Diplomacy Zine --- The Lost Chapter

From: tedward@durin.cs.cornell.edu (Ted Fischer)

Date: Wed, 13 Jun 1990 21:17:35 +0000

Chapter Two of ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL:

This chapter contains results from DRAGONSLAYER, COLD WAR
and gunboat games JACAL, VERSAILLES, MANHATTAN, and DRESDEN.

Issue #160
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Endgame report from Cold War
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Here are the final statements and endgame report for the
diplomacy game COLD WAR.

1989HY - ELECTRONIC PROTOCOL (GM was Bob Givan--from Winter '08)

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
  -----------------------------
A: 5  6  8  9  9  9 11 12 14 16  Paul Canniff      (drop W'06)
                                 Kingsum Chow      (DRAW S'11)
E: 4  5  4  3  4  4  6  6  7  7  George Fink       (DRAW S'11)
F: 5  6  6  6  6  5  2  3  2  2  Craig Jackson     (surv S'11)
G: 5  5  6  8  7  6  7  7 *8  7  Anand Sinha       (DRAW S'11)
I: 4  4  5  5  5  8  6  5  3  2  Eric Klien        (surv S'11)
R: 5  3  1  0                    Rick Ward         (elim F'04)
T: 4  5  4  3  3  2  2  1  0     Joel Haywood      (elim F'09)

* = 1 unit short

FINAL STATEMENTS:  (I only received 2---England and Italy)

English COLD WAR final statement:

As the first pbm Diplomacy game I had played, not to mention the first
Diplomacy game in years, I was unsure what to expect from COLD WAR, or
where to start.  So I decided to be a little offbeat, pick some powers
at random, ally with them, and try to make the alliance stick the whole
game.  Needless to say it didn't quite work out the way I had planned.

The countries I chose to ally with were Austria and Russia; pretty
strange allies for England.  Russia liked this idea; it kept the
pressure off him in the North.  An ally in the south is also a Russian
goal, and Austria provided that.  I did get the feeling that Austria
was a little less excited about the whole thing than I was, but I
(a little naively) thought that the prospect of a permanent ally would
make sense strategically as well.

As you may guess, with an Austria/Russian/English alliance, Germany was
to be the target (after we grabbed our initial centers), but we never
got around to attacking, especially with the Austrian stab of Russia (I
think in the second year).  At this point, Austria was already getting
to be quite strong, and I don't really think Turkey got the best of
this deal.  But what didn't help the situation was some very poor
blustery Russian diplomacy that only irritated other powers (in my
perception) and quickened his decline.

I probably stayed on the sinking ship a little too long, and that cost
me my strength in Scandanavia and St. Petersburg.  Now, without an
ally, I floundered for a few years, attacking France very weakly while
allowing him to penetrate my guard.  I think that Brest is much more
important strategically than Liverpool, so that was a good trade.
Finally, Germany started getting stronger and stronger, and my war with
France was going nowhere, so I proposed that France and England join
forces to push back the Germans.  This worked in the short term, but
again any larger gains were not on the horizon.

But these two wars did serve to solidify the English Empire and get me
started on the right road (finally).  With Austria starting to dominate
the game, and Germany the only thing holding it back from victory, I
was convinced that we needed to hold the Northern portion of the
stalemate line and then break through in the South.  I probably wasn't
desparate enough to stop Austria at this point, and my greed got to me,
and I was able to effectively stab France with Italy's help.  The plan
was to finish off France while Germany and Italy held off Austria long
enough for my fleets to get to the Mediterranean and start pushing him
back.

Unfortunately, my mail connection with Italy went dead, so our
communication was gone, we stopped coordinating actions, and even
fought a little.  I could still get the stalemate line with Austria,
but it was becoming apparent that I would go not much farther,
especially with what was happening in Germany.

I believe it was one year before the game ended, and Germany and I
decided that this was the time to get Galacia, and push Austria back
into the sea.  Unfortunately, Germany ordered THE WRONG UNIT into
Galacia and the move failed, and with it our chances of breaking
Austria's Northern line.  Then Austria broke through in Munich.

Those two failures, combined with Italy's hostility, convinced me that
defeating Austria had become futile, and I started voting for the
draws.  Unfortunately, English/German signals got crossed and the game
lasted a turn or two longer than it should have, but we got the draw,
so I guess it turned out all right.

Thank you all for a good game!

--George, Prime Minister of England

Italian Endgame statement:

Italy->World:  I was doing quite well until Austria stabbed me.  And
he didn't even get a win out of the stab!  Such is life.
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Finally, this game is over.  :-)

Cheers,
Lord Valentine