Messages - vDiplomacy

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12 Feb 19 UTC	Good game gents.
12 Feb 19 UTC	Good game all. I missed my chance to stab England in the mid-game and nearly paid the price. Is anyone planning on posting some of the best news stories in the forum? That would be cool.
12 Feb 19 UTC	France and Russia, that was a nice alliance we had going for ourselves! The solo attempts were the only thing that would stop our cooperation occasionally. :p But France, you don't know what terrible fate you escaped thanks to the Russian moves in Autumn, 1903. If Russia would not have gotten four builds in that year, I would have done the following: Winter, 1903 - Build Fleet Liverpool - Build army London Spring, 1904 - Norwegian Sea to North Atlantic Ocean - Liverpool to Irish Sea - North Sea to English Channel - Denmark to North Sea - Kiel support move to Munich from Burgundy - Belgium to Burgundy In autumn, 1904, I would have had vision over all of France. I would have captured both Paris and Brest with an army, supported a fleet into Mid-Atlantic Ocean, and offered Russia support into Munich. This was already planned for a long time. I had readied my builds when I read a message from Austria saying that they had been stabbed, and I realized that Russia was too strong, and that therefore France and I needed to stick together to fight Russia. I changed my builds after this...
12 Feb 19 UTC	I can't really remember which news stories I liked best. I remember Germany had some fun press, but he was eliminated quite early.
12 Feb 19 UTC	Wow. And here I was, trusting you for so long, with all my units in the Med taking on Italy and only a Mid-Atlantic Ocean fleet if you stabbed!
12 Feb 19 UTC	I was disappointed the English and French wouldn’t even consider or explore a more out-of-the-box alliance with Germany. Even moreso when Russia decided to do the same despite the inevitability of an English solo attempt through them. This was a textbook alliance structure, so aside from the truly fantastic and remarkable press which I thoroughly enjoyed (even after elimination), the game lacked excitement in the early and midgame. It would take the combined might of Germany, Italy, and at least one of Austria or Turkey for Germany to have a chance in that situation, and with Italy AWOL early, and Austria and Turkey in conflict, it seemed predetermined the game would fall to either England, France, or an English/French/Russian draw. Great job by Austria keeping enough in everyone’s good graces to be included in the draw.
12 Feb 19 UTC	I found this to be on the most interesting and engaging games I've been a part of so far. Congrats to my other victors. I was feeling quite hopeless for a bit there when it was 3 vs 1 for a number of years
12 Feb 19 UTC	My favorite articles I wrote were at the peak of my lying and betrayal. I spent a long time trying to write an article that would be believed to be by Austria
12 Feb 19 UTC	The Vienna Standard, Autumn 1903, issue 1. Veni, Vidi, Vici! The Kaiser has, with the aid of Admiral Horthy, to all but destroy Turkey. Admiral Horthy reports, “The Turks were quite tough to fight in their homeland, but our allies in Russia have helped us achieve victory!” In addition to this incredible victory in the East, General Prinz Eugene has had military success in the West. The Archduke reports, “Our well placed Italian scouts executed their not-so-secret surprise attack! It was a military success and Venice has fallen!” General Prinz Eugene anticipates sending large numbers of troops in the Westward direction to continue assisting our French allies. More glorious Austrian victories inside: People of Smyrna Revolt and Decide to Have Austrians as New Rulers (revolts, A 15) Venice Sinks Slightly Due to Stamping of Dancing Austrians (International Affairs, B12) Turkey To Be Immortalized With Writing on the Bottom of Boot (culture, C17) The Moscow Modern: Issue I, Spring 1904 BLASPHEMY FROM FAKE AUSTRIA! Some imposter of Austria has claimed that the Czar has not only failed to provide support to Smyrna, but ALSO has attacked an Austrian supply center. It is unsure who this traitor is, so more inquiry shall be made on it. Pry Vit I is on the case. FLEET IN SOUTH COAST The Times has reported that the English would take any build at Saint Petersburg as a sign of aggression. Unfortunately, this information was not received in time. The explanation for this fleet is that it is entirely for defensive reasons and cannot be used to attack the proud English colony of Norway. We hope that the English citizens respect this decision and hope to hear from them soon should they disagree. GERMAN ASPIRATIONS The Czar wishes to communicate with England and France regarding how the remainder of the German territories, namely Munich shall be split PANAMA BELONGS TO THE UNITED STATES The Russian Monarchy has expressed concern over the fact that United States has recently acquired land in Panama in order to build a canal. The country is growing too much of a global super power and the rest of the European Countries should take note of this.
12 Feb 19 UTC	I also had fun writing a number of fake articles as England (though I don’t think anyone bought these), Russia (went undisputed by Russia and may have had some effect on creating a small rift of lack of trust and England’s subsequent actions for one or two seasons), and Italy (which may or may not have affected the moves of those around him when Italy was already AWOL).
