Endgame Data From Seville

Game Map (click to view)

Italy's End of Game Statement

I'll try and keep this reasonably brief, partly because I can't remember very much about the early game.

I got off to a great start with Italy, getting four builds in the first year, and doing well in the Balkans. I purposefully intended to push strongly towards the Balkans since there is such a concentration of centres there. As far as I remember, the next step was to take advantage of the war between Germany and France to take Monaco, Marseilles and then further.

For most of the game I had an intense running battle with Egypt, who was the biggest thorn in my side all game. On a couple of occasions I fought a defensive retreat because I needed units elsewhere, but then once I had surplus units later on I was able to force my way into control of most of the Med. Well played Egypt!

Egypt and Ukraine formed a solid alliance early on and I think it was sensible for the two of you not to break it at all. I was hoping that one of you would stab the other but it never came. Ukraine - I think your big mistake early on was to get a fleet into Rumania and then even worse to keep it there for several years. Your attacking options into the Balkans were always severely limited because of that, and it meant I could hold onto my Balkan centres for several years with only a threadbare defense. Generally I thought you played too defensively, and passed up chances to attack because you would have to run a small risk of losing a sector in order to do so. But generally well played.

I had an excellent alliance with Poland for a large slice of the game, but the inevitable had to happen, and I stabbed him as he started to get too big. At the time I wasn't quite sure whether it was the best thing to do to stab such a good ally, but it turned out to work OK. I got a lot of centres from it in the short term, and I predicted rightly that he and Britain wouldn't be able to reconcile their differences and form a united front against me.

Britain: I hope you won't take this too personally, but I think you must be relatively new to diplomacy because you made a lot of wrong decisions in the game. Probably the best move you made was to get your fleet in behind my lines (which gave me a real headache!) but then you let it get trapped and disbanded too easily in Monaco. I was very weak in the west med for some years and you could have torn me to shreds there if you had been a bit more bold with your moves and had been prepared to take a small risk of me breaching your lines in order to certainly breach mine. In the middle part of the game I was prepared to temporarily cede ground to you because I thought I would always be able to get it back again later.

To summarise, I think I was just lucky at the beginning, but I managed to hold on to that lead and convert it into a win by a good stab on Poland, and by keeping any other nations (especially the more experienced/skillful ones!) from getting too big. I pursued a variant of the divide-and-conquer routine. It's much easier to attack two nations each with 5 units than one nation of 10 units, because coordination amongst allies is so hard in no-press.

Well that's my lot. I apologise for my over-indulgence in gratuitous and patronising advice and criticism but perhaps the winner of the game is allowed to do a little of that. Many thanks to all the other players and to Rick the GM for keeping the game moving so fast - I think it has been the most rapid game I have played in over the last couple of years, and the most enjoyable.

Toby Tyrrell.

Spain's End of Game Statement

First I'd like to congratulate Toby for his solo-win. This is only the second solo win in an no-NMR game, the first being last week with Turkey winning in liarliar. Seville is also the second ever modern game created, the first being euro94 which is currently stalled on USCA.

Anyhow, my analysis will concentrate on the start of the game, because I didn't last until the end. The game started with me making a severe blunder and letting France move into Barcelona in the spring, thinking I could take it back quickly. This led to quite an involvement for France in Spain in the first few years, while I fought Britain for Gibraltar and Morocco, but I finally managed to push France out of Iberia (to Morocco) in 1999.

At this point, Italy was at 15 centers and Britain at 11, while France was down to 3 due to an Italian attack (which contributed to my pushing France out). Stuck between two great powers, I thought I should form an alliance with Britain to push back Italy from the Med. Britain still had Gibraltar, and he quickly captured Morocco. I thought he would see my usefulness and eagerness to work with him (through convoy orders or support for his units).

Unfortunately, he got greedy and tried taking some of my centers. This eventually brought my downfall (I lasted with a single army in Madrid two years, making it to the end of 2007, quite an accomplishment, I think). Britain was unable to build in Gibraltar, however, since he needed to occupy it to hold back the Italians, and had no armies in Iberia, so once Madrid had fallen (to two Italian armies), Italy was able to take control of the whole Iberian peninsula quite easily, taking all but Portugal within two years...

As creator of the variant, I am quite happy to see that it has taken off as it has, and that we have been able to achieve solo-wins, rather than draws, in most games (3 vs 1 for all games, 2 vs 0 for no-NMR).

Congratulation once again to Toby!

Cheers,

Vincent Mous
Spain/Seville

Poland's End of Game Statement

When I joined the game, my position was very bad, despite having 8 or 9 SC's. My units were dispersed from thh middle of Germany where I was getting sandwitched by Britan and Italy, thruogh Poland where Italy was pushing into my homeland, into the Ukraine, where I was too weak to resist any kind of counter attack.

I resolved to try to gather my forces in Poland if at all possible, hasten the colapse of Russia, Egypt needed the builds to defend against Italy, and try to let Britan take my German centers rather than Italy.

