Domination(46) Solo by Ruffhaus8

[Defiant]

Ruffhaus8,
Congrats on the solo and it was a well played game throughout, finally glad to end a world map with less than 8 players remaining. Italy was all but a memory, sorry Orange1-not your fault, you picked it up and did well for as long as you could. Iain and Napoleon(Du chateau) probably lost interest because the outcome was becoming enivitable, although if they stood together, with Russia, it could have been a different outcome.

Gerwald,
I think conceding now, all you did was save time and energy, with Columbia and France NMR'ing almost every chance, it was only a matter of time before Japan one.

EOG's welcomed!
Survivors
Japan Ruffhaus8 Solo
Russia Gerwald
France Du Chateau
Columbia Iain
Italy Orange 1

Thank you for all who played the game, it was enjoyable.

[RUFFHAUS 8]

Japan EOG

I guess I have to start with the EOGs. It's hard to remember much of the opening game strategy since the game started a year ago. On a large map like this I decided that I wanted to seek out several regional alliances, and then as the game moved into midgame pick and choose which alliance was working best and go with that as a primary partnership.

My choices as Japan for initial regional allies were Gerwald (Russia) and Napoleon (France). However this was not enough. I explored potential alliances with ScottF (USA) and Snowfire (Australia), but in each case I was rebuffed. I did manage to negotiate a turnover of the Philippines for early peace with the USA, but there wasn't any alliance or cooperation forming, just an armistice.

In view of the failure to secure an alliance with my first and second choices in the Pacific, I approached Talon (Colombia) and Boshko (Mexico) about a plan to organize moves in the Pacific against the USA and Australia. Hell, if these guys weren't with me they must be working against me. Both of these guys were into an alliance, and I figured that if I helped them along a little, that I'd have a good setup while containing potential enemies.

In Asia Russia surrendered his coastal supply centers to me for peace and pledged to remain a land power in the eastern theater. We agreed to carve China up while he moved in on Persia and India (England). Russia was also going to be satisfied manhandling Germany and England in Europe, and that left us with a back to back alliance early on. I offer my apologies to poor Shadowstrike, who got pummeled mercilessly, primarily by me. By the time we talked I already had alliances that offered far more that you were capable of.

In Southeast Asia, France was a tremendous ally. Our relationship was mutually beneficial, and France grew to an impressive midgame lead. France also was a key ally in breaking down Australia's lock on Indonesia and the South Pacific. Since the USA was refusing to assist me in attacking Australia (and vice versa), I knew that I need to stay allied with France. And I quickly assembled a powerful navy while quietly propping up the occasional army in my continental home SCs. I knew that I might have to fight against Scott and SnowFire at one point. Again here I needed Napoleon’s France.

The above situation put me in a bind. Early on (after the fall of China) both of my primary allies (Russia and France) were pressuring me to fight the other one. If the Pacific scene had been more stable OR if the Mexico/Colombia angle had worked I might have been very tempted. Still I think I was right to wait, but this pressure came turn after turn, and was reaching a very annoying stage. I actually considered accepting their offers and then attacking both nations in response, but now I had way too much going on in the Pacific to get involved in that.

In the Americas there was a major breakdown because Boshko disappeared and his replacement Iain had other plans for Colombia. Iain jumped all over Talon’s Mexico, which in turn benefited the USA, and in the absence of any alliance with an American power, I sought out a new agreement with Colombia. Iain was more receptive to this and for a few years things were smooth. I agreed to abandon the lost cause of Talon and launched a surprise invasion of the United States with a series of convoy maneuvers. I didn’t like stabbing Scott, who wasn’t threatening me at all, but I needed to grow, and he refused my offers of alliance. Once I drew the blade though, I had to finish the job.

Unfortunately Iain grew nervous and started cutting my supports of my Pacific fleet’s maneuvers which jeopardized my ability to act against Australia and the USA. I asked him about this several times and tried to negotiate a solution, but we didn’t get anywhere. I considered trying to help Brazil, but El Awrence was wrecked by this time.

