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ROWENA END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Andy Scott [EGS]
Started: 13th February, 2003
Finished: 25th September, 2003 (Autumn 1908)
Result: 2 way draw (England/France)
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | Result | | Austria | Kurt Lichtenstein | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 2 | 0 | Eliminated (A08) | | England | Gerry Woolfenden | 4 | 5 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 11 | drew | | France | Robert Lange | 5 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 9 | 10 | drew | | Germany | Tony Kilner | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated (A05) | | Italy | Norman Nathan | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated (A06) | | Russia | Wayne Read | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Survived | | Turkey | Troy Johnsen | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 11 | 10 | Survived |
AUSTRIA (Kurt Lichtenstein) Guys, I just wanted to say first off that I had an excellent time playing. You are all great players and I enjoyed this experience immensely. OK, first off, I'll let out a little secret which only Andy knew: Before this game started, I had NEVER played a game of 7-player Diplomacy! I'd played 2 and 3 player games FtF, and it was okay, but I could see real potential in a 7-player game. So i went online.
At the beggining, I was nervous about being ganged up on, since I was a rookie, so I didn't tell anyone. I now realize how friendly a community this is here at DIP2000, and that something like that (probably) wouldn't happen.
So I made some rookie mistakes in the beggining, but i think i also learned a lot. I should have allied with Wayne when I had the chance, instead of supporting Turkey against him. No offense to Troy, i know the NMR was accidental, but it really screwed up our efforts against Russia. I also should have reached out to Tony to bounce Wayne in Sweden, rather than treating my stab like the biggest secret in the world.Then I panicked when i saw that England and France were going to bulldoze Germany, so i convinced troy to reach out to wayne. That backfired.By the time Norman stabbed me, i had the game figured out fairly well. i managed to secure a good friendship with france and coordinate between france, and turkey to destroy italy. but it wasn't good enough, since we didn't follow thru on my plan to use all our fleets against england. france stabbed me and doomed my fleet, which for me was pretty much the end of the game. i still held out pretty strongly on the mainland, but i had to stretch myself too thin to stop them, and turkey took the oppurtunity i gave him.
Just a word on the press- that was loads of fun. andy did a good job figuring it all out, and the players put in some great stuff. i was trying to maintain a continous narrative through my press, sort of an alternate history, and if i'd done well, it would have kept going. when i eventually stabbed turkey, i would have written an article about the Emperor being assassinated (by Adolf Hitler) and the Arch-Duke taking command. would have been lots of fun. oh well.
my asssessment of the other players:
Gerry(England): i guess he's a good player, but it seemed like he was trying to make me his enemy. his messages to me were always fairly cryptic and distant, so we never made friends. then there was this business with a fake e-mail. i still don't know the whole story there, but it didn't help matters between gerry and me. but he is a good player, and i'd be glad to face him again someday.
Rob(France): very communicative and a good player and friend. we got along great until he let my fleet drown in the atlantic. then i hardened up toward him. i became convinced that he never intended to support my fleet, and was just waiting for the oppurtunity to take the high hand in the med. but other than that, he was a great player and communicator. i probly should have allied with him closer to the beggining of the game, and worked to wipe out italy quickly.
Tony(Germany): i was really sorry to see him go down so quickly. he was friendly to me throughout the game, and i tried to support him. and it really hurt when i had to let his last army die in bohemia. but i was in a tight spot myself that year, and had to make friendly with france so i could beat back the italians. bu the was a good player, and i'd be glad to play with him again.
Norman(Itlay): he didn't talk much, and when he did, it always left me confused. i'm not sure if english is his first language, he would do things like mix up 'east' and 'west' or name the wrong territory.
