The RPG Duelling League
RPGDL Games => Forum Games => Topic started by: SnowFire on February 07, 2015, 01:56:08 AM
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(spinning off a new thread so I can edit the front easily)
It's Diplomacy! Played by the DL! Nobody suggested any names so this will be Daikon Diplomacy. No I don't like radishes, but your idea wasn't any better, so.
Players:
1. Excal - Austria-Hungary
2. SnowFire - France
3. Sir Alex - Russia
4. Andrew - Turkey
5. Carthrat - England
6. Mage - Germany
Supply Center count:
Russia - 10
England - 7
France - 7
Turkey - 5
Germany - 3
Italy - 2
Austria - 0
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/6/61/Daikon_diplomacy_1904_f.png)
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Fall map:
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/e/eb/Dl_diplomacy_1903_f.png)
Fall 1903 orders
Magetastica - Germany (-Hol, 1 disband assuming retreat to Kie)
A Pie -> Tus
A Ruhr -> Mun
A Mun -> Tyr
F Hol: HOLD (*dislodged*, 1:2, retreat to: Kie, Hel, or OTB)
A Den: HOLD
Carthrat - England (+Hol, 1 build)
Army Belgium Move Holland
Fleet North Sea Support Army Belgium Move Holland
Fleet London Hold
Fleet Wales Hold
Army Norway Support Fleet St. Pete Hold
Fleet St. Pete Hold
Snowfire - France
F English Channel - MAO
F MAO - W. Med
A Burgundy - Ruhr
A Paris - Burgundy
A Marseilles S A Paris-Burgundy
Sir Alex - Russia (+Con, +Tri, +Ser) 3 builds
A Budapest -> Trieste
A Vienna Support A Budapest -> Trieste
A Rumania -> Serbia
F Black Sea -> Constantinople
A Livonia -> St. Petersburg (*bounce* 2:2)
F Finland Support A Livonia -> St. Petersburg
AndrewRogue - Turkey (+Tun, +Bul, - Con) 1 build
F Ionian Sea-Tunis
A Greece S A Rumania-Serbia
A Bulgaria S A Rumania-Serbia
F Contantinople-Smyrna
Excal - Austria-Hungary (NMR) (-Tri, -Ser, -Bul) 2 disbands
F Trieste H (*dislodged*, 2:1, retreat to: Adr, Alb, OTB)
A Serbia H (*dislodged*, 3:1, retreat to: Alb, OTB)
F Aegean H
Mario - Italy (NMR)
A Rom H
A Ven H
F Nap H
Retreats are due *immediately*, publicly post to this thread ideally, but there's really only 1 sane set of retreats which is assumed in the map above. Winter builds/disbands are due by Monday, but can probably be done much faster, so please feel free to send 'em in right now, they should be fairly easyish. (If you specifically want to mark your builds as provisional -aka "don't post early, I might change them" - that's fine too.)
Note one quirk of Diplomacy - Budapest is still Austrian due to not being occupied in Fall, despite being passed through by a Russian army in Spring. I hope the map is clear enough on that.
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F retreats to Kiel
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GM-san, I have a request: The last board had a table of figures indicating how many supply centers were held by each nation. I think that was quite useful, can we get the topic updated with those figures?
I think the current count is:
Russia - 9
England - 7
France - 5
Turkey - 5
Germany - 4
Italy - 3
Austria - 1
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Those numbers look accurate to me. Edited.
Also, for the record, if Excal doesn't confirm his retreats and doesn't submit disbands, I'll assume that F Tri / A Ser retreat OTB, leaving F Aegean. If Excal confirms the retreats but fails to submit disband orders, units farthest from home SCs are disbanded first, tiebreaking by fleets before armies, and finally alphabetical order. (Yes, really. https://www.wizards.com/avalonhill/rules/diplomacy.pdf ) This would imply A Albania would be the remaining unit.
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So in total I should be receiving three build orders and a disband order from Germany?
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Disbands from Austria-Hungary would be nice too, but go ahead and post at this point if you don't have 'em.
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Sir Alex - Russia
Armies in Moscow, Warsaw and Sevastopol.
