Diplomacy - Subterfuge

[Abelard]

End of Game Statment, France (2)


Summary from my point of view

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When I took over as France in 1905, things were looking bad for me. I had an Italian unit in Iberia and Germans crashing through from the east. So my first priority was to see if I could get those two problems resolved.

I was able to dislodge the Italian unit by myself. Moody and I had crossed paths before, and I respect him as a player. Naturally, he preferred that we work out a deal where he got to keep that dot and we made an alliance, but I saw that Italy's days were numbered - the A/R was the dominant force on the board, and without my backup, which I couldn't provide, Italy was going to fall.

At that point, there were only two real options for me - join the E/G or join the A/R. I say "join", but really I mean "become a lackey and hope to survive under the heel of". While I was able to make a great resistance against Germany, I was hoping to hang on long enough for someone to realize that they needed me.

I never got any substantive responses from England or Germany. Germany frustrated me most of all, because it was quite clear from the massive army buildup of PsiDog's that Germany was the next target, and that Jamin should have been focusing on defense instead of flailing around in France. I really did try to explain that to him repeatedly, but still he was out of position when Austria crashed into Munich. England just kept focusing on Russia and figured that I'd be no help there, so he essentially ignored me.

PsiDog was excellent about communicating with me. I think I was able to sell him on the deal that having a moderately-strong France would help topple Germany and would weaken England for his Russian ally. For my part, I promised to be a loyal lapdog, not that we ever expected me to be strong enough to challenge him anyway.

Russia was lukewarm, in general. Sirek and I did trade messages, but he always seemed a little suspicious of me. I suppose that he didn't want me rocking the boat and turning the A/R into an A/F! But, still, he was receptive to my ideas, too.

So I became the third wheel of the A/R bicycle. I dutifully held against Germany and slipped a fleet into Liverpool that eventually conquered all of England's home dots. Austria attacked Germany, and only then did Jamin and I start really making headway. Unfortunately, it was too little too late, as there was no way to stop the Red Tide. I thought about trying to prop up a Germany ex-pat empire, but now my sights were set on 2nd place in this game, so I needed every dot if I were to outrace Russia to that slot.

See, the stated A/F/R goal was to wipe out England and Germany. And then what? Well, no one would discuss that. To me, that meant that the A/R would still hold and I'd be rolled over in turn. But I had no recourse - Germany was down to a few centers, and England was slipping away and attacking his ally! I told Sirek that I'd be willing to vote to concede to Austria when it was just us three left.

Of course, Sirek disbanding his fleet in the south changed that. That pretty much sealed the deal that Austria would stab Russia for the win. I think Sirek realized it, too, as he sent me a message right before a deadline, asking for a mutual defense treaty, which I was glad to accept. If I could crack the A/R, maybe I could still make a run at a win...

PsiDog hit the hole way too fast, though, taking, what, three Russian centers in the initial stab. I was still nowhere near ready, still working on England's removal. So would there be an E/F/R to stop Austria? Logically, England asked for his home centers back, but I couldn't give them - Austria is just two or three dots short of 18, and I've got to lose front-line units so that England, who won't be at the forefront anyway, can gain some? Not a good deal. So I passed.

Then came the final decision - what did Russia want to do? I laid it all out for him: this was going to be a long battle against Austria, and the two most likely scenarios were either PsiDog or me winning, not him. So did he want to make it a fight, or did he want to just call it a day? It was a tough question, and we passed a few difficult messages about it, but in the end Sirek was out of fight, and I was OK with that. I'd have been happy to continue, and maybe we could have held PsiDog to 17, I don't know, but I'm good with the game finish.

My thoughts on the other countries

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Obviously, I didn't know Turkey, so I've nothing to say there. Moody, I had too many other problems to really work with you, and at the time, I needed that dot just as much as you did.

England and Germany, I tried to get in with you guys, but you shut me out. I don't know why there wasn't more communication from Neftren as I was landing in LVP; maybe that was the time you were having NMR problems. Jamin, not to say "I told you so," but, man, did I tell you so!

Sirek Inta, you really were the lynchpin of this game. Not bad for a beginner! The disbanding of your fleet really sealed your doom - I agree with PsiDog's analysis. I completely understand your decision to let the game end.

