[SPOILERS] The Kaiser Strikes back! A Bigger Germany is better

[Bigger]

So, this is our hero:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck

I particularly like the description "revolutionary conservative." Bismark is the father of realpolitik, and the master of diplomacy in his era. Germany misses you good sir.

[Bigger]

so Germany was either my 4th choice or 5th choice, I don't remember (cant seem to check "sent pms" to find out).
I think my preference went RFETGAI. Its not surprising to me that Russia France and England were on everyone's top pick though. I wanted Russia mostly for the comfort factor (my only previous game I was Russia), but also because Russia and France tend to have the most wins (followed closely by England, then its a sharp drop).

No matter. Germany may be the most fun and has plenty of options. Further, I've read that if Germany manages to survive to mid-game it has a very good chance of pulling off a solo victory. Well, we shall see.

My early diplomacy will have to be focused on France and Germany. It is my understanding that quite often 2 countries of our trio form an alliance and are able to eliminate the third quite quickly. I will have to make sure I am not the eliminated country!

Russia is less of a thread than she looks to Germany, and anyway she will be quite focused on Austria and Turkey. Italy is usually an independent if he doesnt choose to go all out against Austria, and will have no problem getting allies.

hmm, more thoughts later. Diplomacy isn't allowed until Friday, moves not due until next Tuesday. I have a lot of reading on German strategy to do in the mean time.

[Bigger]

Private waterbat, report for duty!!

My good friend who has much more diplomacy experience than me has promised to ded-lurk as well (he isn't registered on RB yet, but will soon).

I haven't asked him yet, but I'll bet a cookie his name will be "destro" or destro with numbers .

[Mardoc]

so Germany was either my 4th choice or 5th choice, I don't remember (cant seem to check "sent pms" to find out).

Yeah, your luck was poor. Fortunately, there's no more luck remaining! It's all deterministic from here out .

As for sent PM's - you have to check the 'save a copy of this message' box when you send it. Beats me why that's the default.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing your conclusions on Germany!

[Bigger]

Yeah, your luck was poor. Fortunately, there's no more luck remaining! It's all deterministic from here out .

As for sent PM's - you have to check the 'save a copy of this message' box when you send it. Beats me why that's the default.

Anyway, I look forward to seeing your conclusions on Germany!

I'm not upset about it. I would have been very disappointed if I got Italy, though. haha. Or even Austria. Austria is just too easily dogpiled for my tastes. Italy is not - it is quite easy to survive as Italy, but harder to win, imo.


Of course I've read that the best players say they really don't care which country they end up with - but I am not anywhere close to a "best player."

[Bigger]

First impressions:

Tatan of Austria: Don't know a whole lot about Tatan, I've only seen him as a teammate of Nakor and Serdoa in PB7. fairly competent civ player, I would guess, but that doesn't really translate into diplomacy. Does seem clever (funny).

Scooter of france: impressions limited to a few ww games he's played in (current one I'm playing in too, others I've read or lurked). seems pretty straightforward, I would expect him to be a "make sure to never lie" type. I really should do my due diligence and read his thread for the previous diplomacy game, especially since he's playing France. I hope I have the time this weekend.

Rowain of Russia: <- for stealing my country . again a ww player. a little less straight forward than scooter. I hope he doesnt hold a grudge since I just got him lynched yesterday, if so the timing of this diplo game starting would be bad for me. Still Russia going after germany before taking out Turkey and/or Austria would be very unconventional. I'll need to open up some communication with him as soon as its allowed.

Twinkletoes of Italy: I know very little. he did play Italy in diplomacy game 2 so I should be able to discern a little bit about his style and strategy from reading that, haha. I suspect he even went for Italy again for the comfort factor.

Mattimeo of Turkey: hmm. he seems extremely analytical. Probably has a strong knowledge of game theory. I remarked in the ww game that he was role-playing aristotle because he seem more interested in the "theory of ww" than the actual game in front of him. I HOPE that means he won't be interested in a juggernaught with Russia, which can be very dangerous for the other 5 countries but which ultimately Russia has an edge.

Tasunke of England: Probably the wild card. actually, kind of similar to mattimeom but I could see him being a little more impulsive - like maybe be convinced at the last minute to break an alliance or change his moves.

Just from a game theory perspective, as germany, I think I would prefer to ally with England and eliminate France asap (France is a bigger long term threat, and England could help me with Russia in the mid to late game, France couldnt). However I do feel like I could predict scooter's play a little more than Tasunke. However its not like I know any of the players intimately, so hopefully I'll get a better read once diplo starts.

anyway I'm suddenly really motivated to reread the old diplomacy threads, which actually aren't as big as a normal civ thread (or a ww thread, good Lord).

[waterbat]

reporting for duty!

Let's not end up like this guy:


EDIT: looked at that game closer - aside from an illegal move (Ber - Den) in S1901, Germany didn't play at all - so that kind of explains that

[Amelia]

Urgh, forgive me for saying this but the colors in this board makes me confused. I really have no idea what's going on in this (and a pink austria? a blue turkey? ...)

[Bigger]

looks like Austria and England are running away with that game (Italy might be able to get himself a draw).

[waterbat]

well that was a silly game since Germ didn't play.

so... looking at the posts, the 24h of silence is almost up. I wasn't emailed any of the game info - so I think I am going to be out of the loop on any diplo unless you forward it to me.