Super Pastis Final board 2021 AAR

[Custer]

Some fancy dancing there Pootle......



Custer

[Pootleflump]

The real question is.....

Can you tell which one of us has a laminator?



https://www.playdiplomacy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=62173&p=1027462#p1027462

[Oxmeister]

Ok folks, my recollections of the game.

Going in to the game, I had topped the qualifying rounds and chose Russia, as I felt more comfortable with Russia than France, and I also wondered if France would be targeted.

The game began at a terrible time for because I was unwell, but after deferring for a day I confirmed the game which started it, as the next day would be a weekend where my availability would also be poor. I managed to get out basic messages to my near neighbours, but managed little more.

1901

In my early press exchanges I received encouraging messages from Austria and Italy, while noting that England sounded like somebody I could deal with. Germany and France both had lots to say, and while they had a notable charisma edge on the other players, both seemed untrustworthy, and this impeded my efforts to embed myself into a northern alliance as I did not want to say too much to either for the risk it would be circulated. Turkey also seemed a little insincere, although more trustworthy than G/F.

In the south, an AIR quickly formed to get rid of Turkey, which I hoped would favour me and eventually turn into an IR or maybe AR. Nothing was agreed in the north other than I would not go north in the spring as per Germany's preference.

By the end of the year I knew who all the players were - most by press style, Austria because we were playing a PDL game at the same time and he kept confusing the countries in his message signoffs, and England through process of elimination. Frustratingly, Germany was asking everyone who they were, making it harder to keep my own ID anonymous, while openly saying he was (also a shame, as I'd worked out almost instantly he was socratease through his habit excessive capitalisation, and would have kept this under my hat).

Although business in the south went exactly as planned, Germany bounced me out of Sweden, informing me with just minutes to go that he would do so because things just "didn't feel right". He had spent the whole turn pressing me for intel on the south, and used the lack of intel as the excuse for the bounce. I felt I had the measure of Germany at this stage as an untrustworthy and manipulative player, who would be a problem to deal with in the north. Far more worrying though, it seemed that an EG was forming which was a disaster for me, and I knew that I had to prioritise breaking this up.

In the fall I received strong representations from France in particular to build a north coast fleet and resist England ( who had 2 builds), but opted instead on a new fleet in Sev. My reasoning was that I'd be fighting England, Germany and Turkey next year, and had no hope of fighting on all fronts - I needed gains from the south because I felt Austria would capitalise if I was too weak, and it was more efficient to oppose Germany in the north than England. If England ultimately wanted StP, I'd have to allocate 2, and then 3 units to a campaign which would eventually fall to England's superior firepower, and by committing so heavily to a lost cause, I'd lose everywhere else too. I resolved not to defend StP, and just try and keep it through diplomacy.

02-03

Despite the setback of the Swedish bounce in 01, I was able to bounce back in 02/03. Fortunately by spring 02 most of the other players had found Germany to be very objectionable, and I was able to arrange a 5 on 1 attack on him. England's allegiance come at the cost of him taking Sweden, but this still seemed better than facing an EG, and I was able to focus more in the south and made strong progress against Turkey, picking up builds in both years. I had an informal intelligence sharing alliance with France and Italy, which was interesting if nothing else as France told us pretty much sent us everything from her western neighbors (press, orders etc), but this still made me nervous that France would be sharing anything I said back the other way, so I didn't commit too strongly to this option. By the end of 03 Austria wanted to take out Italy - I would have much preferred an IR, but I was now worried by how much trust Italy was putting in France, and, since Austria was keen to form an AR, I decided to go with it. I was becoming time poor at this point in the game, and regret not making the effort to properly discuss IR with Italy as an alternative. Austria stabs Italy successfully in the fall as France also moves on her. Turkey just survives with Smy and offers himself as a Janissary to help me and Austria.

04 and the Austrian stab.

