Smid's Diplomacy Game Thread #1

[The Mikado]

Disband Tuscany (naturally).

Smid, sounds like Brisbane's fantastic.  I take it you're also an Indian food lover?

[Хahar 🤔]

Bah. Indian food is boring.

[minionofmidas]

Bah. Indian food is boring.

Wtf?

[Lunar]

that makes me crave Indian food.

now I know what I'll be eating for lunch

[Хahar 🤔]

Bah. Indian food is boring.

Wtf?

It is. It is very boring.

Or I eat a very boring version.

[ilikeverin]

We had a great flight up to Brisbane, very little turbulence and a remarkably smooth landing. The family is all well. We went to church this morning and the pastor

Pastor? Which denominations use that in English?

Oh yah, and build A Edinburgh still goes.

Most of the mainstream evangelical protestant churches use the term, I think. The denominations I've been raised in use the term fairly interchangeably with Minister. I wasn't in a baptist church this morning, but if you think of me as being a baptist, you're not too far off the mark.

I have pastors, not ministers; I'm Methodist.

[Smid]

France built a fleet in Brest and an army in Paris, England built an army in Edinburgh, Russia built a fleet in Sevastopol, Italy disbanded a fleet in Tuscany.

The map therefore appears:

[Smid]

Smid, sounds like Brisbane's fantastic.  I take it you're also an Indian food lover?

Brisbane's going great, and yes, I love Indian food. There is this fantastic Indian restaurant a few doors up from where I work in Melbourne. The owner used to manage the Sheraton Hotel's Indian restaurant in Mumbai or New Delhi (I forget which), and because the restaurant is in a bit of a dodgy part of town, it's pretty cheap when we get it for lunch. We also have some really good Vietnamese restaurants around down there, too.

Punjabi Palace in West End is pretty well known among Brisbanites, at least among those who enjoy Indian food. A few years back I helped them with an immigration case - so I know for a fact that they seek (or should that be Sikh?) out chefs in India to come and do their cooking for them, so it's all authentic.

Yesterday the weather was absolutely perfect and we all headed down to the beach at Burleigh (on the Gold Coast). My fiancee loves the beach and this was the first time her sister had seen the ocean (having lived all her life in Alberta). Her sister has a great SLR camera and took 450 photos, most of which turned out really well. Depending on the light, the sea ranged from turquoise to a deep saphire blue, the sand was brilliant white, the sky was a deep blue also, and there were a few white, fluffy clouds (a few more earlier in the day, a few less later in the day), and with all the rain Burleigh Mountain (pretty small for a "mountain," really) was a rich, vibrant green.

This afternoon we went up to meet an old friend of mine and her boyfriend for coffee. I hadn't seen her in a couple of years (not since she moved to Cairns, and I to Melbourne) and she'd never met my fiancee, nor had I met her boyfriend. She's presently writing her PhD thesis, so she's a pretty smart cookie. Anyway, it was really great catching up with her. I think tomorrow's going to be a slow bludgy day. I'm looking forward to Christmas Day, too, but I'll leave that for a future post.

[Smid]

Okay, the moves for this turn were:



France
A Ankara Holds
A Apulia - Venice (*Fails*)
F Brest - Mid-Atlantic Ocean
F Greece - Aegean Sea (*Bounce*)
F Gulf of Lyon Supports A Marseilles - Piedmont
A Marseilles - Piedmont
A Paris - Burgundy
F Rome Holds
A Ruhr Supports A Paris - Burgundy
F Tyrrhenian Sea - Ionian Sea

Russia
F Constantinople - Aegean Sea (*Bounce*)
A Moscow Holds
A Munich Supports A Prussia - Berlin
A Piedmont - Tuscany
A Prussia - Berlin
A Rumania - Bulgaria
F Sevastopol - Black Sea
A Silesia Supports A Prussia - Berlin
A Smyrna - Armenia
A Tyrolia Supports A Venice
A Warsaw Supports A Moscow

