Yet Another Gunboat Journal?
I like reading game journals, but they only capture the thoughts of one player. Wouldn’t it be great to read a journal that has the thoughts of all seven players prior to each phase?[1]Media Wars is pretty close to that. I also found another game on BOUNCED from 20 years ago that had several players record their thoughts: Top7nonAnonNoPressExpansionPack02. In the 17th broadcast message, the GM for that game listed all the notes the players had been taking throughout the game. … Continue reading After I lost miserably doing a gunboat journal, I decided to see if I could do this myself … a journal from the perspective of all 7 players. I started a game as a GM on BOUNCED called TopGunBoat limited to roughly the top 10% of players on BOUNCED based on rank. Once enough players joined, I asked them if they would be interested in recording their thoughts prior to each round. Besides all this, I need help getting better at playing gunboat! Thus, this would be a learning experience for me and hopefully an enjoyable experience for the players.
Here are several things to note with this:
- Being in the top 10% of players on BOUNCED based on rank is not in any way an indication of a player’s gunboat abilities. Based on rank, I’m in the top 1% on BOUNCED despite my gunboat abilities.[2]All of my losses in ranked games have been in gunboat. I was hoping that this would primarily attract good gunboat players but any highly ranked player could easily be drawn to a game like this. If I wasn’t the GM, I would join this game! Thus, this is a game of good Diplomacy players, and hopefully also a game of good gunboat Diplomacy players.
- Like all online Diplomacy websites, BOUNCED players hail from every populated continent. There is a chance that English will not be the first language of at least one player in this game. Thus, I don’t expect perfect English in these journal entries from the players and hope that the (potential) language barrier doesn’t hinder these players as they play (nor you and I as the readers).
- Considering the dearth of end-of-game statements in gunboat games I have played in, I don’t expect long explanations from any of the players. Writing takes a lot more time. Many players who play gunboat do so because of the relatively short amount of time it requires. Regardless, any insight into why a player is doing something is better than no insight.
- I am going to write journal entries as well without looking at the journal entries of the players. I’d like to see what I can learn by observing and then compare my thoughts to reality at the end. Of course, it’s easier watch a game and make comments without the emotional pull of being in the game. It’s so easy to look at a game with tunnel vision when you’re playing it. I’m sure my view of the game will be quite different than the view of the players.
- BOUNCED has a feature for games that can be activated when the game is created by the GM to allow the syntax of the order to be checked (similar to the Sandbox feature of Backstabbr). All orders on BOUNCED are typed, so this feature is typically turned on by GMs to make the game a little easier for players.[3]In the original Diplomacy, miswriting an order may be a tactic. Online, it is still a tactic, but less so due to adjudication engines. I turned it off for this game since this is a game of top players. Thus, the players had to be more careful with their orders than normal.
With that, let’s introduce each of the participants:[4]I did not learn the identities of the players until after the game.
England: Arrow1 (Stephen Wilcox)
Stephen was first introduced to Diplomacy in 1971 (yes, 50 years ago). He was active in the Play By Mail (PBM) hobby from 1978 until the late 1980’s. He is most noted for being Custodian of the Dragon’s Tooth Rating System and publishing all player’s ratings in The Dragon’s Lair from 1984 to 1987. Stephen also was Game Master at DipCon XXI, the North American Diplomacy Championship in 1988.
France: Aeolus
Aeolus is in the top 15 on BOUNCED in terms of number of games played, number of solo (actual) wins, and number of wins when counting draws[5]E.g., a 3-way draw is 1/3 of a win.
Germany: MrBlonde
MrBlonde is in the top 10 on BOUNCED in terms of number of games played and number of wins when counting draws and just outside the top 10 in terms of number of solo (actual) wins. MrBlonde generally plays gunboat now except for press games of the Modern variant.
Russia: Dunbarton (Frank Easton)
Frank had a long history of PBM and co-hosted CanCon in Toronto in 2000. He is in the top 10 on BOUNCED in terms of number of games played and number of solo (actual) wins and just outside the top 10 in terms of number of wins when counting draws. In press games I have played, Frank is consistently either the best or among the best diplomats in every game. If you read the other journal I kept, Frank played Germany in that game.
Italy
The Italian player chose not to provide his or her identity. By comparing player statistics before and after the game, I can definitely state that the Italian player is very experienced at Diplomacy.
Austria: Splash
Like myself, Splash is relatively new to the game of Diplomacy. I consider Splash to be very good at press. If you read the other journal I kept, Splash played Turkey in that game, came closest to a solo, and was primarily responsible for eliminating me.
