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Diplomaticcorp Discussion Forum:  dc190

(Worldwide Variant - GM: Michael Penner)


Post:11468 >
Subject:< DC190 - Persia EOG 
Topic:< dc190 >
Category:< Closed Games 
Author:luckyllama
Posted:Jun 19, 2009 at 7:02 am
Edited:Jun 20, 2009 at 2:50 am
Viewed:1509 times

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I enjoyed this game a lot - we had a great GM and a dedicated set of players all of whom stuck with the game through to the end (or their end) - no frustrations from dropouts and replacements, nor from NMRs - the reminders and flexibility that our GM deployed are a model example of diplomatic GM-ing, particularly appropriate to a longer larger game...

Andrew's comments on the map and the sea spaces are interesting -I'm a sucker for maps and attach again the "alternative" version that I worked up at the beginning. You can see from this that, unlike standard Dip, very few of the sea spaces in this game are "commanding" ones that allow rapid movement and influence multiple land spaces (think MAO, NTH or ION in vanilla). Indeed most are really no "larger" in impact than the land spaces, but there are a few exceptions that represent key strategic spots in this game - ATL, PAC, SCS, and to a lesser extent IND & COC.

Most of the nations start facing three or four neighbours - Persia faces six, so it was pretty clear that I'd have to come out talking....and the talking pretty quickly changed the outline plan I'd got in my head from looking at the map.

Since Persia would always be at risk with a strong Russia still in the game (sooner or later Russia would have to look south, I reckoned..), my original thinking was:

A) Find someone to team up with against Russia,
B) Make sure the two Africans fell out, and
C) Make sure Oceania was worrying about his nautical neighbours (Sth Am/Sth Af) - who are actually much nearer than it seems, and so also get them interested in thinking about him.

B &C worked out fine but plan A came to grief when China didn't bite on my early suggestions of a move on Russia (I was lucky these didn't get used against me..), Europe proved hard to deal with (I respect the role-playing style but it does make it more difficult to build alliances particularly if you're the only one doing it) - and he looked likely to be attacked by W Af early on anyhow - and Russia turned out to be the best of all my neighbours to deal with.

So I found myself working with Russia and W Af against Europe. Aware that if Europe was the starter I would make a tasty main course, I was still looking to put together some alliance against Russia after, particularly as Hamish didn't at that stage seem too keen on moving together against China. But with Ian being pulled back by African affairs, and North America going down across the Atlantic, this was starting to look more difficult. China was my only potential ally, but Mike is the kind of capable player who is good to deal with but never easy to trust. Even so I proved too trusting, or naive - moving too many units westward and so Mike took advantage with his stab. Without allies I didn't think the stab made sense - the early gains he made were too small - but it soon became clear he had help on the horizon from both Oceania and South Af, and at that point I did think the odds were in his favour.

For a few turns I hung in the balance - Mike was pretty confident he would win through whatever Russia did, whereas I started to think that with Hamish's help and some gameplay I'd stand a chance of pulling through - thankfully Hamish proved up for the challenge and from that point on the two of us had a great working relationship. I really had to pull out all the stops against China (including avoiding being distracted by those units he got behind my lines, leaving them until after we had overrun China's home base) and I wasn't going to give up on my share of the spoils.

This did mean that Hamish grew much faster than I did - and was good about not taking all his builds. Quite possibly had Russia been ruthless and turned on me at the point China was more or less out we might be looking at a 3-way Rus/Mex/Sth Am finish, but on the other hand having an ally to his south did give Russia the freedom to expand out across the top of the map, and turning on me would clearly have risked a Mex/Sth Am walkover.

So my survival was secure and I was enjoying my position 'in the middle' - as well as talking to the others in the 'big four' I had a good deal going with Ian taking out St Af and then keeping him alive, worked out a deal with China (probably a couple of turns later than would have been ideal for both of us, but with him sacrificing even his home centres in order to hold units sitting in mine, peace was never going to be easy), and for the next turn I even had a little surprise for Mexico worked out with Frank. So I'd have been very happy for the game to continue - but with Russia stepping back from expansion and no prospect of Russia himself not being there at the end, it was pretty obvious that a four-way was the best I could hope for and I voted for all the draw proposals, without exception.

If I'd have been playing China or Oceania - and probably even West Africa - I'd have voted against until my elimination, so cannot criticise if they did indeed exercise the veto, but since both Mexico and South Am were pushing forward until game end, there are clearly other possibilities, so unless someone wishes to come clean, I guess we shall never know..... (edit after Scott's post...see, I told you it was Mexico all along.... !)



Thanks again guys, it was a great game - a whole year almost exactly from start to finish!!



Ian


There are 2 Messages in this Thread:


DC190 - Persia EOG (luckyllama) Jun 19, 07:02 am

DC190 - Persia EOG (Lequinian) Jun 19, 06:19 pm

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