[SPOILERS] scooter's thread: England

[scooter]

Sent this to uberfish:

So since Lewwyn had Russia in a choke-hold and he's now handing over centers to him, does that mean you're going to do that for me now? We can start with Brest, Belgium, and Norway and then go from there.

scooter

[scooter]

Here was Rowain's accompanying message sent late, late last night:

Hi scooter

Sorry for the not-bounce.

It was a last minute decision to support myself into MAR.

-Rowain

This is annoying because I was definitely around when the "last minute" order would've been sent so he could've let me know... But I don't feel like getting him to blow up again, so I settled for a passive-aggressive approach to let him know that he annoyed me but I can't do a thing about it.

Rowain,

It's fine. I would've appreciated some advance warning but I can deal with it.

scooter

Considering Portugal will likely be disbanded, I don't think it really matters.

[scooter]

Well I haven't been keeping up with my sandbox which is why the screenshots have died down, but I asked Sareln to email me the JDIP file for the current turn and he said he will, so I'm going to try to do some sort of tactical analysis tonight if I get some time, because this is yet another turn with some interesting possibilities.

Basically I'm in a bad spot where I'm basically "dead" after this year - by that I mean I will lose Portugal and there's a strong chance I'll lose a home center - and by that point I'm completely irrelevant (as opposed to just mostly irrelevant now)... So the logic is that I should consider taking some chances this turn. I need to do some evaluation on whether I have some realistic chances though.

I really DO wish Russia had built in St. Petersburg though... Oh well. If he had built there, this would be a much easier turn to play.

[scooter]

Ok, time for a tactical discussion! I've got quite a few options here, so let's dive right in. First off, Regoarrar sent me an email the other day with tactical suggestions, which he does occasionally. He wants me to stay alive (though he's made no real effort to actually help me do so), so he tries to help a bit. Anyways, he suggested I make these moves:



This was my basic first stab at it too, so this came as no surprise. Some background here:

1. Germany has a ton of options here. They can convoy to York, Clyde, London, and Edinburgh (the likelihood is basically in that order).

2. My one fun tool here is Barents. With Barents - this can turn into a guessing game where if I out-guess him, I can cut support from either Norway or Norwegian Sea.

Regoarrar's thinking here is that Bar-Nwg and Eng-Nth prevents Uberfish from taking Edinburgh with suppport. Both of us think a convoy is more likely, but this move takes that option off the table.

This move-set though is way too conservative for me. Why play conservative right now?? I'm losing Portugal this year, and Uberfish likely will take another city from me unless I defend perfectly, so I'm essentially beheaded after this year.... So it's absolutely the right time to start taking risks. This plan is vulnerable to a convoy to Clyde and a convoy to London, both of which are very plausible moves and put me in a bit of trouble. And like I said - it's just a conservative slow-death type of move to make... So let's see if I have some more exotic options. Here's one:



(Ignore the "hold" order on North Sea by the way)

This plan is a strong plan if I'm convinced that a convoy to Clyde is in play. If Uberfish convoys to Clyde - he can only support the Convoy with Norway. Barents cuts that, and Edinburgh/English Channel dislodge Nth and take over the North Sea - putting me in a more manageable Fall position. I have Edi->Nth rather than Eng-Nth because the whole thing gets cut if Nwg-Edi gets ordered, but on second thought that doesn't even matter, so I could reverse the orders if I so chose. You get the main gist of this plan though - this takes the North Sea and prevents a Clyde convoy. The one weakness to this plan is a convoy to York with Nwg/Nwy supporting Nth, in which case Nth holds and the convoy completes. That scenario is a very plausible one, but you can't account for everything.

For what it's worth - I talked it over with Regoarrar and he still liked the first plan better. I tend to think it's because he's not wearing my shoes right now really .

I do have another fun option though:



This is a very risky plan... Because dislodging Nwg means he gets to retreat to wherever - for instance, Nao or Clyde. I will say though that I'd much rather have a fleet in Clyde (York army would be able to cover there) than a fleet in Nwg AND an army in Clyde, so that's not the end of the world.

This scenario ALMOST guarantees that I'd take the Norwegian Sea. The only chance it fails is if he convoys to Clyde and chooses to support Nwg with Norway rather than Nth - which I'd guess the odds of those orders is roughly 10-15%, so that's something I can deal with.

A vulnerability here is if he goes with Nth->Edi, Nwg supp Nth->Edi, and Nwy->Nth. That would be complete and utter death for me, as it'd result in German fleets in Clyde/Nao, Edinburgh(!), Nth, Nwy, and Denmark, and yeah I might as well raise the white flag after that.

But remember what I said? I'm dead after this year anyways. So risks are not a concern here. High-risk high-reward is absolutely the way to go...


So those are the 3 plans. There's almost no way I'm going with #1 - that's just way too conservative of a move for a dead man to make . #2 and #3 are the real options to me - so I'm interested in what the lurkers think of this tactical situation. Obviously there are minor variations of both of those plans that could be made - but those are the two major possibilites that I see.

[scooter]

Well as you saw I went with a slight modification to the last plan - attacking from Barents instead. It always was dangerous in that he could get into Clyde, and he ended up doing so, so Liverpool and Portugal are gone, so I'm basically dead now. Ah well, was fun while it lasted!

I thought long and hard about letting him into York and ordering Lon-Wal and Eng-Lon, and that would've possibly protected me in Liverpool, but what's done is done - had to take a chance and I did.

Lewwyn's bizarre handover to Russia is just... yeah I'm not sure what's going on there - but Russia was at one point just as dead as I am and now they're legitimate contenders.

[T-hawk]

So what's your fleet doing in Barents now? Taking a shot at St Petersburg to stay alive in fall 1907?

[scooter]

So what's your fleet doing in Barents now? Taking a shot at St Petersburg to stay alive in fall 1907?

Possibly yeah. It was the one tile that gave me a few fun things I could do, so I went for it. I've given Regoarrar countless chances to help me and/or be helped in the north and he's ignored them all and only really talked when he wanted to direct my actions, so I'm not too concerned about his well-being at the moment. May even offer to support Uberfish into there if he backs out of London.

[antisocialmunky]

Possibly yeah. It was the one tile that gave me a few fun things I could do, so I went for it. I've given Regoarrar countless chances to help me and/or be helped in the north and he's ignored them all and only really talked when he wanted to direct my actions, so I'm not too concerned about his well-being at the moment. May even offer to support Uberfish into there if he backs out of London.

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