No ingame messaging (gunboat) DOESN'T mean no alliance.
You can and should guess the moves of other powers in order to show will to cooperate. That's one of the challanges of playing Gunboat.
If you look at the orders archive you will possibly see other orders that failed because they didn't guess the other player's intent.

Of course there is always the chance of cheating...but you shouldn't assume it just because you saw a support move...
If you are new to diplomacy, there is a bunch of games from the Gunboat tournament that you can look at (http://webdiplomacy.net/forum.php?viewthread=651210#651210) and realize that there are lot's of successful and unsuccessful supports; and I doubt that there are cheaters.

Hope that helped.

@sbaraldi - First, welcome to webDiplomacy. I believe you are in a 'gunboat' game, i.e. anonymous players and no in game messaging. In that type of game, the best way to ‘communicate’ with other players is to support one of their moves (as determined by your analysis of where you think they will move) or to support-hold one of their units. By engaging in that type of ‘communication’ you hope that the other player will reciprocate and help you as well. But it is all still educated guess work. Good Luck.

Thanks for the responses. They do help remove some suspicion, and I do NOT want to assume anyone is cheating. I expected alliances to develop, but the support move happened on the first turn of the game. I suppose Germany & England both going for Belgium early is common, so France's "guess" to support Germany isn't implausible, but it seems a bit foolhardy to blindly aid a neighbor gain more supply centers than you have so early on. Perhaps I'll learn that taking such high-risk chances is a big part of the game.

Detail: France ended the first turn with 5 SCs to Germany's 6. Would have been 7 had I (Russia) not blocked their move into Sweden.

Thanks again for the input.

welcome, sbaraldi. i know you're new to the site, so just wanted to let you know that discussing ongoing games is frowned upon.

i mean the details of your above post, not your original question.

Uh, it's impossible for Germany to end 1901 with 7 SC's.

@sbaraldi - it is a common tactic in face to face play (and on here) to put an ally in a stronger position than you are and be the junior partner (or a vassal of sorts) in the alliance. The hope is that at some point, when the senior partner's forces are spread out facing other enemies, that you can stab them for big gains.

Nothing suspicious in that support...
And as it was said before it is impossible for germany to get 7 sc's!!! If he got sweden he wouldn't get denmark...
Just that you know: you didn't block germany's move to sweden...he blocked you!

Now, has trip said... we shouldn't talk about ongoing games.

Isn't there a School of War about to start up? That might be an appropriate means of getting a better understanding of the details of the rules (like you only take possession of the SC if you occupy it at the end of fall retreats) as well as the subtleties of coordinating moves and such.

Thanks for all the responses & insight. I appreciate all your patience with new players. I did read the rules before starting, but as you know there's a lot to keep straight. I hope it's OK to learn-as-you-go. My apologies for discussing details of an open game - didn't know.

It's partially our fault for not having a sign up TOA that highlighted some of the acceptable and unacceptable practices. You were OK overall. Welcome to the site.

http://www.webdiplomacy.net/rules.php

That's a good place to start.

Well, I'm very new to this site too. In my opinion if communication is blocked completely or only public messaging is allowed the players should be anonymous. I'm sure some people take advantage of private messages which can be sent to our profiels.

@ Juba:
If you're really sure of someone cheating, don't post it on the forums, but e-mail a mod ([email protected] if I'm correct).

If you're afraid of cheaters joining your games, try playing passworded games. You start a game, advertise it on the forum, and everyone who's interested, you can check out their profile and history. That should be safe.

@sbaraldi, supporting another country to an sc you wouldn't be able to get is a very useful tactic, especially in gunboat. The alliance is worth more than the center. And, as ava said, you can always stab him later. The big guy gets the attention, so the other players will be encouraging you to pull the stab.