Italy
A Venice Supports A Piedmont - Tuscany (*Cut*)

Germany
N/A

Austria-Hungary
N/A

Turkey
N/A

England
F Baltic Sea - Prussia
F Barents Sea Holds
F Berlin Supports A Ruhr - Munich (*Dislodged*)
A Edinburgh - Denmark
F Gulf of Bothnia - Livonia (*Fails*)
F Helgoland Bight - Holland
A Kiel Supports F Berlin
A Livonia - Moscow (*Fails*)
F North Sea Convoys A Edinburgh - Denmark
F Norwegian Sea Holds
A St Petersburg Supports A Livonia - Moscow

After moving, the map appears thus:



There is therefore one retreat required - the German fleet from Berlin, although I believe there is only one province to which it can retreat.

[Smid]

Christmas was great - we started off the day by going to the church service. In days gone by, we always went over to my grandparents' for Christmas Day lunch, however last year and this year, the family has all gathered over at my parents' house. We had 21 of us all around a big table outside (sort of think deck, but not raised).

Christmas in summer in Australia is probably a bit different to Christmas in the northern hemisphere. Most Australian families (I think) have prawns and seafood for lunch, although that's usually too expensive for us. I think most would also have a barbecue, but we have a fairly large gathering so we normally have cold cuts and salad. This year we had chicken, turkey, ham and roast pork (all served cold) plus a garden salad, a mediterranean salad (with fetta and olives and sundried tomatos along with the lettuce and cuccumber), a tropical salad (which included grapes and slices of mango in addition to the normal lettuce and tomato and so on in there), my sister's caesar salad (probably the best recipe I've ever tasted - it's entirely home made from the croutons she bakes through to the dressing she makes herself), a noodle salad, and, well, plenty more salads as well. The weather's so hot that you don't really feel like eating much more than salad anyway, so I guess it's a fairly healthy sort of Christmas lunch.

The whole warm-weather thing for Christmas is probably quite different to how most people experience Christmas. Actually, the husband of a friend of my sister's has put out a Christmas cd. One of the songs he does, he changes Winter Wonderland (one of my favourite Christmas songs) to Aussie Wonderland and while I can't remember all of the lines, I remember that he changes "gone is the bluebird" line to "gone is the snow man, here to stay is the beach sand" - so we change a few carols and Christmas songs around to make them more appropriate to our climate. I've also heard Jingle Bells changed to be "Dashing through the bush, in a rusty Holden ute" (for your reference, Holden ute = GM truck).

We headed over to a mate's place the other night for a LAN session playing Dawn of War. There were five of us playing and we had a fantastic time. I think that was Saturday night. Last night we headed down to the Gold Coast again with a couple of mates and we went for dinner at an italian restaurant quite near to Jupiters Casino.

Today we again headed down to a Gold Coast beach - Currumbin this time. The water was nice and warm (from what I read on the Bureau of Meteorology website, warmer than Melbourne was today). My tan is coming back after having spent far too long in the colder climes of Victoria (when I moved there, I was nicely tanned as a Queenslander should be, however I've lost most of that tan since I moved there). We had a barbecue dinner down by the beach and then this massive storm rolled in. Because it was off in the distance at first, we went down on the beach and watched the massive sheets of lightning illuminating the western sky, but we moved up to the cars and drove off when it started raining, which was just as well because it came down in torrents and even hailed a little (although the hail was light and small and didn't do any damage to the cars, fortunately). It was my fiancee's first experience of a sub-tropical storm (something she's been wanting to experience for quite some time, so she was quite pleased).

Anyway, that's sort of what's been happening for me over the past week.

[Lunar]

I thought for sure Jas would try and backtrack into Armenia to help Lewis push into my North!  Well, I didn't know for sure, I was just suspicious

[minionofmidas]

I'll be making that retreat.

[Smid]

I'll be making that retreat.

