Starting in a corner and having no idea what to expect apart from the FOW, I initially determined to lie about everything to everyone. This isn't my usual style, and wound up not making much sense, so I gave it up soon after meeting Fredrik. However, I mistakenly assumed that I would overwhelm him since I was coming out of nowhere, so Fredrik never heard an honest word from me.
Soon after I met Frank, and decided that I was better off allying with him than Fredrik, because of his relative openness and my already having launched my plans against Fredrik. I was soon joined by Matthew, and Fredrik's days were doomed.
My next encounter was with Mike, who was at war with Frank. He wanted me to side with him and Drew. I decided against him on the assumption that as a central power, Mike must have been pretty big at the time - who knew what I was inviting into my 'hood - and Frank and I were in a good position anyway. Matthew agreed to join our war against Mike, Mike decided to double down instead of folding, and he was steadily pushed back into Drew's arms.
While fighting Fredrik I discovered the vague teleporting powers of the Cabin, and found myself next to Trout's Well and Orchid. Trout naturally wanted me out of his Well center, and I had no intention of staying with only one man. From the curve of the map I correctly assumed that we were in the NW. I asked for info as to where I could go, preferably in tandem with him. Trout basically gave me nothing or misinformation, in a consistently unfriendly manner. Since I didn't need my guy back home, and figured I was a long way away, I decided to harrass Trout instead. I told him I had come out of the Well, and tied up three of his units for a few turns before finally sailing off down the western coast (where I met Drew). Had Trout been trying to win the game, this would have been a serious setback.
Then, in a coincidence so great as to rank among my favorite all-time Dip moments, I found the key that Mike had dropped while disbanding about ten minutes before Trout - in yet another brush-off - told me he had nothing to gain from me, since all he needed was the key to the Orchid, and had given up finding it. It was unbelievable: the only thing he ever told me was the last thing he would have wanted to tell me. And if Trout had been halfway... is the word "diplomatic," as in "Diplomacy"?... I would have given it to him. But NOOO!
I then worked with Frank to transport the key up to my fleet still close to Trout's coast, only to have Trout and Drew disband my fleet in a somewhat unlikely maneuver. Oops. The key sank into the ocean, lost forever.
But NOOO - Steve decided the game he was making up as he went along couldn't do without the key. So he had it rise out of the ocean like Excalibur, and promptly lost my interest in the "Lost" aspect of the game. My reaction was totally subjective, and up until then, I had given myself to a surprising degree to Steve's inventiveness and storytelling. But the key rising felt arbitrary, and I am not a fan of the arbitrary when it comes to games.
At about the same time, Matthew to stab Frank and me. Given our southern position - mine in particular being on the east along with his home centers - I didn't blame him. I should have found a way to reassure him of our ability to grow without bumping into each other. How would I have done that? Any way Matthew wanted - right up until the key did its magic trick, I was happy to play for discovery purposes, and would have settled for a three-way draw with Matthew and Frank.
I soon discovered that Frank and I were fighting the entire map, which made no sense to me. What was in it for everyone but Matt? Trout and Sam came at me down the eastern coastline, and here I'll offer a disparaging word about Sam. He responded with one line to one of my queries, and that was the last I heard of him. No explanation why he attacked, no interest in dialogue down the line - nothing. Once the game ended, I saw that he had four centers. I would have thought that a player in his position would be interested in exploring alternatives to whatever had led him to his present dreary state of affairs, but I guess he was happy doing not much.
Frank and I settled on a strategy of holding on the flanks while giving in the center. Because we trusted each other, this was made easier by the frequent trading of centers. As we lost centers, we let everyone know that Matt was picking them all up, and that this would continue until he won in a solo. In a normal game, this would have soon resulted in Matt being stabbed like Caesar in his exposed central position.
But not in this game. Having seen the final map, I would have bet on Matt to solo, despite the sprinkling of allied observers in his holdings. I look forward to Trout's EOG, since Drew flaked out and Sam is unlikely to have had much say in the goings-on. My guess is that Trout wanted me eliminated at all costs because of all the grief he thinks I caused him, and was willing to deal with the consequences later. In which case, my sharing equally in a draw is my last message to my old friend in the far north of the map.
Jorge
On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 6:40 AM, Former Trout <former.trout-at-gmail.com ([email]former.trout-at-gmail.com[/email])> wrote:
Thats irony for you...
