Introduction The Game: Beta0001 was the last test game before the launch of the latest World Diplomacy Cup computer adjudicated tournament. It attracted a good mix of experienced and inexperienced players, four from overseas and three from the USA. The Participants: Adjudicator/Master/God: Chris Babcock of Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Austria: Joao Carvalho, living in the UK, but from Portugal (I believe); England: Larry Peery of Oceanside, California, USA (Team 'Rest of the World'; France: Paraic Reddington of Perth, Western Australia; Germany: Joseph “Sloth” Wheeler of Laurel, Maryland, USA (Playing as team USA in the beta test only); Italy: Balanean Corneliu, living in Rome, Italy, but from Romania; Russia: Heath “Bar” Gardener of Chamblee, Georgia, USA (Playing for team 'Dixie' and taking over in F1902M); Turkey: Peter Lund of Sweden. Game Summary/Chronology 1900: The game opened with the usual “getting to know you” messages followed by lots of “What are you planning on Doing?/I don’t know what I’m doing" messages. Still, by the time the first orders were in most players seemed to have some idea of what they wanted to do, although it might not have happened that way. Spring 1901: England opened A Liv-Yor, F Edi-Nwg, and F Lon-Nth. France didn’t go to Eng (good for England). Germany didn’t go to Hol (also good for England). But Russia did move Mos-Stp (bad for England); which gave England the enemy she was looking for. Italy moved Ven-Pie (very good for England since it would keep France busy for a while). Russia and Turkey seemed to be ready for war, and Austria moved A Vie-Gal. Things didn’t look good for Russia right from the start. Fall 1901: England moved A Yor-Nwy, F North Convoyed, F Nwg Supported: very conservative and very traditional. France is obviously worried about an Italian attack and ends up gaining only one center (Por). Germany picks up Den and Hol. Russia gains Swe and Rum in spite of a weak start, but loses Sev to Turkey; which builds two. England has an ally against Russia, but the challenge for England is to keep France and Germany from fighting each other. 1902: Russia focuses on the south as England moves into Stp. Germany takes Swe from Russia, occupies Bel, and moves into Austria. The Italian continues to push west against France. Germany has seven centers. Everybody else has four or five. The player who started out as Russia dropped out and Heath took his place. 1903: England and Germany continue working together against Russia, while Turkey pushes from the south. Austria and Italy are working together. France and Germany still don’t trust each other. Austria builds A Vie. Germany removes A Pru. Austria and Germany are at six, England and France are at five, others at four. By now a Western Triple is a de facto reality. 1904: Austria and Russia are working together, as are France and Germany. Italy continues to push west. England supports Germany against Russia, and worries about France’s long-term position in the Mediterranean. France resists England’s offers of help, but eventually realizes he needs it to hold Italy and Austria. Austria ends the year down one, France up one (finally taking Spain), and Russia up one. Turkey is down to three supply centers, but not for long. 1905: England continues to support Germany’s advance in Russia; and moves into the Mediterranean (Naf) to help France. Lots of bounces all over. Turkey begins to push into Russia, England takes Bel with Germany’s acquiescence, and begins to actively support France in the Mediterranean. More bounces! Austria controls the Balkans, France picks up Tun, Russia down to three centers. Germany down one center (Bel to England) but removes F Bal as a sign the Western Triple is now fully operational. England uses Bel to build F London to help France in the Mediterranean, as France builds F Bre. Still a bit of mistrust between France and England. Italy removes A Tus. Tide begins to slowly turn in the Mediterranean. 1906: Turkey begins to move back into the Balkans. Austria supports Italy but takes Venice! England dithers. Austria suffers as Turkey completes capture of the Balkans. Austria removes F Ion and A Tus. Turkey builds three: F Smy, F Con, and A Ank. Turkey at seven centers, EFG at six each, AIR at 3 each. The Western Triple continues eastward as Turkey easily gobbles (Sorry, I couldn’t resist that) up the east. The challenge now is for the West to prevent Turkey from gaining a stalemate line. 1907: Austria temporarily holds Germany back, leaves the southern front wide open to Turkey. England bounces itself in Eng to show goodwill toward and allay France’s peerinoia (Groan…). France takes the Ion, Germany takes War. EFG continue to push hard to prevent a stalemate line in the Mediterranean or Russia. Austria and Russia work to hold Germany back. England dithers some more. France pulls back from the Ion to consolidate its hold on Wes, as Turkey continues to move