Commentary on ending of the PBeM game of SPI's "A Mighty Fortress"
ending after a couple of years of play.


I'm still not 100% certain I have the most points, but here is
my commentary nonetheless:


I was somewhat pampered by starting off as Sulieman and having the
benefit of knowing their variable condition.  Although by the time
I had switched to Lutheran I had forgot what it was.  I seem to
remember was it had more Italian goals than the other conditions.
(I could be wrong.)


This prompted me to forge the initial secret agreement between
me the and Ottomans.  I got my idea from inferences to alleged
correspondence between Martin Luther and one of the Eastern
Orthodox patriarchs proposing the two churches unite.  The fact
it did not happen could have been one of the great might-have-
beens.


My original strategy was to defeat the Hapsburgs in the east by
supporting Ottoman conquest of Vienna.  Although this would have
caused me to eat many victory points, I was willing to take 2nd
place.  I would have frowned on the Ottomans taking Prague, that
would have been too many V.P.s to lose.  Like I said above, I had
the comforting feeling that most remaining Ottoman V.P.s lay due
south.


Since the Hapsburgs decided to take almost all their replacements
in Vienna, my strategy had to switch.  England and France were
most cooperative in carving up Spain as lightly defended.  Using
some OPSEC analysis, had to take a guess that England had
variable condition #2, since he went for Corruna shortly after
the peace of France.  Corruna only occurs in condition #2.


This left me to consider my more important strategy, retaining
and holding converted areas.


As I was the second Lutheran Player I was heavily concerned with
the needless conversions of useless countries my predecessor had
made.  They garner me no V.P.s, and their loss would have cost
me -1 V.P. each.


I decided on a centralized approach keeping a core of Lutheran
missionaries to act as a fire brigade and abandon the periphery,
due to the majority of Jesuits and some early Lutheran missionary losses.  Since the Theological debate table heavily favors the
Defender, I decided to keep my missionaries in large stacks of 3,
even at 2:1 odds there is still a 33% chance the attacker may
lose and a 50% chance nothing happens to the defender.  Even if
I have a 1-1-1 stack of Lutheran missionaries, the Jesuits need
to create a juggernaut stack of 3-3-3 Jesuits to get 3:1 odds.


As I expected, most of the periphery was retaken by the Papacy,
except England and France for which Martin Luther remains
eternally grateful.  And there were a couple of openings at the
end for a few quick V.P.s in Tyrol and Posen.


Tidewater Area Naval Gamers (TANG) group added.  I know it
isn't Naval, but what the heck.


Alan Poulter wrote:


Hi,
No one has submitted any Dip phase orders so I assume everyone wants
no changes to the final positions. No one has spotted any more mistakes
in the final resolution and summary.
Right, so the final thing to do is to reveal the Set number for those of us
with more than one set of Victory conditions. Since the keepr of these
Set numbers long ago vanished into the ether I suggest we simply reveal
them. The Hapburgs were using Set 3, making my final VP score a
massive -5 :-)
Once all Set numbers are revealed, can I ask people to post comments
on the game. It has been going for years...
Alan Poulter
grognard@grognard.com
http://grognard.com/
http://www.poulter.demon.co.uk/


-- 


Tracy Johnson
Justin Thyme Productions
http://hp3000.empireclassic.com/