Endgame Data From LiarLiar

Game Map (click to view)

Turkey's End of Game Statement

The Humble Beginning

I knew right off that the 4 countries I should concern myself most with were Ukraine, Russia, Egypt and Italy. (It is great to see in hindsight that they are all dead). At any rate, my initial attention went to the Black Sea. Having 3 countries was definitely one two many. I had originally thought I would ally with Ukraine and we would eliminate the Russian presence in the south, then Ukraine could go north and I south. Howver, Ukraine right away took over bulgaria. Wanting to avoid a Russo-Ukraine alliance, I threw everything I could into turning around my rough negotiations of Geogria and making peace with Russia. As this developed, by southern strategy was to stall. I promised Egypt I would help him attack Italy, and I promised Italy I would help him attack Egypt. This worked better than I could have hoped and allowed me to focus my full attention against Ukraine.

The First Backstab

As Russia and I ganged up on Ukraine, Poland moved East to attack Russia. So it was Russia and I attacking Ukraine and Poland and Ukraine attacking Russia, with both Poland and I each being attacked by only one power. Poland and I both realized our superior positions, and so we maximized our gains by sharing information. By the end of the second year, Poland was telling me everything about Ukraine, and I was telling Poland everything about Russia. Ukraine and Russia never suspected anything until the very end, and both Poland and I reaped tremendous benefits from the deal. Thus the northern and southern giants were born.

The Second Backstab

Just as I was mopping up the remains of Ukraine and Russia, it came time to make a decision between stabbing Egypt or Italy. I could stall no longer. Italy and I had already coordinated a bit against Ukraine, and he was silling to show more trust in me that Egpyt. On the other hand, Egpyt seemed like a very skilled player, and we agreed on many points ideologically. In the end, a big part of the decision was long term strategy. If I stabbed Italy, I would always have to trust Poland to my north and Egpyt to my south while pushing westward. If I stabbed Egypt, I could then move westward while only having to trust Poland. Since I knew then that I would ultimately attack them both, Egpyt seemed like the better first candidate. In hindsight, this was a great decision.

The Third Backstab

At this point my alliance with Poland is solid, but the British were smart enough to block him in. I knew I would successfully stab Italy, and so I was glad to see Poland become stagnate at no fault of my own. This gave me a few years of growth while he simply held. It was at this point I knew I would stab Poland. But before that, as Egypt is reduced to his last few, I make the move on Italy. Egypt saw my intentions a few years early and tried to warn Italy, but through a lot of messages and constantly repeated a few basic arguements, I convinced Italy to help me attack Egpyt just long enough. The Spanish move into Rome also helped this out, since Italy didn't want to shift alliances with a new threat in the West. Italy immediately regretted trusting me, allied with Egpyt, and the two bet on who would live the longest. I could have let Egpyt win the bet, but felt bad for Italy since my stab of him seemed particularly brutal to me.

A Nervous Moment

At this point I am feeling really good about my situation. I am picking off the last of the Egyptian and Italian centers, and the British, Spanish and French are still fighting each other, posing no resistence to me what so ever. Poland was still stalemated, so I knew I could easily continue to expand in the West without any of my armies, and could use them all to try and make gains against Poland. A nervous point came however, because I needed two years to reorganize my units, subtley position them for an attack against Poland and finish off the Egyptians and Italians. However, the Egyptian did not want to die! He made the movement for a draw between Poland and I. A draw? I didn't want to draw, I was about to crush my last ally and become ruler of the world. If everyone supported the draw but me, Poland would know my intentions and might organize better defensive positions. I even blew it by over-reacting to a few Egyptian taunts. Then their was the French disaster where my communications with Britain and the new French player were exposed. All in all, a very nervous moment.

The Fourth and Final Backstab

This fourth stab of Poland was my most masterminded stab yet. Even early on I saw the advantages of Poland and I communicating to each other about Ukraine and Russia, so I made an effort to make Britain a friend, and give him all the information I could. I don't know if I told him anything he didn't already know in those early years, but towards midgame, he was all for me stabbing Poland. In fact, I was not doing it soon enough for him. As his line against Poland began to weaken, he told me he was going to vote for the draw. This was the final imputes to get me to stab Poland. It was now or never, so I made it now. Then the judge never sent a response. I waited, and waited and waited. I send my orders in, and never even got the confirmation of them. This was when the judge had the hiccups. When the turn finally did process, I was releived to see Poland had not expected it. I was confident at this point of my eventual victory, since Britain and France both seemed eager to help. Spain wanted to help too, but I either had to attack France or Spain, and while France had made a potentially costly mistake, I had a weird vibe from Spain since he never said or did much during the game.

