Low-stakes game for pulling shenanigans

[Yigg]

Oh man, this sounds SO INTERESTING! I either want to play or spectate. I'm so on the fence about it. Convince me!

[Spartaculous]

Oh man, this sounds SO INTERESTING! I either want to play or spectate. I'm so on the fence about it. Convince me!

Convoy. Paradox.

[DougJoe]

Oh man, this sounds SO INTERESTING! I either want to play or spectate. I'm so on the fence about it. Convince me!

Convoy. Paradox.

https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExenRwcW0xOXBueTl2MnZmdTMzMzc3cnJwN2xqN3ZpYTVsbmlnbTB6ZyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/3o84sw9CmwYpAnRRni/giphy.gif

[Spartaculous]

I just had a dentist appointment. To keep myself entertained while sitting in the chair, I was working on figuring out what shenanigans I could pull as each country.

[JPBo25]

Unfortunately just realized that I have quite a few IRL commitments in the next couple weeks so I probably shouldn't join... Wish I could! Best of luck!

1. miminena
2. dargorygel
3. Spartaculous
4. DipIomacy&Warfare
5.
6.
7.

[miminena]

Unfortunately just realized that I have quite a few IRL commitments in the next couple weeks so I probably shouldn't join... Wish I could! Best of luck!

1. miminena
2. dargorygel
3. Spartaculous
4. DipIomacy&Warfare
5.
6.
7.

nooooo D:

I just had a dentist appointment. To keep myself entertained while sitting in the chair, I was working on figuring out what shenanigans I could pull as each country.

well don't you dare steal my idea if you draw england :3

[Yigg]

Shut up. Just shut up. You had me at shenanigans.

1. miminena
2. dargorygel
3. Spartaculous
4. DipIomacy&Warfare
5. Yigg
6.
7.

[taperook]

I'm interested.

1. miminena
2. dargorygel
3. Spartaculous
4. DipIomacy&Warfare
5. Yigg
6. taperook
7.

[SilverPhantom]

Sounds fun!
1. miminena
2. dargorygel
3. Spartaculous
4. DipIomacy&Warfare
5. Yigg
6. taperook
7. SilverPhantom

[miminena]

game has been created an password has been pmed to participants.

link to game for those who would like to spectate: https://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=1376437

[JPBo25]

10/10 title. I'll be spectating! And maybe if there's a civil disorder I can hop in as a sub like last time :D

[JPBo25]

Shoot my schedule just cleared up so I could have done it! If you could dm me the password to get into the game, I can be sub

[DougJoe]

Oooh, all *sorts* of interesting stuff in S01!

[miminena]

Shoot my schedule just cleared up so I could have done it! If you could dm me the password to get into the game, I can be sub

this seems like a good set of players so i don't think we'll need a sub anytime soon but it's always nice to have someone on standby!

pm sent

[DougJoe]

I have no idea what the heck is going on in this game and I *love* it!

[DougJoe]

It's the end of 03 and no one has Norway yet...

I really hope the players of this game share their thoughts on it after it's over.

[qrzy]

this is very frivolous

[qrzy]

It's the end of 03 and no one has Norway yet...

I really hope the players of this game share their thoughts on it after it's over.

Portugal had not been taken till 1905

https://webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=401461#gamePanel

[Spartaculous]

Italy here. Before the game, I had prepared ideas for how to play as different countries. For Italy, I had two ideas:

1) The Key Lepanto (self-explanatory). At this point, it's pretty well-known - but I had never actually seen it in one of my own games.

2) The Königgrätz Freakout. Germany and Italy team up to attack Austria in 1901. Germany orders A Mun-Tyr, while Italy orders A Ven-Pie and A Rom-Ven. Then, in the fall, Italy dislodges the Tyrolia army, which then retreats into whichever of Vienna and Trieste is open (avoiding the guessing game).

I proposed the ideas to Austria and Germany, respectively. Germany went for it pretty quickly, locking us in, while Austria came around to the idea just a bit more slowly. I hadn't anticipated successfully selling them both on my (more-or-less contradictory) plans!

So somehow I ended up in a position of pretending to stab Austria while secretly allying with Austria, while simultaneously allying with Germany to attack Austria. This was interesting.

But to further complicate things: while talking to France (because I really needed to not bounce in Piedmont to pull this off), I came up with a variant: simply let France move to Piedmont instead of me in Spring 1901, with the intention of me supporting Piedmont - Tyrolia from Venice and the dislodge trick still works in the same way. This had the hilarious side effect of allowing France to "attack" Austria in 1901. (I arranged this part without letting Germany in on it until after the moves were posted.)

So, in fall 1901, I basically got to act like France and Germany were doing some weird attack on me - except that I had coordinated the whole thing.

We then went forward with the moves for the dislodge trick as planned. Even though the whole point was to get Germany to take an Austrian supply center, I wanted to honor my word to Austria and went through with the Key moves (Trieste - Serbia and supporting the fleet to Greece). Everything would have gone great - except that Germany made the (perfectly fair) decision to retreat Munich and Tyrolia back to cover Berlin from the wandering Russian, betting on a bounce - except Russia decided to veer into Bohemia. Oops. Not only did Austria avoid a near-death experience, but ended up in Sevastopol as well.

Fortunately, Austria either never figured out what I was actually up to (or simply avoided bringing it up), and we went on with our alliance.

Oh yeah: The other big thing around here was that I got somewhat annoyed with England for not taking the A Wales - Spain convoy from France. I really hadn't planned anything at the start past the end of 1901, and so was happy to just go along with French plans of massive convoys in 1902 and later (that English army was supposed to reenact Lord Byron ending up in Greece). This played a not-insignificant role in my later decision making.

Early on in 1902, I had a heartfelt conversation with Turkey. I ended up offering to stab Austria (to maintain board balance - Austria was clearly in the best shape at this point) and support Turkey into Greece (and maybe even convoy to Tunis). This was originally a sincere offer. However, I had a sudden idea - the "double Key". What if I pretended to stab Austria again with A Venice - Trieste in a spring turn... and then once again, have it turn out to be a fake, with the army moving on to Serbia in the fall? I pitched the idea (basically all of the Balkan moves we actually did in 1902) to Austria. I appreciate Austria being a good sport about this and letting me get away with it. (I assume that Austria is glad I did not propose the "triple Key" during the 1902 build phase.) I felt bad for stabbing Turkey (again), but at least the army made its way to Tunis. (For the lols, I was tempted to simply strand the Tunis army forever, but that plan got ruined when Turkey eventually disbanded it!)

Oh, I should probably point out here the fun of having Austria become a naval power.

At this point, I needed new shenanigans to pull. I had started to send one army north, and was hoping to get it all the way to Saint Pete's, but that seemed unlikely to happen within any reasonable amount of time. So, I changed my efforts to helping France fend off England. (I liked how France and Austria worked out the Austrian army making it to Burgundy.) I would have been happy to try to coordinate for some long convoys, but there seemed like there were too many actual conflicts ablaze across Europe to get everyone on the same page.

My final big idea - invading England, with each of the other six players occupying it with a single army - I don't have too much to add to beyond what I put in the public press. But eventually, it became best just to draw without trying for a long convoy or a convoy paradox.

I very much enjoyed this game (only my third classic press game on the site). I have a few other ideas I didn't get to use; I'll save those for a future shenanigans game.

[Yigg]

I would have 100% welcomed the Triple Key!