Here are the results of the Diplomacy Game Spring 1905 Turn. As one player put it, Europe’s agony continues. Several moves failed this turn,. Perhaps the only success was the Italian push south into the Balkans, taking Serbia from Turkey. However, powerful Turkish armies are massing and the Turks are knocking on the gates of Rome. The Kaiser still lays claim to his war-ravaged capital, in the spirit of Frederick the Great. Rumours have it that the German press is now instructed to refer to him as “Wilheim der Grosse”.
The Turkish A in Ser must retreat to either Gre or Alb. BREAKING NEWS - TURKISH A SER RETREATS TO ALB.
MP+
Moves: several cruises got cancelled.
Results:
Results for Spring, 1905 (Movement)
General Notices:
Order resolution completed on 17-Nov-2014 at 06:08:58 EST
Order Results:
England:
F bal Supports A kie - ber; F den Holds
F hel Convoys A lon -kie;
A kie - ber; Bounced with pru (2 against 1).
A lon - kie Failed because England: A kie - ber failed.
Convoy path taken: lon - nth - hel - kie.
F nth Convoys A lon -kie; A nwy - stp; A stp - lvn
France:
A bel Holds; A bur Supports A spa - mar; F hol Holds
A pic Holds; A spa - mar Bounced with mar (2 against 2).
F wes - tun Bounced with tun (1 against 1).
Germany:
Germany: A pru - ber Bounced with kie (2 against 1).
A sil Supports A pru - ber
Italy:
A bud Supports A tri -ser; A mar Holds
A pie Supports A mar; A rom - api Bounced with smy (1 against 1).
A tri -serI F tun Holds; A vie - tyr
Russia:
A war Holds
Turkey:
F aeg Convoys A smy - apu; A ank - con
A con - bul; F ion Convoys A smy -apu
A mos Supports A stp -lvn;
A nap - rom Failed because Italy: A rom - apu failed.
F rum Holds
A ser - tri Bounced with tri (1 against 1). Dislodged from tri (2 against 1).
F sev - bla; A smy - apu Bounced with rom (1 against 1).
Convoy path taken: smy-aeg-ion-apu.
Retreats:
Valid Retreat Paths For Turkish A Dislodged from Ser: Gre or Alb
What a mess. I intended to comment after the builds, because there were so many interesting developments there, with all sorts of implications, permutations and prognostications possible. To be honest I wasn't altogether sure I ought to comment as perhaps unduly influencing events (for we all know, do we not, that the European Heads of State hang upon every word uttered by the wise and good General Sir Erasmus Blatt). Never mind. The General will examine the map and events closely and dispense his pearls of ... yeah, well.
ReplyDeleteThe General's column in the Dissembler is eagerly read by the crowned heads of Europe, I can assure you.
DeleteSuffice to say, I was not surprised to see Serbia fall to the Italians
ReplyDeleteItaly can hold Serbia through the Fall turn and get the build - a fleet in Venice would be my choice. Beyond that, it looks like Rome will have a grim fight to keep Serbia.
DeleteSpoilers!
DeleteMeanwhile England is King of the North.
ReplyDeleteI hear he has a great wolf that rides with him. :)
DeleteStirring the Pot...
ReplyDeleteA commentary by General Sir Erasmus Blatt, geo-political and military correspondent for the Rioters News Agency.
It was subsequent to the emergence of newly commissioned fleets and armies throughout war-torn europe that this writer perceived that mighty Turkey might well have outgrown its strength. Powerful at sea, the Porte appeared to lack solidity on land. Small wonder the hasty commissioning of three new armies.
But there was nothing to be done about the fall of Serbia to Italian arms, not in 1905 at any rate. On the other hand, the military career of General Walid Pasha, commanding in chief the invasion of Italy, may well be coming to an abrupt and possibly fatal end. The strike for Rome had to be over-ambitious. But a landing in Apulia was not only assured, but would have placed Rome in a very parlous case come the Autumn.
The Sultan can count himself lucky his alliance with England is holding firm, for his army in Moscow is far from any possible support from his own forces. So with the vicissitudes of its fortunes during the opening months of 1905, Turkey remains in a powerful position, and may well surge back later in the year.
Italy, meanwhile, continues form success to success, but for the loss of Naples. That loss, however, bids fair to outweigh the gains. Had the Turkish Army in Naples supported the Apulia landing this spring, Rome was doomed. French pressure would have recovered Marseille, and the Capital of Western Christendom would have gone the way of the Eastern, never to be recovered. The 'Miracle of Rome': perhaps it was the earnest prayers of Pius X that kept the Turk from the door. I shouldn't wonder if in less than 50 years' time he receives his canonization from the Vatican.
But for how long can Italy survive the attentions of France and Turkey both? Powerful as is the Peninsular Kingdom, she may be able to hold out for a long time. But the eventual outcome can surely be in no doubt.
This despite the unhappy situation in which the Republic finds itself: its Mediterranean fleet orphaned, and the resources as yet unavailable to wrest back its sole entree to the Mediterranean at Marseille. The strike at Tunis can only have been by arrangement with Turkey. Methinks the interests of France and Turkey both might have been better served had the French fleet moved into the Gulf of Lyons. Marseille would surely have fallen in the Fall season; and the Italian fleet in Tunis would have been placed in a terrible quandary about whether to stay in port or venture forth into the Tyrrhenian Sea. Imagine had the Turkish landed a second army in the heel of Italy. The Sultan's fleets would have been released to challenge the Italian fleet off the coast of Sicily at that, and Rome must have fallen along with Marseille. Italy has been given a reprieve. What can she make of it during the waning of the year?
Meanwhile in the North, England is having things all its own way. The Czar in Warsaw is lamenting his lost Imperium; the Kaiser is in little better case. Soon the newly crowned King of England will count himself master of the entire Baltic littoral as well as the Arctic. Astonishing the progress made by the Island Kingdom.
It would be a bold prophet, withal, who could predict any other outcome but the division of Europe between the powers most accustomed to imperialism: Turkey and England. At that, it might well come down to a final showdown between Albion and Anatolia.
I think from this one comes to the realization that the way things actually went can be a deal more interesting than the way things could have gone. The very unpredictability of the former makes for things like the 'Miracle of Rome', or the isolation of Turkeys exiguous armies in 'Slavicistan.'
Delete