Dublin - EGS

Game Started: 2nd October 2006
Game Ended: 13th March 2007
Result: Germany won!

Country	Player	Performance
Austria-Hungary	Wayne Read	Eliminated
England	Brian O'Farrell	Eliminated
France	Kester Bearne	Survived
Germany	Carl Hanich	Won
Italy	Simon Berry	Survived
Russia	Andy Scott	Eliminated
Turkey	Martin Styler	Survived
GM	Ally Bain	N/A

Austria-Hungary

Written just after elimination

There's not much I can say about this game other than it was a disaster right from the start. I think that with this game you have to try and grow as fast as possible, as soon as possible, this usually means taking a risk early on. I gambled on having a friendly Italy, as I think that Blinded gives Italy more scope for surprise attacks on either France or Turkey, so he may feel the same way. I was wrong and suffered as a result.

I spent a long time looking at opening moves as I wanted a safe opening, with the chance of two builds, but one which would also give me maximum visibility. I settled on Vie-Tri, Bud-Gal & Tri-Alb, this is unusual but seemed to suit this variant very well.

I ended up being let into Gal, which was a surprise and having Italian Armies in Tyr and Ven. I opted to give up on Tri in order to take Ser and Gre. This was a mistake, what I should've done is stand in Tri and order a retreat to Ser, I might not be writing this now if I'd made those orders instead!

The end result was the worst possible, I gave Italy a build that he needn't of had. I upset Russia by originally moving to Gal and then staying there, and with Turkey taking Rum he now saw Austrian Units in Gal, Bud, Ser & Gre. I must've looked like a massive threat to him - how was he to know that Italy was in Tri?

Turkey attacked, Italy continued to attack and I was forced to look elsewhere for a home. After a failed attempt on War I moved to Sil hoping to sneak into a German centre only to find units in Mun, Ber & Pru. I was eliminated the next season.

I enjoy this variant, I like all the new options it gives, but sometimes if you don't get a good start it can be woefully short! :o)

Many thanks to Ally for running such a difficult variant, it's very much appreciated. Next time though can I suggest a small amendment to the rules that allows a player to 'see' what all his units can see at the end of the Autumn season - even if one (or more) units subsequently gets removed in the Winter adjustment?

Cheers
Wayne

England

I found this game incrediably difficult to play. I found myself stuck in a war with France early, and my abilitiy to see the space resulted in Russia first and then Germany being able to take advantage of weakness caused by over stretch against France, which allowed my collapse.

As France played strongly and did not allow me oppurtunities to counter attack.

Great job by the GM in keeping a tight ship on deadlines.

Brian
bofarrell.blogspot.com

France

Thanks very much for the game: many interesting moments and tactical challenges as a result of the format. Congratulations to Germany on a well-timed and effective 'stab': can't quite call it that, as we could neither see nor speak! I had thought I had a good chance myself immediately beforehand but hamstrung my position by twice building armies instead of waiting for Brest to be free to build a fleet: the first time may have been the right decision as I was short of units to both screen various fronts and close on England effectively. The second time was certainly a mistake, partly brought on by the sudden appearance of many grey units!

If I remember rightly, I decided to use the 'blindness' to make a play for Belgium with no particular intentions as to which way to go thereafter, although I was thinking of ways in which to swing suddenyl into the Med: nto a normal tatic btu one which might work in the fog of war if the North coudl be stabilised. I did rapidly conclude that the vacating of Burgundy after S1901 along with the ability to send fuzzy signals to Germany (reciprocated) between Bel/Hol leant itself well to concentrating on England who had in any case opened to the Channel, and declined to go away. No signs of skulduggery from Italy (which I sort of expected, as my plan had been to first stabilise on 6 units and then use the wide open spaces of the Med to take advantage of the format), I steamed North and quickly had England on the ropes but without the artillery to keep him there, especially as it appeared that he had done very well in Scandinavia somehow, despite also being committed against me.

The very turn that I took an English home centre, a German unit popped up in pink Norway. Immediately thereafter, he also made a move for Burgundy: I spent some time trying to tell England that we shoud realign and join against the German threat; it so happened that this could be done in a way that looked less than hostile to Germany but England would be able to read the moves entirely. In the tradition of those islanders, however, he raised a pair of fingers jovially and kept them raised: I gave him back Edinburgh and let him fight Germany alone then, even though it was pretty clear that G had cleaned up in the east and was going to keep on coming. Italy the opped up in the western Med: I was a bit miffed at the time, but now realise that he was probably getting squeezed by Turkey certainly and perhasp also Germany. I don't think he really had to tap Spain though, if that was the case. I started looking for a line Mar-Gas-MAO, even though survival was probably going to be all there was. England continued to attack me (perhaps he forgot that he started by attacking me? Or perhaps there is not much else to do at a certain point than look for refuge, for which Portugal is often good), so once it became clear that G was going to win I decided to eliminate England: it was something to aim for and not only had he always been hostile, but had positively enabled Germany's clean sweep which together we might *perhaps* (with further help from the east) have stopped. The best option for small vulnerable powers seems to me to be to make themselves important links in a defensive chain, but he chose collaboration instead. I must admit that Italy's sideswipe at me, followed by Turkey's appearance did lead to me withdrawing more quickly than necessary in the face of the grey hordes, since noone else seemed to have much interest in stopping him.

