As for my EGS - thanks to Michael for running this throughout and putting up with my last minute ordering  

For an EGS...whew.  Since this game began I've changed my state, job, car, and kept adding animals.  For the lack of diplomacy at far too many points with many of you - my apologies.  I normally try to remain more involved, and having gone into 4 simultaneous games while all that was going on didn't help.


But thanks for all for being patient and working with me (or providing opponents to tax my thought!).  


Loved the map, although I'd have liked just a tad more ocean space - just divide ATL, PAC, TON, and SAN in half would ya - but thats not a criticism, just a personal preference - packing together like that drew us into conflict and made things mad from the start!


As to the course of the game...initially I looked for allies and found, to my dismay, that everyone was too friendly for me to want to attack outright - so I intended to play it slow.  A promising non aggression pact with Mexico and promises of neutrality from all my neighbors left me in a spot...but not for long.  My worst nightmare came about when South and West Africa pushed off my shores after both agreeing to DMZs - and after I made most of my buildable centers on the west coast.  Point against my logic there.


From there I pretty much planned to go down fighting - until to my amazement, the joint attack didn't materialize and Africa quickly turned towards squabbling.  Naturally I pressed my advantage and took the seas back - and then dithered.  I couldn't decide which I wanted to back, and contact seemed sporadic with both.  Having talked very little to Oceania (my own fault, and sorry about that Frank) I naturally leaned towards Pacific expansion, and I admit that had been my tendency all along.  


But somewhere amongst my in game dithering and real life chaos I saw that China was pushing for footholds in North America and seemed happily allied with, well, everyone but Mexico and North America.  Europe was fast falling and so I figured Mexico was soon to get hit from two sides, after seeing North America slowly get eaten by China.  So I figured, heck - why not see if South America could keep China honest and maybe even lead an attack on him.  I admit I made it a bit of a project to see if I could actively do anything to harm China - from whom I was separated by a big wide ocean.  Didn't hurt that he stabbed Persia...


Well, that worked - my fleets flopped around while I kept switching sides in the African wars, and eventually Mexico had North America and Europe was gone.  I pushed everyone to hit China, and probably independently of my pushing they all did - except for Oceania.  While I liked his tenacity in sticking with his ally...I got frustrated that he wouldn't finish China off.  So I started moving on him with a willing Mexico helping.  About the same time the deal I cut with South Africa to take a couple of his centers in exchange for hitting West Africa took shape, and then a combination of lack of communication from him and my own greedy temptation led me to turn and hit HIM.  


From seemingly certain defeat I somehow was in a dominant position versus three neighbors, and that continued.  I started proposing 4 way draws when it became apparent that Persia and Russia would not fight, and I honestly voted for them every time.  Heck, I'd vote a DIAS at game start if I could actually convince everyone to go for it.  I and Mexico raced Persia for Africa and tried to get Mexico on every continent.  And just as Mexico and I might have actually broken through in Africa and the Indian (was going for CON and IND and hoping to establish the final stalemate line from Egypt - Mumbai) the draw was voted in.


Good playing with you all and I'd be happy to game with you again.  Take care and thanks!


Andrew

On Thu, Jun 18, 2009 at 7:15 PM, F Bielschowsky <bielschowsky.f(at)googlemail.com ([email]bielschowsky.f(at)googlemail.com[/email])> wrote:

Couldn't agree more on the colours!Absolutely enjoyed the game until perhaps 4 turns ago. As another player with only few units left, I kept moving them around trying to postpone the worst. Was surprised how little use was made of the power of the small Powers! Would have made it more interesting, I think. Like Mike said, why did we have to wait until now to get all Aye's on the votes? No substantial gains were made since we started voting.


Oceania seemed to do well while allied with China. From the start Mexico and S-America had picked me as their target. My communication with S-America was polite and straightforward. With Mexico however I experienced the opposite. From that moment on Mexico was my one and only enemy. China and I tried our luck at Persia but he impressed me with clever orders to resist our efforts. Russia and Persia in the end gave China such a hard time that he ended up loosing SCs. When China started to go down, Oceania was left facing Mexico and S-America alone. I tried to convince S-America to drop his alliance with Mexico but he wasn't to be persuaded. I tried one more dash at S-America, although had I been able to attack Mexico I certainly would have preferred that, but as expected this foolery of mine only give me a very short-lived victory over a local lord at the cost of my units around New-Zealand.


Early in the game I had tried to get South-Africa to join me and China but hardly ever heard anything back (too many balls in the air, right?).
Loved the map and the flexibility of picking Home SCs. Not as easy as it seems and definitely impacts the game further on.
Michael did a great job as GM; always timely with adjudications and never too bothered with late orders (thanks for all the reminders).
I would definitely sign up again for one of your games.


Frank


2009/6/18 Michael Sims <mike(at)southwall.com ([email]mike(at)southwall.com[/email])>

[quote:b5a3642b75] Also just to add, very nice map.  I enjoyed the early game a lot, with the choosing of home centers.  That was a neat twist that I havent seen in any other variant.  If there is one thing to fix, it would be to make Persia and China substantially different colors.  For us red-green deficient ones, those two looked way too close, along with W.Africa.


From: Michael Sims
Sent: Thu 6/18/2009 8:23 PM
To: Andrew Tanner; Diplomacy Gamemaster
Subject: RE: DC190 - Spring 2015



Good game, tho the ending was a bit drawn out - why not agree to the same draw 10 turns ago?  Who voted it down?
-mike
Ethiopia
 


From: Andrew Tanner [mailto:damienthryn(at)gmail.com ([email]damienthryn(at)gmail.com[/email])]
Sent: Thu 6/18/2009 5:11 PM
Subject: Re: DC190 - Spring 2015


Good game to you all!  Glad to play with everyone and thanks for the fun!

On 6/18/09, Diplomacy Gamemaster <worldwidegm(at)gmail.com ([email]worldwidegm(at)gmail.com[/email])> wrote: [quote:b5a3642b75]For immediate release:

ALGIERS - Sources indicate that the war has finally come to an end!  In a meeting hosted by the Algerian president, the G4 (consisting of Mexican, South American, Russian and Persian dignitaries) signed a peace treaty, agreeing to end hostilities.  This comes after 14 years of bitter fighting and many attempts at reaching that elusive peace deal.  A signing ceremony is scheduled for tomorrow after official documents have been prepared.

Michael Penner, Associated Press.

-----------------------

Just to make it clear to everyone: we've agreed to a four-way draw between Mexico, South America, Persia and Russia, with West Africa and Oceana getting survivals.  Good game everyone... I look forward to hearing more about it.

[/quote:b5a3642b75]




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