| August 25, 2000 |
| IN MEMORIAM: Robert Sacks (1951-2000) |
This issue is dedicated with great sincerity to the memory of Robert (and he enjoyed abbreviating it Rob't) Sacks.
We have all been saddened to hear of Robert's tragically early death, just after so many of us saw him in person at World DipCon in Baltimore. I attach some information I have received and will send a copy of this issue to Robert's parents along with a sympathy card. There is no good here, but at least Robert's family can hear a little bit about how many people stopped to notice and to mourn. I am struck about how my last memory will be Robert's impassioned speech at the World DipCon Society meeting in FAVOR of passing the charter, when everyone expected that when he stood up it would be to urge a vote against it.
Dan Mathias (Mon, 21 Aug 2000 22:33:12)
I am sad to report that Robert Sachs passed away Friday, August 18, 2000. He was 49 years old. Robert was heavily involved in the gaming hobby for over 30 years. He gave his all, many times over. Even those who did not agree with him or his methods, usually agreed that he had the best of intentions and provided much support for the gaming hobby. He made a huge mark, and will be sorely missed.
Robert's brother, Stephen, is working on wading thru Robert's things and handling his affairs. His email is: stephen.sacks of ey.com
Robert's parents' address is: David & Dorothy Sacks, 8 Seneca Court, Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411
Robert was single.
| Dan Mathias, dcmathias of erols.com |
Hal Haag (Mon, 21 Aug 2000 08:57:03)
Robert Sacks - RIP - (1951 - 2000)
I hate these kind of messages: I was just contacted by Stephen Sacks (see message below) concerning the death of his brother Robert Sacks. Robert had high blood pressure, and was found in his bathtub Friday morning, August 18, 2000, preliminary prognosis indicates an Aortic Dissection to be the cause of death. Per his parents request he will be cremated and there will be a memorial service in the New Jersey area, date unknown as of this point. Robert was to have been Fan Guest of Honor at Balticon 35, Memorial Day, 2001, his presence will be missed. One of the events that we were going to celebrate was to be his 50th birthday party. Condolences via e-mail can be conveyed thru me or to his brother Stephen at stephen.sacks of ey.com I will see that any sent to me will be delivered to the family. His parents are not web connected, and can be reached via snail-mail at the following address: David and Dorothy Sacks, 8 Seneca Court, Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411 Details will be posted here and elsewhere. His family has requested that this information be posted wherever Robert might have been active and welcome contacts from any of these groups. Thank you.
| Hal Haag, Chair, Balticon 35, halhaag of EARTHLINK.NET |
Stephen Sacks Message: It is imperative that one or more friends of my brother Robert Sacks who were involved in his sci-fi, fantasy, gaming activities contact me ASAP. I have obtained your E-mail addresses after three hours of internet searching, finding sites w/Robert Sacks (224), and searching for addresses for one or more people who might be familiar with Robert. Could I impose on one or more of you to either call me or contact one or more friends of Robert to call me. My phone number is (h)973-378-3783; (cell) 973-615-9889. Obviously I need an effective communication channel into the community.
Buz Eddy (Tue, 22 Aug 2000 14:02:47 EDT)
During my first - and ill-fated - attempt to pull FTF Diplomacy together nationally in the mid 1970s, Robert provided me with results of his events. He made it clear that he thought ratings and structure were not anything he was personally interested in. When the present effort started in 1991 Robert was prevailed upon, once, to send me results, and again the accompanying note made it clear that he thought rating results was a bad idea. With only these contacts I had an image of a rather surely dour ``my way or the highway" type of individual.
I had the very great good fortune to meet Robert in person at Baltimore two weeks ago. The happiness and energy that abounded from the man gave me a whole new image. He smiled brightly when he told me ratings were ``tools of the devil". But I knew then that Robert was only expressing a mild disinterest in a ``zest for life" type of way, and that he was enjoying the conversation, as I was.
I've known of the man for 25 years, I've known the man for but two weeks. I miss him, and I regret the missed opportunities.
| Buz Eddy, BuzEddy of aol.com |
((Boy, Buz, do you have it just right. I first met Robert in person a few years ago at one of Brad Wilson's Vertigo Games get-togethers in Philadelphia and was just completely drawn in to him instantly. Since I was US Orphan Service director back in the 1980's myself, Robert and I had occasional discussions about the famous ``Covenant'', but I wish I had met him in person back then too as it surely would have altered my perceptions. Of course, I've had Brad Wilson dropping comments on Robert in my ears for years and I usually find that Brad and I have the same tastes in people in most ways, so I really was not surprised that I liked him so much upon meeting him. I hope that, with the hundreds of people who see this, I will reach everyone of significance in the Diplomacy hobby who will want to know about this. Bye, Robert, the Diplomacy hobby will be considerably poorer without your considerable presence.))
Now back to our purpose.....
This is what I think is a chock full issue with lots of great reading.
Getting all of the World DipCon stuff together did require the short
delay and I decided to knock the deadlines back a week (I was going to
have trouble producing the szine the week of Labor Day anyway).
Don't miss some of the press this month either. There are some real nuggets in pages and pages of it this issue. Thanks to all of my great press writers. Also, you might want to take a gander at the game openings section. And don't miss the TAP Survivor! wrap up, you heard it here first.....
The postal sub price is a flat
$1.00 per issue in the US and Canada,
a bargain at twice the price.... but
you can double that for other foreign subbers (or $2.00 per
issue sent airmail).
This will be going up finally soon as the amount I lose on every paid subscription
rises.
Get your resubs in now and then I'll go up by 50% later this year.
Players in current games and standbys will
continue to get the issues for free, and future game starts
(except for Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy, which is free) cost
$20.00 ($15.00 for a life of the
game subscription and $5 for the NMR Insurance).
NOTE: See the new game start announcements below!
BUT, I really won't
start any more until the Modern game ends (then I will start
another Modern with the Wing rule).
Some other options are out there.
Mark Kinney is trying to get his dipszine going again (one game is
already filled), but he may have other openings.
Mark is looking for standbys too.
Contact Mark NOW at 4820 Westmar Terrace #6, Louisville, KY 40222, (502) 412-3079;
alberich of iglou.com and get on his subscription list.
I'm in the game and you CAN'T miss watching ME play....
there or somewhere else.
Another new szine is out there: Tim Haffey's ``Who Do You Trust?'' He's going to publish monthly at $1.50 an issue, just another example of why I really must raise my own rates, I'm subsidizing too much. You can E-Mail Tim at: trhaffey of aol.com or trhaffey of concentric.net and send subs to: Timothy R. Haffey, Sr., 810 53rd Ave., Oakland, CA 94601. He has the GAMER's character, so I think if you are a gamer, you're really like what he does. He clearly has ``Navy'' in his blood as his father had a long career there and he had a shorter one. He is now retired at the age of 59 and has some energy to do things, and one of the things he wants to do is have a dipszine. Check it out!
Check out the connections in the Diplomatic Pouch with all of the information you need to play Diplomacy on the Internet at:
http://devel.diplom.org/DipPouch/
Through Stephen Agar's (who is still in charge here) Postal portion of the Pouch:
http://devel.diplom.org/DipPouch/Postal/Zines/TAP/index.html
the szine resides in html format. Presently, issues from #190 to the current issue are there, and I will be updating the back issues gradually someday. Also, check out Stephen's more extensive efforts at (note the new address): http://www.diplomacy-archive.com
The most recent issue of TAP also can be accessed through Pete Sullivan's web page and occasionally David Wang's:
1) David has grabbed and reserved the HIGHLY prized name: www.szine.com!! David Wang's site also allows you to follow John Caruso's postal baseball league that I am in. John and Kathy Caruso are now up on E-Mail and if David doesn't get off his butt soon and start updating the page more frequently, John probably will go invent his own web page. This is a problem at the present time....
2) For the most recent issue of Pete Sullivan's subszine check out:
http://www.manorcon.demon.co.uk/octopus/index.html
Pete is looking for Railway Rivals standbys, but otherwise, he is full with games at the moment.
By electronic mail, through the Internet, subs are free and can be obtained automatically by sending the message: subscribe tap
to majordomo of diplom.org and messages can be sent to the entire electronic mailing list by mailing them to tap of diplom.org which will forward your message to all of the people currently on the list. The message:
unsubscribe tap
sent to majordomo of diplom.org gets you off the list. Please make careful note of that as well since you generally can get yourself off the list a lot easier than I can, and NOBODY likes to see unsubscribe messages sent to the entire list. A big, big thank you for David Kovar for setting this all up!!
| THE SEARCH FOR GREGORY STEWART |
Gregory Stewart acquired most of his fame in Mark Luedi's Thirty Miles of Bad Road szine and then also wrote lots of press for Don Williams and others before fading away. It is possible or even probable that Mark Luedi knows of Mr. Stewart's whereabouts, but since Mark has been silent for quite awhile, I'll welcome hearing from him in any case. I think someone else suggested that we look for a ``Mike Stewart" who I don't personally recall. If you are looking for Gregory Stewart and happen to find Mike Stewart, that is good too and I'll give an additional bonus prize. I have no idea whether Mike and Gregory Stewart ever had any relationship to each other. But I know we have some BIG Gregory Stewart fans around here. While we're looking, I expect some of you to write about him for print to generate more interest. Fifty bucks for finding him before the deadline for issue 240.
Or feel free to spend the time looking for some of the backlog. Let's get Kevin, Al, and Jerry found too!!! Note that Brenton would love to find Leslie Obata, the woman that Jerry Lucas used as his front too. This could be an easy way toward finding Jerry, though as Brenton notes, who is to say she has the same name now. This is a regular continuing feature of the szine and I will be introducing a new ``search for'' every five issues. Moreover, you can win a $25 prize for finding some previous target who went unfound in the original $50 period. That means that if Kevin Tighe or Jerry Lucas or Al Pearson is ``found'' from now on it is worth $25.
Winners will receive credit for Dip hobby activities that I will pay out as requested by the winner. Subscribe to szines here or abroad, run your own contests, publish a szine, finance a web page, or whatever. Spend it all right away or use me as a bank to cover hobby activities for years. What must you do to win? Get me a letter to the editor for TAP from the person we're searching for.
This is very important, just finding them doesn't do it. They have to write me a letter. The final judge as to the winner of any contest will be the target himself and I reserve the right to investigate the winning entry. When you find someone I'm looking for, you should ask him to send me a letter for print that includes a verification of who ``found'' him.
| INTERNATIONAL SUBSCRIPTION EXCHANGE NEWS |
The British representative is the editor of Mission From God, John Harrington. John may be contacted at 1 Churchbury Close, Enfield, Middlesex EN1 3UW, UK.
E-Mail: fiendish of operamail.com or johnh of fiendishgames.demon.co.uk
Please include the full name and address of the foreign publisher with your order, if possible, as well as the szine title. Make your check in US dollars out to me personally or in GBP to John if you're doing things from that end. I will conduct business for Canadians as well, if I can, but prefer to deal in US dollars with them if possible, or Canadian dollars cash. To subscribe to American szines, the system works in reverse. There has been some interest in finding a new Australian representative. Should someone Down Under have an interest, or from anywhere else in the world, please contact me. We have added a European continental representative, most of this traffic likely will occur between Ronald Camstra (in the Netherlands) and John Harrington, but if anyone here in the US wants to get money into guilders or then into other continental currencies, we'll try to help you out. I've mixed John's and Ronald's words up below.... Ronald is obviously a huge Settlers of Catan fan. If you're interested in playing that game internationally by mail, I think Ronald can help you out.
Ronald Camstra, siedler of zonnet.nl,
My home address is: Wielingenplein 48, 3522 PE Utrecht, the Netherlands.
But in Holland it is most common not to send checks but to transfer
money by bank. Dutch people can pay directly to Postbankaccount 4652247
of Ronald Camstra in Utrecht. In that case I can see the name and
address of the sender in my bankreceipt, so people only have to mention
the name of the zine and the editorial address along with their bank order.
So if I have a UK buyer of my program, I tell him to send a check of
three pounds to John Harrington, 1 Churchbury Close, Enfield,
Middlesex, EN1 3UW, with a order code like `Settlers UK-2000-61' and
their email address?
John: If he's a UK buyer he can send a cheque, if he's American he can send a check :-) ((Over the years, this has been an eternal and never-ending series of chuckles..... yeah, I know, cheap thrills.)) An order code probably won't be necessary unless it is useful for your records.
| WORLDMASTERS99 [AND NOW WORLDMASTERS00!!] SECTION (with letters) |
If you've had your head under a tree, the World's Largest Diplomacy Tournament is still underway by E-Mail, originally featuring over 550 players from all around the world. TAP readers who are participating are ENCOURAGED to write in commentaries on games, or teams, or whatever. You can see the commentary on the games by logging in as a guest at this website:
http://webforum.cloud-nine.com/~ worldmasters99/login
But in a new announcement, the WORLDMASTERS 2000 tournament is coming.....
Emeric Miszti (Tue, 22 Aug 2000 11:03:59)
Hi all,
Worldmasters 2000 Email Diplomacy Tournament Begins!!
``The World Masters Email Diplomacy Championship has become a primary event on the Dip Calendar (last years was the LARGEST ever Diplomacy event in the world with 553 players and 79 teams!!)"
Worldmasters2000 is now ready to start accepting players. Get together with seven friends and form a team, or enter as an individual.
The main WWW site for Worldmasters will link you to automated signup forms, news, history, rules and help answer your questions.
This can be found at http://worldmasters00.diplomacy.org.uk
Sign up for the conference board at
http://webforum.cloud-nine.com/~ worldmasters2000
The Conference board is where day to day communications and discussions will take place.
We have a special fund raising effort under way to take advantage of the free $5 signup that Paypals is giving out to new accounts. It is limited to US residents at this time. If we can get a few hundred people to sign up we can get a nice fund set up to cover the postage for sending prizes all over the world. WM Home link above will guide you to the proper explanations.
Worldmasters 1999 had 553 players on 79 teams. We are well into the semi final round of 49 players and hope to start the final board with seven sharks on or about October 1st. Follow the action from the WM99 Finals page.
http://worldmasters00.diplomacy.org.uk/m99_finals.html
the old web site with semi-final payer info is at http://worldmasters99.diplomacy.org.uk
We are also beginning the process of having top teams and players select the prizes they have earned so they can be sent out. News of this will be displayed on the WM Home site.
Please join us for the Worldmasters2000 Email Diplomacy Tournament. Most of the top Diplomacy players in the world will be there. Meet and play with players from North and South America, Australia and New Zealand, Western and Eastern Europe as well as the Middle East, India, Africa and Asia.
Look forward to meeting some of you over the Dip board
| Regards, Emeric Miszti, em of basingstoke.net |
Ray Setzer (Mon, 21 Aug 2000 12:14:19 -0400 (EDT))
The WorldMasters2000 Conference board is up, running and ready for posts. Conferences for Captains to recruit players, and Players to recruit teams to play on. General Chat, Rules & Scoring Chat and an I am lost conference to go when you need help. Web site is ready to accept signups for teams AND individuals. http://masters00.diplomacy.org.uk
Signup is automated. The 99 board will phase out. Please everyone at least subscribe to at least the Announce Conference to get important news.
| Ray, mczet of acronet.net |
David Partridge (Sat, 19 Aug 2000 20:04:53 -0700 (PDT))
Hi Jim,
Got the two mails below on Friday. I don't see any reason you can't captain a team yet not GM, as long as someone on the team does GM. Personally I'm sure I'm up to GMing again either. The only requirement per last round was one GM per team (we fielded 4, so I think we did our share).
| Dave, rebhuhn of rocketmail.com |
- - - - - - - - -
I am finally ready to begin WM2000. First, lets get this out of the way. The only way we can do prizes and send them all over the world it to put in a token entry fee. Entry fee will be $5. My decision, so you can bitch to me if you want.
WWW site is up. http://worldmasters00.diplomacy.org.uk
Not everything is done, but enough to keep you busy.
1. HR are posted for examination
2. Scoring format is posted for examination
3. Team signup is automated and ready to use
4. Individual signup will be automated but not ready yet.
5. Details and links for the DPjudge Conference board.
http://webforum.cloud-nine.com/~ worldmasters2000
Created a couple topics to start off with. This Webforum seems much faster than the one we have now.
Important!! We will need people!
1. Need people to sit on the Tournament Management Committee and people who would like to take spots as Assistant Tournament Directors. Also, if any would really like the TD spot. I would be delighted to hand that off.
2. Need people spread around the world to help handle entry fee collection for those who cannot use Credit Cards.
3. Need another handful of people to act as monitors for conferences to answer questions for people who wander in clueless and with questions.
4. Need some people to work on publicity so the work can be spread out.
You can contact me directly, or I will have conferences on the new board where people can leave names and ideas.
| Ray, mczet of acronet.net |
- - - - - - - - -
First, please FORGET talk about entry fees just at the moment. An interesting idea has been brought forth. Seems a useful service on the Web called Paypals is offering $5 to everyone who signs up with them. No strings, no purchase required, just $5 for signing up. It's limited to US residents but perhaps we can use this to get Paypals to, in effect, pump a few hundred bucks into the piggy bank.
Second, I urge everyone to please register on the new conference board. We will start to phase this one out. http://webforum.cloud-nine.com/~ worldmasters2000
http://masters00.diplomacy.org.uk will take you to the WM00 WWW site.
| Ray, mczet of acronet.net |
((I have not decided what I will do yet. I would like there to be an Abyssinian Prince team, but I'm not sure I will play. I might captain, I might GM though. Interested people who would like to organize a TAP team for me should get in touch with me ASAP. I think everyone will agree that I need to control my hobby excesses a bit..... I'd like to cover the Tournament well in Diplomacy World so anyone who would like to help me with that also should contact me.))
| DIPDOM NEWS SECTION (with letters) |
Obscure and not-so-obscure ramblings on the state of the hobby and its publications, custodians, events, and individuals with no guarantee of relevance from the fertile keyboard of Jim-Bob, the E-Mail Dip world, and the rest of the postal hobby. My comments are in italics and ((double quotation marks)) like this. Bold face is used to set off each individual speaker. I should also make a note that I do edit for syntax and spelling on occasion.
The game Diplomacy is a copyrighted product owned by Hasbro and all reproductions or other use of that material in this szine is intended to be personal use and not infringe on those rights in any way. All reproductions are done at a heavy financial loss to the editor and thus are without the remotest possibility of commercial intent, except to promote THE game, the Game of Diplomacy, which you all should purchase from Hasbro or other duly licensed distributors.
| Check out the new Diplomacy World - www.diplomacyworld.org |
We are still trying to sort out the old subscription information and so I will tell everyone more about that next issue. But go look at the new issue there now. It HAS been released as of World DipCon. Why haven't YOU seen it???
David Partridge (Tue, 15 Aug 2000 13:23:07 -0700 (PDT))
Greetings all,
A month and a half ought to get you over WDC, and it's time to play Dip again! If you're anywhere near the Boston area (or would like to be) come on by and join us for the 14th running of Diplomatic Incident. Lots of Diplomacy and other gaming, a fun housecon setting and a good time for all. If you publish, then I'd appreciate your spreading the word if you have an issue coming out before the end of September. If you want to come but need crash space, drop me a line and we'll work something out.
Directions are below:
Contact: Dave Partridge rebhuhn of rocketmail.com 603-886-1400 x212
Date: September 30, October 1, 2000; we start around 11AM each day!
Location: 12 Yarmouth St, Boston, MA
Nearest T: BackBay Station on the Orange line or Copley Square Station on the Green line.
From either: Exit the station to Dartmouth St. Walk to Columbus St. (1/2 block to the left from BackBay Station, or 2 blocks past the Copley Plaza Hotel from Copley Square Station). Go right on Columbus St. Make the next right onto Yarmouth St. We're mid way down the block on the left.
Parking: Good luck. There are several garages in the square block bounded by Dartmouth St., St. James St., Clarendon St. and Columbus Ave. (BackBay Station is inside that block, for those of you without a map :-)) All are expensive, but not as bad as a ticket and tow by Boston's Finest. The garage at Copley Place Mall (St. James & Exeter, beneath the Marriott Hotel) is only a block further away and the shops inside the mall validate. To get to the games, just wander around inside the Mall until you find the ``Dartmouth St/ BackBay Station" exit - its at the Neiman Marcus end. If you can't figure things out from there, you shouldn't be playing Diplomacy...
| Dave, rebhuhn of rocketmail.com |
((As usual, you come to these, you get to meet YOURS TRULY, too. Make your plans now and don't miss it. Now we have the first of our big features for this issue: World DipCon. I was about the first one out with a report on the thing, less than 24 hours after it was over, that the E-Mail list has already seen....))
Jim-Bob Burgess (Mon, 7 Aug 2000 12:26:53 -0400 (EDT))
To Steven Emmert: Hi, I am SHAMEFACED, I looked at my list on Sunday and started handing out the last of the beers I owed around and then realized that EMMERT was on my list. I think I need to come down to Virginia Beach and buy him one! Hanging his head in shame, Jim-Bob ((I had awarded about a dozen people with free beers if they came to World DipCon. Included on the list were such foreign luminaries as Gihan Bandaranaike, Sean ``Blue'' Cable, Fearghal O'Donnchu, and Brian Dehnehy.))
| Some First Thoughts and Results from World DipCon - Baltimore |
| by Jim-Bob Burgess |
For the ``bottom liners" here are the top finishers in this past weekend's World DipCon tournament in Baltimore:
Winner, plus Best Italy and Best England: Simon Bouton of the UK
2nd place, plus Best France: Brian Dehnehy of Ireland
3rd place: Matt ``Chirchill'' Shields (97 points - I lost track of the two top point finishers as I was scribbling frantically)
4th place, plus Best Germany: ``Blue" (otherwise known as Sean Cable) (97 points - that's what I had, so he must have lost a tie breaker, but I'm not sure)
5th place: Jon Evers (80 points)
6th place: Yardin Livnat (currently of Salt Lake City, but Israeli) (75 points)
7th place, plus Best Austria: Vick Hall of the UK - note how many foreign high finishers there were since Blue is also a foreigner and I'm not sure about Evers and Shields. (71 points)
Best Russia was Nathan Cockerill and Best Turkey was Mark Franceschini
And the brilliant Chris Martin didn't do Jack..... except remember very badly the final results - I took careful notes. ;-)
There were 149 total participants (short of the record, but damned good - probably the best accumulation of raw diplomatic talent in the hobby in history though as very few players were novices).
John Quarto von Tivadar played a little of the tournament (against his better judgment since he hates the draw voting system - more on that below), but he WON the Escalation Dip variant tournament, showing that he really is one of the (if not the) best tactictians in the world.
The special Edi Birsan ``49er" award for finishing 49th went to Mike Hall.
And guess who finished all four rounds with FOUR eliminations? Yes, it was Tim Miller! He discovered how ``different" FTF tournament Dip is from E-Mail dip in the most painful way possible, but at least he got a neat plaque!!
The ``Crying Towel" award in Saturday's team championship went to the team of David Norman, Rick Desper, Greg Geyer, and Ray Setzer. Manus was supposed to be on this team (in place of Geyer?), but he OVERSLEPT!!! And even after the tournament director made extra efforts to find Manus' hotel and call him, he still didn't make it..... boo hiss.... actually it was quite a grueling schedule. Anyway, the Crying Towel award really was for the LOWEST team score (only 3 lousy points!).
The ``Best Asians" team won the Team Championship with UK based Asian expatriates: Gihan Bandaranaike, Chetan Radia, Simon Bouton, and Vic Hall! These are four GREAT players with LOTS of FTF experience. They has 71 points total.
The ``Wicked Old Men" finished second with 66, but this was a bit deceptive, as 61 points of those were for a brilliant win by John Smythe! I think these guys are all over 60. Edi Birsan, Mike Rocamora, and Chuck Liebernauer were the others. Edi contributed no points. but was bragging a lot. ;-)
The Scott Morris led ``Flat Earth Society" team just nosed out MY team with 44 points (tied for 7th). My Malice in Underhand team (we had great T-Shirts designed by Don Williams' wife - mine had a picture of Alice with a knife and my ``Boob" nickname) finished 8th with 41 points. Steve Emmert and Charles Steinhardt were the other members of the team (Steinhardt filling in for Mark Fassio who had to leave because of a family illness).
More later perhaps on how I did personally, but I played a great final game to pull out a decent placing - only Buz Eddy knows all the results for sure, he took them, so I don't even know where I placed - middle of the pack though. I was in Simon Bouton's winning English game as Austria and TRIED desperately to get everyone to realize that they needed to stop Simon rather than wiping me out, but Ken Mathias was getting killed as France and David Norman as Russia was fighting Adam Silverman's Turkey and Ray Setzer in Germany couldn't stop Simon alone! I dropped from 5 to 1 while England and Turkey each were going from 5 to 9 (over two game years) but it was clear that Simon was going to get the best of it over Adam. Adam (who also is a New England local who I know well) will learn for next time!
I got off to a bad start in the first game by not studying the tournament draw system closely enough. I played Italy to a 5 center final position but was excluded from what was declared a four way draw at the closing bell on the tie breaker - highest average center count as Italy I lost to Russia who also had five centers, but draws had to include a minimum of 29 centers voting for the proposal. This made the line between five and six centers crucial AND unbalanced to manage. It accentuates the difficulties of countries like Italy trying to play a good balance of power game. Quarto warned me I would hate it, and he understated how much I did. Oh well, I learned in how to be PART of a four way in the last game as Austria.
AND, last but not least:
Chris Kulander won the Stab of the Tournament award for taking a Russia position from 7 centers to 13 centers in one year from four different neighbors!