The German Question

I did not say anything in advance to Germany of my plan to stab Poland, since I felt like he would warn Poland right away. Luckily, Poland stabbed Germany at just the right time, and so Germany was all too eager to help me fight against Poland. I still didn't trust Germany, since if Poland wanted to stab Germany, he could have done a more through job that first turn, so I thought Germany gave Poland Berlin in exchange for all the help over the years. I devised a master plan whereby I told Germany under no circumstances should he move an army into Alsacia, because that units support was crucial for a grand master plan to succeed. In reality, it didn't matter if Germany moved there, but this was a test for him. He passed, and so from that point forward I tried to do all I could to help him. Unfortunately, this was not much. If it makes any difference, I hope he survives the game.

My Final Question

The one thing that really amazed me during the game (other than Egpyt's resolve to make my life miserable) was why Poland didn't make peace with Germany right away, or make more of an effort to coordinate things against me. To be fair, maybe Poland did do this, I am not sure how much press he sent out. I just figure that if I was being attacked by the biggest player of the bard, I would do anything and everything to make peace with others. I would have immediately apologized to Germany and pulled out of Berlin, and continued to support him against the British. I also would have pulled back more troops from my north. I would have left the minimum necessary to ensure defense, and swing everything else against Turkey. He swung some, but I remember wondering why he didn't swing more. France Germany and Spain obviously were not going to win the game, but I felt I was able to make great use of them in securing my victory and achieving it more quickly.

Ending

OK, so I know the game is not officially over yet, but at this point I suppose I have earned a little arrogance. This was my first Internet Diplomacy game that I signed up for, so I feel greatly honored to have won. I thank all the players for playing. I had a lot of fun and slowly conquering the world made my second year of law school tolerable. I look forward to playing with you all again.

P.S. While I was not responsible for any of the early news reports that came out the first few years, I was the writer of the liarliar times. I found it odd that all the other publications faded away, as I felt once I started using it, is was a great tool of propaganda. I also need to give some credit to good old fashion luck. Sometimes the decisions others made which I know I did not influence just happened to work out for my benefit.

O.K., now for those last five centers!

Ambassador Kapla (Germany)
Mr. T (Britain)
Solar Eclipse (Russia)
Ambassador Blackwood (Italy)
Juan Carlos Cortez (Spain)
Sultan Bob (Egypt)
Ambassador Mouge (Poland)
Ambassador Hitach (Ukraine)
Komar Hamid (France)

Egypt's End of Game Statement

My alliance choices were colored a bit by the fact that I wanted to prove to myself that Egypt could ally with Turkey and attack Italy as a viable choice in the first years. I thought that an ET alliance would give Turkey the advantages of Egypt's corner defensibility and they could easily go quite far in the game.

Therefore, with this in mind, I moved westwards quite quickly. I managed to grab Libya and Naples in 1997. This was my high point and lasted for all of 1998. Unfortunately, Turkey stabbed me at the end of that year and forced me to pull out of Italy. This was too bad, because I would have stuck with the alliance much longer. I even had helped him against Ukraine by lying to him about attacking Turkey at one point. The reason I didn't seem to trust Turkey so much was because of all those fleets he was building...

I thought I had patched things up with Italy, but he refused to listen to my arguments and forced my downfall. His came but one year later. If he had listened, we could have set up an almost impregnable defense against Turkey while the rest of the west built up their capability against Poland, but this was not to be. (asw s cai, ale s lbn, an Italian fleet in Maltese Sea; Libya had to be mine).

When Italy was stabbed, he quickly saw that it had all been a set-up and we quickly managed to convince Spain to join us (he did talk to us, it was France who was silent). We also tried to convince Britain to work with Spain so France could be taken out and Spain could shore up Italy's defense with some extra fleets, effectively stopping the growing Turkish threat.

Unfortunately, Britain said that Poland was his only concern and that Turkey could grow as much as he wanted to, he didn't have to worry. Well, that's true if you just want to survive in a game, but if you want to win, you have to see the large picture. I can now see in Turkey's EOG that Turkey had gotten to Britain even with his sweet words...