All this meant that I needed France even more, and eventually we broke down SnowFire’s stubborn resistance and Australia fell. But Gerwald was constantly pressuring me to stab Napoleon, and vice versa. This nightmare continued. Both players seemed unwilling at the midgame stage to discuss a triple alliance of France-Japan-Russia. After one incident I asked each player what he saw as the future outcome of our alliance and the game. Gerwald was talking game lone alliance with a draw, while Napoleon brashly stated that he intended to solo. Now I admit, I play every game to win too, and solos are sweet. But on these huge maps they really seem like unrealistic goals. And while I might secretly covet one, I never state this to my allies when we are operating on a relatively equal footing. For example with Gerwald, even to the end of this last turn I never stated to him that I was chasing a solo.

Anyway, Napoleon’s stance on this forced my hand. I hit France hard and kept coming. I thought that after all this that I had Gerwald’s Russia with me too. But then Napoleon got to Gerwald and pleaded and begged, and offered God knows what to Russia, but it worked. Russia either completely halted his attack on France just as it started up. For years I tried to get Gerwald to live up to the fight that he urged me to take on. Once you get that Juggernaut going, it’s hard to turn around. Add to that, the fact that both Scott and Napoleon took the stabs so personally that neither (to this day) will talk to me about anything. Napoleon eventually quit this game, because he refused to make peace with Italy, even to save himself, and was facing certain defeat and ruin to his once massive empire.

Speaking of Italy, The Orange_1 deserves major recognition for taking on the ruined and abandoned position (thanks Polaris!) and hanging on against impossible odds. Well done. I tried to get to a point where we could work together, but I admire you for turning down my proposal and standing on the honor of opposing a solo at all costs.

In the end I was pushing hard to win by solo. I could have done it faster by hammering Russia, but I wanted to honor my end of the bargains with Gerwald. He had ceded a lot of land to Japan on the Pacific coast and had kept most of his promises. I guess this is my claim to some sliver of the high moral ground. I basically said that I’m going to solo if I can, but I will not take Russian centers away. I’ll race him to the end, and if he wins we draw.

The NMRs by Colombia and France at the end were unfortunate, but I wasn’t really making much ground on them or planning on them. All of my moves were designed to succeed or cut support allowing other orders to succeed or positions to be held. What I’m saying was that I didn’t want to win because these guys were bored and forgot to turn in moves. I wanted the tactical challenge. But then again once I landed an army in Africa, it was really a forgone conclusion. I had a convoy pipeline to Africa, another reforming to the Americas, and was about to start filtering fleets up the West African coast into the Atlantic. I also had the drop on the Suez Canal, and access to the Mediterranean Sea.

Anyway, enough blather. Thanks to all who played. There were several admirable performances logged by several players (Orange_1, Gerwald, Snowfire, Iain, and Napoleon). All of you guys had your moments. And last but not least, thank you to Defiant for laboring long and hard on the adjudications. This map can be a real serious headache in the later seasons when the lines are all locked up. His work should be appreciated by us all. Thanks Yankee, even if you did paint that big target on my ass, coloring my units and territory jet black (instead of the original yellow), renaming my nation “THE JAPANESE BLACK MARAUDERS,” and egging all the others against me…. Yeah, thanks!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to comments from the rest of you all.

[SnowFire]

Hmm, I forget if I wrote an EOG when I was defeated. Oh well, a few quick comments.

Thanks for the compliment RUFFHAUS, but while this game may have panned out reasonably well tactically for myself, it was an utter disaster on the diplomatic front. Mostly my fault too, as it was around a year ago when the amount of time I spent diploming got cut roughly in third. You're somewhat right about my position- I was completely opposed to you at first because Japan is a ridiculously strong position and a major competitor for control of the Pacific, along with the USA. I wanted to get rid of both of you. Unforutnately, Napoleon was semi-willing to ignore me but not really to work with (and he eventually turned on me of course once his alliance with Japan was finalized) and Britain was downright hostile from the start, though mostly ineffective. That left... pretty much nobody.

RUFFHAUS, don't forget that you did "try" to work with me. I don't know if it was all an act from the beginning, but you played very un-alliancical moves and generally gave me a very bad feeling, but you did your work in pleading with me to give an alliance a shot (since most of our games previous we'd been at each other's throats), and I was guilted enough to play neutral moves for a turn, when you moved in closer, so I played aggresive bounces, and you decided I wasn't honoring the bargain, and if there was an attempted alliance here it definitely never worked. But it doesn't matter too much anyway, because
A) If I had distrusted you from the start, it would have taken an extra year to defeat me. Big deal. You had more stuff.
B) If your alliance offer had been genuine and I had worked with it better, it most likely would have been temporary. Australia and Japan are pretty much implacable enemies without a strong USA- there's really only room for one major Pacific power. If we trusted each other enough for, say, my fleets to go to Indonesia/SE Asia and yours to Western USA, as soon as the conquest was finished, there would be a huge temptation to walk in on the ally's unguarded islands.

