Bat - EGS

Game Started: 19th August 2003
Game Ended: 19th December 2003
Result: England Won!

Country	Player	Performance
Austria-Hungary	Patrick McDonald	Survived
England	Wayne Read	Won
France	Marcelo Morandini	Eliminated
Germany	Matthew Jennings	Survived
Italy	Robert Dane	Eliminated
Russia	Kester Bearne	Eliminated
Turkey	Thomas Gourgolitsas	Eliminated
GM	Ally Bain	Survived

Austria-Hungary

To start off I would like to thank Ally for GMing this game. As he has told me this game took him on average an hour to adjunction. Secondly I would like to congratulate England on his victory, for if he hadn't won then I surely would have! As you will see from previous seasons I made a number of mistakes. I can't say that they have lost me the game but they may have. Forgetting a retreat cost me valuable time in my battle against Turkey and may have allowed England to take Tunis before I could.

I would like to give you all an idea of my basic plans from each season to season.

Pre-S01:
When Ally asked me to join the game I was very excited until I thought of the chance of playing Austria! Wow and behold I get Austria!

S01:
My first thought was on survival. My moves were a little risky but I hoped to gain at least 1 or 2 centers in the first year strengthening my position.

A01:
I was a little surprised that I was not bounced in Galacia. I was also surprised to see a Russian army in Silesia. What scared me was what I didn't see, I had no knowledge of an Italian attack on my back step. The lack of a fleet in the Ionian was a little odd but I figured that Italy was likely trying to hide its whereabouts and his intentions.

S02:
With two centers and two armies I started to feel good. With an empty Venice I guessed that Italy was likely attacking France from behind. I set out to strengthen my position in the east against any Turkish or Russian plans.

A02:
Taking Bulgaria surprised me.... As did the German army in Silesia.

S03:
By now I was starting to get cocky.... This would cause me problems. 7 centers by A02. I decided to extend my empire southward while protecting me flank.

A03:
A miss-order I think kept my fleet in Trieste grounded.

S04:
Having taken the Aegean and the Adriatic things looked good. I considered making a grab for Venice but figured that angering Italy was not the best idea at the time.

A04:
My first sight of Italian units confirms my belief of westward expansion. The death of Turkey seemed to be only a matter of time.

S05:
I took the East Med. The invasion of the Turkish mainland seemed imminent.

A05:
Italy sends an army to Ven and a Fleet to Ionian. What was he thinking?

S06:
I feared that Italy might cut support in my fleet in the Aegean throwing off my plans. His grab at Tri and Gre showed me that he wasn't being friendly!

A06:
I planned to make him pay! My expansion north into Russia and into Tyrolia were unhindered. I honestly began to wonder if I could snatch a victory, could anyone stand before me?

S07:
My ego was taken down a notch with the loss of a fleet and of Smyrna. It reminded me that I still had to out-think and out-play them and that victory was not assured. But the gain of Venice and Sevastopol counterbalanced my loss.

A07:
My walk into Italy seemed all but assured. That Russian army in Galacia the previous season worried me, would he grab for a center?

S08:
With the gain of Rome I knew there was nothing Italy could do to stop me. The plans on the Russian attack were underway.

A08:
This is when I started to get scared. That English fleet in Tunis stood there mocking me! My thoughts were to take War, Mos, Nap, Tun, Turkey and maybe Munich for the win. That English fleet in Tunis put a new perspective on things, did I have to worry about someone Solo-ing before me? Never! I would have seen something! And Germany would be delaying them allowing me to snatch victory!

S09:
England in Moscow and a fleet in Tun and Tys. Dammit Germany! Hold them off until I could win!

S09 after adjunction:
England in Silesia.... Not a good sign took Smyrna. Germany just hold on for a year! Just one more damn year! I gave up on Tunis but if I could take Munich and Moscow then maybe I could still win. As of now I wasn't sure of the extent of English expansion but I figured they must be at 13-14.

A09:
Game over! NO! I WAS GOING TO WIN DAMMIT!!!!!!! Seems I once again forgot some builds.

I wish all of you well in your previous games. I hope to play with you all in future games especially you England.... Maybe if we combine our power and you leave yourself undefended......

Hello Ally, Can I get a rematch vs. England!
Stealing my victory!
How dare he!
But how 'bout another round?
Maybe this time Blinded-Elimination instead of Blinded-Gunboat.
But thats just a thought.
If you make any plans for a sequal consider me signed on!

Best, Patrick

England

This is a really good variant, and no I’m not just saying that because I won. I liked the idea of not knowing exactly what the opposition was up to and trying to guess what was happening from the very limited information available. This is quite realistic for the time period that Diplomacy is set in, commanders never had all the facts to hand and battlefields were often a matter of chance as opposed to planned locations.

I was very lucky with the start of this game and certainly benefited from the fact that England is more isolated that other countries. I gambled on France being friendly and Russia not opening to the North.

Spring 1901 – so far so good, no French Fleet

Autumn 1901 – I make an unsupported convoy to Nwy and also move to BAR, phew, both succeed.

