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WWIV Game End - IL Solo! - MattTheLesser (Jul 26, 2009, 2:29 pm)

Hey guys,

First off I want to thank Mike for running this colossal game; I can
only imagine how much more time consuming this must have been than GMing
a normal game, and yet Mike still managed to get the turns published
fairly quickly.

The fate of the game, at least in North America, was definitely set
rolling by the formation of the United States alliance, which included
the US, Illinois, California, and Texas. Although I didn't fully
appreciate how great of a situation this was for me at the time, I did
recognize that getting a port as quickly as possible was important, and
this alliance allowed me to do this. I was able to expand quickly by
moving on Quebec with the US and on Canada with help from California.
Because my allies had to focus on the seas as well, most of these spoils
fell to me, and I was able to put fleets bearing the flag of my
initially landlocked nation in two oceans.

It was right about this time that Texas stabbed California, which gave
California and I all the incentive we needed to take him out. Mexico
helped us here when he probably shouldn't have, but he was a replacement
and I don't think realized that Cali and I would just continue south
through him, but that was what we did.

Now all this time of course the situations on other continents were
working themselves out, and the stalemate lines were beginning to form
in the oceans. I consistently attempted to broker an agreement with
powers on other continents (as I grew bigger this took place more and
more through my allies as other powers stopped talking to me), but was
never able to work something out because both sides always demanded that
the other stab their allies first.

Eventually Cali, the US, and I were the only powers left in North
America, and we were stalemated with Catholica/the UK in the Atlantic,
Brazil in the Caribbean, and Sichuan/Philippines in the Atlantic. Now
the reason I had never stabbed Cali or the US was that they were holding
the lines in the seas and preventing other powers from reaching our
continent. But when Oceania joined the Asians and turned on Cali, Cali
was no longer able to hold up his end of the bargain, so I decided that
my best course of action was to stab Cali and try to get my units to the
coast before the invaders could land.

I made the decision to tell the US about this decision in advance
because I knew that he and Cali had an agreement to move on me should I
move on either of them; this turned out to be a very good decision as
the US agreed to not uphold this deal as he understood that he was too
fleet heavy to fight me, and an end to our cooperation would only result
in both of us losing ground to Catholica and Brazil.

Now I know that some of you were unhappy with Andrew's play at the end,
where it seemed that he let me run him over for the solo. However, you
should direct your unhappiness mostly at me, as Andrew didn't have many
options. I told him I was going to move on him in an attempt to force
other powers to negotiate with him; should he have been able to work
something out that would have allowed expansion for both of us, I would
not have kept my word and not finished the stab. However, no one was
willing to yield anything to stop me, so I went for the solo. And the
reason the US never tried to stop me is that I promised him I would
ensure he would record a survival, which he did. Had he turned on me,
he almost surely would have been eliminated by Catholica and me.

Other players have commented that some of the ocean spaces are too big
and stalemates lines too easily formed; I definitely agree with this,
although having looked at past games on this map I noticed that those
stalemate lines influenced this game much more than the others, probably
because of the strong alliances that formed early on each continent.
Also, this game had a much higher victory requirement than previous
games, which gave the lines more time to form. I think that the lower
victory requirement is probably a better way to play this game. Also,
just as a note to Mike, I don't think a clause in the victory
requirement that requires a certain lead is a good idea. That said, I
would love to play the map again whenever the numbers can be organized
again.

Thanks again to all and especially Mike,
Matt