Hi gang,



Geez, not usually much for sending eogs, but I can recap briefly.




First of all, I really liked the variant and the one center at a time picks. It really got me involved and thinking right from the outset. Four centres each made it a bit crowded, but that was okay. You could go either with 7 players at 4 each, or 8 players with 3 each and it would still be a great variant I think.




As for this game, I think I got a bit lucky at the start getting mostly my first or second picks for centres. Doing so gave me a slight advantage on my neighbours, particularly Philip, whom I planned to take out right from the start (sorry Phil, you were the best chance for me to grow). Once I got established with a solid base and six or seven dots it was really a matter of just getting people on my side that weren't on my border. Mike was perfect for this, and despite a couple of reasonable opportunities early on he managed to keep things JUST difficult enough that I couldn't take advantage of an "easy" stab. Mike, I think you played it brilliantly. When the three way alliance with Mike and Maslow presented itself I was more than happy to sign on. It gave me great security in the south so I could focus on steady growth. In truth I was always looking for the opportunity to make a break for a solo, but it never did present itself..... until.....  




After Maslow's rather confusing stab I was convinced that he and Hoffman were just trying to get my guard down. Either way I had little choice but to go hard after as many dots as I could. There was an outside chance of getting the solo, but realistically it wasn't there assuming that those two managed to work together to stop it. It was still possible if Loki hadn't joined them, and IF my convoy to Apulia worked in the next turn... guys?? Did you move to stop that? Just curious....




So in the end we settled for the three way. I'm happy with the result and will definitely play this, or a similar variant again. Thanks very much Adam for running a great game. NO NMRs!!  Amazing.




And thanks to all my worthy opponents. Until next time.....




Warren

Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:17:21 -0800
Subject: Re: DC 345: War is Peace
From: blueraider0(at)gmail.com
To: mvpenner(at)yahoo.com
CC: smegdwarf(at)yahoo.com; dc345(at)diplomaticcorp.com; npfedwards(at)gmail.com; zyxw59(at)gmail.com; alwayshunted(at)hotmail.com; mrh(at)panix.com; ilovethechiefs(at)gmail.com; untitled36(at)hotmail.com; mike(at)fuzzylogicllc.net; dirk(at)knemeyer.com


Ok, let's see.  I totally agree with John's assessment of involving ourselves in our own little worlds.  It provided a welcome change from the "I'm France you're England let us put our differences aside and take down the Kraut" business.  I think more neutrals would be better, but I'm not sure how that would be accomplished.  8 players with 4 depots give 2 neutrals, while 8 players with 3 depots give 10.  That seems reasonable, except at least one player would inevitably be isolated from those depots and that strikes me as unfair.  That said, the two countries who had neutral depots next to them were both eliminated.  The political benefits of such isolation are strong.  And everyone would love to see you plug your neighbor so they'd have one less rival against the neutrals.  I feel that could work out.


 


I began negotiating after the first (or second?) round pick, and with Penner.  We schemed to take England and I believe our plan was for me to go into the Med and him to take the north and east.  The first part worked well, but then I took Belgium and despite my attempts at explaining the situation to Penner (I thought he didn't need it, and having Lon and Bel allowed me to feel secure in my north), he didn't care and proceeded to pummell me, so I opted for a deal I had made with Hoffman.  I was originally going to stab Hoffman, but that idea got scrapped (better: postponed)


 


I must admit something to Penner.  I still feel bad about what happened.  I really wasn't trying to stab you.  I meant what I was saying in my e-mails.  Oh well.


 


Speaking of explanations - ahem.  Sorry for throwing a monkey wrench in everyone's plans.  I've already explained this to Hoffman a million times: a shortened version will do here:


 


Relations with Warren and Mike went great, but while the two of them were on the offensive in Germany, I was consolidating my base against a surprisingly persistent Penner.  I finally had to e-mail them and say something to the effect of "While you two are pillaging the countryside, my citizens are hunkered down fighting street to street in our own cities!"  We were all 'winning' (not Winning!), and I was playing an important part in the effort, but I wasn't making any gains, just preventing more loss.  I was the Gungan Army to their Jedi Strike Force.  I was feeling a little shafted.  By the time Penner had been contained, there were no depots left to take, and there was a grand plan to destroy Loki and Penner.  It woulda worked, and it woulda been fine.  But I saw an opening.


 


 


I'd rather have others kick me for doing something than kicking myself for not doing something.  I saw a small chance for a solo, and decided to play it risky.   I assumed Warren would stab Mike, I just thought he would wait a year for his troops to be on the move.  That is why my forces literally moved right through Kiel.  I didn't just want to stab Mike, I wanted a defense set up once Warren got impatient.  But he got impatient WAYYYY sooner than I thought.


 


There are errors in judgement.  Then there are errors in judgement akin to "peace in our time."  Then there're errors in judgement like the Twilight movies.  Then there's whatever I did.  It was a really dumb decision.  I'm not sorry I did it, but I am sorry it backfired so remarkably.  Only through some desperate talks with Mike did I convince him I A) didn't do this in concert with Warren and B) I had realized how quickly this plan had gone terribly wrong.  Warren had a strong chance to solo, but luckily we all banded together (except poor Penner, who wasn't in any position to help us), and I even got Loki (who sometimes didn't respond to e-mails) to quickly agree to attacking Norway. Warren and I exchanged polite e-mails about destroying one another.


 


That's my EoG.  Sorry for the length, but I felt I owed some explanations.


 


Regards, and thank you all for a stellar game.  I'd sign up for another game of this variant, for sure!


-Maslow


 


Also, I went on the DC site to look something up, and then decided to watch the scroll at the top to see the congrats for the end of the game.  Instead I say this:  "Error - most recently completed game is incomplete."  What?!  Anarchy lives on!!!


 


 



 


On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 1:27 PM, Michael Penner <mvpenner(at)yahoo.com> wrote:







I really liked the distribution process.  Perhaps something I would do next time is use the negotiations as my guide instead of the names people chose.

Yes, I went after "The One Who Will Win" just because he took that name.  I had no other reason.  Had I been paying more attention to the negotiations, I probably would've been much more wary of Adaria, but you know what they say about hindsight.  I remain a little disappointed that I was unable to find any allies after the were-hamsters were finished, but in the end I'm just glad that Hembria was able (allowed?) to survive... and we even still have a 'b' to hold its place in our name, even if we had to move our parliament from Belgium to Brest.


Until next game,
mvp







--
"It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were. and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing. The shadow, even the darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you - That meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding onto something."

"What are we holding onto, Sam?"
"That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for."