Wayne(Russia): i jumped at the oppurtunity to stab wayne in 01. that was stupid. i should have allied with him. chalk it up to rookie over-eagerness. but even after the stab, wayne played very well. yes, he got lucky when troy NMR'd, but even so, he played well. he kept me out of warsaw throughout the game, which was really frustrating. around the time germany dropped out, i tried my hand at a little e-mail deception. i sent wayne a message from an address similiar to tony's. i knew it was an obvious fake, and obviously from me, but i hoped the blatant fake would make wayne think it was someone else trying to frame me. i don't think he drew that conclusion. so when we had to ally against the E/F, we didn't do to well. i'm sure wayne was doing his best, but he had a different goal. he was just trying to stay alive, while troy and i thought we could still win. But really, wayne is a great player and a strategist.
troy(turkey): he played fairly well, was a good communicator, but i honestly wish i'd allied with wayne instead of him. the NMR wasn't his fault, but it still screwed us. and he still managed to make the gains coming to him, only slower, while the delay allowed wayne time to bring in the force to keep me out of warsaw. when we got near the end, i knew i'd have to risk everything to stop E/F. so i gambled and lost. troy saw the oppurtunity and took it, and i really have no hard feelings. i opened the door for him, what did i expect?
so all in all, a really great game, and a great learning experience. thanks to all you guys for a good time and lots of fun. and extra thanks to andy for all his hard work, especially with the press. he did a great job. See you all in the next game.
Kurt
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ENGLAND (Gerry Woolfenden) A newbie view
I had once read something about diplomacy and always fancied playing the game and indeed had a board set and played once one weekend at the University. The strategy there was ‘how pissed can you get the opposition so as to reveal all’ not a strategy available on Dip2000. I selected England on the grounds that I’m English (how silly). Soon discovered that been on a corner of the board has some strengths and weakness. Strength was that my back was not too exposed and weakness being that it was hard to get anywhere.
Best tip I had was in the GMs briefing ‘get networking like mad’. This I did and it was these initial exchanges which formed my philosophy and strategy. My strategy summarised as:-
I needed to cultivate friendly countries from a collection of six opponents who seemed committed to completing the game. Russia and France came across as neighbours I could do business with whereas Germany who sent me all the wrong waves. Italy seemed a little distant and Turkey and Austria did not convince me I wanted to ally with them unless I was driven to it.
I decided to ally with Russia and France and stab Germany as soon as I could. I would then stab either France or Russia and use Turkey or Austria in the end game. In the end I stabbed Russia and stuck with France through thick and thin which led to we agreeing to draw.
Fundamental to my operations were to ensure that I had lots of fleets and commanded all the seas. This would help to move armies where I wanted and to stab coastal neighbours if I needed to. At one point I was in a position to stab Germany, France and Russia with my Fleets and make lots of Centres. I worked out that such a act would not be final enough and their combined might may turn on me. If Turkey at this point had responded more positively to a suggestion I made then I may have stabbed GFR simultaneously and perhaps got an outright win very early.
There were some dirty tricks going on in the middle of the game using false emails. A little detective work on IP addresses suggested to me who it may have been and we had a brief exchange. Though I am still not sure that I had correctly identified the culprit. This all ended in good fun exchanges and no harm done.
I thought Turkey was going to drag it out for ever but in the end we won through. Suggest that Turkeys main error was stabbing Austria. Austria and Turkey could have given us a major run for our money.
The GM Andy Scott was fantastic and very professional. Big thanks Andy.
Big thank to Rob who proved a good and loyal ally in the form a France and indeed on more than one occasion politely suggested that my proposed orders where a bit poor. All players were committed and I would enjoy playing with any of them again. Thanks to them all for seeing it through.
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FRANCE (Robert Lange) First off I'd like to thank all the players involved and Andy for running such a smooth (no-anarchies!) game. I have to acknowledge that this EGS is written having seen the others already.
This, like many others in this game, was my first real no-holds barred to-the-end game. I've played in (whilst simultaneously running) exactly one complete game before. I opted for, and got, france based on its survival statistics and thought it'd be a good starter-nation to introduce me to the online game for the future.
