I’m curious why no players have as yet submitted press releases to SXOF News, broadcasting from Athens, Greece. Perhaps I should offer my services to kibitzers too.
The website has a shoutbox where we can anonymously talk shit to our hearts content.
I see the builds have come through…
French Fleet in Brest may make England’s regret his about-face, esp. since Perfidious Albion built a fleet in Edinburgh to go after Russia. That’s nothing tho compared to the TWO German fleets constructed this winter! England had better have a back-up plan.
Russia did get Army Moscow in play against Turkey, who built an army in Ankara, which pretty much tells you all you need to know. The other builds are de rigeur; Turkey is now vulnerable to a delayed Lepanto by Austria/Italy.
Sorry, Scuba, tries is right. Your services were rendered unneeded.
Now I’m waiting for the opinions of OtakuLoki and mlees.
Here’s a press release:
BREST, FRANCE
The French government is pleased to announce the construction and launch of a Fleet here in Brest, as well as the mobilization of an Army in Paris. These join two Armies in Iberia and a Fleet sailing in the Atlantic.
The Minister of France, garygnu, was present at the launch of the new Fleet, saying the country still only has five of the eighteen supply centers needed for victory. He went on to say he wishes the other powers in the conflict either good luck or bad luck, depending on whether they are friends or enemies. He declined to identify which powers were which.
I dunno if the recent lack of activity in this thread means anything, or not. In any event the spring '02 moves just came through…
One thing I just noticed is that the moves parser on this server will allow illegal moves-without telling you they are illegal, like the old Dip Judges do. England just got nailed on that when it tried to move a fleet to Finland, likewise Turkey on a goofed convoy move to Sevastopol.
The West is even more muddled than it was before. France makes a move towards England at the same time that Germany moves towards France-via Burgundy. If Germany was attempting a divide-and-conquer strategy against France and England it is working so far; with Russia’s help England just lost a center. I don’t grok the German fleet entering the Baltic tho, at all, if the German-Russian alliance is solid. I’ll give the Anglos credit for some chutzpah by trying to convoy into Denmark. France and England will have to patch up their differences ASAP, tho France is in no danger of losing a center this year.
In the East, Austria just stabbed Italy and Venice is in the bag, and he also directed a little ire towards Russia and kept him out of Rumania. Jury is still out as to whether that is a good long-term strategy for Austria or not, but with no Juggernaut it is probably safe. Russia and Turkey may want to rethink their little stalemated war and get someone into Rumania, or Austria may end up ruling the roost down there in a few years; thrown onto the defensive they won’t be as powerful as the classic Juggernaut. And I note the Austrian self-bounce-someone’s been boning up on their tactics.
This game is as freewheeling as any I’ve seen. No agreements are safe in this environment, wild momentum shifts abound, but deals must be made anyway to ensure survival, at least.
And yes I’m jonesing for some action now myself, so I’ll sign up for the next game. I was going out of town on the weekend that the first turn orders were due for this one.
Trending upward:
Germany
Austria
Russia (in the north)
Treading water:
S. Russia
Turkey
France
Danger zone:
Italy
England
The illegal move I tried to make was pretty embarrassing. Oh well, at least next time I’ll know better.
I think you’ve nailed my situation down pretty well. I’m stuck among a bunch of hostile nations, and all I can do now is bunker down and hope an opportunity to attack arises before I get overwhelmed.
I didn’t make any comments for the Spring '02 Orders turn, because I couldn’t think of anything intelligent to say. I assumed that I was wrong about France being vulnerable, because I thought that maybe France had made an agreement with Germany to move against England. (Germany got a couple fleets in the build phase. I assumed that this was a dagger directly aimed at England.)
Now, I still don’t have anything intelligent to say. Heh. I can’t tell which solid alliances there are, although there might be one between Germany and Russia (to keep England out of Scandinavia).
Question: What mean “self bounce”?
It took me a minute to figure out why it was illegal. I wouldn’t worry too much about it. I believe the outcome would have been the same even if it would have been legal.
BTW I do appreciate the outside commentary. Particularly when it tells me what my strategy is 
First, here is a library chock full of all the well-known Diplomacy Tactics, from the basics to the twisted. The veteran players in this game/thread probably just directed a goodly amount of ire in my direction after seeing the link, but galdang it my sense of fair play won out. 
A self-bounce is where you attempt to cover 3 territories for the price of two; in this case Austria, having meticulously planned out his stab, was fearful of a counter-stab, specifically a convoy of Italy’s army Tunis into Albania. By ordering both of his armies in the region to move to Albania, they ended up self-bouncing each other AND would have prevented the convoy from landing the army. The danger of course is that any 2-1 attack on either army would dislodge it, since they weren’t supporting each other in place, but that wasn’t a problem here unless Italy and Turkey decided to help each other into Greece. Austria properly read that as a remote possibility and reaped the benefits.
Ah. thanks!
Danger zone? Danger zone?
Italy is the Danger zone!
Man. Trying to read those move orders and make sense of them (on that tactics/tips web page) makes my head hurt.
Sounds like an excuse for a nap…
…and Austria is on the Highway…
Press Release:
PARIS, FRANCE
With a German army in Burgundy, Minister of France, garygnu, expressed displeasure over the Hun incursion. He is still willing to work with Germany, or any other power, provided there are no further incursions into French territory.
Garygnu also reports, upon deep inflection and heavy research, that tacos rule.
Since we’re posting links detrimental to a veteran’s ability to exploit inexperience…
Here is an interactive list of opening strategies. Pick a country, then pick either an opening. It will give the moves and the strategy. OR! select a set of opening moves and it will tell you the strategy behind them.
wow. Layers within wheels.
That (and the slightly less functional than I would like messaging system) is one of the things that I don’t like about this interface - there’s no flexibility in the deadlines. My home telephone line has recently gone down so I have struggled to keep up with communication over the last few days, with one unfortunate consequence already, but no way to ask for an extension. Now we’re waiting for England to choose his retreat, and even if he’s submitted the order, we’ll sit for two days before it gets actioned.
Pros and cons I guess…
Grim
There is an option to have orders resolved as soon as everyone submits. I didn’t want that because I put moves in as soon as I can, just to have them in case I forget about the game or whatever. Obviously those change after negotiating and thinking about it more. As for the order schedule, I like the regular schedule. The last game I played through the SDMB took forever because of delays and what not.
IIRC someone made a Windows interface to use with the Judge servers. Lemme see if I can find it…
Here it is. I’m not sure how more flexible it is than the current site for this game (haven’t used it personally), but I did notice an option (for individual powers) to allow your orders to either process right away, or wait to the deadline.
I guess two days for retreats only feels like forever when you’re not the one retreating.
Yeah - I do that too, so that option would be out, unless you had a “finalise” tickbox with your order, and only after everyone had agreed that their orders were final it would process them - if time ran out, provisional orders would be processed.
Anyway - pros and cons as I said…
Grim
P.S. Oi Inger-land - get off my ruddy lawn mate!!!