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!!**!! THE UN HAS VOTED FOR A ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT !!**!!
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Indonesia CONTROLS THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL
Indonesia RUNS THE DC508 GAME'S WORLD!
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TROOP MOBILIZATION BUILDS & RETREATS WT/2009
Aust : AUTO RETREAT: F ava-TON
: AUTO REMOVAL: F COS, AUTO REMOVAL: F SCO
Mars : AUTO RETREAT: A maj-mem
Usoa : DANGER! Usoa MILITARY MORALE VERY LOW!
: DANGER! Japan has No Home Centers Left!,
: DANGER! Japan MILITARY MORALE VERY LOW!,
: THE FORMER RULER OF Japan IS STATELESS AND ON THE RUN!,
: DANGER! Mars has No Home Centers Left!,
: DANGER! Mars MILITARY MORALE VERY LOW!,
: !!**!! THE UN HAS VOTED FOR A ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT !!**!!
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SUPPLY CENTER STATUS
WT\2009 |# SC| [HOME SUPPLY CENTER] (BUILD CENTER)
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Aust; Erik Swiatek |( 7)|[AUST,cai,bri],fij,hob,nou,sci,ssi
Fran; Isaac Zinner |( 6)|[FRAN,ava,pap,pit],mar,stu,tog
Indo; Lucas Mayer |(20)|[INDO,jay,sor,tim][JAPA,man,ryu,nsh]
[MARS,kwa,smi,maj](coi),dav,eci,hon,mau
mid,per,pmo,sam,wak,wci
Japa; Mark Smith |(00)|
Mars; Jan Willem Omlo |( 1)|,pho
Usoa; Martin Burgdorf |( 1)|[USOA,chr]
Zeal; Warren Fleming |( 4)|[ZEAL,chc,wel,kei],cha
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Total = ( 39)
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TROOP STATUS
WT\2009 |BUILDS| UNITS|
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Aust | ( ) ( 7) |A cai, A kir, A nou, F SAS, A sci
A ssi, F TON
Fran | ( +1) ( 5) |F ava, F EFS, A soi, A stu, A tog
Indo | ( +3) ( 17) |A ade, F ARS, A coi, A hon, F KIS
F maj, F NCO, A noa, A nsi, F PAS
F per, F pmo, A smi, F TOS, F TUS
F WEM, F WHS
Mars | ( ) ( 1) |A mem
Usoa | ( ) ( 1) |F chr
Zeal | ( ) ( 4) |F kei, F NIS, F SIO, F syd
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Total ( 4) ( 35)
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Oceania Variant Changes for 2015
First I like the Island Hopping rule, this is a unique but workable rule for my Adjudicator. The game does have a few playability problems because it is based on Pacific aspects of WW2. As such it can not have a well balanced map as that would require a wrap around map where powers like Japan could strike at New Zealand, Indonesia at France etc. This means that the exposed powers like Marshall_Islands need direct diplomacy to have any real chance at survival. I have never liked the start date and intend to change it to 1930, as this game is loosely based on WW2 tactics and pacific powers in the 1930's.
Mark Smith made some map suggestions which got me to thinking about some further map changes. To strengthen MI and weaken Indo, have EMS touch eci and give the eci's supply center to emi! Follow this with putting Wak in middle of WIS instead of on MI border. I am happy with Dav change but perhaps CES could be changed to meet Dav and SCS. The most radical change will be the STORM BOX RULE!
If I offer another game of Oceania after Winter Blitz is over, it will have the same format as this years but with gray press and a supporting Diplomacy Market Game. As I never properly explained why I was doing things like anticipated retreats and auto retreats players like Mark Smith got quite upset.
My first goal is to run a game observers can find interesting to watch and bet on to some degree with the Diplomacy Bond Market Game.
My second goal is to create an Adjudicator for Game Masters that can play almost any variant and output the results in various formats form booklet style to Web Site. I am only about 6 months away from having this done. The core part of the code seems to be error free its the input and output which need work.
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[Storm Box Rule (optional rule by Hugh Polley 11/2014)]
Storm boxes have the label [(SEA_place).storm]. (e.g. F MIS C A Mau-MIS.storm)
Every sea on an edge of the board has a storm box which leads to every other sea space at the edge of the board. Only a Navy occupying an edge of board Sea space, or an Army convoyed by such a fleet, can enter that sea's storm box. An Army in a storm box can be convoyed out of the storm box provided it's move and a convoying fleet order match up. Entry and exit are one way, so only unit supports of movement from a storm box, and Box Navy unit support of an actions in an edge sea Space will work. You can not move to, or support action on or through, the Space your Navy convoyed to or entered from. A Navy in a storm box can make the convoy order but this will require at least three fleets to execute, and again is a one way convoy.
A Fleet in the storm box after the fall turn is damaged by the intense storm and removed from the board. After the fall turn a player may remove or keep an Army in the Storm Box. In the Winter turn you may make a build to replace any removed Storm Box unit.
Board Boxes are not a new concept, the first variant I played in had some back in the late 1970's, there may even be one exactly like what I propose. If you come across a close match please send it to me and I will credit it. No! The Youngtown Box is not a close match.
