| October 8, 2001 |
Web Page Address: /Postal/Zines/TAP/index.html
All of our subszines (Tinamou, Deny Everything, and Houdini Blues) are now accessible via the above web page. The next Tinamou deadline may be November 12, 2001. Tinamou did not arrive in time for this issue, but if it follows quickly Dave may keep to that deadline. We'll let you know.
This issue is dedicated to Barry Bonds and his tremendous achievement
not in just hitting 73 home runs (new Major League and World record of course),
but having nearly 180 walks (new Major League record), having
an on base percentage over .500 (a new National League record at .515),
and a slugging percentage in the Babe Ruth stratosphere (actually, his .863
there is a Major League record and shatters even Ruth's records too!!).
I make that dedication with absolutely no reservations whatsoever
as a life long San Francisco Giants, Bobby Bonds, and Willie Mays fan.
Hey, I even liked Dave Kingman, at least when he was with my Giants!
I'm just sorry that the Giants missed the playoffs
as the only team in Baseball to win 90 games and not go (and don't talk to
me about the Red Sox!!), since that's what Barry really wanted.
The Giants should have been in the playoffs instead of the pathetic
Braves, if Goz is right that the Braves go to the World Series,
I'll just have to barf - I hate that tomahawk cheer!!
Anyway, Barry Bonds
has just had one of the greatest offensive seasons in the history
of baseball, when you combine all of these achievements together,
and he doesn't get the credit he deserves.
And I'm intentionally not mentioning any possible reasons why
he might not get that credit.
Thus, this dedication... now back to your regular programming.
Andy Lischett currently is trolling for new players for the famed warehouse
szine and you can write to Andy for a sample of Cheesecake with his
current game openings at: 2402 Ridgeland Avenue, Berwyn, IL 60402.
I meant to put that address in last time and it was one of the things
I didn't get to in the rush to get the issue out.
Andy is trying to start two new games and I believe he is still a few
people short of getting those games started.
Send him a preference list, six week turnaround, regular as clockwork,
even more regular than I am.
I have a letter from Andy that looks like it will push to next issue
at this point.
The postal sub price is now
$1.50 per issue in the US and Canada,
STILL a bargain at twice the price.... but
you can double that for other foreign subbers (or $3.00 per
issue sent airmail).
Players in current games and standbys will
continue to get the issues for free, and future game starts
(except for Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy, which is free) cost
$20.00 ($15.00 for a life of the
game subscription and $5 for the NMR Insurance).
NOTE: See the revised game start announcements below!
Isn't anyone interested in filling out the 7x7 Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire
Diplomacy game start??
Sign up now!!
I also have ONE more spot for a new Internet player looking to
test out postal play.
Sign up for that now too!
Check out the connections in the Diplomatic Pouch with all of the information you need to play Diplomacy on the Internet at: /
I also have taken over the Postal portion of the Pouch: /Postal/
and TAP on the web is there at: /Postal/Zines/TAP/index.html
where the szine resides in html format. Presently, issues from #190 to the current issue are there, and I will be updating the back issues gradually someday. Also, check out Stephen Agar's more extensive efforts at: http://www.diplomacy-archive.com and http://www.meurglys.com
David has grabbed and reserved the HIGHLY prized name: www.szine.com!! David Wang's site used to be the best place to follow John Caruso's postal baseball league that I am in. BUT, the site has not been updated as well in recent times. THE place to follow the league now is DICKIE-POO Martin's website: http://www.phantomempire.com where in the ``files'' section, ``baseball'' sub-section, you can see all of the individual and team level stats. You need to sign up as a ``member'' to see all of the files. You, too, can chat with John Caruso there, especially on Saturday and Sunday mornings. My Red Sox team finished very strong, just short of .500 and I am ready for next year, with my brilliant pitching and defense. I just need two or three hitters.
Peter Sullivan's subszine is currently ïn stasis", although all the back issues can be accessed via :
http://www.manorcon.demon.co.uk/octopus/index.html
Peter is unlikely to be starting any new games in the Octopus until ``at least the start of 2002." In the meantime, if anyone else fancies running some choo-choo games here in TAP, both Peter and I would be keen for someone else to try their hand.
By electronic mail, through the Internet, subs are free and can be obtained automatically by sending the message: subscribe tap
to majordomo of diplom.org and messages can be sent to the entire electronic mailing list by mailing them to tap of diplom.org which will forward your message to all of the people currently on the list. The message:
unsubscribe tap
sent to majordomo of diplom.org gets you off the list. Please make careful note of that as well since you generally can get yourself off the list a lot easier than I can, and NOBODY likes to see unsubscribe messages sent to the entire list. A big, big thank you for David Kovar for setting this all up!!
| THE SEARCH FOR BILL QUINN |
Bill Quinn was the Boardman Number Custodian in the mid-1980's and won the Don Miller Award for Meritorious Service to the Hobby in 1986. More specifically, he was Publisher of Everything during the Don Ditter and Kathy Byrne Caruso Custodianships (issue numbers 53-62) and then took over the Boardman Number Custodianship itself from August 1984 to August 1986. Bill was known for his efforts to organize the BNC records and as a tireless worker at the task, during a period of one of the highest rates of game starts in the history of the position. Naturally, Bill burned out on this eventually and has dropped out of sight. I think it is time to find him again....
Or feel free to spend the time looking for some of the backlog. Let's get Mark, Gregory, Kevin, Al, and Jerry found too!!! Note that Brenton Ver Ploeg would love to find Leslie Obata, the woman that Jerry Lucas used as his front too. This could be an easy way toward finding Jerry, though as Brenton notes, who is to say she has the same name now. This is a regular continuing feature of the szine and I will be introducing a new ``search for'' every five issues. Moreover, you can win a $25 prize for finding some previous target who went unfound in the original $50 period. That means that if Mark Berch, Gregory Stewart or Kevin Tighe or Jerry Lucas or Al Pearson is ``found'' from now on it is worth $25.
Winners will receive credit for Dip hobby activities that I will pay out as requested by the winner. Subscribe to szines here or abroad, run your own contests, publish a szine, finance a web page, or whatever. Spend it all right away or use me as a bank to cover hobby activities for years. What must you do to win? Get me a letter to the editor for TAP from the person we're searching for.
This is very important, just finding them doesn't do it. They have to write me a letter. The final judge as to the winner of any contest will be the target himself and I reserve the right to investigate the winning entry. When you find someone I'm looking for, you should ask him to send me a letter for print that includes a verification of who ``found'' him.
| INTERNATIONAL SUBSCRIPTION EXCHANGE NEWS |
The British representative is the editor of Mission From God, John Harrington. John may be contacted at 1 Churchbury Close, Enfield, Middlesex EN1 3UW, UK.
E-Mail: fiendish of operamail.com, John.Harrington of tfeurope.com
Please include the full name and address of the foreign publisher with your order, if possible, as well as the szine title. Make your check in US dollars out to me personally or in GBP to John if you're doing things from that end. I will conduct business for Canadians as well, if I can, but prefer to deal in US dollars with them if possible, or Canadian dollars cash. To subscribe to American szines, the system works in reverse. There has been some interest in finding a new Australian representative. Should someone Down Under have an interest, or from anywhere else in the world, please contact me.
We have added a European continental representative, most of this traffic likely will occur between Ronald Camstra (in the Netherlands) and John Harrington, but if anyone here in the US wants to get money into guilders or then into other continental currencies, we'll try to help you out. Ronald Camstra can be contacted at siedler of zonnet.nl and his home address is: Wielingenplein 48, 3522 PE Utrecht, the Netherlands. But in Holland it is most common not to send checks but to transfer money by bank. Dutch people can pay directly to Postbankaccount 4652247 of Ronald Camstra in Utrecht. Since he can see the name and address of the sender in his bankreceipt, people only have to mention the name of the zine and the editorial address along with their bank order. Ronald is obviously a huge Settlers of Catan fan. If you're interested in playing that game internationally by mail, I think Ronald can help you out.
We also have reopened a branch office of the International Subscription Exchange in Australia!! Brendan Whyte, the publisher of the excellent szine Damn the Consequences will be doing the honors, taking over in some sense from John Cain, who was the Australian rep for many years. You can contact Brendan to sub to Australian szines from the US or to sub to US szines from Australia, converting Australian dollars into American ones. I think we can maneuver deals to Europe from the other reps as well. You can find Brendan Whyte at b.whyte of pgrad.unimelb.edu.au (same university where John Cain works!) or by mail to send checks at: Geography Dept., University of Melbourne, Vic 3010, AUSTRALIA. This should help out my Australian subbers!!
| WORLDMASTERS00 SECTION (with letters AND a game!!) |
Worldmasters 2000 Email Diplomacy Tournament Goes ON!!
The second round is now over. This year a large number of players went on to Round 2, before they narrowed to the Semi-Final Round of Seven games to determine who goes to the Finals. Prominent semifinalists include: David Malloch (one of last year's finalists), Paraic ``Fred'' Reddington (tall Irish elfin Diplomat as hard as nails!), Jack Brawner (best known as Dick Martin's childhood pal), Paul Riley (GM extraordinaire who proves he can play too!!), Erlend ``Joe'' Janbu (I'm learning Norwegian so I can talk to him and Frank Johansen in their own language... my first E-Mails to Joe were more or less understandable), Yann Clouet (one of France's greatest exports to the English speaking world), Egbert ``Egg'' Ferreira (extremely, even by Dipping standards, arrogant Brazilian... don't let him bowl you over), Thomas Franke (long acknowledged as the best German player in the world, showing he's not washed up), Stephen Agar (my Diplomacy World co-editor is showing he can play the game with finesse!), Fearghal ``Twerg'' O'Donnchu (the Irish wildman!!), Christian Dreyer (winner of tournaments and demo games, extremely dangerous!), Brian Dennehy (wow, he is just a great player, not second in any book of mine), Jody McCullough (yes, our very own Bay Area whiz!), Frank Johansen (the aforementioned other Norwegian and the President of the Norwegian Diplomacy Association), and Chetan Radia (he of the only 18 center win at this summer's World DipCon). Expect this Tournament not to end for another year, though we are obviously already well into 2001. The next tournament in the series will be WorldMasters 2002, starting sometime next year.
The main WWW site for Worldmasters can be found at http://worldmasters00.diplomacy.org.uk
Sign up for the conference board at
http://webforum.cloud-nine.com/~ worldmasters2000
The Conference board is where day to day communications and discussions take place. Jack McHugh, Marc Peters, and other US postal old farts didn't make the cut!
The Boasters game was a ``demonstration game'' being run within the
2000 Tournament, but separate from it..... I also have been playing
in another similar demo game there called Road to Rio that you can watch
at the top of the Webforum page (how come Road to Rio gets such a prominent
position.... ;-).
We have now called it quits and I am declaring Toby Harris the winner,
or at least the Board Topper.
We couldn't generate any interest in picking it back up after World DipCon.
| M2000 Boasters!, Worldmasters2000 Time Wasters Diplomacy |
Final Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (O'Donnchu): | VIE,BUD,ser,mun | (has 4) |
| FRANCE (Pérez): | BRE,PAR,spa,por,bel, | (has 7) |
| edi,lon |
| GERMANY (Mehaffey): | hol | (has 1) |
| ITALY (Dennehy): | ROM,VEN,NAP,tun,tri,mar | (has 6) |
| RUSSIA (Harris): | MOS,STP,WAR,SEV,rum,nwy, | (has 11, board tops) |
| swe,lvp,ber,kie,den |
| TURKEY (Miszti): | ANK,SMY,CON,bul,gre | (has 5) |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=34) |
Addresses of the Players
AUSTRIA: Fearghal O'Donnchu, fearghal.odonnchu of life.friendsfirst.ie or twerg_85 of yahoo.com
ENGLAND: Ray Setzer, mczet of cat23.com
FRANCE: Niclas Pérez, perez of astrogator.se
GERMANY: Mike Mehaffey, mehaffey of ape-i.com
ITALY: Brian Dennehy, brian.dennehy of iol.ie
RUSSIA: Toby Harris, Toby.Harris of equifax.com
TURKEY: Emeric Miszti, emeric of cloud-nine.co.uk
Game Notes:
1) I thank everyone for all the fun. Those of you who were getting ``free'' postal issues will now have to pay, standby, or be Toby Harris if you want to keep getting this. ;-)
Press:
| DIPDOM NEWS SECTION (with letters) |
Obscure and not-so-obscure ramblings on the state of the hobby and its publications, custodians, events, and individuals with no guarantee of relevance from the fertile keyboard of Jim-Bob, the E-Mail Dip world, and the rest of the postal hobby. My comments are in italics and ((double quotation marks)) like this. Bold face is used to set off each individual speaker. I should also make a note that I do edit for syntax and spelling on occasion.
The game Diplomacy is a copyrighted product owned by Hasbro and all reproductions or other use of that material in this szine is intended to be personal use and not infringe on those rights in any way. All reproductions are done at a heavy financial loss to the editor and thus are without the remotest possibility of commercial intent, except to promote THE game, the Game of Diplomacy, which you all should purchase from Hasbro or other duly licensed distributors.
| Check out the new Diplomacy World - www.diplomacyworld.org |
The Summer issue has been out for a while and I hope you've found it worth waiting for. There is a ``wrap-up" of the 1999 WorldMasters tournament, some new variants from Scott Morris, my interview with the Finnish Diplomacy player Vesa Virri, some other great articles, plus an editorial from Stephen Agar. The Fall issue is being assembled now and should be out relatively soon. I'm still looking for WRITERS!!! Please!!! You don't want me to turn into Larry Peery, do you??
If you want to subscribe in paper form at $3 per issue, North American subs should be sent to David Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033, USA. Stephen Agar is handling international postal subscriptions and you can write to him at: 47 Preston Drove, Brighton, BN1 6LA, UK. Issues from Stephen will cost you 2 GBP in the UK and 3 GBP for the rest of the world.
I am finishing up the resolution of back subs for Diplomacy World from the Doug Kent era. If you were a subber to Diplomacy World and think you should have been contacted and were not, let me know, otherwise I think this all is resolved. Thank you to all those who have responded, especially all of the KIND comments I received about starting this up again. They were most appreciated.
| 2001 Hobby Awards News - WINNERS REPEATED!!! |
Thank you to all of the voters. We had a dramatic increase in the number of voters, about four times as many as last year, so I hope this is the beginning of an upsurge in attention. All of the nominees received at least two votes, so there was wide breadth in the voting and many of the votes were very close. I also received a number of write-in votes. In keeping with tradition, I will not be announcing vote totals, but I thank everyone for their comments, donations, and votes. The winners will be receiving plaques as usual. The Committee currently consists of myself (Chair), Fred Davis (Treasurer), Gary Behnen, Melinda Holley, Jamie Dreier, Paul Kenny, and Robert Lesco. I am looking for more committee members, especially for someone from Europe, Australia/New Zealand, or elsewhere. Anyone interested should contact me. I shall start soliciting nominees again for the 2002 Awards in January of 2002. I hope with a quicker start that the process can be smoother next year than it was this year. I will get a ``one page'' announcement of these results for postal szines out for next issue, but please advertise the winners widely.
Here are the winners:
| DON MILLER AWARD (Meritorious Service) |
Stephen Agar (Diplomatic Archives & Revival of Diplomacy World);
http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/
| ROD WALKER AWARD (Literature) |
Allan B. Calhamer (Calhamer on Diplomacy: The Boardgame and Diplomatic History);
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1585007587/107-0249852-4964538
| JOHN KONING AWARD (Player Performance) |
Simon Bouton (Winning World DipCon X);
/Face/results/zAvalon2000.html
| FRED HYATT AWARD (GM Performance) |
Doug Burgoyne (Cat23 GM);
http://www.cat23.com/ & http://www.geocities.com/apocalypseinparadise/
| THE PIMLEY AWARD (For Service to the British Hobby) |
Ryk of Downes.com writes:
I would also like to take this opportunity to announce that Tom Tweedy won the Pimley Award for last year. I trust he still receives these messages.
If so congratulations Tom - you richly deserve it. It was a very clear cut result.
