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BayArea Diplomacy Association

June 27, 2004

Host  - Chris Langland-Shula

Reporter - Adam Silverman

Board one was one of the shortest Diplomacy games ever.  I was approached at the beginning of the game by both England and France who wanted to play a western triple.  I normally won't agree to that but both seemed sincerely interested.  After I spoke with Italy and he refused to agree on a demiliterized zone in Piedmont, I signed up with the triple whole-heartedly.  Italy and I bounced in Piedmont in S01 and after opening to Pie, Tus, and TyS, Italy told me that he was going to send his units somewhere else, but refused to tell me where. Not trusting him, I decided to just take Spain and convoy an army to North Africa to get a heads up on him.  To my surprise, he followed through with his word, but I felt that I had already made the committment against him, so I build F Marseilles and went full force.

Meanwhile, I had no units in the north and could have been stabbed big time by EG.  But they both stayed with me, and I engaged Italy while they went north.

What made the game so short was Turkey's ability to bust out of the corner basically in S02, and in 03, taking 3 centers making him much larger and in better position than anyone else on the board.

Furthermore, Italy was using his fleets to help Turkey bust through the Med, so I immediately warned EG of the need to set up a stalemate line against them.  We did it, and the middle of the board had nowhere to go.  AIT had 17 dots (with Italy's remaining dots about to fall to AT) and EFG had 17 dots.  Although Turkey could have stabbed Austria and probably made it to 17, we just called the draw there since no one would budge.

In reality, I think that there was some play in the game, since once Italy's fleets were out of the Med, EG probably could have tried a fast stab against me.  Austria was strong enough at that point to keep Turkey quite busy so that he wouldnt be able to break into the Med.But I guess my scare tactics and the solid alliance play by the triple had a big effect on calling it early.

After the game, we played a game of Wilson Dip, open table negotiations with 5 minute deadlines.  There was some pretty amusing play all around, most notably Ron's Ausria falling to 5 centers which included Portugal, Spain, Venice, Rome, and Marseilles, but no home dots!  The game ended in a RTE draw between Rob, Tom, and Ean.

2004 Kubla Con

Burlingame, CA

May 28-30, 2004

Reporter - Edi Birsan

It was a great time and a turn out with 2 mentor boards and 8 regular tournament boards.   Using the 10 minute deadlines and then coming to write orders allowed for many of the regular games to get to 1908 in the 5-6 hour period of playing with extended breaks for dinner and what not.

   We had 45 individual players in the tournament rounds and Mentor round with 36 of those scoring in the tournament.  An additional 20 or so players signed up for information on the regional groups in the Bay Area or elsewhere or who where taught to play at the site; so almost 65 people were involved one way or another in the event.

   Buz Eddy was down from Seattle.  He heads up the North American Diplomacy Federation and runs two ranking systems as well as provides for the NADF website which is a central point for information on the North American hobby.  He was very helpful to me in acting as a fill in player as well as a back up to my Tournament Director (TD) stuff allowing me to have a low stress time.

   The players were a lot of fun and there seemed to be a lot of laughter at the tables amongst the spilling of copious amounts of blood and gore.  I am sure the confessionals were busy Sunday night...but all is forgiven as the players returned to the basic gamer's premise: 'Have Fun and Make It Fun For Others.'

For the first time we had a three way tie for Champion at 21 points using our simplified scoring system of counting the best two tournament game at 1 point per center + 1 point for survival past 1905 and a bonus of +1 for every center more that the leader has than the next position.   The tiebreakers were: who came the furthest and who did the best in their third game if any.  In both tiebreakers the nod went to Greg Davis of Illinois whose final game was an elimination in 1906 earning 1 point more than the next two players.

   There was an Outstanding Debut by Nathaniel Holzgraffe who at 13 was our youngest player this time and learned how to play at the tournament.  His Turkey was jumped on by two to three powers at a time in his first game and he managed to end the game with 4 centers still viable and happy.  In his second game with 6 veterans his France suffered through attacks by England taking Brest in Spring 01, numerous German invasions and the final insult of Italy taking Marseilles at the end of the game to wind up with a three way tie in 1908 all of which had 7 centers.  Had Italy not taken Marseilles at the end, he would have topped the board in a wild game that saw Turkey end at 7 with two of its centers being Edinburgh and Liverpool!

