I have to echo Dennis' congrats to everyone.

England was my second choice after France. I didn't mind playing as
England but I knew that it would be difficult to leave the island.

Early on my goal was to be friendly to everyone, be honest the whole way
(if possible) and try to make an ally with either Germany or France. I
didn't care which one at first, as long as I had one. I knew how the
triangle between England, France and Germany usually plays out: if you
are the lone country you don't survive. France came early on and tried
to make friend. Germany was more noncommittal (and was building more
fleet than England cares to see). The pack with France was never a full
alliance (as far as I understood it). It was more a deal to attack
Germany and that's it. After France made a few mistakes (on purpose or
not), it seriously affected my view on France. I knew that he didn't
really want a full war on Germany and was making it difficult. At that
point, I could see Austria and Turkey getting along in the East and
growing while we were still doing nothing in the West. My guess is that
Germany saw that also and wanted to act. France didn't seemed (that
might not be correct, but it was my feeling) to cared about the East and
had a hard time convincing me that 3 countries (England, France and
Germany) could coexist. I knew I would get the raw end of that deal
further in the game. At that point, Germany offered me an alliance that
would see France gone and us moving East. I remember at the beginning
being very suspicious of Germany (I'm sure that Dennis felt the same
way). Those first moves really needed trust from both of us. One could
easily have turned on the other at that moment. The alliance with
Germany was a very good one as (in my opinion again) nobody was selfish
and communication was excellent.

Early in the game I was surprised to see Russia so aggressive toward
Norway (a neutral SC that normally goes to England without question in
the beginning) and didn't even talk about an alliance or cooperation
(didn't look good early on). I deduced that Russia wanted to scared me
and focused more on Austria and Turkey. This seemed like a good place to
start.

Turkey was receptive early on to cooperation (an alliance of Turkey and
England is a very good one statistically)! Because of the distance early
on, we kept in touch every year or so. Me asking what was going on the
the East and him asking me about the West. I tried to tell him as much
as I could but it was still a mess (he probably though that I didn't
want to say too much, but it was more that I too didn't know). Turkey's
flip flop between Austria and us later in the game didn't inspire
confidence and upon consultation with Germany we decided not to include
him in our plan anymore by fear of him telling Austria. A 3-way tie
between Turkey, Germany and England would have been totally acceptable
to me toward the middle of the game and would probably have succeeded.

I had almost no dealings with Italy as neither of us was really useful
to the other. It's hard to cooperate when gains are not mutual.

I thought early on that Austria was probably a good player but made it
too obvious in my opinion. Looking too strong, too fast makes for other
countries to join forces to protect themselves and stop you!!! Austria
really only offered me one deal and it was really in his favour. That
didn't give me the confidence needed in an ally. I knew that other
players in my region (the West) had had bad dealing with him and
proceeded with caution. Austria really seemed to understand that this
was a game when I had to take SCs from him and seemed interested in the
challenge! I knew that GMs and some countries had other opinions.

Toward the end, it seemed that everyone was a little bit tired and
wanted the game over (me included sometimes). It became clear that it
would be a 4-way tie and I didn't mind that, even though it seemed like
a lot of effort for nothing and I would have been happy to help either
Austria or Turkey get rid of the other one to change it to a 3-way tie.
I really wanted Germany to have a part of the win since he had been a
really good ally and though that it was unfair that I would get the
solo. But he seemed more interested in me winning than having the other
player share the win. I knew that France would be happy that way.

I also made a lot of mistakes and wish I could have played differently.
I felt really exposed the whole game having units _everywhere_.

I hope that everyone will write one of these even if they didn't enjoy
the game or left early on.

I don't think I'll play Diplomacy any time soon but will surely come
back eventually.

I also have an idea what happen to our first moderator but would be
interested in really finding what happen.

Thanks to Trout for the hard work, to everyone for staying until the end
and to Dennis who was a fantastic ally.

Etienne aka England

Dennis Alford wrote:

Thanks for the great game everyone, although a little belatedly. And
congrats to Et on the solo win.

This was my first Diplomacy game online and the first in a few years.
I've never played as Germany before and it certainly was not one of my
top choices. It was fun to play though! I got a lot of mail early in
the game.

From the beginning, Germany's plan was to work with France to
eliminate England. With that corner safe, Germany and France would
then turn east. I thought that between England and France, England
was more of a threat for a backstab and the border could be more
easily secured between France and Germany. Obviously, that didn't
work out when France turned on Germany. With Austria and Turkey
wiping out Russia with lightning speed, I frantically emailed France
and England to see if one would turn on the other. By process of
elimination, I joined up with England against France. France, seeing
the threat f Austria and Turkey, allowed us to take SC's with little
to no resistance as long as we worked to make sure Austria/Turkey
would not win.

After France was taken, England focused on fleets in the south and
Germany focused on armies. I kept my fleets around though because I
knew I was going to have to turn on England at one time or another--or
at least protect myself if England turned on me first.

