04 Mar 2014, 1:47 pm
Though I ended up with a creditable score and SC count, overall I'd say this was a pretty poor game of Diplomacy, both from my point of view and from others. The biggest problem was that there were only 4 players on the board (the ultimate survivors) who actually tried to play the game, which resulted in unlikely alliances between us, and a strange, skewed result. However, it was very well and ably run by our GM - a top performance there!
I have to go on record and say that I don't enjoy playing Turkey. As a corner power his tactical and strategic options are limited at best, and his alliance prospects are poor: An alliance with Italy can't work as both need to dominate the Med to stand much chance of prosperity, and while alliances with Russia and especially Austria can be good and to Turkey's benefit, the truth is that they both have better options. In fact, given how strong the AI, AR and AIR alliances can be, most Austrias would only enter into an AT alliance if they had no other alternative since it greatly favours Turkey.
So I didn't go into the game with much optimism, and my initial Diplomacy was not promising. Italy had no interest in dealing with me at all, and I can't say I blame him - though fortuneately for me he didn't seem to want to deal with Austria either. Russia was open to working with me, but seemed surprisingly cocky (bordering on arrogance) in his dealings with me. Lucky for me is that Austria picked up on that too and moved into Rumania in the Spring, presenting me with a most interesting choice in Fall 1901: either take both Greece and Bulgaria and play Austria and Russia off against each other; or support Austria in Rumania, crippling Russia and securing an alliance with Austria, but only taking Bulgaria.
Here was the great missed opportunity of the game for me. I put forward a plan to Austria where I would not support him in Rumania in F01 so that I could build 2 Fleets to take control of the Ionian Sea in Fall 1902, thus knocking Italy out of the war. Meanwhile I would support Austria against Russia in a more grinding war. If he had gone for that then I would have taken Italian SCs a lot earlier than I did and Russia wouldn't have collapsed so early - meaning that EF wouldn't have grown so fast and been able to move into the Med so soon. Austria might have become a junior partner in the alliance and, who knows, if I had been able to breach the Atlantic I may have been able to stab him for a solo, or at least a board top.
However, credit to Austria - he didn't buy it and gave me an ultimatum: support him in Rumania in Fall 1901 and secure a solid alliance by crippling Russia, or he'd go his own way. It was a tough call, but I decided that a solid ally in Austria (the best power Turkey can ally with early on, if not in the best circumstances), was worth it. After that we enjoyed a good few years smashing up Russia and moving against Italy, neither of whom got their act together - by 1903 I had 6SCs, Austria 8, Italy 3 and Russia just 1.
However, all was not well since the western half of the board resolved just as quickly. They too had a player who wasn't really into the game (Germany), resulting in a strong EF alliance forming - an equally unlikely and unstable alliance as an AT. Unfortuneately, the collapse of Germany and Russia benefited England more than anyone, allowing him to grow to 10SCs by 1905 and take St.P, which can easily be held from the west.
At this point it is my opinion that England made a big mistake - he should have stabbed France, and he should have done it while the dying remnants of Germany/Russia/Italy were still present to prevent myself and Austria from interfering. If he had done that then I would likely have quickly mopped up the Italian SCs and then perhaps have stabbed Austria, and the two of us might have raced to a board top or solo. Given that he ultimately stabbed France later on in inferior circumstances, I stand by this assessment.
Instead, he stuck with France, pushing into the Med and central Europe. This pretty much forced my hand - I couldn't stab Austria if E/F were positioned to take the gains from such a stab, and if they were willing to support Italy in place then my own advance through the Med would be stalemated. Still, I did have a few turns before they got into position where I could have taken Naples, which might have led to Rome and Tunis falling too. But for 4 turns in a row, Italy got a 50:50 chance right and blocked me out - a cumulative event of approximately 6% probability.
My feeling at the time was that Austria had passed on the information of our combined attacks to Italy so that he could block me. An understandable move, since he had to fear that if took out Italy I might stab him next. Still, the result was that I went into a shell and pretty much dropped out of the game. For the next few years I was purely defensive as I had nowhere to go and uncommunicative since I no longer trusted Austria yet was not in a position to stab him.
This only changed when England finally decided to stab France, about 4/5 years too late. I was then able to take the rest of the Italian SCs, and hammer out an EOG arrangement with the other survivors which I thought was fair. It would have been nice to go for a 14/10/10 split as that would have gotten me the best Turkey award, but in truth I don't feel like I deserved it, or that France deserved elimination. So all in all it was a fair result to, from my point of view, a poor game.
