Playing Austria in the other game, I can’t help but think that poor little Austria in this game can’t be happy with how chummy Russia and Turkey seem to be. At least he hasn’t got Italy on his ass, but he may need to be calling for some help from ze Italians or zee Germans soon. Germany has already made the Lebensraum play by retaking Prussia, but they have failed to annex the Suddetenland or pay some faggy little Dutchman to set fire to Lord Snowden (my apologies for the slur, I was channelling Monty Python for a moment), so they are not much of a threat in the Eastern theatre. It does seem that zee Germans and zee Brits are allied here, which already is cause for worry for France, as if Italian fleets all along the southern coast weren’t cause for worry enough. But if the Italians really want to be taken seriously then they either need to use their fleet in Apulia to either a) help out the neighbors in the Eastern kingdom or b) fortify the attack on France. Of course the really snarky option © would be to claim the Adriatic and kick the Austrian while he is down. Back to the English, they really seem to be getting the short end of their alliance with Germany. Maybe it’s time to stab your partner, and shift your alliance to the French. Or more conservatively, why not get some of that prime beach front on the north coast of St. Petersburg?
OK, here’s my neophyte take on things. If nothing else, you can have fun picking me apart.
Austria (Wierddave)- So far only Russia appears to be a threat. It looked like you were leaving yourself open in F 02 but the W 02 builds took care of that. However, if Turkey retreats to the Ionian, they might be able to come at you from both sides.
England (ppg_shg) - You seem to be setting up for a move on France, and very convenient that he happened to move out of Brest when he did. You and Germany working together could make things very difficult for France these next few turns.
France (WL) - England and Germany up north. Italy to the south. I’m curious whether you’ll be able to hold on to all your supply centers for the Fall (although I think I see how it could be done). Should be an interesting turn!
Germany (Steve Enzor) - Nice job picking up 3 new SCs the first year. You’re obviously moving against France, but with that being the case I’m not clear why you built F Kie instead of A Kie. But then, who am I to criticize what seems to be working?
Italy (JC) - I had written something out to the effect of “Nice moves on France, but watch out that you haven’t left a backdoor for Turkey wide open.” Then I looked back at the list of who’s playing which power, and decided that you don’t need little me to tell you that.
Russia (Omni) - Maybe it’s just me, but it looks like you’re doing really well. Either that or you’re getting bounced in Austria a lot.
Turkey (Shnitte) - I’m assuming that you are going to take the Ionian retreat instead of disbanding. Italy seems to have left things wide open while they’re off nibbling at France, which means you could be able to pick up that fourth supply center after all.
My peanutting, summed up: Ally with Russia.
Turkey: Ally with Russia while you still can. The unit on Ank isn’t helping you any.
Austria: Ally with Russia and split up Turkey. Oterwise, the war will be ugly and drawn out. Watch the backstabbing Italians.
Italy: Ally with Russia and France. Let the French keep what they have, and crush the Austrians between you and Russia.
France: Hold the English and Germans at the border, while becoming an Italian ally. Stab them in the back as soon as possible, then concentrate on the Germans.
England: If you aren’t allied with Germany already, you’re gonna die. I can’t think of any other reason for them to want fleets.
Germany: Don’t overextend yourself. Humorously enough, an alliance with Russia for a wo way tie may be the safest bet.
Russia: Take the best alliance offer, then kill everyone.
Everyone: Remember that fighters are good offense, but they’re excellent defense, if you can spare the money.
Oh, wait, wrong game.
Prediction for the win, in order (should be required): Russia, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Turkey, England.
Wow. Italy’s climbing.
Jayla, sounded ok, except you messed up the situation in Greece. Is Austria who has to retreat, not Turkey. That changes things quite a bit I have to say. These things will be more clear once Tom gets me those orders ;).
I’ll try.
It is indeed hard not to heckle.
whoops! I read “Austria” and thought “yellow.” That does change things. Good thing I did that here and not in 1092.
Austria may not be as interested in Tunis as Turkey would have been, which means Italy’s F Wes can concentrate on France instead of having to protect Tunis. Italy’s F Apu will probably move to protect Naples, so Austria could use F Ion to either support a re-take of Greece, or move into the Adriatic to take a shot at Venice. (But if he does, Italy’s likely to build in Venice, so it may not help that much.)
If Austria doesn’t manage to dislodge the Grecian Turks, Turkey’s going to get enough builds this winter to make things uncomfortable for Austria in the Balkans. But Turkey has to advance that A Bul to be able to get much use out of new armies. I guess Turkey could build two fleets instead of an army and a fleet, but you won’t make much progress against Austria from the sea. You need to move that A Bul somewhere so it’s not bottling up your land forces.