I will add to this later, undoubtedly, but this is a quick look at the Numbers, not the people. Corrections are welcome.
| Jim-Bob Burgess, burgess of world.std.com |
Steve Maurich (Wed, 09 Aug 2000 06:27:24 GMT)
Matt Shields lives in Oregon. Corvallis, I believe.
| Steve, smaurich of home.com |
Terry Tallman (Tue, 8 Aug 2000 09:36:18 -0700)
Matt Shields is from Salem Oregon. Usually not that awesome a face to face player, at least not a go for the the throat type, so I am interested in his doing so well. A good alliance player though.
| Terry, ttallman of linknet.kitsap.lib.wa.us |
((Sorry about that (and not knowing that Blue has a Green Card.... like wow!!! [boo, hiss, hiss, hiss]). Chris Martin's amazing comeback was achieved mostly at the expense of Larry Peery.... I came over when Larry had 8 centers and said: WOW, Larry, this could be your best tournament result ever! He replied: Thanks for jinxing me..... soon enough Chris stabbed him and all was right with the world....))
Mike Barno (Mon, 07 Aug 2000 16:50:17 -0400)
Two minor corrections: Jon Evers (no ``H" in first name, 5th in tourney) is from Maryland, not overseas. (He'd offered to host the Swedish guests at his home but they had to cancel their visit.) Chris Kulander (not Colander), nicknamed ``Ku", won the Golden Blade award for that six-center stab of four players. ((I corrected these errors above, but also include your note for the double mentions. I don't know Jon Evers or Chris Kulander, but wish I had gotten a chance to meet them.))
It was a great time and those of you who missed it SHOULDA BEEN THERE! We had to settle for players from ten nations: USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Norway, France, Luxembourg, Israel, Australia, and New Zealand. And American Rick Desper has played from Holland and Germany the last couple of years.
| - Mike Barno, mpbarno of lightlink.com |
Rick Desper (Mon, 7 Aug 2000 23:58:25)
Well, we need to be careful. I have been living in Germany, not Holland. Not to be confused with my voluminous pressing TAP as Holland in Show Me the Money.
| Rick ``team leader with three points" Desper, R.Desper of DKFZ-Heidelberg.de |
Mike Barno (Mon, 07 Aug 2000 18:12:59 -0400)
Oh, yes, that's where the Holland part hit my feeble old brain. That game has enough people like Don [rephrase - ``people such as Don", one might hope there are no other people LIKE Don] in it that I've always read its press. Good to meet you and take a fairly-small draw with you.
| -mpb, mpbarno of lightlink.com |
Edi Birsan (Mon, 07 Aug 2000 20:50:12 -0700)
Actually one minor correction, there was a last second recount and Best Italy went to Yarden Livnat not Simon Bouton.
| Edi, edi of mgames.com |
Yarden Livnat (Thu, 10 Aug 2000 06:25:24 GMT)
Just to put the record straight.... I won Best Italy (though in the ceremony they awarded it to Simon by mistake...) I'm not sure if it was a good move by Jim and Edi to correct this mistake as Delta lost my luggage with the plaques.. :-(
| Yarden, yarden of cs.utah.edu |
((I heard some kind of a commotion about this, but I was scribbling notes so furiously that I just kept going.... I really enjoyed riding with you back to the airport, since I didn't really have a chance to meet you during the tournament. I hope you did get the plaques back eventually!! Thanks go to Dan Mathias, actually TRIPLE thanks go to Dan Mathias for a huge amount of behind the scenes work helping this thing to come off. Jim Yerkey was very visible as the main tournament director, but Dan was doing a huge amount in the background that I don't believe was appreciated as much as it might have been. Driving Yarden and myself to the airport was just the very least of those favors. Kudos to Dan!!!))
Rick Desper (Mon, 07 Aug 2000 17:45:34 GMT)
Tthe new World Diplomacy Champion's name is Simon Bouton. Congratulations to Simon. Simon was also part of the Championship Team, Best Asians (their name, not an award), which also included Chetan Radia, Gihan ??? (sorry), and ??? ??? (doubly sorry). ((Simon is a really, really good player in my not unique opinion. I got the details on the team above correct....))
I myself got 2 3-way draws and a 4-way draw, which I think ended up placing me in the top 25 or so, I'll have to ask David Norman. I had one really bad game, which unfortunately happened in the team round, where I ended up with a 3-center Germany excluded from the draw. Worse, all three of my teammates were eliminated, so we finished with three points as our team score, and won the ``Crying Towel" award. :) A nadir for Team Internet, which as recently as two years ago won the Team Championship itself.
For me, the important points were meeting Brandon Clarke and two of the leading Irish players, Brian Dennehy and Fearghal D. for the first time (I had met most of the European players at Namur or Manorcon), seeing a lot of old faces, meeting some more postal players I had not met before, like Mike Barno and Don Williams, and generally having a lot of fun.
The business meeting was somewhat contentious as we discussed the new World Dipcon charter. In spite of the fact that this charter had been discussed extensively beforehand, many people came to the meeting with new complaints about the procedure. In particular, Xavier Blanchot raised an objection to the idea that the charter voted on in the US should be accepted by everybody. As currently constructed, the charter defines three zones: US and Canada, European and Mediterranean, and Oceania (Australia and New Zealand). Thankfully, Brandon come up with an acceptable proposal, that the charter will include each region only after a vote in that region. The charter passed by a comfortable margin in the American region, and will be voted on again next year in Paris and the year after in Canberra.
((I have just a few things to say about this meeting. First of all, the ``fun'' part. Don Williams and I looked up at one point to see a long line of Lawyers standing at the back of the room together, including Steve Emmert, Carl Adamec, and Mark Franceschini, but there were others too, I think. Hilarious.... one well-placed bomb.... Also, as I mentioned above, another highlight was Robert Sacks' impassioned defense of the Charter. Not because it was perfect, as Edi Birsan readily admitted, but because it was time to stop arguing over a hard fought compromise document. I still saw a great deal of Iain Bowen's spirit in the document (and since I might be the only Dip publisher with him still on my sub list, let me say ***HI, IAIN!!!***) and this reminded me all too much of the World DipCon Society meeting that Iain ran in 1994 (?) where Xavier Blanchot made almost precisely the same speech, word for word. Not even seeming to realize the incongruity of it when the Americans were voting of their own free will to send the World DipCon to Canberra, Australia for 2002, with no US group choosing to bid against them. In theory, it could be held out of the US for quite some time that way and rendered one of Xavier's arguments (that the US would grab it every two years like clockwork and that was not fair) as totally absurd and patently incorrect. This was far more contentious than it needed to be and I, for one, want to congratulate Edi Birsan personally for handling it so well, if not as quickly as EVERYONE would have liked. A few of the speakers also were slightly inebriated. Unfortunately, the anarchic nature of our hobby practically demands we both allow such spectacles and that they will occur. I hope with all my heart that this is the end of it and that it gets by Paris next year, but I am not that hopeful and I don't really mind who hears that. What is unfair is having people work hard on things in this hobby and then have other people, who have the opportunity and are even solicited to do some of that work, dump on the final result. Nuff said from here.))
The biggest disappointment was the relatively large number of no-shows by international players, in particular the Swedes. I had looked forward to seeing Christian Dreyer attempt to defend his title, and to seeing Leif Bergman and others again. I heard rumors about a travel agent who ran off with their money - I hope we find out just what happened, as a World Championship without any Swedes is certainly missing something important. I did play a game with one Norwegian, Frank Johansen, and he annoyingly conspired with Jim Burgess in the first round to prevent Don Williams and myself from getting either a 2-way EF or a three way with Turkey. ((Hey, Rick, that's the name of the game, what I thought was worse was me being EXCLUDED from that draw by the rules....)) Other exotic foreign cultures represented included Belgium, France, England, Ireland, Israel, Canada, Luxembourg (sort of), and Carolina.
Seven clipboards were handed out to the seven players who had travelled the furthest. To my chagrin, my flight from Frankfurt was ignored, as Edi Birsan said ``you're one of us" and gave clipboards to Jean-Louis Delattre from Belgium and Yann Clouet who complained to me about his new living quarters in Luxembourg. (I'm not seriously complaining here, BTW).
I am hoping that I can get to Paris next year for WDC XI, and perhaps even make the flight a week earlier so I can also get to Manorcon. I am also really hoping I can get Down Under for WDC XII.
On the whole, a great weekend, with a huge number (149) of Dippers, including many great players. It was a blast.
| Rick, desper of my-deja.com |
Tim Miller (7 Aug 2000 00:51:26 GMT)
WDC X is now over, and I am pleased to report that I came back from my first ever FtF Con with an award - OK, so it was the ``I got hammered" award, but an award is an award by my way of thinking :-).
Anyhow, I didn't write down the winners, but the championship was taken by the European champ Simon Bouton.
Anyhow, here's my path to the ``Hammered" award:
Round 1: My first ever real serious FtF game, and I get to face Grand Prix champ and ex world champ Chris Martin (England), Hobby Legend Edi Birsan (France), Israeli Dipper Shlomi Yaakobovich (Turkey), and ex champ Mike Rocamora (Russia) on my board. I was Austria and Ry4an Brase was Germany while Grant Flowers was Italy. Goody. I first tried to ally with Shlomi against Mike, but wavered a bit on letting Shlomi grow too much, and got indecisive. Eventually, with Mike running scared in the south, I tried to switch gears against Shlomi, but Grant came up with a wicked stab, and I was out. Mantra of the round ``Shlomi, you must trust Shlomi." Chris, Edi, Shlomi, and a revived Mike shared a four way.
Round 2: I drew England. Allied with Al (forget last name) the German and gave Chris Kulander (Russia) some major worries in the north (he moved north). Unfortunately because of this and an Italian move to Tyr Steve (again forget last name, will try to update this tomorrow since I should have the last names written down, but am too tired to get them) as France picked up 3 and went after Al and I with Russia. We eventually made peace with Russia, but it was too late, and we were both eaten.
Round 3: I draw Turkey. Try to open neutral. Too neutral for my neighbors, apparently, as Austria, Italy, and Russia all start throwing units my way. I'm gone by the end of 1903. Talk about the quick evisceration of a witch. This probably sealed my ``hammered" award as I went from 3 to 0 in one year. Ouch!
Round 4: I draw England again. This time, events seem to be in my favor as I gain Bel and Nwy in '01, and St. Pete's from a sinking Russian in '02. By then I was confident, and wanted to take out France, so I stabbed brutally in fall '02. Unfortunately, my brain takes a holiday on the subsequent build phase, and I build to kill France quick, not to protect the North Sea (now vacant) from Germany. I had read him as worried about France, but I left myself wide open, and he stabbed hard. I hung on to '07 working with France as virtually one power, but got killed. The game ended in a TG two-way.
I had a lot of fun despite my dismal showing. After this experience, I definitely want to play more FtF. It has a totally different dynamic than e-mail, one that favors quick action and often quick kills (this was brought on by the scoring system). Unfortunately, this made Austria a big target, and I saw her out or in serious trouble in about 66% of the games.
These cons are a great experience to meet hobby legends like Edi Birsan and Manus Hand (the only player I'd previously met in person). I met a lot of folks from rgd, including the above and Rick Desper, Jim Burgess, Grant Flowers, Ry4an Brase, Brandon Clarke (whose bid to host WDC 2002 in Canberra succeeded unanimously), and others. It's also interesting to watch the hobby politics get played out at the DipCon Society meeting. Manus Hand made the successful bid to host the next North American DipCon in Denver next February. The next World DipCon will be at the end of July 2001 in beautiful Paris, France.
In short, I encourage all you e-mailers to get out and play some FtF. Maybe we can form a team to play in Paris, though I'm not sure if I'll personally be able to attend.
| -Tim Miller, afeal of attglobal.net |
Dan Schmidt (07 Aug 2000 10:52:04 -0400)
Here's another one, including quotes from Edi Birsan and Brandon Clarke, among others:
http://www.sunspot.net/content/features/
((This is a shorter version of the exact URL, I couldn't get the entire one (which ran about two lines) to work.))
And featuring this great quote: ``The three most-popular games at the convention, he says, are Risk, Diplomacy and Access and Allies.''
| Dan Schmidt, dfan of harmonixmusic.com |
((What I thought was even funnier was watching Fred Davis' wife Inge being perhaps the most upset person in the room about the mistake. This next one was something Steve wrote up for a game he is in, where I gather he is known as the ``Benevolent Dictator''. RiiiiGHT! He is now and will ever be known by his official name for our Malice in Underhand World DipCon Team, ``JUDAS''!! Now, Williams, get your damned endgame statement to Pete Gaughan NOW, or I'm gonna have to toss you out of the szine. The whole readership here needs to hear the WHOLE story....))
Steve Emmert (Wed, 9 Aug 2000 08:01:59)
[Special WDC Report]
Never let it be said that The Benevolent Dictator fails to pay homage to the authors of worthy achievements. Our boy, Sean Cable, finished fourth in the world this past weekend in Baltimore, racking up a solo victory as Germany, which he assures me is not his best country, or even his second best. Congratulations, Blue, on a marvelous showing in a very well-stocked tournament. An incredible number of extremely strong players attended, lending all the more luster to the achievements of World Champion Simon Bouton of the UK, who took home two Best Country prizes to go with the overall first place finish.
I had the pleasure of seeing several Academicians at the con, as reported elsewhere on this net. Notably absent from the festivities was Laurie Bentz-Cable, who not only stood up The Benevolent Dictator, she even stood up her own husband, who had been counting on her for a ride home on Sunday. I did get to meet Principles Chief Cartographer Tim Beaman, and have decided to award him Laurie's position in Principles as punishment to her for having neglected, failed, or refused to appear as promised. Tim, if you'll submit fall 1911 orders by the next deadline, I'll be sure to get you back in the flow of the game.
The Benevolent Dictator, true to his stated purpose to attend the con for social purposes only, played in but two rounds, thus failing to qualify for any serious awards. (Awards were based on your best three scores out of four rounds.) I managed a three-way draw as Austria in round 1, with eleven dots, and a four-way draw as Russia in round 3, with ten. The real thrills of the con for me were meeting friends, greeting and thanking Allan Calhamer for all the pleasure he's given me over the years, and having dinner on Saturday evening in Little Italy. ((And the most sincere thanks to Steve for inviting me to share that Dinner with him, and most sincere apologies to him for holding up our arrival at the restaurant trying not to miss the World DipCon Society Festivities (or should that be abominations....). We all DID miss Allan Calhamer's speech itself, but the value of Steve's company even exceeds that of the Founder of the Feast.))
Next year's Dipcon (American version) is in Denver; accordingly, the Vegas bookmakers have installed Pat Charlton as the early favorite, despite his aversion to playing FTF. Next year's WDC will be in Paris, and after that, it travels to Canberra, Australia in March 2002. Hey, if everyone votes provincially, we may never see another WDC in North America again; the rules specify that the sites are selected two years in advance, at the WDC meeting that is always held at WDC. Hence the Parisians will, in all likelihood, select a European site next year for 2003, and the Aussies may well decide in 2002 to keep it in the southern hemisphere for 2004. Canberra's bid was helped considerably by two factors: (1) They had a well-prepared presentation, including a nice informative/lobbying brochure, and (2) there were no other bidders. (This is not to say that they would not have won if there HAD been other bidders. But as a trial lawyer, I know that my winning percentage goes up significantly when my opponent declines to appear for trial.) ((This was not entirely a coincidence, as I noted above. American bidders were discouraged as a magnanimous gesture to our Down Under brothers that was supposed to deter arguments like those we observed.))
For a more detailed report of the results of WDC, I highly recommend the excellent postal zine The Abyssinian Prince, published by the ever-humble economist, Jim Burgess (who also happened to be my teammate in the team round last weekend). He will probably publish his report in the next week and a half or so. His zine is available online at: http://devel.diplom.org/DipPouch/Postal/Zines/TAP
Some of you Philistines who have yet to experience the wonders of the postal hobby would probably benefit from a visit to Jim-Bob's site. I will not attempt to coerce you into doing so; as Dorothy said about horticulture, ``You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think." If you want to remain a Philistine, you may do so and continue an unfulfilled life. But if I did not at least point out the way to greater happiness, I wouldn't be known as - The Benevolent Dictator
| Steve, semmert of mindspring.com |
((Thank you for the kind comments, I hope this section meets the standards that you are expecting. Our enjoyment was severely curtailed by the poor luck of our compatriot, Mark Fassio.... here is a bit of his story. He needed to be with his parents more than he needed to be with us.))
Mark Fassio (Sat, 12 Aug 2000 13:39:07 -0400 (EDT))
Probably better that I didn't show; I'm sure I would've ended up in a Birsan-like abused mode, and cost the team points.
Got a lot of nice e-mail from folks I briefly met Thu night AND found out that both Judas and Duck played in a game with Mike French, aka ``Frenchy" the Austrian in my e-Tourney. Frenchy had good words for you both (the fool), and just eliminated himself rather than walk unopposed into Paris. (This is known as ``The Emmert Opening," of course.) Frenchy saw my team rapidly climbing the charts and, rather than ``aid" me and my team, killed himself to hurt us by helping the #2 team.
I thought only the Japanese did hari-kiri?
| Marcus, fazfam of juno.com |
PS) Steve, Dad was discharged yesterday with mostly clean bill of health (and lots of meds). Mom's ear stopped bleeding on Tuesday, so all seems well at Faz Mansion (North). Thanks for your (and all of youze guys') concern.
((Nonsense, Marcus!! We missed you big time. Good to hear your parents are doing better! As for Mike French, I was in that First Round game with Duck too and Mike played Turkey to my Italy. We wiped out Austria together (against Duck's better judgement, but I REALLY had no choice as Alan Witte was not one of the tournament's better players and I couldn't trust him or manipulate him). I will have MUCH more to say about this game elsewhere in the szine.))
Steve Emmert (aka Judas Iscariot - Wed, 9 Aug 2000 16:17:49 -0400)
Here's a mailing I just got with full WDC results. Jim-Bob finished with 15 points (tied with Birsan!), while Don had 34 and I had 35. But HE gets listed among the noble souls, while *I* am among the Untouchables at the bottom of the page, since I didn't play in three rounds. (Sigh.) This is the price of loyalty to one's family, I suppose.
By the way, der Wunderkind, Steinhardt (aka the pseudoFaz), played four times and got 27 points. Evidently he offended nearly everyone he played with.
| J.I., semmert of mindspring.com |
((Charles Steinhardt did the last minute substitution for Mark Fassio on our Malice in Underhand team.))
Blue (aka Sean Cable - Wednesday, August 09, 2000 3:56 PM)
| Final, Semi-Official World DipCon Results |
1) Simon Bouton UK D12r W 2e D14t D 3i 123
2) Brian Dennehy Ireland D 3a W 8f D10g D 7i 101
3) Matthew Shields US D 2f D10e L12r D 4g 97
4) Sean ``Blue'' Cable UK L 3r W 7g L 5a D10f 97
5) Jon Evers US D16g L16e W11r L 4i 80
6) Yarden Livnat Israel D6i D12t D 3a L 9e 75
7) Vick Hall UK D5g D10a D13r D7g 74
8) John Smythe US L1f L5i W6r - 72
9) Don Scheifler US D6f D11g L1a L1e 71
10) Fearghal O'Donnchu Ireland D4f L4e D2g D2i 67
11) Nathan Cockerill US W1r L8e L10a L6t 66
12) Gihan Bandaranaike UK D5t D5g D9e L1i 64
13) Hudson Defoe US D2t D4a D1r - 58
14) Tom Kobrin US D7t D5a D3i D7t 57
15) Tim Richardson US L9g D3e L3r D8t 55
16) Yann Clouet France D15e D13r D7g L7a 54
17) Chetan Radia UK L4r L10i D12a D8g 52
18) Carl Willner US - L12i D15t D10e 51
19) Brandon Clarke NZ D3f D1i D8r L6g 50
20T) Rick Desper US D10f D16f L12g D2e 49
20T) Grant Flowers US L11i D9g D8t L9g 49
20T) Mark Franceschini US L10g D9t D8t - 49
23T) Michael McMillie US D4g L11r D13g D11f 48
23T) Frank Johansen Norway D10f L6a D5t D1r 48
23T) Tom Pasko US L1a D14t L15r D4f 48
26T) Craig Sedgwick Australia L5r D11f L11f D5i 45
26T) Ric Manns US D13r L7t D15e - 45
28) Mike French US D10t D14f L4e D5r 43
29T) Chris Kulander US L7i D1r D7f L4a 40
29T) Chris Martin US D11e L8a D2t D5f 40
29T) Doug Faust US D9t L1a D14f L8r 40
29T) Shlomi Yaakobovich Israel D11t L14r D5g L7e 40
29T) Mark Wightman UK D4t L14g D4a D9f 40
34) Jeff Dwornicki US D15t D16a L11f D6i 39
35) Benjamin Stewart US L1t L13g D9t D6e 38
36) Stephen Koehler US D14f D15e L6t - 37
37T) Monty Carlisle US L15a D3f D9i D11e 36
37T) Daniel Orlowski US L3t L12a D14e D1f 36
39T) Don Williams US D10e L3t D3f L6a 34
39T) Manus Hand US D4e L3g - D3r 34
41) Andy Marshall US L2e D1f D12t L3a 33
42T) Ike Porter US D16e L16t D2f - 32
42T) Charles Severance US L5a L8r D10t - 32
42T) Eric Grinnell US D14g L6i D7a - 32
45) Kevin Kacmarynski US D14t L7r D4f L4t 31
46) Ray Setzer US D12t L2g L15a D6f 30
47) Mike Hall Canada D12f D6r - L8i 29
48T) Charles Steinhardt US D8r L6g D10t L9a 27
48T) Alvaro Ugaz US D8e L1g D12f L7r 27
48T) David Norman UK D7f L2r L5i L11g 27
51T) Martin Smith US D16t L10f D10i L8f 26
51T) Frank Easton Canada D9e D4r - L4e 26
53) Phil Reynolds US - D15f L14g D9r 24
54) Ken Mathias US L4i L2f L7t D2f 23
55) Bob Olivere US D7e L9r L14i - 22
56T) Robert Vollman Canada L5i L8t L8i D1g 21
56T) David Burgess US L8g D6e L4g D11t 21
56T) Allan B. Calhamer US L13t L3r L10f D6t 21
56T) Mike Barno US L12a D16r - L3t 21
60) Carl Adamec US - D3t L15i L5a 20
61T) Jean Louis Delattre Belgium L13i D15a L11e L2t 19
61T) Rod Spade US L13g L11t L6i L3e 19
61T) Adam Silverman US L14i L2t L12i - 19
64T) Michael Sims US L3i D12f L7e - 18
64T) Brian Ecton US D14r L9i D10e D2g 18
64T) Greg Geyer US - L9e L7i D5g 18
67) Roy Rink US L6g L15r D8f L10r 17
68T) Luis Ugaz US L12e L10r L6f D9t 15
68T) Edi Birsan US D11f L13a L2i L10g 15
68T) Jim Burgess US L10i L2a L15f D1a 15
69) Rex Martin US L6e L9f D12e L10a 14
70T) Eric Momsen US L15r L16g D13t L11i 13
70T) Ry4an Brase US L11g L16e L14r D11a 13
72T) Scott Troemel US L9r L5f D8e L11r 11
72T) William Simonitis US L7a D4f L11t L6r 11
72T) Michael Czajkowski US D8t L9a L5e L8a 11
72T) Thibauld Constans France L2a L3i L13f L4r 11
76) Buz Eddy US D8f L12r L13i - 10
77T) Chuck Liebenauer US L1i L1t L8a - 9
77T) Malcolm Cornelius UK L6r L12g L1f - 9
79T) Mike Rocamora US D11r L8i L7r - 8
79T) Jimmy Levay US L13f L2i - L10t 8
81T) Ken Samuel US L9i L10t L10r L3f 7
81T) Web Agnew US L6t D4i L9g L2a 7
83) William Fuller US L14a L10g L13a L1t 6
84) Conrad Woodring US L7r L11a - L10i 5
85T) Gordon Aichin UK L3e - L14a L2r 4
85T) Andrew Shiner US L12i L13t L9f - 4
87T) Joe Carl US L1e L14a L1i - 1
87T) Larry Peery US L1g L14i L2r - 1
89) Benjamin ``Tim'' Miller US L11a L1e L4t L8e 0
Non-qualifiers:
Steve Emmert US D9a - D4r - 35
Steven Brooks US D15g D12e - - 35
David Hood US - D6t D1e - 34
Bruce Reiff US D13a L15t - - 25
Charles Stucker US D5e - L3g - 22
Rob Cochran US D3g L11i - - 21
Hugh Turner US - - D15g - 21
Dan Mathias US - D14e L5r - 21
Bevyn Quiding US L2i D6f - - 20
Scott Morris US - D4g D4i - 20
Steve Araps US - D5e - - 19
David Willis US L16i D13f - - 19
Patrick Beltran US - - D5f - 19
Mike Zmulek US D13e - - - 18
Todd Surgoine US - D13e - - 17
Sandy Wible US D16f - - - 14
Jim Yerkey US - - D13e - 13
Scott Bowling US D15f L8g - - 11
Scott Parsons US - L7e - - 7
Rob Hassard US - D3a - - 7
Joshua Randall US L9f - - - 5
Pascal Nicolle US L4a L13i - - 5
Roger Santagato US - L15i - L5e 5
Leon Quiding US L16r L15g - - 5
Jason Clevenger US L8i L7a - - 5
Randy Jackson US - - - D9i 4
Bill Thompson US L5f - - - 4
John Keating US L2g - - - 4
John Ferguson US - - L2a - 3
Pete Rauch US L16a - - - 3
Martin Mawyer US L14e L4t - - 2
Paul Konka US L15i - - - 1
Mike Ottenberg US - - L9a - 1
Joe Collinson US - - L8g - 1
Michael Godfrey US - - - L7f 0
Brad Stuart US L2r L7i - - 0
Carl Walling US - - - L3g 0
John LeBrun US - L7f - - 0
Derek Harmon US - - D3e - 0
David Schmid US - - D9r - 0
John Serabian US - - L6e - 0
Xavier Blanchot France - - L2e - 0
Jeffrey Simmons US L8a - L11a - 0
Alan Witte US L10a - - - 0
Phil Bradley US - - L1g - 0
John Quarto US - L5r L6a - 0
Marlin Pierce US - L11e L3t - 0
Jim McCarthy Canada L6a - L6g - 0
Stephane Dorias Canada L12g - - - 0
Don Del Grande US L7g - - - 0
| Blue, Blue of huskynet.com |
((A few quick comments on certain individuals and awards on the list by me: First, I count only 139 contestants. That is still a helluva lot, but it seems to me that it could have been much, much more. Also Mike Hall, the ``49er'', looks like he was really 47th, unless they counted the ``non-qualifiers like Emmert, but then Ray Setzer should have been 49th and Mike Hall 50th. Five on the first board and six of the Top 10 were foreigners. Don Scheifler, an old postal hobby stalwart who hasn't been seen much around our parts lately, finishes tenth. Great to meet him after all these years. The Irishmen were uniformly just loads of fun to be around, precisely as I had expected. Gihan Bandaranaike finished 12th and I was directly responsible for his elimination in the fourth round. I didn't go into the game with the intent to eliminate him, but I ***DID*** go into the game with the determined intent to get my only draw of the tournament. Frank Johansen, who also was a first round ally and finished tied for 23rd with Tom Pasko (who it was good to meet again after many, many years), was my game long ally in that game to good effect. To be fair or maybe not, Gihan was either a bit drunk, hungover or both, but it still was fun to match wits with him for awhile, before stabbing the heck out of him! Then I gave him the beer I had promised him (I might have even done better had I given it to him earlier!!))
