Germany -
My biggest worry in this game, as I told Dipper(Russia), was Jacob and Jefe(the Seminary buddies) being two of Russia, Turkey, and Austria-Hungary(always incorrectly referred to as Austria) and me being the other. Luckily, this did not happen to me, but it did happen to Dipper. The pot was huge. It was an 8505 point WTA game. My first mistake was filling Dipper in on this little factoid. Dipper, nobody's fool, immediately started joking about this on the Global and we all joined in. Dipper and I made a non-agg agreement before I made any other alliance, ostensibly so that DD could focus on "the seminary buddies" while I dealt with any E-F treachery. It was always my intention to stab the bejeezus out of Dipper, however. I felt that I owed DD from a prior contest(there's that unholy meta-mentality again). I hold grudges. We are a community, and these games are not played in a vacuum, regardless of what the liars and simpletons would have you believe. Nobody can control what's in my head anyway, so deal with it.
Now this all was not, of course, 100% accurate. Jacob(A-H) and Jefe(T) did bounce in Greece in Autumn 1901. So it appears that while sharing a dinner table, so to speak, they will still fight over the drumstick. Also, in a prior match and under great pressure from the other Great Powers, Jefe had refused to eliminate me(with the admonition that I had better remember it), though I was utterly helpless. I shared in the draw that game.
I have no issue at all with any of this. Life is a meta-game, people. So is Diplomacy. J and J are comfortable allies. This is a fact. To ignore it is, usually, to die. I do have an issue with cross board gaming, but this is another thing altogether. I will not belabour this thread with it.
As Germany, ignoring all past games, the spring 1901 problem is being in the middle. Everybody LOVES Munich, don't they? It can be a pickle. The most important Great Power for me to woo was, obviously, France. My first intention was for France and I to take out England, and we has many pre-game discussions to this effect. F-G, historically, is a formidable duo. We both wanted to grow a little first though, so when England suggested that we form the Western Triple Alliance(E-F-G), we all agreed. The problem for me with the WT Alliance, is that G usually gets taken out by the other two after R gets clobbered a little bit in the north/center (Also, the WT Alliance is easily spotted by experienced/good players. In this game, the others had correctly identified it by autumn 1901. If you can't identify a WT after spring 1902, it's time to consider video games).
Our WT Alliance started well. No treachery. To my chagrin, the result was that R-T-A formed an opposing Eastern Triple, but there was some minor infighting over there and I had immediately violated the DMZ that I had formed with R, so I felt that we had the drop on them.
This leaves Italy(MadMarx, of all people) as the wild card. MM played, IMHO, the best game of us all. MM played each triple against the other, and ended up surviving.
The first significant result was, IMHO, DD getting a build in the first year against some steep odds. This likely cemented their triple.
For me, there were two lost opportunities in this game.
1. We were constantly denying the existence of our triple, and E suggested that he/she cede Belgium to F in autumn 1902, in order to make it appear as if F had stabbed him/her(sorry E, but I am unaware of your gender). I started pushing for the stab, but F kept hesitating, even though E had no builds as a result of this ploy. To this end, I built a fleet in Kiel, instead of another army. To my horror, F built a fleet in Marseilles, instead of Brest. This ended any hopes for me of a F-G result. I needed to work the triple and try to stave off the probable stab coming my way. At this point, I became paranoid("became" paranoid. That's a laugh!) and, instead of ordering Kie-Bal, I ordered Kie-Hol. This effectively stalled our progress against R.
2. By autumn 1903, the stalemate line was well formed, except in the north where THE BALTIC SEA AND THE GULF OF BOTHNIA WERE COMPLETELY UNOCCUPIED. I am livid. Can you tell? Jacob, to J's credit, played the others beautifully by convincing them that the game was stalemated. I am reasonably certain as well, that Jacob had convinced stratagos(E) that, despite my position, I would engineer a stab. How I could accomplish a stab at this point is beyond me, but I had missed something. E(stratagos)had baby-sitted J's account in the past(look at Jacob's profile), and I was unsure of their relationship.
Despite the fact that E and I had fleets masturbating behind our lines...
http://phpdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=11388&msgCountry=England
...he/she(E) became convinced that the game was over and agreed to a draw. F followed suit. MM suggested in the Global that, since I was the only hold out(Jefe had not logged in yet, but was in no position to do anything except acquiesce), that I be eliminated and my share split between the others. I argued bitterly with my allies that there was no harm in playing the game out for another year, but neither of them would retract their draw request. By this morning, I saw that Jefe had agreed to the draw.
The game ended early. My conclusion is that I was handcuffed by weak and inexperienced allies who agreed to a draw TOO EARLY, especially E, and that E allowed Jacob to put the ring in his/her nose and lead him/her around(sorry E and F). I had absolutely no opportunity to stab either of them, and the game was not over. However, I had no intention of being odd man out.
A disappointing game.
Chrisp
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