Anyway, once Napoleon turned on me, it was all over. A 3 SC power can only hold off massive powers if they're distracted, and once they focused a bit... I wish Napoleon allied with me though. I hoped he'd realize that his gains against me would be a lot more tenuous and vulnerable to stabbing. But no matter now.

Good game to all. I didn't really pay enough attention to the rest of the board to comment intelligently, but oh well.

[the_orange1]

First of all, congratulations to Ruffhaus for the solo - everyone could see the result coming for years and it's nigh-impossible to solo on such a big map. And to Defiant for GMing - I still haven't built up the courage to GM a world map yet!!

I took over Italy when it was in a really bad state, but I was new to PBEM diplomacy and wanted to get started as soon as possible. I was under attack from Britain and France who were on the verge of finishing me off, with only an alliance with Turkey to give me any hope. I dipped my ass off for the first few turns, persuading first Britain to make peace - I had to take this opportunity to stab because I had nowhere to grow and it was successful - Britain lost all its African possessions, I got a few key SCs that I held pretty much till the end and now I only had one major enemy to deal with, France. From a wider perspective, the stab probably did France more good than me, and hastened the destruction of Britain in Europe.

France then became the target for a few attacks elsewhere and I was able to get peace while his attention turned to the US and Europe. I then teamed up with Turkey to block the steadily advancing Russians, but Turkey was losing the battle on his eastern border and I realised that Russia would soon swallow all his SCs. This prompted me to talk to Russia and come to an arrangement that would see me stab my old ally, something I still feel bad about. But it was either that or let Russia take all his SCs.

At that point, I was feeling quite pleased with the way things were going, but unfortunately I was not even allowed a single turn to enjoy my greater presence and consolidate my forces. With troops committed in the east, France saw the opportunity to stab and so began a desperate holding action that lasted till the end of the game.

For the next ten years or so, I spent my time trying to persuade Gerwlad to attack France - this he did for a turn or two, then he turned on me himself and I knew my dreams of empire were over. I couldn't understand why Russia didn't push the advantage against France at that point, but I was just little Italy and didn't have much weight to my argument. On several occassions, Russia promised peace or support but instead kept on attacking me. In my deteriorating position, I had no choice but to trust him and stick to my side of the agreement, only to be betrayed again and again.

When Napoleon left, I saw it as an opportunity to recast relations with France and Russia. I thought it would be obvious to everyone that Japan was becoming unstoppable, so a grand alliance would have made the logical choice to prevent the solo. In response to my suggestions, however, France never even bothered to respond while Russia did his usual, promised to help and then stabbed me (again).

I then gave up trying to talk and just settled down to defend what little I had left, hoping to make it to the end before being destroyed (I believe I deserved at least that). I must admit to being disappointed that we couldn't get our act together against Japan - when someone is so close to a solo, why did I become everyone's favourite target? I don't understand that one, but hell I enjoyed the game anyway. Cheers everyone...

[Defiant]

GM's EOG

First off, congrats Ruffhaus8 and secondly it will be a while before I do A SECOND WORLD MAP, holy crap was it tough adjudicating.

I knew when Ruffhaus8 got Japan there was going to have to be a strong alliance against him and it HAD to include the United States and someone would have to convince Russia as not so much to attack Japan but don't give anything up to him.
But the exact thing that needed to happen the opposit happened, from what I can remember, Japan struck the stongest alliances and gained the upper hand in a matter of a few game years, from there I could predict the outcome. He took enough SC's from Russia to take her teeth away and apparently Russia didn't care. China folded like a deck of cards and it appeared the USA and Australia really never got their alliance footing. France was gaining ground elsewhere and feeling his oats while the groundwork was systematically being set up against him, eventually causing him dismay and quitting the game.

There was a moment when Turkey had stabbed Russia and I thought there might have been a force to recon with Japan cause that would have upset the very much needed alliance with Russia.
But after a few NMR's by our old buddy Lordstone Russia came back with a vengence and hammered Turkey into non-existance.

After that, it was written in granite just a matter of time.

All in all a good game to watch even if predicatability was a given.

Thanks everybody for playing!