There were also several attempts to turn Poland against Turkey, or Turkey against Poland. My main way of trying to break this alliance was to ask for a draw. I knew that Poland wanted one, and Turkey was saying out loud that he did, but if I could put enough doubt in Poland's mind that Turkey wanted a win, maybe I could get him to turn around...

Well, this is it. I guess my experiment failed. However, there is a quite advanced ET alliance in euro95 on this judge, and another in lyon, also on this judge. Those are both nopress games though, so maybe that was the difference?

One more thing: the reason that the Liarliar Times was the only thing around at the end of the game was that I was the one producing most of the alternative news... This didn't last too long after I was eliminated. I guessed that the times were Turkey's tools, but since they were warning me about a Turkish stab, I got a bit confused...

At least I made it to 2000!

Sincerely,

Vincent Mous
Egypt
Lawrence of Arabia (Spain)
Kleopatra (Italy)
Ramses 2 (Turkey)
Nefertiti (Ukraine/Poland)
Lionheart (Britain)

Britain's End of Game Statement

Britain.

Germany's End of Game Statement

Having picked up Germany in a sorry state I at least made it to the end which was my aim. Never really thought I had much chance being in the middle of it as I found myself.

Summary? OK.

France (both of them) never seemed to have much of a plan and wandered aimlessly in his own country. Too bad; had he diplomed a bit I think that a valuable B/G/F alliance mght have happened.

Britain recovered from a big blunder earlier, but never got back into the race.

Poland, well, what can we say about stabbing me that caused everyone else to gang up. Went from being a moderately strong power to an also-ran. Timing...not!

Turkey played well and deserved the victory. What can we say?

Spain...did Spain ever answer ANYONE'S email?

I didn't have anything to do with any other powers so I'll reserve judgement.

Germany? Well, I made a couple of blunders along the way, but that's part of the fun. As I said, I was glad to hang in there until the end. without severely pissing anyone off.

Thank you all for participating without resigning and sulking. It was a good game with an interesting mid-game. The Turk steamroller was unstoppable, but that's Diplomacy. See you in another game...but how will we know? :-)

Summary of game 'liarliar' through F2007R.

  Master:        Dr. Brian M. Burkhart  [email protected]
  Britain:       Idiot/Savant           [email protected]
  Egypt:         Vincent Mous           [email protected]
  France:        Petar Mimica           [email protected]
   from F2003M:  Gordon Aickin          [email protected]
  Germany:       Craig Thomson          [email protected]
   from F1998M:  Steve Davis            [email protected]
  Italy:         James Gemmill 
         [email protected],[email protected]
  Poland:        Derek Rutherford       [email protected]
  Russia:        Liam Casey             [email protected]
  Spain:         Mark Sawicki           [email protected]
  Turkey:        Robert Shepard         [email protected]
  Ukraine:       Matthew M. Beaky       [email protected]

Game parameters are/were as follows:
  Move    clock 1410 min 12.00 next  72.00 grace  72.00 delay 0.50 days -MTWTF-
  Retreat clock   -1 min  0.00 next  24.00 grace  72.00 delay 0.50 days -MTWTF-
  Adjust  clock   -1 min  0.00 next  24.00 grace  72.00 delay 0.50 days -MTWTF-
  Access:  Any-site, Level: Any, Moderated, Dedication: -250.
  Variant: Modern, Gunboat.
  Flags:   NMR, Proxy, NoDIAS.
  Press:   Grey, No observers (except to Master), Partial may be Faked.
  Winning Centers: 40.
  Index:   184
  Judge: USEF.

Game Started: Sat Oct 21 01:31:18 1995
Game won: Wed Jun 26 11:09:39 1996

The game was won by Turkey.

I wanted to try a black press game for fun.  Signon if you like, but notice
that this game is NMR and DIAS. These rules will remain in effect for the
whole game, so only join if you definitely want to play to the end.  The 
game is a variant so get the appropriate rules and files (see below).  Have
fun, play roles, lie to your heart's content, but let's play quickly.  Like I 
said it's NMR so moves will process whether you submit moves or not.

I am amenable to delaying the game if anyone requests, so email me 
immediately if you have a conflict.

