Daikon Diplomacy: Game Complete (Draw in Winter 1904, REFT)

[Carthrat]

I can live with that.

[SnowFire]

Yeah, if E/F don't backstab each other and R/T don't backstab...  Turkey will convoy to Apulia and there will be some skirmishing over Italy, but I doubt that Turkey can break through to me, or I can break through to Ion.  That'll be a draw.  And a backstab is probably suicide, it just means that one of the other opposing alliance will likely solo.

So yeah, 4-way draw (excluding Germany) fine by me.  Andy?

[AndrewRogue]

Sounds fine.

[SnowFire]

Uncertainty hung in the chill winter air like mist from breathing.  It was troubling times.  The Kaiser had fled to unknown lands, rumored to be islands off Canada.  The Czar, after taking Venice, had reportedly lost his nerve for the fight after seeing the artifacts hidden in the ruins.  The mysterious green pipes, first thought of as the idle fancy of drunkards and lunatics, had spread to too many cities to be ignored.  The world leaders had no choice but to comply with the offer for a peace conference to be held in Rome, as Italy was the sole remaining neutral in the midst of the chaos.  Additionally, transit was shockingly easy with the new travel-by-pipe.

Lord Rospo, Mario's annointed 'voice', was firm.  "The only solution to the problems of the day is clear: one, unified world government.  Only that way can this petty squabbling that costs millions of lives be solved.  A new Roman Empire, if you will, and to prevent a Rape of Venice ever again."  The delegates sneered.  What poppycock was this?  But, to their horror, they found that the only 2 panels they could offer to vote with were "Yes, I agree" or "...".  And responding with the dots only initiated another demand for surrender.  Perhaps this was the same choice poor Pope Bowsorius had been offered when Princess Pesca had demanded to know "Dost thy love me?" and demanded his hand in marriage.

The deed was done.  The President, Prime Minister, Czar, and Sultan alike were forced to bow before High Emperor Mario.  His first decree was to rename Rome to New Babylon, and use the emergency powers granted by the Accord of New Babylon ending the war to forcibly disarm all armies and citizenry not loyal to him alone.  There would be no more war - no, none of that.  Perhaps a few foolish rebels and terrorists might oppose his reign and attempt to infiltrate the web of trap-filled castles that were raised up across the nations to keep order, but what could they possibly do?  It was clear: Mario The Beast would wear his crown with 10 gems in it forever, and the Princess would ride atop him, as had been foretold.

THE END…  for now.

[Ranmilia]

Postgame wrapup from Russia, then.

Neutral Italy meant most of the starting strategy and analysis I'd been reading up on was more or less out the window.  The board in this case gets divided into east vs west, with Germany sort of straddling the line.  So I made nice with Germany from the beginning, we coordinated and would use him to extend my influence west and me to flex his interests east.  With that secured, I wanted to form a solid alliance with either Austria or Turkey and quickly obliterate the other, with some strategic preference for Turkey as everyone loves that partnership.

Turkey was very conciliatory and trusting from the start, especially once he learned draws existed.  Austria... was not, and started off our relations by demanding the balkans in exchange for graciously letting me have Rumania.  Furthermore, Germany requested that I attack or at least not help Austria.  So I was all too happy to oblige, blandly agreed to some false plans with Austria, moved into position to crush, and crushed.  I guess that was the only real backstab of the game, though, so... apologies?

Things in the west didn't go according to plan, I'd really hoped that out of E/F/G we wouldn't see E/F teaming up, or at least to see some German aggression if they did.  But it was clear most of the way through that E/F were teamed up much like R/T, and Germany took a more passive approach to both diplomacy and army movement.  By the end I was directly instructing the German troop movements.  The long term plan was to try and get some fleets produced from his coastal provinces and use them to force England back some notches - I calculated some grindy progress was possible, especially once Turkey got into position in the south, but it'd be a slog and without the German build centers quite impossible.

In terms of large scale strategy and hindsight, Austria and France are the two nations able to easily push into Italy from the start... which means that everyone else on the board must treat them as though they will, and act accordingly.  I think those two should have allied immediately and tried everything they could to get one of them actually into Italian soil ASAP.  Austria in particular needed to make more friends, with... anyone BUT Russia really.  I also should have been willing to hit Austria a little more slowly and concentrated more in the north, building in St. Petersburg could have prevented a lot of heartache and changed the game.  No excuses, I just didn't expect England to trust France so readily, and had no logical backing for that belief. 

Turkey... Turkey gave me some scares, with occasional wrong orders and unexpected movements, ostensibly to feint tensions between us, and then acting grumpy that he was out of position and "couldn't do much."  But whose fault is that when you're doing weird stuff like moving to Armenia or taking so that you're left with fleets as Const/Ankara, instead of Const/Smyrna like I said to?!    In the end though we managed to not stab each other so mission accomplished?!

[AndrewRogue]

Postgame Wrap-Up from Turkey

You know, I never actually finished the rules.

Anyhow, after looking at the initial board position, I decided that an alliance with Russia was the most logical choice. It removes almost all of the pressure on me and is sustainable because we can split Europe in half.

So yeah, literally from turn one I was working with Alex and had no intention to stab him. Turkey's position seems too isolated to really do anything alone from. Planned to crush Excal the whole time (Yeah, I faked being indignant and petulant the whole time. Sorry! People seemed to buy it though!). Everyone else was largely irrelevant, except for Mage, who I was undecided on whether he needed to be mercilessly crushed or allied with.