AndrewRogue - Turkey
Fleet at Ankara
Carthrat - England
Build Army Edinburgh
Magetastica - Germany
Disband the army in Tuscany
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Per above, Austria's armies disintegrate rather than retreat. The survivors of the doomed Bulgarian expedition continue to float in the Aegean, supplied by secret Hungarian anti-Russian cults.
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/4/46/Daikon_diplomacy_1903_w.png)
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(See http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php/topic,6645.msg171374.html#msg171374 for background.)
Pope Bowsorius stewed in his chambers. The indignity of practically being kept a prisoner in his own castle cathedral, which had been retrofitted with lava, bottomless pits, and other death traps to deter any would-be rescuers. He knew the truth. Mario wasn't some kind of dark secular mastermind. He was just a lackey, a plumber. The real power in new Italy was la pesca, this mysterious... consort? ... of the Plumbers. Lord knows her reasons, but she clearly desired to found some sort of crazed "Mushroom Kingdom" with her subsidies while crushing the innocent, holy turtles. Women ruling over men, classically a sign of disorder and chaos... the one time he'd had the misfortune of meeting her, too, she had seemed strangely... flirty? Did she truly expect that by kidnapping and imprisoning him he'd fall for her? No, this 'princess' clearly must use such wiles on everyone. The Plumbers were just her unwitting dupes.
Still, Bowsorius was not without his methods. Using his loyal cardinals, he'd smuggled messages out to the world's leaders, pleading for the liberation of Italy from its tyrannical overlords. He'd even included power-ups in them. France and Austria, both loyal Catholic nations... surely they'd come to his aid and save Italy? Or perhaps even Germany or England, though both were a tad too Protestant to get hopes up too high. Last he'd heard, Germany had indeed sent the "Tuscan expedition" and would be at the gates of Rome shortly, to depose the Princess and her Plumbers once and for all, and restore freedom to Italy. But it'd been months since he'd last heard word... what was their progress? Perhaps they were merely delayed by the Winter, and would soon be ready to move in 1904.
A knock sounded at the door of the Pope's quarters, but there was no delay in the door opening. Whoever it was clearly didn't care about his wishes one way or the other... which was not surprising when the grinning, mustachioed face was revealed. "It's a-me, Mario!" The Pope was defiant. "I'll never submit to you. The Germans will save me! You'll see!" Mario opened his bag, and threw over to the Pope... what WAS that?
It was a helmet. One of those pointy Prussian helmets, more specifically.
With a head still inside it, its eyes X'd out with finality.
And Bowsorius, looking through the now opened door, saw what lay in the new St. Paul's Warehouse - helmets. More helmets. A vast, unholy pile of them. Mario had jumped on them... all of them. He had probably never even had to touch the ground, letting the German Tuscan army grant him a horde of 1-UPs in the process. Slaughtered like the helpless turtles before them.
It was too much. Bowsorius screamed. "No... NOOOOOOO!" God had truly forsaken Italy.
The deadline is Thursday!
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FYI, if you want a prompt map, please get your orders in (deadline in ~23 hours). I'm on vacation on Friday-Tuesday so it'd be much more annoying for me to make a map then.
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I have received all orders.
Carthrat - England
A Nor M Swe
F StP H
F Nth Sea M Ska
F Lon M Nth Sea
F Wales M Eng. Channel
A Edi M Yor
A Hol M Kiel
Snowfire - France
F MAO - N. Africa
F W. Med S F MAO - N. Africa
A Ruhr - Munich
A Burgundy S A Ruhr-Munich
A Marseilles - Piedmont
Sir Alex - Russia
F Finland support A Moscow -> St Petersburg
A Livonia support A Moscow -> St Petersburg
A Moscow -> St Petersburg
F Constantinople -> Aegean
A Sevastopol -> Rumania
A Warsaw -> Silesia
A Vienna -> Bohemia
A Trieste -> Venice
A Serbia -> Trieste
AndrewRogue - Turkey
F Tunis Holds
A Greece Holds
A Bulgaria Holds
F Smyrna-Constantinople
F Ankara S F Smyrna-Constantinople
Magetastica - Germany
A Den -> Swe
F Kiel HOLD
A Mun SUPPORT F Kiel HOLD
A Tyr SUPPORT A Tri -> Ven
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F St. Pete retreats to Barents Sea.
