The “Game for rookies and newcomers” has been my first game ever. It was a PPSC with the lowest pot possible, and I set it up essentially to learn to play.
http://phpdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=5803
As the game started, I immediately allied with Russia. This looked as the smartest thing to do when watching at the map and I discovered only after a few rounds and a few Dip websites about the mighty juggernaut. The nature of the alliance was primarily against Austria and we quickly agree on how to share the SC's once Austria would have been wiped out.
I have to say that by the start of the game, I had a wrong understanding of Diplomacy rules (especially support), so I do not know how I managed to persuade Austria to leave me Greece, as indeed my arguments were all based on wrong assumptions... but that's exactly what happened: I “demonstrated” to Austria how he could get Venice “single handed” and In change I got access to Greece without a single shot fired. Of course Austria did not get Venice, but this was not a trick I played on the poor guy: it was really a mistake in my analysis of the situation!
Italy was almost non-existent during the first phases of the game, an Austria and myself began to erode its capital of SC's without too many problems. Getting Austria out of the game took one year longer than expected because I lacked the expected support from Russia, yet by the end of 1904 the Austro-Hungarian empire was a pale memory...
1905 was a key year: I had an extremely fast expansion thanks to a couple of multiple convoys, and I probably got France (and England) unprepared to deal with me. By 1906 I had already got Marseilles, while the Brits had stop me at Gibraltar, also thanks to a sub-optimal management of my units in the area.
During this time, Russia had taken out Germany, while the situation remained essentially static in Scandinavia, at the border between Russia and England. Russia and I had a beautiful relationship and this allowed us to concentrate all of our units where we needed them the most.
In 1907 England realised they needed to use 3 fleets (out of 6 units) if they wanted to block me in Gibraltar any longer, but this would have meant they had no defences for keeping in place Russia, and the Red Army would have easily managed to creep into the Northern Atlantic and take his homeland. England desperately tried to convince me of how convenient it would have been for me to backstab Russia... yet, I did not see why I should have done that, given that I could win keeping my word with Russia in a few turns. So England gave up on the Gibraltar naval block, as my victory would have left him with 4 to 5 SC's, while Russia's one would have meant total annihilation for him.
At this point Russia began to ask for a draw. This got me by surprise: that was not established beforehand, and I thought – while having prospered was definitively a fruit of our good co-operation – the speed with which we grew, and my recent achievement of having sent England out of the way were individual successes.
I asked Russia to persuade me of the contrary (why do you think a draw would be the fairest solution?), but instead of articulating his thoughts, Russia answered with a passive-aggressive attitude that deteriorated quickly our long standing relationship.
The situation felt alarming enough for me that in spring 1908 I sent out to Russia a message that read about like this: “I can win in any moment by backstabbing you. I do not want to do this, but please understand that given the current diplomatic situation, any movement of your units tending to militarise our common border will trig my immediate reaction”. I really meant what I wrote of course... but somehow Russia missed the point and sent me the most astonishing of the answers: not only they were pissed at me, but they announced in advance that they would have militarised our common border no matter what. They said that my diplomatic press was FUNNY and that we shall see what the outcome would have been.
Honestly: I could almost not believe it. As FUNNY as my press could sound, it was deadly SERIOUS: aggressive attitude equal immediate reaction and win.
So I sent a polite press saying “Ok then, we shell see!”. I changed my orders, backstabbed the Czar, and won immediately. His final comment was “you are quite a big penis”... but the reality is that his bizarre choice costed him 3, maybe 4 SC's in his final score. I do not feel guilty for the final stab, but a big disappointed yes: I regard loyalty very highly, and I would have preferred to finish the game on a 18-14-3 score.
Nevertheless it was a lot of fun and I feel I learnt quite a lot during this game.
Thanks to all the players who joined the game (also to the ones who took over a country left in CD).
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To any of the Mods: Please help!!
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