I'd like to echo what everyone has said about the flavor text and role playing that Doug wrote, it was very enjoyable. I'm only sorry I didn't have more time to add little details about my nation. The map was a little dodgy, and it was easy to confuse mine and france's units.


I started out by making peace with everyone, which, was nice as far as things go, but it meant that off the bat I had to break the peace with someone. I wasn't sure who to work with, but France's rapid growth put my on edge, especially given his access to the Mediterranean. Although he wasn't too threatening, i figured it was only a matter of time before he wiped out Germany, and then came for me. I planned on nabbing Marsailles and maybe spain for builds, and then making nice so I could turn east and secure the Mediterranean for myself. After that though, things got messy. Since I was going after France I needed Austrian backing, and he seemed supportive, and even got me Greece. As things dragged on though, I wasn't getting anywhere with France, and I figured it was only a matter of time before Austria stabbed me. Unfortunately, I had so concentrated my forces on France that it would have taken me many turns to redeploy.


France sinking two of my ships it would have been the perfect time to redeploy, but alas, it was not to be, and a combination of some miscommunication, and a lot of stupidity on my part led me to miss this chance. After that I felt pretty isolated, given that I was vulnerable to an Austrian stab, and fighting France, my only two neighbors. England reached out, but I wasn't very optimistic about my future, and thus, about working together.


All in all, I very much enjoyed the variant, and liked making my own little empire, even if it was fairly similar to the standard Italy. Thanks you all for the enjoyable game, and I hope to have the pleasure of playing with you again sometime.


kos

On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 8:52 PM, Michael Stroz <mistro914(at)gmail.com> wrote:

To all, I usually don't make closing comments but I'm
compelled to in this one (after reading this you may see why I don't make
closing comments).
 
To Doug, you have my compliments on a good job. I thought
you ran a good game. Pro's were your commentary and the fix times for turns,.Cons,
that map just is impossible to read (and I'm not the only one, poor Italy went at
least 2 years without a build he was entitled to). I'm not sure I'd play the variant
again and I certainly would never be Russia in it. He gives up his 4 SC
advantage.
 
To Austria,
you played a good game but you were aided by the ineptitude of your closest
players. I'd relish a rematch someday. Your prose in the beginning was quite
captivating but you waffled too long. If it hadn't been for your vassal Italy I'd have taken you and I really thought that
we would end with a Austria France draw ( with Germany and one of your vassals)..
 
To Italy
and Turkey,
I'd love to hear how your game plan was going to give you a win? What exactly
was the point of being Austria's
pawns forever? Any good strategy says that the minor player has to turn on
their protector sometime! I am really curious; did Austria have dirty pictures of you
to blackmail you?
 
England
my biggest mistake was not trusting Germany
early in the game and invading England
proper via the German offered convoy. If I had done that we could have eliminated you
at least on the western part of the board and I probably would have won or the
draw would not have been so inclusive, because the only way that Germany's
and my stalemate line was broken was because we didn't eliminate you.. However
once we allied, for the record, Dirk and I were very agreeable to have our
three countries in a draw against Austria. However when you turned
unreliable while I didn't get quite as upset as Dirk over our exchanges, I will
remember that you are an unreliable ally, not the type I care to play with
again unless it's hostilities from the start and trust me it will be.
 
German you played a good game, especially considering your opening
moves that left you no SC's within a defensive buffer. Its tough being Germany (and Austria); the edge countries are
easier, but still you did a great job and were a terrific ally. I never thought
to stab you even with the proffered opportunities by other players. I hope we
stay in touch in the "real world" and play again. BTW at some point I'd like to
send my daughter's resume to you for comment and if you ever expand to nyc, let
me know.
 
In conclusion, you know this game is a lot like woman (at
least until I got married). You are in a relationship and its fun at first and
then it becomes a drag and then you look for a way out. You swear off them for
a while and then memories fade and you get drawn back in. I'm out of here for a
while, but I'm sure I'll be back sometime after the memories fade.
 
Rgds, Michael
On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 6:42 PM, Marc Prud'homme <michaelfaraday(at)live.com> wrote:




Good Evening!
Ordinarily I'm quite an advocate for EOGs, but my memory is honestly quite flagging. So, yes I'll do an EOG, but it will be rather short and lacking a thorough chronological journal.

Thank you Douglas for hosting this variant -- I am a little sad that my "custom" empire happened to be Austria-shuffle-south, but it was still entertaining and being able to call myself "Yugoslavia", for all the good it pragmatically did, served to keep my attention quite well. I one day hope to run a game as smooth[ly] as yours.

I was flattered with how many players wanted to work with me, and genuinely seemed to follow through on the goal -- the exception naturally being post-Turkey Russia, but I DID open into Rumania, and things went pretty south after that... Honestly, I was planning on wiping Turkey out as soon as possible with Russian help -- his opening to Greece was, while quite a natural opening, rather threatening to my Balkan Empire. Russia, forgive my betrayal -- you held out til' the end, and forgive any unnecessary treachery on my part -- for me, half the fun is the con, not the end.

