TopGunBoat Journal—Table of Contents
Introduction | Spring 1901 | Fall 1901
Winter 1902 | Spring 1902 | Fall 1902
Winter 1903 | Spring 1903 | Fall 1903
Winter 1904 | Spring 1904 | Fall 1904
Winter 1905 | Spring 1905 | Fall 1905
Winter 1906 | Spring 1906 | Fall 1906
Winter 1907 | Spring 1907 | Fall 1907
Winter 1908 | Spring 1908 | Fall 1908
Winter/Spring 1909 | Fall 1909
Winter/Spring 1910 | Fall 1910
Winter/Spring 1911 | Fall 1911
1912 | Conclusion | End of Game
How much longer can Russia and Turkey hold out?
Fall 1906 Adjudication
England
F bal S F kie
A pru – ber (*bounce*)
F nth – eng
F hel S A hol
A wal H
F kie S
A pru – ber (*cut*)
F nao – mao (*bounce*)
A hol S F kie (*cut*)
F iri S
F nao – mao
France
A bel – hol (*bounce*)
F mao S F bre (*cut*)
A mun S
A ruh – kie
A sil – ber (*bounce*)
A pic H
A ruh – kie (*bounce*)
F bre S F mao
Russia
A mos – ukr (*bounce*)
A war – mos (*bounce, dislodged*)
A lvn S
A war – mos
Italy
A apu C France A mun – lon
A ven S
Austria A tri
F syr – smy (*bounce*)
F eas S Austria F gre – aeg
Austria
A tri S
Italy A ven
A sev – mos (*bounce*)
F gre – aeg
A bul – con (*bounce*)
A rum – ukr (*bounce*)
A vie – boh
A ukr – war
A gal S
A ukr – war
Turkey
A ank S A smy
A smy S Austria A bul – con (*cut*)
F con S A smy (*cut*)
GM Observations
Russia guessed wrong and Austria moves in for the kill with Turkey as well. The Turkish player sent me a message asking if I want to bet on whether or not Austria sees the solo opportunity.[1]I declined :-) We’ll soon see if Austria sees it, but it seems the Turkish player is (somewhat) encouraging it with a support order of BUL-CON. The bigger question is this: does the rest of the board see it?
Italy doesn’t seem to see it as Italy continues to participate in support hugs with Austria (VEN s TRI, TRI s VEN… it’s like they are hugging each other). Italy even declined to try to take SMY, instead supporting GRE-AEG.
Meanwhile, France and England continue their battle with England gaining vital positioning in the English Channel. Had France ordered a supported attack on Berlin, England would have to disband. Instead, England can force MAO and attempt a convoy. Depending on Austria’s plans for Bohemia, France’s opportunity to get into the endgame may wither away.
Player Journals
England
It seems Russia may have been afraid (now that Germany was gone) that I would move back against him. Unfortunately, his retreat to Livonia means he now has to guess how to defend his home centers. He will likely defend Moscow and hope I support Warsaw. I can’t afford to do that and try to hold my German Centers. If Austria sees this, he will take Warsaw this season.
I should be able to get MAO next year, hopefully I will outguess France and defend my German centers so he can’t build the needed 3rd fleet.
France
there is a very small chance (1 out of 3) that I will succeed against England, and it is key that one of the occupied spots by England will become mine…..
Hol can be defended by NTH and HEL, probably not NTH, because that will move into ENG for free
HEL, but that may defend Kie
option 2: Kie, I go for that, defended by Hol (I will cut) and defend by Ber (will be cut), and hopefully not by BAL
option 3: Ber, defended by Kie and probably by BAL.
Educated guess
Russia
Well, that was a mistake, big time. Now it is a guess on how to protect WAR / MOS.
MOS – UKR to cut support fot a hit on Warsaw, LVN s WAR – MOS to protect Moscow from being dislodged. Don’t want to lose Moscow to protect StP.
Italy
Very little is happening at the moment; now is just the time to trust Austria. If Austria does not turn on me now, I should get back just in time; England will eventually force his way through, but with any luck I shall have a build at the end of the next year.
Austria
Spring 1906 (epilogue):
Well that was the right call!!
Fall 1906:
gre-aeg
bul-con
tri s ven
gal s ukr-war
ukr-war
vie-boh
sev-mos
rum-ukr
Quite a number of options here.
I am going to take Italy’s (apparent) invitation to move GRE-AEG, but I could also sneak SEV into ARM and rapidly squeeze Turkey out. But, I probably want to keep Italy busy for a while longer, so I’ll keep SEV focussed on Russia.
Then it’s the guessing game about how Russia will defend this move – will LVN defend WAR or MOS? Also, it looks like EF may be having a skirmish or two soon, so their behaviour near WAR is less than predictable.
I am going to focus on WAR – if I do move into Russia, I do not want to be confined to the slim MOS corridor with E&F armies to my west. Also, I think LVN will defend MOS this time.
If this doesn’t work, I am advancing VIE-BOH to help take WAR/support WAR later. This may seem anti-French, but it really is not a big stretch for Austria to move to BOH and I do not want France nearer my borders.
As a long-term, I like working with Italy here – but, I worry where he goes next if/when we defeat Turkey.
Turkey
Once again I need to comment on the fact that many players in this game are acting like newbies, even though they are supposed to be top ranked players.
Austria has only grown because of Russia’s terrible play. Once again, Russia has made stupid moves that will cost him dearly.
Italy hasn’t grown at all. He could have taken SMY in the Spring, but instead decided to shift east and rely on Austria to help him FINALLY take a SC off me.
England and France could have swept the board by working together. Instead, they are locked in a war of attrition that will drag on for some time. However, England is likely to win that war (assuming England plays well, which is a huge assumption in this game) because of his many fleets.
I am safe for the Fall. If Austria moves his fleet to AEG, which is likely, then the guessing game will be on again. I imagine that even Austria can see how incompetently Italy is playing and I wonder if he will turn on Italy at some point. I wonder if Austria sees the opportunity of GRE-ION in the Spring and ION-TUN in the Fall. Combined with VIE-TYR, Austria could take Italy out quickly and there is nothing France could do to stop Austria because he is tied up with England.
Footnotes
| ↑1 | I declined :-) |
|---|