Introduction First, this is not meant to be a comprehensive report on the entire event. It’s part of my peerispective. For the rest you’ll need to check out my other WDC 2013articles in Diplomacy World, Eternal Sunshine, and A Fleet In Paris if you dare. Second, this is not meant to be a statistical analysis or definitive record of the event. For that consult The World Diplomacy Database.com, an invaluable goldmine of hobby event information. Third, the miracle, considering the condition I was in four years ago, is not that I played as well as I did, but that I could play at all. My thanx to the doctors at Tri-City Hospital, Scripps Encinitas Hospital, Scripps La Jolla Hospital, and Kaiser. These dots are for you. The WDC 2013 was the third WDC event held in Paris. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend all three. This event pretty much followed the traditional WDC format, with a few Gallic twists. The Convention included: the Gunboat Tournament of two rounds, a five round Individuals Tournament, with the second round doubling as the Team Tournament, a Top Board table in the fifth round, a WDC Society meeting to discuss next year’s event in Chapel Hill, NC and select a 2015 WDC site, which will be Milan, Italy, as well as an awards ceremony. The Games Thursday evening was devoted to the first WDC event, a no press game the French called “Coupe de Paris de Blitz.” There were two rounds played, four games in the first round and three in the second. There were 25 players, including three Americans: Edi Birsan, Millis Miller, and myself. David Wigglesworth of the UK came in first with 116 points. Edi came in second with 113 points. David had an 87 point Round One and a 29 point Round Two. Edi had a 24 point Round One and an 89 point Round Two. I came in fifteenth overall and second among the Americans with 37 points, including a 7 point Round One and a 30 point Round Two. Millis was right behind me with 36 points, including a 20 point Round One and a 16 point Round Two. Edi and David both played in Round One Board 1. Edi ended with a 6 center France worth 22 points, and David ended with a 13 center Turkey worth 87 points. I played Austria in Round One Board 2, and my elimination was rewarded with 7 points. Vincent Carry had a 15 center Germany worth 91 points. In Round Two Board 1 I played France and got 7 centers worth 30 points, and Millis played Italy for 3 centers worth 16 points. The big winner was Gregoire Noel with a 9 center Germany worth 67 points. Edi was on Board 3 in Round Two, playing Germany for a 14 center, 89 point score. The highlight of the opening night event was the traditional pouring of Champagne for those attending. FYI, it was Tsarine Champagne, one of the better Champagne. I brought home one of the corks to join the others in the Peery Archives; which now includes some 327 corks dating back to 1984. The Individuals Event at WDC 2013 included 5 rounds, 43 games, and 75 players playing over a Friday/Saturday/Sunday period at a Paris high school. The top ten players were: Cyrille Sevin, France, 323.15 points; Toby Harris, UK, 267.03 points; Gwen Maggi, France, 261.97 points; Rene Van Rooijen, Netherlands, 253.46 points; Nicolas Sahuguet, France, 232.3 points; Edi Birsan, USA, 230.69 points; Pascal Maguy, France, 211.14 points; Emmanuel Du Pontavice, France, 200.97 points; Luca Pardini, Italy, 189.8 points; Andrew Goff, Australia, 189.6 points. USA player results included: Edi Birsan, 230.69 points; 69 Round One (R1), 25 points R2, 67 points R3, 42 points R4, and 21 points R5; for a 6th place finish. Michael Binder, 117.6 points; 30 R1, 26 R2, 38 R3, 22 R4, 20 R5; for a 28th place finish. Matt Shields: 84 points; 4 points R1, 24 points R2, 32 points R4, 24 points R5; for a 40th place finish. Larry Peery: 81.2 points; 50 points R1, 6 points R2, 3 points R3, 5 points R4, 20 points R5; for a 42nd place finish. John Gramila: 77 points: 18 points R2, 30 points R3, 22 points R4, 7 points R5; for a 45th place finish. Millis Miller: 72 points: 18 points R1, 14 points R2, 20 points R3, 18 points R4,14 points R5; for a 48th place finish. Best Country Awards: Cyrille Sevin: Austria; Gwen Maggi: Italy; Moritz Am Ende: Russia; Fabian Straub: France; Frank Oschmiansky: England; Vincent Dias De Almeida: Turkey; Stephane Viglielmo : Germany. Some interesting statistics: Austria had 8 victories and 9 eliminations; England had 4 victories and 11 eliminations; France had 17 victories and 6 eliminations; Germany had 10 victories and 3 eliminations; Italy had 6 victories and 3 eliminations; Russia had 7 victories and 6 eliminations; and Turkey had 7 victories and 12 eliminations. There was no 18 center “win” among the victories. There were two 17 center wins: Gwen Maggi, playing Italy had one for 95 points. Moritz Am Ende playing Russia had one for 95 points. For what it’s worth here’s how I did. Round One Board One turned out to be my best game with an 8 center, 50 point, France. Turkey, Filippo Lonardo did just as well. Michael Binder had a 7 center, 30 point Germany. This was the only game in which I played with another American. As I recall, vaguely, I took the traditional French centers and a couple of English centers. The significant thing for me going into Round One was, after two reasonably good games in the no press event, I felt confident about my ability to play keeping in mind that I had not played tournament Diplomacy in some ten years, and four years ago I could not even decipher a Diplomacy board because of medical problems. I had played three games with no miswritten orders, or significant tactical, strategic, or