| Test - dknemeyer (Jun 09, 2010, 11:23 am) |
Hi Everyone,
I'm writing to make sure people are getting all of the emails sent to
this alias. I understand at least one email may have been sent that
others haven't seen.
Here are the emails I'm aware of that were sent to the game alias:
June 3 - email from me testing the alias and sending game info
June 4 - email from Karsten confirming his participation in the game
June 4 - email from me confirming the game is ready and with some
updates to the schedule
June 6 - email from me with power assignments
June 6 - Robert's introduction
June 6 - Nick's introduction
June 6 - Wladimir's introduction
June 7 - Charles' introduction
June 7 - Karsten's introduction
If any of you have not received one or more of these emails, please
let me know.
If any of you have received emails FROM the dc330(at)knemeyer.com alias
that are not on the above list, please let me know.
If any of you have sent emails to the alias that are not included on
this list, please forward them to me.
I'm hopeful there is not any issue but, as they say, "we shall see"!
Dirk[Reply] |
| DC330 Intro Russia - Nitsch (Jun 07, 2010, 4:05 pm) |
Hey guys,
this is Karsten Nitsch, 30 years, and I seem to be the sole player able to find his home on the map: I play from Paderborn, right in the middle of Germany - within the eastern edge of the Rhineland on the map (Now that's what will be explaining, if sometimes my vocubulary and grammar will be somewhat... strange :p ).
I am playing diplomacy by mail for roughly 10 years, with a small "sabbatical" last year due to job change and moving and lots of worries ion my mind. Besides standard Dip, I've most often played Ambition&Empire (in a certain sense the "father" of this variant) and NewWorldOrder (A huge variant covering the whole world as it is today, with a whole couple of extra rules ranging from Airborne Units, to UN intervention to nuclear warfare), along with some other not so popular diplomacy variations.
Some of us have met before, and I do at least remember three of you - as far as I can remember all of them being skilled players with words and tactics. As much as I am looking forward to talking to you again, I am looking forward to getting to know those players I never met - eager to hear your plans.
Regarding my style of play, I tend to always have a look at the big picture, meaning that there will be times where I forfeit a personal gain if it serves the overall balance on the board (well, that is if I am not by accident the leader, of course!).
For now, this shall suffice - there will be a flood of words rolling in on all of us the coming days.
Cheers
Karsten
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| DC330: Introduction from Berlin - charlesf (Jun 07, 2010, 6:17 am) |
Hi guys,
I'm grateful Dirk has made the transition from a
1936 player to a 1936 GM! Not only does this advance playtesting, but it also
allows me to have a first go at playing one of my own variants!  Though I dare
say I'll once again prove that game designers usually aren't particularly good
at playing their own games...
Until about a year ago, I took something like a
five-year holiday from all things Diplomacy. Before that, I played quite a bit
since first getting a game together in High School, though obviously had to
take a break during my military service. American friends of ours gave my
father a copy of Avalon Hill at some point, no doubt because he's a diplomat
himself. As kids, we used the board to play our Risk-style games on what we
thought was a better map than Risk's original one. At some point though I got
curious about the game's actual rules, read them and that got the ball
rolling...
Round 2000/2001, I came across Baron Powell's
excellent 1900 variant and became an immediate convert what I believe happens to
be a scenario superior to Standard Diplomacy. Brilliant stuff! As Baron and I
began a long-running correspondence about variant design, the Ambition &
Empire variant soon came to my attention and I was immediately intrigued by the
well-modeled historical scenario and the ever so fascinating DP mechanism Baron
and Jeff had come up with. The bulk of my pbem Diplomacy playing 2001-04 was
limited to Baron's variants as I felt that Standard and other variants simply
couldn't match Baron's and Jeff's work.
Being such a fan of the DP mechanism, I started to
wonder what other historical settings might mesh well with Baron's and Jeff's
innovation. I soon homed in on the mid-17th century and the interwar period,
then setting about to designing my own DP variants: 1648 and
1926/36.
