Okay, day two, time for a fresh start, time to forget all about that crappy first game and have a little fun!!
I head down to our room at the pub a few minutes early, there are already about 20 people sitting around chatting. I grabbed an open chair with a smile on my face, full of ignorant anticipation... will I never learn?!?!
Two minutes after sitting down, Time Clock Italy's voice starts booming above everyone else's as it is now time for him to tell everyone in the room, in great detail, how he kicked ass the night before. Every minute detail of every thought that past through that obviously gigantic brain of his had to be fully disected from every angle to insure each and every person in that room had as full of an understanding of his brilliance as possible. I felt about 2" tall.
So, the players at each table get called out and I'm playing with six completely new people, none from my game the night before, what a relief! Then we were told that if we draw the country we played last night, to put that piece back in the hat and draw again, things are looking up! As I reached into the hat this time, the only thing I was thinking was that I'd really prefer to not get Russia, since I'm pretty crappy at that country. Hell, I was even open to Italy, after how things went the night before! I opened my hand with a dazzling white army looking back at me with a taunting grin I would soon learn to despise. Russia. Well, still better than Austria, ignorantly I continued to think to myself, I can do this, I'm Keith Hernandez! ;-) (Has anyone here seen Seinfeld?!)
I don't remember who I talked to first, but as usual, I sit back and let others talk to whoever first and just sit back. Stupid, but that's my personality, so I just go with it, how badly can I do after the night before, right? Dumbass.
When I talk to Germany about Sweden, he says he'll give it to me for sure if I open to the north to help with England, but that even if I open south he may give it to me. England and I didn't say too much, but were friendly. I talked to France about maybe one day squishing England and Germany, that we were natural allies in the north, but he didn't say much since this was his second game ever and didn't really know what he was doing yet. Turkey was open to cooperating early, we talked about a DMZ in Black Sea, which I don't think I've ever done before on webdip, but the night before that worked for R/T in 1901, so I figured what the hell, especially since I had BIG plans to crush Austria just like what happened the night before! Italy (Barn3tt) seemed pretty open to an I/R, so I was getting decent vibes from everyone really (not too surprisingly), so when Austria wanted a DMZ in Galicia, I figured it was perfect timing to take Galicia and open south, got to be aggressive, right?
So, Italy/Barn3tt didn't immediately stab Austria, which was fine, though I was wishing he had played Italy the night before. This Turkey, of course, attacked Black Sea and moved to Arm, not ideal. Austria was reading orders, since he's alphabetically first, so when he read that I attacked Galicia he went on a bit about how I lied and yadda yadda yadda don't anyone in this game trust such an ass (I'm paraphrasing a bit). E/F/G did pretty standard stuff, France went to Bur, Munich to Ruhr, England conservatively opened to the north to guarantee.
Okay, time to try to talk Turkey down. Turkey claims he changed everything up at the last minute because Italy told him to. This was also one of Turkey's first games, but he actually had a decent understanding of the game somehow, he finished 3rd place in the tourney when all was said and done, pretty impressive! Anyway, Turkey wanted Rum or Sev so he could break out of his corner. UGHH, that is just sooo not cool, right?! I told him that, more or less, but told him we should talk to others and meet back up to chat. When I talked to Italy/Barn3tt, I immediately told him that Turkey blamed his opening on Italy, something Italy immediately denied. Didn't matter too much, but I wanted to see how Italy responded to the accusation, which he blew off very cooly and still came off like he wanted to work with me. Austria obviously wasn't happy with me, but we chatted and Austria said if I vacated Galicia we could work through it. Germany promised me Sweden, after the Turkey stab, and I didn't say too much to England (OOPS!!) or France. I went back to Turkey, decided I should not freak out and oppose him like I did Russia the night before, that I'd actually give in to his demands, so I suggested Black Sea convoy Arm to Rum, which Turkey thought was a cool idea, and Turkey promised to give me Rum as soon as he could take Serb. My read was that he would actually do it, so I had the option of just using Ukraine to support hold at Rum and keep Sev, to actually get two builds. BUT, I decided to take a stab at one of Austria's home centers (he had an army in Bud, so I figured he'd take Bud to Vie, so I'd attack Bud) and I wanted Ukraine to follow into Galicia in case I guessed right, that was the aggressive thing to do and would pay off big time if it worked, especially since a two build Turkey would get Italy's attention and we could then get our I/R off and running, so I let Turkey take Rum. Yes, this would work!
So, Turkey did as we agreed. Turns out Austria trusted me and didn't bother to cover Vie, he stayed in Bud, I over-thought that one... crap! Austria is really pissed at me now. Germany did let me into Sweden, I had counted on that, but England shifted to Barents while France slid into Munich (to secure three builds, nice job rookie!) while Germany took Belgium for two builds (along with Hol and Den, while losing Munich).
Okay, I got a build, but I have English problems up north and an angry Austrian, but Turkey is happy with me and Italy is on my side long term... Okay, this is far too much detail, time to hurry up!
1902 saw England come after me, but I guessed right and kept Sweden, since Germany didn't help too effectively (fall '02 saw Germany support Norway to Sweden while Barents supported North Sea to Norway, but I had StP support Swe to Norway for a bounce). The southeast was a total mess, everyone was trying to attack each other but we all exchanged centers in the spring, I got into Bud while Austria got into Gal, Italy stabbed Austria, Turkey was following through with taking Serb and giving me Rum back, except I didn't figure it would come so soon so Rum was actually vacant (Austria retreated their though, damn!) at the time (I think, the southeast was all mixed up, I don't remember all of the details exactly though). BUT, my ultimate downfall was due to the play, of all people, France. When France was kicked out of Munich in spring 1902, instead of retreating back towards home, he went to Silisia. Actually, in spring 1902, and for the next few years, France typically failed to write orders for even half of his units. France would write one or two things down, though he had six units after 1901, BUT, one of the few orders he did write down was supporting Austria's Gal unit into Warsaw in fall 1902, even after I had a nice chat with him about not doing so. This one hurt the most. If I had bounced Austria out of War, I would have been able to build an army in War, to go along with the army in Mos, and I would have still been an attractive ally to Italy. As it happened, without Mos, Austria retreated another unit to Ukraine, so was in position to take Mos the next year, and I was totally screwed. Actually, I mis-remember some of that, at least the timing of it all, because in 1902 I got a build and was at 6 units, but in spring 1903 I got my army in Budapest destroyed and by fall 1903 I was down to ONE unit as England and Germany finally got on track to take Sweden and StP, Austria took War, Turkey had stabbed me (with the help of Italy/Barn3tt) to get Bud and whatever else I had, I don't know, but going from six units in 1902 down to one in 1903 was clearly another brilliant performance by yours truly. Please hold your applause, there's one more game to go.
The game Hello my Brothers 3
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