Hello all,
Here's how the game played from the perspective of Italy.
My initial approach was to try an unconventional approach to Italy, allying with Turkey against Austria and then the West. I had a positive response from Turkey towards that goal, and Austria seemed friendly so I decided to try for the Greece 01 capture rather than Tunis. Turkey and I had agreed to split Austria and the Balkans unevenly in his favor, so that he would not be required to stab me in order to expand.
Turkey's 1901 fleet build was the end of that strategy. While I liked Hamish and knew he would be a solid player to ally with, the I/T agreement hinged on the entire eastern Mediterranean being free of fleets, so that neither of us had units threatening our home sc's. F Smyrna's only plausible path of advance would be right into my backyard, so it had to go. Both Austria and Turkey expected my support for their respective attacks on Bulgaria and Serbia, and F Smyrna pushed me into Austria's camp.
I didn't intend to ally with Bret for long, and as soon as I gained Serbia I approached Hamish again for his help with the stab. While simply stabbing Bret by myself would have worked, Hamish's recapture of Bulgaria was necessary to cripple Austria to such an extent that it would be quick to eliminate. I again considered teaming up with Hamish at this point, and worked to make plans with him to dislodge one of his fleets off the board. However my acquisition of Vienna and Budapest blocked any prospect of long-term expansion for him, so I decided to get the jump on him.
At this point Max asked me for assistance against Justin. At that point I was too far away to gain any element of surprise (and also wanted to stay on good terms with France), but I tried to help him out by advising him to shift his fleets North, where he would have a clear advantage against Chris' lone fleet. This was entirely in my interest, because it saved England from disbanding a unit in Fall 1905 which prolonged the indecisive situation which plagued the North the entire game.
A quick aside about the North. I would like to see an end-of-game from one of you guys up there, because I don't quite understand what went on between you all. From my perspective it looked like either none of you really trusted each other enough to commit to a lasting alliance, or once Max got an advantage in fleets F/G didn't have any builds left to make fleets of their own. Either way, the lack of a dominant power between Max, Chris, and Justin was a coup for me in the endgame.
Back to 1906. Max and Justin's aggressively anti-Italy moves in the spring caught me entirely off guard. My saving grace was the fact that I had moved a fleet into the Western Med in order to aid France in taking the Mid-Atlantic. Justin never actually told me whether he wanted assistance or not; I had simply assumed that he would welcome the help given our friendly history, and I also wanted to put help put Max on the defensive against France to counterbalance his success in Scandinavia. I'm guessing this led to Justin's subsequent stab of Max because they had lost the opportunity an open Western Med would have given them. Justin never told me he would stab Max, but it wouldn't have mattered; the trust between Justin and I to not move against the other had been broken, so I had to consider him to be a threat from then on.
The game got simple after that. I had been trying to talk to Andrew since July without any responses, and I ended up sent an embarrassingly angry email in Spring 1907 that finally got a response (Sorry about that Andrew, but I figured it was my only option left). I voted against the proposed Italy solo because this would be my first online solo, and I wanted to do it right. My little convoy trick to Spain from Piedmont worked as planned, and in the end I decided to go against my agreed upon truce with Russia for Sevastopol because I didn't want to spend the time fighting for Munich or Paris.
Some other thoughts:
Bret: Unlucky game for you I guess.
Hamish: If only you hadn't built that second fleet, man. If only. Your admitted weakness for long term planning did you in. Hope to see you in a game again!
Andrew: Hanging in there with 2 sc's was an accomplishment, but I think you could have been more aggressive in trying to expand again.
Chris: It looked like you would have had a successful game if you hadn't been forced to counter new threats so frequently.
Justin: The stab in 1906 was well timed, but cluing me in might have avoided my endgame attack.
Max: Keep more information to yourself. I couldn't really trust you after I learned you told Hamish I was attacking.
Good game everyone, and good luck with your next one!