diplomatic errors. I had proven to myself that I could still play! Alas, that self-confidence took a beating in the games to come. In Round One Board 2 the interior powers took a beating at the hands of EFRT, and my Germany was eliminated. In Round Three Board 9 my Austria was again eliminated, primarily because of Moritz’s brilliant play with his 17 center Russia. Wigglesworth’s 9 center Italy didn’t help either. Round Four Board 7 turned out to be my worst game of the tournament. My England was the only power eliminated, although I fought on and on to hold off the French and Germans. I made my first miswritten order error of the tournament at a critical moment when I ordered a Fleet North Atlantic to Yorkshire instead of Liverpool! As the French sailed into Liverpool due to my mistake England was lost. I may have made a diplomatic mistake in this game, or perhaps it was the Round Three game, I can’t be sure; and I’ve already begun to block out the memory of the tournament’s one bad experience for me. It came about after three consecutive turns in which a referee had to be brought in to adjudicate disputes among the players. Two of the disputes involved French players bickering among themselves. The third one involved a miswritten order of mine (I wrote A W instead of A War and it was disallowed, although it was clear from the board positions that A War was what I meant.) At this point I lost my cool, slammed my hand on the table, raised my voice, and said (in so many words), “Enough of this petty nonsense. Stop your bickering and get on with the game!” And they did. Three of them ganged up on me and wiped me out. For some reason I thought Round Five was going to consist only of the Top Board game with the rest of us sitting around and watching it, so I was feeling pretty despondent on Sunday morning. But Edi informed me that there would be a full Round Five with everybody playing, so I had one more chance to redeem myself. On the drive over to the tournament site I psyched myself up and told myself there was no reason why I shouldn’t have a good fifth round to end the tournament. The top seven players were sequestered up on the stage for the Top Board game. It appeared to be a pretty boring championship game with most of the players more interested in NOT doing poorly than in gambling on a victory! The results were: Austria: Nicolas Sahuguet, 6 centers and 34 points; England: Edi Birsan, 4 centers and 21 points; France: Cyrille Sevin, 7 centers, 63 points; Germany, Toby Harris, 6 centers, 34 points; Italy: Gwen Maggi, 4 centers, 21 points; Russia: Rene Van Rooijen, 5 centers, 26 points; and Turkey: Pascal Maguy, 2 centers, 14 points. With the victory Cyrille became, I believe, the only three-time WDC champion having won previously in Paris and Gothenburg. The secret to his success is simple: not only is he a superb player, he’s also a nice guy. Reminds me of the quote about Cicero, “While every Roman regarded himself as the greatest of them all, all agreed that Cicero was clearly number two.” (Or words to that effect). Although I didn’t do as well in Round Five Board 5 point wise as I did in my first game, I felt I played better in it from a purely diplomatic perspective. The players were: Austria: Andrew Goff; England: Emmanuel Du Pontavice; France: Sacha Daout; Germany: Vincent Carry; Italy: Larry Peery; Russia: Jean-Louis Delattre; Turkey: Pierre Marlet. Five francophones and two Anglophones suggested it would be a difficult game. Russia couldn’t hold off the three way attack he faced and he was eventually the only player eliminated in the game. I, as Italy, decided to open with an attack on Austria (the other Anglophone, of course) right at the start. At the same time France came after me. What to do? I quickly made peace with Austria, while at the same time encouraging Germany to move into Austria to put some pressure on him. At the same time I worked on getting England and Germany to attack France, which they eventually did. This is where it got interesting. I managed to convince Austria that I wasn’t going to attack him as long as he kept Turkey out of the central Mediterranean, so two of my units (I didn’t have more than four until the turn of the game) worked with the Austrian as he expanded into the Balkans and Turkey. At the same time I promised France I would not attack him, although I was in a position to do so, and propped him up against the English and Germans. At one point the English got as far as Tyrrhenian, but we drove him back and I eventually ended up with a fleet in the MAO and one in the Aegean. So how did I acquire that fifth center? I took Munich from Germany in the last year of the game; and managed to hold it with French and Austrian support! So, although Austria, England, and Germany all ended up with more centers than I did, I felt good. The end results: Austria: 9 centers: England: 8 centers; France: 4 centers; Germany: 6 centers; Italy: 5 centers; Russia: 0 centers; and Turkey: 2 centers. I also got the most votes for Best Diplomat, Best Tactician, and Best Strategist in that game! There were seventeen teams in the Round Two team event. The winning team was Fonzie is the coolest with 263 points: Gihan Bandaranaike, Toby Harris, Gwen Maggi, and Cyrille Sevin. Second was Germany’s Next Top Model with 230 points: Andre Ilievics, Frank Oschmiansky, Fabian Straub, and Stefan Unger. Third was The Wurst Joke with 157 points: Moritz am Endge, Holger Fiedler, Phil Weissert, and David Wigglesworth. The “American” team, Dutch Treat, came in 12th with 62 points: Edi Birsan, Frank Oosterom, Larry Peery, and Matt Shields. In