SoW 3 EoG: Turkey.
A 3 way draw. Given the level of competition this has to be considered as good as a win in one of my normal games, so I'm proud of the result. Kudos to everyone who played in this game.
My Background
The most important thing outside the game that affected me is Chess, which is my main hobby. Chess is responsible both for my approach to Diplomacy, meaning that I am well practised in Tactics with a vague idea about long term Strategy and need to improve in Negotiation, while chess is also responsible for many influences on me during the game, especially towards the end.
My previous games of diplomacy have all been on this site. As Turkey I'd played 5 games: 2 wins and a 4 way draw as well as 2 losses. Despite my 2 wins Turkey remains only a middling power in my preference: I much prefer Austria, with which I got my first win, and Germany, both of which also have given me 2 wins, because of their central power. My overall preference for countries is AGFTERI with the high growth countries preferred to defensive ones.
Year by Year (please remember that since all the messages from the early years have disappeared I might have forgotten some of the diplomatic scenario)
1900: I declare war on the commentators
You can't exactly blame me for that after Jacob said I'd be first out. The commentary at the start presumably affected everyone in the game and changed the decisions they made: it is one of the reasons I preferred the Austrian alliance to the Russian one
I think I had a lot of luck starting off: the only message I had received was from Babak and this let me copy his detail and style with my own press, while I also managed to send a message to Austria as he sent an almost identical one to me, which created a useful bond between us. While Russia sent an equally persuasive message to me (and presumably to Austria as well), Russia never had that sort of bond and as a result became the odd man out. Italy on the other hand didn't provide as much eloquence in his press and as a result I trusted him less than Russia and Austria.
I also sent messages further afield to develop relations with England, France and Germany although this is one thing I don't have much practice at, since without things to discuss I often end up resorting to empty platitudes. Communicating with Babak was easiest because I could do so with the excuse of asking for expert advice.
1901: 6 irrelevant comments about Piedmont
My difficulty in communicating with distant powers was somewhat alleviated in 1901 when I decided on an, admittedly unconventional, aim for my foreign policy. Most of the moves in S01 were normal except for one unusual occurrence: a bounce between France and Italy in Piedmont. I wanted to find out why! I must admit to becoming somewhat obsessed with this during negotiation with every single power receiving a message from me commentating on the bounce. For most of the year I suspected an X-files style conspiracy in which Wizard had convinced Italy to go west and then told France: Austria's reply to my inquiry did nothing to dismiss this idea.
On a more serious note both of the spheres ignited during the second half of the year. Germany ended up as the odd one out in the west: discussions between me and England suggested that England had reacted badly to a suggestion by Germany for a delayed move to the Channel and Burgundy and he had relayed this info to France. Communicating with both England and Germany in this fashion was very useful to me because I was able to transfer information to Germany about the escalating tension in the EF; no doubt Wizard was doing the same thing but 2 sources of manipulation is better than one. The circumstances of England's choice of ally probably helped cause the tension in EF as I suggested to England that I considered Germany's plan as natural: thereby making England doubt his correctness in alliance with France
In the east I came into the inevitable Turkish committal problem: I was more or less forced to declare myself anti-Russian by denying him Rumania while still worried about Austria using Italy to stab me. Russia losing Sweden was a mixed blessing: Russia would have less forces in the south to oppose me, but it also made him weaker in the north where I was constantly in danger of losing Russian territory to England from the North.
In the end the bounce in Piedmont was simply arranged by France to prevent unreliability by Italy.
E-4 F-5 G-4 I-4 R-4 A-5 T-4
1902: Don Juan fails to turn up at Lepanto.
The biggest threat to my situation in 1902 was Italy's Lepanto style attack into Syria. At the end of 1901 I tried to convince Italy to pull it of by suggesting an IT alliance against Austria while I use Austria to dismantle Russia. Italy ignored this: while the entire offer was utter bull giving Turkey a huge advantage over Italy if played right, Italy could have done better by appearing to consider it to put me at ease. I also asked Austria if would help me by playing Gre-Ion to split the Italian fleets. This was the zenith of my paranoia since I was still worried that Austria was using Italy against me and when Austria was sceptical of my defensive idea (he didn't play it and Italy was able to convoy into Syria) I was almost convinced that I was doomed. Eventually it was proved to be a false alarm, but that was the closest I came to being eliminated.
Getting Rumania was a bonus during this year and Austria suggested we should switch Rum for Gre once Russia was eliminated as a security measure. This is an interesting idea and, although it didn't come about in this game, I'd like to see how it could have worked in an expert game.
However I had a second problem (Italy again!). Because Austria made his way into Rome I was in danger of losing my western options to Austrian impediment. This is the main reason I never had a real chance to win this game: I was too slow at reaching the key centres.
