Dip1050 "Lunch of Champions" EOG report

Summary of game Dip1050 “Lunch of Champions”

Dip1050 was a standard game. All participating players
had at least one cat23 solo victory in the past. 

Game started: September 20th, 2002
Game ended: December 23rd, 2003

Game result: 3-way AEF draw in 1921.

THE PLAYERS 
AUSTRIA 
Steve Ray [email protected]
ENGLAND 
Chris Mitchell [email protected]
FRANCE 
Mark Beed [email protected] 
GERMANY 
Rick Mallon [email protected]
ITALY 
Spring 1901 – Fall 1904 Stan Rodrigues
[email protected]
Spring 1905 – finish Freeman M. Butland [email protected]

RUSSIA 
Rob Wesley [email protected]
TURKEY 
Deepak Mohoni [email protected] 
THE GM 
Spring 1901 – Winter 1905, Spring 1914 – finish
Gregory Alexopoulos [email protected]
Spring 1906 – Winter 1913 Peter J Richardson
[email protected]

THE OBSERVERS
Jim Green [email protected]
Andrew Rae [email protected]
Mike Morris [email protected]
Suzanne Castagne [email protected]
Christian Kline [email protected]
Shannon Crack [email protected]


History of Supply Center Counts

        00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
AUSTRIA  3  5  6  7  9 10 11 10 11 10 11
ENGLAND  3  4  4  4  4  5  5  5  5  6  6
FRANCE   3  4  4  4  4  5  6  7  7  7  7
GERMANY  3  6  7  7  7  6  7  7  6  4  4
ITALY    3  4  4  5  5  4  4  4  5  7  6
RUSSIA   4  5  7  5  5  4  1  1  -
TURKEY   3  3  2  2  -

        11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
AUSTRIA 11 12 12 12 12 14 14 14 13 15 17
ENGLAND  6  5  7  8 10 10 10 10 11 11 11
FRANCE   7  8  7  7  6  6  6  6  6  6  6
GERMANY  4  4  3  2  1  -
ITALY    6  5  5  5  5  4  4  4  4  2  -


GM comments

This was a loooooong game. And the length of it was
largely my fault (more on this to follow). Amazing
times too, just the fact that two children were born
in the families of those associated with the game
means a lot. 

This was the third game in the wonderful Champions
series, and truth be told: I didn’t do as well as I
did in the previous two. Real life intervened a lot, I
had to step down at some point, handing the game over
to Peter – once more, my gratitude for your help Peter
is beyond words. Afterwards, I managed to get the game
back but still had a lot of delays to face, most of
them due to me. I owe you all a huge apology. Despite
this, you’re all extremely kind with me in your EOGs,
so I guess my good past counts for something! :^)

Still, you made the game another unique experience,
fighting on for years and years. I’ve heard of games
longer than this one, but they’re more and more rare.
A spectacular game; watching the resourcefulness and
innovation of these players in their struggle for
supremacy was great. The same goes for your
dedication; we’ve had only one replacement but it was
a resignation and the resigning player found his
successor before leaving. 

Traditionally, after this combined EOG message we set
a date for the next game of the series. Pending title
is “Tea Time of Champions” or "Elevenses"; you native
English-speakers help me out here! :^). Regarding
this, I may have a small surprise for you at the end
of this e-mail – for the time being, enough with the
GM! Let’s hear what the real stars of the show have to
say! 

***

AUSTRIA - Steve Ray

I normally do extremely long EOGs, and this game
deserves one.
Unfortunately, I don't have the time. Let's see if
this compressed
version can do it justice.

In this, the third in the "Champions" series, I drew
Austria. This
after playing Turkey and Italy in the first two. As I
complained to
Gregory, "When will I get to play a *real* country?"

Looking around, I saw "Champions" alums Deepak
(Turkey) and Mark Beed
(France). I had also played previously with Rob Wesley
(Russia). Italy,
Germany and England were question marks.

Well, clearly, Deepak had to go. Russia and Italy were
both receptive
to the idea, so off we went. We also cut the usual
German/Austrian/Russian deal to let Russia have Sweden
if he stayed out
of Galicia.

Spring went well; Russia moved against Turkey (moving
into the Black
Sea), I grabbed my neutrals and, because of the Gal
DMZ, covered
Trieste with A Vienna. In fall Russia followed through
with the attack
and grabbed Ankara. Italy moved to Trieste; I can't
remember if that
was agreed to or not. In any event my army in Trieste
held and the
attack bounced.

