gahh *game 2* THa's what I get for copying and pasting

*That's* I fail at typing lol

bump

I see the game has been paused? Plus, for some reason, global press is not visible at all? May I ask what's happening there? Also, who's the other professor?

Ivo, I'm the other Prof with you. I think the pause is going to last until the start of next week (maybe?)

Oh, great. Thanks for the update. So, when do we get involved? :)

Sorry to break the rule... I just want to have this thread marked with a star so I know that it's important so I can look over it from time to time. :D

Professors can post your commentary at any time, despite the pause, which I believe is until the beginning of next week because Cachimbo is away. But feel free to post your opening comments at any time. And I have no idea why global press is not visible. Maybe there has been no global press yet?

There is global press, not sure why you can't see it.

Hmm, this has to be some weird bug. When I go to the game, using the link in the title, I can't see the bottom navigation line (Archive: Orders - Maps - Messages).

However, if I manually add "&viewArchive=Messages" at the end of of the URL it works.

But I have to do it every time.

Anyone else have the same problem?

I've never been able to see global chat unless I click on the Messages archive, and I've been studying the archives for years, so I don't think its anything that's changed.

I suppose I'll open up the game with a few pregame comments before I head off to work.

I expect the early stages of this game to be relatively simple. In the west we will see some fairly common openings for the game and I expect that one country will clearly dominate by midgame. In the east, however, I think we will see some strange events taking place early on, quite possibly even from the outset as some players tend to be less predictable in their early movements. By 1904 we might be seeing an eastern power already gone from the game or with one lone unit on the map and one other player will be finding it difficult to really gain a foothold someplace.

In the end, I think only two countries will really have a chance to solo but I predict that it will be either a three-way draw between one western power (England, France, Germany) along with two eastern powers (Italy, Austria, Russia, Turkey), or quite possibly a four-way comprised of two countries from each sphere.

Stabs will occur very early on by two countries in particular as they switch up alliances in order to be the dominant force among their neighbors. I anticipate that this game will have a lot more that we can comment on as the years go by, especially compared to most other games assuming that the students are truly following the directives of their TA's. It's also conceivable that one western power might NMR in at least one phase of the game but the eastern powers will remain throughout.

I'll pass on my predictions to Ivo in the form of a PM just to see how accurate I am by the endgame.

I'm not going to make predictions, hope it's an interesting game with twists and turns :)

Here're some suggestions on how to play the game, plus some common mistakes I’ve seen with new players.

Attitude and communication:

Try to avoid emotions. Imagine that you are the President/King/PM of the country you're playing and your mission is to do what's best for your people. Ass-kissing may be involved, being nice to morons and such. You have to take a long-term approach and build relations, hopefully matching your own preferences, which make it possible for you, at any point, to be able to send a message to any other player and initiate a reasonable discussion. This can be viewed as a role-playing game, in terms of the mindset one has to take. You have to be a statesman/diplomat. Try to do a professional job without being an ass of provoking others to be. The game is brutal enough by design… seven enter one leaves.

At game start, when dealing with your neighbors, the main goal should be to make it clear to them that you are friendly and reasonable and they can work with you… it gives them the confidence to be more aggressive in negotiations with others :). If you’re GER and FRA gives you a plan to invade ENG don’t argue about details, get them to fight.

Countries further away usually don’t get much attention at the beginning, but it’s good to at least say hello. You want them to know that you’ll be on their side, even without much compensation, should they decide to go after one of your neighbors.

Don’t lie without a very good reason. People take notice. It’s all relative, but if you’re the first one to lie to another player, chances are you got yourself into a war. That’s why it’s very important to not lie at first turn… there’ll be two people to do that and if you’re one of them and the other hits you it’s game over.

Small lies also count. It is ok to respond that you are not willing to share information.

Spreading the word on who said what has the adverse effect to make people worried about what should they tell you, if anything at all… and if you’re lying it’s even worse.


Strategy and tactics:

You have to take a long-term approach and be patient. This game takes a long time. There will be bad times, but more often than not, things can change. Most games can be split into two phases:
- Beginning, which is usually the end for a couple countries. Your obvious objective is to stay alive. Killing one of your neighbors helps. Killing two is a guarantee. Having said this… never start two wars if you can avoid/delay it, one step at a time. You need at least one solid ally. If you don’t have this, no one else should have it either. Make offers that cannot be refused, until you break their alliance.
- Ending (not very creative naming convention), where either someone wins or, after some fighting, a draw is agreed. Your main objective here is to not let anyone else win. Then, try to win yourself. This usually works best if there’re more survivors. Don’t kill minions, use them.