England got into Denmark in the west and it became apparent that EF was progressing faster than AT. However hope could be found in the increasing tension between England and France: both builds at the end of the year were fleets and certainly not in the locations to be used against Germany. I found out both builds in advance and passed the information on to Germany to see how he'd use it. Vague comments about England's “nervousness” in press to Babak and unadulterated fear of the experts to England hopefully helped make the alliance less stable. Of course, it could have seemed like blatant meddling.
E-5 F-6 G-4 I-3 A-6 R-5 T-5
1903: I begin giving up State secrets
Centurian noted at the start that he didn't believe in using player histories. In this year my history saved me and quite almost doomed me. France moved to the channel which provided new ammunition for a diplomatic assault on England's complacency. Since the commentators and Babak had made it quite clear the army was heading to Belgium, I described how I believed the move to the channel was part of a long term diplomatic strategy by France to make England content to let France in the channel, using my Turkish win
gameID=10654 (in which I used ambiguous builds of F(Con) to set up Russia for a stab) as elaboration. As another stepping stone in getting England to stab France it worked ideally, but contained a rather unfortunate side effect that sprung up in 1906.
Getting a war between England and France was crucial because France was about to descend on Italy and I only made it to the Ionian sea in this year. If I was any chance to prosper I had to deflect one of my 2 competitors for the Italian centres. France was also stopping Austria from securing his way into Italy so it was crucial that France be pulled away.
In the Northern front I was very glad to outguess Russia and secure Sevastopol. This is the year that Troodonte started causing me serious problems on the diplomatic field by offering to become the weaker partner if I stabbed Austria: On the one hand stabbing Austria was not in my best interests as he could help me into Italy, on the other hand by declining I did great damage to prospects with Russia in the future.
E-6 F-7 G-2 I-3 A-6 R-4 T-6
1904: I go nowhere fast
This is the year it became completely apparent that EF V AT would be an easy crush for EF. I manage to guess wrong both times in Italy and fail to get Naples and Austria is kicked out of Rome by France. In the meantime Russia lost his Northern holdings but no further progress was made in the south by me and Austria.
One piece of good news came as England stabbed France by kicking him out of Holland and building another Fleet Liverpool. I'm interested to see how much eastern manipulation, including my own, contributed to this decision, but however it occurred my main strategy for influencing the west began to bear fruit during this year.
E-8 F-8 G-2 I-2 A-5 R-3 T-6
1905: I finally get into Naples: please insert “Naples” joke of your choice.
The year 1905 was one year in which the game developed along very obvious lines after the cataclysmic events of 1904. With France back-peddling to deal with England's stab I was finally able to secure access to Italy. Germany also benefited from this development, which had been the point of passing on details about EF tension, but rather disturbingly for me he came in on France's side by taking Kiel and Holland. This was very bad news because I needed a strong England to keep France away from Italy, not a strong France who would take my Italian centres. One useful event here is the Iranian election crises: with Babak diverted towards that his diplomacy was hopefully less effective than it would otherwise be.
The Russian front was less successful as Russia has committed to defending the south rather than the north and lost StP to England before losing Ukraine. At least he was made to disband Ukraine, but the gains from Russia were going to be very slow. I was less worried about facing opposition from England's army because my negotiations with England were going well and we'd developed a good relationship.
E-7 F-8 G-4 I-1 A-5 R-2 T-7
1906: Which sucker decided it was a good idea to mention stabs using F(Con)?!
With England putting pressure on me to stab Austria as the cost of his continued war with France, I decided to test the water for a future stab by building F(Con) which could only get to Italy through the Aegean past Greece. I mentioned earlier that mentioning a previous game to England nearly doomed me: now England has the ability to jeopardise my stab by passing this on to Austria. Interestingly enough Austria never mentioned the build to me; it was this that emboldened me enough to stab that year.
Entry into Budapest gave me control over the Austrian homeland. It was nice to have persuaded Austria to move to Bohemia, in order to stop Germany helping France, which meant he couldn't evict me from Budapest without losing Serbia. Eventually Austria chose to leave me in Budapest this year, and I can see why Jacob said I was “sitting pretty”. I offered Russia Vienna at this point for help against Austria. This made it more than a “1 centre stab”: Austria lost his entire Eastern frontier as well. The Russian puppet also gave me a useful chance to control England in the north if Russia went for it.
However, just as I stab Austria, England stops stabbing France. That meant all the French fleets that had been diverted north came back again. This led to a rather embarrassing situation where I ended up in the Tyrrhenian because France didn't move there. I had to do a lot of appeasement of France for that one.