Congratulations to Germany, who played a blinder :o) I shall be interested to see what went on in lands far away. To Italy and England I refer to the points above, although I may very be wrong about some of what went on: as far as I could tell, E refused all overtures from me at any point and that is why I eliminated him in the end. I wonder if we could have done better? Germany's attack was very well timed (perhaps fortuitously so, I think he would have found a different situation if I had built that fleet earlier, but only partially).

Thanks again to Ally for managing a very complicated game so well!

Kester / France

Germany

This was my second Blinded Gunboat game. Again it was extremely enjoyable and enthralling, made sweeter with a solo. Thank you Ally for inviting me to play this game and your time and effort into running this complicated variant is very much appreciated.

I was happy to draw Germany. My initial objective was to stay friendly with my neighbours (except Russia) and defend against anyone who attacked me. I believe this worked for me and although I haven’t seen the full adjudications yet, I think that France and England battled early on as did Italy and Austria and Russia against Turkey. I weakened England and Russia in the north-east allowing France and Turkey get the upper hand in their respective battles. Italy presumably got the upper hand against Austria as Austria was probably also fighting Turkey on its southern border. Therefore by the mid-game, it was France fighting me in the north and Italy fighting Turkey in the south. I knew I had the numbers against France and as long as Italy and Turkey were too consumed with their battle and didn’t come north (which they didn’t), I could and did easily move west and get my 18 centres for victory.

In the previous Blinded game, I noted that Brian Koon’s Russia (who ended up winning) took Ber in A01. So I protected Ber and also denied Russia Swe. I stayed out of Bel which France took. Sure enough, Russia tried to snatch Ber and with me denying Russia Swe, we were very much at war. In 1902, I strongly suspected that Russia had opened north in 1901.

From S02, it was obvious that France and England were at war as both offered me support. I kept an army in Hol and Mun (also to ensure Austria and Italy weren’t going to come north) and took Swe which gave me 6 centres after 1902 and a strong position in the north-east. I was already feeling confident.

1903 involved me moving into position to attack Russia with my two fleets in Scandinavia and two armies against War leaving an army in Hol and Mun. I offered Russia support in S03 (as a ruse) and he reciprocated in A03 as it became clear he was facing opposition on his southern borders.

I took StP in 1904 to get to 7 centres and took Nwy off England in 1905 to get to 8 centres. I now have all of Scandinavia. I left one army in StP as I know Russia is at war against presumably Turkey in the south. In S05, I also moved against France for the first time by moving into Bur as I suspected France and England probably have 9 centres together and being blinded and gunboat would make it virtually impossible for them to effectively ally together against me. France and England start defending themselves against me and fortunately Russia lets me be with StP. (I suspect Russia is down to two armies as he is supporting Turkey in Sev).

By the end of 1906, I felt that the game is definitely mine as I took Bel, War, and Mos to get to 11 centres. I felt that I need more than one army in the east so I devote two additional armies to secure my position and take War and then Mos later. StP hit Mos in case Russia is supporting a move back to War and StP simply walked into Mos as the Russia army in Mos took Sev. Very fortuitous!

In 1907, I came face to face with the Turks and Italians. I took Vie off Italy, my only gain in 1907 to get to 12 centres. From here on, I faced only the Turks as they were also trying to get into Italy and presumably fighting Italy in the ION. I moved in around English centres and noted that the French controlled most of England.

In 1908, I took Lon and Edi off the French which put them I suspect down to 5 centres. It was very easy then at that point. I also took Tri to get to 15 centres.

In 1909, I lost Tri back to the Turks as I positioned a stalemate line with enough armies supporting. I have a front of Vie, Gal, Ukr, and Mos. I took Par and Lpl to get to 16 centres and took Bre and Mar for victory in 1910.

Another intriguing and fascinating game. Turkey was probably feeling confident with their 10 centres. Had I been a year or so slower moving south, Turkey would have crushed Italy, and with Vie, Mos, and War, would have been on 17 centres sniffing victory.

Thanks again Ally. Looking forward to seeing the maps for all the seasons and seeing who my competitors were.

Carl Hanich

Italy

Apologies in advance for the brevity of this EGS and any inaccuracies. My PC decided to die on me just after the game finished and took with it my record of the adjudications and my partly completed turn by turn EGS.

