Everyone,


 


I had a great deal of fun in this game.  As most of you know, I had not played Diplomacy for quite some time, I used to play on a site out of England, and GM'd a number of games as well.  But I had not played for about ten years.  I thought that now having a computer at home, as well as my schedule working in an office would allow me the time to do so, as I will explain that did not work as well as I had hoped.


 


Game Start-- I started out immediately talking to Germany about a possible SeaLion attack on England.  Germany bought in and we started laying out our strategy.  There were some disturbing early results in our attempts to communicate with Austria, Italy, and Russia.  Italy, never spoke to me, not once for the entire game.  This--though it may have been a strategy rather than a slight--gave me a very nasty taste in my mouth.  Russia replied to our (Germany and my) advances with a lot of evasive non-commital responses.  Though I do remember exchanging pleasantries with Austria at the beginning of the game, I heard nothing from that point forward--until much later when I screwed everything up in the end game.  Germany said he was having no luck at all with Austrian relations either.  This may or may not have been true.  England, though my intention was to destroy
him first, was a frequent and loquacious correspondent.  In the end this saved his bacon.


 


Early Game--Our (G/F) Sealion attack goes off well EXCEPT for some reason Russia does not get behind it.  Had Russia thrown in with us at that point, England would have been toast, and Russia's overall position would have been much better-in my opinion.  But clearly (clear now anyway) he was working with Austria and did not want us getting too strong.  I land in Wales and England and I exchange many humorous, threatening emails back and forth, keeping up a steady dialogue despite our animosity.  For example I refuse to call it the channel, always referring to it as La Manche when writing to him.  As I am figuring out my tactics to take England by force now that I have a unit on the island, doubts start to seriously gnaw at my gut.  I am suddenly sure that I am about to be stabbed.  All attempts to talk to Italy and Russia are repulsed, Germany tells me he is
getting nothing from Austria either(here I made a mistake in not aggressively trying to talk to Austria myself, I do not know if it would have done me any good, but it was going to poison my opinion on Ausria for the rest of the game and cost me a chance to really go anywhere.)  At the last minute Germany and I decide to throw in with England.  I am sure England was desparately throwing out any thing he could to lessen the pressure on himself, but our worries were actually spot on as Austria, Italy, and Russia moved on us that turn.  I have to assume it came as quite a shock to them when I convoyed my army in Wales to North Africa, and moved towards Marseilles.  The timing could not have been more perfect and the new E/F/G alliance is running strong.


 


Phase Two--Italy makes a vital error by building an army in Venice instead of an additional fleet in Rome in the winter of 1903.  I am begging Turkey to hold on, telling him I am coming to his rescue.  However after spring of 1904 we loose Sifcell as England and Dirk takes over.  I research Dirk on the site and see he has only had one solo and mistakenly (as it turns out) figure he is in it for the long haul with me.  I am still trying to talk to Italy, and still I get no response.  This is one of the oddest things about this game to me, how there was so little discourse between the two "sides".  I know in the case of my relations with Austria some of that was my own fault, but I tried mightily to talk to Italy and Russia and somehow got it in my mind that Austria was the one responsible for them not talking to me.


 


Mid Game--A lot of the moves by Austria did not make sense to me at this point, as he seemed to be cannibalizing his own partner to enchance his short term position while weakening Italy's ability to defend itself against me.  Of course that is the view from the outside of the enemies' position, but again I allowed it to flavor my opinion of Austria, which later made me question his moves when we tried to work together.  Now I make my biggest mistake, I accept Englands excuses for moving into the Channel.  I blame myself for "miscommunication" because I am ridiculously busy at work, and not able to regularly access a computer at home, and I don't realize how exposed I am leaving myself.  I convince myself I need England's fleets to help me, when I really don't.  The season of the big stab, I wrote in my orders to Alex, that IF England was going to stab me, now was the time. 
While at the beginning of the game I trusted my instincts that a A/I/R attack was coming, I did not trust my instincts this time, and it cost me big.


 


The Big Mistake--Finally I am talking to Austria, but I am so distrustful I see every move he makes as double sided.  My correspondence with him is stilted so even if he was trying to honestly broker a truce and alliance between us I can't see it.  I don't know if he was to this day, I assume he was as it was our only chance, but somehow everything he said struck me as wrong.  Dirk, was not feeding into this--at least not overtly--it was my own perception.  Dirk realizing that even so his stab was not deep enough to end the game with a solo, resumed working with me.  I am still stupidly looking for a way to win the game rather than looking for stalemate, with opportunities.  Work has gone on massive overdrive and my computer is not working at home, only allowing me occasional access on my bride's.  At some point Germany "threatens" to hand the game over rather than
fight it out, and this--though probably a ploy on his part--turns me irrevocably against him.  At his point I realize England is going to win, it is just a matter of how bad it is for me.  I do not like the way I played the end of this game at all, the only reason I can give is my long absence from the game left me ill prepared to deal with the changes going on.  I will do better next time.


 


Conclusions--First off I need to apologize to Jack, if only because I so poorly played my part at the end.  I look forward to playing against each and everyone of you again, I do not hold grudges--though neither do I forget-----Dirk.  Alex, thank you for your patience with me. 


 


Mark