Posts by DutchKing

Why should anyone try such a weak strategy as melee combat? What use does it have in a Worldcup on a 10 player map? And why would you mix up military skills with brute force?

Phase III: a fight among friends:

How to proceed after such an interesting and hard fight against such a strong GOMA team? Before the final, we decided that if GOMA was beaten, we should have an open final, as a final is supposed to be. But all regions were strangely divided, several mechanical units built with common resources. Europe was a smoking mess. Therefore we decided to redivide all regions and mech units as equal as possible, taking into account that Austria en Italy were much smaller than the other 4 players. Especially Queenofilo gained respect giving up the most regions and units to create a level playing field. A proposal for a 3 x 3 fight didn't make it, so we ended up in an open fight after a few days peace.

By this time DutchKing's Morroco had 1 target in mind. Queen Sofia had hardly fought GOMA, and only after the German rampage she retook her regions fighting Germany. During the last fights, Austria started to take the Balcan, instead of helping out. A suspicious Moroccon spy discovered that Austria had Share Map with Russia for a long time in the game, fitting her partnership with Reclutador in round 2, and explaining why Austria had never been attacked by GOMA. Building a Railgun during the distribution of mech units, claiming an extra day of peace to finish the RG didnt help either. As soon as the open fight started, Austria was overrun in a few days, granting Queen Sofia 6th place.

Also, Italy and Morocco were interlocked with regions and units, a Share Map until the end of the game was agreed. Tomi still had to return from his holiday, and could therefore never catch up with Morocco, he only attacked Greece. Since it was clear that Aurelianus of France and Machiavel of Ottomania would cooperate in this phase, Queenofilo would have a hard time facing them, so he agreed to cooperate with DutchKing. They decided never to attack each other, and DutchKing would attack Machiavel as soon as Austria was gone. At the same time DutchKing expressed his respect for Aurelianus, they would avoid a fight if possible. The perfect diplomatic scenario for DutchKing to win this game.

Queenofilo started the invasion of France, sustained by his Navy, only to discover that the Ottomans would invade Finland and Sweden. A fight on 2 fronts cannot be won, so Queenofilo regrouped against the Ottoman, and showed in the best fight of this final that he is the strongest military player of us all. Auralianus was completely outpositioned with his French troops and couldn't do anything. By the time Austria and Greece were gone, Queenofilo had beaten the Ottoman Empire. DutchKing gained only a few regions and the Capital, while Tomi Laitakari conquered his homeland.

In the meantime Aurelianus (France) and Tomi (Italy) decided to fight for 3th place, a fight clearly won by Italy due to some bombers handed over by DutchKing. Only when Queenofilo also threathened to attack France, the 1st position of DutchKing became endangered. Positioning the superior Moroccon armies deep into France, including Paris, the final diplomatic decision was made. If Queenofilo kept attacking France to gain 1st position, DutchKing would take out France in a day, including Paris. In that case Aurelianus would have wiped of the map, something he surely did not deserve. And so the decision was made to freeze the game for the last days, keeping Aurelianus alive at 4th place. It did not make a difference for Tomi Laitakari to gain 3rd place, Queenofilo to reach 2nd place and DutchKing to win the final.

Final ranking:

1. DutchKing (the Netherlands), best diplomacy player

2. Queenofilo (Argentina), best military player

3. Tomi Laitakari (Finland), best sacrifice during holidays

4. Aurelianus (Italy), best defender of France

5. Machiavel (France), best flanking operator

6. Queen Sofia (Germany), best balancing in the middle

7. Reclutador (Spain), last standing GOMA member

8. Natahoyo (Spain), best rampage of the game

9. tirreno (Argentina), best naval moves of the game

10. Sckopen (Spain), leader of the strongest alliance

End of Game Statement Worldcup Final: Diplomacy did the Deed

The Worldcup Final has ended, the tournament is over, prizes are paid. In contrast of the former Single Player Tournament, this Worlcup allowed no use of Goldmarks, so real player skills had to make the difference this time. This is my End of Game Statement of Tournament well fought by many participants, which shows that the Diplomacy Skill made the difference.

Prelude to the final

The first round contained about 8 players per game, and instantly several games were dominated by a large number of participants from the GOMA alliance (Spain). The tournament organization did recognize the problem, but justly chose to uphold the random grouping. Also, it feels not right to critize GOMA for being a strong and active alliance with many participants, other players simply have to deal with it ingame. So, in the second round, with only 5 players per game, DutchKing (Netherlands) met Tomi Laitakari (Finland) and decided with a third player to beat the 2 strong GOMA players Teniente117 and semuca. We prevailed, only to discover that no less than 4 GOMA players did reach the final, including their leader Sckopen (Spain).