Now, I have been a small nation before a large one in past games and I understand, though many players say it "poor showmanship" or whatever, that the first and most satisfying reaction is to act however you damn well please, survival or not, just to prove that you DO have an effect on the game. To me, this is a fundamental concept necessary for "soft" conquering -- as long as a player feels that they have choices and input, and most importantly that you've GIVEN them this, they will likely follow you to the grave or until you REVOKE such freedom. Unfortunately for me, it was this second point that I did not tread upon quite hard enough and towards the end my Turkish "vassal" became a liability that I honestly could do nothing about. 

I trusted him explicitly [barring that one scare], so it never came of much, although I do believe some of my later orders would've given him cause for concern -- perhaps rightly so, I can't honestly recall what my strategy was there. For what it's worth, thanks for sticking by me even though I could've been an easy stab at several points.

Italy, though I had initially quite determined that I would eliminate you with French assistance, a curious movement by Russia made my natural paranoia look for allies -- I kept telling France "one more season!", waving those perfect chances to bounce you for home centres, and eventually we fell into a perfect demilitarized peace -- I daresay we never had any misunderstanding [except maybe my arrogantly declared ship, I don't know]. Towards the end France and Germany had convinced me that an alliance with them was useful, and sadly that meant to had to go -- luckily, I never had to realize your end. Thanks for sticking with me for better or worse, and in essence serving as my navy.

France, I honestly began with the idea of an AF alliance taking the board. I found myself the weakest player at the start, and kept equivocating because I didn't want unnecessary risks -- and I'm sure you gave up on my wishy-washy self after a while. All the same, I quite enjoyed our communications -- I recall in our earlier exchanges I took liberties and expressed my ideas in prose too flowery for what was to be exterminating our neighbour. Fun, all the same -- thanks.

Germany, it was [ironically] your equivocation as you said that led to your stunted growth. I asked for assistance and you would always just sit it out, and eventually I determined [while being very wishy-washy myself] that I'd run my way through the alps.

England, we didn't interact much until the end, although we were entirely misaligned for my hypothetical solo, so I was a little loathe to trust you -- all the same, you helped me break the stalemate and, in theory, we could have ground our way through Franco-Germany. But, by that time the game had lost it's flare, and I thought I'd give stabbing you a half-hearted go. Sorry, for what it's worth.

I am first an foremost a player for the melodramatic -- I'm sure more than half of you realize that. Second, I play for the fun of conning, alliances, and, in general, communications: This ties in with the first. Thirdly, I play to win. And in this game, though I thought for a moment I was well on my way to a solo, I had lost the interesting exchanges, and my lazy attempts at stabbing didn't garner anything new. In my books, I had "won" my conditions when I had literally every [surviving] player on the board suggesting an alliance with me, the largest nation. Granted, a few of these offers were only to break a stalemate, but all the same I had a roaring good time for quite a while there. Thank you everyone for an entertaining game!

Any questions or comments, and I'll try my best to answer.
Hope to see you all on the battlefield again some time!-K.T.Yugoslavia


From: lindav123(at)hotmail.com
To: dirk(at)knemeyer.com; douglasefresh(at)googlemail.com

CC: livinglifeforothers(at)gmail.com; mike_hyman(at)hotmail.com; michaelfaraday(at)live.com; mistro914(at)gmail.com; dc301(at)diplomaticcorp.com; rob.a.goodwin(at)googlemail.com

Subject: RE: DC301 - TTP - Fall 1905: End of Game
Date: Tue, 25 May 2010 18:23:48 +0100





> P.S. - David, at least from my side, all of our antipathy was in good
> fun, frustrated though I really was!!!


ha ha...well, from my side....MOST of it was in good fun

 

seriously your "own lack of strategic planning" drove me absolutely insane this game....when someones diplomacy is sending you one message but their moves on the board something TOTALLY OPPOSITE, it doesnt leave you many options!!!


 

But no worries, at least we somehow managed to salvage a draw out of it. Despite all the bad blood Id still look forward to another game with both you and Michael. It was never personal for me.

 

Congrats to Austria though....clearly head and shoulders deserved the board top this game.

 

Cheers Doug, nice variant, I'd certainly play it again.

 


 
> CC: lindav123(at)hotmail.com; livinglifeforothers(at)gmail.com; mike_hyman(at)hotmail.com; michaelfaraday(at)live.com; mistro914(at)gmail.com; dc301(at)diplomaticcorp.com; rob.a.goodwin(at)googlemail.com

> From: dirk(at)knemeyer.com
> To: douglasefresh(at)googlemail.com
> Subject: Re: DC301 - TTP - Fall 1905: End of Game