((Kudos from me too, I love his Diplomacy web site, I wish mine were a tenth as good!! Find it at: http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk/dip2000))
| Jim-Bob Goes Dipping Across Europe, PART II |
Ah, and we are picking this back up on the morning of Friday, July 27th. World DipCon was being combined with a World Britannia tournament and the organizers attempted to design it so that people COULD play in both tournaments, without overlap. As a result, there were many gaps of free time. We also were holding the tournament in a City of Paris municipal building that had very strict opening and closing times. This was NOT going to be one of those all day/all night tournaments as a result. Being in the center of Paris, this was not completely a disaster.
Anyway, the last time I had been in Paris, I had spent a certain amount of time in the Louvre, but it wasn't anywhere near enough time to see even a portion of it. I had little to no interest in going to see the really famous things, like the Mona Lisa, but I did want to look at the textiles, furnishings, and the French painting. There is NOTHING like following the entire history of French painting by going through the Louvre and in particular, I was interested in following the period from Poussin in the late Renaissance through Delacroix in the 19th century. Since I knew the Louvre opened at 9, I went down for breakfast about 8. The first Diplomacy round wasn't scheduled to start until two PM. There I ran into Eve and Keith Smith and discovered that they had precisely the same idea in mind, at least regarding the Louvre. They were waiting for Ivan Woodward, but as it got to 8:30 there was no sign of Ivan, so we decided we had better head off, because the lines can be difficult to make it through in the summer. I had already scouted out the route straight down the Rue that the Hotel de la Louisiane was on to the Seine and then across a pedestrian bridge. We got there about five minutes to nine and found a pretty long line, but once the Louvre opened promptly at nine it moved quickly. Keith and Eve went their own way once we were inside since surely we would have wanted to linger at different things.
I wanted to work my up to the paintings, so I first went to walk through the Napoleon III quarters, which were gorgeous and surprisingly nearly empty. These are on the directly opposite wing to the long trip to where the Mona Lisa is, so I suspect that is one of the reasons I was able to dodge the crowds all morning. Napoleon III in the 1850's and 1860's built much of these northern wing rooms and decorated them with gold and marble and much excess. Of course, in the 1870-71 revolutions they burned the adjacent Tuileries and damaged some of this north wing. But, at this point the restorations are such that you can't tell there ever was any damage. The tapestries and the furniture in these huge rooms I'm sure didn't compare to Versailles (which I've never visited) or other French sites, but for me I found it quite well worth the look. I understand it was just opened to the public in this format less than ten years ago. Then I also looked at textiles (having a costume designer for a wife means that you pick up at least something about such things) and a variety of other sections on sculpture that were also nearly deserted. Then I warmed up for the French painting by going through the Flemish and Italian painting sections. They had two lovely Vermeers (I've seen pictures of The Lacemaker of course, but found that one especially stunning close up, though it is amazingly small, less than ten inches by ten inches) and a few other special paintings, but most of it was so crammed with ``product'' that you couldn't really get much of a sense for things, and frankly there was a bit too many lesser works that weren't really worth much time. One had to wonder why they had to do that. Surely, with the more famous paintings, people get disappointed if they aren't there, but hey, some rotation of the rest of the collection could have allowed some of these paintings to breathe a bit. But, I still didn't find any crowds. I found a few more crowds around the French crown jewels, but merely passed through there on the way to the French painting (I also spent a little bit of time seeing some other sections, but nothing worth mentioning).
Here was where the whole visit REALLY was worth it. I was absolutely overwhelmed. I've studied French painting on and off, starting in college when I took some art history courses, but the depth and breadth of the collections here must be unparalleled. The presentation of the Poussin period in particular was quite inventive, using and creating a variety of spaces from the ``massive'' halls, to small little rooms for smaller paintings, that showed off each painting to its best advantage. And unlike the other European sections, there seemed to be some more attention to giving some space to each one. And I'm very verbal, so I liked that they provided large laminated cards in a variety of languages to give background (sometimes just a bit of a reminder triggered what I had forgotten about various periods) that you could pick up and carry around the room. Poussin (mid seventeenth century) is the center of the Classicist movement in France during that period. There is a certain mathematical precision in Poussin that appeals to me in the same way that Bach fugues appeal to me in music. The Louvre has about 40 Poussin paintings and just about all of the ones that I had studied in college. There are many of the ``classical'' Greek and Roman mythical paintings, as well as ``The Seasons'', his series of four paintings that were nicely displayed in an octagonal room. But, again, seeing these paintings in person, perfectly displayed, deepened my appreciation immensely.
In this same area, another highlight was the Galerie Médicis, a series of 24 huge canvases by Peter Paul Rubens chronicling the life of Marie de Médici displayed in a single gallery. The crossing influences of power (the God Apollo and other Greek gods appear, yet Marie herself is depicted with commanding presence) are a bit curious, but clearly the wife of Henri IV was cementing her own vision of her place in history. The Le Nain brothers and Charles Le Brun also had a room or two of paintings that were more impressive than I had previously realized.
The eighteenth century French painters were somewhat less impressive, but that was only in comparison. Fragonard and Robert (especially his Pont du Gard and other architectural ruin paintings) were the highlights in this section. Then I went into the next corner where, who did I find, but Ivan Woodward. He had come over, though later than we did and he was studying David in particular. I hadn't been that impressed with David previously, but the Coronation of Napoleon I was worthy of the Empire that Napoleon was trying to create and the Intervention of the Sabine Women had great depth. The women were sharply and sensuously depicted in the foreground, along with a regal warrior with a spear (and a naked butt!! - just checking if you all were still awake), with various shadowy depictions back into the depth of the painting.
I stayed with Ivan as we finished our way through the painting section, especially including Eugène Delacroix. The massive Death of Sardanapolis is extremely sensuous and erotic, and moves toward the unreality of the romantics. I originally intended this to be a bit longer, working off of my notes, but time has faded some details here, I'm afraid.... oh well, let's get to the main point, the Dip, where my memory is sharper. Ivan and I went through the bookstore and didn't see Eve and Keith anywhere, so we headed back to the hotel where we hooked up with others heading over to the gaming venue. It was only a few short blocks away, but I kept getting lost among all of the narrow and winding Paris streets of this old quarter of the city. At this point, I was still following other people, talking, and not paying attention, which didn't help. I think Shaun Derrick and his travel agent skills guided us that first time, though even there I don't recall the path as being very direct. We wandered about in circles a bit, which didn't help me get my bearings.
The hall was a huge high ceilinged room, actually two rooms, with a concession stand that the French organizers ran themselves from the back of the second room. There also was a huge mirror on the wall separating the two rooms, so it looked even larger (there are some pictures around on various web sites that use this mirror to great effect, if you've seen those). Then there were large windows to get some breeze blowing, since it was actually quite warm on this ``end of the Tour de France" weekend. I want to say a few words up top, and more later, about the efforts of Constans Thibault in organizing the World DipCon this year. The job of the Tournament Director is always thankless, and this year it seemed to be more so. I would assert that the WDC XI represented one of the most International major Diplomacy conventions ever, and perhaps the first where the host country did not dominate the play in numbers and influence, until perhaps the Top Board. We all flocked to register and filled out a form that included an unexplained ``preference list''. It turned out that this was our country preference for the Top Board, should we end up there. It turned out that there were 119 players in total, an average of about 14 boards in each round. Approximately 20 of these players were primarily Britannia players and they were blown away a bit by the cutthroat nature of the games, so I noticed a trend of fewer and fewer of them playing in rounds as the tournament progressed. And though there were fewer players than in Baltimore the previous year, the average capability of the players in the tournament was incredible. In that sense, it really could be argued that this was the most competitive FTF large tournament (over 100 participants) in the history of the hobby. I'd defend that premise.
My first game had one Britannia player (Miguel Martinez from Spain), previous WDC organizer Jean Louis Delattre from Belgium, one Frenchman (Guillaume Gosselin), a Swede (Andreas Ziethen, whose twin also was there and I kept getting them mixed up), my new pal Doug Massie from Britain who taught me that neat German cycling game, and ``Fred'' (the elfin Irishman, Paraic Reddington). I drew France, quite lucky, and Jean Louis was in England, Miguel in Germany. On the other end of the board, Doug was Turkey, Andreas was Russia, Guillaume was Italy and Fred was Austria. I ended up playing this game pretty well, not knowing it would be my best finish of the tournament (in a complete reversal from WDC X in Baltimore), but I still don't have the hang of calculating C-Diplo endings. Every game would end at the close of 1907, with center counts being all important and all the games ran to a central clock, with Thibault borrowing David Norman's computer program countdowns (unfortunately not using the audible voice over the speakers, since at times in the second room or the back of the first room it was easy to lose track of the time). I do find that I like this system, it especially benefits someone like me who seldom makes order writing mistakes and can write orders very quickly (GMing all TAP games in my head is useful for SOMETHING). Though, I decided to ``be French" for this first game and write all my orders using the French abbreviations (we were using French diplomacy boards). This did result in ONE minor order writing error at one point where I confused Manche (the Channel) and the Mid-Atlantic. After that, I wrote all my orders in English and never had a problem with deadlines or misorders.
I hate Western Triples, as everyone knows, but I was pushed toward one for 1901, which I went along with only to avoid being the one who was jumped. But in any case, it didn't last long as Miguel (Germany) and I soon stabbed Jean Louis. Then in 1902, Miguel made an elementary order writing error, and he immediately overreacted at the board, feeling that we would all take him for a numpty. Well, he clearly WAS the weakest and least experienced player on the board, so I hooked back up with Jean Louis' weakened three center England and attacked Germany. Progress was very, very slow and Miguel was a bit better tactician than his error might have suggested. I made it to six units in 1903 but was stuck there for awhile. Meanwhile, on the other side of the board, Fred did not have a chance, as he couldn't make a friend at all. Andreas did the crunching jump to 8 centers in 1902, which guaranteed that he would be a target. Germany got one center off him in 1903 (which I grabbed back from him on the other side so he didn't grow), while Guillaume in Italy grabbed one of Fred's centers and pushed Fred east. Doug also took Rumania to go to six and Andreas was down to five. But Andreas was an excellent defender and he kept five centers for the rest of the game. Meanwhile, Doug expanded west, steamrolling Fred out of the game in 1905, when Guillaume reached his peak at 7, and then kept going after that. My relations with Guillaume remained excellent as Doug had his units tied up east. This was my mistake, though, I probably should have stabbed Italy at some point earlier. I had NO chance of catching Doug without it and I was incorrectly calculating what Italy could do about stabbing me. Well, in 1906, I did stab England down to two and get up to eight, but Miguel put on an excellent battle, even though HE was quite annoyed that we had ``unfairly'' taken advantage of his misorder. In 1907, Guillaume did come after me and knock me down to six while only losing ONE more to Doug. Thus, Doug topped the board with 11 and I tied with Italy at six. Andreas finished fourth with the five and Miguel actually finished fifth with the four (heh, heh). I'm sorry that Miguel took our play to be so cutthroat and I think he skipped the rest of the Diplomacy rounds to concentrate on Britannia. To the contrary, I think he put up an excellent defense and stopped me from winning, since had I gained more from him earlier, I surely would have stabbed Italy and gotten to around 10 centers. But I didn't, and the results on the board are what count. I was surprised by a number of issues in this first game that continued throughout. Though all seven players were from different countries, everyone negotiated almost entirely in English. In many ways, English was much more ``the language'' of this WDC than I was expecting. I thought I would have to work more with my extremely poor French, but other than some well placed ``merci'' 's that really wasn't the case.
Because of the structure of the gaming, we also finished reasonably early in the evening, and had time to go out and find some dinner. In fact, we were done before sunset, since there was another late night Friday round of Britannia that ran after us. I got together with a group that included Vince Mous and a whole group of others that slips my mind right this instant. We ended up at a storefront restaurant serving crepes, both dinner crepes and dessert crepes. This was inexpensive and quite delicious. The owners were watching car racing, I recall, since the Tour was over for the day ;-) In general, the big highlight of WDC was all of this extra time for socializing, totally missing at WDC X in Baltimore. Since we were in the center of Paris, even just walking around was fascinating (no comparison to the Hunt Valley Inn ;-) and the city is such a walking city. And I say all of this as not the biggest fan of Paris as a city, I much prefer Amsterdam, London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, York, and even Glasgow among the European cities I have visited, but this part of Paris was more interesting than the other parts I've seen. This was one of the gallery districts, so there were little art galleries and bistros everywhere. Anyway, after dinner, I played a few games, had a few drinks, and then pretty much went straight to bed. I was cognizant of the fact that there would be two rounds tomorrow and I already was quite tired. There were others who stayed up quite late of course..... more on that later.
The Saturday morning round was a bit chaotic getting going, since many people were a bit late and it was the Team Round, but finally the boards were assigned. I got recruited for David Norman's team with Ray Setzer, but there isn't ANYTHING more worth saying about that since our team stunk up the joint. But, ah, ha, I had the taciturn monster man Sean Colman from Australia on my board! Sean was tough, very tough, and that rubbed a few people the wrong way, but I was fine with him as long as I didn't have to negotiate with him ;-) Our David scholar Ivan Woodward also was on this table along with Patrick Carlsson from Sweden, Max Ruffini (whom I hardly talked to as he was the other witch), the jovial and talented Bruno-Andre Giraudon, who won WDC V in Paris in 1995, and Christophe Guerin. I drew Turkey this time (luck of the draw that surely couldn't hold?) and Ivan was Austria. Patrick was France, Sean was Germany, Christophe was Russia, and Bruno was Italy. Just as in the first game, there were NO slouches here, though Christophe clearly had the least experience. Just as in the first game where Miguel was targeted early, Christophe got jumped. If anything, I didn't jump into that one soon enough, mostly because I spent most of my negotiating time with Ivan and Bruno trying to figure out how I would split them, since if they came at me together, I was sure to be bottled up. Max and Patrick had a very strong EF going and Sean was down to two by 1903, with Christophe down to one, while Max and Patrick were tied with Ivan at seven. I only had five centers with Sev and Bul and Ivan came after me next, taking Sev in 1904 in an otherwise VERY stable year. But, here was where two players on the board proved what great players they were. Sean was very nearly out as Germany, but he pulled some amazing moves as Bruno convinced Patrick to stab Max instead of Italy. I couldn't follow the details of the negotiations over there, but I assure you, it had a high level of intensity among four VERY good Diplomacy players. Sean fought his way back to six centers, taking a very strong position in the former Russian centers. Meanwhile, balanced out the competition perfectly, playing a brilliant C-Diplo game. Patrick knocked down Max, but left his rear open to Bruno, who first organized opposition knocking Ivan from 8 centers to five, then Patrick from 8 centers to five. Meanwhile, I was stuck in the corner at five, with no position to either help Ivan strike back at Bruno, nor the power to knock Ivan back further myself. Max ended up at three centers, and all five of the rest of us had five centers or more, BUT Bruno was the board topper with eight, and using C-Diplo, that got him a VERY good score! Ivan pulled some 1907 C-Diplo stabs, but ended back up only to seven (brilliant calculation on Bruno's part). I was really disappointed to get edged out by Sean for third, but kudos to him for crafting it. And I tied Patrick, who looked like the runaway winner at one point in the game. This game (and the last one) illustrated perfectly one of the major aesthetic problems with C-Diplo to me. In each game, only one player was eliminated, and other players were scrambling at the end for 1907 Supply Center counts. I know we Americans are sometimes criticized for the opposite - playing too much just to make deals to take players out - but ideally there is balance and C-Diplo doesn't have that. The closing positions were not sustainable. In Game 1, I easily had the units to knock Guillaume back out of Spain and Marseilles (which were the two centers he took from me with ``lone wolf'' units), though I would have had to balance that against the risk of Doug Massie going on to win the game. In Game 2, it was even more scrambled up. I can't recall the entire board position, I'm just working from notes, but I had a VERY sustainable five and Ivan was stretched out to get back to seven. I clearly could have allied with Bruno at that point to knock him back again. But hey, the rules are the rules and kudos to them that play them well. I had a great time, even if I do loathe C-Diplo....
Now we had a break in between the rounds, so they could slip in another Britannia round, but also so we could go get some food, since the later round would finish at 11. Again, I ended up with Vincent Mous (he, the creator of the excellent variant Modern featured below) and David Norman, Bear Barrow from the US, and a number of others. Here we had to appeal to David's relatively bland eating tastes ;-) (well, we didn't HAVE to, but we wanted to...). So, we ended up at a very brightly lighted dinner place, but there is no such thing as bad food in Paris, so we still had an excellent meal. I tried a French fruity beer which really wasn't worth recommending, but it was interesting.