In the north, Germany asked if I wanted to let Russia
have Sweden.
Russia had held up his end of the bargain, but it
never hurts to hedge
your bets. So I told Germany that if he bounced
Russia, I wouldn't get
upset. So he did. Always good when you can limit
another player's
growth without any backlash against you!

Germany had also invaded France, managing to grab
Marseilles en route
to three builds. He looked like an early victor over
there.

In spring I took Bulgaria while using armies to keep
away any Italian
probes. Italy headed west, while Russia pulled out of
Ankara and moved
into Galicia: Eek! Germany took Sweden but England
sided with France
and sailed into Denmark, while France worked to
encircle the German
army in Marseilles. Suddenly, Germany was on the
defensive.

After some quick talking, Russia agreed to take
Rumania from Galicia,
while I supported myself into Galicia just to be sure.
I also gave him
Constantinople, while Turkey took back Ankara. 
Italy's western
offensive, meanwhile, sort of ground to a halt,
reduced to supporting
the German army in Marseilles. Russia also patched
things up with
Germany, who gave him Norway in return.

For the next couple of years, Russia and I reduced
Turkey while things
remained all awhirl in the west. But come 1904, I
faced a choice.

Turkey was nearly dead. Once he was gone, what would
Russia do? He was
in Turkey and all along my backside. I could only turn
west by leaving
myself exposed to him. Did I want to take that risk?

No. So in Spring I walked into Galicia and Rumania,
and in fall I added
Smyrna, finishing off Turkey, giving me 9 SCs and
putting Russia in
serious trouble. Italy, seeing how things were working
out, immediately
began trying to move eastward, either listening to
desperate Russian
diplomacy or seeing that he would probably be the next
target.

Then Stan resigned as head of Italy, and was replaced
by Freeman --
whom I had played in another recent game. Freeman
pressed the attack on
me while Russia pulled back to try to defend himself.
In the west, the
abrupt departure of the Italians helped France and
England gain the
upper hand over Germany.

I now had the two-front war I was trying to avoid, but
at least Russia
was on the ropes. Germany was trying to help him
against me, which I
thought foolish -- Russia was on the decline, I was
offering Germany
Warsaw, and he needed the builds because he was being
eaten alive in
the West. But so be it. I managed to keep the Italians
from getting
anywhere for a very long time — accompanied by
strenous diplomacy about
how they would *never* get anywhere, which Freeman
just didn't believe
— while I took Sevastapol.  Italy lost Marseilles and
Russia continued
to shrink.

In 1906, Russia sent out a plaintive -- and persuasive
-- "stop
Austria" plea. France, Germany and England stopped
fighting and headed
east, beginning with an impressive convoy of French A
Pic to St. Pete
and Germany marching into Warsaw. Italy continued
banging his head
against my western defenses. I held my breath and
grabbed Moscow.

Fall 1906 was a key turn. Germany revealed that his
loyalties hadn't
changed, by walking out of Warsaw and taking Norway
from England. I
used A Mos to cover Sev, and ended up losing Moscow to
France, while
England moved into St. Pete.

This was key on several levels. Had I moved A Mos to
Warsaw or Ukraine,
as I originally planned, Russia would have been
eliminated. Instead he
stuck around for several more years, tying up a huge
chunk of my army
with his d**ned Black Sea fleet, and probably costing
me a solo shot.

On the plus side, I began an intensive series of
discussions with
England about a two-way. France was totally at his
mercy, and Italy was
finally poised to make some serious gains. Germany was
growing again,
so that would have to be dealt with, but I hoped to
find a chink in the
E/F alliance and use it to get moving again.

I finally eliminated Russia in 1908 -- just in time to
lose Trieste to
Italy. He soon added Greece and Vienna, while I
eliminated the French
expeditionary force in Moscow.

And thus came the endgame situation. I had finally
cleaned up the
eastern side of the board. France and England were
finishing off
Germany, and Italy was occupying two of my three home
centers. My talks
with England were still going full-bore. Basically, I
offered to help
him take Munich/Berlin once I had the Italian
situation under control.
He'd stab France, and we'd split the board between us.

The fight against Italy took a long, long time —
something like 8 or 9
game years — but gradually I gained the upper hand.
England built
fleets and began moving against France. But I was
still leery about
timing -- I had almost no fleets, and I feared England
would overrun
France before I managed to eliminate Italy, and he
would solo with the
help of Italian spite.