west. GT at seven centers, Austria down to two, AI at three centers each, EF at six. 1908: Retreating Austrian and German armies converge on Pru. England takes Mos and Tun, guaranteeing an eventual Western Triple victory. France takes Ven. Turkey continues to expand. EFG continue to push for position over supply centers, swapping centers as needed to make it happen. AI hold home supply centers, Russia is down to War and Sev. FG hold traditional centers. Turkey holds home and the Balkans. England has a stake in Russia and Tun. At this point England experiences a Mid-Game Crisis and looks for advice from an outside source. From who else but “The Best Player Ever, Edi Birsan”? England’s question: Should I stick with the Western Triple or stab France or Germany now?” Edi replies: “You (England) are traditionally at the point in the Western Triple when the hammer falls down on Germany. Your builds should probably be Army London and Army EDIburgh but depending on what ground work you laid with the Germans you might want to make it Fleet EDI. “Diplomatically you need to get an understanding of where the Turks are, because at this point typically what may happen is that as you fall on Germany the Turks explode like a cancer into the back of Austria and Italy threatening to win the game if the Germans go bozo on you and the Austrians do not turn around fast enough. “You need to work with the Russians to help him save Sevastopol or even better to have him shift from Sevastopol to Armenia. He cannot hold Warsaw which means that you might risk losing Moscow in the fall. Try to get the German to take Warsaw from Livonia with the selling point that he needs units in Prussia and Silesia to fight off any northern shift of Austrians as the East tries to stop you. “Then in the fall you make attacks against Holland, Denmark and Sweden. Build armies. “Tell the French it is the two of you against the Turks and that if he can get into Italy you can roll the Turks up and in the long game actually end with a 17/17 tie which is true unless you want to get greedy and go for a win by stabbing the French in four years if you are still in Russia. “The stab should come in the fall after you make the moves of A Lon-Nwy, F Stp-Bar, and F Edi-Nwg. “Looking at the Eastern players, they are very balance of power oriented and may react in your favor if the Turks grow pretty fast. Otherwise, if the Turks do not stab then you have to work against them and then it would be you and France against them.” To find out what England decided to do, read on… 1909: EG reach deal with Russia against Turkey! Austria defends Trieste against Turkey, England builds a convoy bridge from Edi-Stp, and moves to bolster France. France takes Rom, Turkey takes Tys with Italian support. Turkey continues to swallow up Austria. Fall is a bloodbath with multiple retreats and annihilations. The Austrian position crumbles. England continues its octopus growth. Germany returns to Austria. Russia takes Smy, as Turkey gives up Smy, and takes Tun and Tri. Year ends with A down to one center, Turkey up to nine, Italy holds its home centers, and Russia hangs on in Sev and Smy. EFG hold nineteen centers. 1910: Austria is eliminated, England takes Sev as Russia moves out; and returns to the Mediterranean, taking Tun. Germany takes Vie. Turkey is contained and then pushed back. The tide has definitely turned France takes Ven, Pie, Tus, and Bel. Germany takes Rum. EFG build five units, IR remove one each. Turkey is at eight centers. Four armies and one fleet built, with two armies removed. Panic Attack! England freaks out as the system refuses to take his orders. After countless tries and queries to the Moderator the reason is revealed. After ten years he’d forgotten to complete the sign on line with his password! No doubt this was my worst anxiety attack of the game — forgetting to type in my password. How embarrassing. 1911: England holds and supports. France holds and supports. Germany pushes into Austria. Turkey fights back. France’s long effort in Italy finally pays off. Germany moves out of Austria into the Balkans. Noose begins to tighten around Turkey’s gullet. FG up one each. Turkey down two centers. 1912: England’s tentacles reach into Rum with German help, continues to support France’s eastward move in the Mediterranean. France takes Ion, and completes the conquest of Italy. Germany and Turkey battle over the Balkans. G at eleven centers, EF at nine each, T down to five. By now EFG have agreed to an 11/11/11 draw with Turkey to hold one center as a tribute to his valiant, if futile, efforts. Spring 1913: England follows France into the Mediterranean, supporting Germany in the Balkans. France dominates the Eastern Mediterranean. EFG working to prevent a last minute Turkish stalemate line. Turkey not yielding an inch. Fall: England blows France out of the Ionian, so it can retreat to the Aegean. The West continues pushing ahead, tightening the rope around Turkey. EF at nine centers, Germany at eleven, Turkey still at five. England proposes a Grand Finale finish with England taking Russia’s home centers, France taking Italy’s, and Germany taking Austria; with Turkey divided as needed. No builds for anybody. Last Hurrah. 