The only thing participants on the game shouldn't do is to *prove* they are a certain country. That would be crossing the line.

I think the whole idea is to allow the participants to post in the forum, even suggest moves or alliances but like Jesus said you can´t prove you are one power. I can pretend to be playing or not.
I can for example, pretend I am Italy and offer a DMZ on Tyr/Ven/Trie to Austria.
I just can´t prove that I really am Italy or prove that I am not.....

I want to see something fun and interesting. rocky lepanto, anyone?

we'll see how this one goes, but i would sooner people not pretend to be a country or offer alliances, i'd sooner we were more imaginative so what we say could come from a participant or not. For example: 'Do you think that nap-tyrr is a signal tht italy is looking west?' Is better than I'm Italy and you must have noticed me moving west, it's a clear sign that france is my target' I think it depends on how many people join in, if there are lots of players all pretending to be certain countries that could work, but if only a few play it will just become an open press game.

@onar - a lepanto in gunboat would be something else

so everyone has entered prov or final orders but austria - could this be some high level gunboat meaning? Would you delay moving austria until the very last second hoping that italy would see the futility of ven-tri and will hold ven or move to pie, or would a seemingly NMR austria encourage ven-tyr and rom-ven? Is thinking such things allowed anyway or are the ticks outside the game?

If appearing to be a possible NMR country is allowed which other countries could use that tactic? Maybe russia (war-gal; mos-ukr; sev-BS) would work so much better if austria didn't think russia was moving and therefore didn't bounce war-gal?

still no moves from austria - i hope the world won't see him NMR

Not sure this game competes for ratings with the royal wedding. But it sure takes some nerve to NMR from this game. If it happens.

if the players are commenting here, and i'm able to see who they are so bowing out from this discussion, then it's not strictly gunboat, it is black press...

everyone here can comment and the players can read these anon messages to convey meaning.

i had assumed that was as much the point as discussing what can happen in a gunboat. In this game, someone can post here what a move means to them. Which is not possible in gunboat...

also, if you want, i'll pause and kick austria...

assuming he doesn't enter orders or message me/here.

pausing nad kicking would be good if you could orathaic.

I agree that it isn't strictly gunboat in as much as players can comment here, but they are not supposed to say who they are or offer alliances or the like. I'm hoping several spectators will also pitch in rather than just players - it is this bit that is new as usually we shouldn't comment on on going games. It would of course be possible to have named players who can't comment on here (or in game) but everyone else can. We'll see how this one goes first.

Austria - do not message orathaic here. It gives your identity away PM him, or better still enter orders.

Hahaha, maybe orathaic is in the game and trying to find out who is Austria! :-P

Or maybe orathaic is Austria and is trying to fool everybody else.

I'm Brian, and so's my wife!

but the commentators could (lets say) suggest that an alliance between two countries is a good idea... and argue about why... and of course those countries might be commentators... **lalala** hence you will see an impact on the game (which is why commentating is usually not something which is encouraged, that it has an impact which may be unfairly biased, as opposed to the impact being necessarily wrong... as we're experimenting with that impact here)

@orathaic - look at your PMs please. :-)

too funny draugnar

Huh? I asked orathaic to look at a PM I sent him because I knew he would see it in this thread...

OIC - i thought you were ausria who wouldn't post here so as not to reveal your identity, but would post saying check PMs.

Ah! Gotcha! Nope, not Austria. If I were and I wanted to just hold to see what happens, I'd just finalize my holds and remove the whole concern.

Yeah, we had a discussion earlier about whether autria and russia would delay the game by not issueing orders until the last minute hoping to lull Italy (in the case of austria) or Austria (in the case of russia) into thinking they would NMR which could benefit their moves.

Well, what is about to happen is the problem of not using a password.

@jesus - the idea is that no one knows who is playing and who isn't - which means I'd have to give everyone the password which is the same as not having one. That said, I do wonder why people NMR their first move in a gunboat game, it's not like they had to wait for diplomacy to happen or anything.

Anyway - moving on to the signals and what they mean....

I'll pick 1 country and let others discuss the others, by far the most facinating IMHO is france, not because the have signalled anything (apart from their intention to take spa and port) but what they do about others signals. Germany's signal to france (mun support par-bur) seems to suggest germany wants an alliance and is possibly willing to let fra have bel. Eng moving to EC may be to work towards securing bel or preventing fra from moving there, but either way fra can't class eng as friendly. I think fra's moves now are easy MAO-por, spa hold and bur-bel. Two builds guaranteed almost guaranteed unless eng takes bre AND bounces bur in bel, but even if that did happen bre can't be held for long so eng shouldn't perhaps upset fra too much.

Well germany has gifted belgium to france. I'd say that is a sign of friendship.
Does France have a right to belgium if england wants peace?

Italy has voted cancel, I don't really see why. If Italy can ally with russia it will be turkey that suffers.

Should the west begin already to align against the east?

France got a really promising sign of friendship from Germany, but a third or even a second build are far from guaranteed, although England probably can't afford to postpone the conquer of Norway, and that's because Russia won a free ride into Rumania thanks to Austria's annoying NMR. Turkey has probably even more to gain from this red stall, as his armies will have plenty of space to advance into the mainland, and two fleets may come to the shore to either take the Mediterranean or the Black Sea and consequently the southern part of Russia. I can see why Italy has voted Cancel: the game may be ruined by an early CD! But he can also benefit from two builds and try to defend the Ionian from a strong Turkey.

@fiedler - 'Well germany has gifted belgium to france. I'd say that is a sign of friendship.
Does France have a right to belgium if england wants peace?' Absolutely, Eng's opening moves are not sending out the peace signal to fra IMHO; Lon-EC is fine in a open diplo game where it has been discussed but in gunboat I think it is always seen as aggressive.

I also don't know why Italy wants to cancel, apart from usual annoyance at a countries first move NMR.

I don't see how west (eng, fra and ger) can allign yet, eng has made that difficult surely?

@Jesus - Fra won't get three builds unless eng decides to move EC-North Sea which is possible and a verystrong sign that Eng is now friendly towards fra. Fra may then attack Italy with numbers 'knowing' Eng and Ger are on side.

Russia's strong position may of course cause germany to bounce him in sweden, if I were germany I'd be tempted, it opens up possibility of assisting eng next year or taking swe himself.