Pre-1901
I didn't really know what to expect so I spent lots of time researching french opening strategy and also contacted everyone with an introductory welcome email. I think I'd actually been contacted by Kurt already come to think of it. I decided to ally with England (obvious) and Austria (hidden) at the start for all the wrong (but subsequently right!) reasons. I noted that Tony and Wayne had not only played before but together on one occasion. I also thought, wrongly, that elimination of the known stronger players would be beneficial (but see also: http://devel.diplom.org/Zine/F2003M/Ray/Best_Alliances.html).
So England and I agreed a general strategy ('with the aim of a 2-way draw') and we strung poor Germany along.
1901
My aggressive opening to Burgundy does not go down too well with Germany but otherwise all seems fairly good. England has kept up his end and isn't in the channel. Communication with Russia is on-going with the aim of some E/F/R joint ventures. Italy is playing very neutral both on and off the board. After spring I play with scenarios to see how Gerry and I can invade Germany. Although central his position is easy to defend from the west until we hit upon our holland tactic. If we deny germany holland (repeatedly as it turned out) he has one less unit to defend with and our life is made considerably easier. Russia is also happier (?) with a fleet in norway rather than an army.
1902
E/F alliance is becoming more concrete. Posturing between us and Germany along with some Russian help sees Germany feeling the pinch. Neither Italy or Austria gives aid so Germany's days are numbered.
1903
Continued attacks on Germany. Good talks with Russia but Italy starts causing me some trouble. Norman and I had agreed not to go to piedmont and both of us tried whilst he also brought up some naval power. Not good. He, I think, was responding to the slow creep of my units into the med. So the aim for autumn was to turn him around. We had some very productive talks and in the autumn he did just that, turning on austria as a bonus! Whilst I had a good arrangement going with austria, we never had scope at this point to work together so I was happy to see the eastern side of the board in turmoil whilst Gerry and I secured the west.
1904
Having talked poor Norman into heading east I have some productive talks with Kurt(Austria) and we agree to split Italy between us. Part of the deal is letting Turkey in later - I suspect that their general aim was an A/F/T alliance with possibilities of invading myself once England was dealt with. I never liked the feel of this idea and preferred to keep the proven E/F going. The advantage here was that A/T gave me a foothold in Italy and some useful ideas as to what was going on. Germany bows out at this stage.
1905
In the north Gerry and I plan the invasion of Russia but Wayne predicts(?) well and rapidly redeploys his forces. Austria, Turkey and I finish off Italy whilst we 'plan' the entry into the atlantic. A slight misunderstanding (apologies to Gerry) unfortunately allowed austria to get a fleet into the atlantic which caused plenty of hassle but caused no long-term damage for the rest of the game. Wayne is now working in concert with what's left of the eastern block but I manage to advance to the gates of warsaw. For now.
1906
Italy has now departed and the battle of the central med is about to start. This phase started strangely. A/T and myself were still 'cooperating' in the med whilst they were forcing me back in central Europe. I spent a lot of time looking at possible outcomes and realise that StP and Tun were sensible targets and that, even with R/A/T working against Gerry and I we'd be able to advance fairly well from there. So a few 'odd' moves in the med later and Tunis falls, again, as does StP to the might blues. Austrian battleship continues to go fishing off iceland.
1907
Spring 1907. Time for another of those 'all-change' seasons. Austria has arrayed a formidable line along the german provinces. But Turkey is the one about to do the stuffing. This is the only stab of the game in the true sense and was pulled off very well - except it led ultimately to Turkey's downfall. Troy had attempted to force me to join him instead of Gerry with this stab. I'm still unsure of his logic - he was offering me an unstable 2-way alliance as opposed to my existing solid one with Gerry. Furthermore he 'threatened' to retreat from austria if I didn't give him breathing room in the south. I figured that with the two of them now on the defensive, and with Wayne's defection to the winning side that I'd pass up his offer. Strangely Austria was unwilling to accept that he could join us too and chose death before dishonour - very strange considering he's the one player that at the start I'd have predicted as best to team up with!
