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Pitt Crandlemire
The
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What we have here is the grand opening of a little column devoted to in-depth but irreverent discussion of whatever aspect of The Game (Diplomacy, of course) that happens to strike my fancy. (And though my fancy has been struck quite a few times, it's still in working order, thank you...) At the suggestion of your beloved Editor (was that good enough, Manus?), we're going to devote this and most future issues to a piercing (modest, ain't I?) analysis of a single land province or water area on the standard Dip map.
We're going to take a look at the most common tactical and strategic uses of each province for openings, retreats, stalemate lines, and so on. Additionally, when I can get them (that was a subtle hint to you, Gentle Readers), we'll have actual war stories from our correspondents on the front describing real world best, worst, and weirdest use of the province. Since this is the first issue and I don't have the benefit of my Gentle Readers' feedback (that was yet another subtle hint, GRs), I've picked this issue's province all by myself (don't worry...my stunt double actually did all the dangerous parts). And the winner is...The Black Sea!
As the majority knew, the Black Sea plays a pivotal role in the development of the RT relationship. Typically, Spring 1901 moves have Russia ordering F SEV-BLA with Turkey ordering F ANK-BLA. These orders serve the dual purpose of protecting each party's interests in the area while at the same time not giving away any hint of RT's real relationship. The bounce is just as likely to be due to a planned agreement between RT as it is to a failure to come to terms.
On the other hand, a successful Spring 1901 move into BLA
by either Russia or Turkey is strongly indicative of either a
firm, trusting alliance between the two or all-out war. The
problem is, no one else can really tell which it is until
Fall 1901. For example, Spring 1901,
The Black Sea plays a long term role in the success of an RT
alliance for one simple reason: it's very difficult to
establish a DMZ there. Turkey wants to build fleets and
head west through the Mediterranean very early on. It's
hard to feel comfortable doing that when you know that
there's a Russian fleet sitting in your rear with nothing
constructive to do except plan your downfall. The options
are:
Option 2 is worth exploring but frequently difficult to
pull off. Since Turkey starts with only one fleet, he must
dislodge Russia's fleet on land. A dislodgement in BLA is
not an option unless Turkey builds another fleet. A Russian
ally who willingly allows Turkey to build another fleet
and use both fleets to dislodge a Russian fleet in BLA
deserves no mercy. Even dislodging the Russian fleet on land
is problematic because it must be done into a Russian held
SC (RUM or SEV) unless
it's done in ARM. For reasons not
clearly understood, allies often frown on attacks to
dislodge and disband one of their units when this also
results in the loss of an SC.... If the attack is done
into into ARM, it requires that Turkey have 2 units located
and attacking toward the far eastern edge of the board.
This begs the question of just exactly what Austria and
Italy are doing all this time.... The net result of all this
is that Turkey and Russia can usually not agree on the
proper time and place to dislodge and disband the Russian
fleet until well into the game. Frequently, it ends up
never happening at all and then we're back to option 1.
Option 3 is actually the most sound method of dealing with
this problem because it resolves it immediately (as early as
Fall 1901) and it allows both parties to get some offensive
use out of the fleet. A Russian move into BLA in Spring
1901, followed by BLA-CON in the Fall, coupled with a
Turkish move to ARM in the Spring and
SEV in the fall is
ideal. Of course, this set of orders requires a great deal
of faith by both powers. Either could easily block the fall
move of the other with no sacrifice to themselves. Caveat
emptor.
The Black Sea story I have has to do with the lasting nickname of Dave
"Convoy" Williams. The player who was Turkey in this face-to-face game
at Georgetown University was viewed as a
Diplomacy God. Dave was, unfortunately, Russia.
It seems that Russia and Turkey were at war. Russia had a good
position, including a fleet in the Black Sea. However (due to
circumtances which have become lost in the legend) Russia wanted to
sue for peace. Perhaps the other front was collapsing. In any case,
Dave spoke with the Turk, who said something to the effect of
"Sure we can have peace, but you'll have to remove that fleet in the
Black Sea. Since you'll have to lose a supply center to do so, why
not convoy one of my armies to Rumania?" Rumania was Russian-owned at
that time.
For some reason (we think hypnosis must have been involved) "Convoy"
ordered both
Naturally, the Turk proceeded to render Russia to tiny pieces, winning
the game, if my memory of the legend is correct.
His first story is captioned "Who says you can't swap units?"
There were Russian armies available in the north, but the question was
how to hold on until they could be brought south.
This seemed to rule out any method of saving CON.
EAS could not cut the
support of both AEG and SMY, so it would be
a double attack. If BLA
supported CON, then it would be 3 (ANK,
SMY/AEG, BUL) to 2 and CON
would be destroyed. If BLA attacks BUL, then it
was 2 to 1. If RUM attacked BUL and BLA
supported CON, CON could be saved, but
RUM would be lost.
