Obligatory reference post:

Fall 2015 SoW Thread - threadID=1301503

Obligatory introductory post that for some reason comes after the obligatory reference post:

The School of War is an excellent, exciting opportunity for everyone to learn from the best and hone their Diplomacy skills. Seven players wishing to enhance their Diplomacy game to the next level are chosen as “students” to play a Full Press, Non-anonymous, Classic, 48 hour/phase game. Seven experienced individuals are chosen as TAs and are assigned to a specific student. They provide invaluable one-on-one advice and knowledge both on the game in general and the specific game-state. The Professors will provide running commentary and lessons in this thread.

The Professors for this game are Valis2501 and bo_sox48.

Did I forget anything else?

The School of War provides a learning environment for everyone. Anyone who is not a student or TA is encouraged to not only follow along but post questions for the professorial staff as the game is played, counter to normal practice, for the express purpose of teaching/learning for the dozens of others NOT in the game in order to utilize SOW to the fullest.

Many people work very hard to lecture, commentate, and advise students, so if you are worried you will not have time to properly participate, please let me know so I can find a replacement. If you CD, you most likely won't be invited back to future SOW games.

FAQ:
What can students do to be effective?
Students need to let their TA know what their strengths and weaknesses are. (Example: I get stabbed a lot and I don't see it coming.) Read the professor's commentary. Try to talk with your TA as often as possible. You should read the professor's commentary and talk it over with your TA until you understand it.

As a student, you are the player, and get final say in what orders and press to submit. If you do wish to go against your TA’s recommendation however, make sure you clearly explain why to your TA, and make special note of it in your EOG.

What can TA's do to be effective?
TA's can reach out to their students to establish a good means of communication. Email or Google chat or Skype might be a good way to keep in touch. Try to talk with your as often as possible. Your job is to help the students out with any part of the game they don't understand. Figure out what they are good at, look at their previous games and point out areas they need work in. Show your student how to interpret the press and moves from other players, but don't actually play the game for them. Point them in the right direction, but they should still make the choices. If a Professor provides commentary you do not understand, clarify it with them via PM.

Where can I read the previous School of War classes?
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Where can I read the previous Gunboat School of War classes?
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If you have any questions or concerns during the game, please feel free to contact me.

Good luck!

Valis2501
SOW Professor

^ "anything"

(but seriously I'm looking forward to this, the firepower is real)

Looking forward to this.

Exciting. I quite enjoyed watching the last one. Looking forward to this one as well.

Never been on this side but I did play in SoW summer 2011. I'm not sure if the thread is lost forever in the database purge but I'd love to know who the profs and TAs were for that one.

I drew that game by the skin of my teeth. I foolishly didn't eliminate Cach when I had the chance. Little did I know at the time what a deadly player he was. gameID=63029. Looks like only one other player from that game, Pepijn, has been on the site recently.

Hey, I was a TA for that game I think! Either that, or I was in charge of that SoW. I forget. But I think I was TA, and I think I was Germany's TA.

Yeah, Yonni, anything that old would be gone.

I was Turkey's TA for that game - although, to be fair Cach didn't need all that much help (and I get to star the thread now as well)

I'm going to try to dig up the old SoW threads sometime next week.

We're waiting on one participant in both games, hopefully we can get going tomorrow. I'm going to shuffle the countries before we start so don't send a bunch of press.

Looking forward to it.

Countries are shuffled, the game is live!

To all the players:

Spring of 1901 is, in my opinion, one of the least important phases of the game. You're not going to lose or win based on what you do in S01. That said, there's something to be said for establishing some critical relationships, even with people who aren't your neighbors, so talk it up yall.

Where's the opening lecture, professor????

I asked Valis to do that, I'm lazy. We'll see if he comes through.

