Pani's Diplomacy Diary

Thursday, March 7, 2013

What up wit dat Spring 1915

I'm still moving slow but strong against him:

Italy is just about mine now but to push him further is going to be easier said than done. Any new units I make are so far away from the front lines it's difficult to back myself up with the strength at the front. Being in the corner so far away from everyone is Turkey's advantage and disadvantage.

I finally replied to the new Italy saying I might go for the solo. It might've been a mistake though. He could just copy and paste it to England to get him to stab me and keep the game going. Saying that though, England has NMRd again.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Biblical proportions Contents

Biblical proportions Fall 1918

And that's it!

Well this game certainly had it's ups and downs - a lot of downs in this one.

In the end, I told England to just go ahead and take the win. We were all worn out and I need a break! Too bad I'm playing another game at the moment otherwise I'd go get a real life for a while!

The final roster:

Italy: pani
Turkey: BigBeuty
Austria: Nobody44
England: riskybiscuits / Bataan (WINNER)
Russia: ViscountSlim / tdrury88
France: thegaff21
Germany: Victor+Khan

Final thoughts

France: Very disappointed in you. Made poor moves and too many NMRs - you were gobbled up quickly.
Austria: Sorry I messed you around at the beginning. Now that you've had a chance to read my blog, I hope you can understand my early predicament. If things had turned out differently and I hadn't let you get gobbled up accidentally, the game would've been extremely different.
Germany: You did well at the beginning but I rallied the troops around and was able to take you out without too many problems. That was the main reason I overextended myself and had to relinquish most of my control to England.
Russia: I had no qualms with you until you were rude at the end. I'm sorry for expressing my lack of interest halfway through the game but consider that after I bashed heads with Turkey for 10 years. If you remember, I predicted a win for England at the time - it was really the only outcome. You played reasonably well but probably should've mixed it up instead of going for the hopeless Juggernaut.
Turkey: You were trapped all game. You helped Russia take Austria out and came away from that fight with very little to show for it. You were behind his walls so the sea was your only option. That left you extremely limited in what you could do. Yes you broke through once or twice but I pushed you back out. You have got to see that the Juggernaut just wasn't going to work for you in that position and you should've striked at Russia when you had the chance. That's why we bashed heads for 10 years. If I'd given up and let go of my line, you and Russia would've bulldozed me and England. You were the reason I had to relinquish most of my supply centers to England, so I could keep you out of Italy.
England: Congratulations! As described above, Turkey forced me to give up most of my northern territory - all the places I'd taken from Germany and in order to get your help, I had to let you in my place. I'm sure you weren't going to say no to free supply centers! You might've taken first place, but I'm taking unofficial second place! :) I suppose some might view my mid/late game as playing kingmaker, but I was sort of forced into it because I had to protect the line and my home bases. If Turkey had gotten through, he'd be coming for you next!

Oh and I finally got a pm back from Russia - he seemed most upset with the fact I had expressed my displeasure at the turn of events halfway through the game (when I'd said I was bored and I saw the England win outcome). I'm going to try to keep it civil - I'm just disappointed that it degraded to the state it got to.

Biblical proportions Spring 1918

As far as I'm concerned, the game is just about over.

England asked what our plans with the new improved Russia would be and asked to include him in the draw. Russia messaged me and we talked a bit about what we'd do together.

Really though, I told England he can take his final 2 supply centers. In order to have a draw that everyone would accept, it'd mean wiping Turkey off the map. It could be done certainly but that'd be a crap game for England. He'd just have to sit there for another 10 turns whilst Russia and I cleaned up.

I told England that he could even take them from me if he'd like, as long as he made me governor of the southern states in his new reign as King of Europe! :)

Biblical proportions 1914

I'm finally pushing out the Turks from my homeland.

A couple of turns ago he was all up in my grill but I should be able to kick him out soon.

How about that, he's retreating for the first time in ages. It'll reduce Russia by one and will let me build for the first time in a long time.

England has said he's going to start to be more aggressive now so the attack is on. If they all want to play until the end, then so be it. If it's a win for England, then so be it.

He also told me that he received a message from Russia which he very kindly sent me:

This could drag on endlessly. Italy is by far the weakest and most vulnerable at this time. If you attack him I assure you of a three-way win. Brest and Paris are yours for the taking with no negative consequences for you in terms of vulnerability to me, and you KNOW if he were in your position he'd stab you without hesitation. If you're not interested that's fine, but please, no moral indignation for asking, he's buzzing Turkey every round to do the same.

Russia keeps surprising me. After the first couple of games with him, I thought I knew his play style. Pretty solid, not really one for backstabbing. But with this message (all dirty lies) and another game I'm playing (which I'll post after completion) where he's completely back stabbed me, I'm starting to reevalute him.

Personally, I don't think it'll drag on endlessly. I made a prediction a few years ago that it'd be an England win and unless he lets me hang on to his bootstraps (which I can't imagine he will), I'm sticking by it.

I haven't messaged Russia or Turkey once since about the time we first went to loggerheads so that was a blatant lie. But that's the name of the game. Would I stab Italy if I were England? Nope. With the way my troops are positioned, I'm a key strategic block and besides, I've been very happy to let England take what he wanted from me.

I still can't understand Turkey and Russia's position. I gave them both really good idea's for the mid to late game and neither one of them bit. The game would've turned out very differently if they'd have cooperated instead of wanting to stick out the stubborn Juggernaut.

Biblical proportions Fall 1917

Fall 1917 - when the sh*t hit the fan.

Lots of draws had been requested around this time; especially from Russia for everyone excluding himself (he just wanted to get the game over I suppose) and I even suggested just me and England which was instantly rejected.

My draw was suggested because Russia was in decline and in my opinion, Turkey had made no progress all game so I didn't feel like he deserved the win/draw. Well I publicly stated as much and got blasted in the shout box (public message system) by both Russia and Turkey. Turkey's messages were about supposed moves earlier on in the game that I'd made and Russia went so far as to call me names! I'd heard Russia getting into arguments with other players before but this was the first time he aimed his bad mouthing at me!

As an aside, I did mention that he'd missed a turn and so was another reason not to include him in the draw. In retrospect, that wasn't fair of me - everyone has a real life outside the game and circumstances sometimes prevent moves being submitted.

Nevertheless, I still stand by my opinion - that Turkey hadn't done anything all game and so shouldn't be included in the draw.

Well anyway, Russia "threw his dummy out of the pram" as we Brits say and surrendered. I sent him a private message explaining my actions and hoping for a response but so far, I've not received one.

His moves were still processed in such a way that he gave a couple of supply centers to Turkey and then we got a new player to take his place.

Biblical proportions Spring 1917

A turn of events in the spring...

Turkey missed his turn for the first time all game. Not that it made much difference. I managed to break through into Tyrolia this turn. It would've been 3 to 3 but England is making slow but important progress in the north border. He could've easily helped me into Tyrolia, even if Turkey hadn't have missed his moves.

England did get into the Ionian sea as a result of the NMR though.