Heya folks!

My game was taken away from me pretty early on; Centaurs were hostile, Faeries didn't really help and Knights stabbed me for a home sc in fall 01, leaving me with no builds. Things were looking bleak. The game continued in this fashion, untill I was approached about the MMA. Since I was pretty much doomed at this point, I accepted and prayed that I could be pulled out of the fire. The rest is pretty much history, surviving was more than I could ever dream of. By all rights, I should have been taken out, but fate was with me this time. Thanks to all of the mma and to Simster for a great and enjoyable game!

/ Mikael

Date: Tue, 9 Sep 2008 11:42:28 -0500
From: gbimmerle(at)gmail.com
To: mike(at)southwall.com
Subject: Re: Once Within: Game End!!
CC: Githraine(at)yahoo.com; alwayshunted(at)hotmail.com; cluffy123(at)googlemail.com; gkotschy(at)gmx.at; Gregory_Olson(at)brown.edu; rjroddayjr(at)yahoo.com; isaac.zinner(at)gmail.com; davidellsworth(at)sbcglobal.net; jason4747(at)hotmail.com; mrh(at)panix.com; clarklandry(at)gmail.com; finchleywomble(at)hotmail.com; wecanworkthisout(at)yahoo.com; m_don_j(at)hotmail.com; jkudlick(at)gmail.com; rolfloschek(at)yahoo.de; jmsaralegui(at)gmail.com; nephilli99(at)hotmail.com; dc158(at)diplomaticcorp.com; former.trout(at)gmail.com; stevelytton(at)hotmail.com

Hey Guys,

First off I want to thank Mike for creating, GMing, and putting in those long hours adjudicating this game. You're Awesome! Also Haven was a great map. I really enjoyed exploring it and discovering all the unique peoples and races that inhabited it. I can't wait to see what Mike's next fog map will look like (hint, hint).

ESG:

The Nomadic people of Haven were very blessed to have found the Hobbits to be a friendly people and to be included in the Map Makers Alliance. The benefit of having a World Map and five committed allies early in the game proved to be a invaluable tool while exploring the foggy lands of Haven.

The MMA wasn't the only major alliance in this game. The Nomads were also involved in the TRL Alliance (Three River Lake) with the Ogres and Elves. Unfortunately I ended up having to betray the TRL Alliance due to the expansion of the MMA (Sorry guys, nothing personal).

Along with MMA and TRL, I'm sure that there were other alliances that I wasn't aware of. If anyone know about the politics and alliances in the north I'd be very interested to hear about it since I had little to do with the north until late in the game.

I really enjoyed playing with all of you and I hope to see you all again in some future diplomatic endeavor.

Thanks,
GB






On Mon, Sep 8, 2008 at 11:14 AM, Michael Sims <mike(at)southwall.com ([email]mike(at)southwall.com[/email])> wrote:

Once within a fog so dreary, embarked a group of 19 leery
of what they'd find behind this eerie curtain of cryptic rhymed décor.
From them grew the MMA, a group of six… we saw them lay
The premise for a brighter day – then looking back they did no more.
Allegiance proved the winning tide as all the others did subside
And grant the six their greatest pride… A brilliant end to this our war.
Congrats to all who dared explore this game that now is Haven lore.
Shall quoth this Raven, Nevermore

**************************************************

That's right, after 11 mysterious years, the game comes to a close with a 6-way draw of the Map Makers Alliance:
- Dwarves
- Hobbits
- Nomads
- Magicians
- Rogues
- Wizards

The other remaining players get survivals:
- Barbarians
- Centaurs
- Faeries
- Knights

**************************************************

End-Game-Statements are definitely encouraged, as this was a playtest in many regards… by far the largest FOW game I've attempted to run, and my personal favorite map creation. For me, the task of adjudicating the game became quite daunting toward the midgame, around years 3 to 5, since there was so much going on, and making 19 maps turned out to be a lot more work than I'd imagined. A full adjudication took about 3-4 hours during this time, and was down to about 2 hours each by the end once there were fewer players remaining.

I will certainly run another game on this map, but this time open map, and not fog, to see how it plays out any differently.

There are lots of other open games on the site…
- Seismic Diplomacy, run by Adam
- Southeast Asia, run by Vegas
- Wheel of Time, run by Jason
- The Original 1958 Diplomacy Game, run by Paolo
- and a 34-player Chaos game where each player starts with 1 sc on the standard map – by Matt

Check them out, at www.diplomaticcorp.com/recruiting