Games tend to have a natural flow and it’s important to try and see/predict it. Who’s fighting who, where is it going if the current situation develops with no surprises, who’ll be the winners and the losers. Which ‘broad’ alliance (defined as people not fighting each-other) do you have to join to have a majority (4 vs. 3, 3 vs.2) and at which point does it make sense to change sides. When do you expect others to realize they need to change sides. After every turn, try to look at the map as if it were a new game, forgetting all history and communication, and think about each nation. What makes most sense for them.

It is also very important to spot it when the balance of the game is against you, and come up with a plan to change it altogether. If you’re facing a stronger opposition, forget about military victories, actually in some cases it may be a good idea to lose a center or two at one end, in order to unbalance the opposing alliance, in the process also becoming less of a threat yourself. If your ally is about to get too big, maybe a preemptive stab is needed.

When thinking about unit movement, at minimum try to always consider the following:
- what is your best move
- what is the worst-case scenario counter-move from your enemy
- what is your enemy's best move
- what is your best move to counter the enemy's best move
- what will be your unit position at the end, logistics are important
- disbanding enemy units and locking build centers can be the difference between winning and losing a war with an equally powerful opponent

scoot

bump

bumping (I can that as a TA right?)

yeah, its fine as bumping it. Game should be starting up pretty soon, right?

Unpause is set for Tuesday, 19th July, sometime in the morning of EST.

Like everyone else, sorry for breaking the rule, but I want a star. :-P

I love stars. I always got them in kindergarten when I was good at my work...

bump

shove

I'm wanting a star as well :p

No: You're a star!

bump!

Why are we bumping this? The game hasn't started yet, nothing to write about? :)

It's just how we roll.

What you gon' do with what wuz said?
What wuz said inside your thread
I'ma get, get, get, get you grump
Get you grump off of my bump
My bump, my bump, my bump, my bump, my bump,
My bump, my bump, my bump, my musical rhyming bump. (Check it out)

bump

The long-awaited first season has finally completed. There are some things I expected to see while others I certainly did not but as expected, things in the east are far more interesting than in the west. Let's start with the west, however.

Germany: Normally I don't care for the openings to Holland over Denmark in S01 but given that there's a bounce in Burgundy I actually think it was a somewhat good idea, and here's why: Although an opening to Holland means that there definitely won't be a Russian bounce in Sweden, it does mean that England won't necessarily gain Belgium and neither would the French, and in my opinion, a standard western first-year should comprise of 2 French builds, 2 German builds and 1 English build while Belgium remains undecided. Germany now has the option to move to Belgium and bounce with England or France or simply see what plays out. The only real drawback, and it's a big one, is that Denmark isn't a shoe-in, but then again, anytime there's a bounce in Burgundy, 2 builds for Germany isn't always in the cards.

France: A somewhat unexpected opening especially in light that I anticipated a Parisian move to Gascony. Given that there was a pre-ordained bounce in Burgundy, it was a safe maneuver to push Paris to Picardy instead because it still gives the opportunity to come away with 3 builds instead of 2 and leaves Belgium on the diplomatic table as well.

England: A safe opening and a promising one since Russia moved south with his units meaning that Norway is assuredly English and the North Sea fleet has a ton of opportunities available to it. It's quite possible that England will have chosen his enemy by the time F01 moves come out leaving someone very unhappy.

Now for the east:
Austria: A good first season. Greece will fall into his hands and Serbia is secure. He likely has an Italian ally and things are shaping up very positively for him and I expect that he will continue to flourish. The Russian fleet in Rumania and bounce in Galicia all spell positive things for Austria as well. The only thing that could conceivably cause problems is that darn Italian army still lounging around in Venice but given that there's still an army in Venice, it leaves a variety of possibility for how to use it next season.

Italy: Lepanto opening. I for one, am more of a fan than most players because it can give you options. Opening north in S01 puts all your eggs in one basket in attacking Austria unless you're planning on going over the top in the presence of a Juggernaut. As a general rule, I hold the opinion that if you don't know what's going on between R/T, it's best to Lepanto because you can always take Trieste and ply for Greece in the fall, or if all else fails, take Tunis.

Turkey: Very vanilla opening but gaining the Black Sea this early was monumental. Clearly there was a renege on an agreement and Turkey could have even opened to Armenia to seal an anti-Russian opening. There may have been a lack of communication between the two as well, but this is less likely. Turkey will have some problems to face in the coming seasons between the Lepanto opening, a 2 center Aussie and a potentially unhappy Russian. He will certainly have a lot to do in order to secure his future.