Then back for Round 3. I drew the other witch this time, England. Damn, with such great country draws, why couldn't I play better?? Well, I played this one with a lot of heart and soul, but not to a great result. Who else was here? Another United Nations of players..... a German (Michael Goetse, who will be a real player in the International hobby in the future!!), a Norwegian (Erlend Janbu, I love those Norwegians!!), a Frenchman (Pierre Blouvac), and two other Scandinavians, don't recall which country (Michael Nielsen and Anders Sjoquist). Oh yeah, and the obligatory Welshman, Dave Horton. Pierre, the Frenchman, was playing France and Michael Nielsen was Germany. In the western EFG, I had a personality problem from the start as they clearly got along better with each other than with me. So, as all English do in that situation, I hooked up with Russia and Dave Horton for some assistance. Meanwhile, Anders was Austria and he probably was the only weak player on the board, continuing the pattern of having only one possibly weak player on each board I was on (and it is debatable whether I qualified as one of the weak players as well...). Erlend ``Joe'' Janbu was Turkey and Michael Goetse was Italy. I probably should have played it more conservatively, since I knew that I wasn't clicking with either Pierre or Michael Nielsen, but I grabbed both Belgium and Norway in 1901. In a flurry of 1901 stabs this didn't even put me at the top of the list, as Dave Horton went to seven(!) and Michael Goetse grabbed Trieste to go to five. All this did was to cement French and German forces together for the next two game years (as I would have done as well) and I tried to ``work with the devil'' in Dave to go for second (what I felt at that point was my best possible outcome). And while I meant this, Dave nabbed Norway for his eighth center in Fall 1902, while Nielsen picked up Belgium and I was pretty close to toast. I played rather good tactics in 1903 to avoid losing any home centers, so FG gained nothing. Thus Pierre struck another devil deal with Dave and Germany was the next target. Meanwhile Anders was going down stuck in the middle of a fierce three way battle between Dave, Joe, and Michael Goetse in the Balkans. By 1905, it looked like this..... Dave had 12 (!), Joe was down to 1 (same as Anders), and Michael Goetse had 8. Germany had four in a good defensive position that he held to the end and Pierre had seven. If you're counting, that left me with just one unit playing hide and seek games around the British Isles. But I had lots of time to influence the game and I decided to make Dave Horton pay! In retrospect, I might have kept him off of the Top Board for Sunday, since I helped Michael Goetse with diplomacy and tactics while using my dinky little unit to help Pierre take one of Dave's centers in England! In 1906, Dave was down two to 10 and Pierre and Michael were both right behind him at 9. Unlike Joe and Anders, I kept up my survival tactics through 1907 and survived with my one unit. But Dave lost three more to Pierre and Michael so that Michael topped the board with 12 and Pierre had 10 for second. Take that, Mr. Horton. This meant that in two straight tournaments, the previous week and this one, I had torpedoed chances of both halves of the dreaded ``Toby-Dave''..... well, it isn't much, but it was something.
So much for saving up energy for Dip, the Sunday round didn't start as early as the Saturday round and I was ready for bear (and I didn't mean Bear Barrow!). First, I played a whole bunch of games of that German cycling card game that Doug Massie had and finally I won something, I just kicked butt for game after game after game. I forget how many games in a row I won going away, but it was a lot. And Toby Harris and the Irishmen (Brian ``Denno'' Dennehy, Paraic ``Fred'' Reddington, and Fearghal ``Twerg'' O'Donnchu) had scoped out this English style pub a few blocks away, and a good crowd was hanging out there. Since we also were there the next night, I can't remember which night this happened, but one of the nights Toby Harris and his girlfriend were having a nice dinner at one of the outdoor cafe tables, and so the group poured out onto the sidewalk. Toby was able to ignore us pretty well ;-) but there were two French gentlemen trying to have a quiet dinner on the sidewalk and we were HUGELY noisy. They kept glaring at us and finally left! Well, I'm sure they thought we were there for the finish of the Tour de France the next day and blamed us on them, so that the Parisian government might have a chance of letting Dippers play at this site again in the future! I don't think we destroyed anything..... too badly. In actuality, only Ivan Woodward went to see the Finish of the Tour de France over on the Champs d'Elysee (at least he was the only one I heard about). I think he intended to get back in time for the Sunday round at one point, but in point of fact he didn't make it. He said that was a truly massive CRUSH of humanity, but he is very tall (about 6' 5" as the Americans figure it) so he could see over the crowds and said he got a pretty good view of things. We were a bit immersed in the community of Dippers....
The fun and fellowship of this Con really was wonderful and cannot be overemphasized. The people I met and had fun with at these drinking and social times (some I had met before of course, but spent more time with them than at those other events) included Vince Mous, Chris Martin, the aforementioned three Irishmen plus Twerg's younger brother Muiris and ``Jessie'' Evers, Leif Bergman, the ``Superheroes'' Chetan Radia, Demis Hassabis, Simon Bouton, Vick Hall, and of course Gihan Bandaranaike, WorldMasters Web site king Emeric Miszti, Erlend Janbu, Shlomi Yaakobovich, Doug Massie, Dave and Susie Horton (plus their young baby son along for the trip!), Mark Wightman, Niclas Perez, Michael McMillie, the feisty Frenchman Yann Clouet, the ever-calm Edi Birsan, Sean Colman and Richard Orme from Australia, Shaun Derrick, some of the quiet E-Mailer types like Peter Richardson, Millis Miller, and Ron Poet, Ray Setzer and his wife who we convinced that we really are NOT insane or that we are.... who could tell???, and last but by absolutely no means least the wonderful Toby Harris. I had lots of time to talk to lots of people here and that was part of the wonder of it all. To me, this balanced out my extreme dislike for C-Diplo and 1907 limited games almost perfectly.
Sunday morning, I knew I wasn't going to do anything decent and I wanted to blow by some people and play more for fun. Toby Harris arrived late from the night of drinking and they couldn't quite put together seven on an additional board, so he not only JUST missed the Top Board, but missed playing on a board that he could have dominated, he might have vied with Chetan Radia for third place in the tournament. I got on a bit of a weird board though. I drew Germany, which meant that in four games I never drew Russia which I don't particularly enjoy playing, but also never drew Italy or Austria that I LOVE to play, but generally don't do well at in tournaments. Here we had a very weird occurrence, all six of the remaining players were Brits but ONLY I knew them all!!! Ron Poet and Millis Miller are famous Judge people, Ron as a player and Millis as a GM. Eve Smith is not an especially good player, but she is fun to have around. Vick Hall and Demis Hassabis are ``Superheroes'' and Vick especially is a very dangerous face-to-face player. And finally Shaun Derrick who is one of the best calm and calculating FTF players I've ever seen. Whew, how would I have fun here?? Well, first of all, I was tired and I really blew it. I should have recognized that ***I*** was the one with the advantage of knowing everyone and used that more to manipulate the play. Ron Poet and Vick Hall were France and England respectively and I totally misplayed them, as we will see. Eve was Italy and Shaun was Austria.... hmmm. And Millis was Turkey. Finally, Demis was Russia. Ron and Vick are great players but I didn't play them off against each other well. We REALLY went at it in Diplomacy for the first two turns, but I approached Vick as he SAID he was approaching me, looking for some last round fun while the Top Board went on without us. So, I promised Vick an alliance where we would sweep the board and I really meant it, I didn't want to play C-Diplo SC count play any more. BUT, I should have made the deal with Ron!!!! How could I have been so stupid!!?? Anyway, Ron is a brilliant tactician, so Vick's and my attack didn't go very far even though we tried a tricky convoy to Picardy that Ron smoked out. And Vick stabbed me for one center in 1903. I told him straight out and meant it - it's all over but the shouting, so let's stay together, with me clearly the junior member of the alliance, but Demis and Ron can still be wiped out by 1907. Vick said yes, but didn't believe me and stabbed me for three more centers in 1904 (down to 2). Now, my only consolation at this point was that Eve was faring even worse than I was. She was at two in 1903 and only ONE by 1904 but Shaun was hanging at six with some very dicey maneuvering in the south. Millis was ALL over the place as Turkey in a game unlike any I have seen in many a year. He was down to three in 1902, then up to five as he took two of Shaun's centers in 1903 (while Shaun stayed even because he took two of Eve's), then up to seven in 1905 and then back down to five again by the end. All this time, amazingly, Shaun NEVER had a build or a removal, until that VERY last season of 1907 when he picked up two to finish second with eight. Here I was finally eliminated on the very last turn, as Demis Hassabis misordered a unit and Vick Hall topped the board with 10. Meanwhile, on another board, Chetan Radia was scoring the only 18 center win of the tournament as Austria-Hungary.
And, in the Top Board, we had some real action to watch as they made the final moves. The top board had 1997 WDC VII champion in Gothenburg, Sweden Cyrille Sevin as Germany. Brits Mark Wightman and Doug Massie were Austria and England, respectively. The ubiquitous Edi Birsan played France. Frenchmen Thomas Sebeyan and Pierre Malherbaud were Italy and Russia, respectively. And, Brian Dennehy was Turkey. Doug and Mark were knocked out in 1905, but going into the last two years, ANY of the remaining five could have won it. And the rules guaranteed that the center count board topper of this game would be crowned World Champion. Those last two seasons were quite cutthroat, but Cyrille stayed constant at 8 and looked good, while Edi had eight in 1906 and lost a center in 1907. Thomas and Pierre also faded at the end, but Brian grabbed at Russian centers and picked up two in 1907 to finish at eight centers as well. It seemed silly, what happens next? I had read the rules very carefully and saw something about ``birthdays'' and thought that the ``youngest player'', clearly Brian, was going to be declared the winner. And Brian had the most points going into the Top Board final. But no, I had missed a rule about voting. The remaining players STILL in the game (not including Doug or Mark) would vote for who the winner should be!! Since Brian and Cyrille obviously would vote for themselves, that left Thomas, Pierre, and Edi. It was decided that they would be allowed to consult and ``negotiate" and so they huddled over the board while everyone else was kept back. Edi stood up and announced the ``unanimous'' decision, Cyrille would get the win. This did not go down well in many quarters. I guess I would just say: ``look, those were the rules, and they followed the rules" but I know who ***I*** would have voted for. Brian was knocked down to his home three in 1902 and 1903, before starting a steady comeback as he stabbed Mark Wightman to eventually take him out. My idea for the future in these C-Diplo Top Board finals, driven by the offense I take at the aesthetics of the artificial 1907 ending, is that the game go into ``sudden death''. Since we had to wait around for about two hours waiting for the results to be tabulated anyway, there would be nothing wrong with creating something for us to watch like that! It would work very simply, you play 1908 and then see who leads at that point. If the lead is still tied, you go on to 1909 and so on. I don't know what would have happened here if the game had been played out that way, but I think it would have been THE most fair way to proceed, and the most DIPLOMACY based way. Moreover, it would have created tremendous spectator interest as we all could have watched!! In some sense, in a Diplomacy game, you would want to declare the player that had the LEAST support among the remaining players the winner, as that would be the person who might have been the most treacherous - but the French also had some votes about things like that as well, very unusual. At the end of games you voted who was the ``most Machiavellian" and who was the ``best Player''. I think they gave a separate set of awards based on these votes, so ``voting'' was in the air.
Anyway, another thing that happened on Sunday was the Hobby Meeting. The World DipCon charter was approved again and thus it now becomes officially ratified. The 2002 World DipCon XII will be held over Easter weekend (March 29 to April 1, 2002) in Canberra, Australia. See Larry Peery's letter elsewhere in this issue for how HE is getting there. The latest information is on the DAANZ web site at: http://www.daanz.org.au/wdc2002. Unfortunately, I will not be able to make this one, but I hope that many of you will seriously think about going. The Australian and New Zealand hobbies are arguably the world's most dynamic and exciting. You can also E-Mail Rob Stephenson at rstephenson2 of bigpond.com. And then the vote was held for the 2003 World DipCon XIII which Bear Barrow presented for Denver and won. That will be held in the late Winter in conjunction with ARMADA. More information on this undoubtedly will be available soon.
Then, after a long wait, the long suffering Thibault Constans convened us for the awarding of prizes. I've already published what I know here, and the official results are not published anywhere quite yet, but they will be VERY shortly. In the meantime, you can find the most pertinent information on the Diplomacy World web site at:
http://www.diplomacyworld.org/issues/issue87/world_dipcon_xi_results.htm
But I'm not done with my report quite yet..... I stayed around afterward and helped Thibault Constans with some of the cleanup. He, Yann Clouet, and Xavier Blanchot donated huge amounts of time, money, and effort to ensure that this World DipCon came off as the most subsidized and ``least home country'' World DipCon yet. There are not words with which I can thank them for their stupendous contributions and what I most regret is that Xavier and Thibault did not really get to enjoy the event itself as much as they should have. Xavier was hardly in evidence at all. I really don't know what I can do about that, except to offer my effusive thanks and praise here. Anyway, by the time I left (and I actually left a few of the Superheroes, who actually also deserve extra special mention like Vick Hall and Chetan Radia, still there), and went back to the hotel by myself (I'd finally figured out the way!!) almost everyone had gone off to dinner or had dinner. But Susie and Dave Horton graciously invited me to join them for dinner which was a REAL treat. We went to a pleasant jazz bar restaurant that was by far the nicest one I had been to while in Paris..... to put it simply, David Norman wouldn't have liked it, nothing for him to eat there! I had ``escargots'' which is snails of course as an appetizer. I've had huge escargot and small escargot, these were the delicate small ones and were absolutely delicious!! And the conversation, both about Dip and the tournament, but also about everything else, was wonderful. I really liked the Horton's, even though Dave took me for a royal ride in our Round 3 game! And as long as my Kitton, Kathy Byrne Caruso, remains in retirement, Susie wins my vote for the best female Diplomacy player in the world. I'm still giving Melissa Nicholson a chance (she's still young!), but right now watching Susie play and then discussing the games with her afterward convinced me for the present!! Susie plays the game on multiple levels the way I like to watch it be played.
Back to the pub for more beers and socializing and then one more night in bed at the Hotel de la Louisiane and Xavier Blanchot's kind hospitality. Back at the hotel, we spent a couple extra hours before sleep playing games in Vesa Virri's room (see my interview with Vesa conducted BEFORE World DipCon in Diplomacy World). The hobby's friendliest Finn hosted a number of Scandinavians and others for gaming and I joined in the laughter and fun there too. In the morning, I did some shopping before heading to the hotel and said goodbye to various and sundry people. This is where I had a discussion with Ray Setzer and his wife about just how much fun this all had been. And Bear Barrow and I talked a bit about his dad (known to our hobby as Don Treasure) and how I hoped we would be in touch back here in the States (as yet we really haven't done that, anyone have Bear's address so I can send this to him???). And most importantly, I thanked THE one and only Toby Harris for coming. Toby didn't win here, but he clearly showed to me that he is one of the best if not THE best Diplomacy player in the world, and a heck of a better guy than he gets credit for being sometimes. After watching the EuroStar crowd tromp off the way we had come a few days ago, I caught a cab to the airport. I was simply tired and wanted nothing to do with the train (I've taken the train back and forth to Charles de Gaulle Airport a number of times, but I had had enough of dragging things all over the place). I ended up sharing a cab with Anders Egneus and his father, two of the best Britannia players in the Britannia tournament. We had a fine conversation about the differences between Britannia and Diplomacy and the influences of ``style of play'' on both games. Too bad we didn't work our conversation up into an article or something. Unfortunately, I don't remember enough of the details now and I don't know how to play Britannia in any case, so I couldn't possibly do it by myself. But I arrived home exhausted but re-energized for the hobby. There is no question that Diplomacy is still THE game and the hobby is strong and diverse going into the future. But that future is in the world, the WHOLE world, and that's its magic.
Back to your regular programming, including some other Con reviews.....
Rick Desper (Sun, 7 Oct 2001 19:49:51 -0700 (PDT))
Today was the last day of Tempest. Top 3:
1) Tom Kobrin
2) David Hood
3) Chris Martin
Tempest was very well-organized (kudos to Andy Marshall). I was only able to play in one round, unfortunately. I had too much work to do so I made a deal with myself and dedicated Saturday to work. And then I showed up too late for the Sunday round.
