Thanks Mike for a great game. 
With this many players I was extremely impressed with the way you kept everyone
on task with very little in the way of delays.  You made it look very easy
and I know it wasn’t.  It was probably one of the more disciplined
games I have ever been in, and that includes standard 7 player games. 
Great job!
 
I will confess that I suffered a
bit of sensory overload at the very beginning.  There were so many
possibilities that I was at a loss as to where to start.  I figured it
would be best to start with a rock solid alliance and go from there.  The
Samurai contacted me early and he seemed to have a good plan so I cast my lot
with him.  Being able to expand in different directions while keeping our
backs mutually covered made for an ideal starting position.  I had pretty
much written off the poor Nomads who seemed hopelessly scattered to the wind,
but with the suggestion of a super alliance it seemed that he had a workable
solution for his own survival and a good plan overall.  I figured I’d
throw in with them at least until mid-game and see where things were at then. 
Ultimately, I thought it would fail because there were too many players
involved.  Wow, was I wrong. 
 
To my surprise the super
alliance survived despite several challenges.  There were a few times
where I wasn’t sure it was worth continuing with it, but the presence of
another major alliance kept me firmly locked in.  If the superalliance
broke up, the other alliance would swoop in and that would be game. 
 
Leprachauns – Loved the
snarky emails…the continual barrage of insults made it easy to take part
in a 4-way attack. 
 
Elves – You were a great
ally.  If I hadn’t already been part of a strategy that involved
taking your country we probably would have had a good alliance.  It was a
very tough decision to do that stab.
 
Undead – By playing both
ends you jeopardized your game.  We became aware fairly early on that you
were at odds with the super-alliance and I suspect a lot of your issues about
communication had more to do with the fact that we didn’t trust you
enough to include you in a lot of the actual communication that was going
on.  Your arguments with the elves, with the nomads and finally with me
really undermined your position and ultimately made it very easy to make the
decision to attack you. 
When John and I had reached the
limits of expansion mid-game we started looking for something else to do. 
You made yourself an easy target.
 
Samurai – Best ally I’ve
had in a Diplomacy game in a long time.  It seemed that we were always on
the same page and in agreement on the important facts.  Thanks for working
with me.
 
Super-alliance -  I think
we were a very efficient group.  Dirk mentions that communication wasn’t
all that great, but I beg to differ.  I think what communication we had
was very efficient and very utilitarian.  Again, Dirk ended up getting cut
out of a lot of the later communication so his perspective might be more of a
product of the role he played in the superalliance than any issues we had
talking.  It was a big group.  If we had spent more time yacking I
suspect our fairly simple strategy would have become muddled.  I begged
off communicating except in places where I felt it was necessary to make a
statement or amend a plan.
 
I think there should be a few
more players up here sharing the victory.  Dirk was right, though, the
game needed to end because we were getting to a position of stalemate in
several locations.
 
Thanks everyone for a great
game, will see you in the next one!
 
Kurt Weihs