Russia: At least he submitted moves...To begin with, I think it's a foolish thing to abandon the Black Sea *and* bounce in Galicia and combine that with Moscow moving to Sevastopol. This could have been a recipe for disaster. If Austria had moved to Rumania, then not only would Turkey have gained the Black Sea but Russia's units would have been more backed up than a guy trying to crap bricks. The only thing that would have been more useless was to move Sevastopol to the Black Sea and Moscow to Sevastopol--a move that I've seen in far too many games. He's clearly banking on an Austrian ally going forward. All is not lost, however, but next season will certainly be interesting.
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As a final few words: things to look for in the west are what England does with the North Sea fleet because he's not very likely to simply use it to support a convoy and what happens with Belgium. F02 will answer these questions for the SoW audience but there's no lack of things to discuss among the 3 western powers.
Things to look for in the west: what's going to happen with Russia and Turkey. Austria and Italy are pretty-well settled but there could be an A/T or an A/R going on and neither R nor T wants to be the odd-man out. Both Russia and Turkey will have their message boxes filled to brimming in the coming season and there's about a million different things that could happen in theory.

I invite those from the onlooking community to pose questions they might have on my commentary or what I think on a different topic.

Great, this has started finally :)

I'll also go country by country. Some of the comments will probably repeat what TruNinja already said, apologies for that.

ENG did the most common and safe opening, good job. FRA and GER bouncing over BUR and RUS not moving to MOS are good signs, however GER moving the fleet to HOL should be considered a really bad sign longer term. Such a move would usually indicate that GER is working on an alliance with RUS and/or FRA, against ENG. The fleet in HOL is rather useless against anyone else but ENG, while RUS gets a free ride to SWE.

The main question, and what ENG should focus his diplomacy on, is:
- does this opening indicate that after next turn there'll be new fleets placed in BRE and StP (nc)
- does this opening mean that FRA/RUS lied to GER first turn by not moving to EC/StP, respectively

BEL will be a the key indicator, if FRA/GER support each-other to get it, ENG is in trouble. Don't be greedy about BEL, making sure FRA and GER fight over it may be the best course of action.


FRA also started extremely safe, ensuring his opening is the most friendly towards all of his neighbors. In light of all other moves, FRA is now in a very good diplomatic position. He can safely take two centers, have a say on a third, maybe even take it. After the end of the first year FRA may be the only power not actively involved in any conflict, which is the best start possible. Patience and letting others do the mistakes and hard work is the best strategy. I hope I don't jinx you :)


GER... I have to start by saying that I really don't like the KIE-HOL opening. It's very limiting, especially when it comes to expansion north (you lock away the fleet that can help you get SWE next year). If ENG gets angry and bounces you at DEN you're down to one build ... which is not good.

Still, you should have both RUS and FRA quite pleased with your start and not seeing you as a threat, which may play a big role in the future. Try to negotiate good deals about BEL and DEN. You can still work with ENG, but you have to make sure your units are positioned in a way that makes it possible to fight others also. Direct attack on ENG and being squeezed between RUS and FRA with no expansion potential is a very risky approach.


RUS got lucky with Scandinavia (or did a good job talking with GER), so all is good in the North. You have GER trying to be friendly and ENG threatened with massive wars, so you can also expect him to be desperate for allies. The main question will be what to place in StP next turn, but no need to contemplate now, it will be more clear after next turn.

In the south... it's a very different story. It all looks suspiciously like an AIR alliance. I am actually at a loss on how did RUS and TUR come to this position, as it's a clear lose-lose for both sides. RUS has a TUR fleet in the BS to deal with and TUR has a RUS fleet in RUM, only capable of attacking BUL and BS... it will be really hard to 'unlock' this. In summary, great news for AUS/IT.


TUR did the most standard opening, but the result is far from standard. RUS has indicated he's not going to fight AUS, IT is preparing a Lepanto... You have two turns (until next spring) to break this trend and turn someone around (AUS or IT) or you'll start losing centers and then the game. TUS is very limited country to play (more than any other), so you don't have many options. Working with RUS will be rather difficult, there's nothing that you two can do together now, but if AUS-IT stick together you both will have to find a way to get out of this mess.


AUS... actually that was a very good turn. He has guaranteed two builds and can cover TRI if needed. Both RUS and IT have made very friendly moves and TUR is cornered. The main question... what happens once the AIR alliance has outlived it's usefulness. Where will AUS expand, does it really make sense to help IT and RUS get bigger, etc. This will become relevant next year though.


IT did what a good Italy does. Played it safe towards AUS and kept his options. The focus for Italy should be to gain a 5th center. Too often Italy, while not directly threatened at start, cannot go above the first 4 centers and as the game progresses becomes irrelevant and an easy pray for some huge neighbor.

You should also keep in mind that RUS being so friendly to AUS is a real threat - it means AUS is no longer dependent on your goodwill and won't be scared to fight you. In most games, killing TUR is a guarantee for a good game for Italy. Not is cases where AUS and RUS are working together though.


I guess this is all from me for the moment, any questions are welcome.