I would like to think that the relative order of finish (Kobrin ahead of Hood) had something to do with the fact that I was on the board with Hood in the first round, and we finished in a 4-way draw, whereas I wasn't on any board with Kobrin. Well, at least I'd like to think that. :)
Chris Martin has talked a bit about organizing a con for next July in NYC. I think this would be a great idea.
The NIH public safety force just installed an x-ray machine in the lobby of our building. I'm beginning to fathom the depth of the changes that the hijackings are going to have on our society. Will we ever regain our sense of invulnerability? It seems unlikely.
| Rick, rick_desper of yahoo.com |
Steve Emmert (Sun, 7 Oct 2001 12:59:23 -0400)
Just got back from Tempest (I left before the third round started this morning, so I have no idea who the winner will be). ((See above....)) Tom Pasko and Tom Kobrin each got solos, to my knowledge. I got stopped as a fourteen-center Italy yesterday, after which Chris Martin and I went to opening night for the Washington Capitals. (They shellacked the New Jersey Devils, 6-1. Poor Martin Brodeur had no meaningful defense in front of him.) When we got back to the con after the game, one of the second-round games, which had started about 10:45 am, was still going on - after 11:00 pm!! I couldn't resist needling them, and took out my watch and helpfully mentioned that the third round was scheduled to begin in nine hours, and would they be kind enough to give up the table at that time? I'm not sure they were amused.
The whole weekend was a great time; Andy Marshall and the Pitkissers did a good job of organizing it. I played with Chris, Ray Setzer, Sean Cable, Paul Rosenzweig, Nigel Pepper (the only attendee from overseas), and Sandy Wible in the first round, and with Ike Porter, Joe Wheeler, and some others you probably wouldn't know in the second. There was a LOT of talent in the room, and they got six boards in both of the first two rounds.
| Best wishes. Steve, lsemmert of sykesbourdon.com |
((Looks like the Bruins actually can play this year, and watch out for the Islanders!!!))
Steve Emmert (Sun, 7 Oct 2001 13:25:46 -0400)
I have noticed the Islanders' improvements, the least appreciated of which was their waiver pickup of Chris Osgood, and they will be much better this season. I actually think they'll make the playoffs. Not my beloved Habs, though; they were a so-so team to start with, and then their captain - who is also their best player - came down with abdominal cancer. Koivu's out for at least the year, and is quite obviously concentrating on things other than the fate of the team. I think they'll miss the playoffs yet again, and the wolves in Quebec will be howling some more.
I can generate a division-by-division analysis of the NHL for you, if you think the readership would be interested.
| Best wishes. Steve, lsemmert of sykesbourdon.com |
((Sure, if you like.... I like....))
Warren Goesle (Tue, 02 Oct 2001 21:19:41)
Jim-Bob,
Ok, now that you've actually put out #250, let me congratulate you. TAP is the US Hobby's flagship zine (sorry, ``szine"), and no one does it better than you do amigo. You've got the games, you've got the players, you've got the commentary, you keep the Hobby going, almost single-handedly. I look forward to still getting stabbed here at #500. There is no place better to be bloodied.
Pat yourself on the back, and know that you've been toasted from here. Good job.
| Goz, gozcorp of iquest.net |
((Gee thanks, Goz, with as busy as I have been lately, I don't feel like a flagship anything, except maybe a sunken wreck.... ;-) but I do appreciate the good cheer! Best of luck to you in trying to catch me!!))
Larry Peery (Sun, 07 Oct 2001 15:41:09 -0700)
GREETINGS DIP LUBBERS!
Tomorrow, 8 October, the first Dip At Sea Adventure gets underway when the MS Ryndam leaves San Diego for a ten day cruise to the Mexican Riviera!
Seventeen veteran Dippers (average age is about 60)have pre-reg'd for this event, including a former career diplomat, two retired navy officers, and a prof of international relations. It should be interesting.
Fam meetings and demo rounds will be held on Tues and Wed at 1000 in the ship's card room, with tournament rounds beginning at 1400 both days. The final round will be held on Wed, 17 October, as the ship sails back to San Diego from Cabo.
The second Dip at Sea Adventure will be held on the QEII's 2002 RTW cruise, Los Angeles - Sydney segment, next Jan-Feb. For more info contact Larry Peery at dip_at_sea_adventures of hotmail.com or peery of ix.netcom.com
| DIP VOYAGE! Larry Peery, dip_at_sea_adventures of hotmail.com |
((Yes, he IS serious about both of these, I hope he is having fun right now..... lastly, Nick Parish gave me permission to clog up this issue with Con Reviews in a detailed review of ManorCon from his more extensive point of view. For my American audience, I will be offering ongoing commentary, recall that MY review of Manorcon was in Issue #249.))
Nick Parish (Tue, 02 Oct 2001 14:37:46)
Hi Jim,
I said I'd send you my Manorcon report. Here it is in all its glory. I hope all is well with you and yours, in the aftermath of the recent tragic events.
| Manorcon 2001 |
Manorcon began in the now traditional way, with me having an enormous lie-in, followed by a not-yet traditional (but likely to become that way soon) enormous cooked breakfast at the Portuguese cafe just down the road. Fortunately it seems that the Portuguese breakfast bears considerable similarities to the British one, consisting of two sausages, two rashers of bacon, three slices of black pudding, three grilled tomatoes, two fried eggs, hash browns and a mountain of mushrooms, accompanied by either two pieces of toast or two fried slices. This suits me fine, as toast is hard brown bread which has usually gone slightly cold and soggy by the time you've finished your breakfast and got round to eating it (why don't they bring the toast at the end of the meal when you're ready for it, rather than at the beginning when you're trying to eat everything but the toast?), whereas fried bread is heaven on a plate, and will clog up your arteries at no extra charge. The other difference seems to be that while all fry-ups come with toast, many don't come with fried bread, which I consider a criminal error and one that I will swiftly put right when I become supreme dictator of the world. Anyway, all that, washed down with a cuppa is a mere 4.90, which even considering that they charge in pounds rather than escudos, is pretty good value for SW London.
((For those of you that know English breakfasts, you will understand ALL too well, for those who don't, well, this is either an advertisement or an indictment, your call....))
Arteries suitably clogged, I waddled back home to pack and then off to Birmingham. And as it turned out, I managed to arrive only 15 minutes late for my stint on the registration desk, which I had foolishly arranged for the rather early time of 6pm. I was on with Paul Oakes and we spent a pleasant hour gossiping and wandering what Kath Collman's more incomprehensible annotations next to people's names meant. I'm still not quite clear why Paul and I spend so much time having a go at each other in print when we get along fine in person. Maybe it's because he's a Liverpool fan...
((The nature of the registration desk, where NO ONE hangs out and there is surprisingly little traffic at any one time given how many people are there is one of the mysteries of Manorcons to me..... but Kath Collman IS both extremely organized and incomprehensible at the same time.))
To be honest, I don't remember much about Friday night (and that's got nothing to do with the beer. Well, not very much). I did play in the poker, and actually played reasonably well, going out about 4th last of 13 and then slightly unluckily, having AK suited heads up against Dave Percik's KQ suited, before he drew the flush. I then have a vague memory of playing Kremlin, but that may be inaccurate. Come to think of it, my memory has me losing, so I must be making that bit up.
((This has to do with his failure to play in the Dip ;-) One of things about ManorCon is that most people really do play ALL sorts of things, coming together only for the Team event on Saturday. I didn't even see Nick until Saturday.... and we had met before at a Diplomatic Incident, so it wasn't as if I wouldn't recognize him!!))
I did, however, fix up my Diplomacy team. I was once again the proud captain of ``There's Only One `F' In Oxford", and once again playing Austria, with once again high hopes - such as that the team might finish second-last. With our team consisting of Mark ``Will finish top on 10 centres and produce the only half-decent score" Sheiham, Mark ``Do I have to play?" Stretch (he did because we only had 5 players without him), Dave ``Have got a decent score at Manorcon once" Percik, Gordon ``Poached from another team" Aickin, and Nick ``Rapidly going downhill" Parish, things looked promising. I had also contacted Andrew Hartley, who I thought had agreed to play for us, and so was somewhat surprised to find his name on the ``looking for a team" list when I arrived on Friday night. Perhaps his new beard had taken growth potential away from his memory cells. Anyway, I grabbed him back and was then offered a free pick from the others on the list by Nick Kinzett, who ran the tournament very efficiently and friendlyly. The list was packed with the likes of Danny Collman, so my hopes weren't high of picking a top player, but I chose Ken Bottomer on the grounds that though I knew nothing of his Dip ability, I had actually heard of him before.
((My outsiders view was that this was CLEARLY the third best team on the docket after The Superheroes and the ``Toby-Dave'' Team. Nick is being unduly modest, I think....))
Saturday morning dawned bright and far too early, with the team Diplomacy at 9am. An array of impressive teams faced us, from the Superheroes team featuring Bouton, Hall et al, to Toby Harris's ``Team of Everyone Who Has Given Up Diplomacy But Hasn't Given Up Giving Up" (Harris, Horton, Horton etc), to Team Fat Bastard (Hornby, Wightman etc).
((Well, the other teams were basically crap and Team Fat Bastard was weighed down with some ``dead weight'' (hyork, hyork.... no, probably Mark Wightman will defend them, but as I was watching, it clearly was the other three of the top four doing well, and then the Toby-Dave team going down in flames (again c.f. my review in #249 at /Postal/Zines/TAP/abyss249.html).))
But for once, I got a nice draw in the Dip, with Simon Hornby, a good friend, as Italy. For the first time in 7 years, I took a chance in not opening with the Hedgehog, and it actually worked. Simon and I forged a reasonable alliance, not attacking each other until late in the game. After the free-for-all, I emerged top of the board, which was nice. Albeit it was on 7 centres, and it was equal top with Simon, but hell, top of the board is top of the board. With my performance having got worse and worse in recent years, having survived on one centre in 1998 and been eliminated in 2000, any improvement was a relief! And on checking with the rest of the team, to my amazement, they had all done OK. Indeed, better than OK in the case of Stretchy, who much to general amazement had topped his board on 13 as Germany - not bad for someone who hadn't wanted to play. Mark Sheiham hadn't managed his normal board-topper but did wiggle out of a very nasty position to finish second on 8 centres, while Ken, Dave, Andrew and Gordon all turned in reasonable performances, with no-one being eliminated and our worst result (I think) being a 4-centre third equal. All that, much to my amazement (dumbfoundedness might be a better word), was enough to get us to second place, rather than the second-last I had been hoping for. Well played, team! During the Dip, it was nice to meet Jim Burgess, editor of The Abyssinian Prince and native of Rhode Island, America, over for a bit of Manorcon and World Dip Con in Paris. I even got the chance to give him a sub for his zine, which I may say is thoroughly excellent and well-worth getting. Email Jim for more details. Also available on email and in purple. Plug over.
((You lot already know about that last part, of course.))
Just in case that wasn't enough, the croquet was underway. Allow me to take you through some history on this. In 1994 I lost to eventual runner-up William Whyte and in 1995 I lost to eventual winner Stewart Cross, but since then, neither of them have turned up, and I went on to win in 1996, beating Kevin McGowan in the final. However, he got his revenge by beating me in the 1997 and 1998 finals, and I was unable to play in 1999 and 2000. So, as you can guess I was bursting for revenge. My main rivals I thought likely to be Kevin and Gary Duke, so it was with considerable satisfaction that I noted that both of them were in the other half of the draw to me, as were two other potential threats, Mick Haytack and Mark Jones. It was with even more satisfaction, nay delight, that I heard that both Gary and Kevin had crashed out in the first round!
((What Nick does NOT say and might have been a major factor is that the croquet lawn was perched on the side of a hill, right outside a window in the back of the Diplomacy room. Thus, I watched a lot of the early round games from inside. The lawn was up against the window, thus there was no ``working room'' on that side, and the other side very quickly fell off a hill. The entire lawn then was crammed into what looked to me (as an American who has played a fair bit of croquet and has watched games on the lawn of the US Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, RI, which is the only professional croquet lawn I've ever seen) into a too narrow space by at least a third. A good tournament player will always assess the ground and play accordingly, of course, but this undoubtedly contributed in at least some small measure to early upsets by favorites.))
A few games of Settlers and a victory in the first round of the croquet later, it was time for the Saturday night curry. Back to our favourite location, the Dilshad. I must say, this gets better and better, from the friendliness of the waiters and their willingness to rustle up a table for 17 without a booking, to the excellence and size of the curries. It was made even better by the other party that turned up, including the Collmans, who looked faintly horrified when they saw who was there. Funnily enough, they left before we did - wonder why? Of course, we had to honour their departure with a loud round of ``Bye bye Danny, bye bye son...". Sadly, in the car on the way back the cassette containing all our favourite songs had been mislaid, and hence we had to go for the Acapulco version of ``John Kettley Is A Weatherman". None the worse for that, I might say. On our return we decided to skip the music quiz, which turned out to be a hideous mistake, as for the first time ever, one of the lyrics was from ``My Boomerang Won't Come Back". And I wasn't there! Arrrgh!
((As I said in my review, one of the things that I REALLY missed was getting to have one of the real curries. This was a highlight of my first visit to ManorCon for World DipCon IV. They treat the Collman's SOOOO badly.... ;-) well, I guess you had to be there.))
On Sunday, I successfully negotiated another round of the croquet, then lost another game of Kremlin, which was rather depressing given that I used to be undisputed Hobby champion of this. Then came the croquet semi-final against James Hardy, which proved quite a titanic battle - I romped ahead but couldn't finish him off, and he came back strongly. However, I eventually prevailed. In the afternoon I warmed up for the main event by participating in the Treasure Hunt, run by Chris Dickson. I took part in this mainly to swell the numbers, since I am not generally a bug puzzles fan. However, it turned out to be a thoroughly enjoyable event. ``Treasure Hunt" is perhaps a slightly misleading name, as although there was a small amount of cavorting round the university campus looking for clues, it was much more about cerebral brain puzzles of all different types. We were in teams of five, which meant that usually there was at least one person on each team who fancied having a go at each puzzle. I was fairly useless but did at least derive immense pleasure from getting the Big Brother puzzle right, despite never having watched it. Overall, a lot of fun, and made all the more so because by cleverly recruiting other people who were better at puzzles than me (notably Mick Haytack) our team managed to win. Hooray! Flushed with success, Mick and I went out to contest the croquet final, and after once again doing my best to throw away an early lead, I managed to come home and WIN for the first time since 1996. Hoorah! HOORAH! I was then carried in triumph to receive my trophy at the prize giving by Mark Jones and Kevin McGowan, who was very gracious in giving up ``his" trophy. They carried me in triumph at head-height on a golden throne - well, High Hall chair. Just as well Simon Hornby didn't win, that's all I can say.
((The Treasure Hunt sounded like it would be really fascinating, I'm sorry I had to leave before it!! A lot of you know Chris Dickson, of course, because he also is very omnipresent on E-Mail.))
We then went to play a few other games and then it was off for the second night curry with a much more select second night crowd consisting of Simon, Gordon, Chris, me and Phil Williams. Simon commented on driving off, that we must all be fat bastards because his car was moving very slowly, and this caused me to do a few calculations. Now Simon is not thin, and said he probably weighted about 20 stone and is about 5'10. Phil Williams is enormous at 6'8 and also weighed 20 stone, while Gordon measures a mere 6'4 and tips the scales at 18 stone. On top of that you have Chris, at about 6'0 and 15 stone or so, and the virtually petite by comparison me (6'0 and around 13 stone). So there we were - total weight 85 stone (half a ton), average weight 17 stone, average height 6'2! No wonder it felt crowded! Wonder if we weighed more than the car?
((You have to remember that these are small British cars.... but what make and model was it??? How are we supposed to solve the equation without that???!!! Extra credit for any of my American subbers who can translate stones into pounds without looking it up.... hint: it's more than a dozen despite what happens if you take the half ton comment and back track directly.))