The key turn came in Fall 1917. I was in Berlin,
France was in Munich
and England was in Kiel/Ruhr. England had asked me for
support into
Munich, which I declined, still worried about timing.
But I also
worried that England would try to take Munich anyway,
despite my
obvious desire that he not do so yet. So I supported
the French army in
Munich to hold.

England did try, and it failed. But England saw my
support as a
betrayal, evidence that I wasn't serious about
splitting the board. He
immediately dropped his attack on France and moved
everything against
me.

The rest of the game involved me trying to persuade
England to
reconsider and, failing that, make it a three-way draw
instead of a
four-way. England and France finally agreed to the
latter, allowing me
to eliminate Italy and end the game. I confess I was
constantly on the
lookout for a way to grab an 18th center, but one
never presented
itself.

Rob: "I was wrong." There; happy? :)  Actually, I
don't know that you
cost me a solo, but you sure cost me what was probably
my best shot at
it. Nice work!

Freeman: It's hard to diplome with a guy who basically
ignores what you
say for 15 years. :)  A good, hard fight, which you
only lost because
your allies decided you were expendable.

Mark: You and I always seem to end up staring at each
other across a
ceasefire line in these games. Good game, as always. I
do wish Chris
had followed through on the two-way plan, but you
persuaded him
otherwise. I hope you enjoyed pushing French armies
all the way to
Sevastapol!

Chris: You had some serious chutzpah early in the game
when you asked
me to support you into Moscow! But you proved yourself
more reasonable
as the game went on. I was always serious about the
two-way. Yes, I
would have attempted a solo if the opportunity
presented itself, but my
worries about giving you Munich were just that:
worries that you would
solo. Maybe we can make it work next time.

Deepak: It's usually Austria or Turkey, so it had to
be you. You fought
hard and well to the end.

Rick: A fatal case of early-leader syndrome. If you
had worked with me
against Russia, or not stabbed England for Norway, I
think you would
have done better. But your whole game was spectacular
to watch, from
the 1901 seizure of Marseilles (Rommel, eat your heart
out!) to the
mid-game knife fight. Glad we were on the same
Worldmasters team.

Gregory: Congrats on another fine game, the new house,
the new family,
and all those things that are more important than
these silly games.
I'm available for "Elevenses of Champions" whenever
you want to run it.

Peter: Many thanks for stepping in and keeping things
going when
Gregory had to take a break. We don't often get two
excellent GMs in
one game.

Okay, so maybe this isn't all that short....

Steve


ENGLAND - Chris Mitchell

It’s been several years since I last played in a
Cat-23 game.  Oddly enough, this one lasted well over
a year!  This was easily the strangest game I’ve ever
had a part in.  From the lone Russian navy wreaking
havoc for Austria early on to the convoy of a French
army by French, English and Russian navies from Brest
to StP, it’s been entertaining.

Early in the game, I thought I had a deal with the
Russians to shut the Germans out of Scandinavia.  My
end of the deal was kept, and I took Denmark, however,
the Russians slipped into Norway while I wasn’t
looking.  Thus began a long and very strange game for
me.

I tend not to switch alliances all that often, but as
1905 arrived, I was still stuck at 4 SCs, and
something needed to be done.  With France and Germany
still at odds, I did my best to play on that and gain
a center here and there.  Eventually, I chose to side
with Mark simply because he had some land power to
support the naval power I planned to build. 
Furthermore, I knew I wouldn’t have Rick’s trust, due
to my earlier stab in Denmark, and I saw him as the
greater threat.

With Italy holding its own in the Med, Mark and I were
able to forge an uneasy alliance, and went to work on
Germany, while I attempted to make gains in
Scandinavia.  The gains were not fast, many steps
forward accompanied by steps back.  At many points, I
considered switching sides yet again, as I was making
zero headway.

For me, the turning point was in 1913.  Despite
suffering a disband in the Baltic Sea at the hands of
the Germans, I managed to take both Norway and StP,
giving me three builds that winter.  The surge from 5
to 7 units put me in a comfort zone, where I could
defend the home island, while still having units
making gains elsewhere.

From that point on, it was a balancing act between
showing enough defense and helping out just enough on
the offensive end to slowly wear Germany down.  In
Germany’s last year or so, I was trying to figure out
what to do in the aftermath.  By 1917, I thought I
might be able to make a move and swiftly take Mark
out.

With initial support from Steve, I shifted forces to
attack France.  Probing moves in MAO and Brest failed.

The critical turn was Fall, 1917.  I had agreed with
Steve to go to war against France.  I made moves
against France, including an attack on Munich, which
would have succeeded, if not for Austrian support of
the French position.

