A game cut short…
There was a lot more to this game-- that's for sure. But when I start out playing, I always set out to first secure a survival, then try to secure a draw, and only really look at solos when the time comes. Here we were in what I guess was phase two. Garry & Ross could have stabbed me at any point, but they didn't, so I was pretty strong. I didn't think it was time to be looking at solos yet. Too premature. A bad stab and what was once a nice draw could turn into an elimination or even a Greek win. Give the game a few more years, I may have looked for more, but I'm happy w the draw. It's what we set out for as a trio a few turns ago, and to get it is pretty simple and good. I enjoyed the plotting with Garry and Ross.
Did I have a win here? Maybe. But winning isn’t everything, and Nigs wouldn’t say he had to go if he didn’t have to go. So draw it is. I wonder at what point or how much Garry / Ross would have made accommodations to prevent a win, or at what point they would have stabbed me!
Allen, I guess this opening for me revolved largely around our trio w Italy. We had a great team, we had Serbia on the ropes, and I had a killer stab of Bulgaria waiting to be taken. But you asked me if I thought you should stab Italy, and I responded pretty candidly that we had barely given the trio a chance, why stab it before it even gets off the ground? (I was pulling for you, Adam!) Then you went and stabbed him anyways. This left me feeling like you weren't really interested in my opinion - i.e. ask me, but if I don't reply how you like, do it anyways… So from this point I figured Austria was tighter with Greece than with me, so I made a 180 and flipped sides to join Garry and Ross.
From there it was pretty straight forward. It was Ross' and my goal to try the unthinkable in this game and become naval superpowers. Unheard of given our corner land powers, but I think we pulled it off pretty well by finally breaking into the Aegean in this last couple turns. We set this goal really early on, upon seeing our initial placements, and it was refreshing to find a player excited to try less conventional strategies – something often lacking in Dip games. We each trusted each other right by our centers, and this built a lot of trust.
This map certainly has its choke points around the Aegean, (separating BS from GI, with Turkey on the fulcrum) but this dynamic surely exists in standard too, with, say, MAO dividing TI from EG with F on the fulcrum. So altho it seemed hard to break out, I don't know that it needs fixing so much, for it's just as hard for a TI duo in standard to break out into the northern half of the map against an EG team.
Overall a very nice map. I think Dark Ages would have to hold your “best creation” title, tho this comes in a close second. Plenty of naval action, and the play around Greece and the Aegean is great. I would definitely play it again. Good game all, and thanks for GM’ing it Ben!
BTW the one time I get to play Nigel in so many years you escape with a bye – fooey!
-mike