((Rick Desper, Grant Flowers, and Mark Franceschini all finished tied for 20th. Some good players in that group! The group tied at 29th: Chris Kulander, Chris Martin, Doug Faust, Shlomi Yaakobovich, and Mark Wightman also was notable, though I don't know Doug. The Chrises pulled off two of the biggest stabs of the tournament. Kulander's was described above and Chris Martin ruined Larry Peery's possible best tournament showing in decades (Larry was Russia and Chris was Turkey in Round 3, Board 2) just after I came over and kibitzed a first class jinxing on Larry by saying he was doing well beating the great and powerful Chrissie poo. Shlomi (who I played against in my Worldmasters tournament game last winner) was the only person who brought a companion who followed him around the whole tournament. She must have been bored to tears.... and of course Mark is one of the UK's greatest pubbers. The estimable Don Williams tied with the equally estimable Manus Hand (who will be hosting US DipCon next year in Denver) at 39th. Phil Reynolds finished 53rd and wins my personal all-time award for dipper who who looked precisely as I imagined he would look! I saw him across the room and said: ``that has to be Phil Reynolds" and it was. Of course, this usually does not happen and I even frequently have trouble reconciling the facts with my images. Hair color always is one of these, as I had to reminded again of how light Rick Desper's hair color is. I recognize him each time I see him, but I always imagine his hair being much darker and can't change my mental image.))
((The group that tied for 56th also is highly notable! First and foremost, my younger brother David beat me by six points.... but he also was tied with the Founder of the Feast, Allan Calhamer! I didn't get much time to talk to him, but it was great to have him part of this event. Robert Vollman played Germany to my Austria in that Fourth Round game where I trounced Gihan and allied with Frank Johansen's Russia. Poor William Fuller (who finished 83rd and lost all of his games) was the unfortunate Turkey among all of these sharks. I really, really enjoyed playing with Robert in this game as he was a careful, patient negotiator who was looking to learn from all of these sharks. He also had lost his first three games and pulled out that last draw and finished ahead of me. Last, but certainly not least, we have Mike Barno, who is also a close friend of my brother David, so it is quite fitting that they were tied.))
((Coming in 60th, was my very first hobby postal GM, Carl Adamec. He and I went to high school together and now he is one of those aforementioned lawyers, practicing in our old hometown. Carl and I went up against each other in Round 3, his Italy to my France. That game also featured Ray Setzer as the Austrian. I was knocked out of that one after trying to attack Ric Manns' England, but being seriously betrayed by an opportunistic Hugh Turner in Germany (playing his only game of the Tournament). It was neat that Edi Birsan and I finished tied for 68th, just ahead of Rex Martin, with Edi getting his draw in the first game and I in the last. And just behind that was Ry4an Brase, who it was good to finally meet after all these years of interacting over the Showcase at the Diplomatic Pouch. Ry4an also pulled out a draw in his Fourth Round game. Then just below that was the top (especially in size) postal pubber in the British hobby at the moment, Malcolm Cornelius. I really wanted to spend more time talking to him than I did, since we share this burden of trying to keep very large postal szines sailing along on schedule. Only the small number of people who have done this, know just what that is like. Still, clearly we both still enjoy it!))
((Finally, Tim Miller managed to beat Larry Peery out for the Hammered award, and deservedly so. I really enjoyed meeting Tim too and keeping up with his progress, or lack of it, throughout the entire tournament. It was good to see that Tim had the right attitude, leaping up in delight when his Hammered award was announced. Of course, I had been checking on Peery as well, and knew he had picked up the single point that Tim lacked, so I was pretty sure that Tim had ``won''. Poor Joe Carl (who is at least a name I see in the US postal scene) tied Larry for second to last place. Well, that's about enough of the stats. Let's go back to some comments, but first, in case you're confused by the notation.....))
Chris Mann (Fri Aug 11 15:58:37 2000)
Rick, Could you explain the notation for us newbies?
| Chris, cam1 of stern.nyu.edu |
Rick Desper (Fri, 11 Aug 2000 17:58:02 GMT)
Well, the notation consists of (D/L/W)(board#)(Power) for example, in my fourth round game I have D2E, as I played on board 2, and was part of the draw as England.
Missing from this notation is both the number of participants in the draw and the number of SCs owned. As these two points of information determine the score entirely, I could see where the results would be viewed with confusion.
See http://devel.diplom.org/Face/results/WDC10.html
What sticks out immediately is that the British and Irish romped. Top team, overall winner, runner-up, and half of top 12 (if we believe that Sean ``Blue" Cable is British).
| Rick (tied for 20th out of 149 players), desper of my-deja.com |
((The big thing for me at this tournament/convention was the chance to be part of the ``Malice in Underhand'' crew. As most of you know, I usually duck tournaments in favor of housecons when I do make my limited ftf forays, but I really wanted to be part of this crew. You would NOT believe the endless debates that went on about the name of the team, the design of the T-Shirts, and even what brand of cologne Don Williams would wear. And, as mentioned above, we missed Mark Fassio for most of the Con because of problems at his parents' house that he had to go deal with. Well, I hope the guys won't mind me reprinting some of this, since it was MOST of the fun for me.... Jim O'Kelley of our little crowd had to back out from attending and then was supposed to call us on Saturday night....))
Jim O'Kelley (Monday, August 07, 2000 12:20 PM)
Sorry, guys. I was officiating badminton games until about 7:30 your time. How was Baltimore?
| Jim, JimOK of elks.org |
Steve Emmert (Monday, August 07, 2000 10:35 AM)
You bum; you stiffed us. I had my phone on from 6:45 pm until about 8:20 pm, but nooooooo O'K. Some pal YOU are.
| Judas, Lse of SykesCarnes.com |
Steve Emmert (Mon, 7 Aug 2000 15:02:23 -0400)
(What a lame excuse. Badminton trumps Diplomacy - why, da noive o' dat guy!)
Baltimore was, well, a bit lonelier than it should have been, in one important sense. Mark's father was admitted to the hospital Thursday evening, so Mark left first thing Friday morning to go to Pennsylvania. We all hoped he could get back before the tournament ended, but he didn't return until Sunday afternoon, after which it was all over but the rides to the airport.
But Don, Jim-Bob, and I muddled through. Those two played three or four rounds apiece, and I played in but two. I got into a three-way as Austria (eleven dots) and a four-way as Russia (ten). (This continues my streak - for which I have no credible explanation - of never having been eliminated in a FTF game, tournament or otherwise.) I'll allow Don and Jim to describe their triumphs in their own words, but according to Jim-Bob, Malice in Underhand finished eighth.
Dinner on Saturday at Da Mimmo was fabulous.
The juleps were received favorably, I think; I'll let Don and Jim describe what recollections they might still have, distorted as those may be through the twin shrouds of time and intoxication. ((They really were masterful and between us, Don and I drank an entire bottle of booze over the weekend, with little or no help from Steve! But mega thanks for the Juleps. To me the pewter cups were the key, that got really, really cold. I can't imagine drinking those things out of plastic. A sacrilege!))
The shirts are marvelous; an artistic gem. Sondra confiscated mine for a sleep-shirt last night.
Ensconcification. Look it up. ((Should we read that snugness into the sleep-shirt idea??? Just HOW snug is it???))
Don sworetagod that he would finish his Arsenic endgame statement. Okay, everybody; all together now: Deeeeeeeeep breath . . . now hold it . . . hold it . . .
| J.I., Lse of SykesCarnes.com |
((That's it, Williams is toast if he doesn't finish that thing!))
Don Williams (Tue, 08 Aug 2000 11:14:04 -0700)
Got your attention, eh lads!? ((Yes, but not perhaps as you might like...))
The DUCK has landed. In spite of wretched weather, the soggy plane lumbered and lurched off the ground only an hour late. In one of those good news/bad news things, I had a window seat and sat next to a semi-attractive member of the opposite sex. Bad news was that she was five hours worth of chatty, weighed (I swear) no less than 295 lbs, and does Medicare billing fraud analysis ... sohepmeGhod ... ((Hey, I talk to those types all the time, I'm SOOOO glad it was you and not me, I'd have had to make a ``Diplomatic Statement" about who I was and what I do.))
Miriam may have liked Fassio best, but it was one of those father-figure things, him being the greybeard of our little group. We'll just see who's email she shows up on, eh?
Wasn't going to bring this up, but seeing as that ``lousy tipper" crack has already made it's way into our post-weekend pronouncements ... ((This was the Thursday night dinner between Fassio, Emmert, Williams, and the Boob at the local Outback after they all picked me up at the Baltimore airport. Fassio and Emmert practically had our waitress (who is about to move to SoCal) moving in with the Duck so..... well, she SAID she had a boyfriend.... and then, and then, we left it to the Duck to ``select'' the amount of the tip.)) I'll put it down to the two (HUGE CANS OF) Fosters that I miscalculated the tip; I was rounding and thought I'd left 17%; I was not aware 15% is considered ``lousy". 20% might have been appropriate but I wasn't thinking - whatever, I wasn't really trying to shave $5 off the dinner bill, honest. Steve, all, let me thank you for helping me - with $10 - to look like a cheap fool, and feel like a putz and a shitheel, for picking up dinner. And doing it with fanfare. ((Indeed..... admittedly, some of this is probably an East Coast urban thing. The standard in my necks of the woods these days is that you leave 15-20% most of the time. What I usually do is figure out precisely what 15% is and then round up someplace that fits my wallet, the service, and my mood. I sense as I travel a lot, that these East Coast urban habits are not shared across the country. Plus, I am someone who eats out a lot, probably a helluva lot, occasionally every night in a given week, so I am very comfortable. All these are excuses for the Duck..... he just was trying to keep the Waitress out of his future life!))
The above is a relatively small matter. I had a good time with you individually and collectively. Mark, you were star-crossed, and sorely missed, but there will be another time, another place. Our thoughts and prayers are with your parents. Thanks to you and Margie (and especially Michael) for the Four Star B&B service, and excellent taxi service. (Hope the minivan's transmission is back up to snuff). Steve, thanks again for a dinner I won't soon forget, and thanks for the rides through the construction-racked backstreets of Baltimore's ``Little Italy" ((I figured out later that all that traffic was backed up for a Baltimore Ravens football exhibition game. Our timing was incredibly bad, we should have just stayed for Calhamer's speech and used that excuse for the lateness at the restaurant ;-) Just kidding, of course, what really is in order are lots of apologies to Steve. I'm glad everything turned out stupendously anyway!)) and from HV back to Ft Meade, and for our always interesting conversations.
Jim, it's always a pleasure to meet up, and you were a great roommate - being served fresh fruit and yogurt each morning - ah, the best! To each of you - except O'K - thanks for your hospitality and helping hand in seeing me safely there and back. To O'K ... naw, I'll save it for later. (Badminton?! ... keyriced ... )
Stephanie was very happy you all liked the shirts. Chum, I made one up for you, too ... not sure you deserve it seeing as you couldn't be bothered to call us for five-ten minutes.
| Best, Don, wllmsfmly of earthlink.net |
Steve Emmert (Tue, 8 Aug 2000 22:47:35 -0700)
Miriam liked Don best. It was his encyclopedic knowledge of All Things Californian that first got her attention, but after that his boyish good looks reeled her in.
Marcus, I hope both of your parents are well soon, so you can get back to making the lives of noncoms miserable. You missed a fun time at the con, and an even better meal on Saturday than the one we had on Thursday. (Jose was no Miriam, but the trophy wife in the leather pants at the next table made up for it somewhat.) ((Jose was our Mexican waiter in the Italian restaurant in downtown Baltimore on Saturday night, Miriam was the waitress moving to SoCal after abandoning the Outback (before she had a chance to be on Survivor, she would be GREAT, I think....) from Thursday night. You with us still.... I could not really see said leather pantsed trophy wife from my angle, so I missed most of that fun....))
Jim-Bob, I have sent you a copy of the adjudication of my one and only GM'ing exposure, as you (and TAP) are mentioned therein. If you get any new sub fees out of this, my cut is 33%. ((Note that I pulled the World DipCon review out of it above....))
I have not been able to claim my Judas shirt since Sondra saw it. As I type this, she is snoozing blissfully while wearing it; I may never get it back. Please convey my thanks and sincere compliments to Stephanie for her work. Hey, as far as we know, she finished them a month and a half ago. And thanks, Don, for your insight on my unfathomable tournament record. I'm still trying to figure this out; I'll let you know if I make any progress. ((How COULD she have, we were still debating round and round and round what the name of the team would be??!!??))
As for you, Shark Bum, we'll discuss things with you when you have a LITTLE MORE TIME . . . (seriously, good luck with impending Daddyhood; health and happiness to AM)
| J.I., semmert of mindspring.com |
((So, I guess we're forgiving him for not calling us.... even I'm getting confused now. good place to stop and shift gears... let's talk scoring/drawing systems. I do not like the one used at World DipCon, but Tim Miller explains it better than I do.))
Tim Miller (Wed, 16 Aug 2000 17:34:46 -0400)
Basically, at WDC any coalition that held 29 supply centers could dictate the draw, voting in or out anyone that they pleased. If the game ended, and the surviving players could not agree on a draw that had 29 centers behind it, then the GM would determine the draw. He would do this by taking the largest power, then the next largest, etc. until he had a coalition with 29 centers. If two equally sized powers were ties for the smallest power able to get into such a coalition, then the GM would average the number of centers the powers had each year, and whichever power had the higher average was in the draw.
An example, suppose at game end we have:
Russia: 11 centers
Turkey: 9 centers
France: 8 centers
England: 3 centers
Italy: 3 centers
Suppose that these 5 players can't agree on a draw with 29 centers behind it. The GM would find that RTF had 28 centers between them, but he would need either E or I to get a coalition with more than 29 centers. Both are equally sized, so he looks at average number of supply centers, which let's suppose is as follows:
| End of year: | 1901 | 1902 | 1903 | 1904 | 1905 | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 |
| Italian SCs: | 4 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| English SCs: | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
In this case, England gets in the draw since she had a higher average number of centers (4.75) at the end of each year than Italy (3.75). So the result would be a RFTE four way, excluding Italy.
| -Tim Miller, afeal of attglobal.net |
((And this is precisely what happened to me in my Round 1 game where I was an excluded Italy to Frank Johansen's France. With Italy's slow growth, I really didn't stand a chance.))
Scott Morris (Wed, 9 Aug 2000 10:55:33 EDT)
Jim Bob, Hey buddy, good to see you at WDC. Sorry we didn't get a chance to talk more, it seemed a game was always about to start or I was too hung over. :)
It was a fantastic con. I really enjoyed it. It did not seem as well organized as the 97 N.C one but close enough.
I couldn't get more than a 3 way and 4 way but I never got eliminated so I'll take it! I suspect you need a real chump on your table to get a solo. Also I've got a bone to pick with the organizers on the team concept, My team drew, Italy, Italy, Italy and Austria. We had no chance. LOL. Despite that handicap we had two 3 ways and one 4 way and one elimination. However all our draws were with lose center counts.
| Your chum, Scott, ScottM221 of aol.com |
((Scott, you have real special ``car salesman eyes", what a ftf dipper you must be. Too bad we never were on the same board.... I see you were ``having fun'' and missed a few Rounds ;-) Hmmmm....))
David Burgess (Thu, 10 Aug 2000 12:44:52 -0400)
Jim,
I had a great time at World DIPCON. Are the full results posted on the net anywhere? Mike Barno sent me the top 7 or so... ((See above....)) I'm sad to say I didn't play with any of them. I haven't played nearly enough dip in the past few years and it showed. Well, I'll just have to do better next time. Realistically, that will be 10 years from now. I do think I'm going to try to get to some CON next year. I did meet a lot of good people. I should have had two 3-way draws instead of 4-way draws, if the games had lasted another 5 minutes. The last game I should have had a two way, but I missed one order and it really screwed up the outcome. Russia was allowed to retreat to one of my open centers and keep in the game 1 year longer. C'est la vie! I'm going to get Phil Reynolds' szine and join one of his variant games. (WOW...that is a rambling paragraph!)
Survivor update: I knew Colleen was going to get it after Sean invited Richard for breakfast on the ship. I have this sinking feeling it's going to be Richard and Susan for the final 2 and I don't want either of them to win. I hope Rudy wins, he's been quietly keeping in the game without annoying anyone. I think survivor 2 will be more fun that this one. It will be more cut-throat because everyone will know what they are getting themselves into this time.
| David, DBurgess of GLENSFALLSHOSP.ORG |
((I agree, much, much more on Survivor below. Some will say, of course, TOO much.... we need some comments on playing with Calhamer, so here's John Quarto's, whose opinion I respect above most others.))
John Quarto-vonTivadar (Tue, 8 Aug 2000 23:05:33 -0400)
Well, I have an interesting story. We were on the same table for the gunboat game. He was playing England, and I was Russia. England opens Northward and then in fall 1901, mis-wrote the Army's convoy order to Norway!! :) We figured, if anyone would know how to write the order, certainly he would so there wasn't a heck of a lot of ``slack" the way one might be with a newbie whose intent was clear but who'd mis-written the order. Other than breathing a sigh of relief as Russia, I thought the incident was kinda cute. He is a LOT more fun to talk with one-on-one rather than in a group, since you pick up on a lot of the soft-spoken gems he lets fly. And just goes to show that anyone can make a mistake anytime so you should always play in such a way that *allows* your opponent to make a mistake :) In the end we voted for a 6way since we weren't have nearly the fun as the other tables which were well into their stripping phase while we were playing a much-too-serious game :)
Calhamer did autograph my copy of the 1958 board so I was majorly, majorly happy all weekend.
| John Quarto-vonTivadar, jcq of mindspring.com |
((Thanks, John, now you wanted some help looking for someone, right??))
John Quarto-vonTivadar (Mon, 7 Aug 2000 14:28:18 -0400)
Hi Jim, nice to see you again at WDC. I was in fact able to find the old issue (only one tho!) of DiplomacyWorld at the web site. I would be interested in getting involved with converting from the PDF scanned format to a format that will allow cross-referencing, searching, etc., which is going to mean conversion to an electronic format of the scanned issue. ((The whole thing IS up there. If you're having trouble finding it, check out the click at the bottom of the main page. The new ones will be in both pdf and html, but if you have some ideas on conversion, talk to me, talk to me....))
Also, I wanted to remind that I'm looking for how to contact Sylvain LaRose from Montreal. He has attended AvalonCON many times but not this year. What is your best guess for how to start tracking down his email address, or whatever?
| Thanks, talk to you soon, John, jcq of mindspring.com |
((I looked for a bit myself and couldn't find him. If anyone can help John out E-Mail me, or John directly! If no one finds him by issue 240, he'll have to be my next search for candidate.))
Steve Emmert (Fri, 11 Aug 2000 17:24:33 -0400)
Dear David - Thanks for your detailed reply on this topic.
We apparently disagree only on the definition of ``out of game" conduct, and neither of us would want to play with a complete crook. Nor do I think Harry is a crook; I would cheerfully buy him a beer and talk about this or any other aspect of Dip. I just think he has engaged in a certain amount of bridge-burning that I don't feel I could afford to do. He has lied about something that most of us wouldn't think of fabricating, and that very difference (the fact that he has gone beyond what the vast majority of other players would do themselves) is what will ultimately cost him here. Lying about one's intentions regarding Galicia? Virtually everyone does that at one time or another. Lying about one's draw vote? Maybe a few people would have qualms about that, but most would regard that as integral to the game. Lying about who you are? Now I think you're getting into an area where most people wouldn't tread.
As long as people measure other players' conduct against what they themselves would do, there's a danger to pushing the envelope.
One digression about credibility, one of my favorite topics. I have been trained as a speaker since I was fourteen years old, and am now a professional arguer of sorts (a trial lawyer). I learned long ago that the Greeks categorized three types of appeals that a speaker could make to an audience: Pathos (an emotional appeal), logos (an appeal to logic), and ethos (an appeal based on the personal credibility of the speaker). I have long considered which of these three is the most persuasive. At first I thought it would be logos, but for many years now I have been firmly convinced that ethos is far and away the most valuable type of attack. For example, suppose you got three different versions of a given fact. One came from the Star Trek character Spock, who may be said to embody logic. One comes from Jesse Jackson, who, regardless of whether you agree with his politics, you must concede is a masterful wielder of emotional appeals. The third comes from Walter Cronkite, ``the most trusted man in America." If you had to decide just based on that, Walter would win damn near every time. No one, NO ONE would believe that he would lie to them. What a powerful weapon for a persuader.
It is this lesson that shapes my approach to Dip. (Take notes here; this is the way to beat me.) I generally do whatever I can to develop credibility with other players in a game. Sure, you're going to lie to the guy you're about to stab. But it makes no sense to lie to others, as you will surely reap more in eventual rewards if those players believe, as the game progresses, that you're honest. And that, in turn, is why I would never take such a chance (faking my identity) with my own credibility, since it has such a capacity to wreck my credibility all throughout the hobby.
David, let me close by responding that I am, indeed, very glad that you do not take offense at this. I am in no position to burn bridges when it comes to making friends - no matter how many you have, there's always room for more, and I would be very pleased to buy YOU one of those beers some day soon. Very best wishes.
| Steve, Lse of SykesCarnes.com |
David Partridge (Fri, 11 Aug 2000 15:19:25 -0700 (PDT))
Dear Steve,
First of all, I'd be happy to take you up on that beer, and to offer one in return, but as I don't get to travel for Diplomacy that means I'll have to entice you up to Diplomatic Incident one of these times. Are you ever in the Boston area?
As to the rest of what you say, it's well reasoned and in fact I almost 100%! The only thing I don't agree about is that playing under an assumed identity in a Dip game in some way impairs one's ethos. I know that it has not done so for Harry as far as I'm concerned, and I do not think that it has done so as far as the majority of those in the hobby. I admit I'm making a leap here without data to back me up, but it's my impression that this is the case.
The reason again comes down to context. Harry pulled a great victimless practical joke, and in that context using a false identity is not, in my view, dishonest, and so has no adverse affect on how I perceive his character. Had he done so for some other reason I'd agree with you completely.
| Regards, Dave, rebhuhn of rocketmail.com |
Steve Emmert (Wed, 9 Aug 2000 10:46:50 -0400)
Dear Jim-Bob - I am overdue in responding to David Partridge's thoughtful discussion of the subject of Harry Andruschak's ruse. As I see it, David raises several key points:
1. ``Harry did nothing illegal." (I'm paraphrasing for brevity, but that is, I think, the substance.) I agree that nowhere in the rule book does it say you can't pretend to be of another gender. Nor is something like that likely to be found in the TAP house rules, or in any other house rules, for that matter. But that doesn't make it right. ((Actually, this sort of deception is addressed, either implicitly or explicitly in many sets of house rules. It's not in mine though, intentionally.))
In the context of an analogous topic (letter-passing), I have responded to the ``it's not forbidden in the rule book" argument as follows: We play by a set of unwritten rules, too, that prescribe certain bounds for our conduct. The rule book does not forbid me to, for example, call the Austrian's wife and tell her falsely that he's having an affair. Wrecking someone's home life can be a very effective way of diminishing his Diplomacy effectiveness, and Calhamer did not see fit to forbid this tactic in the rule book. But no sane Dipper would do such a thing; if anyone did, he would likely be unwelcome in virtually all Diplomacy circles, starting with mine.
