Hi All, I just realized Gerry's EOG statement from a couple of days ago went to me but not to everyone else! Sorry for not passing it along. Here it is:
On Thu, Feb 9, 2012 at 3:53 PM, Gerry Bayer <starhop8(at)gmail.com> wrote:


Thanks Eric for GMing and congratulations to Gareth on his solo . 

It's funny how quickly things can change . After the first 2 years I was rehearsing my victory speech ,  the next couple of years I was practicing my "there's nothing wrong with a draw" speech, after that I was desperately hoping I'd last till the end 


 Rather than give a historical summary of the game I thought I'd make 3 points 

The turning point came in ( if I recall) F03 where England and I had coordinated a set of moves to put Germany (Gareth) on the defensive. Unfortunately  Bret changed his mind at the last minute and  went with a different option. I don't think it was meant as a stab against me , he just thought it was the better thing to do. Unfortunately he did not tell me and as a result Germany gained a unit rather than lost one . Turned the entire complexion of the game around , at least in the north. I lost 2 units, England lost 1 and Germany gained 1 . Turkey (Michael)  had stabbed me the season before but I thought I could hold him off in the south if I made gains up north, sadly that did not happen.
The second point is the atrocious lack of communication  this game .  Gareth and I communicated  regularly as well as Michael and I ( at least at the start) . England never communicated with me until F02 I think, despite me sending messages to him . Whoever heard of England and Russia not exchanging anything until F02 ! France and I communicated once, I sent a second message and received no reply and that was it until the end of the game. Matt, I really don't know why you were playing . I know you've apologized for your lack of communication but really...Sending me suggestions 3 hours before the deadline does not cut it . I did offer to proxy for you as maybe you were having real life issues. To continue the way you did made no sense.  Diplomacy is all about writing and receiving messages and trying to make sense out of what other players are saying and not saying.  If you aren't doing that then you aren't playing Diplomacy.
Lastly , I don't want to take anything from Gareth's solo but I don't think France did much or tried very hard to stop you .  If I was France I would have been writing and urging everyone  to take a stand against that big bully Germany . I heard nothing until the very end where France was supposed to move against Germany but did the opposite. It's all rather suspicious...I'm really hoping France did do their best , I'm just not seeing it . 

Gerry
On Sat, Feb 11, 2012 at 8:37 AM, Gareth Griffiths <gnr.griffiths(at)gmail.com> wrote:





Hi everyone,



I've not had EOG's from anyone yet, so maybe when you receive mine
it'll kick-start things? Don't feel obligated though, I simply think
it can be interesting to read and can help answer the unanswered
questions.



The beginning:

Things started out straightforwardly. I agreed with France to keep
Burgundy demilitaried, with Austria and Italy to keep Tyrolia
unoccupied, and with Russia to keep Prussia and Silesia empty. Even
better, everyone followed through on these agreements. After England
and France bounced in the Channel I managed to pick up three builds
in 1901 for a good start. My single mistake in '01 being to let
Russia into Sweden: I did not expect Russia to pick up Budapest!



I continued to head north in 1902, moving into SKA and Den so that I
was in a position to turn either east or west depending on how
things worked out. In the end Bret and I weren't able to come to an
agreement in time for the Fall '02 deadline and with France having
taken the Channel the opportunity to finish England off quickly was
too good to pass up.



I was concerned that Austria was self-imploding after losing Bud in
'01, so sent a unit into Bohemia while France headed to Piedmont.
The longer we could keep Austria alive, the more of an advantage
we'd gain. Unfortunately Austria was now facing the combined might
of Russia, Turkey and Italy, and there was little I could do to
delay the inevitable.



The middle:

With Austria down to only one centre in Venice and what looked to be
a Juggernaut about to start rolling west, I helped Italy and France
disengage to enable Italy to focus on Turkey. England was far from
dead at this point but with French fleets in ENG and IRI, and an
army of mine in Wales it was simply a matter of time. Unfortunately
Russia decided that I was a threat and moved into position.



Spring '03 was the low point for me, failing to stop England's
counter-attack or Russia's manoeuvring into position. Fall '03 on
the other hand went swimmingly as I prevented Russia from picking up
any centres and picked up two of England's home centres thanks to
France vacating Liverpool for me. Now seems to be as good a point as
any to acknowledge that without France being such a great ally I
would not have solo'd this game. Giving up Liverpool was the correct
thing to do from an F-G perspective, but with Russia and England
both assaulting me I'd not have faulted France for taking the
opportunity to turn on me.



The beginning of the end:

Meanwhile in 1903 Turkey had turned on Russia. I'd done my part to
encourage this by helping Turkey pick up Serbia. With Russia failing
to make headway against me he was forced into two disbands and I
came to an agreement with him that he would disband northern units
and in return I'd assist him with his counter-attack on Turkey as
well as with the English nuisance in Scandinavia. This was a no win
situation for Russia: he was in a two-front war against large powers
and so had to choose which war to give up. As I had agreed not to
attack him initially, as well as to provide him support, I think
Gerry made the correct choice. Indeed, with the exception of Norway
which had been surrendered to me by agreement, I didn't take a
Russian centre until 1906 - three years after the German-Soviet pact
had been made, and during this time helped Russia pick up three
centres from Turkey.



1904 set the tone for the rest of the game as England was all but
eliminated, France moved against Italy, and Russia and Turkey were
fighting a war neither of them would win. I picked up a couple more
centres in 1905 and in 1906 moved into position to attack Russia.



The end:

With Russia engaged against Turkey and France and Italy
fighting it was a case of choosing which centres to pick up to make
18. I made sure to keep units in position should I-R-T manage to
turn France against me, but despite a belated attempt to form an
alliance against me, I had the momentum to solo.



General comments

I'll thank Eric again for being GM. None of us have much spare time
so I always appreciate when someone gives some of theirs up to
enable the rest of us to play.



Thanks also to everyone else for the game. It was a pleasure playing
with you all and hope you enjoyed it too. I really hope the
first-timers to DC amongst us enjoyed it and will try again.



I look forward to reading your perspectives on the game, but as I
said before, no obligation!



All the best for those of you in the Winter Blitz (my game looks to
be a 5-way draw at the moment after Russia and England NMR'd
themselves out of any chance).



Gareth



On 03/02/2012 21:11, Eric Palmer wrote:

So we end the game just shy of Fall 1908.
 
The end of game proposal (concession to Germany) has
passed, with all five surviving countries voting in favor.
 
Congratulations to Gareth (aka MagDox) for his victory.
 
Thanks for everyone staying on top of things, playing hard,
and putting up with my first outing as GM of an email game.
 
I'm looking forward to reading each of your end of game
statements. Feel free to reply all at your leisure. Please don't
send anything you wouldn't want me to post to the site (or
specify what you want to keep off the record).
 
Thanks again, and for those of you participating in the
Winter Blitz, hopefully I'll see you there soon! Regardless, I
hope to see all of you around DC.
 
All the best,
 
Eric Palmer (politesociety)
GM, DC397