I agree strongly with everything RT’s just said. As I said in my email to Dave about my particular country preferences, I’ll pretty much take anything (except England and Turkey ), but it’s certainly true that there are some countries I’d be more comfortable with, and even some that I’ve never played. Those are probably better left to the experts.
In any case, those were the preferences that I sent in to Dave: an equal preference for AFGIR. And I’ve never played France or Russia, which are two Powers that I think we’d expect to see a good result from for our team, so it might be best to give me one of the central Powers (I’m playing Austria for the first time right now and I love it!). That’s not to say, of course, that I wouldn’t take one of the ‘powerhouses of the periphery’ if it was asked of me. But that’s enough about me.
I wrote to Dewey Cheatem Undhow when 1040 was starting up and he said he didn’t have time to play then (that was in August), but I haven’t heard from him since then.
Any other opinions about country assignments, alternates, or anything else? I figure this thread can stick around and serve for discussion of these issues, updates, and maybe even strategy talk once the tourney starts up.
Just a quick word. I have played in the World Masters two or three times, and every time it has been a serious disappointment. The quality of play is not high, and worse, the game administration is extremely inconsistent. Expect arbitrary GMs and players who cannot communicate effectively in English.
While I gave Dave a full set of country preferences, here’s how mine break down:
Peripheral Powers: I’m comfortable with France and England, but not with Russia and Turkey.
Central Powers: I’d rather play Germany or Austria than Italy.
And amongst the two peripheral powers and two central powers that I don’t mind playing, I’m pretty flexible. If there’s a country among those four that nobody else really wants to play, I’ll play it.
Once this thing actually begins, I presume there’s no reason why we can’t offer each other advice on tactics and stuff, if we keep an eye on each other’s games.
Russia and Germany were my first two choices. Germany, because I haven’t played it before in recent history, and Russia just 'cause it’s a cool country to play.
Austria is a lot of fun too, if you can avoid the Russia, Turkey, Italy dogpile.
I imagine the problem will be finding people to play these two Powers.
I was afraid that I’d get stuck in Italy by not rejecting it in my preferences, but didn’t want to be too selfish. Like I told Dave, I’ll take whatever’s left over (aside from ET) after everybody else chooses. In any case I’ve been thinking of some ideas to try and make Italy work. I think I’ve been learning a lot lately (believe it or not, I think my pathetic showing in 1040 was a good experience for me), and I’m eager to put it into action.
Maeglin raised a good point that had totally escaped my attention, though. With all these international teams from non-English speaking countries, what happens when you can’t communicate with the other players?
I also think we should share ideas with each other and keep an eye on all our games. You guys may not want my advice, but I definitely want yours. As long as no one else in the tourney happens to read the board and eavesdrop on our planning.
We could exchange thoughts on strategy and tactics by email. Not everything has to be posted.
I don’t think finding a Turkish player will be a problem; 1040 notwithstanding, Turkey usually manages to get out of its corner, and once it does, it usually does pretty well. I know Bluesman has had success with Turkey in the past.
As far as Italy goes, I don’t know. I did OK with Italy in my one PBEM game with that country, but I still don’t have much of a feel for how to play it. But if no one else particularly wanted Italy, I’d play it.
I’m not sure what to do about the language barrier, other than hope it doesn’t have much effect on our games.
Turkey depresses me because it seems like you almost always have to use your fleet to bounce the Black for the entirety of 1901, you have negligible chance to do anything but get Bul and then sit there in 1901, and it’s ridiculously hard to get mobilized even after that. And you’re helpless to influence most of what’s going on on the board for at least the first few years. And your diplomatic options are incredibly limited. It seems like, absent Italian intervention, AR is more likely to occur and more likely to succeed than any other Balkan permutation. Long term prospects for AT are quite poor, and while RT long term looks good, it looks a lot better for R than for T.
But I could totally be wrong, and I’m certainly not looking what amounts to a gift horse in the mouth – I’m glad we’ve got someone on the team who wants to take the position. Now only if we can take care of Italy.
Call me elitist, but I think the stronger Powers should be assigned to the more experienced players. I spent some time this morning looking for an article I read somewhere that contained analysis (probably written by Sharp) on the breakdown of the first few hundred recorded postal games. I wish I had a cite, but for now it’s just from memory… Italy wins far fewer games than any other Power, and I believe the top performers were FRG. I think it would make sense for us to maximize our gains by giving the positions with the most potential to gain points for our team to those players with the greatest ability to make the most of that potential.
Of course, I rate among the least experienced of our team, so if that lands me in Italy, so be it. As it stands I’m not at all opposed to taking Austria, which I take it is somewhat unpopular. And I hope I don’t make a fool of myself playing it.
Darn tootin’ I’m good for the long term. You young whippersnappers don’t even know what a long term is!
If Russia and Turkey bump fleets in the Black Sea in 1901, then either it’s a failure of diplomacy, or they’re double-crossing each other. Most games I’ve been in, neither has tried to occupy the Black Sea in 1901. Kinda like England and France with the English Channel - “we could waste a lot of time bumping heads here, and watch everyone else get somewhere while we don’t, or we could agree that this is a neutral body of water, and make some serious headway against everyone else.”
Geez, I’m the only one who put England in his top 3? England’s fabulous - when you get a good roll going with those fleets, you’re hard to stop.
I like England too. The fleets let you work your little white bum into most theaters. The only power it’s impossible for you to affect in the first few years is Turkey. If there’s a Russia/Turkey, England is likely to be a large part of the Mediterranean stopping force.
Regarding how powers are assigned, there are a few possible alternatives. Are we primarily interested in team scores? If so, an experienced player might be able to finish 4th with Germany, for instance, rather than 7th. I am thinking along the lines of the people least likely to make a fatal blunder playing the countries where a fatal blunder would be. . . well. . . fatal.
I think this depends somewhat on how the scoring works. Is it more favorable, for instance, to finish 2nd behind a solo than to partake of a 4-way draw? From what little I could understand of the scoring rules, it seems that holding centers is important, but so is surviving, and that the occurrence of a solo changed the scoring somehow. In the first round we shouldn’t have to worry about that (only played to 1908 IIRC, which makes a solo pretty difficult), but it might come up in the later rounds, which we are all sure to be participating in.
By the way, I should have provided these links in the OP:
Sorry for the hold up, Dave just emailed me, I had tried to post my prefs in the old thread but the gerbils ate it, and then I forgot to get back to it the following day.
Anyways, I wanted to get a team opinion here. I’ve only played 2 full games, and both of them I played France. I like France, but I’d like to play a different country sometime. However, it might not be the wisest choice to do that now. Also, still being somewhat green, I don’t want to get us killed by taking Austria or Germany.
Do you guys have advice on this? Should I stick with what I know and do France again, or if there’s preference conflict, or some other reason why it’d work out, which other country would be a good place to play from?
McGee has said he dosen’t care, I am wrestling about weather it would be better to give him Italy and wish him luck or give him France or Russia and take Italy myself. Italy can win, no doubt, like Turkey it’s not as hard as most people think. The key is to make a solid alliance with Austria and keep it. If Austria and Italy go at it, they both lose. Quickly. I can play any power, I throw the floor open for advice.
), but it’s certainly true that there are some countries I’d be more comfortable with, and even some that I’ve never played. Those are probably better left to the experts.