Alexi, baby, I wasn't grumpy! I was just kinda bored. :p Turkey's position is safe, but by allying with Russia, I just don't have a lot to do. But it worked! So I suppose the ultimate lesson is:

[SnowFire]

So yeah, literally from turn one I was working with Alex and had no intention to stab him.

You *marched on Armenia*!  You have a very strange definition of friendship.

Anyway.  As Alex said, neutral Italy (protip: Not really a fan of this way to play Diplomacy, but figured it was a shot, once) rigs the deck to a degree.  It makes E/G vs. France & R/T vs. Austria more desirable.  If the game idles up and nobody pressures France or Austria, they can potentially take a lot of Italy - although Austria threatens it much sooner.  Also, re Alex's comment, I'm not sure if a 1901 F/A alliance is really viable - if A Mar & F Tri go off to do other things, they can both potentially score an SC for their owner; if both want to concentrate on Venice, then only 1 member of the alliance will get it.  If France gets it, Austria is a fool since F Trieste can't get to Rome or Naples early.  If Austria gets it, France is taking a real gamble on Austria being willing to rotate an army around to support France's army into Rome...  maybe...  eventually.  Yeah, no.

Anyway.  This meant that I planned on being really buddy-up this game.  I extended happy feelers to both Germany & England.  Since the Italy issue made things awkward, I was happy to offer Belgium to both of them as a price of alliance.  If they both bit, great, I'd go collect Italy; if only 1 was interested, then I'd ally with them; and if both hated me and G/E was afoot, I'd try and stall 'em as long as possible to let Russia take some heat off of me.  As a side comment, apparently Excal was still angling the Russian alliance after Spring 1901 was out.  For future reference, a Russia that moves A War-Gal is not Austria's friend!  (Then again, Turkey moved on Armenia and WAS Russia's friend, so who knows.)  I was generally chattier with Rat than Mage despite the fact I played a bunch of League with Mage at the time; this aided my general inclination to side with Rat...

...although I'm pretty sure in 1902 both Rat & Mage were out for my blood.  I was luckily partially saved by Alex #YOLO offering St. Pete's on a silver platter to Rat, which worried me anyway if Rat was going to use the build to crush me with.  I suspect Rat was assuming I'd suicide march on Italy and be forced to attack me to keep France in line in the long term while its armies were away in the short term...  luckily, I didn't fall for the trap and reoriented enough armies to make it so that Rat wasn't going to solo-conquest me.  (This was good play by Rat, incidentally, an ignored France that collected Italy for free would likely become the senior partner in such an alliance.)  Luckily for me, relations between Rat & Mage broke down at some point, and Rat & I were able to slowly back off each other (despite the English having an army in Burgundy!), as I was not going to face down a coordinated E/G alliance by myself.  I toyed with the possibility of suggesting E/F/G in a general kill-Alex alliance, but eh, that plan has too many problems of none of us getting fat, so it was a lot safer to just bulldoze Mage.  Sorry, Mage, as far as psuedo-backstabs go, it seemed like you really were orienting your armies elsewhere for an Italian conquest + Russian defense, but I eventually decided it was better for me and safer to attack through you.

I was quite worried in the last turns that Rat was going to turn around and stab me, as I did leave Brest open for the taking one turn in the name of getting more pressure on Germany & the Med, but "luckily" the threat of Alex was large enough that it was pretty clear we'd need to stick together.  I was kind of surprised that R/T managed to hold out after Con was taken, but Excal's ghost fleet stopping a retreat-to-Aegean probably helped patch that one back up.  There's definitely an alternate history where Excal didn't confirm the retreat to the Aegean, Alex crushed Turkey, Rat & I stabbed each other, then Alex solo'd off the southeastern corner of the map.  Anyway, after Rat didn't stab on that crucial turn, I felt pretty safe that he & I would at least be able to set up stalemate lines for an E/F/R or E/F/R/T draw, which is indeed what happened.

Good game!  If we ever do it again, though, let's have 7 players and ideally replacements, even if it means recruiting mercenaries from other boards / friends / etc.  One of the nice thing about Diplomacy at the old board I played at, always plenty of replacements handy when people quit, which is an unavoidable thing on the Internet.

[Magetastica]

Having never played before, I decided that I would try to buddy up with as many people as possible from the get-go. With Russia, I eventually decided that if they backstabbed me, well, then that's that, but I really needed their support to have a hope of doing anything without getting bulldozed from the south. At that point, I was turning my attention to F and E, and France reached out to me first, so I angled to go after England, but then England offered something more tempting, so I sided with them. And then... I don't even know what happened. Rat just suddenly betrayed me without any warning or real reason. And so I never was in a good position to take things over, because people kept flipping around on me on my Eastern border, forcing me to reposition every single turn just to try and keep from getting invaded. And the one turn I decide to finally -not- attack F/E is the turn I get steamrolled.

I'll be honest, not a huge fan of this game.

[Carthrat]

I was pretty much sleepwalking through the whole game.

I thought Alex was going to clean up easy once it became clear Excal had bailed entirely and wasn't even trying to fight back. He seemed to have Mage and Andy simultaneously dancing to his tune. I figured I could rely on France if I kept the tension present, but at a manageable level. I think we made a plan each turn and someone would consistently break it, then say 'but you broke it last time so there'.

[Carthrat]

So who's up for round two

[Ranmilia]

I am!

[Hunter Sopko]

I shall join in this one

[SnowFire]

I'll play.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I can still collect orders and act as a third party.