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Posts: 3486
Joined: 02 Oct 2000, 9:01 am

Post 12 Sep 2016, 6:31 pm

Uhtar forgot his password, but here is his end of game:

Good game everyone. I have always claimed any minor success I have ever had in this game was only achieved with some luck and against rookies or zit faced teenagers. And it looks like I was right.

I will try to remember. I obviously have less and more distant memories of this game than everyone else. It was the first game for me in a long time, and seems like even the one before was many years ago. It's like riding a bike right?

Started off with a bang. I think I prelimed my moves, then changed them after negotiation with Fred and just copied and pasted some stuff from memory. I had lost my Dip game in flood here in 2013 so didn’t have a board. So that is an excuse because there are no maps on the internet or anything.

Anyhow, none of my units would have moved. Yep, I was the guy who delayed the first season. I had units double ordered and moving to non-adjacent provinces and bouncing and pretty much had like 5 things wrong which is hard to do with only 3 units. What an idiot. I felt terrible and knew that I had let George down. In any normal fair play game should not have had a unit move in the first season. I resolved I would try to pay attention going forward. I would have felt bad if by some chance I had went on and won after that feck up and mulligan but thankfully everyone took care of that so I wouldn’t have to feel bad. Thanks guys!

I had played with everyone before like once. Ling only briefly. Randy and Fred both told me that Ling was hard to work with… Obviously they had no problem so I think the issue was probably me. So I hoped to work long term with Fred. I remember that he seemed friendlier back in the old days.

So I read Fred’s email deal and he pretty much nailed it. But I can expand a bit from my end. I didn’t ever get a good feeling from Ling and I think he just liked not having an England around. He never seemed inclined to move to the Med. Worked out pretty good for him. So once Fred had moved against Randy, Randy offered me Stp as long as I took it with a fleet which I agreed too. The next season I think Fred negotiated hard for that but I think it was pretty certain that Randy wouldn’t stop me. He was too busy elsewhere. I had to support myself in. Anyhow, worked out all good with Fred and Randy. I thought it would be good for me if I had Stp with a fleet and then Randy could hopefully do well as a balance. Did little bit better than being a balance. Then in the second year Fred supported me into Belgium against Fred. Third year I think he moved against Austria. 4th year he stabbed me. 4 for 4… I remember thinking who could stab 4 neighbors in 4 years? Who could do that and go on to a successful finish? Well I know the answer to that trivia question now. (Pause while slow clapping from Uhtar).

I knew I was asking a lot for Fred to go down to one fleet. The disband was not that complex and I was supporting him into Bel after I had vacated it. I asked several times if he was ok with it but we all know that it is Diplomacy and sometimes it is better to nod yes and then whack someone in the back of the head then say no and get whacked in the back of the head yourself. The former is what happened. I actually had it set up that he was getting Belgium for sure and I had a spare F North to bounce him in Denmark to make sure he would not have support for his fleet in Sweden. My plan was to spring that little tidbit on Fred just before moves were due so that a stab could not happen. However, for reasons of my own I choose not put extra pressure on Fred. I think I instead moved extra support for Fred to Belgium which he had already negotiated with Ling and therefore I got stabbed. In hindsight it was a big blunder but under those circumstances I would probably handle it that way every time. Just the way it was.

So next season the beginning of the French rapprochement. And also the end of the French rapprochement. Never got anything done with Ling. Great guy, funny feker but couldn’t get anything done. With Fred having 3 fleets I felt that no matter what, he was coming for me. Where could those fleets go?? With David I saw a whole wide Med for his fleets but he never would move there.

His best idea was for him to put a fleet in the Norwegian Sea and then I would move to the Mid. However, since I was under attack and didn’t want to send a fleet to the Mid and he wasn’t under attack it seemed way more likely that I would end up on the short end of that deal. I think he liked the board set up with Fred or just liked working with Fred better so all good. He stabbed me when I was supporting him into Belgium I believe. Does anyone see a pattern here? I support them to Belgium and they stab me. I didn’t see it obviously…. I knew it was possible/likely/probable but I hoped that my threat to defend my home centers and deny him them while Fred would grow would be enough to persuade him to go after the frontrunner with me. Nope…. Didn’t. Not even close.

So when Fred asked why I didn’t pile on Denmark the answer was that I had always moved as I said in this game. I had promised Dave that I would defend my home centers if he stabbed me so that is what I tried to do. Ultimately I think Ling handed me my shorts tactically and every move he made worked very well. So he was in England likkidy split. So once again nothing but hollow threats if you can’t back them up right?

I did send Fred a note which I hoped could be a precursor to some sort of late inning deal but in his response he used terms such as pathetic and pathological to describe me and my game (he thinks I have a game so that is pretty good??) He probably called me some other mean “P” words as well now that I think about it. He must have had his alliterative dictionary out at the time. So after that I thought ”Hmm, must be having a bad day.” And I wished him the best and never wrote again. Year or so later I was done I think. Since George has taken me off the email train (I am starting to get a complex here!) I don’t actually know how everyone did or how long they lasted.

Anyhow, well played. Good job Fred for seemingly running the show and dictating the early and mid-game in my mind. Kudo’s to Randy for getting stabbed and then making a great comeback and navigating the morass in the Balkans. Mucho burritos to Dave for being implacable. He seemed very in control and was never really under attack except for like one season from me. Never panicked and I think knew what he wanted on the board and went out and got it.

Other guys, Barry, Steve, Jon, and Monte. I wasn’t around long enough to chat much. Everyone knows I just talk drivel, but thanks for being polite.

I think I tried my best for the first many years. It seemed like I didn’t really want to stab much. I only really had one decent chance to stab Fred early with Randy but just didn’t feel like pulling the trigger. I think I would have in my previous games but who knows. Against you guys probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference for me.

Anyhow, thanks to everyone for everything and especially to George for inviting me, running a great game and mostly holding up the whole game when I screwed up Spring 01 moves like they have never been screwed up before. If you have them you should post them so everyone can see how dumb I can be. The Uhtar thing is not really an act.
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Post 13 Sep 2016, 11:04 am

Nice EOG! Let's get Uhtar back for more games. Somebody reset his password!

George Atkins
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Joined: 17 May 2013, 3:32 pm

Post 13 Sep 2016, 12:02 pm

Didn't Uhtar win like 7 games in a row here, something ridiculous like that? But like most games you need to playing it a lot to be at the top of your game. You also need to really want to win. It would have been interesting to see a game between these guys ten years ago when they were still really into the hobby (some of them still may be but I suspect not most). It takes a lot of effort and desire to be a really top diplomacy player.