I read the support as a sign that Steve was more
interested in getting Munich (and his second SC across
the stalemate line) than in helping me.  At that
point, I decided my goal a draw.  I didn’t have enough
armies to take and hold Munich, and I couldn’t go to
war with France without Austria making further gains
across the stalemate line.

So, I patched things up with Mark, and we dedicated
ourselves to setting up an eventual stalemate line in
Germany and around the Iberian peninsula.

Thanks, Mark, for your patience and understanding
throughout the game.  It’s just too bad we couldn’t
get our collective act together earlier in the
game—things might have ended much differently.

Steve—a very well-played game!  I was waiting for
cracks to open up for me to exploit, and, much to my
disappointment, none ever showed.

Rob—I know this was over a year ago in real time, but
MAN, we had Rick set up for the kill early on!  If
only we had pulled it off….

Rick—We wound up on opposite sides of the fence.  I
had to straddle the fence most of the way just to stay
alive, and eventually decided you were the biggest
threat to me.

Freeman, Deepak—Hardly knew ye.  Probably my fault….

And finally, Greg—thanks for adjudicating.  Not many
games drag on this long, and you kept things moving
(for the most part-- :-p) smoothly.

Thanks for an entertaining and extremely challenging
game!

Chris
England


FRANCE Mark Beed

Firstly thanks to Gregory for an excellently executed
game, also to Peter for stepping in when asked.

A long game, 18 months or so from start to finish, I
recall 2 births during the game, can't remember that
in any other game I've played in.

A bad start for me with Rick's Germany in Marseilles
and building 3 to my 1, then Italy (Stan, our first
Italy that is) weighing in with an attack in 1902.

With Deepak's Turkey getting a traditional pounding as
well it was backs to the wall from the off!

England was my only hope and although Chris seemed a
little reticent he came good, in the medium term.

The hokey cokey over Marseilles and across the French
countryside continued until 1904 when Turkey was
finally eliminated and Italy looked to the rising
Austrian power in his backyard.  Steve was by this
time knocking lumps out of Rob's Russian forces and by
the end of the year had taken Sevastapol, all of
Turkey and was threatening War big time.

In the west EF had managed to tame the German beast
and in Spring 1906 the time came for the convoy of
French army Picardy to St Petersburg, a fantastic
moment for EFR!

The Winter saw me in Moscow and England in St Pete,
Russia taking his going out in a blaze of glory route
to the sun.  He was also playing the thorn in Steve's
side brilliantly with a fleet in Black sea and an army
roaming around keeping an SC, Steve had to eventually
use 5 armies to remove it.

The next year saw me in Sevastapol much to the chagrin
of Steve and the glee of Rob who only had a single SC,
Warsaw, which was being protected by Franco-German
forces from Austrian troops bent on the elimination of
Russia.  That year Austria had to disband one of the 5
armies surrounding the black sea and the war in the
west erupted once more.

At this point I requested the loan of Liverpool to
ensure that enough troops could take on Germany on
land, Chris was extremely reluctant but went along
with it.

1908 Russia finally fell and Italy had made inroads
into Austria by taking Trieste, this action and the
congestion of his homeland area was to be the eventual
reason that Austria never had the chance to take the
game, I tip my hat to Freeman for that.

EF were also finally making inroads into Germany and
the shake out was truly beginning as I finally lost my
eastern empire of 1 unit, the French perishing on
their retreat from Moscow.

Fall 1910 was the pivotal moment, I could have stabbed
England for 6 of his 7 SCs, I wavered and didn't, I
was to be paid back in spades almost immediately as
Chris took it upon himself to stab me.  

I took what I could in the scramble as the stab was
more positional than deadly and we came to an
agreement.

In 1916 with Germany gone it happened again and I was
seriously in trouble, expecting elimination, Chris
changed his mind for some reason and in 1918 we had
firmed up a line of defence against Austria.

The last few years were uneasy with Steve demanding a
3 way not a 4 way and if it hadn't been for Freeman
deciding to drop his defence to allow it, I guess we'd
still be here now.

I'd forgotten how good it was, thanks to all for the
game!


