Ghost Rating Challenge - 2025?

[DougJoe]

Personally, I'm wondering about what happened in game 3 with all of Germany's units holding in Autumn 1902.

[Aristocrat]

Personally, I'm wondering about what happened in game 3 with all of Germany's units holding in Autumn 1902.

My original comment should read “have,” not “haven’t.”

As to game 3, it is a pity someone would sign up for a private game and not at least play it out. That ruins games for people to just NMR like that. It should be a ban from the site. At least throw if you’re in a hopeless position!

Good luck to all involved. I may peanut gallery again in a few years.

[Aristocrat]

Personally, I'm wondering about what happened in game 3 with all of Germany's units holding in Autumn 1902.

My original comment should read “have,” not “haven’t.”

As to game 3, it is a pity someone would sign up for a private game and not at least play it out. That ruins games for people to just NMR like that. It should be a ban from the site. At least throw if you’re in a hopeless position!

Good luck to all involved. I may peanut gallery again in a few years.

Actually haven’t was right.

But more to the point, poor form on G3 Germany for quitting and ruining the game.

[helloworld82]

1904 Preview: Venkman

I mentioned in my 1903 preview that Germany might take BEL and continue the alliance with England. Instead, he took BEL and NTH in a hard stab against England. I believe this is tactically incorrect. France has very little reason to make this an FG; with only one fleet, France is better off coordinating with England to kill Germany. Maybe if the unit in BEL was a fleet rather than an army, it might be a more successful stab because Germany would have more control over ENG. I should mention that this discussion is all completely reliant on France deciding to work with England. However, none of this may happen and France may work with Germany, in which case this would be an excellent stab! On this topic, Russia's involvement in the stab must be discussed. After ordering SWE-NWY 3 times in a row, Russia holds, allowing NTH-NWY to succeed and DEN-NTH to also succeed. Presumably, Germany told Russia the plan and asked Russia to hold, and Russia agreed. But why didn't Russia order SWE-DEN? Russia has little power in the West, so why not just take the free loaned build? I'm sure Russia would have appreciated an extra army in WAR, right? Plus, there is always a chance that Russia could hold both SWE and DEN anyways by the end of 1904. No matter what happens, the west has turned out fascinating, and I believe anything could happen in the West this game.

Austria's progress versus Italy has gone much slower than I expected. While I think I overestimated how quickly Italy would fall, the Spring order of TYR-VEN is just a bad move that slows down the attack. Italy is never doing anything other than self-bouncing in ROM, so ordering TYR-VEN is pointless. Italy is adamantly defending, and some correct guesses will be required by Austria to gain any centers. However, Austria may not make those guesses. With the Russian attempt to take RUM, Austria might let Italy be and turn around to Russia. While admittedly painful, Austria may want to cut their losses and turn around to face the Russian. I'm not sure what the correct decision is, but we will see what they go with. Speaking of the Russian, the attempt to take RUM was a interesting play. Low risk with a very high reward, I really like the play even if it didn't work out. In fact, it is so low risk, I fully expect to see the alliance reformed. Russia has virtually guaranteed gains in Turkey, Austria would happy to continue trying to conquer Italy. However, Austria's army in RUM is quite annoying for the Russian trying to make progress in Turkey. There is a small chance he finds it so annoying a juggernaut forms. While the East has more defined stronger and weaker powers, I still believe that anything can happen in the East this game.

Before I share my power rankings, I believe that with strong diplomacy, any of the 7 countries have a chance to make it to the draw this game. It's anyone's guess what happens next.

Power Rankings:

Austria
Russia
Germany
France
England
Turkey
Italy

[DougJoe]

Personally, I'm wondering about what happened in game 3 with all of Germany's units holding in Autumn 1902.

My original comment should read “have,” not “haven’t.”

As to game 3, it is a pity someone would sign up for a private game and not at least play it out. That ruins games for people to just NMR like that. It should be a ban from the site. At least throw if you’re in a hopeless position!

