KaBoom AAR

[FloridaMan]

Here's my (admittedly slightly belated) AAR on a game I played here on Playdiplomacy, "KaBoom"!!!

[admiralspunky]

I was rooting for France there.

I'd be happy to watch an AAR about a variant. Out of the variants that I've tried, I think that Escalation is the most interesting. Does that even count as a variant? Well, it's certainly not a standard game.

[FloridaMan]

I was rooting for France there.

Weren't we all?

I'd be happy to watch an AAR about a variant. Out of the variants that I've tried, I think that Escalation is the most interesting. Does that even count as a variant? Well, it's certainly not a standard game.

I think you're right, Escalation is pretty interesting (perhaps the most interesting, as you say!), and as far as I'm concerned, it's absolutely a variant. I will make an AAR video soon, based on the feedback I'm getting. And it might be on an Escalation game...

[0wl]

Florida man, I noticed in one of your YouTube videos you said when playing as Germany you preferred not to ally with England. But since you soloed this game while having England as an ally do you still feel that way? Personally I think England is a much better ally for Germany than France and I'm wondering about your thoughts on this.

[FloridaMan]

Florida man, I noticed in one of your YouTube videos you said when playing as Germany you preferred not to ally with England. But since you soloed this game while having England as an ally do you still feel that way? Personally I think England is a much better ally for Germany than France and I'm wondering about your thoughts on this.

0wl, I would say that, as Germany, I'm willing to ally with either neighbor, if they seem like they'll be reliable. If they both strike me about the same in terms of reliability and willingness to see German growth, I still think France makes more sense as an ally, but that belief is just a sort of tie-breaker, if both neighbors seem equally viable allies as people (which unfortunately happens very rarely). However, I will certainly grant that this game makes a strong counter example to my theory (as, I imagine, many of your games do).

I will say that I just went back and looked at my past games, and I found that when Germany soloed, in about equal numbers, Germany had allied with England early, allied with France early, or even entered into a Western Triple alliance. That would seem to suggest my anti-English prejudice when playing as Germany is somewhat misplaced (especially since, if I just look at the games where I myself soloed as Germany, I allied with England more often than I allied with France ).

I may rethink the inclination toward preferring France... Based on this quick review, I probably need more data.

[0wl]

Florida man, I took another look at this game and was wondering if Italy and Austria having a bad relationship benefited you.

The common wisdom is that it's critical Germany encourage Italy and Austria to get along but in this game and in another game I was in the German player was able to take Vienna and Budapest later in the game after Italy launched a 1901 attack on Austria.

I feel that an early Italian attack on Austria might make Russia or Turkey too strong early but I also notice in some games this helped Germany take the critical centers for the solo.

I also noticed in the game we discussed last time that the close relationship between Italy and Austria became a major threat to you.

Perhaps depending on what happens on the board an early Austro Italian conflict might be either good or bad for Germany.

I'm curious what your thoughts are regarding this.

[FloridaMan]

Florida man, I took another look at this game and was wondering if Italy and Austria having a bad relationship benefited you.

The common wisdom is that it's critical Germany encourage Italy and Austria to get along but in this game and in another game I was in the German player was able to take Vienna and Budapest later in the game after Italy launched a 1901 attack on Austria.

I feel that an early Italian attack on Austria might make Russia or Turkey too strong early but I also notice in some games this helped Germany take the critical centers for the solo.

I also noticed in the game we discussed last time that the close relationship between Italy and Austria became a major threat to you.

Perhaps depending on what happens on the board an early Austro Italian conflict might be either good or bad for Germany.

I'm curious what your thoughts are regarding this.

That's a very interesting insight, 0wl. I appreciate you taking the time to share.

I think this is a case of the East staying in prolonged chaos benefiting the Western powers. I don't know if it's specifically Italy and Austria not getting along, so much as the fact that the East remained unsettled for so long. I think it is correct that Italy and Austria getting along too well can make them a threat to Germany, but frequently, I find that Italy and Austria are getting along well because there's a Central Alliance (and therefore that they and Germany are successfully working towards a three power draw).

Also, I think it's worth noting that Austria and Germany are kind of natural enemies, almost in the same way that I think Russia and Germany are natural enemies. So, maybe the real correlation is that if Italy and Austria get along well, that can make Austria strong. And that's what's really bad for Germany. In my experience, a strong Italy isn't usually super threatening to Germany (because it's hard for it to get armies to the appropriate locations to threaten German home centers), but a strong Austria almost always is.

It is an interesting question, though... and I'd have to look around more at additional games to see if I notice a broader pattern of Italy/Austria alliances being the ruin of German players.

My tentative thinking is: Germany should still probably encourage Italy and Austria to get along when it's suspected that there's a Juggernaut running, but otherwise, I would just not bother.