since others are so actively supplying entertaining tales of their fights, i thought I would do my share. Today's tale will be that of a classic little diplomacy game. You can recognize these games even before they start because usually you don't know any of the other players by name (which means they don't know how you play)
Settings were 25/100 pop., random territories. For once, I lucked out and drew Asia out of the hat (usually I end up with North America). Very early I start chatting with Russia and Africa to make sure their attention is focused elsewhere. Africa is quick to share with me that South America is actually his buddy and they wanna join forces with me. Alarm bells going off in my head: Siamese twins are never good in survivor. I decide to adjust my tactics and agree to a mutual pullout in the Indian Ocean. Africa begins moving his fleet towards the Atlantic but I keep 2 groups of 3 carriers there to "hunt for subs"
Furthermore, I decide to inform the other players via private chat of the africa/sa situation, which moves focus from me to them and assures me the other player's gratitude and trust.
In the meantime, Europe's FeeF has decided to go on a suicidal 1vs5; as Asia, nothing better can happen to you. Europe usually weakens Russia, Africa and North America which are your three most dangerous enemies. My African/South American tag team started getting antsy but I convince them to stay below the radar and watch the fight. Eventually they really want to kick someone so instead of kicking Russia, I get them to kick North America (go figure)
It takes a while for the party to get going, but South America's strong presence in the Pacific (which had been worrying me) crushes North Americas mini-fleet. South America had told me to help him but once I was half way over there he had almost killed them and I turned back to conserve my fleet (note: always make gestures of support but don't go all the way with all your assets unless its vital for your interests)
As South America and the U.S. start fighting, Africa joins the party and I decide to move my submarine groups into position. One on the east coast of Africa, one below Africa and one above Kinshasa.
From then on, things quickly unravel the way I planned. Europe and Russia incinerate each other, South America destroys the North but in turn gets punished by submarine fleets. This only leaves Africa and myself with 100 points on the leader board. By now, their trust in me has grown to a point where there is no fleet anywhere near my shores or my submarines. I decide its time for the finishing move, and launch a 20 bomber wave at Cairo, and use the submarines to disable all of Africa's silos and other major cities. With this 'quadruple banana launch', Africa is left defenseless and below 50 points.
My last worry was then Europe, which surprisingly had survived with 75 points despite a serious beating and still had nukes in his densely packed silos. The subs that I had sent through the Bering strait got caught somewhere so all I had left as an option were bombers from Indian ocean via Africa to Europe and/or silos. I opt for a quick silo burst. I flip the silos open and do a two missile launch at London (no silos left in Russia) from all six silos. I flip them back to air defense and push my main fleet towards North America (where South America's fleet is coming from). The victory timer starts and Europe opens his silos to hit me, while Bombay and the west of Asia get his by bomber nukes.
In the end, my double-burst killed London and secured the win. All in all it was a very "common" diplomacy strategy, but it worked very well because people were willing to do alliances. If you wanna do a similar strategy, simply make sure that
1) You kick/vote people who are away from you (i.e. if you are asia, kick-vote europe)
2) You always have secret alliances that give you a voting majority in the alliance
3) You don't waste your fleets in other people's battles
4) Never be perceived as a possible winner until its too late for them to stop you
5) Don't indulge in personal feuds; its counter-productive
that's it
Greets
car