2. ``Harry didn't use the false identity improperly, e.g., by playing two powers in one game." Agreed, but again, that argument wins only if our entire code of ethics is prescribed in the rule book. There are those, present company definitely included, who regard the entire concept of falsifying one's identity as being fundamentally dishonest in a way that transcends the normal degree of deception found in any given Dip game. If you tell me you won't go to Galicia at the beginning of the game and you go there anyway, I'll laugh about it with you after the game over a beer. (In fact, I did just that after Round 3 in Hunt Valley on Saturday.) But if you begin the game by telling me you're someone other than your true identity, I'll take offense at that as being beyond mere game-related deception.
3. ``This is an appropriate response to the natural cross-gaming in the hobby." Actually, as I understand Harry's explanation, he developed the character in order to overcome a very different kind of reputation. He had, I understand, NMR'ed out of a number of games, and feared backlash for that when he decided to reenter the hobby. I do not condemn him overly for the NMR's; life has the capacity to come crashing down on any of us, and while resigning is always better than NMR'ing, it is understandable. But instead of approaching the problem honorably and with candor, such as by writing an earnest letter to GM's, he chose the easier route of inventing a whole person, thereby deceiving the whole hobby.
In truth, I doubt that any of these responses will cause David, or those who feel as he does, to seriously reexamine their views here. Opinions like these tend to have a lot of inertia, and are hard to change. But the real underpinning of my view is this: Credibility matters, even in Diplomacy. Everyone expects people to engage in deception within the game, and no one (except the more glandular members of the hobby) takes offense at that. But deception outside the game is more costly to the deceiver. I do not insist that David agree with me on this point; I merely invite him to acknowledge that there are lots of us who do, in fact, assess that cost against Harry. And our opinion of this practice will definitely affect our play in any future games in which Harry plays. It doesn't mean I will automatically attack Harry if we're neighbors; it means it will be much, much harder for him to gain my trust, which is a byproduct of personal credibility.
And in the words of Dennis Miller, that's just my opinion; I could be wrong.
| Steve, Lse of SykesCarnes.com |
David Partridge (Fri, 11 Aug 2000 08:11:41 -0700 (PDT))
Hello Steve, While all of the points that you mention below are ones that I support, they do not represent the fundamental basis of our disagreement. (And to be clear from the start, I am saying that we disagree, not that you are wrong. This is purely a subjective matter and any opinion is valid.)
I'm in full agreement that taking play outside of the game (calling the wife, etc.) is in appropriate. Just as you I would not welcome someone who tried any of the tactics you mention. Where we disagree is in finding ``the entire concept of falsifying one's identity as being fundamentally dishonest in a way that transcends the normal degree of deception found in any given Dip game". Certainly one could use a false identity in real life for unscrupulous reasons and cause great harm, however all I've seen Harry do is create a new persona which he used to play a game, which he had a lot of fun role playing, and which in general seems to have been regarded as a good joke by those he played with. I really don't see it any different than what anyone who has ever played a role playing game does.
Had Harry taken it outside the game to some benefit for himself or detriment to others I would agree with you whole heartedly. As to whether or not he harmed the games he was in, I don't believe he did. This is what I was alluding to in what you raise as my third point below. People who knew they were playing with Harry, and who had played with him before, would have been drawing on past experience in any game with him. Those who had not played with him before would not have been able to do so. I certainly don't see eliminating that past history as a violation, even in principle, of the rules of Diplomacy.
My basic point is that I feel, personal opinion here of course, that you are taking what Harry did out of context. Certainly falsifying one's identity can be used for many bad purposes, but here it was used for fun in a responsible manner and caused no harm to anyone. I disagree that is shows some ``fundamental dishonesty" and I honestly feel that you are misjudging Harry because of it, to both your and his loss. Perhaps the reason your message made enough of an impact on me to spur my reply is that my own first thought on hearing of the hoax was one of envy that Harry had pulled it off and not me. By association therefore, your comments on Harry's character also reflect on mine, and not too surprisingly, I don't think them jusfified in my case.
Please note that this does not mean I've taken any offense, nor do I in any way insist that you change your opinion, or even that your opinion is wrong, but I invite you in turn to consider that perhaps you are viewing the action in an absolute ``black or white" manner that is leading you to making incorrect assumptions about Harry's character and that what we are really dealing with here is one of the lighter shades of grey.
| Regards, Dave, rebhuhn of rocketmail.com |
((I still welcome further discussion, but I will note that a key word here is ``fun''. I have had disagreement with some people on the opposite side of this question who questioned my ``right'' to end Harry's fun. And, implicit in that was the game-fun connection. My opinion, and it is only that (just as David and Steve note), is that the fun has been maximized for all the way it played out. The joke had gone on long enough and it was more fun for Don and I to visit Harry (I think Harry will certainly agree that he enjoyed our visit) and to have the following discussions after the secret was revealed. But clearly there are no absolute right answers and the answer cannot have been or ever would have been perfectly balanced for every single affected individual. I have one more comment by Mark Lew below, but I decided not to split his letter.))
Lee Kendter, Jr. (Mon, 7 Aug 2000 18:45:40 -0400)
I handed out a few issues of the new A&O at Dipcon / WBC. The rest will be mailed this week. For those of you who don't get A&O, attached is the Miller number announcement.
The Miller Number Status is: The post is getting split in two. One custodian for the E-mail/Internet and one for postal. Postal will be defined as the results are sent out in a printed zine. The new mnce will be Steve Agar address: stephen of diplomacy-archive.com
Steve will be handling all electronic based games. I have decided to stay on as the mncp. I will be expanding the post. I will now issue numbers for any postal game regardless of the country where the game started. What I need to find out if any overseas posts are filled so that I don't create a conflict with any overseas custodians.
| Yours, Lee A. Kendter, Jr., lkendter of netaxs.com |
| MUSIC SECTION (WITH COMMENTS ON OTHER ARTS AND SOCIETY) |
Comments on the 1999 year in music are still welcome.
The tape thing is still going very slowly. I need some uninterrupted time to do it.... I need to figure out some timings and get together to actually make a master tape. I also finally decided that I need a new tape deck to do this, that my 20 year old dinosaur simply won't do it adequately. And NAPSTER sorts of issues also have been floating through my mind. I do have CD write capability, but I've never done any of that sort of thing before..... I think I'll end up doing this over the Christmas vacation this year. Then I'll either find a commercial service or perhaps buy some new equipment to get the copying done. Once I find the cost of that, I will let people know the cost. I am leaning toward a five dollar fee, so the people I've chosen below for five dollar awards automatically get them for free. There are a few other selected individuals who've been sending me tapes and CD's and things who also will get them for free. For now, I'm going to stop reprinting all the rest of the header stuff each issue. The way I do things, I was sticking it in my face so I noticed it and kept it on my to-do list, but obviously it was way too repetitive.
((Paul Rauterberg sent me a copy of this note he sent to Eric Ozog, presumably (at least I hope so) because he wanted me to print it.))
Paul Rauterberg (17 Aug 2000 04:13:44 -0500)
Dear Eric,
Lately, I've availed myself of Napster-the Net service which offers folks a chance to ``swap" music that they've gained access to by some means or another. It is deathly slow in downloading tunes, and you're at the mercy of the person whose tunes you're copying (if they go offline while you are downloading, the process stops and you're out of luck).
Anyway, I've managed to avail myself of the entire new Peter Gabriel ``Ovo" by this manner. You and Cathy should like it, with its interludes of Irish folk. I've also been copying several tunes by a newish band named ``Porcupine Tree": they do progressive rock instrumentals of impressive complexity, some of which run for 10-20 minutes apiece! ((Ah, reminds of the good old Genesis/Renaissance days....))
I found a site from Compact Disk Services, which sells a lot of ``progressive", ``spacerock", etc cds. Their site is useful for getting the names of bands; then I go to find them on Napster and download samples (or whole albums) of their work.
I've also downloaded a few oldies from the 60's, which I never seemed to pick up in my myriad albums. Songs like ``Judy in Disguise", ``96 Tears", and lots of old Tommy James and the Shondells. I still have a song running through my head called ``Bittersweet (better stay away from her)" which for the life of me I can't think of the band that performed it. Got any guesses?
| Paul, prosit of execpc.com |
((I don't know either, but perhaps someone does.))
Mark D. Lew (Fri, 4 Aug 2000 14:03:25 -0700)
Emmert asks, ``Am I hopelessly old-fashioned?" No, he's hopelessly new-fashioned. Or else just too prissy.
This idea of keeping all dishonesty ``within the game" is certainly not something I associate with the old days. Heck, when I joined the hobby (1980), they were still talking about the ``flying dutchman" ploy as if it were a legitimate tactic.
Cheating has traditionally been part of the game, and often the most fun. At the Dipcons I attended I remember various schemes to sneak views at other players' orders, employ non-players to act as spies, and so forth. In postal Dip I remember people forging letters, either sending them to directly another player pretending to be someone else, or else pretending it was from another player to you and forwarding it to a third player. Not everyone did this, of course, but it wasn't considered unusual. People used to do strange things to verify their true identity in correspondence.
The stories of the ``old days" were even worse, with talk of breaking into people's mailboxes to intercept correspondence or orders, or sending out phony game reports impersonating the GM. Some people disapproved, and most GMs ended up writing HRs to protect themselves, but the point remains. In the old days, cheating was part of the game. The idea that cheating is wrong is rather novel, I think. No, I take that back: Everyone agrees that cheating is ``wrong", but it's fun to do it anyway.
- - -
I'm sure this must have come up before, but I totally dropped out of politics shortly after BZ disappeared. I went from all-out junkie to paying zero attention. It wasn't any sort of ``disillusion with the process" or any of that crap they like to talk about in the news. I just got interested in other stuff instead. Since then I haven't even voted.
In the past few months, I've started paying a little attention again, but nothing like before. I haven't kept up with Nader recently, but your description sounds like what I used to think of him. I doubt I'd vote for Nader or the Green Party anyway, on account of specific issues I think they're wrong on (regulatory policy and local manufacture, respectively).
I have a friend who supports Nader because she loves him, which I think is charming. Such a refreshing contrast to the rest of his following, which seems to be overwhelmingly negative. She also seems to be one of the few Naderite liberals who has a sense of humor and respects people who don't share her political views. Maybe there's a connection there.
A while ago I was forwarded a copy of the email propaganda written by Michael Moore in ``support" of Ralph Nader. Perhaps you've seen it. It says nothing about what Nader wants to do as president (not to mentioned the likelihood of him accomplishing it in the event he were elected). Just a whole lot of sass about ``fight against the bastards", ``let 'em all have it", ``toss yourselves inside the booth like a political molotov cocktail", ((Hyork, hyork, hyork..... I especially like that one. And as my wife said when I told her that one, ``and NO ONE will care a whit.")) ``Payback Time", ``mad as hell we are and how we are not going to take it anymore", and ``stick it to the whole bloody system". What's really disturbing about it is that you could change just a few lines and the whole thing would be an equally compelling argument to vote for Pat Buchanan. That's the nature of the ``none of the above" argument.
Michael Moore is a dick. His whole career is based on the idea that if you stick a camera in someone's face long enough so that he tells you to go to hell, that proves he's a villain who has something to hide. All it really proves is that you're a dick. ((Too bad all of you can't see me as I put this letter in. I laughed all the way through it when I first saw it, and then am doing so again as I polish everything up in what amounts for me to be ``final production'', though obviously I don't put much into prettification.))
In his Nader screed, Moore claims to speak for the ``silent majority" who never vote. What crap. I haven't voted in several years, and he sure doesn't support me. People like him, along with the mainstream news media, want us to believe that non-voters have stayed home because they're fed up with the political system. Not true. The three main reasons why people don't vote are: (1) they don't care, (2) they're lazy, or (3) they've done the math and realize how important their vote is. Apathy is not a form of political activism; it's just apathy.
I don't expect to vote this year either, though if I did I assume it would be for Gore. I haven't really kept up with him, but I doubt I'd vote for a Republican for president. Notwithstanding the various disagreements, major and minor, I've had with the Democratic Party, they still come closest to what I believe in. I honestly know nothing at all about GW Bush.
The selection of Cheney as VP was significant to me only in that it was a reminder that when you vote for a president you vote for the party. Even if it turns out GW himself is likable, he still has to build an administration, and the appointees are all going to come from among the Republicans, and with them come all their traditions. That's the Cheney lesson.
Of course that cuts both ways. There's plenty of Democrats I don't like. One of them is Lieberman, who seems to be one of the main ``mentionables" for Gore's running mate. Bleah. ((Further reactions now that mention has become fact?? I am reminded mostly that I like Lieberman as a person and I'd be his friend if I knew him, BUT he is THE most political of all four of the P/VP candidates from the two major parties. Still, since I like him that doesn't bother me as much as it would if I didn't like him... purely viscerally.)) I don't much like John Kerry either. If he picked Bob Kerrey, that would be cool. Even better, for me, would be if it were someone from the school of 80s neoliberals - like Bruce Babbitt, or Dick Lamm. I'm still a neoliberal at heart. It makes one wonder. Maybe it's like patriotism: loyalty to the habits of one's youth. I got my start in politics as a Hart Democrat, after the 1984 campaign.
I still like Clinton. I understand he's not popular anymore, though I'm really not sure why. Did I miss something? Is all of this really just because he got a couple of blow jobs, or is there something else? ((Depends. I still know a lot of those ``southern people'' (mostly) who have always had these intense visceral negative reactions to Bill C. and they just stay the same. I suppose one would say these are Rush Limbaugh types, but I'm talking about people I know with Ph.D.'s and stuff. But it doesn't seem to be anything except pure intense dislike. My wife (gee, mentioning Charlotte in two letters in the same szine!) says these people are in intense pain from the long sticks that have been shoved up their butts by someone or another, hard to tell who.))
In the late 80s and early 90s Clinton was always mildly disappointing because of his willingness to get along with the ``establishment" wing of the Party, but he was still neoliberal at his wonkish core. As far as I'm concerned he's fundamentally right about the economic issues: trade, spending, taxing. That's what really matters. All that other crap about cheating on his wife or being weasely I just don't get. What is it that people think the president does? His job is to run the U.S. government. Basically that means managing a lot of money and fussing with the administrative details of a very large organization. The way people talk, you'd think they were voting for Dad, not president. ((There are elements of this. I'm convinced that this whole psychological story goes back to 1980. As most people know (and more and more details have come out very recently), George Bush repudiated his ``voodoo economics'' primary statements to suddenly become Reagan's best alternative when the negotiations with Gerald Ford (to be some kind of new ``joint Presidents") just became totally ridiculous. Well, since George denied himself, he never really (I'm pretty convinced of this) ever became ``his own man'' again. He did manage to defeat someone who destroyed what little identity he had (Michael Dukakis) in that famous debate, but once he opposed someone with a vision (in 1992) he was toast. Never grasped an identity that people could grab on to. Now, this really is a contest between two men (one the son of the man who couldn't succeed at establishing an independent identity and the other trying to avoid the same fate as that same man - obviously with very different baggage though). I could be a bit too far out there. Perhaps this psychological identity game won't be the deciding factor. But I really think it will be. So far, I put Al Gore just a nose ahead on this, but just that nose. I will root for the kind of wide open debates that will assist these psychological gamesmanship ideas but I doubt I'll get them.))
It's really a shame that the political parties have fallen together in such a way that the world trade issue never gets properly debated. Among other things, that's what killed the Reform Party. I was really excited about the RP back when it looked like the Lamm wing might become dominant, but Perot made such a splash about the whole NAFTA thing that it brought in a huge influx of nativists, which paved the way for Buchanan to take over.
I haven't been watching for about six years, so maybe it's changed, but I always thought Clinton's wing of the Democratic Party was exactly right on trade. That is, world trade is good, but with two large caveats: first, free trade is a genuine principle, to be taken seriously and not just used as an excuse for large quasi-monopolistic corporations in all countries to screw their publics, and second, there are certain economic externalities and it is the job of the government to either internalize or remedy them. ((That's precisely where I am too, as we debated out at length back in the 1980's, probably boring people to death. I remember that eventually you started to edit down my long, long missives on these subjects.))
The first is nothing special, just that there are always hypocrites and opportunists ready to make the most of any policy. You try to resist them as well as you can, given the realities of government. The point is free trade is a good policy because (and only insofar as) it serves the general public interest. This is what has been lost due to the lack of debate, with the Buchananites and the Naderites presuming to speak for populism against the corporatism of the ``Republicrats".
That's why the second caveat is so important. In the early 90s, that was one of the core ideas of neoliberalism. That economic policies serving the general good entailed winners and losers on the micro level, and the role of the government was to repair the inequalities to everyone's benefits. ((Or another way to put it, to restructure the rules of the game to reduce the inequities, I was never comfortable with what I called old liberal arguments of ``picking winners and losers''. The government still is the best example of doing that, it's called the Defense Industry. You know that the Defense Department has admitted that they will NEVER, EVER be able to meet Government accounting guidelines for delineating the ways that our money is spent, they are that far out of whack. The VA, where I work, is little better, but I still crusade as much as I can on the inside to make it work better. But Government desperately needs to pay lots of money for REAL financial managers. There are too many people with little more than secretarial type budgeting skills running million/billion dollar financial systems. Sorry, off on a tangent. But, I like to assume that the private sector does have competent financial management. And you need to set the rules of the game that those people operate under so they still have the capability of screwing up and losing all their money. It's the American way....)) In the 1992 campaign, Clinton embraced that. Did they keep it up? I really don't know. If they did, then they need to make that more clear to the public. That's the reply to the third-party anti-world-trade crowd, and it's also what distinguishes the Democrats from the Republicans.
Anyway, that's as close as you'll get to me commenting on Gore as a presidential candidate. As I mentioned, I really know next to nothing about the actual candidates. I'm just rehashing everything I learned about national politics in the late 80s and early 90s. Maybe it'll be enough to keep the lingering BZ nostalgics happy. Is Stabosz on you mailing list? I know Barno is.
| markdlew, markdlew of earthlink.net |
((No, I have no idea where Stabosz is. But I'll keep him in mind for my ``search for'' lists. Babbitt and Lamm remain ``really good guys" to me, even where I don't totally agree with them.))
Mark D. Lew (Mon, 7 Aug 2000 11:32:08 -0700)
I honestly don't remember what I disagree with them on, though I'm sure there's something. ((I am not a fan of school vouchers, partly in theory, but mostly because I don't trust them to be implemented in a way that makes the rules of the game more balanced, I expect they will make things LESS balanced. And I think Lamm supports them, doesn't he? And Babbitt occasionally makes statements about ``The West'' that I don't totally agree with, though I recognize that I am totally unreconstructed Easterner who really doesn't know what the hell he might be talking about on those sorts of issues.))
I saw one of the pundit shows early this weekend about the VP speculation. (Has it been picked yet? I know the announcement is not until tomorrow, but they thought it would be floated sooner.) Judging from their comments, it sounds like the logic for picking Lieberman is that he's such a goody-goody that it would send a message that the Party does not approve of presidential blowjobs ... which is pretty much what I don't like about him. They call him a ``moderate" Democrat, but as far as I can tell the essence of his moderation is that whenever the moralistic wing of the GOP wants to ban something, Nanny Joe is the first Democrat to jump on board.
| mdl, markdlew of earthlink.net |
Mark D. Lew (Sun, 6 Aug 2000 12:47:58 -0700)
It has been brought to my attention that the White Sox (whom the A's are playing this weekend) have a slightly lower payroll than the A's. I guess that answers my highest wins-per-dollar question.
I'm noticing these two teams have a lot in common: lots of young players, good hitting well spread throughout the lineup, decent pitching but mediocre fielding.
| mdl, markdlew of earthlink.net |
((OK, now for those of you who haven't seen Survivor! as the essential fun guilty pleasure for Dip players, you might as well skip to the games, many pages below. I led quite a bit of discussion on rec.games.diplomacy on Survivor! and haven't been reproducing it here because of the ``time factor''. By the time I published, things would have been out of date. Now the first series is over, and I purposely delayed this issue a couple more days so I could put this all in here. Why? Cause I wanted to. And that's enough. Time to indulge the editor and treat him nicely so he does all the other things that you want him to do ;-) Here we go.....))
Jamie McQuinn (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 12:14:56 -0400)
Anyway, I know this topic has been discussed on r.g.d. don't recall if it came up here, but I have to say hats off to Richard for winning that game and the million dollars. He would be great at the game of Diplomacy. He recognized he was playing a game from the start. Let everyone know he was playing to win, set for himself a strategy, stayed true to himself and pulled it off.
The polls showed that a majority of the viewers didn't like him, but it wasn't a popularity contest. It was about who could create a situation where they were the last one on the board/island. Anyone who didn't figure that out was out of the game early. He was willing to stab an ally in the back, but he never led anyone to believe that he wouldn't have to eventually. He didn't take any of it personally, as any good Diplomacy player should. The ones who lost and are bitter, just never ``got it".
I won't bore you with my opinions on details of the show/game/event, but I think this guy deserves a Golden Knife Award for playing the game of Diplomacy the way it was meant to be played.
| Jamie McQuinn, ec_jamie of dayton.lib.oh.us |
Roger Yonkoski (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 03:59:03 GMT)
At first I wanted anyone but Rich to win, but in the end I found myself cheering for him. He had a strategy, he played it well, he was fairly open about it. You have to admire him for that much.
He is like your diplomacy adversary that lied to you, played you like a well read book and stabbed you big time. After you get through the emotional betrayal piece. You really have to admire their still at the game.
| Roger, rkyonkoski of worldnet.att.net |
PS: I think that the next Survivor will be contain even more elements of Diplomacy. We should put our best and brightest face-to-face players up for the game!
Dan Cahill (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 16:14:02 GMT)
I was happy for Rich also. I was extremely sick and tired of hearing Kelly whine about how she felt bad about the alliance. Rich's attitude where he basically said, ``I have a strategy, I executed the strategy, and I have no regrets". was much more appealing to me.
| Dan Cahill, cahill of nospam.iname.com |
Karlis Povisils (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 12:16:49 -0400 (EDT))
I agree with this sentiment 100%. Rich stayed on point when pressed in the trial. He didn't waver and he didn't pander for votes. And contrary to what Roger implies in his Dip analogy, I don't think he actually lied much, if at all, to anyone. He's more like the Dip player who you KNOW is screwing you behind you back, but always keeps to the letter of his agreements. Anyone else think he tanked the last immunity challenge on purpose knowing that Kelly would win and pick him? If Rich won himself, he'd be forced to kick Rudy off and I really don't think he wanted to do that directly. Good play.
| Karlis, karlis5 of my-deja.com |
Derek Pillie (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 13:25:47 GMT)
I don't know if I'd say he didn't pander for votes... ``Rich, if there were two people that you could still have with you on the island... who would they be?"
``... Rudy... and GREG"
Rich knew who the swing vote was and was able to get to him. I don't know if it qualifies as pandering, but it sure seemed like it to me.
| Derek, dpillie of gwis2.circ.gwu.edu |
Michael Sandy (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 07:07:12 -0800)
And Kelly was so deathly afraid of offending someone who was there voted for two absent people. Kelly really and sincerely hated voting.
I agree that Rich was pandering, but he was also emphasizing how he played the game. ``I choose Rudy because he was honest and stuck with me, and Greg because I suspected he was the most like me, so I wanted him gone!" Trying to turn an event that could provoke animosity into a compliment.
I think that Kelly was trying too hard in answering the questions. Rich had a much more positive attitude. It said, ``I don't know what you want, or what will sway you. Since I don't know, I may as well just stick with the truth. This is who I am, how I played the game, respect it or not."
| Michael Sandy, mehawk of teleport.com |
Jim-Bob Burgess (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 14:28:25 -0400 (EDT))
As the big Kelly promoter on the group, yes, even I was appalled at how far she went with this. I think Rich really did wear her down with his psychology. The mental strain (well known to all of us who have played Dip FTF - how many of you playing by E-Mail have ``taken a break to get your head together" - can't do it FTF in real time....) got to her at that point. All things considered (as in not responding to Susan's tirade) she did well. But she did get a tad annoying.
In predicting Kelly would win way back in Week 3 or whatever, I thought that she would stay a bit looser and be voted the winner on that basis. Plus I thought that more people would see through Rich (especially with Jeff's prompting). But that simply was not the case. Survivor II will be VERY different on that score. Rich won the novice game. Next game will be played with at least some Intermediate players.
| Jim-Bob, burgess of world.std.com |
Grant Flowers (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 03:15:33 GMT)
Random points...
1) Anyone feel like they've heard variations of Rich's opening and closing remarks when playing Diplomacy? Particularly in an endgame when there are tough decisions to be made?
2) I should have mugged Sean when I had the chance. True story: on Sunday morning, I was in front of a hotel in midtown Manhattan, and the Alphabetizer himself is standing 15 feet from me. Blue cap on backwards, wearing a Massapequa t-shirt (Long Island town). The first thing I hear him say is to some woman having trouble with her eye. He says, ``Want me to take a look at it? I'm a doctor." The second thing I hear is him blabbing to a group of bystanders, ``I was on that TV show, Survivor." At that point, I got too disgusted to stand there, so I jetted. Wish I had seen the final vote before that encounter, because I would have whomped his ass and blamed it on a crusade against the letter S. ((Hyork, hyork, hyork....))
3) Personally, I thought Greg's ``number" vote to be the epitome of cowardice. If I had such power to change people's lives, I would think long and hard about it, and make a decision I could live with afterward. Having the entire nation know that the lives of two people were so heavily based on ``pick a number between 1 and 10," well, I would find that embarassing. Think a girl with a brain would want to end up with a responsibility-dodger like him?