Archer
---- On Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:52:42 -0700
max victory <maxatrest(at)yahoo.co.uk> wrote ----
i second that, well done. To the other players- completely avoidable solo but there we go
From: Hamish Williams <catsfather(at)gmail.com>
To: Timothy Crosby <tim_crosby(at)hotmail.com>
Cc: "bret_pollack(at)hotmail.com" <bret_pollack(at)hotmail.com>; "archer.smith(at)zoho.com" <archer.smith(at)zoho.com>; "cbend37(at)aol.com" <cbend37(at)aol.com>; "hatricvs(at)yahoo.com" <hatricvs(at)yahoo.com>; "justin(at)darkenedpath.com" <justin(at)darkenedpath.com>; "Maxatrest(at)yahoo.co.uk" <Maxatrest(at)yahoo.co.uk>; "dc388(at)diplomaticcorp.com" <dc388(at)diplomaticcorp.com>
Sent: Tuesday, 25 October 2011, 22:01
Subject: Re: cd 388 Fall 1908 Final Results
Congratulations to Italy. I'm grumpy with you ... but I admire a good victory.
On 25 Oct 2011, at 21:02, Timothy Crosby <tim_crosby(at)hotmail.com> wrote:
Thank you for getting orders in on time. Here are your results.
The war is over as Italy controls 18 centers for the solo win. Congrats Archer on a strong win. There was one retreat which I made automatically.
Thank you all for making GMing easy I hope that you all enjoyed the game. Again I apologize for the major error a few turns ago.
End of game statements are highly recommended. Send them to me in the next couple of days and I will post what I received. I know some prefer to just e-mail them to everyone so please do if that is what you prefer. I would be interested in the player perspective of the game.
Final map and .dpy are attached. Please check for errors.
***************************
England:
F Baltic Sea Hold
F Denmark - North Sea
F Irish Sea Supports F London - Wales
F London - Wales
F North Sea - London
A Norway - St Petersburg (*Bounce*)
France:
A Belgium Hold
F English Channel Supports A Belgium
A Gascony Hold (*Dislodged*) ***(A Gascony ??? Burgundy)
F Liverpool Hold
A Paris - Brest
Germany:
A Holland - Kiel
A Munich - Bohemia
A Ruhr - Munich
Italy:
A Armenia Supports A Rumania - Sevastopol
F Black Sea Supports A Rumania - Sevastopol
A Budapest Supports A Bulgaria - Rumania
A Bulgaria - Rumania
A Galicia - Warsaw (*Bounce*)
F Gulf of Lyon Supports A Marseilles
A Marseilles Supports A Spain - Gascony
F Mid-Atlantic Ocean - Portugal
F North Africa Supports F Western Mediterranean - Mid-Atlantic Ocean
A Rome - Venice
A Rumania - Sevastopol
A Spain - Gascony
F Tyrrhenian Sea - Western Mediterranean
A Venice - Tyrolia
F Western Mediterranean - Mid-Atlantic Ocean
Russia:
A Moscow - St Petersburg (*Bounce*)
A Sevastopol Hold (*Disbanded*)
A Ukraine - Warsaw (*Bounce*)
**********************************************
Ownership:
England: Denmark, Edinburgh, London, Norway, St Petersburg,
Sweden.
France: Belgium, Brest, Liverpool, Paris.
Germany: Berlin, Holland, Kiel, Munich.
Italy: Ankara, Budapest, Bulgaria, Constantinople, Greece,
Marseilles, Naples, Portugal, Rome, Rumania, Serbia,
Sevastopol, Smyrna, Spain, Trieste, Tunis, Venice,
Vienna.
Russia: Moscow, Warsaw.
Adjustments:
Austria: Supp 0 Unit 0 Build 0
England: Supp 6 Unit 6 Build 0
France: Supp 4 Unit 5 Remove 1
Germany: Supp 4 Unit 3 Build 1
Italy: Supp 18 Unit 15 Build 2
Russia: Supp 2 Unit 2 Build 0
Turkey: Supp 0 Unit 0 Build 0
Thanks,
Tim
<dc388Final.jpg>
<dc388.dpy>