After my five-year Diplomacy "sabbatical", what
drew me back into the hobby was that a fresh look at the 1648 variant gave me
the idea how to fix a number of issues I hadn't solved to my satisfaction in the
past. Following those tweaks, I felt like running a playtest and that got me
back into the hobby.
So, over the past year I've GMed one 1648 (DC264),
one 1926 (DC283) and one 1900 game (on DPJudge) to conclusion, while I'm
currently running the second 1648 (DC279) and the first 1936 contest
(DC319).
As a player, I've played Germany in a Standard game
(DC266) and Denmark-Norway in an Ambition & Empire game. As you already
know, Wladimir played Russia in (DC266 - not DC270!) and Robert championed
Britain in that Ambition & Empire game. Currently I'm involved in a 1900
game, though none of you guys are involved in that one.
So that's the extent of my hobby involvement over
the past year. I don't believe I encountered anyone else in our group in earlier
years. Of course, none of this matters since I trust we all approach a new game
with a clean slate as regards to players we've previously
encountered.
As for my power preferences, I put Germany on top
of my list because:
- I'm particularly fond of playing centrally
located players.
- Germany didn't do well in the previous 1926
contest.
- Some of the newly implemented changes worsen
Germany's odds and I'd like to see whether I'm up to those additional
challenges.
- I myself am German and championing your own
country always has a special draw.
That being said, my preferences was only a slight
one as I'm also eager to try my hand at the others as well. But a slight
preference is still a preference, so I spent the max bidding points on
Germany.
As a designer, I obviously am interested in what
positions players particularly want to play. In the 1936 contest I am running
myself, France, the Soviet Union, Britain and Italy proved the more popular
powers. My guess is that was in part on account of players wanting to have a
stake in Spanish affairs. But much as in this game, preferences were quite
reasonably spread out, so these stats aren't that meaningful. And I certainly
don't take them as an indication of which powers players consider stronger than
others. After all, players pick their preferences for all sorts of
reasons.
Okay, I've gone on quite enough. I hope this gaming
experience shall be a blast for everyone involved!
Cheers,
Charles
[Reply] |
| Greets from Californian Britian - sunchung (Jun 06, 2010, 10:39 pm) |
Hello,
Greetings - I look forward to playing with everyone in this game. A bit about my Diplomacy history. I just started playing Diplomacy again after about a +7 year hiatus. Back when I did play in my first go around, it was off of the email newsgroup called Cat23. It's since morphed, I believe, into www.diplomaticcorp.com. A friend of mine who used to also play on Cat23 forwarded an invite for the Winterblitz 2010 and that's how I got re-acquainted with Diplomacy and the DC site. I played my first game earlier this year, and was fortunate enough to play in a game with our GM Dirk. It was this connection that has brought me to this game. I've never played a variant of Diplomacy other than Colonial Diplomacy and Gunboat, so I look forward to this game. I love the idea of the connected map plus the balanced nature of the powers and struggles. And I look forward to having a very dynamic map where each player needs to contact every other player - not just be focused on a particular theater. To be frank, the complexity of this variant both excite me and worry me - I hope I have the intellectual horsepower to keep up with all of the moving parts!
A bit about me. I'm in the San Francisco bay area with two young kids, so hopefully they won't tire me out too much (and allow me to think straight!). I don't know any of the other players other than our GM. Just one last note of thanks to Charles for creating this variant and Dirk for hosting the game. I've shied away from other Diplomacy sites that use judges as I think they tend to attract more casual players that are less committed to the game. Thanks you for the volunteer work and service to the DC community/players.
Sun[Reply] |
| dc330 Intro Turkey - Wladimir7 (Jun 06, 2010, 5:22 pm) |
Greetings Leaders of Europe,
This is Wladimir Mysonski and I playing from San Francisco, CA, USA. I began playing face-to-face Diplomacy back in high school and last year I picked it back up again.