With 4 GOMA players, probably teaming up, the other 6 players would not stand a chance. Action had to be taken, to prevent us from being slaughtered one by one. We contacted the other 4 players, Tomi Laitakari worked together with Queen Sofia (Germany) in round 1, while I cooperated with Queenofilo (Argentina) earlier. Both agreed to team up in the final, and also Aurelianus (Italy) and Machiavel (France), who worked together in their semi-final, decided to join the team and face the 4 GOMA finalists together. On Discord a separate group was formed to discuss our strategy.

Phase I: the start of the final:

GOMA certainly did not expect an opposition of 6 well-prepared players, that wouldn't let themselves be overrun. A claim that GOMA intended to play the final individually was set aside. It seems a self-fulfilling prophecy, all rounds they worked together, so everyone expects them to work together now. Thus, other players team up, and consequently they team up. GOMA leader Sckopen had bad luck playing Spain, being surrounded by Queenofilo in England, Aurelianus in France, Tomi Laitakari in Italy and DutchKing in Morocco. On the other side Natahoyo in Germany, Reclutador in Russia and Argentinian tirreno in Sweden formed a strong centre, opposed by Queen Sofia in Austria and Machiavel in Ottomania, who seemed a bit out of position.

But managing a team of 6 individuals, who barely know (and trust?) each other, is quite difficult. Especially, since Queen Sofia did not show for several days, while meant to play a key part in Austria. The holiday of Tomi Laitakari prevented him from playing as active as he used to, so he decided to sacrifice himself for the team, only being able to log on twice a day. Machiavel did show with troops for defence, but kept his main army at home for future purposes. It was more like 4,5 players in our team against 4 GOMA players.

While building a strong defence in France and Italy, in the earlier days Sckopen in Spain was overrun. The blind sacrifice of Tomi (Italy) formed the vanguard and he took half of Spain, while Aurelianus (France) and Queenofile (England) were close behind and took some regions of their own. An intended war of Spain to Portugal, losing some Spanish regions, forced DutchKing (Morocco) and Queenofilo to take out Portugal and thus the rest of former Spain. Burgos and Saragossa remained for some time, but a second initiative of Italy took Sckopen out of the game. In the meantime, the GOMA team conquered Danmark, including Iceland for Oil and Finland for building material. Giving Copenhagen to Sckopen to remain in the game was blocked by the organization and Sckopen was finally taken out of the game.

Phase II: the battle of France:

For some strange reason, Austria was left alone by GOMA, although Queen Sofia hardly did anything to build defenses. Building a railway and later on factories in Innsbruck, instead of a strong fortress, raised some questions. The entire battle focused on an expected attack on Nancy in France, but GOMA could never be on time to help Sckopen in Spain. To our surprise the GOMA team managed to build 6 factories in Germany, close to the front, while also building a total of 9 factories in Russia and Sweden. Our 18 factories were divided over Europa, the first artillery never in time to prevent GOMA to overrun Nancy. This phase Aurelianus proved himself a brilliant defender of France, fighting a majority of German and Swedish troops. DutchKing gathered the Moroccon and Italian artillery, but it took days to reach France.

Queenofilo focused with English and Moroccon Light Cruisers on Swedish Iceland, and managed to conquer it. However, handing over LC when someone is asleep didn't turn out as intended. DutchKing lost 2 LC in a well played attack of tirreno, giving Maritime Superiority to Sweden, and losing Iceland again. This phase of the game, the GOMA battle team of 3 players were stronger than the 6 individuals fighting them, and GOMA gained a lot of respect. We would not have survived this phase, if it was for our cooperation and sharing resources to keep up with GOMA.

The turn of the tide came on several places at the same time. First Machiavel gathered the Ottoman troops and artillery, used Right of Way on the AI and flanked Russia in Kishinev, while Reclutador had most of his troops in Germany. Second, Aurelianus used his RoW with Belgium to flank Germany in Cologne. Third, DutchKing attacked the German and Swedish troops head-on in Nancy with his army and Moroccon and Italian artillery. Fourth, although tirreno provided for the first battleship, Queenofilo regained Maritime Superiority with English and Moroccon Battleships. Finally, Tomi took another Italian sacrifice on Munchen, preventing GOMA to attack and overrun Austria.

The GOMA team collapsed in a few days, leading to remarkable decisions. Natahoyo, who played very strong as Germany, revenged on the blind Italian sacrifices by taking all his troops including all GOMA artillery on rampage in Italy. He left the center vulnarable for Aurelianus, so France took over Germany. DutchKing followed Natahoyo into Italy, who proverbial visited Naples and died, it handed most of the Italian regions to Morocco. So, tirreno in Sweden and Reclutador in Russia were left completely alone by the German rampage, and dissappinted in the GOMA alliance. They decided to block the Ottoman advancing in Russia, preventing Machiavel to take over entire Russia. Finally tirreno in Sweden handed over the entire Swedish nation and navy to fellow Argentinian Queenofilo, a brilliant diplomatic move of Queenofilo.