More importantly, he came to the map and could have finalized but chose not to.

That is, he came to the map before the resetting of the time.

I did indeed say that. There is no reason to not finalize if you have the time to devote to the next phase, but all I am saying is perhaps he knows he'll be away for a day or so and wants to be able to have the full press. I don't know the inner workings of the game so I cannot judge.

But yes, if able and not needing further negotiations, please finalize

The thing is (and that's why I got explicitly mad about this one), the phase would be over by now for all he knows. And he has visited the map, saw comments asking to finalize, and chose to ignore them (again, prior to resetting the time).
I find there's a slight lack of respect there, and I'm finding more reasons to interpret it thus given his positions on the map.

I have to agree with Cachimbo here, England was not devoted to this game and fairly unwilling to consider advise or answer my questions as a TA, making it exceedingly difficult to assist him. Sorry goldfinger, I know you are not going to be happy with this post, but I expect certain levels of participation when someone signs up for SoW the same as any other tournament on this site.

I agree with jmo and Cachimbo. Even if he was participating, at this point, he has 1 unit and nothing left to do. There's no reason for a guy with 1 unit to not finalize his orders and I'm the kind of guy that would find any reason possible NOT to finalize.

Even if E has stuff to do, he doesn't have THAT much to do in this game...(a) bring himself down to 1 unit and (b) blow a full year's worth of movements. Even if Russia is for helping him out, Germany will control the center by the end of the Spring phase and he'll be sitting on his thumbs in the fall.

If he's really not participating in the game, even with his TA, I also don't really expect to hear any EOG's from him either, but I'm curious to hear jmo's thoughts on the England situation.

This game's been pretty crazy, though.

Valid comments by all of you. I have sent him a PM asking him to finalize and if not, to explain why on this thread. If he doesn't do either, it seems that I should've done a better screening process for students.

I would just like to throw out the idea of a game with the rest of you TA's. Would you guys be good for just a fun 5 or 10 point game after this one finishes? Might even be able to call it a grad game and get a professors to answer public's questions about it.

I would be down for a TA game, and if the professors want they can join the game with us (assuming some people say no)

You want the students to commentate?

lol if you want to, we can post a link and you can comment on it.

Don't have the time, sorry jmo.

I'd be down prof that one. I think the students could benefit by it if they follow along and ask questions.

*picks up thread and carries it back to the front page*

lol

With more experienced players being in it. Students could ask questions and actually be able to get answers, instead of being told they aren't aloud to ask a question about the game that is specifically designed to do just that. >.>

Your TA is the person who is supposed to answer your questions, if s/he isn't doing a good job message goldfinger and he'll work something out for you.

On another note, all students should try and reach this level of play. http://www.webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=67781
This is the best play as Italy I've ever seen, live game or otherwise.

I would say that, though he didn't win, Turkey played a really good game too: he knew not to mess with his alliance with Italy in order to prevent the German solo. He might have mistepped here and there towards the end though...

>.>
No, he is answering my questions, but some questions would be better looked at from an overall view, rather than a country related view.
You do realize that is my game. And I am a student..

Haha, yes I do. That is why I posted it here. Maybe I would have been better off saying I hope I see all students play like this.

He did play it wonderfully... I wonder if Italy might not actually benefit from waiting a year or two before moving troops...!

Italy is one of the only countries that you can tell there intentions by the spring move. As it is hard to explain to Austria why you are in Tyrolia, or to France that you are in Piedmont, or to Turkey or Russia of why your not in Tyrolia, or why you moved that army to Albania.

Its rough, yes. And not to bash on Scmoo - he played a wonderful game and deserves a lot of credit for taking over a power so late - but Turkey lost the game, he didn't win it. By 1906 the threat of German solo was gone, and turkey could have done a 3 center stab to bump up to 15 centers. Nothing could have been done to stop Turkey's solo had he done that. Game would've ended in 1908.

But Scmoo, the point of this is not to have people dictate moves to you. Your TA's should be giving you advice, and you can ask them questions. They are capable of looking beyond the scope of a single country. Literally, ask them anything. And hopefully, the professors will answer a lot of questions in their posts too. During the EOG's, you can ask anything you'd like, but during the game, we (the commentators) prefer to have as little influence on your moves as possible. Also, this prevents random people from hijacking the thread and spewing advice that may not be good.

**taking over a power so late (ITALY nonetheless, and WINNING!)**

Should I be writing an EOG?

From the point you started playing, yes. You can write it when you're done, or as you go.

On the topic of a TA game, I'd be up for it

So its Pete U (my SoW nemisis), Tru Ninja, jmo, and myself at the moment.