4) I was rooting for Kelly, and so I thought Sue's tirade was great. I knew it would change at least one vote in Kelly's favor. The term Chainsaw Diplomacy comes to mind, though with a kind of unintended focus and result.
5) The show was very interesting to watch. I have to admit I was hooked, and so were a lot of other people in this newsgroup. After all the crap spewed about Richard in the national press, he comes out on top. Machiavelli is the winner. Who says there's no hope for us Dippers?
| Grant, darthvader of worldnet.att.net |
salmoneous (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 15:07:47 GMT)
As a fellow Brown grad, I'll jump in to defend Greg here. I don't believe for a second that Greg actually used the pick a number thing to choose his vote. He's the one castaway that has shared NOTHING about himself - he shared little emotions while on the island and since then has avoided the media circus that the others seem to love. Who knows why he voted for Rich - but my guess is he doesn't want to share his thinking and used the number thing as a smokescreen.
As for the second part of your comment - remember that while Greg might not have gotten the money, he did get ``some" while on the island. Ever pull that off in a Dip game?
| salmoneous, salmoneous of my-deja.com |
Doug Massey (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 16:06:22 GMT)
((On Grant's Point two about Sean:)) He was a moron until the end. Voting against *Kelly* because she was scheming and duplicitous? Was he on the same island as the rest of them? Rich was clearly the schemer and the conniving force in the group - did he really keep it that much of a secret from Sean? The rest of the group seems to catch on (even though they never got to see the video that was shown only to the U.S. audience), so I can only assume that Sean is just as blockheaded as he seems.
((Yeah, this is important since Rich said to Bryant Gumbel this morning (nearly direct quote) ``I never said anything mean". Most of what America hated about Rich was said between Rich and the camera.))
((On Grant's Point three about Greg's contest:)) I think it was an admission by him that he really didn't like either one and didn't want to vote for either one. That seems like a good way to get back at both of them - Kelly suffers the loss and Rich feels like he didn't really *earn* the win. Unless, of course, Greg wanted to vote for Rich and just wanted it to seem random.
((I think that might have been it. They don't really say anything about how much interaction between the Jury was allowed outside the box. Perhaps they all were isolated, but perhaps not. Greg may have known or strongly suspected he was the deciding vote. My understanding was that they WERE talking outside the Tribal Council box.))
((On Grant's Point four on Sue's tirade:)) Right - the longer she talked, the more I thought Kelly would win. I figured Sue and Rudy would vote for Rich and Colleen and Jenna and Gervase would vote for Kelly, no matter what. When I saw Greg ask them for numbers, I thought ``oh, gosh, he's picking at random." When I saw Sean's vote, I thought ``holy cow, Rich has a chance." So I was only slightly less stunned than the rest of the country when Rich's name turned up on the last ballot.
((Well, after thinking about it after Greg's question, I pretty much knew Rich had won it, I'd already deflated my Kelly rooting before Jeff opened it.))
The last episode really dragged (1.5 hours seemed like a better fit, but god only knows how high the ratings were), but it was interesting television until the very end. Great job, CBS.
| Doug, masseyd of valhalla.btv.ibm.com |
((Generally agreed. I didn't think it dragged that much. As a Dipper trying to think through the strategies, at a few points it almost went too fast. But they were trying to get across the PAIN of the waiting.))
Marshall Stack (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 20:17:17 GMT)
They were staying at the same hotel and spent every night partying together. Actually, I think most likely Greg thought his vote was meaningless, thinking that Colleen would be Rich's fourth vote, since she said she was originally going to vote for Rich but was swayed by the debate before the final vote. (personally, I think Sue nasty rant cost Rich Colleen's vote...)
| - Field Marshall Stack, hiway of speakeasy.org |
Keith Ammann (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 18:41:15 -0500)
Greg voted for Rich because he recognized Rich as a fellow Three. Rich also recognized Greg as a fellow Three, which is why Rich had his alliance boot Greg off the island as soon as possible after he realized it. (I recognized Greg as a Three when he made the comment about ``snapping the kitten's neck.")
For people who wonder what I'm talking about when I refer to ``Threes," see:
http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/TypeThree.asp
| - Keith, geenius of enteract.com |
Trevor Hill (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 15:57:52 GMT)
I was a Kelly convert (like Jody), but was being realistic..I mean, she had to win two more immunity challenges, it was going to take a miracle to pull it off... and then she did it.
((Yeah, well, at least on this list, I led the Kelly charge and you can imagine the whooping in my house..... and Richard's calculating was so ``him". Just before he did that, I told my wife Rich is going to quit on purpose. And then he did. And I knew Kelly could outlast Rudy, so really it was no contest.))
((I thought that winning the ``know the other players" would have had more of an effect on the Jury and showed just how shallow Richard was. ``No, I have no friends in this group, it takes years to develop friends [well, actually it does, of course] and I didn't really and still don't really care about these people."))
I was SO sure she was going to win.....I figured Colleen, Gervase, and Jenna would vote for Kelly (although it seemed like Colleen had a hard time making up her mind), and Rudy and Susan for Rich.....and at least one of Sean and Greg HAD to vote for Kelly over Rich, right? Dammit.
((Double Damnit!!!))
I think Sean proved in his little EOG vote message (a) how much of an idiot he was, and (b) how well Rich played him...you have to give Rich *some* credit. Sean thought Kelly was two-faced and manipulative...two-faced, possibly, but Rich was by far the most manipulative castaway, and Sean never saw it. And Greg, after seeing the utter disdain for the alphabet strategy...I can't believe he did that. Where were Sue's testicular comments this time? ;-)
((Both Sean and Greg really, because REMEMBER that Greg tried to join Richard's alliance and Rich humored him, but then voted him right off. Sean played Rich like a flute (instrument choice chosen carefully ;-) throughout, even with the alphabet strategy. But Greg, I really thought he could see how Rich was playing him. And Sue's tirade was not unexpected.... clearly she'd had enough of Kelly by that point. In some ways, Richard's greatest coup was manipulating Kelly to kick Sue off instead of him.))
Her tirade was the reason I thought one of Sean or Greg would swing... I figured Sean would give her sympathy.....I didn't know about Greg.
((Yeah, Greg was a bit enigmatic. He's a really smart guy who is the ``yeah, I'm smart but I don't like anyone to know and don't really want to do anything with my smarts". He showed it in spades here. In retrospect, I'm wondering how much Rich knew this. Probably not at all, he was still locked up in his own head. I think of Greg as the classic Aspen ski bum type of Coloradoan.))
Ah well.........after practically everyone said Richard didn't stand a chance, he pulled it off. There were 3 Tagi and 4 Pagong on the Jury, and if Pagong had all pulled together, Kelly would have won. By the way, when you're trying to ``choose a number", why the hell would you pick 9? Especially if you let Rich go first, and Greg ``knows" that everyone picks 7........sounds like Greg may have *wanted* Rich to win, but couldn't say why. Maybe even subconsciously............who knows.
| Just a theory. -Trevor, tdhill of fenchel.math.uwaterloo.ca |
((You could well be right. I have a little bit more reverse psychology risk taking behavior in me (on a bet with a teacher, I once drew the Ace of Diamonds from a deck of cards to get an A+ for a course where I was theoretically risking an F) so I like to think in retrospect that I would have chosen 10 and won if I were Kelly. But I was also a bit shocked and was shouting 6 at the screen (the logical statistical answer) at the time.))
((The real ``Rich" based answer says that Rich was pulling all the strings and had Greg in his pocket all along and that you were right about your theory. I wouldn't bet against it.))
Doug Massey (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 21:54:33 GMT)
Oh, for cryin' out loud, Jim - is there anything you DON'T know?
((No, this was ONLY as I was sitting there ``counting" my votes and when they did that quick cut on Greg while he was writing his vote down. You may recall that they showed EVERYONE except Greg explain and write their votes down. It was at this point that I started second guessing my ``you should pick 6" that I was screaming at the screen when Kelly picked 3. At this point, by the way, my wife told me to be quiet ;-) I had no idea that he had chosen ``9" as his number etc..... but now I started to second guess myself. Perhaps I'm really a Three like Richard who has to explain everything..... but ONLY then.))
Jeez, all we heard from you was KellyKellyKellyKellyKelly - I thought you were doing a Woody Boyd impersonation for a while there. Now you say that after winning both immunity challenges and making it to the final two against the player we all pretty much agreed couldn't beat anyone in the final vote, you're saying you changed your mind and thought Rich would win? C'mon!
((I was WRONG about Kelly! She didn't win it!!))
((Is that what you wanted to hear?? ;-) ))
;-)
| Doug, masseyd of valhalla.btv.ibm.com |
((Only after they showed us everything except Greg's vote. All along up to then I'd been counting ALL Pagong votes as for Kelly. You know Rich really screwed Greg over too.... Double damn again.... ;-) ))
Jody McCullough (24 Aug 2000 21:43:24 GMT)
I didn't like Kelly because of the incessant hand-wringing about being in the ``dirty" alliance and all that. YUCK!! Rich may be a smug arrogant jerkface, but at least he knew what he wanted. It's better this way... Kelly didn't get the million, but at least she wasn't ``tainted" by it either.
I also got annoyed by Kelly's argument to ``vote for the better person". Puh-leaze!! But I *loved* Rich's rejoinder... that they should ``vote for whoever played the game best". Nicely done.
I do think that *to the jury* Kelly came off as being very duplicitous. I think it's pretty presumptious for those of us that only watched the show on TV to sit in judgement of people who were ``fooled" by Rich. I don't think they were fooled by him at that point! I think that they realized that in many ways Rich's game was more ``honest" than Kelly's game. Yes, even stupidass Sean realized this! So let's cut the jury some slack here.
Anyway, props to Kelly... 5 challenges in a row. Wow!
Props to Rudy... final 3 plus in the last challenge he stayed standing for 4 hours, 11 minutes! Not bad for a 72-year old geezer. And hey, if he HAD managed to win that challenge, he would've won the million. He also came close on the previous challenge, which I bet few people here guessed would happen.
Boo to Susan. Ugly display. Ugly ugly ugly.
Congrats to Rich. There were any number of times when he COULD have been voted off, but in the end those who should have known better never got it done. The one challenge he won might've been critical too.
I do think there will be more strategizing next time. It won't be so easy for one alliance to sail through like that. People won't be in such denial about what is happening, and people will realize that you CAN fight an alliance by forming a larger one or by working to break it up. The alliance in this game seemed to be pretty weak, really. I think a more concerted effort to break it up would have worked. But it didn't happen; not fast enough anyway.
Ah well, enough rambling. It was a good show. And I LOVE that Rich beat out Kelly in the end. That was almost perfect.
| -Jody- w1zard of home.com |
Brent McKee (Fri, 25 Aug 2000 08:16:23 GMT)
I was a strong Rudy supporter, so I can understand why Kelly chose Rich - she was playing the percentages. She had to know that Rudy would win Sue's vote and probably Richard's and would be at least as popular with the Pagong members of the jury. She had to figure that Sue and Rudy would vote for Rich, but not many others. I would argue that Sean's vote for Richard was a understanding of how the game was played and how it should be played. Richard may have been manipulative but he didn't say he'd do one thing and then do another on a consistent basis. Kelly did, all the time whining about the morality of the Alliance.
Yeah, you knew something was going to be coming from Sue, it had been building up. The interesting thing is, or seems to be, that if she hadn't made that tirade Richard would have won without Greg's selection ``system".
((On Trevor's theory:)) Exactly. I do think that Greg knew what he was doing. It was as close to a ``force" as you're ever going to see. He asked Richard first. Assume that every person who goes first will pick ``7". The second person should not pick a number higher than ``7", because ``7" will then win with any lower number. Kelly should probably have taken ``4" which would have given her control of the first 5 numbers and Rich the second 5, or ``6" which would have given her control of all the lower numbers. Given that Greg knew that smart game play dictates that the second player will pick a number lower than ``7", by making his number ``9" he was giving Rich the prize - IF Rich was smart enough to see it for what it was.
Oh well, my man Rudy came off with $75,000. Could have been more if he hadn't mis-ordered: hand to pole instead of hand to other side of idol. ;-)
| - Brent McKee, bmckee of the.link.ca |
Michael Sandy (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 07:07:07 -0800)
((On Grant's Point three about Greg's test:)) Only if you believe it. He didn't say, ``I will pick whoever comes closest, (or furthest)." It could have been a character test. If either of the players thought too much about the answer, he would vote against them. If it was a guess closest number, then Kelly missed a trick by not guessing `6'. She would be closer 60% of the time, instead of only 50% of the time. He may have already picked Rich, but wanted deniability. I don't think that the question or the tactic shows great character, but the network no doubt loved the suspense.
((On Grant's Point four about Sue's tirade:)) Actually, it looks like she overdid it. Certainly Gervase reacted negatively to it, and Colleen said that she had changed her vote, to Kelly, as a result of the questions and answers.
By the way, I loved that debate format. Maybe we can do the same with presidential debates, but instead of voting them off the island, we get to vote to make them stay on a deserted island?
I thought that Kelly's opening statements were very defensive, almost apologetic. I think that the line about not giving Kelly a drink of water if she were dying of thirst was definitely overkill, and a statement at odds with Sue's morality. However, the coverage of what exact lie Sue was so upset about was not made very clear to the audience in the show's selection of conversations.
It was interesting, Richard was the least perceptive about the minutiae of his fellow castaways, because he concentrated exclusively on his fellow castaways as game players only. On the other hand, Kelly outraged Sue when she befriended Pagong members, and didn't win much trust because they saw it as an act!
I don't think future Survivor players will be learning the right lessons if they emulate Rich in that regard. I think Rich's greatest weakness was that he was so focussed on the game that he saw other people as pawns, and projected that impression as well. If Rich asked for personal information, it was because he wanted to get a psychological feel for how they played, not because he was interested in them as persons.
Kelly was probably the best of everybody in drawing people into conversations, but she didn't feel comfortable applying that information into a strategy!
I suspect that there will be a number of `lessons' learned from Survivor which will be proven completely wrong. Like newbies who have just discovered the Juggernaut Alliance, they start focussing all their strategies towards being or beating the Juggernaut.
First bad lesson: Everybody has to be part of an Alliance. Not true, multilateral play still has its purpose.
Second bad lesson: Being nice and non-threatening will get you voted out. Not precisely true. If Sean had been a little (a lot) more clever or if Kelly broke more effectively with the Alliance around 6 or 7 members, Sean would have been in great endgame position. He would have had to win an immunity somewhere because he would have been seen as an endgame threat.
Third bad lesson: The leader or initiator of the alliance will do well. Not true. If an alliance gets into difficulties it will likely devour its own head in order to present itself as a new entity in order to change its reputation and relations with others.
Fourth bad lesson: Duplicity rules.
Not true, almost all lies will come back to haunt you.
| Michael Sandy, mehawk of teleport.com |
((All good lessons for Diplomacy to some extent or another as well.))
Paul Windsor (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 13:41:15 GMT)
((Reacting to point one of Grant Flowers on Diplomacy endgame statements)) You bet, Grant. Reminded me of a guy I played once who was named for a president and a plant . . .
((On point three of Grant's on Greg:)) That was my first reaction, too, but I amended it after the post-game show, when Greg said ``everybody picks seven" and everybody else said that Greg was ``extremely intelligent". My read of Greg is that he's the kind of asshole who loves thinking that he's just so much wittier than the rest of us that the rest of us will never figure him out. Bottom line: it was his way of ``cleverly" voting for Rich and leaving the rest of the world mystified in his wake. In his own way, his arrogance exceeds Rich's by miles.
((On point four of Grant's and Chainsaw Diplomacy:)) Grant, I'm beginning to think that you are incapable of posting to RGD without tweaking my nose :-) Yes, this is the reason to use Chainsaw tactics sparingly, knowingly, and with understanding of risk. Susan wasn't Chainsawing so much as purely venting her spleen. She cemented her place as the ugliest personality on the island with that effort. Gervase's rejoinder was perfect. I live in the same state as Susan, so the local news was really playing up the local angle-they had her family lined up for live post-show interviews. I didn't watch them, but I can just imagine how uncomfortable the local news directors were as they watched Susan make a singularly unlikeable ass of herself. ``Stay tuned after the show to see the family of the unlikeable bitch squirm in embarrassment!"
And I was rooting *against* Kelly. Her endgame angst sorely taxed me. The ``Gee, I want to win the money, but I feel so guilty about it" bit was repulsive to me. All the more so, because it was apparently genuine. I'd have proudly cast a vote for Rich and said ``I'm doing this because he's the only one left standing who knows who he is and what he wants". Kelly would be in denial for the rest of her life about how and why whe got the million and that's not ``ethical" IMO.
| Paul Windsor, pnkwindsor of msn.com |
((Certainly, Rich had worked out VERY well how he would react to all of the media coverage and is a better spokesperson for the game as a game. This is a game, this is a game, we all know this, but some people still think it is ``reality TV''. It is not, it is a game. More on that below....))
Michael Sandy (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 07:07:10 -0800)
((Responding to Paul's comment on Susan:)) Ah good, that was my impression as well.
Rich certainly inspired loyalty. Here is a question: Was Rich so finely attuned to the voting that he realized if he actually won immunity he would lose the final vote? ((Yes.))
Look, if he votes Kelly off then Kelly PLUS 3 Pagong members vote for Rudy. If he votes Rudy off then he loses Rudy's vote in the endgame. This is a serious problem!
What struck me was that Kelly was big on making friends with people, because that is who she is and that was her strategy. However, the person who knew her longest and best was the one who despised her the most! Kelly was lucky to get even 2 votes, let alone 3!
| Michael Sandy, mehawk of teleport.com |
Keith Ammann (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 15:44:58 GMT)
Just to get the ball rolling:
Susan: Gervase hit the nail on the head when he pegged her as a sore loser. My God, what a whiny bitch. Everything she accused Kelly of she'd done herself more often and without compunction.
((Boy, precisely. Although Susan tried to backtrack in some of the post game discussion with Bryant Gumbel last night and this morning, it was clear that she was mega-annoyed. The psychiatrist for the show reported that her first words after coming across the bridge after being voted off was, ``get me a cigarette!".))
Rudy: I was kinda rooting for him at the end. If Kelly had voted with her heart rather than her head, she might have let him stay in the game, but she didn't. I'm surprised the r.g.d community hasn't written off Rudy's strategy as ``carebear" play. :-)
((It was. Rudy would be a good little carebear. Of course, Rich was playing the ``Carebear, Dan Shoham variation" with Rudy. (reminder, the Carebear, Dan Shoham variation requires the stab for the win on the last turn) Rich chose not to have immunity for the last vote precisely because he had calculated that Rudy would pick him for the final two by virtue of his promise and Kelly would pick him by virtue of his, well, his perceived lower voting power. By the way, she was right. Rudy would have beaten her by better than the 4-3 vote.))
Kelly: She voted with her head, which I wasn't sure she was going to do. Obviously she thought she stood a better chance against Rich than against Rudy. If nothing else, she deserves mondo props for winning five consecutive challenges.
((And to think it all came down to a DICE ROLL (Greg's ``pick a number between 1-10'' strategy). Kelly was surprised and didn't pick the correct response from a probability standpoint (6) to Rich's ``Three" type choice of lucky 7. Greg, of course, had 9 and that decided the whole thing. Now, to all Diplomacy players deciding things on a dice roll seems REALLY wacko. Obviously, I'm upset since I wanted my choice Kelly to do it.))
Rich: As in so much of everyday life, a Three wins out and learns nothing from the experience, because he doesn't have to face failure. One point to Susan for pegging his inability to admit to being imperfect without a long-winded self-justification. I really hope the next ``Survivor" series features a few non-Threes who know how to think strategically.
| geenius, geenius of enteract.com |
((Precisely. He still thinks he manipulated the whole thing. Remember, he will say later that he chose 7 because he knew Greg had picked a high number. Yeah, I was trying to explain precisely that (choose non-Three strategic thinkers next time) to non-Diplomacy playing friends this morning and failing miserably. Good Dippers can manipulate the hell out of Threes ;-) ))
((Reminder - 3: The Performer, who seeks status (competitive type).))
((Still, Rich has been already and will continue to be a great spokesperson for CBS and the game. Note that Bryant Gumbel even asked him to tone down his advertising since people might think CBS was paying him to do it. They should.))
((While I wanted Kelly to win and even pretty much foresaw this encounter from way back, MY personality type wanted Kelly to win because I wanted to see Rich get a little comeuppance. Admittedly though it is far better TV to have him win. To take one example, Simon Bouton (this month's World DipCon winner) would be one person who would have kept Rich's pants and beaten him into the ground. But there was no one like that on the island. Kelly is more of a Seven which is part of my character, though I'm really an Eight.))
((More cheat sheets:
7: The Enthusiast, who seeks gratification (thrill-seeking type).
8: The Leader, who seeks self-sufficiency (dominant type).))
((In the end, I think they have set up a good premise and the next group will learn from this group so there will be a better game. Damn that Greg..... ;-) ))
Karlis Povisils (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 14:27:30 -0400 (EDT))
In short, I agree that Rich is an arrogant ass. In the very beginning I liked him, but I despised his self-congratulatory remarks about his fishing every five minutes.
In short, he played a good game despite his jerkiness. I thought his arrogance would cost him. In Dip, arrogance never helps and often hurts.
Greg - anyone notice that he sniffed the marker during his final vote?
| Karlis, karlis5 of my-deja.com |
Doug Massey (24 Aug 2000 13:09:25 GMT)
Yep - Greg was funny until the very end. My favorite castaway, I think.
Did anyone notice Rudy turn around to check if his torch had blown out just before being voted off the island in the last tribal council?
| Doug, masseyd of valhalla.btv.ibm.com |
Salmoneous (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 14:44:12 GMT)
I've got to believe that Rich's jerkiness was *calculated strategy.* Every outward sign of his smugness and clothlessness from day one was all set up for that moment when Kelly voted off Rudy (note - I haven't heard any post finale comments from Rich on this - it's all speculation.)
He did mention that even before he got on the island he was plotting how to survive 14 banishments. (He's the guy trying to figure out his 18th dot back in F'01, while you just want to know who your next ally is.) The first few are easy - just don't be the weakest. Meanwhile, watch the others and figure out how to form an alliance. The alliance gets you down to the final 3-4, but then what? How do you survive those final votes? Rich found the obvious solution - by being the biggest jerk - the one everyone else wants to be paired with for the jury vote.
My gut feeling - Rich was playing to put himself in the best possible position to come in second. The best thing about being second (in addition to the $100K) is that you always have a chance (if, say, the jury contains two flakes, a military guy with a sense of honor, and a vindictive b*tch) to win the whole thing.
Bravo Rich - well played.
| Salmoneous, salmoneous of my-deja.com |
Randy Hudson (24 Aug 2000 08:30:56 GMT)
Among a group of people with conflicting goals, the strongest will be most successful in achieving those goals. If the weaker members of the group don't want to always be losing to the stronger ones, they create laws, enforced by alliance, that govern how the strong can use their strength. We call this civilization.
The strong person who dedicates himself to law (Superman, Batman, Zorro, the Lone Ranger) is a myth. And alliances are formed everywhere, from inner-city gangs, to political parties, to the players in a million-dollar TV game show. But because alliances don't fit the superhero myth well, they are often scorned.
After all, if the impetus for alliances is relative weakness, then joining an alliance is a sign of weakness, an acknowledgement that one is not a superhero who stands alone.
I wonder if other cultures reacted as negatively to the Survivor alliance as did the US audience.
| - Randy Hudson, ime of netcom.com |
Sean Cleary (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 18:39:42 GMT)
For all these shows there is an official policy and there is what is done. If I wanted to win, I would offer to split the prize between myself and my allies. And, yes, the allies have bought large purchases after the show. So winner take all may not be what it seems. For this forum, I feel that this would be elementary, but I have not noticed discussion on it.
| Sean, sean_cleary of my-deja.com |
((This would be cheating and I believe that they signed extensive contracts that included all sorts of rights by CBS for monitoring. I suspect they are monitoring this too. Richard got no money at all until last night. They can monitor what he did with the million. Besides, Richard's personality type suggests strongly that he is NOT a cheater. He said he would not break the rules and he would not, in my view. Richard wanted the status of winning the whole thing more than he wanted the money itself. He even had his ``mug for the camera" statement about what he wanted to do with the money (start an Outward Bound type program for troubled youths). On the other hand, he started a major building program on his house last week. In any case, they are monitoring for cheating and I don't think it could be done easily.))
Barry Jacobs (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 18:34:25 GMT)
A suggestion for the third season: Our castaways are marooned in New York City. The eight members of each tribe start out sharing John Quarto's groovy apartment in Brooklyn. At the end of the first week, it goes co-op and they have to move to a ``roomy" studio in the East Village. Each week they move all of their crap by subway (they can bring as much stuff as they want, provided they move it all each week) to increasingly skeezy digs somewhere across town. By the final week, they're in a burned out squat on a crack corner in the South Bronx.
((If it's anything like John's former groovy apartment in downtown Boston: AMEN, BROTHER! For each move they have to beg, borrow or steal enough pin money to make the payments on each move (this can also determine how quickly they end up the squat).))
Immunity challenges include parking in midtown, convincing a cabbie to go to Harlem and eating dirty-water hotdogs. The winner would receive $1 million on the books or the equivalent after taxes (about $34.95).
| Barry, lostingotham of earthlink.net |
((It also must take place in the middle of a hot NYC summer and reward challenges include an air conditioner and cold drinks (with endorsement attachments).))
