WP-09-Diplo [Ben Franklin]: I thought Ivan surrendered? Date:Wed, 24 Aug 2011 15:20:36 +0000 To reply, log in at http://www.websofpower.com/?Page=Login or use your newspaper form. Direct email replies do not go to the sender. (This is intended to protect the privacy of other players.) ====================================================================== You want a piece of me??? Let's get it back on... WP-09-Diplo [UniNet]: Minor apologies Date:Sat, 27 Aug 2011 10:54:11 +0000 To reply, log in at http://www.websofpower.com/?Page=Login or use your newspaper form. Direct email replies do not go to the sender. (This is intended to protect the privacy of other players.) ====================================================================== Minor apologies Bob... I don't expect my forces provide much of a threat anymore, think of it as old times sake... :-) WP-09-Diplo [Ben Franklin]: Re: Game Ending Date:Sat, 27 Aug 2011 13:41:20 +0000 To reply, log in at http://www.websofpower.com/?Page=Login or use your newspaper form. Direct email replies do not go to the sender. (This is intended to protect the privacy of other players.) ====================================================================== Hi guys - Thanks to Ivan for giving me a kick in the leg last turn... reminded me that I wanted to write a wrapup from my perspective. When Barry was playing with us I was trying to set up a 2-vs-2 world war. Then, when he dropped out on Turn 225, and the long string of region crises began, I reasoned that David's network (huge number of regions, not so much production per region) would be chopped up more than Ivan's (which I suspected had more links per region, more interconnected groups and fewer chains). Ivan, although smaller in numbers, was a juicier prize, so I went along with David in fighting Ivan. By this point I was thinking it would be good to get the game over, so I was prepared to take Ivan all the way down. I'd spent a lot of time during my rebuilding period, when you guys were fighting each other and I was the weakest, working on improving my region network. A lot of units went into building internal connections so I could have shorter internal reinforcement routes. I also upgraded production rather than trying to fight for more. The idea was that when I came out fighting finally, I wanted to be able to compete with Ivan (who always seemed to have 100-200 reinforcements at the front a lot faster than I did!). When I began fighting again, I was still thinking that for equivalent size, my network was stronger than David's so I'd have an advantage in the final battle, especially if I could pick up a chunk of Ivan's core. But David kept taking over all the regions where I bordered Ivan (typically we shared a lot of these), leaving me few routes to advance on. I started to think that David wanted all of Ivan's territory for himself and wasn't that interested in my being his partner anymore! In the end there was only one route left, and the region crises conveniently disconnected that route (with about 5 regions) from the rest of my network. It was at that point that it occurred to me I could continue to fight a sham war on that front, knowing that Ivan couldn't attack me back because David would maul him, while building up my forces on my fronts with David for either the inevitable final battle, or possibly a sneak attack. Here my effort in adding internal links paid off, because I was able to take my borders with David (all of which had free connections within 1 hop from the frontier), and organize them into a "Battle Ring" of 6 or 7 regions, all mutually-supporting, and then fortify them from what had become rear-area production regions. I knew from the size of Ivan's forces and the size of the battle reports where David's large forces had shifted to, and that he couldn't be strong on our own borders. The one exception was where I bordered Ivan and knew David had a huge army to fight Ivan's huge army. When David's huge army advanced, I had my cue. I had hoped that he would take two swings at Ivan's army (and radically weaken you both!), but that didn't happen. However, the other nice thing did happen -- David had his strongest forces near my 5 disconnected regions, so naturally he went into them. That conveniently took all the pressure off my invasion forces elsewhere. And David's large number of regions were sliced into about 6 segments so I was able to pick off 3 or 4 of them piecemeal. At that point I was again thinking of concentrating my power against Ivan, because that would take away the most production. But Ivan's forces were too strong at first, and then his regions got disconnected from mine, so I had to pivot around... Ahh, the fortunes of war! One thing that surprised me was that the two of you didn't cooperate more once you realized it was both of you against me. I guess we all have different outlooks on the game and it's hard to match brainwaves and strategies on short notice, especially after you've been beating up on each other for years and years! I'd expected the two of you to realize you had a huge mobility advantage and use that to attack me everywhere you could, because I wouldn't be able to fight back on all fronts. Instead you both bunched up into single armies (I guess thinking you'd need 300 units to defeat my roving 200-stacks?), and I was able to counter each army (especially since Dave's went on the wild-goose chase at first). I also hadn't anticipated how demoralized David would get... but then, it was only afterwards that I realized how badly I'd chopped up David's region network before he could react! Even so, I didn't think I was actually going to win. It was so hard to get reinforcements where they were needed and deal with the unexpected region disconnects. I congratulate you both on a hard-fought war that pushed all of us to our limits!!! Anyway, I remember a year or so ago when you guys had teamed up on me and ground me down into the dust, and I was certain I was dead. And I know you've both been to that place during this game as well! What an epic adventure. I feel tremendously fortunate to have been able to play with you both over all these years... and looking forward to the next battles in the other universes, and the future battles in the Tournament 2012 universe! I'll try to get that set up in the next month, after I clean up all the loose ends that piled up while I was on travel for 5 of the last 6 weeks... Bob