Smid's Diplomacy Game Thread #1

[Lunar]

Can you move an army from Norway to St. Petersburg?

One of our assignments in a political science class is to defeat other groups at this game.  I typed overly-long messages to people as Germany and I think they attacked me because they were annoyed by my over-strategizing.  I read hundreds of pages of Diplomacy strategy and would write up pages to various countries.

Have to convince England to do this move to stop Russia.  I'm interested in the next round if there's a spot too here.

[Lunar]

It's interesting that Italy is considered so poor. When I played this with my friends we were basically all in agreement that Austria was the worse choice. But I suppose I must bow to the Diplomacy authorities.

I remember looking it up, and I think Italy has the lowest "win" rate out of all of the countries and Austria has the highest elimination rate.

[Lunar]

Question: Can a fleet on a coast, SUPPORT, but not attack, an inland province?

[Lunar]

Alright, thanks.  Shucks.  Can you disband a unit when it's not forced into a box and you haven't lost a supply center?

[Lunar]

GO GERMANY GO!

[Lunar]

One last question:

I know that Spain, Bulgaria and St. Petersburg have North/South ports for fleets, but can a fleet move or support an attack from Smryna to Ankara?  Or a fleet from Venice to Rome?  I assume not, but just curious.

If anyone wants to see my class's map, it can be seen here (I think), just click "download file"
http://www.wikiupload.com/download_page.php?id=70757

I'm Gemany in a hard-alliance with England.  I entered hard negotiations last turn to get us both to withdraw our troops from the Denmark-Sweden border, truly the triumph of diplomacy where both of us would benefit from backstabbing the other (and only so many turns left in the game, since it's one turn a week and the semester ends before January).

We would have gained 3 territories in the initial 2 turns, but everything that could go wrong did.  I think the other teams got annoyed with my long essays about why an alliance with me would be advantageous and some people acted irrationally/unpredictably (Italy going for Munich when it was obvious they couldn't hold it)

[Lunar]

Ah, thank you.  No need to check out the map unless you're curious at my attempt for extra credit in an upper division political science class.

[Lunar]

Ah, thank you.  No need to check out the map unless you're curious at my attempt for extra credit in an upper division political science class.

I did check, and with your alliance you look to be in decent shape. Th Russian seem to have quite a strange position. It's hard to see who their friends are.

They tried to organize against us (Germany) despite my overtures against them.  At one point not too long ago Russia had Berlin and Italy had Munich.   I helped England attack them and France backstabbed England, creating a mutual need for an alliance.  Most teams are unresponsive, thus I've decided to rely completely on teams that are actually willing to respond to emails (just the one - England) and put my complete trust in them.  Seems more effective for the long-term.  I've had to move my troops around quite a bit and all of my initial gambles fell apart in the absolute worst way.  This is my salvage, haha.

Russia's gotten demoralized, I can hear them talking in class.  This is bad because if they are predictable I know the right move for me to make (A Prussia -> Poland, A Silesia support A Kiel -> Munich) since they should either give up on Poland or send 2 guys there.

[Lunar]

Yeah I saw.  I'm probably down.

[Lunar]

Russia builds the only move possible.  A Moscow.

[Lunar]

So are you in charge there now? Or is that a prediction?

I believe so.

I was going to take over last week but I was sort of half-committed and then made Gustaf make the moves at the last second like a big jerk. 

[Lunar]

It's weird that you received duel orders, am I in charge now, or would Gustaf like to control this for another few weeks? 

I can take over whenever he gets overworked or whatever.  I'm not like having nightmares about it or anything and he did build up his current status himself.

[Lunar]

I'm officially taking over for Russia everyone and I look forward to a peaceful and healthy relationship with everyone!

[Lunar]

Oh right, I control your old country.  You're now a citizen of our great empire!

[Lunar]

But yeah, a new, open Russia is in town.  And if either France or England would like help backstabbing the other, just send me a PM!

[Lunar]

Oh I'm so excited oh oh!

[Lunar]

Wait, attacking cuts off support, right?

If I attack Norway and Sweden, then only one unit can attack Finland unsupported, right?  How could that succeed?

[Lunar]

Ah, that subpoint was unaware to me.  I thought I had the perfect strategy up there.  I thought Diplomacy was a simple game, but it gets more and more complicated the more I try and assemble my grand strategy together

Hmm...

thanks, I'll learn from my lessons.  My moves still weren't bad, even if I had known this rule.  It's just that they were less effective.  If I had fixed things retroactively, I could have stopped it, but I would have opened myself to an even bigger opening.  So I suppose I did nothing wrong, haha.

Onward, ho!

[Lunar]

Some Drama:

1) Will France try and squash the last drop of life out of Turkey?
2) What will happen in Italy?
3) Can Lunar push Lewis back out of Finland and hold the North?
4) Where will Lewis go after StP - should he get it ?  He'll only have 2-3 armies and all of my other SC's are inland!  Will he let France get the lion's share of everything else?

[Lunar]

Damn, I thought Lewis might attack StP from Norway to get his army up there instead of his fleet and I could sneak into Norway.  That was my dream.

Only thing I'm disappointed in is Southern Italy, that area looks more hostile than I had hoped.

Question:  If I disbanded my army in StP, could I rebuild it that very same turn?

[Lunar]

So if I disbanded my retreat, I could immediately build a new unit Warsaw?  If that's the case then I disband.

[Lunar]

So if I disbanded my retreat, I could immediately build a new unit Warsaw?  If that's the case then I disband.

If I can't immediately/consecutively build an army elsewhere, I retreat to Moscow btw.

[Lunar]

So if I disbanded my retreat, I could immediately build a new unit Warsaw?  If that's the case then I disband.

Yes, that is correct.
Wouldn't you get two builds in that case, though? You lost a unit in the spring, held your centers total.

You took a province, I gained a province in Ukraine.  No inherent gain, right?

Just one build?

Makes a lot more sense for me to have a unit that can defend Livonia next turn rather than somehow shuttling my unit around from Ukraine to someplace useful.

[Lunar]

Oh, haha, I completely didn't notice that Finland unit dying.  I'm chagrined.  Even if I had taken Norway like my secret plan (which is no longer feasible) I wouldn't have been able to build extra units.  I actually don't need much more than two units to contain you up North for the next four or so

Fine, I formally retreat to Moscow.

[Lunar]

I know.

I thought it all through like crazy.  You could have stopped me but I tried my damnedest to hint at the imperfect set of moves (my buried comment about Finland, talking with you and Jas etc).   Convincing you not to make those necessary moves was my number one priority haha.  I  doubt I was successful and I suspect that you would have made the same moves you made regardless, but at least I tried.

Unfortunately Jas figured out what he needed to do (attacking Napoli).  I'll try harder at confusing him next time!!