Invasion Earth Draw Agreed and AARs

[Jegpeg]

A three Way (DIAS) draw has been agreed between the Mondoshawans (lb1785), Cylons (Antigonos) and Greys (AardvarkArmy).

Thank you very much for playing and I hope you enjoyed the game.

I would appreciate it if you filled in AARs about how the game went particularly the negotiations in 1901 while you were in orbit, as to where the initial landings would take place.

Final Map (I haven't done the winter moves)

[Aeschines]

I will have my eight-legged revenge!!!

[Don Juan of Austria]

Marking

[Antigonos]

Of course I cannot comment on the start of play nor much of the game. I am curious to read others accounts of how things developed to the point where I joined in. My role was simple. Initially reach an agreement with both Gray and Red in order to thwart a Yellow solo (as to Green I felt I needed the build from and possession of Vienna). This worked well enough until the stab by Gray at which point I followed my previously stated policy of moving to punish Gray by giving as many supply centers as possible to Yellow. I vacated Tunis for that purpose but inexplicably the NAF fleet held rather than taking Tunis and the Marseilles army likewise failed to move to PIed which I also vacated. I remain curious as to why on both decisions. I think my counter moves against Gray limited his year end positional advantage and salvaged what I could for the moment. He made what I regard as the rational decision to propose a draw at which point I changed my disbands which had been of GOL and West Med to Naples and Trieste and sent a suggesting to Yellow that it was in his interest to accept the draw. He did.

I enjoyed my bit of play. Sorry Green for taking Vienna and sad that Red did not make it along with me to the end. My impression was that Gray more or less maximized his chances while I was there. I was surprised that Yellow seemed content with what I might describe as a minimalist style of diplomacy and had I been in Greens position I would have tried to work me (Blue) a bit more diplomatically though to be fair it would have been hard to convince me not to take Vie...but possible.

Antigonos

[AardvarkArmy]

I joined the game late, and my preeminent priority was to persuade Cyclons/Blue to do, well, more-or-less exactly what he did. At the time I enteredt, Cyclons and Greys were locked in a death struggle, which was paving an 8-lane superhighway for Mondoshawans/Yellow to grab an easy solo. Cyclons/Blues moved effectively just in time to put a finger in the levee. Along with Portia Nest/Red doing an admirable job of playing David to Yellow's Goliath, the solo run was stalled out in its tracks. Cyclons/Blue availed himself of the dying Sontarons/Green to feed some growth, while I swallowed Krikketers/White to strengthen my position. With all firepower lined up against Mondoshawans, I did see an opportunity to make a solo run of my own. I tried hard to camouflage a convoy plan by moving my Con army up to Bul... but Cyclons didn't fall for it. If I had successfully landed an army in Apulia, I think my solo run might have had a real chance. But when he blocked the beach landing, and moved rapidly away from the Mondoshawan border, I knew the Mondos would probably reach solo before me. So, the draw.

Like Atigonos, I cam in late to the game, so I can't comment on earlier actions. Mondoshawans obviously deserve props for ending as the largest power (though I agree with Antigonos' critique - why no communication???). Again, Portia Nest did a great job of holding back a power triple his size. But I have to say, Antigonos did a flawless job playing his position - a small power stuck between two powers twice his size and managing to stop both of them

[lb1785]

Hi all, thanks a lot for playing the game! And a warm round of applause to Jegpeg for patiently reminding me I needed to enter orders in the last stages of the game!

I'm sorry I was so silent in the second half of the game, but several real-life events interferred with my ability to communicate. I wish I had been more involved than I actually was at that time. Looking back I don't think I could have pushed my solo bid to its conclusion, as soon as Gray and Cylons managed to unite against me there was no way to pull it off. Unfortunately I didn't act on Cylons' suggestion to occupy Tunis and Pie, which may have given me a second chance.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed early communication about landing sites, and my interactions with Portia Nest were very satisfying (lots of creative writing here). I still think I was right to stab you Aeschines, but my timing was likely a bit off.

Happy to discuss more if you have questions or comments.

[Aeschines]

I agree that the early game was a good time. We had some fun on character messages. Our plan had been to set up a solid alliance from the get go and crush our closest neighbor... In the interests of galactic peace, of course.

Though to respond more concretely to the Mondoshawans, your stab, I think netted you an objectively worse result than if you'd stuck it out with me. I don't doubt that we would have crushed the Greys and the Cylons and taken out to a two way draw/race for the solo. The better time to stab would have been after the Greys were broken and we were at 13-13 or so.

Like we discussed at the beginning, our two-person Western triple gave you the stab potential of England in a WT, so that was unlikely to disappear. I don't know if you just got jumpy, or if the stab really was because you went AFK for a turn and thought I wouldn't trust you after that. Either way, the timing was very suboptimal.

While I'm obvious disappointed with my tragic elimination, I am pleased that you did worse than you would have by sticking by me. Not out of any ill-will but out of an objective desire to dissuade others from following suit!

All in all, it was a fun game. Thank you for running it JegPeg! It really cemented my love/hate relationship with giant intelligent spiders.