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(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/1/16/Daikon_diplomacy_1904_s.png)
Spring 1904
Carthrat - England
A Nor M Swe (*bounce* 1:1)
F StP H (*dislodged*, 1:3, retreats to: Barents)
F Nth Sea M Ska
F Lon M Nth Sea
F Wales M Eng. Channel
A Edi M Yor
A Hol M Kiel (*bounce* 1:1)
Snowfire - France
F MAO - N. Africa
F W. Med S F MAO - N. Africa
A Ruhr - Munich
A Burgundy S A Ruhr-Munich
A Marseilles - Piedmont
Sir Alex - Russia
F Finland support A Moscow -> St Petersburg
A Livonia support A Moscow -> St Petersburg
A Moscow -> St Petersburg
F Constantinople -> Aegean (*bounce*, 1:1, dislodged, retreat to: Bla or OTB)
A Sevastopol -> Rumania
A Warsaw -> Silesia
A Vienna -> Bohemia
A Trieste -> Venice
A Serbia -> Trieste
AndrewRogue - Turkey
F Tunis Holds
A Greece Holds
A Bulgaria Holds
F Smyrna-Constantinople
F Ankara S F Smyrna-Constantinople
Magetastica - Germany
A Den -> Swe (*bounce*) 1:1
F Kiel HOLD
A Mun SUPPORT F Kiel HOLD (*cut, dislodged, retreat to: Ber or OTB *)
A Tyr SUPPORT A Tri -> Ven
Excal - Austria-Hungary, NMR
F Aegean H
Mario - Italy, NMR
A Ven H (*dislodged*, retreats: OTB)
Retreats are due immediately for Germany & Russia (only 1 legal option that isn't OTB though, assumed in map). I'll be out for a bit so let's call Tuesday as the deadline, if you don't mind?
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Not to be a hardass, but we still don't have confirmed retreats? If there's an OTB retreat that will affect others' orders. Russia & Germany, please confirm the F Con / A Mun retreats.
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Confirming F Black Sea retreat
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Confirming retreat A Berlin
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Snowfire - France
F N. Africa - Tunis
F W. Med S F N. Africa - Tunis
A Munich - Kiel
A Burgundy - Munich
A Piedmont - Tyrolia
AndrewRogue - Turkey
F Tunis Holds
A Greece - Albania
A Bulgaria - Greece
F Constantinople - Smyrna
F Ankara - Constantinople
Carthrat - England
A Nor M Swe
F Barents Sea M St. Pete
A Yor M Den
F Nth Sea C A Yor M Den
F Ska S A Yor M Den
A Hol S A Mun M Kiel
F Eng Channel M Belgium
Sir Alex - Russia
A St. Petersburg Hold
A Livonia support A St Petersburg hold
F Finland support A Denmark -> Sweden
F Black Sea hold
A Rumania -> Budapest
A Venice support A Trieste -> Tyrolia
A Trieste -> Tyrolia
A Silesia support A Tyrolia -> Munich
A Bohemia support A Tyrolia -> Munich
Magetastica - Germany
A Den -> Swe
F Kiel -> Baltic
A Ber -> Kiel
A Tyr -> Mun
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Our first elimination.