other awards: Best Diplomat: (1) Cyrille Sevin; (2) Andrew Goff; (3) Michael Binder; Best Tactician: (1) Gwen Maggi, (2) Edi Birsan; (3) Rene Van Rooijen; Best Strategist: (1) Gwen Maggi; (2) Cyrille Sevin; (3) Edi Birsan’ Most Machiavellic: (1) Fabian Straub; (2) Toby Harris; (3) Alexandre Godfroy. The duals wins by Cyrille, Gwen and Edi pretty much indicate their top play was recognized by their peers. Lots more statistics can be found on the World Diplomacy Database page online. Observations WDC 2013 was all about Diplomacy. Nothing else really was offered or mattered, although I did see a few pick-up boards of other games being played. The players were generally well-mannered; and the rules, customs and traditions of international play have become almost universally accepted. The exceptions were few and far between. The French continue to use the 1908 cut-off rule, which I strongly object to. It’s as if a soccer game were limited to one half. The premature and arbitrary ending of the game in 1908 prevents the game from playing out to its intended end; hence the lack of real “wins “ (e.g. 18 center wins) in the tournament. Much to my dismay the clock timer continues to survive, but this time instead of letting the clock get on my nerves I just ignored it and that seemed to help. The standardization of forms and procedures made it easier on the players and the record keepers alike. The effect of having a World Diplomacy Database cannot be over-looked. Within days the results of the event were available online as an open book for all to see. The information that can be found in the Database is amazing. I, for example, had no idea that I had played in 30 sanctioned events during my Dip career. Things ran smoothly and pretty much on schedule; no small accomplishment in itself. Cyrille Sevin’s three WDC championships justify proclaiming him as “the best ever,” at least for the moment. Having witnessed all three of his wins, I can only concur. But as I said, not only is he a great player he’s also a gentleman and a good sport — that’s why he’s the best ever. Comparing the top players of this event with past events it is clear that the best do rise to the top. Nothing surprising about that but I am surprised at how long of these names have been around. Perhaps because it is a cerebral contest and not a physical one (except for the endurance factor) there is no real time limit on how long one can go on at any level. Latent xenophobia (fear of the foreign or strange) still exists at WDC but it is increasingly rare. Language problems still exist but I noticed that the people who had language problems this year were the same people who had those 25 years ago. Today most people can manage the basics of game communication (one of those multi-language crib sheets of years ago). The pure francophones stayed home. The way we play the game has become more civilized if not genteel, but the lust for dots and glory is still lurking below the surface. Small and intermediate group dynamics have become more important at the expense of larger groups. (I’ll explain that in another article some day.) There was more subtlety and nuance and less bombast. The players and the event, like the game and the hobby, are mellowing as they mature. Winning is still important, but winning with style is even more important. The carbs and sugar flowed; baguettes (ham and cheese, with or without butter), Heinekens and Cokes flowed as well. People disposed of their trash. Not one take-out or pizza box was to be seen. Perhaps for the first time, if a promise was made there was at least a chance it would be kept. Long-term and even game length alliances are still rare, but they did happen. There’s a more calculated, in it for the long haul style of play today, rather than the grab a dot and run style of yesterday. Allan would be disappointed in that. How much of this is due to the different rules or cultural differences I cannot say. It will be interesting to compare with the upcoming North American DipCon in Silver Spring, MD. Chivalry is not a word that readily comes to mind when thinking of Diplomacy but there was, I think, a bit of it in Paris. Perhaps the spirit of Lancelot was watching over us Connecticut Yankees and Californianos in King Arthur’s Court. Final question: Is it the hobby that is mellowing, or is it me? Photos Here are a few photos from the event! Click each photo to diplay it at full size in a separate tab... Three of the Best European Players Ever: Jean-Lous DeLattre, Yann Clouet, Vincent Carry (L-R), and one newbie avoiding the Camera. 3 to 1: Water is the Beverage of Choice at WDC! Note the bottle of Peerier… Classic Dippers Pose: One for All and All For One Panoramic View of Gaming Hall with Dave Norman's Insidious Clock Ticking Down the Seconds! Dr. Binder, Previous WDC Champ, Prepares Another Victim for His OR… Edi Birsan: Greatest Dipper of All Time, Except for You Edi Examines a Delacroix Street Art Original Larry Peery Toasts Another Glorious Defeat!!! Cyrille Sevin: 2013 WDC Champion and Only Three-time World Champion! Vincent Dias De Almeida Wins the Larry Peery Best Turkey Prize! One of the 2015 WDC Organizers from Italy with Larry Peery One-of-a-kind Allan B. Calhamer Original Artwork Tee Shirt Conclusion The champions of WDC 2013 were Cyrille Sevin, who won his third WDC title, and Laurent Joly who managed to put on a superb tournament and keep smiling the whole time, Emmanuel Du Pontavice, who kept the baguettes flowing, and Xavier Blanchot, who kept everyone housed and the Champagne flowing!

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.