David's second story is entitled "The Russian Feint."
As Turkey, I enjoyed playing the following sequence of feints within a feint.
Austria wanted an ally against Russia, so I agreed to attack with him in 1902,
holding off in '01 because Russia had said he wanted to send forces north and I
wanted to give him time to do so (or so I told Austria, that is). Austria
agreed to play along and pretend to be friendly to Russia. Russia and
I had already decided to form a solid R/T alliance, so we put into effect
a plan to set up Austria for the fall. The first year went as Austria
expected:
In Spring 1902, after Austria had built 2 armies, and Russia a pair of armies
in Sevastopol and Moscow, and I a fleet at Constantinople, Austria promises
peace to Russia, which Russia appears to believe, and the A/T attack on Russia
goes off perfectly with Austria getting into both RUM and
GAL.
Not only was Austria reduced to four centers but two of his units were
hopelessly out of position, and it wasn't long before he was out of
the game. In addition, Russia got to trade his southern fleet for
an army -- always desirable when allied with Turkey -- thanks to its
carefully planned destruction. I've seen the convoy from ARM
used a number of times to change an apparent attack on Russia into a sudden
assault on Austria.
Many people seem to think that the Black Sea is absolutely
crucial for Russia and Turkey in the opening. They seem to have the
idea that if one gets control of this territory early, the other's
hopes for success in the game diminish too significantly for
words. For this reason, in nopress games, it is rare to see a first
move with no attempt on the Black Sea. But often you won't actually
see A Smy-Arm or A Mos-Sev, which implies that the move to Bla was
being used for defensive rather than offensive purposes. In games with
press, Turkey and Russia will commonly agree to bounce in Bla on the
first move, and sometimes on the second move too, for their mutual
security. Everyone is scared to death of seeing an enemy fleet enter
that territory.
In fact, though, it's not so big a deal. If Turkey gets into the
Black Sea, he's still generally going to have to make some good
guesses to capture Rumania and Sevastapol. (And if Austria allies with
Russia, Turkey won't get anything.) And even if he does make it to
SEV, he'll never go any further without significant help
from the
north. What I'm saying is that the worst case scenario here is that
Russia will have to temporarily surrender two supply centers. I say
temporarily, because once Turkey gets to Sevastapol, he's very likely
to go to war with Austria, and then Russia has a good chance of
reclaiming his centers.
If Russia gets into the Black Sea, he won't be able to go any
further without significant help from both Austria and Italy. Turkey
is a very hard nut to crack. You have to hit him from all three sides
to make any progress at all. So Turkey doesn't have to worry about a
Russian fleet in Bla, unless Austria and Italy are both hostile, in
which case he's dead no matter what he does, so what's the big deal
about Bla?
As an extreme example, there was a game where I was playing
Russia, and I destroyed Turkey by actually inviting him into the
Black Sea! Before the first move of the game, I told him I didn't mind
him occupying BLA. If he wanted to, he could move there and
stay for as long as he wanted. So he did.
The result was that this caused Turkey to trust me very
much. Why not? As I kept telling him, there was nothing I could
possibly do to him while he was sitting in the Black Sea. And this
trust clearly influenced his moves.
I realize this is an extreme example, but I think it shows
just how much of an exaggeration most people's conception of the Black
Sea really is.
Keep on Dipping.
Pitt Crandlemire
If you wish to e-mail feedback on this article to the author, and clicking
on the mail address above does not work for you, feel free to use the "Dear
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here....
Russia: F SEV - BLA, A MOS - UKR, ...
Turkey: F ANK - CON, A CON - BUL, A SMY - ARM
is just as likely and deadly to Austria. A wee bit of
diplomacy on the part of Turkey can enlist the support of
SER for BUL in Fall 1901
and then, the A BUL-GRE stab
signals lights out for Austria. In both cases, the
early indications of an RT free-for-all turn out to be
anything but. In fact, the first option above (F BLA-CON,
A ARM-SEV) goes a long way to solving the biggest stumbling
block in a long term RT alliance. Namely, what to do about
the Russian fleet in SEV.
Russia: F BLA - CON, A UKR - RUM, ...
Turkey: F CON - AEG, A BUL - GRE, A ARM - SEV
-- or --
Russia: F BLA S A UKR - RUM, A UKR - RUM, ...
Turkey: F CON - AEG, A BUL - GRE, A ARM - SMY
Option 1 is chancy at best. Recently, in game togo on
the EFF judge, Italy discovered this fact the hard way.