In short:Italy and Turkey better off than I thought, and Austria’s in need of a few good allies.
What excellent advice!
Funny. Wikkit’s got me at second best, and JayLa doesn’t know if I’ll last the year. Gotta love this game!
Keep it comin’ with the heckling. We can take it.
Well, WL, if we’re going to handicap, then I would have you closer to where JayLa puts you than where Wikkit puts you, unless there is something beneath the scenes here where you’ve got a secret alliance with Italy or England. Especially as neither of them has anyone creeping up on them that could keep them picking you apart. And it’s not as if Germany is in bad shape right now. Maybe you should just do the proper French thing now, surrender and create a shadow government and resistance somewhere! 
Out of the gate, I’d put Germany in front, followed by Turkey. Of course this is early yet. It’s tough to tell who’s third then, a choice between England, Italy and Russia (no particular order). Then I see France, which could change with the wind of alliance, and finally the Austrian’s whom I currently see in a bit of a pinch. Maybe Germany can make some sacrifices to help her southern cousins?
WL: I’m biased by my own paranoia Français from the other game. 
Anyway, I thought I saw how you could do it, and if a noob like me could spot it, I’m sure you saw it too. Email me if you want to compare notes (if that’s allowed, anyway)
I am well and truly hooked now. Over the weekend I started lining up people for a F2F game in a couple weeks. Anyone else here from the Seattle area? We’re still short a couple spots.
And now for something completely different…( thanks a lot Shibb!)
Comments from the peanut gallery on my new updated Diplomacy webpage, anyone?
FYI, I’ve added all the orders to the webpage to give a clearer perspective of the dynamics going on. They are pasted as Abe Babe sent them, however it appears that there’s a little funkiness with some of Italy’s moves and with Holds versus NMRs. If you see any errors let me know. I could probably sort it out on my own, but I’ll let you guys do it to make sure it’s correct.
Looks great, but where’s Minime? Are you that certain you’re a goner?
Quick comment on Daves page. I’d like to see the pages for each turn on the 1046 page. The animation is neat and all, but I can’t follow it all.
ppg_shg, I’m assuming that you were just curious where it was in Daves page, but just to be sure I figured I’d point you to my page for Mini-Me here.
Yea, Omni’s got Minime on his own webpage. I archived the turn by turn George pictures to save webspace and I’m prolly not gonna put them back for a dead game. They’ll be there for future games, however.
Let’s have a big Dip salute to Omni for setting up the webpage for the Mini-Me. All together now.
One. . . two. . . three. . .
STAAAAAAAAAB!
And for the noobs, I think it’s allowed to get advice, etc. from anyone other than the GM of your own game.
Yeah, maybe they should have an observer or two for heckling and advice.
I’ve been ‘observing’ the newb game, but in a semi-official role. Some of them are CC’ing their orders to me so I don’t think it’d be appropriate to heckle.
And, I dunno about the advice issue. I was thinking about it yesterday after JayLa mentioned comparing notes and I’m not sure that’d be appropriate either. This game engenders enough paranoia with just 6 other players to worry about. The heckling and speculation from third-party observers in the thread is harmless enough so long as there’s a well-defined disconnect between that and the actual play of the game; I think if an unknown number of observers were actually corresponding privately with an unknown number of players, there’d be a rich breeding ground for conflict of interest. When I read stuff like Wikkit’s advice from the last page of this thread, I really don’t need the headache of wondering who he’s been talking to and whose side he’s on.
Am I making sense or just being overly censorious?
[nitpick]
OK, it’s an absolutely petty thing, and I’d agree with anybody who’d criticize me for wasting time on thinking about stuff like that, but Diplomacy websites would gain a bit more historical authenticity if they didn’t use contemporary European national flags, but the turn-of-the-century ones, as in this game page from a German Diplo platform.
[sub]Of course those flags don’t wave as coolly, but one must sacrifice a lot for the sake of authenticity…[/sub]
[/nitpick]
Oh, and btw, I’d like to comment on what White Lightning said about observers commenting on the game. Sure, there might be conflict of interest, and one supposedly neutral observer might in fact be trying to support one or several players by spreading rumors that favor this player, or something else. But I don’t think this is a problem, because everybody in the game knows this could be so; they won’t take anything told to them by observers for granted, and if there’s a considerable risk of being cheated, they’ll simply ignore observer comments or advice.
I don’t think there’s really too much chance of double agents outside the game (inside is a whole nother matter). I’ve both given and asked for advice from outside people. If Germany asked for advice in a game, and then Russia from the same game did, I certainly wouldn’t reveal anything of what I said to Germany, and would probably not give anymore than very general advice to Russia.
Good idea with the flags, too.