Barry Jacobs (Thu, 24 Aug 2000 23:31:38 GMT)
Actually, I was thinking it'd run from December to March. The slush is so much more challenging than the heat, especially when the snow's so high they stop picking up the garbage.
((I think they were thinking seriously about Greenland for a Survivor, but were worried it would be too cold and everyone would be bundled up - no buns or naked fat guys.... of course, they could take all the coats away and make them freeze their butts off! That would create even more T&A action....))
As for the money for each move-they'd have to make that by ``temping".
| Barry, lostingotham of earthlink.net |
((Oh, but that's too easy, anyone can temp in NYC. ;-) Then again, anyone probably can panhandle too.))
Rich Goranson (25 Aug 2000 17:18:35 GMT)
Snow? High? In NYC? Oh, puhleeze!!!
| Rich Goranson (Lord Stephan Calvert deGrey), forlornh of aol.com |
((Heh, heh, heh... Rich, of course, lives in Buffalo. Next up, the estimable Chris Martin weighs in, responding to this note that I lost track of who wrote.... organizing this isn't easy, you know: ``Rudy actually played really well. Would anyone believe in advance that someone could come that close by playing Rudy's strategy, namely, never lie under any circumstances???''))
Chris Martin (Fri, 25 Aug 2000 05:26:48 GMT)
I dunno, Grant Flowers has used that strategy to some good effect - of course, not telling you something isn't the same as LYING is it? ;)
| Chris, tremewanc of worldnet.att.net |
((Wait, here it is, it was said by the perhaps even MORE estimable Jamie Dreier.... Jamie starts off by commenting on the Carebear discussion [forming an alliance at the beginning that you never lie and never break]:))
Jamie Dreier (Fri, 25 Aug 2000 14:53:52 GMT)
No. You can't be a carebear all by yourself. Carebears come in bunches.
((And that's why Rudy wasn't a more obvious carebear. I still say that Rich essentially played the ``Carebear, Dan Shoham Variation" with Rudy. He just never had to stab Rudy for the win because of the design of the game. Obviously he would have, but he figured out how he could win without doing it. This is Rich's brilliance, which I readily admit.))
Rudy actually played really well. Would anyone believe in advance that someone could come that close by playing Rudy's strategy, namely, never lie under any circumstances??? Incredible. And all that prevented him from winning was the greater endurance of a 22 year old woman against his old muscles, a grotesquely unfair immunity challenge.
| -Jamie, James_Dreier of brown.edu |
((I was kind of surprised about the ``hot coals" thing. It really didn't seem to affect anyone at all (probably because of the mud they put on their feet) and yes, I was betting on Kelly precisely because I was figuring that she would win just this kind of immunity challenge. That ***IS*** part of the game. You can't have it all ways at once. I've had lots of good non-Diplomacy player friends complain that Survivor wasn't tough enough, no one was really at risk, it could have been played on a beach in Florida for the most part. I do think stamina is part of the game. Kelly got where she got with her skills, Rudy with his, and Richard with his. To be fair throughout, the producers should not be manipulating the games to favor certain people over others, but this is the same argument when people claim Jeopardy is unfair because Broadway Shows is sometimes a category and contestants have heavily bifurcated knowledge distributions on these sorts of categories.))
((Ideally, the game will be the most interesting to the audience if the challenges are broadly balanced (the next to last one was totally a mind game and Rudy wasn't very good at that either) so that strategies remain flexible and the most balanced competitors who can deal with everything the best win. Ultimately, Richard wore Kelly down too. He was a true survivor (but you have to take everything into account to say this, which is as it should be). Age is part of the mix. It gives you advantages in some ways, disadvantages in others.))
Keith Ammann (Fri, 25 Aug 2000 20:07:45 -0500)
They didn't put mud on their feet. And that's a good thing, because it's the sweat off the soles of your feet that keeps the coals from burning them. Anyone can walk on hot coals knowing this. What makes it difficult is that if you don't know, you hesitate, the sweat evaporates, and you get burned.
| Keith Ammann is geenius of enteract.com |
Keith A. Schneider (26 Aug 2000 02:34:10 GMT)
That is false. Coal walking is possible with completely dry feet. Although the coals are very hot, they also have a low heat conductance. You can be in contact with them for a few seconds before you get burned. I am sure you have walked across a concrete patio that has gotten hot from being in the sun. You never see anyone walking across a red hot copper frying pan. The most dangerous thing about coal walking is that you might get a coal stuck between your toes.
| keith, keith of alumnae.caltech.edu |
Jody McCullough (Fri, 25 Aug 2000 17:37:07 GMT)
Evidently, the last immunity challenge has always been some sort of endurance test (including the earlier versions of this show in other countries). So I expected something like that. And really, Rudy did VERY well. FOUR hours and 11 minutes, and he probably could have gone longer but lost concentration. Now, I realize, Kelly was very focused and probably could have stood there 6 hours or more. But, at least, Rudy gave her the opportunity to slip up.
You know, if Sue had won the previous challenge and not been voted off, Rudy might have won that last challenge!! Rudy did really really well. He didn't win, but he certainly could have. I'd feel better about the challenges if I knew they were all planned out ahead of time. I imagine they were, but I don't know for sure.
((Responding to my comment on Rudy blowing the ``Participant History" quiz:)) Hey, Rudy was very close in that one too! Make one question different and he might've won. It was Rich that sucked at that one.
((As for my comment on age:)) Agreed there. The older ones tended to be wiser about playing the game (except for Sonja and B.B. who got voted off right quick). The younger ones tended to treat it as a vacation with cameras on you, and thought very little about the actual context of the game. That hurt them.
| -Jody- w1zard of home.com |
((Thanks, Jody, we're almost done.... just a few wrap up comments. It is also important to remember that Kelly was surely not going to be chosen to be one of the final two, so winning the final immunity challenge was worth $25,000 to her, not a small chunk of change. Kelly's comment that she thinks about not winning the million every day is dangerous. For her sake, I hope she gets over it. Mike Barno relates some of this back to Richard Weiss' idea about televising Diplomacy games. I copy a note that Mike sent to Richard on it. I certainly think that the idea COULD be sold to TV after Survivor! where I do not think it would have had a prayer before this.))
Mike Barno (Tue, 15 Aug 2000 18:58:29 -0400)
Heya Richard,
Dip w/Survivor: The idea will appeal to some people for sure. I don't care for Survivor or Big Brother so I'm neutral. If you somehow get it together I'll support it. I don't know much about streaming video on the Web (more about theory than current application) so you'd need somebody at least to set it up and train me so I could work with it. But I'd be glad to do your entry page explaining the event, with links to the video feeds and to rules and player bio's and hobby sites, and whatever else you'd want. And I'd promote it on www.DiplomaticCorps.org which is the only site I've posted on the Internet.
The closest thing I've heard of was years ago, before the Internet was in homes. A prize tournament in Las Vegas was announced (and turned out to be a hoax from the Jack Masters zine-faking machine) in the early eighties. The players would communicate through a set of computer terminals in different rooms, making negotiation dependent on one's words and not one's face. The final board would have all negotiations shown on a big screen for the rest of the people to watch. The winner was to receive a five-figure cash award.
| - Mike, mpbarno of lightlink.com |
| 2000 HOBBY AWARDS BALLOT - LAST CHANCE!!! |
Don Miller Award (Meritorious Service)
- Stephen Agar (Diplomatic Archives/Postal Section of the Diplomatic Pouch)
- Edi Birsan (Starting the Diplomatic Corps web page & organization)
- Manus Hand (Running the Diplomatic Pouch as Overall Editor)
- Doug Massey (Designing & Running the JDPR Diplomatic Rating System)
- Conrad von Metzke (BNC & Publisher of Costaguana)
- - - - - - - - - - -
Rod Walker Award (Literature)
- David Cohen (Diplomacy & the Way of the Warrior, A Book of 5 Rings: The Teachings of Miyamoto Shinman Musashi from The Diplomatic Pouch Fall 1999 Movement Issue)
- Eric Grenoux (A Call to Arms from Flat Earth Society Issue #10)
- Brent McKee (Canadian Naval History from Making Love In A Canoe)
- Tom Potocki (Are You Man Enough? The Virtues that Make A True General The Diplomatic Pouch Spring 1999 Movement Issue)
- Paul Windsor (Geography is Destiny: How the Standard Map Dictates Fortunes & Strategies from The Diplomatic Pouch Fall 1999 Retreat Issue)
- - - - - - - - - - -
John Koning Award (Player Performance)
- Jamie Dreier
- Mark Fassio
- Robert Paquin
- Sara Reichert
- Cal White
- - - - - - - - - - -
Fred Hyatt Award (GM Performance)
- Michael Lowrey (Carolina Command & Commentary)
- Brent McKee (Making Love in a Canoe)
- Tim Miller (Email GM)
- Tim Richardson (Email GM)
- Conrad von Metzke (Costaguana)
- - - - - - - - - - -
VOTERS, PLEASE IDENTIFY YOURSELF PROMINENTLY IF YOU RESPOND BY E-MAIL
OR SIGN YOUR BALLOT IF YOU RETURN BY POSTAL MAIL
Again, the Committee is soliciting a $1.00 donation per vote to defray costs of the awards themselves. This is a voluntary donation and does not affect your vote in any way. We plan on continuing to send the winners plaques. The Committee currently consists of myself (Chairperson), Fred Davis (Treasurer), Gary Behnen, Jim Burgess, Paul Kenny, and Robert Lesco. The voting deadline is Sept. 2, 2000. Please send votes, contributions, and comments to:
Melinda Holley, 1823 Enslow Blvd., Huntington WV 25701 (Rebel8954 of aol.com). Thank you for your participation.
| GAMES SECTION |
``So I called up George and he called up Jim, I said let's make a deal.
He said he'd talk to him. Gonna start a church where you can save yourself,
You can make some noise, When you've got no choice...
You told me useful things, what people think of me, I guess I should thank you.
It's true, then I agree... I'm all alone, I've got no choice,
I'm all alone, I've got no choice."
From ``Got No Choice" by the incomparable Mark Cutler, from the CD Mark Cutler and Useful Things.
If you want to submit orders, press, or letters by E-Mail, you can find me through the Internet system at ``burgess of world.std.com''. If anyone has an interest in having an E-Mail address listed so people can negotiate with you by computer, just let me know. FAX orders to (401) 277-9904.
Standby lists:
Mike Barno, Dick Martin, Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Glenn Petroski, Steve Emmert, Mark Kinney, Vince Lutterbie, Eric Brosius, Paul Rauterberg, Stan Johnson, Randy Ellis, Bob Acheson, Heath Gardner, Phil Reynolds, Paul Kenny, Dan Gorham, and John Schultz stand by for regular Diplomacy.
Phil Reynolds, Chris Trent, and Jim Sayers stand by for the Colonial Diplomacy game.
Brad Wilson, Jack McHugh, Phil Reynolds, Jim Sayers, and Kurt Ozog stand by for the Modern Diplomacy game.
Art Schleinkofer and Harold Reynolds stand by for Colonia. Help, more are needed for this game, maps are provided for free by me.... or by Harold Reynolds just ask.
Let me know if you want on or off these lists, especially OFF. Standbies get the szine for free and receive my personal thanks.
| GAME OPENING INFORMATION |
TWO NEW GAME OPENINGS (guest written by brilliant counselor at law Steve Emmert):
In many of the games run in this szine and elsewhere, there is a fundamental element of unfairness that taints the entire process. Diplomacy is a game of honor and treachery; of loyalty and betrayal; of truth and lies. But it is fundamentally a competition among people seeking to manipulate one another, and therein lies the problem. The problem is lawyers, who occasionally play in games without disclosing their profession. You see, I (and many other like-minded GM's) feel it is fundamentally unfair to require amateur liars to compete against professionals.
But we can't merely shut the whole legal profession out of the hobby. There are, after all, several excellent Diplomacy players among the members of the bar, and they have a right of free association, too. I have decided that the best way to reconcile these two opposing concerns is to offer each camp its own separate theater of operation. Accordingly, I hereby announce two gamestarts, each of which shall be Regular Diplomacy. One, open only to attorneys, will be titled, ``The Professional Division." The other, open only to nonlawyers, will be called, ``The Amateur Division." These games, which I propose to begin simultaneously, should provide an interesting case study on this particular form of ``professionalism."
If you have any problems with the structure of the foregoing, you can speak with my attorney.
Best wishes. Steve Lord of the Three Capitals
LAWYERS GAME: Stephen Agar and Steve Emmert already have signed up. I plan to invite Mark Franceschini, Paul Windsor, and perhaps Carl Adamec (see above)
REGULAR GAME: Rick Davis, Jim Burgess (if Russ Rusnak decides to GM it for me) are tentatively on the list here. I'm sure this one will fill very quickly. We'll run both games with standard fees and rules. The $20 game fee ($5 of that refundable for NMR insurance) gives you a subscription for the life of the game, which usually is a bargain at twice the price. Write to ME about both openings.
Eric Ozog will be running Air-Sea Diplomacy some time in the future. You can contact Eric at ElfEric of Juno.com if you are interested in the game. I'll publish the rules closer to a time when Eric wants it to start.
The other Diplomacy oriented opening left that I am GMing in this szine is an opening for a game of Star Trek Diplomacy! These will be the last Diplomacy game openings until more games end. See Stephen Agar's rules on his web page at (new location, and including that little typo on ``start trek''):
http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/resources/variants/rules/start_trek.htm
I decided how I will treat the Star systems and the ``revolving rings'' rule. I will keep the map as a ``code" and the real locations (which I will provide as names from Star Trek) will rotate through the coded spaces. This WILL make it easy to make up maps. The game start is open now, and since I want to STRONGLY encourage press, you can sign up and ``claim'' a race. Chris Trent claims the Ferengi, Stephen Agar claims the Borg, and Jody McCullough claims the Romulans. Buddy Tretick and Roland Sasseville, Jr., also are set to play. Chris Lockheardt has stepped out of the sixth spot, so we now need THREE more players. This game also has the $20 game fee ($5 of that refundable for NMR insurance). Not much action here, but I'll keep the opening for now.
Then, for NON-Diplomacy oriented types. John Harrington is offering to guest GM a game of Office Politics. Any interest in that?? Let me or John know! I have one person signed up, but I've forgotten just this instant who it is.
Also, I am going to design some postal rules for Devil Take the Hindmost, and Chris Lockheardt is pulling out of that opening too, so I need three players. Eoghan Barry is signed up. Postal rules from me will be forthcoming shortly.
Stephen Agar runs a British Diplomacy mailing list and has a new broader web postal gaming web site too at: http://www.postalgames.org.uk
and if you are interested, contact Stephen Agar at stephen of spoff.demon.co.uk who still heads up The Diplomatic Pouch postal section or or join the Brit hobby mailing list at (aw, you guessed it, another new address): http://www.diplomacy-archive.com/about_this_site.htm
| FANTASTIC VOYAGE: 1999K, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1903 IS SEPTEMBER 9TH, 2000
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1904 IS SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2000
Fall 1903
AUSTRIA (Gorham): a TYO-ven, a BUD-vie, a VEN-nap (imp), f ion-TUN,
a SIL-war, a ser-GRE.
ENGLAND (Biehl): f IRI S f eng-mid, f eng-MID, f nth-ENG, a BEL-bur.
FRANCE (Davis): a BRE S a gas-par, a MAR-bur,
f mid-eng (d r:nao,spa(nc),spa(sc),por,wes,naf,otb), a GAS-par.
GERMANY (Shreve): a PAR S a pic-bre, a mun-BER, f den-NTH,
a PIC-bre, a BUR-gas.
ITALY (Tallman): a ROM h, a PIE S GERMAN a bur-mar (nso), a BOH S GERMAN a mun-tyo (nso).
RUSSIA (Tretick): a MOS S a ukr-war, f swe-NWY, a ukr-WAR, a GAL-vie.
TURKEY (Ellis): a con-BUL, f aeg-ION, a ARM S a sev, a bul-RUM,
f BLA S a bul-rum, a SEV S a bul-rum.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Gorham): | bud,tri,vie,ser,ven,gre,tun | (has 6, bld 1) |
| ENGLAND (Biehl): | lon,lvp,edi,bel | (has 4, even) |
| FRANCE (Davis): | bre,mar,spa,por | (has 3 or 4, PLAYS ONE SHORT(r:otb) or even) |
| GERMANY (Shreve): | ber,kie,mun,den,hol,par | (has 5, bld 1) |
| ITALY (Tallman): | rom,nap | (has 3, rem 1) |
| RUSSIA (Tretick): | mos,stp,swe,nwy,war | (has 4, bld 1) |
| TURKEY (Ellis): | ank,smy,con,bul,rum,sev | (has 6, even) |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=34) |
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Dan Gorham, PO Box 279, Belmopan, BELIZE, CENTRAL AMERICA ($5)
Frdan of BTL.NET
ENGLAND: John Biehl, 8809 Delwood Drive, Delta, BRITISH COLUMBIA, V4C 4A1 CANADA,
(604) 589-9124 ($10); jeen of telus.net
FRANCE: Rick Davis, POB 1753, Santa Ynez, CA 93460, (831) 678-4470
redavis914 of aol.com
GERMANY: Dwayne Shreve, 739 Union Church Road, Elkton, MD 21921 ($5)
dwayneshreve of yahoo.com
ITALY: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0384 ($3)
terryt of sinclair.net
RUSSIA: Buddy Tretick, 9607 Conaty Circle, Spotsylvania, VA 22553, (540) 582-2356 (E-Mail)
bernietretick of earthlink.net
TURKEY: Randy Ellis, 3116 McGee, Apt. 1N, Kansas City, MO 64111, (816) 931-8406 ($10)
bukowski64 of yahoo.com
Game Notes:
1) Note Randy Ellis' and Buddy Tretick's new E-Mail addresses and Rick Davis' new postal address.
Press:
(CHERKASY, A SMALL VILLAGE SOUTHWEST OF KIEV): Spitoon and Upchuck Press: In a surprise move, made from a rather quick decision on the part of a slow thinking Tzar, Russian man of wars yet fought slid in Norway to eyeball a more northern passage. The country of France almost tipped into the English Channel as all free Frenchmen and some not so free Frenchwomen ran to the coastline to watch the swells caused by Russian warships, shall we say, on maneuver?
(LONDON SEPT 1, 1903): The First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, Samuel Owen Barfer (SOB) announced to the assembled reporters ``Gentlemen, His Majesty King Edward VII today extends an invitation to his cousins, Czar Nicholas II and Kaiser Wilhelm II to participate in a grand naval review in honour of their grandmother, the late Queen Victoria, may God rest her soul." This announcement caused muttering amongst the reporters who clamored for more information. Barfer motioned to Second Sea Lord Fisher to answer any questions. A reporter inquired, ``My Lords, what exactly is the purpose of this exercise?" Lord Fisher responded, ``Why to go fishing, of course."
(ANKARA to BUDAPEST): Silence may be golden but it is fatal to successful alliances.
(ENGLISH CHANNEL OCT 1, 1903): Admiral Hood, aboard HMS Indescribable, spoke to his officers, ``With the support of HMS Indutable(ly) we will force the French fleet to retreat out of the Atlantic Ocean and so face our foe, the hated Turk!"
(ATHENS NOV 1, 1903): Radical Anarchists from the Free Greece League have claimed responsibility for the assassination attempts, during the previous night's All Saints Eve religious services, on both the Austro-Hungarian and the Turkish ambassadors. Meanwhile, refugees from the north are scrambling to find passage on steamships bound for British dependencies where peace still prevails.
(CONSTANTINOPLE): Amid a crowd of svelte belly dancers, the Sultan (after taking a not insignificant hit off of the royal hookah) directed his gaze at the English ambassador summoned before him. The pale and rotund Englishman stood in front of the Ottoman leader defiantly. ``So your government intends to threaten my people, Briton? Thinly veiled threats emanating from London have reached the highest corridors of power here in the capital of Turkey, Englishman." The British diplomat slowly lost the superior grin on his face as he realized the gravity of his situation. The Sultan El Ahbid Ellis was getting worked up now. ``Tell your king or queen or whoever in Allah's name is in control up there to mind their own business. Our quarrel with the Russians is with the Russians and only the Russians." ``Or so you hope, your highness", replied the Briton. The Sultan, pushing away the caressing hands of one of the dancers, started to say something, thought better of it, and dismissed the Englishman.
As the diplomat retreated to his embassy, El Ahbid Ellis looked to the Northwest. The kingdom of Bulgaria lies across the straits and beyond that to the West were Austrian and Hungarian troops in Serbia; rumored to be heading South to Athens. A cock crowed in the distance as thunder rolled ominously in from an encroaching storm. ``Perhaps all is not as is seems" reasoned the Turkish leader. ``Perhaps the Russians will destroy us..." Mired in momentary depression, the hedonistic head of state quickly snapped out of it and resumed his attention to the belly dancers and the now full hookah before him. ``Well", he reasoned as he blew out a cloud of blue smoke, ïf this really is the end, one might as well enjoy their last earthly moments as best they can." Ellis, followed by his sycophantic concubines, boarded the royal yacht and headed North into the Black Sea. A crowd on shore watched as the wooden ship disappeared into the distance.
(VIENNA NOV 9, 1903): Newspapers report the English Ambassador to Austria-Hungary, Sir Cecil M. Underhill, has been murdered by unknown assailants. This dastardly deed was reported to have occured while Sir Cecil was returning home from the State Opera House.
(MOSCOW, AUGUST 1903): The Tzar paced the four cubic feet of his closet, yelling, screeming, and even screaching. He muttered, ``Now, let's get this straight! The Sultan wishes us to vacate Ukraine! The Friar wishes us to vacate Galicia! Now, then, that should not be all that bad, huh! All we have to do is retreat into Moscow or Warsaw. Not so bad!" The floor gave way from under him when he finally wore through the boards of that rotted closet. And, would you believe it, the maid's potty was right below. Plop! Into the Pool once again, as it were! As he fell, the Tzar screamed once again, saying, ``Oh, what a fool I was to believe in rotted floors! And, what a fool I would be if I did what the Sultan and Friar Tuck wanted me to do!" The Tzar's face turned red, only momentarily, and then, once again, turned brown.
(LEMBURG NOV 11, 1903): The Peoples' Democratic Revolutionary Party has made an appeal to all fraternal, peace loving nations of Europe to combine and overthrow the cynical, ignorant and morally bankrupt Hapsburg regime which enslaves all its nationalities within an artificial, autocratic empire.
(LONDON NOV 15, 1903): The Conservative government of Prime Minister John Beale announced in Parliament, ``As of this day England has suspended diplomatic relations with the Empire of Austria-Hungary. England is horrified and condemns the murder of our Ambassador which the Hapsburg authorities have not satisfactorily explained. England further condemns the refusal of the Austro-Hungarian government to receive the late Ambassador for the official discussion of state relations." The leader of the opposition rose to question the wisdom of the government's actions. In reply the Prime Minister said, ``Desperate times require desperate measures."
(POPATOVIASKY: A RATHER SMALL VILLAGE NEAR KIEV, UKRAINE, FORMERLY WHITE RUSSIA [Circa 1800]): And, there it was - a continuation of the same ole saga - down the tubes with the Kaiser. The Tzar had noted a small ulcer inside the duodenum [yeah, guys, the is the large tube just beneath and in line with the stomach!] of his captor. Using his rubbery fingers [those digits he uses to pull back his rubber checks], he stretched backwards up through the small intestines and into the duodenum. Searching and searching with those sharpened fingers nails, he finally pricked the sore. Puss oozed out, and pain shot straight down the tubes that held our Tzar captive. Stomach muscles within the Kaiser tightened so much that pressure built up inside the large intestines. What a mess. The Tzar, once again in the brown instead of the red, shot out of that final orifice of which the Kaiser is so much of, and splattered all over the insides of that darned spittoon. The Tzar slithered down, down, down, to the bottom of the abyss, returning from the slime to the slime. He plotted his escape with vigor. Using his rubbery fingers with those sharpened nails, he grabbed the ass [now you know where the term ``grab ass" originated!] of the Kaiser with the nails of his left hand, and pricked the ass of the Kaiser with the nail of the middle finger [and, now you know where ``giving one the finger" originated!]. The Kaiser shot up out of that spittoon so fast, his pointed head hit and stuck into the rafters of the ceiling, finally pulling the Tzar out of the Kaiser's slime once and for all. He was free at last. ``What's this, the Kaiser pulled loose from the rafters as the Tzar looked downwards"? There it was, looming up at him at the rate of 180 pounds per second per second, with the Kaiser falling at the same rate. Plop! Right back into the spittoon with the Kaiser's ass sealing the fate of the Tzar once again. Will this ever end?
(ANONYMOUS): Nyah, nyah Fr(ied) [as in your mind] Dan! Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.
| (Sometimes I Feel Like) FLETCHER CHRISTIAN: 1999Cgh013, Colonia VIIb Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1754 IS SEPTEMBER 9TH, 2000
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1755 IS SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2000
Fall 1754
AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): f TAHITI-bismarck sea, f surinam-BELEM, f NAPLES S f papal states(wc),
a PERU S ENGLISH a bolivia, a bavaria-RHINE, a BOSNIA-bulgaria, f SOUTH PACIFIC
OCEAN-coral sea, a SILESIA h, f GREECE S a bosnia-bulgaria, a MANAUS-surinam,
f BISMARCK SEA h, a SAVOY S f papal states(wc), a SWISSE S a savoy, a VENEZUELA-surinam,
f PAPAL STATES(WC) S a savoy, f ECUADOR S a peru, f new zealand-coral sea (nsu).