Austria stabbed Turkey and Turkey send cries for help. Germany and
England moved against Austria with Turkey's help for a little while.
But Austria must have offered Turkey a better deal because all of a
sudden, Turkey was working with Austria again. Then BAM, Austria and
Turkey declare they have formed a stalemate line that England and
Germany could not break. After careful examination, I verified their
claim. Given Turkey's resolve to stick with Austria, England and
Germany decided that a stalemate between 4 countries was not worth all
of the time and effort put into the game thus far. Inspired by
France's sacrifice so that Austria and Turkey would not get too
powerful, Germany also gave up SC's. SC's transitioned to English
control, and the rest, is history.

Final thoughts:
-When Et, Dom, and I talked, Dom and I both said we would rather take
ourselves down as long as Austria did not win. And that's exactly
what happened.
-I never trusted Austria.
-I still have no idea what went down with our first moderator. But I
think I have an idea.
-If you want to write out your stories from your perspective, it would
be fun to read and know what happened behind your back.
-I made A LOT of mistakes in movement and strategy. I wasted a few
moves I didn't have to.
-Thanks again everyone. Thanks Trout, your emails were always fun to
read. I'm kind of Diplomacy'd out for now, but hopefully we will meet
again on the map.

Dennis




On Fri, Oct 31, 2008 at 7:18 PM, Former Trout <former.trout(at)gmail.com
<mailto:former.trout(at)gmail.com>> wrote:

Well, lots of trick or treating going on tonight. And for
Etienne, it's a treat. Fall 1911 rolls around and, to everyone's
surprise it brings a British 19-center solo! (Oddly enough
though, the solo proposal was voted down... Go figure.)

Congratulations to Etienne, as well as to all of our players for
playing it right out to the end. EOG statements are very welcome
- let us hear how the game went for you. The highs, the lows, the
middles...

Thanks again to everyone for joining in the fun. We'll see you
all in the next one!

Congratulations all! DC-173 is a wrap.

Gigabyte Trout


Movement results for Fall of 1911. (DC173 11 FALL)

Austria: A Apulia Supports A Venice.
Austria: A Budapest Supports A Vienna.
Austria: F Greece Supports F Ionian Sea.
Austria: A Rome Hold.
Austria: A Rumania Hold.
Austria: A Sevastopol Hold.
Austria: A Trieste Supports A Vienna.
Austria: A Venice Hold.
Austria: A Vienna Hold.

England: A Berlin Supports A Munich.
England: A Burgundy, no move received.
England: F Denmark Hold.
England: F Gulf of Lyon Supports F Tyrrhenian Sea.
England: A Kiel Supports A Berlin.
England: A Liverpool Hold.
England: A London Hold.
England: A Moscow Supports A Warsaw.
England: F North Sea Hold.
England: F Piedmont Hold.
England: A Ruhr Supports A Munich.
England: F Sweden, no move received.
England: F Tunis Hold.
England: F Tyrrhenian Sea Hold.
England: A Warsaw Supports A Moscow.
England: F Western Mediterranean Supports F Tunis.

Germany: A Bohemia Hold.
Germany: A Munich Hold.
Germany: A Silesia Hold.
Germany: A Ukraine Hold.

Turkey: F Adriatic Sea Supports A Venice.
Turkey: A Armenia Supports A Sevastopol.
Turkey: A Bulgaria Supports A Rumania.
Turkey: F Ionian Sea Hold.
Turkey: F Naples Supports A Rome.

Unit locations:

Austria: A Apulia, A Budapest, F Greece, A Rome, A Rumania, A
Sevastopol, A
Trieste, A Venice, A Vienna.
England: A Berlin, A Burgundy, F Denmark, F Gulf of Lyon, A Kiel, A
Liverpool, A London, A Moscow, F North Sea, F Piedmont,
A Ruhr, F
Sweden, F Tunis, F Tyrrhenian Sea, A Warsaw, F Western
Mediterranean.
Germany: A Bohemia, A Munich, A Silesia, A Ukraine.
Turkey: F Adriatic Sea, A Armenia, A Bulgaria, F Ionian Sea, F
Naples.

Ownership of supply centers:

Austria: Budapest, Greece, Rome, Rumania, Serbia, Sevastopol,
Trieste,
Venice, Vienna.
England: Belgium, Berlin, Brest, Denmark, Edinburgh, Holland, Kiel,
Liverpool, London, Marseilles, Moscow, Norway, Paris,
Portugal,
Spain, St Petersburg, Sweden, Tunis, Warsaw.
Germany: Munich.
Turkey: Ankara, Bulgaria, Constantinople, Naples, Smyrna.

Austria: 9 Supply centers, 9 Units: Builds 0 units.
England: 19 Supply centers, 16 Units: Builds 1 unit.
France: 0 Supply centers, 0 Units: Builds 0 units.
Germany: 1 Supply center, 4 Units: Removes 3 units.
Italy: 0 Supply centers, 0 Units: Builds 0 units.
Russia: 0 Supply centers, 0 Units: Builds 0 units.
Turkey: 5 Supply centers, 5 Units: Builds 0 units.

DC-173 GAME END - BRITISH 19 CENTER SOLO VICTORY!!