1914: England pushes to take Turkey down this year, but France doubts it can be done. Germany is tasked with finding a way to make it happen. England and France convoy French A Spa-Smy. Germany takes Bul. England takes War. Germany comes up with a fireworks ending that annihilates two Turkish units and leaves him with one center. Fall ends with EF at nine units each, plus two builds each coming, and G at eleven centers. Turkey holds Ankara. Winter: Without prior consultation, England builds Fleets Edi and Lon. France builds Fleets Bre and Mar, and Turkey removes F Adr and A Ank. Come winter England is still asking questions about how a Draw works, but everyone votes for the Draw in the Spring (1915) and the game ends with England holding Home, Russia, Nwy, Tun, Rum, and Gre; France holding Home, Italy, Bel, Spa, Por, Con, and Smy; Germany holding Home, Austria, Hol, Den, Swe, Ser, and Bul; and Turkey hanging on to Ankara. The Big What If Question: What would have happened to the Western Triple had the game gone another year? England had built two fleets, as had France. Obvious the two were thinking about the future. Both were strong naval powers facing a huge German army. Would the two naval powers ally against the land power? Or would Germany find an ally against one of them? The reality was nobody, by design, was in a good position to attack anybody else. And that’s what made it a classic Western Triple. Player EOG Statements France (Pariac Reddington) I did enjoy this game, and it’s always nice to come out as part of the draw and with a double figure center count. The game started out with the usual niceties and it was pretty clear to me from early on that the western powers were all intended to open very vanilla. (Larry’s note: First time I ever heard that expression.) I was keen to lock in an early ally and I would have agreed to an immediate attack either way if I had a good vibe about a neighbor. But I couldn’t get any kind of early commitment out of either Germany or England so I had to content myself to an Iberian opening and a bounce in Bur. Interestingly, we couldn’t even get an open agreement on a western triple so I was really left with very little strategic direction in 1901. As it turned out Italy made the decision for me. Italy opened to Pie and the game was afoot. Lucky for me that I hadn’t launched into England! But Italy did not open to Tys so my thinking was that it was just a move to either placate Austria or based on a tip from Germany that he was going to Bur. I guessed wrong on Mar in F01 so just a single build for me. So that turn pretty much forced me into a turtle for a while. I was never going to be able to attack either Germany or England and was pretty much committed to the Mediterranean. Italy and I farted around in the Mediterranean for years. In fairness to Italy, his tactical ordering was very good and he blocked me at every turn. We were going nowhere fast and I had no choice but to allow an English fleet to move to the MAO. So I was effectively at Larry’s mercy from then on. Luckily for me his intentions were benign. Once we had the extra fleet in the Mediterranean then we took Tun and slowly pried open the Italian limpet. He fought us off bravely but he was getting no support so it was only a matter of time. Meanwhile England and Germany were making good progress against both Austria and Russia. For the remainder of the game it was a slow slog east for all three of us. We did manage to work together well, but it was a tactical alliance more than a strategic one. We never planned or agreed to a western triple. It just turned out that way. That I finished up with all of Italy, Germany finished up with all of Austria and England finished up with all of Russia was a happy coincidence rather than a grand strategic plan. I think the lack of strategic diplomacy in this game was a shame. Don’t get me wrong, there was diplomacy, but it was more like an open friendly gunboat game than a tournament trial. Tactically we worked together quite well but there were no strategic shifts in the west. No grand stabs or desperate lunges. Just slow inevitable mathematics. I still enjoyed it though. For the format of this competition though it was totally the wrong way to play the game. If this game was part of the tournament then there would surely have been a stab in the west and most likely with me being eliminated. The emphasis on solos means that stabs are more likely I think. As a result I think the tournament is flawed to be honest. Three things will happen in my opinion: Poor players will have a greater impact on the competition. Good players will stagnate. Metagaming will be rife. I think #3 is the