Extremely Condensed Diplomacy (Zag Wins!)

[mith]

Oops, forgot about this. Will update tonight, someone remind me if I forget again.

[mith]

Spring 1908 Moves
Fall 1908 Map
DPY

[mith]

Fall 1908 Moves
Autumn 1908 Retreats
Winter 1908 Map
DPY

Zag wins!

[Lepton*]

I was lucky enough to have the best starting position in a fairly disorganized West. I was broadly hoping that the middle powers could keep Turkey at bay long enough for me to get to Spain (the obvious 7th SC if we accept the standard stalemate line, which sort of happened) first, but that didn't happen. I still think that occupying Russia was the correct move, even though it wound up causing the present finish.

I'd be happy to mod the next game.

[Sparhawk]

This was a tough game at the beginning, because basically you either get a second SC or you are out of the game. Trying to recover from having a single SC is tough.

I agree that it made tactical sense for England to take Russia, and there isn't much Russia can do about it. Whether or not it makes political sense is a different question...

One problem I see with this setup is that it seems harder to have the mid-game stabs and alliance changes; with fewer units it is hard to change directions.

[Zag]

I agree that occupying Russia was a reasonable move, though you had to do it with an army, so you shouldn't have done it so soon. Since it was a fleet, we could just ignore it, but you couldn't use that fleet anywhere else, because it had to stay to protect it.

Even if you wanted it just as the extra supply center, then it was an ok move to occupy it, but you shouldn't have said that you weren't going to. There's no need to tick off someone early -- you just should have not replied to him, or else did what I did with groza and Amb, I pretty much told them that I couldn't ally with them because they sat in my only possible direction of expansion.

I even told Amb in the spring of the year that I took NAF that I was going to do so. He couldn't stop me, so I was hoping it would encourage him to snatch England while it was unguarded. I guess he didn't believe me, and he made an attempt to defend it, even though I had a guarantee if I wanted it (and I did want it).

I totally agree with Sparhawk about the limited supply centers. It was fun to play, but I don't think I would want to do it again. However (as he and I discussed) I did have one opportunity to stab him late in the game. It would have wiped him out so I would have no fear of retaliation, and I seriously considered taking it. But I concluded that I could win the game without doing it, so I didn't. It was kind of fun to have a solid ally through the whole game.

We did show, however, what I've always known about Diplomacy: a solid Russo-Turkish alliance is unbeatable. That is, except by a solid Anglo-French alliance, which is also unbeatable except against the Russo-Turks.