We returned to High Hall after an undistinguished second curry at a place which the Good Curry Guide claimed to be the best balti house in Britain and played a few games of Liar's Dice until 4am. At this point I decided it would be a good idea to start scoring up the Settlers tournament, and Gordon nobly agreed to help me out. In retrospect this might have been better done when I was feeling a bit more awake, as I made a catastrophic error and transposed first and second places. OOPS. Sorry to those involved. Still, a quality jollity note on which to leave the con, and nicely typical of a shambolic but enjoyable weekend.
((Balti houses are the places in Britain where curries are served. And your guess is as good as mine as to what a shambolic weekend is, but might have to do with shambles and wandering.... from game to game.))
Once again, an excellent Manorcon, so thanks to all the committee and I hope and trust we'll be back next year, university refurbishments permitting.
| Cheers, Nick, Nick.Parish of bankofengland.co.uk |
((Thanks, Nick, for letting me publish and comment on it!))
| MUSIC SECTION (WITH COMMENTS ON OTHER ARTS AND SOCIETY) |
Tell me anything you like about the year of 2000 in music. List a top two, a top ten, or a top 100, I don't care, just tell me something!! Mine will appear ``REAL SOON NOW'' - yes, in issue #252 or something!!!
Steve Langley (Sat, 29 Sep 2001 19:30:01 EDT)
``Zoolander" - a movie
I am a fan of the movie collage genre. ``Zoolander" is one such. I was surprised to observe that the audience was mostly young teen girls. I'm not sure they were the target audience. I found myself laughing at some of the movie reference jokes and I was alone in the laughter. I may have been the only one in the audience old enough to get the reference.
Take the metaphor of the brainless male model and lift it to the heights of absurdity. Then crank it up a few notches higher. That's ``Zoolander". I laughed a lot. I wasn't always the only one laughing.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((Charlotte and I saw this one too and the amount of hilarity cannot be underemphasized. You wouldn't think that lines like ``It would have to be at least three times that big'' would have me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe, would you?? The magic of the comedy is HOW seamlessly it connects its absurdity. Charlotte designs costumes for theatre and not for male models, but the cultures are close enough that we have been exposed to lots of the inside stuff that makes this especially hilarious. And simply put, Ben Stiller really is becoming a comic genius. I also really like Will Ferrell's character, who carries around this small dog who holds still through all sorts of commotion as another comic device. Owen Wilson is equally adapt at his dumb Adonis role. Loads of cameos, led by a cool David Duchovny. I also noted a lot of young teen girls in our audience but some of them even laughed at the ``2001: A Space Odyssey" reference, to cite just one of the ones to which Steve was referring. Our theatre was pretty full (we went late on a Friday night) and everyone seemed to be really into it and laughing at everything. In a year of bad movies, this one stands out as brilliant.))
Steve Langley (Sat, 6 Oct 2001 19:38:26 EDT)
``Training Day" - a movie
Denzel Washington plays one of the most complex and interesting characters of his career. Alonzo Harris is the head of an elite Narcotics Squad of the LAPD. He has a philosophy that I can sum up as `All of the laws apply to some of the people some of the time. Some of the laws apply to all of the people all of the time. But none of the laws apply to Alonzo Harris, ever.' He has the highest arrest and clearance record of any officer on the force. Twice he can be quoted as telling his rookie trainee that `It isn't what you know, it's what you can prove.'
Ethan Hawke plays Jake Hoyt, a rookie fresh out of his blues hoping that working with Harris will give him the fast track to dectective.
The movie is about his first day with Harris, his training day. Almost everything that is said and done in the movie serves a multiple purpose in this very complex story.
I loved it.
| Steve, Steflan of aol.com |
((I know, I know, you also love caper movies.... bet you aren't very interested in seeing ``Hearts in Atlantis".... but Rick and I saw that one...))
Rick Desper (Mon, 8 Oct 2001 21:26:26 -0700 (PDT))
brief movie review:
Hearts of Atlantis was more like an after-school special than a real movie. (Do kids today get after-school specials? It was an ABC Wednesday regular when I was a kid in the 70s.) There wasn't quite enough of a story to motivate the length of the movie. Too bad, as the acting was terrific. Anthony Hopkins is always great, and he was here, too. The child actors were all good, too. For me it moves into the acceptable range, but only because it's set in Connecticut, and the scenery is authentic. (I got misty when I saw Cider House Rules in Germany, not because of the incest/rape/abortion angle, but because of the apple orchards and corn bread.)
((I liked this movie somewhat better than you seemed to. I DID think the story worked with the kid as protagonist. I didn't think it was as good as Stand By Me either (which you said to me in a separate note) but it was damned close. Bookending the 1960 setting, which was done NEARLY wonderfully except for some mistimed glitter and a few other minor mistakes, with a modern setting for the protagonist grown up really sewed the movie together for me, while it didn't seem to work as well for you. I really, really identified with the whole story the way that they did it. I won't say more to let out details, but go see this!! Then again, perhaps I was just reacting to my extreme disappointment at the long string of REALLY awful movies I saw this summer.))
Baseball playoff predictions: (sent day before it starts) ((Typed at the same time...)) As over Yankees in 5. As are, right now, much better than the Yankees. In all aspects of the game, except the bullpen and centerfield. (Yes, Tejada is better than Jeter. It's really not close, which would be clear to everybody if the media didn't have this fixation on Jeter.) The As have hotter starting pitching with Mulder, Hudson, and Zito. Their vulnerability is their bullpen. ((I agree though might be fewer games. Jeter will have to do something to resurrect his superstardom. It is in decline at the moment. Watch for the wily veteran Ron Gant to have a role in the series.))
Ms over Indians in 3. This is really a rout. The Indians have good hitting, but little in the way of pitching. The Mariners are the best team I've ever seen. ((I don't think so, heaven help the Ms if they NEED Aaron Sele to have a great game in Game 3, Sabathia will clean his clock, so while I also pick the M's to win, I pick them in four, losing game 3 for absolute sure.))
Astros over Braves in 4. I'll go with the young guns in Houston. The Braves are a very soft-hitting team. The starting pitching is strong as always but Houston has a better bullpen. ((Yeah, kill the Tomahawk Chop!!! But all those consecutive years of Braves division wins are STUNNING. And I think Smoltz has made the shift from starter to closer, just as Derek Lowe has made the shift from closer to starter - each being FAR more valuable for it.))
Diamondbacks over Cardinals in 4. The Boston Braves used to have a saying: ``Spahn and Sain and two days of rain." The D-Backs have the best 1-2 punch I've seen in years. The problem is that Randy Johnson has never had a lot of success in the postseason, mostly because his teams have not scored runs for him. The Cardinals probably have better hitting. This should be fun to watch. The Johnson/McGwire at bats could be legendary. ((Agreed there too, but Randy Johnson will be the loser again in his game, and La Russa is possibly the best manager in the playoffs. An upset won't surprise me.))
LCS: Ms over As in 7. The Ms have no weaknesses. The As have better starting pitching, equal hitting, and a weaker bullpen. Bullpens are too important in the playoffs to get too excited about the As. Whoever wins this series wins the World Series. These two teams are clearly above the rest of the pack. ((True, but I pick the A's to win it. I just have the feeling.....))
Dbacks over Astros in 6. Almost by default, based on the injuries the Astros have. I'm not all that impressed by any of the NL teams this year. Any of the four could make it to the Series, or get swept in the first round. ((Yup, but here I would say that if the Cards make it, they will go on to the Series, even though expect McGwire to be worse than useless. He may have to retire after this, which will be sad. I was looking forward to watching Bonds and McGwire compete to see who could pass Willie Mays for third on the All-Time HR list first. Then, who knows??))
World Series: Ms in 5 over Dbacks.
Of course, the best team doesn't always win, but it's always the best bet, even if it's a less than even odds. I would gladly stack the As and Ms against the rest of the field at even odds. ((Me too.))
| Rick, rick_desper of yahoo.com |
Rick Desper (Fri, 21 Sep 2001 20:03:38 -0700 (PDT))
Just wanted to send in a few thoughts:
-It would have been hard to work at the NIH for the past year and not donate blood. There is a sign right by the entrance stating the urgent need for donations, type O. I am O+. Donated a couple times this year. I hope others do so, too.
-Giuliani was absolutely tremendous.
-The first couple days, Dubya looked like things were happening too fast for him. But his speech last night was astounding.
For the first time in my life, I feel that events could quickly cascade out of control. I don't know what the terrorists hope to accomplish, but they have sorely misjudged the United States. They believe their own propaganda.
The real worry I and many other have is that these people may have gotten their hands on chemical or biological weapons. My guess is that either they haven't, or that they have held back, knowing that the US policy is to treat such weapons as ``weapons of mass destruction", which means that the US will unleash nuclear weapons against any force which has the temerity to use such weapons against us.
Boston is supposedly a possible target for an attack tomorrow. Be careful.
| Rick, rick_desper of yahoo.com |
((Pshaw, turned out not to happen. I worry that the administration keeps ``announcing'' these imminent attacks nearly every day so that when one finally happens, they can say ``see, we told you to be careful''. I would much prefer practical advice. If you are in a MAJOR government office (not where we work), a major media outlet, or a major corporate office, THOSE are the places that will be targets. While mass terror might increase with truly random attacks, that doesn't seem to be bin Laden's game. We do seem to be seeing what Stage 2 is: Anthrax attacks. Note THERE the authorities are trying to downplay terrorist connections, I hope they are right, but will be surprised if they are.))
| LAWYERS: THE AMATEUR DIVISION - 2000G - GUEST GM: RUSS RUSNAK |
2000G, Amateurs Game, Spring 1906
Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com A MUNICH support A Berlin - Silisia, A Berlin - SILISIA, A SPAIN - Gascony, F AEGEAN SEA support A Serbia - Bulgaria, A Serbia - BULGARIA, F PORTUGAL - Spain nc, A Rumania - UKRAINE, A Trieste - SERBIA A BUDAPEST support A Vienna - Galicia, A Vienna - GALICIA
England Bruce Linsey GonzoHQ of aol.com F NORWEGIAN SEA Support German F Skaggerak-Norway
France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com F Irish Sea - ENGLISH CHANNEL, A BELGIUM support A Ruhr - Burgundy, F BREST support F Irish Sea - English Channel, A Ruhr - BURGUNDY
Germany Mike Barno mpbarno of lightlink.com A HOLLAND - Kiel, F SKAGGERAK - Norway
Italy Jim Burgess burgess of world.std.com F WEST MED support F North Africa - Mid atlantic, F North Africa - MID ATLANTIC A Piedmont - TYROLIA, A GASCONY - Burgundy, A Naples - ROME
Russia Randy Ellis Bukowski64 of yahoo.com F Mid Atlantic (Dislodged) hold, F DENMARK support A Kiel, A PRUSSIA unordered, F BALTIC SEA support F Denmark, A SWEDEN support A Finland - Norway, A FINLAND - Norway A Sevastopol - RUMANIA, A KIEL support French A Ruhr - Munich, A CONSTANTINOPLE - Bulgaria, F NORWAY - Norwegian Sea, A WARSAW - Galicia
AUSTRIAN WIN AND AUSTRIAN / RUSSIAN DRAW PROPOSED PLEASE REMEMBER TO VOTE
PRESS:
RULES FOR RUSSIAN ALLIANCES: 1)Promise everything, deliver nothing. 2)See rule #1
Germany to GM: Is it okay to announce Italy's removals as ``all five of them" with him at World DipCon?
Mos to Vienna: Hindsight is always 20/20. I should have seen the writing on the wall.
Moscow to Grand Duchy of Holland: I imagine that this delights you. Can't say I blame you. I am reaping the fruits of that which I sowed.
(GENEVA): Several players know who won the Negotiator of the Year award this turn. Since an apology has been offered, I'll say no more.
(Germany): Not much here, just the impending-doom bit. No factor. When I call this my sixth-favorite game, that puts it behind a two-center standby spot and a no-press Gunboat game.
Summer 1906 orders due on Thursday, 8/16/01
Fall 1906 orders and draw (A/R) and win (A) votes due Thursday, 9/6/01
Winter 1905 Supply Center Chart
Austria 11 Has Vienna, Trieste, Budapest, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Rumania, Munich, Berlin, Spain, Portugal
England 1 Has Edinburgh
France 4 Has Brest, Paris, London, Belgium,
Germany 2 Has Holland, Liverpool,
Italy 5 Has Rome, Naples, Venice, Tunis, Marseilles
Russia 11 Has St. Pete, Moscow, Warsaw, Sevastopol, Sweden, Kiel, Constantinople, Ankara, Smyrna, Denmark, Norway
2000G, Amateurs Game, summer 1906
Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com Has A Munich, A Silisia, A Spain, F Aegean, A Bulgaria, F Portugal, A Ukraine, A Serbia, A Budapest, A Galicia
England Bruce Linsey GonzoHQ of aol.com Has F Norwegian Sea
France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com Has F English Channel, A Belgium, F Brest, A Burgundy
Germany Mike Barno mpbarno of lightlink.com Has A Holland, F Skaggerak
Italy Jim Burgess burgess of world.std.com Has F Western Med, F Mid Atlantic, A Tyrolia, A Gascony, A Rome
Russia Randy Ellis Bukowski64 of yahoo.com Retreat F Mid Atlantic - North Atlantic Has F Denmark, A Prussia, F Baltic Sea, A Sweden, A Finland, A Rumania A Kiel, A Constantinople, F Norway, A Warsaw, F North Atlantic
AUSTRIAN WIN AND AUSTRIAN / RUSSIAN DRAW PROPOSED PLEASE REMEMBER TO VOTE
Fall 1906 orders and draw (A/R) and win (A) votes due Thursday, 9/6/01
2000G, Amateurs Game, fall 1906 (What a mess)
Austrian win and Austrian Russian draw both fail
Austrian concession proposed NVR = Yes
Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com A MUNICH support German A Holland - Kiel, A Silisia - WARSAW, A spain (destroyed) support Italian A gascony - marseilles, A ukraine - MOSCOW F AEGEAN support A bulgaria - constantinople, A bulgaria - CONSTANTINOPLE, F PORTUGAL support Italian F Western Med - Mid Atlantic, A serbia - BULGARIA, A BUDAPEST - Rumania, A GALICIA support A Silisia - Warsaw
England Bruce Linsey GonzoHQ of aol.com F norwegian Sea (dislodged) support German F Skaggerak - North Sea
France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com F ENGLISH CHANNELL - north sea, A BELGIUM - holland, A burgundy - MARSEILLES, F BREST - english channel
Germany Mike Barno mpbarno of lightlink.com A HOLLAND - kiel, F SKAGGERAK - north sea
Italy Jim Burgess burgess of world.std.com F MID ATLANTIC support F western med - spain sc, A rome - VENICE A tyrolia - TRIESTE, A GASCONY support F western med - spain sc, F western mediterranean - SPAIN South Coast
Russia Randy Ellis Bukowski64 of yahoo.com F DENMARK support A Kiel, A prussia - BERLIN, F BALTIC SEA support A prussia - berlin, A SWEDEN support A finland - norway A finland - NORWAY, A RUMANIA support A constantinople - bulgaria A KIEL support A prussia - berlin, A constantinople (diaslodged) - bulgaria, F Norway - NORWEGIAN SEA, A warsaw (dislodged) unordered hold, F NORTH ATLANTIC support F norway - norwegian sea
Winter 1906 orders due Thursday September 13
Spring 1907 orders and win (A) votes due Wednesday October 10
Winter 1906 Supply Center Chart
Austria 10 build 1; Gained Warsaw, Con, Moscow, Lost Trieste, Rumania, Berlin, Spain; Has Warsaw, Contantinople, Moscow, Vienna, Budapest, Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Munich, Portugal
England 1 even (adjusted for retreat if required); Has Edinburgh
France 5 build 1; Gained Marseilles; Has Brest, Paris, London, Belgium, Marseilles
Germany 2 even; Has Holland, Liverpool,
Italy 6 build 1; Gained Spain, Trieste; Lost Marsilles; Has Rome, Naples, Venice, Tunis, Spain, Trieste
Russia 10 remove 1 (adjusted for retreats if required); Gained Berlin, Rumania; Lost Warsaw, Moscow, Constantinople; Has Berlin, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, Sweden, Kiel, Ankara, Smyrna, Denmark, Rumania, Norway
Press
MIKER to HIKERS: Only 114 miles hiked so far this year, almost none more than a couple of miles at a time. Mostly dogwalks on this forested hill road or on various trails. And I've camped more at housecons than in genuine backcountry. Oh well. In the fall, some weekend distractions will get replaced by others.
