My GM is the slowest adjudicator in the world.
That is all.
My GM is the slowest adjudicator in the world.
That is all.
I’m almost done. I wasn’t first out, and I probably won’t be second out, but I’m pretty much squished. Playing Austria. Russia and I were in tight, I helped him against Turkey after T tried to snake Serbia. Italy’s been on me since day one and I/E/F is the team. Germany was nice and all but there was no help for him and he crumpled beneath F/E. Turkey was down to 2/1 and snuck into Greece, cutting me to 3 centers. Last year Russia suddenly turned on me and supported Turkey in the Balkans instead of my loyal self. I guess he thinks he can stand against I/E/F for 5 more years by his lonesome, because Turkey’s got no more home centers and if I don’t get some serious help I’m done too.
I have a fantastic GM. He put our game on a Judge but handles all the order inputting himself. He’s very friendly and agreeable.
Our next turn isn’t for 10 days, but I don’t think I’ll be around much longer.
It’s been kind of a depressing game. In retrospect it looks like the I/E/F was in place from day 1 (I/F certainly was), and they just ran roughshod over the rest of the board while we were all still getting things sorted out. Italy opened aggressively against me, which I had not predicted, and never let up.
As of spring of 04, I am definitely on the downslide too.
France and I were tight going after England successfully (he has only Edi and a fleet in the North) Italy and Austria have been tight all game, fighting unsuccessfully against an R/T alliance.
However, I think I headed east too early. France got more of the pieces than I did, including me giving him Belgium. I have smoothed things over with Russia, but am not out of position to defend my borders well against Frenchies in Ruhr, Burgundy and Picardy.
damn.
Map available if anybody wants to look at me and laugh.
What do you mean “if”? Post the link to that map buddy.
I am absolutely amazed that I got a build in Winter '04.
R/T/A is still a mess so I don’t expect it to last, and F/E are giving me the hemmorroid treatment, so…
Abe, what happened to the lifelong bond between yourself and the Frenchman?
Apparently we measure lives differently.
England has a fleet in the North Sea. I’m trying to get him to agree to work with me, in return for helping him retake the British Isles. I only have one center there anyway, and expect to lose it this season.
One-center powers can be very unpredictable.
I glanced at the map you sent last night, and it looks like you two might be able to work something out. I’m surprised France came at you so aggressively.
His last build was pretty much required. Only Paris and Marseilles were open. He, of course, build a fleet in Marseilles, so as not to alert me. He probably set it up so fleet Paris would be his only choice. Sneaky bastard.
England is pretty bitter about stabbing him early on. He calls it two stabs, but it’s really two parts of one long stab. Think He’ll buy that argument?
It basically comes down to who he thinks is more likely to end up getting him dead, you or France. You should be able to convince him that teaming with France is a much riskier proposition than working with you. It’s probably true.
That’s what I’m trying to work out. I’m not moving to Edinburgh, and have told him so. If he doesn’t believe me and moves there anyway, no harm and I’m in the North Sea.
I expect to move into the North Atlantic. If France takes Liverpool from Irish Sea, as I expect him to, I can move into the MAO unless he builds in Brest. I’d much rather have him build a fleet than an army at this point.
Hello again everyone. My game is at a juncture and I figured I’d pool some opinions here from all you guys as to where you see things developing.
First one comment, my GM sucks. He NMRed another player in my game (twice actually) this past year. What a dick. I’m not sure why it would be such a problem for this asshole to shoot out one email reminding the player instead of NMRing him right off the bat. And sadly I have to admit that it really hurts me again. The player was Turkey (and when you see the map you’ll see that it really helps Italy who even as my ally, I’d prefer to see him not be too successful too fast) who was NMRed in the fall turn (giving Italy at least one build he shouldn’t have gotten) and then again in the Winter turn (disbanding a much better positioned fleet by default). Royally fucks up the game I must say.
OK, enough bitching. Here’s the Winter 1903 map.