My first game back (dc270), I played with Charles and he taught me quite a bit about how to play Germany and about German elections. Our topics would occasionally stray off of the game.
The second game (dc283) included Dirk in the 1926 variant that Charles play-tested. I was lucky to pull a draw out of that one.
Nick (France) accurately pointed out our playing history wherein I am barely surviving in dc307. For what it is worth, the Asia variant is grossly uneven in power distribution but this could just be sour grapes talking.
I believe that is the entirety of my connections in this game.
Just a comment about the bidding. I like it. I am very surprised though in how the bidding went. I think Poland is potentially very powerful and frankly am a little disappointed that it didn't get more votes. Turkey was also not very popular but perhaps you all know something that I don't. We shall see.
I enjoy chatting about anything geo-political, historical, or game-related.
Thanks,
Wladimir[Reply] |
| DC 330: Salut - DrSwordopolis (Jun 06, 2010, 1:51 pm) |
Hi,
My name is Nick and I will be playing La Troisième République. I will do my utmost to ensure that it survives (and thrives?) long past its historical counterpart. This variant is interesting to me because of the way the date and power distribution make it seem very 'realistic' (by Diplomacy standards) allowing one to rewrite history - or not, in Germany's case.  Does France ally with England and try to prop up Poland and the minor powers against Germany while maintaining good relations with Italy and the USSR or do I throw history to the wind and ally with the great rival across the Rhine? Anyways...
I have played with Wladimir before, pretty recently actually, in DC 309, which is still running. I was eliminated early, and a few game years later he's not looking much better. We got reasonably well (even though he contributed greatly to my early downfall), but I think as France and Turkey our relations will be a little different in this game. I've also recently played a game with Dirk, our GM, in DC 311. We similarly got along very well in that game until he screwed me over really hard, and now he has a shot at a solo or at least a strong 2-way draw while I've been long eliminated, so good for him. Note to self: Diplomacy is not about making friends. I'm definitely looking for a result more to my liking in this game.
As for me, I'm a linguistics student living in Canada, in an unremarkable small town about 100 km outside Vancouver. I've been into Diplomacy for just under a year, but in that time I've played quite a few games and have at times been extremely invested in the hobby. I find I either do extremely well or extremely terribly in my games. Hopefully this doesn't reveal too much useful information to you all.
Best of luck dominating Europe and the Near East,
-Nick[Reply] |
| dc330: Player introduction: Poland - smileyrob (Jun 06, 2010, 1:10 pm) |
According to Dirk's House Rules, "
??Prior to
the start of the game each player is required to send an email to all players
in the game as well as the GM introducing themselves and declaring which other
players in the game they have played Diplomacy with before." I am going to do my best to do that.
My name is Robert Stein. I live in Eugene, Oregon. I currently teach social studies and mathematics at Thurston High School in neighboring Springfield. When school is over (June 18th), I'll be taking a few courses during the University's summer session to get the "Professional Growth" credits I'll need to renew my teaching license.
During my undergraduate years I had a group that regularly played Thursday night face-to-face standard diplomacy. After moving I found myself missing the game and discovered the world of PBEM and judges around 2000. I soon found myself playing a lot of the 1900 variant, and eventually A&E as well. I did take about a a three year hiatus from 2005-2008, and since returning to the hobby have not played as many games, or been as successful as I once was. Hopefully that second part will change with this game.
I have definitely played with Charles (Germany in this game) and David (Italy) before, both in A&E games. Most recently I have played with Charles in A&E 090802 in which he was Denmark and I Britain. He pretty much beat me handily managing to form an alliance with Prussia and France against me. Alas Charles and I are again neighboring powers. I hope, at least for me, things work out differently this time. Charles also was the temporary GM in a 1900 game I was playing just before the start of that A&E game. I think we may also have played once before, but I cannot remember whether it was a 1900 or an A&E game. I just recall that when he started to GM that 1900 game his name was not unfamiliar to me. It was Charles who informed me of this variant, his creation, and invited me to play in this game.