Historical Supply Center Summary
--------------------------------
    Mor Nap Mil Cro Gre Ist Ank Isr Ale Lib Irn Kha Kie Rum Aus Kra Gda Bie
Year  Tun Rom Ven Ser Bul Izm Ada Cai Asw Sau Geo Sev Ode Hun Cze War Lit Mos
1994 . . I I I I . . . . T T T T . E E E . . . . U U U U . . . . P P P . . R
1995 . I I I I I I T T U T T T T E E E E E E T R U U U U U U I P P P P P P R
1996 . I I I I I I T T U T T T T E E E E E E T R U U U U U I I P P P P P P R
1997 B E E S I I I I T T T T T T E E E E E E T T U U P U U I I P P P P P P U
1998 B E I S I I I T T T T T T T E E E E E E T T P T P U U I I P P P P P P P
1999 B E I I I I I I T T T T T T T E E E E T T T P T P T T I F P P P P P P P
2000 B I T I F I I T T T T T T T T E E E I T T T P T P T T P I P P P P P P P
2001 B I T T F P T T T T T T T T T T E T I T E T P T P T T P I P P P P P P P
2002 B I T T F P T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T P T P T T P P P P P P P P P
2003 B T T T P T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T P T P T T T P P P P P P P P
2004 B T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T P T T T T T T P P P P P P P
2005 B T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T P P P P P P P
2006 B T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T P P P P T P
2007 T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T T P P P T T

Historical Supply Center Summary (cont)
---------------------------------------
    Gor Stp Nor Swe Ber Mun Bel Mon Lyo Bor Liv Lon Sve Mad
Year  Ros Mur Den Ham Fra Hol Swi Mar Par Ire Edi Gib Bar Por
1994 R R R R . . . G G G G . . . . F F F F . B B B B S S S .
1995 R R R R B G R G G G F G G F F F F F F B B B B S S S S S
1996 R R R R B G B G G G F G G F F F F F F B B B B S S S S S
1997 R T P R B G B G G G F G G F F F F F F B B B B S S S S S
1998 U T P U B B B G G G F G F F F F F F F B B B B S S S S S
1999 P T P P B G B G G G F B F F F S F F F B B B B S S S S S
2000 P T P P B G P G G G F B F F I S F F F B B B B B S S S S
2001 P T P P B G P G G G G B F F I S F F F B B B B B B S S S
2002 P T P P B G P G G G G G F F S F F F F B B B B B B S S S
2003 P T P P B G P G P G G G G P S S F F F B B B B B B S S S
2004 P T P P B P P G P P G G G F S S F F F B B B B B B T S S
2005 P T P P B P P G P P G G G F T F F F F B B B B B B T S B
2006 T T P B B P P P P P F G G F T F F F F B B B B B B T T B
2007 T T P T B P P P P P F G G F T T F F F B B B B T B T T B


History of Supply Center Counts
-------------------------------
Power    1994 '95 '96 '97 '98 '99 '00 '01 '02 '03   Player
Britain     4   5   6   7   8   8   8   9   8   8   Idiot/Savant
Egypt       3   6   6   8   7   5   3   2           Vincent Mous
France      4   7   7   7   8   8   7   6   7 \     Petar Mimica
                                                3   Gordon Aickin
Germany     4   6   6   6 \                         Craig Thomson
                            4   4   4   5   6   6   Steve Davis
Italy       4   7   8   6   6   7   7   4   1       James Gemmill
Poland      3   6   6   8  10  12  14  15  16  17   Derek Rutherford
Russia      5   7   6   2                           Liam Casey
Spain       3   5   5   6   6   6   5   4   4   5   Mark Sawicki
Turkey      4   7   7   9  11  14  16  19  22  25   Robert Shepard
Ukraine     4   7   6   5   4                       Matthew M. Beaky
Index:     14  40  40  44  50  59  66  76  90 104

Power    2004 '05 '06 '07                           Player
Britain     8   9  10   7                           Idiot/Savant
France      4   5   6   5                           Gordon Aickin
Germany     4   4   2   2                           Steve Davis
Poland     15  14  11   9                           Derek Rutherford
Spain       4   1 \                                 Mark Sawicki

Turkey     29  31  35  41                           Robert Shepard
Index:    117 128 148 184


Index is the sum of squares of the number of supply centers divided by the
number of players.  It is a measure of how far the game has progressed.