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DC508 End Game Statements: GM, Australia, Japan and Indonesia
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Game Master; Hugh Polley
I thought all players did a great job in playing the game given the limitations each had to work under. I was thinking Australia had the decided advantage but did not calculate in the effect of Japan's defeat on the games balance of power. I think Lucus wisely built a strong fleet based military and that helped put him over the top. Of note; this is first game not won by Japan with exception of two DIAS games where Japan was dominant power and the report of a game played in Germany won by Australia. Also this was a NMR free game, something all Game Masters love to see.
Lucas played a great game against worthy opponents, a notable win! He explains the course of the game better than I could in his game statement. I think no one interfered in Japan's demise because of the 'Japan is the strongest power on the Board' notion put out there by myself and others. With the Dav change that is no longer the case.
In any email gunboat game there is always the danger of a slip by the GM revealing who is who! I did make a slip but at least it was not a too revealing and the players allowed the game to continue.
Instead of eliminating my Oceania Yahoo game folder in one go I did the more labor intensive checking of emails for press before deleting. I discovered the following in random order: White press: 19, 11, 11, 11, 17, 19, 15 = 103 Black Press: 0, 2, 2, 15, 2, 0, 0 = 21 that is only 20% Black! Only one serious black presser in the group!
I hope to see you all next year as I continue to develop my version of this game. [(see Oceania Variant Changes)]
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Japan; Mark Smith
Your map changes has made Japan much too weak and Indonesia too strong. New should have an SC not eci. GM: Interesting idea but I am thinking if you wish to strengthen MI and weaken Indo perhaps have EMS touch eci and give the eci supply center to emi! Follow this with putting Wak in middle of WIS instead of on MI border. I am happy with Dav change but perhaps CES could be changed to meet Dav and SCS.
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Australia; Erik Swiatek
All but Indonesia loose. But it started when I when I went from 1O to 9 and Indo grew to 11 and France with friends still hammered at me and looked upon me as the main enemy even when Indo could expand unhindered. To GM: Thanks for a good Organized game! GM's like actors live for a bit of praise, thank you!
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Indonesia (Winner); Lucas Mayer
I played a lot of variants but never before Oceania. I get Indonesia. I knew that Japan won the most of the Oceania games played before (I know one game in Germany Australia won). So I thought this could be a tough game. For the start my plan was to make a DMZ with Australia and try my best against Japan. Australia agreed to the DMZ. In the first fall I had a bit luck. There was a 50-50-chance that either me or Japan gets a build from Dav or Sor. I decided right so I had the better position against Japan. Japan defended really good but I made progress after all. The DMZ with Australia was still intact. If Australia had stabbed me here I don`t know if I would have been successful against Japan.
In this time somebody started to talk about a 2-way-draw between Indonesia and me. Australia was 2 SCs bigger than I was. But I analyzed the moves and had the feeling that Australia was the weaker player. He had grown fast in the beginning but after that there was a lot of stagnation. The reasons were for me a lot of wrong decisions (helping NZ; wasting units for the safety of his homeland, building armies when fleets were necessary...). So I decided to vote against the draw. I expected that I would grow fast after the resistance of Japan is broken. I was right with that. France recaptured Tog after an Australian mistake and I won SCs from Japan. I coordinated Marshalls, USA and France with my first black press (as France) and everybody did what I suggested. So Australia walked 1 down and I`m 2 up. So the situation was Australia 9 SCs and Indonesia 11 SCs. The lead changed to me.
Now the mistake of Hugh followed. He forwarded a mail from me to France and so we saw our names. That was really bad for me. I expected a solo because I thought my position was good enough for that and now there were a lot of discussion against me. It was no advantage for me it was a disadvantage to learn France know. I had to fear that Australia would turn on me to early but nothing happened.
The DMZ was still intact. I pushed my units further east and didn`t attack Australia. The reason was that I wanted to go for the easy SCs around the Marshalls before I step into the big war against Australia. The situation helped me. Japan escaped from my units while taking the US centers with the help from the Marshalls (Why, Marshalls? The USA was the better partner), Nothing really important happened in the area around NZ, Australia and France. So I pushed forward to the Marshalls and took a lot of easy SCs. Finally I made the last step and attacked Australia to win the last 2 SCs for the solo victory. And that is the history how I won that game.
My thoughts to the variants: I enjoyed playing this variant. The hopping function of the armies is pretty interesting. You have to find that right balance between armies and fleets because both can move on in nearly the same speed. For my impression there were too less fleets. Especially Australia missed the building of new fleets in the right moment. So I had the most time more armies than fleets and captured the SCs by sea. The change of Dav to a hopping island is a good thing and makes the map more balanced. There was this 50-50-chance in the first fall. If Japan had decided otherwise our war would have gone the other way round. But this changes not the impression that the map is very imbalanced. There are too much SCs in the west. That makes the winner of Australia, Indonesia and Japan to the favorite in the game. Marshalls as a middle power has not enough units. I think a fourth starting SCs would be a good idea. USA is too weak, too. The home SCs are too far away from each other too connecting the forces right. NZ and France have to struggle for their second first-year-build. So that makes Australia's position even better. Choosing the gunboat option makes this imbalance higher because you can`t equalize that with good negotiations.
But with all this imbalance it was still a lot of fun (maybe because I won). I have to say that the result was clear: The German wins the German designed variant.
Special thanks to Hugh for GMing. You did a great job (except for this little mistake [:-). GM's like actors live for a bit of praise, thank you!
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