ColonialA: AAR

[luckythirteen]

Agreed. I am very curious about what happened between C/J/R in the early game in particular. That is an area of the game I have no insight into at all.

[asudevil]

Early game I was trying to convince Pedros to give me PA and I would give him both of the Koreas...while at the same time I was trying to get Japan to move into the Koreas first so we could keep Pedros down....but I would have PA.

Pedros wanted NONE of that though....which caused a TON of tension. So he ended up working with Japan against me...and somewhere in there I convinced him to turn on Japan because Japan would have a stronghold on the land and would end up moving against him instead of heading down to the Philipeans.

I don't really know what I said that tipped the balance...but Pedros stabbed...allowing me to spend the next few years playing off them and strengthening my hold in the east.

[Pedros]

Apologies that this is so late. I'm writing it before reading what everybody else has had to say, and will probably add a few things after I've read all that has gone before. As usual with Colonial this was an absorbing game with shifting alliances and power balances.

The key moment for my Russia occurred as early as Spring 02 when I switched from working with Japan versus China to attacking Japan. I thought I'd learned long ago that switching initial alliances in the first year or so is always disastrous, and this proved it again. Nobody trusts you! And in my view it's almost impossible for a long-lasting alliance between Russia and China to work in the first part of the game - the tensions in the north-east around Korea are simply too great and the units scattered amongst each other. True to life, but it may be the one serious weakness in the game's setup. And having made the first inroads in Fall 01 I promptly gave up the advantage! What makes it even worse was that the reason for joining China was to help in the fight to pull Britain back after his early gains. Problem is that there is no long-term way for Russia to move where there are alliances with both Russia and Turkey.

The other key point was the move in the late middle game when Turkey joined China in attacking me, which set me back permanently. I stlll can't believe that Turkey did it! He knew he faced a solid defensive line across the Indian Ocean, and we had discussed often enough the main NS stalemate line on land. There was no hope at all of him growing to more than about 18 centres even if he took all of mine in the west; all he accomplished was to give China a decent solo chance.

After that it was mostly about whether China could make it. asudevil was helped enormously by the continuing sniping between France, Turkey and Holland. France I'm sure had the faint possibility of a solo in his sights and in his case it was at least understandable; the others had nothing to hope for except a share in a draw. I always felt that China had a good chance and was giving up too soon; but asu was in the hot seat and possibly he could read it much better than I.

Well done though to the four in the draw - especially so to glacier's France - the strongest showing by far that I've seen. A couple of recent games have given the lie to the claim that France's position is hopeless and without opportunities. May be a long time before we see a French solo, but in the hands of a good player against slightly weaker ones I wouldn't bet too strongly against it!

Finally, the Sakhalin experiment. I liked it (but then as Russia, I would!) It gives Russia something to play for in the East whereas normally it's really only a matter of time before the Tzar is knocked out of there (unless of course he moves everything east along the TSR - in which case he'll have nothing else left!) I'm hoping for a discussion with those from Game B, since we still have to take a view about the best option before Colonial gets proposed for main site.

And thanks to attitudes for a near faultless game. Well done!

[Pedros]

Read everyone else's now. I'm not going to add a lot except to say that it's amazing how different the world looks! But it was France who took the initiative in stabbing me? That I really didn't guess!