1908
The slow grind begins. The grand blue alliance knows that it will win but the turks didn't know when to quit. For some people the priority is survive/draw/win for others it's win or bust I suppose. At the end of 1907 I let Turkey into Tunis to gain position. He gained a build he couldn't use and I got ION and ADR and he had a fleet trapped between my front line and the fresh English reinforcements recently victorious in their playful destruction of the red fleet. By the end of the year Austria had fled and the alliance began its slow march on Ankara.
1909
One moment we were proposing continuous E/F draws (writing on the wall and all that), whilst a stubborn turk refuses to quit - the next he hands us the draw with a well timed NMR. Many thanks for that. The timing could not have been better as I was about to go on holiday for three weeks. Still, all's well that ends well.
The other players:
Kurt - Austria
Very communicative and inventive. Enjoys a grand sweeping style of the game. I'd happily team up with him in future and would have done so in this game had we found a way to make it mutually beneficial.
Gerry - England
Loyal and the player with whom I exchanged the most messages. Very grateful he didn't take the half-chance stab. Misguided loyalties on the football pitch but excellent on the diplomacy board.
Tony - Germany
A sound but unfortunate player in this game.
Norman - Italy
A most interesting player who may, not that I'm experienced enough to judge, be better suited to playing the postal version rather than email. I think he was misjudged by a few other players and played a cautious Italy. Some research shows that he may have invented a slight rules variant that discourages such caution...
Wayne - Russia
What can I say. One of the prolific players on this site and a top tactician. Also very communicative and a good source of advice. I won't make the mistake of trying to eliminate the strong players quickly next time. I look forward to meeting you again.
Troy - Turkey
The fate of the city of Troy (in modern day turkey) is well documented. His fate here was less deserved but his style of play at least made for a colourful game. Occasionally didn't respond to mails, which probably put me off a bit, but had we been closer or talked more and earlier I think things could have been very different.
Andy - GM
Punctual. Helpful. Probably grateful that I've stopped asking him confusing rules questions. (PS I think there is a situation where a support of an attack on your own unit does affect the latter's dislodgement...). All round great GM. I promise to write as many complicated and hard to adjudicate orders for you next time...
I dedicate this victory to Richard sharp, in light of all I've heard about him and, originally, because of his article http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/resources/strategy/articles/hey_bresto.htm which Gerry and I employed later on in the game.
Thanks again to all involved.
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RUSSIA (Wayne Read) Wow, what a game, I don’t think that I’ve ever been so pleased to get a ‘survived’. It may not look much on paper, but when you consider that the two driving forces in Rowena were an A/T alliance and an E/F alliance then I think that a Russian survival was an achievement.
Here is the Russian view of events:
Pre-1901 and the alarm bells are already ringing! Kurt (A) and Troy (T) are both American and live quite close to each other, oh boy! Both make friendly noises, but I don’t believe any of it and immediately send warnings to the other players. Requests go out to Tony (G) to let me have Swe and to Norman (I) to move East.
1901
My worst fears are realised as the year ends with Austria in Gal and Turkey in Rum, thanks to Austrian support. Tony can see the threat and lets me have Swe, but Norman doesn’t seem to be interested in doing anything.
1902
Gerry (E) and Rob (F) turn on Tony (G). I’m in negotiation with Gerry to leave me alone while I concentrate my forces in the South and he seems happy with this while he is dealing with Germany, but I’m pretty sure his long term aims include me.
1903
It’s clear that Germany is going down, so I grab Ber to make up for Turkey forcing his way into Sev. I’m still on five centres. Gerry, Rob and I are loosely working together, but I’m conscious that it’s not a firm alliance.
In the same year Norman moves against France and Austria! Talk about jumping off of the fence! He succeeds in grabbing Tri, but with Austria in ION & Tyr and France already in WMS there is little hope.