    Lionel Levine was awarded the Outstanding Play for his determined dogged play in his games that got him 21 points and his final game which was an elimination as a nearly universally attacked Russia that ended its exile with Army Berlin falling to the English Austrian forces that dominated the game's diplomacy.

   Jack *(alias John) Twilley who is moving to the Bay Area from Boston, got special notice for his various wandering army/fleet episodes.  He has a new refrigerator magnet with his new catch phrase:  'All who wander are not lost.'

  Two noticeable individual efforts were noted: one by Chris Langland-shula who gained the single highest game score of 17 as England in Game 5 and our former youngest champion Siobhon Granvold (now 17, she won in her debut at 15) who topped her board as Italy with 13 centers.

   The countries faired very differently from last year with Italy being the virtual powerhouse of the tournament.  Italy topped in 3 of the 8 tournament games and was never eliminated in all 10 games played.  Germany and Russia never topped the board in any games, with France with two tops and everyone else with 1.  It was a hard day for the Tzar as Russia was being beat up everywhere.  For those interested in the sum of the supply centers for each of the countries over the 10 games they are:

Congratulations go to everyone on demonstrating a great game to a great bunch of your fellow gamers. 

As an aside a retailer in the trade area was selling the new set at $20 each and they were able to sell 6-8 sets to help get more games out there for the new folks.

Bay Area Diplomacy Association

March 21, 2004

Host - Tom Hilton

Reporter - Adam Silverman

Result: EGT 3-way draw declared after 1907

End-game comments from Germany:

Stuck in the west with Tom and Edi, there was plenty of paranoia in opening negotiations.  I agreed to let Russia have Sweden, and Edi suggested mopping up Tom, so I opened to Burgundy.  Tom and I bounced, but Edi opened to the Channel.  In the fall, Edi took Belgium and Tom built a fleet.  I figured that if I could keep things good with Russia, I could let Tom and Edi keep each other in check while I cut them both down

gradually.  Meanwhile, there was AI vs RT in the east, largely stalemating each other.

So in 1902, I took Belgium, and Edi went on the full defensive.  But Tom had left himself wide open by building only fleets and spreading them thin, so I made my move against him just as Italy was in position to take Spain.  Meanwhile, Edi was down to 3 dots and pretty well contained in the north by Russia and I.  Things were looking good, especially when I sent an army into Tyrolia which was able to walk right in to Venice.  I

intentionally spread myself a bit thin, thinking that I could keep Russia on my side given his difficulties in the south.

Well, needless to say, Russia made his move against me once France was out of the picture, which forced me to let England build back up so we could prevent Russia from pushing too far west.  As things wrapped up, England and I got the advantage on Russia, while Turkey broke out of the corner and was poised to mop up Italy.

Some notable moments included my army walking into Venice unopposed, followed by Rome unopposed, followed by my asking support into Marseilles from Italy in exchange for walking out of Rom in the fall, followed by my unit holding in Rome!  Also, Edi's original army travelling to Norway, back to England, to Portugal, up to StPete, all the way down to Sev.  And Italy's clever moves in the last season allowing him to build 2.

A very well played game all around, very few misorders, and a particular congrats to Bart, who played a fantastic game as Turkey in his very first Diplomacy game.  Also, I should mention Edi's fantastic work as puppet master (as usual), which allowed him to rebuild from an almost dead position, to a position that would have required some serious difficulties in trying to stop a solo, had we played on.

A big thanks to Tom for hosting, and I look forward to the next one...!!!

Northern California Game

January 25, 2004

Host - John Engstrom

Reporter - Tom Hilton

 Carl Walter achieves NADF masterpoint expert.

BayArea Diplomacy Association (BADAss)

December 14, 2003

Host - Larry Grein

Reporters - Edi Birsan

EOG - Adam Silverman

A few thoughts from France:

As Spring 1901 negotiations took hold, I suspected an E/G had formed, so I supported myself to Burgundy, but decided not to cover the channel.  As suspected, Germany moved to Burgundy and England moved to the channel, but unexpected was Italy's move to Piedmont.  Lucky for me, Russia opened north and England was a new player who had some trouble getting his orders strait... so I managed to get Belgium and Spain in 1901 and England failed to build.  Even better, Germany was relatively peaceful at this point because Russia was in the Baltic Sea.