most likely. The interface generally worked well for me. I would like to be able to review all old diplomatic messages. I had to keep offline copies of my conversations which is painful. I had some interface issues with Firefox. Selecting orders opened a pop-up as well as a new page. But generally the order formatting was fine (once I figured out the syntax for convoys!). I did have some adventures with press to unintended recipients however. I also think that the lack of an order for a unit should not be an error. In one turn I ordered for all my units except Bur, which I assumed would be taken as HOLD. This was marked as an error and I missed the deadline as a result. I was blissfully unaware that my orders were in error. Either the error status should be more visible, or omitted orders should be seen as holds if all other orders are valid. Just my 2 cents. In hindsight I think that England and Germany should have stabbed me in this game, and I fully expected they would. My position all game was horrible and I had no choice but to push into the Mediterranean. I think they would have been able to eliminate me, even with me pulling back to defend, and still hold the Mediterranean. But by the grace of England and Germany I managed to survive and participate in the draw. Thanks to everyone involved in the game and to Chris and the benevolent bots for overseeing it. Germany (Joseph “Sloth” Wheeler) Win, lose, or draw, I think all of us who were there, or even those of us who weren’t there, or maybe some of us who were there but didn’t know we were there, well, we might disagree on some things, or argue about some other things, but we can probably all agree that this was a diplomacy game, or at least that it was diplomacy-adjacent. This was an enjoyable way to pass the time — as always, Peery was most instructive in devising new and colorful insults. Heath was… Heath. And I felt like I never really had a conflict in the game. I mean, early on I fudged a little to arrange artful bounces so that my “allies” couldn’t capitalize on dots they had been promised — hey, I “tried” to move out of Bel for you, not my fault you couldn’t walk in because I arranged a bounce with France in Burgundy… But that’s penny-ante stuff — when it comes right down to it. I never actively fought any neighbors. France and England remained pretty tight allies the whole game. Heath and I arranged for a little theater on our borders that just happened to end up with me owning a bunch of his dots for a short time, and by the time I moved on Austria, his position was way too untenable to really stay in the fight — it was more like just marching behind his collapse than really fighting a war. So… umm, good game all. It was a pleasure working with each of you. Of course, it’s always fun to work with Larry — he really helps keep the game colorful. And, yes, my proudest achievement of the game was managing to get the moves right so we had the desired 11-11-11-1 split so we didn’t have to play another turn. Russia (Heath Gardener) Most fun I’ve had pushing hopeless pieces in a while. Wish I could say the same about DixieCon. This game became a meta opportunity when I learned Austria and I were in the same game in the qual series, so I tried to be as compliant and easy an ally as possible to him, hoping to set something up in the later game where I might catch him off his guard. Didn’t work. England (Larry Peery) I went into this game with three major and many minor weaknesses: I had not played postal or electronic Dip in many, many years. I knew nothing about the World Cup or Judge systems. I knew nothing about the other players or the GM beyond what the website told me. To compensate for these shortcomings I decided to: Brush up on the Rules of the regular game and learn something about Judge. It was a little like trying to carry on a conversation while learning a foreign language at the same time. Ask lots of questions. Use my weaknesses as a Judge player to my advantage by encouraging other players to assume I would be a weak player, and play accordingly. Try and get to know the other players on a personal level, as well as in a game scenario basis. Avoid careless errors, observe deadlines, and be proactive in corresponding with the other players. To tell my allies, if I found any, what I was going to do (and why) or not to do (and why). To tell them what I had done, etc. etc. It was a combination of John Hays “Open Door Policy” and Woodrow Wilson’s “Open Covenants Openly Arrived At Policy” The idea was to build a reputation for consistency and dependability, and create a sense of trust. Be polite with my enemies and try to preserve open communication lines as long as possible. Be patient, and play for spaces not supply centers. Maintain a rough parity with my allies. As England I tried: To avoid fighting France and Germany by: Making sure they had at least one other opponent. Establishing a bilateral (i.e. independent) alliance