Re: WM02 - semifinal07 - Austria EOG

Hi all!

Nothing to add to this in-depth analysis from Robert. I basically agree with him.  I must recognize my great surprise when Turkey stabbed me.  I think that Brian had nothing to win with this (he was one at this time), and I'd promised him before an honourable (little) growth.  He always showed me that he'd never help Austria.  But he did.  I never realized how deep could be the wound inflicted by a sole unit.

It was in the worse of the moments, when I was giving Austria the fictitious trust before the final attack. Robert played very well with this unexpected chance.  When I realized that France was definetively involved in another war in the West, I had no other way than some risky movements, but Austria guessed very well every of my moves but the first.  This was not enought.

Then, I just played to be third (I'm sorry Lee) and to eliminate my executioner, Brian. Robert and I promised ourselves at the very beginning that one of us will be at the finals and, after my defeat, I did nothing against him in favor of France.

Congrats Robert, and good luck in the finals!

Finally, I'd like to thank all of you for your tolerance with my poor english, and specially Nate for a perfect GMing.

Anatoly.


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Robert Köhnen 
  To: 'Nate Wooley' ; 'Anatoly Makarenko' ; 'Brian Shelden' ; 'David Malloch' ; 'Guy Thomas' ; 'Lee Simpson' ; 'Nate' ; 'Stuart Evers' ; 'Stuart Evers 2' ; 'Toby 2' 
  Cc: [email protected] 
  Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 6:15 PM
  Subject: WM02 - semifinal07 - Austria EOG


  Hello to all!

   

  At first I would like to thank everyone for that interesting game. This match has definitively been one of the most difficult and exhausting games I ever played and I am really glad, that I managed to make it to the finals. There had been many times when I doubted, that I would be able to win and in the end I needed much luck to advance.

  And of course I want to thank Nate for his brilliant job. I was very pleased with the way you lead us through the game. Looking back at the game now, there actually is only one thing I never was really comfortable with. I think that it is better, if players are NOT allowed to change their orders after the deadline (before the adjudication). For me it`s usually a very relaxing time when the adjudication is not done, but the deadline is already over. There is no need to write any e-mails during this period and you can lay back from working, but of course other players may have other opinions. I don`t know.

  But I want to start talking about the game now.

   

  1901:

  Actually I was a little bit shocked when I saw that I had to play Austria, especially with all these brilliant players around. Fortunately the first year went very well. Toby (Germany) was very friendly and it was calming to see him as my ally. It has been my impression that he very soon became a lot of control over the board and although this was somehow to my own advantage in the beginning, it became a source of much distress soon. I tried to get Italy as my ally, too, and fortunately Stuart seemed to be very reasonable and loyal. Actually I never feared him to stab me. I always hoped that he would attack Turkey (although I never urged him), but to my great frustration he attacked Guy (France) - this made the situation in the east even more difficult for me. But everything went well there: I managed to get Serbia and Greece in the first year and probably even more important: I was able to convince Russia to move his fleet to Rumania. This was a declaration of war against Turkey and I was in the nice position to decide between them both as my ally!

   

  1902:

  This has been one of the most important years. It has been my impression during 1902 that Germany and I somehow "fought" against each other to get the better control over the board. Especially Russias friendship was hard-fought. There were many difficult decisions. I actually intended to attack Turkey together with Russia. I liked Anatoly, he proved some trust by moving to Rumania, but to my great distress Brian made MANY very effective efforts to get me at this side (a great job)- and I was seriously thinking about going with him (especially because Toby proposed to attack Russia together with Brian and me). Nevertheless I made Russia a proposal that was clearly to my advantage - a deal that granted Bulgaria to him and Rumania to me. Anatoly said "no", so that I decided to go with Brian. I send him a letter in which I confirmed to attack Russia together with him.

  Then only a few hours before the deadline two letters arrived that changed everything. At first Toby backed out of our deal, telling me that some changes in the north made it impossible for him to attack Russia now. Then Anatoly wrote me, that he rethought my proposal and that he is willing to cooperate with me the way I proposed to him. This was perfect for me. I changed my orders and the attack against Turkey began. Unfortunately it took a long time for Brian to forgive me this "senseless" stab and in the past he hurted me many times with effective defensive moves.