So things didnt look that bad until I started writing misorders and just plain bad orders that allowed Edi (Italy) to take Marsailles while I forgot to take Portugal.  Fortunately, a Juggernaut was forming to counter the

strong A/I, and as Turkey brought his fleets out to the Med, Edi was forced to disengage with me to deal with the east.  I proceeded to build fleets and attack England while Germany defended Russia, getting some helpful supports from Germany along the way.  Over time, I was able to take out all of England myself and get some fleets in the south to counter Edi.  Eventually though, we got tangled up to the point that I couldnt get

an advantage, and Austria spent too much time waffling and refused to follow through with an attack on Italy, so I decided to pull back and stab Germany.  Russia was getting hit by Austria so he was weak in the north, so

I figured with some German dots and strong fleet power in the north I could probably take out Germany and Scandinavia.  The game ended when I had 11, including Holland and Kiel, plus tons of units in the north and a few in the south, with Italy engaged in the east.  Looking it over, the rest of Germany and Scandinavia would have made it 17 for me, but time constraints prevented us from playing out what would have been a very interesting end game.

Besides which, with all the misorders I made early on, I didnt think I deserved to end up as well as I did!!!  Anyhow, a really enjoyable game, notable moments included a one unit Turkey retaking his homeland and having a reasonable shot at surviving to a draw; Austria looking like he was going to stab Italy at about 4 different times, and then pulling back; and England retaking Liverpool from France in a spring turn then walking out in the fall, thus leaving himself with no dots.

-Adam

BayArea Game

Dublin CA

Host - John Engstrom

Reporter - Adam Silverman

We had two VERY competitive Diplomacy boards yesterday at John's house.  Unfortunately only 11 people showed up of the 14 who signed up (shame on those that signed up and didnt come!  we know who you are!) so three people had to play on both boards.  Jim, Larry, and myself volunteered for the task, which proved quite difficult as any of us will tell you.

General:

Playing two games at once is HARD!  Playing Austria and Italy in two different games at once is BRUTAL!  The experience was fun, but exhausting, and one that I hope not to repeat any time soon.  Maybe now that I've proven that its no easier to kill me when I'm on two boards at once, you'll let me just play on one next time :)  But seriously, its hard enough to "work the board" in one game, in two at once I found myself without time to speak to many people as long as I would have liked to, or at all.

It was very nice to again have the chance to play with some of the regulars and to meet a bunch of new faces, who I hope will become regulars.  The quality of play on both boards was very good, and I was particularly impressed with Sonya and Jeremy who both did quite well considering it was (as I understand it) both of their first games.  Also, a big thank you to John for hosting!

Board 1

I drew Austria on board one.  Scoping out the players around me, I had Larry in Italy, who I figured I could count on to be unaggressive in the first couple of years as long as was nice; Jim was playing Turkey, and I hadnt played with him before, but he seemed to be an experienced player, but was rather non-committal in opening negotiations; Sonya was in Russia, and it was her first game.  I wasnt sure how to play it, but Larry told me he'd bring Venice to Piedmont, so I opened pretty standard (Vie-Gal, Bud-Ser, Tri-Alb).  Wasnt I surprised when there were Italian units in Tyl and Ven.  I was kind of annoyed about this, but was pleased to see Russia opened north.  Turkey told me he wouldnt bounce Russia from Rumania, which made me think he might bounce Greece; so I supported myself to Greece and held in Vie, losing Trieste to Italy, and seeing a Russian army in Gal. 

