Ben,
As I told you elsewhere, I thought you played a solid game, and a very good one for a novice.  Your initial plans made sense, and your decision to stick with A/I rather than join G/E was reasonable enough on the face of it.  In effect you chose to stick with a neutral known entity over an unknown player offering you an alliance with your enemies.  You would have been better served negotiating some active support from Italy in light of your choice - especially after Russia collapsed - but I wouldn't question it.

For the record, England and I didn't cede territory to Austria in favor of stopping you.  The map and our numbers virtually dictated that we play defense in the east, and try what offensive moves we could in the west.  I steadily tried to win you over to our side, but having you join in a fatally compromised position - which is what finally occurred - couldn't (and didn't) do us any good.

Again, this is where I think you made your only real mistake: not switching sides when your allies refused to propose a three-way draw.  Given the map layout, a more experienced player would have seen the writing on the wall and jumped before being pushed.

Jorge

On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 4:51 PM, Ben Leapman <ben.leapman(at)ntlworld.com> wrote:




Guys,
 
Thanks very much for making my first game of online
Diplomacy so intriguing. As a novice I had expected to be eliminated quickly, so
I beat my own expectations by surviving 10 months.
 
From the outset I agreed a non-aggression pact with
Italy, which lasted right through to '09 when my weakness made an Italian attack
inevitable.
 
Also from the outset I struck a firm agreement with
Germany to strike immediately against England. It worked in '01, with a French
fleet in ENG after Spring 01 helping a German fleet into NOR by the end of Fall
01. We were all set. However, in Spring 02 the
original Germany stabbed me - taking Belgium, breaking a mutually-winning
alliance ... and immediately quitting the game.
 
I think any player would respond to such
provocation in normal circumstances by declaring all-out war on the player
who had stabbed them. But that player had left the game and I was faced
with a new Germany who, while talking peace, wasn't willing to renew our joint
fight against England. He asked for a three-way G/F/E pact, which would
have forced me to either stagnate or attack Italy, neither of which seemed
like appealing options. 
 
This left me rather confused and I responded,
probably unwisely, by lying to the new Germany, stabbing him,
and getting the satisfaction of taking Belgium back for a while. I tried
what was very much a plan B of allying with Russia against
G/E.
 
It didn't work. Russia was wiped out, Germany
and England stayed friends, and I was forced to turn to my Italian ally for
support. A three way alliance of A/I/F was always going to make steady progress
against G/E, and I had hopes of a three-way draw, but G/E- perhaps
understandably, given how I had provoked them! - chose to cede supply centres to
Austria on their eastern flank while throwing their full weight against France
on their western flank. Inevitably this forced me to put all my forces on my
northern front, leaving myself wide open to the inevitable Italian invasion
through the Med.
 
This achieved Germany's short-term aim of forcing
me to swap sides, in the hope that a G/E/F defensive front could force a
five-way draw. But A/I had timed their strike against me well, and already had
enough strength between them to power ahead to victory - eventually graciously
conceding a two-way draw which left me among the three survivors. Well played
Benjamin and Jim.
 
----- Original Message -----
From:
Josh E.

To: dc261(at)diplomaticcorp.com ; Mark Duffield ; Benjamin
Hester ; Ben Leapman ; Jim
Rossiter ; Jorge Saralegui ; Eric
Shum ; David
Zilkha
Cc: Mike Sims ; Josh Engsberg

Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 4:23 AM
Subject: DC261 - GAME OVER!



Well folks all the votes are in, and with a unanimous decision I
declare:

Austria & Italy will share in a 2-way
draw!

with
England, France, Germany have surviving their
onslaught.

Congratulations to James and Benjamin on a well executed
campaign!

Thank you all for a great game. It has been my pleasure to
listen in and watch as the game progressed, and I wouldn't hesitate for a
moment to have each and every one of you back in any of my future games.


- Josh