with each of them. To encourage them (France and Germany) to work with me and each other (not a Western Triple at first, however) by offering each a “security guarantee” or mutual assistance pact.In other words, I told France I would come to his aid if he was attacked by Germany, and I told Germany I would come to his aid if he was attacked by France; and I told both of them exactly what I was doing; setting up a situation, I hoped, where if one attacked the other he would be fighting two of us, as well as the other enemy I was encouraging on their flank (Italy for France, Austria or Russia for Germany). I was offering to guarantee their backs as they expanded in other directions (e.g. away from me). To agree to various neutral zones and agreements on what and where to build or not to build new units. What I was trying to do was create a situation where it was to France and Germany’s benefit not only to not fight with me, but not to fight with each other; and, instead, to work together, in other words, a little bit of stick and a lot of carrot. My Grand Strategy consisted of four steps: Establishing goals; Making alliances and creating mechanisms to achieve those goals; Staying focused; and Implementing and achieving goals by taking a “junior partner role” with my allies and allowing them to make most tactical decisions, while keeping them focused on carrying out the broad plan. In addition to the game itself I will always associate this game with the World Diplomacy Cup Committee fiasco, the Team Geritol disappointment, the what I called Team Vitrol discussion over the event mechanics which ultimately caused me to not participate in the tournament, and the passing of Allan Calhamer. Odds and Ends: This game generated about a thousand messages (Far too many of them Error Messages from the adjudicator.) into my email box, taking up about a third of the box memory (33 MB) by the time it was over. There were no actual written messages or telephone calls that I can remember. Two things I learned: 1) It takes about as long to play this type of game as a PBM game in terms of time commitment, but from start to finish it takes about one-third to one-half the real time. 2) For a beginner to this type of play an understanding of the procedural rules and a good GM to explain them is critical Later on that isn’t so critical but even after ten game years I still found myself asking “dumb” questions occasionally. Fortunately Chris was an excellent GM with the patience of Job. Pariac and Sloth were great allies. Thanx, guys, for letting me work my wicked ways upon you. The game brought me at least one new friend. Heath, it was a blast beating up on you. Balanean and Peter both played very, very well, and Joao fought us off as long as he could. I do think missed deadlines hurt some of the players. And the Oscar goes to Edi for his advice, even if I decided to follow a different path. As for the beta game, we were looking to test the scheduler to make sure that it worked as designed. It was important to be certain that the scheduler actually placed players into games and that it didn’t allow players of the same country to play together in one game. That was established. We also found out that the adjudicator marks a player as abandoned 24 hours before adjudicating the turn with the power in CD. This became part of the tournament rules. Conclusion For me successfully navigating this game after all these years gave me the courage to try another game (Sweet Spot in Whining Pig) or was that Doug Kent’s cajoling and the challenge of actually working together with Heath Bar? It also gave me the confidence to tackle another World DipCon in Paris after eighteen years and deal with those artificial game ending deadlines and that “damned” clock timekeeper! Stay tuned for future developments. The Old Fart hasn’t written the end of this story yet. End note: I forgot to mention one of the most enjoyable features of this game. Those were the quotations that Chris included with each results report. There were times, I confess, when I found them more entertaining than the results of the game. Another note from the game moderator: The quotations Larry mentions are provided by a utility program called "fortune". Each time the utility is run, it generates a random quotation sourced from its "cookie" files. Initially I used quotes from the "diplomacy" cookie file, which contained both (big "D") Diplomacy and (little "d") diplomacy quotes. This created two problems; The diplomacy cookie file was too short to provide continued variety and some of the Diplomacy quotes were from other players in the tournament. I ended up changing the diplomacy quotes to quotes from "The Art of War" shortly after the tournament started. Larry Peery (peery@ix.netcom.com) If you wish to e-mail feedback on this article to the author, and clicking on the envelope above does not work for you, feel free to use the "Dear DP..." mail interface.