I have to go on record and say that I don't enjoy playing Turkey. As a corner power his tactical and strategic options are limited at best, and his alliance prospects are poor: An alliance with Italy can't work as both need to dominate the Med to stand much chance of prosperity, and while alliances with Russia and especially Austria can be good and to Turkey's benefit, the truth is that they both have better options. In fact, given how strong the AI, AR and AIR alliances can be, most Austrias would only enter into an AT alliance if they had no other alternative since it greatly favours Turkey.
So I didn't go into the game with much optimism, and my initial Diplomacy was not promising. Italy had no interest in dealing with me at all, and I can't say I blame him - though fortuneately for me he didn't seem to want to deal with Austria either. Russia was open to working with me, but seemed surprisingly cocky (bordering on arrogance) in his dealings with me. Lucky for me is that Austria picked up on that too and moved into Rumania in the Spring, presenting me with a most interesting choice in Fall 1901: either take both Greece and Bulgaria and play Austria and Russia off against each other; or support Austria in Rumania, crippling Russia and securing an alliance with Austria, but only taking Bulgaria.
Here was the great missed opportunity of the game for me. I put forward a plan to Austria where I would not support him in Rumania in F01 so that I could build 2 Fleets to take control of the Ionian Sea in Fall 1902, thus knocking Italy out of the war. Meanwhile I would support Austria against Russia in a more grinding war. If he had gone for that then I would have taken Italian SCs a lot earlier than I did and Russia wouldn't have collapsed so early - meaning that EF wouldn't have grown so fast and been able to move into the Med so soon. Austria might have become a junior partner in the alliance and, who knows, if I had been able to breach the Atlantic I may have been able to stab him for a solo, or at least a board top.
However, credit to Austria - he didn't buy it and gave me an ultimatum: support him in Rumania in Fall 1901 and secure a solid alliance by crippling Russia, or he'd go his own way. It was a tough call, but I decided that a solid ally in Austria (the best power Turkey can ally with early on, if not in the best circumstances), was worth it. After that we enjoyed a good few years smashing up Russia and moving against Italy, neither of whom got their act together - by 1903 I had 6SCs, Austria 8, Italy 3 and Russia just 1.
However, all was not well since the western half of the board resolved just as quickly. They too had a player who wasn't really into the game (Germany), resulting in a strong EF alliance forming - an equally unlikely and unstable alliance as an AT. Unfortuneately, the collapse of Germany and Russia benefited England more than anyone, allowing him to grow to 10SCs by 1905 and take St.P, which can easily be held from the west.
At this point it is my opinion that England made a big mistake - he should have stabbed France, and he should have done it while the dying remnants of Germany/Russia/Italy were still present to prevent myself and Austria from interfering. If he had done that then I would likely have quickly mopped up the Italian SCs and then perhaps have stabbed Austria, and the two of us might have raced to a board top or solo. Given that he ultimately stabbed France later on in inferior circumstances, I stand by this assessment.
Instead, he stuck with France, pushing into the Med and central Europe. This pretty much forced my hand - I couldn't stab Austria if E/F were positioned to take the gains from such a stab, and if they were willing to support Italy in place then my own advance through the Med would be stalemated. Still, I did have a few turns before they got into position where I could have taken Naples, which might have led to Rome and Tunis falling too. But for 4 turns in a row, Italy got a 50:50 chance right and blocked me out - a cumulative event of approximately 6% probability.
My feeling at the time was that Austria had passed on the information of our combined attacks to Italy so that he could block me. An understandable move, since he had to fear that if took out Italy I might stab him next. Still, the result was that I went into a shell and pretty much dropped out of the game. For the next few years I was purely defensive as I had nowhere to go and uncommunicative since I no longer trusted Austria yet was not in a position to stab him.
This only changed when England finally decided to stab France, about 4/5 years too late. I was then able to take the rest of the Italian SCs, and hammer out an EOG arrangement with the other survivors which I thought was fair. It would have been nice to go for a 14/10/10 split as that would have gotten me the best Turkey award, but in truth I don't feel like I deserved it, or that France deserved elimination. So all in all it was a fair result to, from my point of view, a poor game.
