To try to explain that, Mark, unfortunately I may well have been responsible for that. Persia and I decided fairly early on that he'd go for you while I'd head east, then I'd assist him through Siberia. I suspect that since we'd just played together in another game where a horrific diplomatic mistake on my part barely a year in had seen me swiftly annihilated, he thought I'd be an easy target when it came to stabbing me. Think misjudged and unjustified chainsaw diplomacy that lead to the very thing I'd wanted to break up, and you'll have roughly the right idea.

As it happened, I couldn't find anyone to help me take on Indonesia (as Japan had focussed on armies), despite his early army build leaving him very vulnerable. When Persia made his premature (and telegraphed in advance) stab on me, I ended up working with Alexander - which seemed to work fairly well in the short term, though I always expected it would be a matter of time before he stabbed me rather more successfully, given that I had no way of stopping him.

Anyway, I'm glad to have eked out a survival from this game. Maybe I'll have better luck next game.

Ross



Date: Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:01:54 -0600
Subject: Re: DC 260 (Asian): Siberia & Indonesia 2-way Draw
From: mdemagogue(at)gmail.com
To: smegdwarf(at)yahoo.com
CC: mrh(at)panix.com; briankingfox(at)hotmail.com; wecanworkthisout(at)yahoo.com; ecommander0(at)hotmail.com; aislattery(at)aol.com; rodtheworm(at)hotmail.com; dc260(at)diplomaticcorp.com

I don't really have a whole lot of thoughts on the variant, given that my experience was limited to three in game years before being ingloriously eliminated. I personally expected Siberia to try to push forward for the solo. It's what I would have done. My plan early on was to push east ward with Persia, that didn't work out because he couldn't trust me for some undefined reason. Then to cap it off, Persia attacked India as well as me, embroiling him in a two front war that he couldn't win. He then fled the game. Honestly, if you're going to mismanage your forces that poorly, at least have the good grace to stick through it to the end, rather than fobbing off your mistakes on someone else. Congratulations to Aidan and Alex, and thanks Adam for GMing.

On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 10:57 AM, Adam Martin-Schwarze <smegdwarf(at)yahoo.com ([email]smegdwarf(at)yahoo.com[/email])> wrote:

Indonesia doesn't submit a build, but it doesn't matter, because he does vote 'Yea' on a draw proposal.

The DIAS... fails.
But the Siberian-Indonesian draw succeeds!

Light Brigade Persia survives.
Beleaguered India survives.
Stoic Japan cunningly utilizes geography to survive in spite of an early near-exit.

Siberia and Indonesia wear crowns and look down both graciously and condescendingly upon the rest of the world. What did you expect from kings?

But the game is not over yet!!? It isn't? No. Not until you've written your end of game comments. And I really want them. In addition to the usual praise of your opponents, analysis of the flow of the game, and other good-natured jibes, I ask you to please offer your opinions on the variant itself. I already have solid opinions from Ross (who responded to my mid-game plea). And I can readily point to a couple of awkward spots on the board myself. But nobody knows the game better than people who have played on it.

Thank you and congratulations to all who finished this game. Thank you and 'better luck next time' to those who were eliminated.

For the record, I processed the Winter as:

India:
Remove A Afghanistan

Indonesia:
Build waived

Persia:
Remove F Persian Gulf

Siberia:
Build A West Siberia
Build F Kamchatka
Build A Irkutsk

Final Center Count:
China: 0
India: 2
Indonesia: 13
Japan: 2
Persia: 7
Russia: 0
Siberia: 16

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