An ERA was arranged as 1904 started. The idea was that we'd have non-aggression between each other, take out the other players, and would 'race' to the 12th center. I knew I'd probably have to ultimately stab either Austria or England for the win, but I was happy with the framework in the meantime because it helped remove dangerous players from the board. Sadly, Austria stabbed the very next season as we were meant to start our demilitarization, walking into Warsaw and Rum in the spring, and helping Turkey into Con. It was a ruthless stab that was well executed at a tactical level, and in his post stab message he seemed pleased as punch with himself. Although I was angry with Austria, I was unhappy with myself, as I'd played 4 times with GeoViBase this year, and knew him to be an opportunistic player, and yet gave him the opening. I also had put appallingly little effort into comms over the preceding days, and the results showed. I resolved to correct my attention deficit, and worked the board to try and find a route to stay viable. With England still on side and Turkey seemingly amenable to switching later, I focused my defense entirely on Austria, limiting losses to just 1 center to Austria, and 1 to Turkey.

A difficult midgame.

The next years were spent trying to survive until the dynamic changed. I had to balance threats from England and Austria/Turkey, while trying to focus the powerful powers elsewhere. Germany meanwhile was becoming increasingly disagreeable in his messages, and in 1905 sent a private message to me, England and France telling us how we terrible players, how we've enabled England, and how England would have already won the game had he listened to him etc. It was hard to reconcile Socratease's high ranking with what I viewed to be poor diplomacy, but I noted that his ranking mostly comes from (generally) easier pickup games where there are often more malleable players, and I wonder if he was rattled when players in this game weren't doing what he told them they should do. Either way, it served to bring me,England and France closer together despite clashing in the early game and pursuing mutually exclusive objectives. A minor hitch occurred in 05 when I moved Mos-Stp (something I was able to do because I'd made peace with Austria) to protect against any English opportunism , only to find it bounced. England claimed a misorder , but whatever the case, I chose to use the political capital to solidify my relations with England who I needed to keep on side, assuring him he'd get StP later in the game if he was patient. In 06 my renewed cooperation with Austria had turned into a race to form a stalemate line, with the odious German influence (who was doling out derogatory opinions of us while simultaneously requesting orders) and the likelihood of the arrangement only benefiting Austria making it repellent to me. I did believe at this point I had a chance at the Toilet Paper award if I could form an loose RT&EF agreement to squeeze out AG , and hope for England turning on France as France overextended in the med. I tried to get Turkey on board, but I think AT were too tight at this stage, and the Turk demanded any stab happen in the fall. With time running out, I declared that I was blowing open the stalemate in the center whatever, and told the Turk I'd support him if he joined. Sadly Turkey stuck with Austria, but Italy clung on in the south to ensure Germany took a well earned early bath.

The quest to survive

My failed attempt to persuade Turkey to join me in an Austrian stab meant that I'd no longer have any chance of winning, and would do well to just survive, hence the latter becoming my goal. I had very strong relations with England, but my main worry was that he would be impatient and hit me at the same time as AT. He admitted in one message in 06 when I requested he not take StP that while he would oblige this time, he may need to take it in the future. Knowing he would hit my centers once France starting ballooning, I made a deal with England - he could have my northern centers as long as he took them in 1909, so that I could use everything to face down AT in the meantime. In order to build trust, I invited England into key spaces (Prussia,Livonia etc) uncontested , so that he knew I was sincere and could overpower any late resistance. I also asked France to play for position instead of gains in earlier gains, but she ignored this , stabbing Italy in fall 07 to go +2. I can't say I blame her, because she needed to make gains if she were to win, but it would make things more challenging. England did on a couple of occasions move somewhere he shouldn't have a season or so early, but otherwise we worked as a good team. I realised in 08 that Moscow would be a problem if it fell to AT, so I proposed England take Moscow ( courtesy of me walking out) so that I could hold Ukraine from AT, so that there were more ER centers in 09 , and thus more chance I'd be able to keep some of them. I persuaded England to leave Berlin so that we'd have 1 fewer disband (English builds couldn't help) which was also important.