That’s it, I station a Fleet in Lpl and can now see the entire Northern part of the Map. No-one can surprise me and I’m now all set to take first Stp and then Swe. I think that 1901 was the only time that I took a big risk, the rest of the game just seemed to flow from that early gamble. I supported France into Hol to keep good relations but all the time I was plotting my attack.

I had a bit of a disappointment in 1904. I’d positioned Fleets in Lon, Wal and Lpl and in S1904 launched my attack on the Atlantic with moves to ENG, NAO & IRI, but there was no French Fleet in MAO! I couldn’t believe it, how could France leave his backdoor open? I was must disappointed because Ally was the only one to witness my well-planned blitzkrieg attack! :o) The only thing that France knew was that I was in the Channel. In fact, Germany had better visibility of how well I was doing as he could see my units in Den, HEL & NTH.

Taking France was just a formality now, especially as I was getting unexpected help. In S1906 poor ol’ France had English Fleets in Por & Spa, a German Army in Par and an Italian Fleet in Mar – cheers guys, that helped no end!

The same season Russia tried to kick me out of Stp but I’d managed to get an Army to Nwy the same season and so couldn’t be dislodged.

I knew that Austria was doing OK as the Russian Army in Mos had been supporting his unit in Sev for a few seasons. Then in Spring 1908 we came in direct contact for the first time when I took Tun off of France. I’m guessing that he was surprised to see me down there as France had been a presence in the area for some time, but I think he must’ve had a bigger shock when I took Mos off of Russia the very next season!

I had hoped to win this game without actually eliminating anyone. I had planned to leave France in Mar, Germany in Mun and Russia in War. But Austria dislodged Russia from War in S1909 and I realised that the Austrian opposition was a real threat so I decided to attack Mar the next season.

As it turned out A1901 was the end. I was a bit surprised as I expected Austria to take Mos off of me to keep me on 17, but obviously he didn’t realise how important attacking Mos was. It wouldn’t have made much difference though as the same season I had managed to get two units behind the stalemate line to Gal & EMS.

As I said before I really enjoyed this variant, and would certainly like to play it again. A mention should go to Germany who put up a stout defence, but France and the Med was always my biggest target once the German fleets had been neutralised. Condolences to Austria, from what I can gather you were just a few seasons behind me.

And of course a very, very big congratulations goes to Ally. This must’ve been a pig of a game to adjudicate and you did a sterling job. We had quite a few discussions on the interpretation of the rules and there were a couple of occasions when you either, told me a little too much, or not enough in the adjudication. But I think those discrepancies cancelled each other out, and certainly didn’t have much impact on the game. I was always impressed that I got the correct map, I’ll bet you lost some sleep worrying about that possible disaster! :o)

So, thank you Ally, thanks for the invite and thanks for all the effort, I had a good time.

Cheers, Wayne

France

Well, for me it was really amazing to play a "blind version". It was my 1st time and I loved that.

Even more as it was a "blind gunboat". I am just sad for not doing better due to a critical error in an early of the game: I forgot to send in my orders an important retreat. This made my unit disband and so the SC that I would be able to recover got into the enemy´s hand... And so England took a serious advantage of being more powerful and attacked me and was succesfull.

I am just sad for not having a stronger Russia as an ally in the scandinavia region.

To be honest, I think that my main sin in gunboat games is the ausence of ability to make alliances. This makes me as a number 1 target for some players, and so bye-bye game... ;-)

But, specially in Bat, England did very well in his fight against me (France) and deserved the advantage. Now, I must take care in my next set of orders.

See you all guys in other games.

Thanks Ally for the lots of GMing

Cheers, Marcelo

Germany

I feel an astonishing sense of deja vu

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"I came. I saw. I was conquered.

My game came to an abrupt halt in S1901 after a vigorous onslaught from France and Russia with France taking Bur (I had gambled and lost by ordering A.Mun - Ruh) and Russia ordering A.War - Sil. After that season, England joined in and my fate was sealed."

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HOLD ON DIDN'T I JUST WRITE THAT YESTERDAY FOR MY EGS FOR PIRANHA. YEP!

THEN THE REST MUST HOLD TRUE ASWELL

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"This was a real shame having just won by previous 2 gunboat games[ONLY KNOW I HAVE JUST LOST ONE OUTRIGHT CALLED PIRANHA], I was hoping to do better than I did here. But one small consolation is that after that assault my early bath was somewhat inevitable.

But there are a few points worth making here. Austria [NEARLY] won and did so (for many reasons which I will leave to others to discuss) but also by capitalising on a good opening. This opening was made possible by Russia not taking any real active interest in the Balkans (due to A.War - Sil) until Austria became too strong. So Russia's 1st year's order to Sil had a number of consequences:
1) Austria was able to get 2 builds in the 1st year,
2) It contributed to Russia getting none,
3) It forced me to have to fight a war on all fronts - my virtual exit stage left.

So in hindsight A.War-Sil gave Austria its platform for [NEAR] victory and Russia its own demise too.

So my 2nd consolation is that my 1st year protagonists, France and Russia, were also eliminated from this game too. So there must be a God then. :)

Thanks to Ally for GMing us well again and also to you all for a good game."

