Spring and Fall 1911:
Whoa I come back and the south has just about got it locked down...
Apologies to France, it's definitely easier to stalemate when there is commentary. It makes it much easier for a player to gamble that the other is thinking what he is and is not going to just wreck his position, like turkey and Austria or even the early help to aid Germany. France likely gets a lot closer in a true gunboat, but hey it's fun to read about and hopefully learn some things.
So the reason I questioned France's fleet builds was because I wanted to see him try for the hole at Livonia to get a hold in there and take a shot at Berlin. But Austria has closed that up perfectly. I can't tell you how many times I was doped trying to hold a stalemate from the south and the fleets in the Baltic convoyed over to Livonia because I didn't have the unit in Warsaw. The positioning in the north is perfect.
In the south it is nearly completely stalemated, it only takes 1 more move I believe. Italy, Austria and turkey have worked together wonderfully. Good job.
Now, what happens next? Perhaps France tips his hat to the teamwork or shakes his fist at the commentator and settles for the 5 way draw. Obviously England is a dead man walking and as we have said before st.pete is impossible to hold from the south but I don't see why Austria would even want to, sorry England. The first goal is always solo, second draw, and third is a draw with less players.
So with that in mind, would Austria risk his perfect stalemate position to eliminate Germany? I don't know...could he allow France to take him out or would that be too risky to the draw effort?
Austria, France, and turkey are assured a spot. England is toast, Germany is a risk to be eliminated and to a lesser extent Italy is a risk, but he is harder to eliminate without compromising position, IMO.
But what should France do at this point? This brings me to a story of a past game I played. I was fairly new (read 50-60 games played), okay maybe not new but a noob looking back b/c I didn't even know about the big map which as we have seen in this game is soooo vital to playing gunboat. I had decided to host a large pot gunboat game and invited the elite gunboat players to play. It's still the largest pot game I've played 2100.
gameID=98869The game progressed until the south, Italy, austria(me) and turkey had secured a 100% stalemate position against the German solo threat in 1916. In 1917 Germany backs off his troops giving up ground, signaling that he knew he was beat and he wanted less players in the draw. What ensued was mass chaos as Austria turkey and Italy fought each other and got out of position to stop the solo once Germany re-engaged.
Anyways I got side tracked. The point is its common to in gunboat to see the thinning of the draw once a draw is secured. Either the south attempts to do it themselves or France pulls put to encourage it, but the risk and reward must always be weighed. A power facing elimination will always try to survive. If the third goal is to be in a draw with less powers the fourth is to survive even if there is a solo bc defeat is certainly last, so when a smaller power is being pushed out they usually try to throw the game to survive or just out of spite.
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Justin Beiber gay or straight
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