I decided to finally write an EOG for this game, since it's already fading
in my mind some. Anyone who's played with me knows I write lengthy NMRs,
so I apologize in advance.
I haven't decided whether to love or hate Tim's style of play in this
game. On the one hand it was the most ruthless, conniving, duplicitous,
self-serving, dissembling, and avaricious style of play I've ever seen. On
the other hand, what's not to love about being able to do all of that and
still win?
Assisting Tim was the bumbling nature of his opponents. I put myself in
that category on a few occasions this game, but I think everyone but Tim
had at least one or two totally bonehead moves, misorders, or NMRs, which
he skilfully exploited.
The game started off as one would expect. Playing Turkey, I was talking
to Austria (Peter), Russia (Wesley), and Italy (Tim, of course). I was an
early fan of working closely with Tim and settled on him as a partner when
I realized some of the other neighbors were forwarding emails (which I
generally consider very bad form). I think some of this was just
inexperience and it appeared to stop when Tim let them know it was frowned
upon. Still, it served as a reminder that Tim was the experienced hand who
talked like a good long-term partner.
Tim opened the game by absolutely leveling Austria. I mean, lowering the
boom and just driving it home. He claims he initially wanted to Lepanto
but I convinced him otherwise somehow. I'll let him address that if he
does an EOG. But the result was devastating. I don't know that I've ever
seen Italy take Bud in 01 before. Ouch. I moved on Sev and the makings of
a strong IT were in place.
Some things about Tim's play style began to worry me, however. He would
send messages implying a level of teamwork and generosity, and in the very
same season would subtly shift the terms of the dialogue to a less
attractive deal. Meanwhile he was skilfully playing the neighbors off each
other, ensuring that I was pounding on Russia while he was laying his trap
for me. I really lost it in Spring 03 when he moved to Ion in direct
contradiction of a promise he'd made. I attempted mend things with
Austria, but then Peter NMR'd on the move we had set up and was eliminated.
This brings me to an infuriating factor of this game. So many NMRs. All
the time. Just when a plan was ready to take off, an NMR by a key player
would kill it in the cradle. In fact I think the early NMRs in the west
really contributed to Tim's ability to take control of the game. There
just seemed to be this vacuum in the west.
At any rate, I was forced back to Tim by a series of events. Tim
convinced me that Russia and Germany were preparing to win, and it was up
to us to stop them. That sounded fine to me, since I was already fighting
Russia and had no way of impacting Germany. And Germany appeared to be
dominating France, so why not? But then Tim stabbed me hard, I believe in
05 and I think that's about the time when we finally started to rally an
anti-Italy coalition. It required Germany and Russia and France to all
disengage each other and me to disengage from Russia. It actually went
pretty smoothly in those first turns.
If you'd had to guess at this moment, you'd have said, "Surely this
coalition of four other players would be able to stop a nine-center Italy
from taking the game!" But, no, you would be wrong. A series of
disastrous decisions, NMRs, misorders, and savvy play by Tim over the next
TEN GAME YEARS ensured we would all lose.
Effectively, Tim somehow played Germany (Patrick) and France (Scott)
against each other so effectively that the two of them stabbed each other
repeatedly. Meanwhile I was starting to get strangled by the Italian jaws
of death and kept screaming at everybody to keep up pressure in the West
before I croaked. Russia (Wesley) played nothing but honest after we
decided to work together, but we were no match for the insanity of France
and Germany beating each other up while Italy just grew and grew.
At one point in the 07 range, something resembling a stalemate line began
to appear. It had a couple of small cracks but I was becoming convinced a
draw was possible Then I blew it my misordering a key unit. Italy broke
me and I knew I was about to get rolled up and eliminated. I basically
rejoined Tim's side in order to get a survival for the next several years.
He was just sending me orders to send to the GM, which I did without even
looking at the map for about three game years.
At that point it was just a matter of time, but it was a matter of a
really long time. Except for some more NMRs (including my first ever NMR
in DC), the game ground along as Tim chipped away toward 18. Tim actually
managed to stab me AGAIN by capturing one of the two centers he promised me
I could keep as a guarantee of survival. But I still stuck with him before
finally becoming convinced I was expendable and moving back into Turkey
when he wasn't paying attention.
Being back on the anti-Italy group list, I then -- I'm not too proud to
say -- fed Tim information for the rest of the game to guarantee my
survival, basically playing a double agent with my one measly unit until
this game could, mercifully, come to an end.
Tim deserves credit for winning the game, though he did so by effectively
employing the tactics of a confidence man. I give Wesley, my Russian
neighbor, a ton of credit for doing everything he could do hold our
coalition together. I send a friendly EOG bag of coal to Patrick and Scott
for failing to put aside their differences until it was too late, and for
tossing in a couple of absolutely ill-timed NMRs that gave Italy the edge
he needed to dominate the board.
I hope others post EOGs as well.
Brian