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FIGHTINGFORPEACE END-GAME STATEMENTS
GM:
Brian Frew [EGS]
Started: October 2003
Finished: June 2004
Result: Win for France
| Country | Player | 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | Result | | Austria | Ole Jensen | 5 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | Anarchy 1907 | | England | Perry Kester | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | Anarchy 1904 | | France | Andy Jamieson | 6 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 10 | 10 | Won 1908 | | Germany | William Jackson | 5 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 4 | Anarchy 1907 | | Italy | Jeroen Roskam | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | Anarchy 1907 | | Russia | Tobias Andersson | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Anarchy 1907 | | Turkey | Bruno Moraes | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Lost 1907 |
FRANCE (Andy Jamieson) First off I would like to say I was very disappointed in this game and
this
was no fault of Brian, who did everything he could to keep interest in
the game
going. For me, 90% of the interest in the game is communicating with
opponents,
trying to get in their heads and building/destroying alliances. without
this
aspect Dip is a bad game of chess.
I had high hopes for the game when it started, i have never played
france
before and was relishing the opportunity to play a powerhouse after
playing
Italy in my last game. i was also excited to see a good spread of
nationalities
on the board as its always interesting to see how different cultures
approach
diploming. i should say at this point that I take my hat off to all who
conduct
diplomacy in english as a foreign language, you put me to shame.
The players
Didn't know anything about any of the players though Tobias was
starting
another game which I was in, though I'm not keen on russia/france and
prefer
austria generally. Perry seemed likeable and open to communication as
england
and Will seemed open to talk though perhaps a little bullish. I didn't
get a
reply off jeroen which concerned me a bit and Ole was brusque
initially.
Finally Bruno was happy to make a strategic alliance with me.
Strategy
First off I did everything possible to make sure I was not odd one out
in the
west, I wanted first and foremost to keep my borders clearand secondly
to keep
belgium either empty or with me in it, in an ideal world I was hoping
for eng
and ger to go for it and bounce each other so I could pour poison on
the
relationship. I don't remember much more of my strat than that really.
i
planned on flexible builds preferably to give me options to attack
either eng
or germany, whoever looked weakest, fleet Bre was a must and I rather
liked the
idea of an army moving to Bur spring 02 which could switch to Pic or
ruh
depending. I think I possibly made an error of judgement right at the
kickoff
as i tried to play the 'ally to the end' personality with Will, as I
thought he
would rise to that and work with me, judging from events this was not
the case.
1901
Generally went to plan in the west with me grabbing 3 centres 'by
mistake' and
having to build fleet Bre (shame) and army Mar. Italy scared me even
more by
moving to Pie and not building. This was annoying as he had blocked up
my
access to him but looked ready to crumble, i fired off an e-mail
immediately
telling him he threatened me and to withdraw Pie or suffer the
consequence (how
could I walk into rome with his army in the way!). will seemed miffed
at me
getting 3 builds but I explained that it was unintended and His
potential for
growth once I attacked England would outweigh any centre grabbing this
early.
1902
spring was very bad, Will stole into Bel firming him up as my potential
target,
but perry nmr'd as did italy, my flexible moves really worked here
fleet Bre
was looking good to invade england and army bur was applying pressure
to Mun.
With 2 neighbours nmr'ing it made no sense to fight with Will so I
suggested he
retreat from Bel, i leave Mun alone and we split the gifts. Just in
case I
contacted both Italy and england and implored them to continue the
game. They
both agreed and on the understanding that Perry would help me out vs
germany I
waded in. Bel was back in french hands, england looked to have
scandanavia
sealed up and i was at war with germany on my own. things were not
going to
plan. In the east austria and turkey were making short work of russia
so I had
to move fast.
1903
By now i had firmed up my alliance with Bruno and we were clear that a
germano-austrian alliance was forming. We arranged to try and disrupt
this as
much as possible with bribes, pleas, insinuation, ole was certainly
totally
resistant to everything I threw at him, well done. I persuaded Jeroen
to help
me into Munich which I knew would be a shock to Will, to ensure success
i
spread rumours of an attempt on holland and even sent list of my fake
orders to
Perry. There was a cost to this support as I had to pull my fleet out
of med
very reluctantly.
1904
By now I was feeling very confident of victory, germany was slowly
being
crushed, italy was back giving austria a mauling and england was ripe
for the
taking. The east was a mess so nothing to fear from that quarter late
in the
game. all I had to do was keep strong. Then Will suckered me. I still
don't
know how he managed to kick me out of Mun and build kie, he took a huge
gamble
on his orders, which I discounted as if i'd attacked kie with ruh he
would have
lost 2 centres, anyway hat off to him it was a brave move and it
knocked me
back to square one. Perry NMr'd again and so did Bruno, who was really
the only
person talking by this time. i felt it was time to call it a day and
was ready
to propose a draw between france/germany and austria.
1905
Talk about a turnaround year. I started spring with a trench warfare
frame of
mind, I could really hope to achieve little against germany, my ally
turkey was
gone and I wrote to Brian basically saying I was throwing in the towel
and was
happy to call it all a draw. By the end of the year I was confident I
was
breezing towards my first solo, albeit something of a default one. How
did this
happen? First off Will managed to defend very badly and lose 2 centres
in
spring while leaving england still undefended, secondly I persuaded
Bruno that
rather than NMR he could proxy his units to me and I would continue the
good
fight against austria. By autumn I had masterminded the collapse of
austria at
the hands of Italy and russia and Will had lost the fight and NMR'd.
1906
I'm writing this in 1906 so I don't know who will NMR again but i'm
assuming
Germany and austria will. My intention is to jump Jeroen before either
england
or germany are finished off, hopefully he will heading full on into
austria by
then if my lies work. I shall see if I can persuade Bruno to return as
I don't
kow what to do with turkey. Do I just muddle around helping france to a
solo or
do I defend perfectly against the assault as I know what france will
do. I had
expected to simply claim a 2 way draw between france and turkey but at
the time
I wasn't expecting 3 builds and easily 6 more that turkey could not
prevent..
Moral decisions are so hard, it's lucky I have none, i'll take the win.
1907
The expected NMR's appear and the game is over to all intensive
purposes. I
propose a win for france in the hope of getting agreement before
Tobias, the
final player anarchies. Its a real shame as i'm going to end up getting
so few
points for this solo that I might as well have not bothered playing, I
wish I
had proposed the solo in 1904, at least it might of spurred others into
action.
I usually sum up with a few words about each player but today I just
can't be
bothered. It just really is not that much effort to write a set of
orders, I
managed it every season even though my girlfiend had a baby during the
game.
To Bruno, I say thanks for the game and I hope we shall play again
under less
trying circumstances.
To Tobias, Good luck next time and a word of advice for future games,
I would
suggest being nicer diplomatically at the start of games, and
compensating with
more aggressive opening moves.
To Brian, Thanks for the effort. I'm sure you are more disappointed
than I as
you put all the effort in. I do have one suggestion for you, which is a
lazy
player thing, I find it a lot easier to follow whats going on when the
occupied
territories are coloured to the owner powers as the game evolves.
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GM (Brian Frew) One of the poorest games I have GMed on the site I am sorry to say. Apathy amongst the players was rife and Andy reaped the rewards with an easy win. I hope the active players go on to have much better games in future.Return to Top
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