This post has two purposes.
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I wanted to let everyone know that strangely enough, almost precisely as I made that last post I got the accont confirmation email so I could activate the account. Strange.
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I wanted to have the top post on page 5
And retreats are done with. Quite an interesting move, what with Germans in Paris, French in Edinburgh, Italians in Gascony, Bulgaria and Rumania changing hands, and Austrians in the Ukraine! Map’s updated.
Moving links forward again:
Cat23 Diplomacy Game Free State 10(W-)40 page.
Rudimentary Dip 1046 page, up for adoption.
Cat23 and diplom.org pages, packed with resources.
And the official Dip rules, in PDF format.
Whatever happened to trust? Lots of blood from wounded backs all over the Balkans. Russia and Austria finally fall out. We all knew it wouldn’t last. Turkey regains Bulgaria and surprises everybody by postponing Christmas. There are as many French units in England as in France. The Italians continue their wine tour of Europe, currently sampling Bordeaux’s best. England helps Germany – how noble – at the cost of Edinburgh – how foolish. Germany springs back from the edge of disaster and repels enemies on all fronts.
England (Weirddave): A fine, generous gesture there. I’m sure Edward VII is glad that you helped out cousin Bill. Snag is, Edinburgh as rejoined the Auld Alliance. The Frogs are going to get you before Germany and Italy get them. Oh, and attacking Sweden was perhaps not the wisest of decisions. Some fence building with the Russians next?
France (Omniscient): You appear to well in command of the invasions of England, of the Low Countries, of Iberia but what about France? Surely you should do something to defend La Patrie? It’s rather bad form to lose your capital. Options are limited since you are somewhat outnumbered by the Italians and Germans. I’d go for a round of blocks – A (Spain) to Portugal, F (Gulf of Lyon) to Spain, A (Burgundy) to Marseille. You should pull off two out of three. Move F (Channel) to London. England can’t both retake Edinburgh and defend London. With luck you’ll finish off the English and get the resources to continue the war against Germany. Talk to Russia. After all, they speak French and are England’s best friend.
Germany (White Lightning): Scene – Berlin, the Reichstag. The army’s chief of staff, von Schlieffen, is reporting to Kaiser Wilhem II.
Kaiser Bill: “Vell von Schlieffen, how goes ze var.”
Von Schlieffen: “Zere ist some gut news und some bad news, your Kaisership.”
Kaiser Bill: “Oh mein Gott, not again. All right General, start mit ze gut news.”
Von Schlieffen: “Ze ‘Schlieffen Plan’ has vorked. Paris is ours. Ze frogs are hoppink mad - gut pun, jah? Ze Russian regatta has moved out of Denmark. Ze English and Italians are confirmed as allies and even old Franz-Joseph is acting friendly.”
Kaiser Bill: “Gut pun? Nein, it only vorks because it uses an English colloquialism and we are apparently speaking German. And ze bad news? Turks in Munich? French in Silesia? Russians in the Ruhr?”
Von Schlieffen (ignoring interesting pattern on carpet and bouncing up and down in delight): “Zer is no bad news!”
Kaiser Bill: (realising he does not have to cut von Schlieffen off at the door): “Damn, I had your escape covered this time.”
Italy (Jonathan Chance): The guaranteed win is A (Gascony) to Marseilles supported by A (Piedmont) with your fleets cutting supprt in Spain and the Gulf of Lyon. France will be forced to disband units if it can’t hang on to Edinburgh and take London. A bolder stroke is to push your F (West Med) into the Mid Atlantic instead of Spain. It looks like the interesting bits of France are about to fall into your lap.
Austria (Abe Babe): Oh dear! Methinks you’ve stabbed Russia too soon. Mind you, the Russians had stabbed you so I suppose it’s mutual. Getting turfed out of Bulgaria is embarrassing but not fatal. Although with Russia and Turkey coming to an accommodation the opposition is stiffening up. You will get Warsaw from Ukraine supported by Galicia. Hang on to Rumania at all costs and force disbandment of another Russian unit. You could retake Bulgaria, but if Turkey is clever, it may cost you Greece. You get to build if you keep Rumania and take Warsaw, so you can apply pressure to Turkey. My choice would be a fleet in Trieste. I know, I know. I keep banging on about a fleet there but it will give you the opportunity to outflank Turkey. You can trust me, I’m not a doctor.
