PDL 3. Round 3 Game 3. AAR

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ENGLAND todiefor (3way DRAW)
FRANCE chaserh11
ITALY dangerboy
GERMANY Malachite (3way DRAW)
AUSTRIA Rotsu (3way DRAW)
TURKEY Blackdiamond
RUSSIA ccloughley



Well played, everyone. Please write your thoughts on the game here.

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First of all... I award the player of the game award to England. Very well played! He played the game and the players like a pro. I suppose a 3 way was a decent result for me too, as I've managed to lose every game as Germany on PlayDip until now. For some reason it feels like I once again somehow managed to get everyone angry at me though, except for England and Turkey.

The main reason I stabbed England and decided to aim for a 2 way was because I felt I needed the points in the league. Of course, I could've attempted a 2 way with England too, but Austria would've had easier time kingmaking England than me, while with Austria I would have an easier time stopping him from soloing if he decided to go for it. Which was exactly what ended up happening.

I tried to keep this short, but... I guess I just like to ramble.

1901:

Russia, Austria and Turkey seemed to be the chatty ones, Italy completely ignores me, and England and France don't write much.

We get along great with Austria, and we agree to split Europe between us. He talks about a 2 way draw, which I assume to be the usual codeword for "let's not attack each other while rushing for solo", but as we write more he seems to be oddly serious about it.

I tell Turkey to be careful, and he tells me that Russia seems very dangerous... but he ends up letting Russia have the Black Sea anyway. I was sure he would successfully defend against Russia, which would've changed the game dramatically.

France seemed very cautious, and he seems to want a Western Triple, while England tells me he's with me if I want to attack France. I heard nothing from Italy, and France wanted a bounce so nothing happened yet. I hate it when I have no idea where the game will be going even after the S01 negotiations are over.

France seems to ignore my subtle hints that England wants to attack him while continuing to push for a WT, so I end up attacking him in F01. England could've changed sides at this point, but thankfully he doesn't. Meanwhile France builds in a way that guarantees that we have no way of attacking England together, so I have no choice but to keep attacking him.


Spring 1902

1902-1903:

Since England seems friendly I decide to attack Russia too. I was going to anyway, but then Austria tells me that Warsaw will be open... which seemed kind of dubious, but I decided to go for it. Of course that was either a lie or a mistake on Austria's part, and I only get Sweden out of my attack. Austria could now side with Russia, which would end in a slow R/A vs. E/G slugfest. Thankfully he doesn't.

I asked Italy to attack France, and he did, but he's still unresponsive, so I don't help him with Marseilles. I think this might've caused his grudge against me, but... I had no idea what his overall plans are so why should I help him? I had also already coordinated my moves with England when he asked me for support, and I didn't bother to suddenly change my plans.

I try to keep Turkey in the game, as I need him to slow Austria down (besides, he seems like a nice person). Sadly he gets reduced to a single center.


Spring 1904

1904:

The year I stab England. Before taking Brest and Belgium I had to get him out of position by supporting him to Spain, hoping that Italy will retake it in the fall. Italy is really angry with me though and it seems like he'd rather lose than do something to help me, so he lets England have Spain even though he would need the build to fight Austria.

England's response to my stab is way too reasonable though, so tried to subtly tell him that I would be ready to go with a 3 way if Austria stabbed me.


Spring 1905

1905-1907:

I thought my stab was pretty good, but England puts up a really good fight. I suppose that shouldn't come as a surprise since he didn't have to worry about anyone else besides me, and it takes me a while to get my new shiny fleets somewhere useful. I had to hope that Austria would be content waiting for me to finish my side of the board.


Spring 1908

1908-1911:

Austria had gotten more and more unresponsive over the years, and my suggestions for DMZs and bounces have been mostly ignored. I'm pretty sure I hinted pretty strongly that England doesn't seem to bear a grudge against me, and that I would have to go with a 3 way draw if Austria moves to one of the DMZd areas to "help me", but of course Austria ends up drawmaking England by moving to Livonia. I had tried to keep enough units around so I could quickly form a stalemate line if needed, and so it's not too hard to stop his solo.


Spring 1909

I wrote quite often that I tried to be rather subtle with some of the things I wrote to people, and the main reason for that is that it seems very common to forward messages in League 3 games, and I'm not really sure how to deal with it. I think I might be a little bit TOO subtle though, as often my warnings would be completely ignored.

