Thread: Diplomacy
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Old March 31st, 2021, 10:59 AM
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Re: Diplomacy

Just getting down my usual rambling post game thoughts here.


1901

I mucked up and wasn't paying attention to the site when the game started, as I'm not active on HSers anymore. That led to the game starting but me not knowing about it until some days later. This lead to the start getting further delayed, and meant we were kind of playing the early game during Thanksgiving period which I don't think was good for anyone, so apologies to all on that.

Being a bit behind, I knew it might be tricky to get the diplomatic relations I was hoping for early on. Fortunately most players here seemed amenable still and not too locked in. I did early on offer to Germany that I'd play a very aggressive northern game with MOS-STP and STP-NWY in the fall then to slow down England if they would give me SWE, but they did not bite on that. I also told my neighbors I would go for GAL and BLA and be happy to bounce.



Personally I love playing Russia, but I always am a bit wary of it, especially with newer players Many see this nation that looks to be covering half the board and has 4 centers, surely it's very strong. But I think Russia is actually one of the nations most likely to get killed rapidly if you aren't careful as you have 2 fronts to fight in the north and south and can't really ensure any builds without risking losing other significant territory. So much like how I would play Austria early, I think strong defense is more important in the south and I do like my opening moves.

After the spring, I was actually feeling really good. Like that was nearly ideal for me. Italy had hit Austria hard which is perfect--Italy/Russia alliances work well, Austria going down rapidly often means a strong Russia, and there still are options for a Russia/Turkey alliance. With Austria already having issues with Italy, their main option likely would be to work with me, for making an enemy of Russia and Italy would seem like suicide.



Things also seemed good in the north. Germany had clear and obvious pressure early from France and England, so it would seem natural he would want an ally in the north and I could provide him that. I promised if he gave me SWE I'd build a fleet in the north wherever he dictated, and I would have followed through.



Then disaster. Somehow everyone was lying to me early. Well everyone being Turkey, Austria, and Germany. All three claimed they wanted to work with me and that everything was fine. Germany had promised me SWE, agreeing to the threat from England and France. Austria had said he'd want to work with me to make sure Italy didn't just destroy him. Italy and Turkey had made it sound like they would focus on blocking Austria in GRE or SER, and Turkey sounded like he may want to work with me, and we were debating how to deal with the BLA sea. Instead Germany blocks me in SWE, and Austria makes an enemy of me, and Turkey ruins any trust he had with me or Italy with his move. Baffling to me, both of those moves seemed wrong, but it was a huge blow to me.



1902

Having no builds, and suddenly Turkey, Austria, and Germany are against me, I am pretty worried this is morphing to a quick Russian exit. All I can do is try to work with Italy. We both communicated well and in ways I think each other appreciated, and we both had trust in the other to follow through on what we were saying and to actually tell the blunt truth to each other. It was very refreshing since it was the only player all game that managed that feat with me--yet I actually think that's a bit atypical, as the best Diplomacy players are the ones that can manage to build that rapport and leverage it all game. Alas!

I at least get Germany to aid me this season and do make some gains. Turkey is in for a quick exit here as Italy doesn't trust him anymore, he made it clear he would only have war with me, so I'm not quite sure what he was thinking. Really curious actually how he figured he'd win the game with no allies, but in my opinion he got exactly what he deserved for his poor diplomatic play this game with a rapid exit.



1903

Throughout this game England has been at least talking to me, but I see no path to working together. At the start of this season he once again asks if we can work together, but I'm not seeing it. England is in no position to turn on France or attack them, and both him and France are asking me to help them attack Germany. I think this is a bit of poor diplomacy on both of their parts--it seems like their alliance was not that rock solid, but neither put themselves in position to attack the other, so how could I possibly justify aiding them? As long as they looked like and moved like they were allied, I can't help them bust up Germany rapidly, or else they'd have punched through the board too fast and gotten past the stalemate lines and just bashed us all.

It was this early (actually late 1902) where I already was bringing up the threat England/France posed given that Austria was too weak to back up Germany, my slow start meant I wasn't in the best position to harry England, and the south was not resolving that rapidly (it's tough to crack Turkey quickly). I was pretty concerned that if I didn't hold in the north and Italy didn't turn to the southern seas, and if Austria didn't establish the army line in the center of the board that England and France would bust through the stalemate lines and we'd all be doomed.

Understandably, as the game progressed, it became clear that Austria probably wasn't quite as experienced, or else just not as worried about the stalemate line I could see coming. Predictably they just turned on me, for I left myself a tad open. I play to win, and the only winning line I saw was for Austria/Italy/Russia to rush to the stalemate line and push past ourselves first. I think with my northern fleets and prescence and if Italy had been free to rush the southern seas, I think we stood a shot at making sure this game wasn't a stalemate. If Austria turned on me, I was pretty sure we'd either be handing things to England/France, or it'd be a massive draw, and so I took the path I thought might have a good result for me.

Instead Austrria attacked, Italy was pragmatic as always and knew he had to go with it to maintain an ally and any shot at holding the stalemate lines intact. Eventually he was able to coax Austria around in to realizing we had to rush the stalemate lines so we could hold them, and that they probably needed my help to do that.



Rest of the Game

I never had any love for France. They in my opinion were pretty bad diplomatically as they rarely talked to me and never really shared what their goals were or any real vision for why I should help him. He just reached out only when he thought I could maybe help him, and otherwise gave me nothing. I certainly had no reason to help him win.

England was a bit better, but also largely had reached out just asking for my help, never actually aided me anywhere, and never really sold a realistic plan for how we'd work together. I can't imaging Kinseth in my shoes would have ever allied with England given the position or the movements that transpired, so I always felt a bit miffed when England seemed a bit confused why I wasn't more amenable to anything. I just saw all of it as non-viable when it seemed clear I'd just be hastening the demise of Germany to lead to my own demise. I guess I could have worked with him and somehow hoped he'd turn on France, but I think that line only makes some sense if England shows some commitment to it first, otherwise it's far too risky.

While I wasn't happy with Austria choosing to block me in Fall of 1901, nor with him being a tad shortsighted and going for my centers and then later realizing I was right about the threat on the stalemate line front, I still found him more amenable to talking to and working things out than England or France.



But the real diplomacy MVP of this round was Italy. He had never betrayed me in my eyes and had great reads on looking over the board and communicating. I was quite happy to get involved again in the later seasons as I had kind of got cut out of everything around 1904 when it was clear I wasn't long for the game. England and France again never really offered me anything or gave me a reason to get involved, so it was fun to talk through everything with Austria and Italy in detail.

It seems that kind of paid off towards the end, as my insights in the stalemate lines and what combination of moves we could all make made Italy and Austria interested in keeping me around, even though they could have maneuvered to remove me.



Which leads to my final thoughts, which I will actually put in another post as I think the issue of why we didn't all draw earlier and the end game communication deserve to be highlighted a bit more in their own topic.

Ranior is DJ Khosumet the current and hopefully future Dark Lord...
in THE FRACTAL COMPLEX
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