Mark


GERMANY Rick Mallon 

Congratulations to the final winners – especially to
Steve for a masterful game.  My initial strategy as
Germany was to ally with England against both France
and Russia.  The strategy failed quickly as England
stabbed early on.  Having offended both France and
Russia already in an effort to entice England the game
was pretty much over for me.  So I did what I could to
work with Austria to make the game as miserable as
possible for England.  I found the staunch EF alliance
to be unbreakable even when it seemed clearly in each
other’s best interest to attack each other at
different points before Austria got too strong.  An
enjoyable game nonetheless – great fun to play other
champions and it taught me good lessons about
negotiation just in time to apply them for WM2002.
 
Best of luck to all in your future games.
Rick.


ITALY Freeman M. Butland

I got into this game in 1904 or 1905.  Italy was a
five center power at that point, with the extra center
being Marseilles.  At this point, Turkey was I think
eliminated and Russia was dead after Austria turned on
him.  Clearly, Austria was the country to watch; I
think Austria had 10 centers at that point.

So, my options were to turn on Austria or make a deal
with Austria and go west.  Well, that didn't make
sense to me, since Austria needed my centers to win. 
Steve would have liked nothing better than for me to
go west and in a year or two take my centers. 
Clearly, he was going to be able to get up to 13 no
problem--to get a win he needed Italy, Tunis and
Munich.   

So, I made a deal with Mark (France) and gave up
Marseilles to France.  But, really, I couldn't do too
much against Austria unless I had help.  One of the
problems with getting that help is that the western
triangle had not resolved itself at all.  I mean, I
would have liked to get German help against Austria,
but it was pretty hard to get that help when Germany
still had to worry about England and France.

Thus, I was stuck getting help from France, but there
was no real way for me to grow with French help.  With
the help of a French Fleet and a couple armies, I was
able to take Trieste and Greece back, but that was as
far I could go. France wasn't too interested in
picking up centers that it had no connection to, and I
wasn't too thrilled with the idea of having my Italian
forces push too far east while French forces came in
and took my centers.

So, I resigned myself to more or less just holding a
defensive line and waiting for everyone to come
together and agree to a draw.  That was about the best
I could hope for.  I thought Mark had a chance to
perhaps go after England and take a shot at a solo
while I was tying down Steve, but I guess he thought
it was not worth the risk.

Steve, as expected, played  a solid game and was of
course looking for an opportunity to go for a win. 
But I never saw any real opportunity for him.  It's
just a bear to kick Italy out of Italy without the
element of surprise.  The west had eons of time to
resolve itself before Austria could break out of that
straitjacket.  Finally, after Germany was eliminated,
it looked like England was going to attack France and
maybe Steve could win.  But I think England calculated
its chances and resigned itself to a draw.  It was
close because if England went after France in any
significant fashion, Austria would have won.  

Looking back at the game, I think the only way that I
could have done something to get Italy going was to
have France and Germany take out England, while at the
same time have Germany help me against Austria.  Then
Germany and I could work against both France and
Austria.  That just seems like a very tall order to
fill.  Sometimes, Italy justs gets caught in the
mid-game without many options.  Having Austria grow so
big with France still around and Italy still small
made my options rather limited.  I think I tried to
get and FG going, but I probably should have pushed
harder.  It was my only  slim chance to grow in this
game.

I thought the game was played well, but it was king of
a static game--not a lot going on.  I did enjoy
working with Mark--obviously, if he had moved against
me I would have died soon after getting into the game.
 I talked to Steve quite a bit, he's a good diplomat,
but there was no way we could work together.  The
situation just demanded that we fight.

Finally, thanks to Greg for his cheerful running of
the game.  I like to be in his games.

Best,
Freeman


RUSSIA Rob Wesley 

<Rob hasn’t sent me an EOG so far. I hope he’ll have
the time to compile one at some point.> 


TURKEY Deepak Mohoni 

<Deepak hasn’t sent me an EOG so far. I hope he’ll
have the time to compile one at some point.> 

****

And that’s about it gentlemen. Well fought, well
played. Worthy of your reputations. 

Now, let’s talk “Tea Time”, shall we? I think it’s
high time for me to play in one of the slugfests
instead of just organizing them, so I hope to join the
player ranks in the next game. I’ve already asked Mark
Beed to GM in my shoes, and he’s agreed. I’m sure
he’ll do a finer job than I’ve been doing recently.
The idea is to start sometime in late March or early
April (at least that’s what I think. Mark, can you
please confirm this?) 

You know the drill: apply to Mark with prefs. He will
try to appoint countries so that noone gets to play a
country he’s already played. Observers and past
players take priority, and if we can’t find the
magnificent seven, we’ll just look for more Champions
in the cat23 pool.

See you in the battlefield!
Gregory





		
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