Rules for a German Alliance: Make plans. Propose alliances. Make tactical choices a rookie would be ashamed of. Become a non-factor. Die
Randy Ellis has resigned, Brendan Mooney has agreed to take the position. I tried a number of people from the Prince's standby list but all of them requested that I not use them. Thank you Brendan, Russ
Moscow to World: Gentlemen, I apologize. I haven't devoted the attention to this game I should have and now that I no longer have an Internet Service Provider, it's gotten worse. Paul, you are right. Sloppy doesn't begin to cover my play here. Again, I am sorry if I have diminished your enjoyment in this game. You were all (at least in the beginning) excellent communicators and astute strategists. Thanks for the game, Russ, you didn't do as badly as you seem to think.
2000G, Amateurs Game, winter 1906
Austrian concession defeated
English F Nwg retreats off the board.
Press:
ENGLISH REMNANT to WORLD: I wanted to retreat off the board because now, when I make my stunning comeback and WIN THIS GAME, I'll be able to say I did so after having lost my last unit. Hyork!!!!!
Austria Bob Osuch ROsuch4082 of aol.com Build A Vienna; Has A Munich, A Warsaw, A Moscow, F Aegean Sea, A Constantinople F Portugal, A Bulgaria, A Budapest, A Galicia, A Vienna
England Bruce Linsey GonzoHQ of aol.com Retreat F Norwegian off the board; Build F Edinburgh; Has F Edinburgh
France Paul Rauterberg trauterberg of wi.rr.com Build A Paris; Has F English Channel, A Belgium, A Marseilles, F Brest, A Paris
Germany Mike Barno mpbarno of lightlink.com Has A Holland, F Skaggerak
Italy Jim Burgess burgess of world.std.com Build F Naples; Has F Mid Atlantic, A Venice, A Trieste, A Gascony, F Spain (south) F Naples
Russia Brendan Mooney bkmooney of home.com No retreats received, A Warsaw-Off the board , A Constantinople-Off the board; Remove F North Atlantic (No longer valid); Has F Denmark, A Berlin, F Baltic Sea, A Sweden, A Norway, A Rumania A Kiel, F Norwegian Sea, F North Atlantic
Spring 1907 orders and win (A) votes due Wednesday October 10
Russ Rusnak 1551 High Ridge Parkway Westchester, Il 60154
GM 708 409-0718 RRRRRUSNAK of AOL.com
Bob Osuch 19137 Midland Ave. Mokena, Il. 60448 AUSTRIA 708 478-3885 ROsuch4082 of aol.com
Bruce Linsey PO Box 234 Kinderhook, NY 12106 ENGLAND GonzoHQ of aol.com
Paul Rauterberg 3116 W. Amer. Dr. Greenfield, WI 53221 FRANCE 414-691-4264 trauterberg of wi.rr.com
Mike Barno 634 Dawson Hill Road Spencer, NY 14883 GERMANY 607 589-4906 mpbarno of lightlink.com
Jim Burgess 664 Smith Street Providence, RI 02908 ITALY 401 351-0287 burgess of world.std.com
Brendan Mooney bkmooney of home.com RUSSIA
| THE ABYSSINIAN PRINCE GAMES SECTION |
``So I called up George and he called up Jim, I said let's make a deal.
He said he'd talk to him. Gonna start a church where you can save yourself,
You can make some noise, When you've got no choice...
You told me useful things, what people think of me, I guess I should thank you.
It's true, then I agree... I'm all alone, I've got no choice,
I'm all alone, I've got no choice."
From ``Got No Choice" by the incomparable Mark Cutler, from the CD Mark Cutler and Useful Things.
If you want to submit orders, press, or letters by E-Mail, you can find me through the Internet system at ``burgess of world.std.com''. If anyone has an interest in having an E-Mail address listed so people can negotiate with you by computer, just let me know. FAX orders to (401) 277-9904.
Thanks to a suggestion by Mike Barno, from now on I will be noting cut or failed support orders with a small ``s'' instead of a capital ``S''. This will make it easier on the web page version of the szine to see what happened, since the italics don't show there. I may forget every once in a while, but I will TRY to remember. I should also get an updated copy of my translation program for TeX to html, perhaps that has been fixed.
Standby lists:
Bruce Linsey, Mike Barno, Dick Martin, Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Glenn Petroski, Steve Emmert, Mark Kinney, Vince Lutterbie, Eric Brosius, Paul Rauterberg, Randy Ellis, Bob Acheson, Heath Gardner, Phil Reynolds, Paul Kenny, Dan Gorham, and John Schultz stand by for regular Diplomacy.
Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Phil Reynolds, Jim Sayers, and Kurt Ozog stand by for the Modern Diplomacy game.
Harold Reynolds stands by for Colonia. Help, more are needed for this game, maps are provided for free by me.... or by Harold Reynolds just ask.
Let me know if you want on or off these lists, especially OFF. Standbies get the szine for free and receive my personal thanks.
| GAME OPENING INFORMATION |
REGULAR Diplomacy Game Opening for E-Mail Oriented Players: Tim Miller, Daniel Méhkeri, Jim Sayers, Allan Heikkinen, Guillaume Sapaly, Adam Mitchell, and Chris Lockheardt are signed up. This game is now filled! Get me preference lists and full contact info (E-Mail, Postal Address, Phone Number if relevant) by the next deadline. The preference lists are used only if you all submit them, otherwise it will be random draw!!
LAWYERS GAME: Steve Koehler, Stephen Agar and Steve Emmert already have signed up. We're searching for lawyers, contact me if you have any leads! We've invited Thomas Libby and Edwin Turnage but they have turned us down. Plus I'm still looking for a current address for Mark Franceschini. Official standby for the game is David Hood. HELP!!!
Eric Ozog will be running Air-Sea Diplomacy some time in the future. You can contact Eric at ElfEric of Juno.com if you are interested in the game. I'll publish the rules closer to a time when Eric wants it to start.
I've decided to kill the Star Trek Diplomacy opening. It clearly wasn't resonating. I think I'll try again when Colonia ends. Sorry about that everyone. I owe Chris Trent $20 back, but according to my records I don't have money from anyone else. If you think that is incorrect, let me know.
John Harrington is offering to guest GM a game of Office Politics. Any interest in that?? Let me or John know! Jody McCullough is now interested, anyone else?
Also, I am going to design some postal rules for Devil Take the Hindmost, and Chris Lockheardt is pulling out of that opening too, so I need three players. Eoghan Barry is signed up. Postal rules from me will be forthcoming shortly, on my never ending to-do list. I will get them in SOON!
I also am taking names for the new NYEED game. The Breaking Away game is starting below, get me names, riders and cards!!!
Stephen Agar runs a British Diplomacy mailing list and has a new broader web postal gaming web site too at: http://www.postalgames.org.uk
and if you are interested, contact Stephen Agar at stephen of meurglys.com or join the Brit hobby mailing list at (aw, you guessed it, another new address): http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/about_this_site.htm
| SOMETHING TO BE SCARED OF: 2001D, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1902 IS OCTOBER 27TH, 2001
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1903 IS NOVEMBER 17TH, 2001
Fall 1902
AUSTRIA (Kent): a BUD S a vie-tri, a ALB S a vie-tri, a vie-TRI,
f gre-ion (d ann).
ENGLAND (Sundstrom): f NTH S a pic-bel, a PIC-bel, f NWY S f nth,
f mid-BRE.
FRANCE (Tretick): f GOL-mar, a bur-MUN, a POR h, f wes-SPA(SC),
a spa-GAS.
GERMANY (Williams): f den-BAL, a sil-WAR, f ska-DEN, a RUH S a bel,
a BEL s a ruh.
ITALY (McCullough): f TYH S f nap-ion, f nap-ION, a PIE-mar,
a tri-alb (d r:tyo,ven,otb), f TUN S f tyh.
RUSSIA (Pollard): NMR, JACK MCHUGH CALLED AS STANDBY; f SWE h,
a GAL h, a UKR h, f RUM h.
TURKEY (Goesle): a con-BUL, f AEG S a bul-gre, a SER S a bul-gre,
f BLA S a con-bul, a bul-GRE.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Kent): | VIE,BUD,TRI | (has 3, even) |
| ENGLAND (Sundstrom): | EDI,LVP,LON,nwy,bre | (has 4, bld 1) |
| FRANCE (Tretick): | PAR,MAR,spa,por,mun | (has 5, even) |
| GERMANY (Williams): | BER,KIE,den,hol,bel,war | (has 5, bld 1) |
| ITALY (McCullough): | ROM,VEN,NAP,tun | (has 4 or 5, even(r:otb) or rem 1) |
| RUSSIA (Pollard): | MOS,STP,SEV,rum,swe | (has 4, bld 1) |
| TURKEY (Goesle): | ANK,SMY,CON,bul,gre,ser | (has 5, bld 1) |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=34) |
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Doug Kent, PO Box 783, Palmer, TX 75152
dipworld of ix.netcom.com
ENGLAND: Matt Sundstrom, 1760 Robincrest Lane South, Glenview, IL 60025, (847) 729-1882 ($5)
Matt.Sundstrom of chicago.bbdo.com
FRANCE: James Alan (Jim) Tretick, 12925 Circle Drive, Rockville, MD 20850 ($4)
JTretickGames of aol.com
GERMANY: Don Williams, 27505 Artine Drive, Saugus, CA 91350, (661) 297-3947 ($4)
wllmsfmly of earthlink.net
ITALY: Jody McCullough, 1071 Brown Avenue, Lafayette, CA 94549-3153
jodymc of telocity.com
RUSSIA: Kent Pollard, PO Box 5726, Fresno, CA 93755-5726
awargamer7 of hotmail.com (inactive)
RUSSIA: Standby is Jack McHugh, 6300 Philadelphia Pike, Claymont, DE 19703-2720, (484) 494-3494
JMcHugh of genchemcorp.com
TURKEY: Warren Goesle, 3907 Cedar Ridge, #1B, Indianapolis, IN 46235
gozcorp of iquest.net
Game Notes:
1) Kent's phone number (which only I had) is disconnected and his E-Mail is inactive. I don't know what's up. And obviously I haven't heard from him. Jack McHugh is called as the standby and he will replace him if I don't hear from Kent Pollard by the Winter deadline. Winter moves MAY be made conditional on who is playing the Russian position. At least the Russian position has not been totally ruined by the NMR.
2) LOTS of centers changing hands, for you lot of relative ``non-communicators'' you sure are creating lots of action!!
Press:
(PICARDY-BELGIUM): I think I lost something before I left, so I needed to go get it back. ((Not so fast you don't..... maybe later.))
(THE GUY THAT SPOKE THE OTHER DAY): Due to budget cuts in the Navy, all ships are returning to port. Iberia is raped and pillaged and the spoils of that conquest are heading to the Capital. Our neighbors to the East are invited next spring to our annual ``Rump Roast." Anyone else willing to stick their rump out, will be the guest of honor.
(FRANCE to TURKEY): We'll always have Paris.
(BOOB to FRANCE): Can't you do better than THAT???
(FRANCE to ITALY): OK. I'm sorry. You can have the Med. It's getting too cold to water ski anyway.
(TURKEY to ALL): Anyone home out there? The number of discussions I had this season you could count on your thumb.
(BOOB to TURKEY): Well, we did lose your neighbor..... the poor Emperor....
(PARIS): And the Emperor took his ball and went home.
(EDINBURGH-MOSCOW): It was convenient to pass on St P only because I'm not sure what might happen on your Polish front. It looks awfully inviting from here...there's a mighty persuasive tourist board. But it figured it'll be more pleasant another time? Or maybe we could summit sompelace else instead?
(GOZ): Yes, I'd like one Turkey on wry...
| FANTASTIC VOYAGE: 1999K, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1907 IS OCTOBER 27TH, 2001
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1907 IS NOVEMBER 17TH, 2001
Spring 1907
AUSTRIA (Rauterberg): a gal h (d r:vie,bud,otb), a PIE h, a TYO S a boh,
a TUS S a pie, f ROM S TURKISH f tyh, a BOH h.
ENGLAND (Biehl): f lon-ENG, f GOL S f tun-tyh, f NAF-tun, f tun-TYH,
a ruh-BEL.
FRANCE (Davis): a VEN-pie.
GERMANY (Shreve): a ber-SIL, a KIE-mun, a sil-GAL, a MUN-boh,
a MAR-pie, a PRU S RUSSIAN a war, f SPA(SC) h, a GAS-spa, a BUR S a kie-mun.
ITALY (Tallman): a POR h.
RUSSIA (Tretick): a STP-mos, a LVN S a stp-mos, a MOS-ukr,
f WES S ENGLISH f tun-tyh, a WAR S GERMAN a sil-gal.
TURKEY (Ellis): f ION-tun, a APU h, f tyh S f ion-tun (d r:nap,otb),
a SEV-mos, a RUM S a ukr, f AEG-ion, a UKR s AUSTRIAN a gal.
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 (E-Mail)
trauterberg of wi.rr.com
ENGLAND: John Biehl, 8809 Delwood Drive, Delta, BRITISH COLUMBIA, V4C 4A1 CANADA,
(604) 589-9124 ($8); jeen of telus.net
FRANCE: Rick Davis, 2420 West Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95407, (707) 544-5201,
redavis914 of aol.com
GERMANY: Dwayne Shreve, 739 Union Church Road, Elkton, MD 21921 ($5)
dwayneshreve of yahoo.com
ITALY: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0384 ($2)
terryt of sinclair.net
RUSSIA: Buddy Tretick, 9607 Conaty Circle, Spotsylvania, VA 22553, (540) 582-2356 (E-Mail)
bernietretick of earthlink.net
TURKEY: Randy Ellis, 3116 McGee, Apt. 1N, Kansas City, MO 64111, (816) 931-8406 ($10)
bukowski1964 of yahoo.com
Game Notes:
1) The seven way DIAS draw is fails and is reproposed again. Please vote on it with your Summer orders. If you fail to vote, it cannot pass.
Press:
(RUSSIA to TURKEY): Hey, there, Randy. Say ... you are the real Randy Ellis, are you not? I thought you were Bernie Oaklyn. Well, let's see now! You could take all of the Austrian centers before Germany could get a single center. Why not go out in a flame of glory. After all, who is this late comer in the game ... anyway!
(ANKARA): Yawn...
(RUSSIA to AUSTRIA): I think Randy will take the bait. After all, he never tells the truth, and he always lies ... too ... also.
(SHREEVIES BAR AND HAMBURGERLER GRILL [Spider Mite Press]): The saga of Buddy in the spittoon goes on and on. When the fight broke out, bottles were tossed this way and that way. Beer ran down the legs where the stuff of life once dribbled. And, hey! There is Buddy ... riding ... no, sledding ... down the froth ... onto the floor ... and ... oh, no, not the spittoon! Hey, that is an old cardboard box. Hey, that box is filled with lots of money. Hey, there must be upwards of $17 million in that box. Buddy overcame the onslaught of a dust storm stirred up when he tossed that money to and fro. He looked out of the top of the box and noted that Shreevy was on the floor, face up, trying to put a tincture of apple cider vinegar and honey into his eyes. Buddy wondered what to do with his sudden windfall. Should he donate that to the Diplomacy Players Relief Fund? Should he donate that to the Shreevy Beer Fund? Or, should he buy a few young chicks for himself? ((There's somethin' happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear, there's a man with a gun over there.... who should he shoot???)) Buddy ducked frantically when a handful of beer froth came just over the top of the box. Buddy wondered if he would ever break loose from the bonds of Sheevy's Bar and spittoon adventures. Buddy wondered if he would ever break loose from the Diplomacy Player Syndrome.
| (Sometimes I Feel Like) FLETCHER CHRISTIAN: 1999Cgh013, Colonia VIIb Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1758 IS OCTOBER 27TH, 2001
Summer 1758
AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): R a matto grosso-AMAZON; has a VENICE, f TAHITI,
f NAPLES, a BURGUNDY, a BULGARIA, a AMAZON, a ISTANBUL, f MELBOURNE,
f IONIAN SEA, a BOLIVIA, a PARIS, a GREECE, f SAMOA, a RHINE,
f EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA, a MANAUS, f TASMAN SEA, a SAVOY, a COLOMBIA,
f WESTERN MEDITERRANEAN SEA, f SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN.
