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* Round B Prizes and Awards, Part 4: *
* *
* THE DIPLOMAT'S POUCH - ROUND B *
* *
* "Honoring the greatest diplomatic exploits of the round." *
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Note - The compressed final gamefiles and game histories can be easily
downloaded from the Web and then viewed offline:
Gamefiles -
http://www.pixgen.com/~rfheeter/w2home/archive/tournament/roundb/results/
Game Histories -
http://www.pixgen.com/~rfheeter/w2home/archive/tournament/roundb/histories/
1. "Best Buddies" - Players who kept their alliance and split the map:
This round we honor two warlords from B01,
Dionysos and King Chu of Formosa, for sticking with their treaty
throughout the entire game. There was no treachery whatsoever;
on the contrary, they each offered up more than the other wanted!
King Chu:
"After the battle is done, I will raze my cities so that we have
equal number of cities in turn 20 as declared in our treaty."
Dionysos:
"Don't burn your cities for me! We don't need to be 50-50, let's
keep this poor world that has already suffered so much in peace
as it was divided by our respective fortunes, that's all that
I want!"
2. The "Good Old-Fashioned Hospitality" Award -
We have to congratulate Bosquito of B07. As Avenger's yellow-clad
forces advanced west upon Bosquito's white forces in the north,
Bosquito offers City 65 to his ally Lord Gumby (Blue) to help
him finish his quest.
>Friend Gumby!
>
>I offer you the core city, 65 this very turn and my other core city next
>turn in exchange for a continued truce through turn 15!
[...[
>All men and women able to swing a stick are needed at home...
Bosquito then offers Gumby his Demon ruin and City 11 to boot!
>Looks like I'm not gonna get to my demon ruin, you can have 'em. Also,
>go ahead and take my city 11 if you want it. I gotta move North, so
>either it gets razed soon or you take it. Looks like Avenger's invasion
>of me is turning out pretty good for you!
Some players in Round B had allies who would follow suggestions and
advice, but only Bosquito was so kind to his ally that he would
literally give away his cities and ruins without even being asked! :)
3. The "Make Me An Offer I Can't Refuse" Award -
In B10, Professor Patrick was having troubles getting anyone to commit
to an alliance. Finally, on Turn 10 (!) he gives up on trying to
finagle an alliance with subtle diplomacy, and tries the blunt approach:
>The White troops are still in a somewhat neutral mode,
>hoping for a firm and specific offer of an alliance from either Kamevil or
>Fortissimo. [...] One of you is clearly going to come in first in
>this game, and I, opportunist that I am, wish to join that winner in his
>glorious victory. Please, someone -- make me a concrete offer with
>guarantees that I cannot refuse.
This proved to be the decisive move of the game, because Kamevil
accepted it while Fortissimo butchered one of Pat's heroes.
Even though Fortissimo outfought Prof. Pat and killed 2 of his
heroes, he did not have enough strength to stand against both
Pat and Kamevil, and soon the writing was on the wall...
4. "The Distinguished *Triple* Cross" -
This award goes to Sun Tzu, Red in B03. At least to this reader
it appears that Sun Tzu managed to double-cross
all three of his opponents, and double-crossed one opponent
three times! He stated the conditions for a cease-fire with
white, and white accepted them and complied completely with
the conditions. The next turn, Red took the white city he
had demanded, but also killed 10 white armies. In the same
turn, he again gave conditions for a cease-fire with white.
White again accepted, and complied with the conditions. On
his next turn, Sun Tzu took the white city he had demanded, and
also took another white city, killing 9 white armies in it.
These events reminded one Prize Guru of an old saying:
"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."
Sun Tzu later went back on his word to blue, and eliminated
him from the map, and broke his alliance with yellow without
notice. (He claims he was only trying to trick blue, but blue
pointed out some red troop movements that seem to contradict
that claim.)
However, none can argue with Sun Tzu's dominating 2nd-rank
finish for Red in Round B!
5. The "Remote Control" Award -
Sun Tzu again, who sometimes seemed to be playing all 4
sides at once, as he dazzled (and occasionally annoyed) his
opponents with reams of perfectly legal tactical and
strategic advice in B03.
6. The "Igor: 'Yes, Maaastur'" Award -
Early on in the game B05, the Yellow player, "A Friend",
complained that he was unable to exactly duplicate the moves
of White, when he found that a slight asymmetry in the map
wouldn't allow his elemental to take the mirror-image city
to one that White had taken that turn. Later, on Turn 7,
his enemy Celeborn pointed to ten (alleged) instances in the
last four turns where A Friend followed advice to the
letter. Alas, the true story may never be known - "A
Friend" became a lost player and has not been heard from
since.