12 Feb 19 UTC	I don't think anyone ever wrote a fake issue of Le Monde. We here in France published a lot of issues, though.
12 Feb 19 UTC	Most were for ourselves; I think I only faked one issue, that of Italy as well.
12 Feb 19 UTC	Someone wrote a fake article of the Ankara Gazette one time that I agreed with completely, it was pretty funny.
13 Feb 19 UTC	That would be me because I'm pretty sure I was working with Austria at that time to take you down, and so I made an article telling people to attack Austria
13 Feb 19 UTC	I never faked anything. In fact I found that I'm Austria in both. My diplomacy was frankly lazy, and I'm shocked myself I was allowed to survive. I was first for no reason whatsoever pushed into a war with Turkey. I really don't know what Turkey was thinking being so openly aggressive at the get go. After Turkey fell and the Russian stab, I had to continuously sprout the same aggressive message against Russia, partly because that corresponded with what I was doing, and partly to reassure the French and delay what I saw as an inevitable stab from them as much as possible. I'm actually amazed that anyone came to my assistance when Russia stabbed me, instead of immediately pushing for a three way draw. Luckily the French stab happened at basically the same time the English attempted their solo, which saved me. Russia, as my paper had noted, your fake copy was a good fake, but you forgot to fully spell out Archduke Franz Karl Frederick Eugene Maximilian III. I came up with this long ass name inspired by actual Austrian names.
13 Feb 19 UTC	And good game all! It was tremendous fun.
13 Feb 19 UTC	Let me tell you what went through my mind in 1901. In the first year, especially in the spring, there happened a lot, and I can't really find myself in the German description of events. I haven't played many times on the Classic variant. In fact, I have only played England once before, which was in a live game. In this game, I allied with Germany against France, and eventually got a solo. Indeed, due to strategic considerations, I have a preference to ally Germany; however, I will always consider other options if they present itself, and ultimately, press and board state are deciding factors in determining my strategy. I have learned that in public messaging only games - which this game came close to - it is often wise to lay back and see what happens before you commit yourself to a particular alliance in press. This is due to the fact that if you commit yourself to an alliance in press, you necessarily commit to enemies in press, and your enemies will be able to read the press, too. When I drew England, I hoped for an alliance with either Germany or France against the other, with a preference for allying Germany, and hoped to obtain good relations with Russia. Since the press settings were so close to public messaging only, though, I decided to not commit early to anything. I decided to open by stating that I would take Norway in my first press. I hinted in this article that I intended to take Norway with a fleet, which was a gesture of friendship towards Russia, which I hoped he would pick up on. The reason I didn't write anything about Belgium was because I hoped that Germany and France would squabble about it, allowing me to support whomever I liked into Belgium and gaining an ally that way; also I was hesitant to take Belgium for myself, since this decreases the border between Germany and France, increasing the possibility of them allying up against England. Also, I didn't write anything about demilitarizing the English Channel, because I wanted to keep the option open of moving there myself; I decided to open to the English Channel in case the German press would convince me that he would choose my side if I were to do so. The press started out great. The press of France was most friendly towards me, and France promised to not open to the English Channel. The German press was adversarial to France, and by implication friendly towards me. Germany wrote that a German diplomat had been murdered and that "Police department has mentioned they are paying particular attention to passengers with French Passports". I figured that if I were to declare war on France, that Germany would probably take my side, but if I were to attack France, I didn't want to make it too obvious that I were going to do so, because I wanted to get an immediate tactical advantage against France by occupying the English Channel. I decided to write an article stating that English officials would help to investigate the murder of the German diplomat, and while I stated that France would not open to the English Channel, I didn't explicitly write that England wouldn't do so! I planned to open to the English Channel and then write a news article stating that the English officials found out that France was guilty of the murder of the German official, and that England had moved into the English Channel to punish France and out of solidarity with their 'German brothers'. The later German press made me change these plans, though. Suddenly, the German press was very friendly towards both France and Russia, while England wasn't mentioned; I interpreted this as adversarial to England, and imagined that Germany wanted to form a sealion. I figured that Germany had hoped that his anti-France press would make me write anti-France press as well, or at least press that was more pro-German than pro-France. Because that didn't really happen, I figured, Germany must have thought that he was getting nowhere with his anti-France press, and so he decided to try anti-English press to see if he would get France and/or Russia on board against me. I tried to counter this by writing more explicit pro-France press (I wrote that a French restaurant had opened in London), and of course I decided to not open to the English Channel anymore; instead, I decided to issue more non-committal moves which left the most options open. Then Italy wrote that they would go to war with France. I am not sure I had seen this press before the orders were resolved. Probably I had seen it, but acted as if I didn't, because I wanted to see the reactions of the other countries before writing a response to it, in which I necessarily would have to choose a side. I was