Seriously guys, you two need to just live and let live!
Now, on to the game. Overall, I think it was a well played game, with the only glitch being that Turkey left a turn or 2 before he was destroyed. He was going to die anyways, so that didn't matter, but it may have had a slight effect on game play. All in all, it was one of the best played games I've been in in terms of keeping the game moving and having players who stick around.
Now, on to a turn by turn analysis:
Spring 1901: Like usual, I opened up diplomatic channels intensely with everyone except Russia and Turkey. With England, I made a deal to break through German lines as he expressed a strong interest in the E/F. With Germany, I made a tentative deal to strike at England, but not until 1902ish after we picked up our builds. My main beef with Germany at this time was him trying to be a fear-mongerer. Many of Baskineli’s messages centered around how I should fear the English invasion of Picardy in Fall 1901. I rebuffed him by reminding him that in the face of a F/G attack, England would be hard pressed to defend, let alone strike at mainland Europe. This pacified him for now, but made me wary of his motives. I also didn’t like his whole aggressive “puppet-master” tone where upon he was basically trying to tell me what to do right from the start. With Italy, we struck up an early DMZ of basically the whole Mediterranean and Piedmont. After he told me that Germany wanted him to move to Piedmont (not sure if this is really true or not), I became even more wary of Germany’s intentions. With Austria, we discussed overall strategy and just had a general understanding that we’d share intel.
Summary: Alliance with England looks likely due to Germany’s attitude and attempt at being the “puppet-master”.
Fall 1901: Negotiations heat up. While talking to England, I propose a plan to royally screw Germany that would have changed the course of the game. I proposed NTH – Holland and convoying to Norway with no support. It was a risky maneuver, but if England had agreed to it, he would have still received his +1 from Norway while limiting Germany to 1 build as well. With units in Holland/Burgundy and builds to come, we would have had Germany gone VERY quickly. Regarding Germany, he was silent to me. For the whole turn. This only reinforced my decision to strike at Germany ASAP. Thinking that England was going to take Belgium, I struck at Munich in case Germany moved to Ruhr so he could build in Munich. It failed, but I was still left with 2 builds and a defensive army in Burgundy. With Italy, I sealed up our DMZs even more and made solid peace on my southern border, something that proved crucial in my success later.
Winter 1901: Builds: F Brest, A Paris
These builds were agreed to with England in order to bring pause to people talking about a E/F alliance. F Brest was to make people think E/F war was going on while really being used against Germany.
Spring 1902: Discussions with Germany are renewed. “Plans to strike at England are in the works but at this time, I have no intention of carrying them out. Germany also tells me that England is moving to EC (a lie fed to him by England and forwarded to me) meaning I know I can use England’s press as a lever against Germany since I’m being informed about what’s going on between them. Germany again does his “fear-mongering” tactic with this quote:
“I don't want England to overrun both you and me”.
He’s trying to make me afraid that England alone can take out both Germany AND France who outnumber him in units 10 – 4. This only reinforced my decision to strike Germany. With England, we make plans to move on Denmark and Belgium in the fall.
Fall 1902: Here’s where things get interesting. I took a huge gamble by changing the direction of the game. I knew that if I stuck with England, I’d be getting nothing anytime soon. Germany had me blockaded on land and England couldn’t help because he was busy with Russia. So, I stuck my neck out and went with Germany despite my misgivings. It turned out to be worth it. England was apparently worried about me anyways with his move of Lon – Wales (not really sure what that accomplished though) instead of Lon – NTH. That allowed me to get into EC and Irish Sea and set up an assault on England. Giving Germany Belgium was a surprise to him since I told him I was going to bounce him this year. Also, at this time, my relationship with Italy was sealed as I was afraid of him moving Tyrr – GoL, Ionian – Tunis, Tuscany – Piedmont. He didn’t, and so my move to Piedmont was a waste.
Winter 1902: No builds for me. Working on plans with Germany.
Spring 1903: Moves to Wales to set up the strike at London and Liverpool in the fall to crush England. Plans going well with Germany…….so far.
Fall 1903: Germany bounces me in Liverpool. This PISSED ME OFF. Big time. He claimed it was “defensive measures”, but blocked an ally who you agreed to let have an SC is not cool. Despite this, I should have realized that from his other moves, he wasn’t looking at me as a target.
Winter 1903: This is where Bask and I started having problems. I built A Marseilles for the sole purpose of making sure my land defenses were 100% solid. Baskineli didn’t like that, but he was asking me to leave my land defenses vulnerable while also starting a war with Italy, not something I wanted to do. So instead, I opened up comm with Austria about a potential war with Germany to see what he was thinking.
Spring 1904: Germany and I start heating up. I take Burgundy to ensure my defensive line, while he looks to be setting up for a strike in the south and north simultaneously. England retakes London which forces me to move Yorkshire back south unfortunately.
Fall 1904: I retake London and hold Liverpool. I also attempt a preemptive strike against Munich as Bask and I were still diploming at this time. Despite that, we both did things we shouldn’t have if we were allies. Me, going to Munich. Him, attacking Yorkshire as that could have prevented me from taking London back if I attacked with EC instead of York. Also at this time, Bask has started making repeated references to how he does not want to fight me at all, thus giving me solid reason to believe I know who I’m fighting.
Winter 1904: Build F Brest, and the war is on!
Spring 1905: The Spring of eternal negotiations! Germany and I had an approximately 48 hour intense negotiation period spanning Fall/Winter 1904 and Spring 1905. It was the single most intense phase I’ve ever had, and to be honest, it was completely useless. We were both giving reasons for what we were doing and neither of us was listening to the other. We both had some pretty damn good arguments too. In the end, we both did almost nothing that we had agreed on, and Bask outguessed me with Norwegian – Clyde and supporting himself to Ruhr. He had the upper hand big time and we both knew it.
Fall 1905: More epic diplomacizing begins. This time, I’m courting Italy and Austria and attempting to set up a “little guys” alliance. At the same time, I’m trying to convince Germany to play nice, but I don’t really expect that to happen. Moves with Germany were carefully coordinated and I took the leap of faith and hoped that he wouldn’t just continue on and crush me. I don’t know how much Italy believed of my words after I abandoned Burgundy, but at least for another year, we were still in communication for a large period of time.
Winter 1905: Disbanded NAO after both Italy and Germany agreeing it was best. Still undecided on which way to go, as I could have gone after Germany with Italian help still.
Spring 1906: STILL undecided. Once again, moves were coordinated with Germany to make a fake war, while moves down south were coordinated with Italy to make it seem like I wanted in on Venice. Italy’s move to W. Med didn’t worry me since he would have moved to GoL as well if he was attacking me.
Fall 1906: The decision is made. I successfully convinced Italy to let me have Venice for a turn or 2 to attack Germany and then reneged on the deal. Combined with Germany letting me have Belgium so I could build a fleet to take on Italy, I was finally 100% sure I was going to survive and be part of a draw at least.
Winter 1906: Build F Marseilles and the Italian war is on.
1907: Positioning to take out Tunis and Tyrrhenian Sea is begun. With Germany not pressing the attack on Russia and deciding to keep Russia on our side by self-bouncing in St. Pete, I knew a 3 way draw was pretty much for sure now. If Germany had attacked Russia, it would have become a 5 way draw with F/G vs A/I/R and I would have been stymied in the Mediterranean.
1908: Tunis falls and the game is basically over. Mop up Italy time and draw the game.
Overall impressions of players:
The Czech (England): Wanted to be my ally and I wanted to be his ally. Alas, him not taking the gamble put me in a position to not grow at all unless I fought him so unfortunately, I had to. Didn’t have much comm. After 1902 at all.
Jamiet99uk (Turkey): Barely any comm. Unfortunately NMRed once in Spring 1902 that changed the dynamic in SE part of the map a little and then had to leave. Thankfully he was almost out anyways and it didn’t really affect the outcome much.
FOB (Austria): A ballsy player this game. To be honest, I wouldn’t have done what he did, as I’ve had success with Austria in other ways, but I have to respect the attitude he went in with. He decided to make Turkey/Russia fight, and despite pissing off Russia which in the end was is downfall, he achieved his objective and got Turkey taken out by Russia.
Peterwiggin (Italy): Good, solid player that stuck in there even when he was being hit by Germany and Austria combined. Made a successful comeback and was a good person to talk to all game. Unfortunately for him, my choice to attack him paid off for me, but I like to think that it was mostly due to me fooling him : )
Draugnar (Russia): Didn’t have much interaction in the early game. Would have liked to have a lot more F/R discussion but that’s partly my fault too. Was obviously a good talker as he convinced Baskineli to hold off on the Russian attack for a long time up north even though Bask was doing nothing elsewhere really. Didn’t really know that Bask was being so forceful with him about St. Pete, so I’m kinda glad he took Vienna at the end to teach Bask a lesson : )
Baskineli (Germany): My ally and enemy. Played a good game. Tactically, he outguessed me on a key turn and took the upper hand. If I were him, I would have gutted me and taken my SCs and ensured himself a western stalemate line. However, it still would have been a draw most likely, so I guess he chose another way that was just as effective. However, diplomatically, he had some faults this game. His fear mongering early on was pretty much the sole reason I decided to ally with England in 1901. Also, he was apparently too heavy-handed with Draugnar later in the game and learned a little lesson from that too. Overall a solid player, and I had some great communication with him, I think he has a little improvement to do on adapting his style of communication to fit the situation though.
So sorry for the book all, hope it’s a good read!
Xbox 360 or Playstation 3?
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