Messages - vDiplomacy

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01 Nov 16 UTC	Spring, 1901: Decima Legio (Gamedirector): Game on! Italy and Austria are the only powers allowed to talk to each other in S'1901 due to the Ven-Tri border.
01 Nov 16 UTC	Spring, 1901: Decima Legio (Gamedirector): Have fun everyone!
04 Dec 16 UTC	GameMaster: Austria voted for a Draw. If everyone votes Draw the game will end and the points are split equally among all the surviving players, regardless of how many supply centers each player has.
04 Dec 16 UTC	Fun game. Mildly surprised at the eagerness to draw so early with 4, lots of game left to play, but it seemed like I would have been the only one pushing for 3 and I wasn't going to stab France unless it would have given me a solid shot at the solo. Les Mat, great work together, I really appreciated the alliance and the extreme trust you afforded me to make it work. Amby and kaner both could have been the ally that France was instead of targets for stabs, I had difficult choices among appealing options. By the time the game was underway I'd forgotten who had even signed up, so I had no idea who anybody was. Ezio, I never would have guessed your identity based on your communication in other games. It just seemed different in this one. Fun game, I look forward to the next one.
04 Dec 16 UTC	I tried to change up my press, and I was way out of sorts with the Fog. I was also on edge because of Turkey being positioned to stab me so easily. I honestly felt that Moscow was the most important territory for me to hold because it stopped you from talking to Turkey to actually coordinate my demise. I felt that I couldn't hope for a solo, and my survival was entirely dependent on Turkey's goodwill. If we didn't draw so quickly I was certain Turkey would decide he was better off without me.
04 Dec 16 UTC	Lots of fun guys! Likewise, I thought about stabbing Austria, but also felt it wasn't worth it unless I had a good shot at the solo, and I felt England and France had way too good a shot at preventing me from that given what I knew about their positions. I thought I would have a chance at the solo earlier, since Austria and I had been effective together since day 1, but England and France had the same gameplan. I am surprised England did not try to invade from Russia and east Germany though, and I think I would have tried that angle if I were England before drawing. Given my own position, I was going to try overwhelm TYS, but it looks like MAO would have shown up to thwart that and my only realistic path of advancement was through Austria, which again, I just felt wasn't worth it given the very low odds of any solo by me.
04 Dec 16 UTC	If there wasn't the consensus to draw, I would have certainly attempted to do as you suggest, G-Man, in combination with a stab of France when and if I felt it gave me a good chance. However, based on the information I had, it seemed too likely that a united front against me would quickly come together. If Germany had gone sooner, I probably would have had the opportunity to rush armies over, but Amby made some good moves to delay my progress.
04 Dec 16 UTC	Good game to all. Once again the exploration twist was very enjoyable. Thanks for the alliance, Dr. Rec. Glad we could stick together for the whole (although short) game. I agree with England, the game could have progressed further, but I think this is the best outcome I could have gotten. Originally, getting Austria out of the draw was what I wanted and thought possible, but then Turkey's and Austria's warnings about defending myself against a possible English stab had me quite worried. I knew that if England really wanted a three-way, I would be an easy target to eliminate. That, combined with the fact that I had nowhere else to expand, made pushing for a four-way seem like the best route.
05 Dec 16 UTC	I'd forgotten this was a special opt-in game for those wanting to play the special rules, so my mind was a blank on who was playing. Maybe Kaner and I can cover this one off in our next episode?
05 Dec 16 UTC	Decima Legio (Gamedirector): A bit surprised in discovering that 3 players have been eliminated before 1906. And a bit surprised too about the early end, since games with dedicated players tend to last way longer. The tough players use to say "fight until the end"... Fear is a decisive component in FoW games. Even more it is decisive within the exploration rule. Apparently, a cautious approach is mandatory. Interestings thoughts above. I didn't receive complaints by the 7 players so I assumed that no serious breaking of the communication rule actually happened. Unfortunately I've been following a completely foggy game the whole time, so my role as GM in this particular format is pretty useless, for I have powers that I'm not entitled to exert. For my own curiosity, did you find difficulties with the exploration press rule / did you respect that?
05 Dec 16 UTC	I respected it.
05 Dec 16 UTC	I'm not aware of any violations by anybody.
05 Dec 16 UTC	No problems that I encountered
05 Dec 16 UTC	Everyone by the book over here.
05 Dec 16 UTC	Decima Legio: We had two teams going after each other (EF & AT). There seemed to be a strong feeling of 'if I can't solo, I'm not going to eliminate my teammante who played a critical role in getting me into a good position in this game'. And since the two middle players were most worried about being eliminated, and on different teams, they did not play on miscommunication or the unknown and were both very clear with me (and I think England too). And I was able to verify what they were telling me both with knowledge I had from my limited view, and from the other of the two. So, France and Austria wanted a quick draw for fear of elimination (as one could go), and England and I each didn't want to eliminate our teammate unless we could solo. Hence, I think experience made it easier to draw, since England and I could see the three remaining powers would have teamed up to stop a solo effort, and France and Austria felt the longer they played, the greater the chance England or I would move to eliminate one of them.
05 Dec 16 UTC	^ What he said :)