Good luck to all involved. I may peanut gallery again in a few years.

Actually haven’t was right.

But more to the point, poor form on G3 Germany for quitting and ruining the game.

I'm wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't intentional.

In the "point-and-click map" interface, once you've given any unit an order, all units orders are saved (if auto-save is on). That includes simply ordering a unit to hold. Those orders will then process at the turn deadline. I've had it happen before (in a bot game) where I ordered one unit to move, changed my mind and set it back to hold... then forgot about and missed the turn deadline... when I remembered that the turn deadline would have passed, I checked the game and was surprised I hadn't NMR'ed even though I didn't "submit".

It's a lot harder to make that mistake with the "drop down" interface.

[helloworld82]

1905 Preview: Venkman

Alliance structures still have not settled. The only signs of anyone working together is Germany helping Russia with the Russian's one fleet and France working with Italy with France's one fleet (and army, but I think hat has to pull back). Everyone else is working against everyone else, and because of that, whoever starts working together quickest will have a big advantage. Until then, it's anyone's guess who survives, bar Austria who I don't see collapsing, and Italy, who I don't see surviving.

Power Rankings:

Austria
Germany
England
Russia
France
Turkey
Italy

[DougJoe]

I don't know if any mods are watching this thread (or if something happened with the site being down that hasn't been announced) but Game 2 of this (https://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=1299445) seems to have been granted an extra long retreat phase... The spring 05 turn finalized at around 5PM EST (-5:00) yesterday 2/22. The game was setup with (and has been doing) 24 hours retreat and build phases, but the current retreat phase shows that there's 1 day, 7 hours left in the phase, which shouldn't be possible with a 24 hour retreat phase length.

It's not a big deal or anything but I figured I should raise awareness in case something strange was going on that needed to be looked at.

(Side note, games 1 and 3 are interesting, hope everyone is enjoying!)

[dargorygel]

I don't know if any mods are watching this thread (or if something happened with the site being down that hasn't been announced) but Game 2 of this (https://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=1299445) seems to have been granted an extra long retreat phase... The spring 05 turn finalized at around 5PM EST (-5:00) yesterday 2/22. The game was setup with (and has been doing) 24 hours retreat and build phases, but the current retreat phase shows that there's 1 day, 7 hours left in the phase, which shouldn't be possible with a 24 hour retreat phase length.

It's not a big deal or anything but I figured I should raise awareness in case something strange was going on that needed to be looked at.

(Side note, games 1 and 3 are interesting, hope everyone is enjoying!)

The site was 'down' but I am not sure that that effected the retreat phase. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

[dargorygel]

I don't know if any mods are watching this thread (or if something happened with the site being down that hasn't been announced) but Game 2 of this (https://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=1299445) seems to have been granted an extra long retreat phase... The spring 05 turn finalized at around 5PM EST (-5:00) yesterday 2/22. The game was setup with (and has been doing) 24 hours retreat and build phases, but the current retreat phase shows that there's 1 day, 7 hours left in the phase, which shouldn't be possible with a 24 hour retreat phase length.

It's not a big deal or anything but I figured I should raise awareness in case something strange was going on that needed to be looked at.

(Side note, games 1 and 3 are interesting, hope everyone is enjoying!)

The site was 'down' but I am not sure that that effected the retreat phase. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Time WAS added...

[DougJoe]

I don't know if any mods are watching this thread (or if something happened with the site being down that hasn't been announced) but Game 2 of this (https://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=1299445) seems to have been granted an extra long retreat phase... The spring 05 turn finalized at around 5PM EST (-5:00) yesterday 2/22. The game was setup with (and has been doing) 24 hours retreat and build phases, but the current retreat phase shows that there's 1 day, 7 hours left in the phase, which shouldn't be possible with a 24 hour retreat phase length.

It's not a big deal or anything but I figured I should raise awareness in case something strange was going on that needed to be looked at.

