Thucydides Trap Diplomacy Commentary

[@vahehasratyan4602]

Thank you for splitting the world into two fronts, some other commentaries with large maps leave it and you can’t tell what goes where.

[@floridamandiplomacy]

I had gotten that comment a couple of times, and I'm glad I decided to take it seriously and change the map presentation.

[@torrent6181]

This was a fantastic game to watch! I appreciate that you split the map into north and south during commentary -- it really helped with visibility on my small monitor. Also, it's great to hear you pronounce the Spanish placenames correctly. Cheers for successfully taking Britain out of the game!

[@floridamandiplomacy]

Glad to hear it! And thank you for noticing my efforts at Spanish pronunciation. My wife is a native speaker, and I've been told by her and other Spanish speakers that I'm pretty decent at pronunciation. Sometimes the accents give me trouble, and my actual vocabulary has drastically deteriorated over the last ten years, but I try! Yes, my grudge clung to Britain and dragged him down...

[@devinhart2418]

It’s always a good day when Florida man uploads

[@floridamandiplomacy]

I appreciate that! I hope you will have many more such good days.

[@LegendaryTactics]

Congrats on 1000 subs! The first 1000 are the hardest.

[@floridamandiplomacy]

Thank you very much. And yes they are!!!

[@evilsorosfundedgovernments433]

war in the americas is a pretty cool map honestly

[@floridamandiplomacy]

I think it's definitely one of the best.

[@ShadowOfCicero]

Spain definitely has the "in the middle" of Austria, but the island nature makes it hard to see it as anything but England with perhaps more Sealion paths. Argentina looks like the closer analogue to Austria.

[@torrent6181]

Agreed. It's harder for Spain to be eliminated early than Austria since only boats (i.e. Britain) threaten its homeland.

[@thegoosh6469]

Spain is a lot more like Italy in that way. They have few uncontested centers to pick up, but they have a surprisingly solid defensive position. The way that they're in the middle is also as more of a connector between two primary regions. Italy joins the east and the west, Spain joins the north and the south.

[@floridamandiplomacy]

I didn't really want to contradict Spain's conclusion (in part because I wanted other opinions, in part because he kicked my butt, so it just sounds like loser talk), but I've always thought Spain is actually one of the better positions in the War in the Americas map. No one else can compete for dominance of the seas early on, really, unless there's a concerted effort by a couple of Spain's neighbors to specifically squish him.

[@ShadowOfCicero]

@@floridamandiplomacy How often does Mexico get that far north? If that game was typical, that would make it the France of this map.

[@floridamandiplomacy]

I wouldn't say it's typical, but it's not atypical either. When Mexico does well, conquering the West coast centers at least would be pretty normal, but taking over Canada would be a little bit of a reach (which is why it took Mexico a while even in this game). The reason for Mexico looking so good in this game, though, is the feebleness of both Britain and the USA.

[@TheGameKat]

Ah the Malvinas conflict back in the news. Nice.

[@floridamandiplomacy]

I'm glad someone recognized my references to the Falklands War! My father was in the Royal Navy at the time, and even though he didn't see action, his ship was dispatched to participate (the fighting was over before they arrived), and I've always felt a connection to the conflict as a result.

[@bemorelikejeff]

A really interesting map to hear your commentary on! It seems that in the games you've played, there are some patterns among the powers -- Venezuela tanks fairly early, Peru ends up fighting everyone, and Spain stagnates at 5 centers or so. Is this the case in all of the games on this map you've played? It would be super interesting to hear a power breakdown of the War in the Americas map.

[@floridamandiplomacy]

I would say there are some patterns, driven by geography! (very exciting stuff, always!) Venezuela tends to be surrounded by too many people and get pinched between at least two enemies, New Granada usually fares a little better, Peru tends to expand toward the center of South America and thereby get into fights with at least Brazil and probably others. Spain can sometimes stagnate and occasionally blow up or get wiped out early, no real pattern that I've been able to identify. It's a challenging one, a bit like Venezuela, I think. And there will be an interview coming soon with two guys who are analyzing the War in the Americas map! I've also been posting their writing on the FloridaMan Diplomacy blog.

[@agamemnonofmycenae5258]

"Buff Chile isn't real!It cannot hurt you" Buff Chile

[@Cappy-Bara]

Comment for the algorithm

[@floridamandiplomacy]

Reply, because the algorithm likes that too.

[@sleepysnake544]

Comment for the algorithm.

[@floridamandiplomacy]

Reply, in celebration of the many species of snakes of the Americas!