Going into fall 09 Russian survival and English victory were both assured, and the only real thing in the air was center counts and the fate of Austria, who could still make an unlikely exit. By this point I had forgiven Austria his earlier stab, having given as good as I got for many years, and had no desire to see my friend Geo suffer an undeserved elimination that would not meaningfully benefit me, so I made agreements with England and Austria to help both myself and Austria finish with as many centers as possible.

Here was the final map:


Overall I was disappointed not to make a better challenge for the top awards in this game, but I accept that I did not play anywhere near well enough, having only really done enough to keep my head above water. Nevertheless, I was satisfied to have ground out a survival in a difficult game , and seen what was a very good tournament overall out to the end. I was also pleased to see StarkAdder win, one of the nicest people you could come across on this site.

Thoughts on my opponents :

England : A great diplomat and a worthy winner. As said above, also a really decent person.
France : Great fun to play with, or a huge pain in the neck, depending on whether you are allied with her (and sometimes both at once!). Also a very worthy winner of total points.
Italy : A delight to share the board with - honest, kind, and able to see the lighter side of things. I felt Italy was just too trusting when it came to France, but I'm not sure how much difference it would have made.
Austria : A very interesting player who I've enjoyed my share of tussles and alliances with this year. I think Geo is able to engineer & execute very good stabs, but will take a chance in unclear circumstances. I think his stab could have paid off, the but the risk was large in such a strong field and it didn't quite work for him. In the later years he probably suffered from his association with Germany, which was unfortunate as he'd generally played better than his end center count suggested.
Turkey : I was intrigued what playing with Floridaman would be like as I'm a big fan of his channel, but sadly we didn't communicate a huge amount during the game. I don't think Turkey ever really made enough effort to get on the same page as me , and also thought he was distracted (either by RL or other games) such that we ultimately never coordinated. He did very well to revive himself from being reduced to 1 though, and in a longer game could have been a force.

Thanks all for the game. My thanks also to the tournament organizers - Caladrius, Dib and Strategus, who have all worked hard to make this for us all. This format and scoring system make for super fun , intense games, and i couldn't recommend it highly enough to players who want something a bit different from their next diplomacy experience. I still don't know which of PDL or SuperPastis I'll do next year (but probably not both again) but look forward to seeing many of you again,

Cheers,
Ox

[Pootleflump]

Ok folks, my recollections of the game.

Going in to the game, I had topped the qualifying rounds and chose Russia, as I felt more comfortable with Russia than France, and I also wondered if France would be targeted.

Not being pedantic or anything but I think I actually topped the the qualifying rounds going into the final (by an itsy-bitsy couple of points?). So you wouldn't have got France anyway!

But yes, it would be nice to get a points total, both for after r3 and after the finals.

I'm guessing our esteemed tournament directors and his admin team have fallen down a hole again/are too busy enjoying Christmas festivities.

Stay safe everyone, it's looking scary again out there. Get vacc'd n boosted, wear your masks and postpone your mistletoe snogs of middle management/Westminster politicians for a bit....

[Oxmeister]

Ok folks, my recollections of the game.

Going in to the game, I had topped the qualifying rounds and chose Russia, as I felt more comfortable with Russia than France, and I also wondered if France would be targeted.

Not being pedantic or anything but I think I actually topped the the qualifying rounds going into the final (by an itsy-bitsy couple of points?). So you wouldn't have got France anyway!

But yes, it would be nice to get a points total, both for after r3 and after the finals.

I'm guessing our esteemed tournament directors and his admin team have fallen down a hole again/are too busy enjoying Christmas festivities.

Stay safe everyone, it's looking scary again out there. Get vacc'd n boosted, wear your masks and postpone your mistletoe snogs of middle management/Westminster politicians for a bit....

Based on the stated scoring system ( https://www.playdiplomacy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=934&t=61516 ) and the rules https://www.playdiplomacy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=934&t=61529 I have you on 91 + ( 83 * 0.8) + ( 18 * 0.6) = 168.2 and myself on 89 + (67*0.8) + (44*0.6) = 169. By all means correct me if I've erred on the numbers (I am not yet 'boosted' after all!), but I think it was that first game that cost you as your best and 2nd best were slightly better than my ones.

Ox