I played with David in A&E 090205/DC240 in which I was Turkey and he Denmark. With both survived to the finish, but lost nonetheless as the game ended in a solo for Britain.
I do not recall having played with any of the other players. If I have, and I don't remember, please accept my apology. This games played prior to my hiatus were from a different computer and a different email address, so it is hard for me to really carefully search all of your names. I do see Karsten was an observer of each of those A&E games, but I don't think we have ever played against one another.
I am looking forward to trying this new variant. Thank you Charles for creating it and inviting me to play. Thank you Dirk for mastering. Unlike the rest of you, I honestly had no idea which power I wanted to play. As most of you did have clear preferences, and received your choice, I hope I am not at too much of a disadvantage.
I eagerly await individual correspondence with each of you.
Robert[Reply] |
| dc330: The powers are assigned! - dknemeyer (Jun 06, 2010, 1:59 am) |
Greetings Everyone,
I am pleased to announce that all bids are in and here are our seven
great powers!
Britain - sunchung/Sun Chung/sun.chung(at)gmail.com - 61 points (other
bids: G29, P3, I2, T2, U2, F1)
France - DrSwordopolis/Nick Powell/nick.s.powell(at)gmail.com - 40 points
(other bids: I22, U13, B12, P9, T3, G1)
Germany - charlesf/Charles Feaux de la Croix/charlesf(at)web.de - 80
points (other bids: F8, I4, P3, U2, B2, T1)
Italy - raistlin/David Gould/davidchegould(at)bigpond.com - 70 points
(other bids: P20, U5, G2, B1, F1, T1)
Poland - smileyrob/Robert Stein/smileyrob68(at)gmail.com - 14 points
(other bids: B14, F14, G14, I14, T14, U14)
Turkey - Wladimir7/Wladimir Mysonski/wmysonski(at)gmail.com - 22 points
(other bids: U23, I20, B17, G15, F1, P1)
USSR - Nitsch/Karsten Nitsch/karsten.nitsch(at)gmx.de - 40 points (other
bids: B40, P10, T5, G3, I1, F1)
Everyone received their first pick, except for Wladimir who received
his second - and he originally had Turkey as his first pick but made a
late change! Also, Robert gave "no preference" so he did not
technically *have* a preferred first pick.
Only one player, Charles, bid the maximum 80 points on a single power.
There were no tie bids and thus no tiebreakers. At least for this
game, 40 was the magic number as everyone who bid 40 or more on a
great power got their first choice!
Now, here is a bit of nerdery around the bidding:
Most Points Spent in Bidding
(this is simply adding up the total points spent on each great power)
Britain - 148
Germany - 144
Italy - 133
USSR - 99
France - 66
Poland - 60
Turkey - 48
Average Rated in Bidding
(giving one point for the great power a person bid the most on, down
to seven points for the great power bid the least on, seeing which
were generally more desired)
USSR - 23/7
Italy - 24.5/7
Britain - 26/7
Poland - 27.5/7
Germany - 28/7
France - 33/7
Turkey - 34/7
I tend to think the second list, the average rated, is the more
accurate indicator of popularity as it represents each player's 1-n
list of most to least desirable and essentially ignores specific
bidding strategies. Synthesizing the two lists together I might
suggest Britain was the most popular overall choice, followed by some
combination of Italy, Germany and the USSR. Poland was perhaps next on
its own followed by France and Turkey as the laggards. Turkey in
particular surprised me, as that power was part of a draw in the
similar 1926 variant and ran out to a big lead in the other playtest
running of this 1936 variant.
Now that the power selection is settled you may diplome immediately!
