Welcome to the 2012 Winter Blitz. I am Adam, your GM. Pour yourself a cup of tea, dunk a couple of biscuits, make yourself at home, and... oh, don???t trust the gentlemen sitting to your right and left. They want to kill you. You mustn???t blame them; they think you want to kill them, too. And who are we kidding? You do, don???t you? Of course you do. You???ve heard of a zero-sum game, haven???t you? Well, consider this a thirty-four-sum game. By the way, you should try the cucumber sandwiches. They???re delectable. I???d recommend the curry, but you never know what poisons might be masked by such strong flavors. Then again, I???d trust the curry before I???d trust the honey sweet words of the fellow across the table. Before we start, I am afraid there are rather a lot of rules, cautions, disclaimers, provisos, and other administrative details. Please read carefully, as the tight deadlines and tournament play necessitate an unusual degree
of strictness and correctitude.

Your game number is DC 409. Please include this in all email subject lines to avoid my spam filters. Also, please make sure that my emails avoid your spam filters. There is a web page for this game, its results, and its current status: www.diplomaticcorp.com/game_page.php?game_id=dc409.

Please email me after you finish reading this introduction. Include your Spring 1901 prelims. [Note: I am an enthusiastic devotee of prelims. They form a good habit. Use them all the time.] Also include your preference for the time of adjudications. I will use 10:00 CST in the absence of other preferences.

RULES

The following rules govern DC 409. Items not covered below may be addressed on the Winter Blitz site (www.diplomaticcorp.com/tournament.php). Otherwise, DC House Rules apply.

SCHEDULING

The first deadline (S1901) will be Monday, January 23rd at 10:00 CST (16:00 GMT). Future deadlines will always be as follows:

Spring: Mondays
Spring Retreats: Tuesdays
Fall: Thursdays
Fall Retreats & Winter: Fridays

Because this is the Blitz, there will be no postponements. Note that Fall retreats and Winter adjustments are concurrent. You may submit conditional orders for Winter (ex. ???Disband F GoB unless Germany retreats to Sweden, in which case, disband A Sev???).

EMAILS TO THE GM

My email address is smegdwarf(at)yahoo.com. I use email filters, so please include 409 in your email subject line. I will try to confirm receipt of all orders. I will not be correcting or notifying you of mistakes in your orders. Usually I would provide this service, but this is a tournament game.

PLAYER ASSIGNMENTS

In accordance with Winter Blitz rules, you have no choice as to your country assignment. You probably have been tasked with Italy. I respectfully confess to finding your plight amusing.

DEADLINES

All deadlines will be 10:00 CST / 16:00 GMT (if this is inconvenient for players, I may change it). I may or may not send reminders. Because this is a tournament (and a blitz tournament at that), there can be no undue accommodation on deadlines. If you are late, then you are late. Your units will NMR and be ordered to hold (or to disband in retreat or to waive a build???). Most likely, your allies will turn on you due to a perceived unreliability.

Put succinctly: timeliness is the greatest virtue of a Winter Blitz champion. Your timeliness will cover a multitude (though by no means all) of your other sins. As this is a Blitz game, I will not adjudicate early, except where all retreats are auto-retreats. I *will* accept orders after the deadline up until I start adjudicating (usually within a couple of hours of the stated deadline), but since you won???t know exactly when that is, you???re best served submitting final orders before the deadline.

CC: YOUR ORDERS:

You should copy ALL orders to: orders(at)diplomaticcorp.com. Next to timeliness, it???s the single most important thing you can do to succeed in this tournament. There are two important reasons. First, in the case of any dispute, your cc???d orders will be used by the tournament moderators to settle the issue. Second, it may happen that I cannot personally adjudicate a season; if so, then the tournament moderators will adjudicate for me, and they will use your cc???d orders. [One point of clarification: to be valid, orders must be sent to me, your GM. Orders sent only to the cc: address are not valid].

AUTO-RETREATS

Any unit that is forced to retreat with only one viable option will automatically be ordered to retreat thusly. This may sometimes lead to an early adjudication if all retreats are auto-retreats. If you would prefer to disband your auto-retreating unit, you must contact me by 1000 CST of the appropriate Tuesday/Friday. Preferably sooner.

PROTESTS

You have 24 hours to protest an adjudication. When the 1441st minute ticks away, you may no longer protest. Please direct your protest first to me. If I provide no satisfaction, then we can appeal it to a Moderator. Again, time is of the essence. Protests should be made rapidly.

PROXIES / REPLACEMENTS

If you cannot submit orders for one season, you may designate a proxy (who may NOT be another player in the Winter Blitz) to submit orders on your behalf. I will need a rather explicit email from the player designating the proxy and providing contact information. Proxy orders are always overridden by player orders, even if the proxy orders were submitted after the player orders. Proxies must be renewed each game year.
DC does not provide replacements. So, if one of you must flake, please at least try to find a substitute player to take over your position. Otherwise, your country will fall into eternal NMRs, which spoils the game for everybody. Quite.

PLAYER ASSIGNMENTS

Now that all the unpleasant rules have been covered, may I please show you to your rooms? The accommodations this year are modest but hopefully pleasing. If you find you have any needs ??? you???ve forgotten your razor, or you require a sharp knife, or you???d like rifles for a hunting expedition, or you could use a really sturdy length of rope ??? do not hesitate to contact me. And, of course, there is always hot tea ready at your call.

Your GM ??? Adam Martin-Schwarze
Orders CC:
Austria ??? Nathan Deily
England ??? "The Czech"

France ??? Dan Dzikowicz

Germany ??? Michael Penner
Italy ??? Thomas Fletcher
Russia ??? Robert Marshall
Turkey ??? Gareth Griffiths

Now, please email me directly to confirm receipt of this email. Include your S1901 prelims! Copy them to orders(at)diplomaticcorp.com! Include any preference for changing the hour of adjudication.