Another bump.

**High Quality** live game

Makes me want to avoid it even more.

**High Quality**

**Self-important**

Who WOULDN'T want an England that comes with a free unit in Belgium?

Just imagine that I am germany wjessop, and you will love it.

WJ: Come thrash us.

Someone go kill those mods

I'll take this over if you can wait 8 hours.

GG guys, sadly neither played out. I definitely have to start live gaming, that was fun but rushed. Didn't expect to get Italy twice.

GG. Sad to see this one end, I had a really fun position.

Espi: what were you doing with Sil? Supporting France, going for Mun, going for Ber, or going for warsaw?

Warsaw :P

Haha! Warsaw was covered. Gold said that Berlin wasn't.

I didn't really want Warsaw, just wanted an excuse to keep that unit there. I was planning to switch sides a few times, work with Austria, take out Turkey and then go against France if I couldn't stab Austria.

Espi if you're going to take Marseilles at least attack me for real!

But, I like Mar :P I let me grow a bit more powerful, I have never tried that before and wanted to see what would happen.

I also read this http://webdiplomacy.net/forum.php?viewthread=1311461#1311461 to decide to try that one out.

If I'd have taken over England; as was tempting if I was sober and also it wasnt 3am, then I'd have tried to go for an E/I with you, Espi. :)

So, I am still fairly new to Diplomacy, I got horribly crushed at my first tournament (Tempest) how do you guys think I did in those 2 games?

I think you did fine, but I think going to Warsaw there was very poor strategically (and not just because I was Russia). I think you want to be thinking about where the board goes next - Turkey was contained, so your next two threats are Austria and France.

Weakening me would have helped Austria, and weakening Germany would have helped France. Maybe helping France was a good thing, because he's more likely to fight England while England has so many fleets? I think you would have been much better off opening a front against Austria (especially as I was willing), since that makes you stronger and hurts an immediate potential enemy.

I think waiting until Turkey was gone would have been a mistake.

Tactically, I was more likely to cover Warsaw than Germany was to cover Berlin, so I think that you'd have had a better chance at a centre if you'd gone to Berlin.

My worry was that France would turn on me next, he wasn't in that good of a position to do it, but he could have moved his army into Pied and worked something out with England.

I liked your opening a lot. I wanted you to write more to me, though :)

France can't really work something out with England while England has mostly fleets. Unless that thing is "you only build armies from here on our forever". And I don't think this England was going to go for that.

Agreed though, I didn't expect to get Warsaw, just to keep you out of it. Austria decided not to attack Gal which made my plan less feasible. I was really worried about France getting Munich and building a fleet in Mar while he was also in Pied, as I said above.

As Italy you have the power to shape the board. If you wanted to keep going east, supporting me (France) to Munich there makes a lot of sense as it eviscerates the chance of a F/G, and E/G was impossible with E having so many fleets. The west would have been a mess. So that effectively would have made your front completely safe and given you time to find your opening against Austria.

Alternatively, if you were looking to work with Austria long term, you needed to find an opening west and, just as importantly, get Austria launched against Russia. Here going to Warsaw maybe makes sense.

Right, but keeping me out of it is likely to mean my next build is Warsaw.

If you were worried about France, then I think that unit is better spent covering Pie. Or ensuring you get centres so you can build more fleets.

Berlin wouldn't have been in his interest though. E/F would've rolled the northern half of the board if I went down, if England knew what he was doing and kept France from building fleets (by keeping a fleet in MAO, for example).

I think, personally, that we should've kept hammering away at France. He was weak, England was willing, and probably would've been eliminated by '04. And usually Germany doesn't look south until england is dead, so you'd be fairly safe from G at least.

It's important what ATC and I said, though- it was clear that E/F in its current form was no viable long term. I never come south in that set up. What you had to be worried about was F/G

"Here going to Warsaw maybe makes sense."

Maybe. I think if you want to push Austria against me, then supporting him to Gal would have been stronger. This has the added bonus of pushing his units away from you.

"What you had to be worried about was F/G"

Absolutely. Another good reason I believed you when you said you were going to Berlin - because if you take Berlin, France is encouraged to come take the spoils. You can break alliances by massively unbalancing their power distribution.

It's in between. It wouldn't hurt to get another build either

If Warsaw felt like a sure thing, I'd go for that, but it's true that under uncertainty support to Galicia may make more sense.

I agree with uclabb though - the E/F as it was structured at the end of the game was never close to happening long term. I think I was getting closer to striking a deal with France at the very end.

All in all, that was a good game. Everyone had some time on the top (and the bottom!) of the pile, I think. I was sad to see it cancel.

"You can break alliances by massively unbalancing their power distribution."

Precisely the reason why I decided to stab France.

I couldn't see a reason not to cover Warsaw there, but maybe I'm biased, being the russian :)

Austria was talking about giving me the entirety of Turkey while he started joining me in a massive push toward France, requiring a lot of trust on my part of course, but with England growing I thought Russia would start moving toward him.

what happened to this game was it cancelled?

Yup. England had to leave. The first attempt of the game A/T both missed the first turn.

Another thing that's worth considering - If you end up fighting an F/G, then Russia is a good friend to have. If you end up fighting Austria, then Russia is a good friend to have too.

Taking an unlikely potshot at Warsaw isn't really going to help that relationship later on.

For this reason, if I'm you, and I really want to take the potshot at Warsaw, I probably tell Russia. It helps me keep my relationship with him honest, it lets me take the potshot that eg Austria wants to see, and there's always the chance he thinks I'm bluffing and doesn't cover it (in which case I get to complain that I took his centre, which is unusual).

Good point, I will remember that.