CHINA (Acheson): f yellow sea-EAST CHINA SEA, a SINKIANG-kashmir, a TIBET S a bhutan-nepal,
f KOREA S OTTOMAN f siberia-vladivostok, a peking-AMOY, f manchuria-YELLOW SEA,
a gobi desert-CHINGHAI, a SZECHUAN S a tibet, a BHUTAN-nepal, a mongolia-SIBERIA,
f japan-SEA OF OKHOTSK.
ENGLAND (Power): f malay sea-ANDAMAN SEA, a TOGO h, a ANTWERP S a bavaria-rhine,
a FEZAN S a nubia-sudan, a chile-ARGENTINA, f andaman sea-BURMA, f WEST ATLANTIC
OCEAN-central atlantic ocean, f english channel-EAST ATLANTIC OCEAN, f north sea-ENGLISH
CHANNEL, f ANTARCTIC OCEAN h, a congo-UGANDA, a BOLIVIA S a chile-argentina,
a gabon-CONGO, f east indian ocean-CEYLON, f HAGUE h, f CENTRAL ATLANTIC OCEAN-ricefe.
FRANCE (Alme): a FLANDERS-antwerp, a BURGUNDY S a toulon, f alaska-VANCOUVER,
f BRITTANY-flanders, f LIGURIAN SEA S a toulon, a VIRGINIA h, f GHANA-dakar,
a TOULON h, a SAHARA-dakar, a YUKON S a alaska-vancouver, a PARIS S a brittany-flanders.
NETHERLANDS (O'Donnell): f CORAL SEA S AUSTRIAN f south pacific ocean-tarawa (nso),
a KATANGA S a uganda-tanganyika, f TASMAN SEA-antarctic ocean, a uganda-TANGANYIKA,
f SAMOA S AUSTRIAN f bismarck sea-south pacific ocean (nso).
OTTOMAN (Johnson): f arabia(ec)-YEMEN, f hawaii-POLYNESIA, a ARMENIA-caucasus,
a SUEZ h, f persian gulf-ARABIAN SEA, f BLACK SEA S f bulgaria(ec), f siberia-VLADIVOSTOK,
a AFGHANISTAN h, a EGYPT S f ionian sea-libya, f RED SEA-ethiopia, f BULGARIA(EC) h,
f TARAWA-south pacific ocean, a KAZAKSTAN-ural, a sudan s f red sea-ethiopia (d ann),
a OMSK S CHINESE a mongolia-siberia, f ionian sea-LIBYA, f central pacific ocean-WAKE.
PORTUGAL (Stimmel): f CANARIES-mid-atlantic ocean, a AMAZON-peru,
f BAY OF BENGAL S ENGLISH f andaman sea-burma, a KASHMIR-tibet, f MID-ATLANTIC
OCEAN-ricefe, f AZORES h, a vancouver-MANITOBA, a OREGON-vancouver, a BENGAL-bhutan,
a argentina-PARAGUAY, f IFNI S f canaries-mid-atlantic ocean.
RUSSIA (Rauterberg): f natal-MOZAMBIQUE, f vladivostok-SEA OF JAPAN, a ST.PETERSBURG
S a ural, a CRIMEA S a caucasus, a POLAND S a romania, f se atlantic ocean-SOUTH INDIAN
OCEAN, f sea of okhotsk-NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN, f west indian ocean-DIEGO GARCIA,
f baltic sea-DENMARK, a URAL h, a CAUCASUS h, a ROMANIA h,
a HANOVER S AUSTRIAN a bavaria-rhine, a NEPAL S PORTUGUESE a kashmir-tibet,
a ZAMBIA-katanga, f denmark-HELGOLAND.
SPAIN (Partridge): f GULF OF ADEN-red sea, f PHILIPPINE SEA S f raboul-solomon sea,
a tunis-NUMIDEA, f CALIFORNIA S RUSSIAN f sea of okhotsk- north pacific ocean,
a KENYA S ENGLISH a congo-uganda, f solomon sea-IWO JIMA, f gulf of california-EAST
PACIFIC OCEAN, a lisbon-LAGOS, f gibraltar-MOROCCO, f gulf of siam-SUBIC BAY,
a ETHIOPIA S a nubia-sudan, a TEXAS-louisiana, a libya-egypt (d r:benin,otb),
a morocco-TUNIS, a LOUISIANA-virginia, a nubia-SUDAN, f WESTERN
MEDITERRANEAN C a morocco-tunis, f raboul-SOLOMON SEA.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (Prosnitz): | BUD,VIE,SUR,TRI,TAH,ven,bav, | (has 16, bld 2) |
| bel,NAP,vza,col,nwz,pps,fij,sav,ecu,peru,gre |
| CHINA (Acheson): | PEK,WUH,XIA,AMO,tib,tai,NAN, | (has 11, bld 1) |
| sin,jap,manch,mon,kor |
| ENGLAND (Power): | NIG,MLA,EDI,LON,kam,sia,nwy, | (has 16, bld 4(PLAYS ONE SHORT) |
| ire,jav,gab,sum,bol,con,hag,fez,ant,uga,arg,bur,cey,togo |
| FRANCE (Alme): | PAR,DAK,TOU,QUE,BDX,tau,ohi, | (has 11, bld 2) |
| gha,mas,ont,ala,vir,van |
| NETHERLANDS (O'Donnell): | MEL,sam | (has 5, rem 3) |
| OTTOMAN (Johnson): | IZM,JER,BAG,IST,HAW,persia, | (has 16, rem 1) |
| egy,afg,bul,gua,yem,wak,tar,oms,vla |
| PORTUGAL (Stimmel): | GOA,BRA,manit,mah,azo,kha,bah, | (has 11, even) |
| ben,ric,ore,ifn |
| RUSSIA (Rauterberg): | MOS,KIE,CAP,STP,CRI,pol,moz, | (has 16, even) |
| swe,mal,zam,den,ang,rom,han,nep,die |
| SPAIN (Partridge): | MAD,MEX,SOM,VAL,MAN,cal, | (has 17(PLAYS ONE SHORT) or 18, bld 5) |
| tun,rab,bor,eth,hon,tex,nwg,cam,ken,lis,lag,flo, |
| lou,iwo,sud,num,mor |
| Neutral: | cub,nat,niz,tim,vol | (Total=136) |
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Gene Prosnitz, 2600 Netherland Ave., Apt. 1116, Riverdale, NY 10463, (718) 601-8131 ($5)
ProsnitzE of aol.com
CHINA: Bob Acheson, 807-556 Laurier Ave., Ottawa, ONTARIO K1R 7X2, CANADA ($5)
racheson of intranet.ca
ENGLAND: John Power, 5043 Lymbar Dr., Houston, TX 77096 [FORWARDED] ($5)
natjohn2 of home.com or jrpower of bechtel.com
FRANCE: Hank Alme, 506 Paige Loop, Los Alamos, NM 87544
almehj of swcp.com
NETHERLANDS: Sean O'Donnell, 2219 Grafton Road, Grafton, OH 44044
sean_o_donnell of hotmail.com, seanside of snap.com
OTTOMAN: Stan Johnson, 2401 W. Southern Ave. #56, Tempe, AZ 85282, (602) 454-9356 ($5)
PORTUGAL: Robert Stimmel, Apt. #57, Casa de Sherry Apts., 2462 North Sycamore Blvd.,
Tucson, AZ 85712-2541, (520) 326-8369 ($5)
RUSSIA: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 (E-Mail)
prosit of execpc.com
SPAIN: Dave Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033
rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
Game Notes:
1) Note John Power's new E-Mail address.
2) We're trying our new map this turn. Comments? Thanks to Dave Partridge for helping me out here. Remember that written moves above ALWAYS dominate map positions. I've already discovered that the lower right corner of the board is a little confusing, that scratched out line means that you can move between the Antarctic and Tahiti.
Press:
(LOUISIANA - VIRGINIA): No hostilities intended. You should be staying in place to gain the center. Just haven't heard from you in a while and wanted to cover against a slide into Florida.
(SPAIN - OTTO): Thanks for the kind words, but it's far from over. Always a pleasure and a challenge to cross swords with you though!
(RUSSIA-OTTOMAN): You had your day, and now you will PAY. How many fronts did you think that you could manage, anyway?
(PORTUGAL to AUSTRIA): Sorry, but I had to change sides in order to remain a factor in this game.
(PAUL to SEAN): You just noticed NOW that you were booted out of your home dots? Did you expect O/C to cover for you?
(RUSSIA to CHINA): Okay, and now what?
(SPAIN - NETHERLANDS): Happy hunting.
| SECRETS: 1999D, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1905 IS SEPTEMBER 9TH, 2000
Winter 1904
ENGLAND (Sayers): bld f edi; has f EDI, f ENG, f MID, f NTH, f POR.
FRANCE (Sasseville): has f SPA(SC), f NAP, a PAR, a MAR.
GERMANY (Johnson): R f den otb; has a SIL, a BER, f KIE, a MUN, a BEL.
ITALY (Schultz): rem a vie; has f ROM, a VEN, f TUN, f ION, a TRI, a BUD.
RUSSIA (Trent): R a ber-PRU; bld a mos; has a MOS, f SWE, a WAR, a PRU, f BAL,
a DEN, a SEV.
TURKEY (Munson): bld f smy; has f SMY, f AEG, f GRE, a SER, f BLA, a RUM, a BUL.
Addresses of the Participants
ENGLAND: Jim Sayers, 15 Holdsworth Street, Woollahra 2025, AUSTRALIA ($10)
100233.513 of compuserve.com
FRANCE: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 481-4280 ($5)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
GERMANY: Stan Johnson, 2401 W. Southern Ave. #56, Tempe, AZ 85282, (602) 454-9356
ITALY: John Schultz, PO Box 1322, Valparaiso, IN 46384, (219) 462-0474
RUSSIA: Chris Trent, 3536 Watt Avenue, #B205, Sacramento, CA 95821, (916) 685-7772 ($5)
chrisimaus98 of hotmail.com
TURKEY: Scott Munson, P.O. Box 1042, Gardiner, MT 59030, (406) 848-2102 ($5)
samunson71 of hotmail.com
Game Notes:
1) Note that Roland and Scott both have new phone numbers.
Press:
(RUSSIA-TURKEY): Are you having fun salivating over the Mediterranean?
(ITALY-FRANCE): Nice roll of the dice - it bought you a dot for one season. Too bad you couldn't stay the course.
| SADDAM HUSSEIN: 1999Arn42, Nuclear Yuppie Evil Empire Diplomacy - Black Hole Variant |
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1906 IS SEPTEMBER 9TH, 2000
Summer 1906
AUSTRIA (Weiss): has a GAL, f ADR; and nuked LON, NTH, NWY, STP, MOS(2).
ENGLAND (Reichert): has f ENG, a YOR; and nuked ALB(2), BUD, SER(2), TRI, VIE.
FRANCE (Schultz): has f MID, a GAS, a SPA; and nukes withheld.
GERMANY (Gardner): has a BER, a MUN, f KIE; and nukes withheld.
ITALY (Barno): has a APU, a TYO, f TYH; and nuked GM, ALB(2), RUM(2), MOS(2), CON(2).
RUSSIA (S. Kenny): f GOB, f SEV, a SIL, a UKR; and nuked BUL, CON(2), PRU, BAL.
TURKEY (McCullough): has f ANK, a SYR; and nuked TUS, BLA, RUM(2), SER(2), EAS.
Addresses of the Participants
Sandy Kenny, 23 East Coulter Avenue, Collingswood, NJ 08108-1208
Jody McCullough, 1071 Brown Avenue, Lafayette, CA 94549-3153
jodymc of home.com
Richard Weiss, 2777 Northtowne Lane, Apt V 1105, Reno, NV 89512
rcw23 of hotmail.com or diplomat of higherquality.com
Sara Reichert, 20805 Margaret, Carson, CA 90745-1224
sarareichert of aol.com
John Schultz, PO Box 1322, Valparaiso, IN 46384, (219) 462-0474
Heath Gardner, 3017 Mayview Road, Raleigh, NC 27607, (919) 834-4832
hgardner of prodigy.net
Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883
mpbarno of lightlink.com
| Current Standings |
| 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | TOTAL |
| SANDY KENNY | 4 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 13 |
| JODY MCCULLOUGH | 3 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 3 | 14 |
| RICHARD WEISS | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 15 |
| SARA REICHERT | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 10 |
| JOHN SCHULTZ | 0 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 14 |
| HEATH GARDNER | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| MIKE BARNO | 0 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 15 |
| Black Holed | 15 | 15 | 16 | 11 | 16 | 11 | 84 |
| Neutral | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 8 |
| Total | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 34 | 11 | 181 |
| Times GM Nuked | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| Ind. Prison Off. | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Greenland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Iceland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Kurt Ozog | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Beale St., SF | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Game Notes:
1) Lots of great press for the summer season as we near the end of the game. As soon as this one is over, we will start another seven round NYEED game, so get your reservations for a spot in now, I'm sure they'll go fast. I need to think of a good ``nuclear'' name for the game, so feel free to suggest one.
Press:
(SARA to MARIE): Ya da winna baby. Congrats. I vote for you for Dipster of the year.
(BOOB to GAME NAMERS): Hmmm, how about Marie Curie for the name of the next game??
(POTHEAD to MARIE): When I went to visit Mikey in Yellowstone and found an all female apartment, I suspected someting. All that talk all these years about NASCAR, headers, overhead cams, etc. - nothing more than to provide a cover ala Sara's cats. That she had crashed her old car and had to move to Winnemucca I accepted. Little did I know what and where Winnemucka was. Apt name, though.
(HARRY ANDRUSCHAK-WORLD): Something has come up concerning the recent ``Sara Reichert" hoax that has me puzzled. Does anybody know anything about a book (or pamphlet or tract) that might or might not be titled THE DUNGEON MASTER, that might or might not have been published in the 70s or 80s, with something by somebody named ``Henry Seduschak," who may or may not have lived in Oregon, which is not by me but which I am being blamed for? I would like to know if somebody could please send me a summary of what this publication is supposed to be about and what I was alleged to have said. Thank you for your time and effort. ((Perhaps someone like Michael Hopcroft can help you out..... one of my subbers from Oregon who is connected into that community. It would be a shame to be slammed by John Boardman over something you clearly (personal opinion here) did not write.))
(RACOUNTER-SADDAM): Zzzzzz . . .
(SADDAM-RACOUNTER): Heh, heh. You always fall for that trick of my falling asleep and stop telling and fall asleep. Now I am sneaking out of the tent. First to kill a few goats and act like a berserk camel, then to slip into Ozana's tent and then into Ozana. Allah be proud!
(SARA REICHERT-RICHARD WEISS): The Spice Girls have reunited, willing to put their solo careers on hold for a while. Yes, in spite of popular demand, they're back. As for the use of black holes, order Army Galicia-Rumania-Black Sea-Constantinople-Bulgaria-Serbia-Budapest-Vienna-Trieste-Albania-Greece, with Fleet Adriatic Sea also supporting via nine black holes. Now was that so hard?
(HARRY ANDRUSCHAK GROVELS to PETA): No animals were harmed during the performance of this hoax.
(JODY to SANDY): Two nukes for little ol' me? How thoughtful! Here's a hint for next round: I'm out of it. You can stop nuking me.
(ANDY-BOOB): A reminder that I am willing to standby for positions of 3 dots or less ONLY. By the way, I hope you are happy at totally ruining my chances to win a second Konig Award for best player performance. I wish you could have waited until after the voting to expose the hoax. I have also updated Sara's Member Profile on AOL. The name of her city has been changed back to Carson. Her sex has been changed from ``female" to ``unavailable." Her hobbies have been updated to include games like Diplomacy, 18xx, Outpost, Acquire, and Iron Dragon. Her occupation has been changed to ``suffering fools gladly," a tip of the hat to Phil Reynolds and John Boardman. The only thing that has not been changed is her Personal Quote. That remains ``Trust Me!" I hope you approve.
(AUSTRIA-HARRY): I sure wish I had one more nuke to dump not on your but on your ``cats." Man, with that press about the cats, I realize that you are not Harry either. You are a famous Railway Rivals persona come back to Dip. I recognize the pattern of word usage, tangential thoughts expressed and misguided self-explorations. Robert, why didn't you come clean when I visited you in the desert?
(G-L-O-R-I-A to HARRY): You are just the man I've been looking for. Come marry me. Of course, if you outlive me, the courts may disallow your inheriting anything. Is marriage legal between the same sex if one has had a sex change? What about if only pretended? This is a real case going through the courts now.
(FRANCE - ALL YOU NICE FOLKS): Thanks for the five points.
(JODY to MIKE): Amazing! In the lead and no one nuked you. You must be a great diplomat. Looks like you have a good chance to win it.
(TRUSTED PLAYER to BOOBIE): Do you allow black orders of Nukes? ((No.)) Can I trust that if a country has nuked me that it was really that player and not someone masquerading? ((Yes, but I make no guarantee that the country/player connection is a legally verified person. Should I have to legally verify you?)) First press and now nuke orders. Have you no line in the sand? ((I have lots of lines in the sand, but I have a confession to make. Anything goes in the name of fun, realizing that they may not all be to your liking....))
(JODY to ALL): I have a confession too. I'm a lesbian trapped in a man's body.
(BOOB to ALL): Darn, he beat me to it, I was going to confess to that instead!
| COME AND HAVE A GO (If You Think You're Hard Enough): 1998V, Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1906 IS SEPTEMBER 9TH, 2000
Summer 1906
AUSTRIA (Pollard): R f bul(sc)-GRE; has a WAR, a MOS, a SER, a GAL, f GRE,
a LVN, a RUM.
ENGLAND (Tallman): has f HEL, f SWE, f NWY.
FRANCE (Morris): has a MAR, f ENG, a SIL, f LON, a BEL, f NTH, a BUR, a PIC.
GERMANY (Sayers): has a RUH, a MUN, a BER.
ITALY (Munson): has a VEN, f SMY, f AEG, f EDI, f NWG, a TYO, a BOH.
RUSSIA (Reynolds): R a mos-STP; has a STP, a FIN.
TURKEY (Barno): R f smy-CON; has f CON, a BUL, f BLA, a SEV.
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Kent Pollard, PO Box 5726, Fresno, CA 93755-5726 ($4)
ENGLAND: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0384 ($3)
terryt of sinclair.net
FRANCE: Scott Morris, 12110 Shelbyville Rd., Louisville, KY 40243, (502) 893-8260 ($5)
Scottm221 of aol.com
GERMANY: Jim Sayers, 15 Holdsworth Street, Woollahra 2025, AUSTRALIA ($10)
100233.513 of compuserve.com
ITALY: Scott Munson, P.O. Box 1042, Gardiner, MT 59030, (406) 848-2102 ($5)
samunson71 of hotmail.com
RUSSIA: Phil Reynolds, 2896 Oak Street, Sarasota, FL 34237, (813) 953-6952
preyno of yahoo.com
TURKEY: Mike Barno, 634 Dawson Hill Road, Spencer, NY 14883 ($5)
mpbarno of lightlink.com
Game Notes:
1) The concession to Germany fails.
2) Note that Scott Munson has a new phone number.
Press:
(RUSSIA TO GM): I think I got it right this time.
(BOOB to RUSSIA): I don't think so, the concession to Germany didn't pass....
(ADMIRAL PAUL VON SHERRHODT to THE SULTAN): ``Bravo! You have retaken Bulgaria... I must withdrawl..."
(AMBASSADOR POLLARD to THE RUSSIAN MINISTRY): ``I vould like to comply to your request and end all hostilities immediately,but za Emperor vishes to build a new master palace in Saint. Petersburg...I't is completly out of my hands. You must understand. Once he makes up his mind zere is no vay to change it..."
(REPORTING FROM MOSCOW): ``What a surprise! Moscow has been taken! The battle is over. The Russian army had began to march out of the city, but a strong network of defenses were still in place. The Austrian ballalions were having a hard time. I witnessed a 10,000 man Infantry charge against machine gun nests (The Austrians lost a lot of good soldiers). A kind of stalemate ensued until a most fascinating event occurred. A lone rider galloping at full stride shot through our ranks and headed to the South of the city... It is reported that this man was screaming Stop!!!... A few minutes passed and suddenly a huge explosion resounded. Men were scattered. Horses were knocked down. The General of the 7th army group lost his bathtub as a Russian horse flew through the air and landed on his tent. Such was the destruction... What followed was a cheer that turned into a crescendo which drove off the Cossacks and allowed the taking of Moscow. But, this does not end on a highnote. The man who had galloped into Russian lines, the man who flew through machine gun nests and the man who is believed to have caused the explosion is none other than General Harry Flashman. It is suspected that nothing remains of his body. Completely blown to bits... However this reporter shall begin a search for his remains and confirm if he is indeed Dead...or not..."
(PALACE OF PANIC AND FLEE): I have nothing to say to anyone who didn't bother to come to World DipCon. The 2500 miles from Yellowstone and the circumnavigation from Woollahra are no excuse, considering people made it from New Zealand and Israel and even exotic tropical Rhode Island.
(BOOB to THOSE ON THE ``PALACE'' LIST): You really DO have no excuse. Read the pages and pages of stuff on this elsewhere.
(MIKE to PHIL): You came (farther than I did) to Baltimore so you're my ally if we ever see each other's units again.
(5TH.ARMY GROUP IN SERBIA): The fuzzyheaded ones have come back!...Stand too!..
(A GOVERNMENT PRESS RELEASE): ``...and it is our wish that his Holiness Pope Speedicut himself will attend the celebrated procession through the Gates of Moscow on this upcoming Aug.12th, 1906..."
(BULGARIA, 26 KILOMETERS WEST OF SOFIA): The Turkish general stood, open-mouthed, as he gazed at the grisly scene before him. ``Too far from the front, this is impossible", the general stammered as he walked forward to examine the scene. Other officers in the Turkish army followed the general as they all gazed down upon the blood, shattered head, grey matter and skull fragments, torn silk clothing, and copious quantities of brown, fuzzy hair strewn all about. The general got down on his hands and knees in a trance-like state. ``Strange", he said more to himself than to the crowd of officers behind him, ``the grey matter of the Sultan appears charred, blackened, almost cooked". The General was helped to his feet by a colonel who noted that ``The Austrian artillery that killed him must have also charred his brain, Sir". The General, still pale and wide eyed, shook his head. ``The man's brain has been charred not by Austrian artillery but by years and years of chronic hashish abuse, my dear colonel". A silence descended upon the small crowd of officers until suddenly, from who knows where, a high soprano voice rang out, ``He's ALL THE WAY now! ALL THE WAY!" The officers sought in vain the source of this odd voice as ravens and magpies picked at the smaller chunks of fat and flesh and lifted their wings to take their feast to a less busy area.
(FIELD MARSHAL JON RHODEHAMEL to THE OPPOSING FRENCH ARMY GROUP IN SILESIA): ``The 15th.Lancers and my own 1st.army group are wondering what are you doing in my cousin's villa? Why are you near Austrian borders?.. The High Command is concerned which means that I have ordered field hospitals back to the Western part of Galicia... General Flashman is presumed Dead, but I am the Supreme Commander of all Austrian forces. His men will not hesitate to open fire if even a small frog leaps too close..."
(BARNO to MORRIS): You have demon-wolf eyes. But a core of utter evil, of death without hope of salvation, is less important than your fun zine.
(EURO STAR REVEALS SECRETS OF FRENCH PRESIDENT):
| Secret letter to the French parliament intercepted from United States page 1 |
| French President gives birth to his own head page 5 |
Dear Sirs, Please follow up with any ideas that you can about making this peace initiative a success. I am devoid of any ideas or thoughts on how to proceed.
I originally was quite excited to attend the emergency European power summit in Baltimore at the WDC to see if a peace could be settled. Upon arrival, however, I was disappointed to only see members of the Turkish and Russian delegations.
The entire attempt, if you could call it that, was undertaken by known peace advocate Jim Burgess. His vacant stare and frequent inquiries into the availability of the women of the conference set the tone for the weekend. ((I was just looking for Sara....)) When he kept calling us brothers on starship earth I began to wonder about the influence of psychotropic substances. ((Otherwise known as Mint Juleps.... somehow the whole bottle of Kentucky spirits - Maker's Mark of course - was gone by the last morning. Must have been the Ghost of Fassio....))
The Turkish ambassador Sultan Barno was out of sorts and would not stop screaming for the head of the Archduke. His entire assassination plot was foiled since Kent was a no show. Fortunately, no one but a servant sat at his chair and the falling scythe made a horrible mess that took hours to clean up.
Once the conference resumed and Barno was given a sound scolding for his actions that were interpreted as a lack of seriousness about the peace process it only got worse. The Russian, Tsar Reynolds, simply sat in a corner cursing all of humanity. Something about the impossible situation his predecessor had left him. Early on I found if I could just keep his glass full of Vodka I would be all right. If it was not for the ghastly odor from what he called his ``Unpleasantness" talks with him may have yielded some fruit.
The French came with high hopes to understand the mysterious and evasive Pope Munson. We had been told that the Christians tried to keep the faith by observing a modicum of truth but we have yet to see it. Sadly, He too was a no show.
Any talks that could have happened broke down when Tsar Reynolds threw a vodka bottle at Sultan Barno and accused him of not keeping the southern border secure. Barno then made some disparaging remarks about Reynolds parentage and a melee ensued. All the while Burgess was under the table with the beer wench. ((I was so busy buying beer for Sean ``Blue'' Cable, the Irish contingent, and Gihan that I forgot to buy a beer for Emmert.... that damned beer wench got me all confused....)) I excused myself when another poor servant happened to take a brief rest in Kent�s chair again.