CHINA (Acheson): has f YELLOW SEA, f AMOY, a WUHAN, a SINKIANG, f KWANTUNG,
f SOUTH CHINA SEA, f GULF OF SIAM, a MAHRATTA, a NEPAL, f SEA OF JAPAN, a SIAM,
f WEST PACIFIC OCEAN, a BURMA, a BORNEO, a BENGAL, a MONGOLIA, f JAPAN.
ENGLAND (Power): R f coral sea-NEW ZEALAND; has f NORTH SEA, f EDINBURGH,
a VENEZUELA, a MALAYA, f MID-ATLANTIC OCEAN, a FLANDERS, a GHANA,
f CENTRAL ATLANTIC OCEAN, f ANDAMAN SEA, f SURINAM, f WEST INDIES, f ONTARIO,
f NEW ZEALAND, a IFNI, a ANTWERP, a GABON, a MATTO GROSSO, f HUDSON BAY,
f RICEFE, f EAST ATLANTIC OCEAN, f ARGENTINA, a CONGO, a BRAZIL,
a DAKAR, f MALAY SEA, f ENGLISH CHANNEL, f BELEM.
FRANCE (Alme): has a MANITOBA.
OTTOMAN (Schleinkofer): R a egypt-SUEZ, f istanbul-IZMIR; has a BAGHDAD,
a SUEZ, f PERSIAN GULF, f BLACK SEA, a ARABIA, f IZMIR, a PERSIA, a OMSK.
PORTUGAL (Stimmel): has f AZORES.
RUSSIA (Rauterberg): R a persia-AFGHANISTAN; has f BAY OF BENGAL,
f SOUTH INDIAN OCEAN, f BARENTS SEA, f CRIMEA, a KIEV, f NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN,
f NIZAM, a CAUCASUS, a SIBERIA, f WEST INDIAN OCEAN, f SE ATLANTIC OCEAN,
f VANCOUVER, a LITHUANIA, a ROMANIA, a DENMARK, f EAST INDIAN OCEAN,
f ALASKA, f PUNJAB, f NORWEGIAN SEA, a NORWAY, a AFGHANISTAN, a HANOVER,
a HAGUE, a KATANGA, f BERING STRAIT.
SPAIN (Partridge): R f western mediterranean sea-VALENCIA; has f GULF OF CALIFORNIA,
f CALIFORNIA, f GULF OF MEXICO, f TOULON, f PHILIPPINE SEA, a HUELVA, a OREGON,
a PANAMA, f GIBRALTAR, a MOROCCO, f EAST CHINA SEA, f CARIBBEAN SEA,
f TAIWAN, f YEMEN, a ARAGON, a BORDEAUX, f GULF OF ADEN,
f RABOUL, a NUMIDIA, f HONDURAS(WC), a EGYPT, f CENTRAL PACIFIC OCEAN,
f WAKE, a LISBON, f ALGERIA, f CORAL SEA, a ETHIOPIA, a LOUISIANA, a BENIN,
a TUNIS, a MISSOURI, a LIBYA, f VALENCIA, f TARAWA.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): | BUD,VIE,TRI,TAH,ven,bav, | (has 21) |
| col,nwz,pps,sav,ecu,peru,gre,sam, |
| bol,tou,bul,par,MEL,NAP,fij |
| CHINA (Acheson): | PEK,WUH,XIA,AMO,tib,NAN, | (has 17) |
| sin,jap,manch,mon,kor,nep,mah,sia,bur,cam,ben,vla |
| ENGLAND (Power): | NIG,MLA,EDI,LON,kam,ire, | (has 27) |
| jav,gab,sum,con,fez,ant,uga,arg,togo, |
| SUR,QUE,gha,bel,vol,bah,BRA,DAK,vza,ric,ont,ifn |
| FRANCE (Alme): | ore,manit | (has 1) |
| OTTOMAN (Schleinkofer): | IZM,BAG,IST,egy,afg,yem, | (has 8) |
| oms,jer |
| PORTUGAL (Stimmel): | azo | (has 1) |
| RUSSIA (Rauterberg): | MOS,KIE,CAP,STP,CRI,pol,moz, | (has 25) |
| swe,mal,zam,den,rom,han,die,nwy,GOA,nat, |
| niz,hag,cey,ANG,ALA,persia,kha,van |
| SPAIN (Partridge): | MAD,MEX,SOM,VAL,MANILA,cal, | (has 34) |
| tun,rab,bor,eth,hon,tex,nwg,ken,lis,lag,FLO, |
| lou,iwo,num,mor,tau,ohi,vir,gua,tar,tim,cub, |
| tai,bdx,sud,wak,mas,HAW |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=136) |
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Gene Prosnitz, 2600 Netherland Ave., Apt. 1116, Riverdale, NY 10463, (718) 601-8131 ($5)
ProsnitzE of aol.com
CHINA: Bob Acheson, 807-556 Laurier Ave., Ottawa, ONTARIO K1R 7X2, CANADA ($5)
racheson of magma.ca
ENGLAND: John Power, 18 Tilton Court, Baltimore, MD 21236, (410) 933-8827 ($4)
natjohn2 of home.com or jrpower of bechtel.com
FRANCE: Hank Alme, 506 Paige Loop, Los Alamos, NM 87544
almehj of swcp.com
OTTOMAN: Art Schleinkofer, 3120 Holly Road, Philadelphia, PA 19154-1708
Krolart of aol.com
PORTUGAL: Robert Stimmel, Apt. #57, Casa de Sherry Apts., 2462 North Sycamore Blvd.,
Tucson, AZ 85712-2541, (520) 326-8369 ($5)
RUSSIA: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 (E-Mail)
trauterberg of wi.rr.com
SPAIN: Dave Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033
rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
Game Notes:
1) Just some retreats....
Press:
| SECRETS: 1999D, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1908 IS OCTOBER 27TH, 2001
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1909 IS OCTOBER 27TH, 2001
Fall 1908
ENGLAND (Sayers): a lon-BEL, f NAO S f mid, a KIE S FRENCH a bur-mun,
f MID h, f ENG C a lon-bel, f HEL S a kie, f POR S FRENCH f gol-spa(sc).
FRANCE (Sasseville): f gol-SPA(SC), a bur-MUN, a mar-BUR.
GERMANY (Barno): a ber s a mun (d ann),
a mun s a ber (d r:ruh,sil,boh,tyo,otb).
ITALY (Schultz): f rom-nap (d r:tus,otb).
RUSSIA (Reynolds): a MOS h, a LVN S a war-pru, a sil-BER, f BAL S a sil-ber,
a STP S a mos, a war-PRU.
TURKEY (Linsey): a arm-RUM, f aeg-ION, a SEV-mos, f TYH S f tun-wes,
f BLA C a arm-rum, a ukr-WAR, a rum-BUD, f ion-TUN, f ADR h, f nap-ROM,
a tus-PIE, f tun-WES, a GAL S a ukr-war, a VEN S f nap-rom.
Supply Center Chart
| ENGLAND (Sayers): | LON,LVP,EDI,bre,por,bel,kie | (has 7, even) |
| FRANCE (Sasseville): | PAR,MAR,spa,mun | (has 3, bld 1) |
| GERMANY (Barno): | hol | (has 0 or 1, even(PLAYS ONE SHORT if r:otb)) |
| ITALY (Schultz): | none | (out) |
| RUSSIA (Reynolds): | MOS,STP,nwy,swe,den,ber | (has 6, even) |
| TURKEY (Linsey): | ANK,SMY,CON,gre,rum,bul,ser, | (has 14, bld 2) |
| bud,nap,vie,tri,ven,tun,sev,war,rom |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=34) |
Addresses of the Participants
ENGLAND: Jim Sayers, 15 Holdsworth Street, Woollahra 2025, AUSTRALIA ($10)
jimp of magna.com.au
FRANCE: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 481-4280 ($2)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
GERMANY: Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883
mpbarno of lightlink.com
ITALY: John Schultz, 120 Pine Drive, Unit H, Porter, IN 46304, (219) 614-1406
probo of earthlink.net
RUSSIA: Phil Reynolds, 2896 Oak Street, Sarasota, FL 34237, (813) 953-6952
preyno of yahoo.com
TURKEY: Bruce Linsey, PO Box 234, Kinderhook, NY 12106
GonzoHQ of aol.com
Game Notes:
1) Note John Schultz's new address and ESPECIALLY his new E-Mail address. Though, with that we also thank him for his contributions to the game, as he is eliminated....
2) A FRET draw is proposed, if you would rather FRET not about this game any longer and bring it to end, vote yes with your Winter orders. Failure to vote will veto the proposal.
Press:
(ROM - ?): Is there any way to argue the importance of an Italian fleet?
(RUSSIA to TURKEY): You can have Warsaw, but you won't get anything else from me!
(RUSSIA to ENGLAND AND FRANCE): I hope you have - and will - stayed focused on the big picture and not meaningless issues.
(RUSSIA to ITALY): If you ordered to Tuscany, I thank you for your selflessness in death.
(RUSSIA to GERMANY): It's so fun pushing you around!
(FRENCH COMMENTS ON BIN LADEN): My prayers and best wishes to all the US troops who are putting it on the line. I have a couple friends in the military as I am sure all of us do. It is going to be interesting to see what Bin Laden will do when we get close. He cannot hide forever.
| EDWARD TELLER: 2001?rn42, Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy - Black Hole Variant |
LOOKING FOR PLAYERS!!!
Game Notes:
1) I am taking reservations for the Edward Teller game, which will be the next NYEED 7x7 game in this series. Since it was asked, I'll remind everyone that we will again be playing the Black Hole Variant. Join THE most fun game in all Dipdom. John Schultz, Karl Muller, Harry Andruschak, Lee Kendter, Jr., and Sandy Kenny are on board. We need just two more players? Let me know if you want to see the rules again, but I just printed them a few issues ago. This game is FREE!!!!
| COME AND HAVE A GO (If You Think You're Hard Enough): 1998V, Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1910 IS OCTOBER 27TH, 2001
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1910 IS NOVEMBER 17TH, 2001
Spring 1910
AUSTRIA (Pollard): NMR, MARK KINNEY CALLED AS STANDBY; a MOS h, a GAL h.
FRANCE (Morris): f bre-ENG, a par-BUR, f MID-wes, a bur-RUH,
f GOL S a mar-pie, f SPA(SC) S f gol, a ber-PRU, a mar-PIE, f NWY-stp(nc),
a boh-SIL, f swe-GOB, a kie-BER, f NTH S f bre-eng, a mun-TYO, a yor-WAL.
ITALY (Emmert): f nap-TYH, a VEN-pie, a TRI S a ser-bud, a bul-RUM,
f tyh-TUS, f tun-NAF, a SER-bud, a tyo-BOH, f sev-ARM, f BLA S TURKISH a rum-sev,
f LON-eng, f WES s f tun-naf, a VIE S a tyo-boh, a BUD-gal.
RUSSIA (Reynolds): a STP-nwy.
TURKEY (Barno): a rum-SEV.
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Kent Pollard, PO Box 5726, Fresno, CA 93755-5726 ($4)
awargamer7 of hotmail.com
AUSTRIA: Standby is Mark Kinney, 4820 Westmar Terrace #6, Louisville, KY 40222,
(502) 412-3079; alberich of iglou.com
ENGLAND: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0384 ($3)
terryt of sinclair.net
FRANCE: Scott Morris, 12110 Shelbyville Rd., Louisville, KY 40243, (502) 893-8260 ($5)
Scottm221 of aol.com
GERMANY: Jim Sayers, 15 Holdsworth Street, Woollahra 2025, AUSTRALIA ($10)
jimp of magna.com.au
ITALY: Steve Emmert, 3317 Hershridge Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23452
(757) 631-1842; steve.emmert of home.com or lsemmert of sykesbourdon.com
RUSSIA: Phil Reynolds, 2896 Oak Street, Sarasota, FL 34237, (813) 953-6952
preyno of yahoo.com
TURKEY: Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883 ($5)
mpbarno of lightlink.com
Game Notes:
1) A concession to France is proposed. Please vote with your Summer orders, failure to vote vetoes the proposal.
2) See above and below for more on Kent Pollard, I don't know where he is. I call Mark Kinney as a standby and note that Kent needs to contact me BEFORE the Summer deadline or Mark replaces him, so you all will know when you file Fall orders who is playing Austria. I realize, unfortunately, that it may not matter.... well, check that, I'm the impartial GM, let me just say I can read the board with the best of them. Someone may just be hard enough.....
Press:
(RUSSIA to AUSTRIA): Kent, please send me an e-mail, because the address Jim has listed for you isn't working! This game does not have to end in a French victory!
(RUSSIA to AUSTRIA): You're off the hook (for now) - I have a new enemy.
(RUSSIA to FRANCE): Yeah, I see you comin'!
(RUSSIA to ITALY): If only you had A Sev....
| SO GOOD IT HURTS: 1998 P, Regular Diplomacy |
THE RAG DRAW PASSED - GAME OVER - SEND IN END GAME STATEMENTS!
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Kurt Ozog, 391 Wilmington Drive, Bartlett, IL 60103, (630) 837-2813
heyday6 of yahoo.com
ENGLAND: Drew James, 3644 Whispering Woods Terr., Baldwinsville, NY 13027, (315) 652-1956 ($5)
kjames01 of twcny.rr.com
FRANCE: Mark Kinney, 4820 Westmar Terrace #6, Louisville, KY 40222, (502) 412-3079
alberich of iglou.com
GERMANY: Warren Goesle, 3907 Cedar Ridge, #1B, Indianapolis, IN 46235 ($5)
gozcorp of iquest.net
ITALY: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 ($5)
trauterberg of wi.rr.com
RUSSIA: Russ Rusnak, 1551 Highridge Avenue, Westchester, IL 60154-3428 ($5)
RRRRRUSNAK of aol.com
TURKEY: Steve Emmert, 3317 Hershridge Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23452, (757) new? ($4)
steve.emmert of home.com
Game Notes:
1) I'll get caught up on my endgame center reports next time, really....
Press:
| German endgame statement for ``So Good It Hurts" |
I shoulda won. I had every break in the book in this game and the best I could do was a 3-way? Somewhere in here I had a win. Probably a few somewheres. Let's review...
As Germany I'd never allied with England against France before, so when Drew suggested it I thought it a good idea to try something new. When Russia made an unauthorized move to Prussia in the Fall of '01 it was a lot better to have England on my side than France, as he would help me push Russ back. Big break.
I kept trying early on to get a Central A/G/I alliance, but things were so convoluted in the south that Austria and Italy appeared to never be able to get it together...until they did. They'd have invited me into it too, but I couldn't have accepted it, since it happened while I was on vacation. Had I been on-line and available I'd have turned on England way too soon, and at best he'd have fought me to a stalemate in the north while I would have had someone sooner or later eat me from behind. Big break.
Slightly after that, so I'm told, Drew thought of stabbing me, which would have led to pretty much the same thing as above, but for some reason he thought better of it. Big break.
So France was falling, and things were in a big bind in the East with the alliance structure changing every other season. Turkey was dying, Austria was in a hurt, but Italy and Russia really weren't prospering that much. Then Austria made a comeback with Italy's help, and England and I decided we needed to be on his side, since he would help Drew against Italy and me against Russia. Then came the fateful day when Drew and I coordinated the moves for (I think) the Fall of '05. He was to dislodge my fleet in Norway, and I was to retreat it OTB and rebuild as an army to head East, with no SC change up north, while we killed off France in the West, and we'd each get a build or two. When I looked at the suggested moves a little later that evening I saw a huge stab possibility. I'd drop into Belgium instead of Marseilles, I'd retreat the Norway fleet to the North Sea instead of OTB, I talked Mark's France into making the right move to bounce England and actually get a build to go from 1 to 2, and England would have no build and nothing to defend the homeland, while I could convoy in the next year. The next year I got Edinburgh and Liverpool, while Russia took back St. Pete, and France held off England in his area. The moves that season were mostly Drew's suggestions. Big, big break.
