This was my first Diplomaticcorp game and it certainly was an odd one. In the very beginning of the game I was not able to devout as much time to it as I wanted to because of a dip tournament I was in at another site. So Austria and I had an early partnership and I decided to keep France in check the best I knew how. However, that turned out to be a mistake because of the German/English alliance it facilitated and in the end France got run over while I was just getting started in Turkey. I thought my relationship with Austria was good, but I felt that he was too panicked as the game continued. He seemed to feel the game slipping away from him and rather then taking what was given to him, he continued to struggle against the waves. I feel his biggest problem in this game was lack of imagination.

Anyway, as I was finally able to start paying attention to this game, France was eliminated and I had to devise a way to continue pushing into Turkey while turning to face England's advances into the Med. Austria had told me to turn my fleet around and abandon my Turkish position. I did not want to do this for several reasons. The position as I remember it came up during a fall turn and I knew that if I made the right move and gambled a little bit I would be able to take two turkish centers and establish myself permanently in that area while building two new fleets on my home front with which to combat England. This also allowed me to then bring my fleet out of Turkey and act as a reinforcement rather then as a weak front line. Austria was furious about this. I believe it was because he did not want the units protecting Turkey, I believe he wanted the centers, and he wrote me a long mail about me making foolish moves instead of taking the "safe" strategy (again, a lack of imagination). I still think this was a diplomatic ploy because I remember thinking how logical and intuitive my moves were at the time and, low and behold, my moves were a success. It was culiminated, I thought, by allowing the Austrian fleet into Ionion, which would have totally plugged up the med and, had Austria decided to go with my suggestions as I had in the early game with his, I know we would have at least been able to put up a very valiant fight.

But this is where the game turned for me. Austria instead moved Ionion - Naples, which I considered but then rejected because of how selfish and pointless a one center stab looked on paper. But he not only did it, but then sent me an email explaining that he'd return Naples once I complied with his demands. That's right - he was holding Naples hostage for me making a brilliant and effective order simply because it was not his suggested set. This, obviously, infuriated me and, obviously (but not to him) had me turning strongly against him and the rest from that point is history. It is niether effective nor diplomatic to try and win your demands by force, instead it just creates more force and I hope that the Austrian player now understands why the name of this game is "Diplomacy". Quiet frankly the best diplomat deserves to win and immediately after Austria made his Naples demands, England tapped me on the shoulder and made suggested moves that had me not worrying about the English invading force, had me placing "2nd" (although there is only 1 winner) and had me winning my position against Austria. Austria's play was nicely summed up in his last year NMR.

Moral of the story: You will not win this game if you set out only with aims of self glorification. It takes persistence, communion with your gamers, honor and integrity. England had it. Austria did not and in the end I decided to play Austria's game instead of my own and so I could even say I didn't have it.

I do feel responsible for the English position from early on. But Austria is the reason Austria lost.

Hope to meet you all again
Alexander


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