  Nevertheless 1902 put me in a very comfortable position. Russia, Germany and I were at equal power, but I think that I was slightly ahead. At the end of the year I only had one weak enemy, while my allies were in good shape. Tobys plan (I think it WAS a plan!?!) to make Anatoly and me fight each other failed, so that I was able to gain advantage in the next years. 

   

  1903:

  Anatoly and Toby continued attacking Lee, taking him somehow out of the game this way. England never recovered from the German stab in 1902. But especially Stuart suffered from the German attack at England in the last year. He lost his two allies against France and although he managed to get Marseille, the dying Turkish forces slipped via ION into Naples, making his position very difficult this way. I made two very difficult decisions in fall. At first I decided to be greedy. Instead of only taking Bulgaria (which was my deal with Russia), I also took Constantinople from Turkey, which was actually promised to Anatoly in the next year. I thought that I would be able to handle Anatolys distress, but I was wrong. He was even more upset about me then I expected. My second decision was moving my army to Tyrolia. This army weakened Germanys position (who was my main rival in 1903) and was the beginning of my stab at Italy. The Italian position was very weak due to the desperate Turkish attack and I thought that I would be strong enough to be the only one being able to benefit from the situation. Once again I made a mistake in my guesses. Although I managed to grow to eight centres, the main problems were going to come in the next years.

   

  1904:

  My imperial dreams faced reality. The well-planned attack at Italy was anticipated by Stuart and Brian who allied up against me and slowed me down in a very hurting way. In the meanwhile I gave CON back to Russia, hoping that Anatoly would forgive me my greediness in the past, but unrepairable damage was already done, nevertheless there was still peace between us in 1904. But I think that the only reason for Anatolys friendliness was the fact, that Germany was attacking him in the north, robbing Sweden from him. Toby was getting stronger and stronger, but with hostile France recovering, he was going to face too many enemies soon. 

   

  1905:

  This was definitively the most frustrating year for me. Russian troops surrounded my borders in spring, taking Bulgaria and Rumania in fall. Nevertheless I wrote a million mails to him, trying to convince him to stop his attack. These maybe were the most important letters I wrote during the whole game. Anatoly hinted to me that he was not willing to eliminate me, so that he told me how to defend Bulgaria, but I didn`t trust him and lost it. In 1905 Turkey used all his power to hurt me and he used his power well. Although I still attacked Italy with everything I had I only got Venice. Once again I had to disband at the end of the year. I only had six remaining centres, while Russia and Germany had eight. But maybe the strongest opponent was rising in the west. Guy, who has been under attack from the beginning of the game, was recovering. Now he had five centres and no enemies left. My own power was crumbling and no one liked me anymore. I didn`t expect that I would be able to recover from the losses. This was true especially in spring. But to my great surprise Anatoly kept his promises and his armies turned against Germany instead of eliminating me. I am still convinced that this was Anatolys greatest mistake. He probably would have been unstoppable, if he would have continued attacking me and if he would have kept Smyrna instead of giving it back to Turkey.

   

  1906:

  This year went better than 1905. I decided to trust Russia and threw all my forces to the west. To my great relief I was able to persuade Anatoly to remove his armies from my borders, while protecting Rumania and Bulgaria only with one fleet. So I was able to take out Italy. Stuart helped me getting Rome, but then I stabbed him for Naples, which I had promised to him. I guess that he expected this somehow, but he had no other chance to stay in the game but hoping for my loyalty. He offered me his help against France, but I was not in shape to fight Guy. I already planned to take back my eastern centres, so that I couldn`t afford to fight an additional enemy. Austria without Rumania and Bulgaria has no chance to win, so that I couldn`t agree to Stuarts proposal. I hated lying to Stuart, who has always been a trustworthy ally, but in a semi-final like this I was not able to show him any mercy. 

  In the north Tobys power was broken. He lost many centres, especially homecentres, while gaining control over Liverpool and Moscow. The situation for Russia, England and Germany became very difficult. France maybe was the most dangerous opponent in 1906. Toby was his only enemy - and Toby was attacked from every side. In my opinion Guy threw away his good chances to win this game by stabbing Lee for London and forging an EG alliance this way. After 1905 I suddenly saw hope again, that I might be able to win the game. I lost Greece to Turkey, but with no more enemies in the west I was able to concentrate on the east now, being sure that the loss was only a temporarily one.

   

  1907 + 1908:

  Now it was time to attack the east. My most important goal was to become Turkeys friend again. Brian only had one fleet, but it was important for me to see it attacking Russia again. But I failed to come to an agreement with Brian at first. He had seen how I had treated my former ally Italy and he remembered how I stabbed him early in the game, when no stab was necessary. So he tried to block me first. But then, like any good player, he did what was necessary to survive and attacked Russia again. In 1908 we worked together again and Brian became the owner of Con and Smy, while I got back my precious Bulgaria. Russia was in real trouble now.

  Guy was making some progress in the north, but Lee and Toby were allied now and fought him very successfully (sometimes even with Russian support). Everything was going well for me now. Guy and I agreed never to fight each other, making sure this way that one of us would win the game. Lee and Toby urged me very hard to attack France in the south, but I think that it was very important for me to keep the deal with France. I only had to make sure, that I would grow faster then France.

   

  1909-1912:

  My alliance with Turkey continued and once Russia realized that his game was over he decided hurting Turkey instead of me. So I was allowed to gain all Russian home-centres, while Brian unfortunately was eliminated. Due to some unfortunate guesses Guy was not able to make real progress against England and Germany. He grew to slow to become a real opponent in the last years, while I was able to take Kiel and Munich from Germany.

   

  Now I`d like to write some lines to every one of my opponents:

   

  Guy: It was fun to play with you. Thanks! I am sorry for having attacked you in the last years, but I wanted to improve my result and attacking you granted me Munich. Nevertheless you played a brilliant game and your recovery after the early attacks was impressing. It was a great relief to see that you were a very loyal ally towards me. But I think that you should have tried to attack me in 1907 or 1908 somehow. Your chances to break the EG-defence were slim, while my way to victory was much easier. But maybe you thought that low chances for you and good chances for me are better than slightly better chances for you and increasing chances for every one else. I would respect that. I did the same in my last semis and somehow lost the possible victory this way.

   

  Toby: You definitively proved why everyone fears you as an extremely good player. In the beginning you controlled the board, but then you over-stretched yourself with fighting too many opponents at the same time. It was funny to talk to you in the first years. Then it became a little bit frustrating, because you are very good at pushing people into the direction you want them to go. ;-) Maybe this was the reason why Anatoly decided to fight you instead of taking the victory by eliminating me in 1905?!? It was a really tough job to say "no" to your proposals to attack France for so many times. Thanks for helping me winning this game.

   

  Lee: Unfortunately we never had much contact in the game. In the last years I was very glad that you and Toby made such a very good job to hold back the French troops. Thanks for that and thanks for being reasonable enough to ally with your arch-enemy Germany after the French landing in London. Without this unexpected twist, I never would have won the game.

   

  Stuart: You were a very loyal ally and you deserved a more trustworthy friend then me. But after the Turkish landing in Naples I feared to lose too much time by defending you. I feared that Toby would win the game easily, if I wouldn`t take your centres. I needed Russia as Germanys enemy, so that I attacked you instead of him.

   

  Brian: It was frustrating to have you as my Turkish neighbour. Turkey simply is no good ally for Austria. You were reasonable, I liked you very much, but. you were Turkey. In the final years we managed to come to an alliance at last, but I would enjoy playing with you in another game again (without being Austria and Turkey).

   

  Anatoly: I am sorry for having broken all my promises by attacking you in 1907, but it was a semi-final and there is no time for sentimentality. You played a good game, but you shouldn`t have listened to me after your stab. If you would have continued against ME instead of Germany no one would have been able to stop you.

   

   

  I think that this enough at first. I will be away for a week, but then I will be able to reply to your EOGs (if you are interested in writing one)

  All the best to all of you!

  Regards,

   

          Robert