Media Wars 2 - Ezio PoV (Diplomacy Playthrough as France)

[@DiploStrats]

Thank you so much to all the other content creators who teamed up with us (and against us) to make this happen! Links to all of their Media Wars 2 content are in the replies to this comment.

[@DiploStrats]

England - Floridaman is an expert Diplomacy player who makes regular commentaries on his games, usually on PlayDiplomacy. When I say regular, I mean regular - if you want a steady stream of great content his channel is a fantastic place to go! It also often features different perspectives on the games he's commentating on, from other players in the game; something that should definitely interest you if you're a fan of the multi-angle thing Media Wars goes for. You can find it here: kzbin.info/door/ynKFrQFZS1SPPFwjAZ1ebw Media Wars 2 Videos: Part 1: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rHWcm2mErLKUoJI Part 2: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4qZgIivqrmKjLc CaptainMeme's Recommendation: A shorter video than the commentaries, where he tackles a much-discussed issue in Diplomacy and gives his view on it, is "Which Diplomacy Power is Best?", found here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aovJgWqAqN-FbLM . It's a really interesting take, and a great place to start if you're looking for a brief intro to his stuff!

[@DiploStrats]

Germany - GoHornsGo (probably better known by Ed Sullivan now) is a podcaster and youtuber who does longform Diplomacy commentaries - even longer than ours! He's also an exceptionally strong virtual Face to Face player, having triumphed at Cascadia 2021 and placed highly in many others. You can find his content (some in video form, some articles) through his website: www.thediplomats.net/ Media Wars 2 Content: All of his game journal videos can be found here: www.thediplomats.net/mwii CaptainMeme's Recommendation: Ed got his name playing in, and then covering, Nexus finals. The Nexus Season 6 finals are ongoing and he's back, covering them live phase by phase! If you want to check out the main event of one of the biggest Diplomacy events on the web, you need look no further than here (and the following episodes): www.thediplomats.net/nexusmain/paris

[@DiploStrats]

Russia - The Diplomacy Briefing is a weekly newsletter which is a great resource for keeping up to date on all the goings-on in the hobby! You can find it here: www.diplomacybriefing.com/ The Briefing had two players for Russia as a substitution occurred during the game. Lady Razor is renowned around the hobby for being Diplomacy's chief artist, with their artwork being used in Diplomacy World, the aforementioned Briefing, the Diplomats, and on Nexus. You can check out a compendium of their work in the Lady Razor section of the Diplomats' site (this is just one page from it, use the tabs at the top to see more!): www.thediplomats.net/dipart VillageIdiot is an very highly skilled Diplomacy player - in fact, a solid contender for strongest online Diplomacy player out there. He's written a couple of articles (an incredibly good one being his article on Advanced Diplomacy Maneuvers: brotherbored.com/guest-post-advanced-diplomacy-maneuvers/), and the Briefing keep using that as an excuse to draft him into these games to represent them :P Media Wars 2 Content: (TBA) CaptainMeme's Recommendation: There's an absolute ton of great content in the briefing, so I'm just going to recommend an article on a subject that I have a strong interest in - 1v1 variants! Cold War is one of the most played Diplomacy variants out there, and the Briefing has the single best resource for learning CW strategy: www.diplomacybriefing.com/cold-war-resources

[@DiploStrats]

Italy - Amby is one half of the Diplomacy Games Podcast, two Australians who chat about diplomacy over a pint (or several!) and never fail to entertain. They particularly specialise in variants, both being mainly based on the variant site vDiplomacy, so if you have any interest at all in variants I strongly suggest checking them out! You can find their podcast here: diplomacygames.com/diplomacy-games-podcasts/ Media Wars 2 Episodes: Wrap up & interview: diplomacygames.com/ed-sullivan-village-idiot-ewok/ They talk about it in a whole lot of other episodes too; not going to link all of them here but you can find them through the site link above! CaptainMeme's Recommendation: Amby and Kaner have a huge library of great episodes, but something that really stood out to me were their interviews with Diplomacy-adjacent people, something you don't really find anywhere else. A recent episode that piqued my interest in that way was Ep 75: An Interview with Harry Turtledove - diplomacygames.com/harry-turtledove/ - where they interviewed a famous alternate history author about the game and his history with it, and how it influenced his work. Well worth a listen imo!

[@DiploStrats]

Austria - Legendary Tactics is a channel you will probably know if you know us, because our analytics say a ton of you come here from their videos! They do a diverse range of boardgame content, but have a significant library of some of the best Diplomacy videos out there. You can find their channel here: kzbin.info/door/RarNme4iUanPLflogg-Ntg Media Wars 2 Video (complete with DEFCON system): kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y5WrgqOogLKClZo CaptainMeme's Recommendation: I usually recommend one video here, but for LT I can't not recommend their entire 7 Nation Series, where they brought in the best players in the world to talk about how to play each of the 7 nations in Diplomacy. It's a seriously incredible resource and something a great deal of time and effort went into, and it really shows! You can find the full playlist here: kzbin.info/aero/PLB-PbNJJ_F4xUO7lYuYF9rI-1X39pEIQL

[@OliverLugg]

'Honestly the centre counts at the end are indicative of how we played'. I'll take that after hearing you eviscerate some of my moves. ;) As with the others, very interesting to hear from the other side of the board and gain a fuller picture of how it all meshed. I do agree your opening was pretty stellar and after hearing your analysis of it I'm going to rescind my statement that Austria made me too afraid of you, because I should have been even more afraid of you. And I can certainly relate to switching my brain off and falling for an obvious stab...

[@ignisdeus1142]

I enjoyed the live reactions after adjudication. Keep up the wonderful content.

[@ignisdeus1142]

Just a heads up, your thought process for Fall 1904 got edited in after the results for those moves.

[@DiploStrats]

@@ignisdeus1142 That was my (Meme's) fault, sorry! Not going to reupload because the almighty youtube algorithm will become angry, but I've at least labelled the sections as being in the wrong order now. Thank you for the heads up!

[@LegendaryTactics]

It’s always interesting to see a commentary from an opponent’s perspective. You had a fantastic opening, one of the best possible openings for France, and then a somewhat uninspired mid game. I felt a little bad about the Fall of 08, when your “dreams came crashing down”. The Southern featherweights threw you to the wolves there. Your exasperation and resignation is so genuine and slightly comical towards the end. I was very curious to hear why you didn’t disband Tys in Spring 1909. I really thought you were keeping that to negotiate with Germany rather than to take a shot at Tun. Good thoughts on endurance at the end. Thanks for your detailed analysis of the game. I

[@papyae1328]

Its fun to see how ezio plays so differently from cap

[@StuartZechman]

Just superior commentary and analysis again, enhanced by the honesty and capacity for ruthless, yet precise self-criticism. Greatly appreciated, thanks for putting this up.

[@marcusedholm5578]

What an awesome video. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Ezio!

[@AnglosArentHuman]

:,) Viva la France