(http://www.rpgdl.com/wiki/images/6/61/Daikon_diplomacy_1904_f.png)
Fall 1904
SnowFire - France (+Kie, +Tun) 2 builds
F N. Africa - Tunis
F W. Med S F N. Africa - Tunis
A Munich - Kiel
A Burgundy - Munich (*bounce*, 1:3)
A Piedmont - Tyrolia (*bounce*, 1:2)
AndrewRogue - Turkey (+Con, -Tun) (0 builds, 1 build if F Tunis retreats OTB)
F Tunis Holds (*dislodged*, retreat to: Tyr, Ion, OTB)
A Greece - Albania
A Bulgaria - Greece
F Constantinople - Smyrna
F Ankara - Constantinople
Carthrat - England (+Den, -StP)
A Nor M Swe (*bounce*, 1:2)
F Barents Sea M St. Pete (*bounce*, 1:2)
A Yor M Den
F Nth Sea C A Yor M Den
F Ska S A Yor M Den
A Hol S A Mun M Kiel
F Eng Channel M Belgium
Sir Alex - Russia (+StP, +Bud, +Ven, -Swe, -Con) 1 build
A St. Petersburg Hold
A Livonia support A St Petersburg hold
F Finland support A Denmark -> Sweden
F Black Sea hold
A Rumania -> Budapest
A Venice support A Trieste -> Tyrolia
A Trieste -> Tyrolia
A Silesia support A Tyrolia -> Munich
A Bohemia support A Tyrolia -> Munich
Magetastica - Germany (+Swe, -Den, -Kie) 1 disband
A Den -> Swe
F Kiel -> Baltic
A Ber -> Kiel (*bounce*, 1:2)
A Tyr -> Mun
Excal - Austria-Hungary, NMR (-Bud) 1 disband, eliminated
F Aegean H
Mario - Italy, NMR (-Ven)
A Rom H
F Nap H
Turkey's retreat is due immediately as usual.
I've set the deadline for Saturday, please speak up if that's an issue.
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Ionian Sea retreat
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Sorry, final orders from AndrewRogue -Turkey were:
F Tunis Holds
A Greece - Albania
A Bulgaria - Greece
F Constantinople - Smyrna
F Ankara - Constantinople
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Map has been updated with Turkey's corrected moves & retreat.
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I need the rest of the diplomacy stuff. :)
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Magetastica - Germany
Disbanding the Army in Munich, and then going to officially bow out of the game.
Sir Alex - Russia
Build A Moscow
Snowfire - France
A Par
F Mar
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... oh. Well. In that case, I'll propose a draw for survivors? It seems unlikely either alliance is going to backstab each other, no one can really win without that and the central cleanup takes a year or two and leaves us in mostly the same position.
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I can live with that.
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Yeah, if E/F don't backstab each other and R/T don't backstab... Turkey will convoy to Apulia and there will be some skirmishing over Italy, but I doubt that Turkey can break through to me, or I can break through to Ion. That'll be a draw. And a backstab is probably suicide, it just means that one of the other opposing alliance will likely solo.
So yeah, 4-way draw (excluding Germany) fine by me. Andy?
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Sounds fine.
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Uncertainty hung in the chill winter air like mist from breathing. It was troubling times. The Kaiser had fled to unknown lands, rumored to be islands off Canada. The Czar, after taking Venice, had reportedly lost his nerve for the fight after seeing the artifacts hidden in the ruins. The mysterious green pipes, first thought of as the idle fancy of drunkards and lunatics, had spread to too many cities to be ignored. The world leaders had no choice but to comply with the offer for a peace conference to be held in Rome, as Italy was the sole remaining neutral in the midst of the chaos. Additionally, transit was shockingly easy with the new travel-by-pipe.
Lord Rospo, Mario's annointed 'voice', was firm. "The only solution to the problems of the day is clear: one, unified world government. Only that way can this petty squabbling that costs millions of lives be solved. A new Roman Empire, if you will, and to prevent a Rape of Venice ever again." The delegates sneered. What poppycock was this? But, to their horror, they found that the only 2 panels they could offer to vote with were "Yes, I agree" or "...". And responding with the dots only initiated another demand for surrender. Perhaps this was the same choice poor Pope Bowsorius had been offered when Princess Pesca had demanded to know "Dost thy love me?" and demanded his hand in marriage.
The deed was done. The President, Prime Minister, Czar, and Sultan alike were forced to bow before High Emperor Mario. His first decree was to rename Rome to New Babylon, and use the emergency powers granted by the Accord of New Babylon ending the war to forcibly disarm all armies and citizenry not loyal to him alone. There would be no more war - no, none of that. Perhaps a few foolish rebels and terrorists might oppose his reign and attempt to infiltrate the web of trap-filled castles that were raised up across the nations to keep order, but what could they possibly do? It was clear: Mario The Beast would wear his crown with 10 gems in it forever, and the Princess would ride atop him, as had been foretold.
THE END… for now.
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Postgame wrapup from Russia, then.