From my perspective my effect on the game soon boiled down to "block Italy while trying to help Britan do the same" so I payed less attention to the game than I would have had there been some action ...

Of the end game play, Italys was quite good, as was the Ukraine, but Egypt and Britain ???? What were you guys doing in Scandinavia ? Egypt already had more units than you needed to stalemate Italy, and there was no way you could push the Italian line back, while Britan, if he had 2 more fleets could have had a fair chance of stopping Italy.

Anyway, congratulations to Toby for the win, and thanks to Vince for the variant, and to the GM and players for the game :)

Simon

Britain's End of Game Statement

As Toby rightly guessed in his EOG, I'm fairly new to Diplomacy, so some of my 'strategy' may have been a bit nieve. Upon joining the game, I quickly got bogged down in Spain. I wanted to consolidate there before moving into the Med, but I was never going to achieve that without an army in the area, and I could never seem to free one up from NW Europe, where I really wanted to secure a solid group of SC's, but never did. C'est la vie. Italy's win seemed fairly inevitable with a few turns to run, so I was planning to at least blockade any advances into the Atlantic, but, as Simon (Poland) pointed out, a couple of my fleets got tangled up in Scandanavia when that rogue Egyptian army wandered in through the laplands, also forcing me to make some reckless moves in NW Europe in the remote (shall we say non-existent) chance the Toby made a mistake.

Anyway, thanks for the game, it's been a good learning experience for me, I hope my skills have been honed, and I'll get you all next time.

Cheers,

James Guthrie

Ukraine's End of Game Statement

Congratulations to Italy on the win and a game well played. This game was difficult for me on a number of counts:

It was the the first Modern variant I've ever tried, so there was a learning curve.
As a new variant, it is not supported by my software map generator, forcing me to do maps by hand and showing me just how dependent I have become on technology.
This is the first no-press game I've ever played which I feltsignificantly hampered by not having access to player-to-player communication.
A cranky email server.

Throughout the game I was very thankful for getting the Ukraine as a power. Although I had Russia and Turkey bordering me at the outset, they never were able to work in concert with each other and I was able to pillage Turkish positions with Egypt, contain Russia and expand into the Balkans. Although my early expansion was glorious, cooperation between Poland, Russia and Italy against me proved to be my undoing. I was always trying to put out some emergency somewhere and wasn't able to get an advantage until late in the game when Italy stabbed Poland and eliminated that threat. From there, Egypt and I were able to make gains against Russia, but it was too late.

In the Balkans, I believe it was Italy who said that it was a mistake to leave my fleet in RUM, and I agree, but I never really felt I had an opportunity to do so without endangering my position. Then again, I don't like to trade pieces in chess either. It was with all the mishaps in the Balkans that I really longed for standard communication with Egypt. Between mis-assumptions between us and my sometimes faulty mapmaking, I made some serious blunders in orders that had me kicking myself. Even when I would switch up an attack strategy on my to try and catch Italy off-guard, Italy usually anticipated the move and I could never get the lucky breakthrough I needed.

Throughout I was pleased with the strong relationship with Egypt andhappy that both of us recognized the value of remaining steadfastly loyal to each other against Italian ambitions. This was a great game which I enjoyed playing very much.

-George

Summary of game 'seville' through F2014R

Seville started on USVA and moved to USIN. This has caused some problems with the summary. I cannot guarantee the names of the people below are correct, but I have tried to fix them up as well as I can.


  Master:        Rick Desper         desper@math.rutgers.edu
  Britain:       Gordon Aickin       curtm@sun670.ttsi.tandem.com
   from S2000M:  James Guthrie       jguthrie@vesta.chch.planet.org.nz
  Egypt:         Eric Moore          emoore@empros.com
  France:        ?                   fridrich@imd.cig.mot.com
  Germany:       Bruce Duewer        beduewer@eos.ncsu.edu
  Italy:         Toby Tyrrell        Toby.Tyrrell@soc.soton.ac.uk
  Poland:        Markus Klein        markus.klein@wiesbaden.netsurf.de
   from S2007M:  Simon Withers       simsikin@idirect.com
  Russia:        Graham Orton        jrhodes@redwood.hac.com
   from S1996M:  Ben Hitz            hitz@cumbnd.bioc.columbia.edu
  Spain:         Vincent Mous        vim2@rocketmail.com
  Turkey:        Pitt Crandlemire    cfpufnstuf@BIX.com
  Ukraine:       George T. Chronis   gchronis@earthlink.net


Game parameters are/were as follows:
  Move    clock 1410 min 12.00 next  48.00 grace  72.00 delay 0.50 days -MTWTF-
  Retreat clock   -1 min  0.00 next  24.00 grace  72.00 delay 0.16 days -MTWTF-
  Adjust  clock   -1 min  0.00 next  24.00 grace  72.00 delay 0.16 days -MTWTF-
  Access:  Different-site, Level: Any, Moderated, Dedication: -100.
  Variant: Modern, Gunboat.
  Flags:   NoNMR, NoProxy, NoDIAS, StrictWait.
  Press:   None (except to Master).
  Miller Number: 1995AFF????.
  Winning Centers: 33.
  Index:   137
  Judge: USIN.