"Bo, you haven't asked me to do anything"

- Valis

Hey everyone, just got home :)

I highly recommend you read some of the S01 lecture of past SOWs, that I have linked above (not the older ones are not currently available). And of course the infamous beginning lecture that ucla has recently reposted helpfully here: threadID=1363085

Spring 1901 is a unique time of the game where there is no moves yet to match with the words. Every other phase there will be three things that go into your orders:
Goals
Press
Board-state

Which are all pretty self-explanatory. But here in S01 we find ourselves in a position where there are no former moves to inform ourselves. So we're left with Goals and Press.

What is your goal?

In general there are two schools of thought here. There is Action and Inaction.

Action
involves finding an ally and going ham. The idea here is strength by acting in unison with one (or more) other great powers and the utilization of that combined power and coordination allows the strength to go into the midgame ahead.

There's an emphasis on trust and choice here of course. Where the decision to work together comes from can be a variety of sources:
-You both hate that other dude just by his press in the first 24 hours (this recently happened to me in the ODC...twice)
-A sincere and well-thought out plan that seems amendable to both parties
-That's what you want to do (life's too short to be boring)

Inaction
involves finding a position of strength and non-confrontation to go into the midgame with little to no enemies and a majority of your surrounding neutrals. This isn't to say you shouldn't make friend or enemies, especially if it's out of your control, but it's an emphasis on safety and dependable growth.

There's an emphasis on bouncing and controlling the space and tempo around you. This style of play is appropriate for a variety of reasons:
-Don't know who you want to work with (yet, happens to me all the time especially if people don't talk a ton)
-Your neighbors around you insist on bounces or moves that would otherwise be more cooperative than coordinated.
-That's what you want to do (life's too short to get stabbed and die in 1902)

So a lot of 1901 is based on deciding from Press and you Goals:
Action, or Inaction?
Your TA probably has a distinct preference here, as well as you, but remember that it's both your own goals and the press you receive, and it's important to be able to adapt to the situation. Failure to do so results in the worst result of all!

As always communication reigns supreme in this phase, as it will in all phases. Maybe Bo can write a bit about good press vs bad press.

Also, a reminder for anyone not playing to ask questions if they have them! I'd rather you not ask things like "Shouldn't France make moves A, B, and C?" but general or retroactive questions are highly encouraged.

oh! Almost forgot.
Unsubmitted vs Save vs Ready means jack shit. Everyone has personal preferences that interact in complex ways between how they like to play online diplomacy, how much time they have, and what the current situation is. Please disregard anyone who tells you that you can infer motives or anything else based on save compared to ready compared to unordered.

Some players are on all the time so don't bother submitting till close to the deadline
Some players are on all the time so save preliminary and feel confident to constantly change them or change them even if close to the deadline
Some players aren't on all the time so even if they agree or know moves they don't get a chance to submit until close to the deadline
Some players aren't on all the time so even if they're willing to change their moves they enter preliminary moves just in case
Some players get really annoyed at the stupid fucking banner thingy so ready up but are online all the time so can always change their orders
Some players keep track of which games need to be responded to or not by save vs. ready but are online all the time so can always change their orders

It's a really stupid thing to rely on. Same with F2F. Just because someone's order notebook is in the box doesn't mean they aren't willing to talk or change their orders.

oh, and thirdly, don't mute people :)

If you can't see the last paragraph of my first post please upgrade to a webDip Premium™ account

So. How do you rate the most boring opening ever, the Lepanto?
Should it be the default for an Italy that is non committal?

No.

Yes, of course, the default should be to strand an army in Tunis and have the other one wandering around doing nothing for 3 years.

On second thought, maybe no.

But it's diplomacy, so anything can work in the right circumstances, which makes defaults hard to come by.

I find that wandering your spare army up Russia's way can garner some very entertaining press from Austria, Germany and Russia

I prefer to use that army to mess with France a little bit, but it can be used in the east too.

Since non-neighbors are less concerned with making immediate alliance, relations with those countries often begin with promises of information sharing, ostensibly to make sense of the board and catch lies in the making. How does one weigh what gossip (true or false) to share with non-neighbors under this sort of relationship in the early game?