Turkey: reidoak
Reid has the most solo (actual) wins of anyone on the BOUNCED website and the highest number of wins when counting draws. I have played several games with Reid and consider him to be an excellent tactician.
Game Master: knilgau (Robert Segovia)
I’ve been playing Diplomacy for close to two years. I don’t feel like I’m very good at gunboat. While I’ve had success with online press Diplomacy, I feel like I have a lot to learn for gunboat! Looking forward to this!
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
Footnotes
| ↑1 | Media Wars is pretty close to that. I also found another game on BOUNCED from 20 years ago that had several players record their thoughts: Top7nonAnonNoPressExpansionPack02. In the 17th broadcast message, the GM for that game listed all the notes the players had been taking throughout the game. It’s quite the read! |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | All of my losses in ranked games have been in gunboat. |
| ↑3 | In the original Diplomacy, miswriting an order may be a tactic. Online, it is still a tactic, but less so due to adjudication engines. |
| ↑4 | I did not learn the identities of the players until after the game. |
| ↑5 | E.g., a 3-way draw is 1/3 of a win |
A similar thing was attempted years ago.
http://www.hagenah.de/diplomacy/comments/nopressgames/index.html
Oops, my reply didn’t go directly to you. Please see below for my reply.
I finally got through all the gunboat “Comments” games on this link. Very informative and interesting! Were they played on the old Judges system?
I noticed that those players wrote more for their journal entries than those in the TopGunBoat game. I think this difference is because the players that signed up for those games knew their thoughts would be made public while the players who signed up for my game didn’t know I was going to ask them to do it (they all agreed, obviously, but didn’t know ahead of time). I believe most gunboat players don’t have time to write much or don’t enjoy writing to this extent. Regardless, reading someone’s thoughts about the game as they are in the midst of it is very interesting, whether they write a lot or a little.
Thanks again for sharing that link! I’m making my way through the press games now.
I’ve been starting to go through these, as well. Behind-the-scenes Diplomacy like this is always incredibly interesting!
I have now finished going through the press games. The first Comments game and the Pinnacle game (which doesn’t seem to be on there anymore) were FULL of great things to learn in this game.
Thank you for sharing these!
Eric, do you still play online? Your play in these games was incredible!
Thanks for sharing this, I look forward to reading it! I’m not familiar with the map design. Which website is that from?
It also seems there were a couple press games with all the press released in the link you sent. I have come across a similar demo game on BOUNCED (150plusClub02): http://dipbounced.com/center/games/150plusClub02/index2?watch:1
This ended in an Italian solo won by Cal White. All the press is available to read, including some by the Observers.
Always great to see more games with live commentary from all the players! I’m definitely curious about some of these other linked games, as well.
If you’re interested in more such games, webDiplomacy had a Full Press game way back where all the press was later published. It was… definitely an experiment. But a neat one.
http://www.tinyurl.com/webDipFullDisclosure1
Thanks Tasnica for sharing that! I tried the link but it denied me access to it (Google Drive said I need access?). Is there another way to access it?
Hmm, that’s quite curious. I got that link on a list of Diplomacy resources on the webDiplomacy forum. Here’s the post; it’s not far from the top, and is called “Full Disclosure Game 1”. You might need a webDiplomacy account to access the forum, though:
https://webdiplomacy.net/contrib/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=37
If that doesn’t work, here’s another attempt at a direct link to the PDF:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_y7eRKFRxIuSkNsOEpNYkZ2SkNjUEk2MVJEZENic2JreWlB/view?usp=sharing&resourcekey=0-fHcvGPy4l5uUSR3dnlmznA
And if that also doesn’t work… maybe I can email it to you? Hopefully one of the above helps.
I tried to reply to your post with some more links, but the post seems to have been blocked or deleted. If you have access to the webDiplomacy forums, try taking a look at…
Diplomacy Advice (subforum) –> Diplomacy Resources (pinned thread) –> Full Disclosure Game 1 (a link in the first post of the thread)
That’s where I got the PDF for the game. If that doesn’t work… maybe I could email it to you?
Sorry, the blog has an automatic process in place where some comments are flagged as requiring approval. Probably it was the hyperlinks in your reply that made it seem like it could be spam or something. It took me a while to check because I have been busy lately. Sorry about that! Your earlier comment is approved now.
Thanks! I’ll definitely check that out after I go through the other ones. There’s a lot to read in these!