E-8 F-9 G-2 I-1 A-4 R-2 T-8
1907: Put your South fleet in, Put your South fleet out...
It didn't work. France had 4 fleets in the med and was able to advance very rapidly: I assume he would have attacked Naples anyway. I also managed to lose control of the Ionian sea here which put me in even more trouble since I no longer even has a unit bordering Italy. I kept trying the same tactics as before in order to convince England to attack France to keep him from getting too strong. This year England began to look like he was interested in attacking France again, but it was too late to prevent me from losing my foothold in Italy. My guess is that England wouldn't stab if I hadn't lost Italy, as he had to use France to keep me weak enough.
At least my loss of Naples was balanced by grabbing Greece. My decision to help Russia into Vienna had a surprising and beneficial side effect: Russia helped Italy into Trieste which resulted in Austria being completely and suddenly dismantled, thereby discrediting Wizard's attempts to convince me to spare him to prevent France winning. It was mentioned in the commentary that England and I couldn't make our minds up over Moscow, which let Russia get his build. In fact Jacob used it as evidence that I wasn't convincing England to stab France. However since England not being in Moscow was more or less non-negotiable for me because England was already stronger than me, and England also told me that he couldn't let me get a unit adjacent to StP this seemed a reasonable ending.
E-10 F-11 I-1 A-1 R-3 T-8
1908: The “negative 1 centre stab”
Russia decides to stab me: presumably at the beckoning of France and/or England and to get back at me for attacking him. Since the only result was the immediate loss of Vienna, as the Austrians retreated from Budapest, I'm not sure if it was justified. Russia had no chance of staying in the game by declaring war on the only strong power in the area. We managed to swap Sevastopol for Moscow as well which probably benefited me because Russia didn't have the forces to take his centre back whereas I did.
I get back into the Ionian just as England finally shows his full hand against France. I told Babak at this point that I was willing to have armed neutrality on my western front to let him deal with it: Although I'd been begging for a stab by England I didn't want a successful one. I even suggested a suggested a way for France to take Mao back losing only Portugal: by moving Tun-Naf, Tys-Wes and GoL-Spa. Babak didn't go for it, choosing to lose Brest and Mao instead, in the end because this deal was so pro-Turkish that he didn't want to be manipulated like that. I also tried to get Naples back as part of the deal but France wouldn't accept it and since I had no way to force it (unless France went for my tactical idea for hie northern front) I let it lie rather than develop an enemy.
My relationship with England became very tense during this time. The huge problem was that I couldn't attack France while England had the upper hand, but England shouldn't attack unless I both promise support and let him win against France. This was further complicated by my need of England's support against Russia. I don't know how exactly Texas responded to this duplicity, but this was probably the reason that the game degenerated to a 3 way draw rather than continuing.
E- 11 F-11 A-1 R-2 T-9
1909: “This game has slowed down due to stale 3 way draw dynamics: The School of War unreservedly apologises for any inconvenience caused”
This was the year in which everyone but the drawers and Russia were finally eliminated. By taking back Sevastopol I was able to finally get out from the problem of needing England's support from StP. I'm wondering why Austria vacated Vienna form Galicia, which was what lost him Vienna more rapidly to the French and eliminated him. Losing Vienna in this way wasn't a huge problem for me since it left France overextended: he wasn't able to use the build and only had only one unit guarding 2 centres
It was in 1909 that France and I had another huge muckup. France's fleet in the Adriatic needed to get back west to fight England and I promised to vacate the Ionian to let it get back faster since I was worried that England would get the upper hand if I wasn't careful and I still needed time to wrap up Warsaw before I could move west. In any case I would benefit from France having the upper hand since I could expand by attacking Italy, but only if that was good for the weaker of EF. Babak didn't trust me again and instead went to Apulia in a rather clumsy series of manoeuvres which must have looked hilarious to Russia: we didn't trust each other enough to do any better.
E-11 F-12 R-1 T-10
1910: “Go Newbies!”... or not.
At the start 1910 Babak sent me what was very nearly the most important piece of press in the entire game: “I do want to mention something... I know it might be tempting to you to convoy con to apu or to move to adriatic from Ion. but I want you to know - that I will not stand for you going for the solo either. if you make those moves, then I will have to turn ALL my forces around and give the solo to England... as in come to face you and leave him completely alone to take my home dots... any losses this year, and I will start by disbanding the fleets in spa and por
I know this is a threat - and its a serious one... I'm in no mood to be played so that someone can solo after all the hard work I did to keep them in the draw.”