The next couple of years I was barely in the game.  I spend the next 2 years or so just defending from Russia and Italy, mainly focusing on making sure Italy didnt take any of my dots.  In the meanwhile, I used my fleet to support Turkey's fleets forward toward Italy, hoping that some pressure from Turkey would make him leave me alone.  By this point, an E/F had emerged, and they were dividing up Germany, and England (Ronan) was starting to pressure Russia in the north, while France (Laurel) was pushing toward Italy.  Things were looking up, and I finally managed to reclaim all of my home centers.  The next turn, I convinced Russia to lay off and put her fleet into the Black Sea, while I stabbed Turkey for Bulgaria.  This was the first key turn for me.  I made the excuse to Turkey that he refused to move against Russia so I had to pre-empt the forthcoming stab.  Jim took it well, and took it even better when I stabbed Russia the following turn.

At this point, Italy was about gone, Germany was down to about 2, and Russia was knocked out of Scandinavia.  England made his stab of France, and did a great job of it.  France had to disband two, both of which were units in the south.  Things looked good for Turkey and I, we just had to make sure that we could stop Ronan from soloing.  I played the board very cautiously, maybe too much so, but my head was spinning from both games by this point and I didnt want to screw up and hand over a solo.  So Turkey and I sent fleets over to lock up the Med and we voted a 3-way.

Compliments to Ronan on making a strong alliance with France and waiting till the exact right time to stab.  Under different circumstances, a solo would have been possible, but without Turkey and I fighting, the Med was going to be totally locked up.  And by this point I was well enough into Russia that Warsaw and Moscow were very unlikely.  Also a kudos to John in Germany, who sat at 2 centers for around 3 years and somehow managed to get a build on the very last turn!

Board 2

I drew Italy.  My neighbors were Josh in Germany, Jim in France, David in Austria, and Tom in Turkey.  With lots of indecision, I opened to Apulia, Ionian, and Tyrolia in Spring 1901 to leave any and all options open to

me.  When Russia came to me and told me that he didnt want me in Tyrolia, I got mighty confused and decided that R/A must be tight.  This was confirmed by talks with Tom, who was dead-set against going after Russia.  I told Tom that as long as he agreed to build an army, I wouldnt convoy into Tunis.  He agreed, and I took Tunis with the fleet, and self-bounced Vence with my armies.  I didnt really know what to do at this point.  Turkey seemed the best choice of allies, given that Russia didnt want to cooperate with me, and Austria was deadset going east, so I positioned anti-Austria, something I'm generally prone NOT to do early in the game as Italy.  But it wound up working well.

I was deep into Austria and Turkey was still fending off Russia when the G/F alliance, which had dismantled England by this point, was broken.  Josh got overly paranoid of Jim's four fleets in the north, now that England was gone, so he made a rather effective pre-emptive stab.  Jim then invited me into Piedmont and to send some fleets west, so I obliged!  I was thrilled to take Marseilles and then see Germany pull his forces out of France... to defend from my armies that were not pulling north from Austria to the Tyrolia/Bohemia line.  I left a few armies back to protect against the inevitable stab from Turkey, but I knew that I couldnt fully defend

anyway.  I hoped to buy some time and use my Balkan holdings to propel me into French and German centers, which I COULD hold.

So I moved into France with France's blessing and also took Munich in Spring 1907.  In the fall, Germany decided that he was annoyed that Turkey and Russia and England and France were all attacking him despite the fact that I was rolling the board, so he told me to write his orders for him.  So in 1907 I took Portugal, Berlin, Munich, Brest, and Paris... and lost Serbia to the Turkish stab.  So I was at 14 dots, but was so tired I

had no desire to see if I could get 18.

I probably would go down one a year in the Balkans had we played on, but I had easy access to Spain and could have started sailing fleets toward England, so I think there was a decent shot at the solo.  But instead I just suggested we call the game.  Unfortunately, it wasnt clear who would be in the final draw, if it came to that.  Russia was on his last legs and England had only one dot, so they agreed not to be in it.  But France was at 4, despite the fact that I had all of his home centers, and Germany still had around 5 as well.  So we just called it a 4-way.

Another good game, and very interesting for me, as I've never seen an I/T alliance last (nearly) 7 years and be so effective.

BADAss Game
Bay Area Diplomacy Association
Host - Larry Grein
Reporter - Laurel Eddy

2003 ConQuest

Palo Alto, CA

August 30-31

Reporter - Edi Birsan

Local Game

Northern California Game

August 17, 2003

Host - Tom Hilton

Reporter - Adam Silverman

Tom hosted a great game in SF yesterday afternoon.  We only had 6 players, but that didn't stop us from having a really great game.

