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MARS END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Andy Scott [EGS]
Started: 14th May, 2003
Finished: 21st September, 2003 (Autumn 1909)
Result: four way Draw between France/Italy/Russia/Turkey
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 | Result | | Austria | Chris Jacks (Anarchied) | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Anarchied (A03) | | England | Jan Willem Omlo | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated (A05) | | France | Thomas Gourgolitsas | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 14 | draw | | Germany | Patrick Mcdonald | 5 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Eliminated (A09) | | Italy | Konrad Gateau | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | draw | | Russia | David O'Malley | 6 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 11 | draw | | Turkey | Mark Porter | 4 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | draw |
FRANCE (Thomas Gourgolitsas) I first of all want to thank our GM for this excellent performance. In the beginning I had to make myself strong and I got two SCs without any conflict with either Germany or England. In the second year, I had to choose an enemy to attack to and a friend to have on my side.
I decided to attack England and support Germany. With great pleasure, I saw Germany supporting me too and it was then only a matter of time to get some English SCs, since Italy stayed out of Piedmont. But I surprisingly saw Germany entering Piedmont. Then I decided to attack Germany too for more than one reasons. I had to find some more SCs and I didn't like that move to Piedmont at all.
At the same time Russia was getting too strong and a weak Germany was very convenient for my plans.For the rest of the game I tried to get more German SCs than Russia. Little before German's elimination I attacked Italy too, because it was an easy way to get some more SCs and attack Russia more effectively. 1909 was a very lucky year for me. Russia was against me and Germany wanted to help Russia attack me, even if that meant its elimination. But they send so many misorders, I got lucky there too and I added two dots in my SC count.
I believe it was worth tried to try for the solo, but Russia deserved the win too and I am sorry I didn't vote yes in the first R-F draw. Anyway, my congratulations for all players and I apologise for stabbing Germany, but can you blame for this in a gunboat game?
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GERMANY (Patrick Mcdonald) To start off I would like to thank our wonderful GM Andy for his hard work to make this an enjoyable game! This being my first Gunboat game I wasn't prepared for the chaos that was soon to come! My constant blundering didn't help either!
Here is a season by season description of what I was doing or thinking.
S01:
Having seen the death that so often occurs in Gunboat games for Austria at the hands of Italy I decided to send A-Mun-Tyr. I was happy with the bounce thinking I had bought Austria some time to grow.
A01:
Decided to see if England was going to be friendly so I supported his F-Nth.......
Saw Austria loose Vienna...... Italy coming from behind...... Should have ordered A-Mun-Tyr again.
S02:
Foolishly decided to cut off Englands support to Sweden. Should have let him fight and delay F/R. Entered Belgium!
A02:
The build of the fleet and the army in Silesia was an attempt to befriend France and Turkey.
S03:
This season looked good and bad. While I gained the North Sea there was now an English fleet in the Helgoland Bight. Preparing to attack Warsaw.
A03:
This is when everything went bad! My missorder cost me any realistic goals at anything more than a Survival. Even taking Edinburgh didn't help.
S04:
Had a vague goal of grabbing Vienna. Saw Russia sail into Denmark and there be nothing I could do about it.
A04:
Having realized that there was nothing I could do to hold my English gains against France I decided to attempt an attack on him. Dispanded the useless fleet in Edinburgh.
S05:
Regained Denmark but lost Berlin to Russia. Decided that my last option was to defend my homeland at all costs.
A05:
Lost Edinburgh and Belgium to France but managed to clear my soil of invaders.
S06:
Entered Munich..... Was glad to see that France and Russia fighting in the North Sea! Had hopes that I would be used as a wall by Russia.
A06:
France entering the North Sea killed all of my hopes for atleast a survival.
S07:
Surrounded by France to the north and west (and soon to be south) and by Russia to the east. No way out, saw the end coming.
A07:
Lost both Munich and Berlin.
S08:
Stopped France from entering Ruhr!
A08:
Expected to be dead but surviving at 1!
S09:
Decided to move into Ruhr to delay France.
A09:
Finally! The end came.
End Game:
Sad to hear that you guys decided to end the game. But never the less congratulations to you all. Hope to play with you guys in the future.
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ITALY (Konrad Gateau) I'm quite surprised to be sharing this draw, i coudl've sworn i had lost and that it between Russia and France (it was me who proposed the 2-way F/R draw btw). Anyways, i don't remember too much of how i played the game but i recall my general thinking. This was one of my first Gunboat games and i took more as an opportunity of testing out my tactical skills.
I started out with a double war against Austria and Turkey. While the operations in Austria came to a quick close, thanks mostly to Russia, i was bogged down with the Sultan's troops. Then came the alarming presence of a French fleet which seemed friendly with it's constant support of my fleets' position. However, i knew France's intentions was to get a fleet in the Mediteranean quick for a possible future expansion and with the situation in the East, there was nothing i could've down to push it back so i had to tolerate it for a bit.
And then, the unthinkable happened: I NMR'ed somehow (in case i forgot, my apologies for that, btw). And without the benefits of diplomacy obviously, everything took a disturbing turn with France's fleet pushing into the Tyrhenian sea and French armies and fleets turning to my lands since it appeared that i was gone. I believe i held well considering the circumstances but it would've been much different if i hadn't failed my orders. Anyhoo, congratulations to all, it was a good game!
