Game two was very interesting.
I was Austria and Valis was Germany.
I wanted to work with Turkey to take out Russia quickly, because he was a very strong player and I thought I could get along well with Turkey. Italy wanted to do a Key Lepanto. I said no because I thought it was too likely he'd screw me over so I was going to play conservatively. He attacks me anyway in the Fall but fails to take any centers while I got SER and GRE. Turkey meanwhile had moved to BS and ARM and took RUM with my support. Things are looking good.
I decided to attack Italy while helping Turkey against Russia. For a while it was going OK, but I was not making good progress against Italy, which was largely my fault for trying to be too clever and misguessing. Turkey ont the other hand, started growing out of control and Russia was unable to defend against me and Turkey in the South and Germany or someone in the North. Turkey had made it to MOS and I was still trying to take VEN when I decided I had to attack Turkey, as much as I didn't want to. I have a fairly successful stab, but Italy came right after me, instead of moving West as he said he would.
I offered Italy a center if he didn't attack me. He agreed and then attacked me. I offered him two centers and told him if he attacked me again I was just going to help Turkey win. He agreed and attacked me again. I went back to Turkey with my tail between my legs and told her I would through everything I had at Italy if she let me live. I then spent several years helping her take centers at my own expense. She briefly got an army to NWY with Germany's help, which was pretty amazing.
At this point, I was becoming concerned, though, because again Turkey was growing very large and no one seemed to believe I would actually through the game. I actually had to support her into MUN and she had to take TUN before anyone was willing to draw. Now, at that point, *she* should have declined the draw, as I don't know if I could have stopped her even if I wanted to. But we did finally draw. With all 7 players on the board and a score that was roughly:
Turkey 11
France 6
England 7
Italy 4
Austria 4
Russia 1
Germany 1
Again, a very fun game, but very odd. Italy and I did not work together once and yet we talked every phase and had a very good relationship.