Basically the situation is this, as you may recall I’m France. I’ve been pretty successful and if it were not for a NMR last year I’d be pretty safely in a rock solid lead. Even still I’ve managed to keep myself in control of much of what occured. I’m allied with Italy since the beginning of the game. He annoyed me when he moved to Piedmont last Spring, but he claims to have done so to appease Austria to temporarily gain support against Turkey. He’s since promised to move to Tyrolia and he built in a moderately non-threatening way. I suppose that alliance is sound. I was also allied with England and Russia against Germany, which you can see was successful. I worked hard to keep England and Russia at peace, but England caved and stabbed him last turn. Turned out to be OK, since Germany is collapsing. I would have liked to have coordinated and decide for myself which ally to keep, but I’ll survive. Both England and Italy have communicated that they want a 3-way alliance to run into the end game. None of us three are in a good position to stab the other, so I am tempted to believe it.
I’m pretty much fleetless, and England has little chance of getting armies into the mainland other than Scandinavia. Should keep us at peace. Italy still has alot of work to do in the Balkans but is certainly in control, hopefully the other three powers can get their shit together and slow him down.
England is pushing me to vacate the channel, I’m probably not going to. I’ve held it since the opening turn, and have never attacked him from there. With all his fleets I feel like it’d be foolish to open that space. I can’t really hurt him but he could at least threaten me without building to do so. I’m hoping I can remain there and have the alliance hold. If Italy gets too strong in the south, England’s going to press me to attack him. The only way I can do that is to go through Munich next year. I suppose it’ll depend how successful he is.
I think it is in all three powers best interest to stay allied and wipe out the board, but I’m curious what could happen when the other nations are eliminated. Being in the middle I’d probably be the loser in a endgame alliance, so I’m worried that everyone has been so successful so fast. Too many turns remain for the triple to hold unless there’s a DIAS decision…a real possibility IMHO. If the DIAS doesn’t happen, it’d be in my best interest to be the one doing the stabbing I think…what do you think? Or should I keep the possibility of a French solo in play, with three powers at 7 SCs, it semms like a real long shot.
Email me or post opinions.
Just a bump to get this onto the frontpage for the big workday.
Damn, Omni, there’s no fleets in the water in your game! If anyone had a navy, they’d be king in no time.
You’ve got a real expansion problem almost immediately if you keep the EFI alliance intact: England’s already got Kiel, so that leaves you a front one province wide (Mun) to expand through. I really think it’s a question of who you’re going to stab, and when. Even after you get Mun, Italy’s in Pie and is already in the Med; that’s not gonna work. So it’s gotta be England. So keep that fleet in the Channel. I think you’ll need Russia’s help in sandwiching England and Germany between you. I’d start thinking about working towards a FIR DIAS; if you expand faster than Russia, and Russia and Italy fight, there’s the chance of a solo win.
I agree with your assessment, but the only nation with fleets is England. And like you said, he could be very dangerous as a result. Picking him as an enemy could spark a real nasty E/I alliance. I was planning on allying with Russia and pinching England but England stabbed Russia before I had the chance to set it up, now Russia is far too weak to be of much use. The Spring 1904 turn was just adjudicated and it looks like Italy and Austria are still allied to take out Russia and Turkey, really strange considering how stirred together their units are.
Here’s the new Spring 1904 map.
You can see Italy again stayed in Piedmont, annoying. He did email me before the turn to ask me to arrange for my vacating of Spain in exchange for his vacating Pied, but I got it after the deadline. Its a annoying situation, Italy is my longest ally but he’s really aggrivating me, though he’s not much of a threat. England has been an excellent ally and has never done anything to provoke me but he’s far more dangerous. His manners tempt me to feel safe from a stab though, I get the impression he’s the type of player who gets married to one ally and rides it out.
I don’t like my position, but then again I have no immediate threats. Any aggresive moves by me would seem to result in a E/I against me, though I feel confident that I’d be able to resist it. Nevertheless I’d probably be unable to gain much either. Lots of ready-made stalemate lines in place.
Still hoping for more ideas, thanks for the feedback RT.