7. "The Trial of the Century / Impeach the Puppeteer" Award -
The Untouchables (White in B05) decided after a few turns
that their diagonally-opposite opponent Celeborn (Red)
was their main threat. While Celeborn went to war with
King Warren (Blue), The Untouchables allied with A Friend
(Yellow, See the "Yes, Maaastur" award). Too far away to
fight Celeborn directly, The Untouchables sent "military
advisors" with critical bits of tactical advice to
both of Celeborn's opponents (though perhaps not as much
advice as some players did in other games). To make matters
worse for Celeborn, both A Friend and King Warren made good
use of the advice - to the point where it felt like
The Untouchables were controlling all 3 of Celeborn's
opponents! The strategy was effective in a cutthroat way,
but not entirely sportsmanlike. It so enraged Celeborn
that he accused The Untouchables of cheating by "puppeteering",
complaining that he felt like he was playing against
*3* players of The Untouchables' skill, rather than just 1.
And now the Tournament had its very own "impeachment" debate
when the problem was sent to the Moderators for discussion!
In the end the Rules Guru (Gary Best, Celeborn's brother,
and The Untouchables' friend) made a Solomonic ruling
that although The Untouchables' behavior was technically
legal within the letter of the rules, it was against the
spirit of the rules to try to control another player's actions.
Both sides were chastened by the ruling, which eventually
motivated the limited diplomacy rules for Round C...
Further details can be found in the B05 history and query
log on the Remailer.... (Disclaimer: as this little summary
was written by Bob himself, other players might have a
different perspective on these events!)
8. The "Help me!, Help Me!" or "It Pays to Stay in the Game" Award -
Dedicated to OfUnknownOrigin in B10. After losing his lead hero
on Turn 7, and with Fortissimo's forces breathing down his neck,
razing his cities, and butchering his armies like sleeping cattle,
OfUnknownOrigin writes on Turn 8:
>At this time of crisis I am reminded of the final words of
>David Hedison in the sci-fi classic from 1958,
>"The Fly" - "Help me!, help me."
Then he makes a classic OfUnknownOrigin proposal:
>Although I pose no real threat, I would like to propose a
>non-aggression treaty between myself and Kamevil.
>
>I humbly await your reply.
Amazingly, despite his inauspicious start, he sticks with
the game and refuses to go under. And then Fortissimo runs
into real-life trouble and drops out of the game, and
OfUnknownOrigin is further aided by some generosity by
Kamevil, with the result that he finishes with 3 cities as
Red. This was the color with the poorest performance in the
round, and (surprise!) OfUnknownOrigin winds up ranking 12th
in his color, in the top 50%!
9. The "Ally With Me, or Die!" Award:
In B11, facing a strong enemy in Hunzo, and desperate for an
ally, Thor demands and alliance with Melrose in the
following unique style, which speaks for itself:
>Melrose, at this point I am demanding an alliance. You
>really have no choice. I have no idea who will win if we go
>after Hunzo. But I guarantee you we will both lose if we
>keep fighting each other.
>
>At this point, a no conflict alliance is not enough. You
>must commit to going after Hunzo. I can't do it alone. If
>you commit to going after Hunzo, and only Hunzo, I will
>leave your city in the N.W. center alone, and will back off
>in the North, and redirect my troops South. If you refuse
>to make a committment I will continue attacking you until
>you agree.
10. "Punch-Drunk Boxers" Award
Somehow we have to honor Thor and Hunzo from B11 for their
unique love-hate relationship. First they ally. Then they
fight. Then they get into a nasty, bitter feud with each
other. Then *both* of the other two players drop out of the
game. Yet like two punch-drunk boxers, they keep on fighting
each other, virtually ignoring the Static Defenses! And
at various points, weary from the endless frustrations of
the war, they each try to drop out. And again like
punch-drunk boxers, neither will let the other quit!
Finally they wear themselves out, see the light, make peace,
and go to clean up the Static Defenses, thus finishing with
very reasonable rankings after all.
11. 'Et tu, Brute' - We must honor the Warlords of B14 for their
interesting adventures!
On Turn 10, Commando (Yellow) offered alliance with C-rad
Halftroll and Sir Phoenix against Lord Garlic, like this:
>Death to Red, Lord Garlic, Maga, etc...
>I offer 1/3 each split to White and Blue.
>We must act now or red will have 100%. (again!).
By Turn 12, C-rad Halftroll was eliminated, and it was just
Commando and Sir Phoenix defending against Lord Garlic with
11, 7, and 20 cities respectively. However, the defending
alliance succeeded in fending off Lord Garlic, and by Turn
18, the city numbers were 12, 8, and 8 for the three
combatants, prompting Sir Phoenix to leave a number of
cities undefended and say:
>I hope to be second, I will try. I never betray you,
>I fulfilled the alliance.
But on Turn 19, Commando captured two undefended cities from
Sir Phoenix and forced him to raze two more to prevent their
capture by the formerly loyal ally. The final numbers were
15, 4, and 6 cites for the Warlords - and a painful lesson
for Sir Phoenix about how far to trust an ally in the last
two turns of the game.
