split forces that had no chance of any mutual support made my position look a lot better in the first few turns than they actually were.
I'd figured out where I'd gone wrong by 1903 and in Spring 1904 I rather expected a Turkish stab, there didn't seem a great deal I could sensibly do to prevent it (although I may have been able to cover it better) so I thought I'd hope for the best, he might have thought he was better off attacking Italy with my help while I picked up enough to allow me to reposition forces before the inevitable.
It didn't work of course, the rest of the game was a series of pointless (from my point of view) attempts to do anything to get somewhere, no chance and I wasn't really any threat at all, I couldn't do anything without getting zapped, survival was the only option and that only worked because the Yellow Peril had better things to do than bother with me.
Thanks to Andy for putting up with me, I suspect I'll stick to running Sopwith in the future :-)
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TURKEY (Gary Rolfe) Firstly thank you to all players and to Andy for exemplary GMing throughout. I am not going to go into a “I moved to Serbia in 03” breakdown but if anyone wants to dissect the strategy or reasons then I am happy to chat.
Who am I? I am Gary Rolfe, I live in Basingstoke Hampshire UK (actually only about 15 miles from Andy but we have never met). I am a property lawyer, aged 46, married with two kids. I have played in a couple of tournaments and used to play postal a few years ago. I only recently discovered the PBEM game and did get up to having 3 games on the go. On the same day as I learnt of the win in this one I was knocked out of the other two games! This is the first Dip game I have won!
I set out with the view that I would hang back for a year or two until Russia and Italy were engaged elsewhere before I attacked the weakest neighbour. I am aware that Turkey is a slow starter. However, Italy went west, Russia went north and I found myself with two builds and The Black Sea by the end of the first year- a dream opening.
The Balkans and then Austria fell with Austria coming under pressure but with me fortunately picking up the bases. A good pact developed with Italy which we could both build on- a difficult achievement in Gunboat.
I pushed on as much as I could but clearly reached my natural limits before I had to draw the knife on Italy. It was tough but had to be done. After that it was a race to get placed to make the numbers. I knew a few stalemate lines were in my way and I really did not know if the win was there until the last few moves – I then forgot to order two of my fleets and Italy (Brilliantly) took advantage of this and won back Ionian Sea, throwing my med advance into disarray. Also the spirited attack from the lone Russian was so close to blowing my chances of taking the last couple of German bases I needed.
While France was a key player throughout, we did not meet in battle until we both had designs on Germany. I was worried throughout that France could easily forge ahead if the fortunes of the game were favourable to him but I fortunately managed to keep a few builds ahead.
It is easily said that the remaining players should get together to stop a win, this is not easily done – particularly in Gunboat- and I think you collectively had to get untangled from a tough fight in the North before you could look to my advance.
I am especially grateful to you all for what I think is a very good record of getting in orders (I don’t know how much chasing Andy had to do). I do not think I had the advantage of any NMRs throughout, which can sour a victory and although I think we lost England at the end we got through well.
I hope you all enjoyed the game and I look forward to meeting you again in the future.
Gary Rolfe
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GM (Andy Scott) The only real disappointment for me in this game was the English Anarchy. Especially as it was so late in the game, normally if someone is going to anarchy they do it long before 1907!
Still it can't take away from the Turkish victory, he played it slow and sure, careful to encourage his opponents to clash when he could. Which meant they were more concerned about each other then him. By the time the world awoke to the danger it was too late and despite some great defensive play the Turk just rolled onto the required end.
Congratulations to Gary and my apologies for taking so long to get this done and up.
See you all again soon in one way or another at dip 2000.
AndyReturn to Top
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