Psionic Dog, from when I came in through the end you played an excellent game (from your own EOG you seemed to do poorly until then, though!). You were good to me diplomatically, and you managed your forces well. Congratulations. Psst - you did get the lion's share of Germany! LOL

Thanks, Shular, for letting me get involved. Normally, I dislike the replacement player because it can so easily disrupt your plans, but in this case France seemed to have been wasting away, so I don't think there were any real alliances I broke.

I don't have really anything to say about figuring out who was who. Mostly because by the time I came in, everyone had pretty much gone public with that information, so I didn't have any figuring to do. I tried to be mysterious in my first one or two posts and messages and then quickly gave it up.

I'd be happy to pay against you all again sometime, hopefully from the beginning! Thanks to all for making it an enjoyable time.

[Moody the Wise]

Hmmm. I've been reviewing the thread, trying to find something to talk about, since I remember so little of the game at this point. To the credit of, well, everyone else, it's been a long time since I've been in this.

First off, I'd like to apologize to Psionic Dog, and to anyone else to whom I may have come off as arrogant. If it had to do with comments like my checking-in post saying I was prepared to begin my march to victory, then I guess sarcasm doesn't always translate on the internet. If it had to do with comments like "I have an excellent sense of Diplomacy tactics," then, well, maybe it doesn't help to say it like that, but I do. Tactics - which I define as the movement of units - is much more my strong suit than strategy - which I define as the inter-player negotiations. At any rate, I'm not surprised to be accused of arrogance, but I am sorry.

I found this little gem on page 5, and I think it sums things up pretty well: "Oh stop it ... I will not sit idly by and let you all make Italy out to be such a threat. Sure, I've got some units in dangerous places, but look at my opportunities for expansion. They're terrible. Give me credit for surviving, sure, but don't blow things out of proportion."

Italy occupies a strong tactical position in the middle of the board, but needs a very strong strategic effort if it is to accomplish anything. I didn't deliver that. So, I made some interesting moves, which were the basis for a good amount of in-thread commentary, but I never really accomplished much. From probably 1903 or so on, I was more or less waiting to die. And of course, I didn't have long to wait.

The move to the Mid-Atlantic was entirely intentional, and in my mind probably the best move I made in the game. With France swinging his fleet to the South Coast of Spain in Fall 01 and building a fleet in Marseilles over the Winter, it looked like I was in for a painful few years at the hands of France. I figured if I could slip into the Mid-Atlantic, I could hold a pretty powerful bargaining chip over France's head, if not stop that offensive dead in its tracks. A lot of what followed has to be chalked up to France's NMRs and eventual disappearance, but still, I'd say mission accomplished there. I failed to really capitalize on it, though.

I can't really remember what I thought at the time, but looking back, my greatest regret is that I was never able to sort things out with Austria. Of course, while it may have caused him grief at the time, PsiDog can't argue with the end result, eh?

So, basically, this game is a laundry list of my mistakes. I apologize that I wasn't more interesting to play with. I swear I'm capable of greater and more interesting things, and I hope one day to be able to play a better game with some of you. Examples of such games, if you're curious, include but are not limited to The Art of War, where I solo-ed as Russia, and the recently-finished Flames of War, where I forced a 16-11-5-2 draw, which is, I think, the only draw these boards have ever seen.

[Kalirren]

All hail Psionic Dog! Nice job coming back from first-turn Austrian woes to win the crown!

Props to the Director:

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I also must thank you, Shular, for running this most interesting game. I'd most certainly play this variant again. I'm really sorry about having had to bail on the game halfway through; on the bright side I did get those grad school applications in. I'm glad people enjoyed my presence throughout.

On the Subterfuge variant itself:

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The time before the first turn was an experience to rival the entire rest of the game! I do believe that Psionic Dog and I were the first to figure out who was whom, having settled on our line-up once we saw the signal move F Ank S Smy-Con from Turkey in Spring '01. I'm glad to see that he cashed in his informational advantage as Austria much better than I did.