Tomorrow is the last day of the conference, French brothers please send any thoughts that may justify my presence here. I am sending this letter with my trusted advisor Steve Emmert, I know he will keep it safe for only French eyes.
| Yours in Frenchdom, Scott |
| SO GOOD IT HURTS: 1998 P, Regular Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR WINTER 1906 IS SEPTEMBER 9TH, 2000
THE DUE DATE FOR SPRING 1907 IS SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2000
Fall 1906
AUSTRIA (K. Ozog): f alb-ION, a SER S a bud-rum, a bud-RUM, a rum-UKR,
a GAL-war, f AEG S f alb-ion, a APU-rom, a GRE-bul.
ENGLAND (James): a BRE-par, f ENG S f ska-nth, f MID-spa(nc),
f NWY S f ska-nth, f TYH S ITALIAN f rom, f ska-NTH, a spa-POR.
FRANCE (Kinney): f MAR S a gas-spa, a gas-SPA.
GERMANY (Goesle): f HOL-bel, f bal-SWE, a VEN S AUSTRIAN a apu-rom, a BUR-par,
a TUS S AUSTRIAN a apu-rom, f DEN S f bal-swe, f nth C a bel-edi (d r:nwg,edi,yor,lon,hel,otb),
a edi-LVP, a BEL-edi.
ITALY (Rauterberg): f ROM h, a NAP S f rom.
RUSSIA (Rusnak): a MOS-war, a SMY S a con, a SEV-rum, f bla-BUL(EC),
a CON S f bla-bul.
TURKEY (Emmert): f ion-TUN.
Supply Center Chart
| AUSTRIA (K. Ozog): | vie,bud,tri,ser,rum,gre | (has 8, rem 2) |
| ENGLAND (James): | lon?,edi?,nwy,bre,stp,por | (has 7, rem 1 or 2(G r:lon,edi)) |
| FRANCE (Kinney): | mar,spa | (has 2, even) |
| GERMANY (Goesle): | ber,kie,mun,den,hol,par,swe, | (has 8 or 9, bld 1 or 2(r:lon,edi,otb)) |
| ven,bel,lvp,lon?,edi? |
| ITALY (Rauterberg): | nap,rom | (has 2, even) |
| RUSSIA (Rusnak): | mos,war,sev,ank,smy,bul,con | (has 5, bld 1(PLAYS ONE SHORT)) |
| TURKEY (Emmert): | tun | (has 1, even) |
| Neutral: | none | (Total=34) |
Addresses of the Participants
AUSTRIA: Kurt Ozog, 391 Wilmington Drive, Bartlett, IL 60103, (630) 837-2813
heyday6 of yahoo.com
ENGLAND: Drew James, 8356 Radian Path, Baldwinsville, NY 13027-9357, (315) 652-1956 ($5)
kjames01 of twcny.rr.com
FRANCE: Mark Kinney, 4820 Westmar Terrace #6, Louisville, KY 40222, (502) 412-3079
alberich of iglou.com
GERMANY: Warren Goesle, 3907 Cedar Ridge, #1B, Indianapolis, IN 46235 ($5)
gozcorp of iquest.net
ITALY: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 ($5)
prosit of execpc.com
RUSSIA: Russ Rusnak, 1551 Highridge Avenue, Westchester, IL 60154-3428 ($5)
RRRRRUSNAK of aol.com
TURKEY: Steve Emmert, 1752 Grey Friars Chase, Virginia Beach, VA 23456-5436, (757) 471-1842 ($4)
Lse of SykesCarnes.com or semmert of mindspring.com
Game Notes:
1) Still lots of action in this one with no let up in sight. Note the build/removal options that depend on the German retreat.
Press:
(JAMES to BOOB): This was a lot more fun when I was steamrolling across France and into the Med. I sort of feel like the British ``Empire" in the 50s and 60s - pulling back from everywhere. The only big difference is that I have no friendly America to fall back on.
(BOOB to JAMES): Indeed. It does keep things interesting for the spectators though.
(ENGLAND to GERMANY): I took a couple of gambles and hope that maybe just one of them will pay off. Realistically, though, I expect to have neither Spain nor the North Sea. How did I do?
(GERMANY - ENGLAND): If this wasn't Diplomacy I'd call you a ``hypocrite".
(ENGLAND to TURKEY): Hang tight and gather your strength. Look what happened to France, maybe it could happen to you as well.
(GERMANY - FRANCE): I hope you're right, but I'm betting `no'.
(BOOB to GO-EL): Why whatever could the Man from Krypton mean??
(GERMANY - ITALY): Still there Paul? I'd have thought that I'd have heard from you after I stabbed England, since you'd been encouraging me to do that forever.
(ITALY to AUSTRIA): I may as well take it out on you....
(AUSTRIA - RUSSIA): Hey Russ, Goz mentioned that he takes press with a fine grain of salt. So how about we bury the hatchet, call a truce and start heading towards Berlin? Until then I hope ya don't mind I revisit the great lands of Russia. The Ukraine for instance. Surely we can be freinds again some day wouldn't you say?
(RUSS - KURT): I'll be glad to work with you as soon as you remember what the truth is. I would have thought it impossible but your worse than your brother. Can't remember if there are any, but I'd hate to run into any younger Ozogs.
(BOOB to OZOGS): I don't recall any younger Ozog's either, but the older one is off fighting fires, perhaps Russ can convince Kurt to join Eric and change the dynamic....
(LONDON to MOSCOW): We tried to leave you St Pete is better shape than when we found it.
(JAMES to WORLD): Is baseball over yet? How will we know?
(BOOB to WORLD): Go Red Sox! Go Red Sox!! We're making our move......
| RACE FOR MILLENNIAL APOCALYPSE: Breaking Away, V2.3 |
THE DUE DATE FOR TURN 10 IS SEPTEMBER 9TH, 2000
| Turn 9 |
| 82 (replenish with a 3): | Mark(10) |
| 81 (no replenishment): | None |
-S-P-R-I-N-T- -F-I-N-I-S-H- -L-I-N-E-
| 80 (no replenishment): | None |
| 79 (no replenishment): | None |
| 78 (replenish with a 3): | Mad Hatter, Mock Turtle |
| 77 (no replenishment): | None |
| 76 (replenish with a 3): | Will Shakespeare |
| 75 (no replenishment): | None |
| 74 (no replenishment): | None |
| 73 (no replenishment): | None |
| 72 (no replenishment): | None |
| 71 (replenish with a 3): | Sir Isaac Newton, March Hare |
| 70 (replenish with a 5): | John |
| 69 (replenish with a 6): | Alfred the Great, Matthew, John Logie-Baird, Darrell A |
| 68 (no replenishment): | None |
| 67 (replenish with a 3): | Luke |
| 66 (replenish with a 4): | Shane the Chain |
| 65 (no replenishment): | None |
| 64 (replenish with a 3): | White Rabbit, Pestilence, Famine |
| 63 (replenish with a 6): | Chasin' Jason, Darrell B, War, Broke Leg Meg, |
| Darrell C, Barkin' Larkin', Pollution |
| 62 (no replenishment): | None |
| 61 (no replenishment): | None |
| 60 (no replenishment): | None |
| 59 (no replenishment): | None |
| 58 (no replenishment): | None |
| 57 (no replenishment): | None |
| 56 (no replenishment): | None |
| 55 (no replenishment): | None |
| 54 (no replenishment): | None |
| 53 (replenish with a 3): | Buhrt |
Addresses of the Participants - Their Team and Their Cards
(x) is played card this turn
TEAM 1 (The Wrecking Crew): Harry Andruschak, PO Box 5309, Torrance, CA 90510-5309, (310) 835-9202
(0 points) sarareichert of aol.com
| Team Leader: Thanatos |
| A: War | 15 3 6 (3) |
| B: Pollution | 9 15 6 (7) |
| C: Pestilence | 7 12 3 (7) |
| D: Famine | 3 3 3 (12) |
TEAM 2 (The Evangelists): Eric Brosius, 53 Bird Street, Needham MA 02492
(18 points) 72060.1540 of CompuServe.COM
| A: Matthew | 15 3 3 6 (12) |
| B: Mark | 6 4 3 (13) |
| C: Luke | 6 15 3 (9) |
| D: John | 7 12 5 (11) |
TEAM 3 (Brit Pack): John Harrington, 1 Churchbury Close, Enfield, Middlesex, EN1 3UW UK
(10 points) johnh of fiendishgames.demon.co.uk, fiendish of operamail.com
| A: Alfred the Great | 3 9 3 6 (11) |
| B: Sir Isaac Newton | 6 7 3 (12) |
| C: Will Shakespeare | 6 3 3 (11) |
| D: John Logie-Baird | 3 15 6 (13) |
TEAM 4 (Amateur League Inciting Cycle Exchange): Tom Howell, 1011 West 18th Street #1,
(14 points) Port Angeles, WA 98363-7413; off-the-shelf of olympus.net
| A: White Rabbit | 14 15 12 3 (7) |
| B: March Hare | 15 15 3 (15) |
| C: Mad Hatter | 14 3 3 (13) |
| D: Mock Turtle | 10 3 3 (15) |
TEAM 5 (The Mainiacs): David Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033
(7 points) rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
| A: Darrell A | 6 3 3 6 (15) |
| B: Darrell B | 12 9 6 (3) |
| C: Darrell C | 12 15 6 (6) |
| D: Buhrt | 3 3 3 (6) |
TEAM 6 (The Flat Wheel Society): John Schultz, PO Box 1322, Valparaiso, IN 46384, (219) 462-0474
(0 points)
| A: Broke Leg Meg | 15 9 10 6 (5) |
| B: Shane the Chain | 15 3 4 (6) |
| C: Barkin' Larkin' | 15 12 6 (6) |
| D: Chasin' Jason | 3 3 6 (3) |
Game Notes:
1) Mark grabs the first sprint prize, but it is going to take awhile for some of the riders to catch up to him as this is about the lousiest replenishment I've seen yet.
2) While Buhrt technically is dropped from the pack, we'll keep him riding so we can see how far back he gets ;-0
3) When I add your replenishment card from now on, it always will be the LAST card in your list.
Press:
(BUHRT to BRIT PACK): Buhrt is an attempt to spell the name Burt as it would be pronounced in the north country of Maine. I'm no good at writing phonetics, so I can't be clearer on the sound, but it is a very distinctive accent. There was a series of comedy records from the 50's entitled ``Burt and I" that have some great examples of the dry, laconic backwoods humor associated with that area. The inhabitants of the northern reaches of Vermont (my family home) and New Hampshire are said to share a number of these traits.
(WHITE RABBIT - DARRELL): Cooks with gas, does he?
(ANDRUSCHAK-WORLD): MAYFAIR GAMES INC, whose web site is http://www.coolgames.com/, has licensed EDEN STUDIOS to produce a computer game version of IRON DRAGON. This is a fun game. Visit http://www.irondragon.org/ for more information, updates, and to download a demo version.
(MR. HOWELL - MR. OBSERVATION): Where, exactly, do I submit these applications?
(MANIACS - ALICE): I was counting my assets, not my income. My income has been pathetic, my assets are merely deplorable!
(JOHN-MARCH HARE): You may be fast, but you're a hard target to miss!
(HARE - RABBIT): My pleasure. Just don't give any to the Hatter before he scores some points for us.
(TFWS - HATTER): Speed.... is relative.
(RABBIT - BOOB(1)): ``Off with her head!" Or, was that, ``I want her head!" Geez, I think I'm getting my movies confused...
(RABBIT - BOOB(2)): Just makes it worse, doesn't it?!
| FEAR AND WHISKEY: 1998Ers31, Modern Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 2003 IS SEPTEMBER 9TH, 2000
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 2003 IS SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2000
Spring 2003
BRITAIN (Schultz): f nth S f nor (d r:nwg,ska,yor,otb), f nor S f nth (d r:nwg,otb),
a mur-LAP, f nwg-EDI, f stp-GOB, f eng-LON, f mao-ENG.
EGYPT (J. O'Donnell): f ALE-lbs, f cai-EME, a SYR S a irn-irk,
a LIB S SPANISH a bar-alg, f GOL-mar, a irn-IRK, a URA-gor, f AEG S ITALIAN f izm-ist.
GERMANY (Rauterberg): f HAM h, f SWE S f ska-nwy, f HOL S f den-nth,
a SAX S a cze, a BEL h, a BRI-bor, f den-NTH, a LIT S a war, a CZE S a kra, a WAR S a kra,
a PAR S a lyo-auv, a mun-SWI, f HEL S f den-nth, a LYO-auv, f ska-NWY, a KRA S a war.
ITALY (Ozog): f TYS C a tus-tun, f MAL S f tys, a TUN-lib,
a CRO S a aus, a AUS h, f LIG C a tus-tun, a MIL S a aus, f LBS S a tun-lib,
a MON S f mar, f MAR h, a TUS-tun, f izm-IST.
SPAIN (S. O'Donnell): f sao-SOG, a bar-ALG, a AUV-mar, f WME C a bar-alg,
a BOR-auv, a NAV S a bor-auv.
UKRAINE (Partridge): a kha-VOL, f ode-WBS, a sev-ANK, a ADA-irk, a kaz-IRN,
a MOS S a gor, a POD S a bie, a LAT S a bie, f EBS C a sev-ank, a GOR S a kha-vol,
a BIE h, f GRE-ist, a ARM S a kaz-irn, a bos-SER, a slo-HUN.
Addresses of the Participants
BRITAIN: John Schultz, PO Box 1322, Valparaiso, IN 46384, (219) 462-0474
EGYPT: Jeff O'Donnell, 402 Middle Ave., Elyria, OH 44035-5728, (440) 322-2920 ($4)
FRANCE: Harry Andruschak, PO Box 5309, Torrance, CA 90510-5309, (310) 835-9202 ($5)
Tapmdfrance of aol.com
GERMANY: Paul Rauterberg, 3116 W. American Dr., Greenfield, WI 53221, (414) 281-2339 (E-Mail)
prosit of execpc.com
ITALY: Eric Ozog, PO Box 1138, Granite Falls, WA 98252-1138, (360) 691-4264 ($4)
ElfEric of Juno.com
POLAND: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 481-4280 ($5)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
RUSSIA: Randy Ellis, 3116 McGee, Apt. 1N, Kansas City, MO 64111, (816) 931-8406
surfeit of swbell.net
SPAIN: Sean O'Donnell, 2219 Grafton Road, Grafton, OH 44044 ($5)
sean_o_donnell of hotmail.com, seanside of snap.com
TURKEY: Kent Pollard, 1541 W. San Jose, Fresno, CA 93711, (209) 225-0957 ($10)
UKRAINE: Dave Partridge, 15 Woodland Drive, Brookline, NH 03033 ($8)
rebhuhn of rocketmail.com
Game Notes:
1) Check out the Modern Dip web page at: http://www.modernhof.webprovider.com/
Press:
(THE MEKONS QUOTE OF THE MONTH): ``Magic, fear and superstition, this is the Curse of the Mekons; You'll be visited by our crew, it's no joke I'm telling you; On your stone heads and leaky hearts, we'll leave our mark to say we called.'' From ``The Curse'' which is of course the title track of The Curse of the Mekons and I've chosen it JUST for Jeff.....
(EGYPT to MEKONS): I have a deal for you. You stop writing the Mekons bullshit and I'll stop writing my Star Trek bullshit. Deal?
(BOOB to JEFF): But I ***LIKE*** your Star Trek press..... and I ***LOVE*** the Mekons. I think you're out of luck....
(EGYPT to STARFLEET): Have initiated defensive maneuvers that temporarily confused the enemy. My shields have been refortified but without immediate assistance.....
(UKR - ITALY): Good luck fighting those fires. Just think of it as a little preview of where all your hapless victims have gone!
(DAVE - JIM/JEFF): I'm not sure what Jeff's question is. Certainly a retreating unit can take a supply center, it moves to any legal space and the adjustment phase is a separate phase that takes place after retreats. Is there something hidden about this question that I missed?
(JEFF - JIM): After reading your response to my note, I said to myself: ``he's crazy''. So I went to my 30 year old rule book to prove you wrong. I opened it up, read the appropriate section, only to determine that you and everyone else is correct and that my little Diplomacy group has been playing the game wrong on and off for about the last 20 years. Like I told Dave, stupid is as stupid does. My apologies... ((None are required. Hey, I'm not perfect either (and I don't know why I keep getting accused lately of BELIEVING that I'm perfect....). We're pleased to clear up your confusion, but you can't go back in time and retreat into your nephew's center. Sorry about that!))
(UKR - EGYPT): Ahh, the old hunker down and pretend I'm small so no one will notice me trick actually worked! The royal marines stripped those ships and made spears out of them while you were out taking those siestas the Spaniards got you hooked on.
(SPAIN-BOARD): No I don't need to yell help for you'll to come over you'll are coming anyway.
(UKRAINE to SPAIN): Why be in a hurry, there's plenty of time to attack everyone, they just have to wait their turn.
(BRITAIN-WORLD): Anyone who tries to take advantage of my calculated withdrawals intended to stall the Germans is, quite frankly, a stupid arse. And it's quite out of character for me to say so.
(THE GREATER REICH to SPAIN): It's too late for Britain to keep me out of his homeland. I'm lapping at his shores right now....
(EGYPT - SPAIN): I disagree with your observation statement about this being an interesting war. The alliance of Germany (see no evil!), Ukraine (speak no evil!), and Italy (evil!) is going to wipe us out. This will be interesting only in the way it was interesting feeding the Christians to the Lions.
(JEFF to KENT): You know I'm starting to feel ``guilty'' for the way I stabbed you. It wasn't something I planned, it was an act of impatience and to some degree, boredom. I just want you to know that if I had it to do over again I never would have turned my back on you! (Actually if I had it to do over again I would have attacked you on the first move like Dave suggested.)
(EGYPT - ITALY): If you don't get your fleets (that would be the guys with the capital I's right?) ((That's right.... capitals for fleets, small letters for armies.)) out of my territorial waters I will be forced to consider your actions an act of unfriendliness!
(ITALY to UKRAINE): Help!
(EGYPT - SPAIN II): Repeat after me, this is diplomacy, there are no nukes, this is diplomacy, there are no nukes, this....
(EGYPT - FRANCE): I should be delighted but for no reason I can explain I'm a little apprehensive about the possibility of a Republican sweep. Go figure!
(EGYPT - FRANCE II): I'm actually not a big fan of the massive tax cut proposed by the Republicans but don't you think the marriage tax should be eliminated? I think Clinton really should have signed that one. What do you think. ((I'll comment on some of this series of notes. I consider myself a liberal Republican, one of those endangered species, but one that the Gore/Lieberman platform is playing to pretty strongly. I can't stand the idea of the massive tax cut and though I might agree about the marriage tax, I doubt that Harry cares much, not being married himself.))
(ERIC-JIMBOB AND HARRY): Yeah, I admit I fell for ``Sara." Yes, I acknowledge Harry's creation was genius. Harry may think he was clever in first seducing then stabbing me, but actually his satisfaction from the ``stab" is dubious. This is because I was in the process of yet another one of my downward postal burnout slides, had stopped writing, and dropped out of the game. I didn't ``roll over" because of Sara's sweet stab (step on me baby, in your stiletto heels!) but from what I recall, Harry/Sara had written me a couple times before deciding to use the knife and had only abandoned the alliance upon getting no reply from me, which was reasonable. Anyway, this is from my perspective (I do have my reputation to maintain, you know!). I wonder if Harry saved my love letters to Sara?
| SHOW ME THE MONEY: 1997Mea04, Colonial Diplomacy |
THE DUE DATE FOR SUMMER 1910 IS SEPTEMBER 9TH, 2000
THE DUE DATE FOR FALL 1910 IS SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2000
Winter 1909 Revisited
JAPAN (K. Ozog): bld a kyo.
Spring 1910
BRITAIN (York): a DEL-nag, a mad-MYS, f ADEN S DUTCH f rs, f ERI-sud,
f HK-can, f BAN(EC) h, f oman-ARA.S, a NEP-ben.
FRANCE (Sasseville): a TON S f can, a HYD S a bom, f can S JAPANESE f nan-scs (d ann),
a MAY S a ton, a RAN h, a BOM S a hyd, a U.BUR-ben.
HOLLAND (Desper): a ANN-ton, f SUL.S h, f WIO S f rs-goa, f coc-GOS, f bob-AS,
f FOR S f scs, f rs-GOA, f MP S f for, a CAM S a ann-ton, f gos-MAL, f SCS S JAPANESE f nan-can.
JAPAN (K. Ozog): a KYO h, a kyu-NAN, f VLA h, a SHA S a kyu-nan,
a IRK h (yawning, looking through the binoculars at an unconquerable Mongolia),
f ECS C a kyu-nan, f nan-CAN, a PEK h (picking his nose), f up-TOK, f YS h,
f SOJ h, a MAC S a pek.
RUSSIA (Williams): a tas-AFG, f med-RS, a KRA S a mon, a PUN S a kar-raj, a kar-RAJ,
a MON supports the arts (h), a KAM S a pun, a NAG S a kar-raj, a SIK S a mon,
a PER S TURKISH a bag-shi, f EGY S TURKISH f sud, a ARA-bag, a yun-ASS,
a TAB-bag, a LAN S stalemate theory of dip play (h), a TIB-ben, a CHU S a lan.
TURKEY (Tallman): a bag-SHI, f SUD S RUSSIAN f med-rs.
Addresses of the Participants
BRITAIN: Andy York, PO Box 201117, Austin, TX 78720-1117
wandrew of compuserve.com
CHINA: Rich Goranson, 4351 Chestnut Ridge Road, #7 Amherst, NY, 14228-3227 ($5)
ForlornH of aol.com
FRANCE: Roland Sasseville, Jr., 38 Bucklin Street, Pawtucket, RI 02861, (401) 481-4280 ($5)
roland6 of home.com and ICQ: 40565030
HOLLAND: Rick Desper, Bergheimer Strasse 114, 69115 Heidelberg, GERMANY (E-Mail)
rick_desper of yahoo.com or desper of math.rutgers.edu
JAPAN: Kurt Ozog, 391 Wilmington Drive, Bartlett, IL 60103, 630-837-2813
heyday6 of yahoo.com
RUSSIA: Don Williams, 27505 Artine Drive, Saugus, CA 91350, (661) 297-3947 ($4)
wllmsfmly of earthlink.net
TURKEY: Terry Tallman, 3805 SW Lake Flora Road, Port Orchard, WA 98367, (360) 874-0384 ($0)
terryt of sinclair.net
GM: Jim-Bob Burgess, 664 Smith Street, Providence, RI 02908-4327, (401) 351-0287
Game Notes:
1) Note that Roland has a new phone number.
2) I misstated what type of unit Japan was building in Kyoto. It should be an army, note the correction above.
3) We have an HJR draw proposal. Please vote on it with your Summer orders. Failure to vote defeats the proposal.
4) Rick is in the middle of moving, so you probably only can get him by E-Mail this turn, but he should be settled again by the Fall turn.
Press:
(``ONLY IN AMERICA KIBBITZER" - PLAYERS): Are you having fun yet? Your press doesn't indicate so! DO you agree that this is a sorry map - unworthy of being distributed, much less played. Jim-Booby, is this the last time you will consider running such a travesty? I hope so. ((As of now, definitely yes.)) Are there any statistics for PBM results? ((They are out there for E-Mail games and they are pretty pathetic. There were some statistics calculated for ``balance'' which basically meant that every power had an equal chance of participating in the draw. Colonial came out WAY, WAY more unbalanced than just about any variant. Modern is pretty balanced though.)) All the games I saw or played in were very similar to this. NO hope for the inside countries in the long-term. Great advantage to Holland and Japan (who technically can't be eliminated). Short term hope for Russia. Turkey nearly a middle country.
(KURTUGAWA - TSAR DAWN): Nah, probably wouldn't work either. Women can be equally very controlling, manipulative and deceptive (any one else wanna throw in .02 on that??). Then again, how about a strip tease for everyone in the game...??
(TOKYO TIMES - WORLD): After a prolongued tour of duty in the Pacific observing the island Formosa, the Imperial Fleet of the Upper Pacific returns home for some well deserved leave. This comes down as a gesture of trust between the Empire and our ally to the south.
(J - F): It's no wonder I've been consistently tired all these months...!
(OZOGSAN - TSAR DON AND RICK): Okay. All joking aside... Whatever it takes to finish this.
(UPDATE FROM AMSTERDAM):
Kenny has been raking in money at the casino, Chef and Big Gay Al have headed off to the Red Light District, Mr. Mackey is looking for Stan in a hash bar, and Cartman and Kyle are slapping each other silly in the hotel.
(Red Light District, Chef and Al come walking along one of the many canals):
Prostitute: Hey big guys, you want to party?
Chef: Sure, partying sounds like fun.
Al: Hmm...I don't think this is my kind of party. But that ``Spartacus Club" looks interesting. (Leaves for gay bar.)
Pro: For only 50 guilders, b*** and f***.
Chef: Hell, woman, I'd give you that for free! You can keep your money.
Pro: No - you give me the money!
Chef: Why on Earth would I do that? Isn't sweet loving with Chef enough for you? Damn, woman, you want everything! (starts to walk away).
Pro: Wait! A special discount! 25 guilders!
Chef keeps walking
Pro: Wait, wait! (Chef walks away, hooker running after him.)
Personal Note to You: