|
SIEBEN END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Andy Scott [EGS]
Started: 23rd January, 2003
Finished: 12th August, 2003 (Autumn 1907)
Result: 2 way draw (A/G)
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | Result | | Austria | Martin Maier | 5 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 11 | 12 | drew | | Scotland | Ally Bain | 5 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 5 | Survived | | France | Nicolas Demers | 5 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Survived | | Germany | Eduard Van Dijk | 5 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 12 | drew | | Italy | Paul Yovich | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | Survived | | Russia | Jim Baron | 5 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Eliminated (A07) | | Turkey | Konrad Gateau | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Eliminated (A04) |
AUSTRIA (Martin Maier) SIEBEN AUSTRIA EGS
Allow me to start with thanking the people who made this game an enjoiable experience. Andy for the great work he did GM'ing, and all the players (except Jim) for plotting to the end. But now let me advance to the tactical and strategical considerations of an Austro-Hungarian Emperor.
Pre-Spring 01 or Doubts and Fears
So I got Austria, the man in the middle. I didn't hope for much so my first aim was to survive. As most statistics tell Austria has a good chance of being in a draw or taking the victory if it is around long enough. So survival is my first goal. So how to achieve this? I figured that a twofront war would be my doom. So I had to forge an alliance with either one of the eastern powers (T-R) or with the western (I) in order to establish a calm border there.
My personal preference was the west since an attack by Russia or Turkey would be significantly slower and easier to defend (so I figured) than one by Italy. I didn't quite know what to do with Eduard in Germany. An 'Anschluss' would be favorable, but our clash in 'The Boxer' had each of us given the expression that the other is a two-edged blade. I decided not to jump to any conclusions before I have heard from most players. Before I even managed to write to him King Paolo of Italy contacted me and our communication from then on was frequent, I think even three mails on the first day. Communication with Russia on the other hand side was a real disappointment. Tsar Jim wrote only two lines with every mail and took his times of silence. That was when I decided to side with Italy. Now that I was quite convinced to have some breathing space in the west I became more ambitious. Since my targets had to lie east somewhere, why not try to hinder T and R in their advance diplomatically. One build for each of them was maximum they should get and so I started working. I allied with Italy and Germany and contacted both of them with the idea of a central power tripple alliance. It didn't take long and we had the details worked out. Now Germany agreed to bounce Russia in Sweden in case Russia entered Galicia. I tried to lure Russia into Galicia by promising not to move there while of course ordering the invasion. Turkey got a few invitations to try to move to Greece in A01, but that was still a long time to go. In the west I tried to help Eduard in keeping a F-S alliance from forming.
A pretty long description of pre-spring, but it was a lot of work. From now on everything will be shorter.
Between S01 and A01 The Beginning of a wonderful friendship
The opening of our alliance worked out very well. Maybe there were still a few doubts on the side of the others, but I tried to work them out. This season the Sultan made the mistake to forward a message from Russia. It was at least 25 lines long, it would have taken the Tsar 12 messages to Austria to write as much. Without knowing Sultan Konrad handed me with this the ideal tool to conjure the specter of the juggernaut. As I heard from Italy and Germany they also didn't get more lines than I did from the Tsar and so they were shocked when seeing the long correspondence between Russia and Turkey. This of course made clear that Austria had to fight the east and thus will mean no harm to either Germany or Italy. Being harmless is always a great cover and so I hoped the alliance would last. For A01 I expected two builds and agreed with Italy on a fake bounce in Trieste. I hoped for a R-T front building in my direction in order to solidly justify my story about the juggernaut. I dabbled a bit in western politics and seemingly got President Nic a bit confused and angry. But at the same time Eduard and I were able to move the structure towards Scotland attacking France. This was certainly better for Eduard than for me, since if I failed he could always switch the alliance to Scotland, but I hoped for some scottish fleets to be built to give me an ideal handle against Eduard in case he tries to run with the game as in 'The Boxer'. So all was set, roll on autumn.
Between A01 and S02 the battleplans worked out lovely. Russia and Turkey were massing around my border, but seemingly uncoordinated. A russian fleet in Rumania has a serious handicap when suporting inland is considered ;-).
Germany looked on to Sweden and Italy agreed to take a piece of France together with Scotland and Germany. Of course this would move one of his armies from my border which I didn't complain about. I was sure to be able to halt russio-turkish advance, but I didn't know whether I would take something myself. I just gambled and went for Bulgaria. After this turn havoc would be unleashed in the east, but I hoped to be strong enough. Still, inciting a little unrest between Russia and Turkey wouldn't be too bad. I pointed out to Tsar Jim how he would loose centers in the north and needed builds in the south to hold on. I showed him that there was nothing in for him on my land and thus he should concentrate on Turkey.
Between S02 and A02 The monster raises his head
Lovely outcome, Turkey lost Bulgaria and forgot the retreat. From now on Sultan Konrad didn't reply to me anymore, sad story. Tsar Jim started to trust me a little since I hadn't attacked him so far, not even when he entered Galicia or now when he had vacated Rumania and went to BLA. He surely could see that I cooperated with Italy in the west, but he seemed to be convinced that I'd rather stab Italy than him..... I arranged with Italy that he will take the Aegaean Sea and later convoy to turkish homeland. I told to Tsar Jim that he must take Ankara to avoid a disband, while hoping to take Rumania myself. In the west France was in trouble and President Nic wrote me that he felt outmatched and will go back to play non-regular after this game. I wanted to tell him that it was not his fault, but I didn't want to reveal to him all the alliances I knew about since otherwise he might warn King Ally of the secret I-G-A tripple. I hoped for the confusion in the east to last another turn.
Between A02 and S03
Turkey is devastated, Russia has taken Ankara. But Tsar Jim is in trouble himself since Rumania has fallen and the fleet in Ankara can not leave since the Tsar has to fear turkish retribution. I had hoped for this outcome since Russia would be in dire need for all his force now and one fleet locked in Ankara certainly helped me, especially since my invasion of Rumania made my plans clear. I suddenly had to realize that starting with the plans to simply survive I was now at 7 centers in A02, controling the whole Balkans. I had to forge plans what should happen when the east is divided and I will be surrounded by both my allies Germany and Italy. These two were as big as Austria yet, but they were in a tactically sound position. The tripple alliance was about to dominate this game. Now for Russia, attack Galicia.
Between S03 and A03 The thrill ride
This turn brought the most decissive feature of the game. Russia's first NMR. After loosing his unit in Galicia his defensive position was utterly tron appart. Russia was set to fall in just a few turns and everyone knew it. Turkey had guessed wrong in the south and Constantinople was italian. Austrian fleets had entered AEG, as was proposed by Italy. At this stage I was struck by panick. I had hoped for the fight in the south to last longer. Now Turkey was certain to fall this autumn and Russia would only last three turns longer. I had to reconsider the situation now, or else I will be taken by a surprise I-G stab. I decided to be the first to use the knife. Given the compared strenght of Germany and Italy I was almost sure Italy had to be the target. But the decissive fact was that I would have problems ever getting a shot at Italy if he was able to build more than two fleets. I had only one and my port in Trieste is easily sealed by defending austrian units. So I had to strike Italy in order not to be the one to suffer in the later middle or endgame. In this turn I began discussing the matter with Eduard and he agreed to cut Italy out of the alliance in exchange fo Moscow, Warsaw and a twoway draw in the end. We still didn't trust each other fully, but we also knew that none of us would stab except if he was able to win through the stab.
Between A03 and S04 The calm before the storm
I decided to build another army not to raise Italy's suspicion. We agreed to a exchange movement of fleets in the east, sending my fleet through Con to BLA to help Italy attacking Ank and later the fleet should stay there. Turkey was already gone and Russia had chosen to fall into ANARCHY, which made it easier, but didn't change the result that he created by NMR'ing in S03. I decided that the stab should be a rather small one for one center in autumn, but through cover this center then should be used to build a fleet in Trieste, putting me on equal terms with Italy fleetwise.
Between S04 and A04 Hit and run
A stab for Constantinople, the occupation of Sevastopol. Except for Ankara the east is already taken and all my forces are ready to move west. I managed the fleet build in Trieste, but due to Italy taking Marseilles he could stay on five units, bad luck. I for one time also eyed the eastern border, but Germanies underbelly was wellarmored. Eduard knew me well enough to know that I would stab him in case there was even the slightest weakness in his defense, for I had the real chance to run fo the solo now. On the other hand side Eduard might also decide to push against me, since he still has his ally Ally in the north. I decide to trust Eduard and hope he attacks Scotland while asembling my forces to push against Italy. Next stop Venice, Italy had only one defender, not expecting my stab obviously.
The rest
From now on the game was slowly pushing west and watching Germany do the same, both always trying not to outun the other and create suspicion. Between us we had agreed to race it out for Portugal and Spain in case the others won't give in to the twoway draw, but luckily they finally decided to accept their fate in A07.
I must say it was amusing to see how an Austria trying to simply survive managed to be board leader for quite some time. The 'Anschluss' really is powerful especially if Italy moves along, so everyone beware of the central power tripple.
I had the reputation of a ruthless stabber from 'The Boxer' and hoped to overcome this with this game. Unfortunately I ended up to be once again a quick starter and thus looking dangerous once more. This was not what I hoped for, but on the other hand side it was better than being elliminated early as Austria.
About the persons:
King Ally: We didn't have as much contact as you would have deserved and I sincerely hope the game was nice on your side of the board. By the time when I went west we had already decided for different sides of the front. But I think your attack on France and the rest of your diplomacy prove well what a good player you are.
President Nicolas: Greetings my friend. I sincerely apologize for all the doubledealing that you had to endure from my side. I remember well how I robbed you your last nerves when you even asked me not to write to you or to anyone about you anymore. But since you survived despite all odds you will now certainly reconsider whether you were really outmatched. I think you are a player with heart and mind, don't let one game give you a wrong impression. Carry your head up high, you survived the 'Sieben Onslaught' on France. Usually France collapses when Italy, Germany and Scotland come knocking. It was fun to play with and against you. Good luck in later games.
Sultan Konrad: You are certainly an entertaining player and I am convinced that given another scenario you are also an able player. But in this game the odds were against you from S01 adjudication on. Your ellimination in A03 was sad and didn't come easy, but in the end it's the game. Cheers and have fun in other games.
Tsar Jim: Anarchy is certainly not worth more than two lines, like diplomacy with Austria (right?).
King Paolo: Thank you for being my ally and thank you also for all the entertaining mails and discussions while we were still on one side. I am afraid I plaied a bit rough with you in the later game, but as you wrote it is a part of the experience. I one time really hoped it would have been Eduard to make the mistake and the two of us going for him, but it wasn't. I am gald to one time have plaied you and will do so any time again.
Kaiser Eduard: What new can I say that wasn't written after 'The Boxer'. Dangerous, intelligent and always with the game. This time we were allies, last time enemies. But seeing how well armed we kept the eastern stalemate line this game I am not quite sure what I prefer. It was gret to meet you again and I enjoied every moment of it. But now I need a break from you Sir. Not that I am scared, but two games are enough. You are on the waiting list again, that means I will wait until your game starts before I sign up. Maybe later we meet again, there is still the need to avenge 'The Boxer'. For all other players who meet him. He will write to you, he will move along with your plans, but only to see his own fullfilled in the end. So be careful, you might be mislead sooner than you anticipate it.
The High and Mighty GM Andy Scott: A great job by this gentleman and certainly not the easiest, given the computer problems in the end. Quick and faultless adjudications and a clear GM'ing style, all a player could wish for. I hope I was able to entertain you a little with the preludes, but now I have to go and get this Borg-Gear off my body!
Except for the NMR's a really good game. Even though I am not fully objective in this matter I'd also say a played on a fairly high level. All in all a great experience. I would be glad to meet most players again, another time another map.
with all the best wishes,
Martin II, Emperor of Austria-Hungary
Return to Top
SCOTLAND (Ally Bain) First & foremost what a good game even if it didn’t end in my favour, so thanks to you all & most importantly to Andy.
In the pre-spring ’01, I was very cautious of whom to ally with. When playing that island you know France & Germany can be all over you fairly early in the game. Due to that I suggested the three-way alliance. The pair of them seems interested however you’re sure that one of them, if not both, would attack you first. Obviously the one country to worry more about is France but I decided to say my opening move to the pair.
The moves seemed to work in my favour & seeing a stand-off in Bur I asked them both what happened? The answer was different & due to diplomacy, I thought I have a good alliance with Germany.
When Russia went into anarchy or at that time NMRd, I would have stabbed Germany but I felt my units weren’t in the best place to move on from there & I decided not to attack.
I completely miss-read the previous set of orders & equally miss-typed my next orders, which practically stopped my growth. Even though I regret my screw-up, it’s true to say that Germany out-matched my movements, so well done.
Well done Austria & Germany as you deserve it. In closing, I hope we’ll meet up in another game as the e-mails between us were good fun.
All the best
Ally
P.S. Andy, from one Scot to another, I hope I’ll not have to walk down the plank due to the remiss of our country.Return to Top
FRANCE (Nicolas Demers) Well, I've never written any end game statements before so here goes nothing!
Ah, my first game of dip as a regular on this site, and my first game by e-mail as well! (not counting the one as a newcomer as there were so many drop-outs we decided to draw between everyone so we could move on to other games!).
I had just finished my previous game and decided to join another as a regular, Konrad did the same and I was happy to see a familiar face in the crowd.
I draw France, great! A good defensive country to learn the ropes with this imposing growd. Oh this is going to be a painfull game... The first e-mail I get is from Eduard and informs me he is allied with Ally and wants to know were I stand... Do I want to be in and form a 3 way alliance? Sure... better then dying I guess, but I do it without enthusiasm, as I sens Ally and Ed are much closer to each other then with me. The first hint to me was Eduard wanting so bad a bounce in Burgundy, wich I didn't really want but accepted. So I order a conditional build of an army in Paris if Ally lands in Belgium with an army, which sure enough he did :o)
The following is simply me desperatly crying and sending empty threats to everyone, wich every player took at it's face value, witch is really just worthless! Looking back, I really should have tryed rebuilding alliances instead of coocooning myself, but with 3 vultures cicling me I wasen't too enthusiastic about the game anymore. I just concentrated in defending as best as I could and kept my head down.
Sure enough, my defences were quickly cut down to shreds, as I made a few mistakes, like not retreating my MAO fleet! wich doomed me to a much quicker death.
On a final note, I must say I am very thankfull to Ally and Paul. I could never have survived without you guys as long as I did. Specially Ally, you could have concentrating on saving yourself but made a nice gesture in keeping me alive just to get the symbolic Survived status, I apreciated it. Paul, I was never really angry at you :) It was just venting anger. As for Eduard, you keeping me alive was more self-motivated then altruistic, but thank you nonetheless :)
I hope I play with some of you in the futur, as it was a great learning experience for me to play with such a rich bunch. Next time, I will try to be more of a challenge :o)
Andy, thank you for beeing an outstanding GM, you always adjucated quickly and cheerfully, I couldn't have asked for better.
Cheers guys,
Nic
Return to Top
GERMANY (Eduard Van Dijk) EGS Sieben - Germany
For writing my EGS I normally take a look on all the played seasons to recapitulate my plans, ideas, intentions, stabs en decisions. However, on the site I was not able to recover all the seasons so I now need to do this by heart...
First time I played Germany. I think it is a good country to start with. You must do a lot of talking, but to me this was the challenge. I was happy to find Martin as my Austrian neighbor. I knew him from The Boxer, and although he was maybe keep to get revenge on me, I also knew that he is the kind of player who really is into negotiating. Thus I figured that if I would do a lot of talking with him, it could turn out well for me. Paul in Italy also seemed to be happy to be able to negotiate peace in the Center of the board and so we were able to form a Triple alliance.
In the West things were less clear. Nic was not very eager to make enemies quickly and Ally seemed to regard Germany more as a treat than France. I too would have better liked to get rid of England rather than France. But as it turned out, Ally was somewhat firmer in his actions than Nic was and so I decided to go along with Ally rather than Nic. In the east, Austria and Italy performed the Lepanto with great skill, helped by Russia being incommunicado far too often and Turkey not really negotiating..It was A&I against T&R, with Russia not talking and also annoyed by me . I could bully him out of Galicia and Bohemia and still deny him Sweden. Thus things in the East turned out well..a bit too well for my liking especially since Martin took the most out of the Lepanto..Paul what went wrong? I know Martin has a sharp tongue but surely you could have demanded more.also since I did try a few times to encourage this. I think you should have made it a BIG deal earlier on. I saw things coming so I already approached Martin to drop Paul out of the Alliance.
But how about my own progression? Working together with England requires a lot of trust. I already had to trust Austria quite a lot. For me the risk of Austria and England getting together was a huge treat. But Austria still had to stab Italy, so I thought I still had some time.
Working together with Ally was great. We had a lot of trust. But if I had gone along with him, I had to stab Austria..this was I think far too difficult. Austria has a very solid defense; especially after swapping up Turkey and Russia. Doing nothing and playing along with Ally would probably mean Ally gaining a lot and probably stabbing me later to win solo. With all those Scottish fleet I could not get out.
