SoW Study Group Winter 2015
England
Here is my End of Game recap. I went into this game, hoping to further my strategy knowledge and to practice writing steady press to my enemies each turn. I think players often stop communication when in hostilities and I wanted to get over the discomfort of doing this.
1901
Diplomacy opened with a few main objections in mind. I wanted to 1) make sure I was in an alliance with either F or G against the other and not the odd man out and 2) persuade the others for an early elimination of Russia which would 3) put me at 6-7 SCs in the early-mid game with Scandinavia and possibly St Pete’s. As England, i really hate that backdoor threat of F St Pete NC coming through, especially in the mid game when England often finds himself fighting his opening ally. It’s too easy for Russia to lend support in this fight with a fleet or two. Even though St Pete’s is too often a cul-de-sac, I find the safety that it’s occupation guarantees the English player well worth the one or two units that it requires.
Standard press was sent to all players, wishing good luck, what are you thinking, etc. I decided to ally with France against Germany initially but only because France wrote back to me first and Germany did not write back until close to deadline. I specifically asked Austria to open to Rumania, and Turkey if he would like to open A Smy-Arm, thinking I could convince T to support A to keep R out of Rumania while he has a crack at Sevastaopol, while Germany might be convinced to block Russia out of Sweden in exchange for help against F. Russia would be denied builds and on the defensive immediately.
Russia was very interested in whether I would move Lvp-Edi or not and wanted Norway to be taken with a fleet, which I was planning on anyways.
Austria did open to Rumania but Turkey did not open to Armenia, instead we saw the Russian fleet get popped and he got 3 builds instead of the zero or one I was hoping for. Cries of Juggernaut flew in Global chat.
1902
My objection this turn was Denmark, the bottleneck of Scandinavia. I positioned myself to take it by moving to the Hel Bight, with Sweden next on the target list
I also planned with France for him to go through Med and me to go North but moved to Channel. He claimed it was a mis-order but it spooked me nonetheless.
Germany was attacked pretty hard by F with I support and at this point it didn’t look like he’d be long for this game.
1903
In the Diplomacy phase, I instructed Russia to help try to convince France to vacate Eng-MAO, with the understanding that I would give him Norway if it was successful. I took Sweden for leverage in case France didn’t comply, but he did and I decided to keep it since I couldn’t be booted out.
I was certain that a French stab was coming so I moved back to Channel, expecting a bounce. French fleets moved south en masse so that eased my mind, knowing I’d have room to breathe and could stab at my leisure.
1904
It was right around this time that I drafted the remaining German unit and supported him to Berlin, where he would pretty much act as a buffer to France and/or Russia’s advance. I also got St Pete and an army in Denmark, which secured Scandinavia for me.
Also, my French ally was replaced after the Spring turn.
It was also this turn that I had the last press from the original Italian player until his replacement came in. That was extremely frustrating.
1905-1910
With Scandinavia secure, I decided to stab the new France player in 1905 and it was a big chocolatey mess. I had convoyed to Belgium to make sure France had to disband at least one, but I sacrificed my position; a convoy to Picardy would have given me Brest and neutralized the threat of northern fleets. In addition, I did not bounce the MAO for diplomatic reasons, which let France into MAO and completely flipped my momentum. I was now on the defensive. I wish I could have this turn back.
In fact, the next 4 game years were spent trying to defend my island against France and trying to keep Russia from taking Berlin. It was like groundhog day every game year until 1910.
During these years, I couldn’t understand why France was attacking me so viciously. After all, the juggernaut was running at this point and even though France is often a beneficiary of the R/T steamroll, I felt he was completely throwing the game to Turkey by doing this because, I’ll be honest, he was really throwing everything he had at me. I later found out that he was a silent partner in the R/T alliance, that they had agreed to an F/R/T draw once E/G/I were eliminated, although I don’t know if T would have honored that agreement.
But eventually I poked through France’s lines into the MAO and, coupled with the replacement Italy’s strategic retreat to Marseilles and Spain, put the first big cut into him and this slowly led to his elimination.
1911-1913
My main goal in these years was regrouping my line, eliminating France, and working to keep Turkey from soloing. Russia had plans in the works to stab Turkey. France could have probably been useful in helping to stalemate Turkey but I had no interest in giving the opportunity for a neighboring rival naval power to get back on his feet, especially when he was lured into working as Turkey’s cat’s paw earlier in the game.
At this point, I also had a little meta-game going on with myself, namely seeing if I could keep Germany alive to the end. Of course, if I were able to get to 17 centers, I would have tried to take his dot for 18 but somehow it would have felt anti-climatic if he had gotten eliminated for someone’s quick build after managing to survive at 1 since 1904. Maybe that’s just he care bear in me but whatever. Occupying Munich was a smart decision for him, as it put him in a spot where he was supported by 3 powers against each other.
Russia stabbed Turkey on Fall turn, and it wasn’t exactly a killer one. He put a bunch of holes in the stalemate line and Turkey didn’t have to disband.
1914
At this point, the balance became contentious. Turkey and I both had legitimate chances to solo and nobody on the board wanted to take that chance. Italy was occupying two critical provinces for the Turkish/English solo and Germany occupied the other critical province for the English solo, so my best chances were getting to 15 at best. So after a well fought game, we suggested a draw. Italy deserved to be in on it, I felt, for taking over the country in a hopeless situation.
EOG
Like I said, my main focus was furthering my strategy knowledge and the comments from the more experienced players in this thread were a big help in this. The biggest lessons I learned from this game were:
1) When being attacked, attack back.
A beginner’s natural reaction to being bushwhacked from all sides is to just issue Support Hold orders to all of your units. I now realize it is better to work out a set of attacks that, if possible, will cut critical supports, protect your units, and maybe even result in an improved position.
2) A guaranteed move is better than a guess.
I learned this lesson during my failed 1905 stab at France. Better to make a guaranteed move to a non-SC province that improves your position for next turn than to take a possible shot at a non-guaranteed SC that will keep your position static (or worsen it), but also give away your intention and put you on the defensive.
3) In F2F games, I’ve heard it pays to be the last to talk to someone but in online, it’s better to be the first to contact someone.
Again, the only reason I allied with France in 1901 is because he responded to me first. The game would have probably been very different if Germany had sent me the early reply. Perhaps this is just my perception though. I certainly operate this way. I’d like to hear others’ thoughts on this.
Like I said, I really enjoyed this game. There were a lot of rushed, last-minute-before-deadline press exchanges that made some of the turns so suspenseful, especially with DL when I was trying to convince him not to take Berlin. Good times…and the game lasted nearly 5 months of real time!
Lastly, I would like to give a big THANK YOU to Valis, goldfinger, A Tin Can, and Sh@dow for setting up and running this game and allowing me to take part in it (if I left anyone out, I apologize). And also to all of you other good folks who stopped by our thread to give comments and analysis on what was going on. I was always excited whenever new commentary went up to see how our moves were and where we did good and went wrong. Looking forward to hearing from the other players’ experience.