Broadcast message from Balkan in 'chopin':

Well since I went out fairly early in the game, this will almost certainly be
a very short commentary! I have never played in a crowded game before, and
this was only the fourth or so game that I have played over the net. My biggest
problem was to radically underestimate the change from the basic game that
crowded represents. My moves in the first few turns were very poor, in that
they were intended to attack, and had left little room for defense. I think
now that if I were to play another game of crowded, I would be much more aware
of the fact that I could expect to be attacked in the first year. Given that
I didn't play my pieces well, I will talk more about the diplomacy of the first
few years, which I think are more interesting generally.

    I can't recall the exact sequence, but the first diplomacy I remember
was from Austria suggesting a four way alliance in the south. Others quickly
agreed to his alliance, but I was very suspicious of it, I felt strongly that
(given his proposal that Austria, Turkey, and the Balkans all attack Russia) I
would be squeezed out, with Austria and Turkey gaining, and then using that
strength to remove me. Consequently I felt that I would be better placed to
look for an alternative alliance. Therefore I informed Italy and Russia of
the intended alliance, and organized a broad counter.

    One of the reasons I went for this stab in the first turn was that I
felt I had to attack someone, and I always prefer to stab rather than attack.
In an honest fight, it's just too hard to get the upper hand, but if the
person isn't expecting it, then you are in a much better position. So I
arranged a stab with Russia and Italy.

    It's very nice of Austria to say that we nearly defeated him, but
frankly I still consider those first few years to be an utter disaster. As he
said, we should have destroyed him, and I think it's a comment on our crap
play as much as anything else that we didn't. For my part, I think my diplomacy
was fundamentally at fault. I was unable to co-ordinate moves with my allies,
and even worse failed to convince either of them to give it their all. Russia
wanted to act in the north as well, and Italy and I simply seemed unable to
co-ordinate. Consequently we let Austria hang in there for several seasons,
and each turn that we didn't gain made it worse.

    It was a stroke of utter luck that Germany decided to help out even as
Italy decided to change sides. Actually I'm not sure Italy was ever a part of
our alliance after that fist turn. Anyway it was luck I didn't deserve, and as
it turned out, it was luck that didn't help, and I went down badly.

    My two biggest mistakes were, IMO, my overly aggresive start which might
well have been inappropriate for a crowded game, and my choice of allies. I
think as regards that second mistake, I still use a diplomacy style akin to
the one I would use in a FtF game, and that has to change. One problem for me
is motivation; I think that in a game where you have to put some effort into
communicating with other players, you have to be very wary of allying with
someone who is apparantly not keen on doing so. In a FtF game you don't really
get that problem. I think in future I will try and avoid allying with people
who don't send much mail.

    The low level of communication ment that I was unable to co-ordiante
any moves properly with my allies, and often unable to convince them of my
intentions. I should have noticed that earlier and changed sides; given the
fact that we were not communicating well, I never had a hope of doing well.
Several times in the first year I supported moves that my allies did not make,
and that should have been a key sign that I should change my allies. I didn't,
and I lost, quickly.

    As to the few short seasons it took to remove me, I can only apologize
to the other players if I didn't quite give the defense my all. I think when
you are going down in a game like this it is difficult to find the energy to
give your fading defense everything it deserves. I didn't use enough diplomacy
although I still wrote the best moves I could think, of course, but without
a lot of diplomacy they are rather a waste of time in some respects. So I
apologize if anyone felt I gave up; I did try, though I admit I didn't try as
hard as I could have.

    Anyway, after I disappeared from the game, I didn't really follow the
developments after that. I don't know whether people do or not usually, but
I simply didn't find the time to update the map and follow what was going on.
Consequently I don't have anything to say about what happened after I was
defeated. The only thing I will say was about the final result, which I think
is worthy of some comment. I was very interested by Austria's analysis, I have
never seen anyone manage to give a convincing reduction of Diplomacy down to
the essential mathematics before, and even given the greatly simplified
structure I still think it was very well done. Personally, I never bother to
analyze my moves that much, I just pick what I feel happy with and go for it,
but maybe that's why Austria won and I disappered first. :)

    Thanks to everyone for a good game. sorry if this stuff contains any
inaccuracies, please don't sue I'm only going off my memory of events. :)
Hope to see you all around again somewhere, particularly Austria. (Mozart,
Dan whoever).

            Matt Pennington
            (sometime Hobbes)

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