Russia (Maeglin): My early favourite. What went wrong? At least you stabbed as well as doing the stabbing. Hang in there. You are going to lose a unit unless you kick the English out of Norway. Get back into the Black Sea and apply some pressure to the Austrians. Make the alliance with Turkey work and you can still pull it off.
Turkey (ShibbOleth): What can I, or Uncle Klemens, say? Making friends with Russia, who clearly does return your calls, has pulled off the recovery of Bulgaria. Austria now has two enemies instead of an enemy and a friend. Keep faith with the Russians and you’ll do OK. You can’t keep Bulgaria, so don’t try too hard. Attack Greece from there supported by F (Aegean). That will surprise the Austrians – I bet they’re planning on attacking from Serbia supported by Greece and Rumania. Move your fleet to Constantinople. Build an army in Smyrna if you get Greece and lose Bulgaria. Build a fleet in Smyrna if you keep Bulgaria. Austria will ignore my advice and not build a fleet in Trieste so you’ll be able to outflank them. You and the Russians need each other more than you can afford to stab each other.
Go Alien – Strategic advice with a health warning. 
I shall miss you all next week as I’l be in Ireland but look forward to the carnage on my return. Good stabbing, sorry, diploming!
Ireland? Don’t you know that Ireland is impassable? You need to check the map again, I guess…
No bad news?
Holland and Munich stand empty, with a single army in Ruhr standing guard at the door to them both. Two lonely units on the eastern front, unable to support each other, ruefully eyeing the three Russians at the gates. Two mortal enemies, one on each hand, wounded, in disarray, and out for German blood. One ally hopelessly out of reach, the other under siege and reeling.
No bad news?
You have your health.
Oh, and also, there were more posts made to our thread on Fathom while the SDMB was down yesterday. In case anyone’s interested.
Strangely, I seem to be less reluctant to actually talk trash over there. Must be the unfamiliar environs, or something.
FYI, Yahoo! e-mail seems to be down, so I’m not getting or sending any e-mails since sometime this afternoon. I’m not ignoring you unless your name rhymes with “Gabe Mabe” or “Might Whitening”. Then I’m waving my private parts in your general direction.
I just checked into my Yahoo! mail, and it’s working.
Great, mine’s not. I can get to other parts of Yahoo!, but the e-mail service just gives me a 504 Gateway timeout. Maybe their Hamsters have gotten together with our Hamsters and organized?
There were some brief periods yesterday where I had to wait to get into Yahoo! mail, but they didn’t last long, maybe 5-10 minutes.
This morning, my Yahoo! mail is cooking right along. Got right in, and when I registered at a newspaper’s website, I received my confirmation email in my Yahoo! mailbox within seconds.
Sure, rub it in. I am stilling getting an error if I try to go into either of my Yahoo! e-mail accounts or the Fantasy Football sites. I’ll keep trying. What is the best way to distribute an alternative e-mail if those don’t work? I don’t want to play these next rounds like Tommy.
HEY!!
I would post an alternate email here.
Yeah, if I wanted the e-mail 'bots to get it.
How about
if I post it like
this:
sawsuaaat
hot
maildot
com
Or do you think that will throw people off too much? One reason I haven’t used that account is that it tends to overfill rather quickly. So I hope I can get the Yahoo! one up and working again soon. I s’pose I could also snag one at fathom or some place, if need be.
What I have done before is to type my email like t_homas at yahoo.com. They may not get it that way.
Expect a couple of forwarded emails to that account.
Sorry for the inconvenience. While you’re at it could you forward me the Dip 1046 map? (Preferrably un-photoshopped, s’il vous plait)
I’d be interested to hear from die Bösewichtin, die mir angriefen hat.
All: I’ve found I can get to Yahoo! if I switch the connection over to my home computer. So I’ll stick with the mail to my Yahoo! account. Just give me a few hours to work through messages.
Weirddave: Monday orders work fine for me, thanks!
How can he be saved?
Glad it didn’t prove necessary this time, but if I were one of you, here’s how I’d work it: once you’ve got your new email addy, go to the Dip 1040 page with the most recent map. Snag everyone’s addy from there into your new address book, then send an email to the group.
I’m back!
What did I miss?