It was a really great game until the server went down for a while. And Favio here was a hero in the midst of it all!

What DIDN'T happen? More alliance breaking than meets the eye there (and BOY does it meet the eye!), two years of idleness due to server error and a critical NMR that decides the outcome.

Quality round, though!

personally i would lik to give two special awards.

one to Favio for sticking it out as Austria-Hungary, even when it seemed all was lost.

the other to talisker, even though he got a cheap shot in (we were trying to recover froma server problem), for taking over a one-SC France and sticking it out. we almost got the stalemate, but not quite.

And YES. Anyone that's ever considered quitting a game, look at Favio's play. Excellent example of the subtle joys of being little, to quote an older Diplomacy hobbyist...

I didn't know about the server issue. But thanks :) It was fun. It could have gone either way at some points.

Sorry about the NMR again guys. Its very uncharacteristic of me. My only solace is that Turkey would've won with the Italian centers anyway. Will post an EOG after I get some sleep

from my standpoint, as russia, i thought i was out from the beginning. austria's move to Rum threw me off - i'd hoped to work with him, but that made me very wary, and we never really got an alliance off the ground. italy's unpredictableness, and sudden rapid growth, pushed me into the arms of the turk, which i wasn't too upset about, bu i hadn't really decided who to work with for a while.

meanwhile, i thought all was good in the north, and the E and G took out sweden. poor wee sweden!!! so i foolishly opened a front against them, and that's when i thought all was over. fortunately, everyone got spooked by italy, and we bashed him back.

meanwhile, (i think with my help) germany and england got to fighting. and i was finally expanding, and things were looking ok.

then the server crashed for a bit. we lost germany and italy and didn't know what to do. germany came back, but not italy, and since he was down to two SCs, we decided to play on. we tried to get back into the correct phase, but then france was reactived as a zombie state and took paris while the rest of us were "all hold." haha that proved pivotal, i think.

germany and ausria started working with turkey, after turkey stabbed me, and i hade to retreat to the north to try to hold a stalemate position. i thought we could eliminate either germany or austria (plus france) and end with a four way, but G and AH wouldn't let up, and helped Turkey a lot. then when turkey struck back, it was all over -- germany got into stalemate position, but austria was slower, and T ran right through him. gameover.

That was a ridiculously fun game. I am gonna go ahead and say my favorite ever. Just amazing. I would happily write an EOG as well if that is something people want to do.

And, yes, the play of Talisker and Favio were what made it. Favio made it all the way up to 6 centers after hovering at two for almost the entire game! Incredible.

i welcome everyone involved to write an end of game (eog) statement -- basically recapping what you were thinking at different points in the game, and what your perspective was. i'll add more to mine later.

Incredibly simplistic EOG from a zombie:

Was England. Decided to get all peacey in 1901, subtle hints of attacks here and there, grab my builds, no biggie. Brought a double-barreled shotgun to the knifefight in the Atlantic, building F Lvp/Lon while France built A Bre/Par. France didn't die for a while but eventually quit -- but after about 1903 he ceased to be a danger to anyone.

Germany pressured me into doing something I really didn't want to do: attacking Sweden. I saw the retreat to Skaggerak coming and knew it would be a royal pain. We worked it out well enough, Russia opened a second front only to find her southern front a mite thin. A little time passes, I take Iberia and ride the Italian bogeyman for a while as I set up a stab of Germany. I managed to pass off my total blunder of an initial attempt as a mistake, and then hit him more decisively later.

Italy was interesting. Everyone got spooked by him, and like Russia, I was fine with that. I was invited at several points to take Tunisia but didn't. The gesture proved invaluable when the war broke out with Germany, because I ended up helping Italy into Marseilles while Germany attacked Venice. I think that incident got him to trust me -- I started moving fleets to the Ionian, and were it not for the server error and Italy's fleet disbands (I'm convinced that was not intentional, he SAID he was disbanding the army and it only made sense...) I feel Turkey would have been stymied for some time.

While that nonsense was going on, Russia stabbed me for reasons unknown, I made peace with Germany only to have him stab right afterward for reasons unknown. I mean, come on guys, when you were ALL attacking England and Turkey was the requester the ENTIRE time... didn't you guys swap letters at all?

Anyway, enter The Two Years of Our Server Discontent and the arrival of Zombie France. Personally, I was ready to ally with Germany and thwack France for good, then beat Russia back in Scandinavia and draw. Then France started attacking where he could for SCs, Germany allied with Turkey, and Russia nearly caught on to that too late but saw it and reacted in time.

The power blocs set in: Russia-England vs Germany-Austria-Turkey. France, after a tenuous opening round, wormed his way into Spain and became buddies. I tried to point out to Germany (I had assumed Austria would die for so long that by the time he became a factor I had been silent for too long for him to want to listen now) that Turkey was after the solo, but they didn't buy it.

Turkey did a wonderful job of selling his act, but it seemed clear enough to me that that's what it was. A Germany-Austria-Turkey alliance is pointless when your opponents are an England with the NAO-MAO-Por line, Denmark, and St. Petersburg. The only hope is to get Germany to build fleets, and we had bottled up the entrance by the time he could. Turkey, I thought, was clearly only in it until he could take Marseilles -- first with his allies' troops, then with his own.

Enough of tooting my own horn on Turkey, though. I think half of the survivors messaged me ingame about being right on Turkey's intentions anyway, now I'm just being an attention whore. lol.

So Turkey finally stabs and wins on a critical NMR -- though, with the disarray amongst all of us on what centers to take, we probably would have had trouble anyway. I told the folks that Warsaw/Moscow were the best ones to go after, but opinion seemed to be Marseilles.

In conclusion: GG everyone but the first France. RIP Italy.

Not a member of the game, but loved to see the checker pattern you guys created on the board. Everyone was everywhere.

My only two EOG comments are my only two true mistakes in the game:

1. The very first move when i moved to rumania like a fucking jackass, thereby screwing any chance of an alliance with russia.

2. Autumn 1913, I should have backstabbed Turkey when I had the chance. I thought about for 4 and a half minutes and went the other way like a fucking retard.

Those are my comments. GG

Also not a member of the game; Austria's survival is really fantastic. What I found more amazing is that he didn't play neither a remarkable beginning nor ending [last two years], but manged to get from 0 SCs to 6. I just couldn't understand A Triste-Tyrolia in Spring 1914 and A Tyrolia-Vienna in the Fall, instead of Trieste-Serbia in the Spring, even less if I take into account he, apparently, didn't bother defending Marseilles from Turkey soon afterwards.
Anyway, very interesting game, especially by Turkey.

Alright, so now that I'm a little rested I'm going to give my own statement. It was the longest live game I've ever played, and taught me not to start games when uclabb PM's you at 4 in the morning.

That being said, I started off with the standard bouncing of Bur and taking of Holland and Denmark. A very friendly Russian opening, as I wanted to be friends with everyone in the beginning.

When I saw that England was hot for France, I decided to side with him and he and I became fast allies. We were very effective together and I trusted him completely. However, France stonewalled us for a while, and I was hungry for SC's, so I got England to support me into Sweden. When Italy started to grow I tried to stunt his growth in the only way I could - tapping Tyrolia - and had Turkey begging me every other minute to help stop him. So that is how Austria and I became friends.

With france out, I started moving towards Russia. Favorite line of the game is when she said she moved to Silesia to "catch butterflies"

I knew Englands move to holland was a stab attempt -albeit a feeble one - but I accepted his apology and believed that we could move on. When I saw his builds that year (I forget which it was) I knew he would stab me. What I didn't expect was for Russia and Italy to cooperate with him. So, in order to defend myself properly, I had to "adopt" an Austrian army. Now while this fighting was going on I was talking a lot to Russia and Turkey, and eventually got Russia on my side.

After that is a lot of chaos with everybody attacking everybody and Turkey getting stronger. Phantom France hurt, but not too much. Both Turkey and Russia offered me a place in a 3-way draw. I asked each to include Austria in the draw and eliminate the other. Russia refused. turkey accepted. So we sided with Turkey.

Around 1911-1912 I was disallusioned with Turkey. I started talking with Russia (because England called me names) and tried to work out my place in the stalemate. Austria seemed to like his builds too much and was harder to convince, for I was unable to get him fully on my side until after Turkey stabbed. He was still talking about ways to destroy France.

I NMR'd twice, but i will blame lack of sleep. that end result isn't what I'd like it to be, but it was brilliant diplomacy by Turkey and the best game I've had on this site since I've been here. Great job all.

Looking back, I just realized how indecisive my play was. I was being used by Russia constantly, and should've finished her off earlier on. But England's pesky attacks always kept units heading west when I'd have liked them to go east. England,if you didn't stab I would've gone if not to he end, then very close to the end with you

Lol "Catchin the butterfly" is the name of a groovy tune from my namesakes.

I played DJ a few days ago in a messy game with 2 cd'ing players and a nasty stab by me against Italy which she ended up winning as England ( having turned down the draw! )

Maybe my style of play inspired her!
What a character. You can see her personality is highly social, and it shows in her style of play too.
I wondered about her reputation on the site. Says something about the communication aspect of the game.
And the trusting a woman thing too!

Heh. I'm nasty at four AM. >_> Probably shouldn't have said "Frankly sir you're an imbecile"... eh yeaaaaah. At least Russia was tactful and you could talk to someone, Germany =P

Yeaaah, that kinda made me not want to talk to you any more

As the player known as “the other president” and considering myself a mere novice at the game of Diplomacy, this site and this forum I would like to give my view.

It started it out quite good for me. I DMZed piedmont with France, so I could fully concentrate myself on the eastern front. The DMZ turned out even better, when England and Germany turned on France, which could draw up a line and keep them busy for quite a while.
Invited by Austria to “play nicely” I played nicely and got a good start at adding Austria to the Italian empire. Russia turned out a to be a good ally as well and I hoped to be with him when we would take a lunge at Turkey. Turkey in the first to years I could keep as a friend. Even asking him to assist against Austria in autumn 1902, which allowed me to sail into East med. Things started to get tricky as I saw Russian power dwindling, but with a good position in the mediterranean I gained 3 SC’s at the end of 1903. A growth that startled most players, including myself. I never thought gaining Smyrna and Greece as well. For Trieste I had to cut support in Bud, getting it to be cut by a promise for Russia gaining Bud.

This growth and maybe the misleading of Russia, caused Russia to join arms with Turkey, for which I hoped he wouldn’t. My growth might have been big, but my troops were scattered and my home sc’s becoming vulnerable for English fleets and future German armies. Losing Russia to the Turks, “to get everything back in balance” I had no ally in sight, only (possible) enemies and moral dwindled fast. As foreseen, I losed my conquests quite soon after that.

England and I both didn’t want to get on bad terms, something we both couldn’t use. But still needing to protect Tunis and Italy, for the fear of England getting some easy gains, I moved my fleets there. With one fleet I tried to keep the Turks from entering the Med as long as possible, so he had to be forced to go North. At the same time trying to convince Russia to attack Turkey. Meanwhile promising Turkey to remove my fleet, which I didn’t offcourse, causing him to get quite frustrated with me :)

Meanwhile Germany entered Venice. Which I hoped he wouldn’t, hoping he saw I was holding Turkey back in the Med. I could get back at him with help from England and conquer Marseille. After which England PM’ed me he and Germany got to an agreement and I was to hold three centres to keep the Turks at bay. The fool I was… That’s when the final blow was dealt, even giving Tunis to England, so we could defend Med better against the Turks.
After this treason, as I saw it, I was no longer intended at keeping the Turks at bay and INTENTIONALLY destroyed my two fleets in Med, so England and Germany could sort it out themselves.

Then the server went down. Couldn’t get on soon enough, got back at studying and waited too long. When I returned my former sc’s were occupied and could only watch Turkey winning…

Sorry I couldn’t get back on time. But my role was played. My sudden growth turned out to be a scare for both ally, enemy and friend unfortunately. Enjoyed getting Turkey frustrated, deeply annoyed at believing the agreement suggested by England :) To bad I couldn’t keep Russia with me…

But indeed a very interesting game, thx

Thanks everyone for your two cents so far, really interesting. Uclabb, you want to talk about your take on the game?

Very interesting

Sorry for the wait, I will post mine at about 4 am my time (just to be appropriate)

Whoa whoa, hold on. You asked me to go to Tunisia. Even called it "even better." I saw the Turks coming and I was not about to make you implode for one measly center. I was also, as far as I knew, honest about Germany -- his move surprised me as well.

England, I looked through the press and I explicitly told you I was still going for Venice. You don't have to lie on the forum haha. uclabb, how long until 4 am?

England = President Eden. God I'm still in game mode

(To: Global, from you) - Spring, 1905: Come on man. Can't you get anything right? At least use Trieste to get me into Venice

(To: You, from England) - Autumn, 1905: A fleet build is not offensive. I would prefer it in Berlin, yes, but I understand that A Ber/F Kie is better tactically for you.

May I advise Mun -> Sil, Bur -> Par, Ruh -> Bur, Pru -> War? You'll be up for two builds, and have France locked up. You could even send Mar -> Pie to get into Italy.

(To: England, from you) - Autumn, 1905: I am still trying for Venice though :)

Italy, the whole time he was rooting for me to go after you haha

Taking Venice =/= me breaking any deal

The turn you took Venice, I think, was the turn before I started working with Italy... I'm probably not recalling things right. But I am not lying on here.

I thought you said you were surprised by the move to Venice. I showed that you shouldn't have been

but yes, the move to Venice was in Spring 1906, not the Autumn as I suggested. But I couldn't find any press talking about Italy in the Spring. It was all about Russia

Serriously Turkey is so unballanced.
It is the only country that can win without any help. And even with Austria and Russia combined it is so hard to defeat.

No no no. It was in 1907. The turn before I took Tunisia (with Italy's blessing).

I'm confused. Didn't I take Venice in Spring 1906?

Ok.... Here we go.

To actually get the game started I sent out probably 15 PMs which got me a little too excited about the game I think. I sent out messages to every player the first turn and even put extraneousness material, but I think that worked out as I got good conversation going with pretty much everyone save Italy. I knew Austria in particular was not particularly stoked about starting a game so late so I pitched the idea of a fast sweeping alliance to them just to get the game over ASAP, and they went for it as far as I could tell with the move to Rumania. I asked for a bounce in the Black Sea as I always do.

Unfortunately, Italy came strong at Austria and, even worse, Austria decided to go for Serbia and Greece anyway and left me without a 2nd center (as I certainly didn't want to bounce them and let Italy be so effective). Italy was not talking to me, so I was very worried about a Russia/Italy alliance that had a great head start so I tried to get in Germany's ear about Sweden and then, of course, told Russia that Germany was going for Sweden. This got Germany to take Sweden and Russia to move North as I had hoped. But I tried to get even more ambitious that turn. Italy had told me they were going to Trieste so I told Austria that and that I was going to take Greece to I could build an extra fleet to push back Italy. This turned out terribly as Austria supported Greece's hold and lost Vienna.

Since Austria seemed less than happy about the whole thing (I would say rightfully so) that bridge was burned for the moment at least. I was pretty confident that Italy would not try for Smyrna that move (Spring 1903) to give me a strong defense and and automatic capture of Sevastopol as long as Italy didn't come completely after me. Russia was wonderfully understanding of the whole "I need another unit to fight Italy and disbanding your fleet can only improve our relations" dealio, which I do think was the right call, so it looked like I was back on track. But then I misordered Aegean Sea and lost Smyrna and it looked bleak.But there was hope. I had been in England and Germany' ear about helping with Italy and they looked primed to help out. Engalnd put a little pressure on Tunis, Germany came to Tyrolia, and Russia helped me nab Greece. Soon enough, Italy was in trouble. They told me they were pulling pack at the start of 1905, so they snaked me into making overly ambitious moves in Spring 1905, but that was the last time they were going to get away with lying to me, and I was certainly not going to prop them up if it came to that.

At that point, England and Germany were a lot stronger than djbent and I, so we started coordinated very closely our moves to try to catch up. England's stab of Germany was incredibly fortuitous for me, because it made it imperative for me to get builds to get fleets to stop a potential solo attempt (insert server craziness) Quick sidenote: I really enjoyed working with you, dj. It was wonderful.

So in 1911 I stabbed Russia because it looked like with France back Germany and England were patching it up and I was planning on taking the game to its natural three way draw Germany, England, and I had been talking about since 1904 or whenever. But then Germany replied that they would prefer a three way with me, him, and Austria, and I, of course, was all for that. The key move to the alliance was in Spring 1913 when Austria didn't stab me in Spring 1913, easily the scariest move of the game for me.

Meanwhile, I was trying to convince France that they ought to flip to our side since they wouldn't be involved in any draw if it got to that (as djbent attested above), but I was too busy trying to coordinate with Germany and Austria and put in 11 moves to really be coherent. Since the corners were stalemated, I really, really needed a French fleet in Brest. So we arranged to disband the army in Gascony in 1914 and then have it rebuilt as a fleet in Brest. Had that happened, I would have rode out the three way much further. In fact, I would have preferred not to stab at all. I was pretty confident I could simply get up to 15 or so and then have Austria or Germany just say "take it so I can go to sleep" haha. Also that turn Austria asked for Budapest back which I couldn't say no to, but it did give me an excuse to remilitarize that area.

So France didn't follow through, Marseilles (perhaps my most likely 18th) was wide open, and Germany built a fleet. Italy was basically wide open, so i only had to recapture the Austrian centers while prolonging my hold of Marseilles to win. Also, Germany was getting a sitter who likely would have settled for a stop the leader draw. So I went for it.

I guessed right in Autumn 1915 with Austria which caused crucial disbands in Munich and Burgundy (not the right disbands in my opinion, I tried to reverse psychology Austria into getting rid of them, but that probably was irrelevant) France had moved our of Spain clearly so that a fleet could get in on the south coast and pressure Marseilles, but without a unit in Burgundy, they couldn't defend MAO and Spain. I went for MAO (wash) and snuck to Munich. The final blow to the chances of stopping me was the bounce in Burgundy. That clinched it I think. I had Munich hit Tyrolia the next year and all support was gone and I picked up Vienna, Venice, and Spain (since England elected to cover MAO again). Had Germany not CDed, I would not have kept Munich, but I could have easily picked up the last two Italian centers while stalemating Marseilles, so the game was over regardless.

It was a lot of fun, and I think I hit all of the points.... Let me know if I missed something! And again, what made the game was Favio, and later Talisker, playing the game to the end despite having smaller empires!

I didn't CD....just NMR'd haha. It was 8:30 in the morning at that point. And just one last note. England, if you didn't stab me I really would've played it to the end with you...or at least several years more.

It really was a lot of fun. It was very interesting to be caught in the middle of two warring alliances both desperate for someone to swing the game in their favour. England, Germany, Russia and Turkey were all very persistent in trying to have me on their side and do their bidding. Each made it seem that butter wouldn't melt which only made them seem more silver-tongued and rotten. England's deceptions were more evident across the map but Turkey seemed more trustworthy. I figured that I would be the first targets if Turkey wanted to win the game though so felt that I had to help pressure for a draw as soon as possible, which meant siding with shifty England.

Austria was a complete curveball! But it made the game even more interesting.

Turkey seemed to deserve the win though. A well-played turtle.

My apologies goldfinger. I meant NMR of course.