Dip1190 - Winter, 1914

Standard

PLAYERS:

Austria - Colin Kinsella <[email protected]>
England - Scott "Packrat" Troemel <[email protected]>
France - Martin Gilbey <[email protected]>
Germany - Pat Hutchins <[email protected]>
Italy - Adam Kuehn <[email protected]>
Russia - Ray Erb <[email protected]>
Turkey - Matthew Lopatka <[email protected]>
GM - Mike Ashland <[email protected]>

Old England - prior to Spring, 1901 - Michael Gray <[email protected]>
Old Italy - Spring, 1901 to Winter, 1904 - William Sun 
<[email protected]>
Another Old England - Spring, 1901 to Winter, 1905 - Dave Turner 
<[email protected]>
Old Germany - Spring, 1901 to Fall, 1905 - Michael (Mr. Hobes) Lawrie 
<[email protected]>
Old France - Spring, 1901 to Fall, 1906 - Seth Jones <[email protected]>
Old Russia - Spring, 1901 to Spring, 1908 - Gareth Rees 
<[email protected]>

PRESS (White):

None.

MAP - A map will be provided by separate e-mail, but the official 
positions are as listed in this report.

ORDERS - Orders are shown exactly as received. Orders succeed unless
otherwise noted:

Austria - Colin Kinsella <[email protected]>

Build A (Vie)
Build A (Tri)

England - Scott "Packrat" Troemel <[email protected]>

Build army London

France - Martin Gilbey <[email protected]>

NO CHANGE

Russia - Ray Erb <[email protected]>

NO CHANGE

RETREATS:

None required.

UNIT POSITIONS:

Austria: A Rum, F WMe, A Mun, A Bur, A Gas, F Spa (sc) , A Boh, A Ser, F 
Por, F NAf, A Tyr, F Con, A Bud, A Bul, A Vie, A Tri

England: A Nwy, F StP (nc), F NAt, F Kie, F Hol, F MAt, F Iri, F Eng, A Lon

France: A Bel, A Par, F Bre

Russia: A Arm, A Ber, A Sil, A Ukr, A Mos, A War

DEADLINES:

Spring, 1914 - 3/14/05
Summer, 1914 - 3/16/05
Fall, 1914 - 3/21/05

Please remember that all deadlines are 8:00 AM EST (1300 GMT) unless 
otherwise indicated.

GM COMMENTS:

This is my last word on the "coastal" issue. Those who wish to disagree 
are free to do so, but I would prefer a rules-based argument rather than 
"my opinion is ......"

I am amazed at the number of "strict constructionists" there are out 
there. Apparently, they feel that ANY error, no matter how trivial, will 
invalidate an order. I find this very curious, because to take this 
approach is contrary to the rules of Diplomacy as I understand them. 
(For those of you not subscribed, Packrat put this issue out to the 
Cat23-G chat list for discussion. The results were most interesting.)

My house rules are more complete than most, but I do not feel the need 
to rule in advance on every possible contingency.

The order in question was:

"F (Spa)nc – s F (Naf) – MAO"

The issue was that the fleet was actually on the south coast.

 From the official rules of Diplomacy:

"A poorly written order that has only one meaning must be followed."

And:

"The Fleet ... is considered to be occupying the entire province."

To conclude that the order was for a unit that does not exist would seem 
to be in direct contradiction to these two statements.

Let's turn it around:

Units:

French F Spa (sc)
Italian F NAf

France - F Spa to MAt

Italy - F NAf S F Spa (nc) to MAt

Should the GM rule the support order as invalid because it references a 
unit that "does not exist", even though the coastal designation has 
absolutely no impact on the validity of the move being supported?

I would be really upset to find myself on the receiving end of such a 
ruling by a GM because there is no possible ambiguity in the order set. 
The support order has only one possible meaning. It supports F Spa to 
the MAt. What coast F Spa starts on has no impact whatsoever on this 
meaning.

For those of you insisting that there is an ambiguity here, please 
explain, because I do not see one.

That's it. I'm off my soap box.

Please check for errors.

Stab on!

Regards,

Mike Ashland
Waterville, Maine
USA
[email protected]



 
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