Cheers - I'm on my parents' computer (ie - no Realpolitik) so I'll log on via my laptop later tonight and upload that map update for the retreat then. To the Baltic, if my memory serves me correct?

[Lunar]

I'll be making that retreat.

Cheers - I'm on my parents' computer (ie - no Realpolitik) so I'll log on via my laptop later tonight and upload that map update for the retreat then. To the Baltic, if my memory serves me correct?

word.

This game could get either really interesting or really boring really soon, stay tuned

[minionofmidas]

I'll be making that retreat.

Cheers - I'm on my parents' computer (ie - no Realpolitik) so I'll log on via my laptop later tonight and upload that map update for the retreat then. To the Baltic, if my memory serves me correct?

Yes.

[Smid]

Following the English retreat from Berlin to the Baltic, the map appears thus:

[The Mikado]

I think now would be a good time to call for a draw.  We have four relatively balanced and equal players still in the game.

[Smid]

The moves for Fall 1911 are:



France
A Ankara Hold (*Dislodged*)
A Apulia - Venice (*Fails*)
A Burgundy Supports A Ruhr - Munich
F Greece - Bulgaria (sc) (*Fails*)
F Gulf of Lyon - Tuscany (*Fails*)
F Ionian Sea - Aegean Sea (*Bounce*)
F Mid-Atlantic Ocean - Western Mediterranean
A Piedmont Supports A Apulia - Venice (*Cut*)
F Rome Supports F Gulf of Lyon - Tuscany (*Cut*)
A Ruhr - Munich (*Fails*)

Russia
A Armenia Supports F Black Sea - Ankara
A Berlin - Prussia (*Disbanded*)
F Black Sea - Ankara
A Bulgaria - Greece (*Fails*)
F Constantinople - Aegean Sea (*Bounce*)
A Moscow Holds
A Munich Supports A Ruhr - Kiel (*Void*)
A Silesia Supports A Berlin - Prussia
A Tuscany - Piedmont (*Fails*)
A Tyrolia Supports A Munich
A Warsaw Supports A Moscow

Italy
A Venice - Rome (*Fails*)

Germany
N/A

Austria-Hungary
N/A

Turkey
N/A

England
F Baltic Sea Supports F Prussia - Berlin
F Barents Sea - St Petersburg (nc) (*Fails*)
A Denmark - Sweden
F Gulf of Bothnia Supports A Livonia
F Holland Supports A Kiel
A Kiel Supports F Prussia - Berlin
A Livonia Supports A St Petersburg - Moscow
F North Sea - Helgoland Bight
F Norwegian Sea - North Sea
F Prussia - Berlin
A St Petersburg - Moscow (*Fails*)

Before retreats, the map now appears thus:



The Russian army in Berlin lacked a province for retreat and was disbanded. A retreat is required for the French Army in Ankara. There's only one province available, so I assume you'd like it to retreat to Smyrna?

Depending on the French retreat, it would appear that there will only be one required build - by Russia, to replace the army disbanded in Berlin.

Italy has raised the question of armistice, after an eleven-year war to end all wars. I think the fairest way to determine a draw would be a PM from everyone, and I think a unanimous vote. Everyone okay with that in concept?

[minionofmidas]

Agree with the concept.

[Lunar]

I agree with the concept as well

A Munich Supports A Ruhr - Kiel (*Void*)

omg Jas I thought you had my back

[minionofmidas]

I agree with the concept as well

A Munich Supports A Ruhr - Kiel (*Void*)

omg Jas I thought you had my back

He did.

[Lunar]

joking, haha

[Smid]

France is retreating to Smyrna, Russia is building an army in Sevastopol. I'll update the map once I am online using my computer.

[Smid]

The vote on a draw was resolved in the negative at this time.

[Lunar]

I probably won't be able to send moves since it's my birthday and I got better things to do.   I didn't prepare in advance because I'm an idiot, natch