Game Started: Mon Jun  5 14:49:33 1995
Game won: Thu Jun 27 14:19:24 1996

The game was won by Italy.

Good ol' tactics.  Game will be run under EPHR's.  I will not
broadcast any draw votes.  Slug away!
Rick
p.s. Please do not sign on if you expect to need a break in the game
before the middle of May.


Historical Supply Center Summary
--------------------------------
    Mor Nap Mil Cro Gre Ist Ank Isr Ale Lib Irn Kha Kie Rum Aus Kra Gda Bie
Year  Tun Rom Ven Ser Bul Izm Ada Cai Asw Sau Geo Sev Ode Hun Cze War Lit Mos
1994 . . I I I I . . . . T T T T . E E E . . . . U U U U . . . . P P P . . R
1995 B I I I I I I I T U T T T E E E E E E . . T U U U U U I . P P P P P P R
1996 B I I I I I I I T U T T U E E E E E E . T T U U U U U I I P P P P P P R
1997 S I I I I I I I T U U E U E E E E E E T T R U U U U U I I P P P P P P R
1998 S I I I I I I I E U U E U E T E E E E E E R U U U U I I I P P P P P U R
1999 F I I I I I I I E U U E U E E E E E I E E R U U U U U I I P P P P P P R
2000 F I I I I I I I E U U E U E E E E E I E E U U U U U U I I P P P P P P R
2001 B I I I I I I I E U U E U E E E E E I E E U R U U U U I I P P P P P P R
2002 B I I I I I I I E U U E U E E E E E I E E U R U U U U I I P P P P P P R
2003 B I I I I I I I E E U E U E E E E E I E E U R U U U U I I P P P P P P R
2004 B I I I I I I I E E U E U E E E E E I E E U R U P U U I I P P P P P P R
2005 I I I I I I I I E E U E U E E E E E I E E U P U U U U I I P P P P P P R
2006 I I I I I I I I I E E E U E E E E E I E E U P U P U U I I I P P P P P R
2007 I I I I I I I I I I E E U E E E E E I E E U R U U U U I I I P P P P P R
2008 I I I I I I I I I I I E E E E E E E I E E U R U U U U I I I P P P P P R
2009 I I I I I I I I I I E E E E E E E E I E E U U U U U I I I I I P P P R R
2010 I I I I I I I I I I E E E E E E E E I E E U U U U U I I I I I P P P I R
2011 I I I I I I I I I I E E E E E E E E I E E U U U U U I I I I I P P P I U
2012 I I I I I I I I I I I E E E E E E E I E E U U U U U I I I I I P P P I U
2013 I I I I I I I I I I I E E E E E E E I E E U U U U U I I I I I P P P U U
2014 I I I I I I I I I I I E E E E E E E I E E U U U U U I I I I I I P P U U


Historical Supply Center Summary (cont)
---------------------------------------
    Gor Stp Nor Swe Ber Mun Bel Mon Lyo Bor Liv Lon Sve Mad
Year  Ros Mur Den Ham Fra Hol Swi Mar Par Ire Edi Gib Bar Por
1994 R R R R . . . G G G G . . . . F F F F . B B B B S S S .
1995 R R R R B G R G G G G G G F F F F F F B B B B S S F S S
1996 R R R R B G R G G G G G G G I F F F F B B B B S S S S F
1997 R U R R B G R G G G G G G G I I F F F B B B B B B S S F
1998 R U R R B B B G G G G G G I I I I G F B B B B B B S S F
1999 R U R R B B B G P G G G G I I I I F F B B B B B S S S S
2000 R U R R B B B B P G I G B I I I I F F B B B B B S S S S
2001 R U R R B B B B P I I B B I I I I I F B B B B B S S S S
2002 R U R R B B B P P I I B B I I I I I F B B B B B S S S S
2003 R U R R B B B B P I I B B I I I I I I B B B B B S S S S
2004 R U R R B B P B P I I B B I I I I I I B B B B B S S S B
2005 R U R R B B P P P I I B B I B I I I I B B B B B B S S B
2006 R U R R B P B P I I I B B I I I I I I B B B B B B I S B
2007 R U R R B B B I P I I B B I I I I B I B B B B B B I S B
2008 R U P R B B B B I I I B B I I I I I B B B B B I B I I B
2009 E U B R B B B B P B I B B I I I I I B B B B B I I I I B
2010 E U R E B B B B P B I B B I I I I I I B B B B I I I I B
2011 E U B E B B B B B I I B B I I I I I I B B B B I I I I B
2012 E U B E B B B B B I I B B I I I I I I B B B B I I I I I
2013 E U B E B B B B B I I B B I I I I I I B B B B I I I I I
2014 E U B E B B B B I I I B I I I I I I I B B B B I I I I I

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