With 6 players, we did a variant on keeping Italy neutral that I think worked really well.  No one played Italy, but instead of all units just holding, Italy automatically makes the following moves: Spring 1901: Ven H, Rom-Apu, Nap-Ion Fall 1901: Ven H, Apu-Tun, Ion C Apu-Tun Winter 1901: Build A Rom "Spring 1902 and on: Ven S Rom, Rom S Ven, Ion S Tun, Tun H (all dislodged" units retreat off the board) This took away some of the advantage that France, Austria, or Turkey might have had in the "easy pickin's" down there.

The game started with Turkey opening aggressively against Russia, getting into the Black Sea and Armenia.  I opened to take Serbia and Greece, but I could hardly refuse Turkey's offer to support Serbia into Rum.  So I passed up on Ser and took Rum and Gre in 01, popping Russia's fleet in Rum.  Rather than rebuild in Sev, Russia build a fleet on the north coast of StPete, leaving his flank WIDE open to Turkey and I.  So I did the only thing a self-respecting player in my position would do... stabbed Turkey with Russia's help!  Of course, taking out Turkey without any help from Italy and without Russia having a fleet in the south can be long and slow, so I worked on the diplomacy in the north to make sure Russia at least had a chance to gain up there so he wouldn't move on me.  Meanwhile, I began to try for the pickings in Italy and building a few fleets to take Turkey out.

I managed to get France to support me into Venice in a spring turn in exchange for my support into Tunis in the fall, but in the fall, I instead convoyed to Naples, assuring myself all of the boot, with France at best getting Tunis, which I could easily retake.  With Turkey started to fall, I needed to look to the stalemate line for my 18th center.  I encouraged

Russia to use his builds from Turkey to put fleets in the north, which would be useless in holding a line against me... the issue was whether I could get Munich or Marseilles.

The long and short of it was that I had to stab Russia before I could get his support into Munich because I got in position for it and couldnt stay in that position without getting a "what the hell are you doing" from Russia... but I still had a chance for Marsailles.  We decided to call the game for time after I stabbed Russia... it was clear that I could clean up

Russia and Turkey for 17, but getting the 18th dot was iffy at that point... I made a misorder in the Med the previous turn that resulted in making life much harder for me.

Anyhow, was a very fun game, and I'm looking forward to some more games at ConQuest!

July 12, 2003
Dublin CA
Reporters - John Engstrom, Edi Birsan
Host John Enstrom

One of the more interesting aspects of game 2 was the Liverpool Opening invented by Adam. In the Spring of -01 his England moved Army Liverpool to Yorkshire in stealth mode.  Such that when the Fall came not only did the General Army staff order Army Liverpool to Norway but both fleets North Sea and Norwegean Sea convoyed and supported Army Liverpool to Norway.  Poor Army Yorkshire was left at the docks wonder where its orders had gone to.  It did not hurt his prospects in the final run as England was able to bounce back to build 3 on the next season after being supported into Belgium by the Germans and then stabbing the Germans to take Holland.

There were other highlights of mis orders  which included the failure to complete the line out of a order such that  Fleet Bulgaria Support Army Serbia to Greece  was lined out to read Fleet Bulgaria Support Greece when in fact the intention was for it to read Fleet Bulgaria to Greece.  Lesson:  line the order out completely and rewrite the whole move.

Thanks go to John Engstrom who not only hosted but played on both boards as we had 13 at the end of the day.  John had to run upstairs and downstairs to keep the games moving ... Diplomatic exercise...   - Edi - 


Apparently, the most memorable factor of game 2 was in Spring 1905 reading of orders, when the season deliniation 'S05' by England was misread as 'SOS'.  It must of helped, because England rebounded from 2 centers to 5 by games end. - John

June 8th

Reporter - Edi Birsan

Host/Organizer - Adam Silverman

2003 KublaCon

May 24-25

Burlingame, CA

Reporter - Edi Birsan

NADF Site Map

07/04/2004