Northern California

Diplomacy 

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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

Local Game

March 3, 2003

Reporter - Adam Silverman

This Sunday was one of the more intense Diplomacy experiences I've had, given that most of us played on two boards simultaneously.  Making matters worse, I played England on Board 1 and France on Board 2, and found myself with similar spheres of influence on both, so I found myself mixing up orders between games on several occasions.

Anyhow, it was a great afternoon of gaming, and I hope we'll have another one soon! Adam

19-Jan-03

Host - Ronan Arthur

It happened in Palo Alto where rumors of computers, machines that perform hundreds of operations in seconds persist.  Here was hosted a match to decide the fate of Europe.  While the battles raged and the gray hairs were eliminated from the game one, two the Ronin's mother kept care of his guests while he moved his black forces through Europe's heart and almost pressed the Franks off of the continent.  All hail the host and hostis.

Until next time,

Larry Grein

Germany's EGS

Very fun game with friendly participants.

As for myself, I drew Germany. When I'm one of the Western Powers, I usually try to get the other two to fight eachother, while being on both sides.

This was my game plan and was executed beautifully for the first few turns. France wanted support into Belgium in 01 and so did England. I had to choose here and given the guarantee of two fleets built in France, I took Christoffe up on his offer.

England was going down, I only needed to lend my support to France by attacking the North Sea. I bought some time by taking Sweden and building in Munich. It was convenient for me because I had planned to stab France, but I didn't have an excuse to build in Munich until the dying Austria retreated to Tyrolia, next to an empty Munich.

I took Norway from the English and moved on an empty France, surrounding Paris. This forced an alliance between England and France. I thought I had a pretty good chance of taking them on, but the two came up with some very clever moves which made the matchup a toss-up. I had to lend all available forces to the fight, leaving the East open to Russian expansion.

When it became obvious that Russia was the biggest threat and all the Eastern powers exterminated except for Russia and Italy, two powerful allies, the Western Triple was formed.

As we approached the End Game era, we had to stop due to time, but it was a great game and I had fun playing with you all.

Ronan

Thanks for hosting the game--and thank your mom again, too.  It was  very nice of her to put with such a motley collection of hopeless geeks.  ;-)

As for the game...well, I (England) had the same number of units at the end as at the start, only they were spread from Tunis to the Norwegian Sea, so I guess that's some kind of progress.  I think of it as coming out of a poker game with the same stake I started with, which by some measures puts me ahead of the game.  ;-)

It started badly.  After France (Christophe) and Germany (Ronan) both promised to support me into Bel, Germany wound up helping France into it...and France build a fleet in Bre.  I focused on taking (or bouncing him from) ENG, and stupidly moved A(Yor) - Lon...so when he moved to NAO he had an unobstructed convoy to Lpl.  So I made a desperate pitch to Germany, swearing that my units would for all practical purposes be his as long as he strove to annihilate the perfidious Frenchman (who, coincidentally, really was a perfidious

Frenchman).  I made it abundantly clear to him that in light of this, it would make no sense for him to take Norway, as to do so would damage his position by replacing a forward (English) unit with a rear (German) unit.  So he took my advice and invaded France, but naturally he also took Norway.

This is when the formerly perfidious Frenchman, now newly converted to the noble English cause, proposed that in light of Germany's rapid growth we might want to work together against the wily Hun.  My army

in Lpl took a lovely cruise on French luxury liners to the port of "Brest, where they were happily ensconced for a while.  France and I managed to make some minor gains, but we were still outgunned...until Russia finally agreed to move against Germany.  Once he did, it was clear that Russia was the one to beat; Germany agreed to withdraw from English and French soil, and we agreed to work with him against Russia and Russia's ally, Italy.  And so, four or five years late, the Western Triple was born. 

In the meantime, Italy, Turkey, and Russia had annihilated Turkey, and I/R were swiftly reducing Turkey.  With some shrewd and ruthless play, Italy had made it to eight units, which is approximately twice as many as the maximum number of units Italy gets in an average game. So while Germany moved against Russia, France ventured into the Med, making it as far as TYS before being stopped. 

At this point, after a season of ordering my three units to Sark, Iceland, and S Italian A(Tyr) - Mos, respecetively, I was getting a little restless.  So I proposed that my army in Bre take another little cruise... and France agreed.  NAf in the spring, and Tun in the fall, supported from Western Med.  Join the British Army and see the world. 

Finally, Russia made a well-executed stab of Italy, which, had the game continued, would have given him total control of the Balkans. But time was up, and so we agreed on a five-way draw.  It was a well-fought game, with some very interesting twists, with a fun and interesting group of guys.  For me, this was my first full 7-player ftf game since about 1976; and it was a most enjoyable return.

Tom Hilton

I also wish to extend my thanks the Ronin household for hosting.  I would be the other "gray beard" that suffered an early departure. So much for trusting Italy in the Fall of 1901... (if I had thought about it longer,

I would have eventually remembered to cover Trieste... sigh)

Still, a pleasure to meet all of you and I would like to host one of these in the future (March/April time frame)

Cheers,

Kevin O'Hare

PS. Don't forget to sign up for KublaCon, the rates go up after February 20th. Click HERE

((The first NADF rated game held outside of KublaCon or Conquest was played October 19. It was hosted by Christopher Young in Antioch. The game was organized using the newly created bayareadip  yahoo group. Adam Silverman won with a solo concession in 1906. Long time postal diplomacy veteran John David Galt played.))

This game report will appear soon on the NADF site on the Northern California club page.

ConQuest

Palo Alto, California

September 1-3

Reporter - Edi Birsan

We had 33 players in 8 boards of which 2 were the mentor boards on Friday night.

21 of the players had never played in a tournament before.  

12 of those 21 learned to play the game at this convention.

Scoring System

All new players who have never played in a fact to face tournament and who play in the mentor round Friday night get 5 points regardless of result.  Veterans get no points for the mentor round but are expected to lend their teaching skills.

For the 3 rounds of the regular tournament the scoring was:

        Win 34 points (all others get –0-)

For game which do not have a winner then:

        +1 point for each final supply center

        +2 points for each eliminated player

The player with the most centers get a bonus of 2 points for each center more than the next player.

Maximum points in a non win situation is 27.

(( The numbers are sustaining nicely in the Bay Area Diplomacy events. With Adam Silverman now at Stanford, the possibility exists of  developing some experienced FTF players.  Edi’s scoring system above does a good job of blending the North American “kill everyone” base with the European table topping, and Austalian/New Zealand dot counting systems. All system retain the “solo is the objective” base.

Edi has done a terrific job in introducing the game to many players in the Bay Area over the past two years. I hope he is ready to consider inviting some of the So. Cal. and Northwest players to visit, before the locals decide to deify Adam.))

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