Here are our next, upcoming deadlines:
FRIDAY JUNE 11, 5 PM ET (GMT +5) - Preliminary Spring 1936 orders
TUESDAY JUNE 15, 5 PM ET (GMT +5) - Final Spring 1936 orders
THURSDAY JUNE 17, 5 PM ET (GMT +5) - Summer 1936 Retreats (if necessary)
This same Friday/Tuesday/Thursday schedule will govern our game each
week until it is over or there are unusual circumstances that result
in a change or delay.
Let me STRONGLY, STRONGLY encourage everyone to submit Preliminary
Orders by the Friday before the final orders are due. So long as they
are submitted by the preliminary deadline I will go over them
carefully and ask the player to clarify any seeming errors, mis-
orders, missing units, and the like. This is doubly important because
I am going to be brutal about processing orders each season EXACTLY as
they are submitted, without exception. Thus the only chance you have
for me to be your "safety net" is to get some prelims in the week
before. Just over the last two weeks I've had two devastating mis-
orders in two games I am playing in, one of which crippled my position
to the point where I will soon be eliminated. Take advantage of the
second pair of eyes and get in some prelims! You can change them as
much as you want before the final deadline, but this gives you some
security in case you forget or are busy later.
I'm really looking forward to this game. As you may be aware I am
playing in another 1936 playtest, dc319. That game is using an
experimental solo threshold of 15 SC. Only in our third year, that
threshold is having a huge impact on the game. For this playtest we
are running the game with 18 SC as the solo threshold. Only time will
tell how this instantiation of the game plays out with the harder-to-
achieve victory condition.
This should be a lot of fun. Good hunting to you all!
Dirk[Reply] |
| dc330: All players confirmed, plus a deadline note - dknemeyer (Jun 04, 2010, 1:47 pm) |
Hi Everyone,
All seven players have confirmed they are in and ready to rumble!
In working with the DC website, I've noticed that my deadline (8 PM
ET) actually pushes GMT to the next day (1 AM GMT). As I know for me
as a player this disparity in "what day is it?" comparing a game
deadline with local time could cause confusion I am going to *change*
the times for all of my adjudications so everyone in the game is
seeing the correct day. Based on the players in this game, let's move
that deadline to 5 PM ET on the appointed days.
This change applies for our first deadline, so do be aware your bids
are due by 5 PM ET (10 PM GMT) this Sunday!
I will update my house rules as well as the DC website to reflect
this. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Dirk[Reply] |
| dc330: game info + email alias test - Nitsch (Jun 04, 2010, 1:17 pm) |
"in it!"
... as requested. =)
Cheers,
Karsten
-------- Original-Nachricht --------
Datum: Thu, 3 Jun 2010 21:16:37 -0400
Von: Dirk Knemeyer
An: dc330(at)knemeyer.com
Betreff: dc330: game info + email alias test
Greetings Everyone,
If you are receiving this then the email alias I've set up for our
game has worked. I have included all players, plus two observers, plus
the DC URL for our game: dc330(at)diplomaticcorp.com. Thus anytime you
want to reply to all players and/or the DC forum for this game please
send your email to dc330(at)knemeyer.com and everyone interested in this
game will get your email.
If there are any technical glitches we will work them out prior to the
first adjudication.
Three other bits of business:
First, and most importantly, I would appreciate it if users raistlin
and Nitsch simply confirm to me that you are interested in this game.
The former has yet to email me whereas I signed the latter up for the
game (upon his request) and I just want to make sure you're both "in
it"!
Second, thanks to all of the players who have confirmed their
participation in the game, as well as the four players who have
already submitted their bids! The rest of you still have plenty of
time, but I must confess to really enjoying seeing the bids come in.
How will the new bids impact the efficacy of the old?!
Finally, my deadline for Spring 1936 of May 15 was a mis-type. My mind
is apparently still in the past. June 15 is the spring 1936 deadline.
I will reiterate this in the email sharing the bids and announcing the
assigned powers in the game when I provide a list of upcoming deadlines.
My best,
Dirk
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