Well, for the start, I knew this would be fun.
I quickly made a pact with the Faeries and the Gnomes, the Faeries bringing the Dwarves along (who I now see were steeling all my map work as well!)
I spent more time negotiating for map pieces then moves and had a 90% complete map sometime around April.
The Archers expanded quickly, and by Mikes clues were in the top tier for size for the first 3-4 years.
Then I ran into the Nomads. I tried to get the seemingly neutral Wizards to assist as all my allies were to far north to assist, bet he sided with the Nomads and that began the end for me.

For those who asked, the initial set in the North was the Barbarians, Knights, and Centaurs (the 3 bordering the north pole) and then the Faeries, gnomes, Archers & Dwarves with some minor support from the Rogues and Trolls.

A great game, one I would play again, anytime!

Thanks all!
Jason


----- Original Message ----
From: Michael Sims <mike(at)southwall.com>
To: 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; gbimmerle(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
Cc: dc158(at)diplomaticcorp.com; Former Trout <former.trout(at)gmail.com>; Stephen Lytton <stevelytton(at)hotmail.com>
Sent: Monday, September 8, 2008 12:14:42 PM
Subject: Once Within: Game End!!


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