(Austria)
@england: right now we cannot afford to be fighting each other. We need to make peace or france will take the win.

(France)

@Austria
Now that my driver has pretty much eliminated the opportunity for Austria to solo I agree that Austria and England would be wise to stop fighting each other. Let's not overreact here though. There is no way that France can get a win here. This for the simple reason that France cannot defend it's Northern holdings against a combined Anglo-Austrian attack. So, let's keep our eyes on the ball here, eliminate Turkey and we can have that three way draw.

Bump

(France)

Wow. Two misorders in one season as a result of which we have now lost Munich. I guess my driver must have been drunk when he entered those orders.

Anyway, as Munich is rather important for a stalemate to oppose an Austrian solo attempt I would request that England cut support in Berlin to help us fix this screw up.

(France)

@England
Oh, and assuming that you indeed want to help us get Munich back in addition to Bal-Ber could you also order Den S Hol-Kie? Thanks.

(austria)
@england: if you have not noticed france is going for the solo. if what the french driver said was true then there would have been basically no reason for them to continue in the invasion. They are also helping turkey who was going to be eliminated during the draw, further showing that they do not care about the draw, and just want a solo.

(France)

I very much doubt that my driver is going for a solo. As I said before... Austria and England can easily take our Northern holdings whenever they like so a French solo is pretty much impossible. Even more so now that we have lost Munich. Speaking of which... why did Austria attack Munich with force 3? Seems to me that it is in fact Austria who is trying to solo. That would also explain why they are trying to set our game long ally England up against us.

As for supporting Turkey. I can honestly say I don't know what that was about. If I had been the French driver I would have supported Austria. My best guess is that my driver supported Turkey out of fear for an Austrian solo.

(austria)
currently there is no need to stop an austrian solo as it is not going to happen. austria is currently in wars with all other people on the board. they have basically no expansion possibilities, ansd it seems like they are just trying to build a stalemate line. france howevcer is going for the solo, and could get it. a combined austrian english attack could possibly defeat them, though not as it is now. englanf is not attacking france, which is allowing them the freedom to attack austria. instead of attacking france, they are instead attacking austria, further weakening a power which has already been spread thin. if england continues to work with france, there is almost no chance that they will not get the win. the fact of the matter in this situation is that france is going fir a solo, otherwise they would not be attacking austria and would instead just be building up a stalemate line. austria currently seems like the most committed party to the draw. the drawq was going tgo happen after italy was eliminated. if the other parties had truly wanted a draw, they would leavre austria alone and just protect their borders so that austria could defeat turkey. there is also the fasct that austria was the first group to vote for a draw.

proof that france is going for the win are in their moves. the moves are as follows:
The fleet at Brest hold.
The army at Munich move to Tyrolia. (fail) (dislodged)
The army at Rome move to Venice. (fail)
The army at Venice move to Trieste. (fail)
The fleet at Marseilles move to Piedmont.
The army at Paris move to Picardy.
The fleet at Holland support hold to Kiel.
The army at Burgundy support hold to Munich. (fail)
The army at Kiel support hold to Munich. (fail)
The army at Ruhr support hold to Munich. (fail)
The fleet at Naples support hold to Ionian Sea.
The fleet at Ionian Sea support move to Aegean Sea from Eastern Mediterranean.
The fleet at Adriatic Sea support move to Venice from Trieste. (fail)
the support of turkeys fleet would not make any sense. the explanation nthat france provided is, in one word, unrealistic. i have already explained why an austrian solo is basically impossible. the Adriatic Sea movwe was also a misorder. supporting austria into venice would not only not work, as you cam,t support people into your own territories. it also would not make sense with their other moves. what france meant to do there was to support venice to austria. that makes sense with their move out of munich, to cut off tyrolian support, and with their move to trieste.

@england, France is going for the solo. no matter what happens, you will not be the one to achieve it. and you will gain more from a draw. you can only gain 4 territories from Austria at most without french support: which there has been no indication that they will be willing to provide it. you will gain less points from being at 11 while france solos (that is in the best case scenario) than if there was a 3 way draw. you will also only get a survive which is worse than a draw on your record. you should stop attacking Austria and should instead focus on stopping the real threat. a stalemate line has been built. Austria is not going to get the solo. the only person who could get it is France, that's only if you help them though.

(France)

@Austria
I wouldn't be too quick in saying that England cannot solo here. It may not be likely from the current position but Austria keeps throwing most its troops at France that could change soon enough. I mean, you've already given them Moscow
I suggest that the Enlish French and Austrian drivers just keep/regain their cool, eliminate Turkey and call it a three way draw.

(austria) i agree.

it appears that surprisingly england is going for the solo. France, would you be willing to ally against them until they stopped?

(France)

@Austria
Certainly. In fact I suspect that my driver will throw the game to you if England continues on this new course.

@England
Please realize that France can easily hand over four centers to Austria, for instance the Italian home centers plus Tunis. You wouldn't even remotely be able to prevent us from doing so. That together with the remaining two Turkish centers would be an Austrian solo. I suggest that you think very carefully about your next move here. You are playing with fire here.

(England)

Sorry for not posting for so long. My advice for my driver is to not continue to try for a solo because you're going to need 10 more centres and Austria and France have a ton of units to hit you with. Either vote draw now or wait for Turkey to be eliminated while support holding you units.

New phase (Diplomacy)

So this game is winding down it seems, but I'd like to say it's been very fun and I'd be interested in doing it again some time down the road.

Looks like France just needs to finalize his retreats and Turkey is eliminated.

(France)

I agree. A solo doesn't seem possible for any of the remaining survivors so I suggest that my driver indeed finalizes his retreats to get rid of that last Turkish unit before accepting the draw.

I look forward to EOG statements, especially from the drivers, if anyone wants to post them once the game is finished of course.

(austria)
ok, it will end as soon as france puts in their draw vote.

(France)

I can't see how France (or anyone else for that matter) can get a better result than a three way draw here so I assume that my driver will indeed vote for the draw now.

(the other France) Good game all

I really enjoyed this game! As the Russian driver, I have to apologise to the backseat driver for my horrible play. This was a great concept though, and I'd happily play in another one in either role.

As the Turkish driver, I wholeheartedly accept your nonexistent apology and am glad you went into such detail to allow me to understand your thought process that ruined what otherwise would have been a perfect juggernaut opening.........

As the austrian backseat driver i want to congratulate everyone who made it to the end (including the backseat drivers who remained somewhat committed to the game. Also, to the austrian driver, i'm sorry if i did anything you did not like.

I was the English driver. A few thoughts:

1. I was not at all attempting to solo at the end - I was putting my units in position to bottle up France and Austria so they couldn't solo.

2. I really liked this idea. I didn't always go by what my backseat driver said, but for the most part I was already planning what he decided.

I was going for the solo but royally messed up my orders one turn. Oh well.

The backseat driver thing was very fun and I would definitely do it again, thank you backseat driver for staying active the entire game.

Lol yeah. That was a royal screw up. You would have had a shot at it otherwise.

would you guys be interested in doing another game like this with the positions reversed (drivers are backseats, backseats are drivers)

I'm fine with it either way.

I was the Turkish backseat. I thought the idea partially worked - but am not sure what it really added. Sometimes it felt like I just wasn't being listened to - there was always a question-mark over it. Still, would be interested to play again as a driver to try it out, anyway.