(Side note, games 1 and 3 are interesting, hope everyone is enjoying!)

The site was 'down' but I am not sure that that effected the retreat phase. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Time WAS added...

Thanks for confirming Darg. No worries. I didn't see an announcement about it anywhere so I wasn't sure what was going on.

[Aristocrat]

1905 Preview: Venkman

Alliance structures still have not settled. The only signs of anyone working together is Germany helping Russia with the Russian's one fleet and France working with Italy with France's one fleet (and army, but I think hat has to pull back). Everyone else is working against everyone else, and because of that, whoever starts working together quickest will have a big advantage. Until then, it's anyone's guess who survives, bar Austria who I don't see collapsing, and Italy, who I don't see surviving.

Power Rankings:

Austria
Germany
England
Russia
France
Turkey
Italy

I enjoy these reads. England deserves major credit for navigating out of a very tricky situation into a somewhat unbreakable one. I think France would have been better served accelerating Italy's collapse rather than delaying it, but that's all irrelevant now.

[helloworld82]

1906 Preview: Venkman

Well, the west has finally settled. England finally was able to successfully take centers from the 1-fleet France, and Germany regained control of BUR. And if this alliance wasn't set in stone before, the 7 center England puts down 2 more fleets, leaving him with 7 fleets, 0 armies, and virtually 0 threat to Germany. Considering the lack of armies near France, he'll probably survive this year, but not much longer than that.

We saw Russia and Turkey finally start working together, but it was probably a year (two years?) too late for Russia. They have no obvious growth path from here, and even if they won't die immediately, I don't see them sticking around for much longer. However, this is great for Turkey! They get another build, but the way they use it is the most fascinating move of the game so for to me. Army CON at first glance looks like a terrible move because it has nowhere to go! They could take back ANK if they want, but they could also do that with a fleet. By building an army, Turkey is telling Austria that he is content to sit back and support hold, and that Austria should go fight Russia and the West. However, if Austria does go fight Russia and the West, Turkey could still swoop in and take SER! It's a really interesting idea, and I think it will pay off for Turkey. I think their chances of making the draw this game have increased significantly.

Power Rankings:

Germany
England
Austria
Turkey
Russia
France
Italy

[DougJoe]

Heck of an interesting spring turn in game 1 (Venkman), Italy with what looks like a major stab in game 3 (Melnitz) with the autumn deadline coming soon...

[DougJoe]

Players in Game 1 (Venkman) - please let me know if you need a replacement for Turkey

[Theodoric]

Players in Game 1 (Venkman) - please let me know if you need a replacement for Turkey

We had a wonderful player step in, but new-Turkey has generously offered to step aside if the original player wants to re-join the game. If the original Turkish player wants to re-join, could you pm DougJoe to let him know? This feels like probably the best way to do this without breaking anonymity.

[DougJoe]

Players in Game 1 (Venkman) - please let me know if you need a replacement for Turkey

We had a wonderful player step in, but new-Turkey has generously offered to step aside if the original player wants to re-join the game. If the original Turkish player wants to re-join, could you pm DougJoe to let him know? This feels like probably the best way to do this without breaking anonymity.

Yes, that sounds good to me.

The replacement contacted me through PM and I gave him the password but *then* checked the global chat and it sounded like the original Turkey might return... so I PM'ed the replacement again to maybe wait but they had already joined. I'll try to keep a close eye on my PMs.

[DougJoe]

...and if I jumped the gun too quickly on filling the position, my apologies.

[yoak]

I'd be happy to jump back in if that's possible. It turned out that I had no network access while in Utah even for putting in builds. Sorry about that.

If that isn't possible anymore, that's fine too. I'll still enjoy watching.

[yoak]

I dropped a note to the mods as well. We'll see. I hope everyone enjoys either way.

[Theodoric]

We appreciate you DougJoe. Thanks for filling the position quickly and for helping lead the Yoak Restoration