12. The "Better Late than Never" Diplomacy Award:
While many games had generated many kilobytes of diplomacy
as quickly as turn 2 -- with players searching for the best
deal from all opposing warlords -- Centurion of B18 did not
say a word of diplomacy to Vance Kic until Turn *16*, at
which point he said only:
"It is the first time I communicate with you in this game,
and it is to request of that great Kingdom a non aggression
pact."
13. The "Hard to Get" Award:
Lord Dread of B20 seems to have been the biggest tease of
the round. All three warlords were vying desperately for his
friendship. Finally, the much awaited between-turn archive
message arrived. Who would he ally with? Who? Who? The
response:
> A piercing cry toward the center land erupted from the
>night, and as quickly as it was voiced, there was silence.
>Bruce Leroy paced the deserted streets of Harlem awaiting he
>who summoned him. The Shogun of Harlem's form slowly began
>to coalesce form the damp, foggy night...
> "Leroy! We must talk. Word has been sent from the other
>gangs and we *must* ad..."
> "No," Leroy calmly cut in. "We mustn't do anything,
>but that which benefits our home, brother. Let us walk, and
>decide our fate, the fate of our land this night."
> Leroy and Shogun sat down, with their backs toward the
>South and East, knowing that there was the only safety
>in the world. They began to talk...
And that was all that he said...
14. "Well, before sending the gamefile, how about some diplomacy?"
There's nothing unusual about that remark, except when the
game is B24, and no one has even moved yet, because it's
still Turn 1!
15. The "Serial Treachery" Award:
We recommend to everyone the sordid events of B21!
There was a series of rather intricate treacheries involving
three players over 3 turns. Unfortunately it was so intricate
that the Prize Gurus who read the game have yet to get the
details straight! But it went something like this...
It appears the game began with a north-south war. By Turn 4,
Medzner (Red) and Isildur (Blue) had allied, so G'tath'moran
(White) and Havell (Yellow) teamed up too. The war developed
slowly, then began to tilt in favor of the south when Blue
slew a White hero on Turn 9. Yellow fended off Red and
forced many razings, but Blue gradually overcame White. At
the end of Turn 16 Blue held half the 38 remaining cities,
while White is down to 2. And then the fun begins!
On Turn 17 Havell offers a truce to Isildur and surrenders
a temple. Isildur accepts. But on Turn 18 Havell changes
his mind and attacks anyway! Betrayal #1. On his own Turn 18,
Isildur simultaneously condemns Havell for his treachery,
offers to let G'tath'moran keep his final city, and
turns upon his ally Medzner in Betrayal #2:
>You were an excellent ally. I fear I must now call our
>alliance off, however. There are cities of yours that I
>wish to take. If you feel you can defend them successfully,
>do so. I would encourage you to keep kicking Havell's butt.
On Turn 19, Havell does another about-face and returns
to Isildur the city he took on Turn 18.
Meanwhile Isildur makes Betrayal #3, changing *his* mind
and wiping out G'tath'moran's last city. This time he
accepts the truce from Havell, giving his "word of honor"
that he would not attack him again. And this time it holds,
as the game winds down peacefully.
16. "Least Useful Diplomacy" award:
On turn 4 in the game B13, Lord Gruin's Yellow forces for the
religion OMNI (defended by the cleverly-named husband/wife
hero team Nipotent and Niscient, along with son Nipresent)
suggest an alliance to Red, who has said nothing all game.
Red continues to say nothing for many turns, but the message
so inflames White that a fierce war begins!
17. The "That's not what I wanted to hear" Award:
In B13, Lord Gruin had requested a pact with Red, TMPsycho,
but never heard anything in reply (see "Least Useful
Diplomacy" award). In fact, TMPsycho never said anything
until turn 7, after LG hired a hero in the south to "get
Red's attention". Rather than a belated, "Oh, OK, I guess I
will ally with you after all", TMPsycho replies: "Ha! Now
I've burned everything! Let the enemy come!" Then he returns
to silence.
18. "If You Can't Beat 'em, Join 'em..."
Rorqual suffered at the hands of Gor Bonecracker in both
the Practice Round and Round A, getting himself eliminated
both times. Due to some bad luck-of-the-draw
(and some shortcomings in the game-assignment program)
he found himself faced unexpectedly with the same
neighboring opponent - again!- in B06! His character
reported having fearful dreams of what might occur:
"Gor, I dreamt of you last night, a dream full of long
forgotten battles, alliances gone bad and crushed kingdoms.
However I didn't appear anywhere in this dream. Was this
some kind of presage ?"
However, he had learned his lessons well, and found the wisdom
to accept peace when it was offered, coasting to a second-place
finish behind Master Gor in B06! Instead of being eliminated again,
he found himself with a nice 40% finish for White, and a decent
ranking for the round...
19. The "All's fair in love and warlords" award:
In game B16, White Dragon (yellow) suggests to his ally a
psychological war upon their opponents. Realizing that one
is American, and the other Canadian, he dreams up one of the
most diabolical plans in all of Warlords: encourage the two
to discuss ice hockey! (To be fair, this also occurred in B08,
but B16 won the award due to the intentionality of the plan).