Winter 1902 ended as shown above. I’m England; I’ve no opposition in the west and north. I’m on 8 SCs and it’s only the end of 1902. It’s a dream… or a nightmare.
Well, OK, not a nightmare but I’m beginning to wonder just how enjoyable this game is for me. I mean, yeh, fine, I’m walking through the stages of the game but, well, it almost feels like the Endgame already. Unless I do something stupid, there’s no challenge. That’s not to say I won’t do something stupid but…
Spring 1903
I’d almost stopped worrying about diplomacy at this point. For me, that’s incredible. But what was I going to say? What did I need to say? I didn’t particularly need anyone’s help. So I needed to think only about trying to delay the formation of a 3-power Grand Alliance against me.
With Austria, I didn’t bother. They weren’t answering me. I wasn’t interested in communicating with them until I had something concrete to offer; they certainly weren’t interested in diplomacy.
With Turkey it was simple: they weren’t able to see the game beyond their own borders. They were making errors which anyone other than a Diplopup wouldn’t do. They were crippling themselves. So I was going to focus on helping them look further afield. It wouldn’t necessarily help me but I take the point of view that, in game like this, I’m not doing what I should be doing as a more experienced Dippyist by leaving a Diplopup floundering.
With Italy, I was simply going to keep on talking. Nothing specific strategically because they were looking like my only opposition. I hoped something meaningful would appear!
- F Lon-ENG, F Lpl-IRI, F NTH C Edi-Den, F Swe-BAL, F Stp-BAR, A Bel-Bur, A Hol-Ruh
- F Por H, A Spa H [Dislodged]
- F WMS S GOL-Spa(sc), A Mar S GOL-Spa(sc), A Rom S Ven H
- F Kie H, A Ber H, A Mun H
- F Tri-ADR, A Tyl-Tri, A Ser S Rum H, A Rum S Ser H, A Bud S Ser H
- F BLA S Rum H, A Bul-Rum, A Alb S Ser H, A Gre-Ser, A Arm-Sev
- F GOB H, A Ukr H, A War H
This one really confused me: why hadn’t A Bul-Rum worked? I had to look at the written explanation. I’d expected Turkey couldn’t have messed up these moves but they had. Instead of A Alb S Gre-Ser, A(Alb) had supported Serbia to hold. Even so, A Gre-Ser should have cut A(Ser)’s support for A(Rum) to hold. And then I saw that Turkey had done the same thing: F BLA S Rum H, instead of F BLA S Bul-Rum. Oh, wow.
Here’s the map, after the disbanding of A(Spa):
Fall 1903
So, what does this latest turn tell me?
Well, Turkey is even greener than I thought, perhaps. It could just be that they hadn’t worked out how the support mechanism works on Diplicity. But, honestly, if Turkey were even slightly experienced, it ought to be intuitive.
Now, I thought I was giving Turkey this advice before the end of 1903 but, as it happens, I didn’t. I’d finalised my orders – no real Diplomacy to be done – and the deadline passed quickly. So I’ll have to see how confused I’ve made Turkey!
For me, the question was what I did where and when. My F(BAR) I wanted to move to the Norwegian Sea. If I did that, though, I ran the risk of Turkey moving A Sev-Mos and being one move away from St Petersburg. If this happened I could lose the SC. I needed to hold St Petersburg so that I could use it as a springboard into Russia. I doubted Turkey would do that, if only because they should be keeping units close by. But it would be a gamble.
I would use A Ruh S Den-Kie. From there I could use A(Kie) and F(BAL) to take Berlin. That was easy.
I hadn’t expected to get into Burgundy, to be honest; I’d ordered A Bel-Bur last turn to bounce A Mar-Bur. Italy – not quite believing France had gone, I think – had used A(Mar) as unnecessary support for F GOL-Spa. I didn’t have to worry about Munich, so I could use A Bur-Par.
However, I didn’t really want to move out of Burgundy: the army was blocking A(Mar) from moving north. So I hatched a different plan. I’d use F BAL S Den-Kie and A Bur S Ruh-Mun. Paris, like Denmark, could wait. Taking Paris was more pressing than taking Denmark but, unless and until Italy moved A Mar-Gas, I wasn’t bothered about Paris.
That left three fleets in the North Sea, English Channel and Irish Sea. What about them? Well, I might be able to take the Mid-Atlantic Ocean if I wanted, and I did want to do that. Italy could order F Spa(sc) S WMS-MAO if they chose. But, when I moved on the MAO I wanted it to be decisive so I would gamble on F IRI-MAO alone, and use F ENG-Bre, with F NTH-ENG. Usually I’d not want to move out of the North Sea but there was no reason in this game to hold it – it was firmly behind any lines. I expected to have an Italian fleet in the MAO by the end of the turn but, well, I’d have three fleets against their two next year.
- F IRI-MAO, F ENG-BRE, F NTH-ENG, F BAR-NWG, F BAL S Den-KIe, A Bur S Ruh-Mun GAINS: Brest, Munich, Kiel – 3 builds
- F Por H LOSES: Brest, Spain
- F Spa(sc)-MAO, F WMS-TYS, A Gas-Spa, A Ven-Tyl, A Rom-Ven GAINS: Spain – 1 build
- F Kie H [dislodged], A Ber H, A Mun H [dislodged] LOSES: Kiel, Munich – 2 disbands
- F ADR-ION, A Bud S Rum H, A Ser S Rum H, A Rum S Ser H, A Tri S Ser H
- F BLA -Rum, A Sev S Rum H, A Bul S Rum H, A Alb S Gre H GAINS: Sevastopol – 1 build
- F GOB H, A Ukr H, A War H LOSES: Sevastopol
As it turned out, Italy made the better choice. As I said, they could have occupied the Mid-Atlantic, but they chose instead to move to the Tyrrhenian Sea. It’s clear from the other moves of Italy and Austria that they really didn’t trust each other. Italy moved back into a threatening position around Trieste; Austria moved to the Ionian from where Naples could be attacked. Italy would likely build in Naples to prevent this so F(TYS) could defend Tunis.
Turkey was still misordering – I hadn’t been able to save them from it again. Maybe next time. And, maybe, as I was giving them advice, they’d continue to hold off from moving to Moscow!
With no retreats happening, we moved into the Winter.
Winter 1903
I would expect a fleet in Naples from Italy. Even if they trusted Austria, they might as well do that as build in Rome. An army could be possible, of course. if they were moving against Austria seriously but that would be stuck in Naples defending, while F(TYS) defended Tunis.
From Turkey I hoped I’d see a fleet in Smyrna or Constantinople. Their armies were bogged down in the Balkans (although they should, by now, be threatening Vienna.
POSTS IN THIS SERIES
THE DIPLOMATICON 
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