Neutral Italy meant most of the starting strategy and analysis I'd been reading up on was more or less out the window. The board in this case gets divided into east vs west, with Germany sort of straddling the line. So I made nice with Germany from the beginning, we coordinated and would use him to extend my influence west and me to flex his interests east. With that secured, I wanted to form a solid alliance with either Austria or Turkey and quickly obliterate the other, with some strategic preference for Turkey as everyone loves that partnership.
Turkey was very conciliatory and trusting from the start, especially once he learned draws existed. Austria... was not, and started off our relations by demanding the balkans in exchange for graciously letting me have Rumania. Furthermore, Germany requested that I attack or at least not help Austria. So I was all too happy to oblige, blandly agreed to some false plans with Austria, moved into position to crush, and crushed. I guess that was the only real backstab of the game, though, so... apologies?
Things in the west didn't go according to plan, I'd really hoped that out of E/F/G we wouldn't see E/F teaming up, or at least to see some German aggression if they did. But it was clear most of the way through that E/F were teamed up much like R/T, and Germany took a more passive approach to both diplomacy and army movement. By the end I was directly instructing the German troop movements. The long term plan was to try and get some fleets produced from his coastal provinces and use them to force England back some notches - I calculated some grindy progress was possible, especially once Turkey got into position in the south, but it'd be a slog and without the German build centers quite impossible.
In terms of large scale strategy and hindsight, Austria and France are the two nations able to easily push into Italy from the start... which means that everyone else on the board must treat them as though they will, and act accordingly. I think those two should have allied immediately and tried everything they could to get one of them actually into Italian soil ASAP. Austria in particular needed to make more friends, with... anyone BUT Russia really. I also should have been willing to hit Austria a little more slowly and concentrated more in the north, building in St. Petersburg could have prevented a lot of heartache and changed the game. No excuses, I just didn't expect England to trust France so readily, and had no logical backing for that belief.
Turkey... Turkey gave me some scares, with occasional wrong orders and unexpected movements, ostensibly to feint tensions between us, and then acting grumpy that he was out of position and "couldn't do much." But whose fault is that when you're doing weird stuff like moving to Armenia or taking so that you're left with fleets as Const/Ankara, instead of Const/Smyrna like I said to?! :P In the end though we managed to not stab each other so mission accomplished?!
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Postgame Wrap-Up from Turkey
You know, I never actually finished the rules.
Anyhow, after looking at the initial board position, I decided that an alliance with Russia was the most logical choice. It removes almost all of the pressure on me and is sustainable because we can split Europe in half.
So yeah, literally from turn one I was working with Alex and had no intention to stab him. Turkey's position seems too isolated to really do anything alone from. Planned to crush Excal the whole time (Yeah, I faked being indignant and petulant the whole time. Sorry! People seemed to buy it though!). Everyone else was largely irrelevant, except for Mage, who I was undecided on whether he needed to be mercilessly crushed or allied with.
Alexi, baby, I wasn't grumpy! I was just kinda bored. :p Turkey's position is safe, but by allying with Russia, I just don't have a lot to do. But it worked! So I suppose the ultimate lesson is:
(http://th03.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2013/202/e/f/friendship_is_magic_by_marenlicious-d6egisz.png)
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So yeah, literally from turn one I was working with Alex and had no intention to stab him.
You *marched on Armenia*! You have a very strange definition of friendship.
Anyway. As Alex said, neutral Italy (protip: Not really a fan of this way to play Diplomacy, but figured it was a shot, once) rigs the deck to a degree. It makes E/G vs. France & R/T vs. Austria more desirable. If the game idles up and nobody pressures France or Austria, they can potentially take a lot of Italy - although Austria threatens it much sooner. Also, re Alex's comment, I'm not sure if a 1901 F/A alliance is really viable - if A Mar & F Tri go off to do other things, they can both potentially score an SC for their owner; if both want to concentrate on Venice, then only 1 member of the alliance will get it. If France gets it, Austria is a fool since F Trieste can't get to Rome or Naples early. If Austria gets it, France is taking a real gamble on Austria being willing to rotate an army around to support France's army into Rome... maybe... eventually. Yeah, no.