glad that Italy attacked France, though, because this meant that I wouldn't have to worry about France attacking me, and I was glad that France left open the English Channel, too. My news stories around this point revolved around the Belgian king meeting with the English king and reading newspapers. I decided that I wanted to do something with Belgium, and I set myself up to be able to argue that whatever I did would be by the grace of the Belgian king; but I didn't know what I wanted to do with Belgium before I knew the situation of the board. At some early point in the autumn of 1901, the French press teached me everything I needed to know. The Italians were in Piedmond. I weighed my options. If I were to attack France, and Germany would follow me, I would have to share France with both Germany and Italy, and would be in constant fear of a backstab of Germany. I would not even be sure if Germany would follow me in attacking France, though. If Germany would have good relations with Russia, Germany could decide to attack me if I were to attack France, because Germany would know that he would get the majority of English centers if he were to do so. After all, France would be too occupied with Italy to take many English centers, but not too occupied to keep some of the English units busy, allowing Germany to conquer England. If I were to attack Germany, though, I figured that France would choose my side, since the French press was very pro-English, and the German press had been anti-France previously, while the English press had never been anti-France. Furthermore, if I were to attack Germany with France, and possibly Russia, I figured that I would be able to take the majority of German centers, because France would be too occupied fighting Italy. Also, with France and me both being anti-German, it would be likely for Russia to follow us and attack Germany, too, making the fight easier - even though Russia, too, would not get too many German centers. I thus decided to prepare for war with Germany. However, there was no need to declare it right away. I knew that since France would have to use his army in Burgundy to defend Marseilles, I would not anger France by claiming Belgium for myself, so I wrote that I would convoy the Belgian king back to his homeland, 'escorted by an army'. I knew that I would possibly anger Germany with such a move, but I hoped that he would not block me out of fear of starting a war, hoping that I would attack France, and not him, if he wouldn't block me, or would be able to get France on his side against me if I occupied Belgium; also, Germany had an incentive to cover Munich, since both France and Austria were bordering it, as was clear from the press. If I declared war on Germany immediately, though, I predicted that Germany would block me in Belgium, which is why I didn't do so. What I did do was denouncing the Italian attack on France, hoping to appeal to France by being the first to do so. I managed to land in Belgium as planned, and decided that it was time to declare war on Germany. My read on France and Russia had been correct, because France followed my declaration of war, and shortly after, Russia. By the way, Russia, I enjoyed the fake Austrian article you wrote after your betrayal a lot. I initially fell for it, but realized what was going on after reading the press of the real Austria, not only because the real Austrian article didn't seem fake to me, but also because Austria had no builds to order, which didn't add up with your side of the story. It would be great if we could have padlocks on the orders of all countries, even on those of countries who have no orders to put in.
13 Feb 19 UTC	Germany, which Russian news articles were faked by you?
13 Feb 19 UTC	England, it seems you had a lot of options throughout the game. I was forced into one war after another through nothing of my own doing. I guess I did attack Italy of my own volition.
14 Feb 19 UTC	Well England, all I can say is, for someone hoping for an alliance with Germany, you made it virtually impossible. I made it a point to both offer you an olive branch and give you a few turns to respond. But if you read your own statement, "The later German press made me change these plans, though. Suddenly, the German press was very friendly towards both France and Russia, while England wasn't mentioned; I interpreted this as adversarial to England, and imagined that Germany wanted to form a sealion" - you had decided before the first turn (as you noted the turn next to this statement above) that you would work with France because you weren't mentioned in a press, even though I had actually said nothing adversarial to you. I was looking carefully for an ally, but you, France, and Russia all leaned heavily into an Allies alliance, basically ignoring me for the meaningful part. And that's Diplomacy!, it just wasn't very novel or exciting (especially for me!). I faked the Russian press towards the bottom of p. 6 of the Messages record that begins with the "ALLIANCE INCREASES COOPERATION" article. I confirmed a British/Russian move on Berlin, but slipped in that you had possession of 3 neutrals: Belgium, Holland, and Norway to rouse awareness and ire of your rapid expansion, and asked if you would throw KIE Russia's way hoping to incite conflict between the two of you. I also confirmed Russian moves with Austria and tried to sell the whole thing by following up on Russia's entertainment story on the marriage of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark to the Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna with news of their 1st child. Considering the moves with England and Austria were pretty extensive, it was all the more astonishing to me that Russia let that fly under the rug (or just didn't have something he needed to modify!). In addition to the English articles, Russian article, and Italian article I faked, I also wrote some other (intentionally) obvious press as a few of the smaller countries, Holland and Denmark I believe, maybe one other. I considered writing some fake press after I was eliminated, but I just didn't have enough of a stake in the game to really be interested in that. Appreciate the detailed EOG very much England!! I'd have written more if there was more to tell!