What did F Lon do last turn? After looking at W03 I was going to strongly encourage you not to vacate the channel, fearing F Lon-ENG, F Edi-NTH, and F Den-SKA, putting you in a pretty vulnerable position.
Seeing S04 doesn’t make me much more confident. A Lvp and probably F Edi must have been built last year, no? With all those fleets and only two armies, one of which is still in the Isles, I’d say his position is far, far more suited for an attack on you than for further conquest into Russia or Germany. It’s the typical English dilemma – so you’ve got StP, what now? He doesn’t seem to be preparing for an invasion overland at all.
I’m curious to know what Nwy and Swe did last turn. Did he order Nwy-StP and Swe-Fin like a dummy and let Russia order StP-Fin to stop both of his units while getting his (sc) fleet into place? If so, I’d keep a seriously watchful eye on that character. And invent every plausible explanation for maintaining your fleet in the Channel.
Italy standing in Piedmont doesn’t make sense to me, but then not everything does. And he’s clearly not prepping an attack against you given how aggressively he moved east last turn. Frankly I think Austria’s being an idiot in allowing Italy so much liberty in his territory. Looks to me like Italy could cut Austria down to just Budapest in F04 with almost no chance of failure, and with little to lose from such a ploy if I were him I’d be sorely tempted.
(were I Italy, I’d promise Budapest and cooperation against Turkey to Russia in exchange for his participation. My orders would be something along the lines of A Tri S A Gal-Vie, A Ser and F Bul S F ION-Gre, and F EAS S F AEG-Smy just to keep him out of harm’s way and to reduce the number of enemy units in 1905 by one. You could even scheme something up like have Bud order S Gal-Rum and Vie-Gal, then actually have Tri S Gal-Bud, taking Bud by force and keeping Vie as he moves out of it.) From that point you’ve got to like the Italian position.
Oops, workday’s over. Gotta go.
Italy is in no position to attack you anytime soon. Beware a fleet build, though.
Is the plan for England to help you into Munich in the fall? If so, and you can grab a fleet Bremen build, you can kick England out of Kiel, and convoy to Wales, or move into the channel and Irish, and possibly convoy to Liverpool.
I think it’s up to you to decide whether to stab or not.
I remember in the Dip 1099-Anti Bobble game, I’m Turkey, and Austria and I are supposedly working together, and. . .
In S04 London supported Edi into Nth. In F03 it stood pat. My channel unit has either held or supported Belgium every turn as well. Basically its been a peaceful coexistence.
Both Italy and England agreed to my demands to build one army and one fleet in the least threatening manner last turn. Besides paranoia and having played too many SDMB dip games I have no reason to suspect a stab from either.
I’ve pretty much resolved to not vacate the channel unless forced, and that’d trigger war, England hasn’t asked me to recently.
As for England’s armies, he’s agreed to convoy that Lvp unit to Norway in order to advance through St Petes eventually to Moscow. While he’s a threat to me, he also should see that I could easily ally with Russia and boot him from Kiel before he could affect harm on me. I just think my defensive position is fairly strong and that he’d be foregoing immediate gains in Russia. Basically I feel like I have a couple turns before he or Italy get an inkling to stab.
Last turn Sweden and Norway just held, and Russia moved Balt to GoB and Fin to St Petes for defensive reasons.
As for Italy in Piedmont, I agree it makes no sense, It only irritates me, but he claims to be really paranoid about me attacking him. Besides that its pretty useless to him, and if he’s not careful its gonna drive me to attack him.
AB, you’ve lost me. I guess he’s helping me into Munich if his taking Berlin counts. And where exactly is Bremen? If its the German industrial center I’m pretty sure France isn’t allowed to build fleets there since its inland and German.
I’m feeling like my best move is to sit tight this turn and just go with the flow and when it comes time to build determine if a stab is needed, my only chance to stab is in Kiel and I’m not sure that the gains would be worth the risk.
In a new development, Russia has equested a 3-way DIAS between England, France and Italy. While I’m not sure he gets the meaning of DIAS since no one has been eliminated yet, but if it coms out to be a legit 3-way draw I’m not sure I’d take it or not. Thoughts on that?