Hi All,
OK, I'll be the first to open his mouth.  Raise your hands in this comes as a surprise.

What a fun, exciting game this was!!!  And congrats to all the remaining players for surviving and holding fast and true to their alliances. 


This has been, by far, the most diplomatic game I've ever played.  Usually I gather between 100 - 130 messages during a Diplomacy game.  This game ended with 216 distinct threads, several of which had over 50 messages included.  Total message count is close to 500!  Some of the skew is due to the large number of players, but mostly it is due to the general diplomatic skills of the later players. 


Funny to see how "predictive" the original emails were... in one of my first communiques (to the Wizards), I wrote:
> I want to build a strong defense against the Rogues, Trolls, and Pirates. 
Pretty good for a cracked crystal ball!!!!

That outlined my strategy for the entire game.  I figured that if those 3 couldn't cross my borders, I'd be safe; which, after 28 turns and over 1 year of play, turned out to be the right strategy!

I joined the game in late April 2009, as Fall 06 was commencing, riding in on my horse exclaiming "The Light Brigade Cavalry has arrived".  I expected a bit of short play, simply holding onto the Ogre position as everyone else beat the heck out of me.  But the tide turned immediately with Suzanne stepping in for the Undead.  2 replacements starting at the same time?  Instant alliance!  I also reached out to all my neighbors, offering peace and friendship.  All responded the same, but the Elves immediately stepped up to fight.  My path was set.


The Wizard stepped forward first and offered information and support.  The Dwarves were straddling a fence, so I marked them as a target once I cleared the south continent.  The Underworld was the key to victory in game 1 of this map, so I knew the possibilities it held. 


Taking out the Elves went a lot faster than expected -- not due to Garry's play, but due to everyone around him agreeing to the proposed split of his centers.  Within one turn, Elves went from a secure position to barely hanging on.  So, knocked down to 2 centers, Garry jumped on my offer to keep him alive and turned against the Wizards.


Now, at the time, Max and I had a cordial relationship.  But he'd also been passing secrets to Garry, and when Garry agreed to join me, I saw how far Max had gone as a double-agent.  He was immediately marked for death --- and I'm fairly certain he wasn't surprised.  Wizards also turned out to be harder to kill off than expected, and I chased him all over the lower map!  In the process, I tried to end the Pirate/Archer war and bring the Pirates in to assist against the Wiz.  This allowed my units to ride next to Cap'n Penner's borders and set up an attack, but it also may have been the begining of the end for my Solo possibilities. 


By the end of 08, Elves were down to bare bones, Wizards were controlled and about to fall --- and Sims was already expressing fears that I was trying to Solo, even though he still had more centers than I did and a strong alliance with the Trolls, holding the second-most centers,


Next up were the Dwarves and trying to force a wedge between Trolls and Rogues.  Suzanne and I were still in close contact, but had stopped coordinating attacks.  Nigel took over for the Archers and we began working together against the R/T/F alliance.  Knights also tried to join, but were in really bad shape up north.  Breaking R/F soon became my sole focus -- unfortunately, I never accomplished it and they became an unbreakable force.


By Fall 12, Elves had tried to flip sides (still not sure what Garry was thinking... and seeing how Suzanne ended up surviving, I wonder if he regrets his stab?) and were killed off.  The Dwarves were done, and Warren and I controlled the Underworld.  The wedge had just been forced between Rogues and Trolls, and Rogues began their push on me to alliance.  However, we immediately had disagreements on the state of the board and the future strategy.  2 cases in point: Rogues attacks on Knights prevented me from pushing into Dragon's Teeth and escaping the Underworld; Ogres support of Undead and reluctance to change her focus to Trolls.  Rogues were already obsessed at knocking out Trolls and Undead.


Of course, I couldn't admit to Rogues that I had been working with the Trolls!  But I also wasn't directing Suzanne against Rogues.  In fact, as I was trying to convince Trolls to stab Rogues, I was working on Suzanne to attack Trolls.  My goal was instability in that arena, and the ability to keep all 3 powers fighting each other while I moved in to take out any (or all) who fell far behind.


Maybe I pushed too hard though.  Because when Suzanne did finally turn towards the Rogues, the Trolls gave up their fight.  I'm still not entirely sure what I could have done differently in that area, except join forces with Rogues -- which just seemed impossible because of the obvious support he was giving to all my other enemies.  But as it turned out, all the powers involved were part of the final draw.


On the other side of the board, I began my crusade against the Pirates.  Working with Trolls, we kept the pressure and knocked the Pirates back pretty far.  And then I got greedy!  Suzanne had been pushing against the Trolls, but screaming for me to help her.  I viewed the Pirates as the bigger threat for the moment.  The Rogues executed a great move against the Suzanne, and the Undead broke ranks.  Maybe she thought I was setting her up for a fall (maybe I was!) and wouldn't support her.  In any case, at the exact moment I turned and stabbed the Trolls -- forcing them into a lasting peace with Rogues -- Suzanne stopped fighting them.  Ugh! 


Well, that was that.  Warren missed moves in Fall 16, and jumped to support Rogues.  My growth had hit 34 centers to Sim's 21, but R/F/T was an unbreakable team -- they controlled the outer edges of the lower board, the Underworld's northern exits, and the middle oceans.  My only chance was to convince the Pirates to break the Fairy line.  Good for Sims!  He worked his magic and Pirates immediately fell back to supporting the Faeries instead of attacking. 


Once Pirates made their intention clear, I began submitting DIAS votes.  I missed one season, but all others were submitted by me (and possibly other players as well).  I voted YES to all of them, but thus began the Sims/Hoffman finger-pointing sessions.  I even went so far as to send in a list of Draw votes including everyone EXCEPT me -- but I voted NO to all of those -- to make it seem as if everyone else also wanted to end the game.  Thought maybe it would convince the holdout(s) to change their votes.  That strategy backfired!  So my next strategy was to convince everyone to simply HOLD positions.  Thanks to Penner and Suzanne who came through on that.  Once Sims & I stopped yelling at each other, I fell back into a "pull back" strategy to signal that I was totally onboard with the DIAS.  Maybe my last pull-backs were enough to convince the holdout of my intention to end the game, or maybe they finally became as bored as the rest of us.  Whichever, the draw was finally passed.


Overall, this was a fantastic game!  I would have liked a smaller draw at the end, but I let my loyalty to Suzanne sway my judgement and I'm glad for that.  A 5-way is no better than a 6-way really, and I never trusted Rogues to attack the Fairies if I took out the Undead.  No reason to destroy a great working relationship for one less draw participant.  But I give tons of credit to Sims for pushing HARD for the stab, and look forward to playing with him in a future game!  (Hopefully *with* and not *against* him!  I could do with less arguing! )  I also look forward to facing off against ALL of you in the future!


Mike Hoffman
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"Sit Long, Talk Much, Laugh Often" -- anon
"Shared Pain is lessened, Shared Joy is increased" --- Spider Robinson