Well, it's about time Warren took this game!
Seriously, great game. Well played by all, especially Warren. Heck, he was on the ropes and about to get crushed in mid-game, and came roaring back to Solo. Very few people could pull that off.
Mike, thank you thank you thank you. I LOVE seismic Dip!!!! Let's start a new game soon!
I started the game not expecting anything good. Being the largest power, Russia is always a target and I guessed that the seismics would be coming fast and furious. However, most people decided to try to seismic themselves to supply centers instead of ripping each other apart, so that worked in my favor.
Scand was a hotbed of activity, as usual. Kevin and I worked several angles to trap Warren. One of those strategy sessions was a very late night GChat, a first for me in Dip, We made a lot of progress, but eventually were stymied by (1) Warren's guesses of our seismics, and (2) Trout's decision to stab me.
Which brings me to the tipping point of the game. While we took an extended break, due mainly to my vacationing for 2-weeks in the south Caribbean (yes, I know, you are all feeling bad because I had to step off email while sitting on the beach
), the Penguin stepped forward and convinced the Former Trout to shack up with him and try to make a this a WaterWorld.
Well, I got p*ssed at Trout for not giving me a chance. Congrats to Steve for putting on such pressure, but did Trout seriously think I was going to log in every day while on vacation? Especially when I-net connections run slower than 52K modems connecting through AOL. So, I returned to a nasty stab and had to pull everything down South, leaving Warren with unrestricted access to the entire top of the board. I felt bad for Kevin, but he got hit at the same time and there was little I could have done to save him.
It didn't take long for Steve to contact me about hitting Trout back. I would have been shocked if he hadn't. I played it cool for a season, the agreed to join him --- all the while passing his messages back to Trout in hopes that Trout would realize he was being snaked. Took about 3 seasons, but eventually he agreed that he'd been set-up and stupid, and we joined forces yet again, but with the sole purpose of teaching Steve a lesson: If you stab everyone, you die a lonely death. We didn't quite succeed in this, but we at least made sure he didn't even share in the victory.
Trout and I came to the agreement to use seismics to give Steve the opportunity to stab Warren. It was our only chance for survival. Kevin helped us for a little bit until he was shut down. We knocked all the territories in France and Germany around, but Steve was firm in his thought that fighting Warren was suicide and he wanted to be part of the final Draw.
That sealed it...the last 3 years were purely focused on giving Warren every chance possible to grab centers. If Steve wasn't so stubborn, and had turned on Warren, we would have backed off immediately. But, no, he kept coming at me and Trout, and we did everything we could to make his life hard and Warren's easy.
Our last seismics were purely to cut Steve's centers off from there supports and give Warren access to them. I began peppering Warren with emails about going for the Solo. My last email to him pointed out every avenue he could take right then to Solo, and maybe that was the one to convince him. Whether he read it or not, I don't know (no responses), but Warren took the Solo and I can now call myself a Survivor!
Again, Congrats to Warren for SOLOing in a very tough game.
Michael Hoffman
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"Giuliani's kinda like a pit bull. He's great when you have a burglar, but if you don't, he just might eat your kids." -- Chris Rock
"Shared Pain is lessened, Shared Joy is increased" --- Spider Robinson
"Whenever some act of wondrous power must be performed, Michael is sent" --- Pope Saint Gregory the Great