Konrad Gateau
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RUSSIA (David O'Malley) Introduction :
First of all, I would like to thank Andy for superbly GMing the game, and for all the players involved. This was my second completion of a full game (I had to drop out of two other games for personal reasons), so I was glad to get this game under my belt. Having been dealt Russia for the first time I was cautious. OK, I was gutted. Russia always seems to collapse like a flan a few years in. I'll break it down year by year.
Autumn 1901 :
Standard start off really, with the English in the North, the French and Germans squaring off, and the Austrians being surrounded by everyone else. Picked up two SC, but in hindsight, leaving Sev isolated by jumping into Vie would screw me in the long run.
Autumn 1902 :
The northern front doing pretty good, but the Turks are in the south! Germany, France and England seem to be preoccupied with themselves, which eases a little pressure. I was hoping the Italians would have a go at the Turks from here.....
Autumn 1903 :
The Germans are coming! The Germans are coming! You know, it was at this stage, that I saw the end in sight! A strong Turkish army in the south, one unit to defend Vie/Bud, surrounded by Germans. Yeah, things were looking dim....
Autumn 1904 :
WOAH NELLY! The Germans left in such a rush that they left their Schnapps behind? Sweet, we'll take Denmark while we're at it! I have to say, this was the turning point for my campaign - obviously the Germans got spooked by French advances.
Autumn 1905 :
A little bit of repositioning, and I picked up Rumania also. Now, the hard part's keeping it. I knew at this stage that uprooting Turkey would be hard, and would only work if I had some help from Italy - in hindsight, my not supporting Italy in this effort was a mistake. In my defense, I think I was just trying to hold onto my positions in the Balkans.
Autumn 1906 :
RUSSIA IS FREE AT LAST! It took a few years, but finally I had Sev back. My main fear up until this point was that Italy and Turkey would disengage, and the Turks could come at me full swing. No I am more worried about the French.
Autumn 1907 :
Germany breaks! I'm only glad I got part of the pie (Ber). With France in Tyr, I thought they were going to make life difficult with a move to Vie....
Autumn 1908 :
...France plays it safe, and smart. Italy and Turkey pretty much hold off. I think it's a race to stalemate this thing.
Autumn 1909 :
Capturing Mun makes things a little interesting, but I am not too sure how long I can hold it for. All along I am tempted to jump into Cly, but then I'd leave Stp open should my gamble to get Liv fail, it also looked like I would need to pull units away from the balkans to support a protracted campaign, and I just didn't trust the Turks enough not to stab me (no offense!).
In the spring I propose an all-way tie (not too sure if anyone else did also), and it's accepted in the fall.
Conclusion :
I thought France would have kept it going for a bit longer - they really had all the cards stacked in their favor, and little to lose. It was looking like stalemate, though, so I suppose, why drag it out?
Thanks to all for playing a thoroughly enjoyable game. I was frustrated at the pace in the beginning, but that's the way it goes, I suppose. Germany and England, thanks for playing to the bitter end. France - well done, you played things strategically very well. A little hard luck to Italy / Turkey, I was always afraid that either of the two of you were only ever one move from spliting me wide open.
Most of all, thanks to Andy on a game well run. Good luck in future games.
David
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TURKEY (Mark Porter) I started this game by deciding to try to knock out Russia, or at least completely neutralise the threat, as fast as possible. I was successful in the short term – by occupying Rumania and Sevastopol I thought I had secured the northern flank, and it looked like Austria would hold for a while and also Germany was making threatening moves to Russia.
Unfortunately – for me – Germany’s armies pootled and then withdrew, allowing Russia to retake her losses. Russia had also outflanked England in Scandinavia before France took England out altogether. I realised that Russia was either going to win or at least survive with more supply centres than me and so I decided to try and survive. Rather unusual for me because I normally try to win in Gunboat games, even at the expense of surviving. Rather a gung ho mentality but not this time. So I tried to send signals to Russia that I was not coming for her again and concentrated on maintaining defences against Italy.
Further progress seemed possible when Italy started to collapse before the French onslaught, but of course the game ended in a draw before I was able to do anything about it.
Hey, if France had not been so successful and England early on, and threatening to Germany in the early part of the game, I might have done much better – and paradoxically France might have won the game outright!
Thanks to all for the game and congratulations particularly to my Russian opponent, who picked him/herself up off the floor in a very skilful and solid manner.
Regards,Mark
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GM (Andy Scott) Game Mars was a good game to GM with a good mix of experinced players although admittedly some of them weren't very experienced at gunboat! The early Anarchy by Austria really irritated me as not only did it have a huge effect on the game but Chris had only just written in with his provisionals as I was writing to the system for a replacement in pre spring 1901. I'm afraid to say I relented and let him play and I wish I hadn't now, So for my apologies for that! Anarchy's in gunboat have an even bigger effect then in normal dip IMHO, after all in Normal dip you can negotiate away the advantage one player gets from an anarchy but in gunboat it is even more lady luck dealing good or bad depending on your perspective?
I'm thankful to say however that Mars was a lot more of a story then Austria's anarchy and while we had a few NMR's which are always irritating the turnaround times on orders was pretty good overall. I must admit that I was a bit surprised at the swiftness of the ending, I fully expected it to go on a few seasons more! Any way I don't think there's anything else to say that one or more of you haven't already said so I will end with a big thank you to all of you for playing and I look forward to either playing against you some more or GM'ing you again.
Regards, AndyReturn to Top
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