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Now I swear to you that that is what I wrote for the Piranha EGS. You can check it there. Funny how the game history repeated itself (except on this occasion England triumphed over Austria)! And as a History teacher I should be dis-suading my pupils from making remarks such as History repeating itself, BUT IT BLOODY DID TOO. And the real sickener is that I couldn't do much about it either. ARGH!

Anyway, major congratulations to England and Austria who both did extraordinarily well given the difficulty of playing within these parameters of a 2 Dimensional world. Thanks for the game and to Ally for GMing so well and so quickly.

Matthew

Italy

Blind diplomacy was one of the more interesting games I have ever played. My initial plans were to go for the western lepanto since I felt than unless France had left a unit in Mar in S1901 he wouldn't see me sneak in. Sadly he did and the progress of Italy never really got of the ground.

I managed to stay in the game untill nearly the end and then found out I was the first player to be eliminated. Drat!

Anyway, In this game several things differed from normal play. Since I couldn't see the whole board and couldn't communicate via email it was always going to be a lot harder to play a 'stop the leader' style game. For most of the game I occupied the traditional Italian area and thus had a rough idea what was happening around me by the units I saw.

I realised the only way I could really tell my neighbours what was going on was with the support order. I would do things like Supporting an Austrian Fleet in ION to show France that Austria had grown large and hopefully show I would stop attacking him.

I would be very interested in playing a game of blind with communication involved as the possibility for player forwarding maps or even doctored maps seems like a wonderful possibility :-)

I'm going to be very interested to find out what other players thought and congratulations to the eventual victor.

Thanks to ally for GMing this game. I imagine from my own GMing experiences that it was a logistical nightmare. One incorrect map sent and the whole thing goes wrong so congratulations for doing it so impecibly.

Robert Dane

Russia

Apologies for this coming so late. Congratulations to everyoen for playing so much better than I did and especially to Ally for making sterling work of a tricky GMing job and to England for his dastardly but accomplished win. I doomed myself in S1901 with an ill-conceived opening which resulted from succumbing to the temptation to try to play with the stealth technology rather than just get on with the game. I had an idea that by stepping into eastern Germany I might end up both being allowed Sweden, if Germany was so inclined, and at the same time getting a shot at Berlin or Munich: this would be based on a gamble that Austria woudl tno take advantage of his likely possession of Galicia to run straight over the border: I thought that would be a reasonable risk as he had so many other angles to cover and a friendly-looking Russia might seem a useful investment. That part of it was to pay off as Austria turned back to Rumania, but too late I realised that I should have gone to Prussia and thence to Berlin. Worse, Turkey has gone for BLA & Arm and I had ensured that Germany would *not* be giving me Sweden. Oops.

Not to worry: back off from Germany, apologies nicely, send some chocolates, help Austria vs Turkey - should be fine ... WHAT? England *takes* StP?? There's only one way he could do that thsi season and he'd have to be mad to have done it, wouldn't he?! Clearly genius is as close to madness as we always expected. I see "GAME OVER" scrolling up my screen. I *SO* hope that France is in Liverpool and London as we speak ... not much time to think abotu that, though, Turkey is pounding at Sevastopol, I can't get a read on how things are going in A vs T, and Germany is absolutely bloody furious about my innocent little reconnaissance mission of 1901. I run away as politely as I can. Looks like he's in trouble too, as Poland is soon empty again. mea culpa: I will apologise in my memoirs. The only thing keeping me in Moscow is that the various foreign units passing through Sev and StP can't see each other. I remain pro-Austria as far as I am able to project that. The most disappointing thing (well, almost) about getting beaten up so early is that I don't get to play much with the game parameters. I do have a theory that one should always be able to see one's own home SCs/homeprovinces/areas next to owned SCs (not sure which!), rather than just adjacent to units. However, not my variant and them's the rules.

After several fruitless yeasr of trying to square up to unist to hit StP, which fails abysmally, I decide on a foray into Galicia to see what's happening: I know Austria will be unhappy, but what if he's losing down there? Besides, it will only be the second time I've left the country. Oh, it's all brown: good. I go home again. Help! More Englanders. Frantically shout "over here! over here!" to Austrians .. "look! English! ... what? don't you speak Russian?!". Oops, he's killed me instead - still at least the English didn't get me - what's that? Oh, so they've soloed then (already?!) ... one more season and I'd have lived. Gee, thanks Austria - and there was I, trying to be a stalemate line!

Dismal showing, interesting game - probably. Thanks, Ally.

Regards - Kester

GM

You might know that I've GMd a good number of games & have been since 1983 but the opening adjudications, of this game, caused the traditional worries that newbie GMs get. For those who haven't GMd, the worry is that you might mess up the game by incorrectly screwing up the display of orders to each player & also forgetting to not paint certain parts of the map black. After a while the worry disappeared & I did enjoy observing Bat.

Either way, it was a great game & I thank you all for playing but perhaps a bit more thanks to those that did submit their EGS. Big hint to the others.

In closing, well done Wayne.

See you on the boards, Ally

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