ADCT01 Game C, Fall 1910 Moves

[reismark]

Originally posted by El Awrence
Was it that dastardly orange? Was it that backstabbing orange that I will make juice out of??? Not the ONE orange, the other orange!

He shall remain unnamed

[Dr. Nick]

IT WAS IT WAS IT WAS THAT SONOFA***** I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!!!!

[RUFFHAUS 8]

Austria- Hungary EOG

Wow, this game was a wild ride! Defiant was giving me a hard time about the 'easy' draw I got, but I think this game as tough as any of the four preliminary games. Specifics to follow...

Thanks first of all to SnowFire for another excellent job as GM. The website was a wonderful touch, and having access to the archived turns and maps was really great. As Reismark has mentioned elsewhere, the Boshkovian mapping style isn't exactly money, but they work well enough. I don't really like the use of the power rankings and GM speculation, but I gotta admit it's fun reading. It's a bit of a double-edged sword really. Anyway, another great job in the GM chair as we've come to expect from Snowie.

On to the game. I honestly think that this has been the most challenging Diplomacy game that I've played in at Apolyton. I was allied to and at odds with every player on the map at one point or another, which is not a typical game for me. The draw of Austria-Hungary wasn't concerning to me as much as the three players around me were. I had Chazzy in Russia, and he and I had never been able to work together before, and got off to a rocky start in this game after a botched alliance attempt. In Turkey I had Taurus. How appropriate a name is that?! This guy is a real bull! Negotiating with him is like pulling teeth. And he's tricky as hell. I knew that I needed to take him out fast. And on the other side of me is the mysterious His Divine Shadow. Coug in Germany wanted peace, which I was happy to give, but I worried that he wouldn't last long, and knew that I needed to stand by just incase he started crumbling.

To start the game I decided on Turkey as an enemy, and sought an alliance with Russia. And fortunately I was able to capatalize on an apparently pre-existing fued between HDS and El Awrence to buy some time till I could cripple Turkey. HDS and I worked out a nice non-agression pact, but Chazzy and I stalled in deciding how to take out Taurus, who did an admirable job hanging on and trying to dip is way out of trouble. I had a falling out with Chazzy over my move to Galicia, which was with his consent, and only made to destroy retreating turks. But almost immediately all that could be talked about was that it was next to Warsaw. We went round and round over this, and I decided that Chazzy would never trust me. I went to Italy and and Turkey for new prospective partners. HDS was happy to accept my deal. Or was he? He said yes, but apparently was only using it as a chance to stab, which came soon. Taurus was damn difficult even when I was offering peace. I was was getting nervous here. and then HDS stabbed for Trieste. I was about to have three enemies. Even worse news came from the north where my German friends went into hibernation, and got whacked by England and France. Time for some action, fast!

I went to HDS, and asked for peace, offering to allow him to keep Trieste for an indefinate period if he would continue with his western campaign. He agreed, and offered to release Trieste back eventually. Actually I was hoping that this alliance would take off, because Italy had two fleets in the Atlantic Ocean and England and France were going to have to deal with them soon. And then somehow, I managed to talk Chazzy into an alliance again and we took out Taurus. I took Trieste back unannounced (well, it's my home SC anyway!) and starting dictating terms to HDS, who was getting hammered by E/F. It was a miscalculation on my part, because I didn't want to cripple Italy.

Things with Russia began stalling again though, and while things were safe, the alliance was not making progress. Along about this point I accepted support from England into Munich, and began talking to Reismark about alliance that would take our respective nations through. At the same time I swas trying to court France and pint him at Engand. However, it became evident that the England/France relationship was tighter than anything either would have with me. So I went back to Italy and Russia and decided to take it to E/F.

Reismark and El Awrence played a fantastic alliance game and while they bickered a little, they shut down any solo drive I had. Seeing this I decided that I needed Chazzy alive, and resisted urges to blitz southern Russia and his share of Turkey. Somewhere HDS threw in with France, and I rubbed him out for his folly!

At the end I was making some naval progress against France, but England was sailing to the rescue, and breaching the Atlantic was looking impossible. If the game continued, I would have taken Tunis in Fall 1910, which would put me at 14. However, if I attacked Russia, then I lost his support of Munich. Even though Chazzy had the 4 SCs that I needed to solo, and I could guarantee taking them all, I couldn't hold Munich without him. Incidentally the key SCs here were Marseilles, Munich, and St. Petersburg. Moscow was mine for the taking, because England simply had too few armies to take it and nothing to hold it with even if they did slip in.

Marseilles - shut down with French units in Gascony providing uncut support, and with the Atlantic closed down was a lost cause.
Munich - dependent on Russian units
St. Petersburg - while held by English fleets, it could always be supports with at least two other fleets, whos support I couldn't cut.

Anyway, great job guys! This was a battle to the end, with the outcome riding on one or two centers at every turn. There was lots of intrigue and alliance switching, and yet what held the day in the end was staying true to alliances.

[Defiant]

I just want to say, that anybody who has Chazzy as a neighbor has a leg up on the game from the get-go!

[reismark]

Originally posted by SnowFire
Okay, game's over folks. Post your EOGs (if you want), I'll add in a brief GM EOG in a few days, I suppose.

Where is this? Personally, I'd like to see what you thought about this game...

[Dr. Nick]

Oh, I'd forgotten my EOG... will post it after lunch.

[SnowFire]

Reismark: Well, I was going to post it after everybody else did so, and then the thread dropped down and I forgot... but anyway, Hoggy can have the floor now, and I'll be sure to write something after he posts his thingermajig.

[orange]

Originally posted by El Awrence
IT WAS IT WAS IT WAS THAT SONOFA***** I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!!!!

[Dr. Nick]

I knew it! I knew it! Reismark, don't let orange aka Yuri control your mind with his evil tricks!

In any case, this was an interesting game. I hammered out that alliance with reismark at the start and we seemed to be doing good progress (bah, excellent progress) picking out Germany. But I was always under the long shadow of Britain that was cast south, I couldn't break through in the strategic race for a better position with Britain.

I was particularly surprised that it worked so well at first, particularly because communications with reismark were not as fluent as I would have liked, but still, it held out. But THEN, he just had to sharpen that blade, after helping him out against Italy, when we were ready to take on Austria Hungary and its evil Ruffhaus, he just had to take the steel and drive it into my... thigh. Because after that I only wanted to drive reismark off the map, I threw myself at Ruff after he double crossed me too... So I offered myself as Ruff's lackey and asked him that he could do whatever he wanted with me, so long as I could get back at reismark...

But reismark saw his error, and I smiled benevolently upon his countenance, so we took on the evil Austrian commies and well, here we are. Although I'm afraid that Ruff could have broken through in a couple of turns out of the Medit and finished me.

Still, thanks gentlemen, yet another excellent game. Yet another big knife. Yet another big Vendetta.