1904
Gerry takes Ber off of me but allows me to keep Swe, so I’m still strong against A/R.
Tony departs, and it looks like Norman won’t be far behind.
1905
The tide is turning in favour of E/F, Gerry lands in Lvn, but I manage to disband the Army, which Gerry omits to re-build. I negotiate a cease-fire with A/T in order to face the new threat. Things are uneasy to start with, but we plan to get units into position to form a stalemate line and force a 5-way draw. It won’t be easy, but I think it is still possible. I move up to Stp to stop the English advance. Norman departs.
1906
Kurt and troy are true to their word and turn their attention to the West. I lose Stp and I am down to two units.
1907
Loads of negotiation with Kurt and Troy. We plan a daring convoy for Troy to Apu that should seal Eastern Italy, and moves for Kurt to the German border. Kurt’s moves go as planned but Troy stabs Kurt to wreck any chance of ever stopping E/F.
1908
It’s now obvious that E/F can finish the game in whatever manner they choose, so I push for Troy to accept the 2-way draw as I know that continued fighting would see me eliminated. Bizarrely Troy digs his heels in and refuses to either speed the game up or ever vote for a draw that doesn’t include him.
This is not good for me, so ever pragmatic I change sides again, and in return for a survival, I move South to attack. Troy’s stab of Kurt has left his Northern flank exposed and I get to Rum with good chances to take another centre too. Kurt departs.
1909
Troy NMR’s and the 2-way draw is passed.
The players:
Kurt (A) – we wrote lengthy messages throughout, even when we were fighting, which was great. Got on very well and it’s a shame we didn’t start off on better terms as I think we could’ve done very well together. Too bad you weren’t there at the end, hope to meet you again.
Troy (T) – Didn’t write as much as Kurt and relations were always slightly uneasy. I don’t think you always considered the whole picture, the stab on Kurt was decisive, but to what end? It threw the game to E/F and took away any chance of a 5-way draw.
Tony (G) – the only player I knew from a previous game. Saw the threat from A/T and let me into Swe, thanks that made a big difference. Unfortunately succumbed to a strong E/F.
Gerry (E) – negotiations were always uneasy and I’m sure that War/Mos were always in his sights, but had the good sense not to push forward when I turned on Troy at the end.
Rob (F) – probably the most prolific writer in the game (certainly beat my 510 messages). We would occasionally swap a dozen messages in a morning, often not anything to do with diplomacy. This level of communication was all the more remarkable as we had very little chance to co-ordinate moves in the game itself. Hope to meet you again as a neighbour, instead of on the other side of the board.
Norman (I) – the most frustrating player in the game, the A/R alliance was clear very early on, but refused to do anything to counter it until it was too late.
Many thanks to all involved; it was a joy to have no anarchy’s and so few NMR’s, this level of commitment makes the games so much better. And of course the biggest thanks go to Andy for running the game so faultlessly. I never got above five centres and only had two for a while, but I found it very satisfying and enjoyed the ever-shifting alliances.
Cheers,Wayne
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TURKEY (Troy Johnsen) Rowena was my first game on dip2000, and one of my first games of diplomacy, period. I don't remember where Turkey was on my preference list, but I wasn't too upset to draw the country because I like the simplicity of its position. I started off by contacting my immediate neighbors - Norman, Kurt, and Wayne. A lot ended up depending on their initial responses. Wayne and Kurt replied quickly, but Norman did not respond for some time. By the time I heard back from Norman, I had already formed an alliance with Kurt. I chose Kurt because Wayne quite simply did not seem interested in cooperating with me. According to Kurt, Wayne had chosen him as an ally, and Wayne's less-than-friendly press confirmed this. Kurt and I devised a plan where our alliance was masked during the spring turn, and the results paid off in the fall with each of us gaining two centers.
I truly believe that Kurt and I would have been very hard to stop had it not been for my NMR in spring 02. The NMR effectively stalled our advance for a whole year, because my units did not move into position to take any centers from Wayne.