A solid RI alliance left Italy in sole possession of all the
Turkish SC's. Unfortunately, Italy faced the hard choice of
leaving the conquering units sitting in Turkey serving no
other purpose than guarding against a Russian stab or moving
them to the front where they could gain more SC's. Russia,
of course, could justifiably (if somewhat disingenuously)
claim that he could not do the same with his SEV
fleet since he'd have to move through Italian held territories to do so.
Italy decided to trust Russia and left a single unit in the
area to protect his Turkish holdings.
Russia, of course,
took the first opportunity to order F SEV-BLA (and then
F BLA-CON). Worse yet, once Russia had engaged in the stab
via BLA, he used the newly gained SC's to build another
fleet in Sevastopol, which he could (and did) order to BLA and
continue the cycle.
Of Black-Hearted Knaves And Other Dastardly Deeds
Our first story comes from Rick Desper
(desper@math.rutgers.edu).
This is arguably the worst use of Black Sea....
Fleet Black Sea CONVOY Turkish Army Armenia -> Rumania
in the fall move and
Remove F Black Sea
in the adjustment phase.
Next we hear two gems from David Partridge
(dharmas!dbp@uunet.uu.net)....
Having successfully eliminated Turkey, but now under pressure from a
turncoat Italian, Russia found himself in the following position:
A CON, F BLA, F EAS, A RUM, A SEV,
while Italy had
A SMY, A ANK, F AEG, F BUL/sc, F GRE, A SER, A BUD, F ION.
Russia pondered for
a while and finally decided that Italy's best attack would be:
SER - RUM, BUD S SER - RUM, GRE S BUL, BUL S ANK - CON,
SMY S ANK - CON, AEG S ANK - CON, ION - EAS.
What to do? SEV S RUM, EAS - SMY, BLA C CON - ANK!
The army was saved
from almost certain destruction, centers are swapped, and Russia's tactical
position was actually improved enough to hang on while armies came down from
the north to shore up the lines. A nice save!
In Spring, 1901, everyone is friendly. Austria opened VIE-TRI,
TRI-ALB, BUD-SER, Russia moved SEV-RUM, WAR-UKR,
MOS-STP, STP-GOB, and I ordered CON-BUL, ANK-CON,
SMY HOLD.
Then in the Fall, Austria ordered TRI HOLD, SER S ALB-GRE,
ALB-GRE (no need to tip off Russia), the Russian moves were
UKR S RUM, GOB-SWE, RUM HOLD, and STP-NWY (bounce)
(by agreement with England, who supported himself in), and my
orders were
CON-BLA, SMY-ARM, BUL-RUM (bounce), followed by the expected "you
scum" comments from Russia.
And finally we hear from Ken Samuel
(samuel@cis.udel.edu) about
the happenings in the game named "1889" on the Washington judge.
When he caught wind of a rumor
about an Italian Lepanto, he decided to build F SMY
and order F SMY-AEG, A CON-SMY, since he was unconcerned
about me.
Then, when the Lepanto did occur, Turkey moved significantly
away from me in order to concentrate on the Italian threat, because he
trusted me completely. His Fall 1902 moves were, if I remember right:
F AEG-SMY, F BLA-CON, A SMY-SYR (!) And he even
told me he was ordering this, so I ordered F RUM-BLA, A MOS-SEV,
A SEV-ARM. Turkey was so incredibly weak to my attack that he
crumbled quickly!
So, there you have it! The definitive analysis of the Black
Sea. (And, yes, I said definitive, not derivative...) Many
thanks to Manus, Rick Desper, Vincent Mous, David Partidge,
Mike Frigge, Ken Samuel, and David Marotta for suggestions,
analysis, and neat stories.
Next time, the lucky province is Tyrolia. ("Aha!" I hear you
say, "I have some ideas on TYR and I've seen some weird and
wonderful uses of the little Volksprovince!") Good! Click on that
little envelopw or on my e-mail address below, and send all
ideas, analyses, anecdotes, etc. to me! See your name in print! Win
friends and make money! Become the Dip expert on your block!
Oh, by the way, don't forget to send your comments, corrections, and
whatever else you're moved to generate in response to this Black
Sea column (as long as it ain't ticking) to
The Diplomatic Pouch Letters column,
"Pouch Deposits"
(the first installment of which you can read by clicking
right here).
I get one bonus point for each letter my
column generates. At a hundred points, I get to check out a
dog-eared copy of the Gamer's Guide to Diplomacy from the
Manus Hand Lending Library; at a thousand points, I get a free
subscription to The Diplomatic Pouch; and at five thousand points, I get
an all expenses paid trip to the UK Variant Bank! So, send
in those letters or I'll have to get nasty.
The Big Dipper
(cfpufnstuf@bix.com)