So I felt as if I had no other option that to stab Ally. And when I did I was lucky! Very lucky indeed..but still I feared Martin stabbing me and so I felt as if I was playing with fire...and that is why I took the stalemate position. I really feared Martin moving against me.For example taking Moskow.after which Warsaw is not to be defended. Martin: I think that if you had done so just one turn before I took Ukraine, you would have very good chances to win solo! Ally would not trust me again and I would have been sandwiched between Austria and England, with Italy being crippled and France more dead than alive.
But I guess Martin had already decided to go for the two way draw. I had some thoughts on going for a solo, but this was not realistic as if I had tried to do so, the game would have ended in a 5-way draw. Thanks for playing guys! I really enjoyed it and I learned from it to write PRESS more often...and I will!
And thanks to you Andy for GMming this one...,still interested to play one more game of Chess?
Return to Top
ITALY (Paul Yovich) This will be shorter than I would have liked - but time and work pressure prevent me from saying more.
The first thing I will say is that all the warnings I had read about what a fine player Martin is were true - he completely outplayed me in this game. Once I had made my early decision to throw in my lot with him instead of trying to help Jim Baron carve him up, he managed to keep me as an ally, anticipate and thus talk me out of stabbing him, persuade me to continue accepting less than my full share and ultimately manoeuvre me into a position from which I was unable to defend myself when he stabbed me.
Martin, you were superb and I feel no shame being outplayed by you. For the rest, I thought Eduard also played very soundly - he did not have to display the same diplomatic skills against me that Martin did, but he plainly outplayed the northern and western powers, Ally was a friendly communicator but we were never able to do enough together, I felt Nick and Konrad were a bit out of their depth (not that I can talk!) and I felt Jim never put in the diplomatic effort to get me onside. Well done to the winners, and to Nic for surviving for so long with so little.
And thanks to (almost) all of you for a game played in good spirit
Return to Top
GM (Andy Scott) In many ways I'm sorry to see the back of Sieben, for me it was entertaining right from the word go! Several of you were kind enough to share your thoughts with me about the games progress, a special mention must go to Martin's preludes which quite often had me laughing out loud.
The Press was exceptional and I need to thank all of you who contributed. To my mind press is one of the most underused tools of a diplomat and beyond that it can really add the overall enjoyment factor. I would hope that if there is one lesson that you all take away from this game then that is it? I know Eduard has :-)) Just so you know several people outside of the game were following it purely becaus eof the press and a couple of GM's were asking me about how to encourage better press in their own games, I feel I can take little credit for your press however with the sole exception of some nifty cutting and pasting!!!
Of course the one black spot was Jim's Anarchy which did affect the game in a fairly major way. To be honest I don't believe it would have changed the result though, I just think it would have taken Martin and Eduard a couple more years to get everybody to accept the inevitable? There were few NMR's and with the exception of Russia your all forgiven :-)
In terms of personal profiles,
Martin, I believe you played an outstanding game, your diplomacy was what got you the draw. Not that your tactics were bad but your diplomacy was better.
Ally, I grant your wish and rename the bloody country, hack the adjudication software and change your capital. What was my reward? To watch you march Scotland into the ground! I don't know why I bother!!! Seriously though yet another solid performance with few mistakes.
Nic, you have my sympathy. I don't believe you made any tactical mistakes but you were surrounded by one of the most accomplished pack of liars it has ever been my pleasure to watch over.
Eduard, your strategy and tactics were faultless although a wee bit conservative perhaps? I felt there was a couple of times when you could have made big gains had you taken the risks? They may even have got you the solo? Still a good solid 2-way draw is not to be sniffed at and you deserve it, although I now think I have a much better understanding of how your mind works which should hopefully give me an advantage when next we play chess???
Paul, I know from personal experience that it is not easy to play Italy in a game were your allied with Austria and I felt that you should have stood up for equal shares a bit more. That said Martin can be a silver tongue demon when he wants to and this game he was really on form. I don't know how much experience you've had but I would hazard the opinion that the experience of Sieben will help you in your games to come?
Jim, Less said the better!
Konrad, Tough game for you as well mate. I got the impression you were the person most hurt by Russia never eally getting into the game and with him joining Italy and Austria in attacking you, I think you did well to last as long as you did! If you change your mind about sending an EGS then let me know and I'll add it to the rest.
Well that's it apart from the thanks for making this such a good game to GM I've enjoyed it tremendously and I look forward to meeting you all again as either GM or player!
Cheers,
AndyReturn to Top
|