As it was, we still had a fairly strong position and looked to take down Wayne over the next couple of years. Unfortunately, Kurt was stabbed by Norman, and our alliance lost power. Luckily, Norman had not secured any allies before making the stab, and Kurt and I were able to snuff him out quickly with the help of Rob. We made a mistake here of letting Rob in the door and giving him too much of the Italy pie. He actually had us believing that he would help us get into the Med where we could move against England. Had I known the caliber of Rob's ability at the time, I never would have believed him. For some reason, I assumed he wasn't a strong player - an assumption that should never be made about any dip player.
So we went along with Rob's "plan", though he continually moved in suspicious ways. When I finally started to demand that we moved in specific and careful ways, things broke down. It became obvious that Rob had no intention of cooperating with us, but it was too late. Kurt somehow managed to slip a fleet out of the Med, but I wasn't able to get past Tunis and that's where my westward expansion would end.
About this time, Kurt and I recruited the friendship of Wayne in order to stop the E/F alliance. We certainly would have had no trouble securing a 5-way draw, and for while it looked like we might even take them down. I spent a lot of time talking with Rob, trying to get him out of position with proposals of double-stabs and a 2-way between him and I. He didn't bite, but I did! In trying to convince him that stabbing was the best way to go at this point, I started to convince myself that it was. When it became apparent that Kurt's fleet would be disbanded and the 5-way was all but inevitable, I chose to make the stab.
It was a glorious stab, making me the board leader, but Rob failed to uphold his end of the bargain and things didn't look too good because I had sacrificed the defensive position of the A/R/T alliance we had formed. Rob was now a lost cause as he could walk over me as long as he didn't have to worry about being betrayed. I made some futile efforts to change Gerry's side, but he didn't seem interested in the solo. I also threatened to drag the game out as long as possible unless one of them stabbed or they agreed to a 3-way. My NMR probably shortened the game by 3-4 tedious monthes. If I had been in either Rob or Gerry's (especially Gerry's) position, there's no way I would have voted for that 2-way, and I'm curious to know how much they considered trying for the solo. I honestly believe Gerry could have made a risk-free run at it.
And that was Rowena for Troy of Turkey.Return to Top
GM (Andy Scott) Rowena to me was one of those gems that occassionally fall into a GM's lap! I freely admit that my expectation of Rowena wasn't high as I didn't know many of you and the diverse amount of experience between the players made me think that the weaker ones would be out pretty quick. Well I'm pleased to say how wrong I was :-)) The level and flow of play in this game was truly varied but it was never dull or predictable. The NMR's were few and far between, in fact off the top of my head I can only remember one and that was Troy's. No anarchies which is as it should be. What made the game special to me was the amount of communication and particulaly the fine Press invloved in which everybody at least tried to take part as I recall. Most of it was highly entertaining, although I do have to give a special mention to PLOP which had me laughing out so loud my wife came to find out what was so funny! Thank you for that Wayne :-)
I would hope though that you would all agree that an active press section can make a huge difference to the game and I truly believe that it is the most underused weapon in a diplomats arsenal. In many different games I have managed to survive a game and sometimes even earn a draw purely on the power of Press. Of course now I'm more well known on the site a lot of people just shoot me on site and I never get a chance to make then smile, but then such is fame I suppose (sigh!). Any way I digress, Rowena was a great game and also I hope fairly educational? We had quite a few new players to the site and I was bombarded with questions some of which were truly obscure which caused me to go running off to ask some other GM's, One of Rob's sparked a debate in the GM's forum that went on for 2 or 3 weeks. Once I'd worked out what he meant and what he wanted to do, and done the relevant checking I told him how to write the order clearly and then the sod decided against it and never ordered it!!! It's a good job I don't hold a grudge :-))
I look forward to playing against each and everyone of you at some point and I will also look forward to GM'ing you again.
Regards, Andy.Return to Top
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