I helped destroy the key that I was looking for all game. *sigh*
Thanks for the wrap-up Penger! I thoroughly enjoyed this game and relished my role of being the cranky old miser up north.
Might write an EOG later tonight. Cheers!
Evil Others Trout
On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 3:18 AM, Stephen Lytton <stevelytton-at-hotmail.com ([email]stevelytton-at-hotmail.com[/email])> wrote:
[quote:a687b42da0] sorry about the stuff up. Okay email 3 just contained the end of game map.
Email 2 should have finished like this
The KEY and the Orchid were 2 of the mysteries that came out late in the game. The Orchid was locked (i was initially deciding on the ability it would give and eventually set on a computer that would answer questions about the game) However i wanted it to come out late in the game so put the key in the polar bear CAVE (near Widmore). However Fredrik missed the key when he found the cave (random chance he was unlucky) and mike found it. Then mike disbanded that man, allowing jorge to find it. Because of the teleport thing, Jorge knew what it was for and asked the right questions of me to get some answers. He co-ordinated moves with Frank to transport the key up. however there was an intense fleet battle an drew-trout destroyed the fleet carrying the key without even knowing it was there. They were unlucky that the random chance of them knowing the key was there failed and the random chance of getting the key failed. So i reset the key in the cave which matthew had controlled in the interim. however no-one sent a man near the cave for the rest of the game.
Stephen Lytton
Are you coming to the World Diplomacy Championship in Sydney 2011? Ask me how....
From: stevelytton-at-hotmail.com ([email]stevelytton-at-hotmail.com[/email])
To: former.trout-at-gmail.com ([email]former.trout-at-gmail.com[/email]); sam_buck_productions-at-me.com ([email]sam_buck_productions-at-me.com[/email]); drew3739o-at-yahoo.com ([email]drew3739o-at-yahoo.com[/email]); rocketship.rocketship-at-gmail.com ([email]rocketship.rocketship-at-gmail.com[/email]); msims-at-wellsgardner.com ([email]msims-at-wellsgardner.com[/email]); fredrik-at-familjenblom.se ([email]fredrik-at-familjenblom.se[/email]); bielschowsky.f-at-gmail.com ([email]bielschowsky.f-at-gmail.com[/email]); jmsaralegui-at-gmail.com ([email]jmsaralegui-at-gmail.com[/email])
CC: dc221-at-diplomaticcorp.com ([email]dc221-at-diplomaticcorp.com[/email]); kielmarch-at-hotmail.com ([email]kielmarch-at-hotmail.com[/email]); stevelytton-at-hotmail.com ([email]stevelytton-at-hotmail.com[/email])
Subject: Dc221 GM Wrap Email 2
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 2010 20:15:27 +1100
Okay. Some other aspects
RULES
Most of you encountered all the rules of the game as you went along. There were 10 rules. I have attached the rules if you wanted to read them.
Rule 6 (that Mike and Fredrik) missed was encountering the edge of the map
Rule 8 (that everyone was missing except Jorge) was about the dual coast abilities but i didnt check the map clearly and the only one of these was on Jorge's island.
Rule 10 was both about the monster and the Teleporting.
The Monster (released by Matthew) wandered the map moving 2 spaces each season. When it encountered someone it basically stopped them moving. Matthew's advantage was that while he had a person at the Temple SC, he could see where the monster had travelled allowing him to see more of the map.
The Cabin (in the south east), had the ability to teleport out a person if they were 'threatened'. This happened to Jorge early in the game, teleporting to the north and into an area I would assume Trout thought was safe..alowing Jorge to contact trout, steal a SC and constantly annoy trout by claiming he came out of the well. Fredrick was the second person teleported but was only teleported a short difference so he was close to Mike's SC. The person teleported would go to any empty space that was NOT seen by another player.
A lot of the special SC had the abilities of either letting them see the status of other SC, or passing on radio messages (Underutilized i thought...). I've attached the 2 documents if you wanted to read them.
The Tempest station (controlled by Fredrick for most of the game) basically allowed Fredrick to see people coming to attack him. I dont know how useful this was.
The KEY and the Orchid were 2 of the mysteries that came out late in the game. The Orchid was locked (i was initially deciding on the ability it would give and eventually set on a computer that would answer questions about th
Stephen Lytton
Are you coming to the World Diplomacy Championship in Sydney 2011? Ask me how....
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[/quote:a687b42da0]