A personal account:

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Having played Germany thrice out of my 4 games of Diplomacy, I wanted to try something different, so I played the first few years of the game in a more or less obstructionist fashion, concordant with what I perceived to be the diplomatic climate of suspicion. Austria wasn't faring so well in the beginning, so I thought it unwise to put all of my eggs in that basket. I branched out to both France and England, though I never really got a working relationship with Italy going, which was what I really needed to counterbalance the support I was offering France. Nevertheless, some things are relatively constant about playing Germany, and one of those pillars of play is that Germany always has to worry about Russia, regardless of whether Russia does well or badly.

There were two defining moments in the game for me; the first came as a surprise to me, when Kaiser Jamin turned around and attacked France in Fall 1902 instead of Warsaw as I had been planning; then again, I suppose I would have done the same in Germany's board position had I not had an understanding with Daniel M as France. I wish I had done better in transferring this rapport to Jamin. As it stood in Spring 1902, the German board position was pro-English and anti-French, and the French board position was anti-German, but this belied my understanding with Daniel M, which was that we would both fake a buildup of forces on the Burgundy-Munich-Holland-Belgium front, with Ruhr an implicit DMZ, and then explode from the fake stalemate in completely different directions, taking England, Russia and Italy by surprise.

In the event of a French stab, I was prepared to lose Munich for Warsaw and ride the English-Italian boat. Losing Munich would give me enough of a pretext to confess to Italy that I was who I was, and then we could work on France from there. If I could get France and Austria to fight over Munich, then the Anglo-German alliance would be safe to eliminate Russia. France and England would then fight over England, and I would turn south from my position in Russia to deal with Turkey, whom I slated as the winner in the Balkans if I attacked Russia. But my ideal scenario was a French-German-Austrian cooperation, from which France would later be eliminated.

But all of that didn't happen; instead, we got a double standoff in the Ardennes and Scandinavia for about two years, which effectively handed time over to the R-A alliance for them to win the Southeastern division playoffs, eliminating Italy's ally Turkey and eventually Italy as well.

The second surprise for me came after Italy's single NMR in the game on what I thought was its most critical turn for its survival. I think that if communication between Italy and Germany been better, France would actually have collapsed and the final result would have been an EGvRA draw with Russia occupying Berlin and having lost StP, Austria occupying the Italian Peninsula and possibly Munich, and Germany occupying France. However, I don't respect my own opinion there, because by that time I had lost track of the web of personal trust. I can't speculate. What I did know, however, was that without Italy and Turkey, Germany was dead.

To Abelard:

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I was surprised at the renaissance of France. Very well done. I couldn't have done what you did.

To the Emperor:

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As for my anti-Austrian commentary near the end of the game, I had already publicly said that my money was on Austria, so what was I to do? Couldn't afford to let the Northern Grand Alliance actually form, so I paraded the horrible thought of letting England share in a draw with them. I have to say that you totally deserve your new title of Emperor for that marvelous piece of Diplomacy that you wrote in response to my commentary. Well done. You ran that idea down to the finish line. They bought it. My heart was always with you, I rooted for you all game after I saw that Germany was doomed.

To Jamin:

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Thank you very much for assuming my position in my time of RL need. I'm sorry I didn't do a better job of ensuring a smooth transition to power.

To Moody:

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My dealings with you were perhaps my one greatest mistake in this game. I never was honest with you, and that cost us a potentially valuable cooperation. I remember thinking I had grown too attached to Austria to risk your passing information to Aergoth, but the truth was that we needed to talk, or at least that I needed to talk to you.

To Neftren:

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I don't actually know what to think. You were guarded, and I was frank. I remember you saying that there was a point where one or the other of us would be saying, "I told you so," and I don't think that ever really came.

All hail His Excellency!

[Jamin]

Well I had fun up until the double stab there. I would like to say that I never had any plans of following Kalirren plans. I am my own person for better or worse. I had a problem finding an ally I wanted to form an alliance with Moody and take out France but than he kept trying to move into my SCs among other things. I knew that Austria was going to become a power house and since he was working with Russia he would not need me so I broke the alliance. So I choose England which proved to be a bad idea. My late game plan was to kill France slowly to make up for my loses to Austria but that plan went south so good game all

P.S. I only NMR once and that was when it did not matter.

P.P.S.I am in fact the real winner because of the all powerful win game move