This message seemed, at least at the time, to be perfectly calculated to make me attack Babak: The Chainsaw enraged me, while the appeal that Babak had “kept me in the draw” brought bad memories of Jacob's commentary that England's stab had not been aided by my suggestion, as well as being plain bull: I wasn't in the draw because France was merciful, I was there because England stabbed France at the right moments. On top of that France's “threat” to disband his western fleets emboldened me since my best chance of dodging the throw was to break into the Tyrrhenian to establish myself along the main stalemate line to force myself in the draw: disbanding fleets wherever they were would aid me in this, to the extent that I told England about this in the hope that he would pressure France into disbanding the fleets.
Even if Babak judged me correctly on a normal day, his Chainsaw combined with two other events to decide my choice to attack. My chess playing would no longer watch from the sidelines: it would define the result of this year. Firstly the letter inviting me to the UK Junior chess challenge final arrived (I had qualified but am unable to go due to being on holiday), souring my outlook to the world and eliciting an emotional response to the Chainsaw. This response remained because this day was my chess club day, I had only just worked out the line I needed to reach when I had to leave so my stab was left as ordered.
I tried to get a Babak crushing alliance with England based on the rally cry “Go Newbies!” since with Jacob having just won his game there ought to be a game where the newbies came out on top and with Babak crushed between us this was our chance. We had an immediate deal whereby I temporarily gave England Warsaw so he could build armies and in return he cut Tunis support so I could take Naples with my fleet and control the Tyrrhenian.
I feel that both me and Texas both deserve to graduate to full Diplomats on the basis that his first thought after this was to stab me, and I expected him.
Russia must have been having a laugh.
E-11 F-11 R-1 T-11
1911: 33 centres V 1, no score draw.
Pyromancer's final comment brings up a key point about the end of the game. Certainly Turkey had the strongest position at the end of the game and the only realistic chance to solo. However, “France's position was fairly weak, especially if Turkey and England had cooperated. Or, at the least, agreed not to attack one another for a couple of years.”. Been there, done that, got the Knife wound in the T-shirt. England made the right choice restricting me because without enough armies he couldn't break onto the continent in force, and he therefore couldn't get solo opportunities by attacking France, only make it easier for me.
Since I had to secure my northern front and control Warsaw before making moves west, especially as Russia had been making fun of us with his optimism for long enough, and since Babak still could throw the game towards England without risking a loss (yes I know that is a contradiction in terms) the easiest result was the 3 way draw. I declared my intention immediately by convoying out of Apu.
Good game everyone.
E-11 F-11 T-12
Fellow players
England- Texasdeluxe: A player who thoroughly deserved to be in the draw: a great diplomat and strategist who ensured good relations between England and Turkey right from the start. I'm still not entirely sure why you attacked me at the end but from the commentators remarks it appears to be the right decision. The best praise I can give you comes from TheWizard, who remarked that he'd actually heard more from you than from Babak. Well done.
France- Babak: I've always wanted to write a school report for the teachers! Except for 2 occasions (during the Iran crisis and that infuriating chainsaw letter: if the Iran protests caused the harshness of the letter I apologise for my criticism of it) Babak showed his colours as a Master Diplomat right from the start. As a teacher also he was ideal, and although I must admit to using rather manipulative questions (e.g. asking about how to recognise a stab just as tension between England and France was my primary aim), Babak's replies were prompt, succint and well illustrated. I'm interested to see how the graduate course will be handled.
Germany- Pootercannon: Ironically the only player I've played against outside of SoW is the player I had least contact with in the game. Commentators mentioned PC's win as Germany but failed to mention which sucker played Turkey in that game.
/deathly silence
He was somewhat moody and silent when his position collapsed, which made my job harder, but who isn't when reduced to a couple of centres. Germany's result in this game in no way accounts for his whole ability.
Italy- MasterChavix: Perhaps the only player in the game who I felt wasn't better than me at diplomacy. MC has a long way to go before being ready at this level of play, although for the opening years it looked a lot like it was an act to catch me out. I would say that he was influenced by the commentators too much, but my bias would be evident there.
Austria- TheWizard: My early game ally after we developed a strong early game rapport. This was in part due to the simultaneity of the first posts, although I wouldn't be surprised if you set that up as a diplomatic tactic! Keeping up with the fluency of your press to keep contributing to our alliance was very difficult and I was in great danger of ending up following you to my doom. It is an honour to have stabbed you. :-P
Russia- Troodonte: A very strong diplomat. I was worried that you would do a better job of convincing TheWizard to ally with you than I did: in the end the difference between you and me appeared to be little more than fluke. Your defensive prowess is testified by the fact that I first declared war in 1901 and didn't defeat you until 10 years later.
P.S. Do I win the Literary Prize?
Move question
for a 150 or so pot game... It was forever ago though.
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