I was the big guy in the West, Russia was making a comback in the East, but he and Austria couldn't agree on where to have lunch, let alone agree to stopping me from winning. Big break, or shoulda been.
Somewhere around here I made a mistake. I don't know where or how. I suspect that I just couldn't communicate well enough with Austria, so I couldn't talk him into anything. Heck, I should have made a phone call. I'm pretty sure I could have kept the two of them at each other (with Austria slightly gaining) well enough to sneak by to 18, probably in a couple of places a couple of times. But I blew it somewhere in there, and they got together enough to stop me. At the end I just didn't see any point to trying to stir up any more trouble, as we'd all put in a lot of energy trying to get to where we did and were burned out, so the draw was ok by me. I'm not sure I deserved to be in it, even as the big guy.
Good game. In fact, the best Diplomacy game I've ever been associated with. Lots of diplomacy. Lots of intrigue. Lots of fun. This is why you play this game.
Thanks much and congrats to Kurt, for hanging in there and dancing his way back in a couple of times. Thanks much and congrats to Russ, who held off 5 of us at one point or another, and made us all deal with him one way or another for the whole game (and who was smart enough to take most of the offers). I'd written both of them off for the game at one point or another, and yet they both came back from the dead and deserve to be in it at the end.
Thanks much to Drew, without whom I couldn't have prospered nearly as well either before or after I stabbed him. Thanks much to Paul, who played an excellent Italy, and got unlucky to never have the last ally he needed to get over the hump. Thanks much to Steve, who fought tenaciously as Turkey, and was more fun to communicate with than anyone. Thanks much to Mark, for being open-minded about surviving as a toady, since the stab wouldn't have worked without him, even though I wasn't that good of a master (even though I tried to be).
Thanks especially to Jim-Bob for the great GM'ing and for running the whole thing. I got to lie to people, I got to write obnoxious press, I got to run for Baseball Commissioner, and I got to have a great time for a long time. TAP is a place I'll always want to play Dip.
Until the next time take care of yourselves, good luck, and keep your hands off of my dots. I shoulda won.
| From the Kaiser Gozmeister |
| EMBRACING THE CONSTRAINTS: Breaking Away, Designer's Rules |
THE DUE DATE FOR TURN 5 IS OCTOBER 27TH, 2001
Turn 4
-S-P-R-I-N-T- -F-I-N-I-S-H- -L-I-N-E-
| 40 (replenish with a 3): | Dave the Tinamou, William Shakespeare |
| 39 (no replenishment): | None |
| 38 (no replenishment): | None |
| 37 (replenish with a 3): | Alfred the Great |
| 36 (no replenishment): | None |
| 35 (replenish with a 3): | Edi the Emu, Sir Isaac Newton |
| 34 (replenish with a 5): | I.K. Brunel |
| 33 (no replenishment): | None |
| 32 (no replenishment): | None |
| 31 (replenish with a 3): | Diamond |
| 30 (no replenishment): | None |
| 29 (replenish with a 3): | Peery the Peacock |
| 28 (replenish with a 4): | Alfalfa |
| 27 (replenish with a 5): | Boniface, Square |
| 26 (replenish with a 7): | Halbert, Enfield |
| 25 (replenish with a 9): | Brandon the Kiwi, Rhombus, Dana |
| 24 (replenish with a 12): | Greenwich, Dennis the Menace, Rectangle |
| 23 (replenish with a 15): | Christie |
| 22 (replenish with a 16): | Beaver, Prescott |
| 21 (replenish with a 18): | Alice, Charlie Brown |
Addresses of the Participants - Their Team and Their Cards
TEAM 1 (The Quabbin Reservoirs): Eric Brosius, 53 Bird Street, Needham MA 02492
(0 points) 72060.1540 of CompuServe.COM
| A: Dana | 15 3 16 9 (10) |
| B: Enfield | 14 18 7 (12) |
| C: Greenwich | 15 10 12 (7) |
| D: Prescott | 1 18 16 (8) |
TEAM 2 (The Flightless Birds): Rick Desper, 319 West Side Dr., #102 Gaithersburg, MD 20878
(0 points) (301) 977-7691, rick_desper of yahoo.com
| Coached by Petey the Penguin |
| A: Edi the Emu | 10 3 3 3 (15) |
| B: Dave the Tinamou | 3 3 3 (10) |
| C: Brandon the Kiwi | 10 12 9 (7) |
| D: Peery the Peacock | 3 13 3 (13) |
TEAM 3 (The Brit Pack): John Harrington, 1 Churchbury Close, Enfield, Middlesex, EN1 3UW UK
(0 points) fiendish of operamail.com, John.Harrington of tfeurope.com
| A: Alfred the Great | 12 3 7 3 (19) |
| B: William Shakespeare | 3 2 3 (8) |
| C: Sir Isaac Newton | 3 3 3 (15) |
| D: Isambard Kingdom Brunel | 9 5 5 (15) |
TEAM 4 (The Border Riders): Tom Howell, 365 Storm King Road, Port Angeles, WA 98363
(0 points) off-the-shelf of olympus.net
| Manager: the White Maid |
| A: Alice of Avenel | 14 11 23 18 (8) |
| B: abbot Boniface | 9 11 5 (10) |
| C: Christie of Clint-hill | 10 18 15 (9) |
| D: Halbert Glendinning | 12 13 7 (10) |
TEAM 5 (The Quadrilaterals): David Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033
(0 points) rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
| A: Rhombus | 12 3 19 9 (7) |
| B: Square | 11 17 5 (10) |
| C: Rectangle | 14 3 12 (5) |
| D: Diamond | 3 17 3 (16) |
TEAM 6 (The Bad Boys): Jim Tretick, 12925 Circle Drive, Rockville, MD 20850
(0 points) JTretickGames of aol.com
| A: Alfalfa: | 8 5 4 (3) |
| B: Beaver: | 10 18 16 (8) |
| C: Charlie Brown: | 7 18 18 (7) |
| D: Dennis the Menace: | 8 13 12 (8) |
Game Notes:
1) I am going BACK to the designer rules for Breaking Away that allow cards of greater than 15 to be replenished. The Breaking Away bonus is earned only on the FIRST turn that you break away from the pack. I printed the original postal rules in Issue #239, if you need a copy and don't have that issue, just ask.
2) The number in parentheses is what you played, the last card in your list is the one you replenished with.
3) Yes, I made a mistake last time and William Shakespeare should only have replenished a two, since he was Breaking Away. The game's designer, among others, pointed this out. Sorry about that. It actually DOES matter though, since I think it determines who gets the ten points rather than the eight points for crossing the first sprint line, right??
Press:
(BRIT PACK RULE COMMENT): By the way, under my interpretation of the breaking away rule William Shakespeare should have replenished with a 2 last time (or was he leading the turn before that? Can't remember) as he had broken away but was only leading by 2 squares. Yes, it seems a bit odd to give him less than the usual minimum of ``3" but one could argue that he has attempted to break away, made a bad job of it and is now feeling the psychological effects.
(RICK DESPER HAS MOVED): I've moved from Rockville to Gaithersburg, the neighboring town a little further up the road. Here's the new address and phone info. Anybody who makes a long-distance phone call to discuss a postal game of Breaking Away needs to re-examine his life. ((Perhaps they have lots of extra cell phone minutes left over....))
(ERIC to WHITE MAID): Oh, it's damp in here all right. I'm not sure it's points, though.
(BRIT PACK): A nine! A nine! My kingdom for a nine! (William Shakespeare, prior to this turn)
(PETEY THE PENGUIN): I believe you gave Shakespeare the wrong card on the last move. He is breaking away, by two spaces ahead of Dave. Shouldn't he have a 2, not a 3? Furthermore, since both Dave and Shakespeare are B riders, shouldn't the tiebreaker favor Dave next move, should they both be at square 40? I'm sorry I didn't bring this up earlier, but I figured this out a while ago, and Dave should win the first sprint, not Shakespeare. Dave gets favored by the tiebreaker since he'll have cards (3,3,3) while Shakespeare has (3,3,2) - Dave's third card is better than Shakespeare's.
(BRIT PACK): Time to look up the rules on tie breaks? There are a few cyclists out there with identical cards if memory serves correctly.
(BOOB to BRIT PACK AND PETEY): I think that Petey has it right.
(WHITE MAID to BOOB): The answer to life, the universe and everything?
(BOOB to WHITE MAID): No, who gets the ten points next turn.
(TWO SCORE AND ONE): Nyah, nyah! You can see me, but you can't reach me!
(PETEY THE PENGUIN): I'm still intrigued by the whold Alfred/Rhombus thing.
(BOOB to PETEY): Not any more. You can say that Rhombus blew it if you like, but they are no longer together. The rules, by the way, make it clear that if you sail through all of the tiebreaks equally then you just share the points, so it isn't THAT difficult.
| FEAR AND WHISKEY: 1998Ers31, Modern Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 2007 IS OCTOBER 27TH, 2001
Winter 2006
BRITAIN (Schultz): has f ENG, a LAP, f DEN, f SWE, a FIN, f BRN, f GOB, f NTH.
EGYPT (J. O'Donnell): has f ALE, f LBS, f ION, a SYR, a LIB, a IRK, f IZM.
GERMANY (Rauterberg): has f BAL, a KRA, f BER, f LAT, f BOR, a SLO, a PAR,
f BEL, a GDA, a CZE, a SIL, a AUS, f HAM, a LYO.
ITALY (Ozog): R a cro-VEN; rem f ana, a bos; has a VEN,
f LIG, a ROM, a AUV, a APU.
SPAIN (S. O'Donnell): R a auv-BAR; bld a mad; has a MAD, a NAV,
f MAO, f GOL, f MAL, a NAP, f TYS, a BAR.
UKRAINE (Partridge): bld a kha, a kie, a ode, a sev; has a KHA, a KIE, a ODE, a SEV,
f WBS, f IST, a RUM, a CRP, a POD, a WAR, f ALB, a CRO, a ADA, a KAZ, a PRU,
a HUN, a BIE, f GRE, a STP, f ADR, a IRN, a SER.
Addresses of the Participants
BRITAIN: John Schultz, 120 Pine Drive, Unit H, Porter, IN 46304, (219) 614-1406
probo of earthlink.net
EGYPT: Jeff O'Donnell, 402 Middle Ave., Elyria, OH 44035-5728, (440) 322-2920 ($4)
FRANCE: Harry Andruschak, PO Box 5309, Torrance, CA 90510-5309, (310) 835-9202 ($5)
Tapmdfrance of aol.com
GERMANY: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 (E-Mail)
trauterberg of wi.rr.com
ITALY: Eric Ozog, PO Box 1138, Granite Falls, WA 98252-1138, (360) 691-4264 ($3)
ElfEric of Juno.com
POLAND: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 481-4280 ($5)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
RUSSIA: Randy Ellis, 3116 McGee, Apt. 1N, Kansas City, MO 64111, (816) 931-8406
surfeit of swbell.net
SPAIN: Sean O'Donnell, 1044 Wellfleet Drive, Grafton, OH 44044 ($5)
sean_o_donnell of hotmail.com, sfo25 of netscape.net
TURKEY: Kent Pollard, 1541 W. San Jose, Fresno, CA 93711, (209) 225-0957 ($10)
UKRAINE: Dave Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033 ($8)
rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
Game Notes:
1) Check out the Modern Dip web page at: http://www.modernhof.webprovider.com/
2) I'm going to start a quiet interest list down here in the next Modern game. I don't want to start it until this game is done or nearly done, but with ten players it may take awhile, so I'll start now. Rick Desper is in to be one of the players. Any more??? We are going to do it with ``wings''..... I am sending this issue as a sample to Vince Mous, the game's designer.
3) Note John Schultz's new address and ESPECIALLY his new E-Mail address.
Press:
(THE MEKONS QUOTE OF THE MONTH): ``Lust corrodes my body, I've lost count of my lovers." The jacket quote from the CD single version of ``Millionaire'' (1993). Extra credit for anyone who can identify where else the Mekons say this.... this single also includes a stunning live version of ``(Sometimes I Feel Like) Fletcher Christian'' (after which the Colonia game is named).
(POLAND to FRANCE): We like the ethnic mix that we have here just fine. Our only regret is that we aren't here to control it....
(THE GREATER REICH to EGYPT): It STILL looks as though you and Spain are throwing the game to Ukraine, even if you don't want to admit it to yourselves.
(SEAN-JEFF): Why not write both Star Trek press as well as Babylon 5 press and I'm pretty sure I butchered the spelling of one of my uncle's favorite shows. ((Don't worry, Sean, I fix most of your spelling, including your spelling of the word ``Spanish"....))
(SPANISH PRESS): Well, it seems that our massive naval capacity is at most top of the line, but the war in Italy leaves our Naval defenses much to be desired. As well as the war in Europe, Britain and the United States may attack Afghanistan as soon as spring or within the coming months. What is the world's powers' opinions?
(BERLIN to BRITAIN): Ignore Sean. Please.
(BRITAIN to BOOB AND ALL): Please note that as of 10/13/01 my new address will be 120 Pine Dr., Unit H, Porter, IN 46304. Also note that my new e-mail is probo of earthlink.net . I will no longer be responding to the old email address. My phone # remains 219-614-1406 (CELL). I will be adding a home phone but the cell phone will generally be the best way to reach me one on one. I am slowly becoming confident and comfortable in this new world. I am amazed that the adjustment is taking so long but it is. You have no idea how fast your world is now as compared to twenty-plus years ago. Be thankful that you were able to grow with it rather than being dumped into it in an instant. Take care, John. ((Oh, no, John, I may not be as shocked by it, but I ***AM*** aware of it. I just got a cell phone myself this month and feel a bit of that now too. We're just glad you're here experiencing it at all!!))
| SHOW ME THE MONEY: 1997Mea04, Colonial Diplomacy |
SHUT IT DOWN, A HOLLAND/JAPAN/RUSSIA DRAW IS DECLARED
BUT CAN JIM-BOB FIND TIME TO SUMMARIZE THE CHART???
Final Supply Center Chart - From the Last Season
| BRITAIN (York): | DEL,HK,SIN,mal,cey,aden,ban,mad | (has 8) |
| FRANCE (Sasseville): | TON,may,u.bur,ass,bom, | (has 7, PLAYED ONE SHORT) |
| ben,can,ran |
| HOLLAND (Desper): | BOR,SUM,JAVA,SAR,new,dav, | (has 11) |
| mna,cebu,for,ann,coc |
| JAPAN (K. Ozog): | TOK,KYU,OTA,KYO,vla,fus,sak, | (has 12) |
| p.art,seo,sha,mac,pek |
| RUSSIA (Williams): | MOS,OMSK,ODE,rum,mon,ang,tab, | (has 17) |
| con,chu,shi,egy,per,tas,kag,sik,kar,kam |
| TURKEY (Tallman): | sud,bag | (has 2) |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=58) |
Addresses of the Participants
BRITAIN: Andy York, PO Box 201117, Austin, TX 78720-1117
wandrew of compuserve.com
CHINA: Rich Goranson, 4351 Chestnut Ridge Road, #7 Amherst, NY, 14228-3227 ($5)
ForlornH of aol.com
FRANCE: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 481-4280 ($5)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
HOLLAND: Rick Desper, 703 Monroe Street, Apt #302, Rockville, MD 20850, (301) 545-0143 (E-Mail)
rick_desper of yahoo.com or desper of math.rutgers.edu
JAPAN: Kurt Ozog, 391 Wilmington Drive, Bartlett, IL 60103, 630-837-2813
heyday6 of yahoo.com
RUSSIA: Don Williams, 27505 Artine Drive, Saugus, CA 91350, (661) 297-3947 ($4)
wllmsfmly of earthlink.net
TURKEY: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0384 ($0)
terryt of sinclair.net
GM: Jim-Bob Burgess, 664 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02908-4327, (401) 351-0287
Game Notes:
1) Hey, we're already late.... SC chart forthcoming sometime. I'm waiting for Don Williams.... ;-)
Press and End Game Comments:
No more here yet..... they're probably waiting for that spellbinding SC chart. Don Williams says he is sending me an Endgame statement now, so that will finish it one way or the other. Can I get the SC chart out before Don gets me an Endgame statement..... stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion..... Rich Goranson and Andy York are relishing their free issues while we work it out.
Personal Note to You: