Actually I don't think the quality was that poor.
It took a lot of persuading to get Russia on side to help me win, and right up to that last turn you had been attacking him, so it did make sense for him to think you'd continue to do so. Only in the very last turn did you offer him a place in the draw so its not that surprising he didn't take it. Really, you should have seen you'd need his help earlier and stopped attacking him then.

a) i'd been offering him friendship for 5 years or so, but all i ever got in return was "Fuck you, asshole"
b) there shouldn't have been a problem at all. if italy had kept his head in the med, then you would never have broken through; you were stalemated. there was absolutely no reason that italy and i shouldn't have finished a/r. we had all the time in the world with your lack of armies.

overall, i agree that the quality wasn't bad until the end. that was simply petty from russia, as even if i had kept attacking him he would have been part of the draw with moscow. don't get me wrong; i'm taking nothing away from your victory; you were the best player. congrats.

I disliked the way the game went at the very end with how Russia acted, but otherwise it was a fun game.

actually, i'm curious. what do other members of the community think of that ending?
any cyber-passerbys care to comment?

I see what you're saying, but, certainly in the f2f games i used to play, its not that uncommon for a few weak players to help a stronger solo if he manages to convince them to do so, and that's part of the game- exploiting grudges and miscommunications between players.
I also think Munich would have been taken in another year or 2 if we'd continued...

Honestly, it was obvious that england either played perfectly, or everyone just got the hell out of his way....there were a lot of times when it seemed like he just walked into territories without having to support himself. Russia let me down too as a viewer...

just because it's not uncommon doesn't mean it's acceptable. also, this was a wta game, so throwing it is absolutely idiotic. ppsc, fine, sure. wta, no. munich is another question altogether, and i think that turkey/austria/russia gets to prussia before you.
and again, i reiterate: all this should have been a non-issue. if italy keeps the tunis fleet then there are no problems. turkey finishes austria and russia and we coast to a three way draw.

@favio. precisely. russia did not abide by the purpose of the game. he willingly threw the game, despite the fact that he *had* a draw. this defeats the purpose of Diplomacy.

"any cyber-passerbys care to comment?"

MM? Being a douchebag?

shock level: -4

live game now, please www.webdiplomacy.net/board.php?gameID=55975

ENJOY TO LIVE GAME gameID=696969

After looking at the game, it was basically handed to England on a silver platter. Italy was foolish enough to leave his centers along the west end wide open while several players in the game routinely failed to submit orders or submitted only half orders (or in one instance only 1 unit moved).

Two good rules of thumb to live by are:
a) in order to prevent being stabbed, don't expose your back
b) give orders to as many units as possible, even if they are simply support hold orders. A unit that has no orders is a unit that might as well not even be on the map.