Given the variant, I considered making an early dash to the west A(Vie) - Pie in the hope that Mar would be empty and I could take France by surprise. In the end I whimped out and stuck with a standard opening in 1901S followed by a sneak attack on Austria. The 1901A adjudication had me choking on my cereal when I saw that I had misordered F(ION) - Nap. This is the second time I have made a really pathetic misorder as a result of typing orders while on a conference call (the last time I ended up building two fleets rather than two armies). After checking that I really had made such a silly misorder and moping up the cereal, I resigned myself to the fact that I had just made the game a whole lot harder. Instead of spending 1902 probing the Turkish defences around AEG and EMS, I was forced to devote my efforts to keeping ION free of undesirable elements and taking Tun.

The rest of the game comprised trying to gain some momentum at Austria's expense (partially successful as it looked like Austria was under attack from more than one direction), trying to hold a defensive line across ION (ultimately failed once Turkey gained the initiative in the Balkans and I started losing some of my briefly held Austrian SCs).

I had expected to see fleets from one of the western powers enter the Med much earlier. Their absence for so long was the biggest clue as to developments on the rest of the board, something that was confirmed when a German army made an appearance in Tyr. By this stage, Turkey had broken through the ION and it was just a question of whether I would survive to see the game end or Turkey would eliminate me.

Many thanks to Ally for running a very interesting variant and congratulations to Germany for winning.

Cheers
Simon

Russia

First of all a big thanks to Ally for running this game. It takes a lot of effort to do a blinded game and I for one really appreciate it, Thanks Ally. Sadly however this game was one big mess from the start for me, Russia is my weakest country normally and it's no better in blinded apparently! I started Poorly by taking the risk to move into Sil from War I also started poorly in the South by NOT moving my Fleet to BLA in an attempt to get a relationship going with Turkey. Instead I moved to Rum and from Mos-Ukr. After S1901 I could see no German units but had an Austrian in Gal, a Turkish Army in Bul and a Turkish Fleet in BLA. In the hope of communicating peace with Turkey I decided to cover Sev with Ukr and support with F Rum in case there was an unseen Army in Arm.

The result was the destruction of the Fleet in Rum and me blocking Sev. Not that it mattered as Germany had bounced my Northern Fleet in Swe and decided to cover Ber when he could not know I was there to attack it.

The Only good news is Austria didn't attack War so that's where I built my replacement army.

However without real builds in 01 I knew I was in trouble and as I feared in S1902 saw an English Army in StP but Worse I finally got into Swe only to see two German fleets, one in BAL and the other in Den, Germany also had a unit in Prussia. Add to that the Austrian in Gal and The Turk in Rum I was faced with the old equation of defending all of Russia with not enough units.

Whilst I pulled off some good moves and am happy to have hung on as long as I did it was never really in doubt that I would end up eliminated. Still thanks to all for playing and again to Ally.

Catch you all again,
Andy

Turkey

Firstly a big thank you to Ally for GM'ing. I'm not sure if I enjoyed the 'blind' element or not. I was often left wondering where everybody else had got to when I was tying to hold off Italy and Germany. I can remember hoping for someone else to turn up and put pressure on the other flanks without knowing that Germany had grown so strong. On balance I think I would prefer to know what was going on.

I enjoyed the opening exchanges with Russia and Austria but then just couldn't seem to get past a very stubborn Italy. Where was France when I needed it?

All the best to everyone and thanks for the game.

Cheers

Martin.

GM

Before I write about the game, I'm again going to state why this game started.

On the 30th October 2006, I ran (well jogged 16ish miles & walked the rest) the Dublin Marathon. Prior to the marathon I was receiving donations with the money being sent to the Friends of the Children's Centre. They are the charity behind the Moulsham Grange Children's Centre.

Knowing many Diplomacy players, I asked nearly all of them about the Marathon I was to be involved with & the charity.

A very good number of them replied to me & wished me the best. To all, thanks.

More than seven did donate & I thought one of the best ways to thank them was running a Gunboat Blinded game & ask them if they wished to play. As you can tell, the game did start & as for the name, I think that was appropriate.

The money collected, & given to the Friends of the Children's Centre, was £1,900. At the time of writing, they haven't yet bought the equipment but soon will.

To those that donated, many, many thanks!!

Regarding the game, Dublin, that was something. I'm not going to outline all points but will make a few.

A01, A(Pru) - Ber (FAILED) & A(Mun) - Ber (FAILED). I got Andy's orders before Carl's & I did read Andy's orders but didn't with Carl's. When I adjudicated, I sat looking at Carl's orders & couldn't believe his opening comments, Hi Ally, nothing surprising as yet, which in itself is not surprising. I think I need to protect Ber in case R starts with a Brian Koon style opening!.

A03, no Austria-Hungary. That doesn't look odd in normal Gunboat games but in previous Blinded Gunboat, it's been around for quite some time.

If you go to the Stats page, you'll see a link to a Medal page. Your names are shown.

Thanks all for playing & I'll see you on the boards soon.
Ally

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