Anyway. This meant that I planned on being really buddy-up this game. I extended happy feelers to both Germany & England. Since the Italy issue made things awkward, I was happy to offer Belgium to both of them as a price of alliance. If they both bit, great, I'd go collect Italy; if only 1 was interested, then I'd ally with them; and if both hated me and G/E was afoot, I'd try and stall 'em as long as possible to let Russia take some heat off of me. As a side comment, apparently Excal was still angling the Russian alliance after Spring 1901 was out. For future reference, a Russia that moves A War-Gal is not Austria's friend! (Then again, Turkey moved on Armenia and WAS Russia's friend, so who knows.) I was generally chattier with Rat than Mage despite the fact I played a bunch of League with Mage at the time; this aided my general inclination to side with Rat...
...although I'm pretty sure in 1902 both Rat & Mage were out for my blood. I was luckily partially saved by Alex #YOLO offering St. Pete's on a silver platter to Rat, which worried me anyway if Rat was going to use the build to crush me with. I suspect Rat was assuming I'd suicide march on Italy and be forced to attack me to keep France in line in the long term while its armies were away in the short term... luckily, I didn't fall for the trap and reoriented enough armies to make it so that Rat wasn't going to solo-conquest me. (This was good play by Rat, incidentally, an ignored France that collected Italy for free would likely become the senior partner in such an alliance.) Luckily for me, relations between Rat & Mage broke down at some point, and Rat & I were able to slowly back off each other (despite the English having an army in Burgundy!), as I was not going to face down a coordinated E/G alliance by myself. I toyed with the possibility of suggesting E/F/G in a general kill-Alex alliance, but eh, that plan has too many problems of none of us getting fat, so it was a lot safer to just bulldoze Mage. Sorry, Mage, as far as psuedo-backstabs go, it seemed like you really were orienting your armies elsewhere for an Italian conquest + Russian defense, but I eventually decided it was better for me and safer to attack through you.
I was quite worried in the last turns that Rat was going to turn around and stab me, as I did leave Brest open for the taking one turn in the name of getting more pressure on Germany & the Med, but "luckily" the threat of Alex was large enough that it was pretty clear we'd need to stick together. I was kind of surprised that R/T managed to hold out after Con was taken, but Excal's ghost fleet stopping a retreat-to-Aegean probably helped patch that one back up. There's definitely an alternate history where Excal didn't confirm the retreat to the Aegean, Alex crushed Turkey, Rat & I stabbed each other, then Alex solo'd off the southeastern corner of the map. Anyway, after Rat didn't stab on that crucial turn, I felt pretty safe that he & I would at least be able to set up stalemate lines for an E/F/R or E/F/R/T draw, which is indeed what happened.
Good game! If we ever do it again, though, let's have 7 players and ideally replacements, even if it means recruiting mercenaries from other boards / friends / etc. One of the nice thing about Diplomacy at the old board I played at, always plenty of replacements handy when people quit, which is an unavoidable thing on the Internet.
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Having never played before, I decided that I would try to buddy up with as many people as possible from the get-go. With Russia, I eventually decided that if they backstabbed me, well, then that's that, but I really needed their support to have a hope of doing anything without getting bulldozed from the south. At that point, I was turning my attention to F and E, and France reached out to me first, so I angled to go after England, but then England offered something more tempting, so I sided with them. And then... I don't even know what happened. Rat just suddenly betrayed me without any warning or real reason. And so I never was in a good position to take things over, because people kept flipping around on me on my Eastern border, forcing me to reposition every single turn just to try and keep from getting invaded. And the one turn I decide to finally -not- attack F/E is the turn I get steamrolled.
I'll be honest, not a huge fan of this game.
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I was pretty much sleepwalking through the whole game.
I thought Alex was going to clean up easy once it became clear Excal had bailed entirely and wasn't even trying to fight back. He seemed to have Mage and Andy simultaneously dancing to his tune. I figured I could rely on France if I kept the tension present, but at a manageable level. I think we made a plan each turn and someone would consistently break it, then say 'but you broke it last time so there'.
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So who's up for round two
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I am!
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I shall join in this one
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I'll play.
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I can still collect orders and act as a third party.