I will get the ball rolling:
DC211: The Day the Earth Broke Open!
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EOG for Austria:
400 saved messages over 8 months of play; that is about average for my games, but most of those messages were between me and one other player -- less diplomacy than normal, but alliances were formed fairly quickly which accounts for that.
My game looked to be a breeze from Day 1 when I received an email from Eduardo (Turkey) asking about rules for Seismic. I smiled broadly as I realized that I'd have free reign over the Southern half of the board. Then the clouds rolled in as he backed out and was replaced by Mark. But as I said to Trout before Spring 1901: "This game will probably boil down to the more "active" Diplomacy players" meaning me, Trout, Steve, and Matt. How good was that prediction? Excuse me while I step out to buy a few hundred Lottery tickets!
Realizing that Turkey would be a non-factor in this game, I tried to set up an RAI alliance before Spring 1901. Gregory and Steve jumped on board immediately. Now we all now Pengers reputation
, so Italy and I began talks on our own to cover a Russian stab. Those talks continued on right up until the day I stabbed Italy in Fall 1906. The time was right and I needed the builds -- no hard feelings GB! We will work together again, I am sure!
The basic strategy of RAI was to eliminate Turkey quickly and force our way North through Germany and keep control of the Med. I believe we accomplished all those goals, except the "quickly" for Turkey. 1906 elimination? What? Steve and I spent much too long taking Turkey out when we should have been holding back the English.
The final struggle in the Med was one of the most exciting strategic battles I have ever had in a Diplomacy game. Thank you for the good fight Matt! My one thought throughout the entire battle was "if only I had *1* more seismic to use"; the battle was that close, an extra seismic for either of us and it would have been over. Well played!
A short EOG because one alliances were set, the strategies never varied. Overall, though, if we had not incurred a couple of mis-cues in orders, we would have been in a 4-way tie. So the strategy seems fine; the execution needs more work.
Thanks all for a lively Seismic game, and thanks to Adam for being a generous and patient GM. Seismic is now my favorite 7-person Dip variant (favorite is 2-player Duel!) and I look forward to the next game.
Mike Hoffman---------
"Shared Pain is lessened, Shared Joy is increased" --- Spider Robinson
"Whenever some act of wondrous power must be performed, Michael is sent" --- Pope Saint Gregory the Great