[sinnybee]

Wow, Rotsu, so close.

[boldblade]

Very close indeed. This is pretty much how my game might have ended had I not gotten lucky.

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True, there definitely was an Austrian solo there somewhere, but it didn't happen this time. I'm sure someone could point out a way for Austria to get past my defenses, especially back when I only had a single army in Tyrolia defending the German home centers.

Apologies if I sounded a bit too harsh in the AAR, as it was written back when Austria's stab was still stinging.

[boldblade]

In spring 1909 I thought there was slim chance for him. I think he missed a few moves that might have given him the best chance but you were in position to stop it early enough you had little to worry about it. It does seem to me that he had no choice to stab you though as I would say you might have been a greater solo risk prior to the stab.

[todiefor]

Another interesting game well done to Germany who played very well he communicated much more than anyone else we had a good alliance and were both doing well taking out France, all the armies and only one fleet really made him an obvious target, Germany and I made short work of him
Russia spent some time telling me how wrong I was to stay with Germany but I couldn't see any value in turning on Germany to aid him instead
Germany's stab caught me by surprise but being stuck in the middle a choice had to be made perhaps stabbing Austria instead might have seen me going for a solo I knew he had an alliance with Austria as well but thought he would go that way, his reason was an agreed two way draw which he wanted for the league points, it was good but not enough to finish me off quickly . It was the time it took to build enough fleets that slowed him down and all the while Austria grew behind him
Austria did very well we had no contact with each other until fall 07 which was poor on my part but there wasn't much to say My aim had been to survive until Austria worked out he could win and when he did contact me I agreed to give him the solo he wanted, a few centers left was better than nothing
Germany was no fool and quickly offered a 3 way draw clearly a better result for me and he deserved to get something as well
well played everyone

[WarSmith]

Great AAR Malachite!

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@boldblade
My solo would've required perhaps staying in Tyrolia (my army stayed there for a long time) to somehow push through the stalemate line after England was almost dead and I had started building armies again, or possibly getting all the way to Tunis. It seemed very unlikely either way, and I was prepared to go for a 2 way if Austria had let me, and that's why I moved away from Tyrolia.

@todiefor
You were very patient, and it paid off in the end! It'll be interesting to see how that other E/G (in PDL 3. Round 3, #2) will end up. It might be a good "what if" scenario for us. I feel Rotsu (Austria) would've rather seen one of solo than give up early, making a 2 way somewhat difficult to achieve.

@WarSmith
Thank you! It's hard to keep it reasonably short while still covering the main points.

[Rotsu]

Life hit me like a Truck these last few weeks - so I'll go ahead and put my thoughts here.

In the early game (01-04) I tried to subtly point everyone everywhere except myself. A/G works best if we can get done with Russia quick, I think to myself. That or France and Turkey. We did the latter. I milked Russia and made sure he saw my stab coming as "inevitable so the 'other side' (Germany/England) didn't get everything. I made a mistake here thinking he would leave Warsaw open because that was what I was told up until a few seconds before the turn flipped. It slowed Germany down which was nice. I wanted the duo with Germany, but I also knew that Germany had a better chance at a solo endgame. I would chew on that for a few years

As the game went into the midgame and I slowly boxed Turkey into his 1SC death Prison and built up my fleets, I was thinking of draw lines, how to break them, how to defend them, etc. I would get continuously more worried about Germany breaking for the solo. In 1907 I would say Hi to England because if I was to win - he needed to help me. He agrees to give me the solo and I think on that until

End (of the) Game. Fall 08 I say to England that I'm attacking and if he attacks Germany at any point the next year I win. He congratulates me on the win.

In spring it does not happen a draw is proposed and I try to push my win, fail and agree to the draw. I think in reality this is the best outcome in this game, we could have had a two way, but I could have a equally, if not greater chance at a German attempt at solo. My paranoia won. I feel kind of bad, but I think it ended best it could have. My tiebreaker is as good as it could have got in that game

My mistake was not trying to keep France alive by setting up a I/F alliance and stalemating that side of the board like I could have. I think Italy was listening very close to what I said early on. I/F would have stalled G/E for a bit so myself and Russia could get Turkey then I could have snowballed out of control. It sucks that I didn't realize this earlier, but live and learn, as they say ^_^;;

Anywho, well played by everyone. I hope that the next game is as good as this one was, and that no one carries any grudges into the next game that we have together.