[Daanz-dip] [DAANZ-Dip] The 13th DON Tourney (Part 2)

[William J Brown]

Board 1, Round 1

Austria is not my favourite country to play, so obviously I get it in the first game. Being principally land locked and with stalemate lines all around I find it a chore, especially in Tournament games. Maybe I should look “outside the box”, but my principal approach is to stick with Italy and resist any possible Russo-Turkish steamroller that may arise. And usually, if the Italian alliance gets going, it is hard to jump off without landing in a pickle.
So the game starts with Sean Colman as Italy, David Blom as Turkey, Geoff Kerr as England, Guy Mischlewski as France, Kimberley Colman as Germany and my old mate and adversary Rohan Keane as Russia. 

Rohan and I go a long way back – he took an eighteen off me (and won the DON Tourney) back in 1995 when I started to appreciate the benefits of the Russo-German alliance. His getting the 18 hasn’t put me off it, I still like the alliance and the board dominance it can achieve. Unfortunately we were Russia and Austria in this game
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I make an alliance with Sean. I am not sure if I can trust him 100 per cent, but there is nothing to lose but I won’t leave myself COMPLETELY open to a stab by him (at least early on). I make an agreement with Turkey and he agrees to build fleets – it is worth keeping your options open. Sean and I try to encourage, as best we can, the Russo-Turkish war.

The opening looks promising for us. It looks like possible Russo-Turkish conflict, and then in Fall the Turk builds an army! Has he just forgotten about the agreement? Anyway, I take it as a excuse and “all bets are off”. As the game unfolds Russia and Turkey go it hammer and tongs while (given the Turkish lack of fleet build), Italy steams into the East. Turkey is gone relatively quickly, but meanwhile in the west

 Germany ends up owning France, France ends up in England, England in Scandinavia and R/A/I sweep into Germany!

Early draw offers are declined, and Italy and I progress to 7 each, 8 each going on 9 each, when, out of the blue Sean stabs for a centre. Eight to Austria and nine to Italy – do we play on? A draw is offered and Sean accepts, as do I. Should we have played on? Well, time draws were already being rolled (they start with 11% chance in 1906, basically doubling every year). So the chance of the game continuing for any length of time was poor anyway. As a first up game, I was happy with an eight



Board 2, Round 1

I select France, everyone’s favourite country! Rob Hadley is Germany, Gary Bekker is England, David Blom Italy, Frank Meerbach is Austria, Rohan Flavelle is Russia and Tristan Lee is Turkey.

My initial thoughts are – I don’t want a three way. An early attack into the Med can work – but you need the right circumstances. I favour working with England – Gary can be a loose cannon at times, but Rob cab be a bit wishy washy. I decide I prefer the cannon type, and Gary can be good value as an ally.

The game opens favourably. David prefers the Piedmont bounce as an opener – I don’t mind it, at least we are both sure of what is happening down there. I don’t see it as favourable to Italy though. As Italy, you’d prefer to be IN Piedmont as this creates the dilemma for France – cover Marseilles or take the build? If France and Italy both bounce in Piedmont, I suppose it looks like Italy is doing something westwards while still guarding home, but is it dynamic enough??

At this point Gary and I agree to get stuck into Germany. The only doubt I have is when Gary had the choice in 1901 – do you deny Germany the second build or take the second build yourself? He asked for support into Belgium.

Now, I could blame it on this doubt, or the fact that I was playing in two games at the same time and my time was limited, or the fact that NO-ONE in this game asked to talk to me at all for a turn – but I panicked and stabbed Gary
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It went well at first, I got the jump on him and took out 2/3 of England proper, but unfortunately by then Italy AND Turkey had decided to look towards Spain and Marseilles for sanctuary. Through some adept defence I was able to hold them (England/Germany/Italy) off for a while
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The East had become decidedly White. Frank was stabbed, then Italy was attacked and then Rohan stabbed Tristan. At this stage it was looking like a Russian solo, it all depended on what Rob as Germany would do. Join the attempt to stop Russia or not? Rob went along with Russia for a turn or two too long and the game was in the balance as we hastily tried to put up some defence. A time draw was called as Russia made it to 15 centres
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(Part 3 to follow)